Barclays Bank HRM: Recruitment, Selection, and Employee Relations

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes HRM practices at Barclays Bank.

Human Resource Management

Table of Contents
Introduction.........................................................................................................................................3
Task 1 Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in terms of resourcing
in your chosen organisation with talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business objectives.........4
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce planning and resourcing
an organisation..................................................................................................................................4
P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment and selection........7
Task 2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management in an
organisation........................................................................................................................................10
P3 Explain to your HR Director the benefits of different HRM practices within the firm for both the
employer and employee...................................................................................................................10
P4 You should also evaluate the effectiveness of the different HRM practices in terms of raising
organisational profit and productivity..............................................................................................11
Task 3 Analyse internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management decision
making, including employment legislation......................................................................................13
P5 In your report, analyse the importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM
decision-making..............................................................................................................................13
P6 For your HR Director, identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has
upon HRM decision-making............................................................................................................14
Task 4: Apply Human Resource Management practices in a work related context.....................15
P7 Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context that you might be familiar
with so you can use specific industry examples...............................................................................15
Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................18
References..........................................................................................................................................19

Introduction
Human Resource Management is considered one of the most important departments in the
organisations these days. Every big organisation has created a separate and dedicated human
resource management (HRM) department to take care of its employees. Human Resource
Management tries to make sure that the organisation has enough employees to execute the
business strategy of the organisation. Thus, it could be said that human resource management
is the strategic approach chosen by an organisation so that it could achieve its goals and
objectives by using its human resources in an excellent and efficient manner. This assignment
would focus on the various human resource management approaches using the example of
the Barclays Bank. Barclays Bank is one of the oldest banks in the world which was
established in 1690. Since then, the bank has grown at a great pace and currently there are
more than 81,000 employees who are working 4,890 branches across 56 countries. Out of
these 4,890 branches, approximately 1690 are in United Kingdom. As a Human Resource
Assistant at the Central London branch of the Barclays Bank, I would be studying the
different HRM approaches that could help the organisation in the better management of its
employees. My report would also try to find the efficient ways of employee engagement. This
report would aim at helping the organisation to have a competitive advantage in the banking
sector in UK.

Task 1 Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in
terms of resourcing in your chosen organisation with talent and skills
appropriate to fulfil business objectives
P1 Explain the purpose and the functions of HRM, applicable to workforce
planning and resourcing an organisation
In simple words, the purpose of the Human Resource Management (HRM) department is to
provide a committed, skilled and experienced workforce to an organisation so that all the
organisational operations are executed without any problem and overall productivity of the
organisation increase gradually (Analoui, 2018). In achieving all these outcomes, HRM
department goes through various practices and create policies that help it in organising and
maintaining the employees.
Purpose and functions of HRM towards the workforce planning and resourcing at
Barclays Bank
1. Forecasting
This is one of the most important purposes of the Human Resource Management
department at Barclays Bank. The HRM department needs to coordinate with the top
management of the Bank and assess the requirement of the employees to execute the
current and planned operations of the Bank. According to the requirement, the HRM
department develops a plan to arrange the human resources for desired jobs. The
HRM department also keeps a watch at the new practices, trends and skills in the
market and then make sure that a skilled workforce is maintained to address all the
job requirements (Banfield, Kay and Royles, 2018).
2. Employee Management
There are many personnel management tasks that are executed by the HRM
department at Barclays such as planning, staffing, organising, training and
development of the employees, performance management of the existing employees,
employment cessation etc. All these activities are organised by the different HR
executives in the HRM department. Dedicated HR executives are positioned at
Barclays Bank HRM department for the different employee management related
tasks.
3. Employee Welfare

Employee welfare is an essential element of the HRM department especially in the
strategic HRM practices. Barclays Bank has been recently ranked among the top 3
banks in UK for providing excellent working environment to the employees. In order
to improve the performance of the employees, it is essential that a working
environment where employees could feel safe has to be created at the different
branches of the Barclays Bank (Bowen, 2016).
4. Compensations and Benefits
The HRM department is given a strict budget to manage all the employee related
expenses which includes the salary of the employees, bonuses, their PF management,
expenses for the recruitment and selection and appraisals of the employees. HRM
department has to create a balance between the approved budget and various
expenses.
5. Handling the Legal Issues
The HRM department at Barclays Bank has to study all the legislations regarding the
employment in UK. All the Acts of Parliament and other legislations have to be
implemented in the HR policies (Boxall and Purcell, 2011). Some of the legislations
that the HRM department at Barclays has to follow are – Discrimination Act,
Employment Act, Working Time Directives and Minimum Wages Act.
In case there are any local laws or Act where Barclays Bank operates, they also need
to be included in the HR policies
6. Employee Relations
Employee relations is an approach used by the HRM department to handle different
employment related issues and work with the employee unions and trade unions so
that there is a mutual understanding among the management and the employees of the
Barclays Bank. At Barclays Bank, HR managers focus on collective bargaining so
that the employees are involved in the policy related decisions. This participative
approach allows the HR managers to have a good relationship with the employees and
resolve any conflicts.
Hard and Soft HRM practices for Planning and Resourcing in Barclays Bank
Hard HRM

