Human Resource Management Strategy in Barclays and Sainsburys

Strategic Human resource management is a plan that facilitates the way an organization is being ran. The Human Resource Management strategy and the business strategy must be totally integrated. (Kearns, 2008). In todays modern world, they are different ways in which HRM within an organization operates but then they focus their attention on three main areas of management which are; staffing, employee compensation and defining or designing work. The target of every HRM departments in any organization will be to optimize the effectiveness of its employee in order to maximize productivity and increase profit. According to Edward L. Gubman as observed in the journal of business strategy, The basic mission of human resources will always be to acquire, develop and retain talent; align the work force with the business; and be an excellent contributor to the business. Those three challenges will never change. The back bone of any successful company is the HR department. The HR department must provide executive management with fundamental ideas that will help to not only gain market share, but entice and retain talent. Once the HR strategy of an organization is in place then its managements responsibility sees that company goals are embraced and there are several ways they can do this which includes; communication, input, feedback, positive reinforcement, values etc. In recent year, observers have cited a decided trend towards a fundamental reassessment of HR structures and positions. A cascade of changing business conditions, changing organizational structures, and changing leadership have been forcing human resource departments to alter their perspective on their role and functions almost-overnight, wrote John Johnston in Business Quarterly.

Figure 1

Strategy Implementation in an HR Environment

Emergent strategies

The SHRM functions can be known of having six (6) menus of HRM practices, from which organizations can choose the ones that is most appropriate for implementing their strategy. The Strategies of organizations varies depending on the level and structure of that organization and there is no know strategy which is the best suitable.

The company I will be looking at to see how its HRM operates in the Organization is Barclays Group PLC.

1.2. STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN BARCLAYS GROUP PLC

Brief history of Barclays

Barclays plc is a major global multinational financial services provider engaged in retail and commercial banking. Barclays has two geographical concentrations in the financial industry: – global retail banking and corporate investment banking & wealth management with operations in more than fifty countries with an extensive international presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Barclays has got approximately fifteen thousand six hundreds colleagues internationally and it moves, lends, invests and protects money for over forty-eight million customers and clients.

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Barclays plc has a global network of more than one hundred and fifty-five thousand people working across a range of businesses thus makes the HR team of Barclays face a unique challenges. In such a diverse and internationally spread company, HR experts work with every business unit to help Barclays stay ahead of the competition by attracting and retaining the best people available and make sure that they are all in the right jobs and do the best work that will create sustainable benefits for the works, customers and shareholders, all over the world. But its not all about new recruit that the HR management team of Barclays focuses on. It is also committed to nurturing its established colleague and the HR team play a vital role in monitoring performances and monitoring a host of training programmes. The HRM of Barclays Group is divided into different professional Job titles that deal with the Human resource related issues and plays an important part in every business unit of company.

The purpose of SHRM in Barclays

The purpose or importance of SHRM in Barclays cannot be over emphasized, the success and failure of any organization depends solely on its HR management.

The Primary purpose associated with human resource management in Barclays includes Job analysis and staffing (recruitment), organization and utilization of workforce, measurement and appraisal of workforce performance, implementation of reward systems for employees, professional development of workers and maintenance of workforce.

I. Job analysis and recruitment: The HRM in Barclays has the responsibility of recruiting people for various employment positions in the company; they determine the skills, and experience necessary to adequately perform in a position, identification of job and industry trends and anticipation of future employments. They provide valid information about jobs that is used to hire and promote people, determine wages, determine training needs, and manage the flow of personnel into and out of Barclays.

II. Organization, maintenance and utilization: The HRM dept of Barclays maintains the workforce of the company. The duty here involves designing an organizational framework that makes maximum use of an enterprises human resources and establishing systems of communication that helps the organization to operate in a unified manner. Other responsibilities in this area include health and safety and worker management relations. Maintenance task related to worker-management relations primarily entails: working with labor union; handling grievances related to misconduct, such as theft or sexual harassment; and devising communication systems to foster cooperation and shared sense of mission among the employees.

