HRMT20025 International HRM Report Sample

HRMT20025 International HRM Report

Selecting an organisation – You are required to find a real Australian-based organisation that also operates in at least one other country. The choice of the organisation is entirely up to you. However, highly recommend selecting an organisation on which you can collect enough information to complete this assessment effectively. Avoid selecting organisations that have no employees working overseas.

Preparing the report – You are expected to conduct extensive research on the organisation you have chosen, specifically focusing on HR issues and policies relevant to the company. Your report should outline how the HR practices of this company have been affected by external environmental factors (such as the COVID pandemic, and political or economic instability in the host country). Your report should also provide recommendations on how the company should adjust its HR strategy in the future in light of significant environmental forces affecting both Australia and the host country.

Elements in the report – You are recommended to include the following aspects in your report:

• Background of the organisation.

• HR policies and practices of the organisation in Australia and in the host country.

• External environmental forces impacting the organisation (e.g., COVID-19, wars, political and economic issues).

• Any recent changes that the organisation has made in response to any of the environmental factors you discuss.

• Recommendations on how the organisation should/could change its HR policies/practices in response to external environmental changes. This is a critical part of your report, and your recommendations should be logical and well-supported by evidence.

Solution

Introduction

The purpose of the report for management assignment expert is to discuss about various HR issues and policies present in the selected organisation Commonwealth Bank in both Australia and India. It has also analysed how external environmental factors in India like cheap labour, skilled workforce and COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting the HR policies of the organisation.
Background of the organisation

Commonwealth Bank is the principal provider of integrated banking and financial services like retail, superannuation, premium, insurance, business and institutional banking and share-broking products and services (CommBank, 2023a). It was founded in the year 1911 and started its operations in 1912 under the Commonwealth Bank Act. It was allowed to carry out both general banking and savings business. CommBank serves around 15.9 million customers, consists of 48,900 employees and around 800,000 shareholders (CommBank, 2023a). It is present across various international locations like Asia, European Union, New Zealand, United Kingdom and North America.

HR policies and practices of CommBank in Australia and host country

Australia

CBA Australia consists of various effective human resource policies and practices that help in providing rewards and benefits, ensuring diversity and inclusion, offering graduates, interns and analysts programs and building indigenous careers (CommBank, 2023b). Financial and personal benefits include competitive pay and banking benefits, income protection, employee share plan, flexible working, development and recognition, health and lifestyle and community. Furthermore, flexible working options include hybrid and remote working, adjusting working hours and extra leave options (CommBank, 2023c). Besides, employees are also given tertiary study assistance, professional memberships, children’s educational scholarships and reskilling opportunities. Moreover, its HR policies and practices involve gender-neutral parental leave, counselling service, childcare centres, private health insurance, workplace support for domestic or family violence, and other health and wellbeing program (CommBank, 2023c). The bank fosters an inclusive culture for embracing the diversity of its employees, customers and communities. Its diversity, inclusion and equity strategy comprises of three fundamental pillars (CommBank, 2023d). These are offering care, respect and equality, strengthening courageous inclusive decision-making and amplifying impact and delivering on commitments. CBA Australia also provides various graduate, analyst and internship programs to candidates for starting their career. It further offers meaningful career opportunities to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through various employment options (CommBank, 2023e). These include school-based traineeships, full-time or part-time traineeships, university internships and experienced hire opportunities. In addition, policies and practices are also present for ensuring workplace health and safety, financial inclusion, inclusion and diversity, code of conduct, whistleblower policy and others.

India

CBA India undertakes a people first approach for developing its HR policies and strategies (CommBank, 2023f). The bank here acknowledges the fact that employees are the foundation of the entire business. Thus, its human resource strategies are always focused on making smart investments in these people. It consists of a vast pool of talented employees who gain inspiration from each other. The bank offers various tools for achieving personal and professional goals of the employees alongside providing them with adequate flexibility in the organisation that helps them to thrive in their career (CommBank, 2023f). HR policies and practices are undertaken in a way for fostering diversity, inclusivity and authenticity; thereby allowing every employee to feel supported and considers themselves as part of the CBA community. CBA India provides various types of roles for employment, which can be from areas of group operations, technology, data and analytics, program delivery and risk and controls (CommBank, 2023f).

Impact of External Environmental Forces

Cheap Labour

There are various external forces in India that have been affecting the HR policies and strategies undertaken in the Indian subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank Australia. One such favourable force has been lower labour costs and growing workforce in India. This combination of lowest labour costs alongside surplus workforce is projected to continue till 2031 (Gupta, 2022). This has emerged as one of the key competitive edges of India in comparison to other rivals. Cheap and surplus labour encouraged CBA to expand its Indian workforce by relocating 100 financial crime compliance roles in the year 2019 (Grieve, 2021). It was viewed as a cost-cutting exercise as well because of accessing cheap labour from India but cutting down jobs in Australia. However, CBA defended its decision by stating the need of requiring global workforce for resolving issues and innovating (Grieve, 2021). Despite these, it can be said that CBA intended to tap into the cheap labour market. This shows that the economic factor of cheaper labour and surplus workforce ahs motivated CBA India to hire Indian employees.

