HSBC Company HRM Practices: An In-Depth Evaluation Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within HSBC Company, a multinational financial and banking service provider. It explores the purpose and scope of HRM, detailing functions such as recruitment, selection, training, and employee relations. The report evaluates the effectiveness of workforce planning in recruitment and selection, examining the strengths and weaknesses of internal, external, competency, and contingency approaches. It further discusses the benefits of HRM practices for both employers and employees, including training, development, rewards, and relationship building. Finally, the analysis extends to how HRM practices contribute to raising productivity and profit for HSBC through performance appraisals and career management, ultimately concluding on the overall effectiveness of HR functions within the organization. Desklib offers this and other solved assignments to aid students in their studies.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.....................................................................................................................3
AN OVERVIEW OF HSBC COMPANY.................................................................................................3
DISCUSSION.....................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................17
JOB APPLICATION...........................................................................................................................18
JOB SPECIFICATION....................................................................................................................18
CV...............................................................................................................................................20
INTERVIEW SELECTION CRITERIA...............................................................................................22
INTERVIEW NOTES & PREPARATION..........................................................................................23
OFFER LETTER.............................................................................................................................24
EVALUATION..............................................................................................................................25
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................................26
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................27

INTRODUCTION
Human resources are regarded to be the most valuable resource and asset for the organization.
The successful management of employees in the organization is a critical task and can only be
managed through effective human resource management. Human Resource management is a
challenging task especially in the present changing and dynamic environment where economies
are in a state of flux. In this assignment the role and responsibilities of HR managers in analyzed
and briefly explained considering an organizational example of HSBC Company. With the help of
a review report, the effectiveness of HR functions in the organization is critically analyzed. In
the report, the approach of workforce planning in recruitment and selection for the HSBC
Company is explained along with training and development methods adopted by HSBC
Company. In later sections of the assignment, the effectiveness of employee relations and
engagement is evaluated in the work-related context as per the case study is given. At last a
conclusion will be derived based upon the effectiveness of the HR practices for the HSBC
Company considering parameters explained in the report.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Being a manager of the Human Resource Department of the HSBC Company, a report is made
based on the effectiveness of HRM practices in recruitment and selection for the HSBC
Company. The report made highlights the key issues prevalent in the Human resource
management for originations like HSBC and how to overcome these issues for achieving greater
efficiency and effectiveness in the HRM practices for the HSBC Company.

AN OVERVIEW OF HSBC COMPANY
HSBC Company is a multinational financial and banking service provider in the UK. It is the
world’s 7th largest bank in the world and was established in the year 1865. The company’s
headquarters are located at HSBC tower London, the UK and the founder of the company are
Sir Thomas Sutherland. This company consists of four different business groups such as Global
private banking, Retail banking, wealth management and Commercial Banking (Shams, 2013).
Since the formation of the bank the company has seen several ups and down in terms of
generating revenue through its methods of operations. The company is facing huge
competence from its rivals in the present global market.
DISCUSSION
PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN HSBC COMPANY
The scope of Human resource management in the HSBC Company is quite vast and
immeasurable. There are numerous activities that occur in the life of an applicant who is
selected in the organization till the till he leaves the organization (Bratton and Gold, 2017). The
main activities prevalent in HRM are the planning, analysis, designing, recruitment, selection,
training and development, performance appraisals and many more activities.

FUNCTIONS OF HR MANAGER IN HSBC
Figure 1: HRM Functions
Source: [https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-personnel-management-and-
human-resource-management.html]
 Recruitment and Selection: The HR managers of the HSBC Company are responsible for
selecting and screening the candidates for filling the vacant job positions. The main goal
of this process is to hire qualified candidates and encourage the unqualified applicants
for opting themselves out in the process of recruitment and selection.
 Training and Development: Once an employee is selected in the organization it
becomes the responsibility of the HR managers to provide training to employees so that
they become adaptable to the changing working conditions of the organization (Bratton
and Gold, 2017). Training is followed by continuous monitoring of employee activities
and performance so that the current and future performance can be evaluated for
future concerns. The development programs mainly include seminars, events, and
workshops for increasing the skills and knowledge of employees so that they develop
and grow in their professional career.

 Orientation: It is the responsibility of the HR manager to provide a thorough orientation
for the employees working in the organization. It is important as it keeps employees
motivated for achieving the organization aims and objectives (Gilbert, et al. 2011).
 Maintaining good working conditions for Employees: The HR managers must ensure
that the workplace environment is safe for the employees and there is no hazardous
equipment that may bring unnecessary disturbance in the workplace.
 Managing Employee Relations: It is the responsibility of the HR managers to establish
healthy relations between the employer and employees as it helps in generating better
outputs from the individuals working in teams.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF HR MANAGER IN HSBC
 Attracting Talent and Hiring Resources: It is the responsibility of the HR manager to hire
skilled workforce for the organization and attract more and more candidates towards
company’s vacant job positions (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
 Performance appraisals: If an employee of the company performed well in his/her work
then their work should be praised by senior managers in the organization. It is followed
by given giving performance appraisal to employees by giving them higher positions in
the organization.
 Rewards, Incentives and Benefits: The HR managers in the organization develop various
compensation plans for the employees along with providing guidance to compensation
and benefits specialists.
 Resolving Conflicts: Maintaining effective relations between employees, employers and
the members of the staff is the primary responsibility of the HR managers. HR managers
should address concerns and issues of the employees along with resolving conflicts that
may occur between employees in the workplace environment (Armstrong and Taylor,
2014).

