Human Resource Planning and Strategic Organisational Planning: A Case Study of Westpac

This report explores the relationship between strategic organisational planning and human resource planning, as well as the challenges and methods involved in human resource planning. It also provides suggestions on developing high performing and global mindset employees and managers. The case study of Westpac bank is used for evaluation.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

REPORT 1
Contents
Executive Summary................................................................................................................2
1. Introduction..........................................................................................................................3
2. Findings and Analysis........................................................................................................3
2.1 The relationship between Strategic Organisational Planning and Human
Resource Planning..............................................................................................................3
(a) Analysis of the relationship of SO Planning and HR Planning practices used
by Westpac.......................................................................................................................3
(b) Potential challenges that may be faced by HR professional in Westpac in
aligning SO Planning and HR Planning.......................................................................4
2.2 Human Resource Planning process and methods..............................................5
(a) Analysis of the effectiveness of the HR Planning practices used by
Westpac............................................................................................................................5
(b) Two potential challenges that may be faced by HR professional in
planning for manpower needs at Westpac..................................................................6
2.3 Developing High Performing and Global Mindset Employees and Managers....7
(a) Suggestion on application of a model for developing a high performing work
team for multi-cultural workplace..................................................................................7
(b) Suggestion on how Westpac can apply a global mindset model in developing
a global mindset workforce............................................................................................8
3. Conclusion............................................................................................................................8
References...............................................................................................................................9

REPORT 2
Executive Summary
With the changing dynamics of social, political and other elements of the business
environment of the entities of the modern times, the organisations increasingly follow a
proactive approach to address the challenges. Successful entities have gained the
realisation that human resource is one of the primary sources of competitive advantage, long
term and growth, thereby enhancing the role of the human resources management within the
entities. The planning for human resources is a continuous process closely connected to the
mission, vision and goals of an organization.
The evaluation of the case study of Westpac enables to gain an insight of the nature
and the effective use of human resources in the achievement of the organizational
objectives. This is backed by analysis of the processes and methods involved, benefits
obtained and the key challenges faced. The work concludes on the fact that the human
resources and incidental processes and systems need to be effectively managed through
strategic planning by the managers to serve the stakeholders in best manner possible.

REPORT 3
1. Introduction
Organisations recognises a comprehensive corporate strategy as a means to
achieve the organisational long term goals and objectives, thereby serving the shareholders
and achieving the overall success in the global business environment (Bailey, Mankin,
Kelliher & Garavan, 2018). The top level management are chiefly responsible for the
formulation of the key strategies for the effective utilisation of the resources (Guest, 2017).
The long-term strategies are further bifurcated into short-term strategies and goals by the
departmental managers to carry out the business operations as per the blue print.
One of the vital assets of entities are known to be the human resource (Chowhan,
2016). The significance lies in the fact that efficiency and effectiveness of all the business
functions is dependent upon the performance of the human resource personnel (Rudman,
2017). Human resource planning is the process of ensuring the people with the right skills
are employees, in the right number, at the right time and positions within the entity. There
are number of incidental activities to this function namely environmental scanning,
forecasting, training and motivating and likewise (Rudman, 2013).
The following report would shed light on the various elements of the Human
Resource Planning on the lines of its relationship with the Strategic Organisational Planning,
process and methods involved and the benefits and challenges faced while attempting to
develop a high performance team and global mind set employees. The case study of the
Westpac bank has been taken into consideration for the above evaluation.
2. Findings and Analysis
2.1 The relationship between Strategic Organisational Planning and
Human Resource Planning
(a) Analysis of the relationship of SO Planning and HR Planning
practices used by Westpac
The process of planning for the objectives and the strategies to achieve it begins at
the top most level of the managerial hierarchy within an organisation ((Huczynski &
Buchanan, 2017). The long term plans are further bifurcated into short term objectives and
departmental targets are set involving the middle line managers in the next hierarchy (Horng,
Tsai, Hu & Liu, 2016). One of the primary departments of an entity is the human resource
department that is designated with the responsibility of maintaining the demands of
employees within the entity taking into account the skills and requirements of the entity and
after due discussion with the various departmental heads (Huczynski & Buchanan, 2017).

