TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
Human resources management is to design policies and implement activities to make
people contribute the most effective value for the organization, including areas such as
human resources planning, work design and analysis, recruit and select, performance
assessment, training and development, remuneration, health, staff safety, and corresponding
labors.... With the golden rule: "People are the most valuable asset", today, human resource
management issues are given top priority in the establishment and development of the
organization. In companies or administrative units, personnel management department was
supplemented with knowledge and modern tools to do the job1.
In the framework of this exercise, we refer to the differences in human resource
management practices in Apple Group and VNPT Group.
I.

THE HISTORY OF ESTABLISHMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF APPLE
GROUP AND VNPT GROUP
1. Apple Group
1.1 Establishment history

Steven Paul Jobs was born on 24/2/1955 in San Francisco, California. From a young age, he
had expressed love for electronics and even phoned William Hewlett, the president of
Hewlett-Packard, to request participation in a school project. It was not only that his request
was accepted, but he also got accepted for a summer job

1

Source:


After dropping out of school, Jobs met Wozniak while working at the Atari, one of the first

game companies of the United States. Much impressed by the ability to assemble electronic
components of Wozniak, Jobs suggested the two co-found the company and Apple
Computer was born on 01/04/1976.2
1.2 Business areas3

2
3

Source:
Source:


 Dark blue dots: Products released
 Light blue dots: Products in the process of being developed or was released in
sessions

4

-

2. VNPT Group4
2.1 General introduction about the company:
Full name: VIETNAM POST AND TELECOMMUNICATION GROUP

-

International name: Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group

-


Abbreviation: VNPT

-

The head quarter locates at: 57 Huynh Thuc Khang, Dong Da district, Hanoi

-

Telephone: 84-4-35775104; Fax: 84-4-35771997

-

E-mail: ; Website:

Source:


II.

-

Chartered capital of VNPT: 72.000.000.000.000 dong (Seventy two billion dongs)

-

2.2 Business areas
Telecommunications and information technology products and services,;

-


Telecommunications products and services;

-

Surveying, consulting, designing, constructing, installing and providing maintenance
for telecommunications, information technology and communication projects;

-

Manufacturing, importing and exporting, supplying telecommunications equipment,
information and communication technology;

-

Financial, credit and banking services;

-

Advertising and event services;

-

Real estates and office renting services;
THE CURRENT DEVELOPMENT SITUATION IN TERMS OF SIZE AND
HUMAN RESOURCES
1. The current development situation in terms of size and human resources of
Apple5
1.1 General development situation

Apple with the Apple Store chain is one of the top corporations in the retail world.

Different from other businesses, Apple Stores have smart design, professional services and
achieve high revenue.
In 2011, 327 global stores of Apple achieved the sales per square rate higher than
every retailers store in the U.S. and twice as much as that of Tiffany’s. $ 16 billion worth of
goods were sold in those 327 stores.
As of early April / 2012, Apple has had a total of 346 stores in various locations
worldwide. The analysts said that, through retail stores, Apple is hoping for a plan to get
closer to local businesses and potential customers to promote services supply chains and
acquire greater revenue from this customer group.
5

Source: www.apple.com


As of 31/07/2012, Apple has had 350 chain stores worldwide. In 2012, Apple plans
to open additional 40 new stores.
Despite a series of consecutive new stores opening, the sales figures themselves are
the best proof for the fact that, the quality of Apple's service and personnel contributed no
small part in its success.
1.2 Changes in human resources in the period of 2006 – 2010:

Table 01: Human resource comparison between Apple and Microsoft
In terms of human resource changes between Microsoft and Apple from 2006 to
2010, Microsoft uses more people than its rival, although the number has declined slightly,
from 93,000 in 2009 to 89,000 in 2010.
Apple reported that the total number of employees has increased significantly, the
number corresponding to two years above is 34,300 and 46,600.
As of 12/2011, the total number of employees of Apple is 60.400.
2. The current development situation in terms of size and human resources of
VNPT

