Human Resource Development Assignment Sample

Introduction Of Human Resource Development

Human Resource Management within an organisation is characterised by the processes such as recruiting, managing and directing employees working in it. In this report, the purpose and duties of HRM in finding the best talent for the organisation to complete the business goals are discussed. The strength and weaknesses of recruitment processes are discussed, along with the assessment of how functions of HRM can lead to talent acquisition. The second part explains the benefits of having an HRM department in employees and employers. Along with it, different methods used in HRM practices are evaluated. In the later section, internal and external factors affecting HRM are analysed. In addition to this, the applicability of principles of HRM in an organisation is illustrated.

Get free samples written by our Top-Notch subject experts for taking  assignment help  services.

Task 1

LO1 Explain the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management in terms of resourcing an organisation with talent and skills appropriate to fulfil business objectives

The purpose of the H.R. function and H.R.ts importance to the organisation, given its current problems and plans for further growth.  Since the owner of  'Say it with Chocolate'  is seeking to expand the business and needs to hire the employee, the H.R. officer can H.R.rve a crucial role in it. HR is a highly focused and concentrated person who aims at hiring, managing, and directing workers. The H.R. official deaH.R.with challenges related to safety, employee motivation, organisational development, performance management, training, and many more. H.R. keeps a healH.R.y and worker-friendly working culture and environment. In simple words, they can contribute profoundly to the overall organisational growth and direct the momentum towards attaining the firm's goals and objectives. H.R. deals with eH.R.loyees help maintain a healthy relationship between the employees and employer; managing transformation and change; H.R. planning, joH.R.analysis, recruitment and selection, performance management. H.R. also looks fH.R. flexible shifts and working hours, promote the culture of overtime by paying. In addition to this, H.R. offers trainH.R.g during probation. In today's time, HRM has shifted towards the strategic utilisation of workers. The functions of H.R. has been divH.R.ed into three main aspects: personal aspect, industrial aspect, and welfare aspect. They build a system for employee development and performance development. They create a competent, concerned, and committed environment within the organisation. In short, HRM is the central pillar of every company. To be very precise, HRM has five core functions: Staffing, Health and Safety, Compensation, Development, and Employee relations (Chang, 2016). Within these functions, H.R. performs sevH.R.al activities to keep the organisation going and growing.

1. Role and responsibilities as a Human Resource Officer

In the given scenario of ' Say it with Chocolate' , H.R. professionalH.R.s are hired to carry out the recruitment process. H.R. officials arH.R.responsible for selecting a strong workforce to serve the organisation's bottom line. These professionals have tons of knowledge of various legislations, such as labour law and employment contract law. They have a wider understanding of the firm's staffing requirements, strategic planning, assigning duties to the employees, and fulfilling the responsibility. Furthermore, H.R. recognises iH.R.ues concerning employees and ensures that employees have basic facilities like proper kitchen, drinks and snacks. As in the case study, an H.R. official is H.R.lled upon who is responsible for the whole recruitment process. The recruitment process consists of external and internal sourcing methods, and H.R. knows how toH.R.ocate the suitable candidates from the crowd (Bratton and Gold, 2017). The H.R.'s role does H.R.’send with the identification of most apt aspirants, but there are other subsequent activities.

Candidate Screening:  This includes screening the resume to determine who meets the minimum short-listing criterion.

Interviewing:  This will help determine the necessary skills not to be put into the resume.

Reference and Background Check:  Once the interview process is over, the H.R. manager is oH.R.en asked to go through a thorough reference and background checks. The H.R. will verify H.R.e information provided by the employee in the resume.

1. The advantages and disadvantages of the current selection methods used by the organisation

Employee selection is the process of gathering and assessing the information about a candidate to hire them. It comes under the overall staffing of the organisation. The purpose behind this selection process is to meet the organisation's demand for skilled, trained, and relevant, knowledgeable employees. The employee is selected from the pool of applicants. As given in the case study, the organisation shortlists the candidates based on their maths and English test performance. It is followed by the informal interview (Chang, 2016). These methods have their advantages and disadvantages that are discussed below in this section:-

Test

Aptitude Test (Maths and English)

Informal Interview

Advantages

· It assists in finding out how strong the basic knowledge of an employee is.