REPORT 4
On application of the principles of strategic and human resource management on the
given case study of the Westpac bank, following points are noteworthy. The entity Westpac
listed its strategic objectives as follows. These are to be leader in the provision of varied
range of services to wide range of customers, reduction of the costs of entity through digital
transformation, achieving performance discipline, achieving sustainable growth highways
and lastly, to continue enabling workforce revolution through diversity, innovation,
inclusiveness and others.
Key Point 1: Large base of employees
On evaluation of the relationship between the strategic objectives planning and the
human resource planning of the Westpac, it can be stated that in order to serve a whopping
global base of 1.5 million customers together with the 3000 shareholders, the entity has
employed a total of 40,000 employees in varied areas of banking services, insurance
services, wealth administration and management services in the regions of Australia and
New Zealand.
Key Point 2: Diverse set of employees
The second positive key point that can be stated from the evaluation of the
relationship is that every two years, the entity asks its employees to complete an Inclusion
and Diversity Survey. The survey is aimed to understand the changes that are needed to
bring in the organisation as per the considerations of the people, customers and the
community.
Thus, as per the above two instances it is evident and can be stated that there exists
a strong alignment between the strategic objective planning and human resource planning
of the entity Westpac.
(b) Potential challenges that may be faced by HR professional in
Westpac in aligning SO Planning and HR Planning
Key point 1: Establish healthy workplace culture
The entity has further responsibility of the management of the social and human
capital by indulging into activities like provision of training and learning to employees,
addressing their concerns, and enhancement of the skills of the personnel (Griffin, Phillips &
Gully, 2017). Further, it the responsibility of the managers to indulge into practice such as
strong collaboration, shared team work, volunteering and sharing feedback with regards to
any concerns on part of the employees. In addition, it is necessary to make sure to embed a
healthy workplace culture within the entity, by motivating the employees, enhancing their
capabilities and boosting their self-confidence (Dessler, 2017).

REPORT 5
Key point 2: External factors
Thus, the major challenges of that can be faced by the HR managers of the entity
Westpac while aligning the strategic objectives planning to the human resource planning can
be budgetary constraints, global competition posed by the similar diverse firms, social and
political factors and the changes in the expectations of the employees. The internal
challenges can be in the form of resolution of conflicts of the employees, assessing their
interests and adopting an efficient reward system. In the case study of Westpac, it is
observed that the Westpac Group Diversity & Flexibility Survey was conducted in the year
2014 in order to assess the accessibility requirement. The same was regarded as a welcome
step towards moving away from the asking the employees about their disabilities. The fact
that 25 percent of employees required workplace flexibility, and 23% need an adjustment to
their workplace in terms of need of an equipment or such, or the need of adjustment to work
location are the few challenges faced by the HR managers.
2.2 Human Resource Planning process and methods
(a) Analysis of the effectiveness of the HR Planning practices used by
Westpac
The human resource planning activity is not just employing the right number of
persons, possessing the right skills at the right positions; but it also comprises of a wide
range of incidental activities. The process begins with conduct of an estimate of the demand
of the number of employees needed within an organisation (Robbins & Coulter, 2012). This
is referred to as the demand analysis. The skills set needed is also examined together with
the requirements of the job position. The same is determined taking into account the future
plans of an organisation, depending upon the strategic objectives. The nest step involves the
collection of the quantitative and qualitative data in order to forecast the labour’s internals
supply (Kodama, 2018). The internal resources and capabilities are in addition evaluated.
This is further followed by the evaluation of the gaps in the demand and supply, formulation
of the organisational structure plan and balancing the gaps with the recruitment of the
employees (Robbins, Bergman & Coulter, 2008).
There is very effective HR planning practices employed at Westpac.

REPORT 6
Key point 1: Comprehensive planning model
The existing model of the Westpac, in terms of the workforce planning is comprised
of eight vital components, which are explained as follows. The workforce planning at
Westpac begins with the consideration of the vision, purpose and mission. This is followed
by the examination of the organisational goals and assessment of the existing workforce in
terms of skills and numbers. The next stage is the analysis of the capabilities needed in
future depending on the needs of the future operations of business. The fifth stage calls for
the assessment of the gaps of the capabilities and needs as compared to the existing
scenario, followed by the sixth stage of formulation of a plan to fill the said gaps. The last
stage of activities are the investment of money and resources in the significant changes and
implementation of the plan. The review of the process completes the workforce planning
model of the Westpac. Thus, there is
Key point 2: Innovative practices to retain employees
Some of the innovative practices that are employed by Westpac in order to retain the
employees are the provision of variety of leaves and flexible working atmosphere. This
boosts the confidence and morale of employees and makes them feel connected to the
organisation and addresses the issues of the high labour turnover, skill gaps and others.
Accordingly, the demands of the skilful employees is met in the Westpac.
Thus, it can be stated that there is an “effective workforce planning model” in the
organisation Westpac.
(b) Two potential challenges that may be faced by HR professional in
planning for manpower needs at Westpac
The following segment describes the challenges that me faced by the HR
professionals in the global business entities as they plan for the workforce.
Challenge 1: Resource utilisation
The first challenge is the budgetary constraints combined with the existence of
uncertainties in the external environment and internal environment of entity. The external
factors can be in the form of the changes in the legal requirements, completion from the
competitors in terms of remunerations, and others (Olson, Slater, Hult & Olson, 2018). The
internal challenges may be posed by the trade unions, resistance offered by employees,
implementation of the technological innovations in HR information systems and likewise.

