Comprehensive Evaluation of HSBC UK Recruitment and Selection Strategy

This report offers a critical analysis of HSBC UK's recruitment and selection strategies, evaluating the effectiveness of their current frameworks and procedures. It examines HSBC's approach to attracting, screening, and selecting candidates, considering both internal and external labor market dynamics. The report delves into the various stages of the recruitment process, including CV screening, online assessments, telephone interviews, and face-to-face interviews. It highlights the use of different testing methods and selection strategies, such as conjunctive and multistage approaches, and discusses their impact on the quality of hires. Furthermore, the report explores the influence of external factors, such as government policies and economic conditions, on HSBC's recruitment practices. It also provides recommendations for improving the recruitment and selection processes, including the implementation of effective human resource management, multistage selection strategies, global recruitment frameworks, employment branding techniques, and the use of technology. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of a candidate-centric framework and a diversified approach to attract and retain top talent.

Running head: HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY
HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY

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HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY
Executive summary
The report evaluates critical analyses of the strategies and frameworks that are followed by
HSBC UK for recruitment and selection purpose. The report evaluates about the best strategy
that can be implemented by the company to enhance the recruitment procedures of the company.
This also analyses about the various recommendations for selections and recruitments procedures
that can be followed by HSBC to recruit best talent and increase the efficiency and effectiveness
of the recruitment procedures and frameworks.

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HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY
Table of contents
Recruitment and selection strategies...............................................................................................4
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Reference list.................................................................................................................................12
Appendices....................................................................................................................................14

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HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY
Recruitment and selection strategies
Analyzation of external labour strategies suggests that the availability of qualified labour is
required to execute selection products within an organisation. As mentioned by Galbraith (2014),
high employment generally suggests that seasonal employment often need faster selection
procedure in order to get qualified employees within their sales to accommodate the demand for
business.
Recruitment strategy of HSBC bank
In HSBC bank, recruitment and selection procedure is conducted as per the role the applicant is
looking for. Moreover, they provide the outline of the job along with the responsibilities that
must be followed by the employees towards the organization. The organization reviews the CV
of the applicants in order to evaluate their skill, future goals, and accomplishments along with
work experiences. Therefore within the CV, an application needs to provide their work
experiences, last attended colleges or universities and obtained grades with degrees.
Nevertheless, in the first stage of interview students are asked how they can achieve the fullest
potentiality within the bank to examine the dedication as well as confident of the student.
However, the CV should not be more than two pages but within it all academic details of the
students needs to be included. While in online assessment, type and number of assessment
generally depends on the post of the candidate seeking post in their bank. Online assessment can
be conducted at any time and any day but that will be informed via email. Nonetheless, some
practice questions set are also provided to crack the assessment. Short telephone-based
interviews also conduct by the organization to verify the general skill as well s capabilities of the
candidates and the phone call takes approximately 40 to 60 minutes as per the requirement of the
post the candidate is applied in their organization. After that, a face to face interview is
conducted by HSBC bank to evaluate the strength as well as examine relevant required skill of
the candidate (Hsbc.co.uk, 2017).
The tests conducted by the company for recruiting young talents are good for the management.
This is because; the management gets to choose qualified candidates over candidates less
qualified. Various tests such as numerical testing and reasoning tests are conducted. This
sometimes, is proved negative for the company, as the candidates doing good in aptitude test
may not be good in other fields. Therefore, the management should conduct tests that examine

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HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY
all round intelligence and performance of the candidate. Sometimes, a candidate may be good in
theoretical filed but, the practical knowledge is not enough to do the job.
It is reported that the organisation had followed conjunctive selection strategy for hiring their
staff but it resulted from poor outcome to examine the potentiality of the candidates as well as to
eliminate the applicant's pool within their interview panel. As opined by Galbraith (2014),
therefore the organisation is going to follow multistage selection strategy to develop their
recruitment strategies for the interested candidates. However it is reported that the organization
collect resume of the applicants in order to verify their eligibility for their require posts. As per
the resume, they shortlisted the name of the candidates and contact them for the first round
interview process.
HSBC bank also mentioned the venue and time of the interview. Within a short period of time,
they publish the name of the selected candidate by highlighting their salary and date of joining.
According to the HR guideline, it can be said that this bank can select the candidates on the basis
of qualification as well as experiences of the candidate to tackle the candidate pool in the UK. As
commented by Ahlstrom et al. (2014), an effective internal recruitment is essential for the
regular promotion of the organization.
Figure 1: Selection procedure of HSBC bank
(Source: Carrillat, d’Astous & Morissette Grégoire, 2014, p.491)

