Master of Arts in Human Resource Management (MAHRM)
STRATEGIC HR PLAN AT WELLS FARGO

Jimmy Rios
HRF7411-Human Resource Planning & Administration
PROFESSOR: JIMMIE FLORES
August 22, 2014
ONLINE SUMMER II, 2014

Summary
The effective organization that I chose is Wells Fargo Bank because of my familiarity in having worked there for the last four years in different capacities. I will focus this paper on the functional HR Strategy towards staffing and retention at the consumer lending group and specifically on the division that I work in the automotive finance group and the Tempe, Arizona national call center. I will give a brief description of the history of Wells Fargo and its core products and services, detail the vision, mission and value statements and how they relate to the strategy that HR uses regarding its staffing and retention. I will delineate the system and metrics system used for their recruiting strategies and how the call center comes to a specific number to decide on how many people to hire.
Company Background

The Brand Finance Banking 500 in the February 2014 edition of Banker Magazine recognized Wells Fargo as the world’s most profitable bank. (Wells Fargo Tops, 2014) But they weren’t always on top. And to understand the high profit trajectory of a Bank like Wells Fargo, you have to understand their history and background. Wells Fargo has been in business since 1852 when it was founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo. (Wells Fargo Timeline, 2011) During the Gold rush in San Francisco Wells Fargo used the classic stage coach and established its’ logo to transport gold. They established the Great Overland Mail service using the stagecoach and adding rail road, telegraph, steam ship and pony rider to get their messages delivered. They were nationalized by the U.S. government in 1918 and they were known as the American Railway Express Agency and they refocused on commercial markets. (Wells Fargo Timeline, 2011) In the 60’s Wells Fargo was acquired by the American Trust Company, and they retained the Wells Fargo name but refocus their efforts to retail banking. At the time Wells Fargo had 12 offices in California and American Trust had 102. From 1986 through 1998, Wells Fargo goes through numerous purchases and agreements and in 1998 they make a $34 billion merger agreement with Norwest of Minneapolis, creating the seventh-largest bank in the country. (Wells Fargo Timeline, 2011) This merger increased their presence in the Midwest.
Over the years, I’ve worked at Shell Oil Company, Prudential, USAA, managed a surgery practice, and owned several businesses. From my experience in business, I’ve found that successful managers understand the importance of identifying talented individuals, providing the resources they need, and get out of the way. This doesn’t mean that managers disappear. Instead, they serve the role of providing guidance, and removing obstacles that surface along the way.
Seeing an opportunity to increase their presence nationally and specifically in the East coast and Southern States, Wells Fargo proceeded to merge with Wachovia after the debacle of Wachovia in 2008 from the banking meltdown that saw Wells Fargo well positioned from the tentacles of its devastating effect. With this merger at the time it had put Wells Fargo with $196 Billion in assets, 15 million customers, 5,836 stores and almost 102,000 members. (Wells Fargo, 1998) In comparison fast forward to the 2nd Quarter of 2014 in the Wells Fargo Today quarterly fact sheet where it lists the total assets at $1.6 Trillion in assets, 70 million customers, more than 9,000 stores and more than 265,000 team members. (Wells Fargo Today, 2014) They do business with one in every three households in the United States and globally have 90 businesses in 36 countries. At the end of the 2nd Quarter of 2014, Wells Fargo ranked 4th in assets among banks in the United States and was the world’s most valuable bank by market capitalization. (Wells Fargo Today, 2014)

