Human Resource Management Analysis of Suncorp Group Limited

Question

Task:

• Select an Australian workplace for research. It may be your current workplace, or that of a colleague or relative. It is recommended that the organisation be a small one.
• Create a questionnaire that allows you to gather further information about the firm and its employees. e.g. Number of employees, whether it is a franchise or sole trader, and nature of the business and current performance. You may attempt to determine the cultural, gender or generation mix in the workforce, as well as information regarding the owners of the business. You may wish to supplement your findings with observations (websites, reading material) and conversations with employees and employers of the firm.
• Identify any HRM-related issues that have emerged from your investigation. e.g. Financial problems, gender imbalance, excessive overtime, recruitment and selection, training issues, performance reviews, reward management, work-life balance, employee retention, workplace health and safety a dominance of casual /part-time staff, sub-contracting, lack of promotion etc.
• Analyse the information you have gained and summarise your findings. You may choose to place your findings in categories. e.g. Gender mix etc.
• Consider and develop solutions to the HRM-related issues you have identified using recent and relevant academic literature.
• Write a report using the following headings: a. Title page – title of report, author, date, who for b. Executive summary – mini version of report (no more than half a page) c. Table of contents - pages and sections numbered; should not include executive summary or title page d. Introduction – scope of research, research methods, analysis undertaken e. Body of report (your headings) – research findings, sequenced to develop understanding of findings f. Conclusions and recommendations – summary of analysis and solutions to issues identified g. Appendices – copy of questionnaire, notes, any other items considered relevant
• Read the marking guide (below) and be mindful of its contents when writing your report.
  

Answer

Executive Summary
The assignment focuses on the basics of how an organization works in context to human resource management methodologies and steps involved to address those issues. A report has been developed on Suncorp Group Limited, and a brief analysis has been done to understand the underlying organizational functionality. Various issues intrigued with Suncorp Group Limited’s functionality are analyzed and addressed in order to establish HRM practices. Further, solutions to each of the problem within the organization are tried to provide with extensive research. Knowledge about human resource management and corresponding development are also looked into. HRM approaches to resolve issues within the Suncorp Group Limited organization helps to build a vivid understanding of the policies and methodologies (Moradi-Motlagh and Babacan, 2015).

Introduction
In this assignment, the main objective is to discuss human resource management issues and corresponding methodologies in context with an Australian company. Brief knowledge and data have been analyzed that encompassing working typology will be discussed to know about the organizational functionality and approaches. Suncorp Group Limited has been chosen in the present context and data associated with working methodologies are analyzed to identify human resource management issues. The main objective of the discussion is to address issues in HRM policies within Suncorp Group Limited and appropriate solution for HRM issues are incorporated to achieve optimal functionality. Therefore, following appropriate human resource management principles within the organization helps to build a suitable workplace environment (Smith et al. 2015).

1. An Australian workplace for research (Suncorp Group Limited) The research is done on a Suncorp Group Limited, which is a mid-range organization in the Australian market and currently working in the finance and insurance sector. Suncorp Group Limited is known for its banking corporation, which is situated in many Australian territories such as Sydney, Queensland, and Brisbane. It is one of the prominent middle-size financial organization based in the Australian market. It was first established as a State Accident Insurance Office in the year 1919. The principle of work was to provide compensation to those employees who are working in the business firms at that period. At the initial phase, it was a small-scale organization controlled by the government agencies. But after an extended period, it became an independent unit in the year 1996. As it became a separate unit, thus 1996 could be considered as the year of establishment of Suncorp Group Limited (Jeske et al. 2017).

2.Questionnaire to gather further information about the firm and its employees. A questionnaire has been developed to understand and analyses data associated with Suncorp Group Limited.

• How big is the Organization (Organizational size)?

The company is a mid-range firm which provides financial and banking services.  

• How many employees work in the Suncorp Group Limited (Employee number)?

More than 15000 employees are working in this organization. The number can vary according to the company’s growth and need. The management hires new employees as per requirement. Till the end of 2015, around 14500 employees were functional in Suncorp Group Limited (Gooley. 2017).

• What type of organization is it (organizational functionality)?

