HR Competency Requirements for Strategic and Functional HR Practitioners

The assignment provided is related to Human Resource Management, specifically focusing on the HR competency requirements for strategic and functional HR practitioners. The document references a journal article by Lo et al. (2015) that discusses the HR competency requirements for strategic and functional HR practitioners. It also mentions other relevant sources such as Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory, High Performance Work Practice, and various other articles and books on Human Resource Management. The assignment likely requires students to analyze the HR competency requirements and provide a detailed report or presentation on the topic.

DEVELOPING INDIVIDUALS,
TEAMS AND ORGANISATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
SCENARIO 1...................................................................................................................................1
P1. Professional knowledge, skills and behavior required by human resource professional. 1
P2. Personal skill audit and professional development plan..................................................3
SCENARIO 2...................................................................................................................................5
P3. Difference between organizational and individual learning, training and development..5
P4. Need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business
performance............................................................................................................................7
P5. The way HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage........10
P6. Importance of collaborative working, communication and performance management in
EasyJet for high performance culture...................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Developing individuals, teams and organization identify the development opportunities
to teams and individuals to meet organizational objectives. Present study is based on the
organization, EasyJet. It has been headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It operates
domestic and international scheduled services on over 820 routes in more than 30 countries.
Current assignment will discuss the professional knowledge, skills and behaviour for HR
professionals with implementing and evaluating learning and development to business
performance along with understanding the high performance working (HPW) to employee
engagement, collaborative working and effective communication supporting high performance
culture. Report will also evaluate the ways that help to create effective teams. Focus on factors
that drive sustainable business performance will be given as well. Furthermore, it will highlight
different approaches to performance management.
SCENARIO 1
P1. Professional knowledge, skills and behaviour required by human resource professional
PROFESSIONAL KNOWLEDGE
Professional knowledge is one of the most important aspects for human resource
professionals in EasyJet.
Human resource professionals are required to have adequate knowledge about theories,
models and frameworks which are going to be used in EasyJet. Industry knowledge is necessary
for HR professionals of EasyJet through which they will be able to understand and adapt
changes in organisation. It will support firm in the time of crisis. Also, having knowledge about
the work culture and environment can assist company in growing (Bolden, 2016).
Human resource professional of EasyJet must have an understanding of business
management concept like leadership, teamwork, operation management, conflict resolution,
change management, resource management assist in HR policy formulation. EasyJet manager
must have awareness of government regulations, legal codes, agency rules, grievance referral
mechanism and court procedures. Employee appointment letter contain all legal compliances
made for employee interest protection (Dong, 2017).
Human resource professional also need to possess knowledge about managing software
that is been used in EasyJet. Computer literacy is most essential requirement to work, because
Easy Jet use integrated information system, cloud storage, CRM, HRIS, RFID in logistic. This
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knowledge can support human resource professional in enhancing their career. Also it can
support the company or firm in growing.
SKILLS
Human resources plays a dynamic role. HR manager responsible for their work. Skills
are necessary for the HR to develop their professionalism. There are some skills like:
Negotiation
Negotiation skill is one of the most important skill which must be acquired by human
resource professional. It is useful as it can support the human resource professional of EasyJet to
deal with trade unions, suppliers, manufacturers and other parties. Also, it will support them in
negotiating with consumers, employees and making them understand about the new changes in
policies and procedures (Macdonald, Burke and Stewart, 2017).
Conflict management
Conflict management skill contain unbiased listening, Compromising, Collaborating, etc.
HR re-arrange relation, structure so that conflict can be avoid. For instance, marketing team of
Easy Jet had frequent interpersonal issues occurred in team, which is solved by arrange informal
get-together in weekends. This skill will support the company in reducing the chaos between the
employees’s. This can improve the work environment of organisation (Megginson and Whitaker,
2017).
Performance management
Performance management is done by motivate, influence, design effective training and
development session. These functions required strong problem identification skill. It is one of
the most required skill in the human resource professional of EasyJet. They can engage in
motivating the employees of the firm in order to enhance their performance. Also, by it the
human resource professional of the organisation can be able to know about the strength and
weaknesses of employee's (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016).
