HRM Report: Analysis of Merrill Lynch's Human Resource Management

This report provides a detailed analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within Merrill Lynch, a part of Bank of America. The report begins with an introduction to HRM and its core functions, including recruitment, training and development, professional development, and human resource planning. It delves into the strengths and weaknesses of internal and external recruitment methods, and the advantages and disadvantages of various selection processes. The report further explores the benefits of HRM practices for both employees and employers, such as learning and development, flexible working options, performance management, and reward systems. It evaluates the effectiveness of different HRM practices in raising organizational profits and productivity, including on-the-job and off-the-job training methods. The report also examines the importance of employee relations in decision-making and strategies used by HR, and concludes with an application of HRM practices in relation to the work at Merrill Lynch. The analysis provides a comprehensive overview of HRM principles and their practical application in a real-world financial institution.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Function of human resource management...................................................................................3
Soft and Hard Human resource management..............................................................................5
Recruitment and selection process and it benefits and drawbacks..............................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Advantages of various HRM practices for both employees and employee's...............................6
Evaluation of the effectiveness in different HRM practices for raising the organisational
profits and productivity................................................................................................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
Employee relation in HRM decision-making..............................................................................9
Strategies used by the HR..........................................................................................................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................12
Application of the HRM practices in relation with the work.....................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management (HRM) is one most important function of business. This
practice includes process of recruitment, selection and developing the employees. Human
resource management helps company to manage Human resource of company. Merrill Lynch is
part of bank of America which operations in investment management and wealth management
sector. The headquarter company is in New York City (Collings, Wood. and Szamosi, 2018).
Merrill Lynch has more than 15100 financial advices working for them and their services are
available all over global.
This report is about Human resource management of Merrill Lynch. Study will discuss
purpose of HRM as well as strength and weakness of different recruitment and selection. Will
also highlight benefits of HRM practices for both employees and employer and effectiveness of
HRM practices. Furthermore, study will discuss importance of employee relation in decision-
making along with these major elements in of employee legislation and its impact on HRM
decision-making process. At last application HRM practices in Merrill Lynch(Boon. and et.al,
2018).
TASK 1
Function of human resource management
Introduction
HRM is the practice which include hiring, recruiting and deploying the employees. There
is a great scope of HRM which is described in the below topic.
Here are the major functions of human resource department in Merrill Lynch-
Recruitment:
This is the major responsibility of human resource management and the most challenging
one. Recruitment process requires lot of resources. First HR department need to identify the need
of human resource in the company then the company attract the candidates and recruit the best
out of them, to help the company to achieve the business objectives (Analoui. ed, 2018). The
recruitment process in Merrill Lynch is very long. The HR department analysis all the candidates
properly by taking personal interviews, group discussion and pre-employment test and after all
these they select the best candidates for job vacancy. The purpose of recruitment is hiring the
best employees from the best possible source at the negotiable rate .
Training and developing:

Identifying need of training and developing programs and organize them is one of major
function of HR department of company. This program helps new employees to settle in work
culture of company and helps to improve skills and knowledge of old employees. These
programs boost performance of employees and to motive them to face uncertain conditions in
market. Human resource department of Merrill lynch stays updated with market situational and
organize programs for their employees to overcome them (Longoni. Luzzini. and Guerci, 2018).
These programs are more situational based and help the employees to maintain their standard
performance even in uncertain situations. The purpose of training and development is to get the
productive result from the employees by developing skills in them in order to make the
employees compatible.
Professional development:
One of the most important function of Human resource department. This function of
HRM helps the employees to grab the opportunities of growth, education and other skills
training. In these the organisation promotes their employee's for several educational option,
corporate responsibilities and many more (Nieves. and Quintana, 2018). Merrill Lynch fund their
employees for high opportunities like education loan on low rate, the company organize sponsor
various seminar for the professional development of them. These activities help the organisation
to decrease there employee turnover ratio. The purpose of professional development is
developing soft skills such as as teamwork and adaptability well as hard skills such as typing,
accounting and also finance.
Human resource planning
Human resource planning (HRP) is step by step methodology of analysing the need of
human resource in a systematic manner. This is done to assure the accurate number of employees
are available to meet the requirement of the company to successful operate their business
activities. Merrill Lynch does a proper HRP. The company mostly perform this activities when
they are above to open a new branch. The purpose of HRP is planning in advance about how to
recruit the employee and what are the sources available for recruitment. In order to make the
employees developed by providing training and development by following the plan will enhance
the skill and also will help in achieving the business objective by increasing the productivity of
the employees.

