Human Resource Management Report: Analysis for Merrill Lynch Company

This report provides a detailed analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within Merrill Lynch, an investment management company. It begins by defining HRM, its objectives (increasing sales, profits, growth, and survival), and the nature and scope of strategic HRM. The report then explores the purpose and functions of HRM, including job analysis, training and development, recruitment and selection, performance management, and compensation and benefits. It also discusses the Hard and Soft HRM approaches and their application in workforce planning. The report examines recruitment and selection methods, comparing internal and external recruitment sources and selection techniques like interviews and assessment tests. It further covers the 'best fit' and 'best practices' approaches to HRM, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the report analyzes employee relations and employment legislation, concluding with a summary of key findings and recommendations for Merrill Lynch's HR department. The report aims to provide insights for maintaining a competitive advantage.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 :..........................................................................................................................................3
P2 :..........................................................................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................9
P3 :..........................................................................................................................................9
P4 :........................................................................................................................................11
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................13
P5 :........................................................................................................................................13
P6 :........................................................................................................................................14
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................16
P7 :........................................................................................................................................16
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................20
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is considered as one of the most crucial function of an
organisation. The major aims of human resource management to maximise the capability and
performance of the employee. So that the company could achieve its objectives as well as goals.
They are responsible for recruiting new people, retaining them by planning for their
compensation and benefits. Human resource managers identifies the employee capabilities by
applying various models such as 360-degree feedback etc. and also plan for the trainings to be
provided to make them efficient enough to adapt the changes which helps them to contribute
towards organisational goal. In this project the company which is taken is Merrill Lynch, which
is a investment management company. The report is developed with the aim to facilitate the HR
department of the company to maintain competitive advantage for which it includes the purposes
and functions of human resource management in planning of workforce, strength or weaknesses
of various recruitment and selection approaches, different HR practices which has benefits to
both employees and employer, importance of employee relations and employment legislation.
TASK 1
P1 :
Human resource management function of organisation is majorly concerned with
successful utilisation as well as management of human resource and staff member working in
the organisation. It includes planning, organisation, directing and controlling the procurement,
development, compensation of people to accomplish the goals of the organisation.
There are some objectives of Human resource management which will be explained as below:
Increasing sells: Firm by adopting human resource management in their organisation
they can increase their sales volume of the product within a marketplace.
Raising profits: When customer base for the business product or services provided by
Merrill Lynch is raised then huge profits can be increased in the competitive world.
Survival: This is an another business objective which will help organisation in retention
of strong and log lasting position in marketplace. With the help of HRM, Merrill Lynch can
easily survive in marketplace.
Increasing Growth: By producing quality products and services in marketplace company
can easily increase their growth and success in marketplace.

Nature of strategic HRM :
 It is applicable to all the kind of enterprises.
 It majorly focus on utilising potential of the staff member for the organisation or for their
personal development.
 Motivates and inspire people to achieve the targets by assigning them the jobs as per their
capabilities.
Scope of strategic HRM :
 HRM deals with planning for the manpower, their procurement process, compensations
etc.
 Concerned with the facilities and working conditions to be provided to the employees
 Maintains industrial relations with consultancies etc. and relations with labour unions.
Purpose and functions of HRM : The purpose of human resource management is to
manage the requirements of employees and organisation with aim to increase efficiency of the
employees and to attain the organisational goal (Bailey, 2018). The following functions will
helps Merrill Lynch in planning and resourcing workforce are :
 Job Analysis and Design : To describe the details of the job such as qualifications,
experience, skill set, knowledge, ability required also defining the details of tasks,
responsibilities is a important function of HRM. This will help the Merrill Lynch in
planning for procuring the workforce.
 Training and development : This function of HRM focusses on providing them skills
and knowledge through training which make employees capable enough to improve
their performance for existing role. It also prepares them for higher level job which will
help Merrill Lynch in internal resourcing.
 Recruitment and Selection : In order to achieve the organisational goal it is required to
have a competent workforce. By recruitment HRM creates a pool of resources out of
which best suitable us selected as per the requirement of the organisation. This will
facilitate Merrill Lynch to procure suitable workforce. With the help of this function of
HRM company can increase their sales and growth. By recruiting and selecting talented
workforce, Merrill Lynch become more able to attract large number of customers which
turn to help them in increment of its sales and profit.