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HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY
Henceforth the organisation ought to determine their recruitment goal of review the job
description to the candidates. Along with that, they need to consider people finding selection
strategy by using alternative labour pool in order to appreciate the positive participation of the
candidates in their firm. After that, they have to provide a short list to announce that which of the
shortlisted candidates are accepted by the organization (Galbraith, 2014). HSBC bank may
conduct personality testing as well as cognitive assessment to verify when rather they have
enough knowledge on their required areas. Apart from that, the organization has to conduct
aptitude testing to examine if the knowledge of the candidate covers numerical ability or
reasoning in their field that cannot be tested verbally. Nevertheless, for the graduate students, the
organization can conduct the job training to make the employees more responsible towards their
duties (Hsbc.co.uk, 2017). However, the management team can implement global graduate
opportunities for the fresher as well as can provide them internship in their branches.
Figure 2: Proposed recruitment strategy for the organisation
(Source: Carrillat, d’Astous & Morissette Grégoire, 2014, p.476)
As per the PESTLE analysis, it is observed that government stability of UK, as well as
corruption and bureaucracy, has influenced the selection procedure of an organisation. As
commented by Harvey, Groutsis & van den Broek (2017), the tax rate in the UK has increased
up to 0.7% that lead to slow growth of GDP. Henceforth as per the burden of the tax rate, the

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HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY
organization fails to provide the expected salary of experienced employees in their firm.
However, the organization had emerged recent technologies to remote their working as well as
communication cost. As mentioned by Kaltenecker, Hess & Huesig (2015), as the
unemployment rate of UK is 4.2%; hence these banking industries currently change their
economic environment while hiring staff for their firm.
HSBC has announced their posts and vacancies as per the requirement and interest of the
graduate towards the banking industries. Moreover, they also implement government regulation
such as Data Protection Act 1998 to ensure the candidate that their submitted testimonials will
not be disclosed for an official purpose (Legislation.gov.uk, 1998). Apart from that they also
provide the secure website for online transaction for filling up their recruitment form through
online portals. As commented by Carrillat, d’Astous & Morissette Grégoire (2014), the bank also
follows economic climate of United Kingdom in order to get positive responses from the
employees in their business firm.
Interview questions asked by the candidates
1. My qualification is not finance based so may I apply for the post?
2. In what way I can crack the interview? (Frynas & Mellahi, 2015)
3. How long will it take to get the response?
4. Is my testimonial safe from an online application?
5. What is the commitment of this organisation towards the applicants? (As influenced by
Frynas & Mellahi,2015)
6. I have the disability; can the bank accommodate my requirement during this interview?
Recommended Strategy
HSBC UK can implement effective human resource management and should create efficient
selection and recruitment department within the organisation to recruit and select best talent
available in the society. However, various strategies such as, simulating the job and numerical
testings can have negative and positive impacts. In this process, candidates are hired as
probationary. The candidates are recruited for short period and tested. After the probation period
is over, the employees with good performance is retained. This is beneficial for company, as it
gets to recruit efficient employees. However, it has some side effects too. The candidates are
always working under the fear of rejection, and the company is unable to bring out their potential
in the job. HSBC UK can use multistage selection strategy to recruit and select the base talent

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HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY
available efficiently. Multistage selection strategy includes evaluation of various assessment
tools such as aptitude tests, skills test, communication skills test, group discussions and interview
process. As opined by Melanthiou, Pavlou and Constantinou (2015) this stage is highly effective
to evaluate and analyses several skills and knowledge of the applicant and to create
brainstorming of the participants involved in the selection process.
Figure 3: Multi Selection Strategy
(Source: Melanthiou, Pavlou and Constantinou 2015, p. 42)
The main objective of HSBC UK is to create an effective human resource management within
the organisation to select and recruit the prescribed applicant that the company needs. The best
strategy that can be implemented by the company is multi stage selection procedure. As stated by
Kaltenecker, Hess and Huesig (2015), the company can also recruit from other countries to
harness the best talent outside United Kingdom. HSBC should create proper and effective
interconnected framework with other branches located in different countries across the world to
create efficient outsourcing framework. The company may hire applicant from foreign countries
to analyses and evaluate intercultural knowledge and skills. The recruitment process of HSBC
should be centralized with the human resource department of the company. As referred by
Carrilla, Astous and Grégoire (2014) the company should not encourage any employment