III. Performance appraisal: The HRM of Barclays assesses employees job performance and provides feedbacks to the employees on both their positive and negative performance. The performance appraisal is important because it is used to determine the salary increase and promotions and in the case of a negative performance, dismissal might follow.

IV. Reward systems: This system is managed by the HRM in Barclays. This aspect of management is important because it provides the mechanism by which company provide their worker with a reward for past achievements and incentives for high performance in the future. They also use this system to address a problem within the work force through institution of disciplinary measures.

V. Employee development and training: The HR is responsible for identifying the training needs of Barclays employee and initiates and evaluates developments programmes designed to address those needs. These training programs ranges from orientation programmes, which are designed to acclimate new hire of the company, to ambitious education programmes indented to familiarize workers with a new software systems.

1.3 Contributions of SHRM to achievements of Barclays objectives

Meaningful contributions to the business processes of Barclays processes are increasingly recognized as within the purview of active human resource management practices. The HRM of Barclays disseminates guideline for and monitoring employees behaviors and ensuring that the company is obeying worker-related regulatory guidelines. The HRM professional are aware of the fundamentals of learning and motivations and carefully design and monitor training and development programmes that has helped in achieving the aim and objectives of the company by increasing the quality of products and services delivered and increased growth and profit that benefits the whole organization.

The HRM of Barclays has been deeply involved in reshaping of the companys structure under increased external and internal complexity and in managing other aspect of strategic change in Barclays Group. The role and importance of SHRM in Barclays cannot be over emphasized, the success and failure of the company depends solely on its HRM and they can only succeed when the right strategy is applied. Having the companys mission in mind at all time has been a driving force to the achievements of HR team of Barclays Group and technological changes with the help of SAP (enterprise resource planning tool) helps Barclays to succeed in todays tough business climate.

Figure 1.2

This table below show how the SHRM add value to an Organization.

Source: CIPD, The case for good people management, 2001.

2.1. The business factor that underpin the HR planning in Barclays

Strength of the company

Barclays group has a widespread of global presence allowing it to spread its risk and enjoy economic of scale. The Barclays brand is well-established historically and has become ingrained in the psyche of the consumers and continually promoted, for example, through sponsorship of Premier league football. Barclays is particularly associated with innovation, it brought out the first debit and credit card and most recently the one plus card combining Oyster, cashless and credit functions for London-based customers. The opening of new flagship branches along with a refurbishment programme can be seen as an attempt to refocus on customers demand for a strong presence on the high street. The opening of new flagship branches along with a refurbishment programme can be seen as an attempt to refocus on customers demand for a strong presence on the high street. There is an increased online growth and online security to combat fraud and they enjoy a robust financial performance.

The business growth

Barclays business strategy is to achieve good growth through time by diversifying its business base and increasing its presence in markets and segments that are growing rapidly.

This is driven by the Groups ambition to become one of a handful of universal banks leading the global financial services industry, helping customers and clients throughout the world achieve their goals.

The strategy is based on the principles of earn, invest and grow. Supporting this are four strategic priorities; Build the best bank in the UK, Accelerate the growth of global businesses, Develop retail and commercial banking activities in selected countries outside the UK, Enhance operational excellence.

Barclays five guiding principles are key to the way the business operates:

Winning together: – Achieving collective and individual success

Best people: – Developing talented colleagues to reach their full potential, to ensure Barclays retains a leading position in the global financial services industry

Customer and client focus: – Understanding customers and serving them brilliantly.

Pioneering: – Driving new ideas, adding diverse skills and improving operational excellence.

Trusted: – Acting with the highest integrity to retain the trust of customers, external stakeholders and colleagues.

