Stragtegic Human Resource Management helps an organization achieve productivity and effectiveness, by sharing the overall vision of the organization, sharing goals and objectives, and making sure that Human Resource is not just a department, but the whole organization speaks of HR as the core division, which means that organization is employee centered.
Strategic HR changed a number of things in HBL. It updated the way plans were made, shifting to strategic plans, from a one-man show to bringing everybody on board, encouraging idea generation and sharing proposals, different departments sharing their plans of what to look for in the coming year and democratic decision making by appointing a Strategic Planning Division and appointing member from the Board of Directors that goes through each plan and then the CEO communicating the approved plan to the departmental heads. By this, the plan became not just an objective, but more of a bible.
At HBL, after the privatization, a number of initiatives were taken, from right sizing and getting rid of lethargic employees, to introducing golden handshake schemes, from moving to performance management system to inducting young blood that brings in creative ideas. Concepts like employee engagement and job rotation became part of the policy, organization-wide rewards programs were introduced.
An inevitable change in culture was also accomplished, it from the seniority based to performance based culture. Overall structure of the organization was also made flatter, removing additional levels and bureaucracy.
INTRODUCTION TO HBL
It is the prime Bank in country established in 1941 having a registered head office in Karachi. It was nationalized in 1974, but recently on 26th February 2004 it has been privatized by Government of Pakistan and is taken over by Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED). They acquired 51 percent of shares of HBL.
It is one of the largest Banks of Pakistan with 1439 branches, having total assets of Rs. 1,139,554,000, 5 million total number of customers helping in generating Rs 13 million profit currently.
Brief History of HBL
HBL established operations in Pakistan in 1947 and moved its head office to Karachi. Our first international branch was established in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1951 and Habib Bank Plaza was built in 1972 to commemorate the bank’s 25th Anniversary.
With a domestic market share of over 40%, HBL was nationalized in 1974 and it continued to dominate the commercial banking sector with a major market share in inward foreign remittances (55%) and loans to small industries, traders and farmers. International operations were expanded to include the USA, Singapore, Oman, Belgium, Seychelles and Maldives and the Netherlands.
On December 29, 2003 Pakistan’s Privatization Commission announced that the Government of Pakistan had formally granted the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED) rights to 51% of the shareholding in HBL, against an investment of PKR 22.409 billion (USD 389 million). On February 26, 2004, management control was handed over to AKFED. The Board of Directors was reconstituted to have four AKFED nominees, including the Chairman and the President/CEO and three Government of Pakistan nominees.
BUSINESS DIVISIONS AT HBL
HBL has a wide array of customers, belonging to a wide range of business divisions, from individuals to corporate, from Islamic banking to commercial banking. They are divided into three main categories, as follows:
Individual Customers

Car, Home Loans
Credit, Debit Cards
Deposit Accounts
BancAssurance
Phone Banking
FastTransfer
Mutual Funds
Salary Plus

Business Customers

Corporate Banking
Commerical Banking
SME Banking
Global Treasury
Investment Banking
Cash Management
Zarai Banking
Asset Management

Islamic Banking

Deposit Accounts
Financing Products
Murabaha
Diminishing Musharaka
jarah
Trade and Value added Services

MISSION
To make our customers prosper, our staff excel and create value for shareholders
VISION
“Enabling people to advance with confidence and success”
VALUES
Our values are the fundamental principles that define our culture and are brought to life in our attitudes and behavior. It is our values that make us unique and unmistakable. Our values are defined below:
Excellence
This is at the core of everything we do. The markets in which we operate are becoming increasingly competitive, giving our customers an abundance of choice. Only through being the very best – in terms of the service we offer, our products and premises – can we hope to be successful and grow.
Integrity
We are the leading bank in Pakistan and our success depends upon trust. Our customers – and society in general – expect us to possess and steadfastly adhere to high moral principles and professional standards.
Customer Focus
We understand fully the needs of our customers and adapt our products and services to meet these. We always strive to put the satisfaction of our customers first.
Meritocracy
We believe in giving opportunities and advantages to our employees on the basis of their ability. We believe in rewarding achievement and in providing first-class career opportunities for all.
Progressiveness
We believe in the advancement of society through the adoption of enlightened working practices, innovative new products and processes, and a spirit of enterprise.
HUMAN RESOURCE AS A SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Brief Introduction
Human resource, being the pulse of any organization, is its most precious asset. And training plays a vital role in tapping and developing its potential to the utmost. With this key factor in mind, HBL pioneered its first training program in 1946, in which Muslim youth were recruited after an extensive tour of leading academic institutions.