Suncorp Group Limited is a banking corporation where financial banking and insurance work is provided to the customers. The company is registered as a Limited company as per Company Law regulatory.

• When was the company found?

In 1996, the company was found as an independent unit which has been controlled by independent management.

• What are the business objectives?

The objectives are to provide services and benefits of banking and insurance to the customers in the Australian market. 

• What is the net income of this company (an approximation can be provided)?

The net revenue of the company was estimated at 1.075 billion Australian Dollar for the 2017-18 financial year (Noe et al. 2017).  

3. Human resource management -related issues that emerged in the organization
Human resource management issues are present in every organization, and it depends on the management’s approach towards policies and implementation methods. In the Suncorp Group Limited, there are many HRM issues that are found in analyzing the data. There is a great need to address these HRM issues so that the solution to the problem can be gained and the company can maximize market share the issues are listed below:

• Bad environment for working employees
• Less pay in comparison to the workload provided to the employees
• Excessive training
• Poor management

HRM issues in detail in the below section

The bad working environment for employees
The employees here get a very stressful situation. The company overloads workers with huge targets and enforces unhealthy competition. Employees find it hard to adjust to the workplace environment at the start as they are unable to face the fast-paced environment of the company (Goggins et al. 2017).

Less pay in comparison to the workload provided to the employees
The payment or salary that the company offers is low in comparison with the type of workload managed by employees. Many employees have been leaving Suncorp Group Limited because of low payment structure and unhealthy working condition. Thus, it will inevitably affect the organization's development and revenue generation.

Excessive training
New employees are provided with final training sessions, which is not desirable and stressful. As the company wants to get the desired output, they force people to achieve the daily targets and thus, the training provided by the company to its workers is not proper. The human resource management policies regarding training not managed properly, which is hindering factor for learning new skills. Rather than training the people, they give them over-limit work, which is not desirable in any way (Odendo. 2018).

Poor management
Poor management in hindering and oppressive factor for suitable workplace environment and facility. Suncorp Group Limited has been encountering poor management issues as they pressurize their worker to achieve daily goals or targets and induce unfair HRM practices. Any worker wants a suitable environment where he/she can easily do work without any pressure. The management’s approach is inadequate for the development of suitable HRM practices to satisfy employee desires and focus on completing goals. Both the employees and completing objectives are needed to run the business, but the management does not focus on employee facilities. As per reports published, the company was high performing in context with HRM practices in some years back, but now it is becoming a company with fewer values for its workers. Suncorp Group Limited have been overloading the workers and try to pressurize them to achieve goals.The above are some of the human resource management -related issues that are present in the Suncorp Group Limited Company. These issues are not permanent; that can be resolved by taking careful steps and policy development in HRM practices (Link et al. 2017).

4.Analyze the information you have gained and summarize your findings
Analyze has been done for Suncorp Group Limited, and information is obtained in the last section of the discussion. The main objective of the section is to outline the research findings and analytical outputs. Firstly, workers are not happy with the HRM manager and management approach towards HRM policies. Further, employees don't get enough facilities or payment structure. The work environment is terrible for the employees as they remain in stress all day to achieve targets or goals, which is overwhelming. A person always wants to work in a place where there is a peaceful work environment. Employees get frustrated by working in this environment, and thus, the condition of the company needs to be improved. It is essential for employees to work in line with the company objective and to get satisfactory output from the employees to achieve desired productivity. There is a need for revising all the managerial methodologies and policies that contributes to company value creation and fair HRM practices (Glaister et al. 2018).

5.Develop solutions to the human resource management related issues which are identified
Some steps need to be taken to resolve the human resource management issues in Suncorp Group Limited as described below:

A solution to the Bad environment for working employees
The employees are the essential and integral part of any organization and thus, should be treated with respect, and their desires should be satisfied. As the organization runs by the employees, therefore, there is a great need to provide employees with a suitable working environment and appropriate and modern HRM practices to induce high productivity.