 Performance Management : This function will help the organisation in analysing the
overall performance of employees and all staff members on the basis of various
standards decided to measure performance. It will further facilitate the HR managers to
decide the incentives and planning of the training if required. Proper measurement of
employee performance will also support an organisation to survive in marketplace
successfully.
 Compensation and Benefits : This function is associated with controlling the cost by
hiring competent employees, providing fair remunerations and benefits to all on the
basis of their job and performance. It will help Merrill Lynch to plan benefits and
compensation for the workforce (Bratton and Gold, 2017) .
The Hard and Soft HRM approaches are approaches to manage the human resource of a
business. These approaches can be used for workforce planning and resourcing in the following
way :
 Hard Approach : In this approach, the employees are treated as resource to achieve the
organisational goal. The focus of HRM in this approach is to identify the needs of
workforce, with top down communication flow and little delegation. This approach can
be used by Merrill Lynch in case they want to achieve specific objective where they
have to involve a few people to work as instructed by the top stage-management with
lesser delegation of authorities.
 Soft Approach : In this approach, employees are treated as individual and source of
getting competitive advantage where focus is to retain employees by empowering and
encouraging them. This approach can be used by the Merrill Lynch where they want to
involve all of their employees. Accordingly they will have to plan for the employees
regarding their complementation and benefits in order to retain them (Cascio, 2015).
Assessment of HRM functions that provides skills and talent to achieve objective
The human resource management has to perform various managerial and operation
functions with the motive of manage the human resource of the company. On the basis of
performance of the employees they need to plan for the training programs to make them capable
enough to do a particular task. Merrill Lynch can use the function of performance appraisal and
training & development to provide skills and talent (Bank of America Corporation, 2019).

P2 :
Best Fit approach: It refers as an essential approach which emphasis the importance of
ensuring that HR strategies which are more appropriate or suitable to the situation in Merrill
Lynch. This circumstances related with business's external environment, culture and operational
process.
Strength Weakness
Best fit approach support Merrill Lynch to
recruit experienced and suitable candidates
who have proper knowledge regarding how to
deal any kind and complex situation easily.
Best fit approach is not much suitable in
selection and recruitment of best candidates for
given job position.
Best Practices approach: This is an effective approach which is mainly based on
hypothesis or possibilities that there is a set of HRM practices. Training and development,
flexible working hours, recruitment and selection are main practices of HRM. There are some
strength and Weakness of this approach which are determined as under:
Strength Weakness
 Best practices approach support Merrill
Lynch to give training to a workforce
which will assist them by retaining
workers for long time.
 One of the main drawback of this
approach as it take additional time
and large amount of cost of company.
Recruitment is the process of creating a pool of talent by inviting them to apply for the
job as when more persons apply for the job there is a scope of getting better person for the job.
The two sources of recruitment along with there strength and weaknesses are :
Internal source of recruitment is the process where company tries to fill the vacancy
within the organisation through various means such as referrals from the employees, promotion,
transfers etc. The vacancy can easily be filled by internal recruitment as it will be fast and
economic. It also saves time and efforts of the organisation as they are already familiar with
organisation and no need for training if job does not demand.

