HR Strategies and Practices for Take Solutions: A Strategic Report

This report provides a strategic human resource management analysis of Take Solutions, a company specializing in Life Sciences and Supply Chain Management. It begins with an introduction to the importance of strategic HR in aligning employees with business strategies. The report then provides a background of Take Solutions, followed by STEEPLED and OT-SW analyses to identify the external environment and the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Based on these analyses, the report proposes a business strategy focused on international expansion and enhanced customer service. It then outlines a corresponding HR strategy that includes effective recruitment, employee training and development, and performance management. The report concludes by detailing specific HR policies and practices such as employment security, team management, and compensation structures, aiming to address talent shortages and support the company's growth objectives. The report emphasizes the importance of aligning HR practices with business goals to achieve success in a competitive global market.

Strategic Human resource management
-Take Solutions
Xue Li
110164593

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................3
BACKGROUND OF TAKE SOLUTIONS..............................................................................3
STEEPLED ANALYSIS...........................................................................................................3
OT-SW ANALYSIS..................................................................................................................4
BUSINESS STRATEGY...........................................................................................................5
HR STRATEGY........................................................................................................................5
HR POLICIES AND PRACTICES...........................................................................................6
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
The HR professionals of the contemporary organizations are required to strategically align
their employees with the business strategies of the organization. This is important in the
context of the increased workload handled by the employees and the increasing competition
faced by the organizations. In this regard, the notion of strategic human resource management
becomes important since it enables the HR professionals to design the job roles, reward and
recognition policy, etc. in such a manner that both the employees and the organization are
capable of achieving their goals and strategies. This report will discuss various business
strategies and reveal the suitable HR policies and practices that can be practiced by the
organization called Take Solutions while addressing its threats and weaknesses identified
through environmental analysis.
Background of Take Solutions
Take Solutions is reputed for offering high quality “domain-intensive services in Life
Sciences and Supply Chain Management”. This implies that the main aim of the organization
is to deliver “full-service Clinical, Regulatory and Safety services” which are backed by the
use of innovative technologies for the purpose of offering maximum benefit to its users
(Takesolutions.com 2018). Take Solutions, headquartered in Chennai, India, claims its global
presence and actively conducts its business in not only the nations of Asia but also in the
nations of North America, South America and Europe. As soon as a business enters into the
global market, it faces a number of challenges. HR is a crucial component in the ability of
Take Solutions to succeed in a changing marketplace. This requires environmental analysis
(STEEPLED) to identify the external context and the opportunity & threats analysis for the
identification of the suitable business strategy.
STEEPLED Analysis
The findings from the interview with Take Solutions’ HR manager- Praveen are illustrated
below: The main social and cultural factors which affect the business of the concerned
organisation are language barriers, race, nationality and other differences between the
employees who are a part of the organisation. The major technological factor which affects
the business of the organisation is the demand of the industry to offer high-quality technical
innovations for the manufacturing of drugs and medicines. The major economic trend which
affects the business of the organizations are the demands of the employees for increased pay
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scale, currency fluctuations, availability of contracts and their fees, recession, competition,
real estate prices and others. The pressure to reduce carbon footprints, energy utilization,
water consumption and the development of environment-friendly actions are the
environmental factors currently affecting the organization. Competitive regulations, terrorist
attacks, consumer protection law, etc. are the main political factors that impact the operations
of the organization. The major legislations that the organization needs to take into
consideration for their business operations in India are “IT Act 2000, Income Tax, Anti-
Monopoly Laws along with the Indian Copyright Act,” (Takesolutions.com 2018). The high
unemployment rate of Chennai and India makes it suitable to get the right candidates for their
organization (Sparrow, Farndale and Scullion 2013).
OT-SW Analysis
The constant growth in the automation of processes and supply of biopharmaceutical
products provides an chance to Take Solutions to enhance their market and ensures
knowledge consultation. Also, high youth unemployment rates allow Take Solutions to make
the selection from the talent available in the market. Moreover, the Indian population is
skilled in the engineering field due to excessive stress placed by the Indian education system
on Mathematics and Science subjects (Praveen, 2018). This, in turn, makes them capable of
understanding the needs of Pharma companies. Threats for Take Solutions comprise of the
changes in government legislation. This means that the drug price control order is expanded
and there is tough competition to India from the countries like Israel and China for the
purpose of meeting low-cost outsourcing demand. In addition to this, wage inflation
adversely affects the organization and poses a threat to its financial management (Praveen,
2018).