Soft and Hard Human resource management
Soft HRM: In this approach of human resource management the employees of the
company are treated important asset of the company, the motivation level of the employees are
higher and the employee’s relation are better in the approach of HRM. In this approach the
leadership style in company is democratic leadership style and the company focus on long term
business strategies Merrill Lynch follows this approach of HRM as it is more employee oriented
it helps the company to maintain good relation with their employees and increase the retention
rate of the company (Potcovaru, 2018).
Hard HRM: In this approaches of human resource management the employee of an
organisation. The motivation level and employee relation are lower in this type of HRM
approach. The leadership style followed by the company is autocratic leadership style. This
approach focus on the short term business strategies and objectives. Merrill Lynch switch to this
approach in case of emergency and crisis because of the decision-making in these approaches
doesn't requirements lot of time and participations of the employees.
Recruitment and selection process and it benefits and drawbacks
Recruitment:
It is the process in which the company attracts the candidates for the jobs then shortlist
and select the candidates and appoint the best one. Recruitment process includes internal and
external recruitment, both the methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. Here are
strengths and weaknesses of internal and external method of recruiting.
Internal recruitment: This is the type of recruiting in which an organization recruits the
employees from the company itself. Merrill Lynch uses this recruitment methods to change the
job status of their employees form part-time to full time, transferring the employees, promotions
etc.
 Strengths: The biggest benefits of internal recruitment technique are it requires less
resources than the external technique moreover it also motives the employees and boosts
their moral. This method is often use by the Merrill Lynch to promote their employees,
which helped them to increase the retention rate of company and enhance the
performance of their employees (Stewart, 2018). Weaknesses: The major weakness of this recruitment technique is it reduces the number
of potential employees as well as the fresh idea in the workplace of Merrill Lynch. Along

with this, it some creates disputes between the employees
External Recruitment: In this type of recruitment technique the company recruits the candidates
other than their existing employees. The Merrill Lynch uses this method to fill the vacancy rather
than the existing employees.
 Strengths: The strengths of external recruitment methods is to increase the number of
potential employees in the company and increase the fresh idea in company. Merrill
Lynch uses this method when they want to recruit candidates in a large amount. Weaknesses: The major weakness of these recruitment technique is it needs lot of
resources for it. Furthermore, it increase the employees turnover ratio in Merrill Lynch
Selection: The selection process differs from company to company. Selection is the process of
choosing the best candidates, which are more suitable for the job role. Merrill Lynch selects the
employees on the basis of performance in pre-employment test and their personal interviews
 Strengths: The biggest advantages of this selection method it assist the Human resource
department in properly analysing the candidates and their skills and knowledge. Along
with this method has and personal interviews in it which allows the HR to have a face to
face interaction with the candidates and analysis their communicate skills, level of
confidence etc. The strength of the company is available sources from which it becomes
easy for the HR department for the hiring (Mone. and London, 2018)
 Weaknesses: The disadvantages of this selection process are it doesn't forecast the full
potential of the candidates. Furthermore the candidates can easily lay in their CV and
their personal interviews. Even after the pre interview test and Personal interviews
practical skills (team work, smart work, hard work) of the employees are still
unidentified. The weakness of the company is its strict policies which consumes a lot of
time.
TASK 2
Advantages of various HRM practices for both employees and employee's
Introduction
learning is a part of training and training is a part of development. Learning means
acquisition of knowledge or skills, Training means action of teaching the emplyees and
Developing means over all development of the employees.
BASIS Employees Employer

Learning, training
and developing
Training and developing programs
increases the skills and the
knowledge of the employees
moreover it boost the performance of
the employees of Merrill lynch
(Meyer. and Xin, 2018).
Training and development
programs helps the employer to
boost performance of the
employees which ultimately boost
the performance of the Merrill
Lynch
Flexible working
options
The Flexible working option is
advantageous for the employees as
of Merrill Lynch as they can work
according to their conform. This
option increase the productivity of
the employees
The flexible working option is
beneficial for the employers as it is
more employee friendly program
which can increase the retention
rate, moreover it will save the
resources of the employer(Mone.
and London, 2018).
Performance
management and
monitoring
The benefits of performance
management and monitoring to the
employees of Merrill Lynch are it
forecast their performance. It also
helps the employees to identity their
weaknesses(Mone. and London,
2018).
The major benefits of management
and monitoring of performance to
the Merrill Lynch is helps in
decision-making regarding the
promotion and firing of the
employees.
Reward
management
The advantages of proper reward
management in Merrill Lynch are it
increases the motivation level of the
employees, which boost their
performance to earn more and more
rewards and incentives
The main benefits of proper reward
management in Merrill Lynch are
it increases the effectiveness and
the efficiency of the employees
which lead to increase in the
effectiveness and efficiency of the
Merrill Lynch.