Presence of Skilled Workforce

Furthermore, another significant factor affecting the bank’s HR policies and strategies has been the capability of India in providing a globally-skilled workforce. India is becoming well-positioned both geopolitically and geo-economically in offering a pool of talented employees to the foreign firms (Economic Times, 2020). It has been improving the percentage of highly-skilled workers and professionals by entering into mutually-beneficial arrangements with various developed nations. This has been beneficial in enhancing domain-specific knowledge, specialisation and skills of the Indian workforce consisting mainly youth population (Economic Times, 2020). CBA India utilised this as an opportunity for hiring employees to fill various digital and compliance job roles in India. It could not find enough skilled workers in Australia and thus, resorted to recruiting new compliance and IT workers in India (Hobday, 2021). This shows that the social factor of rising skilled workforce affected the recruiting strategy of CBA India.

COVID-19 Pandemic

Besides, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and strict lockdown measures gave rise to the “Work from Home” model in the Indian IT industry. Around 90% of the employees could work from their homes (Mitta, 2020). This transition to WFH model was beneficial in ensuring business continuity without compromising on product quality or productivity of employees. This also proved to be a beneficial factor for CBA India. The parent company had proprietary control over the Bangalore centre of CBA India (Lekakis, 2022). This enabled the bank to continue maintaining its operations during the pandemic and major outbreaks by changing HR policies and strategies. It organised staff to work from home, providing them with more flexibility and opportunity of doing their work. CBA was further encouraged to engage in migrating roles to its subsidiary in India through offshoring program by taking advantage of this new WFH model emerging in the country (Lekakis, 2022). This shows how CBA India tackled and leveraged this as an opportunity for satisfying its workforce through making changes in the workplace policies. However, CBA had to postpone its offshoring project plans with the pandemic outbreak, which was resumed later in August 2021 (Lekakis, 2022). The bank undertook the opportunities of expanding its Indian workforce through this project. This has been intended towards developing world-class and highly-skilled employees by retaining and recruiting talent from India. CBA have been offering various technology-focussed roles in India alongside data risk, operational risk management, advertising, privacy and compliance (Lekakis, 2022). Thus, the bank has been successfully undertaking its HR policies and strategies in the Indian market for driving a pool of talented and skilled employees.

Recent Changes Made in The Organisation

CBA has been making changes both in Australia and India for better adjusting its HR policies and strategies with the external forces. CBA Australia has been emphasising on building a workforce for the future where technical skills, flexible working arrangements and digital transformation are expected to be present (CommBank, 2021). The bank has realised the need for enhancing digital business skills of its employees that have been highlighted since the pandemic outbreak (Schwertner, 2017). With lockdowns and pandemic outbreak, the need for digital driven workforce has increased. This has pressurised CBA in introducing more flexible work arrangements, agile principles and online collaboration. Furthermore, CBA now requires future workers to be highly adaptable, digital capable, collaborative and agile alongside possessing significant emotional and intelligence quotient (CommBank, 2021). Alongside various technical and digital skills, the bank now understands the importance of having interpersonal and psychosocial skills in the employees. CBA has also been focusing on making employees feel more connected to their leaders and organisational purpose and empowering them to try out different things (CommBank, 2021). Here, it has also emphasised on the mental health of its employees that was affected with lockdowns and social restrictions. Besides, CBA transformed its hierarchical organisational structure into swarm models for enabling multiple team members to work together on a single task by capitalising on employee skills (CommBank, 2021). The bank has also been nurturing an agile mindset for building focused and flexible teams. Moreover, it has been backing employee careers, health and wellbeing, offering both choice and flexibility in work and connecting them to their leadership team.

On the other hand, CBA has also been partnering with its Indian subsidiary for enhancing the chances of recruiting the best talent by making connections, driving improvements and streamlining processes (CommBank, 2023f). In this regard, it has been emphasising on building locally empowered teams in India for handling various customer requirements and business responsibilities. This constant nurturing and empowering of local teams in Indian has been beneficial towards expanding its global community by providing teams with ongoing support and structure (CommBank, 2023f). It has been developing a range of employee network groups alongside empowering these local teams to embrace diverse perspectives by creating a workplace where every employee has a sense of belongingness. In addition, its rising emphasis on building a flexible and inclusive culture has been helping to provide various opportunities of career growth to these employees (CommBank, 2023f).

