Unit 35 Improving Employee Performance Assignment Example

Unit 35 Developing Individuals, Teams And Organisations Assignment Sample

Introduction to knowledge skills and behaviours required by hr professionals

Developing the team members is one of the vital jobs of managers whether they are new and experienced. This is necessary because the managers are responsible for carrying out the organizational task in order to achieve organisational goals. In this report, a brief discussion on the how an HR manager can hone the skills of employees and carry out a well-structured assessment of performance. There are two sections of this report. Talking about the first part, it covers totally different aspect and the later covers the ways to improve the performance of employee along with the role of HR in making it possible. In the next section, a discussion on high-performing team culture and how to develop it will be done. The overall aim is to improve the performance of employees along with an effective developed communication.

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Section 1

LO1 Analyse employee knowledge, skills, and behaviours required by HR professionals

P1- Determine appropriate knowledge, skills, and behaviours (KSB) that are required by HR professionals across the department.

It is well-known that in this ever-changing world the role of the HR has become very dynamic. The major duties HR include hiring, directing, controlling, and retaining. In addition, HR is responsible to maintain the healthy working conditions for each and every employee of the organisation (Phoosawad, et.al, 2014). Moreover, the sustainable growth of the company is their primary concern. Other primary functions of the HR managers include establishing the communication channel between management and the employees. The KSB of an HR is reflected in fig. 1

• The Human Resource manager should have certain skills, especially the technical skills in order to manage the technical glitches that may arise while carrying out day-to-day operations. This can be done by deploying certain software or applications for performance management and analysis or for resource planning.
• In addition to this, HR should have the necessary skills to promote and established healthy employee-employer relations, promote a sense of equality among employees.
• HR is responsible to hire potential employees, manage and direct them. In addition to this, he/she should be responsible to take measures to reduce the employee turnover rate.

HR’s main function is to keep the employees motivated for a longer duration. They should be identifying the elements that are causing the distraction and demotivating the employees.

• The behaviour of HR should be open that employees can share their problems directly without hesitating. However, they should not be too flexible that employees start taking them for granted.

P2- Analyse a completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills, and behaviours and develop a professional development plan for a given job role.

Skills and attributes analysis required by HR professionals, based on a range of different roles within an organisation.

The following skills should be there in an HR manager in order to carry out the tasks that are quintessential for the healthy functioning of the organisation:-

Leadership Skills: It is vital and most sought-after skills for every manager as they are responsible to manage, direct, operate, and control tasks. In addition to this, they are required to facilitate organisational tasks by using their wisdom and experience.

Communication Skills: HR manager has to deal with people from different background and ethnicity.In addition to this, they are the link between top management and the employees. Moreover, they are required to explain the basic functioning of the organisation at the time of employee induction. This requires top-notch communication skills.

Technical Skills: These skills are related to the knowledge about software and how to employ them when any planning related or resource allocation problem arises. Basic software knowledge, for instance, MS Excel, MS Project.

Problem-solving Skills: These skills are required in order to deal with the tasks that are complex and that are beyond the control of the normal employee or team leaders. This may be related to resource allocation. Good problem-solving skills are very useful for them.

Management Skills: HR managers are required to supervise and manage the tasks by providing directions to their subordinate. This can only be possible if they have top-quality management Assignment skills (McDermott, 2014).

Personal SWOT analysis.

It is very important that an HR aspirant carries out his/her SWOT analysis. This would help in determining personal weaknesses and strengths. In addition to this, it will be very useful in determining the potential for growth and personal development along with the factors that are hindering personal growth. Here, a SWOT analysis has been provided of an HR manager in order to analyse the areas of strengths and improvements (Jurevicius, 2018).

The above SWOT analysis is very crucial for me to handle my career as an HR manager. In fact, my career depends on a number of factors that were highlighted in the SWOT. Based on this, it is helpful for me to prepare the personal development plan as per my weaknesses in order to improve them at the earliest and in a well-structured manner. One thing to note here is that there are some skills that are developed with time when someone become experienced. All that is required in here is that I should focus on my personal development plan to turn my weaknesses into strengths.

Create a professional development plan for HR Manager Role.

Reflective statement.

