Importance of Human Resource Management in Merrill Lynch Company

This report concludes the importance of human resource management in Merrill Lynch Company by analyzing the functions of HRM related to workforce management, recruitment and selection processes, training and development, and employee relations. External and internal factors affecting decision-making are also studied.

Programme Title BTEC Pearson L4 in Business
Unit Number and Title Unit 3 Human Resource Management
Targeted Learning
outcomes
LO1, LO2, LO3 and LO4
Referred Pass Merit Distinction
Unit Final Grade
Learning Outcomes Feedback Grades awarded
LO 1
LO 2
LO 3
LO 4
Guidance for improvement / Action Plan / General comments

Date assignment marked:__________________________

Human Resource Management

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management is strategic approach of organisation for effective
management of employees and people related to organisation. There are different activities and
practices are used by the HRM department in the company to manage and improve and enhance
the performance and productivity of employees to gain marketplace advantage for higher
marginal profit and generate high revenue (Bondarouk, Meijerink and Leak, 2016). These
practices of HRM focuses on the individual employee performance to provide the company with
advantage in target market. This report is providing brief about function and activities of human
resource management in the organization to learn different strategy of HRM practices in Merrill
Lynch Firm. Merrill Lynch Firm id providing financial services to the company clients. This
company was founded in 1914 by Charles E. Merrill. Company is operation on May location
around the globe. The parent company of Merrill Lynch organisation is the Bank of America.
This report is providing the brief of work force management practices of HRM in Merrill Lynch
Firm. Functions of HRM are explained to find effectiveness of these practices. All the internal
and external factors of organisation are covered in study to evaluate their influence on Merrill
Lynch Company.
TASK 1
Purpose and function of HRM.
Human resource management — It is the blueprint that described the management approach.
Firm can use in the business to manage the People by organising, Planning, controlling, directing
and recruiting (Paredes, 2019). This approach helps to manage the people effectively in a
workplace such that they help their business to achieve the future goal and helps to take a
competitive advantage. This department enhances the development among the employee through
different learning programme as they able to achieve the goal of the organisation.
Nature -
1. It gives confident among the people that they have and ability to achieve goal of the firm.
2. It provides the training and development program to employees for develop their skills.
3. The main aim of achieving the goal of the firm with rules and regulations.
4. It is the inclusion function that helps to manage the people in an organisation.
Scope -
Personal management — The main scope of is that hiring, recruiting and motivate the people
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By provide training, placement, promotion, transfer, power, productivity etc.
Industrial relationship — in this, it contains grievance handling, collective bargaining, reduce
disputes, managing the relationship with co-workers etc.
Welfare aspect — In this strategy HR staff is concentrate on health and safety aspect of
employees, education level, provide better canteen facilities, flexible working hours,
transportation activities etc (Stachová, Stacho and Blštáková2019).
Purpose and function -
Recruitment and selection — Recruitment is the process of hiring and selecting the best
candidates by inviting the employees through advertising in newspaper, TV, social platforms etc.
This is the process that helps to firm for selecting the best candidate according to the
qualification and knowledge of employees (Ahmad, 2015). In this the purpose of Merrill lynch is
to recruit the best candidate for the suitable job position firm can use the internal and external
method for selecting the employees. Internal method provides the helps to firm for select the
candidate within the business like provide the opportunity to existing employees through
promotion transfer etc. on the other side external method provide helps to Merrill lynch for
recruit the candidate outside the business, as this method grab the new ideas that helps to make
the new and innovative products (Banfield, Kay and Royles, 2018). Thus, Merrill lynch used
these both methods for the purpose of this function is to select the best employees regarding
enhance the productivity. Thus, it makes better work force planning based on Channing needs
and requirements of employees.
Training and development — This process is provided the training facility to the employees for
develop the new skills in the employees for performing their work accordingly. Merrill lynch use
this method for the purpose of increase the knowledge among the employees. Therefore, they do
their work effectively and makes higher production (Fu, Jonathan and Bano, 2019). Thus, it
helps to enhance the profitability of the firm.
Hard HRM — This process is described that firm only focuses on productivity as they hire the
person on the needs of company. Thus, Merrill lynch pay the minimum salary to employees by
recruit the enough staff as requirements.
