HR Skills, Development, and Performance Management at Whirlpool

This report analyzes the essential skills, knowledge, and behaviors required of HR professionals, emphasizing their critical role in organizational success, particularly within a multinational corporation like Whirlpool. It explores the significance of individual and organizational learning, highlighting how these processes contribute to employee development and competitive advantage. The report delves into the development of a personal skills audit and professional development plan for an HR professional. It differentiates between individual and organizational learning, as well as training and development, and discusses how continuous learning and professional development drive sustainable business performance. Furthermore, the report examines the impact of high-performance working on employee engagement and competitive advantage. Finally, it explores various approaches to performance management, demonstrating how these approaches support a high-performance culture and foster employee commitment within the context of Whirlpool.

Developing individual, teams
and organization

Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...........................................................................................................................................................3
P1 Skills, knowledge and behavior required by HR professional..............................................................3
P2 Personal skills audit to develop a professional development plan.....................................................5
Task 2...........................................................................................................................................................6
P3 Difference between organization and individual learning and training and development.................6
P4 Continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business performance......7
Task 3...........................................................................................................................................................9
P5 HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage..........................................9
Task 4.........................................................................................................................................................10
P6 Approaches to performance management which supports high performance culture and
commitment..........................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................11
References ................................................................................................................................................13

Introduction
Development is a continuous process which help the employees to improve their
knowledge and skills towards business process. Human resource professional and department
plays a crucial part in the success of the organization. Their main work is to maintain the peace
and harmony of the workplace as it motivates the employees to perform harder. Whirlpool
corporation is an American multinational company that deals in home appliances and
headquarters in Michigan united states of America. They have more than 90000 employees thus
HR plays an important role in handling them with maximum utilization. In this report will
discuss about different skills, knowledge and behavior required by human resource professional
and the importance of individual and organizational learning and how it creates an positive
impact on employees and Whirlpool. Apart from that how continuous professional development
and high performance working plays an important part in enhancing the performance of the
employees and company is discussed. At last performance management concepts and theories
will be discuss with functional example in the context of whirlpool will be explained.
Task 1
P1 Skills, knowledge and behavior required by HR professional
HR professional work has been taken granted by so many people as they use to do the
administration work only. But now the time has changed. HR professional and department help
the management to make strategy against their competitor so that competitive advantage could
be earned (Bolden, 2016). Whirlpool should promote the individual learning as it helps the
employees to improve and increase their knowledge and skills so that they able to perform with
highest productivity. Whirlpool has thousands of employees and to manage all of them at the
same time is a hard job. HR professional should have proper knowledge, skills and capabilities to
tackle them. All the important factors which could be helpful for the HR professional is
discussed below:
Skills:

IT skills: Technology has become the part of the organization. It plays an important part
in every department of the organization and most importantly in HR department. HR
professional should have a proper skills of operating Ms Office, Ms excel, SAP HR and SAS as
it easy their task in many ways. It helps the hr to recruit the employees according to desired skills
set with one click (Belbin, 2012). It can help the Whirlpool to gain the competitive advantage.
Effective communication: With more than 90000 employees working under the same
brand name hr should have good communication skills so that every rules and regulation should
be conveyed to the employees in proper way (Nancarrow and et. al., 2013). It is HR
responsibility of transferring the communication from top management to employees and vice
versa clearly and accurately. Apart from that HR professional should be very accurate with
words so that they can solve the conflicts in the workplace without damaging the efficiency the
employees and the whirlpool.
Behavior:
Transparency: HR has some important work to do that can impact the productivity and
profits of the whirlpool like recruitment and selection, performance appraisal promotion etc.
These entire things can affect the company if proper procedure would not follow. They should be
transparent while taking all the decision as chances of biasness and favor is high. Performance
base ratings should be given so that every employees of Whirlpool will try to perform better next
time to grab the opportunity like promotion.
Adaptability: External environment changes rapidly and so does the knowledge and
skills. Whirlpool use latest technology as it will help the company in making maximum
utilization of resources. That’s why HR should also be adaptable to situation as they are the ones
who bring changes in the Whirlpool. They should improve their skills and knowledge regularly
and try to disseminate the information to the employees so that there will be improve in
knowledge of the workforce.
Knowledge:
Law and governance; HR professional should have a proper knowledge of rules and
regulation set by the local government. These should be properly applied to stay away from the

