Individual Research Portfolio: People Management in HSBC Holdings Plc

This report provides an in-depth analysis of people management practices within HSBC Holdings Plc. It begins with an introduction to people management, defining its core principles and significance in the context of the financial services industry. The main body of the report explores the knowledge, ...Read More

Introduction to People
Management - Individual
Research Portfolio

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Knowledge, skills and behaviour of an effective people manager..............................................3
HR processes and performance management of people at work................................................5
Contemporary issues line management face in people management process.............................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
People management refers to the practice of managing people at work through acquiring
the best talent, optimization of this talent and retaining the same for the long term success of the
organization. It includes both supporting business performance through talent acquisition and
providing guidance, direction and motivation to the employees to get the most out of them.
People management can be taken as one of the task of human resource management but it is not
necessary that all people manager are HR manager. In this report, the concept of people
management has been discussed in the context of HSBC holdings Plc which is a UK based
investment banking and financial services' company.
MAIN BODY
Knowledge, skills and behaviour of an effective people manager
People manager is the one who carries out the function of HR manager and known as the
human resource manager who is a responsible for attracting, selecting, training, developing,
motivating, directing, controlling and coordinating people in the organization. He has to make
every possible effort to support both organizational accomplishments and individual
accomplishments. They are also required to set team goals which must be in line with
organizational goals (Armstrong, 2017). In order to become an effective people manager, there
are some skills, knowledge and behaviour which must be incorporated in an individual to be an
effective people manager.
Knowledge - An effective people manager of HSBC must have the knowledge of what kind of
people or talent needed to be hired for the accomplishment of the organizational goals. They
must have knowledge of various training to be provided for improved performance and how to
establish relationship with employees to get a feedback on personal and organizational
perspective. Which leadership style to be followed, establishing coordination among people and
resources, language to be used for effective communication are the important areas, and
knowledge of which is very necessary. Every organization has many people working in it, and
they all are different from other in terms of their behaviour, interests, abilities and desire for
motivation which must be known to the people manager (Armstrong, 2019). As in the times of
Covid 19 pandemic, almost all the companies has introduces remote working practices which
demands an additional knowledge from HSBC people manager of computer, electronic

equipments and various available for oral, written and visual communication to interact
effectively with their people on various work aspects.
Skills - An effective people manager of HSBC must incorporate the following skills to establish
clear understanding, good relationship and coordination among people, motivated workforce in
the organization for successful achievement of objectives.
Communication skills - People manager must have the skills of speaking, listening and writing
to ensure proper flow of communication and getting timely feedback from people they manage
(Johnson, Lukaszewski and Stone, 2016). They must have clarity in what they say and also listen
to others is must for effective communication.
Motivational skills - The skills to motivate helps in persuading people at work to accomplish
their assigned task with greater efficiency and effectively. They must have the ability to
recognize what individual aspires and what motivates them for better and improved performance.
Empathy - Exercising emotional intelligence is the most important skill of every people
manager which allows them to put themselves into others shoes and letting go with personal
biasses. This will allow them to think about what people at the workplace feels, their emotions
and what they want to say.
Problem solving skills - This skill helps in solving various problems at workplace which can be
arisen in day to day business activities. Along with solving conflicts at work between team
members, a people manager must have the ability to be proactive in identification of problems
and finding out their appropriate solutions beforehand.
Leadership skills - Effectively influencing the behaviour of people and leading them is the
ability required in a people manager (Neher and Maley, 2019). They lead their team in the
direction of organizational goal and also need to have characteristics of a good leader like
optimistic and confident in every situation.
Behaviour - An effective people manager of HSBC must incorporate behavioural aspect in them
which necessary for becoming an effective manager. This includes behaving flexibly towards
changing circumstances, showing positive attitude towards every organizational hurdles and
obstacles, showing interest and trust in others, exercising just and fair habits and always behave
in honest manner.

HR processes and performance management of people at work
Human resource department of every organization like HSBC has many processes to be
carried out in timely manner which is also helpful in supporting the performance management of
people at work. Performance management refers to timely evaluating the performance of
employees in the organization and suggesting various training programmes for better and
improved performance, motivating people for best results with various monetary and non-
monetary tools and rewarding employees for their outstanding performance (Tripathy, 2018).
The performance can be evaluated best by setting benchmark for performance evaluation and
these benchmarks are set by HR manager in every organization like HSBC. There are various
processes performed by HR in HSBC that underpin the performance management of people are
as follows:
Human resource planning - HSBC's HR manager has the basic function of human resource
planning which begins from recruitment till final selection of the candidate, placing the candidate
on the right position that is best suited with their skills and knowledge, provision of appropriate
training, induction and orientation of the employees to familiarize them with the organizational
culture, evaluating their performance from time to time, promoting them to higher position and
laying off them if not suited for the organization. These activities of HR manager is helpful in the
performance management and without this reviewing of performance can't be possible (Tweedie
and et. al., 2019). This is because without proper planning and benchmark for performance
evaluation that is decided during planning process itself, performance management cannot be
done.
Remuneration and benefits to employees - Money is considered to be the best source of
motivation for each and every human resource. So this process involves offering remuneration
and various benefits to the employees for their service and performance. This process includes
offering salaries, wages, perks and incentives to motivate and attract the employees towards best
and outstanding performance. As HSBC is a leading company so the remuneration is also high as
compared to other organizations. Incentive and benefits are the indirect income of employees
they get promotion on the incentive they earn in a year. Remuneration and benefits typically
defines the life insurance and health insurance of the employee, company provides medical claim
to the employees as well as they plan for the retirement policies of the employee.

