Analysing Contemporary Issues in HR Service Delivery: A Case of Yahoo

This report examines the contemporary issues in HR service delivery at Yahoo, focusing on the company's layoff strategy under Marissa Mayer and its organizational structure during the Verizon acquisition. It analyzes the application of traditional and modern human resource service delivery models, highlighting the factors that shape HR service delivery and the impact of strategic decisions on the organization. The report provides recommendations for improving Yahoo's HR role and structure, including identifying key cost components, using a value chain approach, and assessing competitive shifts. It concludes that a strong employee base and motivational strategies are essential for Yahoo to compete effectively with companies like Google, and that cost-effective recommendations can help Yahoo analyze costs and develop successful strategies.

Running head: CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HR SERVICE DELIVERY
Contemporary Issues in HR Service Delivery
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

1
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HR SERVICE DELIVERY
Executive summary
The report deals with the case study of Yahoo, about the manner in which the company lay
off employees for business purposes. The report is based on analysing the reasons behind the
lay off and the understanding of the organisational structure of the company during the time
of Marissa Mayer and Verizon. The application of traditional and modern human resource
service delivery is analysed that can help Yahoo to continue with the development of its
resources so that it can minimise the cost of services. Recommendations such as
identification of key cost components, use of value chain and assessing the competitive shifts
are provided so that Yahoo can develop its strategies successfully in the competitive IT
industry.

2
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HR SERVICE DELIVERY
Table of Contents
Introduction to Yahoo................................................................................................................3
Organisational structure.............................................................................................................3
Human resource service delivery...............................................................................................5
Traditional approach to HR structure.........................................................................................5
Modern approach to HR structure..............................................................................................6
Factors that shape HRSD...........................................................................................................6
Recommendations......................................................................................................................7
Monitoring..................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................9

3
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HR SERVICE DELIVERY
Introduction to Yahoo
Yahoo is a web service provider that is headquartered in Sunnyval, California. The
original company was founded in 1994 and was incorporated in March of 1995 (Yahoo.com
2019). Yahoo is considered as one of the pioneers of the early internet era that helped people
to interact with another and gain knowledge from the web searches. The mission of the
company is to be the leader in global daily habits such as in the entertainment or in terms of
mails (Yahoo.com 2019). The company tries to inspire, delight and entertain the people using
the services. The vision of Yahoo can be associated with excellence, innovation, customer
fixation, teamwork, community and fun (Yahoo.com 2019). However, despite being one of
the largest internet companies the popularity of the company declined since 2000 with the
emergence of Google as the primary search engine. Therefore, the objective of the company
is to outmatch its rival Google in terms of reclaiming its position back as the top internet
services. At the same time, the managers aim to expand and grow the brand so that more
people can use the services. Another objective of the company is to conduct business by
utilising the skills of the best experts in the IT sector (Yahoo.com 2019).
Organisational structure
Organisational structure helps in providing directions to the activities that help in the
achievement of goals in an organisation. The activities that are usually intended in the
organisational structure include the rules, roles and responsibilities. As stated by Bratton and
Gold (2017) organisational structure can be of various types depending upon the
requirements and the activities that are carried on within the organisational premises.
The importance of organisational structure as pointed by Bailey et al. (2018) is that it
helps in maintaining a steady flow of information form one level to another and the help in
taking guidance from a particular person appointed as the leader or manager.
In this regard, the organisational structure of Yahoo can be considered so that its
importance can be related with the company. It had been seen that during the time of Marissa
Mayer the company had followed a tall hierarchical structure. There were managers and
directors that were assigned to different departments and the responsibility of delegating tasks
rests on the higher authorities (Brewster, Chung and Sparrow 2016).