· It also reflects the mental abilities of an employee.

· interview would tell about the hidden skills of an employee.

· Helps in determining the hidden talents of workers.

· The process is quite comfortable and more flexible.

· It is a very practical way of analysing candidates. H.R. can determinH.R.the real intentions and wisdom.

· It breaks the communication gap between the candidates and interviewers.

· It assists in analysing the history of the Candidate's performance.

Disadvantages

· The test judges only the mental abilities, not the physical abilities.

· It does not reflect the actual talent of the employees.

· People from varying fields of specialisation can also get selected.

· This process is very time-consuming.

· Many candidates may not feel comfortable as they want to get rid of informal arguments.

· It may create a negative perception of the organisation.

· Chances of losing the potential candidates are very high due to their inability to clear the test.

1. Potential improvements that could be made to the current selection methods

The methods mentioned above are not enough to recruit the employees for 'Say it with Chocolate' as there are numerous flaws in the selection process. These methods may help the organisation meet its short-term needs but fail to fulfil the long-term needs. H.R. should underH.R.and the organisation's needs and then choose the aptest selection methods. The recommendations have been provided here to improvise the current recruitment methods. The H.R. officer shouH.R. understand the role or position and its responsibility before the hiring starts, then the only person with the right abilities should be hired. H.R. manager shou H.R. discard the idea of taking the test and include the telephone or Skype chat. Even if taking the aptitude test is necessary, the company should lower the bar of passing marks criterion to 35% rather than 50%. Instead of an informal interview, there should be a formal one to determine the actual strengths and weaknesses of the workers. In addition to this, a psychometric test should be included in the hiring process. The aptitude test must relate to the industry rather than a general one so that the desired candidates get screened out.

Task 2

LO2 Evaluate the effectiveness of the key elements of Human Resource Management in an organisation

1. Create a person specification for the role of "Receptionist."

The job description helps the organisation create a job application that attracts suitable and qualified candidates. The company can revise the job description from time to time to meet the job duties and requirements.

Person Specification

Essential criteria 

Desirable criteria

Education

· Candidate must be a graduate.

· Graduation with distinction in any stream.

Experience

· Minimum of one year experience as a receptionist. 

· communication with strangers and clients either face-to-face or on the telephone

Skills and knowledge

· Telephonic skills

· Verbal communication

· Time management

· M.S. office skillM.S.· Customer focus

· Listening skills

· Handles emergency

· Supply management

· Contributes to the efforts of the team.

· Good time management skills to schedule appointments and meetings.

· M.S. office skillM.S.in order to analyse the data and data management using M.S. excel.

· TopM.S.otch informal and formal communication skills

· Soft-spoken on telephonic conversation.

Special requirement

· Admiring personality

· Full of confidence

· Self- analysing

· Self-motivating

· Polite

· Learner

· Attractive body language and physique

1. Provide a rationale for a suitable medium for placing the advertisement.

The job advertisement is either an electronic or print notification given by the organisation to hire people to carry out a specific task. Employers advertise for jobs to request job applications from the targeted audiences . "Say it with Chocolate"  firm should make use of a suitable and economically viable method to place an advertisement. As given in the case study, the company is one of the fastest-growing organisations (Bratton and Gold, 2017). Therefore, choosing a suitable platform can help the firm provide the most talented candidates. A few of such platforms are discussed below in this section:

Newspaper:  It is a widely used platform across the world. The company can target particular strata of the society via posting the job notification in the newspaper. Most job seekers keep looking into the newspaper daily to get a suitable job based on their qualifications and experience.

Social Media Platforms:  In today's time, social media is emerging as the organisation's marketing and talent acquisition tool. They need to post an ad regarding recruitment on some widely followed pages. This can be either paid or unpaid promotion.

Online Job Websites:  This is a cost-effective method, and most companies use this platform for the recruitment process. The candidates create their accounts by filling up their qualification details. Later on, they are contacted by the recruiter via mail or phone call.

