Strategy of Training & Development in Banking Sector

QUESTION 1

PART 1

A. General description of the organization

Westpac Banking Corporation is a leading financial service provider in the world with best ratings and is preferred by customers for quality of services delivered.

• Banking: Routine banking services such as accepting deposits, transaction accounts , non cash payment facilities are offered such as debit cards and credit cards in addition to electronic banking facilities such as Automated teller machines or mobile banking.
• Insurance: Westpac is authorised by Australian Financial services to provide and sell life and general insurance products to the customers.
• Bank Drafts and Bank Cheques: Customers are facilitated to use the services of drafts and cheques for ease of cash less transactions.
• Investments: Westpac offers services of managing client's portfolio comprising of all the securities, stocks, Government bonds, debentures and derivative contracts (Liu, Cutcher and Grant, 2015).
• Capital Financial Markets: Maintenance of current and capital account transactions. Foreign exchange dealing and telegraphic transfers and traveller's cheque forms part of this kind of services.
• Lending: Lending services provided to customer in from of customer loans, credit cards and investment lending services and providing loans to customers (Klettner, Clarke, and Boersma, 2014).

B. External forces that impacts the organisation

External factors present outside the boundary of the organisation plays a vital role in shaping functions and activities carried on by the entity. Major external forces are as follows:

• Economic Growth: This is indicated by remarkable growth on stock markets and price rises in various raw material such as oil, coal, metals which is strongly influenced by the political scenario of the world and overall economic development.
• Inflation: This is the outcome of hike in prices and resulting into lower purchasing power in the hands of consumer therefore inflation reduces the investment opportunities and loss of savings which will adversely impact the functioning of banking industry and ultimately reduced profitability.
• Interest Rates: In case of high interest rate applied by Central Bank operational cost will incrB. Corporate Governance: ease and margins will fall thereby adding up to the indirect cost and reduced profitability.
• Political and Social Factors: Political instability or favouritism to one industry will damage the income of other industries causing impact on banks (Gani and Scrimgeour, 2015). Social factors such as changes in saving or expending patters will lead great impact on overall functioning of the bank.

C. Legislation, regulations and codes of practice that affect the organisation.

In Australia all the banking and financial companies are governed by Banking Act, 1959 which reflects all the information and norms regarding presentation of Financial Reporting Frameworks (Salim, Arjomandi and Seufert, J2016). All the banks operating in the geographical bo0undaries need to submit periodical returns and follow the reporting criteria specified by the Reserve Bank of Australia. Under the initiative by government of Australia approved codes of practice are formulated to achieve the health and safety by issuing Work Health and safety Act and regulations for healthy working conditions. Work life balance in Australia is an ideal example for companies all over the world (Willis, 2015). Various business regulations are established to ensure fair trading and ethical business practices. Some of the Laws are Australian Intellectual Property Laws, Financial Reporting Laws, Australian export and import laws which will greatly impact functioning of Westpac.

D. Organizational values, internal philosophies, procedures, policies and ethical standards

Westpac is a company with higher values and treats customer as a king as he is final consumer of services. Ethical standards of Westpac are really high and comes first in rank as compared to wealth maximisation (Tricker, 2015). Core values considered by Westpac are Integrity of efforts and information, Courage reflecting strength in pain and heading high in bad times, Achievement of targeted goals is one of the core values , idea of combining each individual into team progress through one team in addition to main motive of achieving the delighting faces of Customers. Westpac strictly adhere to their internal policies on Code of Conduct and Westpac Group Diversity policy as well.

PART 2

A. Internal and External Audits:

Internal audit review is done by an independent body established to review the testing , reporting and evaluating the effectiveness and adequacy of management's control and operational framework. Westpac Internal audit function has access to all the entities of westpac present anywhere in the world to conduct audit and review by following a risk based approach. External Auditors are recommended by Audit Committee of Westpac and appointed by Board of Directors after considering the terms of engagement. External audits are conducted to gain an opinion from Auditors that Financial Statements are accurate and fair and free from material misstatements therein.

B. Corporate Governance:

It refers to promoting transparency, fairness and accountability by formulating responsibilities and rights of the shareholders, management and the Board. Good Governance is treated as indicator of quality and capability of management.

The below mentioned diagram present the current board committees and governance structure of the Westpac however as per the circumstances committees may be assigned extra responsibilities. Board takes active participation in due diligence for strategic decision making, investing and capital activities. Board issues policies and procedural framework to be followed for management of risk across the group.

