Best Employer to Work for Award
Best Employer to Work for Award
Introduction
HSBC Holdings is one of the largest banking groups in the world. It is headquartered in London, with its head office based in the HSBC Tower, London, a part of the Canary Wharf development in the London Docklands. () it’s founding member is The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, a bank established by the Scot Thomas Sutherland to finance trade in the Far East in 1865.
Basically, the bank is the third largest corporation in terms of assets (see appendix A). It reports its numbers in US dollars as 70% of its earnings come from outside the UK. Nearly 40% of its earnings are from operations in Hong Kong. Before moving the headquarters to London in early 1990s, it was headquartered in Hong Kong. It is the largest bank in Hong Kong, and at the end of 2004 it was the third largest banking group in the world by tier 1 capital (see appendix B).
Along with Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland / Natwest, Lloyds TSB and HBOS, HSBC is one of the largest banks in United Kingdom. Actually, HSBC shares are one of the largest components of the FTSE 100 Index. In traditional City jargon the bank is known as "Honkers and Shankers". HSBC also owns the rail leasing company HSBC Rail (formerly Forward Trust Rail).
HSBC was first established in Hong Kong in March 1865. By the 1880s, the bank was acting as banker to the Hong Kong government under British rule. Prior to diversifying its business into a worldwide financial institution as it is known today through a series of alliances and acquisitions, the business of the Bank was concentrated in the Asian region, particularly in Hong Kong. It once adopted shorthand of "Hong Kong Bank", which is still a widely used jargon in Hong Kong today. ()
In addition, the Hong Kong headquarters of the HSBC are in Central, Hong Kong, in the HSBC Hong Kong headquarters building. It was designed by British architect Norman Foster, and was the most expensive building in the world for the usable floor area when it was built. HSBC is one of the three banks which issues banknotes for Hong Kong (the other two being the Bank of China (Hong Kong) and Standard Chartered Bank). HSBC acquired a controlling interest in the local Hang Sang Bank in 1965 during a crisis of the latter. The Hang Seng Index for stock prices in Hong Kong is named after the Hang Seng Bank.
Impact of Globalisation to HSBC
Globalisation in its literal sense is a social change, an increase in connections among societies and their elements due to, among others, the explosive evolution of transport and communication technologies. The term is applied to many social, cultural, commercial and economic activities. Depending on the context it can mean: (a)closer contact between different parts of the world (globalisation of the world, global village), with increasing possibilities of personal exchange and mutual understanding between "world citizens", (b) or (economic globalisation), freer trade and increasing relations among members of an industry in different parts of the world (globalisation of an industry), (c) or some negative exploitation aspects of economic globalisation such as evasion of legal and moral standards by moving manufacturing or mining and harvesting practices overseas.
Contemporary processes of globalization have several dimensions or faces: technological, cultural, religious, economic and political. None of these is in itself good or bad. All should be understood as ambiguous, with potential for good and evil, but in the current phase of globalization it is important to distinguish the different faces of globalization and identify with a potential to pursue the good. Globalization implies two distinct phenomena. First, it suggests that political, economic and social activity is becoming worldwide in scope. Secondly, it suggests that there has been an intensification of levels of interaction and interconnectedness among the states and societies ( 1991). Among these relations are those created by the progressive emergence of a global economy, the expansion of trans-national links which generate new forms of collective decision-making, the development of intergovernmental and quasi-supranational institutions, etc. (1990). Consequences of globalization are controversial and not necessarily positive.
Now a day's globalisation is a burning issue in the whole world. Some see globalisation as offering tremendous opportunities; others regard it with fear and loathing while a few perhaps see it as offering liberating possibilities. In line with HSBC, the effect of globalisation can be seen on how HSBC run its business. As noted, globalisation is generally encapsulates many different aspects of change, notably: structural changes in trade, economics, products and technology; the emergence of international or global companies; and different recipes for restructuring organizations. In order for HSBC to become competitive, the company has been able to adapt to the trends brought by globalisation.
