Case study on management people competitive advantage

Management people competitive advantage

Human resource management has gone a notch higher in the modern corporate world. Human resource management has extended its facets into not only acquiring high fliers and using them in an organization, but into recruiting ordinary people with limited knowledge and capacity and providing in-house training (O’Reilly & Pfeffer, 2000). This involves creating and using talent from scratch in acquiring the organizational goals. Since HR department plays a very key role in ensuring an organization’s competitive advantage, it is important that the department be aligned strategically with the goals and objectives of the organization.
This paper focuses on the PSS World Medical which is among the top organizations in distributing medical equipments and supplies. PSS World Medical has taken a rather unique approach in staffing the various departments in the organization.
PSS World Medical uses various techniques in ensuring continuous improvement. The organization involves all employees into the different aspects of the organization. This involves using the Open Book system. This system has enable employees to become part owners of the organization by purchasing the PSS World Medical stock. The employees get to learn more when they are involved directly (O’Reilly & Pfeffer, 2000).
Emphasis in PSS World Medical is on peer learning and discussion. The new recruits are allowed to ask a lot of questions rather than just being fed with instruction. They are allowed to engage themselves in interactive activities while being paid a base salary as a motivation. This is unlike many other organizations which seek to hire already trained personnel.
Employees in this organization go through a rotational process. No employee ever remains at one particular department in all of his or her working life. Employees move from one department to another hence providing them with ample opportunities to learn more about the company trough the interactive process (O’Reilly & Pfeffer, 2000). This also allows employees to have a sense of belonging as the process in way promotes a sense of equality among the employees.
There are very handsome bonuses for the organization’s employees. Employees are provided with a clear financial benefit program that enables them to determine their own income. There are no hidden financial costs as the chief executive Officer makes the financial projections and transactions clear to every single department. Employees therefore get the motivation of earning and keeping their money.
Getting a leadership position in PSS World Medical requires sacrifice and guts. Leaders are not just selected just for the sake of earning more money; they are selected based on their ability to deliver and meet the responsibilities that comes with the leadership position. Leadership is voluntary thus anyone is given an opportunity if they believe they can make good leaders (O’Reilly & Pfeffer, 2000). This is why the organization has really good trainers and good departmental leaders. The people selected go through a rigorous process that really shapes them into responsible leaders thus contributing significantly to the well being of the organization.
PSS engage new recruits in the PSS University where they are taught sales skills unlike product information like is in the case in many companies. The recruits are then exposed to the field work where they get to be involved in every kind of manual work in the organization (O’Reilly & Pfeffer, 2000). This enables them to understand the company from bottom up. They are also given theoretical knowledge from renowned scholars in the course of the training.
PSS hiring process involves a unique behavioral assessment (O’Reilly & Pfeffer, 2000). It involves a onetime interview encounter after which the prospective employee is supposed to make follow up calls. This is in a bid to create a sense of entrepreneurship in the prospective employee. This process has led to the company recruiting high integrity individuals.
On the whole, the approach taken by PSS gives the organization a competitive notch over the other organizations of a similar nature. PSS has an advantage because it does not have to use much of its money to attract professionals. This would cost the company a lot of money and may be still get less qualifies individuals. Investing 5% of the company’s money into training is a really bold move which has paid handsomely.

O’Reilly, A. C., & Pfeffer. J. (2000). Hidden Value: How Great Companies Achieve

Extraordinary Results with Ordinary people. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.