Questions for HRM and Change Management

1. How has COVID-19 changed the HRM policies in your company and what was the impact of
those changes (Positive/negative/both)?

The impact of Covid-19 on health, economies, and markets is an unfolding story that is complex
and fluid in its ever-changing dimensions. One of the biggest visible impacts of the virus has
been on the organisations and the nature of workplaces. As the coronavirus spread invisibly
across the globe, nation after nation has declared lockdowns, and organisations have scrambled
to comply with lockdown restrictions while striving to keep operations going. Work-from-
home (WFH) became the immediate solution to business continuity, and this was never
practiced in my organization, tit was a positive impact if I have to say about the work conditions,
workforce, it was definitely difficult but manageable. I think Agility, creativity, flexibility - these
are the attributes demonstrated by HR in the lockdown scenario. As employees started logging
in remotely, HR functions stepped up to transform brick-and-mortar offices into virtual
workplaces almost overnight. Guidelines to ensure that employees could manage WFH
seamlessly and securely had to be quickly defined and disseminated. In many cases, employees
had to be supported with digital infrastructure - laptops, data cards - to ensure that business
continuity could be maintained.

2. How has work from home affected HR management and how has it affected JP Morgan’s
employees?

I think in our organization like many others it was a challenge but we were able to overcome
that and have one of the most profitable year in terms of business. If I have to talk about the HR
FOREFRONT, we had to have the willingness to listen and be open-minded to changes. Keeping a
pulse on the workforce and understanding the changes inside the employees is crucial for
proper employee engagement. This way, the HR manager can gradually adopt new policies that
reflect the needs and demands of the remote workforce. There have been new employment
laws in trend over the past few years. These laws require employers to identify the small tasks
done by the employees in their devices for organizational benefit. This has made the estimation
of employee compensation more difficult and challenging. The compensation has to support the
organizations’ labour laws as well. One good thing we had and contributed in was scheduling
Virtual Development and Social Events, we had a lot of workshops, fitness classes for the
employees which kept them motivated and engaged.

3. What is the organizational culture like in your company and could you describe it briefly?
a. Values

A Commitment to Integrity, Fairness and Responsibility. In business, as in every other arena, ethical
behaviour does not just happen. It has to be cultivated and repeatedly affirmed throughout the
organization. At JPMorgan Chase, acting with integrity is paramount– and it applies to every aspect
of our company.

b. Structure

We have different structure for different line of business, basic starts from team member and goes
upto the CEO

c. Systems etc
 d. Clan culture/Hierarchy culture/adhocracy culture/market culture
4. JP Morgan being an American company has their own HRM policies that are more
international, how do those compare to local HRM policies that you might have
experienced?

We have the same HRM policies internationally and nationally, only maybe there are time, leave
differences and bonus / compensation differences, else we work together as a team , so the
culture is global, doesn’t change according to the states/countries

5. What do you think are the advantages of having an international HRM policy from your
experience? What are the challenges you have faced implementing international policies?

Advantages could be creating a positive climate of diversity, where there is inclusion and we get
to learn allot because of the cross culture, definitely a solution to global talent management, we
do get opportunities internationally to move, train and lead, A good network builders and
coordination and cross-cultural training tool.

Challenges again we don’t get Indian holidays, but we have US holidays for instance, also the
cross training is beneficial but can be a barrier to conversation they are also complex and deal
with deep-rooted behaviours, then sometimes the Training Techniques are available to assist
overseas assignees in the adjustment process

6. How is talent management and recruitment carried out in your company? How are the
concepts of ethics and fair treatment tackled during and after recruitment?
7. Job design

Job description: a list of job duties, responsibilities, reporting relationship, working conditions, and
supervisory responsibilities one product of a job. Job specification: a list of a job’s human
requirements that is requisites education, skills, personality, and so on-other product of a job
analysis.

8. How does your company keep staff motivated and ensure good mental health of your
employees?

We have a completely different team who engages the employees and motivates them to do better
also we have on the call doctors, advisors and mental health experts on the call, people don’t have
to take their names and they can just randomly call the helpline and speak to them. We also
encourage healthier eating, encourage more physical exercise, company has a wide mental health
plan, we encourage positive communication in the workplace, run employee polls or surveys to get
valuable feedback on how the morale is, keep an eye on your colleagues and know what to look for
and look at running a meditation course or weekly reflection time

9. How does JP Morgan analyse and grade the performances of its employees and what are the
consequences (positive/negative) of the final grade?

