The Invisible Man
January 28, 2022
MS7516- Assignment
January 28, 2022
Introduction
This report examines the purpose and values of Lloyds Banking Group, as well as the management, recruitment and selection process. The Lloyds Banking Group has a value dating back to 1695 (Barney, S. 1999), but the group was founded in 2009 when the Lloyds TSB Group acquired the HBOS. This has made it the largest real estate bank in the UK and the largest provider of health, pension and unit trust products (Hobson, O. 2010). The bank has a long and deep history of helping the British people with the things that matter most to them. Committed to individuals and businesses, Lloyds Bank offers a wide range of financial products and services. The Bank is in a strong position in many sectors and with more than 30 million customers.
The main purpose of the bank is to help Britain prosper by working as a sustainable and inclusive body. As part of helping Britain prosper, Lloyds Banking has accepted its responsibility to help address some of the social, economic and environmental challenges facing the UK (Hobson, O. 2010). These problems include environmental sustainability, finding a home for the less privileged and helping people to save for later life. In addition, the Lloyds group of banks has pledged to support British businesses by launching programs such as the creation of a 500-million-euro Fund to help firms invest in equipment that has improved their productivity.
Through Lloyds Bank Academy, the Lloyds Banking team has provided digital skills support through learning and communication opportunities. This has made it possible through collaborative webinars, community organization, partnerships and online learning (Berger, C. 2009, 7). In addition, the Bank has made it a goal to strive for diversity and address social inequalities. The bank is committed to being a leader in gender equality. In 2014, the bank became the first FTSE 100 organization to make a public commitment to gender equality in the British Aid Program; increase the number of senior management positions held by women to 40% by 2020. As a leading domestic and commercial bank. Lloyds Banking Group is affiliated with the British economy and should therefore work hard to help the British economy grow.
The bank’s approach to corporate governance ensures that partners are empowered to make informed decisions based on value-based culture and how to incorporate business policies, procedures and training. In the process of running the organization, Lloyds Bank Group is governed by business values (All Answers Ltd. November 2018). These values include putting customers first, keeping them simple and making a difference. The bank cares about consumers by keeping them in the heart of everything they do (Farquhar, J. 2005, 8). The bank achieves this by seeking to continue to improve customer experience and build customer relationships.
With technological advances, such as robots and automation, Lloyds Bank has made it easier for customers to access secure and convenient services (Farquhar, J. & Panther, T. 2008, 1). Keeping it simple, the bank focuses on the most important issues at hand and strives to simplify the way it operates to ensure that the bank is a stable organization that is easy to do business with. To make a difference, the bank emphasizes cooperation between employees (Hobson, O., 2010). This promotes unity and quality services to customers. The said values are the basis of banks culture, guiding light and moral compass. They make sure employees understand what is expected of them.
People Management
Building and maintaining strong relationships is at the heart of Lloyds Commercial and Retail Banking. The bank emphasizes retaining talented employees and strengthening the long-term business objective by providing employees with the right combination of management, resources and rewards (Farquhar, J & Panther, T. 2008, 1). The bank encourages and treats its employees consistently in its leadership. The management team builds visible leadership through open communication between departments and cultures creating an environment that promotes ideas, regardless of position.
In addition, the bank connects the team or individual goals with rewards. This builds confidence among employees and helps them feel valued. To encourage employees, Lloyds Bank offers training and career development opportunities, leading to better performance and happier, more skilled employees. Employees are rewarded with a benefits package. This includes salary increases, commissions and bonuses. Lloyds Bank employs and promotes on the basis of merit (Bridgen, A. & Mizen, P. 2004). This aims to avoid unconscious bias and help prevent anxiety on those whose talents are being underestimated. It clearly shows that Lloyds Bank reward hard work and skills
Customer relationship management is the strongest weapon Lloyds Bank has adopted to ensure that customers become and remain loyal. The introduction of CRM in the bank has helped the business organization to get a complete picture of existing customers, design products and financial services as well as initiate comprehensive and reliable financial market research and effective campaigns, to achieve and improve customer loyalty and profitability.
Although many employees are self-motivated by the need to do good work, commendation and public recognition, go a long way to help keep them motivated (Human resource management International digest 2005). Despite of Lloyds effort to reward its employees, there has been a negative review about the management. Individuals have complained about issues concerning lack of transparency in the upper management and discrimination for non-British employees. In addition, different customers have complained about bad treatment by the management.
Overall Approach to Recruitment and Selection
In order to find effective employees, Lloyds Bank uses a virtual recruitment guide that provides good insight to ensure the successful recruitment of candidates. The organization encourages individuals to first conduct research on the bank and the industry as a whole, in order to strengthen their application. Doing this will help the applicant to clearly tell the recruiting team exactly why he would be the best fit for the job opening. The bank put into use an Employment Act that covers a wide range of areas, ranging from discrimination, health and safety, contracts, data, wages, pensions and employees right in its recruitment process (Hobson, O. 2010). Anyone employed or recruited to work for Lloyds Bank undergoes a very profound process.
First, one must have the right to work in the UK. A potential employee must provide legal documents such as a passport or birth certificate. Graduates are needed to determine which department they would like to work with (Farquhar, J. & Panther, T. 2008, 1). They may find this hard because of the lack of knowledge about which positions are available or the type of skills needed to apply for a certain position. As a result, the graduate may forego the chance to apply due to a lack of enough information.