2.1 General development situation
VNPT is the major telecommunications, information technology (IT) service
provider in Vietnam, previously known as the Post Office established in 1946. VNPT now
has over 100 member units (with two major mobile network Vinaphone, Mobiphone;
national backbone network companies, international telecommunications company, 2
VINASAT stations ...) with over 90,000 qualified employees committed to the group,
infrastructure; the group has modern network and infrastructure spread throughout the cities
in the country. Before 2000, VNPT is the exclusive provider of telecommunications in
Vietnam. Currently, the field of business telecommunications services sector is witnessing


fierce competition, with many different service providers. However VNPT has always
managed to keep its key position, with very high annual revenue growth rate, approximately
30% per year. In 2011, VNPT achieved the revenue of 130 trillion, the largest contribution
to the state budget, among all companies.
2.2 Management struture
Board of Directors of the main Company
Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group

Internal
Management Board
Board of General Directors

Consultant boards assisting in operation

9 official units:
- 1 Academy,
- 4 Vocational schools,
- 4 Hospitals


71 dependent accounting
units:
- 63 provincial
telecommunications
units;

- 8 vertical
companies

48 affiliate companies
- 4 companies in which VNPT
holds 100% chartered capital;
- 44 companies with dominating
shares

40 joint
stocks, joint
venture,
partnering
companies


III.

COMPARING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT BETWEEN APPLE
AND VNPT
1. Recruitment and Training Practices
1.1 Recruitment practices at Apple
a) Recruitment form and time at Apple
-


Recruitment scale: recruit with large scale at US.

- Recruitment time: Recruitment sessions of Apple are implemented according to years
(periodical) and needs (before any opening of Apple Store).
-

Large scale recruitment positions are categorized based on:

 Full time employees (over 40 – 48 hours/week)
 Part time employees (18 – 32 hours/week)
 Seasonal employees (normally during spring and Christmas and Thanksgiving
holidays)
-

Employee structure: mainly male, there’s only 20% women.

- Competition rate: The competition rate for a job at the Apple store is higher than that
at Harvard. In 2009, Apple said that there were 10,000 people applying for a job at the
Apple store in Manhattan. Only 200 people were hired, with the rate of 2%. Meanwhile, the
acceptance rate to Harvard was 7% (in 2011, as reported by the Boston Globe). Harvard has
29,000 applications for 2000 places in the school.
b) Recruitment procedure


The recruitment procedure of Apple consists of the main following steps:
- Step 1: Publish the list of vacancies (updated every night at about 3 am on
/>- Step 2: Receive CVs of applicants sent to (Apple has also
partnered with human resources suppliers to reach out and find potential candidates, but
mostly uses the online management software), send qualified CVs to the manager or

assistant manager of the store where the candidate wants to apply.
- Step 3: Inform and arrange interview (can take up to 03 months after posting the
recruitment announcement): The suitable candidate will have the interview with the
manager, assistant manager, or supervisor from the store, or a group interview with 5-15
other applicants. Many positions have to go through 03 interviews (telephone interview,
interview with the recruiting department, and interview with the manager) depending on
each position. Apple does a background check of candidates after the final stage of the
interview if the candidate suits the job.
- Step 4: Acceptance and hiring announcement. It may take a week to a month before
the candidate is officially hired. Applicants will generally receive three weeks of training
and then go to work. If the candidate is employed in a new store, the candidate will have
about a week before that store opens. Moreover, due to the confidential policy at Apple is
said to be very important, so when being hired, candidates will be required to sign a Privacy
Statement (NDA) that effectively prohibits the disclosure of information relating to the
company in five years, if violating that rule, the person will be subjected to civil law.
NOTES:
Throughout the recruitment process, the interview round is considered the most
important. With each position, Apple will use different interview forms and questions:
THE INTERVIEW QUESTIONNAIRE FOR SOME POSITIONS
No.

1

2
3

Position

Requirements


Questions

Understanding of materials and
the ability to manage supplies
to keep costs low, increase the
competitiveness of the product.
Highly creative

On the table there is an old iPhone.
Which materials are they made
from? Please present 5 ways to
make holes on a metal plate

Sales

Use and understand
product well

Describe the way you use Apple
products.

Product
Quality

Understand the standards of
product quality, testing and

Product
Design
Engineers


the

If there are 500 washing
machine rejected from the


No.

Position
Engineer

4

5

7

8

maintenance

Questions
testing room, how will you
determine the cause and the way
to fix them?