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HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY
agencies, advertising agencies and freelances for the recruitment process in order to mitigate
miscommunications between the applicants and the company.
Recommendations for selections and recruitment procedures of HSBC UK
HSBC maintains application procedure that changes according to the specific roles and
responsibilities. HSBC has establishments all around the world and the recruitment procedure is
different for each country. The only similarity is the principles of the company in selection of
candidates. The organization follows a very strict employment procedure. For instance, the
company has organized various stages such as, general knowledge test, group discussions,
written test, psychometric assessment and ultimately face-to-face interview. The candidates are
selected after passing this filter process, so the best is selected. This procedure is very effective
as the management gets to select the best ones. However, it has some negative impacts too. For
instance, candidates with new ideas are sometimes rejected due to rigid recruitment process. The
company is also barred from recruiting talented employees.
The company should create effective and well designed strategies to lay proper framework and
foundation for effective recruitment procedures. Effective recruitment strategy can implement
employment demand for the company.
The company should focus on the efficient recruitment approach to create and enforce talent
from the candidates. This includes effective planning, proper branding techniques and
outsourcing of ideas.
HSBC UK should create competitive framework in the society to evaluate the company's talent
to its competitors. As stated by Harvey et al. (2017) this leads to concentration of high talent and
skills to the company.

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HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY
Figure 4: Recommendations for selection process
(Source: Harvey et al. 2017, p. 9)
The company should implement effective employment branding technique by creating good
employment environment and by giving perquisites and non cash benefits to harness and attract
the best talent within the country.
HSBC should implement worldwide recruitment framework to attract and recruit best talent
globally.
The company should create a diversify procedures to recruit candidates for cross cultural
knowledge and skills.
HSBC UK may implement proper and effective technologies for recruitment and selection
process. This leads to cost reduction and efficiency in the recruitment process.
The company should create a candidate centric framework to analyze the needs, satisfactions and
expectations of the candidates while recruitment process. As opined by Ahlstrom et al. (2014),
candidate centric framework is important to recognize the needs, wants and expectations of the
candidates.

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HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY
Conclusion
The report provides a comparative analysis of the recruitment and selection procedures of HSBC
UK. The report also evaluates various strategies followed by the company to increase the
effectiveness of the recruitment process. This also analyses the strategy that can be used by
HSBC UK to enhance efficiency within the recruitment process of the company. This report
evaluates various recommendations that can be followed by HSBC to create effectiveness and
efficiency in the human resource department for proper selections and recruitments of the
talented and skilled candidates.
7.

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HSBC UK RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION STRATEGY
Reference list
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Carrillat, F., d’Astous, A., & Morissette Grégoire, E. (2014) Leveraging social media to enhance
recruitment effectiveness: a Facebook experiment Internet Research, pp.474-495.
Retrieved on 30th November 2017 retrieved from
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/IntR-07-2013-0142
Frynas, J. G., & Mellahi, K. (2015). Global strategic management. (3rd Ed.) England: Oxford
University Press Retrieved on 29th November 2017 Retrieved from
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6056/80fdeb79c621fcddff3c444c598868b31dc4.pdf
Galbraith, J. R. (2014). Designing organizations: Strategy, structure, and process at the business
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Gbadamosi, G., Evans, C., Richardson, M., & Ridolfo, M. (2015) Employability and students’
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Harvey, W. S., Groutsis, D., & van den Broek, D. (2017) Intermediaries and destination
reputations: explaining flows of skilled migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration
Studies, pp. 1-19. Retrieved on 1st December 2017 Retrieved from
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Hsbc.co.uk (2017), HSBC, Retrieved on 29th November 2017 Retrieved from
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Kaltenecker, N., Hess, T., & Huesig, S. (2015) Managing potentially disruptive innovations in
software companies: Transforming from On-premises to the On-demand The Journal of