Human Resource Management Practices in NatWest Bank

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Human Resource Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Activity 1.........................................................................................................................................4
Activity 2: Booklet..........................................................................................................................9
Activity 3: Informal Report...........................................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................22
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Introduction
The process of selecting, instructing, orienting, training, appraising, motivating, and retaining the
employees is called human resource management (Paauwe, 2004). This process also includes
deciding compensation and other benefits for the employees as well as the provision of safety
and welfare as per the labour laws of the country. Human resource manager has the duty of
connecting the employees with the company. NatWest or “National Westminster Bank Plc” is a
public limited company that falls in the finance industry. This corporation was established in
1968. The organisation is headquartered in London, United Kingdom. This company provides
banking as well as insurance facilities to the clients and customers. Ross McEwan is the CEO,
and Sir Howard Davies is the chairperson of this firm. It employs 33 300 workers all over the
country (personal.natwest.com, 2019).
In the study provided below, there will be the provision of discussion on the diverse functions of
the HRM as well as the positive and negative points of the approaches of recruitment will be
evaluated. The importance of HRM functions for the employees and company will be explained,
and their role in increasing the profit as well as productivity of the corporation will be discussed.
The significance of employee relations in the process of HR decision-making will be assessed,
and the influence of legislation will be identified. The application of the HRM practices in
Natwest Bank will be provided.
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Activity 1
An explanation of the purpose and the functions of HRM applicable to workforce planning
and resourcing an organisation, you should assess how the functions of HRM provide
talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business objectives.
The scope of human resource management is wide as the expansion of its functions in training to
the orientation of the candidates, from reviewing their performance to making policies of the
organisation. The major function of HRM is to recruit and select candidates from various sources
for various operations of the NatWest Bank. The purpose of HRM is to drive the productivity of
the corporation by managing the workforce for different operations of the organisation.
Functions of HRM
Resourcing
Resourcing includes recruiting the right candidates and selecting them through various modes
such as interview, screening, and others. The function of the HR in resourcing is to determine the
perfect job role for the candidates that are hired (Farnham, 2015). This also includes providing
right compensation to them to retain them. Resourcing is carried out by selecting the best
candidates by acknowledging their skills by conducting tests. The resourcing of the candidates is
done to source the talented candidate who would help in meeting the business objective.
Workforce planning
This includes planning for the resources that need to be sourced for meeting the goal of the firm.
HR has the function of filling the vacancy by the right person (Price, 2007). The workforce
planning includes organising the tasks of the company by allocating the member a specific duty.
It also has the role of delegating authority to the members as per their skill as experience. HR has
the function of maintaining a channel of communication among the members of every section as
well as has the duty of connecting them for sharing information and maintaining a healthy
working culture. The appropriate planning would help the company by performing the tasks of
the company through skilled personnel, thus assisting the firm in meeting objective.
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Explanation and evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of different approaches to
recruitment and selection. Are these different approaches successful, do they achieve the
organisation's aims, what could be changed, and why?
There are two different approaches in the recruitment of the candidates such as:
Internal recruitment
The internal recruitment method involves recruiting the employees for a specific position from
the organisation. It leads to the promotion of a particular worker or can also involve his/her
transfer (Farndale et al., 2018). This can be done through the referral of any other member.
Strengths
 The engagement of the employees enhanced through promotion.
 This costs less for the firm.
 Internal recruitment helps in motivating the members.
Weaknesses
 Morale issues to the members who have not to get a promotion.
 Competition between the members for getting a promotion
 This method can be based on personal preference.
In NatWest Bank, the internal recruitment would be successful for various positions, as the firm
would be able to have the skilled employees selected from the organisation. This will help in
meeting the aims of the business, as the candidate selected for the higher position would be
familiar with the organisation’s way of working and policies as well as regulations. This would
also reduce the cost of training the candidate, as the experienced employees will be chosen for
another role or higher rank.
External recruitment
It includes recruitment of candidate from outside the firm either through an online or offline
method. The employment agencies might help the company in filling up the vacancy, or the
source of media would enable the company to post for the advertisement of the job. NatWest has
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incorporated external recruitment approach by using the online method (jobs.natwest.com,
2019). This method has been successful in the chosen firm, as it has assisted the corporation in
filling the vacancy with skilled candidates sourced from online method so that the business
aims would be met.
Strengths
 External method of recruitment can bring innovation to the firm through new candidates
 The company would get experienced employees from this method
Weaknesses
 Costly method
 It takes a lot of time in orientation and training procedure
 The new candidate might not be fit for the required position
Through identifying the weaknesses of external recruitment, it can be said that this method of
recruitment can be changed by using internal recruitment. It would assist NatWest to employ the
candidates who are familiar with the company and the way it works.
The selection process involves various methods, such as:
Preliminary Screening
This involves screening of the resume or CV that the candidate has submitted to the company.
The qualification of the candidate is checked as well as other information.
Strength- This process would help the firm to have comprehensive knowledge about the
candidate concerning its skill that would be required for meeting the business aims.
Weakness- The screening process might not let the employer understand the personal abilities
and general knowledge that the candidate might have. Therefore, it is not successful in choosing
an appropriate candidate. This should be carried out along with other selection processes to have
a better understanding of the candidates’ capabilities.
Oral examination
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In this selection procedure, questions are asked to understand the knowledge level of the
candidates. This is carried out to judge the oral communication ability of the candidate.
Strength- This procedure of selection will be helpful for the corporation in understanding the
communication skill of the candidate.
Weakness- However, the oral examination would not assist in understanding the technical
abilities that would be required for the specific position. Therefore, it should be included along
with other selection processes.
