Topic > HR Policy Analysis of The Patagonia Company

After its founding in 1970, Patagonia quickly became one of the leading brands in the apparel industry, particularly in the design of outdoor clothing and equipment for silent sports such as climbing, surfing, skiing and snowboarding, fly fishing and trail running. However, Patagonia's great success is not only linked to the product itself, but also to the company's culture, characterized by great attention to environmental, moral, ethical and philosophical causes. At the same time the company presents itself as a source of inspiration for other brands, a model to follow. All these aspects identify the company's objective, justifying its raison d'être, and are clearly expressed in the mission statement: “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis ”.Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Furthermore, one of the main drivers of Patagonia's success is directly linked to its employees, a passionate, committed, engaged and satisfied workforce. In 2018, in a resource from Fortune partner Great Place to Work, 90% of respondents highlighted the high level of job satisfaction, underpinning the great atmosphere (97%), pride (97%), challenges (93%) and great communication (92%). The high level of employee satisfaction is also due to Patagonia's Human Resource Management, which at the same time provides policies and activities that help the company achieve strategic objectives and develop and retain a committed talent pool. So, in the next paragraph I will present some of the most important HR policies of the company: Let my people surf is a sort of “mantra” and represents the essence of Yvon Chouinard. Strongly supported by the company's CEO, let my people surf allows employees to have flexible hours, allowing them to take a break from work during the day to surf, climb, ski or practice other sports. This way they have the opportunity to test the products they are developing, understanding their strengths, weaknesses and areas for improvement and optimizing their future work. Furthermore, it also allows them to use this time to further their education or spend time with their child or take them to play sports. Based on trust and fairness, Let My People Surf aims to increase employees' work-life balance and create a perfect work-life fit. However, work-life balance is not only beneficial for the employees, but also for the employer. In fact, according to Susanna Shagvaliyeva and Rashad Yazdanifard (2014), it improves employees' job satisfaction, in terms of motivation, involvement and commitment, but also overall life satisfaction; while from the employer's point of view the benefits are in terms of work performance, loyalty and lower absenteeism rates, which lead to an improvement in the company's productivity and profitability. Patagonia pays great attention to adapting to work life, providing its employees with a huge choice of free services: skateboarding, yoga, hiking trails, school trip, ski trip, fly fishing, rock climbing, scooter, weekly bike ride of 30 minutes at lunchtime, organic food and cafeteria etc. All of these structures help employees find their work-life balance, but the main goal, as stated in the Wall Street Journal, is to create: “a more fulfilling and).