Material
program
manager


Understanding precisely about
Apple's supply partners and the
What do your know about the
type of materials they sell.
component part sources of Apple
Complete understanding of the in China?
supply chain, which can lower
the production cost.

Hardware
engineer.

Mastering the field knowledge How to make the products work
to ensure product hardware still well in unfavorable conditions?
works
in
unfavorable
conditions.

Software
engineer

6

Requirements

Problem solving skills.

How do you diagnose the buffer

overflow problem? (Buffer
overflow is a disaster issue).
Apple software engineers should
be able to cope with problems
such as that.

Mac Genius
Supporting
Staff

Able to keep up to date about
user's perception of the
company’s products through How do you keep yourself up to
technology news site (such as date with technology news?
TechCrunch, Business Insider
...)

Sales expert

Have deep understanding
about products’ features

If you can bring only one
technology device to a remote
area, what will that device be?

c) Applicant assessment criteria
When assessing future candidates, employers at Apple usually pay attention to the
following qualities of the candidate:
-


Does the candidate cope well with pressures?


This questions assesses the ability to work under pressure, especially in the situation
that it’s difficult to find a clear solution. Applicants also need to have courage and
confidence.
Can the candidate offer customers the services based on Ritz-Carlton standards
(principles made by world-renowned hotel group Ritz-Carlton)?
Specifically, the standard principles of Ritz-Carton (new gold standards) to evaluate
candidates include:
 Defining and Refining
 Empowerment through Trust
 Not about you
 Providing Excellence
 Leave a lasting impression
Apple recruiters need to assess the flexibility of the candidates in each situation and
whether that person has the standard customer care skills. Applicants may be asked: "There
will be times when customers ask what you can not do, how you will deal with it?”
-

Does the applicant have similar personality as Steve Jobs?
The recruiter needs to define:
 Does the candidate understand the products and Apple?

 Does the candidate has his own viewpoint, does he/she communicate well and
will always committed to work?
d) The trend in filtering and selecting
The former CEO and co-founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, always demand perfection
from himself as well as the staff. Therefore, hired Apple employees should have the

following characteristics:
 Do not give safe comments
 Have the willingness to listen and adjust when being criticized.
Influenced by the head, Apple's tendency in selecting also has some distinct
characteristics compared to other companies, such as:
- Firstly: Have the personality suitable to the job and the management philosophy of
Apple, not necessarily need to have experience or knowledge. Becoming an employee of
Apple, the staff will be trained to have all knowledge and skills required to meet the target
performance.


- Secondly: There’s no barriers in races, ages, genders or origins. However, Apple has
some rules in dressing, including that there should be no logo on the hats/caps.
-

Thirdly: High working competition.
1.2 Training practices at Apple

a) Online training
Apple invested a lot in Online training programs, each employee or user of Apple
products have account to participate in the training program. To have details about each
Apple Pro Training Program, visit training.apple.com ( />b) Training through authorized centers
Apple has authorized training center for employees of the company as well as for its
users:
-

The Apple Authorized Training Center (AATC): provide training programs for both
Apple’s employees as well as its users.

-


Amsys is one of the best Apple’s authorized training centers of Apple and has
trained 50% of Apple’s technical experts.

c) Career orientation training
To reduce the cost of recruitment and training, Apple used the Intern program which
includes the basic steps:
-

Recruit graduate internee

-

Working with low salaries for Apple from 6 months to 12 months

-

Select suitable persons for each department (advance them up from internship
program)

Every year, the vocational program for students of Apple is a great program which is held in
large-scale in the United States.
d) Training new employees
Apple's new staff is weekly trained and On Job trained, until they can take care of the
job.
The training program for new employees includes some of the following:
-

Product information


-

Module about retail philosophy

-

Basic technology sales


-

Customer relationship

-

Web training ( through 02 special web pages of Apple to explain all features and
products of the company).

e) Highlighted projects
With a retail philosophy focusing on customer service and project "Pathways"
focused on creating a better working environment for both staff and customers of Apple.
Apple's latest training policy from the end of 2011 is as follows: Develop training
program "Pathways" with the goal: to focus on providing 3 core training programs for
new staffs, specifically:
-

The basic rules when working at Apple.

-


Features of the stores and information about each product.

