Strategic Human Resource Management for HSBC in Japan

This report analyzes the case study of HSBC in Japan and suggests strategic human resource management strategies and policies that can be used by the company to handle the declining situation in Japan. It reviews functional aspects of SHRM such as adopting best practices and aligning HR strategy with business strategy. It also suggests SHRM policies like assessing and training and selective hiring. The report also recommends creating data-based strategies and improving organizational culture to handle the situation in Japan.

LO3 and LO4
Case study for
HSBC in
Japan
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Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Review of functional aspects of SHRM which can be used by HSBC to avoid decline in Japan
................................................................................................................................................3
Critical review of SHRM policies which can be used by HSBC to face international situation
similar to Japan.......................................................................................................................5
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Human resource management plays an important role in international success of the
company (Analoui, 2017). This report looks at the case study of HSBC in Japan. HSBC is UK
based banking organization formed in the year 1865 with presence in 64 international markets.
The company has created a workforce of employees. This report reviews the functional aspects
of SHRM which can be used by HSBC to handle situation in Japan. The SHRM policies which
can be used by HSBC to face various international challenges such as declining markets and
other situations in Japan are also included in this report. In addition to this, relevant strategies
which can be used by HSBC to face situation in Japan are also included in this report.
MAIN BODY
Review of functional aspects of SHRM which can be used by HSBC to
avoid decline in Japan
Overview of the Case Study: HSBC is abandoning the retail banking operations in Japan
after establishing presence in the country in 1866. This decision is made in order to restructure
its global Services by abandoning its small or inefficient operations. The company will
also eliminating 30,000 jobs and focusing on attracting affluent lines to increase profitability.
The future of the company will also involve abandoning markets which provide low
profitability. The company failed in fully penetrating the Japanese retail banking sector after
starting a specialized task force for completing this objective. the main barriers which like to this
failure of HSBC include language differences, decision making issues and problems related to
effective usage of technology. in addition to this recruiting bilingual employees once also a
major problem in facilitating successful expansion in Japan because English it's not a commonly
known longer in the country. This created issues related to hiring at the company. one of the
issues was related to increased costs because of the highest salary demanded by bilingual
employees. in addition to this, termination of bilingual employees who's also a problem because
lifelong employment is common in Japan and it takes months of negotiation to terminate and
unwanted employee because of incompetence.
Another reason for the failure of the task force with the slow decision making process
which is norm of corporate Japan. the slow decision making process involves discussing and
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debating various issues for a long time period before reaching a common consensus which makes
taking action in emergency very slow and risky. Technical failure related to usage of local ATM
systems and inability to implement global Internet banking systems in Japan affected the quality
of banking services provided by HSBC. This stopped the company from implementing it's
standardized so this is in Japan and providing the consumers complete satisfaction. As market
conditions declined during the pandemic HSBC was not able to recover financially and the
decision to completely abandoned retail banking in Japan was announced.
Strategic human resource management is defined as the link between human resources of
the company and its strategies objectives and goals. Focus on strategic human resource
management is facilitate flexibility innovation and competitive advantage by developing an
organizational culture which is fit for achieving business objectives and ensure strategic
development of the company (Chakraborty and Biswas, 2019). Many of the issues identified in
the case study of HSBC in Japan can be resolved with the help of strategic human resource
management strategies. Some of the, functional elements of strategic human resource
management which can help HSBC in managing declining situation in Japan are explained
below:
 Adopting best practices: This function element of strategic human resource management
focuses on, implementing the most effective human resource management practices in the
company so that every respect if human resource management is completed
efficiently. The advantage of best adopting human resource management practice is that
it helps the company deal with various human resource challenges easily as expertise
from human resource field is used in daily operations of the company. The disadvantage
of this functional element of strategic human resource management is that adoption of
best practices of human resource management without looking at the current strategy of
the company and following best practices blindly can have damaging impact on
performance of the company (Kaufman, 2019). It’s important that HSBC identifies, the
best human resource practices for the banking sector and utilizes the best practices for
achieving strategic objectives in Japan so that the disadvantage of this functional element
of strategic human resource management can be minimized. In this way static human
resource management will help the company effectively face the declining situation in
Japan.
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 Alignment of HR strategy with business strategy: This is an important element
of strategic human resource management which involves development of a nature
strategy which is linked to overall business strategy of the company (Kooij and Boon,
2018). The focus of this function of strategic human resource management is to ensure
that the policies and guidelines of HR strategy are related to overall strategic direction of
the company and support the company in achieving business goals in a timely
manner. The advantage of this function is that strategic human resource management
helps gain high returns to the company on human resources by ensuring that the policies
period to human resources management assist in attainment of organizational goals and
objectives. The disadvantage of this function of strategic human resource management is
that alignment of human resource strategy with overall organizational strategy can lead to
ignorance of special requirements of human resource management. In case of
HSBC, Japan needs to adopt this function of strategic human resource management so
that the business strategy of the company In Japan is reflective of the human resource
management policies implemented in that international market. This is because it will
help the company, deal with this Pacific language barriers present in Japan which have
affected performance and services delivered by the company in the country.
In this way the different functional aspects of strategic human resource management will
help the company ensure that the human resources practices and strategies at the company in
Japan will benefit the business objective of expanding in the country. The firm will be able to
succeed in the Japanese market with the help of strategic human resource management
functioning.