Because of the concept of globalisation, the company utilised new marketing and management strategy to cope with these trends. The company’s strategy to effectively operate in the global market has been seen with the recognition that the market is giving to HSBC. Part of this strategy is the use of the technologically advanced marketing tools, such as the internet. Part of the challenged of globalisation to a global company like HSBC is the context of managing culturally diverse people or market.
As noted, the establishment of globalization has spelled success for many corporations around the world, one of which includes HSBC. This means that culture variation has begun to play an important part in the assessment of the corporations around the world; HSBC is no exception. However, it is unique for HSBC to take this strategy and use it as one of their strongest advantage, by proclaiming that they are “the world’s local bank”. The corporation has also taken culture and diversity into consideration and has begun to promote it as a way to earn the trust of their clients and also for them to provide specialized—and therefore, superior—service to their clients. Being held as one of the largest and competitive banking sector in the global market, it can be said that globalization has become an important part of the corporation.
HSBC: Diversity Management
The concept of diversity has been described roughly as groups of two or more individuals which characteristically denote demographic dissimilarities among group member (1995). Concurrently, recent studies have been created to describe the abundant dimensions for categorising these demographic dissimilarities. Nonetheless, it is recurrent that hypothesising diverse results for individuals and work clusters, particularly those relating to the level and disposition of those diversity. To illustrate, the study of (1996) created one set of calculations regarding the implications of ethnic diversity among the members of the group clusters. He have also posited another assertion regarding the implications of functional background diversity, which is fundamentally centring on the manifestation of race as well as other work-related operating setting. On the other hand, the works of other scholars were created to discern the implications of diversity dependent on the cultural differences of the group members (1996), corporal, intrinsic and unassailable or those relating to role and job-related miscellany ( 1994).
Being a global or international organisation, HSBC is aware that diversity issue should be considered as part of their management system. In order to manage effectively the diversity, the company had used strategic management, specifically the total quality management. The company sees to it that the employee is given sufficient benefits and other motivating factors to solve the issue of diversity. All employees have equal opportunities to be trained and developed and be promoted if they are able to meet the requirement of the said position. The culture of this financial institution is described by HSBC employees as a friendly, positive and progressive organization to work for. This means, that the company had been able to manage diversity effectively.
Job Satisfaction and Motivation
Motivation, whilst difficult to
define, remains a highly significant
component to the business mechanism. It is of such importance that managers are
constantly making attempts to develop and improve staff motivation, because it
essentially holds the key towards improvements in productivity and
turnover. Many writers and business theorists use the term motivation
differently, but one definition reads 'anything that causes people to achieve
more than they would otherwise do' ( 1990). To provide job enrichment and
satisfaction the management of HSBC used motivational tool. Herein, managers
were advised to focus on the motivator factors to produce vertical job loading
factors.
These consisted of removing some
controls on employees, increasing individual accountability for work, giving
employees complete units of work and additional authority, freedom, direct
feedback and introducing new tasks. It can be said these strategies have been
put into place within the HSBC department to maintain a highly motivated team.
The workload was left up to the individuals to
time-manage effectively, hence the freedom acting as a motivational incentive:
'Employees want to be accountable for their tasks. Having the authority to act
and manage them is called empowerment, and can act as an effective motivational
tool' (1996). As staff are
trusted to be creative and make their own decisions over objectives and tasks.
As discussed earlier support and recognition was seen as another essential
motivator for the employees to carry out tasks.
Recognition from senior management was another strategy that is used by the management of HSBC to retain job satisfaction and motivation. Through this, the employees are motivated for carrying out work related tasks. In addition, all of the employees received fringe benefits, defined as 'any benefit received by employees in addition to their wages or salary. Common fringe benefits are a company pension scheme, a company car, discounts when buying the firm's products and the provision of sports facilities. This form of benefit seeks to gain staff loyalty, as they become more motivated with a feeling that they have a fundamental role in the company and therefore develop a sense of belonging.
HSBC has a wide variety of training courses for its employees. They train their employees to be multi-tasking, able to do anything if assigned in a new department. The key performance indicator of the customer service department is the percentage of customer calls answered in the first minute, and the number of clients assisted during the year. HSBC implements job matching, where the employees will be put through different department and see where the employee is best at, after the employees strong traits are discovered, the employee will be assigned there. In this way, they are sure that the company is having the best employees in every position, making the company function efficiently.