-

Effective method to assist customers,

The retail division makes up the largest part (more than 75% of total staffs),
therefore, Apple always focus on training for this part. Apple is currently in the transition
phase from the old leaders to the new leadership, by John Browett as the executive.
Therefore, at present, the training focuses at this stage of Apple’s retail unit are:
-

Sale staffs

-

Customer care staffs

1.3 Recruitment practices at VNPT
a) Recruitment form and time at VNPT
Tests is the main form for recruitment at VNPT Group when it needs to recruit a lot of
people or recruit for a professional title which has many participants, annually, the
recruitment sessions are not over 2 times.
b) Recruitment procedure
Like any other businesses and Apple, VNPT also has the recruitment process including
the following steps:
- Step 1: Publish a list of vacancies on the Group's website or through media such as
newspapers, magazines, television
- Step 2: Receive candidates’ CVs and filter out the application based on the initial
recruitment criteria



- Step 3: Inform the candidates who passed the CVs screening round, then organize
written test or interview or both, depending on the requirements of the position and the
experience of candidates applying.
-

Step 4: Inform the successful candidates and hire.

Being a large-scale economic institution of the state, the recruitment process of VNPT
also has common features which can be easily seen: test and select among a great number of
candidates to find out the person matching job requirements.
c) Candidate assessment criteria
Whether candidates undergo examination or admission, they must meet the general
requirements of VNPT.
-

With eligible candidates, the interview board will interview directly to check some

necessary skills. Interview content is recorded in minutes: the conclusion about each
candidate is voted by the Council members through secret ballot; the recruitment result will
then be reported to the CEO by the recruitment council.
-

For candidates taking the test: successful candidates are those who have taken all the

tests, with the score of each test from average or above. The person with the highest total
score will be selected and the company will keep selecting people until it reaches the
number of people needed for the interviewing round; in case there more eligible people than
the quota, or there are some people having equal scores, the decision will be based on the

priority rules in recruiting (the company already had an independent set of regulations for
this part); in some special cases, the general director will decide.
d) The trend in filtering and selecting
The general requirements of the applications for VNPT are as followed:
- Graduated from a state university, with the grade of fair or above.
-

Have a minimum of 3 years experience working in the related field.

-

Understand the laws and regulations of the state in economic management, have the
level of English proficiency equivalent to international standards TOEIC 400 or
more.

-

Have office computer skills.

-

Ability to work in teams.

-

Age: under 35.


Besides, there is a group of eligible applicants and qualified professional in accordance with
the Group recruitment needs; and it will be screened and selected:

-

People with doctorates, masters graduate training at prestigious domestic and
international schools: managers or experts; persons with high expertise in the field;

-

People with national and international awards.

-

Talented and high quality engineers.

-

Graduates with distinction grade, excellent grade in first formal degree or
valedictorian at prestigious institutions (domestic or international).
The difference between the large economic groups in Vietnam as well as the current

VNPT and the world's leading international companies is that: the change in personnel is
not really clear in each period. Apple - the company producing high-tech devices such as
computers, mobile phones with the preferred products such as IPHONE and MACBOOK –
often organize recruitment sessions regularly based on the demands (each time a new Apple
Store is opened). In order to work in APPLE, candidates must have "enough" to overcome
the remaining 50 candidates which means the successful rate is 2% (in 2009, 10,000 people
applied for a job at the Apple store in Manhattan but only 200 people were hired); the
competition is much fiercer compared to when applying at Harvard University with a pass
rate of 7% (2,000 places when there were 29,000 applications for the school). The vacancies
at APPLE are categorized as followed: full-time employees (40 - 48 hours / week), part-time
employees, seasonal employees. Currently the total number of employees of APPLE is