Soft HRM — This process is describing that firm many focuses on employees that they believe
that human resource is important resources for the business. Therefore, firm provides the benefits
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to enhance the motivation among the employees like, promotion, bonus, incentives, holidays,
insurance, retirement benefits etc.
Strength and weakness of different approaches of recruitment and selection
Types of recruitment Strength Weakness
Internal Method- it is the
process which select the
employees within the business
through transfer, promotion,
job rotation and rehiring
Save cost of recruitment —
in this process the cost of
recruits is less because Merrill
lynch do not advertise job
vacancy on outside (Uysal,
2019). Thus, they
communicate directly to the
employees through general
meetings. There are many
emplo0yees in organisation
and these employees who are
currently working in
organisation have enough
experience. So, organisation
do not have to spend extra
amount on training and
development of employees.
Enhance motivation among
employees — Merrill Lynch
provide the opportunity to the
people it helps to enhance the
motivation and productivity of
the firm (Bondarouk, Meijer
ink and Leak, 2016). This
approach of interview can
provide better opportunity to
employees in same
Lack of innovative ideas —
This method provides the few
choices that means the pool of
fresh talent and innovative
ideas is not considered is
remained constant. In the
internal interview the
employee is less innovative
because they are not aware of
latest technology. This reduces
the chances of innovation in
organization.
Increase the conflicts — this
method increases the conflict
because firm provide
opportunity to one person and
other person feel dissatisfied,
and they do not work properly
so it leads conflicts and reduce
productivity.
Less option of selection –
when an organisation conducts
internal recruitment then they
have limited option and they
have to make selection within
the available options. This
thing reduces the chances to
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organization and if one person
is awarded with promotion on
their positive work in
organization this will also
motivate other people to work
accordingly with higher
efficiency.
Continuity of operations – In
the internal process the cost of
recruitment is minimum also
Merrill Lynch provide the
opportunity to existing
employees so adopting the
new job is easy for them
because they already
understand the environment of
the firm. that means Merrill
Lynch Chances are that an
internal employee can
transition into the new role
with minimal downtime. Thus,
the cost is less while using the
internal method also this
process is not affecting the
operational activities.
Less paper work – Using the
internal process it also helps
because it provides the less
paper work While there will
be some HR forms to change,
firm won’t necessarily have to
select right person with
required qualities (Bloom,
Sadun and Van Reenen, 2015).
Limited in choice -
Merrill Lynch could be limited
your choices because through
internal recruitments firm have
no choice as They select the
candidate on the performance
basis not on the basis of new
ideas and experiences so, this
is the biggest disadvantage as
firm cannot hire the new
people(Berman, 2015).
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issue new passwords, keys,
insurance and tax paperwork
to get the staffer up and
running (Boxall, Guthrie and
Paauwe, 2016).
Reduce the operational cost
Reduce the operating cost
when recruited internally
generally internal recruitment
is not expensive and benefit
for the Merrill Lynch. In these
firm do not have any advertise
also they do not provide high
training programmes to the
employees, so these is not
expensive for company and
help to reduce expenses
External Method— it is the
process which select and hire
the employees outside the firm
through advertising,
placements, employees
exchange etc.
Find right person — this
process helps to identify the
right person for the right job
(Chuang, Jackson and Jiang,
2016). Thus, Merrill Lynch
select the candidates based on
qualification and knowledge.
Selection and recruitment are
the main method to manage
work force of organisation and
in this procedure, company do
not have to spent large amount
because they can hire different
Costly — This method is
costly as compare to the
internal method. Thus, Merrill
lynch invest their money in
advertising activities which
leads cost of the recruitment
(DiCenzo, Robbins and
Verhulst, 2016). In external
process of recruitment
organization hire new
candidate from different
sources like campus interview
and use different employment
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employment service to select
right candidates for company
to full fill their requirement.
Enhance the competitive
spirit — Merrill Lynch
provides the different
opportunity that creates the
competition among new and
old employees that helps to
enhance the individual growth
of the peoples (Debroux,
2017).
services that can cause a lot
money to organisation.
