Human Resource Management Report: Merrill Lynch HR Practices Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within Merrill Lynch. It begins with an introduction to HRM, its purpose, and scope, followed by a detailed examination of recruitment and selection methods, including their strengths and weaknesses. The report then delves into the benefits of key HRM elements such as training and development, performance management, and compensation, while also exploring the importance of employee relations and relevant employment legislation. Furthermore, the report examines the application of HRM practices within Merrill Lynch, concluding with an overview of the company's approach to HRM and its impact on organizational goals. The report covers both internal and external factors influencing HRM decisions and highlights the significance of both soft and hard HRM models. Overall, the report offers insights into how Merrill Lynch utilizes HRM to achieve its objectives and improve employee performance.

HUMAN
RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Purpose and Scope of HRM........................................................................................................3
Strengths and Weaknesses of Recruitment and Selection methods............................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................7
Benefits of key elements of HRM...............................................................................................7
Effectiveness of HRM Practices ................................................................................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
Importance of employee relations...............................................................................................9
Employment Legislation ..........................................................................................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
Application of HRM Practices..................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
HRM is an approach towards operative management of workforce in an enterprise in a
way that it helps their business to improve its competitive advantage. It helps in improving the
performance of employees in an organisation by providing them training and developing their
skills. Merrill Lynch Firm is a multinational bank that deals with security dealings and prime
brokerage. Basically, it involves services like financial, investment management and banking. It
is a public organisation that serves its services worldwide. In this report, the purpose and scope
of human resource management towards achieving organisational objectives is given. It has also
highlighted the strength and weaknesses of various recruitment and selection methods. The
internal and external factors that affect human resource management like decision making and
employee legislation is discuss in this report. This project focuses on how human resource
management can help in achieving overall organisational goals.
TASK 1
Purpose and Scope of HRM
Purpose And Functions:
Each organisation uses human resource management in order to achieve organisational
objectives. The basic objective of HRM practices is to fulfil goals of a company by hiring and
training employees in order to improve their performance. The main purpose towards which
Merrill Lynch perform human resource activities is to bring organisation and people together so
that the goals are met. Human resource management performs various functions and each of
them has a purpose (Albrecht and et. al., 2015).
Recruitment and Selection- Recruitment means hiring employees by identifying suitable
candidates for a job vacancy existing in a company. On the other hand, selection refers to
choosing the best candidate among other applicants who had applied for a job (Bratton and Gold,
2017). The basic purpose of Recruitment and selection is to find out suitable candidate for a job
vacancy . Merrill Lynch hire and select workforce by using various methods of recruitment and
selection.
Training and Development- This function of HRM aims to train and develop employees
in order to improve their performance. It includes developing skills and knowledge of employees
with the help of which they perform effectively towards achieving organisational objectives.

Training is an approach where workers are provided with guidance and supervision on the way
in which a particular task is performed. On the other hand, development means overall growth of
employees by which they can perform assigned tasks related to a job profile (Bryson, 2017).
Merrill Lynch provide training to its employees and develop theirs skills to meet organisational
objectives. The purpose of training and development is to provide certain skills and knowledge
for overall development of employees.
Planning- This function includes to formulate planning in regard to sources of
recruitment and selection in order to meet organisational objectives. It also helps in avoiding
shortage of workers and increase their effectiveness (Cascio, 2015). It maintains a balance
between demand and supply of workforce for meeting enterprise's targets. Merrill Lynch before
executing any task, indulge in proper planning. The purpose of planning in an organisation is to
save time and money and smooth functioning of work .
Performance Management- This is one of the vital function of human resource
management. It is an approach to create a work environment under which employees are able to
perform in a best way possible. Basically it involves measuring performance of employees time
to time in order to check the quality of work. If employees perform in an desired manner, than
they are given monetary benefits in form of rewards like bonus, incentives, appraisal and so on.
Merrill Lynch regularly check activities of employees and see whether they are performing in an
effective manner or not. Merrill Lynch Firm also provides various perks to its employees when
they perform well which result in creation of motivation among them. Its basic purpose is to
improve the overall performance of an organisation.
Scope:
Human resource management has wide scope and is very vital element of an
organisation. Its covers three aspects which are personnel aspect ,welfare aspect and industrial
relations aspect (Cascio, 2015). It includes planning, recruitment, selection, placement, housing,
transport, health and safety, training and development, collective bargaining, grievance and so
on.
Hard and Soft HRM:
There are two models of HRM which are applied by managers on their subordinates.
These can be explained in detail below-