To continually compete internationally, Barclays must strive to perform customer service at an utmost level of excellence which will promote the company worldwide as a organization that can be relied upon time after time for small individual accounts as well as huge corporate accounts. To accomplish this, Barclays must identify their customer groups and the needs associated with each particular group and develop products and services that will be of great value to their customers. The practices that have worked in the past must be reconfigured to work for years to come and keep Barclays updated with the high changing IT world. This will call for new investments into new levels of technology that can help offer higher levels of service to its customers. Along with the apparent increase in speed that IT will allow Barclays to accomplish routine tasks, technology will also reduce risk of errors and fraud. (www.thebanker.com). IT will allow up to date information to be at the fingertips of Barclays managers, giving managers a huge advantage when it comes to making decisions and in pin pointing groups of customers that can have a high added value to Barclays. The fine-tuning of IT will also eliminate weaknesses within Barclays practices, preventing failures that effect customers and thus reducing excessive and unnecessary costs.

In recent years, Barclays has been very successful in carrying out its desired tactics.

Huge investment strategies that have led to this increase in profits include the acquirements within its Barclaycard card business.

With growth on its mind, Barclays has set out to create an international business that if forecasted correctly, the income generated in its Barclaycard division will be of equal value internationally as well as domestically by 2013. Barclays has also placed strategic action in growing throughout Europe up to sixty percent in the near feature.

2.2. Human resource requirement to open new technology center in Johannesburg, South Africa

In order to successfully open a new technological center in South Africa, Barclays will require having a structure (accommodation), the need the right number of staff, at the right place and the right time and equipped with the right technical skills to design, implement, manage projects and be able to develop new technological innovation. To assess the capacity required to do this research has to be carried out to derive the quantitative and qualitative data about the human requirement in this sector.

The operations and activities in this center will range from upgrading ATMs, hosts the applications for the regions markets, credit card transfer, looking after all the net work and infrastructure applications and re-plat forming a countrys banks.

The HR also needs to put in place a career development programmes for the staffs that will be working in this center and rewards and benefit packages.

2.3. The human resource plan in Barclays

Resourcing Manager: – The resourcing managers partners with each of the business unit of Barclays in order to help them attract and retain the best people for every job. They produce a schedule that deals the recruitment programme for the various types and levels of services.

HR Operations Advisor: – The HR operation advisor of Barclays supports the internal and external clients to ensure that the logistic affecting new starters, movers within the business and people leaving the company are dealt with smoothly and efficiently.

Benefits Administrator/ Pension Administrator: – The duty of the people here is to assist a pension administration Team Leader, the Benefits Administrator reconcile pension calculations, answer members queries and help with correspondence.

HR Business Partner: – HR Business Partners work alongside business leaders in a specific area of the Group to improve performance, advertising on recruitment, retention and development issues for that sector.

Compensation and Benefits Analyst: – Compensation and Benefits Analyst will set salaries for job roles to ensure that proposed compensation and reward packages are benchmarked and competitive.

2.4. Contribution of human resources to Barclays objectives

HR professional take a strategic approach to human resource management. Human resource management seeks to proactively provide a competitive advantage through the companys most important asset: its human resources. Human resources has a great impact on the implementation of plan by developing and aligning HRM practices that ensure the company has a motivated employee with the necessary skills. Human resource management in Barclays interacts between people, technology and the task to be performed in context with the objectives, goals and strategic plan of the company. HR plays a central role in such key area activities like attracting, selection and recruitment, employee orientations, retaining talent, promotions and termination process, and performance management including individual assessments, measuring and improving work performances, all these have significant impact on the employee turnover. The HR in Barclays sees to employee and the organizational development programme to maintain and improve skills as well as reward systems, benefits and compliance available for staffs also laws, policies, health and safety. The HR of Barclays gives a detailed job description and hires the right skills for a particular job and draws up programme for the professional development of the employee for e.g. learning to operate a new technology, this makes Barclays a leader in terms of new innovation thus providing a competitive advantage. They also plan effectively ahead with the number of staffs required to reduce cost to an optimum and ensure working processes are running smooth, this provides effective performance, thus increasing financial performance as indexed by productivity and market share value. The HR of Barclays also uses system such as incentives to achieve a specific goal. The reward system affects the companys performance through increasing the quality of products and services. The companys HR cares about the need and well being of their employees and provides a comfortable working environment; this increases the employees motivation and enhanced productivity performance.

