Case Analysis No.

AP MOLLER- MAERSK GROUP: EVALUATING STRATEGIC TALENT

MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES

I. Statement of the Main Problem

The problem proposed by the case is related to inappropriate strategic talent

management initiatives taken by Maersk Group. Company faced problem related to high
employee turnover because it has transformed its business from family owned business to
global business. It is very difficult for the firms to manage the cultural differences due to
expansion of business in international context.

II. State the different areas of consideration: SWOT

Strength Weaknesses
 Maersk is a global conglomerate with  employee turnover rate in Maersk had
large shipping and oil & gas businesses risen that affected its business at large
and is headquartered in Copenhagen extant.
 Operates one of the largest container 
shipping businesses at global level and
oil and gas exploration and container
terminals operations
Opportunities Threats
 experienced a significant change in its  Global recession in 2008 negatively
corporate culture due to transformation affected the business of company by
of business from a family-owned affecting both Maersk’s top line and its
Danish shipping company into a returns.
global, publicly-traded conglomerate.


IV. Give the results of your analysis, describe your solution /alternative courses of
action or ACA

Employee Turnover:

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Management at Maersk had focused on the employees, who were attached with the
firm from starting of business as trainees and spent their career life at there. It can be noted
down that new employees, which were recruited on global expansion could not be retained
for longer period by the company that increased the employee turnover rate. It was a bid
issue for the company how to retain the new employees further to sustain the business
performance (Robbins & Judge, 2012). The big reasons behind the employee turnover were
changes in corporate culture, lack of motivation level and job satisfaction level of the
employees that reduced the employee retention level significantly.

Hiring:
Hiring of people was another issue that was faced by management at Maersk. It was
dilemma situation for the company whether it should continue to hire the experienced
people from outside of the organization or appoint the new and inexperienced people and
provide career progression for more competitive operations on global expansion.

Rehiring:
It was also a significant issue for the company to rehire the former employees
(boomerangs) to operate its global operations. Due to changes in its operations, many
employees left the organization or fired due to their incompatibility to operate the business
at global level. Now, it was a big challenge for the company to reappoint them again for
operating its business activities at global level (Rothwell, 2010).

Integration of existing senior and experienced employees:

Management at Maersk also faced issue related to integration of existing senior and
experienced employees due to lack of participation and changing corporate culture. They
were not motivated to work with the company and engage in the business operations fully.
They were not committed with the firm to perform their job responsibilities that also raised
problem of employee turnover (Farndale, Scullion & Sparrow, 2010).

Ineffectiveness of talent management initiatives:

Maersk also faced issue of ineffectiveness of talent management practices such as
training and development programs, performance appraisal techniques, performance
management, learning and development facilities, career growth opportunities, etc. to
encourage, measure, evaluate and control performance of employees as per the
requirements of the organization in global perspective (Singer, 2010).

Establishment of an integrated and inclusive culture:

Building an inclusive culture was a primary issue for the management of Maersk due
to transformation of corporate culture from family owned business to global conglomerate.
Firm is a family-owned Danish shipping company and now it has started to operate its
business in different countries across the world. Absence of strong and cohesive culture
made it difficult for experienced hires to succeed. Building a corporate culture, which could
allow the company to attract and retain talent from all over the world, was a critical issue
for the company on expanding its business at globe (Schein, 2010). It was challenging for
the company to develop global oriented culture to enable the employees to handle the
business issues at global level.

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V. State your recommendation/ preferred action plan based on ACA Action Plan:

How to Deal with the Rising Turnover Rate

In order to retain the employees for longer period and deal with the rising turnover
rate, it is necessary for the company to make synchronization between retention motives
and entry level development. It is crucial for the firm to recruit right people from the start.
In this, it is essential for the management to pay attention to employees’ personal needs and
offer more flexibility at workplace to develop employee commitment.

On the other hand, participative leadership and assertive communication style can
change the employee behavior at workplace and enhance their engagement at full level and
improve their satisfaction level.
Employees need respect and recognition from managers and get a challenging position
to learn and move up. It can be also be useful for the company to set the right compensation
and benefits along with flexible work schedules and bonus structures. Through this,
management can develop better strategies to retain the people for longer period.

Approaches for Addressing the Hiring and Integration of Experienced Personnel

In hiring of experienced personnel, company should establish some criteria including
background, experiences and leadership qualities to integrate them into the organization
smoothl. In hiring, behaviorally-based interview questions and culture-based questions can
be asked to probe the candidates’ experience history, decisions made, and accomplishments
and determine their values and motivators accordance with organizational values.

In order to integrate experienced personnel, it is necessary for the firm to develop

inclusive culture by conducting culture assessment to understand the explicit and tact facets
of the organization’s culture. For rehiring the people, firm needs to focus on candid
feedback and exit interview to identify the lacking areas that facilitate leaving decision of
the employee. Through this, management can maintain better relationship with the
departing employees and can easily rehire and integrate them within the organization.

Changes for Improving the Talent Management Issues at Maersk

In order to improve the talent management issues, it would be effective for the
company to assess the workforce to have right quantity and quality of employees in place.
In addition, it would be effective to attract the right people by drawing the best people to
the organization. For retaining the people, managers need to inspire people to do their best
performance by aligning performance with organizational goals. Training should be
provided in each department, so that talent management can help employees in learning
new things without creating stress.

It would be significant for the company to include a set of procedure that can provide
an internal path to employees to improve their potential and capabilities to groom their
capabilities and talent continuously. It would be effective to develop trust among
employees and to retain them. Through this, company would enable to allow its employees
to attain new skills smoothly, which would be required to go ahead in the company. In
addition, it would also be effective to consider employees’ interest and organizational needs
in designing of talent management programs and develop competencies as per the
requirement of identified roles

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VI. Conclusion and detailed action plan to implement recommendation using the
guide below

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that Maersk Group faced problem
related to high employee turnover and culture transition due to turning from family
business to global business. At the same time, it also faced issues regarding development of
inclusive culture, employee retention, hiring and rehiring of people, integration of
experienced personnel and ineffectiveness of talent management programs. Through better
HRM strategies and work practices including alignment of talent management practices
with award, supportive and flexible working environment, participative leadership, and
effective hiring of right people, directional mentorship programs and orientation programs,
firm can solve all related issues of talent management and can reduce the high employee
turnover effectively.

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