Soft HRM: In this model, employees are treated as the significant resources in an
organisation. This approach focuses on needs of employees and their training and development.
When an organisation uses soft HRM than it considers its workers as critical resources who are
important for long-term strategies for business. The main feature of Soft HRM to pay attention
upon employees and how their performance is rewarded.
Hard HRM: This is task focus approach in which employees are considered as a resource
of company like buildings and machinery. Its main consideration is to achieve organisational
goals by controlling costs (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2018). In this HRM, employees are tried to
controlled and for achieving high profits and competitive advantage. In this, employees are not
motivated instead if they are not performing well than they are replaced like machinery.
Merrill Lynch uses soft HRM because it believes that the success of the organisation lies
in the hands of employees.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Recruitment and Selection methods
Recruitment means hiring employees in order to fill the job vacancy. There are two
sources of recruitment, internal and external. Given organisation uses both these sources in order
to select suitable candidates.
Internal Recruitment: In this process, applicants are recruited internally, that is, inside
the organisation. It involves hiring employees within the organisation which can be done by
promoting or transferring existing workforce. Some of the sources of recruitment and their
strengths and weaknesses are defined as follows-
 Promotion- It means upgrading an existing employee towards a higher position which
carry high responsibilities, status and pay. This source of recruitment has its advantages
and disadvantages which can be defined as follows-
Strengths Weaknesses
It saves cost of training and developing
employees and expense incurred in advertising
job vacancy (Cooke Saini and Wang, 2014).
It limits the scope of recruitment as the
outsiders don't got an opportunity to get hired.
It motivate employees to do hard work in
order to get promoted.
It creates conflicts and jealousy among
employees which can lead to resentment
between managers and subordinates.

Example: Employees who get promoted are satisfied and work more efficiently towards
achieving objectives of given organisation. But it creates dissatisfaction among employees who
don't get an opportunity of promotion.
 Transfers- It is a change of a worker from one position to other in same or another class
with same range of salary. This method has its own merits and demerits-
Strengths Weaknesses
This method of recruitment saves both time
and cost which helps in maintaining
profitability of an organisation.
When an employee is transferred to other
location than it may take a lot of time to adjust
to that particular job environment.
External Recruitment: It means hiring applicants outside the organisation. Merrill Lynch
uses this source of hiring people in order to bring fresh talents in the company. There are various
forms of external recruitment which can be discussed as follows-
 Social media recruitment- In this form of external recruitment, candidates are hired
through social media platforms such as blogs, sites, etc. This method has its own
strengths and weaknesses which are-
Strengths Weaknesses
It has wide scope as it gives fair opportunity to
applicants outside the organisation.
This method is expensive as advertisement for
job vacancy require large sum of money
(Eaton, 2017).
It helps in generating new and fresh ideas
which can help in growth of the company.
It is time consuming process as it training and
development programmes requires a lot of time
and effort.
 Campus recruitment- It is a program which is conducted within institutes of education
for the purpose of providing jobs to students. It has many merits and demerits-
Strengths Weaknesses
By this process, an organisation can get wide
range of candidates for different job positions.
This process is expensive of most of the
companies as it adds on cost to bottom line.

It saves time of an organisation as they can
easily go to a particular educational institute
and hire students.
Fresh candidates who are selected from
campus may not able to get opportunity to get
hired.
Example: The existing employees don't get an opportunity to participate in this hiring
process. It opens doors for fresh talent in Merrill Lynch.
Selection means choosing the best suitable candidate for a job role and profile. Merrill
Lynch uses different mode of selecting candidates in order to get best person to perform all tasks
related to job. These methods has its own strengths and weaknesses which can be explained in
detail below-
Aptitude Tests: The first method used by given organisation for selecting applicants is by
taking their aptitude tests. It helps in checking the quantitative and mathematical skills of
employees.
Strengths Weaknesses
As this organisation deals with banking and
financial services, it is very important for
applicant to have good mathematical skills
(Hornstein, 2015).
Sometimes, skills of candidates are not judged
properly because this method is not completely
reliable.
This method is cost effective in comparison to
other modes of selection.
The team who is conducting these tests may be
bias towards certain applicants.
Example: This method helps in choosing an appropriate candidate whose calculations
are on the tip but at the same time it can create biasses towards certain candidates.
Telephonic Interview: In this process, candidates are interviewed over telephone. This is
the most utilised method that is used by Merrill Lynch. It also have both advantages and
disadvantages (Jackson Schuler and Jiang, 2014).
Strengths Weaknesses

