Human Resource Management Report: Barclays Bank - Analysis & Practices

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices, specifically focusing on their application within Barclays Bank. The introduction establishes the importance of HRM in achieving organizational objectives, emphasizing its role in maximizing employee performance and fostering a competitive advantage. Task 1 delves into the core functions of HRM, including workforce planning, resourcing, and the significance of employee relations and compensation. It examines the strengths and weaknesses of various recruitment approaches, such as internal and external recruitment. Task 2 explores the benefits of different HRM practices for both employers and employees, covering aspects like conflict resolution, training and development, and information resources. It also evaluates the effectiveness of these practices in terms of organizational profit and productivity. Task 3 analyzes the importance of employee relations in HRM decision-making and discusses the impact of employment legislation. Finally, Task 4 illustrates the application of HRM practices in a work-related context. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of effective HRM for organizational success. The report includes references to support the analysis.

Human
Resource
Management

Contents
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.......................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Purpose and Functions of HRM applicable to workforce planning and resourcing organisation........3
P2 Strength and Weaknesses of various approaches to recruitment and selection...................................5
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................................7
P3: Explain benefits of different HRM practices within the firm for both employer and employee.
Explain the benefits for both employees and organization.......................................................................7
P4: Evaluate effectiveness of the different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational profit and
productivity...........................................................................................................................................10
TASK 3.....................................................................................................................................................11
P5: Analyze importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-making.........11
P6: The key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision-making.
Discuss impact of at least two EU or UK employment legislations.......................................................12
TASK 4.....................................................................................................................................................12
P7: Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context that you might be familiar
with so you can use specific industry examples.....................................................................................12
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................15
REFRENCES............................................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management refers to a strategic approach which is used by a company
in order to conduct effective management of their staffs at a workplace which help them in
gaining business competitive advantage for a business. Its main objective is to
maximize employee performance in order to achieve employer's strategic objective which leads
to attainment of organization goal (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). HR departments of a
organization is responsible for various activities such as employee - benefits design, recruitment
of employee, training and development, performance appraisal, Reward management, interview
and many more. It is necessary for every company to develop human resource management in
effective ways because by it they able to attain their objective as well as goal properly and also
retain their potential employees for a long term. Organization taken for this assignment is
BARCLAYS bank which is founded in year 1690 and its headquartered is in London, United
Kingdom. They are operating its business functions in banking and financial service industry.
They are servicing g its products and services at worldwide market and their products are retail
banking, commercial banking, investment banking and wealth management. Topics going to
covered in their report are purpose and scope of human resource management which help a
company in fulfilling its objective. It also includes various key elements of human resource
management which can be adopted by a firm. Along with this it explain internal as well as
external factors which may affect decision making of human resource which include several
employment legislations and this will also contain HR practices in work related context.
TASK 1
P1 Purpose and Functions of HRM applicable to workforce planning and resourcing organisation
Human resource management (HRM) acts as a most essential function in an organisation
which is related to recruitment and proper guidance management of employees within an
organisation (Bratton and Gold, 2017). This function is one of the essential part of company
activities which is required to be effectively done in order to train and guide employees towards
more successful growth. Mentioned below there are some basic purpose of HRM functions that
is applicable to workforce planning along with resourcing organisation

Purpose of HRM
One of the basic purposes of human resource management is to increase productivity and
profitability of both employees and organisations so that overall objectives of a company can
effectively fulfilled some of the essential purpose of Human Resource Management in relation to
Barclays Bank are briefly described below:
Employee relations:
This purpose states that it is very essential for any organisation to treat each and every
employee within their Organisation in an equal manner as employees are lifeblood of any
company (Briscoe, Tarique and Schuler, 2012). Thus, it is required to maintain and stimulate
healthy formative relationships with them in order to gain overall effectiveness. This will benefit
managers to solve problems within workplace in best effective manner. Barclays Bank are
required to formulate positive relationship with their subordinates so that Bank can able perform
their goals with more efficiency. HRM acts as a strongest element that tells formative
relationship with employees and hire managers within an organisation.
Compensation and performance:
It is one of the most important element of HRM as in this organisations are required to
provide effective compensation for their performances in order to extract best out of them. By
providing compensation Barclays Bank can effectively increase their productivity and sense of
loyalty of employees towards organisation. It will also benefit bank to reduce their employment
turnover rate in increase entity productivity level.
Functions of HRM
There are wide range of functions consists in HRM practices that are required to be
performed by HR manager. Some of those functions are described below:
Recruitment and selection:
This is one of the basic process of HRM in which proper screening and selecting of
potential and qualified candidates are done as per the job requirement of an organisation. This
process is mainly related to attracting wide range of candidates towards company job profile

