HR Policies and Practices of Commonwealth Bank in Response to Environmental Factors

HRMT20025 International Human Resource Management

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Executive Summary

The individual report has provided a guiding light in describing the HR Policies and Practices in correspondence with Commonwealth Bank. The individual report titled as International Human Resource Management. The individual report describes the Equal Opportunity for Employment, Employment Classification, Anti-Harassment, and Safety & Health of Employees as HR Polices of Australia and United States. Whereas describes Performance Base Competition, Security and Safety of Employees, and Relevant Training as HR Practices. Furthermore, the individual report provides the insight on environmental factors as COVID-19 Pandemic, US Elections, Political Factor, Social Factor, and Economical Factor which has impact the Commonwealth Bank in terms of their economy. To follow this the individual report provides an explanation on different changes which are adopted by Commonwealth Bank in dealing with the external factors. The changes are in social factor, economical factor, and especially in terms of increasing the security related with cyber security. The individual report then provides the conclusive statement and at last recommendation are provided in order to response to environmental factors which are mainly in terms of improving their internet banking services, providing training to employees, and getting suggestions from employees.

Introduction

The individual report mainly focuses on the Human Resources Issues and Policies which is relevant to the company and for the purpose of this individual report Commonwealth Bank of Australia which is an Australian multi-national bank is selected. The report highlights the views on the company’s external environment which has affected recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic and US Elections. In addition, the report focuses on providing explanation to recent changes in the company with some recommendations and suggestions.

Background of Commonwealth Bank

Commonwealth Bank of Australia mainly operates across Asia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, and United States. Commonwealth Bank’s headquarter is located in Sussex Street of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The bank mainly provides different variety of financial and banking services which includes business, retail, and instructional banking funds, superannuation, funds management, broking services, and investment. The Commonwealth Bank is one of the largest Australian Company mainly on Australian Security Exchange Services (Stewart, 2017).

HR Policies of Commonwealth Bank

HR Policies and Practices is mainly defined as the set of formal procedures and regulations which mainly implicates on the organization or company on how their working will be addressed (Jacobson et al., 2018). The HR Policies and Practices of Commonwealth Bank mainly includes the duties and rights of their employees and staff members and it also includes different aspects which are employment law, anti-harassment, safety & health, employment clarification, etc.

HR Policies in Australia

Equal Opportunity for Employment is key HR policy in Australia as per Equal Opportunity Act, 1984 as it states mainly about the rights of equal opportunity and employment for all the individual who mainly possess a better ability and attribute in performing their job. This act also states that there must be no any discrimination within the working environment in contrast with gender, sex, race, and religion. Australia, companies or organizations including Commonwealth Bank must company with this act in their business environment.

Anti-Harassment is another key HR policy in Australia as per Sex Discrimination Act, 1984, as it states that individual within the companies or organizations if involved in any sexual appealing or consent with another individual or an individual asking favour for sexual needs or individual presenting bad sexual gesture, the companies or organizations can take necessary actions in order to accuse that individual (Chamusco, 2017).

Safety and Health of Employees is another key HR policy in Australia in which the company or organization as well as employer of the companies are not supposed to put their employees in any sort of trouble, risk or other similar situations. Whereas they are supposed to provide full care of their employees safety and health while working in the company or organization.

HR Policies in United States

Employment Classification is key HR policy in US as per the US Labour Department, which states that employees within the companies and organization on full-time job, part-time job, non-exempt, and exempt are eligible for getting overtime pays and benefits.

Anti-Harassment is another key HR policy in US as per Civil Rights Act, 1984, as it mainly states that any sort of discrimination especially sexual discrimination is completely prohibited in working companies and organizations. The sexual harassment can be different types such as requesting for sex, asking favours for fulfilling sexual needs, etc. In addition, to this legal strict action can be taken in case this is happening in any of the company or organization.

Safety and Health of Employees is another key HR policy in US, as per the Safety & Health Act, 1970, as it states that companies or organizations must be properly aware of the feeling and providing necessary guidance on health and safety of employees.

