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MMH701
AU
Deakin University
Epsilon Financial is a for-profit company that offers a myriad of financial services such as financial and mortgage advice. Like any company that hopes to grow, Epsilon hopes to leverage its workforce and increase its market share. The plans that this organization have for expansion come at a time when there are more market gaps to leverage. Many financial companies that do not comply with the FASEA regulations are leaving the business and this creates an opportunity for Epsilon to expand its reach. This includes having a workforce whose qualifications are fully FASEA compliant. In addition, the organization should seek to make itself more attractive to the highly skilled workforce it so desires. This will not be possible if Epsilon’s Sydney office reported a 20% turnover. The existing workforce need to be encouraged to keep up their good work and even do better (Stege, 2014). While not all things are within our control, we can plan to have a better skilled and diverse workforce by the time the three-year period of the business, strategy elapses.
Abraham Maslow stated that human beings are to be organized into a pyramid-shaped hierarchy. The basic needs are to be met first, after which other need such as safety and affection should be satisfied. Job security is the first factor that has to be satisfied by a workplace, followed by recognition for excellent job delivery and finally self-actualization, in which an employee finds purpose and fulfilment in their work (Reilly, et al., 2019). If these factors are not fulfilled in order, the employee might not be pleased with their occupation, and therefore will seek to leave. In Epsilon, the Sydney office has reported a high rate of turnover that might be due to this.
Epsilon financial has a 3-year plan that that shall guide this analysis. This plan projects 10% growth through new business and acquisitions, a workforce that is 100% FASEA compliant, and to keep providing good quality financial services to its clients. This will take careful planning and decision-making by the management and enthusiastic implementation by the employees.
The goal is to have a richly skilled and well-balanced workforce that will get the company to where it intends to be in three years. This will have to be supported by management, implemented by all human resource partners, and achieved by the employees.
The strategy here is to cover the next three years. The ethic exam must be completed and passed before the end of June, and
There is a growth opportunity brought about by the finance companies that are selling or closing shop. As an organization that is looking to expand, Epsilon should find out which of the companies that are selling are the best. This includes finding information of the number of quality of clients that they have, as well as their skilled workforce that the Epsilon would acquire once they took over.
Epsilon Finance is facing less competition currently due to many of its competitors closing down due to failure to adhere to FASEA regulations. This is a chance for expansion and acquisition, as their clients are left without financial advisers.
Australia, along with the rest of the world, is growing into new times when issue like diversity and social responsibility is gaining importance. Having a diverse workforce could literally make or break a business. Organizations are encouraged to have a workforce composition that matches the general population. This means that all recruitment should consider gender parity, disabled people, indigenous people, and be race-balanced. The available skilled labour consists of all of these groups, and this should be remembered during recruitment. This has not been a priority for Epsilon, but it should be. A business should always evolve to match the political climate of its location (Goddard, 2020).
There is a growing need for affordable financial services in Australia. This means that with the proper marketing and placement, Epsilon’s services could grow in demand exponentially. This, coupled with the organizations closing due to FASEA non-compliance, presents an opportunity for expansion. The organization will in turn need to increase the workforce size.
The internet and technological gadgets cannot be ignored in today’s business world. For this reason, Epsilon Finance should take its services online with applications and pages on social media. Since younger people are in need of cheaper financial services, this could land the organization many clients.
In Australia, the ration of men to women who study courses related to finance is 2:1. It is therefore evident that while Epsilon Finance might not seem to have a professional workforce that is diverse by gender, its rations are in keeping with the available employee market (Anon., 2020). Similarly, the higher percentage of women in administrative staff and support is in keeping with the employee market. However, the fact that 65 professional staff in this organization has not yet passed the ethics exam required for their jobs is worrying. While they are individuals with proven prowess in their jobs, they reflect badly on the company and hurt its public image. In addition, their being overwhelmingly male means that any preferential treatment given to them in an effort to reduce their stress might not be taken as face value. With a 65% hold on all professional positions, men in this organization might be viewed as a privileged majority who do not need any further support. In an ideal situation, Epsilon Finance could be allowed to maintain such loyal employees who have gained from training and skill development while on the job, but external factors have to come into play here. Competing finance companies are selling their businesses due to these very regulations, and therefore the company’s well-being has to come before loyalty to employees. This need for an ethics exam is an opportunity to establish more diverse in hiring, which thus far has not been a human resource priority. We should obviously not assume that the 17 professionals yet to take the ethics exam shall not pass it, but as a contingency plan, we should think of welcoming applications. The recruitment services should be told to encourage minority groups such as disabled and indigenous people to apply. The gender imbalance suggested by the numbers can also be corrected in this process.
While the organization’s staff is mostly composed of skilled workers, the turnover paints a very worrying trend. Those 16 employees have survived 20 years in this company without even being qualified while others choose to leave shows that the organization might be resistant to change. The recruitment service that Epsilon Financial uses is not prioritizing diversity, which is a mistake that not all businesses hoping to grow in this age can afford to make. All arguments made by management against making hires from other companies due to clashing opinions points to a fear of change. Diverse opinions might be just what the company needs to achieve its growth goals.