Define the company's goals and objectives
If the employees are not known to the objective and goal of the company it will be difficult for
them to achieve the target which company is expecting from them. Often employees don't come
ahead to ask the vision and mission of the company it is the responsibility of HRM to clearly
define the goal, it can be done by face to face interaction with employee and by sending them e-
mails or by conducting virtual meeting.
Performance feedback
Performance feedback is the highly recommended way to assert the employee and their work as
well as feedback provide shape to their work. It plays a vital role in the performance of the
employee it is the responsibility of the manager to give their views on the work which has been
performed by the employee. Positive feedback give confidence enthusiasm to the employees, and
they put their full efforts to achieve their individual goal as well negative feedback give them a
chance to recover their mistakes, and they do not repeat the same mistakes again.
Conduct meetings to talk about the achievements and results
It is always fallen under the favour of the company to conduct meeting to discuss the outcome,
results and achievements and progress of the employees. It is necessary to know that are the
things going as per the standards or not ? This kind of meetings can be conduct on weekly,
monthly or quarterly basis. This meeting helps the manger to convey the area where employees
need to put more efforts. Employees should also share their views and opinions.
Contemporary issues line management face in people management process
There are various contemporary issues which the line manager faces while managing
people in the HSBC Holdings Plc company -
Decrease in performance level – While managing people or employees in the management
process there comes an issue which states that there is decreased level of performance of the
employees due to the ineffective measures and procedures of work which they engage into. Line
managers face this issue because there is decrease in the performance level which affects the
organization's overall performance and the reputation of the company is decreased due to such
poor performances of work that the employees inculcate (Ahmed-Gamgum, 2018). Due to poor
performance the employee's salary status is also affected which is reviewed on the basis of their
presentation.

Being Understaffed – If there is not much strength of staff members in the company there line
managers will face the issue of being understaffed which will decrease the work effectiveness as
fewer employees will not be able to cover the complete work segmentations which are allotted to
them. Due to lack of staff the line managers find it difficult to allot work to the limited staff
members or employees who are working. Increase in work pressure and lesser number of staff
generates more problems to the line members . In this process the efficiency of work is affected
and late work schedules are processed.
Lack of communication – This is the major issue in the organization or the company because if
there is lack of communication or no communication between the line managers and the human
resource managers it will lead to difficulties and confusions between them. Proper
communication is required by both the departments so that work is manageable and the
employees are more motivated towards doing the job (Bucăţa and Rizescu, 2017). Thus, line
managers have to ensure that there is proper communication so that directions are provided to the
employees, and they are able to evaluate their performance.
Poor Teamwork – Poor teamwork leads to issues arising in the line management while
managing people or employees. Due to poor teamwork the performance of the employees is
affected, and they find it difficult to cope up with the other team members in which they have
been allocate to. Thus, line managers should look into the internal organization management
whether there are proper teams formed, and they are producing efficient and effective results
required by the company and coping up with the expectations so that there are no losses to be
measured.
Time Management – Poor time management affects the line management of the company
which creates an issue for the Human Resource Management staff working under. If there will
not be scheduled time for nay type of work that undergoes in the company then it will face major
losses and the employees ability and skills will become questionable. Line mangers have to
ensure that there is proper time management with every work that is done so that effectiveness
and efficiency is increased which will result to desired goals to be achieved within a specified
time frame.

CONCLUSION
From analysing this report it is concluded that this report elaborates about the people
management along with the support of HR practises. It also describes the roles and
responsibilities of HR manger. This report reveals the quality of people manager like their
knowledge, communication and managerial skill and behaviours to be a good manager. The
report describes the HR management and their policies for HSBC. It also helps to identify the
HR process and support management for effecting people management. This report defines the
various performance techniques which has been implemented by the HR like – providing
numerous benefits and remunerations to employees, giving them feedback on their work,
conducting meetings with them and also listen their views and opinions. So the overall report
will help to understand the people management and individual research portfolio.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ahmed-Gamgum, W.A., 2018. Career and Succession Management: Contemporary Issues in
Modern Organizations. Journal of Public Administration and Social Welfare
Research.3(1).pp.8-25.
Armstrong, M., 2017. Armstrong on reinventing performance management: Building a culture of
continuous improvement. Kogan Page Publishers.
Armstrong, M., 2019. How to Manage People: Fast, Effective Management Skills that Really Get
Results. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bucăţa, G. and Rizescu, A.M., 2017. The role of communication in enhancing work effectiveness
of an organization. Land Forces Academy Review.22(1). pp.49-57.
Johnson, R. D., Lukaszewski, K. M. and Stone, D. L., 2016. The evolution of the field of human
resource information systems: Co-evolution of technology and HR
processes. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 38(1), p.28.
Neher, A. and Maley, J., 2019. Improving the effectiveness of the employee performance
management process. International Journal of Productivity and Performance
Management.
Tripathy, M., 2018. Inducing people management skills in order to achieve organizational
excellence. International Journal of Communication Research, 8(3), pp.224-229.
Tweedie, D. and et.al., 2019. How does performance management affect workers? Beyond
human resource management and its critique. International Journal of Management
Reviews, 21(1), pp.76-96.
Online
Processes in Human Resource Management. 2019. [Online] Available
through<https://www.managementstudyguide.com/processes-in-human-resource-
management.htm>