Strategic Human Resource Management In Barclays Commerce Essay

Barclays Pakistan. With a network of more than 155,000 people working globally across a range of businesses, we consider Barclays one of the best organizations for case study in order to explain the strategic human resource management; Barclays Bank Pakistan commenced operations in July 2008. With such a diversified network of the organization the HR experts work with every single employee and Business Unit to help the Barclays stay ahead from other organizations in the competition and by attracting and retaining the best people available, all over the world. This is not done by recruiting new employees but also committed to nurturing its established colleagues. The HR teams play a vital role in monitoring performance and managing a host of training programs.

More importantly in the last one decade, the Banking Sector in Pakistan has become highly dynamic and competitive because of more international banks and local banks are offering the same products and services to the customers. To motive the employees the Barclays bank also introduced a pension scheme which also falls within the Human Resources Teams’ remit. This team makes sure the full support to all 155,000 employees across the world. Retirement Fund and the Pension Fund Executive works with the fund’s Trustees to ensure the scheme operates to the highest standard.

Human Resource Planning (HRP)

Human resource planning is needed to have a sense of both the current external environment, and anticipate things that may happen in the future in the labor market place. Human resource strategies to be implemented must be translated to the employees clearly so that they can well understand the strategies and you can get best out of it.

At Barclays human resources are considered as a capital of the bank the course of action of planning process translated to the Human Capital for the achievement of predetermined goals. This is the organization’s most valued assets – the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the business. If the strategies are not properly communicated to the employees it becomes a barrier in the increase of loyalty factor of the employees with the organization. The company also needs to categorize the HR planning in to short, medium and long term.

HRP – The Process

The most important thing for HR management is to understand the needs, demand and nature of business requirement, in this way he will be able to employ those who will deliver the required performance. The manager have to take keen interest for spotting the talent, this is called right man for the right job and ensures that the workforce is competent enough the meet the targets. Future workload must be calculated before hiring new employees, and from this way you HR can design an accurate job profile and job expectations. At Barclays well experienced HR manager are hired and motivate his prospective employees to perform to their potential. Steps involved in the Human Resource Planning Process are as under:

Designing the Management System – The first step in human resource planning process is to develop an efficient system for managing human resource in the organization to ensure the linkage of individual’s targets and objectives with the organizational strategies. The plans, procedures, practices and policies of related to human resource come under this HR management system. An ERP system should be in place to manage all the record and data related to each and every employee of the organization. This will help to analyze the performance of each individual and also to analyze the performance of a whole workgroup. The managers can evaluate the current performance by comparing it with the previous trends which would be easily accessible form the ERP system. The policies and procedures should be put together in the system so that certain HR function may be automated and data can be updated automatically. An example of such system can be an automated attendance system for employees. An employee marks his or her attendance on his arrival in the office and marks his/her departure time. This is a small example that can automate one of the human resource practices in the organization. Implementation of such automated system should be the part of human resource planning in order to avoid the wastage of time due to manual work. In this way the resources can be utilized any other productive activity.

Environmental Analysis – After strengthening the internal systems the analysis of internal and external environment is done in the next phase of human resource planning. The collection of data related to the industry, technology, competition, unemployment rate, inflation rate, labor market trends and economy is required to be collected and an analysis of the past trends should be done. This analysis will become the foundation for the decision regarding the human resource management in the organization. In this competitive business environment, organization attracts the skilled labor as the key to success is the skilled workforce. Organizations should continuously analyze the human resource practices of the competitors in order to facilitate their employees with the same or even higher to keep them loyal to the organization. As if this is not the case then the employee will leave the organization and will join the other who is offering good compensation and other facilities. Analyzing the economy trend and inflation rates will help to determine that how much organization has to raise the salaries of the employees in the future.

Forecasting Human Resource Demand – The future needs and types of the employees are forecasted in the next phase of human resource planning process. For instance the analysis of the industry and the labor market will help to evaluate that how well the labor market will fulfill the future needs of the organization. It is quite possible that organization may need the skilled business development officers in the coming year and the analysis indicate that this need will not be fulfilled by the labor market. In this case the planning for training the existing workforce to meet the future needs will be done. Bottom-up forecasting is very popular for analyzing such demand of human resource in the future.

