Strategic Human Resource Management for HSBC in Japan

This essay discusses the importance of strategic human resource management for HSBC in Japan. It identifies the functional aspects of strategic human resource management and policies that HSBC could use to avoid the situation in Japan. The essay also talks about the importance of learning and development, HR effectiveness, training and development, and work culture.

Strategic Human
Resource Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
.........................................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Identification and review of functional aspects of strategic human resource management
which HSBC could use to avoid the situation in Japan..........................................................3
The strategic human resource policies...................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Strategic human resource management is the wide concept that defines the relationship between
the human resource and strategies of the organisation. In the competitive business
environment the management of the human resource must be aligned with the strategies in
order to meet the organisation goals and aims effectively. The aim of strategic human
resource management is to develop a fit for purpose organisational culture that is highly
flexible in innovation and has potential of gaining competitive advantage. The present essay
is based on the case study on HSBC in Japan. The HSBC Holdings is the world largest bank
founded in year 1959 and is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The bank is
operated by the HSBC group that offers the banking and financial services in six
geographical regions. The essay will identify the functional aspects of the strategic human
resource management and strategic human resource policies. Further there is discussion of
relevant strategic human resource strategies that HSBC could use in Japan.
MAIN BODY
Identification and review of functional aspects of strategic human resource management which
HSBC could use to avoid the situation in Japan
Strategic Human resource management is the practice which is used by the organisations for the
management of employees which covers the factors such as recruiting, selection, rewarding,
training and many others(Rajabi Farjad and Najar, 2018). It is the most important aspect for any
of the organisations that they have to make the analysis of goals and objectives of organisations
which covers all the departments so that they can manage the employees on the basis of clear
organisation vision. HSBC also conducts such things because the employees are assets who will
help in the accomplishment of organisation objectives. They make the development of education
and training programs which is according to the objectives of Bank so that they could be able to
meet the personal and career development of employees. The HSBC bank is facing the issues of
language and recruitment barriers because they are unable to find out people their who can speak
the language English in which they are facing the main problem(Berman and et. al., 2021).
There are some of the functional aspects which can be used by HSBC Japan by which they can
avoid the situations and difficulties that they are facing-
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 Learning and development- Learning and development is one of the important
functional aspect of strategic human resource management where the employees
whom the HR department of a bank recruits can provide them the learning and can
help them in developing the language English(Camuffo and De Stefano, 2019). This
is so because the bank is facing the difficulty of not being able to hire people who can
speak the language English. It is in the policies of bank where they can provide the
facility of recruiting people and helping them in learning the language which will be
helpful to them in solving the issue of linguistic issues.
 Improve in HR effectiveness- The strategic human resource management has the
working of streamlining the system of HR which is used in the bank. The problem
which the bank is facing related with that of language, recruitment, making decisions
can be solved only by the HR department with the help of framing new bank policies.
HR professionals of the bank can make the integration of community involvement
with the help of supporting recreational leagues and community so that they could be
able to attract the right and talented employees. The policies of Human resource
department might not be that attractive because of which the bank is facing such type
of issues in their banking system.
 Training and development- The other issue which is related with the language can
be solved with the help of developing a strong strategic human resource policy. The
training and development program which is used by the bank for providing the
information related to that of banking and other objectives can also be made on the
basis of developing new language(Tasie, 2018). The issues which is related with not
being able to speak English can be resolved with the help of providing training to the
people who are being recruited. But for this the HSBC bank recruitment team have to
inform such type of training before the time of selecting and recruiting people. This
will be helpful in solving the problem of employees not being able to speak the
defined language. But with this, they can be provided with some of the compensation
and benefits to motivate employees.
 Work culture- This is the responsibility of HR department of a HSBC bank to make
the improvement in work culture. HSBC bank is facing the problem of slow decision
making and this is because of the flexible work environment which is not provided by
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the HR department in Japan (Mansournia, 2018). This is important factor which has
to be considered by the bank because with this only other employees will feel likely
to join in a bank. The work culture plays an important role for the success of any of
the organisation and this will also make an impact on the faster decision making. The
main drawback is the communication which can be resolved with the help of effective
communication in which the work culture can be improved and would help in the
ability of faster decision making (Dragusha, Josimovski and Dragusha, 2020).
The strategic human resource policies
As per the case study of HSBC Japan there are different situations occurred in the economy and
and banking services of the HSBC Japan. After critically evaluating the different situations
such as international growth, declining market etc. the company is suggested to adapt some
strategic human resource policies. The strategic human resource policies are the formal rules
and regulations that Bank has embedded with its strategies to hire, recruit, train, reward,
asses the members of the workforce.
In HSBC japan there is situation of declining market. which is there is financial market turmoil
dampens, due to which the HSBC japan has to cut $3.5 billion cost world wide before 2014.
Due to this the bank also decided to leave several countries which lacks in sufficient returns.
