Explanation of the Hr function

HRM IN PRACTICE

Introduction

Human resource management of a company is one of the integral part of the strategic approach that ensures effectiveness and productivity of the employees. Organizational productivity largely depends on the work engagement and the productivity of the employees and thus it is important for the human resource management of the company to be designed in such a manner that can maximize the profitability of the organization. The current study evaluates the HRM practices of Say It With Chocolate in terms of its current recruitment process as well as the an analysis of the employee performance, development and reward factors that are influential to the HR decision making process.

Part 1

Task 1

(P1): 1a and 1b

1a: Explanation of the Hr function

The most significant function of the Human Resource Management of an organization is largely concentrated with the recruiting, managing and directing people working in the organization. Say It with Chocolate is one of the developing companies and thus it is important for the company to strengthen their HR strategies and management in order to increase the productivity of the workforce. The most important function of the HR management of the company is to ensure effective recruitment as the company is subjected to a large number of job applications (Tzabbar et al. 2017). Therefore, some of the important functions of the HR management are dealing with issues related to recruitment, compensation of the workers, performance management of the workforce, organizational development as well as ensuring the wellness, safety, benefits, employee motivation and training of the workers (Clair and Milliman, 2017). The moot purpose of the HR management of an organization is to create an effective and productive workforce through which the goals and objectives of the company can be accomplished.

1b: Role and responsibilities as a Human Resource officer

The current focus of the HRM has moved towards the strategic utilization of employees as well as the measurable impact of the employee programs over business. The human resource officer of an organization is largely associated with the recruitment, remuneration, appraisal and managing the workers in the organization (Donate et al. 2016). The HR officer is responsible for recruiting proper candidates in the organization and the responsibilities as a hiring officer includes the following:

Identification of the recruitment needs and then developing the position description accordingly, making the recruitment plan, organizational chart and documentation of the candidates
Conducting the recruitment in accordance with the organizational policy of good faith and maintaining the policy of workplace diversity
Ensuring that the recruitment process is aligned with the policies of the organization that are the anti-discrimination at workplace and employee welfare (Zibarras and Coan, 2015)
It is also important for a Human Resource officer to maintain a productive workplace environment and provide the employees with essential support
Human Resource Officer also needs to formulate policies for employee growth, benefit and welfare

Development of talent and skills for future (M1)

In Say It with Chocolate the recruitment process can be more effective by maintain screening of the employees. It is important to note that the current recruitment system of the company encounters huge pressure due to the increased number of applicants in the company. therefore, it is important to enhance the internal management strategy of the organization in order to ensure seamless operation of the recruitment (Chiang et al. 2017). It is also important to incorporate employee learning and training facilities in order to develop the skill of the current workforce.

(P2): 1c and 1d

1c: The advantages and disadvantages of the current selection methods

The current selection method that is used in the organization generalizes the skills of the applicants. The HR management of the company in order to combat with the challenges of recruitment process has introduced that is the fixed assessment test on English comprehension and math. The advantage of the selection process is that the English apprehension and the aptitude of the applicants (Clair and Milliman, 2017). This works as the primary screening process for the selection of the candidates. The next step is checking the references of the applicants. The advantages of this recruitment system are that it is simple and helps screening few candidates with basic skills from a large number of applicants.

The current recruitment system has several drawbacks as well. The disadvantages of the current recruitment process are:

The recruitment process is not fair as it prioritizes the references of the candidates over their skills
This process does not take into account the employability skills of the candidates
The process does not formally communicate the employment need that are important in order to understand the motivational needs of the employees

1d: Potential improvements of the current methods

The current methods of recruitment require several changes in order to be more effective in selecting the potential employees of the organization. The screening process that only examines the English comprehension and mathematics needs to take accounts the expertise of the candidates in the area of application. Therefore, it is important to finalize a lineup of the candidates based on the comprehension as well as the employability skills of the employees. In this regard, it is important to note that the recruitment process needs to be unbiased and rather than the informal interview, it can concentrate more on examining the effectiveness and expertise of the employee. Another important improvement is that the recruitment needs to be based on the merit and the skills of the employees, taking into consideration whether an employee is appropriate for the role that he or she has applied for or not.

Task 2

(P7) 2a, 2b, 2c

2a Person specification for the role

The HR officer wants to recruit a receptionist in the administration department. There is a detailed specification of job for the role of a receptionist is given below,

Purpose of job

It is required for the receptionist to have a good communication skill and need to be professional so that she is able to handle the clients, the customers, and the visitors efficiently (Anderson et al. 2017). She is required to welcome the visitors and mange people and advertise over the phone and need to solve the queries of the clients or the customers. The receptionists need to have few qualities.

