DAM761 - Aligning HR Planning with Strategic Goals: A Westpac Case

This essay examines Westpac's human resource planning and its alignment with the company's strategic organizational goals. It highlights the importance of HR in achieving organizational objectives, focusing on Westpac's people-centric approach, workforce diversity, and flexible work policies. The essay analyzes the relationship between strategic organizational planning and human resource planning, discussing methods for developing high-performing employees and managers with a global mindset. It identifies challenges in meeting expectations and bridging the gap between planning and implementation. The analysis also covers Westpac's initiatives in fostering inter-cultural relationships and the GRPI model used for team development, ultimately emphasizing the company's success in aligning HR policies with strategic functions to enhance organizational efficiency.

Running head: IMPLICATIONS OF HR PLANNING OF STRATEGIC GOALS
Implications of HR Planning of Strategic Goals
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Notes:

1IMPLICATIONS OF HR PLANNING OF STRATEGIC GOALS
Executive Summary
Westpac is identified as the first bank in Australia. The company have been considered as one of
the biggest companies in Australia. It is the second largest bank of New Zealand. The company
have received constant favourable response form the market that they operate in. It can be said
their people centric approach is responsible for their efficacy. The company aims to provide
world class services to its clients by employing highly skilled individual. Furthermore the
company’s concern for the employees have resulted in satisfaction of the employees along with
growing level of inter-organisational communication. The company has realised the importance
of sustainability issues such as inclusion of people from diverse background irrespective of
ethnicity or gender. The aim of the paper is to highlight how the company have been successful
in doing the same while aligning their human resource planning effectively with their strategic
goals.

2IMPLICATIONS OF HR PLANNING OF STRATEGIC GOALS
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Findings and Analysis......................................................................................................................4
The relationship between Strategic Organisational Planning and Human Resource Planning...4
Human Resource Planning and methods.....................................................................................6
Developing High Performing and global mind set Employees and Managers............................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

3IMPLICATIONS OF HR PLANNING OF STRATEGIC GOALS
Introduction
Westpac has been recognised as the first bank of Australia and the first overall company
of the country. It has also been recognised as the second largest bank of New Zealand (Kamber,
McDonald and Price 2013). They offer institutional, business and consumer banking solutions to
the market. The company aims to provide quality services to the community and the same is
addressed in the company’s mission and vision statement. It can be said that, the company has
succeeded in incorporating their human resource planning activities while formulating their
organizational strategies. Westpac have been a company who have been pioneering in
contributing to the society by employing sustainable services (Huang, Pepper and Bowrey 2014).
Workforce diversity and flexibility are some of the fields that the company excels in. By
productive use of the highly skilled HR personnel they have been successful in devising
strategies that help them to implement the objectives of the HR department with the strategies
that are taken up by the other managerial divisions. The paper will throw light on the relationship
that persists between strategic organisational planning and human resource planning within
Westpac. Additionally the paper will also highlight the methods that have been employed by the
aforementioned departments in achieving high performance and how its fairs in the global
context.
Findings and Analysis
The relationship between Strategic Organisational Planning and Human Resource
Planning
Strategic Organizational Planning is a type of organizational strategy by using which a
company intends to achieve their long term organizational objectives (Schoemaker, Day and

4IMPLICATIONS OF HR PLANNING OF STRATEGIC GOALS
Snyder 2013). In the process of strategic organizational planning, companies are said to employ
suitable strategies which help them in achieving goals that are in correlation with the company.
On the other hand human resource planning refers to the process that is characterised by
continuous planning through which the Human Resource department devise strategies to develop
a plan of optimum usage of its human capital to achieve the objectives of the company (Noe et
al. 2017). The latter is considered as one of the most crucial components of organisational
planning as effective planning in this stage ensures that perfect individuals are delegated with the
most suitable task in accordance with their specialisation and repertoire (Shaul, L. and Tauber
2013).
Through strategic organizational planning, the management devices plans and objectives
with can lead the organisation to its desired organisational goal. The HR policies at Westpac are
perfectly aligned to the organisational needs (Rotich 2015). The HR policies of the company
have revolutionised their workforce. At Westpac, it is ensured that the best working atmosphere
is present for the employees. The policies within the organisation encourage diversity (Davis,
Frolova and Callahan 2016). They view people of diverse backgrounds as knowledge bearers
who can provide their expertise to provide the best solution for their clients. The aim of the HR
policies of the company is to build a workforce that is capable of adapting and catering to the
changing demands of the clients. The company values integrity. The company has realised the
same through strategic organisational policies. Furthermore, the HR policy of the company have
set benchmarks in the industry by providing quality services in the form of work flexibility.
Employees of the organisation are provided favourable shift allotments. The employees are also
entitled to various leaves. The idea behind the same is to make work as favourable for the
employees as possible. The HR policy makers of the organisation have realised the importance

