Introduction
The concept of HR Management discussed in this Human resources management essay can be understood as the process which starts from the recruitment, selection and goes through training and development, appraisal, compensation planning and many more activities. It is all about managing the most important resource of the organisation which is human resource (Letchmiah & Thomas, 2017). This assignment focuses on the application of learning in the Human resources sector and how it evolved. The specific challenges and developments will be used which will enhance the knowledge regarding the key challenges in attracting and retaining a workforce in the financial sector. The financial sector is spreading widely across the world. The financial sector can be referred to the section of economy which focuses on the provision of the financial services to the commercial and retail customers. It consists of the group of institutions which includes banks, insurance companies and real estate firms. In this essay, the challenges of attracting and retaining human resources in the financial sector will be discussed.
Key challenges discussed in Human resources management essay in attracting and retaining a workforce in Financial Sector
In today's era of extensive digitization, it is not uncommon to witness the fact that technology has actually taken over humans in almost all walks of life. On one hand this growing popularity for all sorts of gizmos and gadgets has actually resulted in saving up a huge amount of resources, money and time. But on the other, the very same technical knowhow has proved to be one of the biggest threats for the most important resource for any organisation for that matter - Human resource. Today in almost all the sectors, the way different jobs and activities are carried out have changed immensely due to excessive digitization and there is no stopping it. The financial sector too is no exception to this. So, in such a scenario the job of the Human Resource Department of any organisation becomes more crucial and more challenging than ever before (Masum, Azad & Beh, 2016).
In a nutshell, attracting the most suitable candidate and placing him/her in the right position that is in accordance with his or her capabilities and ultimately retaining such employees who are nothing less than a valuable asset for the whole organisation is the duty of the HR department. To carry put this job, they perform a workload analysis that assists in calculating how much work needs to be done along with a workforce analysis which tells them about the number of people working in the organisation. The conclusions of both the analysis are carefully evaluated to find out how many and what kind of people are required to achieve the pre-determined targets. It is at this point where all the challenges come into the picture (Gberevbie, 2012).
Firstly, since most of the jobs are now carried out by various advanced softwares, the manual work has been reduced significantly and hence the requirement of people too has not only been reduced a lot but has become even more specific. Today undoubtedly those candidates who possess sound technical skills have an upper hand over those who do not know about the same. Reaching out to such a niche pool of candidates is a huge challenge for the organisations.
It is discussed in this Human resources management essay that the goodwill or the reputation of the company too matters a lot in attracting the right talent. The needs and wants of the employees (specifically belonging to the generation Z) have become more and more complex. That is exactly why the companies that put more focus on their employees, that look out for creative and innovative methods to satisfy the demands of their employees consistently are more successful in the market in attracting the most suitable people for the job. People are now not just looking for a job but an opportunity for their overall personal development and growth of their career. Hence coming out with relevant incentives for the employees poses the second big challenge for the financial sector (Masum, Azad & Beh, 2016).
Maintaining a suitable Organizational culture discussed in this Human resources management essay too plays a vital role in attracting and retaining the employees in the financial sector. It is quite common these days to find employees being extremely comfortable in hopping or switching jobs and companies than before if they find its mission and vision matching with their own values and beliefs. If the culture of the organisation is such where the employees do not have the luxury of flexible working hours and are becoming excessively stressed out with the huge workload (all of which are common in the financial sectors) then it will not take time for them to switch to the other competitive firms that are offering the above mentioned facilities.
Above all it is imperative for the financial organisations to make sure that their employees have a proper work-life balance too. So, in layman terms, in order to attract the best talent and keep the attrition rates under control the financial sector just like any other successful organisation has to be more employee friendly; show concern to their desires and maintain a healthy organizational environment. Technology should be exploited to their advantage for reaching out to the masses and convincing them to join the institution and help in achieving the organizational goals effectively and efficiently (Shah & Tyagi, 2017).
According to Athar & Shah (2015), it is mentioned in this Human resources management essay the management of performance of the workforce in the financial sector faces different kinds of challenges and these challenges can be mitigated through various tools and techniques. This can be mitigated through performance Management. Banking which is a sub part of the financial sector is the backbone of the human civilisation and nowadays most of the people interacts with one or the other bank. But the banks have faced a lot of turmoil in the recent past. There are challenges like economic slowdown and higher risk with long term accountability. Coming to the challenges of attracting and retaining workforce, banks have challenges in that too. Because of high sales targets and aggressive work pressures, people lack interest in the jobs of banks. Also, a lot to learn in the financial sector which is why most of the people leave the jobs in banks. The financial sector has to manage the regular performance of the employees for which they need to have continuous monitoring and mentoring. They also need to track the goals of the employees frequently for the purpose of better employee performance and continuous motivation. The financial sector explored in this Human resources management essay should also focus on the compensation and benefits which attracts more employees towards these jobs. Also, the banks are going through a big digital transformation because of which the employees need training and development sessions for combating the challenges they face in the operations as per the new technologies. The author also suggests that the training programmes are effective in proving the performance of the employees and also reduces the employee turnover. Training not only benefit in employee satisfaction but also improves teamwork and the integrity of the employees (Lowman, 2016).
