Strategic Human Resource Management for HSBC Group: Policies Review

This essay provides a critical review of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) within the context of HSBC Group, focusing on the functional aspects and policies that can be adopted in various situations such as declining markets, innovatory organizations, and international contexts. It highlights the importance of aligning HR strategies with business goals, addressing challenges like language barriers and recruitment issues, and emphasizing training and development programs to improve employee skills and retention. The essay further discusses the need for culturally competent HR practices to support market requirements and concludes that strategic HRM is crucial for the long-term planning and success of HSBC Group by enabling it to navigate diverse business scenarios and achieve its strategic objectives.

Strategic Human
Resource Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Critically review the functional aspects of strategic human resource management...............3
The policies related with SHRM that can be adopted by the HSBC Group to fit in various
situations such as declining markets, innovatory organisation and context of international. 5
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................7
REFERNCES:..................................................................................................................................8
Books and Journals:................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Strategic Human Resource Management is very important in the company that focuses on
managing people. It denotes a combination between human resource management and strategy. It
encompasses a long term process of creating and implementing HR programs that address and
resolves the issues rises in business and directly contribute a long-term aspirations of business.
Strategic planning also deals with various challenges and opportunities for the HR experts
(Ayedee, Kumar and Shaikh, 2021). The essay is based on HSBC Company which facilitates
various banking and financial services through four multinational organization, consisting
commercial banking, retail banking and wealth management, global private banking and global
banking and markets. It was founded in 1959 as a holding company. The headquarter of the
company is in London, UK (Shariati, Fahimi and KAZEMNEJAD, 2019). The company was of
the first foreign banks that allocate their business in Japan, where it offers a range of financial
services and products including trade services, asset management, project export finance,
commercial banking and many more. The essay critically review the functional aspects of
strategic HRM that could practiced by the HSBC Group. It also outlines the strategic human
resource policies that could be adopt by the company to different situations such as innovatory
organisation, declining market and international context. Nevertheless, it will also include with
some relevant strategies to handle such situations.
MAIN BODY
Critically review the functional aspects of strategic human resource management.
Strategic human resource management defines the practice of attracting, hiring, training
and retaining the workers for benefit both organisation as a whole and employees as individuals.
HR departments in the company do not work separately, they makes interactions with other
department within the company with an intent to acknowledge the aims and the formulate plans
and tactics that aligns with the goals of the business. Strategic HRM also exploits the
opportunities and talent within the HR department to make the other functional areas stronger
and more productive.
With an intent for strategic human resource management to be effective, human resources
possesses a significant role as strategic partner when an organisation creates and implements
policies at global level. Strategic HR expertise can be shown throughout various activities such

as recruiting, training and developing and compensating workers. Strategic HR consists looking
at the methods that human resources can make a significant effect on the growth and
development of company (Bentley, and Kehoe, 2020). In context of HSBC Group, it is important
for the HR personnel to take strategic approach to generating and retaining workers to fulfil the
requirements of the long term plans of the company. The company faced various problems and
challenges when it was dealing in Japan. Challenges such as language barrier, hiring barriers,
slow decision making, technical incompatibility and many more.
Recruitment is one of the major functions of human resource management. The main aim
of HRM is to hire the right talent who possesses right skills, talent and expertise, and who will
help the company to accomplish its aims and objectives (Ulrich, 2019). In order to hire the
people for the Japan country, HSBC Group must source and find the suitable candidates for the
interview process and selection. It is important that all the candidates must go through a
comprehensive screen process to select the most appropriate ones from the pool of applicants.
The candidates who are screened must be taken through various interview rounds to check and
weigh their skills, talent and work experience needed for the job position. In case of HSBD, in
order to select the suitable candidate for the specific job role, strategic manager must consider all
the rounds of interview in proper way so that right candidate will join the company and will help
to accomplish the aims and objectives of company (Beykzad, Rezvan, and Yavari, 2018).
Another important aspect that company could focus is to provide the relevant training and
development program to the employees to improve their skills and expertise. Imparting suitable
training and development program to the selected candidates is the pivotal function of HR
experts. Even the success of the company is based on how well the workers are trained for the
job and what are the development and growth opportunities within the company. The strategic
HR role of the company also ensures that new joining acquire the specific knowledge and talent
to perform their certain activities in an effective way. If the HSBC Groups deals correctly with
right training and development programs then it could also help to retain the employees within
the company, as well as employees put more efforts for their further growth and development. It
could also increase the overall productivity and efficiency of the employees, which ultimately
results in better dealings for the organisation (Sánchez-Marín, Meroño-Cerdán and Carrasco-
Hernández, 2019). In order to remove the language barrier for the Japan, the company could
provide a crash course for the employees during their initial work training, and consider ongoing

