Analysis of HRM Practices in Barclays and Canary Wharf Firms

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Human Resource Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
Reference list.................................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
Human Resource management is the strategic process to manage people in an organisation
effectively to gain competitive advantages in the market. The HR department focuses on systems
of the operations take place in the organisation. The department is responsible for providing
various facilities and development opportunities to the employees to improve their performance
and increase the productivity of the organisation. The main purpose of the HR department is to
ensure the ultimate improvement of the business and reach the fixed target earning huge amount
of profit. HR manager hires best employees through recruitment and selection process. In
addition to this, the HR manager must follow different laws to maintain a safe and healthy
environment in the workforce. The study will be discussed on the effective HR practices to hire
the best employees and provide the best facilities and opportunities to retain them and fulfil their
expectations.
Barclays is a multinational investment bank in Central London. It was established in 1690 and
James Barclay became the partner in 1736. Four core businesses of Barclays are corporate
banking, personal banking, investment management and wealth management (Barclays.co.uk.,
2019).
Canary Wharf Firm is a commercial estate on the Isle of Dogs in London. It consists of 97 acres
and 1500000 m2 of the office and retail space (Canary Wharf., 2019). It is located in the West
India Dock on the Isle of Dogs in London
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TASK 1
LO1: Yare required explaining the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in
terms of resourcing organisation with talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business
objectives.
Human Resource Department is the fundamental part of every organisation as the department is
responsible for different functions such as organise, plan different strategies to reach the target of
the organisation and build it successfully.
Purposes of Human Resource Management:
 Staffing Needs: The Human Resource Management is mainly responsible for hiring
employees which includes creating position announcements, indentifying best skills and
requirements that are needed for the particular position
 Compensation: The HR manager should provide fair payment to the workers as workers
give their best efforts to earn more money. Hence, the Hr manager of the Barclays
Company has to evaluate and accordingly make a decision on the salary payment.
 Benefits: Providing great benefits and development opportunities are the best methods to
retain the best talent within the workforce and the benefits include earth insurance,
retirement scheme, and most importantly a safe and secure working environment.
 Performance Appraisal: HR department works in conjunction with another department
to evaluate the performance of the workers and according to that, the HR department
creates entire performance appraisal procedures.
 Law Compliance: Organisations are responsible for providing safety and equitable
treatments of the workers. As a result, the organisation should implement different laws
in the working place such as Equal payment act, various discrimination acts such as the
Sex discrimination act, Disable discrimination act to prevent unfairness among the
workforce.
Functions of Human Resource Management:
 Planning: The Human resource manager should make proper planning in order to get the
best performance from the workers and reach the allocated target of the organisation. The
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planning includes creating job vacancies, proper job descriptions, and most importantly
the best selection process in order to hire the best employees required for the particular
position. Apart from that, the manager must set a target to improve the performance of
the workers.
 Organising: After establishing the proper planning, the HR manager makes design and
organise organisational structure to carry the various operations. The organisational
structure includes creating activates of workers, assigning different tasks to the
individuals, providing specific tools for the activities and helping the individuals to
complete the task successfully.
 Directing the most important function of an HR manager to direct the workforce
according to the plan and motivating them to give effort in their performance to complete
the tasks within the allocated time. The manager motivates the workforce providing
different facilities and benefits, and career development opportunities. That helps to build
a strong relationship among the workforce and boost their performance. Most
importantly, the manager must fulfil the needs of their employees to motivate them.
 Controlling: Controlling is the process to regulate the activities based on the
organisation’s goal. The manager follows the entire process of the operations and
accordingly implements different strategies to improve performance when needed.
Human Resource Management can be divided into two different types such as Hard and Soft
HRM. Hard HRM refers to the department, which treats the employees as a simple resource to
meet the objectives of the organisation. The focus of this HRM type is to identify the workforce
needs of the business and accordingly recruit and manage them in the working place. Hard HRM
includes several important features such as
 Short-term changes according to the organisation’s objectives
 Minimal communication from top to bottom
 Sufficient budget for recruitment process and retain the best employees
 It follows a taller organisational structure as the structure operates on breaking several
steps, it becomes easy for the manager to control the employees, and the steps become
clear and distinct.
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Soft HRM refers to the department, which treats the employees as the most essential resource in
the business and for the competitive advantages. This department focus on fulfilling the needs of
the employees including roles, benefits, and motivation to give efforts in their performance. This
also has different features such as:
 It has a strategic focus on long-term changes based on the activities
 The department maintains a strong communication process in the working mechanism
 Employees are provided empowerment to take responsibilities and give their own opinion
 The department follows a flatter organisational structure as the structure lowers
operational costs, the communication process is much better as employees, and
executives communicate directly in the operation.
Recruitment and selection process is the most essential part of an HR manager’s function as it
helps to identify the best talent and skills required for the particular position in the organisation.
In that context, the processes have several advantages and disadvantages as well.
Pros and cons of Recruitment Process:
Internal process:
The recruitment process is cost-effective and it helps to enhance employees’ morale. The process
helps to retain the best employees and the employees feel motivated and give their best
performance.
The internal recruitment process has various drawbacks such as the organisation may miss fresh
and new ideas as the candidates are selected internally and this may limit the number of potential
employees. Apart from this, conflicts may occur within the workforce.
