Recruitment Strategy at Westpac - Case Study Example

Running header: Westpac Student’s name: Instructor’s name: Subject code: Date of submission: Introduction Westpac is Australia’s leading bank and financial services provider with its headquarters in Sydney. It is Australia’s largest bank by assets and had more than 13 million customers in 2011 and over 1200 branches with 2900 ATMs. The company has the objective of becoming the world leading financial services provider that is focused on growth. The company has the goal of providing superior returns to is shareholders while building deep as well as enduring relations with customers while becoming the leader as the best place for people to work in. The company also adopts a growth strategy by focusing on its core markets based in Australia, New Zealand and the pacific through offering wide range of financial services and products through the focus of organic growth, growth in customer numbers while establishing concrete customer relations. As part of its growth strategy, the company aims to establish networks in Asia through aggressively building its capability as well as presence. In its effort to meet its goals, objectives and strategies, the company has a human resources strategy that is closely aligned to its strategic objectives (About Westpac, 2014). The company’s HR strategy that is related to its strategic goals incorporates strengthening of employee skills in a bid to better support customers, encouraging innovation as well as responsive to change and continued enhancement of diversity of the company’s workforce. For Westpac to succeed in its goals objectives and strategies outlined above, it needs to have a strong workforce that offers best quality service to its customers. As such, this paper analysis Westpac’s strategic Human Resources staffing, training and development strategies in a bid to establishing whether they are aligned with the organization’s goals, strategies and objectives. In addition, the paper provides recommendation for improvement where such strategies are found inadequate. Recruitment strategy at Westpac Noe & Winkler (2012) defines recruitment as the process of bringing the right people in the organization to fill vacant positions. However, according to Westpac’s head of strategic workforce planning, the company’s recruitment, training and development is linked with the bank’s business strategy. This is based on continuously reviewing the company’s employees while making the right sourcing and development decisions that reflect the company’s mission, budgets and strategic plans. As indicated above, the company adopts a growth strategy. This is seen it its attempts to expand its customer base as well as its branch networks. This is in line with Philips and Gully’s assertion that growth strategy occurs when the organization expands internally characterized by its adding new locations. As such, recruitment is a vital part of the organization’s staffing, training and development strategy. The recruitment strategy at Westpac involves understanding of the business through articulating the organizations’ purpose and mission. Understanding the organization’s strategic context which is done through definition of the organization’s future vision and gauging the required workforce vis-à-vis Westpac’s direction, environmental factors as well as the external labor market. Then the organization determines where it currently is vis-à-vis where it aims to be as far as the workforce is concerned in terms of their characteristics and capabilities. As such, gaps in organizational requirement needs are established and an organizational recruitment strategy based on the organization’s strategy established. The recruitment strategy at Westpac is in line with the organization’s growth strategy and it is designed in such a way that the best talent is attracted and actually hired into the company so that the organization can meet its growth objectives. This is why it is based on laid down procedures as opposed to being based on favors. This is in line with the requirement of HRD to be strategic implying it should be linked and support organizational goals and strategies. Training and career development of Westpac employees The human capital theory views the skills and knowledge that employees acquire from the organization as being vital in the future job market (Fern, 2014). In other words, investment in human capital is likely to lead to greater productivity in future given the ever changing customer needs as well as workplace dynamics including the rapidly changing technologies. As such, an organization that does not invest in employee training and development will not be competitive enough to remain relevant in the ever changing global market. In line with this, Westpac provides its employees with training, learning and development opportunities that comprehensively encompass skills training, further education for high performance staff as well as training on occupational health safety. The company has a policy of encouraging its employees to develop new competencies that enhance their skill range. The employees are given the opportunity of individually planning their training that matches their career paths. For instance, the company has over the last 12 months trained over 700 employees externally at a cost of $1.5 million in a bid to improve their level of competency and job satisfaction. The idea of providing employees with such opportunities for career growth and as such attain their desired levels of job satisfaction is in line with the adult learning theory (Alagaraja and Egan, 2013) which advocates for the need for the employee to be a self-directed learner and worker. The training and development opportunities are aimed at sharpening the employee skills hence making them more competitive by delivering better quality services to customers. Part of the organization’s employee development policy should involve provision of a conducive environment for the employee to perform his/her duties effectively. This is in line with the role behavior theory that seeks to explain the behavior of individuals in the organization vis-à-vis the expected consequences. In this regard, providing the right environment as well as the opportunities discussed above helps the company to have a highly motivated staff that delivers quality to its customers. Westpac has been successful in providing the right environment for the employees including putting in place measures that ensure good employee relations. Braton , Sawchuck, Mills and Pyrch( 2004) recognizes the fact that when employees are treated well in terms of their management, career training and development as well as quality improvement, then their productivity is also likely to improve. This is in line with expectancy theory which suggests that employees will behave in a certain manner depending on what they expect the outcome of their behaviors to be. As such, organizations like Westpac use various means in a bid to reinforce/influence positive behavior from employees. Westpac has been largely successful in influencing positive behavior among the employees through provision of multiple training and development opportunities for its employee. Some of the opportunities include provision of intranet aimed at providing every employee with access to information about the company. The company also runs an all year round training program separate from its operational program in a bid to make the employees better equipped and competent in performing their duties. The company also supports employee development through external training or further studies as indicated above. The Westpac academy has also been vital in ensuring that the company provides adequate training resources for its employees. In line with the expectation theory, the company promotes personal development plans in a bid to attain proper conduct from employees as a result of their satisfaction with their professional achievements this in turns create a conducive environment and hence organizational success (Collings, 2003). Westpac also pursues a cross training strategy aimed at equipping the employees with a wide range of skills such that