60400 people (the number is taken from ) and the number of employees in
2006 was 34,300 and in 2010 was 46,600. The recruitment process of VNPT also has
Vietnamese features which are to inform candidates with job descriptions and the number of
vacancies. the conditions for recruitment for each position. Due to the fact that the workload
at each position requires candidates to have a different level than the rest, so the
requirements for the candidates are very high in terms of degree, years of experience, and
the ability to work under pressure as well as flexibility. Another difference compared to
foreign companies such as APPLE is that: in VNPT in particular and in Vietnamese
enterprises in general, you will have the opportunity to advance in your career, it’s very
different as in APPLE, your chance of advancement will be almost zero whether you are
more excellent than others or not. However, foreign companies such as Apple are very clear


in the requirements of each job that they need to recruit ie candidates must meet specific
requirements from the beginning. Being a company in the field of high technology and has
the tendency to be ahead of time, all the candidates of APPLE mostly have to match the
trend of choices of APPLE, as well as have the personality desired by it. Another difference
is that APPLE doesn’t require experience when VNPT does. While most of the large
enterprises in Vietnam don’t want to be considered as "old" (under 35), when working at
APPLE, there are no barriers in terms of age, gender, race and origin (VNPT has the
preferred recruit budget for VNPT staffs’ relatives), which is a positive feature and a new
way to meet strict requirements in APPLE’s work.
1.4 Training practices at VNPT
The training and retraining workers practices are organized in a continuous system at
all levels in the Group. Every year, the employees can propose their wishes to attend the
training program consistent with the assigned work requirements. Officers or employees
sent for training must meet a number of specific conditions such as:
-

Signed contract with an indefinite term.


-

Complete the assigned work, did not violate the regulations

-

The position of employees sent for training or must be consistent with the content of
the course they will take.

-

Meet the admission requirements of the training.

-

Limit age to be under 55 years for men and 50 years for women.

The similarity between APPLE and VNPT is the big investment in the training stage;
however, when VNPT trains new staff by "one-on-one" mode to guide the work, APPLE
organizes the training activities in a very professional way; they set up training centers for
both staff and users of Apple. APPLE new staffs are trained on the job weekly until they can
be in charge of the job. The training program for new employees includes the following
content: Product Information, module of retail philosophy, basic sales techniques, customer
relations, web-based training. Another difference which can be seen in the post-recruitment
stage between Vietnamese enterprises and international ones is that: most of the training
fund of Vietnamese enterprises is used on employees who have worked there for a long
time, or who tend to be the core leader of the future; at APPLE, most of the training fund is
used on the training for newcomers because to them, this is the most important stage that



helps staffs to acquire needed knowledge to bring about the highest efficiency. However,
once becoming a staff of VNPT or APPLE, you will be trained to embark on your job
without confusion.
2. The policies for employees
2.1 The policies for employees at Apple
a) Salary and bonus policies
APPLE employees are not satisfied with the remuneration of the Group when the
current employees do not even have free lunch or gym, not to mention that the wages can
hardly compare with other groups such as Google or Facebook. The philosophy of Apple
has always been that the best treat for employees is the chance to participate in creating the
bets products for the world, but the employees expect more than that. According to
Glassdoor.com’s report in 12/2010, the salary of Apple's retail employees is as much as that
of the staffs in other retailers. The normal sales staffs are paid $ 9-15 per hour worked and
supervisors are paid $ 30 / hour. On average, each employee at the Apple store, including
those who are not direct salesperson, brings in $ 473,000, which is much higher than the
sales of $ 206,000 / person of the electronic and appliances industry.
According to Dediu’s reports in 2010 and 2011, averagely, each Apple store
employee brings to the company:
-

2010: 481.000USD

-

2011: 747.000USD

In entire company, each employee brings $ 1.8 million, in which 430.000USD is
profit. However, the compensation policies of Apple compared to Google and Facebook are
completely non-competitive, specifically:

-

The salesperson is paid: 9 – 15 USD/hour (no sales bonus)

-

The staff in Genius Bar: 30 USD/hour (no sales bonus)

Sales staffs are not paid commission, but would be worried if not selling enough
products. They also sell other support services, AppleCare. (Pressure) The staff are drawn
into high competition.
b) Other policies for employees
At Apple, employees are entitled to policies as in other enterprises such as health
insurance, health package, the program to purchase shares in the company, in addition to the
special interests, as follows:
-

Up to 10% discount on any item in the store


-

Once a year 25% discount on the entire system

-

Discounts for friends and family each year of 15% in the entire system

-


Trading on the model of Apple products before introducing new products

-

Quarterly bonus if the store achieves its sales quota, $ 500 for part-time employees
and $ 1,000 for full-time employees.

