ASSIGNMENT

INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

TOPIC: STAFFING POLICY APPROACH OF APPLE COMPANY

SUBMITTED TO: DR. OMER FAYAZ KHAN

SUBMITTED BY:
FAIZAN SHOWKAT (MBA-IB 18-15)
AZRA ZAHID (MBA-IB 18-08)
ADIL SALAM (MBA-IB 18-02)

MBA IB 3RD SEMESTER

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES

ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

HISTORY
Apple Inc., formerly Apple Computer, Inc., is a multinational corporation that creates
consumer electronics, personal computers, computer software, and commercial servers, and
is a digital distributor of media content. Apple's core product lines are the iPhone smart
phone, iPad tablet computer, iPod portable media players, and Macintosh computer line.
Founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak effectively created Apple Computer on April 1,
1976, with the release of the Apple I, and incorporated the company on January 3, 1977, in
Cupertino, California.

For more than two decades, Apple Computer was predominantly a manufacturer of personal
computers, including the Apple II, Macintosh, and Power Mac lines, but it faced rocky sales
and low market share during the 1990s. Jobs, who had been ousted from the company in
1985, returned to Apple in 1996 after his company NeXT was bought by Apple. The following
year he became the company's interim CEO, which later became permanent. Jobs
subsequently instilled a new corporate philosophy of recognizable products and simple
design, starting with the original iMac in 1998.

With the introduction of the successful iPod music player in 2001 and iTunes Music Store in
2003, Apple established itself as a leader in the consumer electronics and media sales
industries, leading it to drop "Computer" from the company's name in 2007. The company is
now also known for its iOS range of smart phone, media player, and tablet computer
products that began with the iPhone, followed by the iPod Touch and then iPad. As of 2012,
Apple is the largest publicly traded corporation in the world by market capitalization, with an
estimated value of US$626 billion as of September 2012. Apple Inc's market cap is larger
than that of Google and Microsoft combined. Apple's worldwide annual revenue in 2010
totaled US$65 billion, growing to US$127.8 billion in 2011 and $156 billion in 2012.

Current Hardware

AirPods iPad

Apple TV iPhone

Apple Watch iPod touch

Home Pod Mac Pro

iMac MacBook Air

iMac Pro MacBook Pro

Recruitment and Selection

The company had approximately 1,37,000 full-time employees world-wide. All of which had
been through the strict requirement to be one of the employees of World’s 2nd largest
information technology company.
Each applicants need to go through 3 to 4 rounds of interviews, that is if Apple is satisfied
with the resumes you’ve given them. Details of the first interview will be notified to the
candidates after about 2 to 4 weeks.

The first interview will be a group interview. Applicants will be set in a group setting with
about 15 other candidates. During this first interview, Apple employees will ask each
candidate a series of social questions, social and more of a people person would be what
Apple really wants. During this interview as well, the candidates will also be present for
several role-play scenarios in which they get to act both as the Apple employee and as the
customer. Each parts of the interview will be carefully screened, even the interactions
between candidates. The most important point was to dress properly, smile and ask
questions.

If the candidates have passed the first interviews, then there will be a background check.

The second interview will be notified within 2 to 6 days or a week span and a phone call will
be received by each candidate who had passed the first one. They will be asked about their
opinion on Apple, about their interest of job position in Apple, etc. This phone call interview
might last for 15 minutes and the candidate will be ask to come in person for another
interview in which they will be asked of their past experience and how to handle certain
situations and many other things. The interview will be done one on one with the store
manager.

For the third interview, every response of the candidate might be evaluated, like will the
candidate respond with a question or a situation. It might also be possible that they were told
not to wear anything formal like shirt and tie, so in conclusion they might also be evaluated
by their clothing. The questions asked in the third interviews would most likely similar to the
last 2 interviews about how they past experience and how to handle certain situations. This
interview will be done one on one with the general manager.

For the last interview, the candidate will be ask to come into another one on one interview
with the head manager/high level manager. At first, it might be like the past three interviews,
some standard questions were asked, but it might get to more personalized question about
the past of the candidates. The interview might last for 20 minutes and it was said that the
candidate will be notified within 3 to a week span.

The rejection which happen to most of the applicants will be notified either using emails or
phone calls, but it was more common that it will be done through emails.
Training and development program in Apple Inc.

Apple has a very well planned training and development program. Its employee are one of
its key advantages, especially in the research and development department and marketing
department. Effective training and development programs are an essential component of a
learning environment that can improve the Apple Inc.’s ability to attract and retain employees
with the skills and competencies needed to achieve results for the benefit of the company.