penalties. Knowledge of working condition law, wages law etc helps the HR Professional to
increase motivation level of employees. Proper working condition motivates the employees to
work harder hence giving their best productivity to the Whirlpool. Apart from that wages law is
important as if basic requirements of the individual is accomplish, than only employees can
motivate to do their work effectively. At last HR professional whirlpool should have a proper
knowledge of laws to make a working environment healthy and motivation.
Training and education: HR professional's work is to train the new employees so that the
required skills and knowledge to accomplish the jobcan be imparted to the employees
(Huczynski, Buchanan, and Huczynski, 2013). It will help the employee to accomplish their task
with full perfection thus motivating the employees. Apart from that, training should be given to
the existing employees so that they can improve their skills and knowledge. It will help the
employees to tackle the uncertain condition in the future and helps Whirlpool to attain their
vision.
P2 Personal skills audit to develop a professional development plan
Skill is the only factors that differentiate the top performer and low performer. Skills also
help in increasing the efficiency of the person. Skillful worker is more efficient than the no skill
person. Personal skill audit refers to assessment of one's skills and knowledge. It helps the
individual to asses themselves and improves and increases the skills according to the
requirements (Pakdil and Leonard, 2014). As an HR professional of Whirlpool it is important me
to assess myself and find out the weakness and strengths and how I can improve it to succeed in
the future. My strengths and weakness are discussed below,
Strengths Weakness
My decision making skills are good as I
enjoyed while taking complex decision like
hiring an candidate, promotion according
the performance etc.
My communication skills are weak as as
sometimes I feel hard to express myself in a
better way.
My time management skills are good as I
can handle different types of task at the
same time.
IT skills are weak as I find hard to juggle
between so many task at the same time.
I am a diplomatic person as it helps me My ability to solve numerical problem is

while solving conflict in the workplace. weak.
According to my strengths and weakness I will make my professional development plan to
remove my weakness and improve my skills.
Skills Time Taken Activities I need to
undertake
Monitor by
Communication
skills
3 months I participate in group
discussions, take
Communication
classes for 3 months
and try to interact
with others so that my
communication skills
can be improve and
enable me to interact
with others in more
better way. etc would
be removed.
Tutor, manager and
colleague
IT skills 3 months IT classes will be
taken where I will
improve my
knowledge like Ms
office, power point,
SAP HR etc.
Manager
General Aptitude 2 Months I will join Aptitude
classes and also try to
solve more numerical
questions to improve
my numerical ability
skills.
Subordinates and
colleague

Task 2
P3 Difference between organization and individual learning and training and development
Learning is a process of acquiring the skills and knowledge through past experiences. In
other words, learning is a process of transformation of past experiences into knowledge.
Individual learning is a process of expanding the skills and abilities of the individual through
learning (Nissen, Evald, and Clarke, 2014). Learning helps the individual to acquire new skills so
that they can perform better in the workplace. Besides this it helps the individual to increase their
performance and motivation. Thus, helps the whirlpool to gain the competitive advantage.
Organizational learning is a continuous and positive process. It always helps the
employees and Whirlpool to grow professionally thus increase in profits. Organizational learning
is directly proportionate to individual learning. It will help the Whirlpool to gain the competitive
advantage. (Wellin, 2016).
Difference between organization and individual learning is as follows,
Individual learning Organizational learning
Individual learning refers to expansion of
knowledge and skills through reflection of
their experiences and learning.
Organizational learning refers to the process
of developing, retaining and transferring
knowledge.
It helps the employee to increase their
credibility and confidence as when an
employee is giving their best performance
than motivation automatically goes up. Thus
helps the whirlpool to attain their vision.
Organization learning helps the company to
retain their employees thus reducing the
employee’s turnover ratio.
Training and development:
Training and development is an essential part of the organization. It helps the company to
grow in the competitive market through which they can gain the competitive advantage.
Training is a program systematically planned by the organization so that job related skills and
knowledge can be imparted in the employees. It will help the employee to work with better

efficiency and productivity. Development is a self assessment program through which personnel
of the organization work and grow in their specific field.
Difference between Training and development is discussed below,
Training Development
Main objective of training is to improve the
performance of the employees through
providing proper skills and knowledge.
Whirlpool should provide training to all the
employees so that their skills would never be
outdated and help the company to gain the
competitive advantage.
Development main objective is to prepare the
employees for the future. It will help the
Whirlpool to tackle the future problems thus
maintaining the sustainable business
performance.
Training is given to the group of people by
the experts of the specific field known as
tutor.
Development plan is personalized in nature.
It sets according to the capabilities of the
individual.
P4 Continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business performance
Continuous learning is a perpetual process of expanding your knowledge and skills base
by upgrading it regularly (Duffield and Whitty, 2015). It helps the employees to learn new skills
that can be helpful for the employees while working. It is required for the changing external
environment so that productivity does not get affected in the challenging situation. Hence helps
the Whirlpool to give sustainable business performance.
Professional development
Professional development is a type of learning which can be maintained by qualification like
degrees, conference etc. It helps the employees to grow professionally in their career. It can also
help Whirlpool to increase their efficiency and productivity. There are many benefits of
professional development which are mentioned below,
1) Reduced employees turnover
2) Increase their motivation