Qualities-

They need to have good communication skills
They need to be open minded
They need to have a warm attitude when welcoming the visitors
They need to respond quickly to the clients and the customers
They need to be have an excellent presentation
They need to have a positive behavior

Responsibilities-

The receptionists have few responsibilities in the organization, which are mentioned below,

They need to solve the queries and doubts of the customers
They are required to book the meetings with the clients and the customers
They are required to arrange the couriers
They need to respond to all the phone calls and need to record them if required in the future
The administrative paperwork need to be completed on time
They need to focus on the development of the customer service
They need to maintain the approaches of collaboration and coordination
They need to have the ability of explaining the facilities that are available in the organization.

Qualification-

Need to be a graduate (B.A/M.A)

Preferably MBA

Experience-

The person needs to have minimum one year of experience.

Working hours-

10 am to 6 pm.

2b Rationale for a suitable medium for placing the advertisement

Nowadays, the most suitable medium for placing an advertisement is social media or internet. It is cost-effective and it is be able to reach to the people who are efficient for the role. In addition, there are sites where they provide online jobs and they will allow advertising for job vacancies, if there is any. This saves time and provides fast response.

2c Advantages and disadvantages of the previous methods of advertising jobs

Advantages

Relative ease

The major advantage of this online comprehensive test is the relative ease that Say it with Chocolate will avail in terms screening new recruits. Furthermore, since the test lies on nominal cognitive abilities to avail employment, it will assist the respective organization to fulfil the dearth of the employees.

Cognitive efficiency

As the test and subsequent evaluation of the recruits are dependent upon the cognitive ability and comprehensibility of English and Mathematics, it will be a measure of their fluency in the language whiles the nominal ability on the accounts. Thus, through this, Say it with chocolate will be able to avail the exponents with good reception skills along with skills in account.

Disadvantages

Vulnerability of being unfair

Since the test happens to based upon empirical instructions, it is vulnerable to lose the required fairness and the subsequent evaluation (Oulton et al. 2016).

Undermine the gravity of the position

Since the recruitment has not been done with succinct job specifications, the aspirants might undermine the gravity of the position and exhibit callousness towards their responsibilities.

Crowd

Since the eligibility is nominal, it might cause trouble to handle the crowd of the aspirants.

2d Six questions to be asked at the interview for the receptionist

Question 1- Why do you want to work in our company?

Question 2- Why should we hire you?

Question 3- How would you expand your experience?

Question 4- How would you welcome the visitors?

Question 5- How would you solve the queries of the clients over the phone?

Question 6- How would you manage to maintain the records of the data?

Part 2

Task 3

(P3/P4): 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d

3a Apprenticeship and graduate training schemes benefits to the organization and employees

The training schemes of the organization benefit the employees and they get perfect motivation to work in a better manner. The major benefit of apprenticeship in Microsoft is very helpful for the fresh engineers who intend to try their aptitude in software development and execution. The organization and employees get the perfect working base that can initiate for the processed growth criteria along with the efficient market processes for the further work implications.

Culture and long-term business

Cultural base of the organization cater the perfect criteria that can focus towards the various development and growth purposes that can create the perfect base for the further work implications and the management of the team in a perfect manner. Effective time management, communication and the processed working statement generate the better efficient planning based criteria (Moen et al. 2016).

Development skills

Organizational culture and their further processes engage with the innovation factors, the perceived market application along with the further planning based in terms of employee retaining, Microsoft’s organizational culture is so flexible and collaborative that it endows the employees with the scopes of individual learning. Thus, the apprenticeship program happens to be proven very helpful for the employees since it encourages them to go for projects of higher merit and excellence.

Long term working basis. Development skills will also adjust with the innovation criteria and the risk taking preferences, people orientation and the managed organizational purposes in a perfect manner.

Organizational experiences

When an organization will get to know the market with the time they are running their trading then it will be easy to coordinate with the consumers and it will also serve help to the employees in a perfect way.

Qualifications

Person’s qualification for any of the job or position needs to access in an effective way that connect with the proper processes that include for the stability of the working process including the productivity criteria.

Understanding

Both the organization and the customers need to know that how they can able to connect with the customers and what are the preferences of the customers need to access for the organizational growth criteria.

Career development

A person who is responsible regarding his/her work can focus more in the career development processes and organization also provides the effective criteria related to the programmed work implication with the suitable processes and their application. The time management skills that are one of the major outcomes of this apprenticeship program in Microsoft that it is supposed to help the employee to be adaptable in any schedule.

