Introduction 

Westpac has been recognised as the first bank of Australia and the first overall company of the country. It has also been recognised as the second largest bank of New Zealand (Kamber, McDonald and Price 2013). They offer institutional, business and consumer banking solutions to the market. The company aims to provide quality services to the community and the same is addressed in the company’s mission and vision statement. It can be said that, the company has succeeded in incorporating their human resource planning activities while formulating their organizational strategies. Westpac have been a company who have been pioneering in contributing to the society by employing sustainable services (Huang, Pepper and Bowrey 2014). Workforce diversity and flexibility are some of the fields that the company excels in. By productive use of the highly skilled HR personnel they have been successful in devising strategies that help them to implement the objectives of the HR department with the strategies that are taken up by the other managerial divisions. The paper will throw light on the relationship that persists between strategic organisational planning and human resource planning within Westpac. Additionally the paper will also highlight the methods that have been employed by the aforementioned departments in achieving high performance and how its fairs in the global context.

The relationship between Strategic Organisational Planning and Human Resource Planning

Strategic Organizational Planning is a type of organizational strategy by using which a company intends to achieve their long term organizational objectives (Schoemaker, Day and Snyder 2013). In the process of strategic organizational planning, companies are said to employ suitable strategies which help them in achieving goals that are in correlation with the company. On the other hand human resource planning refers to the process that is characterised by continuous planning through which the Human Resource department devise strategies to develop a plan of optimum usage of its human capital to achieve the objectives of the company (Noe et al. 2017). The latter is considered as one of the most crucial components of organisational planning as effective planning in this stage ensures that perfect individuals are delegated with the most suitable task in accordance with their specialisation and repertoire (Shaul, L. and Tauber 2013).

Through strategic organizational planning, the management devices plans and objectives with can lead the organisation to its desired organisational goal. The HR policies at Westpac are perfectly aligned to the organisational needs (Rotich 2015). The HR policies of the company have revolutionised their workforce. At Westpac, it is ensured that the best working atmosphere is present for the employees. The policies within the organisation encourage diversity (Davis, Frolova and Callahan 2016). They view people of diverse backgrounds as knowledge bearers who can provide their expertise to provide the best solution for their clients. The aim of the HR policies of the company is to build a workforce that is capable of adapting and catering to the changing demands of the clients. The company values integrity. The company has realised the same through strategic organisational policies. Furthermore, the HR policy of the company have set benchmarks in the industry by providing quality services in the form of work flexibility. Employees of the organisation are provided favourable shift allotments. The employees are also entitled to various leaves. The idea behind the same is to make work as favourable for the employees as possible. The HR policy makers of the organisation have realised the importance of providing such facilities as they have is has been proven that there is a direct link between employee motivation, satisfaction and performance.

Most of the human resource policies within the organisation are perfectly aligned to the strategic goals of the organisation. The same is responsible for the functional efficacy and efficiency of the organisation. However, it can be said that there is always scope for improvement. Even though the company’s human resource policies are effectively coordinated with the organisational strategies, the following challenges have been identified;

• Challenge to live up to expected expectation: The Company has set a benchmark in the industry by clearly sating their aim to deliver their clients with the highest possible quality of service. They can do so by ensuring highly skilled professionals are delegated to perform the task. The initiative is deemed to transcend to the performance, however it can become a challenging task. Even though there is a pool of prospective qualified individuals to fulfil the requirements of the company, it is a difficult task on the part of the HR officials to select or recruit the most suitable individual.
• Gap between planning and implementation: Planning has been effectively carried out in the organisation to interlock the functions effectively with the strategic functions of the organisation, however implementing the plans in reality can become a challenging task with the growing organisational adversities.

Human Resource Planning and methods

The significance of an effective human resource planning program should not be undermined. It is the role of the HR personnel including the policy makers to select and include desirable and suitable people within their organisation (Nagendra and Deshpande 2014). The position of the HR of any company is one of the crucial most functions of any organisation. Furthermore they are responsible for maintaining the conditions and relations that prevail within the organisation (Conway et al. 2016). Some of the functions that are performed by the human resource department of the organisation are preparing for and estimating the personnel needs in the organisation, catering to the changing nature of the dynamic workforce, proper planning for and utilisation of the human resources (Kim and Choon 2013). Carrying out the same requires tremendous knowledge about the company, its requirements, objectives and proposed outcomes. Thus it can be understood that the job of the HR personnel are certainly challenging.

Westpac have been successful in aligning their human resource policies perfectly with the strategic functioning within the organisation. It has been found that the estimated number of people employed in the company is around 40,000 with over 13 million customers spread across Australia, New Zealand and the pacific region.

