Answer

Analysis of Ford Motor Inc.

            Ford Motor Inc. is an example of a Fortune 500 company. The company is ranked at the 12^th position on the list. Although the company recorded a $4.4 billion drop in its revenue amounts, it is evident that Ford Motor has retained its position as the largest car manufacturer in America, based on revenue, for two years consecutively (Fortune, 2020).  The company has managed to sustain a positive performance through the recurrently robust performance of the F-series trucks that has further sustained the firm through the difficult evolution of the passenger car line-up (Fortune, 2020).

History

            Ford Motor Company is an automaker with its headquarters in Dearborn in Michigan. The company has been a member of Fortune 500 since 1955 (Fortune, 2020). Ford was chosen for analysis since it has desirable HR practices which are directly tied to the firm’s desirable performance.

Safe Workplace and Job Design

            Workplace health and safety is an important consideration to be implemented by firms seeking to maintain a positive reputation and also survive in the sector. HR has a fundamental role to play in ensuring a safe workplace through activities such as job design. Arguably, job design aspects such as shift work, rostering, workload, and the clarity on reporting relationships are regarded as critical elements focused on workplace injury prevention. According to Allison (2015), physical injuries can be reduced through considering the physical exertion of tasks, task repetitiveness, ergonomics, and resource planning.

            At Ford Motor Company, the health and safety of employees in their workplace are given a top priority. Allison (2015) argues that employee injury in the workplace is the leading factor that affects the productivity of the members of the workforce as well as the coots of the economy on an annual basis. However, Ford Motor Company has established a new system to be implemented within its phase of development with a fundamental role of reducing instances of workplace injury by 70% (Allison, 2015). Ford established a virtual assembly program that focuses on ensuring that the proposed car designs are ergonomically and efficiently assembled with a limited risk of injury to the members of the workforce (Allison, 2015). The program is effective since it requires minimal employee intervention during the process of car assembly. Under the program, the assembly process is undertaken virtually through virtual reality. Since the process is now undertaken through the use of various forms of Computer Automated Devices (CAD) software, it is easier to convert them into an effective format for the virtual reality engines.

            The firm also has safety policies in place that are focused on strengthening the business’ safety efforts. For instance, all the employees are provided with an obligation to alert the management in the event of a hazard or an injury (Ford, 2017). Through continued reporting, the company’s management finds it easy to implement corrective actions and to establish a safe workplace for every individual in the workplace. Also, Ford’s management team has the responsibility of alerting the health and safety experts available in other facilities, in the events of critical incidents, so that desirable actions can be taken to guarantee that the safety of the people (Ford, 2017).  It is recommended that Ford should invest more in employee training on safety policies to strengthen its safety considerations in the workplace even further.

Recruiting and Selecting Employees

            The process of recruiting and selecting employees is an important consideration for any business that seeks to hire qualified and competent employees. Recruitment comes before the employee selection process. With recruitment, the management of a firm is provided with a chance to identify a pool of potential and competent employees suitable to fill in a job opening. Employee recruitment is achieved through several activities such as creating a job advert and posting it on media sites to allow qualified applicants to send their applications. The next step is the selection process. Mihalcea (2017) indicates that a solid process of employee selection is a significant element of earning a desirable reputation as a fair employer. Having an effective selection process in place will make it easier for qualified job seekers to consider a firm over other business players located within the same sector.

            Ford Motor Company is known to be an equal opportunity employer. The company is focused on building a culturally diverse workforce (Mihalcea, 2017). All the qualified job applicants will obtain an equal employment opportunity without considering their color, race, gender, religion, or disability status among others. The primary recruitment sources considered by the company are online sites, vacation trainees, campus recruitment, and apprentice programs (Ford, 2017).

            Ford has a unique recruitment and selection process. The first step includes having the potential candidates make an online application for a job opening. At this point, the firm will consider the applicants based on their competencies, work experience, qualifications, and employment background. The second step of the process requires the applicants to complete inductive reasoning and numerical online tests. The third step entails engaging in a telephone interview process. Moreover,  all the potential applicants are required to go through a Structured Competency-Based Interview session which lasts approximately 30 minutes. The process is focused on ascertaining if the candidate meets the required criterion for selection
(Ford, 2017). The fourth step is the candidate assessment phase. This is the point where the candidate is assessed with the primary aim of establishing if he/she has the required skills needed to complete a job opening (Mihalcea, 2017).

            It is recommended that the firm should consider employee referral as a strategy of recruitment. This would reduce the time and cost spent on the practice of recruitment and selection.

Employee Training and Development

            Employee training is a significant factor within the workplace that enables the workers to advance their skills to become even better in their jobs. Training is not only important for businesses but also suitable since it aims at improving the skills and performance of the employees. Farhan and Khoso (2018) state that training establishes an opportunity for the business to expand the knowledge base of the members of the workforce. However, many employers find investing in training and development an expensive move. Additionally, the employees who have vested in training and development miss out on the work time, thereby introducing delays in the completion of projects and other tasks (Farhan & Khoso, 2018). Although training and development are related to the outlined challenges, the training and development efforts offer the employees a chance to become competent in their jobs, and hence benefiting the firm in the long run.

