Name: Peter Lim

ITOM (MTh 4:30 – 6:00)

Chapter 13: Human Resource Management

Chapter 13 talks about Human Resource Management and its importance in an

organization. As a manager or a team leader, their job is not just to assure communication
between different areas; but also, to support and ensure the team’s development.
As said in the chapter, Human Resource Management’s key is to put people, with their
respective skills, on the right place because it is believed that “if you hire the right people, if
you’ve got the right fit, then everything will take care of itself”. This chapter is all about
attracting, developing and maintaining a talented and energetic workforce. One real life
application shown is the story of Tony Hsieh.
Tony Hsieh is a CEO of the very well-known online retailer called Zappos, that sells
shoes, handbags and more. He is also known for his unique approach to Human Resource
Management because he is seeking for individuals who are committed to the company's values.
Before becoming "zapponians", what they call the employees, they have to go through
two interviews. In the first interview, it is a usual assessing of applicants in terms of technical
proficiency. In the second interview, they evaluate applicants based on the Zappos culture's core
values. In this interview, he included questions like "from a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you"
wherein if you answered 1, you won’t be hired. They accept those who answer 7 or 8. There is
also a note that egotists do not need to apply because their most known value is to be humble.
Once hired, all employees will proceed to a boot camp wherein they will spend their
time in a four-week customer loyalty training. In the end, they will be offered 2000 dollars to
quit and walk out. This is to trim down the hired workers to the most committed ones.
Surprisingly, 97% stayed. In addition to this, to keep Zapponians inspired, he implemented
employee-friendly practices like providing free food to them and paying their dental expenses.
 In addition to this story, Tony Hsieh applied the three main ideas of Human Resource
Management, which is to hire the right people, to place them where they perfectly fit, and
support them.
My dad’s personal experience in his work involves a lot of concepts from Human
Resource Management because he is currently holding the teams under the Operations area. One
thing that involves his work was career development. One scenario is when there is a person
holding a high position in a company that is almost retiring. It will only be natural for the
company to find a replacement, who is qualified, inside the company; but if they could not find
anybody, then they will start finding outside the company. This reflects the concept of HRM,
which involves Human Resource Planning and, Internal and External Recruitment.
Another experience was one of his first days in his work. He said that there will be
times when you would not get the job you want because if you look at it in a wider perspective,
the company is trying to give the employees a chance to work in different areas so that they will
be flexible in performing actions. In addition to this, you will gain enough knowledge on how the
company is revolving. You should not work as if you do not know what you are doing. To make
work more fulfilling and meaningful, you must know why you are performing those actions.
Right now, my dad did not get the work he wanted; but he did not stop there, he continued on
exploring different areas.
There was a time when the President of the company tried on removing my dad from
the stable areas. She put him in different teams that were experiencing hardships and my dad was
uncomfortable with the work he is doing. Since he was still part of the Operations team, he still
did the same work and earned the position to manage the whole team. This did not happen only
once, but thrice. He worked and worked and worked. There, he built his own workshop and was
able to make the three teams stand up again.
One last experience is how he trains people. There are specific topics in chapter 13,
which deals with how you should develop and sustain a talented and energetic workforce. The
biggest error of supervisors and peers is leniency. They tend to say things in a different way just
to avoid sounding negative; but my dad’s way of handling people is a balance of leniency and
objective thinking. His employees always meet their standards because the relationship between
the supervisor and an employee is healthy. There is a good communication in order to achieve
their common goals. In relation to the first quote mentioned, it is not only by placing them on the
right places; but also by supporting them along the way.
 One lesson I learned from this story is that Human Resource Management is all about
the starting process, which is to hire the right people, put them in the right place and support
them. In addition to this, there is another concept involved in hiring the right people. The next
thing to do is to orient them to what their jobs are all about. Orientations are something that we
should be serious about because it is when you will explain critical points relating to the work
they will do. A good orientation results to a better flow inside the organization. Another lesson I
learned is that, we cannot get the jobs we want in an instant. There are times that we will get
exposed to different areas and it will count as experience. This experience allows us to be
flexible in a way that we will get to understand how things flow. We are not secluded inside our
workplace focusing on one aspect of work; but rather we are knowledgeable on what is
happening around us, and it is a great way of getting the best out of every action we take.