And Japan was one of them in such situation the HSBC is suggested to adapt the
performance improvement policies (Greer, 2021) . This policy of SHRM will help the
HSBC to focus on the performance of the employees by which the market conditions can be
recovered. For the higher the performance of the employees the HSBC is suggested to adapt
a policy of performance management within the organisation in order to meet the needs of
the declining market and to prosper sustainably. The performance improvement will look for
the continuous improvement of the skills of the employees and also look after their
developing skills.
In situation of the innovatory organisation where the HSBC Japan has to shut its retailing market
in the Japan several times. HSBC Japan as bank has to adapt feedback and coaching policy
within its HRM policies. This policy will assist the bank in meeting the situation of
innovatory organisation. As through feedbacks the bank will gain an insight of the
employees feeling towards the organisation. And through this the coaching regarding new
banking trends can be given to the employees to make the bank an innovatory organisation.
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In case of the internationalisation situation the HSBC In Japan was in situation where there were
huge amount of language barriers (Collins, 2021). In such situation the company must
improvise the common language and equality policy for the employs to feel equal and
adjustable with the common language English. For, this the HSBC Japan must improvise the
training programme to make everyone learn a common language at workplace that is
English in order to avoid the issue of recruitment and language.
The situation of HSBC in Japan regarding the regular decision of leaving the Japan retail
banking market twice was a critical situation showing instability and lack of competency of
the bank to survive in some particular international market. The situation was highly
complex and was due to some serious problem that the HSBC task force is facing in Japan
that is language and recruitment barrier (Berman and et. al., 2021). In order to handle the
situation and the respective problem the company is suggested to use effective
communication strategy where the HR manager should use the training and development
strategy of HRM, to rain the employees for one common language for the effective
communication.
In order to remove the recruitment barriers the HSBC HR manager is suggested to conduct some
serious research to implement new recruitment strategy. The company must include
both external and internal recruitment methods such as interview process in order to
hire the employees that has bilingual capability (Popescu and Kyriakopoulos, 2022).
Also not to dismiss the employment of the current incompetent employees the
company must arrange a proper communication training and challenges such as
communication through e- mail internal chat system where the message can be
translated into different language as per the reader convenience.
For technical barrier situation of the HSBC Japan the company is highly facing the issue of the
incompetency in their ATM and net banking system. In order to mitigate this barrier of
the company is suggested to improve the technology advancement strategy in their
banking methods and subsystem in order to have the famous ATM services in the
Japan by the HSBC Japan. For this the company must also improvise the new
Japanese protocols to meet the technical requirements (Rees and Smith, 2021).
In situation of the innovatory organisation where the HSBC Japan has to shut its retailing market
in the Japan several times. HSBC Japan as bank has to adapt feedback and coaching policy
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within its HRM policies. This policy will assist the bank in meeting the situation of
innovatory organisation. As through feedbacks the bank will gain an insight of the
employees feeling towards the organisation. And through this the coaching regarding new
banking trends can be given to the employees to make the bank an innovatory organisation.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that strategic human resources business is the
foundation of the business in which if the employees will work in a proper way then it will help
in ensuring that the employees are working together to achieve their goals. The bank which is
taken in the report offers various types of financial products in the market of Japan. The country
in which they have made the investment is already a developed economy and their it is
considered to be a largest bank. But in the market of Japan the Bank has been failed in many
aspects in which the beginning it includes the retail banking market in which they have send a
special task force with the expertise so that they can promote the bank and its services. But after
the four years of attempt the bank was failed in the retail business of the bank was being failed.
This is because they were not able to work on the strategic human resource management policies
which can help them to adopt to the different situations which they are facing. They are facing
the issues of language and recruitment barriers because of not being able to resolve the issues.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Berman, E.M. and et. al., 2021. Human resource management in public service: Paradoxes,
processes, and problems. CQ Press.
Camuffo, A. and De Stefano, F., 2019. Getting access to strategic human capital resources: a
multiple strategic factor market approach. In Handbook of Research on Strategic
Human Capital Resources. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Collins, C.J., 2021. Expanding the resource based view model of strategic human resource
management. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(2),
pp.331-358.
Dragusha, B., Josimovski, S. and Dragusha, N., 2020. Strategic Human Resources Management
tools and techniques through Social Networks.
Greer, C.R., 2021. Strategic human resource management. Pearson Custom Publishing.
Mansournia, K., 2018. Competency Matrix for Strategic Human Resource Management in
Malaysia Telecommunication Industry. Revista Publicando, 5(15 (2)), pp.166-198.
Popescu, C.R.G. and Kyriakopoulos, G.L., 2022. Strategic Human Resource Management in the
21st-Century Organizational Landscape: Human and Intellectual Capital as Drivers for
Performance Management. COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on New Economy
Development and Societal Change, pp.296-323.
Rajabi Farjad, H. and Najar, M., 2018. The Impact of Knowledge Management on
Organizational Performance with Regard to Mediating Role of Strategic Activities of
Human Resource. Journal of Research in Human Resources Management, 10(3),
pp.191-214.
Rees, G. and Smith, P. eds., 2021. Strategic human resource management: An international
perspective. Sage.
Tasie, G.O., 2018. Economic development and strategic human resource development: The case
of Southeast Asia. International Journal of Advances in Agriculture Sciences.
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