1.

SUMMARY OF SAMSUNG
Founded in 1969, Samsung is a South Korean multinational electronics corporation.

With the mission to contribute to creating a better global society, the company devotes

its talent and technology to create superior products and services. While having the

vision of inspiring the world with their innovative technologies, products and designs that

enrich people's lives and contribute to social prosperity by creating a new future. The

adaptation of innovation-centered organisational culture leads Samsung to emphasize

on employees' knowledge, skills and abilities for innovating the company's technology

products which supports Samsung's corporate mission and vision. The strategies used

by Samsung had made the company to be one of the world's leading global companies.

One of these strategies is effective market readership. This allows the company to

observe the market and replicate or introduce new features and products. The company

also constantly searches for gaps in the market and exploits any available opportunity

with positive implications on the bottom line for the business. Another one would be

creating new product developments with the help of their 36 research and development

centres across the world to create a technology for the future.

2.COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

Samsung has become an innovation leader and skill and unique technology have

enabled it to establish itself as a market leader in many products. In order to

maintain the number one position in the market, they must gain more competitive

advantages over their competitors.

1. A strong commitment to research and development

Samsung researches and finds out the needs of its customers and strives to

develop innovative products to meet their needs. With more than 10,000

researchers and developers working in overseas R&D centers, advanced

research leads the development of future technologies. Samsung invests 80% of

their revenues into R&D activities. With increased R&D spending, Samsung's

commitment to standardizing innovative technologies and securing intellectual

property rights remains strong.

2. Product innovation and design capabilities

Samsung puts a large amount of effort into innovation. As part of Samsung's

overall innovation process, the Project Innovation Team (PIT) was born out of the

need to have a group of incubators to work with each business unit to provide a

good understanding more about the market. The Consumer Electronics Show

(CES) have awarded Samsung for innovation and product design for 13
consecutive years. Commitment to produce environmentally friendly products

and reduce greenhouse gas emissions has been recognized worldwide.

3. Combination of Japanese and American strategies

While Japanese companies prefer to offer a wide range of products, Americans

are more selective and focused on a small product line. Combining these two

strategies enables Samsung to have horizontal diversification and vertical

integration. Meaning, the corporation has diversified its products and specializes

in production. The vertical integration on the other hand, enables Samsung to

achieve economies of scale, reduce cost and most importantly, remain

competitive in the market.

 3.STAFFING GOALS
One of the goals of staffing is to match the skills of the newly-employed worker to the

company needs in the most cost-effective way as possible, basically meeting all the job

requirements to the best person possible.

To achieve this goal, the organisation has to go through a recruitment process step by

step so they do not waste any time from the beginning. To hire employees effectively is

a length process. The first step is by determining a need, with job analysis to be done

such as identifying the weak point of the company and how an employee filling the

position that corresponds to that problem will help with providing the solution.

Samsung has done this via posting their vacant roles online where any potential

candidates for the job can read through the position summary, roles and responsibilities,

background requirements, necessary skills and attributes as well as mental and

physical job demands. A detailed posting will allow jobseekers to understand the job

description as the details are taken from previous documentation of similar jobs

adjusted for the current demand.

The second step is by applicant search and selection through methods such as:

recruitment, screening and selection and interviews. This involves advertisement with

mediums such as the company blog itself or recruitment page, newspapers and

job-finder websites. Candidates will be screened based on their capabilities and

whether they are suitable for that job, also not forgetting through their resumes,
interviews, experiences and relevant tests that the employer hosts in order to find the

right candidate. Assessment of all applicants and making a decision based on them is a

team effort between the human resource department and the specific, speciality

department.

After choosing the best employee, the employer will need to put together their job offer

to persuade the candidate to accept their offer and then assign them to the right tasks

once they are on the job. From here on, it is the company’s effort to retain their

employees by keeping them engaged, committed to the firm and have them develop a

will to stay. To do that, orientation and onboarding is important through aligning them

with the company’s mission and vision statement as well as business strategies.
 4.TALENT PHILOSOPHY

Samsung’s mission statement is ‘We will devote our human resources and technology

to create superior products and services, thereby contributing to a better global society.’

while their vision is ‘To inspire the world with our innovative technologies, products, and

design that enrich people’s lives and contribute to social prosperity by creating a new

future.’

Samsung’s aim is to create a global team where everyone belongs and has equal

opportunities, while at the same time inspiring their talents to be their true selves. They

want to build a better tomorrow for new and existing customers, collaborative partners

and communities all around the world.