Strengths of Internal
Recruitments
 Accurate Selection of the candidates as the employer is
aware of the qualities and capabilities of the employee which
is not possible in external recruitment.
 Adaptability is high as they are already familiar with the
environment so they will take less time to adapt with new
work which is not possible in the case of external recruitment
as they require training and orientation.
 Encourages hard work as employees has mentality, if they
will work hard they will be promoted which means they will
earn more money and fame. This will encourage people to put
more efforts.
Weaknesses of Internal
Recruitments
 Limited Choice as the organisation may have limited
employees with the skill set required for the vacant post.
 Promotes Favouritism when the preference is given to a
person on the basis of inclination towards any person.
External source of recruitment is the process of filling the vacancy of the organisation
from outside the organisation which means new qualified people with required skills set is hired
through various sources such as through employment agencies, campus recruitment, walk-ins
etc. This source brings new talent with new ideas and enthusiasm into the organisation but it is
very expensive time and consuming process (Chowhan, Pries and Mann, 2017).
Strengths of
External
Recruitments
 Better Understanding of Technology as they have fresh skills
and easy adaptability of changes in the technology.
 Qualitative Candidate as candidate is hired from the pool of
variety of qualified candidates who will contribute to the
organisation with new ideas.
Weaknesses of
External
Recruitments
 Adaptability Issues are faced by the candidates as they are
new to the organisation due to which they take time to adjust
with the organisational culture and that affects their
performance.
 High costs are involved in this source as it includes various

steps such as training, orientation etc.
Analysis : While recruiting Merrill Lynch can used internal and external sources of the
recruitment as per the requirement of the organisation. They can opt for internal when they feels
the existing staff is competent enough but if new talent is required then they have to go for
external source of recruitment.
Selection is the process of selecting the suitable candidate for the vacancy by putting the
candidates into screening, interviews, group activities etc. to analyse their qualities for a specific
job. Two sources of selection are along with there strength and weaknesses are :
Interviews is a process of selecting the right candidate for the job by asking the questions
from the candidate to obtain information about the person (Dany and Torchy, 2017).
Strengths of
Interviews
 Selection of Suitable Candidates can be assured as the interviewer can
obtain detailed information by candidate by modifying the questions.
 Time saving method of selection as in a very short time communication
interviewee can be analysed so a number of candidate can be interviewed
that helps to select best from pool.
Weaknesses
of
Interviews
 Incomplete process as the information provided by the candidate may be
incorrect and incomplete also every aspect required cannot be asked.
 Biases of interviewer can influence the selection process as because of
favouritism if an inappropriate candidate get selected it can affect the
companies goal.
Assessment and Selection Test is a selection approach which helps to analyse the
ability, aptitude, skills, individuals personality on the basis of test which could be in subjective or
objective. But it helps the employer to identify the capabilities of the candidates for differentiate
situations (Stewart and Brown, 2019).
Strengths of
Assessment and
selection test
 Uniform basis of selecting the candidates as selection is done on the
basis of scores they have obtained.
 Assessment of ability to handle situations can be identified as the
question in the test includes situational questions.
Weaknesses of
Assessment and
 Unreliable as the conclusions drawn from the test may not be

selection test correct.
 Wrong use can affect selection process as the employees who
conduct the test may be biased which leads to selection of
incompetent person.
Analysis : While making selection of the employee Merrill Lynch can go for interview or
selection test or even both which depends upon the complexity of the job. If detailed knowledge
is to be tested then they can go for selection test otherwise they can go for interview as it is time
saving and questions can be adjusted as per the need of the job
TASK 2
P3 :
Human resource management focusses on managing the people in such a way that
improves their efficiency and helps in achieving the goal of the organisation. Their functions
helps to motivates people, provides them various amenities and identifying the needs of
employees also it identifies the need of more people in the organisation which they fulfil by
recruitment process (Delery and Roumpi, 2017).
Basis Benefits of HRM practices to
Merrill Lynch
Benefits of HRM practices to the
employees
Organisational
Culture
The employer influence the
organisational culture by establishing
rules, regulations, procedures etc.
which will help Merrill Lynch in
controlling the behaviour and
maintaining peace and discipline.
Organisational culture helps
employees to have common values
and beliefs which helps in motivating
the employees. Strong culture of
Merrill Lynch will make
communication process easy for the
employees.
Training and
Development
Merrill Lynch can identify the
requirement of the training, skills,
capabilities to keep their employees
competitive and which will make
Various development sessions are
conducted by HRM which will help
the employees to upgrade their
knowledge that will further help them

