BUS102: Examining Human Resource Management Practices at PwC Australia

This report provides an overview of Human Resource Management (HRM) at PwC Australia, a leading professional services firm. It explores various aspects of the company's HRM practices, including organizational culture, employee motivation, and performance management, drawing upon theories covered in a management course. The report highlights PwC's strengths, such as flexible working hours and a supportive culture, while also addressing potential drawbacks like international secondments. It further includes recommendations for improving the company's HRM practices, such as aligning business goals with innovation and enhancing communication between managers and employees. The analysis emphasizes the importance of effective performance management, employee engagement, and the integration of technology to facilitate feedback and development.

MANAGEMENT

Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the company......................................................................................................................3
Human Resource Management..............................................................................................................3
Recommendations.................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
The essay brings out and highlights Human resource management of PwC Australia. The
company is well known for its audit services and also exist among the big four. Although the
approach to HR is too wide but this discussion, carries some points such as culture of the
organisation, performance management, motivation theories, and the other related concepts.
Although the company is well known for, providing flexible working hours for the employees
but it also has some drawbacks too. The essay further discusses a brief recommendation for
the company`s HR.
Overview of the company
PwC is among the leading and largest professional service company that has the power to
help global network of organisations that helped private and public Australian businesses and
also the non-profit companies to suggest and improve in their work (PwC Australia, 2018). In
2010, the company acquired boutique consultancy named “The difference” which specialised
in working with MNCs especially when they face complex issues, which ultimately affect the
several stakeholders. The company is well-known multinational professional network
company, which is headquartered in London, UK. PwC was formed in 1998 through merger
of coopers with Lybrand and Price waterhouse (PwC Australia, 2018).
Human Resource Management
The core values of “company” organisational culture helps to build trust among the clients,
communities and other people working in PwC. Although short and long-term international
secondments or transfer of employees from one country to another country that is a major
drawback for the staff. More than half business executives say that organisational culture is
bigger success factor even more than business level strategy or its operating model. Apart
from this, the company provides flexible working hours with no minimum employment

requirement for maternity and parental leave. Employees are welcomed to take 18 weeks
leave regardless of gender and time spent in the organisation (PwC Australia, 2017a). The
company supportive organisational culture provide post acquisition support by assessing the
profile for target and finally supports culture integration. Leadership model plays an
important role in deciding the hierarchy of motivational theory. The leader should have the
ability to cope up with five main attributes that is related to environment and community such
as be responsive and responsible, agile and treat the complexity with effectively to drive the
value. The five attributes are dealing with some challenges such as psychological safety,
emotional investment, multiple perspectives, intentional energy, and courageous vulnerability
(PwC Australia, 2017b).
Values and behaviours remain a critical to how company engage people and serve clients in
best appropriate way. It was PwC`s Australia CEO who identified the journey to find the
organisational values. He realised that company foresee to realise a connection of putting
culture at first and then deliver it to organisation`s client. Certain global value of PwC are act
with integrity, care of the employees and clients, make a difference in the way it provides the
services, and work together. The company never stopped collecting the feedback on how
client feel about company values and what keep them engaged. The company is excited to
use culture Amp Surveys because it gives a transparent feedback. As when adopting
employee effectiveness, managers prepare 180 or 360-degree feedback for the managers
(Culture amp, 2018a). It has a process that starts from how company eliminate biasness and
anxieties when receiving feedback through focusing on development of employee rather than
only looking at performance evaluation. Senior manager uses intuitive reporting that
highlights strengths and scope for improvement (Culture amp, 2018b). The company can
easily find development opportunities and also get the ways to benefit oneself and
organisation. This scope of improvement drives learning and development that consists of

frame coaching discussion, mergers and teams, and mould learning and development
programs. Employee effectiveness has always remained revolutionary and it offer how team
offer and collect the feedback. PwC has moved from manual processes to achieve target
conversations, which we schedule and adapt to needs (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2017).
Recommendations
When reviewing the current policies, it is important to find the effectiveness of business and
regional markets. As a recommendation, start thinking more bold and looking for the
opportunity for the alignment of business based on innovation but for the change of
promotion of innovation strategy. From the discussion above, company should change its
performance management that affect the award practises, organisation culture, and talent
management. It is important to refrain and eliminate the fundamental changes that do not
serve the business operations and do not contribute to high performing business that is
supported by organisational design (PricewaterhouseCoopers 2015a). It is important to rely
on constructing realistic goals that serve the organisation requirement and abilities. It finally
undertake the actions that can support the steps to incur and implement change. Company
should undertake measures to support the cases for changes and generate quality impacts on
these cases. It is seen that PwC do not drive efficiently when the communication happens that
should target both employees and managers. More than half of the executives do not see the
line managers prioritising the performance management conservation and its feedback too
(PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2015b). Organisation should emphasize more on conversation and
feedback. Most organisations emphasize on HR and senior leadership to remain responsible
for performance management effectiveness. The company should undertake distil business
strategy and convert it into simple actionable values and measures that finally allow a culture
of rigour and standards.

Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that HRM of PwC Australia is considerably
well. The company has been treating its employees very well and leaders undertake major
five steps to encourage the employees and retain them. While recommending, company
should invest in increasing the management capabilities that increases team and employee
engagement. It should also create more frequent feedback sessions that consider the usage of
technology, which will enable it to provide them a feedback instantly. The company also
creates a questionnaire and conducts survey accordingly to get an transparent feedback.

References
Culture amp, (2018a) Strengthen your culture to build a better company. Available on:
https://www.cultureamp.com/products/employee-engagement/ [Accessed on 12/01/19]
Culture amp, (2018b) Empower people to drive their own development. Available on:
https://www.cultureamp.com/products/employee-effectiveness/ [Accessed on 12/01/19]
PricewaterhouseCoopers (2015a) Performance management Change is on the way but will it
be enough?. Available on:
https://www.pwc.com.au/people-business/assets/publications/performance-management-
mar15.pdf [Accessed on 12/01/19]
PricewaterhouseCoopers, (2015b) The changing performance management paradigm:
evolution or revolution?. Available on: https://www.pwc.nl/nl/assets/documents/pwc-
performance-survey-2015.pdf [Accessed on 12/01/19]
PricewaterhouseCoopers, (2017) The Power of Visual Communication Showing your story to
land the message. Available on: https://www.pwc.com.au/the-difference/the-power-of-visual-
communication-apr17.pdf [Accessed on 12/01/19]
PwC Australia, (2017a) Cultures and values. Available on:
https://www.pwc.com.au/people/cultures-and-value.html [Accessed on 12/01/19]
PwC Australia, (2017b) Leadership Advisory and Development. Available on:
https://www.pwc.com.au/people/leadership-advisory-and-development.html [Accessed on
12/01/19]
PwC Australia, (2018) PwC History. Available on:
https://www.pwc.com.au/about-us/history.html [Accessed on 12/01/19]