Enhance misunderstanding -
This method is increases
misunderstanding because
Merrill Lynch recruit the
person with lack of knowledge
as it leads misunderstanding
(Englert 2019). Recruitment
from external sources is a
lengthy process and after this
expensive process company
again must spent for training
and development of new
employee because they are not
aware of company procedures
and functions.
Selection method Strength Weakness
Interview Merrill Lynch used this
method to recruit the person
this method is easy and
effective because it provides
the usable and clear
information of employees.
Thus, this information helps to
select the best person for the
job (Suleman and Goyette,
2019).
This process is expensive and
time-consuming. Thus, firm
can use this method, but they
faced issues like, it increases
the cost of recruitment.
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Personality test This process is also the best
process because it provides the
deep information of employees
like, employees are really fit in
the job or not (Englert, 2019).
Thus, Merrill Lynch used this
method to find the best
candidate by analysing the
personality of employees.
Merrill Lynch face the lack of
different trait and
characteristics that means lack
of diversity. Thus, this method
recruits the same trait of
person again and again which
leads the disadvantage of the
firm (Fu, Jonathan and Bano,
2019). In the personality test
there are a lot of chances of
personality faking because the
through test they can provide
different answer form their
personal perspectives this can
lead the organisation in
different way.
TASK 2
Functions of HRM in organization and Their Effectiveness
In an organisation different function are performed by human resource department to
increase the productivity of company in market. This is essential for the organisation to maintain
the functions and operation of employees in effective way to get larger output from them. There
are different functions of HRM in company are- recruitment and selection, payroll management,
appraisal and performance management, training and development, conflict management,
employee relation (Chuang, Jackson and Jiang, 2016). These all functions of HRM are important
for the company to get maximum output from the people who are associated with company.
Recruitment and Hiring
This function of HRM is most important for organisation. Through this process Hr
department full fills, the requirement of company related to work for by performing recruitment
and selection drive. The purpose of this is to select or hire the person with all the qualities that
required by organisation. It is their responsibility to select the employee for specific job role.
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This is function is also consisting of job designing. By this process HRM hires the employees for
Merrill Lynch Organisation to meet long term and short goals and targets of company. If the
selected person is right for company operation, then it will help the growth of company. For an
example company need a software programmer to solve problems which are common the
workplace. Then the operation department will provide information to HRM department about
their need. After this communication of employee need HRM will ask the Operation department
about the skill required employee. As per the required skills and qualification HRM will prepare
a job description and publish this information in public figure to ask the candidate to provide
their personal details to conduct interview for job opening in company (Tabard, Tahrir and
Baruch, 2017). By this method human resource management full fill need of company related to
work force management
Payroll and Reward Management
In the organisation HRM performs the activity of employee management and tracking.
All the information of employee is kept by HRM department. It is their duty to track the
performance and working of employee to provide them relevant payroll that is based on the
attendance of employee (Paredes, 2019). This function of HRM is also important for Merrill
Lynch Company because this function related to money issue and satisfaction level of employee
in organisation. If employees of company are not satisfied with their payment, then it will reduce
their fate in company, and this will lead to the reduced productivity of Merrill Lynch
organisation. This is how the effective payroll management can help the organisation to
encourage the employee to perform better in organisation by provide them with respective salary
as per their performance in company.
The employees in the company are paid as per their work hours at workplace. As per the
legal laws of minimum wages act company must pay the employees with relevant payment to
meet their personal requirements (Santhanam, Dayaram and Ziegler, 2017). Apart from this as
per the extra hours served by employee are counted as overtime. HRM consider this overtime
work and provide extra financial benefits to employee. This practice motivates employees to put
more efforts in their work.
Appraisal and Performance Management
In Merrill Lynch organization many employees work around the world and for good
performance they need to keep motivate their employee to get 100 % of their performance. Good
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and effective performance of organisation can help the company to gain competitive advantage
in the marketplace. On the regular basis different appraisals and benefits are provided to
employee to motivate and encourage them to improve their efforts for success of company. A
small and extra effort can help the Merrill Lynch to improve productivity and quality service
(Boxall, Guthrie and Paauwe, 2016).
