Human Resource Management Practices at Merrill Lynch Report

This report delves into the Human Resource Management (HRM) practices employed by Merrill Lynch, an American wealth management company. It explores the core functions of HRM, including recruitment, selection, training and development, and compensation and benefits, and how these functions contribute to organizational success. The report analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of recruitment and selection methods, highlighting the use of both internal and external sources. It further examines the benefits of effective HRM practices, such as organizational culture, conflict management, training, and compensation, and their impact on employee productivity and profitability. The effectiveness of HRM practices in driving profit and production, including pay and compensation management and benefits administration, is also assessed. Furthermore, it considers the importance of employee relations in decision-making and the influence of employment legislation on HRM decisions. The report concludes with an overview of the application of HRM practices within the context of the organization, Merrill Lynch.

Human
Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Purpose and Functions of HRM............................................................................................1
P2. Strength and Weakness of recruitment and selection..........................................................2
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................4
P3. Benefits of HRM practices within an organization...............................................................4
P4 Effectiveness of HRM practices in the context of organisation raising profit and production
.....................................................................................................................................................6
P5. Importance of employees relation in reference to HR management in decision making.....7
P6 Employment legislation and its adverse effect on HRM decision making............................8
P7 Application of HRM practise in the context of organisation................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................14
References .....................................................................................................................................15
Books and Journals.......................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management play an essential part in organization, as it deals with
managing of employees in organization. The major functions of HRM are recruitment, selection,
Orientation, maintaining good working condition, training and development programs and many
more functions for each employee in the organization. It is important part by which the
management get helps in analysing the candidates knowledge, skills, quality and performance in
work place. HRM helps in building the effective between employees and employers of the
business organization (Williams and Lee, 2016).
The company Merrill Lynch is an American wealth management company and founded
by Charles E. Merrill in January 1914, a 105 years ago. It deals in financial services and its
headquartered is in New York. As the company Merrill Lynch is also focuses on human
resources policies, process, practices, as all the employee contributes effectively in the
organization. The management of the Merrill Lynch is using these HRM functions very effective
and as this play important role in the business which results in growth and success of
organization.
Task 1
P1. Purpose and Functions of HRM
Human resource management refers to the responsibility and management of employees present
in the business organization, as it also deals with different various function such as recruiting and
selection, training & development, staffing, motivation, directing, controlling as well as the
performance and payroll management of the employees. The HR manager of Merrill Lynch
company is focusing on different various purposes of HR as well as the polices and practices of
HRM applicable in their business organization effectively and efficiency, so they can achieve the
maximum output and the profit maximization as this leads the business to the way of growth and
success (Vanhala and Ritala, 2016).
Purpose of human resources management:
The main purpose of Human Resource Management co-ordinating and managing the
employees working in business organization. It main objective is recruitment and selections,
performance appraisals, providing training and development programs to workforce.
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As the manager of Merrill Lynch mainly focuses on managing the workforce as they
deals with the demand and supply of human capital,which helps in satisfying the requirements of
organization and also assist in achieving the objectives and as it also focuses on maximizing the
efficiency and productivity of employee for an organization. The HRM focuses on creating the
job satisfaction to each employee by earning some competitive advantages.
Functions of HRM in workforce planning:
The HRM has many function in the organization Recruitment & Selections,
Compensation and Benefits, Performance Appraisal, Maintaining Good Working Condition,
Training & Development, payroll management and some of the functions are described under
neath:
Recruitment and Selections: These are the main factions of HRM as this helps the
organization by providing the suitable candidates accordant to the requisite of workstation. The
manager of Merrill Lynch is using this process for hiring candidates for specific job profile.
Training and Development programs: The function is used by every organization, as
this helps in giving the profitable training and guiding the employee for their job profile, so the
employees can perform well and give the high productivity in his work(Psychogios and et. al.,
2016). The HR manager of Merrill Lynch is also focuses on this function as they give proper and
effective training to their each employee as this motivates the employee as well as it results in
high productivity and performance of employee and the growth the business organization.