4
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HR SERVICE DELIVERY
Figure 1: Organisational structure under Marissa Mayer
(Source: Yahoo.com 2019)
After the acquisition of Verizon, the company had to change its structure. The current
structure of Yahoo, involves the expansion and acquisition of other firms with the aim of
gaining larger profits.
Figure 2: Organisational structure under Verizon

5
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HR SERVICE DELIVERY
(Source: Yahoo.com 2019)
Human resource service delivery
According to Baum (2016), the human resource service delivery is used to explain the
services offered by the human resource management team of an organisation. The offers and
the interactions with the employees are mentioned by the human resource development.
Human resource service delivery is simple as an open door policy in which employees can
enter, and pick up the necessary paperwork after asking related questions.
As observed by Marchington et al. (2016) in the modern world, human resource
service delivery model is fuelled by the use of mobile phones and cloud computing. In the
case of Yahoo, the company is said to be evolving rapidly so that reflection of the
demographic changes can be reflected upon at the work place. It has been seen that in the
case of Yahoo, the company provides its employees with an opportunity of gaining the leaves
and payslips based on the services provided.
For example, if any of the employees decide to take sudden leave due to any form of
sickness then it can be done using electronic sources such as mails. At the same time, the
payment made to the employees is given in terms of electronic transfers (Brewster et al.
2016). Therefore, it can be said that employee engagement tools like use of technologies to
reach out to the employees can well employed by Yahoo.
Traditional approach to HR structure
The traditional approach to the HR structure did not provide enough training and
development opportunities to the employees. As stated by Brewster, Mayrhofer and Morley
(2016) keeping the employees within their roles and responsibilities in an organisational
setting is one of the important aspects that existed in the traditional approach. In the case of
Yahoo, the traditional approach to HR structure includes generalist identification of the HR
models that help in the development of the organisation.
Stone et al. (2015) is of the opinion that the specialist services provides employees
with an opportunity to know the expected outcomes that are required from the. It is for this
reason, that Mayer had initiated the changes in the company so that the functional department
of the company can contribute towards arresting the decline. As stated by Reiche et al. (2016)
for an organisation to survive and excel in a competitive market, it is necessary that Yahoo

6
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HR SERVICE DELIVERY
provides some routine functions for the employees that help covering certain bases
throughout the year. The advantage of Yahoo is that it helps to remain updated with the data
base of the employees and based on it the decision to lay off 1700 employees were made for
the development of the company.
Modern approach to HR structure
The modern approach of human resource structure can be linked with the application
of 3-legged model developed by David Ulrich. The model identifies four main HR roles that
help in making an organisation effective and friendly to the employees (Nankervis et al.
2016). In the case of Yahoo, it has been seen that under Mayer, the company had decided to
shut down offices that are located in Dubai, Mexico City, Madrid, Buenos Aires and Milan.
This can be considered as a negative strategic implementation as the shutting down
offices does not comply with the application of the 3-legged model (Vivares-Vergara,
Sarache-Castro and Naranjo-Valencia 2016). The accelerated transformation of Google can
be done by motivating the employees and ensuring that change agents are adopted so that
significant and large changes in the organisation are taken into account.
As stated by Brewster (2017), an HR business partner can help in negotiating with the
ideas that exist in the company with the aim of developing a strategic partnership to identify
top talents within the organisation. In the case of Yahoo, Mayer could have applied
motivation as a technique for engaging in a four-point strategic approach for the supporting
the enormous user base of the company (Wilton 2016). This also needed to be avoided as
with lack of employees, the user base cannot be supported in an efficient manner.
Factors that shape HRSD
Size: At the initial stage of the development of the company, Yahoo was subjected to
a more centralised human resource operation. This means that every function of the
departments is made into a complex system with a single location of functions. However,
with the growth of the company, like it is in its present state, the human resources are more
decentralised that means it expands in various other places (Banfield, Kay and Royles 2018).
Sector: Yahoo faces intense competition from Google, a stalwart in the IT industry.
As observed by Albrecht et al. (2015) the decline of the popularity of the company is mainly

7
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HR SERVICE DELIVERY
due to the presence of Google and the dominating impact it has in terms of services provided
for retaining customers.
Industry: The IT industry is one of the largest in the modern world. Therefore, scope
of development in this industry is high only if the company can manage to satisfy the demand
of the customers. With the introduction of Google, Yahoo has managed to lose its
competitive advantage in maintaining its dominance (Shen and Benson 2016).
Culture: Unlike Google, the organisational culture of Yahoo can be considered as
centred on work mainly because of the fact that it lost out on the competitive advantage in the
industry. Therefore, the fact that the company adopts a four-point strategy to lay off
employees can be considered as a threat for the development of the objective behind its
application.
Recommendations
From the analysis of the case study it can be said that Yahoo, is looking to cut the
expenses that it is spending on its employees. Therefore, recommendations can be provided
that can help in the development of the company. The recommendations include:
Identify shits that exist with key cost components: Yahoo need to ensure that
inflation does not hinder the fixed assets of the company. In this case, it is necessary for
Yahoo to remain updated about the economic condition of a country so that it can continue
with the development of the company by avoiding any lay off of the employees.
Use a value chain: The value chain as per the costs required for the development of
services need to be analysed so that Yahoo can reduce the costs required for the development
of its services. Laying off workers and contractors may not be enough for Yahoo to build its
competitive advantage in the market.
Assess competitive shifts: The cost at which competitors like Google provides its
services and products to the customers need to be analysed and developed by Yahoo. Gaining
insight into the manner in which business costs can be reduced can help Yahoo to become
more innovative and make new investments by keeping its employee base.

