Human Resource Management At Natwest Bank

National Westminster bank is known by its trading name NatWest. Since 2000 it has been a part of The Royal Bank of Scotland group. NatWest bank is established in 1968 by the merger of National Provincial Bank and Westminster bank. It has 1600 branches and 3400 cash machines in United Kingdom, and provides 24 hours online banking and telephone helpline service. This bank provides full range of insurance and banking to business, personal and commercial customers.

Human resource management (HRM): human resource management is a strategic approach to develop organizational performance by using human resources effectively. HRM manages all people and resources which contribute in the achievement of the objectives of a business. HRM manage, recruit, and provide effective direction to the peoples in an organization. Humans are the main assets of an organization, and HRM manages that how they treated in organization. HRM is a function of company that deals with hiring, protection, profit, communication, training etc of people.

Human resource management functional areas in NatWest:

Staffing: this is a process of appointing new and skillful staff of the organization. In the staffing process job description and job specification are very important tools. In NatWest bank when there is a need of staff (e.g. employee’s leaving), a job description is submitted to HR department that specifies the job title, the date of employee needed, department etc. HR management’s function is to recruit the best employees for the bank, then for this the HR department look internally for this job requirement, they search for a required skill within the bank. For this search HR manager inform all the staff workers about this job requirement through memorandum or by publish on the notice board. If there is any staff person has the skill which can fulfill all the requirements of the job description then he can get that job. In other way if there HR department did not find any person for the required job then they go for external search. For external search the HR department makes an advertisement about this job and look for a suitable employee, Then from a group of candidates who applied for this job are selected by on the basis of qualification (NatWest bank ask for any honors degree with a 2:1 +minimum 240 UCAS points), experience, EU work eligibility, knowledge about job requirements, group discussion, interviewing, and all the candidates have all equal employment opportunity. After this process a final candidate who fulfills al the requirements of this job is selected. In organization the selection of the employees can be done on the basis of the referral by the current working staff of the organization, this technique can be quite important in choosing a right candidate for right job, because the current employees will be well known about the skills of the people which they are referring.

Performance Motivation: Another function of HR management stars when a new suitable and skillful employee comes into the NatWest bank. HR management takes the responsibility for creating an environment that will help to motivate and appraise. In natwest bank performance-related pay (PRP) program is used, which effected on motivation of the employees. The HR management assesses performance by formal reviews on regular periodic basis. Line managers are best measures of performance because they are in daily contact with employees, basically they conduct the motivation. There are some other ways for evaluate employee’s performance which include by self, subordinates, groups etc. the methods of appraisal which are used is using ratings to evaluate below average, average and above average performance, group ranking of all employees, by favorable or unfavorable performance, objectives management etc. The employees are rewarded through bonuses, promotions, and increase in pay and so on. The performance review method is impactful, and it becomes simple for managers to deliver feedback to employees on their progress. Performance motivation when conducted efficiently, help the company to attain quicker growth, lower costs, superior benefits, higher productivity. Sometimes in organization the salary of employees depend upon performance appraisal, and if any worker’s performance found less than ideal then there should be a cut off in pay, on other hand if any worker’s performance is good then the pay would be rise.

Employee training and development: training and development means help employees to improve their current position and prepare for the future opportunities. Changes in the structure of the organization arises the need of training and development. Acquiring or improving new skills for organization is a function of HR management, in NatWest bank this function is done by training and development. In this bank training focuses on to make employees able to do a new job efficiently and perfectly by giving them knowledge, skill and attitude which is required for a new job or task, and the training is given to employees for improve the performance of current job. Training is given by various ways like safety training to prevent accidents, developing required skills by providing technical and professional education, improvement in knowledge by supervisory training, informing and orienting employees (cherrington, 1995). These training methods help the organization and individual as well; as a result of these trainings employees will be able to use machinery properly and reduction in cost and number of accidents, employees will be able to use updated technology, reduction in learning time for new employees, quality and quantity of the productivity can be improved. In NatWest bank managers show that they are taking the goals of training seriously, the HR management shows a demonstration that tells how to do a specific job to employees; on-job training is given by managers to employees as well. Training concentrates on the current job, on other hand development help employees to improve their current knowledge and skill. The NatWest bank thinks training as a investment not as a expense, and they think it’s a long term investment for growth of the human resources. The organization shows to employees that organization is interested and inverting on employees to develop skills for future goals. In organization select an appropriate place that is perfect for learning. In organization sometimes employees think that the training which they are getting is not valuable for their jobs, so it is important to make them understand the purpose of the training. The measurement of training is very important in organization to see whether they are doing well with the training or not, and whether the results of training are positive or not.