Hard HRM is a human resource management approach in which an organisation treats its
employees as pure resources and tries to make the maximum usage of the working hours.
When it comes to planning and resourcing, organisation has a very clear approach where
human resource management is linked very closely with the strategic planning of the
organisation (Brueller, Carmeli and Markman, 2018). All the decisions regarding the human
resource management are strictly aligned with the business strategy of the organisation. Some
of the key features of the Hard HRM are:
1. Hard HRM focus mainly on personnel management
2. Hard HRM is used to identify the exact planning needs of the organisation and then
employee recruitment and management is done accordingly
3. It focuses mainly on the short term employment. As soon as the need for the
employee is over in the organisation, cessation of employment process is started
4. When an organisation adopts Hard HRM approach, employee empowerment is
restricted and not much focus is given on the delegation.
Soft HRM
This is a human resource management approach in which an organisation treats the
employees as an integral part of the organisation. Organisation pays attention towards the
needs and wants of the employees and focuses more on the employee motivation. Some of
the key features of Soft HRM are:
1. Long term employment is assured as organisation hires employees to plan the long
term goals of the organisation (Decenzo, and Robbins, 2015).
2. Empowerment is the key feature behind the Soft HRM approach as employees are
given more authorities and responsibilities
3. Organisation focuses more on the training and development of the employees as it
develops a skilled and experienced workforce for long term planning
Barclays Bank is an organisation that treats its employees as most important resources of the
organisation and spends lots of time and money in satisfying the needs of the employees.
Barclays Bank also has a strategic training and development plan for the employees so that
the employees could become skilled and contribute in the growth of the organisation.

P2 Explain the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to recruitment
and selection
Recruitment and Selection is one of the critical tasks that human resource management
department at Barclays Bank has to execute. There are always new requirements created in
the organisation because of different reasons such as resignation of an existing employee, a
new skill is required for a particular project, organisation is trying to expand etc. There are
different approaches to recruitment that the HRM department at Barclays Bank has adopted.
Two of these approaches are explained below:
1. Internal Recruitment
When an organisation does not hire a new employee but uses its existing employees to
fill the vacancies, the approach is known as internal recruitment (Delery and Doty,
2016). There are different approaches to internal recruitment that are used at Barclays
Bank. Transfer of the employees from one branch to another is one approach to fill
the vacancy in a branch. Another approach to internal recruitment is promotion of an
existing employee. Barclays Bank also keeps reserve bench strength of the employees
who are assigned to different projects on the basis of the requirement.
Figure 1: Recruitment and Selection Approaches (Delery and Doty, 2016)
Strengths of Internal Recruitment
a. In case of a promotion, the employee would feel motivated as his stature in the
organisation is improved. This would help the employee in providing his best
efforts in the growth of the organisation.

b. Internal recruitment approach is very cost effective as no money is wasted on job
advertisements, tests and interview arrangements. Pay hike is also not applicable
most of the times.
c. HR department at Barclays Bank does not have to organise an induction program
for the employee as he is already familiar with the organisational policies.
Weaknesses of Internal Recruitment
a. In case of a transfer or promotion, another vacancy is created that has to be filled
by another resource.
b. When an employee is transferred to another location, he might not be able to
adjust to the new environment which would affect his performance.
2. External Recruitment
External recruitment approach is used by an organisation when the organisation does
not have enough resources within the organisation and it has to hire new employees.
This approach is usually used when an organisation is expanding or it receives a new
requirement and skillset required for that requirement is not available within the
organisation (Dyer, and Song, 2015).
Sometimes external recruitment is done by the HRM department of the Barclays Bank
where whole process of the recruitment and selection that involves preparing job
description and person specification, job advertisement, resume short-listing, written
test and interview is executed by the HR executives of the Barclays Bank. Sometimes,
the job advertisement, short-listing and test processes are outsourced to a placement
agency. Mostly large scale hiring is outsourced to the placement agencies while
occasional hiring is done by the HR department itself.
Strengths of External Recruitment
a. Barclays Bank would be able to hire a new employee who would bring a new
technology or skillset with him
b. Exact match with the requirement could be found
c. A new resource is added in the workforce of the company which would help the
company in the long term.