The performance management id the track record of the employee that is stored and
analysed by the HRM department to keep the leaders aware of employee performance to take
further decisions related to employee. This data processing helps the HRM to design training and
development program for employees (Stachová, Stache and Blštáková, 2019). There are some
rules and regulation are their which are mentioned in the code of conduct of the organization.
This rule is followed by company to provide promotion and increment to the employees
as they complete time in organisation. As per the rules HRM conducts this process and provide
this benefit to the company workers. This process improves the work environment of Merrill
Lynch and that leads to higher efficiency of organization in market.
Training and development
Training and development process is a practice of HRM that is important to maintain the
performance of employees to generate required out from the different process of organization
(Suleman and Goyette, 2019). The purpose of training and development is to meet the skills and
knowledge of workers to an optimum level that is required for better performance of Merrill
Lunch Organisation.
In this process a per the personal need of employee different personal training and
development session are organised by HR department and when the organisation makes changes
in the company process, they need to make the employees comfortable to work on new
technology to maintain constant output at production end.
This practice keeps the employees up to date with the latest techniques, information and
skills (Stewart. and Brown, 2019). If company is making any change in the operations and
methods of company or implementing new technology in company process, then the employees
of company need training and knowledge of new technology because they are not familiar with
this change. To maintain the performance and to meet the daily target employees should be
trained on this technology to provide efficient output on delivery end. This is hoeing the Merrill
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Lynch provide training to employees about new technology and the skills where they are lacking
at.
Conflict Management
In an organisation it is important to keep the conflict as minimum as possible to maintain
the performance of company. The main reasons of conflict in organisation are misunderstanding,
trust issues and less or ineffective communication. It is duty of Human Resource Management to
solve the conflicts between people of organisation to keep the performance of Merrill Lynch free
from troubles (Bratton and Gold, 2017). In the conflict management operation HR department
try to maintain the communication between the employees and track their activity in organisation
to reduce the conflicts in company.
In this process HRM focuses on the employee behaviour in teams and at the workplace.
This is important to prevent such situation like conflict in company. To solve this conflict
between employees, employee and management HRM conducts different activities like team
meetings and interacting sessions.
This help them to resolve issues between people. For example, there are some issues
employees are facing in the company from management related to work allocation then it is
responsibility of Human Resource management to make interfere and know the issue of
employee to convey this message to management to solve this issue. This is how the employees
get satisfied by function or practice of HRM at workplace (Banfield, Kay and Royles, 2018).
This improved satisfaction encourages them to provide their maximum effort to complete their
task with good quality.
Employee Relation
In Merrill Lynch company employee relation is most important thing for better team
working and team operation to complete goals of team within given time limit. Workplace
environment is dependent on the relation between employees. Good employee relation lead to
better cooperation and coordination.
Better employee relation helps the employers to take right decisions to improve the work
place environment with in the organization. This improves the efficiency of employees in
productivity of company. If the environment of the workplace is not good and employees are
facing troubles with other employees, then it will lead to less productivity and less performance.
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To maintain this relation and decorum of workplace HRM conducts different activities
which are designed to improve the coordination and cooperation between employees (Stewart
and Brown, 2019). In these sessions’ employees get chance to make personal communication
with other employees and this help them to work together in team. Mostly these activities are
consisting of games and team meetings. These are activities are designed to improve interaction
between employees.
TASK 3
Impact of Internal and External Factors on Decision Making of Organisation
The organization work on the principle of earning the profit by providing product and
services to customers or clients. There are many other factors exists outside the organisation that
are not in control of organization and business of organization is affected by these factors. These
factors affect the business in different ways and create barriers in process of company.
Impact of External Factor on decision Making
These factors can be classified in different types but in general they affect the decisions
making of the management and HRM of Merrill Lynch. The political factors mainly affect the
decision of organization and HRM department. Government makes different changes in the
policies to meet up the requirement for stability of nation in international market. This change
force the HRM to make respective change in policy of company (Berman, 2015.). The Merrill
Lynch is working in the international market decision of the government on the foreign and
foreign trade policy then it will force the human resource management to make their strategy
accordingly. This HRM decides the work method of organization to gain maximum performance
ion marketplace by. This is related and bounded to the policies and decisions of government. The
policies of employment and business policy also affects the business of company and decision
making of human resource department.