3.1. The purpose of human resource policies in Barclays

The Human Resource Policy is simply a set of documents that describes an organizations policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the practices for its managerial, supervisory staff, and all employees. This documents sets out the policy for all the human resource related issues in the company including some policies from the government that relates to the company business activities. The purpose of this policy is to help the organization to maximize return on investment in the organizations human capital and maximize financial risk. The policy sets the standards of operations compliance, effective internal management control systems compliant with regulation standards and processes of all the business unit of Barclays. The HR policy provides a clear guidance to the employees as to what their responsibilities and obligations are, and their behavior that last beyond the residency of a particular business unit or executive. An HR policy also helps Barclays to avoid liability for their employees actions and helps protect against legal claims. HR policies promote consistency approach to meet their needs as they develop continuity with regards to flexible working and general understanding of the management strategy within the Barclays business environment. An HR policy also helps Barclays to keep up with competitors: e.g. policies are may be review in order to attract or retain employee. Policies are set in line with the companys strategy and planned to suit the culture, circumstances and size of the company. HR policies need to be reviewed with changes to the environment and growth with the company. So without these policies there will be no sense of direction within the company and it will be difficult for such an organization to achieve it aims and objectives.

3.2 The impact of regulatory requirements on human resource policies in Barclays.

The regulatory requirements are the licenses, restrictions and laws that are applicable to a business product or services, imposed by the government. The regulations go a long way from protecting the environment to ensuring work place safety. Such regulations includes; legal and regulatory requirement related to pay, equality, employment rights and responsibilities, data protection, discrimination, etc. The cumulative burden of the regulation requirements by the law can have a positive or a negative impact on a companys aims and objectives and can easily overwhelm businesses.

The Employment Act 2008 sets out the laws on employment rights and welfare of the employee. The HR managers must now plan the employment package under this employment Act which is very expensive to implement. For e.g. the law makes provision about the procedure for the resolution of employment disputes; to provide for compensation for financial loss on cases of unlawful underpayment or non-payment, to make provision about the enforcement of minimum wages legislation. Barclays manages health and safety at a local level under the requirement and any mistake done can cause the company thousands of pounds on compensation.

There is continuing political and regulatory scrutiny of the operations of the retail banking and consumer credit industries in the UK, EU, US, South Africa and elsewhere. For example, in the United States, Barclays Bank PLC and certain US subsidiaries and branches of the bank are subjected to a comprehensive regulatory structure, involving numerous statutes, ruling and regulations, including the International Banking Act of 1978, the Banking Holding Company Act of 1956, as amended, the foreign Bank Supervision Enhancement Act of 1991 and the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001. Such laws and regulations impose limitation on the type of businesses, and the ways in which they may be conducted, in the United States and on the location expansion of banking business there. Non compliance to these regulations could lead to fines, public reprimands, damage to reputations, enforced suspension of operations or, in extreme case, withdrawal of authorization to operate. The new government has taken up decisions to step up regulatory pressures on banks; it introduced a bank tax and is appointing a commission on banking to decide whether or not the banks should be broken up. Barclays has hinted it may move its operations overseas if the commission decides to force it to separate its retail and investment banking sectors.

4.1 The impact of organizational structure on the management of human resources in J Sainsburys

In an organization where different people works together, they need a defined system through which they relate to each other and through which there can be a coordination of their efforts. The defined relationships among the elements of an organization, namely people, tasks, structure, and information and control processes that characterize all organizations is referred to as organizational structure.

Brief Business review of J Sainsburys

J. Sainsburys plc is the parent company of Sainsburys Supermarket Ltd, commonly known as Sainsburys or Sainsburys and JS, the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom with a share of the UK supermarket sector of 16.6%. The group head office is in the Sainsburys Store Support Center in Holborn, city of London.