Although, the management always ensures that they employ effective management system to sustain job satisfaction and motivation, there are still problems which the management must solve immediately. As mentioned, one problem may be in terms of cultural diversity.
The manager often experiences his most uncomfortable moments when he has to deal with differences among people. Because of these differences, he must often face disagreements, arguments, and even open conflict. To add to his discomfort, he frequently finds himself torn by two opposing desires. On the one hand, he wants to unleash the individuality of his subordinates in order to tap their full potential and to achieve novel and creative approaches to problems. On the other hand, he is eager to develop a harmonious, smooth-working team to carry out his organisation's objectives. The manager's lot is further troubled by the fact that when differences occur, strong feelings are frequently aroused, objectivity flies out of the window, egos are threatened, and personal relationships are placed in jeopardy.
Because the presence of differences can complicate the manager's job in so many ways, it is of utmost importance that the manager understands them fully and that he learns to handle them effectively. In doing so, the management of HSBC have been able to used effective communication clearly and consistent in all levels of the organization. The company has been able to address both organizational and individual employee concerns since they believed that management behavior will influence employee behavior more than the words included in a communication. Employees assess the communication to see if the change meets their needs.
The company also initiates strong recognition for internal Communication. Accordingly, internal communication is linked to performance, job satisfaction, job avoidance, market conditions, commitment, culture and turnover. Communication and culture are useful to the success of any organization. Hence, having a positive, strong culture like HSBC allows the organization to attract and retain the best people. In addition, a clearly articulated mission statement is an essential part of building the image of the organization in the minds of the employees. Therefore, effective internal communication is needed in a culturally-diverse organization. If poor internal communications exist, it could lead to lack of job satisfaction, increased job avoidance, reduced performance and commitment and an increase in turnover.
Job Design and Alternative Work Arrangement
HSBC’s current system is good enough for them to achieve success. But it is believed that that with a little more improvement on their working policies and system, they can achieve greater feats than they are doing now. For example, instead of meeting with the managers quarterly to discuss on what goals that the employees have achieved for the time allotted for them, the management must let them daily meeting with the employees so that if there is any problems or setbacks, the manager can help solve the problems on the spot, rather than waiting for it at the next quarter.
Another, alternative work arrangement that HSBC can provide their employees is letting the staff participate on community service and social responsibility. This alternative working arrangement not only provides benefits for the employees but the company as well. The first benefit that it can provide to employees is the ability and joy in helping others with their problems. This could further affect the morale of the employees towards their work positively. For example, the employee is enjoyed giving help to the needy and goes to work with a good feeling which could result to added productivity of the employee. If the employee works in the customer service department, then it would likely create a domino effect on the other customer.
Conclusion
Human Resource Management is regarded as an umbrella term that comprises (a) specific human resource practices such as recruitment, selection, and appraisal; (b) formal human resource policies, which direct and partially constrain the development of specific practices; and (c) overarching human resource philosophies, which specify the values that inform an organization's regulations and practices. Basically, these encompass a system that attracts, develops, motivates, and retains employees who ensure the effective functioning and survival of the organization and its members. It is true that managing people in organization is a very difficult task to handle because the employees that you will handle are provided with different culture, attitudes, values and norms.
In managing people, an the human resource management, should be able to learn to think more systematically and strategically in using the organization's most valuable asset and the company’s great resource and that is the people. The human resource management should be able to develop a thriving organizational culture and a stronger organization by good management of the people, providing their needs and the things that they deserve in order for them to be motivated and for them to seek more improvement and career development for their sake and for the organization's sake as well.
Further, it can also be concluded that in order to have a high-performing and competitive organization, it is critical that the human resource management and the organization as well should effectively align their people, work, structure and organizational behaviors to the purpose of the organization and effectively reward the right performance that supports the objective of the organization. Elements such as work processes, organization design, career path, performance management and a compensation program are part of human resource management strategy and a plan to ensure continuing success.