This method save time of both interviewer and
interviewee and helps the organisation in
choosing best candidate.
Given organisation can not completely rely on
this source of selection as candidates can easily
cheat during interview round.
This process is convenient as the candidate
don't have to travel to come for the interview.
It is cost effective as it saves transportation
expenses.
Sometimes, interviewer don't get clear voice
which makes this mode ineffective to some
extent (Kramar, 2014).
Example: Merrill Lynch , by using this method can save its cost as it is cost effective
method. But at the same time, candidates can easily cheat by which company may not able to
select appropriate candidate.
TASK 2
Benefits of key elements of HRM
Human resource management practices consists of implementing strategies of HR in an
effective manner. The different elements of HRM are recruitment and selection, training and
development, compensation and benefits, flexible working options, employee performance
management, payment, appraisal and reward function and so on. All these practices increase
morale of employees which will result in enhancing their performance. Recruitment and
selection helps the organisation to find out efficient employees by hiring them (Kulik and et. al.,
2014). Training and development provides improved work performance of workers by expanding
their skills and knowledge. Compensation and benefits motivates employees to work effectively
and achieve target. Flexible working hours provides convenience to employees and so on. In
short, all the HR practices play an important role for both employer and employee.
Learning , Development and Training Practices:
It refers to improvement in effectiveness of workforce and a company by making
employees to learn and develop new set of skills. Its aim is to improve the performance of
employees by providing them training and development programmes. It will help in developing
certain work related skills of employees which will boost their confidence. In Merrill Lynch
firm, workers are trained in order to improve their efficiency at workplace. These procedures are
beneficial for both employees and employers.
Benefits to Employers Benefits to Employees

This will result in increasing productivity of
employees by timely completion of work. This
will help in achieving organisational
objectives(Moutinho and Vargas-Sanchez,
2018).
It will increase job satisfaction and morale of
workers and enhance their performance.
Employees will work more efficiently and
effectively if they are satisfied.
It would lead to less supervision by employers
as it empowers workers to execute task
independently.
The benefits of training, learning and
development practices are not limited. It is
beneficial for overall development of
employees and open various future
opportunities (Noe and et. al.,2017).
Proper leaning, training and development
practices can reduce the chances of errors and
mistakes which will have reduction in burden
of employers.
It will improve the work behaviour of
employees and generates feeling of
belongingness among them.
The performance of employees will be
increased which will result in achieving goals
of an organisation.
This will improve various set of skills of
workers like interpersonal skills,
communication skills, technical skills and so
on.
Employees turnover will be reduced as it
creates a feeling of confidence and job security
in the mind of employees (Nyberg and et. al.,
2012).
Training, learning and development practices
will uncover potential of employees and
showcase their hidden talent by sharing ideas
ad opinions with management.
Effectiveness of HRM Practices
Human resource practices can make a large difference in the growth and profitability of
an organisation. Its very important for an organisation to understand the concept of HRM and
people management. There is a correlation between higher economic performance and
appropriate HR practices. This includes training and development, flexible working hours,

performance management and so on. All these approaches work together in order to achieve
objectives of an organisation. The effectiveness of these practices can be shown in following
points:
Effectiveness of learning, training and development practices: These HRM
approaches plays an major role in smooth functioning of an organisation and achievement of
organisational objectives. It will help in developing overall skills and knowledge of employees of
Merrill Lynch and also in addressing weakness of employees. It will lead in attaining overall
performance of workers which will result in smooth functioning of this organisation. It is equally
important to employers also as it will reduce their work load by involving in less supervision.
When employees are given appropriate training and learning, than it can be helpful in their
overall growth of interpersonal and communication skills. It can result in proper utilisation of
human resources by increasing the productivity of workforce as well as organisation.
Effectiveness of Payment and Reward management: Merrill Lynch provides rewards
and appraisal when employees perform in an efficient manner. It involves bonus, incentives,
recognition and so on. This will motivate employees to perform well in order to achieve
organisational goals. It will boost up their confidence and enhance productivity of this
organisation. It will result in happy and loyal employees and can help in retaining employees.
This is not only beneficial for current workers but it will attract new employees in Merrill Lynch.
Providing appropriate rewards to employees helps in improving their motivation level and aids in
improving firm's productivity.
Evaluation of HRM practices in Merrill Lynch context:
This organisation aims to achieve organisational objectives and for this purpose, it take
into action various HR practices like training, learning and development programmes, flexible
working hours, performance appraisal management, reward for good performance, compensation
and befits and so on (Effective HR Practices drive profit, 2012). These approaches help both
organisation and employees in order to achieve goals of an enterprise. It improves performance
of employees which results in increasing overall productivity of a Merrill Lynch. This
organisation believes that growth of company lies in the hands of its employees , so it is very
important to keep them happy.