d. When external recruitment is done through a placement agency, the agency is
obliged to provide another resource if organisation is not satisfied with the
performance of the employee during the first month of the appointment.
Weaknesses of External Recruitment
a. External recruitment is a costly process and Barclays Bank would have to spend
lots of time and resources on the process
b. Induction, training and development of the new employees would also take time
c. Employee might take some time in adjusting to the working environment and
working practices of the Barclays Bank

Task 2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource
Management in an organisation
P3 Explain to your HR Director the benefits of different HRM practices within
the firm for both the employer and employee.
There are many people who think that HRM practices are only for the benefit for the
organisation. But this is not entirely true as many of the HRM practices also benefits the
employees of an organisation. The overall aim of the HRM practices is to create a skilled and
experienced workforce that could help the organisation in achieving its mission and vision.
But these practices also help the employees in their personal and professional development.
An analysis of the benefits of the HRM practices to the Canary Wharf firm and its employee
is provided in the below table:
HRM Practice Benefit to the Employee Benefit to Canary Wharf
firm
Induction Through induction process,
new employee gets to know
the policies of the
organization and does not
feel alienated at the new
workplace (Farndale,
Scullion and Sparrow, 2010)
Through induction
employees becomes aware of
the best practices and follow
them while working which is
good for Canary Wharf firm
Training and Development Training and Development
activities helps the
employees in learning new
skills and technologies which
is essential for the
professional development
Trained employees perform
better for the organization
and the overall productivity
of the Canary Wharf firm
increases because of well-
structured training programs
(Hanks, 2015)
Performance Management Performance management
lets the employees know
their weaknesses and
strengths. It would help an
individual to improve his
Through performance
management, Canary Wharf
firm would be able to known
the capabilities of its human
resources and would be able

skills level to develop the business
strategy accordingly.
Appraisals Appraisals results in the
higher level of motivation in
the employees
Motivated employees are
more committed towards
Canary Wharf firm and work
for its growth
Employee Relations Good employee relations
approach helps in less
confrontation between the
employee and employer
which is good for the
professional growth of the
employees (Hanks, 2015)
Less confrontation results in
a good working environment
at Canary Wharf firm which
further motivates the
employees and enhances
their productivity.
Flexible Working Option Flexible working option
allows an employee to
address other responsibilities
such as family issues as he
could make changes in his
working hours
Flexibility in the HRM
practices and working
options motivate the
employees and they perform
better for the organization
P4 You should also evaluate the effectiveness of the different HRM practices in
terms of raising organisational profit and productivity.
However many HRM practices are aimed at increasing the organisational profit and profit,
Training and Development is one practice which is more focused towards this aspect. As an
Assistant HR, I have worked before at Tesco PLC. The HRM department at Tesco PLC is
one of the best HR departments in the industry. The HR managers at Tesco PLC focus a lot
on the learning, training and development of the employees. The effects of this HRM practice
on the profit and productivity of the Tesco PLC is explained below:
Impact of Learning, Development and Training Practices at Tesco PLC
At Tesco PLC, there are two types of learning, development and training practices – One is
self-managed learning in which the employees are motivated to learn on their own using the

various resources available to them. Another is the structured training and development
programs organised by the HR department at Tesco PLC.
The structured training and development program at Tesco PLC includes classroom training,
mentoring, job rotation and e-learning. All these processes are aimed at making an employee
better. The importance of the job rotation process could be seen in the form of the
development of an employee where he could handle many skills that make him flexible.
Because of this, the line managers at Tesco always have an advantage as they have multi-
skilled resources that could fill in for any other resource in case of emergency (Jackson and
Schuler, 2015). Because of this, Tesco does not have to start an emergency recruitment and
selection process when one of its employees goes on leave or resigns. Hence, lots of time and
money is saved by this HRM practices which is finally reflected in the net profit of the
organisation.
Self-managed learning allows the employees to explore different areas of their interest as
Tesco provides the resource for the employees such as online books and library. All these
facilities let Tesco train employee without much efforts which is another added advantage for
the organisation (Kuipers et al 2014).
The training and development programs by the HRM department at Tesco PLC results in
increasing the efficiency of the employee which further enhances the productivity of the
employee
Training and development program at Tesco PLC also helps in the personal and professional
development of the employees. This works as a motivation factor for the human resources of
the organisation. A motivated employee always works hard and achieves the targets assigned
to him. Because of this, the net profit of the organisation increases as the productivity of the
resources is increased.