In line with HSBC, it can be concluded that because of using and implementing effective management system to ensure that their employers will be highly motivated and be satisfied with their job, the company can be considered as a good candidate for “Best Employer to Work for Award”.
All in all it is very important that an organization should make a way in adjusting their management and styles to complement the differences and similarities of the employees and the organization as a whole that may catalyst the motivation among the employees. Hence, the role of human resource management is crucial in making the organization achieved its goal of having a working force that contributes to the competitive advantage of the organization.
SELF-MANAGING WORK TEAMS AND FISHER AND PAYKEL
Introduction
The case was about the implemented “Everyday Workplace Tams” of Fisher & Paykel. Fisher & Paykel is a manufacturing company established in New Zealand. The company offers different household whitegoods and healthcare products. The company’s corporate strategy is based on teamwork management system. In this manner, the employees are grouped together and form natural teams which works jointly to provide quality products among its target market. Primarily, the main goal of this paper is to analyse the Everyday Workplace Teams within Fisher & Paykel and understand the concept of self managing work teams.
Natural Teams and Self-Managing Teams
As mentioned in the case, the company has been using natural teams approach as part of their working system. However, since the management would want to transform such approach into a new idea that would enhance the productivity of each team, the company had initiated Everyday Workplace Teams (EDWT). The natural team is a team working approach which consists of members which had developed or formed around small functional work areas. In the Fisher & Paykel, the workers form a group which functions differently.
Each group has their own boundary and functions in accordance to what the management has told them. On the other hand, the new self-managing teams are groups of individuals who had been formed to work in different areas under the context of empowerment. The self-managing work teams are well trained to do their job effectively and have the opportunity to decide in handling the workloads given to them. The self-managing work teams are more organized and have the ability to handle every situation that they encounter including task management. In addition, self-managing work teams can be considered as a more organized teaming that natural teams.
The natural teams and self-managing working teams are two approaches that a company may implement in their business production. However, each has its own style to suit the needs of the organisation.
Self-managing work teams in the shop floor
The company did not isolate the introduction of self-managing work teams to shop floor because they thought that it would be better to include such concept in one period to monitor whether such idea will be effective within the company. Furthermore, introducing self-managing work teams in every part of the organization together may enable the company to determine easily what should be needed to make such self-managing work teams more developed. Fisher & Paykel has not been able to introduce the concept of teaming into their organization, because they tried to determine first all the things that should be needed to make the introduction of teams be accepted by the workers. The company knows that having transformation is very complex and needs comprehensive planning to make the implementation more efficient. Hence, the company had spend more time first on analyzing what the company really needs before introducing teams into their organization.
EDWT
In the introduction of Everyday Workplace Teams the company had been able to use a team building strategy which is understandable and clear for all the workers. Herein, the company has given the purpose why they want to initiate EDWT into the organization. Furthermore, the company also allows the workers to see the main objective of EDWT and that is to have a team that would encourage contributions from each member, adopt a unified vision and to understand and use quality tools to ensure quality productions.
Part of the strategy is the establishment of four additional project teams. Each team has its own functions and responsibilities. This strategy is an effective strategy to make the members of the workgroup has the chance to identify where they should belong. The division of these teams, is also an effective strategy in order to determine which groups are performing well and which groups needs more training and assistance.
Team Process
The team processes that have been introduced within Fisher and Paykel can be considered as an effective strategy. In this manner, the company may be able to easily monitor all the work groups and determine which among the groups functions according to the standard of the company. In addition, this can be helpful in the future business operations of the company, especially when the company would decide to expand its business portfolio. Through this, self-managed work teams will enable the company to meet its organizational goal and may help them easily implement changes because they known that they have reliable and credible teams who will work for the company.
Conclusion
A self-managed working team is a group of individuals whose members contributes to a common goal. The members of the team have the skills and ability to contribute to the team per se. Having been able to introduce such team within a company is important, so that the company will be able to manage the work loads being offered to each member. In addition, having a self-manage working team will help the company easily identify which teams are functioning well and which needs improvement in terms of managing work-related processes, problems and issues.
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