Becton Dickinson: Recommendations to Improve HR Functions Essay

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Updated: Mar 13th, 2024

Key Issues

The HR department at Becton Dickinson (BD) needs some major changes if it hopes to become strategically focused. As of now, BD has a number of issues that need to be tackled before any new policy can be successfully implemented. One of the biggest issues is the competency level of employees. At present, managers just fill the vacancies without looking at the long-term potential of a candidate. As a result of this state of affairs, the organization is overcrowded with employees having no managerial skills or even traits. There are also limited avenues for employees’ career growth. Moreover, HR does not have in place a system to educate the employees in skills that will help them grow.

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Another issue is the lack of teamwork and cooperation both at the business unit level and at the corporate management level. There is also no employee feedback system and no formal mechanism for employees to have their voices heard. This lack of communication between employees and managers makes it difficult for the HRD to become aware of potential problems. In general, the HR department is not involved in strategic planning and its stance is mostly reactive rather than proactive. For the most part, the HR department only seems to exist to handle administrative works such as preparing salaries.

Recommendations

In order to improve the strategic orientation of the HR department, some serious changes need to be made in its functioning. Currently, the HR department does not have much say in the recruitment process. This has to change. Instead of hiring personnel for immediate vacancies, recruitment must be carried out in a planned way and preference must be given to those with management potential. The HR department staff needs to be trained to identify potential managerial candidates. Also, since BD lacks in the R&D department when compared to the competitors, there is a need to recruit more people with R&D and engineering skills. This can be accomplished if BD sets up a formal college recruiting program to attract young talent. Since people with better capabilities tend to be ambitious, there is also a need to groom this young talent through education and proper opportunities so that they can see themselves rising to important managerial positions in the future.

BD does not have any system in place to systematically develop managers. As the company is growing, there is continuous change, and new positions are being created which need to be filled. In keeping with the BD’s culture, it is preferable to groom talent from within the organization to take these new managerial positions. As mentioned, a proper system to educate and groom talented employees needs to be established. However, any educative program will only be effective if it properly meets the requirements of the people. The system used in past tended to be too boring for most employees and hence proved to be a failure. It is important to restrict employee education to a few hours of workshops to help them develop skills that will help them grow in the organization. Also, participation in these workshops needs to be voluntary so that the employees do not feel pressured. Talented employees can also be groomed through the use of a mentoring system.

BD also needs to develop an employee feedback system so that the management can become aware of any potential problems and employees feel that they are being heard. One way to do this is to incorporate a 360-degree feedback system. However, given the limitations of the 360-degree feedback, HR also needs to routinely carry out surveys so that HR can talk directly with the employees at all levels. The suggestions and feedback given during these surveys need to be further investigated and implemented, if possible. This will help build better relations and trust between the employees and HR. BD can also install suggestions boxes all over the organization where employees can give anonymous feedback.

Finally, the HR department also needs to change its working style. Currently, the HR department is all but invisible to most employees. This needs to change and the HR needs to be more proactive in implementing policies. The existing performance evaluation system already has a way to identify problems. However, HR does not follow up on this, resulting in the problem growing out of control. HR needs to become more disciplined and catch problems in the bud. The existing and proposed feedback systems should help HR identify problems and take corrective measures.

Justification

All of these recommendations are based on the feedback given by thirty managers throughout the organization. BD has always had a culture that encouraged managerial appointments from within. But as the company grows, the only way to keep this culture intact is by nurturing talent. And it is better to get this talent young and then groom them according to our needs. Educating young talent is an indispensable part of grooming managerial talent. Also, to counter the better R&D capabilities of competitors, hiring more R&D and engineers is important. Good feedback systems and timely actions are taken based on this feedbacks help any company to remain competitive and on the cutting edge of technology. In view of this, the above recommendations need to be implemented as soon as possible, but with proper planning.

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IvyPanda. (2024) 'Becton Dickinson: Recommendations to Improve HR Functions'. 13 March.

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IvyPanda. 2024. "Becton Dickinson: Recommendations to Improve HR Functions." March 13, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/becton-dickinson-recommendations-to-improve-hr-functions/.

1. IvyPanda. "Becton Dickinson: Recommendations to Improve HR Functions." March 13, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/becton-dickinson-recommendations-to-improve-hr-functions/.


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IvyPanda. "Becton Dickinson: Recommendations to Improve HR Functions." March 13, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/becton-dickinson-recommendations-to-improve-hr-functions/.

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