Evaluation of the effectiveness in different HRM practices for raising the organisational profits
and productivity.
There are different HRM practices that are followed in company which directly or
indirectly contribute which involves hiring, recruiting and managing employees to have the
contribution in productivity and profit to company. All the below mentioned activities will
increase the profits by less waste cost and increase the productivity by taking less time by the
employeesThe HR department have major responsibility for ongoing development of employee.
The continuous training keeps skills of employees up to date and brings those forwards in the
world of innovation and creativity (Nieves. and Quintana, 2018).
The HRM different practices are
There are basically are the two methods used in the company are-
On The Job Training Methods – This the method of used for the new and
inexperienced employee through observing peers and manager for performance in job along with
trying to imitate the behaviour. This method doesn't cost much and less disruptive in employees.
Through the use of this training method giving training employees in same machine and
experience on particular standard. Methods are-
Mentoring- the development of attitude is focussed in this training of new employee by a
senior person by the way of one on-one interactions.
Job Rotation-the process of rotating the employees through the series of related jobs so
that the employees can be elevated from the boredom and allow the development in their own
skills.
Off The Job Training Methods — just to create a separate job environment and
overall development of employees . It is the job training is basically about the development of
employees away from the field. Methods are -
Lectures - This is suitable method when large number of trainees are required. Lectures
can be very helpful in explaining concepts and principles clearly along with face to face
interaction is very much possible (Nieves. and Quintana).
Sensitive Training- This training is making employee understand about themselves and
others reasonably, which can be done through developing social sensitivity and behavioural

flexibility. It is ability of an individual to sense what others feel and think from their own point
of view.
Contributes in development of companies productivity and profitably.
Training is a appropriate way to make the employees do out to their best. Having full
knowledge and skills helps in increase of job satisfaction and make more confident about
work. Increase in confidence leads to increase in productivity which is extreme goal for
company. A training program allow to have strengthened those skills that each employee needs
to improve. A development program brings all employees to a higher level, so they all have
similar skills and knowledge. This helps reduce any weak links within the company who rely
heavily on others to complete basic work tasks.
TASK 3
Employee relation in HRM decision-making
Introduction
The role of Employee is immense in HRM decision-making. If relationship between HR
and employee is not sound than it can bring negative results for Merrill Lynch so it is very
important that relationship between HRM and employees must be sound. The employee must
have to share cordial relationship with the HR in order to make fluent working conditions. The
relationship between the employee and the HR is explained by the following points.
Employee relationship helps HRM by making friendly policies
In order to seek out conflict between the employees and employer HRM of Merrill Lynch
makes favourable policies for both Employees and employer.
Strategy used by the HR
The strategy used by HRM in order to resolve this issue by making decision of providing
incentives for extra work done by employees(Stewart, 2018). This strategy will make employees
always motivated and satisfied employee will engage themselves in working effectively in order
to achieve goal of Merrill Lynch.
Conducting activities by the HR
The HR in order to improve relationship among employees conducts various activities
which boosts employee's efforts and make them ready for work. Various recreational activities
can be conducted such as meditation, sports and games etc. All these activities will make
employees know each other pretty well(Terziev, Banabakova. and Georgiev, 2018).