1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the previous methods of advertising jobs in the organisation

As given in the case study, the organisation earlier was hired through internal sources. No doubt that this method may work efficiently for some jobs and roles, but it is always to look outside the box. There are some advantages of an internal source of recruitments and disadvantages. These are discussed below:

Advantages:-

• It brings down the cost of hiring for the organisation
• Internal recruitment provides the organisation with a genuine and productive employee.
• It makes the attractive recruiter brand.

Disadvantages:-

• It can lead to conflicts among colleagues regarding the hiring of their referenced candidates.
• Git limits the choices available for the organisation.
• Expectations usually remain unmatched.

1. Produce a minimum of 6 questions that could be asked in the interview for the Receptionist, which would help improve the selection decision-making process.

• Explain the different responsibilities and roles of a receptionist.
• What could be the best skill set for a receptionist?
• Mention what the common challenges a receptionist has to face are?
• What are the things that make the Receptionist's role meaningful?
• What is the software you are most familiar with?
• How will you handle annoyed and stubborn visitors or clients?

Task 3

LO3 Analyse internal and external factors that affect Human Resource Management decision-making, including employment legislation

1. Evaluate the benefits to both the organisation and employees of apprenticeship and graduate training schemes.

Training and apprenticeships are beneficial for both the aspirant and the company. Microsoft has launched the training and apprenticeship scheme to raise the workforce's skills and generate a reasonable payoff in economic growth. It benefits Microsoft as it gains financially. Instead of paying thousands of dollars to the graduates, the company can offer scholars apprenticeships and train them at their cost. This saves a lot of organisations' funds. Microsoft trains the aspirants following the organisation's need, thereby allowing them to hone the skill of the Candidate accordingly (Woessmann, 2017).

For the employees, the apprenticeship is useful as they can study and get trained simultaneously. It helps them decide their career and assist them in advancing their professional skills. These schemes open the doors for the opportunities for the employees and make them skilled individuals.

1. What developmental opportunities are available to staff once they are in a permanent job role?

At Microsoft, nearly 85% of interns are offered permanent jobs, and about 80% of them accept the offer. There are various opportunities that Microsoft offers to its permanent employees. The first one is that company supports the employee in pursuing their passion and will assist in building employees' careers around it. Another perk is that Microsoft assists employees in mapping their future. The managers and senior employees at Microsoft help their juniors figure out their career goals and make them achieve their future endeavours. The company offers a wide range of tools that aid employees in discovering the best jobs that best suits them and support them to take their career to a higher level. Every Candidate seeks a permanent job role rather than working on some temporary post. Microsoft aims at providing permanent employees with higher job satisfaction and enjoys being safe. There are many benefits associated with permanent jobs. The employee enjoys the long service leave entitlement. The employer is responsible for all government-directed regulations, such as health and safety, work cover insurance, etc. Getting a loan from the bank is easier as getting income proof is easier. Getting into a permanent job often leads to building up confidence and self-esteem. For Microsoft, the permanent employees can be more effective and useful in accomplishing the company's goals and objectives and creating certain transferable skills that help the organisation in the long run.

1. Explain the benefits of the approach Microsoft has taken in respect of flexible working practices

Microsoft has always been advocating remote working. Therefore, it is offering flexible working schedules to its employees. It is a win-win situation for both the employer and the employee. The management clearly understands every employee's preference of how, when, and where they want to work. However, the company also understands the downsides of flexible working hours. Therefore, it offers the right mix of opportunities. It works on the concept of "enough privacy and enough teamwork" (Crandon, 2018). The employee experiences many benefits of having a flexible working schedule. The employee can fulfil the family needs and responsibilities and some personal obligations. Employees will learn to create their schedules by themselves. This helps in minimising employee burnout caused by overloading. Employees can take a break between the working hours and can rejuvenate themselves. The organisation tried to bring in technology to help itself and its employees and promote the culture of remote working. Office 365 was developed by Microsoft to provide employees with a facility to stay connected and creative while working remotely. Employees can make video calls, chat, and share information through it(Crandon, 2018).

For Microsoft, having a flexible working schedule helps increase the employee's morale. This would increase productivity, engagement, and commitment towards the firm. This also reduces the absenteeism and turnover of the highly valued staff. But, this can affect the team-oriented departments as their functioning may get affected.

