Introduction
Strategic human resource management is a phrase composed of two major terminologies namely; human resource management, and strategic management. According to (Purcell, 2001), strategic management refers to a set of managerial decisions or actions determining the long-run performance of any given organization. While human resource management refers to the process of managing people in a well-structured and systematic way. Strategic human resource management, therefore, involves the processes of linking the human resource functions with strategic objectives of any given company, firm or organization to maximize its performance. The literature in strategic management and organization theory has always argued that the link between business strategies and organizational characteristics is a vital determinant of organizational performance (Chandler.1962. pp. 28). In fact, researchers have proven that human resources are seen as a sustained competitive advantage for organizations (Barney. 1991. Pp. 100).
Discussion
Since Mountain Bank is largely a retail bank and is primarily engaged in the financial market, here are some of the recommendations to help the Bank in achieving competitive advantages over its business counterparts. The bank should be on a mission to embrace a variety of customer payment means such as; telegraphic transfers, electronic funds transfer and internet banking methods (Dyer, Lee & Gerald,1988. Pp. 13). The bank should issue cheques and drafts and allow money lending method schemes including comfortable loaning options like secured and unsecured loans since they already offer mortgage loans. To increase their customer relations, Mountain Bank should set exemplary customer care services including giving offers, incentives, gifts, promotions, and efficient marketing strategies to their esteemed customers, and periodically restructure their operations to enhance more efficient and cost-effective operations. In addition, this Bank needs to recommend innovative tailor-made deposits and advanced products to benefit individual customers. The Bank’s strategic human resource management should conduct periodic surveys on the locals and their customers in form of questionnaires and interviews to be well informed of their progress and popularity in the market.
Since the Human resource strategies have a major aim in maximizing the staff’s potentials and performance, the following are some of the recommendations to realize a perfect relationship between its tellers and the Bank management; the first strategy should be based on attraction and recruiting tellers of high academic qualities to ensure their performance is maximized. Based on customer diversities, the Bank should also recruit internationally to support its strategic objectives. The managerial logic of paying attention to staffing skills and intellectual assets provides a major competitive advantage but caution should be taken since it can easily erode (Barney, 1991. pp. 115). Other strategies by the bank should include; making alliances with other worldwide retail banks to deliver high customer value to their domestic clients, Mountain Bank should also launch banking concepts that are involved in offering investment funds sharp prices and simple products as well as user-friendly foreign markets.
Mountain Bank should recognize and reward outstanding performances from their tellers to ensure pay competitiveness within a limited pay budget; reward recognition policies should be instituted internally to ensure fairness, equality, and transparency to boost the tellers’ job morale. Since the Bank’s key strategic objective is to achieve in relation to income growth, the teller’s salary policies need to be incentivized and rewarding. Both informal and formal work-related education represents key objectives in helping Bank managers to achieve substantive human resource management goals of the tellers’ commitment, quality and flexibility (Beer et al, 1984. Pp.25).
Another strategy that should be taken into consideration is the tellers’ job security, since most employees search for jobs with the maximum security levels and often avoid virtues that threaten their job security, a strategic human resource manager in Mountain Bank should give this strategy the highest priority. The human resource management should practice performance appraisal where the tellers are given promotions, transfers, and salary increments and training assistances according to their levels of commitment to the Bank’s growth (Gray & Marshall, 1998). The Bank should also be keen to balance the masculine-feminine ratio to achieve good working relationships amongst the Bank tellers’ and to balance job stress amongst the male and female tellers, as this will enhance interpersonal relationships amongst the tellers.
Tellers should be trained on newly emerging issues based on the ICT sectors since human resource is the most valuable assets of an organization. It should be the most effective sector to uplift the Bank’s productivity per teller. The tellers are customer-facing staff and should voluntarily participate in certification schemes obtained through experiential training. Close to this is another strategy where the Bank should offer overtime pays for overtime hours worked by the tellers per month to increase the tellers’ retention levels at any given post. It is also important to note that cultural diversity presents a major challenge on domestic and global marketing hence this bank globalization creates a multinational state that enhances its competitive abilities with diverse workforces, interests, nationalities and training (De la Torre.1990. pp. 63).
Externally, Mountain Bank should provide specific third parties with administrative services including cost reduction, revenue growth and participation in domestic mergers, acquisitions and alliances. Since Mountain Bank has done several acquisitions in the past, it should be driven with the basic ambition of being the best financial institution, this increases the number of stock transactions of all subsidiaries and the merging of all processing activities into one unit creates very significant economies of scale and organic growth of the Bank.
Conclusion
From the above discussions, it is of great importance as a financial institution, for Mountain Bank to deploy effective marketing strategies to attract new customers and retain their existing customers to facilitate fair competition with other retail banks. In addition to the above, the Bank should integrate other technological and social issues like; use of e-newsletters, social and mobile media banking methods. To cub the competition levels, Mountain Bank should also innovate customer reclamation methods by sending them special and compelling messages inviting them back, and also generate income by advertising other revenue-generating services for the Bank, for instance, long-term planning and financial counseling services.
References
Barney, J. (1991). “Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage,” Journal of Management, 17(1), 99-120.
Beer et al. (1984). Managing human assets. California: Free Press.
Chandler, A. D. (1962). Strategy and Structure. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press Chandler.
De la Torre, J. (1990). Managing in a Changing Global Economy. Paper presented at the Advanced Executive Program.
Dyer, L., and Holder, G. (1988). A Strategic Perspective of Human Resource Management. In L. Dyer and G. Holder (Ed.), Human Resource Management: Evolving Roles and Responsibilities., (pp. 1-46). Washington, D. C.: Bureau of National Affairs.
Gray, K.R and Marshall, K. P. (1998). “Kenyan and Korean Management Orientations on Hofstede’s Cultural Values “. Multinational Business Review, 6 (2), p 79, 10.
Purcell, J. (2001). The meaning of strategy in human resource management. J. Storey (Ed.), Human resource management: A critical text. London: Thompson Learning.