The strengths of Take Solutions include the adoption of a unique business model before any
other life science company in India. The organization has a subsidiary that specializes in Big
Data Analytics in Life sciences. As a result, the number of consignments has increased
leading to increase in the employment opportunities (Praveen, 2018). Meanwhile, the
organization has a large talent pool of English speaking employees who are capable of
integrating the recent innovative technologies within the framework of the organization in
order to deliver high-quality services to the customers (Praveen, 2018). Through the use of
cutting-edge technology, Take Solutions became capable of establishing an exclusive alliance
with top data aggregation, thereby making expansion of its list of strategic partnerships with
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low cost richer functionalities (Annual report, 2016-17). However, the development phase of
the biomedical industries is still running. As a consequence, there is an existence of more
unorganized companies who, during expansion of their markets, have announced such
products and services which are capable of increasing the competition level. Also, the global
reach is attempted to be strengthened by Take Solutions and the company is looking forwards
to explore North American and the European Market. However, there is a lack of talent in
such markets (Praveen, 2018). Technological advantages are possesses by Take Solutions but
there is insufficiency of international marketing expertise which prevents it in the successful
implementation of the strategy.
Business Strategy
Business strategy facilities in the evaluation of the ways in which Take Solutions intends to
deal with all its identified threats and opportunities. Take Solutions should have an effective
business strategy statement which is capable of ensuring that “best practices” are being
followed all through its sales, distribution and supply chain processed. The rationale of this
proposed business strategy is to develop a new product line in order to address its
international business needs. The proposed business strategy will improve environmental fit
through the development of skills for dealing with projects which come within an
international context (Ulrich D & Dulebohn, 2015). This will further assist the organization
in responding effectively towards the challenges presented by the environment. Attracting
and retaining talent in order to strengthen the clinical practice should also be considered by
the organization for the purpose of attaining organizational change and dealing with issues
that are faced by Take Solutions in its international expansion (Shin & Konrad, 2017, pp.
973-997). Due to increased competition, the organization should improve its products’
quality and speed up the automated processes in the supply chain for the purpose of achieving
improved customer service. For the effective utilization of the business opportunities, the
organization should focus on the quality of the services offered by them along with the cost
of such services. With the help of the business strategy of cost containment, the organization
will be able to enhance expense control while offering the best quality services at affordable
prices (Willis & Brown & McMillan, 2001, pp. 36-42). In addition, the organization should
maintain effective knowledge transfer among employees, especially from the host country to
foreign subsidiaries. During the expansion process, the organization should follow the
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relevant legislations, ensure the occupational health and safety and follow the ethical
standards for enhancing its reputation.
HR Strategy
The proposed business strategy cannot be attained through existing people management,
because of the talent shortage caused by overseas acquisition. To deal with the threats faced
by Take Solutions Ltd in the management of its human resources, the company should
consider the development of proposed HR strategies. This will allow the company in dealing
with its weaknesses and the attainment of competitive advantages through capitalizing on its
opportunities that can ensure better external fit. Firstly, the organization should follow an
effective recruitment strategy which will enable it to search and attract fresh talent (Collings
& Wood, 2018, pp. 151-153). For instance, the organization requires to recruit personnel with
relevant IT knowledge along with supply chain management background in order to plan and
execute certain collaborative improvements in its supply chain process. Secondly, it is
necessary for the organization to organize trained employees to enhance customer service
outcomes through an ongoing support process. Therefore, for building a high-performance
team, Take Solutions needs to design a plan that relates to training and development of
employees in order to help the business in its several change efforts (Urich, 1998). Thirdly,
proper performance management method should be developed by the organization for
translating the business objectives into individual job objectives, for example, a performance-
relate rewards would help. Meanwhile, for improving employee performance, several stress-
busting and well-fare initiatives can be introduced by Take Solutions along with interactive
sports and recreational services (Stone, 2013). Moreover, Take Solutions could develop the
employment environment in an efficient and sustainable manner along with the maintenance
of exceptional participatory organizational culture for attracting probable candidates.
(Deadrick & Stone , 2015). Fair treatment of employees and honouring of agreements are the
key points to lower labor turnover. Take Solutions Ltd must also consider strengthening
diversity recruitment, meeting the demand for new knowledge, abilities, and skills. In this
strategy, the company must ensure that women and minority groups have equal access to all
the opportunities (Paauwe and Boon 2018).
HR Policies and Practices
The proposed human resource practice is deemed to be internal horizontal fit. For following
the HR strategies, the HR practices should include employment security schemes, staff
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hiring, manageable teams along with better compensation structures and development of a
wide range of training programs. The new HR policies of the organization should ensure
developing elements of pay performance, management, career development along with
rewards that will be consistent and linked (Ulrich and Dulebohn 2015). HR policies of the
organization must also focus on introducing a system that can reflect the manner in which the
business wants to treat its consumers by way of treating their employees in a similar manner.
