In my company, the matching model is more suitable to describe the human resource process.

Strategic HRM is related to corporate strategy in areas such as structure, culture and employee
resourcing and development. My company is an asset management company which offers
investment advisory and management services for a full range of investors including ordinary bank
customers, high net-worth individuals, pension funds and central banks. Unlike a manufacturer of
physical products, my company do not have to invest in machines and inventories; they spent a lot
on information technology and publicity. However, the most important part of the annual budget is
allocated to the salary and bonus for the employees. The most important capital in an asset
management company is human capital. Strategically the company strive to maintain a high
competitive advantage in a highly competitive and rapidly changing environment, the company
need to ensure the competence of the workforce. Human resources processes adopted in my
company place emphasis on the strategic intent of the company through recruitment and selection,
training, performance management and reward.

Recruitment and selection

The company recruits two kinds of employees, supporting staff and professional staff. The
recruitment of the supporting staff is centralized by the human resource department. These staff will
take over the marketing, administrative, accounting and operational positions. They can be fresh
graduates or experienced staff from other companies. The recruitment of the professional staff is
conducted by the hiring department such as the fund management department and sales department.
These functions require professional staff who have expertise in the respective fields. The human
resource department do not have enough knowledge to recruit these staff. Instead of asking for the
job hunting company, they just let the hiring department perform the selection job and the human
resource department take over the post selection administrative work. In most of the time, the hiring
department will find out the appropriate candidate through personal and corporate network, using
managerial judgment to make selection decision.

When recruitment need arises in a supporting department, either because of an increase of workload
or due to departure of some personnel, a request of new recruitment will be sent to the human
resource department. The department will first screen out if the post can be taken over internally. If
there is no suitable internal candidate, an external recruitment will be followed, either through
university for fresh graduates or through job market. Interviews with both human resource
department and the hiring department will be conducted during the selection process. While the
hiring department will decide finally the person they would like to employ, the human resource
department could always override the decision if that person cannot pass the psychological test and
the interview with the human resource department, the main purpose of which is to ensure that the
supporting staff will share the same cultural value of the company. The hiring department will only
look at whether the candidate fit the immediate need of the department but ignore whether this
candidate will fit the overall culture of the company in the longer term horizon. Regarding the
recruitment of the professional staff, however, the process is different. While interview will be
conducted with both the hiring department and the human resource department but the decision will
be highly dominated by the former one. The sales and fund management department have strong
power to make recruitment and selection decisions as discussed above. Finally when a staff quit the
company, a new recruitment process will be started. In the recent years, the staff turnover has
increased sharply but the human resource department has yet to investigate the reasons of this trend.

There is a growing trend that instead of recruiting staff, the company outsource more and more
supporting function such as accounting to outside companies and employ external companies to
send staff to work in my company on a contract basis such as information system jobs. These serve
to reduce the costs of business.
Training

Asset management industry faces a highly competitive and rapidly changing environment as new
investment technology and products emerge frequently. Providing training to the staff is necessary
to maintain the competitiveness of the company. Training is also essential for staffs that change jobs
through internal transfer. Like the recruitment process, the sales and fund management department
has full power to organize the training program for their staff. The reason is that the sales and fund
management have more knowledge on those suitable training program and some of those program
may be paid by some brokers in the form of “soft money”, an exchange of brokerage business and
training program between the brokers and the asset management companies.

Performance management and reward

Performance management incorporates the review of past performance and the setting of objectives
for the future. To retain the services of employees and maintain a high level of performance it is
necessary to raise their motivation, commitment and flexibility by a variety of means, including
competitive compensation package. The management control group analyzes the profitability of
each department and then the bonus budget is allocated to each department based on this analysis.
The bonus amount is then decided by each department heads for their staff by their managerial
judgment.
The HR processes in my company reflect in some areas the implementation of the organization’s
strategy.

Adoption of change management:

When organizations operated in markets dominated by large production functions the primary task
of personnel was to maintain stability –job analysis, recruitment, contracts, disputes and grievances.
As firms have to cope with rapid change within their markets like the wealth management industry,
our HRM focus on change management and develop personnel systems to meet individual and
organizational needs.

Internal transfer model:

Internal transfer model is constructive to the organization strategy. With fewer layers of
management today, the potential for gradual movement upwards is reduced, and lateral moves,
moves to different department are a way to promote career progression for the staff. In addition, by
drawing on an internal supply of labor to fill vacancies, whereby the internal candidate receives a
promotion, sends a powerful signal to employees that the organization is committed to their
advancement and development.

Demographic planning:
The company has a plan to recruit fresh graduate every year, even during the period of economic
slowdown. This model serves to create a good demographic of the company and avoid the aging
problem of many French companies.

Adoption of processual approach:

With this approach, the HRM not only examine the person-job fit but also the person-organization
fit and person environment fit and therefore the flexibility through keeping the nature and design of
the job as open as possible. The candidate can have career development in the company for a long
time period, can face different internal transfer and also understand the current and future needs of
the company and the staff. Employees can be more flexible and versatile in the work domain.

However, some of the HRM process works against the implementation of the organization strategy
in my company.