Video assessment
In the video assessment procedure, candidates are hired based on their communication skill
judged through the video (Nikolaou and Oostrom, 2015). This is mostly done to evaluate the
communication capability of the candidate. In NatWest, this method is carried out for the roles
involving communication with customers through phones (jobs.natwest.com, 2019).
Strength- This process will make the employer judge the communication skill of the employees
as well as his/her confident level before interview process for the specific positions where there
is a requirement of conversation with the customers such as in insurance company, customer
services, and such.
Weakness- However, this process would not be applied for different roles in the business.
Therefore, other processes should replace it.
Interview
It is the procedure of communication between the HR and the candidate to assess the candidates’
behaviour, body language, communication skill, and such factors to select them for the required
post of the firm. In NatWest interview is conducted to understand the knowledge level of the
candidate concerning the job role for which they have applied and the company for which they
want to work for (jobs.rbs.com, 2019). This method is successful in analysing the personal
capabilities of the selected candidate. It would help NatWest to meet the business aims, as it
would be able to evaluate the personal abilities of the candidate by taking an interview that
would be required for the required post.
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Strength- the Interview process helps analyse the confident level of the candidate as well as its
communication skill. It would also be helpful in understanding the knowledge of the person and
assessing its body language for selecting for the required post.
Weakness- Interview process might not be helpful in analysing the technical skills of the person.
Therefore, it could be changed by the company through incorporation of the technical tests for
assessing the technical or practical skills of the candidates.
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Activity 2: Booklet
An explanation of the benefits of different HRM practices within an organisation for both
the employer and the employee. An evaluation of the effectiveness of different HRM
practices in terms of raising organisational profit and productivity leading to an
exploration of the different methods used in HRM practices; providing specific examples to
support evaluation within an organisational context. A critical evaluation of HRM
practices and application within an organisational context, using a range of specific
examples
Some HRM practices that can help the chosen organisation, as well as its employees, are:
Career development
According to Hassan (2016), the practice of developing the career of the selected candidate so
that their lifestyle will enhance is one of the goals of the HRM. This benefits not only the
employees but also the employer in some manner. The employer with the career development
practice of HRM would be able to identify the talented candidates. This is because the skilled
candidates would be able to enhance their career through efforts. This can make the employer
decide for using internal recruitment method for the promotion of the candidate for a specific
position. The decision would enhance the functions of the organisation with skilled candidates at
the right place. For example, in the NatWest Bank, the employees are provided with the
opportunity to develop their careers through several programmes, events, and seminar,
especially for enhancing their career. In the professional programme, the employees are
provided with training that would enhance the opportunity for the development of their career
(jobs.rbs.com, 2019). It also provides the workers with the tools of e- learning so that their
knowledge would enhance (jobs.natwest.com, 2019). However, this would add cost to the
business, as there will be extra investment in the training process.
Rewards and Benefits
The provision of reward and other benefits will motivate the employees, thus encourage them to
do better. In this way, their skills will be enhanced. The reward system will also benefit the
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employer, as with the enhanced performance of the employees, there will be an enhancement in
the image of the employer as well. For instance, in the NatWest Bank, the employees are
provided with insurance and other facilities (jobs.rbs.com, 2019). This can make the employee's
reward oriented, as they would not want to work for the development of the company but only
for themselves. Thus, it can hurt the morality of the employees.
Figure 1: Human resource management
(Source: Farnham, 2015)
Flexible Working Hours
The HRM practice of providing flexible working to the workforce will let the workers perform
the tasks without fatigue. This would enhance their engagement in work. This will be
beneficial for the employer as there would be an enhancement in the quality of the output of the
work that would be done by the labour force. NatWest provides flexible working hours to the
personnel so that they would have time for their family or education (jobs.rbs.com, 2019). It
provides part-time working hour facility, home working options, and such.
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Figure 2: NatWest Bank, London
(Source: natwest.com, 2019)
The HRM practices that will help NatWest Bank in raising profit, as well as the productivity, are:
Career development
The programmes of career development to the employees help the company by increasing the
productivity quality, as the development in the career of the workers would make them work
hard to retail the position (Diaz‐Carrion et al., 2018). This will enhance productivity quality and
make the business make a profit. NatWest should provide the development of the career of the
employees through internal recruitment for their promotion. It can use several tests to evaluate
the skills of the workers for a better understanding of their talent. This would help the company
to retain the employees as well as smooth operations of different functions.
Rewards
The HR practice of provision of rewards would motivate the employees of NatWest and make
them put more effort into the work to gain more benefits from the company. This practice would
increase the productivity of the organisation, and the profit would increase as well. As per the
data collected from jobs.natwest.com (2019), NatWest provides an opportunity for the
employees to choose from the various options of benefit that the company provide. The workers
can choose insurance option, shopping voucher, online discount, and such so that they would
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enjoy the reward system of the business. This enhances participation in the company, thus
improving the productivity of the tasks. In this system of reward, there will be expenditure on
providing benefits to the employees; therefore, this factor can be a disadvantage to the
organisation.
Figure 3: NatWest Bank
(Source: natwest.com, 2019)
Flexible working hours
NatWest provides flexible working hours as well as a flexible system of working such as
working at the home facility, part-time working options and such that would make the workers
comfortable with the tasks they are allocated. This would be effective in improving the
productivity of the work that would eventually augment the profit rate of the corporation. As per
the information generated from jobs.natwest.com (2019), the flexible working hours provided to
the employees would enhance the image of the firm as well thus, attracting the customers to buy
the services provided by the company such as banking, insurance, loans, and such. According to
Arrowsmith (2016), the long working hours is unhealthy for the employees as well as affects the
social relationship between the firm and the corporation. Therefore, there should be flexibility in
the duration of working with the provision of a rest break to avoid boredom.
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