Running head: HR PROCESS AT NESTLE

Human Resource Issues at Nestle

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Human Resource Issues at Nestle

The human resource office assumes an essential part within any organization. It deals

with recruitment, placement, training, and development of team members (Boxall & Purcell,

2011). The staff is an essential asset of an organization, and human resource is the key ingredient

to success (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Therefore, when an organization gets it right in its HR

process, it is likely to excel. However, employees that are not satisfied in their place of

workplaces can result in an organization's downfall. This exposition takes a look at HR issues or

dilemmas that a particular company is facing and addresses the problem by providing a solution.

Nestle is a leading transnational food processing corporation with its headquarters in

Switzerland. Its products range from baby foods, coffee, milk products, cereals, and bottled

water among many others. Nestle was formed in 1905 by the merger of two companies,

belonging to the page brothers and Henri Nestle, that had previously been established in 1866

(Nestle, 2017). The organization has expanded throughout the years growing its offerings past its

first condensed milk and baby recipe items and making many corporate acquisitions. With over

three million employees, Nestle makes it to the list of one of the largest employers in the world

(Li, 2015). The company owns over five hundred factories spread over about ninety countries

worldwide and provides its customers with over five hundred products. Note that the

organization's logo consists of Henri Nestl's family coat of arms which is an image related to the

organization's care and position on lifetime nourishment. The Nestle nest carries the definition of

nutriment, security and a feeling of family that is critical to life.

Just like in any given organization, the HR activities at Nestle ranges from recruitment to

performance appraisal to compensation benefit. Concerning hiring, a huge number of workers

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are currently working for Nestle. The company recruits most of its staff by a certain technique,

and employment opportunities come at the point when a few workers need to leave, or there is a

critical need. The managing director must approve all the recruitment requests. The performance

of Nestle employees is evaluated through methods of execution evaluation, worker examination,

and performance survey or improvement discourse (Li, 2015). The company believes that just

like their customers, staff is valuable as well. Consequently, they are paid incentives to urge them

to give better execution. The organization has a reward bundle that makes the best performers

put forth a valiant effort. Nestle is resolved to offer and keep up restrained remunerations

programs that keep up a long haul relationship with laborers at the period of judging their

accomplishment.

Nestls mission is to furnish customers with the best tasting and most nutritious

selections in an extensive range of meal and refreshment classifications (Nestle, 2017). The

companys vision is to be the largest and leading food company in the world. Nestle believes that

the protection of its employees is the first of their priorities and that employees are its assets.

Maintaining a global corporate standard makes the company focus on safe working environments

for all employees, and visitors as well. Human resource management (HRM) at Nestle employs a

democratic leadership style in which employees' advice and decisions are taken into account. The

HR policy in this company is always to contract staff with individual character and expert

aptitudes as they are inclined to achieve long-term success quickly (Li, 2015). Nestle deals with

its staff with respect and narrow-mindedness, provocation or separation in the administration is

not allowed. This rule is employed and kept up at each stage and circumstance. The company,

through its HR department, continuously improving regarding its sincerity in work, dialogue, and

transparency.
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One of the biggest HR-related issues that Nestle is undergoing is what is known as union-

busting. The company, for a long time, has had a negative attitude towards organized labor,

especially in the developing world. Employees that attempt to organize at Nestl plants have

been debilitated with terminating and have likewise been physically threatened. For instance,

workers in India confronted some terrorizing strategies when they attempted to unionize. Nestle

won a court order to bar any labor formation actions within the proximity of its premises.

However, the workers battled the organization through trials and ultimately won. This was not

the first time the company tried to kill any form of organized labor.

Multinationals, including Nestle, have had a history of setting up factories in countries

that do not have stringent labor laws. They take advantage of the regulatory loopholes by

avoiding scrutiny of their labor practices (Kehoe & Wright, 2013). For example in Nestls

companies located in China, Colombia, and North Korea, the company has managed to dodge

some accountability. In the United States, however, there is stringent oversight and employees

enjoy more legal protection unlike in other countries. Taking a case study of Philippines,

hundreds of workers downed their tools to demand their entitlement to bargain their pension. The

rulings from the courts favored the workers, yet Nestle kept defying the court's rulings (Kehoe &

Wright, 2013). Such cases just prove how Nestle has been challenging the principle that

businesses ought to maintain the freedom of affiliation and the powerful acknowledgment of the

privilege to collective bargaining. A report has highlighted Nestle as one of the worst companies

in the world for union organizing.

Some employees have accused the HR department at Nestle for being horrible. The

problem is that obtaining a straight answer from the management is hardly any easy. They claim

that in the event an employee desires to move around or change the best thing that they could do
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is to rely on the relationships one has built or better so be comfortable with uncertainty. The lack

of a proper communication channel within an organization can be disastrous to that particular

company in many ways including a decline in employee morale and performance. This problem

discussed here still has got something to do with labor relation policies of the enterprise.

I believe that for Nestle to maintain a positive public image, they have to work on their

labor relation issues. Workers in any given organization have the right to form associations as

well as bargain collectively. From the perspective of a human resource manager, the management

should always be on the lookout for the danger signals emanating from a weak labor-

management relationship. One particular solution to the labor-management dispute at Nestle

could be through a mediator who would scrutinize the relationship between the company and the

workers to determine if they could reach a common ground. When a corporation and its

employees do not agree on something like a collective bargain, usually there are other unresolved

issues. Such concerns should be first identified and addressed as soon as they are noted.

Primarily, there are approaches that the HR department of Nestle can employ to improve

labor-management relations. First, a relationship by objective is a strategy in which the goals of

the company and those of the employees are independently analyzed then a joint aspiration

identified then an agreement reached. Secondly, I would recommend a labor-management

committee formed by the employers and workers unions with the assistance of mediators. Such a

move would ensure that the representatives of labor and the management through the HR

department join and talk about mutual problems. Effective committees could result in joint

problem-solving which strengthens mutual credibility and improves the relationship (Noe,

Hollenbeck, Gerhart & Wright, 2006). In a similar manner, Nestle could employ joint training

programs. A training session between the employer and the employees does have considerable
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value in the development of a work atmosphere that is conducive to labor peace and the quick

and efficient resolution of labor-related issues. The training sessions could handle issues from

communication, leadership, and grievance handling techniques.

The proposed solutions to Nestls negative attitude towards organized labor are related

to the companys mission and vision. Even as the Nestle strives to provide its customers with the

best nutritious options in an extensive variety of nourishment and drink classifications, it has the

responsibility of ensuring that its employees' rights to be part of organized labor unions are

respected. Likewise, the company's vision to be the largest and leading food company worldwide

is only achievable if the company treats all its employees, whether in developed or in developing

countries, in equal measure. If Nestle does believe that the employees are the assets of a business

and that their protection is paramount, then it has to work harder to ensure that its employee

labor relations are up to standard.

References
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Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management

practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Boxall, P., & Purcell, J. (2011). Strategy and human resource management. Palgrave Macmillan.

Kehoe, R. R., & Wright, P. M. (2013). The impact of high-performance human resource practices

on employees attitudes and behaviors. Journal of Management, 39(2), 366-391.

Li, T. (2015). Nestle Employee Recruitment Research. International Journal of Business and

Social Science, 6(4).

Nestle. (2017). Nestle.com. Retrieved 10 February 2017, from

http://www.nestle.com/aboutus/history

Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2006). Human resource

management: Gaining a competitive advantage.