External Process:
The external process includes several hiring procedures such as job advertisement, career events,
and online job applications. The process helps to find the best employees going through their
personal data and analysing their capability to operate in a particular position. Recruiter or
manager can evaluate the skills and experiences of the candidates through different steps such as
examining resumes of the candidates.
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Automated recruitment, type of external process uses software to identify and screen the
candidate. This process scans the candidates’ databases for particular keywords related to the
position. In that context, if the candidates forget to keep the keywords in their resume, the
software will disqualify the applicants. As a result, many job seekers who are highly capable of a
particular position may not be selected through the automated recruitment process.
Pros and cons of the Selection process:
Selection of employees is done through various processes such as interviews, assessment tests,
face-to-face. Selection process allows the managers or recruiters to assess the ability of the
candidates. The assessment test is organised in most of the selection process as it helps to
analyse different skill of the candidates such as problem-solving capability, creative thinking,
and ability to solve the problematic situation in the working place.
The main drawbacks of the selection process are the process may not be fair to the candidates; as
a result, the perfectly suited candidates may not be selected for the position. In addition to that,
the test may be unclear, which may affect the results.
In that context, the Barclays organises different assessment test or face-to-face selection process
as it allows them to identify the potential of the candidates as the assessment test helps the HR
manager to identify the capability of the candidates in problem solving and situational activities.
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TASK 2
LO2: Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management in an
organisation
An organisation should implement proper HRM practices in the workplace to maintain the
workers and motivate them to increase their performances according to the needs of objectives of
the organisation. The Canary Wharf Firm uses the most important practice that is performance
management system and monitoring in the workplace.
Benefits
Employees  Performance management system
provides consistency within the
employees in their performance
 The system motivates the employees
applying for promotion, facilities,
benefits and that encouraged to
improve their performance
 As a result, it helps to retain the best
employees and they work with
commitment and loyalty towards their
work and employees morale as they get
all such facilities (Noe et al., 2017)
Employers  Analysing the performance, the
employers give feedback to the
employees based on their effort and it
helps to improve their performance. As
a result, productivity of the business
increases
 The performance management system
helps the employers to identify the best
and average performers. According to
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that, they make a decision on their
reward system and other facilities
 Based on the performances, employers
decide to arrange proper training and
recruiting new staffs
 Employers can establish different
structures and cultures within the
workforce to build relationship among
the workers and increase their
performances (Tweedie et al., 2019)
Table 1: Benefits of Performance Management System
(Source: created by the learner)
Effectiveness of employee relationship:
Employees give high efforts in their activities and increase performance according to the need of
the organisation. Strong relationship helps the workers to work as a team and help each other in
critical time. Teamwork increases performance and productivity of the organisation and creates
efficiencies in the workforce (Mackay et al., 2017). As a result, the organisation earns huge
profit and expands the business in the market. Hence, the organisation should maintain the HRM
practice such as employee performance management and monitoring in the work field to control
the workforce and increase the performance and productivity of the organisation. Therefore,
Canary Wharf Firm must maintain the performance management system in its operations to
increase the productivity and performance of the employees.
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TASK 3
LO3: Analyse the internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management
decision-making, including employment legislation
In order to enhance the productivity of business, an organisation needs to maintain a good
employee relationship in the workforce. Employee relation plays an important role as an internal
factor that affects HRM decision-making in the workplace. The workers should communicate
frequently with their colleagues to express their feelings and problem. It is essential that the
workers feel comfortable with each other in a workplace and work focusing on a common goal.
The importance of employee relation is:
 A good employee relationship allows the workers to work as a tea and it becomes easy to
complete the allocated assignment. Apart from this, teamwork generates an effective
performance and increase the productivity of the business
 Good relationship among the employees provides a healthy environment in the
workplace. As a result, employees work without feeling stressed and tense. Employees
also become confident and motivated in their roles and responsibilities
 Healthy relation reduces conflicts and fights among the employees as they share their
own opinion and ideas in tasks. As a result, it lowers the problems of absenteeism in the
workplace. Employees work with commitment and loyalty towards their responsibilities
and organisational objectives as well
In order to improve employee relations within the workforce, the organisation should follow
different strategies such are:
 The organisation must avoid employee favouritism and all the employees should be
treated in a fair manner
 The organisation should fix a high target and the employees should be assigned with
greater responsibilities, which will force them to give high efforts and build a strong
relationship between them
 The manager should give values to employees’ opinion and appreciate their good
performances. This will encourage them and they will work as a team. In addition to this,
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employees should be given a competitive salary and reward based on their performances,
skills, and talents.
Employment legislation is proposed to maintain the relationship between organisation and its
employees. The laws cover its key elements such are:
 Employment Right act, 1999
 The Sex Discrimination Act, 1975
 The Disability Discrimination Act, 1995
 Equal Pay Act, 1970
 The National Minimum Wage act, 1998 (Heyes and Lewis, 2015)
Apart from that, employment legislation acts as an external factor that influences the HRM
decision-making process. The organisation can operate in a legal environment preventing various
issues such as discrimination, inequality, safety and health and many others in the workplace.
Every organisation implements the above-mentioned legislation proposed by the UK government
in its working functions in order to maintain a fair environment and provide equal facilities to its
workforce.
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