ANZ Bank HRM Policies and Practices - Case Study Example

ANZ BANK HRM POLICIES AND PRACTICES Introduction The turmoil growth of Human resources has been witnessed in the world both in public life and business. Managers are surrounded by challenging and complex situations as a result of the turbulent climates in the business sector brought within the aspects of globalization, liberation, transforming technologies as well as advancement in the information technology (Storey, 2007). The human resource management has emerged as one of the most significant section of organization science and practice. This areas has developed in segregation, however, in an industrial transformation and economic growth context. The unique approach of human resources needs adverse type of attention form managers and leaders. This implies that it has some features that offers a great challenge and opportunity. According to wright, McMahan and Smart 1995, the important inputs in an organization remains its human resource. Employees brings along their job diversity, goals, skills, needs, and expectations to an organization. As a result, they get to be socialized into the organization through hiring and their ongoing functionality in the organization. It is clear that there is need to make sure that the human resource requirements in an organization are identified, followed with plans on how to satisfy them adequately (Armstrong, and Taylor, 2014). General, HRM has been referred to as the strategic and broad managerial personnel involvement, employees concern as an organization most crucial assets, proactive in its responsibility and contains the goal to enhance organization performance and meeting employee needs. In order to get an in-depth understanding and operative context of HRM this paper seeks to explore the ANZ bank in this context Background The operations of ANZ bank has been underway for 180 years. It offers banking services in 34 markets globally such as Australia which hosts its headquarters. The bank is among the top bans in Australia and also holds a top most rank worldwide. The business operates in the banking sector where there is increased competition from other players such as the commonwealth bank. However, despite of the big banks smaller banks and financial institutions that offers banking services are also key competitors in the industry (Joshi, Cahill, and Sidhu, 2010). The areas of corporate strategies. Workforce forms the philosophy of ANZ’s HRM and the features of HRM practice in ANZ. The bank has a strong command and believe that motivated knowledgeable workforce will help the bank offer the n=best services to its customers and contribute a lot to the long term success of the company. As a result through its HRM section the company conducts employee engagement survey annually and this move enables it to come up with action plan in addressing the survey feedback. The HRM in the banks is aimed at offering employees a terms and conditions employment where there is fairness and reasonable and line up with the business values and human rights. ANZ runs a group diversity policy that helps to recognize the inclusive and diverse workforce as a strategic assets and an essential tools towards attained of growth objectives (Cuganesan, 2006). The policy is focused towards gender age, cultural back ground disability as well as sexual orientation. This indicates that the company has had progressive improvements in making an all-encompassing workforce. Discussion Workforce management challenges is a common factor among the banking sector. In the case of ANZ the issues related to effectiveness and efficiency of HR sections is a key aspect. The major challenges are based on lack of power and ability to respond constantly to transforming external and internal pressures that poses a challenge to the attainment of operational excellence and improvement of the workforce effectiveness and ensuring prevalence of a culture that is based on leadership and be able to capitalize on the development of emerging markets (Barney, and Wright, 1998). It can also be stated that the HR services are aggressive enough in identifying the available opportunities in human resource delivery models which forms an integral part in driving great value. In the case of organization’s key HRM practices alignment with the organization’s HRM and business. ANZ is aimed at fostering a working environment such that employees are fortified to express their ideas, concerns and opinions freely. The employee engagement cases sees a situation where the workforce remain motivated knowledgeable and engaged all the time (Roberts, Kossek, and Ozeki, 1998). Employees within the company enjoys the freedom of association where their rights are respected by the company and permitted to join associations that best suits them. The company does not seem to interfere with the works decision associate and not associate and there is no any form of discrimination based on these phenomena. HRM strategy and workforce plan in ANZ are linked with the strategic plan of the company this is in terms of meeting the company mission and achievement of the organization goals. The bank is strict when it comes to employment where they ensure that they have enough human resource to meet their operational plans through the help of the right people with the right skills. Technological trends must be a key factor to consider and change management in case the banks future seems different than expected. The management of the bank seems concerned of the future as they emphasis more on employee training and freedom to ensure that they remain self-motivated. These steps and approaches are facilitated by the analysis of their existing human resource and exterior labor markets. The point to note in this case is that the bank is committed to towards better working and employees standards. The HRM management has made remarkable steps that show that their policies are in line with the