8
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HR SERVICE DELIVERY
Monitoring
Based on the analysis of the recommendations a timeline can be provided that helps in
understanding the time required for the application of the strategies. It needs to be kept in
mind that Yahoo need to apply these recommendations quickly and effectively to reduce
excess lay off of the employees.
Recommendation Time required
Identify shits that exist with key cost
components
3 months (From March to May)
Use a value chain 2 months (June-August)
Assess competitive shifts 2 months (September-November)
Table: Timeline
(Source: Created by author)
Conclusion
Therefore, conclusion can be made based on the effectiveness of the human resource
strategies that are developed by Yahoo. The decision to lay off workers for reducing the
expenses can be considered as a poor decision as with an increase in the user base, more
labour power is required. Without the development of a strong employee base and
motivational strategies Yahoo may not be able to provide stiff competition to Google. In this
regard, the application of the low costing recommendations can help Yahoo to analyse the
costs and develop strategies based on the potential success it may encounter.

9
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HR SERVICE DELIVERY
Bibliography
Albrecht, S.L., Bakker, A.B., Gruman, J.A., Macey, W.H. and Saks, A.M., 2015. Employee
engagement, human resource management practices and competitive advantage: An
integrated approach. Journal of Organizational Effectiveness: People and Performance, 2(1),
pp.7-35.
Bailey, C., Mankin, D., Kelliher, C. and Garavan, T., 2018. Strategic human resource
management. Oxford University Press.
Banfield, P., Kay, R. and Royles, D., 2018. Introduction to human resource management.
Oxford University Press.
Baum, T. ed., 2016. Human resource issues in international tourism. Elsevier.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Brewster, C., 2017. The integration of human resource management and corporate strategy.
In Policy and practice in European human resource management (pp. 22-35). Routledge.
Brewster, C., Chung, C. and Sparrow, P., 2016. Globalizing human resource management.
Routledge.
Brewster, C., Mayrhofer, W. and Morley, M. eds., 2016. New challenges for European
resource management. Springer.
Brewster, C., Vernon, G., Sparrow, P. and Houldsworth, E., 2016. International human
resource management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Marchington, M., Wilkinson, A., Donnelly, R. and Kynighou, A., 2016. Human resource
management at work. Kogan Page Publishers.
Nankervis, A.R., Baird, M., Coffey, J. and Shields, J., 2016. Human resource management:
strategy and practice. Cengage AU.
Reiche, B.S., Stahl, G.K., Mendenhall, M.E. and Oddou, G.R. eds., 2016. Readings and cases
in international human resource management. Taylor & Francis.

10
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN HR SERVICE DELIVERY
Shen, J. and Benson, J., 2016. When CSR is a social norm: How socially responsible human
resource management affects employee work behavior. Journal of Management, 42(6),
pp.1723-1746.
Stone, D.L., Deadrick, D.L., Lukaszewski, K.M. and Johnson, R., 2015. The influence of
technology on the future of human resource management. Human Resource Management
Review, 25(2), pp.216-231.
Vivares-Vergara, J.A., Sarache-Castro, W.A. and Naranjo-Valencia, J.C., 2016. Impact of
human resource management on performance in competitive priorities. International Journal
of Operations & Production Management, 36(2), pp.114-134.
Wilton, N., 2016. An introduction to human resource management. Sage.
Yahoo.com. 2019. Yahoo is now a part of Oath. [online] Available at: https://in.yahoo.com/?
p=us [Accessed 23 Jan. 2019].