TASK 3
Importance of employee relations
Employee Relations: The most important part of any business is its employees, processes
can not functions effectively without them. Employers need to manage relationships in
workplace to ensure proper communication, smooth functioning, optimum uses of resources,
avoid confusion, etc. Employee Relations refers to efforts of company that ensures improvement
in building and maintaining good relationships with its employees. Organisation conducts
employee relations programs providing fair and constant good treatment to all personnel
ensuring commitment and loyalty towards company. Such programs are sub-set of human
resource strategy frame to achieve organisational objectives with the help of employees. It
focuses on problems or factors related to employees like working conditions and hours, salary
packages, bonus or rewards, work-life balance,etc. Companies adopts various strategies to
maintain relations with employees such as - two-way communication, training and development,
recognise and celebrate their achievements, take feedback on regular basis, etc (Bryson, 2017). If
the relation between employees is healthy than employees can easily put their opinions and
views in front of management without the fear of ignorance. As all employees will support each
other than they can easily participate in decision making activities. With this, it become easy for
HRM to take decision regarding certain things by taking opinions of employees all together. On
the other hand, if the relations between employees are not healthy, than it can create unnecessary
conflicts between them which can lead to dissatisfaction among them.
Merrill Lynch always believes that employee participation and building positive
relationships to be critical in success of organisation. Having efficient employees is important for
company, as when employer and employee shares positive relations, productivity, morale,
motivation, employee engagement is high. Merrill Lynch adopts open communication as HRM
strategy to engage employee in organisation, as described below:
 Open Communication: The most important key in any type of relationship is two-way
communication. On an average, employee spends majority of days at workplace or
working so it becomes crucial to make them feel comfortable. Merrill Lynch managers
are there so that employees can talk about their work and be transparent related to their
needs or issues. To make employee feel engage, company inform their workforce about
management plans, information, policies and changes through ABC (Always Be

Communicating) policy (Cascio, 2015). Merrill Lynch conducts surveys on weekly basis
to keep constant check on feedbacks received anonymously. Communication ensures
employee engagement in decision making process, formulating strategies, implementing
changes with ease, making working environment hassle free, creating balance in work-
life, etc. HRM department of Merrill Lynch takes into account all points of employee
relations programs while taking decisions on regular basis.
Employment Legislation
It contains all kinds of measures related to employment protection in order to treat
employees in a good way. It is introduced to prevent unfair practices and dismissal on the ground
of race, caste and gender. United Kingdom labour law facilitates in building relations between
trade unions, employees and employers. Some of the UK employment legislation act and its
impact on HRM decision making are discussed below:
Anti discrimination act – This law explains legislation that is designed to eliminate
discrimination against specified group of people. It prevents discrimination against sex,
nationality, race, disability, sexual orientation, gender, creed and so on. Human resource function
should generate an equal employment policy in order to reduce discrimination in working place.
Merrill Lynch applies various principles in order to promote non-discrimination (Cascio, 2015).
When employees are treated equally at all level than it will boost up their confidence and they
can openly put their opinions in front of management. This legislation act will help them to
participate in decision making process.
Health and Safety Act 1974- This law is introduced by United Kingdom Parliament in
order to ensure health, safety and welfare practices in workplace. It aims at providing healthy
working environment for employees. Human resource management need to generate healthy
working conditions to employees and provide safety to employees by promoting flexible
working hours. Merrill Lynch provides proper work environment to workers and for safety
purposes, it provides transportation facility.
TASK 4
Application of HRM Practices