The solution to less pay in comparison to the workload provided to the employees
In case of below standard payment structure, employee attrition would be high in Suncorp Group Limited, or employees encounter less job satisfaction in day to day basis functionality. There should be a systematic approach while forming HRM policies or in managerial methodologies that directly impact the performance of each employee of Suncorp Group Limited. There should be an increment and incentive structure apart from regular payment structure to induce motivation and rewards or facilities should be provided by the company to its employees to support achievements and productivity. Therefore, a suitable working environment, fair HRM policies, a robust and well-structured payment module enables the company to introduce a highly productive work environment and support employee need (Vushemakota, 2018).

The solution to Excessive training
Excessive training sessions are detrimental to retaining new employees. The workload and day to day basis targets should be minimized in the training period so that trainees could learn and adjust with the present working environment and job role. Lack of training would be a hindering factor for learning new skills required for a current job role which have a direct impact on productivity and professional development. Thus, the Suncorp Group Limited Company should plan the level of workload depending upon the expertise and skill structure of the employee, which will be provided to the trainee at the time of the training period. The main focus should be to make the trainee learn the basic methods, and skill sets necessary for the current job role that would be contributing to organizational productivity and personal or professional development (Ringle et al. 2018).

The solution to Poor management
The management should manage each task and create a suitable day to day basis functional structure in support of the employees as it would directly contribute to the organizational productivity and overall performance. Before taking new decisions or updating old ones, employees’ view should also be considered with proper care. Employees are the greatest asset of the organization, therefore providing a suitable opportunity for growth and personal development that eventually contribute to the overall productivity and development (Barsby and Wright, 2019).

Conclusion
It could be concluded from the above discussion that identifying the HRM issues within the organization and addressing those issues with proper research and analysis is an essential approach for developing appropriate HRM polices. A brief description of the company is provided with the formation of the questionnaire that has been pointing out the essential aspects of Suncorp Group Limited. The HRM issues of Suncorp Group Limited are also summarized, and solutions to the issues are also provided through a systematic approach. The work culture and working environment of Suncorp Group Limited are not in line with global standard, therefore, adopting appropriate HRM policies enable Suncorp Group Limited to manage high employee retention rate and archives high productivity (Glaister et al. 2018). Human resource management assignments are being prepared by our human resource assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable assignment help online service.

Reference List
Barsby, N., and Wright, L., 2019. Employment law: Say what?: Navigating unlawful interview questions. Governance Directions, 71(1), p.48.

Glaister, A.J., Karacay, G., Demirbag, M., and Tatoglu, E., 2018. HRM and performance—The role of talent management as a transmission mechanism in an emerging market context. Human Resource Management Journal, 28(1), pp.148-166.

Gooley, N.J., 2017. Dissecting the Trend-Procyclicality of Retail Bank Deposits: A New Tool for Managers. The Journal of New Business Ideas & Trends, 15(1), p.18.Link, G.J., Lumbard, K., Conboy, K., Feldman, M., Feller, J., George, J., Germonprez, M., Goggins, S., Jeske, D., Kiely, G. and Schuster, K., 2017. Contemporary issues of open data in information systems research: Considerations and recommendations. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 41(1), p.587.

Moradi-Motlagh, A., and Babacan, A., 2015. The impact of the global financial crisis on the efficiency of Australian banks. Economic Modelling, 46, pp.397-406.

Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B., and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. Odendo, L., 2018. Impact of Human Resource Practices on Employee Performance: A Case Study of Capital Colours Creative Design Limited (Doctoral dissertation, United States International University-Africa).

Ringle, C.M., Sarstedt, M., Mitchell, R., and Guderian, S.P., 2018. Partial least squares structural equation modeling in HRM research. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, pp.1-27.

Shah, D., Xu, Y., Gollan, P.J., and Wilkinson, A., 2016. In search of workplace partnership at Suncorp. Developing Positive Employment Relations (pp. 281-303). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Smith, D., Henderson, D., and Ginger, J., 2015. Report for: Suncorp Group Limited. Insurance Claims Data Analysis for Cyclones Yasi and Larry, Cyclone Testing Station, College of Science, Technology, and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, p.53.

Vezér, M., and Morrow, D., 2019. 10 FOR 2019: SYSTEMIC RISKS LOOM LARGE. Vushemakota, S., 2018. The internal environment for corporate entrepreneurship within a South African organization (Doctoral dissertation).

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