The bank offers an employment contract that is signed by both parties. A potential employee must have the necessary qualifications and skills required by law to be employed. Terms of employment can be temporary contracts, probationary periods or working hours (Hobson, O. 2010). The hiring process takes 3 months or more. One must first apply online and then take an online test. When the applicant passes the online test section, they are invited to complete a job comprehension test.
This section allows one to understand the activities and types of projects in which they will be involved in at Lloyds Bank (Hobson, O. 2010). The final stage is the day of visual inspection, which is a full day of face-to-face testing with the group. Given the Covid-19 pandemic, this session of the interview is being conducted through a webinar meeting. A webinar is an engaging online event where a speaker delivers a presentation to a large audience using interactive tools such as slides and presenter video.
The recruitment techniques adopted by the bank is as a result of finding responsible employees who should be knowledgeable and able to lead. Skills such as being able to work independently or in a team, experience in the same field of application, patience while managing the customer, and the ability to accept change, will help the bank achieve its goal of helping Britain thrive and provide a good customer experience (Maenpaa, K. 2006, 3).
Despite Lloyds effort to employ effective recruitment, candidates find it difficult to identify the kind of skills required to apply for a certain job. In addition, individuals have complained about a lack of clear information about dates concerning the one to one interview with the team and lack of proper information about the types of job openings (Farquhar, J. & Panther, T. 2008, 1). For instance, an individual applied for a job opening that had been advertised on the banks’ website, only to get an email saying that there is no job opening for that position. Lack of proper information can be misleading. Attending to these issues will help the bank achieve good community relations as well as achieve its purpose.
Conclusion
Being the largest financial service group in the UK, with more than 27 million customers and a history dating back more than 300 years, Lloyds Bank offers many job opportunities. For example, management, infrastructure engineering, software engineering, and customer service. The process of recruiting and selecting employees to join the bank is necessary due to a large number of competitors with deep skills and great proficiency (Bridgen, A. & Mizen, P. 2004, 72). The bank has in a great way, impacted the lives of many individuals, but On the other hand, complaints have been made concerning the management, as well as lack of adequate information concerning job openings and skills required to apply for those jobs. Addressing these issues will help the bank accomplish its overall purpose which is to help Britain prosper.
The bank has assisted businesses and individuals in providing positive services to the communities in which it operates (Hobson, O. 2010). Although Lloyds Bank has had a significant impact on the lives of many people through job creation, many have been affected by the banks’ decision to cut more than 800 jobs and close 56 UK branches in early September, and later created 200 jobs to redeploy those who lost their jobs. This shows that Lloyds bank is considerate of its overall employees which results in a good and close relationship with the workforce.
The Bank closed its branches because a lot of people prefer the use of online banking since it saves time and one does not have to go to the bank to do his transaction (Bradley, L. & Stewart, K. 2003b, PP.1087-1109). They can make money transactions more comfortable in their homes because of advanced technology. This action illustrates that the Bank has peoples interests at heart. Customers can now access services at their convenience and can withdraw at any time. Online banking services offer a variety of benefits. This includes fraud protection, easy registration and support are always available (DeYoung, R. 2001).
In addition, online banking has helped a lot of people keep track of what is going in and out of their accounts. Online banking saves on time, which means no more queueing to make transactions at a bank (Bradley, L. & Stewart, K. 2003b, pp. 1087-1109). Through online banking, Lloyd Bank has been able to offer a wider range of newer services online to more customers than before. Further, the bank has provided consumers with an easy way to conduct banking transactions in the comfort and security of their homes and computers.
For 16 consecutive years, Lloyds Bank has been selected as the Business Bank of the Year at the FDs’ Excellent Awards. Over 1800 finance directors from SMEs voted the bank as the best bank that offers great services and support for their small businesses (Hobson, O. 2010). These awards demonstrate the Banks’ continued commitment to helping Britain prosper by helping businesses start up, grow and reach their ambitions. In order for the bank to continue achieving the goals and purposes, the management and the entire workforce should work in an environment that is ideal, with transparency and free flow of ideas and information.
Recommendations
Lloyds Bank should pay close attention to the management. This is as a result of many negative reviews about the job responsibilities to management. The upper management should work on being transparent to its subordinates. Doing this will create a better environment for all employees in the organization. In addition, it will enhance a harmonious working environment as well as good service delivery. This will help the bank accomplish its purpose and assist employees to meet the bank’s targeted goals.
When hiring graduates, the graduates may not be aware of their position. Lloyd bank should provide a system in which the graduates are taken through the various positions available. This will help the graduates to make better decisions regarding the type of job that well suits their skills.
Lloyd bank should list the skills required to perform certain functions on their main website. This will make it easier for potential employees to know which skills are required in each job opening. In addition, it will help people who wish to work for Lloyds Bank to identify the skills they need in order to get various positions in the organization. Also, the bank should frequently update information regarding open jobs every month. In addition, dates regarding interviews should be clearly noted in order to make it easier for successful candidates to plan and prepare for the interviews.
Reference
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Human resource management international digest 2005. Testing graduates at Lloyds TSB. 13(1) pp.12-14. Retrieved from https://www-emerald-com.oxfordbrookes.idm.oclc.org/insight/content/doi/10.1108/09670730510576347/full/pdf?title=testing-graduates-atlloyds-tsbs-how-bank-selects-the-people-who-will-lead-it-into-the-future/
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