3) Improve efficiency
4) Success planning easier etc.
Continuous learning and professional development helps the individual and company to
improve their performance in the competitive market. Continuous learning improves and
increase the knowledge of the individual thus enhancing the performance of the individual. Apart
from that it helps the Whirlpool to improve their efficiency with the help of knowledgeable
workforce. So it can be concluded that continuous learning and professional development helps
the Whirlpool to drive a sustainable business performance.
Learning Theory: This theory spells out that learning involves two steps first is the acquisition of
knowledge and second is how it can apply to get the maximum utilization. It is divided into two
Learning cycle and learning theory.
Learning cycle is divided into four parts.
Concrete experience: In this stage an individual has an experience that serves as a basis
of the observation. This explains that any individual cannot learn anything by observing it rather
than doing it. Whirlpool should provide different types of case study role play etc so that
employees can learn new skills and knowledge from that and applies in the real scenario.
Reflective observation: In this stage individual will think about what they have done and
how it can be improved in the past. Sometimes there is a difference between understanding and
experience (Landsberg, 2015) . Whirlpool should proper training and development so that this
gap can be fulfilled.
Abstract conceptualization: After the reflective observations, individual has enter into an
state where the answer will be monitored by different perception. Whirlpool should motivate
employees for these type of efforts as it will help the Whirlpool to create a unique product.
Active experimentation: In this the individual applies their knowledge which learned
from the experience. With the help of professional development learner has learn any knowledge
and try to solve the real life problem with that. It helps the employees to take the risk.
Learning Style is divided into four types.

Diverging: In this, individual sees the problem from many different viewpoints and
prefer watching rather than doing it. It will help the Whirlpool to scan the environment and
detect the problem so that it can be tackle within time.
Assimilating: In this type, individual prefer to work on logic rather than just doing it.
They prefer to use the limited resources to solve the problem. Whirlpool can use this kind of
style so that maximum utilization can be achieved thus helping the company to attain the
mission.
Converging: These are the kind of people who prefer to solve technical things rather than
watching or analyzing it. They apply the learning to the real life scenario and try to solve with
full potential. Whirlpool can use these types of employees to solve the daily life of problem.
Accommodating: In this style, individual waits for the other person to do their research
and they solve it with the help of research. This type of style can be harmful as if they research is
conducted wrong than the solution will surely be wrong thus creating more problem for the
Whirlpool rather than solving it.
Advantages Disadvantages
It improves the performance of the employees. CPD is a complex process and hard to
implement.
It increase the confidence and credibility of the
employees.
CPD implementation is expensive to
implement. Thus increasing the cost of the
company.
Task 3
P5 HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage.
HPW is a process of creating the environment within the organization where all the
employees have greater participation and authority. Whirlpool can use HPW to maximize their
utilization of resources to its fullest hence increasing the efficiency (Bammer, 2013). Crucial

work of HPW is to recruit, select, training and retain the employees for a longer period of time so
they can be considered as an assets for the company.
Approaches of HPW
Employee engagement: Company is made up of employees. They are the one who
contributes to attain the vision of company. Whirlpool should provide the friendly working
environment as it helps the employees to improve the performance. Apart from that, whirlpool
should organize informal sessions so that employees will interact to each other and discuss upon
their issues and resolve their conflict if any. If the environment of the workplace is friendly than
employees will fully devote them to work thus increase in productivity and performance and that
leads to sustainable business performance.
Reward and awards: Rewards and awards always play an crucial factor in motivating the
employees. Whirlpool should give rewards like hike, incentives, recognition, promotion, foreign
trips to the top performer of the company. The motivation and productivity of the employees
increases after getting the awards. Apart from that those who did not perform well, should be
given a proper training by Whirlpool HR so that they would perform their best in the future.
When the employees are dedicated in their work then performance of the individual increases
thus creating a competitive advantage for the company.
Recruitment and selection: HR professional crucial work is to the recruit the newly and
experienced candidates according to their skills set. Candidates should be recruited according to
their Skills and capabilities rather than on biasness or favor. Apart from that fair performance
appraisal and promotion should be done by the Whirlpool HR so that deserving candidate gets
the rewards. Fair process motivates the employees as way of getting the promotion is to perform
their best. Hence the productivity of the employees will increase to a certain level. It is an
amalgamation of the activities like job analysis, exit interviews, training and development etc.
Whirlpool should use this technique as it will help the company to know their employees
performance and it can be improved so that overall productivity would be increase gradually.
Hence creating a competitive advantage for themselves.

Task 4
P6 Approaches to performance management which supports high performance culture and
commitment
Performance Management: It is a perpetual process of monitoring the performance of the
employees and improves it so that efficiency can be increased to a certain level. It helps the
employees to know their strengths and weakness and how they can improve to increase their
productivity (Krogstie, 2012). There are different types of approaches in performance
management which are describes as follows.
Comparative approach: In this approach all the employees’ performance is compare to
each other so that top performer can be find out. Top performer should be given reward by the
Whirlpool and low performer should undergo for training so that they can also perform better
next time.
Behavioral approach: BARS technique is use in this. Parameters are set by the
management after analyzing all the factors. All the employees performance are analyze with the
help of pre-set parameters. It will help the Whirlpool while giving performance appraisal or
promotion.
Attribute approach: In this approach, employees performance is measured with set of
parameters like handling pressure, teamwork qualities etc (Baldwin, 2016). This technique can
be use by the Whirlpool to assign the task according to their capabilities and skills. It will
motivate the employees to give their best performance thus creates a sustainable business
performance.
Result approach: In this approach employees are judged by their performance or result.
Whirlpool can use this approach in Sales department as it will help the company to analyze the
performance of the sales person. Hence helps the Whirlpool to gain the competitive advantage by
giving sustainable business performance.