5IMPLICATIONS OF HR PLANNING OF STRATEGIC GOALS
of providing such facilities as they have is has been proven that there is a direct link between
employee motivation, satisfaction and performance.
Most of the human resource policies within the organisation are perfectly aligned to the
strategic goals of the organisation. The same is responsible for the functional efficacy and
efficiency of the organisation. However, it can be said that there is always scope for
improvement. Even though the company’s human resource policies are effectively coordinated
with the organisational strategies, the following challenges have been identified;
 Challenge to live up to expected expectation: The Company has set a benchmark in the
industry by clearly sating their aim to deliver their clients with the highest possible
quality of service. They can do so by ensuring highly skilled professionals are delegated
to perform the task. The initiative is deemed to transcend to the performance, however it
can become a challenging task. Even though there is a pool of prospective qualified
individuals to fulfil the requirements of the company, it is a difficult task on the part of
the HR officials to select or recruit the most suitable individual.
 Gap between planning and implementation: Planning has been effectively carried out
in the organisation to interlock the functions effectively with the strategic functions of the
organisation, however implementing the plans in reality can become a challenging task
with the growing organisational adversities.
Human Resource Planning and methods
The significance of an effective human resource planning program should not be
undermined. It is the role of the HR personnel including the policy makers to select and include
desirable and suitable people within their organisation (Nagendra and Deshpande 2014). The
position of the HR of any company is one of the crucial most functions of any organisation.

6IMPLICATIONS OF HR PLANNING OF STRATEGIC GOALS
Furthermore they are responsible for maintaining the conditions and relations that prevail within
the organisation (Conway et al. 2016). Some of the functions that are performed by the human
resource department of the organisation are preparing for and estimating the personnel needs in
the organisation, catering to the changing nature of the dynamic workforce, proper planning for
and utilisation of the human resources (Kim and Choon 2013). Carrying out the same requires
tremendous knowledge about the company, its requirements, objectives and proposed outcomes.
Thus it can be understood that the job of the HR personnel are certainly challenging.
Westpac have been successful in aligning their human resource policies perfectly with the
strategic functioning within the organisation. It has been found that the estimated number of
people employed in the company is around 40,000 with over 13 million customers spread across
Australia, New Zealand and the pacific region.
The Company have devised policies which cater to the needs of individual needs the
employees of the organisation. The HR policies that have been framed by the HR of the
company have introduced flexibility. The main aim in doing so is to develop a stress and tension
free atmosphere. The company have incorporated options such as flexible working hours,
working from home and others. The policies also entitle the people of the organisation to leaves
such as parental leaves, grand parental leaves, domestic violence and various other forms of
leaves (Stanford 2016). The policies that have been devised by the organisation are people
centred and thus company’s vision of stakeholder welfare has been realised (Clarke 2014). A
survey was conducted within the company the results of which showed that most of the
employees of the organisation were satisfied and content with their job allowances and
accommodations (Choubey and Choubey 2013).

7IMPLICATIONS OF HR PLANNING OF STRATEGIC GOALS
The company have been successful in making sure that their workforce is diverse. In the
modern world the importance of inter-cultural diversity cannot be neglected (Bennett 2014). The
company strives in effectively carrying out the same. The diverse workforce of the company
consist of people form diverse cultures and almost half of the total workforce is comprised of
women. Furthermore there is perfect ratio of men to women in the senior executive posts of the
company. The policies within the company have made sure that there exists no form of cultural
or gender bias within the organisation. The HR policies of the organisation have also developed a
framework that lets people take charge of the situation. Problem can arise at any point of time in
a said functional division of the organisation (Darwish and Singh 2013). Such problems should
be mitigated by the people responsible or by the people who have the closest proximity with the
problem. The practices in the organisation involves delegating the smartest and the most capable
of coping with the evident problem.
The implications of the absence of the aforementioned factors act as impediments to the
proper functioning of organisation. The absence of the factors can result in grievance from the
part of the employees and can also lead to further dysfunction of the organisational functions.
Developing High Performing and global mind set Employees and Managers
Westpac have developed their policies which ensure that people from diverse cultures are
present in their workforce. Countries such as Australia and New Zealand are composed of people
belonging to various ethnic and cultural backgrounds (Markus 2014). This aligns perfectly with
the company’s policy of hiring highly qualified and suitable personnel for job roles in the
organisation. The amount of talent and credibility possessed by individuals belonging to different
backgrounds is huge (Alnıaçık et al. 2014). The company is said to be a people centred
workplace that has developed policies that help cater to individual needs and demands of the

