Project Report: Human Resource and Communication Strategies at Westpac

This report delves into the critical role of Human Resources and communication management within project settings, using Westpac as a case study. It begins with an introduction highlighting the significance of HR in fostering a successful work environment and achieving organizational goals, emphasizing the importance of effective communication. The report outlines the aim and objectives, which include examining the broad concepts of HR, analyzing the roles and responsibilities within Westpac, and developing a stakeholder management plan. The deliverables cover various aspects, such as HR management, organizational breakdown structure, roles and responsibilities, RACI matrix, and stakeholder management. The report explores the broad concept of human resource management, the organizational breakdown structure of Westpac, the roles and responsibilities of team members, and the application of the RACI matrix. It also examines staffing management plans, including resource acquisition, HR calendars, and training. Furthermore, it discusses project communication requirements, information management systems, performance reports, and stakeholder management. The report integrates project HR with communication and stakeholder strategies, culminating in a conclusion that summarizes the key findings and recommendations for improving HR effectiveness. The report also emphasizes the importance of HR in employee engagement and organizational alignment.

HR AND COMMUNICATION IN PROJECT
STUDENT NAME:
STUDENT ID:
1

Table of Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
1.1 Aim and objectives............................................................................................................3
1.2 Project Deliverables..........................................................................................................3
2. Project Human Resource Management....................................................................................4
2.1 Broad concept of human resource management....................................................................4
2.2 Organizational breakdown structure Westpac.......................................................................7
2.3 Roles and Responsibilities.....................................................................................................8
2.4 RACI Matrix..........................................................................................................................9
2.5 Staffing Management Plan:..................................................................................................10
2.5.1 Resources acquisition and release plan.........................................................................11
2.5.2 HR calendar and histogram:..........................................................................................11
2.5.3 Staff induction and training plan:..................................................................................11
2.5.4 Function of HR..............................................................................................................11
3. Project Communications management......................................................................................13
3.1 Project communication requirement....................................................................................13
3.2 Project Information management system (PMIS)................................................................14
3.3 Project performance report...................................................................................................16
3. Project Stakeholder management...........................................................................................17
5. Integration..................................................................................................................................20
5.1 Integrating project HR.........................................................................................................20
5.2 Communications and stakeholder aligned with stakeholder strategic plan.........................20
6. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................21
Reference list.................................................................................................................................22
2

3

1. Introduction
Human Resource plays a vital role in securing a successful working environment. The function is
to build working partnerships and create an environment in which a worker can thrive and
achieve the goal of an organization. Human resources is an integral part of a company that
oversees functions starting from the recruitment, training, legal matters, settling disputes to
communicating with employees at all levels. Good human resource planning helps in higher
productivity. The project is designed to understand the role of human resources in relation to
communication management. The role of a human resource manager is to analyze and recognize
the necessary goals of the company and drawing necessary activities to satisfy the needs of the
firm. Westpac is one of the oldest firms in Australia and one of the major banks in New Zealand.
With the vision of being the best in customer service Westpac has spread its network worldwide.
The firm has a rich history and a strong human resource that was a part of this journey. From
providing financial aid to companies of all sizes to ensuring safe investments, this firm fully
concentrates on being customer-centric.
1.1 Aim and objectives
The aim of this research is to examine broad concept of HR in respect to Westpac along with
different communication tool to transfer information among associate team member.
Objectives
 To analysis the role and responsibilities of HR in respect to Westpac
 To understand examine the significance of human resource management
 To develop a stakeholder management plan
 To recommend the most effective and reliable strategies to improve the effectiveness of
HR
1.2 Project Deliverables
Deliverables Time scale
Human Resource Managements (HRM) in
respect to Westpac
1 Week
Organization breakdown structure 1 Week
4