One of Samsung’s competitive advantages which is ‘A strong commitment to research

and development’ applies here in the context of the job chosen, which is ‘product

planning manager’. This position requires the employee to conduct consumer research

to identify opportunities in the market and assess the acceptance of existing consumer

products, as well as to develop and improve things from there. They are required to be

familiar with strategy analytics, consumer data and organizational insights as well as

competitive intelligence, all of which require a deep dive into research and development

(Workday, 2022).

As for their other competitive advantage which is product design and development,

some of the listed necessary skills and attributes before applying in this position are
such as: the ability to innovate and define new tools and practice, the ability to identify,

prioritize and deliver tangible results using sound business practices as well as superior

interpersonal, teamwork, and collaboration skills.These are some of the items in the

jobs description that try to relate back to the organisational mission and vision statement

so that applicants can understand what kind of role they will be playing once they are

given the job.

Samsung was named as the number one in the top 10 companies that millennials trust

most in a survey done by Reputation Institute in 2016 (Strauss, 2016). As when it

comes to hiring new people, Samsung focuses on targeted hiring, which means around

50 to 60 percent of their employees are directly-sourced with specific targets in mind

such as education, skills and experience needed to perform their role in the company

effectively. Their approach in product innovation starts from their ability to continuously

hire and retain their talent, as their priority is to hire diverse young, brilliant and

innovative developers who are slated to become the next generation of Samsung

leadership (Samsung US Newsroom, 2019).

In researching a candidate, they use professional social media and networking sites

such as LinkedIn to ensure they’re getting the right candidates and allows them to

reference employee referral programs properly. To get the best and the most out of their

new hires and potential candidates, Samsung has developed a university summer

internship program called MBA Leadership Development Program and Global

Opportunities, where specific departments can directly monitor the progress of the

people that have caught their eye and take them under their wing, since the students
already have firsthand experience in what Samsung expects from them (Samsung US

Newsroom, 2019).
 5.STAFFING DECISIONS
ADDRESSING THE NINE STRATEGIC STAFFING DECISIONS

1. Do we want a core or a flexible workforce?

UNDERSTANDING CORE AND FLEXIBLE WORKFORCE

Employees of a core workforce perform vital activities that are central to what an

organization does or produces. Core workforce are usually retained compared to

flexible workers as they are considered crucial and long-term contributors to a company.

Flexible workforce on the other hand are workers that work in a way that fits with the

employee’s needs. They usually increase in number to meet organisation needs at a

particular time and let go when they are no longer needed. (Not bound to strict working

hours).

Now reflecting back to the position, product marketing managers are responsible for

consumer research and identify opportunities which can be a competitive advantage to

the organisation.

Part of these consumer involvement includes being the representative of the company

to the customer. They are to make sure the product sold appeals to consumers by

participation in marketing, product packaging development and collecting consumer

input to create improvements.

The following position is involved with other agencies to create marketing strategies,

product positioning and selecting marketing tools. Which can be said that they are the

strategic planner for marketing involved tasks.

Hence, product planning managers are usually required and included in a core

workforce as they are involved in an organisation's strategic execution and they are

involved in tasks that are tied with the performance, strategic planning and profit of an

organisation. They are also hard to replace as most possess unique management

talents and skills that are difficult to replace. (Phillips, 2015)

2. Do we prefer to hire internally or externally?

For the following position, it is recommended to hire internally first before externally.

These are because the following (Phillips, 2015):-

● Little to none recruiting fees as employees are sourced internally.

● Various sources of information of the employee available: performance review

documents, referral from their managers, clear knowledge of the employee's

strengths, weaknesses, personality and characteristics. These are crucial to

identifying the talented candidates fitting for the position.

● Easier to succeed as they have workplace connections and require little to none

onboarding to familiarize with the work environment and employees they will be

working with.
 ● Lastly, it boosts employee’s morale as they will see having a future and potential

growth with the company.

3. Do we want to hire for or train and develop needed skills?

UNDERSTANDING HIRE FOR OR TRAIN AND DEVELOP NEEDED SKILLS

Hire for skills is hiring candidates that already have the skills and competencies for the

position whereas developing needed skills mean hiring candidates that do not have the

required skills and competencies but training them to have it.

For a product planning manager, it is recommended to hire someone that has the skill

set ready and then train them to hone their skills instead of hiring and training a new

worker that has no experience with managing a product.