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There are 78 employees in the HR department. According to Adnan-ur-Rehman Khan, Senior Manager, Human Resources at HBL “Worldwide, the practice is of having 100 to 1 ratio, i.e. to have one employee of HR department per 100 employees of other departments. In Pakistan, however due to low importance of HR as a strategic function, it is okay to have 1000 to 1 ratio instead.”
Importance
Bank is a service industry, automation cannot be done. Every activity has to be managed by human beings, a particular department is therefore unavoidable.
Trust and loyalty can only be ensured by human beings. Banking involves money, which is why ensuring trust is extremely important.
Housing 13,000 people is not an easy job. HR department at HBL deals with the factors associated with human beings like counseling, behavior management, motivation and job satisfaction.
Since the organization is “heterogeneous, complex and large” a proper HR department exists to manage the diverse needs of large internal customers’.
Catering to administrative and long term strategic needs of employees. Support functions are required in order to help employees work towards organizational goals.
RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Internal job posting:
This is the most traditional method which most of the companies are following in which CV’s are being collected from company’s website and other sources and then after the filtration process desired individuals are called for the interview. HBL actually grooms and trained their employees in different departments and whenever there is a vacancy they always prefer their trained employees. This adds a lot to the current employees’ confidence and morale, which they have a better chance to be promoted and thus strive to achieve higher than expectations.
Entry level hiring: fresh graduates for MTO’S and non MTO’S:
MTO admission program is being conducted in 6-7 certified universities, students who have a GPA above certain level can apply. They are being passed through screening and interview processes and then HR team hire them. Non MTO’s are selected from B grade universities are passed from a testing process which is being outsourced, then they are also passed through an interview process and are shortlisted.
Mid career:
CV is being selected from the database of bank which points out the basic skills required for the job. After this HR team selects candidates who can perform these required tasks very effectively. These candidates are preferred to already have a career of at least 8-10 years so that they can understand the job demands properly.
Cross function hiring:
Hiring from different departments is also preferred as one of the recruitment method at HBL. For example while hiring for retail banking they also look into corporate banking’s department. Similarly hiring for HR department can be done from compliance and audit divisions.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
The bank’s Training Division has gained renown for its excellence and efficiency and was called upon to assist in training personnel for other upcoming baking institutions. With the passage of time this assistance became a testimonial of the bank’s valuable contribution towards establishing and developing of other commercial banks within the country where several trained Habibians went to work with senior, middle and junior levels. Word of its skills spread far wide which led to many international banks sending their personnel to HBL for training.
Presently HBL manages full-fledged teaching facilities and support staff at Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. The training programs are conducted with the latest aids and equipment and involve extensive training to new recruits, and existing staff with specialized courses that cater to the different cadre of personnel on topics of Management, Marketing, Selling, Accounting and Finance, Banking Law and Practice and Internal Procedure. Speakers from other prestigious institutes are also invited to deliver lectures.
Methods used:

On the Job training
Coaching/Mentoring
Group Discussions
Outdoor training

Rewards and Recognition
For them “remuneration” is the key element of employee engagement. Two elements of remuneration:

