Allstate is the third largest personal lines insurer in the U.S. It was founded in 1931. It strives to improve the quality of its services by using diversity. Allstate’s business strategy is to “create long-term value by serving our stakeholders, taking appropriate risks and leveraging its capabilities and strategic assets” (Allstate.com, n.d, para 3). Its HR strategy is to create competitive advantage through people. Allstate may align its HR strategy with business strategy by ensuring that it acknowledges the fact that the HR department and its roles are a strategic asset. It should not consider the HR department as an administrative unit that is cost centered. The HR department strives to improve efficiency of various activities. It helps in value creation. Allstate may also ensure the alignment of the HR strategy and business strategy by ensuring that employees are strategically focused. All functions of the HR department should be geared towards improving the human capital of the organization.
Some of the HR positions of Allstate include HR payroll generalist, executive director of HR, and HR resources technician. The responsibilities of the HR resources technician include supervision and coordination of specific HR functions such as leaves, absences, and classification review and evaluations. The HR resources technician also helps in the development and coordination of specific HR functions, and verification of the completeness of HR forms and other documents. The HR payroll generalist provides administrative support for HR and payroll functions, posting of job ads, tracking and responding to applicants, and maintaining payroll files. The responsibilities of the HR executive director include ensuring that the company conforms to federal, state or local statutes relevant to HR, developing the organizational culture, and developing staffing strategies.
I would prefer to be the HR executive director of Allstate. This position would enable me apply my knowledge of HR to improve the overall performance of the company. In addition, it would give me the discretion of implementing various strategies that I deem to be helpful to Allstate. The position also has a higher salary than other HR positions in the company.
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For Allstate to use HR strategies to improve its competitive advantage it must ensure that all hires are aligned to the business strategy tactics. Therefore, it should not simply hire employees because it has the capacity to hire. Allstate should ensure that all new employees are hired to accomplish tasks that are vital in a certain aspect of the strategic plan. It should also ensure that it formalizes HR planning. Allstate should ensure that the first hire is part of a long-term HR planning. This would ensure that the HR practices align with the overall strategic planning of the company (Deb, 2006). When hiring, the HR professionals should pay attention to Allstate’s culture. The professionals should ensure that the combination of the type of employees does not have a negative impact on the operations of the company. They should ensure that the combination of the different types of hires helps in creating something unique, which helps in creating a lasting and sustained competitive advantage (Armstrong, 2010).
Diversity helps in delivering advantages to an organization. Therefore, it is critical for any company to formulate methods of increasing diversity. Allstate may increase diversity through making a long-term commitment to diversifying, demonstrating business values clearly, and focusing on the quality of the candidate instead of the time to hire. It is a fact that creating a diverse workforce takes time, energy and commitment. Therefore, it is vital for Allstate to have a long-term commitment to diversify its workforce. It should develop a two or three-year plan on how it intends to diversify its employees. This would enable Allstate to learn from its mistakes if the plans are not successful (Crawley, Swailes & Walsh, 2013).
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For a diversification strategy to be effective, it must have the support of the major stakeholders of the organization. To obtain the support of the stakeholders, Allstate should demonstrate the importance of diversification to the organization. In the contemporary world, diversification is not simply about doing the right thing, or ensuring political correctness. It is critical in effective talent management of all organizations. Lastly, Allstate should focus on the quality of candidate instead of focusing on the time to hire. Focus on reducing the time to hire would make Allstate have a less diverse workforce. It makes it look more efficient since it is able to fill vacant positions fast. However, in so doing, it would be missing on better candidates. This necessitates Allstate to focus its efforts on the quality of candidates (Crawley, Swailes & Walsh, 2013).
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