This is because any experiences or skills that are already possessed by the employee

will make a major difference in making their tasks smoother. Moreover, training a

candidate that has no competencies or skills required may be more costly and timely

than hiring a candidate that already has them. (Phillips, 2015)

4. Do we want to replace or train our talent?

The most important factor when considering whether to replace or train a talent is the

cost and trade-off. Is it cheaper and easier to find a replacement for the position or is it

more advantageous for the company to train their talent that can be a profitable
investment for the future? While replacing employees may be cheaper and beneficial to

a company, it can also be costly and difficult to find a replacement if the talent and skills

needed for the job is difficult to find.

Product planning manager is part of strategic planners, these positions normally

possess a rare and special talent or skill that can bring an advantage or success to an

organisation’s goal. These talents can boost performance and help reach organisation

goals if it is trained and nurtured correctly. (Phillips, 2015)

5. What levels of which skills do we need where?

This means what types of skills a new hire should possess and the appropriate level of

those skills. Some jobs may require talent but not a high level of skills. Job analysis can

be used as an aid in identifying what is required for an employee to perform well in their

job. (Phillips, 2015)

A product planning manager’s duties and responsibility may require them to have the

following skills to perform their job outstandingly (Chmielewska, 2020):

1. Empathy and the ability to connect with customers

2. Problem solving skills, originality and creativity

3. Excellent research and analytics skills

4. Marketing skills

5. Strategic planning and other business related skills

 6. Leadership skills and decision making

7. Interpersonal skills

8. Critical thinking

6. Will we staff proactively or reactively?

UNDERSTANDING PROACTIVE AND REACTIVE STAFFING

Proactive staffing is done before situations or issues come up, or one can say it is done

in advance. Whereas reactive staffing is done in response to a problem encountered or

occurred.

Proactive staffing is recommended for Samsung as it will allow the company to

recognize a potential problem or opportunity in advance before it becomes a major

issue that may lead to loss. This will also allow the company to adapt easily to changes

from factors that affect the organisation such as changes in consumer’s taste and

technological advancements. (Phillips, 2015)

7. Which jobs should we focus on?

Allocating additional attention and resources to key jobs can boost a company’s

performance and execution of business strategy.

The key jobs mentioned create a value to the company by either generating and

maintaining profit, creating new capabilities or products, or provide a competitive

advantage of some sort that allows the company to perform better than their

competitors.

Product planning manager can be included in the key jobs that should be focused on as

it is tied directly to consumer, marketing and strategic plan of a company. (Phillips,

2015)

8. Is staffing treated as an investment or a cost?

An organisation such as Samsung should consider staffing as an investment rather than

a cost because investing in staffing may bring in a great amount of financial returns and

benefits. These can be stronger leadership, lower training and recruitment costs (due to

lower turnover rates) and improvement in performance and productivity. Organizations

however should balance their future investment and its short-term cost by looking at the

return on investment. (Phillips, 2015)

9. Will staffing be centralised or decentralised?

UNDERSTANDING CENTRALISED AND DECENTRALISED STAFFING

A staffing function is said to be centralised when a single staffing unit accumulates all of

the recruitment responsibility of staff. Meaning, an organisation with multiple business

units reports to the centralised staffing when they need a staff and the staffing function

will source, recruit and pre-screen the candidates.

On the other hand, decentralised staffing means a company has different business units

which have their very own staffing function. (Vossos, 2017)

Samsung should consider a combined approach of centralised and decentralised

staffing. This allows maximum flexibility while still standardising the staffing metrics,

reduce redundancies, enabling the use of technology and ensuring best practices. By

outsourcing different sourcing and recruiting functions, best services can be provided at

better cost. This approach also increases staffing flexibility and enables faster

responses to different or changing organisation needs. Using local expertise can also

help a company better understand and recruit from global labor markets. (Phillips, 2015)
 6.JOB ANALYSIS

WHAT IS JOB ANALYSIS?

Job Analysis is simply defined as a method to determine and to classify certain

characteristics that may be vital to ensure that the workers perform at an optimum level

for their designated task.

PURPOSE OF CONDUCTING JOB ANALYSIS

● To develop a strategic plan for recruitments

● To single out an applicant out of many that applied

● To plan and develop training programmes

● To plan and create a system for employee compensation

● To develop a test for performance evaluation

TYPES OF JOBS ANALYSIS

There are two types of Job Analysis which are namely Staffing-oriented job analysis and

Future-oriented job analysis.

When it comes to Staffing-oriented job analysis, a system of selection will be produced

when recruiting that classifies applicants into 3 groups which are the good, average and
bad workers. This method however is not easy to learn while on the job and it simply

exists to a certain extent in a pool of applicants.

However, as for the Future-oriented job analysis. It is a method used whenever the

company wants to analyse new jobs that are in the present as well as how the jobs in

the future will be in order to help the company in future decision making.