Annual salary
Performance-related benefit

Performance is more than just achieving financial objectives. As a bank they pride themselves at their unique culture and values Every employee receive a values rating that reflect how employee live at their values and culture, which influence their performance related awards. . Those with the lowest value ratings would receive no annual performance related bonus, even if they achieve all their financial targets. The rating criterion is as follows
“A” is a role model.
“B” is an exemplary.
“C” lived value with more time.
“D” needs to learn values.
These ratings denote your bonuses as well as pay increments. These ratings are purely awarded on the basis of performance and as mention earlier for that key performance indicators (KPI) plays a significant role. Along with these ratings they also give rewards for some particular achievement as recently they have arranged a 3 day holiday trip to Malaysia for their remote banking employees for performing significantly well.
Outsourcing
HBL manages its workforce by “not hiring everybody.” S. Ali Raza Zaidi, VP, Personnel Division said “Now a days, there are companies that deal help in delivering services, which helps in keeping our workforce under control. Take credit card sales for example. These companies go for aggressive sales and telemarketing. There are not our employees, but bring us business and charge a fee for the service. In this way, HBL is also outsourcing some of the services, for which we don’t need to actually employee people. However, if supervisor is needed, that must be a company’s person.”
INNOVATION AND RISK TAKING AMONG EMPLOYEES:
They motivate their employees to be courageous and bold enough to raise their voice against the system and for the system. There is a leadership board on internet to which every person is accessible and writes whatever he thinks should be done to improve the organizational effectiveness and then he is called to explain his idea in front of Board of Directors.
This further elaborates the openness that is quite visible in the culture at HBL, where every employee is given confidence to speak what they feel is right and raise voice against anything that is bad, anonymity is of prime importance and HBL makes sure the whistle blowers remain behind the curtains.
MOTIVATION AMONG EMPLOYEES:
Motivating the employees is of primary importance to any organization. HBL follows below criteria:
Compensate
The salary and employee benefits your bank provides serve a major role in recruiting, retaining, and motivating staff. While salary and benefits are not the “most” important aspect of your jobs, they definitely contribute to recruiting, retaining, and motivating superior employees. The quest to compensate employees fairly is an ongoing challenge. If your bank pays employees too little, you may risk alienating and losing valuable employees. If you pay too much, you may be unwisely spending company resources. How much your bank can afford for employee salaries can determine the caliber of talent you attract to your organization.
Performance
Performance plays a significant role in motivating the employees. Performance of the employee can be judge by the employee himself. As in the beginning of the year targets are being set for the employees performance so by the end of the year employees themselves can see that what they have achieved and what more they can earn with their performance.
Transition to Strategic HRM
WHY SHRM?
Strategic Human Resource Management practices enhance employee productivity and the ability of agencies to achieve their mission. Integrating the use of personnel practices into the strategic planning process enables an organization to better achieve its goals and objectives.
With the advent of today’s economy where services contribute to a major share of the GDP and the fact that the service sector is essentially people centric, it is vital that the “people first approach” be accepted by the organizations for sustainable business strategy. The practice of SHRM demands a proactive and hands on approach by the management as well as the HR department with regards to the entire scope of activities ranging from staffing and training and development to mentoring and pay and performance management.
Adnan-ur-Rehman Khan, Senior Manager, Human Resources “We’re not a small firm, we’re in fact one of the biggest banks of Pakistan, having experience that ranges to decades. With so much experience, the one thing which we learnt is that people are your most important, and irreplaceable asset. You want monetary gains, you cannot ignore the human resource of your firm. This is infeasible today, as it is in future. If you’re to go ahead, and really fulfill the vision, you have to trust your people. Invite them on the same platform, listen to their problems, and encourage them to speak their heart out. This essentially means that you welcome them on the big table, show them the big picture, share your mission, and treat your people like your stakeholders. Only in this way, by treating people as your strategic element, you can get the competitive edge against competitors.”
STRATEGIC PLANNING AT HBL
Planning process
Strategic Planning Division is made up of Board of Directors which evaluates previous performances, current market trends and forecasts future potential on a yearly basis. BoD evaluates several proposals and modified goals.
All the core departments of HBL are involved in the strategy formulation, the formation of following years’ strategy is a combination of inputs and proposals from departments like Marketing, Operations, IT, Finance and Human Resource.
According to Adnan-ur-Rehman Khan, Senior Manager, Human Resources at HBL “The strategy is not just what the next year would be like, it is more like fulfilling the vision, which cannot be done without coordination of each department, responsibility and commitment of every employee of each division. The strategy is made when each department is on same page, one platform. This is what strategic planning means. The process, though extensive, only goes through with considerable consensus. The Strategic Planning Division votes on the proposals, and suggests recommendations if needed. After going through the extensive process of planning and strategizing, the plan takes the shape of a ‘bible’.”
Policy making is done by feedback process i.e. input, process, output and feedback. Input is provided by the BoD and top management, and then they are circulated in the organization. Employees work according to these policies and then their pros and cons are observed for the future policy making.
Significance of strategic planning:
Planning out the future of any business is the best way to guarantee success. It seems difficult in beginning, but as the time goes by, a strategy is what helps a business move in the right (planned) direction. At HBL, once approved strategic plans become “bible” for the whole organization, every department is given particular goals to meet; every department comes up with its own strategy on how to achieve those goals.
SBUs are also encouraged to come up with their own business strategy, since each business division has better understanding on deciding the action plan to meet targets. According to Adnan-ur-Rehman Khan, Senior Manager, Human Resources at HBL “every division is allowed to come up with its own strategy to meet the set targets, top management is flexible in this regard.”
Types of Strategic Goals
Strategic goals are monetary and non monetary. Monetary goals are highly centralized and cascaded down to businesses and interpret these goals to SBU’s and non monetary goals are transferred to support functions and support functions interpret them. Performance management system reviews the performance of SBU’s and support functions, if any discrepancy is found, departmental heads are taken to task.
Monitoring Performance Management System
Progress of implementation of strategic goals is continuously monitored, if any discrepancy is found between performance level and set goals, it affects performance appraisal process. If everything goes as planned, performance management eventually helps in the performance appraisal of employees. Performance Management’s core objective is manage talent, motivation, commitment of the employees towards the organization and its vision.
They have very strong evaluation process in which the evaluation is started right away from the 1st day of joining to the bank. Right from the first day the immediate supervisor of an employee has a meeting with him and they both discusses about the goals, objectives and what is being expected from him. They have key performance indicators through which the performance of each and every employee is being analyse. With the help of this key performance indicators and the discussion with the supervisor the employee had a clear idea and road map that what he has to do and what is expected from him. The goals are being set by the mutual understanding between the employee and his supervisor. This evaluation is being done on the semi annually basis. On the basis of this evaluation employees get their pay raise and ratings. The more rating points you earned the more pay increments you will get.
Communication of Goals
CEO communicates these goals to direct reporters i.e. departmental heads which are further communicated to functional heads who set their respective targets. For example: the functional head of retail banking sets their target to collect the deposits of Rs 25 million and now it is to be increased to 35 million by 2013. Retail banking allocates goals to its further 20 regions after a meeting with their respective heads. Regional heads might require more resources so HR department arranges for that as well (Example quoted by S. Ali Raza Zaidi, VP, Personnel Division, HBL).
Policy Making and Risk Management
Board Human Resource Committee (BHRC) includes chairman, president and one independent board member. These three members issue recommendations on HR Initiatives and policies. Similarly there are committees of compliance and risk which deals with the matters like compliance with government policies on employment, ethical issues, matters like sexual harassment and the like.
STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
Transformation from Public to Private
In 2003, under the government of General Musharraf a commission called Pakistan Privatization Commission was formed, under the leadership of Shaukat Aziz HBL, along with many other companies, was privatized and 51% of its shares were sold to Aga Khan Fund for Economic and Development (AKFED).
Right Sizing of Workforce:
Earlier when HBL was a public organization its culture was lethargic, many people under burdened, all responsibilities were shared vaguely. When it went private one of the strategic decisions taken was of right sizing. From 31000 employees all over Pakistan, in 1997, the number was shrunk to around 10000 and it stands at 13000 as of 2012. The right sizing did not create an ethical issue because the nature of the organizational holding was changed.
Workforce cut down to 13000, which increased the productivity level and motivation because the less-productive employees were laid off which increase individual work load but not so much as to over burden employees and helped organization cut down cost of additional employees that were not contributing enough.
From Annual Confidential Report to Performance Management system.
Initially HBL used to do the performance appraisal on annual basis and this process was called annual confidential report which was as the name suggests kept confidential to the top management only. After privatization bank moved towards performance management system which was by nature more transparent, open to input from various departments and was reviewed on a continuous basis to make sure that the performance of employees is in line with the strategies made at the top.
Paradigm Shift to Growth-Oriented
According to Adnan-ur-Rehman Khan, Senior Manager, Human Resources “While some organizations are strictly business oriented where the only thing that matters is money, on the other extreme there are people centric organizations which are primarily concerned with its workforce, HBL took a midway approach. The organization believes in welfare of its employees by channeling their efforts towards achieving monetary goals. Bank’s culture is such that it’s the people who bring in profits so it should be people who are benefits the most from the profit which cannot be done without organizational growth in the terms of greater market coverage.”
Organizational Transformation by introducing Golden Handshake Scheme
When the organization realized that the current workforce could not come with many creative ideas and lacked physical efficiency and could not cope with changing market trends due to resistance to change, HBL introduced golden handshake scheme. Under this scheme 25/55 rule was established i.e. the employees with 25 years of experience within the bank and 55 years of age were offered 5 months cumulative salary and their services were recognized as an honor to HBL.
Inducting Young Blood
Previously discussed golden handshake scheme helped HBL to induct young blood. Since youth is more inclined towards updating themselves with latest techniques, open to change, have superior physical strength and more creative mind, this strategy helped increase efficiency in the organization. This young blood equipped with the creative mind and greater insights of recent market trends helped te bank to grow in the face of fierce competition.