Our company has launched Insight 360 marking system, which helps the employees in self-
evaluation, group evaluation and manager evaluation. We have three reviews that will be given to us
in the end of the years, Strong, On Track and Growth, when someone is put under growth for the
first time, other person is given a sponsor or a mentor who can work with him/her for 3 months,
again the evaluation has been done and employees will be observed for 3 more months and then
will be put on an action plan, if the ratings aren’t improved after a year , then there will be a letter
that will be handed and looked on why is it happening, observed, if there is no improvement what so
ever, the employee will be asked to quit or leave.

10. What are the steps followed by JP Morgan to implement changes (change management) in
the strategies of HRM?

I work with investment banking and treasuries, I can mention a change that I know of in our Lob,

Audits. The growing capabilities of automated technology are creating new opportunities for
efficiency. To identify these areas of improvement, treasurers should conduct annual audits of
people, processes and technology. These audits should be geared to look for steps that can be
streamlined, data or information that can be enhanced and functions that can be outsourced or
centralized. The underlying philosophy here is that your people should be spending more of their
time on analytical or exception-type functions—not on manual or repetitive steps that can be
programmatically addressed. A common example is centralizing A/R or A/P functions from field or
remote offices into a shared services solution; this helps realize economies of scale, mitigate risk and
improve working capital metrics by standardizing processes and leveraging scalable technology.

Another aspect of the audit should include bank relationships and account structures, seeking
opportunities to balance wallet share of operating relationship banks and lead credit providers while
managing an efficient account structure that optimizes liquidity.

Finally, treasurers should assess the fees for services from banking providers, vendors or other third-
party partners. Over time, it’s possible for redundant services and platforms to be implemented, or
for such services to no longer be necessary due to new tools made available in the market.
Evaluating the organization’s current services relative to its actual needs can help identify quick-win
opportunities that can streamline and simplify your treasury infrastructure.

Benchmarking. One method for measuring progress over time is to compare treasury functions with
those of other organizations. Treasury organizations should examine available external metrics and
market best practices to benchmark their functions. Common metrics available through public
sources can include working capital metrics (DSO, DPO) and various cash flow and cash level ratios.
This gives a treasury organization another method to gauge whether performance is lagging or
leading, and it helps reveal blind spots and gaps requiring action and improvement.

Policy and procedures review. When managing across different lines of business or even remote
offices, establishing standard processes and policies for everyone to adhere to is a critical building
block of a viable control framework. To this end, treasury organizations should review disjointed
policies and procedures, staff responsibilities and segregation of duties—both in writing and in
application. The review should cover how risk tolerance and the control framework are in step with
the corporate strategy and market environment.

Treasury policies and procedures should be tested as part of this assessment, though organizations
rarely perform these tests. An effective strategy should include treasury governance that has not
only been reviewed, but also stress tested to establish operational readiness for unforeseeable
headwinds.

Future growth strategy. A treasury organization is an essential stakeholder in the growth strategy of
the company. It falls on treasury to put in place scalable structures and tools that can accommodate
both organic and inorganic (i.e., mergers and acquisitions) growth. However, treasury is often
included or informed late in the process, which can increase risk exposure, limit its ability to
advocate for new tools or partners to support the plan, and frustrate the overall effort as treasury
tries to catch up with the front-end business. Particular to organizations with considerable M&A
activity in the works, informing treasury in advance will allow it to develop tools such as an M&A
integration playbook to help facilitate efforts going forward.

Technology gap analysis. There are several technological tools that can advance and improve a
treasury organization’s capacity to support the enterprise strategy. A technology gap analysis is a
broad review of current technology relative to current and future treasury responsibilities, in order
to help determine how the existing architecture can support these responsibilities. The analysis
allows treasury to identify key problem areas in the existing infrastructure and focus its surveying
efforts on technology that can truly support its needs. Areas to review include portals and platforms
leveraged for information reporting and analytics; workflows and enterprise solutions that interface
with partners; and connectivity shared with partners, including banks and other third parties with
whom files and data are exchanged.

For example, many treasurers want a single global dashboard represented visually, with automated
efficiency to obtain global bank account and liquidity reporting across all banking partners.
Performing this exercise should help reveal what capabilities exist internally today to support that,
and identify where investment needs to be made to accomplish this objective.