Business Resources Management - Case Study Example

BUSIENSS RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Introduction Human resource department is given the sole responsibility of looking at the working of the employees. Former known as human resource management, the personnel management department has become an integral part of any business as business organization takes a more human approach to management of staff. It is an important department that contributes to the human management which determines the kind of relationship between the employees and the management. However, the overall aim of the department is to ensure that it manages the employees in a way that an organization realizes the maximum from them. This paper will look at HSBC Company and evaluate the Human resource management in the company. (Boyd, 2003) Background information of HSBC HSBC is one of the companies in the world that are surrounded by a rich history in their development. Since the organization opened its door, it has undergone dramatic changes for all that time to achieve its current status. The organization was founded by a Scottish man Thomas Sunderland who was working in Hong Kong in the 19th century. He was working at Hong Kong Superintendent of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. It grew to become one of the leading local banking facilities in Hong Kong and in other Chinese territories. The organization opened its door to customer in 1865 trading under the name Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited. Since its inception, the company has been able to grow and expand in all part of the world. It has been able to establish a sophisticated network of agencies and branches not only in Asia but also in the other European countries. Therefore the bank is not just a leading banking facility in Asia but it can be ranked as a world leader in banking. HK (Shanghai Baking Corporation, 2000) As the era of Second World War clocked, the bank was forced to close most of its branches and temporarily it moved it's headquarter to London. This however worked to its advantage instead of its disadvantage as it gave the bank an opportunity to spread its wings and expand further and further. It was also advantageous to Hong Kong because the moment the war ended it played a crucial role in molding Hong Kong economy. From here it gained the momentum to diversify its geographical operations. Analysis of the business it operates in HSBC has grown from a mere local banking facility to a leading world banker. It has been able to establish most of its braches in most places in the United Kingdom and other Asian countries. It is the first and the largest financial institutions in the whole of United Kingdom. It has also been ranked the second world largest banking and financial service institution. This has been based on the fact that the business has been able to roll out a well established network in the whole world which provides a variety of services to its clients. It offer financial services including mortgages, insurance facilities, saving accounts, credit cards, loans, investment and others, consumer finance including credit cards, consumer loans, motor vehicle financing, commercial banking which is mainly meant to serve small and medium size enterprises, corporate investment including markets and private banking, and other services which are provided in all its branches. This means that it has been able to satisfy the financial demands of its customers by offering a variety of services. (King, 1991) The banking sector is one of the most competitive sectors in the world. There are many providers of the services and the survival of any financial institution depends on the competitive advantage that an institution is able to create over its competitors. There are some key elements that determine how a financial institution is able to create a competitive advantage in the market. This is based on the level of confidence that customers can have on the financial institution regarding how the business operates. The financial strength is of crucial importance as it determines how the consumer perceives the organization and hence the level of their confidence on it. HSBC has created a competitive advantage based on its strength in the market with more than 9500 offices world wide and with finance strength of more than 595 billions. This has been one of its competitive advantages in the market as customers feel secure investing in the business. The institution has more than 100 million customers worldwide who frequent it branches and a further 11 million e-customers. Human resource management in HBSC With such wide operation, HBSC has employed the same large number of the workforce. In this regard, it has been able to employ more people in order to serve its customer well and in order to increase the ratio of customer service staff to customers. With a workforce of more than 260,000 people, operating in about 79 countries in the world, the company has been using strategic human resource management policies in order to create cohesion in the provision of service and in order to manage this large number of staff. The organization has found it necessary to use a strategic human resource management plan that has enabled it to manage its workforce well. In this regard, it has been able to integrate the strategic human resource management plan in its overall plan in order to make sure that it is operated within the mainstream of the organizational work. Therefore there is a great control in the organization of the human resource management process right from recruitment, induction, training and development and retiring. Let us look at the process of human resource management in the institution. Recruitment Recruitment has been one of the most important processes that have enabled the business to sustain its requirements for highly skilled human resource staff. In its recruitment it has been carrying out a wide range of methods to source for professionals in the field of financial services. One of the areas that it has been specializing in is graduate recruitment. It has a well defined graduate recruitment plan which is aimed at tapping the best talent in the market. The institution has been carrying out graduate recruitment in with special emphases on the talented youngsters whom it is able to groom through training and development to full grown banking professionals. The company recruits diverse people from all different geographical regions of the world. The organization believes in having a competitive workforce that can assist it cut a niche in the market. It has put in place policies which are aimed at attracting, motivating, and developing people who are perceptive, respective, progressive and responsive to the needs of the consumers. (Schuler, 204) Assessing performance The company carries out a staffing issues process which aims at targeting workers who are more likely to perfume their jobs efficiently. This process involves coming up with a kind of information that will help the organization to predict the way their workforce is likely to performance is case there is adjustment of the work or in case the company wants to hire new staff. Therefore before hiring the employees it also takes them through a kind of performance measure which ensures that the persons who are hired are equal to the task that hey have been hired to perform. Job performce level is also used in the organization as an indicator of work adjustment once a person joins the organization. Every job in the organization has many area dimensions of assign the performance. All these areas can be defined as criterion measures which vary on a continuum of time intervals and ranges from long-term to short terms criterion. The organization sets out standard benchmark against which the performance based on criterion is assessed. (Brewster and Sparrow, 2004) Training and development As the company enters into the 21st century, it has recognized e-commerce as one of its core areas of operation that can help it make a difference in banking. As such, the company has recognized training and development of its staff to take this dimension as one of the most important HRM factor that it has integrated in its overall HR polices. It as invested in technology and in 2000 it spent more than $20 billions in upgrading its technology and in training its staff in order to use this new technology. In order to enhance competence in the workforce, the company has been engaged in massive recruitment of young graduate and at the same time training and development of its workforce. (Lauljainen, 2003) Conclusion For a company with a worldwide operation like HSBC, there can be no better option than taking a close-knit approach in the management of its workforce. There must be an effective way of dealing with the demands of such large workforce and therefore effective HRM policies become an indispensable tool. The company has been able to apply good human resource management in order to enhance competence of its workforce. However there's still much that the company has to do in order to integrate all the workers especially to deal with the problem of discrimination in the work place. Due to its recruitment policy of people from all walks of life based on gender, ethnicity, disability or age, it has been faced by the problem of discrimination that it needs to address. This will be in line with its policy of recognizing that every individual makes an impact in the company. Reference: Boyd, C. (2003). Human resource management; New York: Rutledge Brewster, C. & Sparrow, P. (2004): Globalizing human resource management. New York: Rutledge HK Shanghai Baking Corporation, (2000): HSBC company profile. Shanghai Banking Corporation, Issue 5 King, F. (1991). Banking in Hong Kong in development; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Lauljainen, R. (2003). Financial geography according to Bankers; New York: Rutledge Schuler, S. (204). International human resource management policies and practices; New York: Rutledge Read More