Training and developing new and current staff to fill up new roles and work in dissimilar ways
will be a decisive part in the endeavors of the company to meet its transformation
challenges. Ways that employees learn and achieve results will also continue to transform
how Apple Inc. does business and engage or force the employees in further innovation and
improvements in line with its objectives.

“To help drive change from the bottom up, we engage directly with workers to teach them
new skills and raise awareness of their rights. And we train managers on their
responsibilities under the Supplier Code of Conduct — and beyond” quoted in Apple’s official
website: www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/education-and-development.

Apple believes that finding and correcting problems is not enough. Apple-designed training
programs are used to educate suppliers and employees about local laws, their rights as
workers, occupational health and safety, and Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct. Today
around a million people in Apple’s workforce knows their rights because they went to work
for an Apple supplier (Apple, 2012).

Apple worked with Verité and the Fair Labor Association — two internationally recognized
organizations dedicated to human rights to evaluate the quality of their social responsibility
training (Apple, 2012). Their assessments showed that Apple-mandated training had
increased workers’ knowledge and awareness of their rights(Apple, 2012)In their website
they put a claim to continue improving their supplier training programs by working with these
organizations.

In addition to training the workers, they also train supervisors and managers on their
responsibilities to those workers. For example, they require management from suppliers in
Malaysia and Singapore to attend a two-day workshop that covers their Prevention of
Involuntary Labor standard along with best practices for labor agency monitoring, direct hire
processes, and onsite management of foreign workers (Apple, 2012)

Apple has also expanded professional development opportunities for workers through
Supplier Employee Education and Development (SEED) program. This Apple-designed
program offers workers classes in topics such as finance, computer skills, and the English
language(Apple,2012) In addition mentioned in their official website, SEED programs
partners with Chinese universities to allow workers to earn associate degrees. The program
began as a pilot at Fox Conn’s facility in Shenzhen and expanded to all final assembly sites
in 2011. Over 60,000 workers have participated, and their evaluation of the program shows
that participants have higher morale and are promoted more often than other employees
(Apple, 2012). Their entire final supplier has onsite e-learning centers like this one in
Shanghai.

Apple audits their training session to follow up and measure their performance. For example,
in 2011 they conducted training sessions on preventing underage labor for 200 suppliers.
This year, their audits of final assembly suppliers found no cases of underage labor. While
the organization is encouraged by these results, Apple claims that they will continue regular
audits and go deeper into their supply chain to ensure that there are no underage workers at
any Apple supplier (Apple, 2012)

All the training and development programs and policies mentioned above cited from Apple’s
official website clearly shows that they have a highly integrated and controlled training and
development program. Apple is intensively dedicated to their training and development
program to bring out and sustain the competitive advantage they enjoy from their employees
and suppliers.As Apple frequently produces new products requiring expertise in completely
different industries (i.e. computers, music devices, media sales, and telephony), its
employee skill set requirements change faster than at almost any other tech firm. Apple
follows a strategy to make their employee ‘self- reliant’ ( Sullivan, 2011). The reason behind
it is that providing target competencies and prescribing training can weaken employee self-
reliance, an attribute problematic in a fast-changing environment. Employee ownership of
development encourages employees to continuously learn in order to develop the skills that
will be required for new opportunities. For example, Apple’s sales team do not receive any
specific training on how to sell their product, they are empowered and Apple believes the
organizational culture and structure will shape them in the right track. (Suvillan, 2011). This
practice is certainly unconventional and uncommon in the retail environment.

An author, Dr. Suvillan (2011) stated in his article that Apple has a team environment.
Although many teams are forced to operate in isolation, that actually helps to build team
cohesion. The competition between the different development teams is also intense, but that
also helps to further strengthen cohesion. Employees in team learn from each other and it
helps in their development. Apple praises and motivates innovation and creativity the most in
employees as it can be seen by seeing their training and development programs and
policies.

STAFFING APPROACH OF APPLE

Geocentric Approach
Multinational companies have dominated the changes in the global economy as they have
been responsible for 40% of world manufacturing, which includes 70% of computers (Bartlett
& Ghoshal, 2000 in Golan and Johnson et al., 2010).

Communication has become the key to globalisation, where interactions and alliances take
place instantly. With half of the world’s trade relying on large multinational companies
(stwr.org, 2014), the progress in information technology over the years has made it possible
for an international business operation to achieve greater integration through constant flow
of communication within companies located around the world (Golan and Johnson et al.,
2010).