Compensation and Benefits: The Merrill Lynch also gives the effective compensation
to their employee which is beneficial for both. It motivates and encourages employee to perform
well and the compensation can be in the insurance benefits, incentives, bonus, amazing perks,
gift vouchers and many more.
P2. Strength and Weakness of recruitment and selection.
The recruitment and selection function of human resource management plays an crucial
role in any business organization. for the success of organization. The HR manager Merrill
Lynch is using the effective process for recruiting and selection for hiring the candidates as
these both has strength as well as weakness. The recruiting of employee can be done internally
and externally. The internal recruiting is done for higher positioning in company many
objectives such as transferring, job position, promotion, retired employee, employee referrals,
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training and development programs and many more. Where else the external recruiting can be
done foe any position , and it done with the help of like adv., consultancy etc (Presbitero and
Chadee, 2016) .
The HR manager of Merrill Lynch company is using both the internal and external
method for recruitment of candidates from global area. For this the manager uses the different
approaches of marketing to inform and broad caste the message of job vacancy such as they are
official web-site of company, television, radio, ads on google, magazine, employment agency ,
consultancy, college recruits, employee referral, E-recruitment, Walk-ins and many more.
Recruitment from internal sources have some strength and some weakness for the
organization and these are are describe as follow:
Strength Weakness
 Method of motivation of employee's
 No need of giving training to employees
 Less time and cost incurred.
 Increase the employee engagement.
 Fiction among the employees
 Limited skills and approaches
contributed to business organizations.
 Emergence of new vacant position
Recruitment from external sources has many benefits as well as drawbacks to both,
employer and candidate and these are given underneath:(Donate and Sanchez, 2016)
Strength Weakness
 Fresher skill input with Better
competition
 Lesser internal politics
 Qualified candidates
 Generation of creative ideas
 Time consuming
 Internal disputes with existing employees
 Higher risk & high cost
 Varied category of applicants can be
there.
The manager of Merrill Lynch is using different selection methods which have their own
benefit and strength such as Online screening and short listing, Application forms and Cvs,
Interviews, Psychometric testing, Ability and aptitude tests, Personality profiling, Group
exercises, Assessment centres, References and some of these are explained under below:
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Application forms and Cvs: The manager of Merrill Lynch can adopt the application
and form method for the selection process for identifying the best suitable candidates among
shortlisted applicants. This is beneficial as it is very easy for comparison between the employees
and setted the standard format which includes the complete details of candidate on the other hand
it also has the draw back as it consumes more time and it is complicated else the information
provided by the candidate can the false and can be fallen into the worn person by which
candidates can get in trouble(Noe and et. al., 2017).
Interviews: The biggest benefit for manager by adopting this method the interviewer
can easily identify and examine the candidates as the he is physically available at that time and it
helps in selecting the best candidate while conducting the interview. The drawback is it do not
final the select candidates, after this process the candidate has to go through with different stages
of selection.
Task 2
P3. Benefits of HRM practices within an organization.
HRM practices are very helpful for manager as this helps in managing people and making
full utilization them so they work effectively and efficiently and also enhance their
productivity. It is refers to combination of practices, policies and instrumentation which
encourages the employees productivity, behaviour and their performance. There are so many
benefits and advantages of HRM functions as well as practices used in an organization(Kianto
and Aramburu, 2017). The some of the practices are described as below:
Organisation culture: organizational culture refers to collection of different element
such as cultures, different values, vision, objectives, believes, working environment, religions,
ethics and rules & regulations as well as laws & legislation in the work place. The employees
performance is based on the culture and working environment of the organization as this results
in enhancing the productivity of performance of each employee with their effective work and
job satisfaction. The company Merrill Lynch open up with effective rules and guidelines in their
work place and and sets the different profitable standards for each workers and customers for
knowing them about the environment of the organization.