The above SWOT analysis is very crucial for me to handle my career as an HR manager. In fact, my career depends on a number of factors that were highlighted in the SWOT. Based on this, it is helpful for me to prepare the personal development plan as per my weaknesses in order to improve them at the earliest and in a well-structured manner. One thing to note here is that there are some skills that are developed with time when someone become experienced. All that is required in here is that I should focus on my personal development plan to turn my weaknesses into strengths.

M1- Provide a detailed professional skills audit that demonstrates evidence of personal reflection and evaluation

As an HR manager, it is my duty to take care of the task and operations. Even though I am not the best one but I take care of my subordinates and my duties very carefully. As the SWOT analysis says that I am good at many things and weak at some things. My leadership skills are very strongand this helps me in directing, controlling, and managing employees and organisational task. In addition to this, my communication skills are top-quality. This helps me in managing people from different background. I serve as a medium to take the problems of employees to the top level management and another way around. In addition to this, I explain the basic functioning of the organisation at the time of employee induction. Talking about my supervisory skills, management can take feedback from employees about the effectiveness of my supervision. They learn a lot of things from me and carry out the task. However, as I said that I am not perfect as I have some weaknesses too. My IT skills, my problem-solving skills and lack of patience are some of my downsides. I realise that I should work on them. All that is required in here is that I should focus on my personal development plan to turn my weaknesses into strengths.

D1- Produce a detailed and coherent professional development plan that appropriately sets out learning goals and training in relation to the learning cycle to achieve sustainable business performance objectives

LO2 Analyse the factors to be considered when implementing and evaluating inclusive learning and development to drive sustainable business performance

Introduction

This report will talk about the basic difference between organisational learning and individual learning along with a discussion on training and development in the context of a global company “Amazon.”In addition to this, it will also highlight the desire for inclusive training and development practices.

Overview of the Organisation

Amazon.com, Inc., is the world's biggest online retailing business and is commonly known as ‘Amazon'. The organisation deals in almost everything, such as electronics, machines, software, clothing, books, etc. The overall revenue of the company is US$ 177.866 billion in 2017. It employs over 100,000 employees worldwide.

P3- Analyse differences between organisational and individual learning; training and development

In order to understand the difference between, it is important to understand the concept of inclusive training and what its perks are. Since Amazon has people from varying background, ethnicity, and skill level, it is required by the top manager to consider them while formulating organisational strategies (Qi and Tian, 2012). This is useful for them in many conditions and managing them in a proper way. Inclusive training is all about promoting an environment where workers can have equal opportunities, respect, equity, growth, and positive influence on customers. Such an environment is very useful for them, especially when they want to hone their skill set (Vesso& Ruth, 2014).

Individual Learning vs. Organisational Learning

In the context of Amazon, organisational learning is characterised as developing and learning while working for a firm. It has been seen that majority of firms as giant as Amazon have a well-defined culture and developing environment where they can innovate and willingly learn. On the other hand, the process of individual learning is all about intentionally grabbing things and fulfilling personal development needs. Individuals' abilities are the major factor in this type of learning process (Real, et.al, 2014).

The major points that differentiate the two processes are:-

• Individual learning is related to the worker's self-improvement, while organisational learning is more centred on overall requirements for organisational change. The last term is about the improvement of the entire group alongside the individual development.
• The basic similarity between the two types of learning is that both are components of a never-ending cycle. Individual learning will affect the firm. For instance, with the learning of a worker, a firm additionally develop and learn and the other way around.
• Individual learning will help in the advancement of an individual only, while the organisational learning takes the entire group learns and develops.
• The individual learning will be a burden to the pocket of an employee and it would be time-consuming and requires much more resources.

Training vs. Development

Since Amazon has to deal in a large number of nations worldwide, it has to hire people having no experience to those who are expert. Employee development and training is the backbone of HRM. Even though they are spelled together, their meanings are different. Talking about the process of training, it is one of the main learning activities that an organisation provides to its new employees who are inexperienced. This is crucial because the new joinersdo not have the required skill. Amazon, being the top e-retailing company, provide each and every employee the basic computing knowledge. This would help them to understand the technical aspect. The next is the development which is usually a type of self-assessment and is required in order to grow further in the career. The major difference between the two is :

Training: The training is often associated with new joiners and the inexperienced people. The main aim is to make them learn vital skills that are necessary to carry out the day-to-day task in Amazon.  

Development: This is usually associated with the top-level managers and is very well-structured in order to improve the skills sets of manager that will help them in growing in their career.

