The Training Initiatives That Need to Be Undertaken by the Human Resources Teams - Case Study Example

Human Resources Management 1. Introduction: Team work is one of the most essential for any process. A process which has team players will tend to be more successful rather than one with member not willing to adjust and work within the team. The need for individuals to be able to work in teams and work towards on goal is very essential. Their report aims at choosing a particular job, in this case - Senior Process Executive – Derivatives Sector, and analyzing the training program required for the job. The report will detail the job description and will then move on to discuss the training initiatives that need to be undertaken by the Human resources Teams to ensure that the selected candidates fit the requirements of the job. 2. Company Details: The job being discussed here is for a bank. The bank that has been discussed here is famous world wide and provides various services to the customers. One of the various services that the bank provides is for the customers to trade in derivative markets. The bank deals with the origination, corporate advisory and capital market products which include debt, equity, and other securities. They cater to both the public sector as well as the private sector entities and in also cater to the needs of medium and large business organizations. The company deals within the global markets and allows its customers to trade in every market. The global markets involve the inclusion of financial products, bonds, equities, equity linked products, exchange – traded and over the counter traded derivatives. The bank allows its customers to trade in all the above mentioned products and is managed jointly with the Global Markets and Corporate Finance. The company also provides the clients with a variety of other services apart from the basis banking services, like asset management, private wealth Management and many more. The job that is being discussed here is for the investments that the clients and customers might make into the markets and the exchange – traded derivatives and also the over – the – counter derivatives as well. The next section will deal with a more detailed explanation of the job overview and a detailed job description has also been attached to the end of this document in the appendix (see appendix 1). 3. Job Overview: The job that has been chosen for this report is the position of a ‘Senior Process Executive – Derivatives Sector’. A detailed Job description and job advertisement for this position has been included in the Appendix (see Appendix 1). The job of a senior process executive mainly involves a lot of bank end work. In this case the job is related to derivative markets and the trade processing for these markets. Major part of this job involves the candidates / employees to work on the bank end processes to clear trades that are traded on a daily basis. There are several banks that deal with clients and their trading in the derivative markets. Here the employee will be provided with a clear set of instructions and detailed business process documents. This includes the step by step process for the inputting of the trades into the systems. An average day of an employee working in this position will include, running a number of reports, updating of the systems with the daily prices for the exchange rates and most importantly the inputting of the trades for each day. Apart from these trades, the team member will be responsible to handle three members of the team, i.e. assignment of tasks, holiday planning, and also ensuring the members receive all the training and also discussion of the performance with the team leaders. When required the candidate will also be required to train newer staff and in the absence of the team leaders, they would take the role of the acting team leaders. Also the member will be needed to keep constant client contact. This is not one of the main activities but will be necessary especially in times when the candidate works on the reconciliation of reports. This is a daily report which needs to be run every day to ensure that the trades in the markets and the trades that have been inputted into the system on a particular day are matching and are consistent. The member of the teams will also require taking up a number of trainings which is compulsory for the job. This section has dealt with the job overview the next section forms the essence of this report and includes the various training and development details. 4. Training Process & Rationale: Training and development of the human resources is a very important aspect of every business. The HR management devises the training methodologies and strategies, after careful consideration of the job specifications and the way in which the new employee will contribute towards the strategic goal of the organization. It is the Hr management’s responsibility to “ensure the integration of personal and organizational development for employees”. Keeping the employees motivated is a crucial element to ensure the success of the organization. The HR management acts as the medium giving many opportunities for the employees to develop themselves by acquiring new skills and engage themselves in the continuous learning process. There are a number of factors that need to be considered while putting the employees through any training. This is majorly because of the cost factor as well as whether it would be useful for the work. However at times, once an employee has completed all training programs for the related jobs, there are other training they could attend as well to improve their skills. This section of the report aims at the various training that need to be undertaken by the employees for the above mentioned jobs and all the main rationales for the choice of training has also been included. a) Derivatives and Financial Products Training: This is a very important training and needs