(Briscoe, Tarique and Schuler, 2012). On the other hand selection is termed as a process in which
employees are selected and further provided with proper training and development programs. In
context with Barclays Bank it is required for them to hire potential in capable employees which
can effectively fulfil organisation requirements. With the help of recruitment and selection Bank
can able to fulfil their job requirement goals.
Maintaining good working condition:
This is one of the basic responsibilities of human resource manager of Barclays bank as it
is the major responsibility holds by HR manager of bank in which they are highly authorised to
provide good and healthy working conditions to their employees. For this they are required to
create a workplace environment in which employees can effectively stimulate their job
performance towards high growth (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017). This will not only help
employees to increase their opportunities but also help organisation to increase their productivity
along with profitability in a simultaneous manner.
Managing employee relations
This is one of the strongest pillars of any organisation despite of size and scope. HR
manager have the responsibility to maintain strong relationship with their employees as this will
help them to increase employee loyalty and sense of belongingness towards organisation. This
will also lead towards increase in employee working performance as they think and consider
themselves as a valued and important part of company (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2017). Thus,
Barclays Bank is required to effectively encourage and influence employees towards high work
performance. For this Bank can conduct different types of activities and programs which can
further help them to improve their professional and personal level.
P2 Strength and Weaknesses of various approaches to recruitment and selection
There are different types of approaches of recruitment and selection which is described
below in effective manner along with their strength and weaknesses:
Approaches to recruitment
Mainly there are two types of approaches within recruitment that are described below along with
strength and weaknesses:

Internal recruitment
In this methods organisation fills their job profile vacancy by taking use of their existing
workforce. This method includes hiring of employees who are already familiar with culture and
policies of Organisation in efficient manner (Alfes and et. al., 2013). Mentioned below there are
some basic strength and weakness of internal recruitment method:
Strength
 With the help of internal recruitment organisation can able to reduce time in order to hire
candidates. As in these companies hire those employees who are already familiar with
organisational culture.
 This method is a cost-effective process and provides different types of advantages to
organisation. As in this company saves training cost which they spend on those
employees who are unfamiliar and unskilled with company actual job requirement.
Weaknesses
 This method can lead towards creating recent resentment in those employees who are not
able to get selected despite of their high job performance. This method will also lead
towards creating conflict within workforce as employee may start getting jealous from
each other.
 It limits the organisation employee getting capacity, as in this organisation only hire
existing employees. Thus it limits Company to hire fresh blood in organisational
structure.
External recruitment
In this form of employee hiring process organisation find and select best suitable
candidate from pool of candidates rather than selecting employees those are already exist within
an organisation (Buller and McEvoy, 2012). In this procedure company engage in the process of
searching workforce from external environment mentioned below there are some strength and
weaknesses of these methods:
Strength

 Its benefits organisation to hire fresh blood and talented candidates that can further bring
innovation within organisation.
 It also aid company to hire talented source from pool of candidates and benefits them to
select best one that can able to fulfill actual job requirement of company.
Weaknesses
 This method requires a lot more cost as in this organisations are required to provide
further training to employees in order to make them very well fit for the organisation
actual job requirement. Furthermore, this is a long process that can take long period of
time of company to hire actual potential candidate for their vacant position.
 This method can lead towards reducing moral of existing employees as they can less
chance for being get promoted that will lead towards decreasing their job performance
and overall productivity (Jiang and et. al., 2012).
TASK 2
P3: Explain benefits of different HRM practices within the firm for both employer and
employee. Explain the benefits for both employees and organization.
In an organization human resource management is essential because by it employees and
employer able to conduct their work properly in order to attain goal properly. For this manager
of a company may adopt various HRM practices for both employers and employees. In
BARCLAYS bank human resources management plays an essential role in order to manage
activities of workplace and also to improve employee’s performance. Moreover it also includes
several activities such as recruiting and selection, training and development, firing, paying and
promotion, employee welfare administration, reward, appraisal etc. These all activities are
conducted by effective coordination and cooperation of employees and employer. A HRM
practice are beneficial for both the employers as well as employees in various ways such as
training and development, recruitment appropriate candidates, maintain positive workplace,
developing effective relation, motivates staffs and many more (Renwick, Redman and Maguire,
2013). Some of major HRM practices in respect of both employer and employees of
BARCLAYS bank are given below:-