Strategies used by the HR
The strategy for this which is going to be the best for the Merrill Lynch is conducting
sports activities in between the job in order to engage the employee well. This will increase the
productivity of the employees and the employees will work more productively after rejuvenating.
Conducting Celebration by the HR
There are various activities such as celebrating Christmas, New Year celebration,
Celebrating Easter, etc. All these activities are performed by the HRM in order to build friendly
relationship with the HRM by the employees(Analoui, 2018). This will help the Merrill Lynch
by making the employees satisfied as the employees will feel the company like home.
Strategy used by the HR
The HR of the Merrill Lynch will use the strategy of celebrating the birthdays and the all
the festivals at the end of the month after completion of the work. This will make the work to be
completed on time by more engagement of the employees.
Flexible working conditions
Flexible working conditions are must for the employees in which the employees are free
to work as per their suitability. The employees are allowed to do work from home, allowed to do
work based on the styles of the employees, flexibility in working hours, etc.
Strategies used by the HR
The strategy used by the HR for the employee relationship in HR decision-making is
going to be Flexible working hours in which the employees allowed to work on night as well as
on days this will give competitive advantage to the Merrill Lynch by more employment and
which will lead to more task completion(Boon. and et.al, 2018).
Impact of legislation of HRM decision-making
Legislations are the rules which are required to be followed by the HR in order to prevent
form any penalty or any liability. The legislation affecting the HRM is as follows:Anti-
discrimination Act 1975
This Act is for the equality of the employees. As per this act all the employees must be
considered equal and should not be discriminated on the basis of gender, colour, religion and
culture.
All this will affect the HRM by making policies in which discrimination on the basis of
all the above factors must not be done because if it is done and the employee report to the

government then it can impose high penalty to Merrill Lynch(Brueller, Carmeli. and Markman,
2018).
Health and Safety Act 1974
As per this act the health of the employees as well as the employer plays a crucial role for
the Merrill Lynch and must be taken proper care. The health and safety laws in which the
working conditions must be safe including safe machinery is required to be used, proper
maintenance of machines, Training related to safety, all the necessary equipment of safety, all
these are must be considered.
This affect the HRM decision-making by making the health and safety policies in the
Merrill Lynch which will include proper sanitation facility for the workers, safety equipments
example fire extinguisher and training. This will give competitive advantage by increasing the
profit due to no liability because of non-compliancearkman, 2018)
(Buckley. and et.al, 2019).
Data Protection Act 2018
As per this act the HR must protect the data of the employees and must not misuse the
data by providing the data to the other organization for their personal gain.
The decision-making of HRM can be affected due to this by forming strict rules and by
providing extreme security to the data of employees of the Merrill Lynch. This will increase the
performance of the employees as the employees will help safe about their information(Buckley.
and et.al, 2019).
As per the view of (Buckley. and et.al, 2019). the trade Trade union in the UK was
formed in order to protect the rights of employees as well as employers. Royal commission of
1867, was formed to sought out the problems faced by the employees and employers. Trade
Union Congress which was founded in the year 1867 made emergence of the proper act for the
Trade Union according to which Combination Act 1825 came into force. Under the act freedom
was given to both of them and the liability was exempted by the providing funds to the Union.
The various HRM practices are affected due to this and it led emergence of employee friendly
law because the employee were exploited earlier in which they were paid very less and even not
paid sometimes for the overtime. Margaret Thatcher was the person behind the Trade union
which contributed immensely towards the development of the economy of the UK.

As per the view of (Nieves. and Quintana, 2018) Due to emergency of the Trade Union it
also protected the rights of the employer in which employees used to take money in advance and
then abscond themselves. The employees also do not pay attention towards the rules and
regulations for them and take leaves. After emergency of UK trade Union it protected the interest
of the employer by making proper laws for them.
HRM practices improved drastically after the emergence of the UK trade union in which
contracts were specified of the employees. Proper overtime pays was mentioned and the working
hours are required to be mentioned in the contract.
Conclusion
From the about report it is concluded that in order talk competitive advantage over the
competition Merrill Lynch must maintain great relationship with the employees which can be by
providing them proper training, conducting several activities and making friendly policies. The
HRM must also follow the legislations of the HRM in order to prevent Merrill Lynch from any
liability or any penalty which will decrease the profit of the company (Kim. and Jeong, 2018).
TASK 4
Application of the HRM practices in relation with the work
There are several HRM practices from which the following have been selected:
Agenda for the seminar of training the receptionists of The George Hotel
The agenda for having the conduction of seminar is all about the for development of aspiration
among the receptionist by managers as per there job description. The agenda will have the
certainest objectives to have receptionist job in organization along with demonstration of
reflective professional image. There is managing of telephone communication along with
clarity's and courtesy. They will be had proper understanding over dealing politely with satisfied
and discourteous employees. They will be trainees to have personal development plan to have
effective development.
Day one
8.00-9.00 Entry of receptionists
9.00-9.30 Introduction to improve communication
Day two
10.45-12.00 Introduction to interpersonal skill
1.15-2.45 Topic detail