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Objectives of HRM functions in NatWest:

Objectives of staffing:

To recruit the best people

Develop procedures to select the most deserving and suitable candidate.

To ensure all the appointments are made on merit basis.

To keep in mind council’s equal opportunity policy while recruiting.

To take applications from potential candidates who have skill, knowledge, education, experience etc which is necessary to the job.

To fulfill future demands of a job selection of an appropriate candidate.

To keep the selection procedures simple, valid and clear, and provide equal opportunities to all candidates.

Objectives of performance motivation:

To identify the future needs of development and training.

To judge the weaknesses and strengths of the employees.

To make the relationship healthier between management and employees.

To diagnose the difference between present and desired performance.

To check the performance of employees periodically.

To decrease the complaints of the employees

Feedback to the employees about their past performance

To see areas of improvement.

Motivated employees help the company to survive

Objectives of employee development and training:

To assist employees to attain their personal goals

To improve individual contribution of employees to the organization.

To bring individual effectiveness in organization

To ensure that the organization is socially and ethically to needs of the society.

To make the good use of human resources

To use the valuable time of organization on valuable tasks

Effectiveness of HRM approach in NatWest:

In NatWest bank the HR management follows the effective approach for the realization of these functional objectives. The recruiting, training and development, performance appraisal is done by according to objectives. The HR management has professional capabilities, and developed the employees effectively to meet organization’s needs. The HR management uses the correct methods of appraisal, training and recruitment. The NatWest bank is satisfied with their performance towards theirs goals, and employees are satisfied as well. The NatWest bank is using the talents and abilities of the employees effectively. The organization is achieving efficient results in short time.

HR management models:

There are two HRM models:

Hard approach

Soft approach

Hard approach: hard approach treats people as human resources, which mean it has a less humanistic edge. If NatWest bank uses this approach, then in this approach for HRM, the meaning of employees is same as the other business resources, and employees are used in same way as the raw material and equipments. Employees are used economically, exploited and developed as much as possible. It considers the resource side of human resources and manages the human resources closely matched with requirements. It is an practical and instrumental approach, in this approach people can be deployed or disposed off. It is based on hard strategic technique. If NatWest bank uses this approach, then the purpose of this is to pay the employees as low as possible, and keep them under full control. Hard approach considered as better than soft approach in organizations because it focuses on profits, and use the human resources to gain as much profit as possible.

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Soft approach: soft approach focuses on human aspects of human resources, and it deals with motivation and communication. This approach is about partnership and commitment. If NatWest bank uses this approach, then People are directed than managed, and treat human resources as valuable assets to increase commitment and loyalty. It gives higher values to employees, but gives importance to HR policies with business objectives as well. In soft approach communication plays an important role in management, and gives value to the relation between employer and employee. If NatWest bank uses soft approach, then aim of this is to use the employees optimally as the valuable assets of the bank.

Task 2:

Human resource planning and development: human resource planning is concerned to control the flow of people in the organization. Human resource planning is a vital part of budgeting actions and corporate planning. To achieve organization goals HRP implement a strategy on right place, right number of people, correct time and with right skills. HR planning influences both productivity and turnover. HR planning is a method of comparing human resource demand and supply. HR planning take a look of organization’s present resources, then forecasts the demand and supply of the human resources. HR planning and development methods that occur in an organization are:

Judgmental method:

This method uses the information of expert peoples for forecast the future. It deals with future judgments or estimates. Judgmental method includes following techniques:

Delphi technique: it is a systematic forecasting method which depends on a group of experts, and based on thinking that panel judgments are more accurate than individuals. In two or more rounds, the experts answer questions. After every round the pervious summary of expert’s judgments, and the reasons which they provided for their judgments are forecasted. A facilitator is used to give responses to the group of experts. Then experts revise their previous answers on the bases of the feedback of other members of group. The range of answers decreases during this process and the group comes with a final answer, the body of experts arrives at a conclusion. The reason to use the ideas of experts rather than non-experts is, there is a belief that the expert’s view of future should be better than non-experts. While choosing any group of experts, it should be in mind considered, that what kind of experts are needed for what kind of future.

Survey technique: survey technique is used to collect information about future needs from people. It is an efficient way of collecting information from large number of respondents. Surveys have flexible quality that a large number of information can be collected. People are asked by their expectations in future. A representative sample of questions is selected and then the answers and behavior of people is forecasted by aggregating the responses and answers of the people. In an organization the internal or external surveys can be done.

