Introduction
Climbing the top of the global charts for the most successful companies of the year is not an easy task, yet both Wegmans Food Markets and Camden Property Trust managed to land at the top fifteen. Belonging to different industries yet sharing a range of similarities, the companies can be characterized by a set of rather sensible HR strategies.
Incorporating their assets into their competitive strategies, Wegmans and Camden managed to attain impressive revenues in 2014 and integrate into the global market successfully, yet the organizations will have to consider shaping their HR strategies towards corporate social responsibility in order to maintain their quality standards.
Industries Comparison
Both retail and construction (real estate), which Wegmans and Camden correspondingly belong to, are considered rather prosperous industries. For instance, sales for retail reached $3.19 trillion, which is 3% higher than it was in the previous year (Annual Retail Industry Sales in the United States from 2000 to 2014 (in trillion U.S. Dollars) par. 1).
In fact, as the graph below shows, the retail industry has grown significantly over the past decade in the United States. The phenomenon in question can be attributed to the development of the global market.
The same can be said about the retail industry. The increase in the amount of the U.S. population is obvious (); thus, retail industry must grow so that the increased demand of the U.S. population could be met.
Size
According to the statistical data, the size of the real estate industry makes approximately 945,500 employees (NAICS par. 1). The
Products
The retail industry is known for providing its target customers with products that are typically characterized as hard and soft goods, food and arts (). The real estate industry, in its turn, offers all kinds of immovable property, particularly, houses and flats for purchase, rent and lease.
Services
Apart from renting buildings, the real estate industry offers brokerage and property assessment, as well as research and rent. The retail industry, in its turn, has a rather scarce amount of services, delivery being the primary one.
Customers
Customers use the services of retail industries much more often than the ones of the real estate industry. The specified phenomenon is quite understandable, as the products such as food, clothes, articles of personal use, etc.
Economic and Regulatory Environment
In the United States, the retail industry is traditionally regulated by the Retail Law and the Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. Environmental protection Agency par. 1). The above-mentioned organizations define the quality of products to be supplied to the end customer and, therefore, determine the quality standards for the retail companies working in the U.S. environment.
As far as the real estate industry is concerned, the latter is governed by the Real Estate and Property Law (Real Estate Law par. 1), as well as local laws specific for each state.
Companies’ Analysis
Mission
According to the official statement issued by Wegmans Food Market, the organization’s mission concerns maintaining sustainability (Wegmans Food Market par. 1). Camden Property Trust, in its turn, aims at “making the country a better place to live” (About Us par. 1).
The specified goals can be viewed as adequate for the industries that the firms operate in. Moreover, the mission statements provided above show that both companies are willing to satisfy all stakeholders involved, which clearly makes both firms competitive in the target markets.
Vision
Unlike Camden, whose vision involves promoting sustainable use of resources, Wegmans aims at a much more global outcome. Particularly, the company uses an American proverb as its vision statement in order to convey the idea of harmlessness and sustainability: “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children” (Caroll and Buchholtz 133).
Values
Wegman’s values align with its vision; much like the latter, they are also rather vague, including commonplace statements such as “caring,” “high standards,” “making a difference” and “respect” (Wegmans 3). Camden’s values, on the contrary, are rather distinct and very direct, involving the concern the above-mentioned concept of empowerment. Therefore, it seems that Wegmans could use a better set of values, which could be directed at its core stakeholders directly.
Core Business
Wegmans traditionally defines people as its core business (Holtom, Mitchell and Lee 316). The specified statement is quite reasonable in the light of the fact that the company values its every single stakeholder and puts an equally strong emphasis on its staff and its clients.
Camden, in its turn, makes it quite clear that environmental awareness and sustainability are the business practices that constitute the basis of the company’s operations (About Us par. 1). Consequently, Camden is focused on the community rather than on individual stakeholders.
Promoting a Competitive Advantage
Wegmans Food Markets
Learning is the basis for creating a competitive advantage in the organization (), which is a rather reasonable concept of an HR strategy. Instead of viewing its HR resources merely as labor force, the company invests into its staff by promoting learning in the organization and enhancing the significance of personal and professional evolution.
Camden Property Trust – Employee Relations
Cadmen is known for its unique corporate philosophy, which promotes the concept of a people driven environment, which encourages team players to “work smart” (Empowering People par. 6) in an outcome oriented production process. The specified strategy, though being based on a variety of other approaches, needs to be promoted as the organization’s core advantage, as it builds the environment, in which the company members trust each other.
Addressing the Current HR Issues
Human Capital Management
Recognizing the value of human resources is an essential step that a company must make in order to attain success in the global market. In other words, both Wegmans and Cadmen must consider the idea of investing into their staff.
Particularly, incentives and official acknowledgement of the staff’s success is likely to increase employee satisfaction significantly and, thus, boost their performance, which, in its turn, will raise both companies’ competitive advantage.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Once introduced into the framework of an organization, the principle of corporate social responsibility will allow the leaders of the companies to promote corporate values to the staff in a more efficient manner and, therefore, motivate employees for better performance.
Conclusion
Wegmans and Cadmen reached the position of the most successful organization as a result of their flexibility in the competitive strategy and elaboration in the use of the organization’s human resources. Despite overlooking some of the benefits that the HR strategies suggested above have to offer, both Wegmans and Cadmen have located the approach that suits them perfectly and allows them to keep all stakeholders satisfied.
Works Cited
About Us 2015. Web.
Annual Retail Industry Sales in the United States from 2000 to 2014 (in Trillion U.S. Dollars) 2015. Web.
Caroll, Archie and Ann Buchholtz. Business and Society: Ethics, Sustainability, and Stakeholder Management. Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.
Empowering People 2015. Web.
Holtom, Brooks C., Terence R. Mitchell and Thomas W. Lee. “Increasing Human and Social Capital by Applying Job Embeddedness Theory.” Organizational Dynamics 35.4 (2006): 316–331. Print.
NAICS. 2015. Real Estate Sales & Brokerage in the US: Market Research Report. 2015. Web.
Real Estate Law. 2015. Web.
U.S. Environmental protection Agency. Basic Information. 2015. Web.
Wegmans 2015. Web.
Wegmans Food Market. We Dream Our Business. 2015. Web.