Critical review of SHRM policies which can be used by HSBC to face
international situation similar to Japan
Strategic human resource management policies provide a framework for licking people
management with long term business goals and outcomes to ensure that the human resources
make maximum contribution to attainment of business objectives or the company (Korff,
Biemann and Voelpel, 2017). HSBC needs to adopt strategic human resource management
policies in Japan in order to face the current situation and move forward towards success. Some
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of the policies which can be used by HSBC for handling the current situations in Japan along
with different situations in international contexts such as declining markets are reviewed below:
 Assessing and training: This strategy human resource management policy centers around
assessing the skills of employees and keeping their training up to date so that the workforce
of the company is equipped and capable for handling issues in the business environment
(Lanza and Simone, 2020). This strategy human resource management policy is suitable for
handling internationalization issues and creating a coherent organizational culture because
each employee is given training to handle normal barriers affecting daily working at the
company. In the case of Japan this policy can be utilized to train highly skilled Japanese
employee English speaking skills so that they are able to communicate with the headquarters
while also performing effectively in Japan. This will significantly reduce the hiring cost of
the company and help the firm deal with lingual barriers in Japan effectively. The primary
disadvantage of this strategic human resource management that is that the implementation of
assessing and training procedures it's not cost effective and time effective which means that it
cannot be implemented in emergency situation and provide instant relief to the company. In
the future it is important, did the company assess employees in international markets
regularly and provides the company constructive training opportunities so that they are able
to develop essential skills for becoming part of the international workforce of HSBC such as
English-speaking skills.
 Selective hiring: This strategic human resource management policy involves hiring
individuals on the basis of their performance and ensuring that only high-performance
candidates employed at the company (Lee Jia Lin, Hasliza and Ramayah, 2018). It is
important to ensure that high performing candidates are recruited at international branches of
multinational organizations because it helps the company create strong workforce throughout
the globe to achieve international success. In relation to the British banking from
HSBC, this strategy human resource management policy needs to be adopted by the company
in order to ensure that every individual is dedicated toward the cause of the firm in Japan
and will provide positive contribution to the growth of the company. In this way, action of
hiring incompetent individuals in important positions at international branches of HSBC will
be minimized and every individual recruited at the company will be high performing of the
available talent pool. the company was facing issues regarding termination of incompetent
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candidates in Japan but ensuring that every candidate is competent and passionate towards
their job role Japan will be able to eliminate this problem and create a high performing
workforce. the advantage of this strategic human resource policy is that, it will help HSBC in
short that the process of hiring and terminating employees becomes much easier and it will
also provide competitive advantage to HSBC by creating a capable and skilled workforce.
Relevant strategies to handle situation in Japan
Creating Data based strategies
As per this strategy of strategic human resource management, the company needs to
make data based strategies and align with the overall business strategy (Stewart and Brown,
2019). This involves gathering data on company readiness and assessing the current capabilities
open to create a suitable strategy for achieving business objectives. creating database strategy is
an important part of succeeding on international scale because determining the requirements and
barriers in international markets is important for constructing a suitable human resource
management strategy. HSBC needs to ensure that adequate research is completed before
expanding into an international market. This will help the company understand the needs and
challenges present in the international market and take immediate action to face such challenges
so that financial market decline does not impact the company to large extent. The advantage of
this strategy is that it helps make the most effective decisions for the future of the company
where disadvantage is that it is a time taking process. In case of HSBC the company needs to
conduct data based research on every aspect of Japanese banking sector so that the future
human resource strategy is completed on the basis of well researched data and it's connected with
the overall goal of preaching affluent consumers in Japan.
Improving organizational culture
Changing organizational culture strategy that focuses on changing the organizational
culture so that it provides assistance in achieving business objectives quickly (Werder,
2018). HSBC needs to understand the requirements of current organization in Japan and change
its culture accordingly so that it suits the corporate norms of Japan while also ensuring that the
goals of the company add achieved in a timely manner. The advantages of this will be that the
company will be able to avoid time wastage indecision making while the disadvantage of this
strategy is that it might lead to employee resistance.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report it is determined that strategic human resource management plays
an important role in successful international expansion of the company and helps
business firms deal with various challenges in international markets. Strategic
human resource functions such as adoption of best practices and alignment of HR strategy with
business strategy help the company the achieve objectives in international markets
easily. Strategic human resource management strategies and policies also play an important role
in international success of business firms.
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REFRENCES
Books and Journals
Analoui, F. ed., 2017. The changing patterns of human resource management. Routledge.
Chakraborty, D. and Biswas, W., 2019. Evaluating the impact of human resource planning
programs in addressing the strategic goal of the firm. Journal of advances in
management research.
Kaufman, B. E., 2019. Managing the human factor. Cornell University Press.
Korff, J., Biemann, T. and Voelpel, S. C., 2017. Human resource management systems and work
attitudes: The mediating role of future time perspective. Journal of Organizational
Behavior, 38(1). pp.45-67.
Lanza, A. and Simone, G., 2020. Strategic Human Capital: Creating a Sustainable Competitive
Advantage. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Lee Jia Lin, J., Hasliza, H. and Ramayah, T., 2018. Learning Orientation as an Antecedent
Towards Strategic Human Capital. International Academic Journal of Business
Management, pp.124-136.
Stewart, G. L. and Brown, K. G., 2019. Human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.
Umar, A., Sasongko, A. H. and Aguzman, G., 2018. Business model canvas as a solution for
competing strategy of small business in Indonesia. International Journal of
Entrepreneurship, 22(1). pp.1-9.
Werder, 2018. Strategic communication as an emerging interdisciplinary paradigm. International
Journal of Strategic Communication, 12(4). pp.333-351.
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