workforce plan The HRM practices effective design and integration in ANZ can be addressed from the conception that people are able to understand the company goals and the manner in which the efforts they put contributes to those goals. This following the fact that for HRM to be effective it has to be surrounded by quality employees who are motivated to maximum performance and assistance in meeting psychological and social needs (Bowen, and Ostroff, 2004). As stated earlier the ANZ employees enjoys an assortment of freedom and this results into long lasting relationships with skilled and happy workforce. ANZ productivity has been encouraging for quite some time and this can only be achieved once the employees hired are the right one and the motivation practices are effective. A good human resource management practice translates to satisfied workforce and from this point it is evident that ANZ HRM practice has be integrated well leading to improvement in work and efficiency and motivated employees. HRM practices and HRM strategy in the bank are face with a number of challenges and the most evident one is on recruitment and retention of the right candidates. The markets that the Bank is operating in are experiencing growth and development. This makes ANZ recruitment a real problem because there are other competitors and who are attracting the right talent workforce as well. Therefore, to be able to attract capable candidates ANZ has to provide policies that are reasonable and favored by the domestic market conditions and have a clear comprehension of what is needed by the candidates. For instance the policies must be in a position to provide employees with training opportunities as well as conducive working environment (Jackson, and Schuler, 1995). However, the issue of HRM policies is also face d with difficulties such as lack of a large pool of talented candidates. This makes the process of acquiring the best difficult and ANZ is forced to employ a candidate to fill a position even if not fully right for the position. This is a clear indication that HR people shortages needs ANZ to come up or improve on the existing strategies. Findings and Conclusions According to this papers investigation is that ANZ bank seems to have experience that strong leadership is an integral factor in providing and improving the workplace and opportunities for employees. This comprises of improved and improving awareness and comprehension among the employees, development of organization capacity as well as governance to make sure that the ANZ initiatives are offering the right support to its workforce. ANZ through its HRM section is committed to increase its workforce access towards flexible work arrangements which becomes a requirement and not an exception. The HRM management in ANZ holds a strong flexible working arrangements such that its workforce remains able to achieve and contribute the best in the workplace. The section also makes a business sense by assisting the ANZ retain and attract the best talent in the banking market. In a census conducted on ANZ people indicated that more than half of its workforce benefited from flexible work arrangements. ANZ follows this aspect of flexible working arrangements to promote employees accessibility to a widened range of flexible working and leave arrangements (Becker, et al. 1997). The flexibility concept gives employees’ morale to explore more on how working arrangements can assist people attain personal and career goals. Some of these flexibility aspects identified include flexible start and end times, telecommunication, paid parental leave, job sharing, part time work, study leave and career extension. These options are seen to be valued by aspects such as employees and careers. However, it is notable that absence of understanding or diversity awareness can lead into fear of employing people with diverse cultural background, experience and skills and other forms of disabilities. HRM practices in ANZ or other organization setting shows that lack of clear comprehension can act as a barrier to retaining, recruiting an assisting career development. As a result ANZ through its human resource management section sticks on continues focus towards awareness and training as well as adoption of other management tools. Recommendations ANZ should continue on with its flexible work practices as this will keep its workforce remain focused and contribute their best in the workforce will translate into timely achievement of goals. As indicated earlier attracting and retaining the best will be possible through the practice. Apart from the above mentioned practice, ANZ should also invest more on the following areas; ANZ must make sure that its HR managers are of sound knowledge on different cultures as this will assist them in recruiting globally. The organization HR policies should be assessed together with employee guidelines to make sure that only the right people are recruited for the right job and the measures to retain these people are put into place. It is crucial for the HR managers to make sure that they present clear expectations from the banks HRM section to get the employees informed of what the banks strategies are in regard to recruitment and promotion inside the bank from seniors to the subordinate’s staff (Miles, and Snow, 1984). Finally, despite of all the identified measures that ANZ has undertaken to make sure that its works force remains motivated and satisfied the HR managers and HRM section a s a whole must maintain and implement pay practices that are competitive and adopt other benefiting programs to increasingly foster a motivational climate for employees. Reference List Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers. Barney, J.B. and Wright, P.M., 1998. On becoming a strategic partner: The role of human resources in gaining competitive advantage. Human Resource Management (1986-1998), 37(1), p.31. 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