Analyzing Human Resource Supply – Internal and external hiring are both the techniques which can be used by the organizations. Maintaining the data bank of the possible candidates is another important part of the human resource planning. This data bank of potential candidates allows the organization more leverage to select the skilled candidates from a list of experienced and skilled employees.

Reconciliation and Planning

All the data, information and analysis of different alternatives collected from different sources are gathered and action plan are developed in the last phase of human resource planning process. The acceptation of plan is the key issue for top management and employees and barriers to success of plan should be identified to the key players. Many of these plans include training and management development plan, appraisal plan, employee utilization plan and human resource supply plan.

Human Resource Strategy

HR Strategy is aligning the goals of HR to the goals or strategy of your organization, recruitment, retention and termination are a small part of it. PEOPLE designed and structured a variable compensation scheme for Barclays Bank – Investment Banking Group. The new scheme was built upon an equitable and balanced approach which took into account individual performance factors as well as market movements. The idea of Human Resource strategy and its alignment with the business strategy came in to practice by most of the organization in 1960s. There are different strategies and patterns related to HR systems which are involved in the formulation of HR strategy.

Preparation of Job Description Documents / Job Profiling

Evaluation and bench marking

Grading structure development

Compensation mechanism and quantum evaluation

Development of a comprehensive set of policies in the form of a HR Manual

Evaluation of all organizational and operational needs of the Bank

Re-structuring the business divisions of Barclays Bank according to change management agenda

Compilation of a comprehensive Job Description Manual for all unique position in Barclays in light of the newly restructured organization

Performance management system and related training

Compensation policy design and realignment

Barclays Human Resource strategy components

Employee Training – Barclays is very keen in employee’s training whether the employee is newly hired or existing one. Training is mandatory for newly hired staff and after the training they are tested if they failed in the test they are not eligible for the job. For the old employees the company conduct on-job and off-job training programs to enhance the skills and knowledge of the employees. Barclays conducts the employees training for these benefits:

Improved job satisfaction and morale among employees

Enhance employee motivation

Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain

Development of capacity to adopt new technologies and methods

Increased innovation in strategies and products

Reduced employee turnover

Enhanced company image,

Risk management, e.g., training about sexual harassment, diversity training

Learning Management System – Barclays offers Learning Management System that is an online tool designed to help individuals to manage their training.

Mentor programs – Barclays encourages mentoring within the organization. Colleagues will be rewarded through this mentoring program.

Recruitment and Selection – The process of recruitment and selection at Barclays is initiated by the concerned departments and for this purpose candidates are interviewed by different persons of the concerned departments at different levels. From this process of identified that what is organization need and who is the suitable candidate to fill this post.

Performance Appraisal – Each employee at Barclays know his/her key performance indicators. A performance appraisal is a part of guiding and managing career development. It is the process of obtaining, analyzing, and recording information about the relative worth of an employee to the organization.

Job specification – A job specification goes beyond a mere description – in addition, it highlights the mental and physical attributes required of the job holder. Barclays clearly highlights the job specification to the hired employees. Job analysis, description, and specification can provide useful information to the job holder and he clearly knows his responsibilities.

Career Development – Through this way employees manage their careers within organization. The way of career development clearly indicated to the employees.

Rewards and Benefits – Barclays employees all over the world enjoy a range of benefits including financial bonuses, private healthcare and flexible working, which vary depending on the region in which they are based.

Remuneration – Barclays pays competitive salaries and bonus and benefits according to the industry benchmark. Bonus and benefits depends on the individual performance and a company pension scheme is also available.

Discounts – Employees in certain parts of the world benefit from ‘YOUniquely Barclays’ – a range of Barclays products and services offered to employees on preferential terms. Including Buy-A-Car scheme, banking products, insurance and travel services, and the scheme offers comprehensive cost savings.