Role and responsibilities of associate
employees with the help of RACI matrix
1.5 Weeks
Project stakeholder management helps in
managing their needs and demands vividly
1 Week
Importance of integration project HR to
improve the reliability of project manager
2 Weeks
2. Project Human Resource Management
2.1 Broad concept of human resource management
Human Resources is the backbone of the company. Without manpower, a company wouldn’t
run. Human resource management is responsible for interviewing, hiring, training, deploying
duties and managing employees in an organization. It is mostly used to describe the people who
work in an organization. The HR department is highly responsible for creating policies and
putting them into effect in the relationship of the company with its employees. Human Resource
Management is the term used for organizing and developing the human workforce in a company.
It is the management of employees who are an asset to the business (Ganah and John, 2015). The
ultimate goal is to make effective use of manpower, reduce risks, and increase the return on
investment (ROI). A few noteworthy objectives of HRM are as follows:
● Developing policies that work help in the ethical and societal needs of the employees.
This also includes legal issues, providing equal opportunity and equal pay to all
employees irrespective of the gender.
● Human Resource Management has an important goal of maintaining the organizational
goal. Hiring the right candidates, training them for the job role for maximum job
efficiency and maintaining employee retention is a part of the organizational goal.
● Following the guidelines helps in running the manpower to the fullest potential.
Allocating effective HR policies helps in functioning as a whole.
5

● Human resource management also strives to help the potential employees of the firm in
personality and career development (Hardison et al. 2014). Top firms are known for
providing an educational opportunity to the employees for career advancement and
boosting an employee’s motivation and work satisfaction with the firm.
The functions of Human resource management can be divided into sections that involve
functions related to pre-recruitment, while recruitment, and post recruitment.
● Recruitment is the core function of Human resource management. Hiring the right
candidate for a designated job role is extremely essential. For every process of
recruitment, an HR manager is assigned to overlook the task. Recruitment is a
challenging task especially if it involves technical hiring. Advanced tools are being
adopted by the managers to keep track of the services related to recruitment. Once a
candidate is on board the training manager takes up the task to give proper training to the
candidate while keeping in mind the policies of the firm. Retaining an efficient worker at
a firm get can be quite a task. A human resource strives to retain the best workers for the
organization.
● Human resource professionals are responsible for talent management at a competitive
level. The successful recruitment process focuses on creating the best impression of the
organization for the worker’s perspective. It includes learning and development services
for the full round training the employees, scope of work and development from the career
aspect. Career growth and training options can help to boost an employee’s satisfaction
and most importantly, employee retention.
● Workforce management is another vital role in Human resource management. It
optimizes the worker’s productivity and creates a day to day schedule for accomplishing
the given task to the employees. Forecasting helps to know the requirements that are
required for the completion of a project. Budgeting plays a vital role in forecasting as it
would help to foresee if the project has sufficient capital as well as manpower for the
completion of the project.
6

● Employee management is a part of human resources that helps in a better understanding
of an employee’s productivity. It is an important task to understand how an employee
works and reward him from time to time for the hard work and sincerity. Compensation
planning is adopted by all professionals to recognize the workers that outperform to reach
the goal of the project.
● Not every recruit is suitable for all job roles. Assigning the recruits to job roles that best
suit his profile or past experience is the job of a human resource professional.
● Rules and regulations at a workplace help to maintain order and decorum. With the ever-
changing rules and regulations, companies should have a better understanding of its
compliance regulatory requirements (Hollnagel, 2018). It is set to ensure that the
company is working as per the industrial guidelines and legislations of the government
bodies.
● An employee is always looking for a better opportunity. Succession planning is a part of
developing talents and preparing them for future job roles when employees make a
transition from one role, get terminated, or get a promotion. This process is relevant in all
business firms of all sizes. Human resource management plays a crucial role in
succession or replacement planning. This helps in employee engagement and make them
feel motivated and valued. It helps in aligning the organization’s vision with HR in
designing programs that are beneficial for the company as well as the worker.
● Team building helps in keeping the workers engaged. It helps in breaking the ice and
uniting the workers. Employees come from different domains and background. Team
building plays a huge role in removing conflict. For those employees who are introverted
in nature, such activities can help to communicate and become responsible. Performing in
such tasks can help in developing skills for problem-solving.
7

Figure 1: Human Capital Management
Reports show with strong human resource policies and workforce big firms as Westpac has been
rising on its popularity, customer satisfaction, business, and investments.
2.2 Organizational breakdown structure Westpac
Westpac Group is one of the most reputed firms in the world. The group has branches spread
globally. It employs more than 30000 people in Australia and serves over 9 million clients
worldwide. The capitalization was reported over $38 billion which was up by $8 billion. There
was a rise in the number of shareholders to 266,151 and the estimated assets have crossed over
$249,753 million (Li et al. 2015). Organizational Breakdown Structure is a framework that helps
to describe an organization's project planning, management of time and resources, allocation of
budget, and management of work investment in people's skills, professional development. It
captures all the essential elements that break the complex natured projects into small, simple
projects for a better framework and organizing work. Such framework helps to allocate tasks,
project cost, assigning tasks, and identifying future scopes. It is used to allocate responsibilities,
billing, and control. The hierarchical model helps to share information with the seniors.
8