to be included for the specific job. This is mainly because although the individual might have the complete knowledge this will help ensure that the person is on the same page as expected for the position. The main rationale for this training is to ensure that the individuals have their basics right and are aware of the various terms and fundamentals of the job. In this case, since the job relates to the actual markets themselves and relates to the trading of the stock in the market, it is essential that the teams are provided with complete training. This will help eliminate any chances of doubts or even any possible errors in terms of the basics of the trades. This training would need training of the working of the markets, and the fees, costs etc that are involved in the daily trading. b) Process Training: This is another very important aspect of the training process. This training is generally provided to the employees to familiarize them with the systems in use. Every company has different systems that they follow and use for their own processes. Thus when an employee joins a company it is essential that they are provided with complete training of the systems in use along with hands on training for the systems. The rationale for this is to ensure that employees are comfortable and confident of the systems being used. This will help in increasing the morale of the employees as well as help the company be sure that the employees are clear with what needs to be done. Since this is a very high risk profile job, it is important that the company involves a high level of systems and process training before allowing the employees to go live and to work on the systems without any knowledge of the processes. To do so, in most companies, stimulation systems are generally included, to allow the employees gain a hands on knowledge and play around with the systems before moving on to the actual systems. This is the case for most of the financial sector companies and is a requirement as the employees would be dealing with money in terms of trades and hence excessive care needs to be taken to ensure that no errors are made, as it would be the liability of the company in case of any error. c) Leadership Training: Leadership plays a very essential role in every organization. Leaders act as change agents within organizations. They motivate as well as build the trust and confidence of the people within the organization. There are a number of different leaders and every person has a different leadership style. These styles included visionary leadership, coaching leadership, affiliative leadership, democratic leadership, pacesetting leadership and commanding leadership. According to Goleman, all leaders’ categories into these styles of leadership, and the most useful type of leadership among these the visionary leadership style. Here the leaders inspire the employees and believes in own vision, along with being empathetic and also highlights how the efforts from all contribute to the ‘dream’. This type of leadership style has proved to be the most beneficial for companies where change is required and a new vision is required. The other styles that he has discussed within his book are the coaching style, which falls in the second best style of leadership for companies. This method is where the leaders are listeners and helps people identify their strengths and weaknesses, and in a number of aspects act as counselors, encouragers and delegates. The rationale for this training is to provide the individuals with a chance to understand the various styles and use this as a base to recognize their own style of leadership. Also understanding the various styles allows the individuals to improve the negative aspects of their style and incorporate more appropriate and relevant styles for the job. This acts as a guiding step for the individuals to be able to lead a team to become a success. d) Client Interaction Trainings: This is am important training which should be provided to employees within a company. In a job like the one that is being discussed here, it is essential that the individuals understand the fact that they would need to be dealing with people and a very important issue of the funds and trades. The main rationale for this training is to ensure that the individuals do not create a panic for the clients and do don’t cause false alarms. Also even if an issue does exist it is important that the individual uses is normal and does not cause the client to be worked up. If the right training is not provided and the person is not careful with the words used with the clients, the consequences can be vast and can be quite varied. Hence to reduce any kind of issue it is important the employees are trained and aware of the possible issues and consequences of every action taken by them. e) Six Sigma Training: Six Sigma is a method used by any business to improve its business processes and operations. It involves reviewing and retuning of the business process to achieve the excellence in quality. It follows a methodology called DMAIC, i.e. (Define opportunities, Measure performance, Analyze opportunity, Improve performance, Control performance. As understood from the paper as well, this is an essential element for the service sector to succeed in the business as well. The rationale for using this training is to ensure that the employees are aware of the need for the excellence in quality and need to be accurate for this job. Even one single error in this job could cost the company a lot of money and thus it is very important that the right trades are entered and all the rules of the Service level agreement are followed. To do so, it is essential that the employees gain a better understanding of the performance, the issues and the places where the process can be made more effective and efficient. Also this could provide a chance for employees to point out the places where the detailed business procedures could