Health – Barclays offers a health and wellbeing benefit to its employees and many of them qualify for medical expenses scheme, offering the comfort of access to private healthcare treatment. It also provides discounts at major health care clubs.

Flexibility – Barclays offers flexible working hours to the employees through flexible working practices.

Resource Based Strategy

A strategic human resource tool known as resource based strategy is used to analyze and evaluate the current position of the human resources available to the organization. Resource based strategy allows the organization to identify those resources which are able to give a competitive advantage to the organization over the other firms. After the identification of these resources the efficient utilization of them is planned through multiple strategies. Every organization possess certain resources which can give them a leading edge over the others in the market, the need is to recognize those resources. At times the organizations having so many resources which can give competitive advantage fail to succeed in the market. The major reason behind that is that organization do not identify or recognize or give importance to these resources and they use such resources inefficiently which causes the failure of those organizations. At Barclays Pakistan, this strategy is used to identify the resources which brings a short term competitive advantage in to a long term and sustainable competitive advance which is not imitated or copied by the other organizations. Superior value is created by efficiently using the resources and a leading edge is taken over the competitors that are the reason that in 3 years Barclays has been in a very good financial position and is among the leading banks operating in Pakistan.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage – The major focus of the resource based strategy of Barclays Pakistan should be to attain a sustainable competitive advantage. This will allow the newly established bank in Pakistani market to gain more experience and a market leadership position in the future. At the moment there are other Pakistani local banks which are having a leading position and a huge customer as well as deposit base. For Barclays to achieve that position is not an impossible task as with an international banking experience and by identification of resources responsible for sustainable competitive advantage, the leading position in the market can be attained.

Distinctive Capabilities – According to the new resource based view, the changing market conditions and their responses from the organizations determine the effectiveness of sustainable competitive advantage. For Barclays Pakistan, responding to the changes in the market condition would be very necessary in order to maintain the effectiveness of sustainable completive advantage. The bank has to build the distinctive capabilities which will maintain a sustainable competitive advantage in the market.

Leadership – There is a difference between a leader and a manager. A leader is not only a manager, but is a role model for the others in the organization. It was said that leaders are not made rather they are born, but the studies proven this wrong as innovation and research in human resource management revealed that leaders can be built by effective human resource practices. Barclays need to build the leader from their employees as everyone has the capability of being a good leader. The bank should engage their employees in to different training and development programs which enable them to work in a competitive environment with a team spirit. Having such leadership qualities in the workforce will definitely lead them to gain a huge competitive advantage over the other banks in the country.

Systemic and radical Innovation – To get continuous success in the modern business world innovation is very important. The firm who do not innovate their products and services do not sustain in the market for long. This is because the customer’s needs and demands are changing very rapidly and to meet those demands the organizations had to offer new products. Barclays has been catering their customers in other countries very efficiently and in Pakistani market the bank needs innovation in the products and services according to the local needs and demands. The saving trend in Pakistan is not at the higher side as most of the people are hand to mouth and they spent whatever they earn, so the products and service offerings should be designed by keeping in mind this major factor of Pakistani market. Innovation should be in a systematic way, as Pakistan’s banking sector has seen a tremendous growth in the past one decade and now the need is to invent the essential features of the banking business. Barclays Pakistan can become the pioneer of this radical innovation and gain the huge customer’s attention and can increase its profits.

Resource and Competence-based Strategy

Today, customer is considered as the king, meeting their needs and demands is the primary objectives of all the organizations. Resource based strategy leads the organization to achieve such competencies which assures the fulfillment of needs and demands of the customers. Analyzing the half SWOT, i.e. strengths and weaknesses of the organization helps to overcome the internal weaknesses and capitalizing the strengths to serve the customers in a best possible way. Identifying the valuable resources and gaining the winning competencies combination allows the organization to innovate and design such offering for the customers which meet their needs and demands. The available valuable resources are utilized by the organization in an efficient and productive manner and can be used for innovating products and services. This will enable the organization to maintain a competitive and leading position in the market.