Management Conflicts: The biggest conflict in an organization is management conflict,
as it can be arise between any employees, employers or between both of them. In this situation
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the management of company Merrill Lynch play an effective role as counsellor which helps in
solving these problems and issues with effective solution arising in workstation.
Tanning and Development: Training and development play an constitutional and most
important part in any business organization, with the helps of this the management as well as
employee enhance, influencing knowledge, skills and abilities of employees so they can achieve
the individual as well as the organizational objectives. The HR manager of Merrill Lynch
furnish their employees by giving the proper and effective training programs to their employee
as this increase the productivity and performance of candidates. This leads to increase in the
high productivity as well as supports in profit maximization of business(Hassan 2016) .
Compensation and Benefits:
In context of Merrill Lynch, the organization is liberal for compensation and benefits for
profitable employee for the organization. As the compensation leads to the motivations to
employee to perform well, so they can earn and get good benefits form the organizations. The
management of Merrill Lynch is giving compensation and benefits in the form of monetary and
non monetary terms, it includes rewards, effective perks, incentives, bonus, insurances, gift
vouchers, trips, vacations and many more. In other words compensation leads to the self
motivation which helps in increases the productivity as well as the performance of individual in
organization.
P4 Effectiveness of HRM practices in the context of organisation raising profit and production
It is a study which examine the direct relationship between HR and organisation. HRM
practises include performance appraisal, career management, bonuses, reward and many more.
HR should focus on safe, healthy and prosperous environment for employees in order to stay in
organisation for a long period of time (Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). HRM should
provide bonus and incentives to keep employees motivated for work. It must be evaluated in
such a way that employee should understand that company will reward of it get generate some
profit. HRM practise involve 360 degree performance system in which every individual is
responsible for giving positive and informative feedback. In the case of Merrill Lynch is an
investing and wealth management decision under the Bank of America. In year 2009 Merrill
Lynch was merged with Bank of America. In the process to increase quality and effectiveness of
organisation HR should develop a plan of certain human resource practises which will provide
ease to employees to develop their skills and talent in their respective field. For Merrill Lynch,
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here are some important practise which can be taken as consideration for manager as state
below:-
Pay and compensation Management: Pay and compensation system help to maintain
balance between budget and compensation to retain employees for future (Marchington, 2016).
Mangers develop job description, salary slip and position of employees. In the context of Merrill
Lynch, manager have to evaluate the compensation policies and if there is any possibility of
making changes ,it should be done by keeping employees in mind. This will help organisation to
retain effective employees for long time period.
Selecting and administration benefits: Many company offer different kind of benefits
to their employee such as health insurance, life insurance, and flexible spending accounts. It is
responsibilities of HR to provide every possible benefits to their employees without and bias. In
the case of Merrill Lynch HR assistance should provide all administration benefits to employee,
this will keep them motivate to achieve their goals and target.
Recruiting and selecting: This process ensure that organisation must have skilled and
qualified employees. Recruiting and selecting process starts when company mangers identify the
job position is vacant. For Merrill Lynch, HR manager should hire the best fit employee for their
company because a skilled employee will save time and resource of the organisation.
Legal and regulation compliances: Company should abide the law regarding the
employment such as family law, medical leave act, labour law etc. HR manager should maintain
the record of each and every employee and ensure that organisation policies comply with laws.
For Merrill Lynch HR assistant make sure that all the laws are been taken as consideration and
followed by each and every employee working for the company.
P5. Importance of employees relation in reference to HR management in decision making
Employee relation helps in managing the relation between different kinds of employees
working in same organisation. It is essential that employees and workers perform collectively as
team to achieve the same goals of an organisation. No task will achieve if individual involve in
conflicts and it create chaos for company. For constant growth company should provide bonus
and incentives to employees if they work overtime. Each individual should be appreciated on
their hard work. In the context of Merrill Lynch HR manager should try to make healthy and
competitive environment between employees which will increase the production as well as
efficiency of employees. For Merrill Lynch, different HR decision which are consider below:-
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Preliminary Evaluation: It is important to make early decision before hiring new
employee. Explaining the job responsibilities and duties person have to perform during the time
of joining. The right questioning must be asked to employees, to reduce conflict and
misunderstanding afterwords. For banking company like, Merrill Lynch HR manager should
briefly explain the duties as roles of particular employee. This will ease for the manger and
employees to understand their work easily and effectively.