Management forecast technique: this method depends on line manager’s forecast, which means the forecast is made by the front line managers. They deal with staff and make a decision, and it depends on managers that they want to meet employee individually or together.

Mathematical method:

These methods basically focus on past trends. This method has following techniques:

Time series analysis: in this the past events of employee are estimated for the future. Time series includes ups and downs of season, long term events and past cycles. The one thing that makes it different from other analysis, that it has normal sequential ordering.

Productivity ratio: this ratio deals with the number of staff members needed to manage the different level of workloads. So the ratio is maintained by changing staff levels as workload changes. The productivity equation ratio is workload / number of staff. The only ratio matters, workload is measured by any unit. So in the workload drops then the staffing will drop.

Personnel ratio: this method is used to allocate staff between jobs. Sometimes there is a comparative relation between number of staff on one job and on another thus it estimates one job depends on other.

Regression analysis: it makes a statistical comparison of the past relationship among various factors. It is used to quantify relation between two variable groups. It is also used to understand the relation between dependent variables and independent variables.

Effectiveness of these methods:

These methods are very effective in organization to achieve objectives; these methods define better sale strategies of the organization. These methods provide answers to the organization, like whether to stop production of any product, which kind of product is in major demand etc. these methods help the organization to set their future goals effectively, and organization can divide the workload between employees effectively. These methods make things easy for organization for e.g. managing uncertainty. These methods help the organization to predict profit, demand, supply, production, borrowing, and help to be financially successful. These methods help the organization to make decisions, by this company can prevent losses and can turn them into profit. These methods prevent the organization to make planning that will fail in the future. These methods help the organization to know about the weaknesses and strengths of the staff, and to decrease the complaints of employees. These methods make the organization able to make the effective use of human resources and to achieve future goals.

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Task 3:

Performance: performance means the activities towards the goals of the organization. Performance is a result of organization’s activities into a given period of time to achieve organizational goals. The process to setting work atmosphere on which employees can execute with their best abilities, is performance management.

Performance of employees is measured and monitored: monitoring and measuring means consistently measurement of employee’s performance and provide the feedback on their progress towards the organizational goals. In NatWest bank the performance of employees are measured and monitored continually on regular intervals. Regular monitoring and measuring provides organization the opportunity to see how effectively the employees are meeting the standards of the organization and going on right path or not.

Methods of measuring and monitoring performance:

Quality: by the measurement of quality the performance of employees can be measured. The percentage of inquiries converted into sales shows a salesmanship quality, as a result the higher percentage shows a good salesmanship quality and lower percentage shows the poor salesmanship quality.

Through meetings: the meeting provides a very direct and practical way of monitoring the progress of individual employees. The views are exchanged frankly from both sides and the performance of employees measured by the progress toward their targets.

Labour productivity: performance can be measured by Labour productivity by looking at how much work is done by each worker (output per period/number of employees at work).

Staff absents: the amount of time employees are having work off, helps to measures the motivation and morale of the employees.(number of staff absent in one day*100/total number of staff) if it is high then it will cost the money and decrease the profit.

Labour turnover: Labour turnover (number of staff leaving per year*100/average number of staff) means the number of employees leaving the organization each year. If it is high then the reason may be low wages or insufficient training.

Assessment: the employees are appraised by expert assessors, and then the assessors evaluate the work activities of the employees. This is a very effective method as well because the results are not produced on the personal relationship basis.

Team motivation: by team motivation method is also an effective method of performance monitoring. The workers on different positions appraise each other’s work or work styles, so with this method the contribution of each employee can be clearly evaluated.

Quantity: quantity plays an important role in measurement of performance of employees. The number of units produced, sold and processed is an indicator of performance.

Time: performance is measured by time, the number of units produced per hour. High number of units indicates good performance and low rated as bad.

Effectiveness of methods:

Yes, the methods or measurement and monitoring of employee performance are effective. These methods are simple and easy for evaluation. These methods lead to maximize staff performance and help employees to achieve goals. These methods are used to turn negativities into positivities and help to increase employee’s morale. The purpose of these methods is to achieve high performance, so it helps employees to maximize the productivity. These methods help employees to reach their peak performance, by telling them how they are doing towards getting their goals. These methods make a trust between organization and employees which leads to a better and effective communication between them. Most importantly these methods encourage the employees to do better in future, rather than by criticizing and decrease their morale. The evaluation or measurement of performance is not done on the personal basis.

At the moment the NatWest bank has effective methods of measurement and monitoring performance of employees, but as the world industry growing day by day the improvements can be made according to the needs.

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