Introduction

Managing human resources effectively has become vital to organizations within the modern and fast paced environment. The economy of the world is now aiming to preserve and create knowledge rather than product and service alone. The edge of the market today demands innovation and trust more than analysis of sales and market share. But this is not about aiming to get as much out of a good economy by using raw material and poor work force, this is about a company with tradition, a company with prestige and people who are passionate of doing what they are doing. Effective human resources panning and development practices bring quality and loyal workers who are committed and passionate about the success of their organization. This is what Bentley is all about.

Description of the company
Bentley is a British manufacturer of automobiles, founded in 1919. W.O. Bentley (WO to his friends) and his brother HM bought Lecoq and Fernie, a French auto company, renaming it Bentley, with headquarters in Mayfair. In 1919, after having stopped making airplane engines during WWI, the company was resurrected as Bentley Motors. The first Flying B insignia appeared on the 1920 Bentley 3 1/2 Liter test car, which was built near Baker Street in London, and the first production car, another 3 1/2 Liter, was delivered to Bentley's first customer in 1921.
The company is known also for its heritage, Bentley saw its first win at Brooklands in 1921, then entered its only Indianapolis 500 in 1922, where it qualified and finished last. A privately owned Bentley took 4th place in the first-ever Le Mans in 1923, prompting W.O. Bentley to support a factory team. (He called it "the best race I had ever seen," according to "Bentley: The Story.") Engines grew ever larger in Roaring Twenties, with a 6 1/2 Liter, a 4 1/2 Liter, a supercharged Speed Six, and an 8 Liter that weighed two and a half tons rolling out of the Cricklewood factory. Driver Tim Birkin got private financing to build the supercharged Birkin Blowers.
WO's dedication to quality created beautiful cars, and a financial mess. In 1926, he was demoted to managing director to make room for Woolf Barnato to become chairman. By 1931, things were no better. Rolls-Royce bought the company and kept WO on, if only to keep him from creating a new company that could compete with R-R. The first Rolls-produced Bentley, the 3.5 Liter, debuted in 1933, and WO left the company for Lagonda in 1935. In 1939, the Bentley factory at Crewe opened.
"Bentley: The Story" calls Bentley's period of Rolls-Royce ownership "the blackest of all." The MkVI of 1946 was the first Bentley to be built using Rolls components, and the 1952 R-Type Continental was the last Bentley built without a Rolls equivalent. Bentleys and Rolls-Royces were built side-by-side at the Crewe facility, with a Bentley-badged clone for every Rolls that rolled off the assembly line. WO Bentley died during this time, in 1971 at age 83. This, its first takeover, was unsuccessful, because the cars were not differentiated, and the craftsmanship was not at its best.
The tide turned for Bentley with the introduction of the 1982 Bentley Mulsanne Turbo, named for the straight at Le Mans. In 1984, the Bentley Corniche was renamed the Continental, harkening back to the company's roots. The Bentley Continental R, which debuted in 1991, was the first Bentley to have its own dedicated body since 1954. With Bentley outselling Rolls by the early '90s, the companies celebrated 50 years of partnership by using a green background on the Flying B for all 1993 models. The next year, Rolls Royce made a deal with BMW to the German company to supply engines for the two British marques.
Volkswagen bought Rolls-Royce in 1998, including Bentley. BMW then bought the rights to the Rolls-Royce name and announced that as of December 31, 2002, Rolls and Bentley would be two separate companies after 67 years of barely tolerating each other. VW announced that it would invest nearly $1 billion (in today's dollars) to revive Bentley. The Hunaudieres concept car debuted in Geneva in 1999 and proved to be a step in the direction of the new Continental. In 2001, Bentley returned to Le Mans, then dropped out again in 2003. The 2006 Bentley Azure became the resurrected Bentley's flagship luxury vehicle, which still used the 6,75 liter engine.
Since its introduction at the 2003 Detroit Auto Show, the Bentley Continental lineup has expanded from one very fast sedan to seven even faster sedans and convertibles, including one flex-fuel vehicle. Each has the 6-liter W12 engine, but the Continental Supersports, as part of Bentleys commitment to reducing its carbon footprint company-wide, can run on either gasoline or biofuels. With the introduction of the Bentley Mulsanne in the summer of 2009, though, Bentley was back on firm ground with a long, luxurious, gasoline-powered sedan.
For a company like Bentley, one cannot expect on earning considerable amounts of money. The reaserch and development, the materials used and the fabrication process are very high consumers of resources, and a lot needs to be invested. This can be proven wrong by a record profit of 155 million Euros in 2007. Being bought by VW was a very intelligent step, the Continental Series is selling well, and it will reach a broader range of customers with the introduction of the new V8 engine from Audi. In order to show that Bentley wants to keep its own identity, the engineers have slightly modified the characteristics of this powerplant, so that it would give the feeling of a real Benltey.
Another characeristic that sets Bentley apart is that it is the Bentley State Limousine is the official car of HRM Queen Elisabeth II. Alonside this special feature, Bentleys are hand manufactured with the greatest attention to detail. The manufacturig process for the Mulsanne takes about 9 weeks. In a high volume manufacturing plant, a new car leaves the line every 60 seconds. The Mulsanne has no visible joints on the surface of the car, and it was made to look like it was sculpted. This is the highest level of craftsmanship, and it is only possible with the work of highly skilled employees. The body shop and the paint booth are the only sections in the factory that use robots. As an example, there are 33 individual wooden panels for the interior of the car, that are carefully hand sanded, and smoothened to a glassy shield.