8IMPLICATIONS OF HR PLANNING OF STRATEGIC GOALS
employees. Furthermore the company excels in providing perfect working conditions for its
employees. The employees of the organisation are seen to be correctly aligned to the goals of the
company. Thus the importance of aligning the human resource planning with the strategic
organisational plan has been realised.
It can be said that the workforce planning within the organisation has been carried out
effectively and the same ensures that the management is able take advantage of the diverse skills
and services that are offered by the employees of the organisation. The organisation’s aim of
teamwork to provide the best experience for the company’s clients is realised by the aim of the
organisational model of the company.
Figure: GRPI model (Source: As created by the author)
Go
als
Roles
Procedures
Inter-cultural relationships
Team Development Diagnosis of Issue

9IMPLICATIONS OF HR PLANNING OF STRATEGIC GOALS
The above model is followed by Westpac. They have realised the importance of inter
cultural communication have been successful in using the efficacy of the same with their
ultimate organisational goal.
 Inter-cultural relationship: The Company has placed emphasis on inter-cultural
communication. The company has been successful in developing proper trust and
communication the organisation. Furthermore flexibility offered by the
organisation set them apart from the competition.
 Procedures: The strategic decision making in the organisation is perfectly aligned
to the HR policies of the organisation and the same is responsible for hindrance
free decision making in the organisations.
 Roles: The responsibilities within the organisation are well defined. Furthermore
the favourable and flexible strategies that have been devised by the company have
made the leaders of the companies highly appreciated by the employees of the
organisation.
 Goals: The Company has been successful in aligning the HR planning tactics with
their organisational goals. Furthermore the organisation goals of the company are
realised by the strategic organisational goals that have been implemented by the
HR planning procedures.
The company has acted as pioneer in promoting inter-cultural diversity. Their aim of
including members from different ethnicities and intercultural backgrounds has resulted in
increased amount of talent the company has been exposed to (Boh, Nguyen and Xu 2013). The
initiatives of the company of providing flexibility to the employees have set them apart from
every other organisation in the country. This can be considered as a sustainable initiative of

10IMPLICATIONS OF HR PLANNING OF STRATEGIC GOALS
human welfare. Moreover, they have been successful in providing service to its employees by
realising the individual needs of every employee of the organisation. Diversity is a function that
the company has excelled. The company have contributed to the society in a greater way than
any of its competitors by ensuring the women in the organisation as getting equal opportunities
as men in the company.
Conclusion
The company have been successful in implementing and aligning their human resource
planning with the strategic organisational plans. The strategic organisational objectives of the
organisation are employee centred. It has been found out that the company acts as pioneers in
offering flexibility to its employees. The company has realised the level of satisfaction of the
employees will directly correlate with their performance. Moreover it has also been discovered
that the human resource framework of the company has framed policies that contribute to the
sustainable issues of the society. New Zealand and Australia are countries with huge diversity
and thus is comprise of people from various cultural backgrounds. The company offers
acceptance to the people of diverse cultures. Furthermore, they have catered to the need of and
importance of Workplace diversity by involving equal number of women in their functional and
executive positions. However the company should realise that there exists a huge gap between
formulating plan and implementing the same in real life. Thus they should make sure that these
are incorporated into actual practice. On a concluding note it can be said that the initiatives of the
company perfectly elucidate their global mind set and that is the reason why the company has
received success in the market it is operating in.

11IMPLICATIONS OF HR PLANNING OF STRATEGIC GOALS
REFERENCES
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survey. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 4(2), p.198.
Clarke, T., 2014. CSR provides the moral compass that will empower good corporate
governance.
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relationship between HR practices, employee engagement, and emotional exhaustion within a
hybrid model of employment relations. Human Resource Management, 55(5), pp.901-917.
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Huang, T., Pepper, M. and Bowrey, G., 2014. Implementing a sustainability balanced scorecard
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