A model created by Howard Perlmutter (1969), has allowed companies to develop a general
strategic profile in terms of international business strategy. It contains three elements;
Ethnocentrism, Polycentrism and Geocentrism. In order to be cost effective and to increase
benefits in the firm, it is essential for organisations to understand its specific focus to expand
and grow (Porter, 1986).

Apple takes on a geocentric approach or ‘world oriented’, where they act completely
independent of geography and do not regard nationality but rather adopts a global
perspective. However, they will take into consideration some local issues and cultures to
adapt as appropriate. Therefore, people are acquired from all over the world to ensure the
best person is allocated for the job. This has enabled Apple to develop both global
differentiation and global integration to become a successful integrated company and be
able to offer products through differentiation.

Globalisation

Globalisation is a key factor in every economy. There is strong integration between different
countries where different processes are undertaken. There are many reasons as to why
companies decide to go global, such as having a small domestic market, unfavourable
government policies in home country, high demand of the product in foreign market (Porter,
2007). Apple took advantage by recognising its potential through globalisation and
implemented strategies to expand internationally, which developed a successful chain of
stores around the world.

Apple has shown the importance of going global as its figures illustrate the importance of
overseas sales for its products such as the iPhone. In 2010 Apple’s growth in Europe and
Asia was crucial as it received 58% revenue from outside of America (theatlantic.com,
2012). France, U.K. and Japan were seen as Apple’s fastest growing markets with
international sales being 61% of profits (techcrunch.com, 2013).
Expansion to international countries allows companies such as Apple to take an ‘efficiency
seeking’ approach where they expand internationally to take advantage of low labour and
production costs in foreign countries.

The main reason for Apple to use global strategy (Gong, 2013) is to market their products to
consumers all over the world to expand sales, profits and acquire new markets. This allows
Apple to reduce dependence on their local and national economies. In addition, a benefit to
consumers is the reduction in international shipping charges by buying products from local
sources.
Obtaining resources is another key factor in expanding globally. Many developing countries
have access to raw materials and land for manufacturing, which organisations such as Apple
aim to target. Globalisation has allowed Apple to globally source materials and achieve cost
advantages. This is also an advantage for developing countries as they do not have the
expertise or resources needed to use raw materials to improve their economies of scale;
therefore they welcome multinational companies such as Apple to grow their economies.

There have been a number of controversies over using foreign suppliers as this reduces
growth in home countries. Apple uses thousands of employees to assemble products, who
are paid approximately $18 a day which is much less than the allowance permitted by the
American labour laws (appleinsider.com, 2012). This would result in the average labour
costs of an iPhone to range from $65 to $100 (nbc33tv.com, 2012). The unbearable working
hours to correct issues on the iPhone would be considered as tough working conditions in
American society (money.cnn.com 2012).

Standardisation approach

Global standardization allows companies to develop a set of agreed international standards

which can be used for global operations and marketing. This allows companies to sell the
same brand globally and represent a clear corporate identity (sirius.utwente.nl, 2014). This
has permitted Apple to enhance its image worldwide and reach out to wider cultures to
create a recognisable brand.

In terms of Apple, there is minimal to no changes in their products as they are all precisely
standardized throughout international market. The only adaptation to Apple products is the
power source due to the different power voltages required in different countries
(techwell.com, 2013). In addition, same packaging, distribution methods and the way in
which products are sold, are the main source of perception created around the world.
Language can also be a variable factor dependent on the intended country; however, strong
brand awareness will eliminate the confusion caused through language barriers, with added
value of being able to change language settings to user convenience.
However, there are limitations to global standardisation, as the market needs to vary
depending on economic factors. In the case of Apple, these can be seen as luxury products
in weak economies, whereas in the affluent parts of the world, they are seen as social
reliance. However, Apple has successfully communicated its unique selling point globally,
therefore causing a lack of misinterpretation, as often customers will use the products for the
same reason. This strategy is cost effective, as it takes advantage of economies of scale.

Global Supply Chain

Supply Chain is the network of all the different companies including resources, handling,
technology and distribution required for the assembly of a product. This involves the steps
taken to create this product, such as the delivery of raw materials from the supplier to the
manufacturer and through its eventual delivery to the end user (seniorerp.ro, 2013).Global
supply chain management is directly linked to the rise of globalisation, where the movement
of materials, finances and information from the manufacturer to the wholesaler is based on a
global scale.