they are able to fill any role as required (Noe & Winkler). The strategy is championed by a group that focuses on inquiry into the changing needs of learning in Westpac. Westpac synthesizes its training and learning program and including training of its entire staff while providing continuing education for their employees who perform well in their jobs. In line with goal setting theory which suggests that employees link outcomes to hard work and learning, Westpac has a strategy of encouraging employees develop new competencies and hence enhance their skills range (Westpac social impact report, 2002). As such, the employees are free to chart out their own career paths. This facilitates the employees in not only further strengthening their areas of strengths but also strengthening their areas of weaknesses. Employees’ appraisal at Westpac According to Collings, Morley & Gunnigle (2008), one of the roles of human resources managers is that of ensuring that every employee perform effectively as well as enthusiastically in a bid to achieve organizational goals. Part of this is involves employees appraisal. In an attempt to boost the employees morale at Westpac, the human resources manager has enacted a policy of promoting productive employees in the company every year. This is in line with the goal setting theory (Johannes, 2005),which suggest that the willingness to work towards attainment of goal is the main source of job motivation as well as the expectation theory which suggests that employees behavior will be determined by the expected outcome of the behavior. This means that through employee appraisal, employees can work harder in anticipation that the best performing employees will be rewarded through job promotions. This works to the company’s favor as its operations are smoothly run which act to promote the company’s growth. The company is largely successful in ensuring successful performance appraisal based on the company’s goals and objectives. The performance appraisal serves to boost employees’ morale while providing a conducive working environment. In addition, the company addresses workers personal challenges of workers while giving workers enough time to solve their personal issues. Sponsoring workers to study in their areas of specialty is in line with the adult learning theory and is an indication of the company’s success in performance appraisal. It is in this bid that Westpac sponsors employees to study in their respective fields of specialty in a bid to offer better results for the company. The company also has been successful in adhering to the needs theory of employee motivation (Sims, 2006)) which suggests that employees needs for achievement, affiliation and power will affect employees’ actions from the contexts of the management. In this regard, employees enlisting in learning institutions on their own are considered by the human resources manager as far as their class hours are concerned when planning on their work schedules (Human capital, 2012). Based on the needs theory, motivation arises from the employees desire to achieve a need. It means that employees’ compensation and benefits are a vital part of the company’s HRD strategy (Philips and Gully, 2012), the human resources departments are charged with the responsibility of ensuring employees are adequately compensated. Employees are compensated for the work they do for the company while benefits are benefits arising without necessarily making direct contribution to the company. Westpac has been successful in this regard by establishing a rewards, promotions and benefits programs in line with the expectancy theory. Some of rewards and benefits provided by Westpac to its employees include career development, employee assistance program, parental leave, learning and development programs as well as superannuation. Another aspect of the company’s compensation and benefits strategy involves giving commissions based on work done. This serves to motivate the employees to work harder in a bid to get the commissions. It is as a result of such strategies that the company has been able to attain a 22% profit. The expectancy theory suggests that differing kinds of reinforcement will have different effects on employees’ morale or behavior. In this regard, the company has been successful in managing employees’ expectations and hence ensuring their retention in the company. This has been achieved through such strategies as annual increment in employee salaries thus boosting the employees’ morale by making them feel part of Westpac. The social learning theory (McDonnell, 2013) postulates that outcome and self-efficacy expectations will affect individual performance. Westpac has been successful in applying the theory to motivate its employees. This is seen in its policy of partially subdividing its profits amongst its employees of all grades. This is further strengthened by the fact that best performing employees are rewarded thus motivating them to work harder in expectation of bonuses and prizes. This serves to create healthy competition among the employees thus enabling the company to become even more profitable. Reducing employee turnover at Westpac Every employee strives to keep employee turnover at its minimum in a bid to retain talent. This is achieved through ensuring employee needs are adequately met since if they are not met, the organization will lose its employee to better companies. For instance, with the number of women increasing in the organization, the company has put in place women friendly work policies. This is in line with the needs theory which calls for meeting employees’ needs in a bid to motivate them and hence retain them (Noe & Winkler, 2012). Such policies include provision of paid maternity leaves, working from home among other friendly practices that are aimed at making the employees as comfortable as possible. Diversity at Westpac Westpac’s workforce is highly diversified with each group having differing needs. As such, there was need to come up with a diversity program in a bid to effectively manage the diversity and hence achieve the organizational goals. In this regard, employment practices ranging from recruitment and promotions are only based on employee performance but not employee characteristics such as race or religion. Based on the needs theory as stated above, the company has established support and training programs for enhancing the needs of the various groups with diverse groups being represented in organizational leadership [positions. This is in line with expectancy theory and goal setting theory given that employees know what is expected of them in a bid to be promoted. In addition, the company’s policy is that of not tolerating harassment or bullying behavior at work. This is also in line with the needs theory in that employee’s motivation and hence performance is directly related to their need for security. Conclusion and recommendations Westpac’s HRD strategies have been found to be largely compliant with the organizations strategic goals, objectives and strategies. As observed above, the entire recruitment, training and development of employees in the company is done in line with the company’s strategies and policies. In other words, the company has achieved the recommendations of the economic theory of HRD through adoption of policies that create a good working environment hence enabling the workforce to deliver value for the company (Priyadarshini and Daye, 2012). The company has also achieved the needs theory of employee motivation in that its HRD strategy ensures that its employee’s social, economic and psychological needs are met in a bid to motivate them and ensure they deliver value for the company. However, the company needs to adopt a policy that makes the employees deliver results from their hearts as opposed to completely relying on bonuses and profits. This way, the organization is assured to remain afloat even in times of bad economic performance. 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Westpac Social Impact Report, July 2012, A view from employee: Looking out for employees Assessed on 17/05/2014 from http://www.westpac.com.au/docs/pdf/aw/employees03.pdf Read More