HR Practices in Australia and United States

Performance Base Competition is one of the HR Practices in both the countries in which there has be unbiased appreciation of all the employees within the organizations in which the employees must get proper compensations in the basis of their skills and performance.

Security and Safety of Employees is another HR Practices in both the countries which mainly dictates that all the organizations or companies must be provide proper security and healthy related safety to all their employees for the purpose of getting proper employee’s satisfaction and increasing their work performance (Steyn et al., 2017).

Relevant Training is another HR Practices in both the countries in which the companies or organizations must provide proper efficiency to their employees by providing relevant training in order to increasing the productivity and brining positive outcomes from them.

Environmental Forces Impacting Commonwealth Bank

The external factors which mainly includes social, political, and economic factor which mainly possess a major impact on all the organizations or companies but adding cheery to this pandemic of COVID-19 and US Election are other external factors which has possess a major impact on companies especially on Commonwealth Bank.

COVID-19 Pandemic

The pandemic of COVID-19 has impacted Commonwealth Bank’s working condition adversely as there are many banking and financial sectors which are shut during the recent time because of excessive stress, pressure, and mainly because of financial crises. The Commonwealth Bank has faced a drastic loss in their economy and possess a serious threat on their profitability and revenue. The main reason behind this is that the GDP of Australia, United States, and other countries has gone below the par level possessing an impact on Commonwealth Bank adversely. Because of the pandemic which has hit recently, the banks have lower rate of their interest which has decreased their business revenue and in order to come back on track like they were before. Commonwealth bank have to establish and grow again. But, the US Government has provided treat to the individuals in terms of regulatory and supervisory which has provided some relief to Commonwealth Bank (Davis, 2016).

US Elections

The US Elections which are one of the most critical factor as it impacts the economy of US either positively or negatively. But, in the recent times the economy has reduced drastically which has affected all banking sectors including Commonwealth Bank (Gössling et al., 2020). Joe Biden as the new president of US has promised to shoot the economy in coming time as their government is planning on take necessary actions to avoid crises.

Political Factor

The impact of political factor has always been on the higher side mainly to the banking sectors and as the Commonwealth Bank is one of the leading banks which deals in Australia as well as US thus their impact is higher. The Dodd Frank Act is an act which mainly deals with providing proper rules and regulations mainly for the financial and banking sectors in terms of providing equal rights to their customers. But in the recent time this changed and possess a serious impact in terms of social concern, technological concern, and globalization concern.

Social Factor

As the pandemic of COVID-19 has hit the people of Australia and US has become more concern towards the modern digitalised services instead of traditional services. The social factor which mainly deals with the attitudes, beliefs, wants, values, and desires of people. Thus, people are more curious in the digitalization services and for this purpose the cyber-security and other concerns for Commonwealth Bank has become a major factor (D'Hulster, 2017).

Economical Factor

As the economic environment of US especially in terms of banking sector has changed drastically over last few years and thus it has possessed a serious threat on the banking industry mainly in terms of liquidity and profitability of Commonwealth Bank.

Recent Changes in External Environment of Commonwealth Bank

Seeing the drastic changes in the recent time especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic and US Elections, the Commonwealth Bank has made some changes seeing the current environment which are –

Changes in Social Factor

The social factor mainly involves with fulfilling social needs of individuals which mainly includes with the shared beliefs and values. As the pandemic of COVID-19 has hit the small banking sectors are getting closed due to the major crises on their economy and for that reason the people are not showing any concern of trust on banks (Tucker et al., 2019). But as Commonwealth Bank is one of the well-known banks in Australia and in US, the people are showing lot of interest towards their baking sector which are providing the chances to add more customers. In addition, to this the people are also shifting towards the latest modernised technologies and instant-banking services via their phones, tablets, iPad, etc. Thus for this reason the Commonwealth Bank is making more effort in order to improve their digital services and providing best possible internet services to their customers in order to gain their trust.

Changes in Economical Factor

The economical factor mainly in terms of economy of both the countries Australia and US is recovering after the harsh time of COVID-19 pandemic and it terms of 2020, the year 2021 is showing some positive signs. Keeping this factor and all other factors in mind, Commonwealth Bank is using the country’s economy factor as advantage to their firm by improving their conditions which has gone very low during the time of COVID-19 pandemic.