By analyzing the weaknesses an organization can gain the completive advantage by following cost leadership strategies and overcoming those weaknesses which are responsible for the wastage of the time and valuable resources of the organization. By saving the valuable resources an organization is able to utilize them in serving the customers in a better way. This makes the organization unique from the others and helps to increase the market share. Resource and competence-based approaches are particularly valuable when the boundaries of the business can be changed through, for example:

Considering Make versus Buy alternatives

Entering new markets around the globe

Installment of new technologies

Adversity is at hand.

Achieving sustainable competitive advantage.

You need innovation to improve your business.

Best utilization of your resources in plans to achieve your objectives.

Linking business and HR strategy

Businesses today demand a strong relationship between the human resource and organizational strategies. The business whose personnel policies and procedures lead towards the achievement of organization strategies and objectives are successful. This relationship is the major contributor in creating the value of the organization. The policies and procedures of the human resource department of an organization should focus towards the employee training and development and introduction and innovation of career paths which corresponds to the corporate objectives of the organization. In the past the purpose of human resource department was only to manage and maintain the data of the employees in the organization, but with the passage of time the major purpose of the human resource became to develop a skilled and strong workforce that can give a competitive advantage to the organization. Skilled workforce one of those factors which cannot be imitated by the other organization and thus the competitive advantage become sustainable for a longer period of time.

Another major purpose of human resource department in the organization is to introduce and maintain the corporate culture in the organization. This should be done by motivating the employees and developing programs which encourages the employees to develop their skills and apply them on the job which can be beneficial for the organization.

Organizational Design/Structure of Barclays Pakistan

Organizational structure shows the Hierarchy of organization management system along with flow of duties and responsibilities. Organization structures are different in different organizations it depends on number of factors like organization size, geographical locations, organization type, nature of product etc. A hierarchy exemplifies an arrangement with a leader who leads leaders. This arrangement is often associated with bureaucracy. Hierarchies were satirized in The Peter Principle (1969), a book that introduced hierarchy and the saying that “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence”.

At Barclay’s organization structure is divided into different work groups and work units based on their skills, expertise, resources, and knowledge, as shown in the figure each department has individual head that is called HOD (head of department). All HOD’s are reported to the Country Head, and each manager is reported to the Head of his/her department.

Description of Worker groups at Barclays Pakistan

Every worker group/division of Barclays has separate role and functions, which are stated as under:

Head Finance – Head Finance is responsible for bringing important financial controls to a company and all the financial activities in the organization. These controls includes management of all the cash flows, expenses, establishing credit policies for customers and also responsible for conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis in order to arrive at an understanding of the options that are available.

Head Risk – The core responsibilities include managing a team of credit specialists covering performance management, Set up and then manage robust monitoring & control systems & procedures, Ensure that Risk Control & Credit procedures, training & developing. Shaping the team and improving processes. Acting as an escalation point for complex credit cases as well as dealing with internal and external clients.

Head Corporate Banking – This segment involves in sales to the corporate segment of the particular region, making credit line, credit proposals and making sure of effective utilization of bank credit line. Corporate sales and planning is an integral function of this business division.

Head of Internal Audit – Barclays audit department is an independent authority and helps the organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of risk management, control, and governance processes.” It is designed in way to add value and improve operational and governance process.

Head Investment Banking – At Barclays Investment Banking Unit is developed for the investment actives of the bank.

Head Human Resource – Barclays this division is responsible to manage the human resource and is responsible for all the HR functions which are mentioned earlier.

Head Marketing – This segment is responsible for marketing campaigns for all the new and existing product and services of the organization. Getting feedback from consumers and making the new strategies to achieve the required targets. Business planning that involves the future market forecasting market segmentation is also a function of this department.

Head Liability Sales – This is the core unit of Barclays and responsible for bring in the new customers and finally deposits for the bank. They get the deposits in different kinds like current account, saving account and term deposits.

Head Retail & Commercial Banking – Commercial banking is also known as business banking. Bank provides current account, saving account and accept time deposits. Commercial Banking is different from investment banking and retail banking, bank accept deposit from individual customers and corporations and gives loans to large businesses.