A fully functioning Human Resources Department is vital to the longterm success and retention of a company. HR has many different hats including training, goals, development, and many more. A few company’s who have shown to excel in these categories include: Hilton, NVIDIA and American Express.
Hilton
Hilton employees highlight the company’s diversity and the chance to work with people from many backgrounds and cultures(Great Place to work, 2025). They also value benefits like the Go Hilton Travel Program, sabbaticals, wellness resources, PTO, healthcare, education and retirement plans (Hilton, 2025). This reflects what Buckingham & Coffman(2016/2020) describe in First, Break All the Rules: great managers invest in employee well being and recognize individuality which only fuels employee retention and engagement.
NVIDIA
Employees praise the company’s culture of collaboration, transparency, and clear communication across departments. They also value career growth and strong compensation. This is a top priority and the CEO himself reviews the salaries of all 42,000 employees each month.(HR Grapevine USA, 2025) This connects to Garvin’s (2013) description of Google’s “Project Oxygen” which showed how data driven HR practices and open communication can prove the tangible value of management. Both cases show us how truly strategic HR can bring forward innovation through evidence based people practices.
American Express
At Amex, employees emphasize the importance of psychological safety, well being, and supportive leadership. HR professionals rate Amex a 4.6/5 on Glassdoor, with a emphasis on the generous compensation(Glassdoor, 2025). There is also a strong emphasis on career development and benefits (Great place to work, 2025). This aligns with the lecture on HRM which highlights how trust and culture are critical HR fuctions and with Breitfelder & Dowling’s (2008) argument that modern HR must be a driver of business strategy.
My Outlook
When researching these brands and the diverse Strengths of each of these company’s i would say that as a manager i would want to be someone who would never make my team do something that i would not. I would want to be someone who was able to set clear expectations for my team but still be someone they could go to if needing support or help, while balancing each of their individual strengths and weaknesses.This is a hard task to achieve but with dedication it is something you are able to achieve.
Reference’s:
Swift, M. (2025) Strategic HR Management. Oregon State University.
Breitfelder, Matthew D., and Daisy Dowling. “Why Did We Ever Go into HR?” Harvard Business Review, July 2008, hbr.org/2008/07/why-did-we-ever-go-into-hr.
Current. “Working at NVIDIA.” Glassdoor, 2024, www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Working-at-NVIDIA-EI_IE7633.11.
Garvin, David. “How Google Sold Its Engineers on Management.” Harvard Business Review, Harvard Business Review, Dec. 2013, hbr.org/2013/12/how-google-sold-its-engineers-on-management.
Great Place to Work. “Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® 2025.” Great Place to Work®, 2025, www.greatplacetowork.com/best-workplaces/100-best/2025.
Harter, Jim, and Marcus Buckingham. First, Break All the Rules : What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. New York, Ny., Gallup Press, 2016, pp. 7–39.
Hilton. “Benefits for Your Career at Hilton.” Hilton.com, 2024, jobs.hilton.com/us/en/benefits.
HR Grapevine USA. “Nvidia CEO Reveals Why He Personally Reviews Salaries of All 42,000 Employees Each Month.” Hrgrapevine.com, 11 Aug. 2025, www.hrgrapevine.com/us/content/article/2025-08-11-nvidia-ceo-reveals-why-he-reviews-salaries-for-all-42000-employees-each-month. Accessed 1 Oct. 2025.