 The Company have devised policies which cater to the needs of individual needs the employees of the organisation. The HR policies that have been framed by the HR of the company have introduced flexibility. The main aim in doing so is to develop a stress and tension free atmosphere. The company have incorporated options such as flexible working hours, working from home and others. The policies also entitle the people of the organisation to leaves such as parental leaves, grand parental leaves, domestic violence and various other forms of leaves (Stanford 2016). The policies that have been devised by the organisation are people centred and thus company’s vision of stakeholder welfare has been realised (Clarke 2014). A survey was conducted within the company the results of which showed that most of the employees of the organisation were satisfied and content with their job allowances and accommodations (Choubey and Choubey 2013).

The company have been successful in making sure that their workforce is diverse. In the modern world the importance of inter-cultural diversity cannot be neglected (Bennett 2014). The company strives in effectively carrying out the same. The diverse workforce of the company consist of people form diverse cultures and almost half of the total workforce is comprised of women. Furthermore there is perfect ratio of men to women in the senior executive posts of the company. The policies within the company have made sure that there exists no form of cultural or gender bias within the organisation. The HR policies of the organisation have also developed a framework that lets people take charge of the situation. Problem can arise at any point of time in a said functional division of the organisation (Darwish and Singh 2013). Such problems should be mitigated by the people responsible or by the people who have the closest proximity with the problem. The practices in the organisation involves delegating the smartest and the most capable of coping with the evident problem.

The implications of the absence of the aforementioned factors act as impediments to the proper functioning of organisation. The absence of the factors can result in grievance from the part of the employees and can also lead to further dysfunction of the organisational functions.

Developing High Performing and global mind set Employees and Managers

Westpac have developed their policies which ensure that people from diverse cultures are present in their workforce. Countries such as Australia and New Zealand are composed of people belonging to various ethnic and cultural backgrounds (Markus 2014). This aligns perfectly with the company’s policy of hiring highly qualified and suitable personnel for job roles in the organisation. The amount of talent and credibility possessed by individuals belonging to different backgrounds is huge (Aln?aç?k et al. 2014). The company is said to be a people centred workplace that has developed policies that help cater to individual needs and demands of the employees. Furthermore the company excels in providing perfect working conditions for its employees. The employees of the organisation are seen to be correctly aligned to the goals of the company. Thus the importance of aligning the human resource planning with the strategic organisational plan has been realised.

It can be said that the workforce planning within the organisation has been carried out effectively and the same ensures that the management is able take advantage of the diverse skills and services that are offered by the employees of the organisation. The organisation’s aim of teamwork to provide the best experience for the company’s clients is realised by the aim of the organisational model of the company.

The above model is followed by Westpac. They have realised the importance of inter cultural communication have been successful in using the efficacy of the same with their ultimate organisational goal.

• Inter-cultural relationship: The Company has placed emphasis on inter-cultural communication. The company has been successful in developing proper trust and communication the organisation. Furthermore flexibility offered by the organisation set them apart from the competition.
• Procedures: The strategic decision making in the organisation is perfectly aligned to the HR policies of the organisation and the same is responsible for hindrance free decision making in the organisations.
• Roles: The responsibilities within the organisation are well defined. Furthermore the favourable and flexible strategies that have been devised by the company have made the leaders of the companies highly appreciated by the employees of the organisation.
• Goals: The Company has been successful in aligning the HR planning tactics with their organisational goals. Furthermore the organisation goals of the company are realised by the strategic organisational goals that have been implemented by the HR planning procedures.

The company has acted as pioneer in promoting inter-cultural diversity. Their aim of including members from different ethnicities and intercultural backgrounds has resulted in increased amount of talent the company has been exposed to (Boh, Nguyen and Xu 2013). The initiatives of the company of providing flexibility to the employees have set them apart from every other organisation in the country. This can be considered as a sustainable initiative of human welfare. Moreover, they have been successful in providing service to its employees by realising the individual needs of every employee of the organisation. Diversity is a function that the company has excelled. The company have contributed to the society in a greater way than any of its competitors by ensuring the women in the organisation as getting equal opportunities as men in the company.

Conclusion

The company have been successful in implementing and aligning their human resource planning with the strategic organisational plans. The strategic organisational objectives of the organisation are employee centred. It has been found out that the company acts as pioneers in offering flexibility to its employees. The company has realised the level of satisfaction of the employees will directly correlate with their performance. Moreover it has also been discovered that the human resource framework of the company has framed policies that contribute to the sustainable issues of the society. New Zealand and Australia are countries with huge diversity and thus is comprise of people from various cultural backgrounds. The company offers acceptance to the people of diverse cultures. Furthermore, they have catered to the need of and importance of Workplace diversity by involving equal number of women in their functional and executive positions. However the company should realise that there exists a huge gap between formulating plan and implementing the same in real life. Thus they should make sure that these are incorporated into actual practice. On a concluding note it can be said that the initiatives of the company perfectly elucidate their global mind set and that is the reason why the company has received success in the market it is operating in.

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