them able to adapt the technology. to grow.
Recruitment and
Retention
This HRM practice will helps Merrill
Lynch to obtain right people for the
right job and planning of policies to
retain employees by providing
various benefits and compensation to
the employees.
This HRM practice keeps employees
competitive as they finds opportunity
of promotion and keep them
motivated by compensation and
benefits to retain the employees.
Conflict
Resolution
Merrill Lynch uses this HRM
practices to resolve the issue within
the organisation by formulating
guidelines and procedures which
attempts to solve the conflict.
This helps employee to manage their
behaviour and provides them a
process to get their issues resolved
with the help of management which
reduces the impact on both
organisation and the employees.
Differences between Electronic Methods (‘eHRM’) and Conventional Methods (traditional
HRM)
Basis of comparison Electronic Human Resource
Management
Traditional HRM,
Definition This can be refers to the
planning as well as
implementation of high and
innovative technology for
networking. This method help
for individual as well as team
member who are performing
business activities.
Traditional HRM refers as an
effective practice of recruiting
and choosing a person from
large pool of candidate for
particular role or a job.
Approaches It includes various
approaches which are
performance appraisal, reward
etc.
Traditional human resource
method includes various
approaches such as
recruitment, job analysis,

maintaining employee
relations, and selection,
compensation etc.
Example: Merrill Lynch is a investment
management company that
follow eHRM to hire best and
suitable candidates without
wasting time and cost.
Merrill Lynch also used
traditional human resource
management for recruiting and
hiring candidates within and
outside of the enterprise.
Comparison between job ranking and job classification
Basis of comparison Job ranking Job classification
Meaning Job ranking is an essential
exercise within an organization
as it determines the worth or
value of a job with respect to
other jobs in company.
Job classification introduces as
a scheme of separating a job as
per the current responsibilities
associated with the job.
Implementation In order to implement this
method of job evaluation,
Merrill Lynch must provide
accurate information about the
job to their current and
potential employees.
To implement job
classification, Merrill Lynch
must focus on employees
performance and provide job
role according to its
performance within an
organisation.
P4 :
For every company human resource function is considered as one of the important part
which help business to get competitive advantage over other rival companies. As human resource
function of organisations helps in enhancing as well as increase the profitability. This functions
focus on improving their effectiveness of employees. This can be consider as the reason for HR

practices to became growing and developing concern for several organisation. it has been
analysed that organisation that have high and strong human resource management or practise are
able to achieve desired goals and objectives. human resource function play crucial role in overall
growth and development of organisation (Srivastava and Dhar, 2015). Merrill Lynch considers
Employee performance management and monitoring as an important practices for improving
productivity. They uses 360-degree feedback approach under which employees and mangers set
their objectives in the beginning of the year and then their performs are reviewed in the mid year
and at the end of the year. On the basis of the review the performance is compared against the
organisational objective and area of improvement is identified which helps in making employees
productive and thus accomplishing the goals. Merrill Lynch conducts training programs for the
employees if required to increase the profits and productivity. They have a website which helps
managers to describe various aspects required for performance management (Guest, 2017).
Flexible working: This can be refers as an useful as well as effective strategy of meeting
the requirements of employee's. For example: having flexible time duration, working from home
etc. company can easily retain workers for long time. As it turn to support a company by
conducting business operation in effective and efficient manner. This will lead to increase in
productivity as well as profitability of respective company. This practice of human resource
management will lead to influence as well as encourage its employees and it also helps in
enhancing satisfaction of job among workers. As it will also help Merrill Lynch to retain workers
for longer period and maintain them with strong relationship. Thus, flexible working hour is a
best option for employees and help Merrill Lynch by enhancing its productivity and profitability
level easily.
Strength Weakness
Flexible working raised feeling of an
individual control over schedule and work
environment. It will be beneficial for Merrill
Lynch by decreased turnover of valued
employees.
There is no clear depiction between work and
home. In this, few employees of an
organisation take advantages of the flexibility
and alternatively watch Netflix with their
electronic mail screen open.
Different Methods of HRM practices in organisational context