J Sainsburys plc was founded in 1869 by John James Sainsburys and his wife Mary Ann, in London, and grew rapidly during the Victorian era and today operates a total of 872 stores comprising 537 supermarkets and 355 convenience stores. It jointly owns Sainsburys bank with Lloyds Banking Group and has two property joint ventures with Land Securities Group and The British Land Company PLC.

The Sainsburys brand is built upon a heritage of providing customers with healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food. Quality and fair prices go hand-in-hand with a responsible approach to business. The store employs over 150,000 colleagues that serve over 19million customers a week and their largest store offers around 30,000 products.

Read full story, available on jsainsburys.co.uk/businessreview [assessed 27 Jan 2011].

4.1.1 Organization structure of J. Sainsburys

4.1.2 The operation mechanism

1. David Tyler (Chairman): – He joined the Board on Oct 1 2009 and became the Chairman on Nov 1 2009. He is non executive chairman of Logica plc and a Non-Executive Director of Experian plc and Burberry Group plc, where he also chairs the Remuneration Committee. He was previously Group Finance Director of GUS plc (1997-2006) and has held senior ?nancial and general management roles with Christies International plc (1989-96), County NatWest Limited (1986-89) and Unilever PLC (1974-86). He was also Chairman of 3i Quoted Private Equity plc (2007-09) and a Non-Executive Director of Reckitt Benckiser Group plc over the same period.

2. Justin King (Chief Executive): – Appointed Chief Executive Officer on 29 March 2004 and is also Chairman of the Operating Board. He has been a NonExecutive Director of Staples, Inc. since September 2007 and was appointed to the board of the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympics Games in January 2009. He was formerly Director of Food at Marks & Spencer plc and from 1994 to 2001 he held a number of senior positions at ASDA/WalMart in Trading, HR and Retail. Justin was previously Managing Director of Hagen Dazs UK and spent much of his early career with Mars Confectionery and Pepsi International.

3. Darren Shapland (Chief Financial Officer): – Appointed Chief Financial Officer on 1 August 2005 and is also Chairman of Sainsburys Bank plc. Darren was appointed a Non-Executive Director of Ladbrokes plc in November 2009. He was formerly Group Finance Director of Carpet-right plc (2002-05) and Finance Director of Superdrug Stores plc (2000-02). Between 1988 and 2000, Darren held a number of financial and operational management roles at Arcadia plc including Joint Managing Director, Arcadia Home Shopping; Finance Director of Arcadia brands; Finance Director, Top Shop/Top Man (Burton Group); and Director of Supply Chain Programme (Burton Group).

4. Mike Coupe (Trading Director): – Appointed an Executive Director on 1 August 2007 and has been a member of the Operating Board since October 2004. He joined Sainsburys from Big Food Group where he was a Board Director of Big Food Group plc and Managing Director of Iceland Food Stores. Mike previously worked for both ASDA and Tesco, where he served in a variety of senior management roles. He is also a member of the supervisory board of GSI UK.

5. John McAdam (Senior Independent Director): – Appointed a Non-Executive Director on 1 September 2005. He is Chairman of Rentokil Initial plc and United Utilities plc. He is also a Non-Executive Director of Rolls-Royce Group plc and Sara Lee Corporation. John joined Unilever PLC as a management trainee in 1974 and went on to hold a number of senior positions in Birds Eye Walls, Quest and Unichema, before the sale of the Specialty Chemical Businesses to ICI in 1997. He was Chief Executive of ICI plc, until its sale to Akzo Nobel, and was formerly a Non-Executive Director of Severn Trent plc (2000-2005).

6. Anna Ford (Non-Executive Director): – Appointed a Non-Executive Director on 2 May 2006. She retired from the BBC in 2006, after 32 years in News and Current Affairs. Anna is a Non-Executive Director of N Brown Group plc and has been a Trustee of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, London; a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society; a Trustee of Forum for the Future; Chancellor of Manchester University; and an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple.