training later on. If the employees would not be able to speak a common language than it could
be major barrier to the company's success. In order to communicate about company's offerings
and its good and services, the employees must be able to communicate with the local people so
that can better communicate the benefits of the company (Chakraborty and Biswas, 2020). It is
quite obvious that speaking common language is essential for the future of business, but if not
the employees must be provided with the training of local language or offer free class for the
new language of another office of HSBC Group.
In case of HSBC Group, strategic human resource management will support the company
to deal various challenges and issues that are impacting the business and its plan. In encompasses
availability of people, employees' motivation, employees' retention and developing vital
resources. With a purpose to stay ahead of the competition, the company needs to focus on the
different methods to attain competitive benefits. It is based on acquiring a proactive management
of people to accomplish the potential value. It is created to assist the company and fulfilling the
requiring of workers while encouraging the goals and objectives of the company.
The policies related with SHRM that can be adopted by the HSBC Group to fit in various
situations such as declining markets, innovatory organisation and context of international.
Strategic human resource management denotes a connection between company human
resource aims, tactics and objectives (D’Annunzio-Green, 2018). In case of HSBC Group, the
company faced various situations such as declining markets,international contexts and
innovatory organisations. Declining markets can be understood as the markets that have decline
from the maturity level where sale of the company climb or stay flat occasionally. In other words
it can be said that the growth of the company is either negative or not developing. There are
various reasons for that there may be emergent alternatives due to the technological innovation
or it may be due to the evaporating demand of the consumer. In case of HSBS Group, the
markets has been significantly declined due to the Covid-19 situation, where if reduce the sales
of products and services. It affects the overall profitably of the business due to which many
employees loses their jobs. In innovatory organisational situation, the company launch or modify
something to give their current products and services a new look in the market.
With a purpose to have a proper strategic human resource management, human
resources plays a significant role as a strategic experts when company policies are produced and
implemented. Human Resource experts have to create a strategic approach to grow and retain

workers to complete the long-term plans (Galli, 2019). Currently, there is an analysis of several
policies linked with the strategic-human resource management that could be adapted by the
company to fit in various situations such as innovation capacity and context of
internationalization.
Undertaking analysis of HR functions, is a need of evaluating the performance of
existing employees in order to appreciate the capacities and skills that are needed to add the
value in several areas. In case of HSBS Group, the company can start the performance review
process by doing analysis of competencies and effective skills which could help to know the
strengths and opportunities of each employee. Understanding organisational strategy and
existing aims, signifies that HR department have to work towards alignment of strategies related
with HR with the broad area of business. In context of HSBC Group, the goals and objectives
must be define with senior leader of business and them convey them effectively in the entire
business. Evaluation of the tools, there are particular tools that are needed to weigh as per the
employees' role in the business (Kaliannan, 2018). It is one of the critical process of the strategic
human resource management. The HSBC must focus on the partnership with several other
functional departments of the business. On a collective manner, it will bring opportunities for the
business. Evaluating the effectiveness of different strategic HRM practices, the company needs
to implement the particular HR practices in a proper way. The strategic HR experts have to
analyse the needs and priorities of business (Phongsakorn and RATTANAPONGPINYO, 2019).
It is also very essential to make sure that there is a significant contribution towards the
achievement of organisation. Define human resource strategic goals: It is also veru vital to
acknowledge all the strategic objectives of business and then implement the tactics. Major role of
HRM is to start a hiring process by understanding the existing personal gaps. Also, general
aspect of the company is to communicate the aims and tactics across the company so that it can
be understood by the each and everyone (O’Sullivan, 2018). Culturally competent, in order to
create a culturally competent environment, the HR experts must focus and work towards a proper
idea of diversity so that employees and customers who come across from different backgrounds
can deal with other. This practice of SHRM needed to support in having a proper way of conduct
to meet the requirements of market.

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report is that strategic human resource management is a
combination of tactics and HRM which focus on the long-term planning of the company. It will
also determine the future goals of the company. Strategic planning is also deals with the issues
and challenges that are faced by the HSBC Group. When the company expand its business in
Japan, it faced various problems such as language barriers, technical incompatibility, recruitment
issues and many more. It is discussed with various functional aspects of the strategic HRM. In
order to respond to different situations, various strategic policies has been discussed that could
be adapted by the company.

REFERNCES:
Books and Journals:
Ayedee, N., Kumar, M. A. and Shaikh, A. A., 2021. Role of Emotional Intelligence and Strategic
Human Resource Management during COVID-19 Pandemic (preprint).
Bentley, F. S. and Kehoe, R. R., 2020. Give them some slack—They’re trying to change! The
benefits of excess cash, excess employees, and increased human capital in the strategic
change context. Academy of Management Journal, 63(1), pp.181-204.
Beykzad, J., Rezvan, S. N. and Yavari, A., 2018. Evaluating Psychological Empowerment of
Managers and its Effects On their Attitudes toward Strategic Planning in theDepartment
of Human Resources Development of National Iranian Oil Company. Human Resource
Management in The Oil Industry, 9(34), pp.195-214.
Chakraborty, D. and Biswas, W., 2020. Going green with green HRM practices–A strategic
initiative for reinvigorating performance optimization in companies. Prabandhan: Indian
Journal of Management, 13(10-11), pp.8-26.
D’Annunzio-Green, N., 2018. Cornerstones of talent management as a strategic priority in the
hospitality. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes.
Galli, B. J., 2019. Theory of Constraints and Human Resource Management
Applications. International Journal of Strategic Engineering (IJoSE), 2(1), pp.61-77.
Kaliannan, M., 2018. Decision Making Approach to Employee Selection: Achieving Strategic
Person-Job-Organization Fit Among Organizations in Malaysia. In Management
Strategies and Technology Fluidity in the Asian Business Sector (pp. 27-64). IGI
Global.
O’Sullivan, N., 2018. Human resource management, strategic and international perspectives.
Phongsakorn, A. A. and RATTANAPONGPINYO, T., 2019. The Model of Strategic Change
Capability for Development Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Thailand to
Sustainability(Doctoral dissertation, Silpakorn University).
Sánchez-Marín, G., Meroño-Cerdán, Á. L. and Carrasco-Hernández, A. J., 2019. Formalized HR
practices and firm performance: an empirical comparison of family and non-family
firms. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 30(7), pp.1084-
1110.

Shariati, H., Fahimi, N. A. and KAZEMNEJAD, A., 2019. Developing a Sports Strategic Plan
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Ulrich, D., 2019. Fit, flexibility, and agility. In Strategic Human Resource Management (pp. 71-
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