HRM Report: Analysis of HR Practices and Issues at Apple Inc. (2021)

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Apple Inc. The report begins with an introduction to HRM and its strategic importance, followed by a literature review that traces the evolution of HR from personnel management to modern HRM. It explores how technological advancements, such as Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), have transformed HR functions. The report then identifies current priority issues in people management at Apple Inc., including employee engagement, diversity and inclusion, and the gender pay gap. It also discusses the changing organizational and socio-economic factors impacting HR practitioners, such as workforce diversity and technological changes. The report includes a PESTLE analysis of Apple Inc., examining political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the need for Apple Inc. to adapt its HRM strategies to address evolving challenges and opportunities. The research methodology includes literature reviews and online searches, and the findings are supported by relevant academic sources.

SID #1922807/1
MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES
Element: 010 - Written Report
Student ID: 1922807/1
Lecturer: Irma Cadogan
Date: May 17, 2021
Word Count: 2000

Contents
1.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 2
2.0 Literature Review ............................................................................................. 3
2.1 Change in the Concept of Human Resources ................................................... 3
2.2 How has the concept and practice of HR evolved? .......................................... 4
3.0 What are the current day priority people management and HR issues? .......... 4
3.1 What are the changing organisational and socio-economic factors that may
impact the work of HR&D practitioners? ........................................................ 6
3.2 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 9
References ................................................................................................................10

1.0 Introduction
In a highly competitive world, there are unpredictable changes in the economy.
Human Resource Management (HRM) can be defined, as “one of the strategic
approaches adopted by an organization for managing people of the organization
effectively, so that, the organization may gain competitive advantage by increasing
talented employees and improving employees’ performance” (Kumar, 2016). Some
responsibilities of the human resource department are recruitment and selection of
employees, training and development and payroll and benefits.
Apple Inc. is a multinational company operating in electronic devices. Headquarter
in California, the company has been selected for analyzing the HRM developments
of this report because of its large workforce and the company has consistently
updated their human resource management processes.
The research on which this report was based, helps review and understand the
concept of HRM and it how has evolved over the years. The report will also discuss
some of the current day priority people management and HR issues within Apple
Inc. Furthermore, it will identify how these issues can be improved in the future in
addition to the changing organisational and socio-economic environment factors that
may impact the work of HR&D practitioners. Lastly, a summary of the findings and
analysis would be provided for the overall report.
The research strategies utilized for this report depended on recent literature, online
searches from articles and journals, alongside the extracting of data from relevant
texts.

2.0 Literature Review
2.1 Change in the Concept of Human Resources
Over the years, Human Resources (HR) has continually changed to reflect the ever-
evolving workplace. In the mid-20th Century, human resources, often referred to as
a “personal” department, was predominantly an administrative type of function
charged with keeping records, ensuring organizations adhered to labour laws and
payroll.
In the late 21st Century, the Human Resource approach evolved, prompting
businesses to switch reflecting the department’s dedication to the inherent human
element of managing employees to maintain and foster satisfaction and loyalty. As
a result, the modern concept is more strategic in scope and has emerged as Human
Resource Management with a broader scope and unlimited boundaries.
Table (1) below shows a comparison of the differences between Personnel
Management and Human Resource Management.
Focus of Personnel Management vs Human Resource Management
Generates Cost within an organization Adds to the profit goals of the
organization
Stand-alone training HRM training programs that are
integrated with the organization’s
mission and values
Managing people Joint responsibilities are shared among
line managers
Administering of policies Helping to achieve goals through people
Table 1: Comparison of the differences between Personnel and Human Resource Management

2.2 How has the concept and practice of HR evolved?
As per the study of (Van Lancker et al. 2020), HR functions have evolved in recent
times due to the introduction of technological advancement and improvements of
the current processes within the organization. One such advancement was the
introduction of the Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS), known as E-
HRM. This has allowed HR functions to be automated, improving the delivery and
function of their day to day processes.
Some practices and functions that benefited drastically were:
1. Automation of Tasks
HR Professionals have a lot to do. Often there is not enough time or staff to
fulfil the functions, therefore, to reduce the daily workload of HR, tasks
related to payroll, records management and recruitment have been automated.
2. The utilization of data-driven statistics
To enable better decision-making at the organization, HR professionals can
use metrics and analytics to make realistic decisions.
3. Improved Recruiting Strategy
The communication strategy to attain the best candidates is collaborated with
the Marketing Department.
4. Introduction of Pre-Exam Assessments
This has allowed HR to better assess the applicant than just relying on a
resume/cover letter.
3.0 What are the current day priority people management and HR issues?
As per (Kim, 2019), HRM has been focused at improving employees’ engagement
within the organization. The Human Resource Managers are making policies and