The key differences between training and development are given below:-

• Training usually completes in 1 to 6 months, whereas the development process is a long duration course and may take years.
• The training is provided for a purpose that employees' skill will improve and get aligned with the needs of the firm. On the other hand, development is all about gaining insight into the organisational tasks and gathering knowledge.
• Training takes place under some supervisors who instruct and direct employees. Development is a self-learning process. There is neither any instructor nor any trainer who will provide the necessary guidance to the manager or executives.
• The point to note here is that if there is any individual learning process undergoing in Amazon (which rarely happens), then the person is going through both development and training altogether.

P4- Analyse the need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business performance.

Amazon has a global presence and it is growing day by day despite having local and international competition. In order to sustain its position in the global market, it is investing in skill and knowledge development of its employees. This would help them in managing various challenges. The world and technology are ever-changing that keep hindering the organisational growth. This is important for the sustainability of the organisation that its employees gain and develop professional skills. Amazon is providing various training opportunities and thousands of internship to college students in order to make them learn and grow in a corporate environment and develop themselves accordingly (Hayes, 2018).

Many research works have proved that continuous learning is the key to success in the organisation. Amazon is putting millions of dollar in some schemes and training programmes. It is about improving the skills and knowledge of employees. On a personal level, the employee can benefit from these initiatives in many ways. These would make them learn new skills that will help them in growing in the career ladder. In addition to this, they would become the most sought-after candidate for the organisation who want to hire people to fulfil their customer needs. In addition to this, it is crucial for employees to remain motivated for a longer duration and remain valued for the company.

There are numerous perks for the continuous learning process (Kearney, 2018.):-

• It enhances the productivity and level of satisfaction among the employee that reduces the turnover rate.
• It is said that organisation who are putting more focused on learning are always profitable.
• It helps in fighting and eradicating the business uncertainties and market issues that may hinder the growth of Amazon.

M2- Apply to learn cycle theories to analyse the importance of implementing continuous professional development

As per the views of Kolb, a person develops knowledge by gaining experience. Based on this thought, he proposed his famous theory which is generally called Kolb’s Theory. It focuses on internal cognitive abilities of a person. It comprises four stages that are cyclically linked and all of them are important for the development of an individual. The four stages as defined by Kolb are “concrete experiences, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, active experimentation.”The importance of this theory in the context of the regular development of an individual is that it facilitates sound decision-making in Amazon. This would have many benefits, such as improved productivity, enhanced results, and improvise the performance. This will have dual-benefits as both individual and organisational would be benefitted from it (Rabl, et.al, 2017).

Conclusion

This report elaborated the basic difference between organisational learning and individual learning along with a discussion on training and development in the context of a global company “Amazon.”

Section 2

LO3). Apply knowledge and understanding to the ways in which high-performance working (HPW) contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage.

P5). Demonstrate an understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage within a specific organizational situation.

High-Performance Working and its significance

This concept holds a vital place in the growth and development of the skills and performances of the employees of the organisation. It is a concept which focuses on the formulation of such practice by which performance and the productivity of the employees can be enhanced. There are various methods by which the performance of the employees is enhanced such as by inspiring them to perform well by providing rewards or recognition or by conducting a training session in order to provide the employees learning of new skills and knowledge which will be for them and for the performance of their work as well. With the assistance of such performance, the organisation will be able to accomplish its goals objectives and have a competitive advantage in the market. High-performance working also makes a contribution to the following:

Engagement of the employees

The workforce is the most significant resource of the company as without the workforce, there will be no performance of the organisational operations. Employee Engagement is a necessary process in which the workforce of the organisation is included in making important decisions and in the operations of the organisation (Mone and London, 2018). The development of relationships between the managerial personnel and the workforce also helps in employees engagement. It also has been identified that the rewards and the recognition also provide aid in the engagement of the employees as their job satisfaction level is increased.

Competitive Advantage

The theory of High-Performance Working is all about the development of the skills, knowledge, experiences, and capabilities of the employees and the ultimate result of which employees becoming competitive and is able to compete with the other employees of the organisation (Shields, et. al., 2015). Provision of the training also helps in the development and growth of the employees and making them competitive. With the development of healthy competition within the working environment within the organisation, high performances and productivity are ensured.