1. Explain how Microsoft motivates its workers through its job design and systems of reward

Microsoft is an outstanding organisation that uses intrinsic and extrinsic reward approaches to motivate employees. By job design and rewards systems, the focus is on directing the employees towards achieving the organisational goals, raising the standards of efficiency, and creating a healthy competing environment. To avoid job boredom, the management has introduced the job rotation that shifts workers from one job to another. This helps them to develop multi-disciplinary skills (Sullivan, 2018). Microsoft provides the most advanced equipment and machinery to the employees that transform the job completely. The reward system is based on the task-based work system. This ensures that every employee is given equal opportunities. This helps the management compare the actual performance of the employees with one another. Microsoft utilises the merit pay systems in which extra incentives are given to employee as a reward.

Task 4

LO4 Apply Human Resource Management practices in a work-related context

1. What is meant by the term employee engagement?

Employee engagement is the widely discussed topic in the business world. The emotional connection and commitment mean that a worker shows in accomplishing the organisational goals. Such kinds of employees care about their work and organisation. Money is not the driving force for them, but they try to seek satisfaction in their job. In many research studies, it has been found that engaged worker gives better business outcomes. Such organisations have higher sales and customer satisfaction.

1. Why is employee engagement an integral strategy of employee relations?

Employee engagement is important for the organisation, or it can be said that it is vital for the firm. Employees who are engaged are highly productive and perform at their best abilities. It helps the organisation in making the marketing a cakewalk. Such employees are always willing to help the organisation whenever needed from them as they worship their work. These employees work for a longer period with the organisation and are less likely to quit. They help in fostering a good employee engagement culture and boosting employee retention.

1. Key approaches to engaging workers

Employees' engagement is an essential part of employee relations to maintain the relations with employees for the long term in the future. Coordination with all members of the organisation develops the potential to achieve the company's objectives. Increased company productivity indicates that employees are more effective towards the work and activities. The key approaches to employee engagement are:

Listening : It must be addressed that the employer is listening to employees' views, opinions, and suggestions. It increases the engagement towards the activities and functions.

Share ideas and practices : Opportunities are provided to employees to present their views and opinion for best work (Alfes et. al., 2013).

Employee voice : It facilitates that employees can raise the issues and presents feedback about the work.

Understand preferences and styles of the individual:  It is the employer's duty that he must understand the learning preferences and styles to be followed by the employees. Online training and collaborative learning are provided to employees.

The above key methods and approaches are beneficial to increase employees' communication with the lower and higher-level departments at the workplace. These methods enhance employees' confidence, productivity, motivation, and morale to complete the work in full dedication. Employee relations are increased with the maintenance of cooperation and coordination with every connected person of the organisation. The decision of HRM related to staffing, recruitment, remuneration, training etc., makes a positive impact and affects the relations with employees. The skilled and experienced employees are recruited for better resources in the organisation for growth and development (Alfes et al., 2013).

1. Main pieces of employment legislation in the U.K.

The legislatU.K.n of employees is developed to protect the rights of staff and employees at the employment level. Several acts are established in the countries which are followed in the HRM practices. Some are here mentioned:

Equality Act 2010:  As per the Act's provisions, it is stated that all employees are treated equally at the time of hiring and providing training and development to employees. The skilled employees are appointed free from any discrimination.

Health and Safety at Work Act 1974:  The Act provides better facilities for employees in health, welfare, and safety protection. The safety tools, equipment and guidelines are used and followed by employees for effectiveness (Banker et. al., 2013).

Working time regulations Act 1998:  Microsoft develops the time schedules and work shifts for employees' engagement at the workplace. The HRM needs to measure the time shifts and remunerations in the company.

All employees of different departments mandatorily follow the legislation to achieve the common objectives and aims of the organisation. The job profile of every individual related to the techniques, space, machinery, products, information etc. that is essential to give the benefits of human resource management in the company. As per the given case study of Say it with Chocolate and Microsoft, it is important to engage the better participation of employees with more comfortability. The success of an organisation is based on the employee's productivity and output that directly impacts the work (Banker et al., 2013).