It also needs to consider developing a principle through which the development and support
to the employees can be ensured as the employees who feel respected at work are capable of
offering the best services to the consumers. Knowledge management practices must also be
improved in the HR policies of the company in a way such that it can create, acquire, capture,
share and use knowledge in improving overall employee learning and experience.
Take Solutions have an ample talent to recruit from but still it is critical to recruit the best in
order to meet the shortage of expertise. Before designing the HR practices, the HR
professionals can consult the managers with regard to the skill sets or kind of talents required
within the organization. The recruitment plan can be prepared by the HR professionals on the
basis of this requirement. For example, to recruit people with IT background; those who are
able to improve the clinical practice; those who work well in teams. However, the recruitment
plan should also include different criteria and recruiting them based on culture attitude and
fit, rather than just skills that can easily be learned by employees during the training process.
The job description and job analysis are required in this process. The HR team could develop
a recruitment advertisement to make potential candidates aware of job vacancies and creating
alert regarding changing conditions in the labor market, especially any new legislation
requirements. Personnel could be recruited from both local (low labor cost) and international
sources (those who understand the global markets); hiring women and members of minority
groups; promotion from internal or external candidates. After that, the training process can be
designed in various forms, like coaching, mentoring or behavior modeling to ensure trainees
learning in an effective way and to transfer the skills to a job. Take Solutions could hold
classes based on these forms to deal with the shortage of skills and enhance the flexibility in
employees to handle varied international projects.
The “market or leader pay approach” is a viable option that the HR professionals can use in
performance and compensation policy. As opined by Sturman and McCabe (2016, pp. 85-97),
organizations often try to enhance the performance of their employees by paying them with
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the kind of remuneration which their competitor companies are paying to their employees.
Take Solutions could use this method to improve the performance of the employees
positively and for reducing the turnover rate of the organization. The HR professionals can
also formulate a talent rating system by using performance appraisal. This means the
employees would be rated as per their performance and will be rewarded in an effective
manner to ensure optimal levels of employee performance for meeting the organization's
strategic objectives (Mello, 2014). For instance, the evaluation of employee performance can
be done by peer evaluation, self-evaluation, and 360-degree evaluation. Take Solutions is
trying to expand their global market which will require lots of group work and therefore, a
team player needs to be recruited. Those who work well in groups to solve the assigned
projects should be rewarded. This process could reach the internal vertical fit.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the overall effectiveness of Take Solutions depends to a large extent on the
capability of its HRM team. STEEPLED and OT analysis identify the challenges in the
environment that impact the business operations of Take Solutions. Strategic HRM aims at
bringing the required improvement in operational HRM by way of aligning the proposed
policies and practices of HR with the business needs of Take Solutions. In order to achieve
the organizational goals, the proposed HR policies, processes and practices should work in a
harmonious and mutually supportive manner with several other business practices undertaken
by the organization.
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References
Annual report 2016-17,
<http://www.takesolutions.com/Reports_Filings/2016-17/take_solutions_annual-
report_2017.pdf> viewed 2 October 2018.
Collings, D.G., Wood, G.T. and Szamosi, L.T., 2018. Human resource management: A
critical approach. In Human Resource Management (pp. 1-23). Routledge.
Deadrick D & Stone D, 2015, ‘Challenges and opportunities affecting the future of human
resource management’, Human Resource Management Review, vol. 25, pp. 139-145.
Interview with Praveen- HR Manager of Take Solutions
Mello, J 2014, Strategic human resource management, 4th edn, Cengage Learning, US.
Takesolutions.com 2018, Our vision at Navitas is to be the best knowledge company in the
Life Sciences R&D space, viewed 30 September 2018 <https://www.takesolutions.com/our-
vision-at-navitas-is-to-be-the-best-knowledge-company-in-the-life-sciences-r-d-space>
Take Solutions.com, 2018, Take Solutions has been named as a Leader in IDC Marketspace:
Worldwide Life Science R&D BPO Services 2018 Vendor Assessment, viewed 30
September 2018, <https://www.takesolutions.com/take-solutions-has-been-named-as-a-
leader-in-idc-marketscape-worldwide-life-science-r-d-bpo-services-2018-vendor-
assessment>
Paauwe, J. and Boon, C., 2018. Strategic HRM: A critical review. In Human Resource
Management (pp. 49-73). Routledge.
Shin, D. and Konrad, A.M., 2017. ‘Causality between high-performance work systems and
organizational performance’. Journal of Management, vol. 43, no. 4, pp.973-997.
Stone, R J 2013, Managing human resources, 4th edn, Wiley, Milton, Queensland.
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Sturman M & McCabe D, 2006 ‘Choosing Whether to Lead, Lag, or Match the market’,
Journal of Human Recourses in Hospitality & Tourism, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 85-97.
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