Almost zero chance of advancement and salary raise: Statistics show that, even if an
employee is the smartest one, he has almost no chance of promotion. Apple tends to recruit
new staff than focuses on the current employees. In addition, the rise in wages almost is
very rare.
2.2 The policies for employees at VNPT
a) Salary and bonus policies
VNPT is a company with pretty good salary policies for workers and has always
been a company ranked high in terms of salary in Vietnam. The income of workers is stable,
enough for them to ensure a decent life and have savings. The previous year, VNPT paid to
employees under the state's payroll system, which based on the position and number of
years working to balance the amount of every one, it did not motivate employees. Since
2005, VNPT has innovated the method of payment; the payment to employees is based on
working performance and the contribution of employees to VNPT. Accordingly, the
workers who do more and contribute more to business results will be paid more; employees
who do less and have less contribution will be paid less; workers who don’t work or affect
the business operations of the enterprise will be deducted in terms of wages:
Workers' wages are calculated by using the ratios based on the position in charge
(General Manager, Deputy General Manager, Director, Vice Chairman, Senior, main
specialist, specialists, technicians,....); Within each of the titles, it is divided into 2 levels;
the salary will be calculated monthly based on the extent of work completed and work
efficiency: 1.2; 1.1; 1.0;0.8; 0.6. The evaluation will be made by the employee’s selfassessment and direct supervisor’s assessment with reference to trade union representatives
– the organization protecting the rights of workers; for the unit head, the salary will be
based on self-assessment of those workers so that upper managers will decide the level of

work completion.
b) Other policies for employees
At VNPT, the employees are entitled to favorable policies to attract workers to work and
have long-term dedication to VNPT, from the starting day until the retirement day:


- Having worked for many years for VNPT (20 years for men, 15 years or more for
women) to be honored in the form of the "badge for the career in the postal service" and is
rewarded with a small amount of money to encourage.
- Having worked for many years for VNPT (over 15 years for men, over 10 years for
women), will be treated to a traveling trip abroad from the company’s fund.
- The employees who successfully completed the task will be awarded a certificate of
achievement from the Ministry or higher offices, or will be entitled to have salary raised 1
year earlier compared to the regulations.
- Organize an annual informatics competition for employees’ kids; reward and give
presents to employees’ kids at the end of each school year if achieving high academic
performance;
-

Annual heath check up: 1 time every year, one more extra time for women.

- Women in maternity leave will be entitled to 5 million VND / person / month from
welfare.
- For employees worked for VNPT but have retired: The company organize group
activities and associations such as:
 The pension group of Postal field, so that retired people can meet up;
 Total health check up once a year
 Arrange for retired and sick people of the company to use the service of the
hospitals of the Group (with 3 hospitals and clinics), the fee will be taken from
health insurance and welfare fund.

 Organize meetings for retired staffs to exchange information about the current
business situation of the company, and give them gifts twice a year (first one on the
establishment day of the industry, the other one is before Lunar New Year).
Through the above description, we can see that Apple and VNPT has been very detailed
in terms of salary and bonuses as well as the general policy for the employee. This is an
easily seen and common thing between large global corporations such as Apple and VNPT
Group in Vietnam. They are both environments which aim at the employees and their
dedication. This is also something that most businesses are trying to achieve and try to
improve their policies better.
3. Working environment for employees
3.1 Working environment at Apple


- Apple focuses too much on confidentiality: this is one of the reasons why people feel
dissatisfied with the working environment at Apple. The high consideration of
confidentiality also creates many obstacles when it needs cooperation between the
departments. Employees may not know exactly why they are required to complete assigned
tasks, so the only option when you are assigned a job is to start doing it.
- The human resource department of Apple hasn’t reached its full potential: According
to feedback from employees on Glassdoor.com, HR departments of this leading corporation
is poorer than expected, with slow and inefficient ability to assess the employee's
capabilities and working performance.
-

Unsatisfied salaries and bonuses: as we have mentioned in part 2

- Hard to balance work – life due to:
 Long working hour with rigid schedule
 Employees need to work at weekends ( 6-7 days/week throughout 6-8 months/year).
-