Gartner, an IT research firm has ranked Apple’s Supply chain as the best supply chain in the
word for the past 5 years (gartner.com 2013).

Global Supply Chain is a crucial process for Apple to have an enhanced supply
chain where it integrates the management of supply and demand within companies,
as it results in lower costs for the company. Supply chain consists of 3 main flows;
product flow, information flow and the finance flow and additionally after sale
customer services where returns are evaluated (industryweek.com, 2012).

Outsourcing

Outsourcing refers to obtaining goods or components from a supply source which is located
outside of the home country, therefore when a supply source is located abroad it is known as
offshore process (Andreff, 2014).
One of the main reasons for Apple to outsource is due to the high cost of labour in America
which is eliminated through using suppliers from foreign countries. Therefore, skilled
employees imitate the basic operations required to produce goods at a low cost. Apple uses
this internationalisation strategy as an advantage (asymco.com, 2013). In addition, it is seen
as an advantage for Apple to outsource in a country where there is less tax paid, therefore
maximising profits as there are minimal legal regulations.

Apple has outsourced its manufacturing to foreign countries to produce its goods such as the
iPod and iPhone using quality materials. Apple relies on China where the appropriate skills
needed for the assembly of goods are available. It is important for Apple to implement a
strategy to monitor their production, as poor quality or maintenance can cause problems to
Apple’s high reputation.

Reports suggest that majority of the iPhone is actually made in America, such as design,
software development and other factors such as marketing, while the assembly of the phone
takes place in China (Forbes.com, 2012).

Social contract theory relates to an organisation having mutual agreement with the society in
terms of how employees should be treated. Apple’s CSR report states improvements made
towards making a better working environment for its employees (www.syntao.com,2014).
This was presented to the world as Apple joined Fair Labour Association in 2012, and made
small changes to working hours and health and safety measures were undertaken
(apple.com, 2014).

However, there have been no improvements due to the severe cases that have been
reported in regards to the safety and treatment of employees. Apple has come under
scrutiny over the past few years in regards to issues relating to the workplace environment at
Apple’s supplier operated by Foxconn.

An article in the New York Times, exposed the poor working conditions, which forced
employees to work 24 hour shifts, live in dorms filled to capacity, exposed them to harmful
toxins which severely damaged their health and placed them in filthy facilities. The facility
which is operated by Foxconn, has clearly violated the supplier code of conduct which has
been allegedly set by Apple to ensure ethical behaviour.

Apple states they have no legal liability for what happens with their suppliers as it is owned
by separate manufacturers, therefore showing Apple’s decision to be legally correct rather
than considering moral conduct (catholic.org, 2012).

In order to demonstrate some ethical sensitivity to its suppliers, Apple has contacted the
‘Fair Labour Association’ to inspect working conditions at Foxconn, where reports showed an
improvement via reduced working hours (Apple.com, 2012). In 2013, Pegatron was also
under scrutiny when an investigation of their work conditions found child labour cases and
forced overtime (Armitage, 2013).They found around 10,000 children aged 16 and over
working in conditions that were seen to be appalling with wages not being paid sufficiently
(Sherman,2014).

Similarly, in 2011 nearly 137 employees were affected by the toxic chemical ‘n-hexane’,
which was used to clean the components during assembly. This chemical was immediately
removed; however employees sustained ill health (English.peopledaily.com.cn, 2014).
Apple has tried to show their charitable side to the public through donations. Steve Jobs was
not seen as a charitable man, as he was known not to give funds away. However it was
reported that Jobs donated to charity without going public due to his shy personality
(news.com.au, 2013), however new CEO Tim Cook, is seen to be very public in regards to
his charitable donations as according to the Verge he donated $100 million to several
organisations (theverge.com, 2012). However, this motion took place days after the working
conditions in China was released to the public, therefore can be seen as a stunt to sway the
public towards Apple’s positive factors (cnet.com,2012).

References:

 en.wikipedia.com
 https://applecorporate.weebly.com/
 https://www.academia.edu/6709098/Training_and_development_program_in_Apple_
Inc
 https://blackwells.co.uk/extracts/9780199297771_baylis.pdf
 https://www.academia.edu/

CONTRIBUTION:

Media used to discuss topic - Call conferencing and Whatsapp

History, Globalisation, Global supply chain (Adil Salam)

Recruitment & Selection, Staffing approach (Faizan Showkat)

Training & Development, Standardisation approach, Outsourcing (Azra Zahid)