Current situation of the chosen theoretical issue

Just a quick presentation to made to better understand the companies general strategy, the HR strategy and the alignment of the HR strategy with the general strategy and the HR functions within the company.

As stated above the overall strategy of Bentley and its politics are aiming twoards pride and exclusivism. It shows that the main product is not made for the general public but only for those with power, elegance and fine taste. If the target this high placed then the workforce must be within boundaries. To work for this company is more of an privilege than an normal job. There are many issues here. One of them and the most important is finding the special workforce in order to deal with the necessary equipment and process development.

The organization tries to deal with the issue by hiring better specialists in HR and promoting the company carrier prospective by different media channels. Anyways there is room for more improvement.

Critical analysis of the chosen theoretical issue applied within Bentley

One of the most crucial issues that Benltley confronts when it comes to human resources is recruiting. This is a very special company, with a select group of customers, and it needs to hire highly skilled workers, in order to keep its prestige. In our opinion, Bentley has opted for market differentiation. It has a very specific type of customer for each car it offers, and even though the company will expand its range, they will still be a high end luxury brand. Since the company has been bought bt VW, we can identify a diversification strategy for their products. The company had at that time a number of 1500 employees. Today, that number has reached 4000, almost tripling in 12 years.
Interestingly, the use of the Internet has added another venue to recruiting and is serving a tremendous need for matching employees with employment opportunities. Company Websites often inform viewers of the company’s mission and how it is being pursued. They typically provide a graphical presentation of how the company is organized and include a recruiting section. There are usually explanations of career fields, job opportunities, and provisions for e-mailing résumés directly to the company. The Internet provides another component that must be aligned with the company’s recruitment strategy and can help provide the appropriate human resources for pursuing specific strategies. The concept is simple Bentley is aiming implement strategies, employment, commitment and workforce flexibility and this is exactly what is happening right now. However some employees complain about having a poorer salary than other technicians by doing the same job.

According to the annual report 2010 of Bentley, the company has five main objectives to achieve. Company believes that these objectives help the company to achieve world’s leading position and by achieving these objectives can become the world’s leading global premium car business. These objectives have been discussed below.
One of the main objectives of Bentley is to strengthen its leading position in London.
Retain the existing customers and attract new customers to build its strong market position by providing excellent, high quality services.
Be the car of choice for long term oriented customers.
Expand business globally and grow company’s presence all around the world.
Introduce new revenue streams to build the customers base and meets the needs and requirements of the customers.
Bentley strongly believes that without having effective human resource management and planning the company can’t get success and achieves objectives, that’s why Bentley has human resource management component at all streams in order to become the world’s leading and most financially sound car. Bentley strongly believes that there is a strong relationship between the human resource strategy/planning and business success.

Personal recomendation for possible improvements

One of the biggest problems is that for Bentley to hire their required employees is very difficult since the company wants only experienced employees with a desire to work a lot and to enjoy what they do else the companies prestige has to suffer.
Due to this difficulty they can lack skilled employees which can affect their cars quality in a very easy way.
One of the ways to solve this problem is to improve their communication through the internet with the possible employees, so with a better system and a better database they can compare and choose the right employer by having also a faster interaction with him.
Another option that can reduce the effect of their hiring difficulties is to invest into a very good training program for young people like students who desire to work in the future for Bentley.
In this way Bentley will be able to shape their employees as they want and to make them the best in what they need them to be.
Also another good aspect of this solution is that Bentley will not have any other problems with hiring people for a long period of time at least where they need them the most since it won’t be possible to train 4000 employees as they have now.
Bentley can also use the young employees in easy tasks also with a very low cost since they won’t be paid as a profesional and qualified worker.

Conclusions

The Bentley Company will still have a succesful future due to the quality of the manufactured cars and also due to their marketing strategies, even though they have problems finding the perfect employee they will ressist and overcome this problem by coming with a good tactic. The vision of the Company proves what Bentley really is „We are Bentley Motors – the definitive British luxury car company, dedicated to developing and crafting the world’s most desirable high performance cars”so when you talk about Bentley first word that comes in mind is luxury which usually leads to high quality, high performance and expensive. Bentley has already a good image on the market and that image is hard to lose right now, they must come with really bad decisions to collapse it.
Overall they are a top company which manufactures cars and which will keep doing it at a high level.

References 1. Strategic Human Resource Management, Second Edition by Charles R. Greer
Copyright 2011, 1995 by Prentice-Hal, Inc.

2. Strategic Human Resource Panning by Monica Belcourt and Ken McBey 3. Successful Strategic Human Resource Planning Stephen G Hanines 4. Successful Strategic Human Resource Planning George E. Biles