Recommendations on Changing HR Policies and Practices

Aligning with external forces

From the above analysis, it has been observed that Commonwealth Bank experienced both positive and negative effects because of the presence of external forces in India. These forces are mainly economic, social, technological, demographic and others, which have the potential to influence HR policies and strategies of an organisation. Aligning these strategies with the external forces can prove to be beneficial for the bank in the future (Rare, 2020). For example, cheap labour costs have been a favourable economic factor while skilled workforce has been another social factor benefitting CBA in India. It enabled the company to recruit local people and undertake its offshore strategy by cutting costs in Australia while gaining benefits in India. On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic has also been another external force that delayed the offshore strategy of CBA in India. However, the rising WFH model in India enabled the bank to continue its operations despite the pandemic. This shows that external forces have significant impact thus aligning HR strategies can be useful in leveraging these as opportunities before they become threats for the organisation.

Agility

It has been evident that after the pandemic, interpersonal and psychosocial skills have become important with technical skills. HR department of CBA should play a significant role in flattening the organisational structure. This has become utmost essential with the uncertainties occurring in the business environment, thereby making it important for the bank to prepare it employees. Here, an iterative approach can be considered in the people-management process by providing new career paths to agile teams, focusing on capacity building and revamping performance management system (Komm, et al., 2021). This also involves making high-quality and speedy decision-making under HR practices for empowering employees. Thus, creating a flexible and magnetic workforce should be one of the key priorities of CBA.

Reskilling Workforce

From the above analysis, it has been displayed that digital business skills have become essential in today’s world. CBA needs to revamp its HR strategies for developing critical digital and cognitive capabilities of its employees, acquiring social and emotional skills and building both adaptability and resilience (Agrawal, et al., 2020). In this regard, reskilling has become of utmost importance. CBA can undertake this strategy by identifying required skills for business recovery, skills critical to business model, launching tailored learning journeys, testing and iterating and reducing the skill gaps.
Conclusion

The purpose of this essay was to focus on various HR issues and policies of the chosen organisation Commonwealth Bank in Australia and India. The first section focused on discussing about various HR policies and strategies of CBA Australia and its Indian subsidiary, which mainly included diversity and inclusion, rewards and benefits, flexible working, workplace health and others. The second section pointed out the impact of three external factors of cheap labour, presence of skilled workforce and COVID-19 pandemic in India on CBA. Lastly, it was suggested that certain changes like aligning HR strategies with external forces, reskilling workforce and building agility can be undertaken in the HR policies and strategies for dealing with challenges.

References

Agrawal, S., Smet, A.D., Lacroix, S., & Reich, A. (2020). To emerge stronger from the COVID-19 crisis, companies should start reskilling their workforces now. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/to-emerge-stronger-from-the-covid-19-crisis-companies-should-start-reskilling-their-workforces-now

CommBank. (2021). Building the workforce of the future. https://www.commbank.com.au/articles/business/foresight/building-businesses-of-the-future.html

CommBank. (2023a). About us. https://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/our-company.html#:~:text=Commonwealth%20Bank%20was%20founded%20under,has%20more%20than%20800%2C000%20shareholders.

CommBank. (2023b). Careers with CommBank. https://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/careers.html

CommBank. (2023c). Rewards & benefits. https://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/careers/rewards-and-benefits.html#flexible

CommBank. (2023d). Commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. https://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/opportunity-initiatives/opportunity-from-good-business-practice/commitment-to-diversity.html?ei=CTA_Diversity

CommBank. (2023e). Indigenous Careers Programs. https://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/careers/working-here/indigenouscareers.html

CommBank. (2023f). We are CBA India. https://www.commbank.com.au/about-us/careers/india.html

Economic Times. (2020). India well-positioned to provide globally-skilled workforce: MEA official. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/india-well-positioned-to-provide-globally-skilled-workforce-mea-official/articleshow/79646201.cms?from=mdr

Grieve, C. (2021). CBA to send 100 technology and compliance roles to India. https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/cba-to-send-100-technology-and-compliance-roles-to-india-20210813-p58ik1.html

Gupta, S. D. (2022). China plus one: Low labour costs and growing workforce give India the edge. https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/india-s-low-labour-costs-key-in-wooing-firms-to-move-production-from-china-122112700419_1.html

Hobday, L., 2021. CBA defends turning to India for new staff. https://7news.com.au/business/cba-customers-return-from-loan-holiday-c-4222908

Komm, A., Pollner, F., Schaninger, B. & Sikka, S. (2021). The new possible: How HR can help build the organization of the future. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-new-possible-how-hr-can-help-build-the-organization-of-the-future

Lekakis, G. (2022). CBA ships another 244 Aussie jobs to Bangalore. https://www.bankingday.com/cba-to-send-more-jobs-to-bangalore

Mitta, S. (2020). Work from home has been 'successful' during Covid-19 lockdown. What next? https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/work-from-home-has-been-successful-during-covid-19-lockdown-what-next/articleshow/75470580.cms?from=mdr

Rare, T. W. (2020). Five Recommendations For Human Resource Management. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2020/02/03/five-recommendations-for-human-resource-management/?sh=2300a16539ed

Schwertner, K. (2017). Digital transformation of business. Trakia Journal of Sciences, 15(1), 388-393. Doi:10.15547/tjs.2017.s.01.065