BUSM4592 Strategic Human Resource Development: Westpac Report

This report presents a strategic human resource development plan for Westpac Banking Corporation, focusing on training needs analysis and program design. It begins by emphasizing the importance of training and development in the financial services industry, highlighting the need for effective employee performance and ethical conduct within Westpac. The report then conducts a four-level training needs analysis, examining organizational, job role, individual, and legislative aspects to identify areas for improvement. Based on this analysis, the report outlines specific learning objectives, including enhancing technical skills, improving efficiency, and promoting ethical behavior. It then details plans of instruction, incorporating adult learning principles and addressing individual differences in learning styles. Finally, the report proposes a comprehensive human resource development program, illustrating a framework for training and development within Westpac, and emphasizing the role of the HR department in employee motivation, assessment, and ethical conduct.

Running head: STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Strategic Human Resource Development
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Training Need Analysis..............................................................................................................2
Identification of objectives and plans of instruction..................................................................5
Objectives...............................................................................................................................5
Plans of Instruction................................................................................................................6
Consideration of Adult Learning Principles and Individual Differences...................................8
Human Resource Development Program...................................................................................8
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
As opined by Jaques (2017, p. 20), training and development is an inevitable part of
any active business entity. However, the training and development scenario differs for
different types of industries a business is connected to. In this connection, the given report is
focused on undermining the training and assessment needs for the company working under
the financial service industry. The organisation is predominantly named as Westpac Banking
Corporation (Westpac in common). The concerned financial firm is recorded to be
headquartered in the region of Sydney, Australia (Vincent 2016, p. 21). The firm is known to
be established long back in the year of 1817 named as the New Bank of South Wales.
Thereafter, in the year of 1982, the firm was known to merge with the Commercial Bank of
Australia and turned into Westpac in the month of October in the same year. Studies prove
that the companies working under the financial service industry are not a stranger towards the
aspect of external scrutiny (Fukuyama 2017, p.11). Thus, the efficient and effective
functioning of the financial companies is mandatory for the economic wellbeing of the entire
economies of scale of Australia. In this connection, the studies investigated that the
concerned financial firm Westpac is in need of developing a proposed plan for undertaking a
training program for motivating the employees to work harder as per the proposed plan and
processes of an organisation (Nankervis et al. 2016, p. 4).
Training Need Analysis
As opined by Rossi, Lipsey and Henry (2018, p. 20), the training needs assessment is
an essential consideration for a productive business firm in consideration of identifying the
performance issues that affect the effectiveness of the firm. After the issues are examined, the
training need assessment helps in providing remedies to the organisation through the help of
introducing, practising and reinforcing the specific as well as a measurable set of skills and

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knowledge. In this connection, the training needs analysis for the organisation of Westpac is
determined below with the help of the four-level training method (Flower et al. 2019, p. 19).
The same is specified below.
Organisational level
The training needs analysis connected to the organisational level is concerned with
examining the requirements of the organisation by undermining what synergies are lacking
behind in the working transactions of the entire firm (Vardi & Weitz 2016, p. 15). Thus, the
business objectives of Westpac would be incorporated into the scenario of training need
analysis. The significant key aspect at the organisational level is termed to be the review that
is done based on the current training system that is undertaken within the organisation and the
lack in the working behaviour of the employees. This review would help Westpac to set up
the training plan as per the needs and can be flexibly adjusted for the training needs in the
nearby future of the firm.
Job Role level
The above-mentioned level of job analysis is recorded to look at the job roles
designated to an employee. The job roles of the different employees working at Westpac
would be put into question in the concern of examining the level of skills as well as
knowledge which is required to fulfil the tasks and duties of the concerned role in a
competitive manner (Cohen 2017, p. 18). The job level analysis role focuses on determining
the gap that exists in the skill level of the employees concerning the desired skill and the
implemented skill. This would help the organisation of Westpac to view the job role of
different employees from different angles and therefore assess the training program based on
the gap so that the same can be adequately filled up. Thus, the current skill set of the

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employees would turn significant and useful when the need analysis of training the
employees regarding their job roles would be entailed.

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Individual-level
As stated by Cooley (2017, p. 5), every individual is different in the way they act and
learn. The way and the mental state every employee works in also recognised to be different
not only because of their nature but the different job roles designated to different employees.
The training needs analysis related to the individual level analysis is recorded to look at the
performance level gap of every single employee working at Westpac and therefore set the
training needs as per the requirement. The achievements, the self-motivation level, the
recognition level of the employees in the company as well as the job security and job
satisfaction level are all taken into consideration in the concern of analysing the training
needs that are based on the individual level (Carsrud et al. 2017, p. 202).
Legislative level
The analysis based on the legislative level of training needs analysis is considered to
be the simplest one (Wildavsky 2017, p. 17). However, the same is considered to be an
essential step for the analysis of training needs at the organisation of Westpac. This is
because the legislative level of analysis critically looks after the legislative requirements that
are to be carried up within the concerned financial company. These requirements can be
referred to the regulatory needs of the firm related to the tickets of competency, the licensing
requirements for the product and services offered by the company as well as the
qualifications needed by the firm in the concern of being a competent one in its role play. In
addition to this synergies, the legislative level of analysis is also recorded to identify the
introduction of any new legislation in the business market post to the last analysis of the
regulations and thus to fulfil the gap as per the changed and occurred needs (Kaufmann 2017,
p. 13).