Core Products and Services
Online Banking
ATM Banking
Business Banking
Wholesale Banking
Government & Institutional Banking
Mortgage
First Mortgages
Home Equity
Credit
Debit & Consumer Credit Cards
Personal Credit Management
Auto Dealer Services
Education Financial Services
Insurance
Wells Fargo Insurance- Personal and small business insurance
Rural Community Insurance Services
Investments
Retail Brokerage
Wealth Management
Retirement
Wells Fargo Advisors
Capital Markets
Small Business
SBA Loan Programs
Merchant Services
Payroll
Commercial
Financing
Institutional Investing
International Services
Market Risk Management
(Wells Fargo, 2014)
Vision Statement
We want to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. (Wells Fargo, 2014)
Mission Statement
Our product: SERVICE. Our value-added: FINANCIAL ADVICE. Our Competitive Advantage: OUR PEOPLE” (Company Information, 2014)
Value Statement
“The More we give our customers what they need, the more we know about them. The more we know about their other financial needs, the easier it is for them to bring us more of their business. The more business they do with us, the better value they receive, the more loyal they are. (Stumpf, 2014)
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In the HR website for Wells Fargo the first slogan you get is “At Wells Fargo, we believe that our competitive advantage is our people.” (Wells Fargo, 2014) With competitive advantage being the focus here, Human Resources at Wells Fargo assumes a very distinct and top of the line importance in the enterprise success and scope of business. In a snapshot of the Consumer Lending Groups HR strategy they focus on talent review where business lines and HR partner to plan, prepare for, hold, and carry out actions during the review to understand strengths, find weaknesses of leadership trends and identify areas where development is needed with the businesses and across the enterprise. They use a TMS or Talent Management system that helps managers with the tools for compensation, performance management, career learning and development, rewards and recognition and data and analytics comprised of interactive dashboards, graphical trends and point in time snapshots to facilitate the managers in each line of business to be in touch with HR for forecasting and current development of their teams.
HR’s role is now more defined as a business partner involved in the success of each team member and the efforts to retain the employee through career development, opportunities for growth and rewards and recognition. In dealing with the on boarding process through the years with Wells Fargo I would have to say that they have a very complete system that lacks very little. One suggestion would be to have an HR representative in the center as opposed to having the HR department centralized in one area of each city with communication being email and text messaging as the norm. Even though this helps it takes away from the human interaction and personal touch that invites cohesiveness in an organization. The only barriers I see to the company's being more strategic is becoming too big in any one area and not letting the employee feel as part of a family, becoming to robotic and systematic and getting a feeling from the employees that they are not cared for.
Let’s discuss a top-notch employee in any organization. What does this person do to make him/her better? When looking to hire project team members, I’m interested in individuals who assume accountability for the work they do. This means that “own the work,” including the problems that inevitably will arise. These individuals will make sure the work gets done, and will not blame along the way. Employees are not born accountable. For this reason, we must implement a training program that identifies and develops the future leaders of the organization.
Managing surpluses and shortages of human capital in an organization runs congruent with aggregate planning and forecasting. In an article in the Management Study Guide it quotes "The biggest obstacle in case of manpower planning is the fact that the industries in general are not making optimum use of their manpower and once manpower planning begins, it encounters heavy odds in stepping up the utilization." (Obstacles in Manpower Planning, 2013). One of the biggest advantages of working with Wells Fargo is the vision for the future. Seeing and analyzing past trends and current market analysis of what clients are wanting and the efficiencies needed to be able to please the consumer at every step without forsaking quality and customer service is paramount.
At the same time addressing current trends of demand with proper staffing needs is challenging for the time that it takes to get new employees hired, bought into the culture and mindset of the company, productive and efficient, compliant with fair lending laws and aggressive enough to meet the company's expectations and set goals.
I would like to take this opportunity to share how Management by Objectives (MBO) helped me land a terrific job at USAA.
3 Reasons Why Tom was a Terrific Manager
Like top-notch employees, terrific managers are hard to find. In my last corporate job, I had the privilege of working for a smart, committed, and fair manager. While I’ve had other good managers in the past, I felt Tom was the best.
Applying and Interviewing
In the job classifieds section of the San Antonio Express-News, I noticed an IT position for a large insurance and investment company. The position called for several skills that were a good match, and I decided to apply.
Several weeks after submitting my application, I received a call from HR to schedule a series of interviews with managers of the IT department. The last interview was with a Tom, and he asked me one key question: Will you tell me more about Management by Objectives used in previous jobs?
I’m glad that he asked this question because I’m a big fan of MBO. The approach here is to meet with the manager early in the year and outline the objectives that will be completed. In essence, the manager helps me when I run into issues, but I am also accountable for my work.
Tom was pleased with my response, and he later told me that my knowledge and enthusiasm responding to this question made me the top candidate for the position. In fact, more than 1,000 prospects had applied.
Tom’s Managerial Approach
I enjoyed working for Tom because he was a no-nonsense manager. He was clear with the requirements, and he took the time to communicate expectations to those who worked for him.
Here are three reasons that Tom was a competent manager:
#1: He intervened when necessary.
As part of my duties in the IT department, I was assigned the $11.5M budget. This was hard work, especially when I had to collect information from other IT managers. The managers were busy, or they were unwilling to share information with me. Tom was proactive, oftentimes walking with me to speak directly with the managers. In short order, I had the information I needed to complete my work.
#2: He promoted training opportunities.
This particular organization offered many training sessions. Given that I used the MS Office Suite for much of my work, I completed every course in the program. This knowledge opened several key opportunities for me within the organization. #3: Tom was transparent.
I recall the time when the company was downsizing, and every department was going to lose 10% of the staff. Given we had 10 people on our team, one person was going to be given the pink slip. The week before the announcement, Tom stated: I want to let you know that one of us will be cut from the team. I’m unsure right now who that person is, but it does include me. As it turns out, one employee from our department accepted a severance package, which reduced our staff by the 10% mandate.
Tom was not perfect, but he was talented. We could ask him for assistance, and he would help. If we stayed late working on a project, he stayed with us. He understood the importance of valuing employees. By doing so, we were committed to exceeding expectations.