REPORT 7
Challenge: Change in the needs of employees
The second challenge that can be faced by the managers and HR professionals of
the Westpac are listed as follows. In the words of Anastasia Loannou, Head of Strategic
Workforce Planning, Metrics & Surveys is that there is a need of dedicated resources and
time, which involves workforce planners engaging into efficient collaboration activities. Thus,
the second set of challenges can arise in the form of change in the global business
environment leading to critical skill gaps, high employee turnover, high levels of
absenteeism, the sudden change in the workforce dynamics, problem in retaining high
performing employees and others.
2.3 Developing High Performing and Global Mindset Employees and
Managers
(a) Suggestion on application of a model for developing a high
performing work team for multi-cultural workplace
The human resource management activities together are comprehensive in nature
and involve a number of incidental activities other than planning. Some of the key activities
are the recruitment, selection, enhancing learning and skills by training, motivating and
boosting confidence of the employees and rewarding their efforts. In order to develop a high
performing work team for diverse workplace like that of Westpac, the entities must reward
and recognise the employees via intrinsic and extrinsic means.
The first means to achieve is that the top management must clearly specify the goals
and targets of the employees, on the lines of the SMART objective for a person to achieve a
goal. Some of the considerations for the establishment of the individual and departmental
goals are the size and diversity of teams, resources of the entity, capabilities and skills of the
team members and others. It is the responsibility of the senior managers to formulate
meaningful goals for the teams that are in line with the overall goals of the entity and such
goals must have a finished date.
The achievement of the goals must further be appraised, which comprises of the
second key objective of the development of the high performing work team. The same can
be done using either the traditional techniques such as the straight ranking method, graphic
ratings and others; or modern techniques such as the 360 degree appraisal, human
resource accounting, assessment centres and others. The rewards must be backed by an
efficient Compensation and Reward System containing of benefits and incentives together
with base pay.

REPORT 8
The key instance of Westpac employees where the same are rewarded are in the
form of provision of varied leaves together with the flexibility in the working atmosphere.
(b) Suggestion on how Westpac can apply a global mindset model in
developing a global mindset workforce
The globalisation of the businesses continue to pose challenges for the businesses to
function across wide cultures and countries. The first step is that the employees and
managers must be driven to be cross culturally competent. This can be achieved by
recruiting managers from international regions, establishing the same set of practices in all
the international branches, provision of training to work in international scenarios and
appraising the successful international performances. The managers must be trained to be
more open, flexible, emotionally aware and approachable for team members.
The managers of the Westpac must be trained to motivate the employees, by
engaging into meaningful communications, job sharing, collaborative activities, group
discussions and invitation of feedbacks and such team work practices to enable the team
members’ to interact with each other and also with the managers, especially in the case of
international scenarios. It is the responsibility of the management to ensure that the flexibility
and creativity of the employees is retained together with the managers in terms of decision
making abilities.
Thus, the key take away is that the strong intercultural relationships are necessary to
react to situations in the most productive ways.
3. Conclusion
As per the discussions carried on the previous parts on lines of the strategic
objectives and human resources of the entity, it can be rightly concluded that there exist a
strong relationship between the overall planning of the business strategies and the human
resources of the entity. The work conducted in the previous parts aids to reach a conclusion
that human resources are rightly stated to be the chief assets of the enterprise because of
the dependency of almost all the business functions on them.
The case study of Westpac and the discussions conducted enable to conclude that
the management is faced by significant set of challenges at varied stages of human resource
planning and development of the efficient teams at the workplace. In addition, the prime
challenge is to inculcate the values of cross cultural acceptance and competitiveness. The
case study enabled us to learn that the long term growth and success of an entity is
extensively dependent on the time and resources involved in the planning, development and
implementation of the HR policies of the organisation.

REPORT 9
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