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Figure 1: Showing four-level training method for training need analysis at Westpac
Identification of objectives and plans of instruction
Based on the studies undertaken to investigate the training need analysis to the
employees of Westpac, it was seen that the objectives of providing the training had been
differentiated to diverse areas. The same are specified as below.
Objectives
 To improve the technical skills of the employees (Matteson, Anderson and Boyden
2016, p. 75).
 To motivate the employees to work with better efficiency and productivity.
 Letting the employees meet the critical performance indicators that are associated
with their job role.
 Ensure the optimised use of available resources and equipment (Mijumbi et al. 2016,
p. 54).
 No use of unfair means of working with the job role and ensuring ethical working
culture all across the working environment.
 Non-biased and human-friendly working environment (Ahmed 2018, p. 5).

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 Efficient employee engagement activities.
Plans of Instruction
Objectives Learning
Techniques
Time Taken Resources
Improving the
technical skills of
the employees
Training the
employees with
professionalised
technicians of the
equipment and types
of machinery used in
the organisation.
2 months Professional
Technical Trainers,
Monetary funds.
Better efficiency and
productivity
Measuring the
performance level
on a frequent basis
and implementing
the necessary
changes required.
End of every month Human Resource
Management,
Data record of the
firm.
Maintaining the key
performance
indicators
Reviewing the
targets given to the
employees and then
marking the progress
to readjust the gap in
the same.
Every annual year Human Resource
Managers, Branch
Manager
Performance sheet
of the employees.
Optimal use of
available resources
Planning the use of
types of equipment
Every 6 months. Human Resource
Manager, Resource

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as per the advanced
technology
Data.
Ethical work
behaviour
Developing ethical
standards and
promoting
community
involvement in the
firm.
1 – 2 weeks Human Resource
Manager, CEO and
Branch Manager.
Human-friendly
working
environment
Studying the
synergy of
organisational
behaviour to
understand the
manner employees
behave in the firm
and the reasons
behind the same.
Every 6 months Human Resource
Manager, employee
conduct data.
Employee
Engagement
Activities
Helping the
employees grow
with the
implementation of
continuous feedback
and encourage
experimenting
workshops in the
Every week Human Resource
Manager, Branch
Manager, Financial
Funds, Volunteers.

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firm where
employees can
engage along.
Consideration of Adult Learning Principles and Individual Differences
Considering the learning for the training needs to be designed from the adult learning
and individual learning theory, the organisation of Westpac needs to design the synergy of
productive adult and individual learning in the organisation that would include the six
assumptions helping the employees learn and understand (Brewer 2016, p. 77). The
assumptions that would be needed to be oriented in the adult learning are;
 The need to know the importance of learning.
 The self-conceptualisation.
 The prior experience gained from past activities.
 The urge to learn.
 The learning orientation.
 The motivation towards the interest of learning.
However, the synergy of individual learning is based on the categories that are
inherited within the employees since the beginning, and the same can be enhanced with the
help of designing an active mode of the training program for them (Fowler 2018). In this
connection, the four major categories that characterize the individual learning aspects are;
 The learning style of the individual employee.
 The aptitude based behavioural approach of the employee.
 The personality of the employee.
 The level of the emotional intelligence of the employee.

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Human Resource Development Program
Based on the above-mentioned pieces of evidence related to the training need analysis
and the classifications of the adult and individual learning, the given report is based on
designing the sufficient training need for the financial organisation of Westpac. The same is
done by considering the Human Resource Development program to address the need for the
training to be provided to the employees.
As stated by Rahim (2017, p. 9), an organisation is incomplete and inefficient without
its human resource management. This is because the HRM of any business entity is
responsible for undertaking the complete plans and processes that help the business to earn
the desired amount of profit and revenue. Amongst this plan and process also lies the aspect
of the active synergy of recruitment and selection of skilled and talented employees. Not only
this but also training the employees and motivating them to work with their best capability is
also the accountability of the HR department of a business organisation (Bratton & Gold
2017, pg. 14). In this context, taking the concerned organisation of Westpac into knowledge,
it can be stated that the HRD of the firm needs to profoundly check the effectiveness of the
employees and train them to work significantly and ethically. Westpac being a financial firm,
needs to very cautious about its activities while providing services to its clients. A minor
mistake or misconception in the same may lead to hazardous chaos and legal suits for the
organisation (Comer 2017, p. 23). Therefore, all the employees working at Westpac needs to
be well assessed and provided with the required training needs that would help them
understand the requirement of their work and job role. Concerning to these critical and
complex working needs of the financial firm of Westpac, the report draws an illustrative
framework of the Human Resource Development process that would help the firm to fulfil its
training and development purpose. The same is shown below.

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Figure 2: Illustrative Framework of the Human Resource Development process in
Westpac
Conclusion
Given the findings based on the research of the training need analysis of the
Australian financial organisation Westpac, it is seen that the company is in profound need of
maintaining its training and development needs. This would be necessary for the firm to
maintain the effectiveness in the performance level of the employees and ensure that the
employees are carrying up the activities in an ethical manner. As the company is recognised
to be a financial firm that involves critical and complex activities related to high inflow and

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outflow of cash, the employees should be ethical in their working nature to maintain and
manage the brand image of the firm. Unethical behaviour from any of the employees would
lead to chaos in the working culture of the organisation and hamper customer loyalty as well.
In this connection, the report analysed that the Human Resource Department of the Westpac
organisation is to remain accountable in the concern of maintaining the training needs of the
employees that would encourage motivation, self-estimation and ethical culture in the mental
state of the employees.

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