Employee’s benefits: - By adopting effective HRM practices employees get various benefits
which motivate them and encourage working for attaining goal and objective effectively. Several
major HRM practices are mentioned below:-
 Conflict solving: Through human resource management a company may resolve conflicts
which arise between employees and employees or management and employees at a
workplace. In context to BARCLAYS bank by appropriate HRM practices they develop
their operations and policies according to situation which help them in reducing situation
which may arise conflict (Purce, 2014). Along with this through proper HRM practices
they able to resolve conflict situation properly by developing policies through this staffs
feel motivated, satisfies and connected. This will leads to accomplishing of work in
effective way.
 Training and development: - It is also one of the essential role plays by a human
resource of a company i.e. to provide appropriate training and development to employees
in order to enhance their skills, knowledge and ability. In respect of BARCLAYS bank
they conduct analysis and then design as well as execute various training and
development programmes according to needs and requirements of employees which help
them in improving their performance. Along with this by effective training and
development they employees able to conduct their work properly with minimum wastage.
That will also help company in attaining their goal as well as objective with high quality
productivity.
 Information resources: - It is consider as one of the essential responsibility of human
resource management at a workplace i.e. to manage resources so that activities or
function will conduct properly. In BARCLAYS bank their Human Resource managers
provides all relevant information so that employees know about each and every things
related to their work or task such as supporting programmes or activities, different
benefits like medical, PF and others, compensatory advantages, leave of absence and so
on (Jackson, Schuler and Jia , 2018). Along with this in respective company there is also
advantage for employees that if there manager not listening or answer staffs question then
they may contact to higher authority.

Employer’s benefits: -Effective HRM practices is also essentials for employers because by it
they able to encourage its employees to conduct work effectively that will leads to attainment of
goal as well as objective. Some major advantages of HRM practices in respect of employers of
BARCLAYS bank are explained below:
 Flexible workplace: - Appropriate HRM practices helps management of a company in
building and maintaining flexible working environment so that employees feel motivated
as well as satisfied. In context of BARCLAYS bank they develop strategies and plans
according to requirement of their staffs through which employees feel satisfied and it will
develop flexible workplace (Bos and et. al., 2013). Along with this they also take
suggestion and advice from employees as well as in respective company also provide
facility of flexible working which motivate employees for accomplishing work
effectively and efficiently.
 Developing better relations: - Through proper HRM practices employer able to develop
and maintain effective relationship with employees. This will leads to staffs satisfaction
and motivation due to which they conduct their work in effectively in order to attaining
goal. Along with this through keeping appropriate relationships with workers in
respective organisation employers able to develop tracking. Moreover in respective
company it wills also supports in assess staffs performance through which appropriate
actions can take in order to attain goal and objective.
 Retaining educated employees: - Through adopting effective Human resource practices
a company able to attain their potential employees for a long term which help them in
attaining goal by conducting work in proper as well as quality manner. In context of
BARCLAYS bank they provide various facilities to their employees that help attract
them and retain for long term such as they provide flexibility and easy approach to staffs
for working as well as they also provide proper pay, reward and many more (Kim, 2012).
Along with this they also provide training and development to employees which help
employees in enhancing their skills and ability that will also leads to promotion as well as
various opportunities.