Tracking Employee Demand and Supply
Management at HBL is alert on upcoming vacancies, and how to fill them up. Whenever an employee is about to leave, he must serve the one month notice period, the company first looks at the internal pool of candidates, those who are most eligible to be promoted. If there is no replacement available in the current employees, the bank goes the through the external recruitment process (mentioned above in recruitment process).
Employee Engagement
Job rotation and transfer is done every 3 years according to the policy. The assignment should be changed for this purpose. Nobody is allowed to work more than three years on the same position, he is either promoted or his job is changed, job rotation is a key policy at HBL.
Job rotation program is also there for Management Trainee employees who are being rotated to different departments after every 6 months. HBL derives following benefits from their job rotation policy:
Explore the Hidden Talent Job Rotation is designed to expose employees to a wider range of operations in order to assist managers in exploring their hidden talent. In the process, they are moved through a variety of assignments so that they can gain awareness about the actual working style of the organization and understand the problems that crop up at every stage.
Individuals Explore Their Interests: Sometimes, employees are not aware of what would like to do until they have their hands on some specific job. If their job is rotated or they are exposed to different operations, they can identify what they are good at and what they enjoy doing.
Identifies Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes: Job Rotation helps managers as well as individuals identify their KSA (Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes). It can be used in determining who needs to improve or upgrade his or skills in order to perform better. This helps in analyzing training and development needs of employees so that they can produce more output.
Motivates Employees to Deal with New Challenges: When employees are exposed to different jobs or assigned new tasks, they try to give their best while effectively dealing with the challenges coming their way.
Satisfaction and Decreases Attrition Rate: Exposing employees to different tasks and functions increase their satisfaction level. Job variation reduces the boredom of doing same task every day. Moreover, it decreases attrition rate of the organization.
Align Competencies with Requirements: Alignment of competencies with requirements means directing the resources when and where they are required. It assesses the employees and places them at a place where their skills, competencies and caliber are used to the highest possible extent.
Career counseling when needed
Employees who are not able to perform or want to leave the organization voluntarily they were given incentives which were added in their benefits. In other cases where employees with good performance are planning to leave the organization then they are provided with proper career counseling by the HR manager himself and his reservations are also sorted out to maximum extent.
Employee as family
To motivate the employee’s non monetary benefits are also there which includes gatherings, trips to foreign countries, picnics, visits, lunches and formal dinners. This helps the employees feel like part of the family, rather than just workers. This is essential in terms of relationship building, and increasing communication between the top management and other employees.
CORPORATE STRATEGY
According to Adnan-ur-Rehman Khan, Senior Manager, Human Resources “HBL follows the strategy of diversification, since it deals with different customers, in different markets. We have a different group of customers for Islamic Banking, different for Corporate Banking. We aggressively look for new divisions that have a high potential of growth. For example, we were the pioneers of Zarai Banking, which made our portfolio diverse.”
HBL is suppose to be a heterogeneous, complex and large organization therefore there are multiple strategies used. Centralized approach is used for financial dealings is used.
Top management is flexible in this regard that every function can devise its own business strategy.
Core Divisions at HBL
HBL’s pioneer division is Agri financing. They are market leaders and other banks are following HBL. The division deals in providing farmers with necessary financing.
Second core division at HBL is Retail Banking.
CULTURE AT HBL
Seniority based culture to performance based culture
When the bank was Public limited, the culture was more inclined towards “promotion comes with age and loyalty.” The transition to Private limited company ensured that the culture be changed performance based. The seniority now holds less weight as compared to actual performance, when it comes to performance appraisal.
Employee Work hours and Overtime issue
HBL has a very strict policy against overtime. Overtime is not appreciated much. Timings are followed strictly. Every employee is supposed to leave the office at 5.30 PM, the usual off time of the organization. If an employee is sitting late and working, he is obliged to answer as to what took him to register overtime. The culture is such that when more than 95% employees leave on time, including the top management, employees are generally demotivated to stay late as well.
Responsiveness
Customer responsiveness delivers an excellent customer experience. As a global research reported, 81 percent of banks with strong capabilities and competencies for delivering customer experience excellence are outperforming their competition. An effective customer response strategy enables a bank to deliver the highest standards of customer care at a time when the customer most needs it. That level of care makes an important contribution to customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty.
Head of resourcing instead of head of recruitment. Outsourcing worker services,
ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
The purpose of an organizational structure is to help in creating an environment for human performance. It is then, a management tool and not an end in its own. Although the structure must define the task to be done, the rules so established must also be designed in the light of abilities and motivation of the human recourse available. By analyzing the organizational structure of HBL presence of the following elements can be found in its structure.
Transition towards flatter organization
Another change in the private limited company was the removal of additional levels in the organizational hierarchy, this helped in reducing the communication gap between employees and management, and among