This is a balancing act that is extremely challenging. To address both surpluses and shortages the Consumer Lending Group of Wells Fargo has taken an aggressive approach of uniting the different arms of auto, unsecured lines of credit and credit cards. Currently there are groups of 10 individuals per team that are all in a centralized center in three national Centers throughout the United States. Each group currently specializes in one of the arms of lending mentioned above. The company bought into a new technology system called (CUSP) that uniforms all the applications from the three branches of lending so that all employees know how to work the same system. Eventually every employee will be cross trained and will be able to sell the opportunities of any of the three lending arms without being a specialist in just one arm they will be specialist of all products because really they are still analyzing customer financial needs and plugging the correct product to meet the client’s needs.
By being multi or cross trained in all facets of consumer lending the company will utilize and max out every employee and the employee will be doing the job of three people. Since the company will eventually have everyone able to sell all products they can ramp up their marketing efforts and in turn can hire more employees to keep up with the heavy marketing. There will only be Mortgage Lending and Consumer Financial Services and this is great for the clients because they know that all options will be explored and only one credit report will have to be pulled.
In analyzing the strategy that Wells Fargo uses it has a mix of top down forecasting which Mello describes as "promotes organizational efficiency in resource allocating" and "An organization whose key strategic objectives involve cost minimization can opt for top down forecasting." (Mello, 2011). Since the company is also extremely concerned with change and adaptability it also adopted bottom up forecasting. And like Mello says "If an organization has objectives of both responsiveness and efficiency, it is possible to use both forms of forecasting and have middle levels of management responsible for negotiating the differences between the two techniques." (Mello, 2011)
With these strategies in place the company has redesigned job processes so that fewer employees are needed, attempts to reduce turnover and recruits new permanent employees to keep up with marketing and demand. Sangeeta a recruitment strategy consultant with Wells Fargo, said it well when she said “I work on understanding what they are doing well, where there are gaps, and what are some of the tools and information we need to bring to our clients in the recruiting community to close those gaps. For example, what the staffing model should look like to make sure we have the right number of staff and the breakdown of that staff to ensure we can meet the volume that we project for a market.” (Sangeeta, 2014)
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In regards to the surpluses it handles all three by reducing outsourced work by giving employee training to teach cross selling opportunities and with increased marketing sees the need to expand its operations. With proper and astute metrics and systems to maintain the flow of production and ascertain the needs of the company, Wells Fargo is very well positioned to meet the hiring needs of its centers for many years to come.
The company’s employees’ are its’ competitive advantage based on the engagement and constant feedback and involvement that the company instills. Fan mail and surveys from customers’ gives the company’s employees motivation to keep the customer service level at an optimum pace and the bonus structure and higher than average salary range attracts employees from all walks of life. Wells Fargo has a highly developed talent-development program for high-potentials from underrepresented groups, with almost all its top tow level executives participating in its cross cultural mentoring program. (Wells Fargo: N.17, 2014) According to Diversityinc.com it puts Wells Fargo in the 17th place out of 50. (Wells Fargo: N.17, 2014) Diversity at Wells Fargo is their utmost priority and being a global brand makes it a point to differentiate itself from the competition with this avenue. I’m proud to have found a place to make my mark and hopefully be able to manage, recruit and develop future talent to keep strengthening the brand that makes Wells Fargo a top notch bank and company with all the attributes of a conglomerate that deserves to be in the top 50 companies worldwide.