P4: Evaluate effectiveness of the different HRM practices in terms of raising organisational
profit and productivity.
HRM practices help an organization in various ways that leads to achieving goal and
objective properly. There are several practices of HRM which is adopted by manager or
employer of a company so that they can conduct its work properly and successfully. Along with
this through proper human resource practices company able to adopt innovation which help them
in satisfying need as well as demand of customers and employees effectively (Daley, 2012). That
will help a company in enhancing their profitability ratio and market shares. In context of
BARCLAYS bank they adopt various HRM practices in order to enhance productivity and
profitability of company, form which some major of them are explain below:-
 Learning, development and training practices: According to this practices company
develop training and development session so that they able to enhance skills, ability and
knowledge of their employees. Through which they able to conduct their work in more
effective manner along with minimum wastage. In respect of BARCLAYS bank they
develop various programs as well as training session according to need and requirement
of employees so that they can increase or develop their ability which helps them in
accomplishing work in more appropriate way. Moreover through this employee able to
accomplish their work in effective way that directly leads to enhancement of productivity
and profitability.
 Flexible working options: In this HRM practice organization provide flexible working
options according to employees. In this employee staffs can conduct or accomplish their
work when they want. In respect of BARCLAYS bank main focus on accomplish of
work in effective way. So they are providing facility of flexible working hours in which
whenever employee conducts their work they may leave the office. But this is applicable
some days in a month in order to maintain discipline at a workplace. Along with this by
adopting this strategy respective company able to motivate their employee that leads to
completion of task or project at time and in proper quality (Kehoe and Wright, 2013).
This will leads to quality of production that helps respective company in attaining high
rate of profitability ratio at a market place.
 Payment and reward management: It refers to those HRM practice in which employer
of a company monitor performance of its staffs and then develop strategy to appreciate

them. Through this techniques or HRM practice employees get motivated and conduct
their task in more responsible manner which leads to achievement of goal successfully. In
respect of BARCLAYS bank they conduct analysis of their staff’s performance and
identify which person conducts their work up to the mark. According to this they decide
payment, increment and reward that help them in attracting and encouraging employees
to conduct work in more effective way (Johnson and Szamosi, 2018). This will leads to
attainment of high profitability ratio through high quality productivity which fulfills need
as well as demand of customers properly and successfully.
TASK 3
P5: Analyze importance of employee relations in respect to influencing HRM decision-making
Employee relation is considering as a method which is adopted by a company in order to
develop and maintain effective relationship among an employee and employer in order to
accomplishment of common goals successfully. In respect of BARCLAYS bank, there
management develops various strategies and plans in order to ensure good employee relations.
This will help them in motivating and encouraging their staffs to conduct work appropriately so
they achieve target. There are various importance of employee relation which influencing
decision making process of HRM, some major of them are explain below:-
 Helpful in the employee loyalty: By effective employees relation a company able t
develop effective employee’s loyalty that directly leads to accomplishing of task in more
effective and appropriate manner. In context of BARCLAYS bank their management
develop and adopt various strategies or techniques in order to develop employees relation
through which they able to motivate employees and encourage them to conduct work
properly for attaining goal and target properly.
 Enhance productivity: High or effective employee’s relation leads to satisfied employees
that directly enhance productivity. This is so because when staffs are satisfied as well as
motivated them they conduct their task in more effective manner which leads to increase
in quality of productivity (Fine, 2012). For this respective company conduct various
activities such as train employees, motivate them, rewards and appraise according to
work and many more.

P6: The key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision-
making. Discuss impact of at least two EU or UK employment legislations
Decision making process of a company get affect due to various factors such as change in
trends, rules and regulation, need and demand of customers and many more. One of the major
reasons which influence HRM decision making is employment legislation because when there is
any change occur company management need to update their strategies, plan or policies
accordingly in order to smooth running of business (LATHAM and ARSHOFF, 2013). Some
major of them which influence decision making of BARCLAYS bank are given below:-
 Anti- discrimination: It refers to that legislation which provides equal right to each and
every person. According to respective rule no one can conduct discrimination to any
person on the basis of age, gender, salary, color, size, occupation, religion and many
more. if any individual can do such kind of practice at a workplace then they may face
strict punishment and fine. In this respect BARCLAYS bank management develop policy
and strategy according to which every staffs are treated equally and if any person is find
that he/ she is conducting discriminations on any basis then they may go through strict
punishment like firing, fine, punishment and many more.
 Data protection: It refers to that legislation according to which it is necessary for a
company to protect all the necessary as well as person data or information of their
employees, clients and customers (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). This is so because
through personal data any person can use it for illegal activities. In context of
BARCLAYS bank they develop a policy regarding to data protection act in which they
design highly innovative security system in order to protect data or information. Along
with this they destroy all irrelevant or un useful data or information of clients, customers
or employees.
TASK 4
P7: Illustrate the application of HRM practices in a work-related context that you might be
familiar with so you can use specific industry examples
Human resource management refers to a field of management which generally deals with
major activities related to managing and controlling manpower and workforce at a workplace in