3b Developmental opportunities are available to staffs in permanent job role

The training and development purposes with the suggestive market implications can deliver the efficient processes for the later organized criteria that can generate the proper implications for the future working possibilities. The permanent job role criteria with the efficient training program, efficient communication, organizing the work possibilities, new skill development and working initiation along with the multi-tasking processes can help to enhance the future processes in a better way (Bal and De Lange, 2015). The organization needs to ensure that efficient market criteria with coordination and successful skills and training can create the particular implications for the growth criteria. As it was previously mentioned earlier, the flexible organizational culture of Microsoft happens to encourage the individual development of the employee in such a fashion that he will be prepared for availing projects of higher merit or excellence.

Drawing conclusion from the evidence

The permanent job role related to the organizational working processes and their market symmetric basis adjust with the different market criteria that can create the suggestive functioning for the growth and development criteria in a better way. The organizational planning processes with the effective process of implementation criteria associate in such a manner that can correlate with the long term future planning and the assisted structure for the necessary need criteria.

List of developmental activities

The development practices for the employees related to different criteria that associate for the further working specifications and their application in a proper manner-

Job stability
Get more acknowledged about the particular job
Enhance skill based purposes in a suitable manner
Bring more career opportunity with the later organizational purposes
Mobility and the effective market purposes generate the understanding for the later working initiation

3c Benefits of the approach Microsoft has taken in respect to the flexible working practices

The flexible working process followed by Microsoft creates the proper implication that can associate for the further systematic management processes in a proper manner. Trust and effective management criteria get generated by the entire procedure as the production criteria get increased with the clear understating of the further market processes and the added benefits that helps the organization for further working possibilities. Providing detailed, necessary and the application processes get initiated for the flexible working basis. Furthermore, the bonds that will bound the employees with their immediate employer that will ensure the job stability of the employee working in Microsoft.

Culture of the organization and their information provision

Microsoft has their own organizational processes and their working culture help to pose for the later beneficial activities and their practices in a particular way. The particular working specifications with the effective communication purposes and the further work criteria help to access the flexible organization criteria with better planning aspects.

Nature and importance and their benefits related to flexible working processes

Flexible working criteria incorporate the various planning basis that can generate the effective implementation processes for the operation criteria along with the specified matter related to the further working statement. following up the business transformation criteria the different market projection with the assimilation of job share, business process re-engineering, compressed working week, effective electronic service delivery, flexible working hours and leave options can generate better affectivity for the entire working processes (Preenen et al. 2017).

3d Employee motivation through its job design and systems of rewards

Employee motivation, job design and system of reward criteria help to initiate for the different activities that can pose for the further assessment related to the further development and growth criteria in a proper manner. The motivational criteria along with the accessed factors initiate for the various purposes that increase job satisfaction with the training and skill development criteria.

Nature of the job roles and benefits available for employee motivation

According to the nature of the job role the different criteria based on the employee working specifications along with the further working processes include the different market factors that can able to help the organization . The employees become immersed within the activities that can notice the further working implications for learning and engaging in the new skill processes with the focus towards the purposes. The different challenges of the organization need to take and then cater the perfect base related to the benefits that are available for the employees present within the organization. The different market purposes and the help in some of the effective communication along with the positive feedback can initiate for the self-development criteria. The employees by getting support for motivation criteria related to rewards, paid holidays and increments in salary.

Activities related to motivation purposes

Within the organization it is essential criteria that they can able to generate the perfect base that can drive and motivate the employees in a perfect manner. Both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivational activities get considered in the entire process. The meaningful, challenging along with the various work activities can generate the better factors that initiate for the further working criteria based on the day to day planning processes (Christensen and Schneider, 2015). The well-designed activities generate curiosity and encourage the employees for the later activities that can initiate for the further working base that can provide own learning and organizational growth in a proper manner. The big idea and accessed criteria for the long term implications focus towards the several market projections for the overall achievement of the working activity.

Task 4

(P5): 4a, 4b, 4c

(P6): 4d

4a: Defining the term employee engagement

Employee engagement can be defined as a process that is likely to be showing the importance of development of functions that are constituted to bring together the employees of an organization. Therefore, the development of employee engagement is taken as a stance in order to develop the instigation to show the relevant functioning of an organization towards earning the faith and the trusts of the employees, which is similar to be done in case of gaining the trusts of the organization (Shakir et al. 2017). In order to describe the term employee engagement from another perspective, the highlight is brought down on the point where it claims that the stances of employee engagement are to make the employee feel passionate about their job. This kind of attitude of the employees is therefore, liable to make the employees committed to the organization and its functions. Along with such stances, an effective stature of the study is relating to the fact that discretionary effort is required to be put by the employees (Bal et al. 2015). The effective implementation of the employee engagement procedure can be understood when there is instances of discretionary efforts put by the employees into their work in an organization. However, it should be understood that the employee engagement is not as same as development of employee satisfaction in an organization.