C. Employment conditions:

Westpac strongly believes that people are at heart of their organisation and everything they do. They believes in recognition and rewarding the workplace environment consisting of diversity, flexibility and value based behaviour. Westpac equally focusses on training and development of employees to contribute to their overall personality development. Various motivational and developing leaders is an area which is focussed upon for increasing the quality of services delivered to customer. It also formulate an environment creating culture of speed, quality results and simplicity.

D. Formal and Informal Staff Training:

Westpac takes various actions and steps for training and development of staff. It aims to provide online induction and use of highly virtual networks are promoted. Interactive training tools are devised to offer new leaders the knowledge , resources and tools needed to fulfil their responsibilities. Informal training is provided by sending employees to seminars where prominent speakers express their expertise about particular subject or involving employees into group discussions (Talwar and Thakur, 2016). Informal training provides richest and deepest knowledge as it generally occurs naturally in life.

PART 3

A. Instances where the behaviour of the organisation, or its staff, does not not conform to industry standards:

Non compliance of labour laws by increasing the working hours and therefore causing work life unbalance in the organisation. In case of unhealthy practices in the working culture of the entity is also an instance of non conformity to the standards In case of Westpac if periodical returns are not submitted to the Reserve Bank Of Australia even after continuous reminder it reflects the non conformance of standards. If employee of bank behaves in a annoying and arrogant manner with the customer it results into break down of rules set out by the Industry.

B. Steps taken to rectify the non conformities:

Westpac employed a responsible and efficient corporate governance to trace the non conformities and take corrective actions thereupon. Westpac should guide the employees and staff clearly about the customer behaviour policies and proper presentation of the values of organisation. Reminder policies should;d be set up to reduce the failure of submissions of returns to the Reserve Bank Of Australia.

QUESTION 2

Memo to colleague

Team work is all about integrating “I” into “We”. Considering your work, it was a very great help to me as research part done on your behalf increased my speed while writing the report. It is rightly said that well begun is half done. A your work was very pin pointed and relevant as per the requirement. A you have done a fantastic job and I m really thankful to you for all the tasks performed by you and relevant documents supplied. I would like to suggest you that going further please provide even the hard copies accessed or screen shots of extracts you find very relevant during the research which will reduce work on my part to read the whole data available on website helpful in academic writing. Furthermore you can even paste the important information and paste it in word document so that in case of non access to internet reports can be completed without quality being unhampered. While working together we can easily manage time for on time supply of required reports and decide the priorities according to dead lines assigned and work accordingly.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that Westpac is an organisation with great values and main objectives revolve around customer satisfaction. Its focus is on overall training and development of the employees which will increase the productivity of financial services provided by the Bank. Also team work and cooperation is a major pillar of success of research and reports.

REFERENCES

• Belbin, R.M., 2012. Team roles at work. Routledge.
• Cummings, J.R. and Durrani, K.J., 2016. Effect of the Basel Accord capital requirements on the loan-loss provisioning practices of Australian banks. Journal of Banking & Finance. 67. pp.23-36.
• Dahlmann, F. and Brammer, S., 2013. Corporate Governance vs. Corporate Environmental Governance: Complementary or Separate Drivers of Environmental Performance?.
• Dumay, J., 2016. A critical reflection on the future of intellectual capital: from reporting to disclosure. Journal of Intellectual Capital. 17(1). pp.168-184.
• Ford, J.K., 2014. Improving training effectiveness in work organizations. Psychology Press.
• Islam, M.A., Jain, A. and Thomson, D., 2016. Does the global reporting initiative influence sustainability disclosures in Asia-Pacific banks?. Australasian Journal of Environmental Management. pp.1-16.
• Khan, S.A., Ali, M., Hussain, H.F. and Safdar, B., 2015. Impact of Employee Training and Motivation on Business Development in Banking Sector: Study Conducted in Pakistan. American Journal of Business, Economics and Management. 3(5). p.241.
• Klettner, A., Clarke, T. and Boersma, M., 2014. The governance of corporate sustainability: Empirical insights into the development, leadership and implementation of responsible business strategy. Journal of Business Ethics. 122(1). pp.145-165.

UPTO50%

Avail The Benefit Today!

To View this & another 50000+ Free Sample

Enter Email

Submit