HOW DOES JOB ANALYSIS HELP SAMSUNG?

There are a number of benefits gained when the Job Analysis is done in a proper

manner. For one, it can help with enforcing proper Health and Safety regulation to

ensure the safety of all employees. Secondly, it can be used to evaluate positions

offered by the company as well as evaluating the performance of the employees

working within the company. Job Analysis is also useful when it comes to planning and

implementing proper training procedures needed for new employees.

Aside from training and development, it can also be used for job placement for

applicants as well as planning for orientation for new recruits. This is crucial when it

comes to assigning tasks or positions to new applicants and also to make them feel

welcomed which in turn boosts morale and shines a light on the company’s values and

reputation.

STEPS TO CONDUCTING A JOB ANALYSIS

1. Get the support from upper management

2. Brief the participants regarding the purpose of Job Analysis and make sure that

they are able to complete the tasks given

3. Research and analyze on how the job will help with the firm’s strategies

4. Generate task statements

5. Produce KSAOs

6. Produce job duties and groupings for tasks

7. Relate the KSAOs to the job duties made

8. Record important incidents

9. Evaluate the job duties

10. Construct a job requirement matrix

11. Construct a job description along with the person specification

TASK STATEMENT

Figure 1: Example of Task Statement

The picture shown above is an example of a task statement.

Task statement acts as a way to identify tasks and will be used to identify whom to hand

the task to. It is also used to identify the methods needed to complete the task as well

as the reason why the task is put into place. After all the measures have been taken,

the company can then assign the task at hand for specific employees that have the

necessary skills.
TASK STATEMENT FOR PRODUCT PLANNING MANAGER

Table 1: Task Statement for Product Planning Manager

JOB DUTIES

Figure 2: Example of Job Duties

Picture shown above is an example of job duties.

As for job duties, it shows the type of applicant needed for the job which is also

specified and in order to make a job description, it relies on the task statement for the

specific job posted as shown above.

JOB REQUIREMENTS MATRIX

Figure 3: Example of Job Requirement Matrix

Picture shown above is an example of a job requirement matrix.

Job requirement matrix is a template used to describe what employees are to do, with

what methods and the reason why the selected employee is chosen for the job. The

matrix itself is a clarification regarding each and every task’s purpose, each employee’s

duties as well as the knowledge, skills and other vital attributes that contribute directly to

the job position.

In a commonly used matrix, there will be five organized columns and each column has a

specific function. For column 1, a number of jobs will be listed which typically range from

4 - 5 jobs. As for column 2, tasks statements will be inserted here for each task

associated with every job duty listed.

In column 3, the importance of every job duties will be inserted. As for column 4, it is the

amount of time spent on each job duties. Lastly in the 5th column, a range of

knowledge, abilities and other attributes will be associated with each job duties listed.

JOB REQUIREMENT MATRIX FOR PRODUCT PLANNING MANAGER

Table 2: Job Requirement Matrix for Product Planning Manager

COMPETENCY MODELING

Competency modeling is a method of job analysis that focuses on the important aspects

such as competencies for peak performance. This method also specifies the elements
of an excellent employee with their list of behavioral attributes that is vital to ensure

peak performance. The job description used in this method will be beneficial in many

ways such as, improving the management’s abilities when it comes to assigning tasks

to employees. Other than that, it also helps prolong the lifespan of a job description and

can also provide ease in job groupings that require a similar trait under a singular job

description.

EXAMPLE OF A JOB COMPETENCY MODEL

Figure 4: Example of Job Competency Model

DESIRABLE QUALIFICATIONS
Desirable qualifications are the training and experience desired and required, but not

necessarily means to qualify for a given class of position. Referring back to the Job

Analysis for Product Planning Manager above, these are the list of skills and

qualifications required to apply for the position:

Qualification needed:

● BA Degree with 6 years or more experience in the related field

● Experience in consumer electronics and/or telecommunication product marketing

● Strong written and speaking skills

Skills needed:

● Able to communicate and show good business and project management

● Able to take initiatives, develop and handle processes

● Strong abilities in written and presentation skills

● Team player

● Good networking skills that is beneficial for the company

● Ability to identify and prioritize certain task

● Have high standards and goals and is driven to achieve the goals.

● Able to communicate and show good business and project management

● Able to take initiatives, develop and handle processes

● Strong abilities in written and presentation skills

● Team player
● Good networking skills that is beneficial for the company

● Ability to identify and prioritize certain task

● Have high standards and goals and is driven to achieve the goals