Decision making
Foremost skill in HR manager is decision making because in EasyJet, he has to take
many complex decisions with time constraint. For this function, analytical skill, logical thinking,
foresight, has to strong, data analysis, report reading, case study interpretation helps. Making an
effective decision in the organisation can support the firm in growing. Also human resource
professional need to have an effective communication so that they can engage in building
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relationship with employee's which can improve their work (Macdonald, Burke and Stewart,
2017).
BEHAVIOUR
Behavioural skill is one of the most important skill for the human resource professional
of EasyJet. Good behaviour is necessary for managing human resources as it will support them
in building relationship with stakeholders of the firm. Behaviour possessed by HR professionals
include:
Honesty:
Honesty is the best policy which must be possessed by human resource professional of
EasyJet. This will support them in creating trust in the eyes of employee's and consumers
EasyJet HR has to be honest with the work objective and responsibilities also (Morgan and et.al.,
2018). Honesty can help the human resource manager in managing all the activities in perfect
manner.
Problem solving and understanding:
Human resources' manager needs to understand the employee’s problems and give
solution. HR make policies for people, not for organisation. So it required to have empathy while
formulation policy and taking major decision. EasyJet HR manager is very concerned about the
employees and solves their problems in an effective manner (Kontoghiorghes, 2016).
Integrity:
This comprises strong moral values, which is not affected or compromised in adverse
condition. For instance: HR should not accept bribery of high and low among both at any cost.
This nature of human resource professional of EasyJet can also support the firm in making a
good position and image in the market. It can also enhance the brand image and value of firm.
(Macdonald, Burke and Stewart, 2017).
P2. Personal skill audit and professional development plan
A personal skill audit is a very good way for an individual to identify his/her strengths
and weaknesses to develop in an organisation. It is important for identifying the skills,
knowledge and weaknesses that organisation requires for determining its goals (Macdonald,
Burke and Stewart, 2017).
Strengths Weaknesses
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 I have analysed that being a HR
professional in EasyJet, I am effective in
making efficient decisions.
 Being a HR professional, I have a
creative and innovative mind that helps
me to create an eye catching user
interface.
 My other power is that I have a strength
of self-motivation which gives me a
strength to complete a task without
giving up.
 It has also been analysed by me that I
lack grasping capacity, generally I
take some time to understand the new
things and changes at a time.
 I have a weakness in maintaining time
as I fail in planning, analysing and
implementing projects on time.
 Being the HR professional, I find
technical problems like hardware
failure and software bugs.
 It was also been analysed by me that I
have communication issue which
creates misunderstanding in
organisation (Walker, 2017).
Opportunities
 It can also have the opportunities related
to creative and innovative project idea
which helps in leading the market.
 Being a HR professional, I find the
opportunity of market needs as there are
increasing number of people who wants
this type of application and project.
 I have new technologies in EasyJet
industry which is an opportunity for me
to lead the market.
Threats.
 Technical failure is also a threat
which I have to face in EasyJet, as it
make new technology but sometimes
it fails which does not lead the
market.
 I have to face a big problem which is
lack of funds because an organisation
needs to have sufficient funds to
survive the challenging times.
Professional Development Plan
Objectives to be
achieved
Resources required Required actions Time to be taken
Time management Time schedule By pre-planning and 3 months
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according to the work allocating resources
and enhancing the
capacity of work
Communication Books of different
languages
Enhancing the
interaction with others
5 months
Grasping power Learning materials Working on increasing
the efficiency, enhance
learning capacity
2 months
Technical knowledge Use of online sources
like internet
By reading the
technical books and
taking classes
6 months
SCENARIO 2
Introduction to organisation
EasyJet Airline Company Limited is a British low-cost carrier airline that is
headquartered at London Luton Airport. It operates domestic and international scheduled
services on over 820 routes in more than 30 countries.
P3. Difference between organisational and individual learning, training and development
Learning
Learning is the process of acquiring new or existing knowledge, skills, values and
preferences. The knowledge which is acquired though study and experience.
Individual Learning Organisational Learning
In individual learning, employees in EasyJet
build their knowledge by self-study and self-
patience.
EasyJet corporation creates knowledge by its
experience and from various sources.