7. Mary Harris (Non-Executive Director): – Appointed a Non-Executive Director on 1 August 2007. She is a member of the supervisory boards of TNT NV and Unibail Rodamco S.E. Mary previously spent much of her career with McKinsey & Company, most recently as a partner, and her previous work experience included working for PepsiCo in Greece and the UK as a sales and marketing executive.

8. Bob Stack (Non-Executive Director): – Appointed a Non-Executive Director on 1 January 2005. He was a Director of Cadbury plc until December 2008. He joined Cadbury Beverages in the US in 1990 and was first appointed to the Board of Cadbury Schweppes plc in May 1996 as Group Human Resources Director. In March 2000 he was appointed Chief Human Resources Officer and took on responsibility for communication and an external affair in addition to HR. Bob is Trustee and Non-Executive Director of Earth watch International and also a Non-Executive Director and Chairman of the Remuneration Committee of IMI plc.

9. Gary Hughes (Non-Executive Director): -Appointed a Non-Executive Director on 1 January 2005. Gary is Chief Financial Officer of the Gala Coral Group and a Director of the Scottish Exhibition Centre Limited. Formerly he was Chief Executive of CMP Information Limited, a division of United Business Media plc (2006-08), Group Finance Director of Emap plc (2000-05), Group Finance Director of SMG plc (19962000), and Deputy Finance Director of Forte plc (1994-96). Prior to this Gary held a number of senior management positions with Guinness plc in the UK and in North America.

10. Val Gooding (Non-Executive Director): -Appointed a Non-Executive Director on 11 January 2007. She was formerly Chief Executive of BUPA (1998-2008), which she joined from British Airways, and is a Non-Executive Director of Standard Chartered Bank plc. Val is a member of the BBCs Executive Board and the Advisory Board of the Warwick Business School. She is a Trustee of the British Museum and a Non-Executive Director of the Lawn Tennis Association. She was formerly a Non-Executive Director of Compass Group plc and BAA plc.

11. Neil Sachdev (Commercial Director): – Joined Sainsburys in March 2007 as Commercial Director following 28 years at Tesco, where he worked in a range of different business areas including: Stores Board Director UK Property/Operations (2000-06); Supply Chain Director (19992000); Director, Competition Commission (1998-99); Support Director (February 1998-September 1998); and Retail Director (1994-98). Neil is Non-Executive Director and a member of the Audit and Remuneration Committees of Capital Shopping Centers Group PLC.

12. Matt Brittin (Non-Executive Director): – Appointed a Non-Executive Director on 27 January 2011. Matt is Managing Director of Google in the UK & Ireland. Before joining Google at the start of 2007, Matt spent much of his career in media and marketing, with particular interests in strategy, commercial development and sales performance. This included Commercial and Digital leadership roles in UK media. Matt has an MBA from London Business School and an MA from Cambridge. In 2010 he was voted wired magazines Most Influential Person in the Digital World.

The organizational structure of Sainsburys is fit with the imperatives defined by needs to keep costs down, provide operational excellence and help to develop the potential of the human capital inside the organization.

The organizational structures of the company allows the human resource department to smooth co-operation among employees, create effective communication among the employees, provide a clear defined roles, responsibility and processes.

Organization structure is used for choosing the plan that utilizes minimal resources and achieve maximum returns. From Human Resource perspectives, it is the organizational structure that drives the employees to their full capacities and capabilities. The organizational structure will enable the Human Resource department to classify all the employees of the organization into achievers and non-achievers.

4.2 The impact of organizational culture on the management of human resources

The cultures of an organization are thought of as those that evolve in conversation and is influx, constantly changing. It is the culture of an organization that defines what things mean, whether they are valued as good or bad, right or wrong, and how things are to be done when answers cant be fixed by formal structure, policy or procedures.

There are two aspect of organizational culture: the culture within an organization and the culture outside and organization especially hen company operates its business globally, it has to adapt to local cultures.

Sainsburys have their strong organizational culture along with their corporate strategies. Sainsburys introduced the self checkout system in 2002; this helped the organization to save cost on staffing and also brings customer experience to customers.

Sainsburys prides themselves on their uniform with employees