be improved and quality could be increased along with bettered performance as well. f) Quality Training: Quality is becoming very essential for the businesses and the top management’s main focus is set on the quality of product and services. Quality has become one of the biggest competitive factors for any business and is a pre requisite for market sustenance and possible growth. Quality is a very difficult concept to be defined. There have been different views by different people of what quality really is in a given circumstance. Quality of a product or service depends mainly on the specification laid down for it. If the specifications are met the product or service can classify as good quality. There is a high quest for quality improvements by every business in today’s highly competitive global market place. Business performance is now being measured by the quality of the product or service the business provides. There have been continuous efforts to improve quality and most researchers believe that increased and improved quality would help businesses sustain their competitive edge in the global markets. The rationale of providing the employee with a training of the quality is to ensure that the employee is aware of the importance of quality and the effects on the working of the company as whole. Also in the financial sector extreme care and vigilance is required as it means dealing with the client or customer’s money and one small error could cost the company a whole lot of money. Hence quality training is a very important aspect for this job. g) Other trainings: The other trainings can include things like the use of Microsoft and reporting. The main aim of including this into training is to ensure that the employee is aware of what they are working on and are able to provide clear and concise reports. Also with the growing need for balanced and well followed service level agreements, it is important for the employees to have a clear knowledge of how every process requires be well reporting and filing, as this can be useful in terms later if any issue is to arise. 5. Conclusion: From the above discussion it is clear for the need for training and coaching. Each of the training methods included above have been well thought out based on the job overview and on the job description that has been provided as appendix. It is essential to understand that every job has its own ways and processes which need to be followed. Hence it is essential that the human resources teams are confident about the employees before they can be put onto the job. Since the company and job chosen here is finance related hence the level of security and care is at much higher levels and this highlights the importance of training within the organization. The list of training provided here is not exhaustive and it is necessary to understand that trainings can be undertaken to even improve the employee’s overall skills and management efficiencies. Any training that is provided will stay on with the employees forever and can be used even for other jobs as well. Since ages there has been an extremely important and true saying, ‘Knowledge is Power’. Knowledge is the foundation for almost every activity in everyday life. Thus it is clear that training and development play a very important role in the company and also are a very important decision that need to be considered by the human resources team. Appendix Appendix 1: Job Description for the Job used: XXXXXX Bank Senior Process Executive – Derivatives Sectors Job Description: 1. Senior Process Executive 2. Responsible for the trade processing processes 3. Responsible for client relationship management 4. Responsible and answerable for the achievement of self and a team of 3 who will be answerable to the candidate 5. Key Client Relationship Management & supervision of all processes on a daily basis including working on the processes as well 6. Responsible to check for the progress vs. objectives for self and the three members and report to the team leader on a daily basis. 7. Responsible to ensure that the business objectives are clear among the staff and every member of staff is working in line with the Service Level Agreements (SLA) 8. Will be answerable for the performance of the three members and self 9. Will be in charge of the entire team (8 – 10 personnel) in situations where team leader is not present 10. Will be responsible for the reviewing the performance of the three members and getting the daily reports to be signed off by the team leader 11. Will need to ensure the compliance with the banking rules, regulations and procedures 12. Will be responsible for the management of all files and reports 13. Exposure in backend processing work for Derivatives, for international Bank 14. Strong Excel & PowerPoint skills; prior experience with VBA is a plus Job Specifications Requirements: 1. Minimum education requirement: Masters in Business Administration or Post Graduation Diploma in Business Administration or Post graduation Program in Management in Finance, Accountancy, Banking or an equivalent. 2. Preferred Skills: Good Communication Skills, Leadership skills, Good written and verbal professional language 3. Required Languages: English 4. Preferred Languages: Any international language 5. Work Experience: At least 1 year of working experience in the related fields for the position 6. Preferred candidates will be candidates specializing in Banking / Financial Services or Equivalent. 7. Required Knowledge: Basics of the Equity markets and derivative Markets 8. Others: Individual with a commitment & motivation for self development and growth, Desire to work in a fast paced, challenging environment, Superior analytical aptitude, problem solving abilities Experience: 2 – 6 Years Industry: Derivatives, Equity, Banking / Financial Services/ Broking Functional Area Banking, Insurance Education: Under Graduate: B Com Post Graduation: Any PG Course, MCom, MBA Read More