Changes in Increasing Security

As after the pandemic of COVID-19 the people have become more reliant on digital banking services thus risk in cyber security has also become one of the serious concerns for all the banking sectors. The personal information as well as customer’s privacy are at its peak when it comes to using digital banking services (Ikhsanova & Protsko, 2016). The Commonwealth Bank as increasing security by tying with the best possible cyber security members in order to improve the privacy of customers. The Commonwealth Bank is taking this as a positive factor in order to grow in the field of online banking services as well as improving the cyber security for customers as well as for their own bank’s private information.

Conclusion

The individual report on Commonwealth Bank renders the importance of discussion the external factors and implementing new changes within the companies or organizations in order to promote growth and development. The report provides the brief information on HR Policies and Practices in Australia and US. In Unison, the report also provides the changes which Commonwealth Bank has made in the recent time to improve their external environment.

Recommendations

As the individual report on Commonwealth Bank has covered all the aspects in terms of improving from the crises which has happened due to all the external factors still there are some suggestions or recommendations which might be implemented by Commonwealth Bank for the purpose of changing their policies and practices mainly in response with the environmental factors.

• In terms of improving their HR practices, the Commonwealth must recruit and select the skilful employees in their company which will provide the changes for bank to grow and increase their sales revenue

• In the recent times and especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, the trend of online shopping of clothes, food, grocery, etc. has increased rapidly. Thus, in order to attract more customers to their bank, the Commonwealth Bank must focus on improving their banking services in which they can also provide some banking discounts, rewards, coupons, etc. while doing transaction from the bank accounts (Selvaraj & Ragesh, 2019)

• In terms of improving the internal networking and employee’s way of working, the Commonwealth must provide advanced training mainly by their senior experience managers in order to implement new changes which might be beneficial for the company as well as help in improving the sales growth. In this training, the employees must also provide with an opportunity to express their views in order to attract more customers (Gurchiek, 2015)

• In terms of social distancing and following the guidelines of COVID-19 pandemic, the Commonwealth must improve their latest technologies so that customers are only required to visit bank only in some conditions rest all their work can be done from their phones, tablets, iPads, etc.

Reference List

Chamusco, B. G. (2017). Revitalizing the law that "preceded the movement": Associational discrimination and the rehabilitation act of 1973. The University of Chicago Law Review, 84(3), 1285-1324. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/scholarly-journals/revitalizing-law-that-preceded-movement/docview/1946269883/se-2?accountid=10016

Davis, P. (2016, July 15). Investors push commonwealth business bank to explore sale. American Banker Retrieved from https://www-proquest-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/newspapers/investors-push-commonwealth-business-bank-explore/docview/1807269489/se-2?accountid=10016

D'Hulster, K. (2017). CONCENTRATION AND CONTAGION RISKS IN the australian banking system: The australasian journal of applied finance. Jassa, (1), 45-53. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/scholarly-journals/concentration-contagion-risks-australian-banking/docview/2227780701/se-2?accountid=10016

Gurchiek, K. (2015). New research spotlights HR management policies, practices in U.S. HRNews, Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/trade-journals/new-research-spotlights-hr-management-policies/docview/1711551305/se-2?accountid=10016

Ikhsanova, L., & Protsko, E. (2016). Electronic banking: tool of transforming the interaction between banks and clients and improving the service quality of the russian banks. Journal of Economics and Economic Education Research, 17, 73-79. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/scholarly-journals/electronic-banking-tool-transforming-interaction/docview/1826877831/se-2?accountid=10016

Jacobson, Willow S, & Lambright, Kristina T. (2018). The Development of County HR Policies: The Perspectives of Counties in Two States. Public Personnel Management, 47(4), 398-418. https://doi-org.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/10.1177/0091026018770233

Selvaraj, P., & Ragesh, T. V. (2019). Innovative approach of a regional rural bank in adopting technology banking and improving service quality leading to better digital banking. Vinimaya, 39(1), 22-32. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/scholarly-journals/innovative-approach-regional-rural-bank-adopting/docview/2040736741/se-2?accountid=10016

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