WORKFORCE PLANNING
It is a strategy basically used by the employers in the organization to anticipate the labour
needs and deploy employees in the workplace environment more effectively with the use of
advanced human resource technology (Cascio, 2018).
Figure 2: Workforce Planning in HRM Activities
Source: [https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Strategic-workforce-
planning_fig1_309134471]
EFFECTIVENESS OF WORKFORCE PLANNING IN RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
Workforce planning in the HR department helps companies to identify the vacant job positions
and effectively apply various strategies to recruit potential candidates to fill the job openings.
Workforce planning is important in the recruitment and selection because it helps to make
strategic plans in determining the labour needs of the organization. Workforce planning helps
businesses in hiring right people for the right job.

Right People: The HR team of HSBC Company uses workforce planning strategies in order to
hire efficient and skilled employees that have the capability to achieve the company’s desired
aims and objectives (Cascio, 2018).
Right Place and Time: The HR managers of HSBC Company should ensure that right people are
recruited and deployed at the right place so that organizations short and long-term goals are
achieved more effectively and efficiently.
STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
RECRUITMENT APPROACHES
Internal Recruitment
In this approach of recruitment, the HR managers of the HSBC Company select applicants from
within the organization. This process saves time and reduces the expenses caused due to
another mode of recruitment approaches. The training and development cost is also reduced as
employees are aware of the organizations working procedures. This approach inhibits the
selections of candidates from outside source thus having geographical limitations (Cascio,
2018).
External Recruitment
In this approach, the applicant is selected from outside of the organization. This approach is
quite advantageous because employers get skilled employees for filing their job positions
requiring high competent skills. This approach is quite time-to consume as HR managers have
to visit other institutions for finding candidates which require huge costs investments (Cascio,
2018).
Competency Approach
In this approach to recruitment and selection, the HR managers are responsible for hiring those
candidates who are competent enough to meet the desired skill set required for the job role.

The advantage of this approach is that it provides a consistent hiring process and helps in
predicting the future talented employees for the organization. This approach is not suitable for
filling the junior job positions in the organization as the employees selected in the approach are
highly qualified.
Contingency Approach
This approach aims to retain skilled employees in the organization for achieving the long-term
goals and objectives of the organization (Guest, 2011). It is basically a long-term approach and
required HR managers to form effective strategies to retain employees by giving them
monetary compensation, rewards and benefits at each stage of performance appraisals.
The approach helps in retaining the talented employees for the organization which is one of the
biggest strengths of this approach to recruitment and selection. This approach does not give
chance to hire candidates from an external source which results in lack of diversity in the
selection process.
SELECTION APPROACHES
Personal Interview
In this mode of selection, the interviewer and interviewee sit face to face and conduct the
interview process (Bidwell and Keller, 2014).
The advantage of this approach is that it allows both parties to ask several questions in short
span of time. Moreover, this method allows the interviewer to better judge the applicant's
personality. This method is too costly and time-consuming which is one the biggest drawback of
this approach.
Online Interview
In this method of selection, the interview between the applicant and the employees gets
conducted through online media or the internet.

The advantage of this selection method is that this process allows candidates from different
candidates to apply for the jobs. The online interview method is quite time-consuming, and the
employer cannot judge the applicant personality and behavioural aspects which is one of the
biggest drawbacks of this selection method (Bidwell and Keller, 2014).

LO2
BENEFITS OF DIFFERENT HRM PRACTICES FOR EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE IN HSBC
The HR managers of the HSBC Company constantly look for candidates that help in achieving
the organizations desired aims and objectives. The HSBC Company tries to hire fresh talent to
join its team so that company attains greater brand value for the organization (Tremblay, et al.
2010). Some important benefits of the HRM practices for employees and employer are listed
below.
EMPLOYEES
Training and Development
The HR managers conduct various skills development programs that help the operational
performance of employees in the workplace environment. The seminars, events and workshops
better help employees in their skill development for archiving their personal as well as
professional goals.
Rewards and Benefits
The HR managers of the HSBC Company ensure that its employees are given performance
appraisals for their good work so that they become loyal employees for the organization (Fong,
et al 2011).
EMPLOYER
Monitoring
The HR activities in the HSBC Company help in monitoring the activities of employees in the
workplace environment. The HR activities ensure that employees are working in a safe
environment and there is no chance of disturbance that may hinder their operational work.
Employee Retention

The HR managers recruit applicants meeting the desired skill set for the vacant job positions
and continuously reward talented employees so that they remain associated with the company
for long term.
Effective Relationship Building
The HR managers help in establishing fruitful and healthy relations between employees and
employer in the workplace environments. Having good relationship between the team
member’s increases the individual output performance from employees in the organization
(Alfes, et al. 2013).
EFFECTIVENESS OF HRM PRACTICES IN RAISING PRODUCTIVITY AND PROFIT FOR HSBC
Performance Appraisals
The employees working in the HSBC Company are highly skilled and talented. They use their
capabilities in order to maximize the throughput and thus achieving greater productivity and
performance in their work (Brown, et al. 2010). The HR managers also ensure that employees
are set free so that their creativity is utilized for increasing the sales and profit margins for the
organization.
Career Management
The HR managers of the HSBC Company guide employees in their day to day operational
activities. Employees address the concerns and issues of employees thereby realizing their inner
zeal and desires. It helps in better career management of employees as they feel satisfied and
motivated while they are at their work. This way company ensures that employees are
performing at their full potential which helps in raising productivity and profit for the company.
The effectiveness of Different Training methods
There are a variety of training services that help employees in increasing their skill levels such
as refresher training, apprenticeship training, and industrial training etc. These training