Figure 2: Operating profit after tax attributable
Figure 3: Westpack performance in last 10 years
2.3 Roles and Responsibilities
Associate Team Member Role and responsibility
Project manager The major role of project manager is to
examine the performance and progress of each
task and activity so the adverse effect of
potential risk and issue can be minimized
effectively. In regard to Westpac, the project
9

manager monitors the success of each task
positively to change the approach towards
success of the project.
Project Executive The project executive plays a leading role in
implementing developed strategy within
business operation successfully
(Manage.gov.in, 2019). In addition, it is also
responsible for allocating resources to the
respective task in order to make sure each task
can be completed within a strict time
schedule.
Business analyst Business analyst examine the performance of
Westpac and identified respective issues in
achieving desired goal and objectives that
eventually upsurge the productivity and
efficiency of business positively
Technical architect It monitors the technical issues related to
accountants and financial transaction so that
customer gets better services. It helps in
building trust and loyalty with customers that
reflect on the economic condition of the
business.
2.4 RACI Matrix
Activities Project
Manager
Project
executive
Business
Analyst
Technical
Architect
10

Allocation of task among associate
team member
R A I c
Utilization of resources and tools in a
proper way
C I A R
Provide training to employees I C A
Analysis of company’ performance
that includes economic and sales
growth
A I R C
The role and responsibility of each associate team member has been examined with the help of
the RACI matrix that facilitates assessing the potential and capabilities of employees so that each
task or activity can be accomplished within strict timelines. On the other hand, Hierarchy
structure has been followed by Westpac so that employees can able to communicate with others
in a systematic way that eventually reduces the risk of failure. In addition, the RACI matrix
allows HR to monitor the performance of respective employees to develop a strategic solution to
achieve the desired goals and objectives positively (Pellicer et al. 2014). Westpac's vision is to
support customers or communities in terms of economically that give an opportunity to grow and
prosper. Through the RACI matrix, it is easy to make any important decisions for the benefits of
the e employees and Westpac to examine the on-going progress of business for sustainable
growth. Therefore, it can be stated that HR is required to use this RACI m matric in order to
change the approach and strategy to upsurge the productivity of the company. It allows HR to
communicate with associate employees so that the risk of misunderstanding can be reduced in a
significant way.
2.5 Staffing Management Plan:
After the recruitment process, it is essential to develop a management process that allows
optimum productivity. The staffing management plan is a document that includes all the
requirements related to human resources that should be followed by the management and the
employees. It allows managing various teams most effectively and potentially.
11

2.5.1 Resources acquisition and release plan
Both parts of the resource management plan which is a sub-division of project management.
After underlining the requirements of the project allocating resources for the completion of the
project can get a bit tricky. Resource acquisition includes important tools that help in project
completion (Reyes et al. 2014). To get the project and allocating resources for the project it is
essential to allocate a meline for the project. A project timeline should be discussed with the
manager and allot dates and tasks for major milestones.
2.5.2 HR calendar and histogram:
HR calendar is ideal for managing time and keeping track of various important dates related to
work and projects. Histogram is a tool used by project managers for sharing visual data with
teammates. It showcases a certain amount of details that is related to the project for a better
understanding of the project details easily.
2.5.3 Staff induction and training plan:
When a new recruit is hired training is a must. HR professionals design various plans and
training modules to enhance the performance of the workers. Such programs help the recruits to
get accustomed to the new environment. Training modules help the workers to understand the
work better and perform better.
2.5.4 Function of HR
Since the human resource department plays a vital role in any organization, it is bound to work
for the wellbeing of the employee. HR has so many functions to perform within the organization;
it includes recruitment, performance management, administrative task and many more. As we
know, HR roles and responsibilities vary between companies (Wu et al. 2014). However, in
general, there are few everyday jobs that have been done in every organization. Basically, the
human resources management function includes:
A) MANAGERIAL FUNCTION
● Planning: While establishing an organization it is very important to plan. You need to
understand both short-term and long-term goals. It also includes key function i.e. what
12