As a result of changes in the financial services sector, Bankco has undergone numerous operational and strategic changes over the past few years. One of the most significant changes has been the cultural shift from being operational to becoming more sales oriented. Bankco was restructured from 7 regions and 54 districts, to 3 regions and 21 areas.
Customer services centres have been established and have begun to take a large part of the administrative work out of the branches. This shift has been reflected in the redesign of Bankco’s premises and in particular the branch network and the technology for delivering services. These changes have resulted in a substantial reduction of staff, over 9,000 since 1989.
The composition of staff has also changed dramatically. Bankco lost many of its older and more experienced managers and became a ‘younger’ organisation (most managers now are in their mid-thirties).
Nearly 400 branches were closed down during the period 1990–95. These changes have led to a reconsideration of training and development policies and practices and a greater emphasis on learnercentred approaches.

HRM Strategy and its Implications for Training

Bankco’s HRM strategy aims to secure:

Skilled, motivated and professional staff. We recognise that staff are our key resource and have the power to differentiate us from the competition in the minds of our customers.
(training manager)

The HRM function in Bankco is organised in four main units: human resource planning; training and development;
employee relations; and personnel operation.
Training, in particular, has been seen as a central platform for implementing the HRM strategy both historically and currently. One of the traditional practices in this and other organisations in the sector has been to use training to support change programmes. In other words, training is seen as a key communication tool and a means of providing staff with the necessary knowledge and skills to respond to the new requirements..............

Questions

In analysing the case you are asked to address the following issues:
1. Evaluate Bankco’s objective of becoming a learning organisation in light of its business and HRM strategies.
2. Consider to what extent Bankco is laying the foundations for becoming a learning organisation. How far do you think Bankco has been successful in its objectives? What are the main challenges it has encountered so far?
3. Recommend an action plan on issues, activities and changes that this bank would need to introduce in order to facilitate or enhance managerial learning.
4. Analyse the role of the HR function in Bankco. How might the HR function assist or impede the implementation of your action plan?