Identified the stakeholders: While not all stakeholders plays vital role in human
resource decision making. But it should be taken as consideration of every single stakeholders
view points and their thought regarding company. There should be a mechanism, to make
decision process effective for the stakeholders. Because it is important to gather information and
different ideas from the stakeholders and other sources to make company profitable in future. For
Merrill Lynch, HR should make effective plan where organisation can listen the view points of
stakeholders.
Employees grievances: Every organisation in present world have employees grievances
and misunderstanding among themselves. Company should take active steps to reduce the
grievances die to organisation effective. Because misunderstanding leads to downfall in
production (Friedman, 2017). This mainly occurs where there are large no of employees working
together which will directly effects the company growth. In the case of Merrill Lynch, company
should take proper steps before grievances occur in an organisation. HR manager should ave
problem solving approach which will reduce employee conflicts in future.
As per the above stated report, Merrill Lynch, HR manager should maintain a healthy
relation with employees and their team in order to perform every task effectively. This will help
organisation to grow rapidly and can expand the market share in minimum time. Employees of
Merrill Lynch should be given monitory benefits to keep them motivated to achieve targets.
P6 Employment legislation and its adverse effect on HRM decision making
Employee legislation is law which regulate the employment within the organisation who
works for the company (Harrison and Lock, 2017). It directly effect the employer and
employees. Human resource management decision have also direct effect on decision making for
company. The rule which will effect the HRM decision making are employment law,
discrimination, labour law and family and medical law. In regards of Merrill Lynch, HR manager
should keep in mind while making any changes are given below:-
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Health and safety act:- The act govern as employees duties regarding health and safety
at workplace and this act came into picture in year 2005. to maintain the health and safety in an
organisation, mangers should implement effective measures in the company to prevent theft and
losses. Along with proper training and HR should ensure the safety of their employees as well as
of the organisation. In the context of Merrill Lynch, company should consider the law and make
sure that proper benefit is avail by workers in the case of theft.
Equal pay act:- This act was implemented in equity act 2010, where it gives right to
equal pay between men and women for equal work. This covers employees in same employment
and include equal pay as per the policies made by HR department of the company. This act also
covers non-discretionary bonus , performance based benefits and fringe benefits equally in
monetary terms. For Merrill Lynch, human resource department should facilitate with equal pay
to their employees, regardless of caste, gender etc.
Labour standard act:- It is a federal law which overview minimum wages, overtime,
pay eligibility, record keeping and child labour in different sector such as private and
governments. All the workers and employees comes under the umbrella of labour act. It is
mandatory for organisation to provide all the benefits to workers who are working the company.
This act was passed in 1938 and since then it have change as per the environment and
requirement of employees. Beside this, Merrill Lynch should implement FLSA law in order to
provide benefit to the employees of the company.
Family and medical leave act:- This act was implemented in year 1993 that covers
employee job protection and unpaid leave for medical and family reasons. If the employee have
worked ore than 12 months in same company is eligible more medical leave act. Merrill Lynch
should also avail this service to their respective employees whenever it is needed to the
employees.
P7 Application of HRM practise in the context of organisation
HRM practices provide guidelines which coordinates with the current business plan.