REFERENCES
Company Information and Profile of Wells Fargo. (2014) Retrieved from http://www.makingafortune.biz/list-of-companies-w/wellsf-fargo.htm

MSG Management Study Guide. (n.d.). : Obstacles in Manpower Planning 2013. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from http://www.managementstudyguide.com/obstacles-manpower-planning.htm

Sangeeta, Recruitment Strategy Consultant. (N.D.) Retrieved August 10, 2014, from Wells Fargo Bank: https://www.wellsfargo.com/careers/people/hr/sangeeta

Stumpf, John. G. (2014) The Vision and Values of Wells Fargo. Retrieved July 5, 2014, from Wells Fargo Bank: https://www.wellsfargo.com/invest_relations/vision_values

Wells Fargo. (2013) Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2013. Retrieved July 28, 2014, from Wells Fargo: http://187hrynv8uv1zp0cw32838b1aoz.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2014/06/2013_CSR_Report.pdf
Wells Fargo . (2014). Our Vision: Where we're going . Retrieved July 29, 2014, from Wells Fargo: https://www.wellsfargo.com/invest_relations/vision_values/3
Wells Fargo. (1998, Nov 2). News Release. Retrieved July 28, 2014, from Wells Fargo: https://www.wellsfargo.com/press/merger19981102
Wells Fargo. (2011, Mar 15). News Release. Retrieved August 3rd, 2014, from Wells Fargo: https://www.wellsfargo.com/press/2011/20110315_Japan
Wells Fargo web site (2014) Human Resources. Retrieved http://clg.hosting.wellsfargo.com/humanresources/talentmangement/index.cfm

Wells Fargo. (1998, Jun 9th). Wells Fargo Timeline. Retrieved July 27, 2014, from SF Gate: http://articles.sfgate.com/1998-06-09/news/17723884_1_central-pacific-corp-great-american-bank-branches-wells-fargo
Wells Fargo. (2014). Our Values: What we stand for. Retrieved July 18th, 2014, from Wells Fargo: https://www.wellsfargo.com/invest_relations/vision_values/6
Wells Fargo. (2014). Wells Fargo Team Member Handbook (PDF)-Teamworks at Home. Retrieved July 18, 2014, from Wells Fargo: http://teamworks.wellsfargo.com/handbook/HB_Online.pdf
Wells Fargo. (2014). Wells Fargo Today. Retrieved August 03, 2014 from Wells Fargo: https://www08.wellsfargomedia.com/downloads/pdf/about/wellsfargotoday.pdf
Wells Fargo Tops List of World's Most Valuable Bank Brands, Leads Strong US Growth. (2014). Retrieved July 6, 2014, from: http://brandfinance.com/news/in_the_news/wells-fargo-tops-list-of-worlds-most-valuable-bank-brands-leads-strong-us-growth
Wells Fargo: No. 17 in the DiversityInc Top 50. (n.d.) Retrieved from: www.diversityinc.com/wellsfargo/