In addition, Epsilon should consider employee appraisal every 3 years, or performance contracts. For example, a professional can be required to serve a given number of clients every year or make a certain amount of money for the organization. In this way, it will be possible to sift through the employees and find those with the best performance and those who are contributing little to the growth of the organization. If we are to assure ourselves of a vibrant and performing workforce, we have to remove and replace all those who do not represent these qualities.
With all the financial advice organizations closing down due to FASEA requirements, the company has a chance to grow like it has never had before. Additionally, there is an increased supply of labour because as the companies close down or sell, some professionals are being retrenched while the acquiring companies are downsizing (Bronkhorst, 2014).
The Markov chain model, also known as the pull model, can be used to estimate flow of labour in Epsilon. Now, we have projections of expansion of 10%, but we have made no specific plans yet. While our rate of expansion still remains a mystery, so does our demand for labour (Stege, 2014). Similarly, while we are aware that some of our competitors are selling due to FASEA compliance issues, there is no knowing how much skilled labour they shall avail to the job market.
There are currently gaps in the workforce at Epsilon finance. To have 30% of the professional workforce not being fully qualified is a recipe for disaster. While management argues that the ones who have neither completed professional exams nor passed the ethics exams are doing a good enough job, it is possible that the standards are low. If some of the longest serving professionals, and who possibly train any new hires, are untrained, then it is possible that we simply have not explored our full potential as an organization. Employees should be increasing the productivity, profitability, and potential of a business. This organization is unable to market itself favourably because the products offered are generic to match the employees. For this reason, intensive training should be undertaken so that the workers may evolve to match the evolving market. All the 65 employees who are not fully qualified should ensure to either complete the process for qualification by the set deadline, or face retrenchment. In an ideal workplace, all professionals who shall work in direct contact with clients should at the very least be in possession of all the necessary professional qualifications. Clients are confident in qualifications that assure them that any issue that they bring up will be tackled fully.
The management has shown complacency in handling the employees who have not passes the ethics exam, and this might in the end be detrimental to the organization. Employees should know that while their welfare is of importance, this is a for-profit organization and profitability is desired.
The workforce size sufficient for current needs except for the Sydney office, which is having a difficult time finding skilled people to recruit. However, 65 employees shall soon need to spend time finishing their tertiary studies so that they may be fully qualified for their jobs. During this time, the organization’s expansion strategy shall not be paused. While HR business partner do not think it is a good idea to hire form other closed companies, this might be an opportunity to diversify our workforce. It is important that the employees who take some time from work to finish their studies do not find themselves replaced. To say that hiring employees from closed companies will only result in clashes is erroneous, because they must have had decent skills to stay employed elsewhere. In addition, they will bring with them the competitors tactics that will be important when more competition comes up in the form of new companies (Murray & Fischer, 2010). We are not yet in a position to estimate how many more employees we shall need to recruit upon our expansion, but we currently cannot afford to be choosy.
The high turnover for the Sydney office suggests that the conditions at workplace are either hostile or they do not support professional growth. The 20 % turnover the Sydney office is higher than that of the hospitality industry, which contributes the highest turnover in Australia at 17.9%. The finance industry is overall not known for having high turnover rates, so this is very worrying. The Sydney office should be the subject of an audit to investigate this. Clients have more trust in a financial advisor that can give them consistency, and where they can work with the same advisor over a long time. This turnover rate put into jeopardy the plans that the organization has for expansion, and might lead to eventual closure of the business.
Payroll services, recruitment services, and compliance training are services that are outsourced by Epsilon. Since there have been concerns raised about the quality of the workforce, it is obvious that the recruiter does not know what set of skills are required by an organization such as this. The firm’s three-year plan includes expansion by attracting new clients and taking over other businesses. This means that inadvertently, there shall be a need to recruit superb talent to handle new business and market the organization. This should be done by the company. The high turnover by Sydney, for example, should alert the organization that it might not be providing the desired work conditions for its new employees (George, 2017). With this information, we can know exactly which type of hires will be beneficial, and this is best handled by the business. In addition, there are only 300 employees in this organization, and they are divided among the 5 major cities in Australia. This number is small enough for hiring to be handled in-house and meticulous screening to be done by the human resource office before an employee is hired.
Payroll should be in-house as well. It is interesting to know that there have been 17 professional employees in this organization for 20 years, and they have had no personal inspiration to complete the requirements for them to be qualified for their jobs. This means that there is no encouragement among workers to improve themselves for a certain reward. If the payroll dictated that qualified employees earned more, the aforementioned 17 would not have the luxury of being anxious for the exam because they would be encouraged by financial rewards. In addition, HR partners have raised the issue of result management, and there being no provision to reward collaborative behavior.
It is obvious that the employees get good training because even those that are not qualified have good performance records. Training is meant to put employees working in the same department on the same level, as well as to ensure that service provision the workforce stays at par with the competition. In addition, training should be uniform for all employees in all the offices so that clients moving from one state to another are confident that they can get the same quality of service from the organization wherever they are.
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