            Ford Motor Company has managed to remain ahead of competitors as a result of its strategic training and development. The company maintains a position that training and development are necessary because they promote the productivity of workers. Arguably, Ford has always acknowledged that the primary role of the staff is to ensure an effective business performance. As a result, the management has invested in ensuring ongoing skills development thus empowering the workers to perform better. The aim is to ensure that the business establishes a culture that focuses on personal and professional growth (Ford Media Center, 2020). To encourage the staff to take part in the training and development, Ford celebrates the staff member who has advanced their skills and attained the leadership position within the organization on a monthly basis (Ford Media Center, 2020).

            The management should encourage the people to undertake their training during their free time to avoid work-time loss which affects the performance of the firm.

High-performance organizations and Employee Performance

            Business leaders have increasingly craved knowledge about the fundamental factors which drive the performance of businesses. The definition of a high-performing firm is associated closely with how a firm strategically utilizes its resources. Additionally, senior managers set the goals for all the departments and establish a system for evaluating the progress towards the attainment of the goals. Business leaders and employees are required to focus their efforts towards customer-focused goals as well as the continuous adaptation of the business to the market. A high-performance organization refers to a conceptual framework utilized by firms to ensure that the business results in enhanced sustainable performance. Businesses that have effectively implemented the framework are required to quickly and effectively make changes to their practices to achieve their anticipated business needs (Akhtar, Nawaz, Mahmood & Shahid, 2016). While working on the actionable short-term goals, the business is exposed to an environment where it can easily focus on attaining its long-term success.

            Ford Motor Company is an example of a firm that relies on the HPO structure. With this, the company has managed to record high-performance levels among the staff. In comparison to bureaucratic firms, employees in a high-performance organization perform better. HPOs value teamwork, and hence has increasingly relied on this model for its daily operations (Akhtar, Nawaz, Mahmood & Shahid, 2016). Operating in a team suggests that individual workers have flexible schedules, can effectively solve workplace problems, and can manage quality. Additionally, the self-directed members of the team have managed to maintain a high performance since they effectively thrive on the capacity to share information at various levels of the firm. Moreover, the employees are also multi-skilled with a high level of flexibility, which enables them to solve problems without necessarily being directly supervised by the management.

            The high levels of performance displayed by the HPO employees also arise from having the self-directed teams as the primary element of the workplace design, which gives rise to enhanced job satisfaction (Akhtar, Nawaz, Mahmood & Shahid, 2016). Working in self-directed teams grants the individual members an opportunity to display a high level of job satisfaction, improved work variety, better idea input, and autonomy. The teams have approximately 7 to 15 members, suggesting that it is small in number. Individuals working in teams are also organized in that they can capitalize on each other’s efforts since they share complimentary membership and skills.

            At Ford, employees have managed to maintain a high level of performance because they tend to maintain an effective personal commitment to the success and growth of each other. This is a factor that further drives the business’ success in the field against the competitors due to the high commitment of the staff members. The effective commitment of the people creates a desirable sense of accountability, purpose, and more actionable goals that are tied to enhanced productivity.

Pay and benefits

            Effectively compensating the members of the workforce is a desirable requirement for businesses that seek to maintain a high level of employee motivation and performance. Ford is one of the firms that offer effective compensation and perks for its members of the workforce. Ford offers its employees a wide range of benefits besides their pay packages. For instance, it is evident that the business provides many retirement options plans for their employees. The employees enjoy the 401 (k) plan, defined contribution pension, defined benefit pension, and the profit-sharing plan as options for their retirement packages (Pay scale, 2020). Health and insurance benefits packages are also provided for staff at Ford Motors Company. In this case, the employees can access health insurance, vision insurance, dental insurance, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, and supplemental unemployment (Pay scale, 2020).

            The firm offers an approximate average base salary of $91K annually for its employees and an average bonus of $5 within the same period. The salaries for the employees range between $62,918 and $128,770 annually on average (Pay scale, 2020). Employees provided with a job title of an Information Technology (IT) Manager are highly paid in comparison to the others. For instance,  IT managers earn approximately $128,101 annually (Pay scale, 2020). The staff members having the title Financial Analyst makes the least with an estimated annual salary of $57,625 on average (Pay scale, 2020). It is recommended that the management should offer more perks for the people, such as paid vacations, as this would motivate the employees to perform even better while in the workplace.

Conclusion

            Conclusively, Ford Motor Company maintains the 12^th position on the Fortune 500 list. The company has maintained an effective performance in the sector due to its commendable HR practices. The firm’s management has significantly invested in practices such as effective recruitment and selection processes, employee training and development, and desirable pay and benefits in the workplace. The practices have been effective in enhancing the performance of the people as reflected by the improved productivity.