Baxton Technology

Student name: Joseph Maloney Student number: 10391669 Word count: 940 I hereby certify that this project is entirely of my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of the project. Signed: _____________ Alkermes’ human resource (HR) strategy is all about acquiring employees who show personal initiative and who get satisfaction of knowing that they are helping to make a difference in the lives of millions of people every day.

Alkermes ultimate goals are to develop medicines that address unmet patient needs, to help its customer’s live happier, healthier lives. The Athlone facility of Elan must choose a strategy that supports the corporate objectives of Alkermes. They must align and prioritise the various activities of the strategy to accomplish their objectives. HR strategies need to simultaneously focus on building skills, motivation and behaviour for a successful business strategy. In my opinion the generic HR strategy most appropriate to align with Alkermes corporate strategy, is the resource-based view (RBV) model.

The RBV model works towards identifying the firm’s potential key resources and developing and manipulating them to build a value-creating strategy. When Alkermes decided to merge with Elan one of their main reasons for doing so was that they could use Elan’s most valuable resource, the Elan drug technologies (EDT) unit. The EDT develops proprietary drug technologies that can be applied to a number of products, improving the effectiveness of the drugs. With Alkermes now having obtained a technological resource with a rarity that will help them gain a competitive advantage over their rivals, they must now focus on their human resources.

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They look to acquire talented employees who show initiative and feel good about improving people’s health. Combing and developing these resources will help them build a strong RBV model. When Alkermes employees are asked what is the main objective of the organization the reply should always be, “Excellence in everything we do”. They pursue this excellence because they know they are working towards improving the wellbeing of other people. Alkermes hopes to instil this same hypothesis in the Athlone facility of the organization.

They plan to acquire talented employees who show initiative, motivation and know their commitments are ultimately towards improving the health of their customers. They plan to set up a R&D programme where employee engagement is encouraged and rewarded. Most importantly they want to manage performance so that all processes are carried out in the most successful way. If all of these objectives are met the success of the organization should be easily obtained and worthwhile. RBV shows that people are strategically important to a firm’s success and that they are a potential source of sustainable competitive advantage.

Alkermes have obtained a rare and valuable organizational capital in the form of the EDT unit; they now must match this with a highly skilled human capital that will get the best out of this technological resource. RBV focuses more on the HR pool, i. e. the employees than on the actual HR practice, so employees should have both a high level of skills and a willingness to achieve. Creating a good HR pool can be hard to imitate by competitors, so it can create a competitive advantage. High pay is always a major pull in attracting the best employees, as is perks, i. . company car and health benefits, as is bonus and new job opportunities for good work. Yet, Alkermes states that their commitments are ultimately towards the wellbeing of the patients that use their products. This will attract employees who feel they have a morale obligation to help people in need. This is an example of attracting potential employees using a non-monetary policy. When trying to create a performance management policy for an organization you have to look at all the types of capital that affect performance, i. . human, social and organizational capital. RBV looks to integrate all the capital resources of an organization to create the most suited HR policy. Alkermes have already greatly improved their social and organizational capital by merging with Elan and using the EDT unit respectively. Now Alkermes have to look at managing the performance of their human capital. When trying to collect data on performance you cannot completely rely on employee reports via surveys about how they feel the HR strategy is working.

You have to collect more quantative data. Collect data on things such as production per hour rate and job turnover rate, this will give you a more in depth idea as to how employees are preforming. You can now use this information to decide on what reward and training systems to put in place to improve performance. Communication must be both upward and downward in an organization to discover how employees are performing. It will give you an idea on what employees want and if they are best suited to the post they are in.

Good performance management will result in higher operating performance, which will translate into increased profitability. Reward management is concerned with the implementation of strategies and policies that aim to reward people fairly, equally and consistently in accordance with their value to the organization. The objectives of reward management are to recruit and retain, motivate employees and to strengthen psychological contracts. They can be both monetary (bonuses) and non-monetary (esteem, i. e. job title).

RBV looks at obtaining and holding onto the best possible employees, and the best way to retain them is through a strong reward system. Overall I believe that if Alkermes adopt the RBV approach and combine all of their resources by carrying out the objectives entailed they should be able to achieve their cooperate strategy. I feel that the information presented in this report is a good guideline as to how they should carry out their objectives. Hopefully the merger between Alkermes and Elan will run smoothly and will be profitable. References: http://www. alkermes. com/ www. shrm. org. digitalcommons. com.

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