The economic changes on national and international level also influence the decision of
HRM and management of Merrill Lynch company. Changes in taxation policy and finance
policy, budget produced by government forces the HRM to make different change in the payroll
management for employees. These are some important decisions that HRM must take to full fill
requirements of economic changes in country. In the condition of the recession and economic
crisis it is responsibility of the human resource management to make effective changes in the
payment policies to meet requirements of employees (DiCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst, 2016).
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Cause in case of economic crisis and recession employees face different problems that can make
them feel uncomfortable and insecure related to job in Merrill Lynch company.
The other factors are related to the social and cultural factors. This factor is related to the
personal life of individual people who are related to organization. Also, the other factor like
education and qualification of people who are connected to company somehow. Population of
the locality also force the HRM to make the decisions accordingly. This is basic way HRM
works. For example, the if the population of the local area is low and people living around are
not that much educated and skilled to work with company then it will force the organization and
HRM to take decision for recruitment and selection. This limitation of education and skills will
make influence the decision of HRM and will force them to move out of region to select the
people for organisation.
These factors are asso0ciated with technology that used by organization. The employees
are skilled and trained on the specific technology on which they are working currently. If
company make change in the procedure and technology in the organisation to improve the
productivity capability of organisation (Ahmad, 2015). In this case the employees are unaware of
new technology then HRM must take decision to arrange a technical training for employees to
meet required skills. Also, factors like source of training is not available, then this will force the
HRM to conduct a training outside the company. This is how the change management force the
HRM to specific make decisions related to employees and people of company. The other
external factors of organisation are related to the local condition of the work location also affects
the decision of HRM and organisation. As per the work location and geographic location of
organization force the HRM to make decision respectively. For the extreme weather condition, it
is necessary to provide work hour and work location related flexibility to employee to retain their
performance. That is how environment issues and environmental factor affect the decision of
HRM.
The legal factors are also important part of organization. In an organization it is work of
Human resource management to full fill the legal requirement that are provided by the legislation
authority of nation. There are different laws are made by legal body of country to protect the
personal rights of employees within the workplace (Santhanam, Dayaram and Ziegler, 2017).
This legal law forces the HR department to make changes in the legal policy of Merrill Lynch
that are made for employees. These laws made by legal body are related to different aspects like
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employment laws, data protection law, anti- discrimination law, diversity law, equality and
health and safety law.
Employment Law 1996
This is the major law about the business contract law that is most important for
employees and company both because this law protects the rights of employee in the work place
also it is explaining the limitation of the employment contracts that are need to be full fill by
employee and employer both (Tabard, Tahrir and Baruch, 2017). This law is also providing the
brief of hiring and dismissal process of employee.
Data Protection Act 1998
The data protection act is about the security, safety and privacy of data and information
on the workplace. Companies collects the data of employees to keep their personal information.
But it is important for them to keep this data safe and private (Uysal, 2019). This is duty of HRM
to ensure the security of this data of employee in the Merrill Lynch.
Discrimination Act 1995
This act is preventing the all kind of discrimination on the workplace (Waldock and
Bedwell, 2017). In an organization many employees works for their personal needs and goals
and this act protect them from different kind of discrimination like gender base, position base
and power base discrimination on the work location.
Equality Act 2018
This act is protecting the right of equality of employees. Equality act 2018 prevent all
kind of inequality issued in Merrill Lynch (Uysal, 2019). Most common type of inequality issue
are based on gender, opportunities, civil status, region, age and disability.
This is how different legislation act protect the right of employees and force the Human
Resource department to change their decisions accordingly. It is also their duty to provide better
facility to employees. This law is protecting basic rights of employees are morally and ethically
important for organization. If company follows these laws, it helps them to prevent any legal
action against company and satisfaction of employees can be improved.
Internal Factors of organisation
The internal factors in the organization are present within the organisation and these
factors are in control of company. This factor are employees, supply chain, internal strategies,
financial related factors and technological factors.