improving the reward and compensation plans based on employees’ performances
(Zardasht, Omed and Taha 2020).
In the case of the selected organization Apple Inc., the employees are believed to be
resources whose optimum utilization and exploitation can provide a competitive
edge to the company. Therefore, it can be said that the current HRM process of
Apple Inc. is changing its perspective from the traditional HRM to a more advanced
and integrated form of HRM. In addition to this, HR strategies of Apple focus on
investing in human capitals so that adequate agreements or disagreements of
employees and their participation can be achieved in decision-making processes for
overall team development (Lordkipanidze, R., 2019).
According to Figueroa-Domecq et al. 2019, the gender gap has been seen in many
top leading companies such as Facebook, eBay and Apple. It can be said that equal
pay for equal work and diversity inclusion concerning gender is one of the HR issues
at Apple Inc. There is also a lack of systematic human resource management tools
within, the company which is identified as one of the HR issues impacting the
corporate culture.
The HRM processes can impact the perspective of future HRM by focusing mainly
on employee engagement and satisfaction for the overall development of the
organization (Cheng and Hackett 2021). As per (Marescaux, Winne and Forrier
2019), the employees’ happiness and satisfaction are the most crucial concern of the
current and future HRM. If the perspective of HRM is inclined towards the
employees’ well-being and health, it will help in the performance improvement of
the employees, creating greater benefits for the organization.
In addition to this, the process of recruitment and selection has transformed in
modern HRM (Loffeld and Stoffers 2017). The priority of HRM has changed for

people management. The process of employees’ selection and recruitment has been
managed remotely, and different companies are increasingly using online interviews
and selection processes. The companies are also using social media for selecting
candidates as per their provided details in their social media profile.
3.1 What are the changing organisational and socio-economic factors that
may impact the work of HR&D practitioners?
As per (Kumar 2016), the size of the workforce is rising in the selected organisation,
Apple Inc., because the organisation is expanding their business in different parts of
the world. The increase in the scale of businesses makes it necessary to employ
more workers and retain talented employees. Therefore, the management of the
large workforce is becoming an HR issue, and this is one reason why HRM is
adopting technological improvements for managing the employees.
As per (Mokhtar and Hussain 2019), the diversity of the workforce also needs to be
accepted by the HR of Apple Inc. The socio-economic implications concerning
Apple suggest that the HR practitioners must pay attention to society’s ongoing
issues. Diversity inclusion is one of the issues which are being faced by the current
HR practitioners of Apple Inc. (Tang and Zhang 2021).
They are involved in designing and implementing policies that may improve
diversity among the workforce. One of the social demands is to provide a healthy
and safe working environment to all the employees irrespective of their race or
background and the changing pattern of the organisational culture where employees
are increasingly looking for benefits and rewards for improved performances. It has
become a challenge for the HR&D practitioners to think about how the rewards and
compensation plans can be made effective.

As per (Jones 2021), Apple Inc. has adopted a creative approach for providing
benefits to its staff for their improved performances. For example, Apple Inc.
executive cash bonus is designed so that the rewards of the executive can be made
directly related to the revenue and operating profit goals.
However, other issues need to be managed by HR such as the changes in the
technological environment. It can be said that HR&D practitioners have adopted
effective reward and compensation for dealing with the socio-economic demands of
the employees. However, Apple Inc. can adopt more automated processes for
dealing with a large employee workforce. It may adopt HRIS and use of AI
technologies to make the functions of recruitment and selection, much more
manageable and smarter. Gender pay gap policies and diversity inclusion policies
of HR must be amended for achieving full inclusion.
Pestle Analysis of Apple
Political factors: The political factors determine how HR are make plans within
the organisation such as compensation and reward plan. The political environment
determines whether political parties are supporting employee’s development plans
such as rewards. Apple has so far made reward plans based on employees’
performance.
Economic factors: The economic factors such as taxation policies and subsidies by
government, which support Apple Inc., helps in to gain its earning and invest more
on making HR policies effective.
Social factors: Social factors such as employee’s union and demands from trade
unions, are major social factors that impact the strategies and policies made by HR
practitioners.

Technological factors: The advancement in technology has significant impacts on
the practices of HR practitioners. Their task of managing a large workforce has
become easier with more integrated HR solutions.
Legal factors: The laws relating to labour and human rights policies, impact the
decisions of HR practitioners.
Environment factors: The internet and use of advanced software have lessened the
use of papers by HR practitioners.

3.2 Conclusion
In conclusion, traditional human resource management was about managing the
records relating to managing the workforce within the organisation. However, the
change in the external environment, both social and technological advancement has
led many changes in the HRM. The advancement in technology has automated many
functions of the human resource personnel used manually. The adoption of
technological advancement has helped in the development of HRIS, which is capable
of conduct many functions of the HR, namely, recruitment and selection process has
been made possible via an online platform.

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