Healthy HRM practises are effective and helpful in achieving organisational objective and also
enhance productivity (Brewster, 2017). The company motive is to increase efficiency of
employees performance to achieve desirables target. Here are some HRM practises for Merrill
Lynch and HR manager can apply in the company which are stated below:-
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1. Agenda
AGENDA
Receptionist is the person employed within the hotel for welcoming the guests and having a
healthy conversation with them. It is a part of front office. Their duties comprise of checking
guest entry and exits, issue of keys, booking reservation by way of mail, mobile application or
telephonic conversation, preparation of invoices etc. They render essential data to clients and
solve their queries. In this regard, the agendas for seminar training conducted for the
receptionist within Merrill Lynch are presented as follows:-
 To provide knowledge of the roles and responsibilities pertaining to the designation of
receptionist within the hotel
 To render comprehensibility of skills, expertise and knowledge base required for
carrying out the activities of Receptionist
 To make them understand who is their reporting authority to which they have to provide
knowledge regarding the daily activities
2. Advert
BUSINESS LECTURER REQUIRED
KCB is looking out for an experienced and qualified person who can take up the role of
business lecturer for Business Administration and Finance Department.
 Attractive Salary package with other lucrative benefits.
 Candidates must have post graduate degree from a recognised university
 Prior experience of teaching in relevant field
Interested people can email their Resume at [e-mail] or contact on mobile number 044-
444-4444.
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Only shortlisted candidates will be called for the process of interview.
3. Job specification
It is a written statements of different job specification such as educational qualification,
experience in particular field, skills etc. it also help individual to work according their skills and
ability.
Job Specification
Name of the Organisation: Merrill Lynch
Job Profile: Human Resources Business Manager
Education Qualification: MBA (Specialisation in HR)
Requirement for Job Position
 Individual musty have proper knowledge about HR practises.
 Good communication Skill
Criteria
 Employee must have 3 years of experience in particular field.
 Candidate should have attractive personality and interpersonal skills.
4. Person specification
It is a skills which is required by candidate to complete the given task in effectively
manner (Bratton and Gold, 2017). In other words, person specification is an outline of candidate
skills, educational requirement, work related experiences that a employee must possess.
Person Specification
 Post : Chef
 Section : Executive
 Key : This shows the requirement need :
Particulars Essentials Desirable
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Qualification & Experience  Master in hotel
management from EBS
collage.
 Candidate must have
experience in 5 star
hotel industry.
 3 years of experience
as chef executive.
Knowledge & Skill  Individual must know
to make high quality of
food with international
taste.
 Should manage the
quality and standard of
food at Michelin star
hotel.
In regards of Merrill Lynch, company have job vaccines to be filled in limited time. HR
manger are selecting large numbers of candidates fit for the human resource management
lecturer.
5. Curriculum Vitae
Personal Description
Name : XYZ
Address : Street Name, City, UK
Contact No : 033-333-3333
Email id: [e-mail]
Career aim: To inflate my skill set for my individual growth and to deliver best efforts for the
development of corporation.
Experience: 5 years
Qualification
Educational Qualification University Percentages
MBA (Specialisation in HR) ABC University, London 86.00%
B.COM PQR University, London 84.00%
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Functions and Duties
 Providing training seminars to employees to enhance their knowledge base
 Planing and implementing the polices
 To work in coordination with HR team to gain knowledge of the latest policies and
procedures of company.
Knowledge Areas
 MS Excel
 Power Point
Private details
Date of Birth- 18 May, 1990
Languages Known: English and German
Interests : Cooking, Sports, reading books
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Conclusion
Human Resource management is essential for every organization as this helps in
managing the employees and also provides the workforce to the company according to their
needs. In this report the manager of Merrill Lynch, well thought out with the different and
important functions of HRM. They also focuses on some of the HR policies as well as practices
followed by the company as which are beneficial organization and workers. As human resource
management helps in creating relationship between employees and employers with theories and
approaches with business strategies and policies. In this assignment the manager of Merrill
Lynch has considered the different rules & regulations, laws and legislation in their organization
such as Equal remuneration Act, Wages Act, Health and Safety Act, Fair Labour Standard Act,
Family Medical Leave Act and many more as these are very essential for an organization to
follow all the polices and practices.
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