4b: Explaining the reason for employee engagement to be an integral strategy of employee relations

Large number of organizations has produced examples with their effective strategies in the international market to have an effective relationship between the employees and the employer. The functions of such aspects have been contributed by the development of functioning in this sector. The main aim of the employee engagement programs to development the contributions of the performances of the employees in the organization. Employees being one of the important pillars of a business or an organization have been considered as an aspect that needs to be maintained in order to keep the organizational framework upright (Supanti et al. 2015).

In common words the term employee relations depicts the manner of interaction that is found between the employees of an organization and the employer. Therefore, the development of effective relationship between the employees and the employer is considered to be improved with improvement of the rapport between the employees and the organization. However, it is believed that increased rapport of the employees with the organization increases the scope of effective communication among them. Hence, this is helpful for communicating all the needs and the demands of the employees to the organization as well as vice versa (Smet et al. 2016). Development of employee engagement is another method that can bring into scope of better performance through development of employee satisfaction that comes during development of employee engagement. Hence, most of the organizations follow these stances in order to deduce the maximum productivity of the employees to the organization that in turn in effective to develop the return on investment of the organization. Say it with chocolate is an organization that has included the strategies of employee engagement in the organizational structural and functional framework in order to develop good relationship with the employees that fosters improvement of the performance of the employees (Kang and Sung, 2017).

4c: Key approaches to engage workers along with importance of communication in workplace

Developing effective relationship between the employees and the employer that is an organization is one that holds the perspective of deriving the stances that can be contributing in development of effective relationship between the workers and the company. The key approaches that have been considered by the organizations as discussed in the summit include variety of functions. KFC Australia has been found to be functional in the stances of developing scopes of empowering their employees in the organizational functions. In order to do this, the organization has developed effective as well as fluent connection between the entire workforces of the organization. Sanofi Pasteur is an organization that has developed the scope of empowerment of the employees engaged in the organization through inviting innovative ideas that would be used in fighting more than 20 infectious diseases. Hence, the ideas are crowd sourced. Most of the examples of employee empowerment in different organizations have been found to be engaged with developing swift communication system (Guchait et al. 2015). Hence, it can be stated that development of communication and engagement of the employees go hand in hand and is also affected by each other. Therefore, the development of communication has been found to be important in order to ensure that the employees are able to reach the right audience at the right time. This is liable to improve the connection between the employees and the employer of an organization.

4d: Indentifying main pieces of employee legislations in UK

The UK employment legislations have included all the sectors of functioning of an organization within the same. Therefore, the areas that are addressed by the organizational functioning are recruitment of the employees, their training and development, rewarding processes, safety and security rules, redundancy and retirement legislations, etc. The assurance of all the rights and the duties of the employees and the employer towards the employees have been specified in Employment Rights Act 1996 (Ladkin and Buhalis, 2016). The scopes of protection of the employees have been considered under this act where there terms of provision of safe system of work as well as providence of indiscrimination in the workplace. The English law has also kept relevancy with the terms of providing the employees with minimum wage. The legislation that are associated with the same is the Employer’s Liability Act 1969. Besides, Health and safety act 1974 and social security contributions and benefits act 1992 also hold the liability to keep up with the employee self in workplace (Persson and Wasieleski, 2015).

The apparently indeterminate relation between the UK and the European Union (EU), prior to Brexit seem to propose a governing reform of the prevalent employment oriented laws in UK. For instance, the Equality Act 2010 is on the verge to be drawn to a massive corrigendum where the concern is the discrimination emerging from the disabilities. Furthermore, several amendments of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (after the declaration of the verdicts of Mencap V Tomlinson-Blake), the minimum wage of the on-call carers have been increased considerably.

Apart from the massive reforms of the acts associated with whistle blowing, the emphasis of EU on the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the possibilities of the disclosure of the employee data has been considerably diluted.

Conclusion

The broad aspect of the report has been produced with certain stances where there is effective liability of running an organization towards the entities that are associated with the organizational functions. Therefore, the report has produced discussion on the functions of human resource department of an organization in order to understand the critical evaluation of Say it with Chocolate. An effective study of the summit reports have also been done in the report in the substantial parts along with examination of various dimensions of employee-employer relationship.

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