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Employees are most important part of organization. The decisions of HRM are focused
on the employees cause the productivity of company is based on them. That force the HRM to
take the decisions according to the needs of employees. This is how the employees force the
HRM to take decisions in favour of employees (Bloom, Sadoon and Van Reenen, 2015). The
other factor is the supply chain of Merrill Lynch. For Supply chain management in company
HRM have taken decision according to the needs of employees and allocated work. This factor
makes the HRM to design and manage the work force accordingly. Decisions and strategies
made by Human Resource management are based on the policy and target of Merrill Lynch. If
the decision of leaders changes about work related them, it will influence the HR department to
make changes in their policy as per the change in decision of organisational leadership. Also, the
capital available to company put major impact on the decision of company.
TASK 4
HRM Practices in Work Related Context
The various practices of Human Resource Management are defined as the required
actions of organisation which are designed to improve the productivity and performance of
people or employees of organisation to get better result in market share of Merrill Lynch (Wu
and Ma, 2015).
Recruitment and Selection
Human resources Department of company perform selection and recruitment process to
full fill the workforce related requirement of Merrill Lynch. There are different processes and
sources are used by organisation to add new people to company. HRM of Merrill Lynch use
internal and external sources to hire people for company. For different selection process HRM
use different strategies that help them to hire best suitable candidate for company.
Employee Motivation
There are different employees in organization and performance and productivity of
Merrill Lynch is depended on the motivation level of employees. To keep employees HRM
performs different practices that can increase the motivation level of employees. For example, by
providing reward and incentives HRM tries to motivate employees to improve their work efforts
for organization.
Monitoring
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On daily basis HRM monitors the action of employees to evaluate their performance in
organization and based on this performance evaluation they conduct training and provide
rewards to employees.
Training Agenda for Receptionist of 5-star Hotel
Enhance Employee Growth
The main purpose of training and development is to develop various skills in employees
and provide them with different kind of information to enhance their growth in organization and
it also helps the organization to perform good. As a new entry in hotel, receptionist might be less
confident about job (Waldock and Bedwell, 2017). This training will help them to work with
confidence and provide high quality service to guests.
Assisting Newcomer
As organisation recruit new member in organisation, this new employee is not aware of
the company procedures and methods of company. This training and development session help
the receptionist to learn the important things of organisation's working and this will provide them
idea to deal with customers of hotel.
Bridging Gap Between Planning and Implementation
On the basic level in job of receptionist the person is not aware how to use their
knowledge and information to contact customers (Debreu, 2017). This training will help the
receptionist to communicate with guest with ease and effectiveness.
This is the agenda behind the training and development of receptionist in Hotel
Employee Relation and HRM Practices
In an organization it is duty of HRM to maintain good work environment on the
workplace in order to improve the performance of employees. HRM practices can affect
employee relation in both positive and negative way and it depends on what kind of action HRM
is taking.
Positive- Practices like reward management and training & management improve the employee
relation within the workplace because it improves their motivation and knowledge. Higher
Knowledge improve their work quality. This is how HRM boosts the morals of employees to
improve their relationship with others on the workplace.
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Negative- The practice of monitoring and implementing different strict policies reduce the
satisfaction level of people in the organisation. Other unclear practices in providing reward and
incentive demotivate employees. This practice lead to conflicts between employees.
CV of HR Lecturer
James Norrington
(HRM lecturer)
Jamesnorrington @Gmail.com
Objective- Seeking challenging carrier in the professional environment enabling act as
valuable resources in administration, personnel and human resources relation.
Education-
Higher education- St. Josef High school, London, UK
Schooling- St Merry convent School Birmingham, UK.
Area of Interest- Human relation in business and other organization.
Skills-
 Communication skill
 Good knowledge of HR practices.
 MS Office and Basic Computer skills.
CONCLUSION
This report is concluding the important of human resource management in Merrill Lynch
Company. Function of HRM related to work Force management is explained in study to find the
effectiveness of recruitment and selection in organisation. The different strengths and weakness
of recruitment and selection processes are also analysed in report. Different other function of HR
department is concluded to find the effectiveness of these functions in the productivity of
company. External and internal factors of organization are studied to evaluate its impact on
decision making of organisation.
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REFERENCES
Book and Journal
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