Medium level management issues: lack management experience

- Rigid and unforgiving principles: Apple always set the rules and regulations in the
first place for all employees working at Apple. These rules are applied strictly, the principle
is not flexible. So employees feel that the working environment at Apple lacks the
flexibility and tolerance.
- Some comments from the survey of employees working at Apple shows the general
idea of them as follows:
 “Interesting work attracted a lot of people. Whether the company is a large one,
but Apple is still operating as a new company (startup)”.
 “At Apple there is no room for mediocrity. If the employee is not Class A, you
will quickly leave the company to come to Google”
3.2 Working environment at VNPT
VNPT is an economic group having a very good working environment for employees,
with the traditional 10 golden words: loyalty, courage, creativity, dedication, and love.
VNPT has given employees an environment to work hard for the business. During the
subsidy period, the postal sector is not focused with old equipment, backward technology,
bad working conditions, harsh work, low income, and workers faced many difficulties.
However, all employees were determined to stick with the industry, to overcome
difficulties, creatively worked, and worked hard for the business. In recent years, VNPT
faced fierce competition from other telecommunication companies, even competition in
terms of employees. A lot of high quality workers and experienced managers are attracted to


other competitors by high remuneration wages and working conditions, but workers still
stayed with VNPT. VNPT fully equipped its staffs with the best equipment necessary: The
employees in every position, every work are fully equipped with the tools, the best means
for the work:
- Equipped with a full range of equipment protection and safety for employees:

Clothing, thick, caps, socks,....
- Compensate through materials, shift changing meals for workers with harsh work
and poisonous work.
- Arrange to visit, encourage, support and help each other in terms of spirit and
materials when sick, show hospitality, joy.
- Facilitating employees to research, learn, promote creativity through training
regulations, hold annually professional training courses to improve the professional
qualifications for employees; launched the movement to promote innovation,
creativity in labor, management, the initiative to be rewarded with money and other
forms of reward.
At the viewpoint in terms of working environment, when we go into the analysis and
research, a major corporation like Apple is actually not an ideal environment, dreams and
expectations of employees. As mentioned above, Apple has rigid regulations and there is no
tolerance. Employees working at Apple do not even manage to balance their work and life
due to tight and intense working schedule. The cooperation between departments is not
smooth enough due to high confidentiality, each part does not know what other parts are
doing and if they need the support or not. Besides, at Apple, every individual always has to
show maximum effort to complete the job since it’s the only way it can survive.
Meanwhile , the salary and bonus policy is not satisfactory. Therefore, it’s safe to say that
the connection at Apple is not strong. In contrast to Apple's guidelines, VNPT has
traditional philosophy with the 10 golden letters: Loyalty, courage, creativity, and
dedication and love. Reading the above philosophy, we can partly imagine the working
environment in VNPT. Even though its salary level can’t compare with that of Apple, but
the working environment of VNPT can create the connection and bond, the dedication and
determination to overcome difficulties, the dedication for the company. Besides, VNPT
gives employees a working environment with love, caring for each other as brothers in the
family. The employee connects together, mutually support and help each other in the
process of working, they are willing to share their experiences, and help other at work.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
There’s an old saying that "looking at others, thinking about yourself ", from the practice

in the country (VNPT) and the experience of the world (Apple), it can be seen that the
construction and development of human resources in accordance with the actual conditions
of each country is extremely important and also an urgent requirement today. The strategy
of social and economic development in Vietnam 2011-2020 highlighted the need to focus on


creating innovative "rapid development of human resources, especially high-quality human
resources, focusing on the basic innovation national education, closely linked to the
development of human resources to the development and application of science and
technology ". To build high-quality human resources, Vietnam needs to synchronize
multiple solutions6:
Firstly: build human resource development strategy linked to strategies of socioeconomic development, industrialization and modernization of the country, international
economic integration.
Secondly: parallel to the detection and talents training, human resource development
should go hand in hand to build and perfect the system of human values in modern times as
civic responsibility, school spirit practices, to improve knowledge; consciousness and selfemployed capacity, and the society;
Thirdly: human resource development must be linked to improving the quality of
people's health care, compensation and bonuses, social security.
Fourthly: improve and enhance information on the human resources in the direction of
democratic, to make people see the importance of human resource development issues in
our country and around the world
Fifthly: have the study, periodic review of human resource in Vietnam.
Sixthly: need innovative thinking, new perspectives about people, human resources in
Vietnam

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