For the purposes of this report, the topic will be CareKind, a home care agency specializing in dementia and cognitive decline. It is a relatively new company, having only been in operation for 10 months. The policies and procedures were written by a partner of the company to incorporate the needs of the company and the financial constraints of the current climate. It's a company in its infancy and has had to completely build a customer base. Critical Report The first policy of note is the zero hours contract policy operated by CareKind. This was implemented due to the changing needs of those clients requiring care. Applicants for positions within CareKind are made aware of this policy before being offered a position. They are also asked if they have a preference for working hours and, if possible and work is available, their requests are accommodated. The applicant is also advised that there is no guarantee that they will receive work, although CareKind keeps recruitment minimum and only appoints if there are some initial hours for the applicant to do. CareKind anticipates that as their customer base grows, they will be able to offer part-time and full-time contracts to those staff who have shown dedication and commitment to the company. This policy would appear to demonstrate a hard approach to human resource management, as it fits well with the concept that "Hard HRM encompasses all those elements in employment relationships which place emphasis on employee compliance, quantitative production, managers , on the tasks and development of the organization". (Ivo, 2006) However, what is interesting is that the policy almost excuses itself by making a secondary statement regarding the possibility of a bigger plan to make its employees feel part of the company, rather than just staff members. In conclusion, CareKind's policy suggests that it is using a "hard" human resource management strategy to gain a foothold in the market and make the company financially stable and operational at a level that will allow it the flexibility to change the own strategy at a later time. His evident good intentions towards his staff make it highly likely that there will be changes to his policy at a later date. This also suggests that CareKind wants to be seen as a good and fair employer. This could be for a number of reasons: staff retention in the home care sector is a known problem and there is also some evidence to suggest that families in a care setting are supportive of the living wage as they believe it leads to better quality of care for their families. (Schmuecker, 2013)