Similarly, the management of the Amazon makes sure that proper training is provided to the workforce of the organisation in order make them familiar with the operations and the functions of the organisation and also enhance their skills and performances. For making sure about the High-performance work, the efforts of the employees are recognised and rewarded as well.

M3). Analyze the benefits of applying HPW with the justifications to a specific organizational situation.

It has been analysed that with the adoption of the high-performance working theory, the performance, skills, experiences, and efficiency of the workforce of the organisation is improved. It is well established that the adoption of such a theory has a number of benefits which are as follows:

• Such adoption results in enhancement of the capabilities, productivity,and learning of the employees which are beneficial for their growth and development (Mone and London, 2018).
• Due to enhancement, the organisation is able to achieve its goals or objectives.
• It provides assistance in the development of the competitive environment amongst the employees and within the organisation by which the organisation will be able to compete in the market.

LO4). Evaluate ways in which performance management, collaborative working, and effective communication can support high-performance culture and commitment

P6). Evaluate different approaches to performance management and using specific examples showing how they support high-performance culture and commitment.

Performance Management

It is essential that the performance of the employees or the workforce of the organisation is managed and regulated by the managerial personnel of the organisation. It is stated in this concept that the performance of the workforce must be monitored, reviewed and recorded so that it can be ensured that whether the performance of the workforce is consistent with the set standard of performance within the organisation (Kearney, 2018). It is also stated that performance management also provides assistance in the development of the strategies or plans and in the implementation of such plans or strategies.

Approaches for Performance Management

Result Approach

As per this approach, the results of the performance of the employees are monitored and analysed. Application of this approach helps in making sure that whether or not the employees are efficient or productive and their performance is consistent with the set standard of the organisation. This approach helps in developing the skills and provides learning to the employees.

Comparative Approach

As this approach, performances of all the employees are compared amongst each other so that setback in the performance of the employees can be identified (Hayes, 2018). Under this, approach training is provided to the employees of the organisation so that they can perform well and be more productive.

Collaborative Approach

As per this approach, the works or tasks are performed with the help of getting into collaborative arrangements. It can be the collaboration of the employees amongst one another or collaboration of the organisation with other organisations in order to make sure that effective performance of the tasks is done. This also helps in reduction in work burden of an employee and distributes the same amongst other employees.

M4). Critically evaluates the different approaches and makes judgments on how effective they can be to support high-performance culture and commitment.

As mentioned above, there are various approaches which can be adopted by the managerial personnel and ensure the management of the performance within the working environment. The approaches discussed above are the result and comparative approach, the effectiveness of which is as follows:

Result Approach

The focus of this approach is on the result or outcomes of the performance done by the employees. This saves time and costing of the organisation as their performances are measured on the basis of its outcomes. Mostly, the sales department makes the adoption of such an approach.

Comparative Approach

It is considered to be an extensive evaluation of the employee’s performances by making a comparison amongst the performance of all the employees. Adoption of this approach requires incurring certain expenses and time.

Collaborative Approach

This approach reduces the burden of one employee by distributing the huge work or task in smaller ones and allocating it to other employees (Van Dooren, et. al., 2015).

D2). Provide a valid synthesis of knowledge and information resulting in appropriate judgments on how HPW and mechanisms used to support HPW lead to improved employee engagement, commitment, and competitive advantage.

With the application of the High-Performance Working, the effectiveness of the practices being exercised by the management of the organisation is analysed. High-performance working is influenced by the rewards, recognition, training, promotion and so on. It is well established that the efficiency and effectiveness of employees are improved by which the accomplishment of the goals and objectives of the organisation is also ensured (Malier, 2018). Furthermore, this leads to the growth and development of the individual by which such an individual is able to handle more responsibilities and perform more duties.

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Conclusion

In this report, a brief discussion on the how an HR manager can hone the skills of employees and carry out a well-structured assessment of performance was done. The report was divided into two sections. Talking about the first part, it covered totally different aspect and the latter covered the ways to improve the performance of employee along with the role of HR in making it possible. In the next section, a discussion on high-performing team culture and how to develop it was done. The overall aim was to improve the performance of employees along with an effective developed communication.

References

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• Kearney, R., 2018.  Public sector performance: management, motivation, and measurement. Routledge.
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• Van Dooren, W., Bouckaert, G. and Halligan, J., 2015.  Performance management in the public sector. Routledge.
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