Conclusion

In this report, the term "Human Resource Management" was thoroughly discussed in the context of some given organisations. In this report, the purpose and duties of HRM in finding the best talent for the organisation to complete the business goals were discussed. The strengths and weaknesses of recruitment processes were discussed, along with the assessment of how functions of HRM can lead to talent acquisition. In the second part, the benefits of having an HRM department in employees and employers were elaborated and explained. Along with it, different methods used in HRM practices were evaluated. In the later section, internal and external factors affecting the HRM were analysed. In addition to this, the applicability of principles of HRM in an organisation was illustrated briefly.

References

• Alfes, K., Truss, C., Soane, E.C., Rees, C. and Gatenby, M., 2013. The relationship between line manager behaviour perceived HRM practices, and individual performance: Examining the mediating role of engagement.  Human resource management ,  52 (6), pp.839-859
• Banker, R.D., Byzalov, D. and Chen, L.T., 2013. Employment protection legislation, adjustment costs and cross-country differences in cost behaviour.  Journal of Accounting and Economics ,  55 (1), pp.111-127
• Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017.  Human resource management: theory and practice . Palgrave.
• Breevaart, K., Bakker, A., Hetland, J., Demerouti, E., Olsen, O.K. and Espevik, R., 2014. Daily transactional and transformational leadership and daily employee engagement.  Journal of occupational and organisational psychology ,  87 (1), 138-157.
• Brewster, C. and Hegewisch, A. eds., 2017.  Policy and practice in European human resource management: The Price Waterhouse Cranfield survey . Taylor & Francis.
• Chang, J.F., 2016.  Business process management systems: strategy and implementation . Auerbach Publications.
• Dipboye, R.L., 2017. The selection/recruitment interview: Core processes and contexts.  The Blackwell handbook of personnel selection , pp.119-142.
• Gibbs, C., MacDonald, F. and MacKay, K., 2015. Social media usage in hotel human resources: recruitment, hiring and communication.  International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management ,  27 (2), pp.170-184.
• Kapse, A.S., Patil, V.S. and Patil, N.V., 2012. E-recruitment.  International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology ,  1 (4), 82-86.
• Kroft, K. and Pope, D.G., 2014. DoeD.G.line search crowd out traditional search and improve matching efficiency? Evidence from Craigslist.  Journal of Labor Economics ,  32 (2), pp.259-303.
• Crandon, J. (2018). Striking the right balance for successful remote working | Microsoft Enterprise UK. [online] Microsoft Enterprise U.K. Available aU.K https://enterprise.microsoft.com/en-gb/articles/digital-transformation/striking-the-right-balance-for-successful-remote-working/ [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].
• McPherson, B., 2016. Agile, adaptive leaders.  Human Resource Management International Digest ,  24 (2), pp.1-3.
• Mone, E.M. and London, M., 2018.  Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers . Routledge.
• Parmenter, D., 2015.  Key performance indicators: developing, implementing, and using winning KPIs . John Wiley & Sons.
• Peters, M.A., 2015.  Education, Globalisation and the State in the Age of Terrorism . Routledge.
• Reilly, P. and Williams, T., 2016.  Strategic H.R.: Building thH.R.capability to deliver . Routledge.
• Shailashree, V.T. and Shenoy, S., 2016. Study to Identify the Relationship between Recruitment, Selection, Towards Employee Engagement.
• Sullivan, J. (2018). Speeding Up Rotations and Internal Movement for Development, Retention and Profit (Part IV). [online] ERE Media. Available at: https://www.ere.net/speeding-up-rotations-and-internal-movement-for-development-retention-and-profit-part-iv/ [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].
• Taylor, S. and Emir, A., 2015.  Employment law: an introduction . Oxford University Press, USA.
• Woessmann, L., 2017. Vocational Education in Apprenticeship Systems: Facing the Life-Cycle Trade-offs.
• Yuan, P., Bare, M.G., Johnson, M.O. and Saberi, P., 2014. Using online social media to recruit human immunodeficiency virus-positive participants: a cross-sectional survey.  Journal of medical Internet research ,  16 (5).