The financial sector has a challenge of negotiation processes also. The associations working in the financial sector employs experts and professionals for performing different operations in the companies which involves identifying the risks, bookkeeping and accounting tasks. Since the workers are experts and qualified professionals, they are generously compensated in the financial sector. This means that if the workforce is disappointed from the pay offered by the business, at that point they change to some other organization so as to meet their expectation of the compensation. This also means that once the worker gets dissatisfied from the jobs and the pay structure, he starts finding a new job in the economy. The expectation of the high pay structures becomes a challenge for the workforce to find a better job and also for the organisations to arrange better pay for the workers. Every company has a financial limit for the pay rates of the worker which can't be raised just on the basis of the employee expectations. There is a huge increase in the companies in the financial sector which means the opportunities for individuals is also rising. This shows that the competition is also rising with the increase in the competition which is another challenge in the financial sector (McCracken, Currie & Harrison, 2016).
As it is already discussed in this Human resources management essay that the talent attraction and retention is a challenge for the financial industry, it is important to establish employee loyalty with the company so that the turnover of the employees can be reduced. This can be done through strategic reward management. The efforts of the workers should recognise so that they feel motivated and feel their importance in the companies. This helps a lot in retaining the employees. The companies can start competitions or grooming programmes which also helps in the knowledge enhancement of the employees and groom employee for the tougher challenges in the future. By this, the employees feel that the company feels for the good of the employees and in return, the employees also show their loyalty to the companies (Cooper, et. al, 2019)
The financial sector often faces a challenge in talent attraction and selection. It is often seen that the jobs are provided to those who do not deserve the position. This demotivates the workforce which is capable enough to get promoted and to get the high positions. Also, the individual who has been appointed at the wrong profile, faces challenges. The worker is not able to justify the job and its responsibilities. Also, the speed of the tasks and the performance declines gradually. For this, the companies can use the tools like rating scales, balance scorecards or other tools which helps in identifying the interest of the individuals and their capabilities for the required job setting (Madanat & Khasawneh, 2018).
It is very important to manage the health and safety of the individuals working in the organisations. As per Giorgi, et. al (2017), it is often seen that occupational health and safety has been an issue in the banking industry. This may be due to the high pressure of work and stress. The authors add that the human resources need care and rest like other machines and tools need. A study of Human resources management essay was carried out in UK which stated that around 55% of the companies had safety officers and those were related to the Human resource departments. There are wide range of physiological hazards also which are faced by the workers while working in the financial industry. According to Asumeng, Acquah-Coleman and Dadzie (2015), the work-related stress in the financial industry affects the mental health of the employees and it eventually affects the physical health too. The physiological hazards are often neglected as they are not visible to anyone. This can be related to the competence of an individual and the needs of an employee. In simple words, these are the characteristics of the workplace which causes negative effect on the physical and mental wellbeing of a person.
One more challenge of the financial sector related to Human Resource Management is the unrealistic and over expectations of the workforce which can't be met. This is because the workers do not understand that the companies can offer the pay and salaries as per the structures decided. Also, sometimes, the workers do not deserve the pay they expect. But this difference of opinions or expectations creates dissatisfaction at the work environment. In situations where such desires are not met by the businesses, the employees start searching for another job which creates a challenge for the business to retain the employee for the given position. In addition to this, the no activity period of the employee increases the costs of the business and also creates distress in the work environment. It also affects the other employees as a negative perception from an employee's affects the morale of others too. The financial sector has tasks which are done on repeated basis. These repeated tasks might create dissatisfaction among the employees and boredom for the work. For the banks or any other business in the financial sector, it is very important to keep employees satisfied because this will help in effective delivery of services to the customers. The unsatisfied employees will cause burnout in the company and this will be clearly visible while they interact with the customers (Masum, Azad & Beh, 2016).
The banks have to focus most on the proper management of human resources and the strategies which helps them to have business strategies. The banks have long term vision which includes management of their employees so that they can provide effective and long-term services to their customers. The banks need to have performance management so that the employee's performance can be improved. For this purpose, they can have regular staff meetings for discussions and creating group synergies. They should promote brainstorming which helps in generating new ideas and gives a chance to employees to prove themselves which also creates motivation among them. The banks can promote quality circles which is a tool of Total Quality Management. It promotes team spirit and also creates a good working culture. These all remedies will help banks in fighting and meeting the challenges posed to them in while managing human resources (Shah & Tyagi, 2017).
It is recommended in this Human resources management essay that the Financial institutions should link the HR functions to the goals of the company. They should foster teamwork and team growth so that the soft skills of the individual employees also get promoted and the work is done more effectively for the benefit of both, the employee and the business. The HR professionals in the business should be taught adaptability so that they adapt the working conditions easily and all the employees do not create chaos while any change in the organisation. It benefits for the long term to the organisation. The financial sector should have a global structure for pay and also for other practices so that the differences in the operations and functions and other activities do not create any problem within the relationship of employee and business. This would help in better management of the human resource in the companies.
Conclusion
This can be concluded that the Human resources management essay discusses the challenges of the human resource management in the financial sector. This means that there are many challenges which the sector has to face while managing the human resources. These challenges include the challenge of managing the industrial relations, HR planning, talent attraction and retention, different as per the pay structure and in the management of performance. Some other challenges include managing the health and safety of the employees at the workplace and the negotiation processes. These all challenges are explained in detail in eth essay and it is recommended that certain activities should be brought in practice to reduce the complexities like regular team meetings, brainstorming and global practices adoption which clarifies the points of complexities between the employees and the employer.
References
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