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Employees increase their self-confidence and for
that, they work hard in collecting data and
enhancing their learning capacity in individual
learning.
Learning in EasyJet aims to achieve long
term goals of organisation and it tries to
satisfy employee’s needs.
Individual learning has limited ways of grasping
which decreases the interest of learning.
It provides different ways of learning like E-
learning, group and classroom learning which
helps in increasing interest of employees.
It does not share knowledge with anyone. It shares its knowledge amongst employees
and organisation.
Organisational learning is complex than individual learning but it helps more in
increasing the efficiency of workers. It tells the easiest way of understanding things by its
experience.
Training
Training is a way or act of increasing knowledge and skills of employees. Training
includes the learning and teaching activities. Training helps employees in understanding that
their works fits and appropriate into company's structure (Macdonald, Burke and Stewart, 2017).
Individual training Organisational training
In EasyJet, employees train themselves
strengthen their skills and get success. They
improve their performance accordingly. It
helps in managing their own learning and
development.
Organisational training gives flexibility by giving
individual training on how to handle travellers who
are travelling through their aircrafts and many
other things.
By individual training, employees can
increase their self-esteem and self-confidence.
Main aim of training in EasyJet is to improve
organisation's condition and to make their
employees better accordingly.
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In individual training, employees have to gain
knowledge of all EasyJet products by itself
which takes more time comparatively
All training sessions are conducted by EasyJet
training specialists.
In organisation, employees are free from
training charges under individual training.
Authorized EasyJet service company pay training
costs to trainer which are chargeable to employees.
A training program allows employees to strengthen their skills which is important to
improve. Increment in productivity is generally based on training programmes because by
training programmes only, organisation identifies problems in their employees and then work on
them.
Development
Development defines the growth of something. It is the process of getting better and
achieving defined and desired goals.
Individual development Organisational development
In organisation, employee focuses on efficiency
and dedication towards work in individual
development.
EasyJet leadership development programme
emphasises on development of employee’s
ability to create and build and give them a
chance to make a big impact on work.
In individual development, employee does not
get any type of extra benefit.
It offers motivating pay and rewards to
employee for development.
Employee does not have to pay any kind of
expense charge in individual development.
EasyJet pay a high amount on development
programmes.
P4. Need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business
performance
Continuous learning is an approach of adapting new skills, abilities, methodologies to
increase productivity and performance at workplace. For sustainable business performance,
continuous learning programmes need to be increased in organizations to deliver strategic
compliance. It increases capabilities, skills and performance of an individual or a group. It can
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be done by assessing present training programmes in organizations and alter it with innovative
elements (Kontoghiorghes, 2016).
Continuous learning increase workforce reliability. It makes the employees more
responsible towards achieving organizational goals. Continuous learning delivers sustainable
business performance to “EasyJet” a leading manufacturer of appliances by increasing learning
culture and studying different behaviours experiences and demands of customers all over the
world.
Flexible learning platforms provided by EasyJet, enhances productivity of employees and
delivered new captivating ideology of sustainable performance to them. EasyJet has flexible
working hours that boost working efficiency and learning capabilities of employees throughout
the day.
The learning facilities strengthen operation excellence of workforce which delivers
unique image and sustainable business performance to organization in marketplace.
It has also incorporated various new digital applications to make employees comfortable
with advanced digital aids of learning. By engaging itself with EHS and sustainability
protocols, EasyJet has provided continuous learning platform to its employees regarding various
environmental issues and ways to reduce the same.
Having 70 Manufacturing research centres run by skilled workforce cultivate strategic
learning modules for new employees for designing and innovations. Its Employee Resource
Groups act as effective learning source as it deliver different training and development
programmes to employees. EasyJet provide weekly training to its employees regarding Inventory
management, Supply chain management, production and operations. Formal education system
is adopted by training team for professional development of employees. Continuous training
is provided to EasyJet employees for APICS certifications, quantity and quality methodologies
for sustainable professional and personal growth (Fausset and et.al., 2017).
Hence, continuous learning programmes delivers strategic outcomes with enhanced
personnel performance and professional development in any organization.
Application of learning cycle theories to analyse the importance of implementing
continuous professional development
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Learning theories can be applied to training and development programs of organizations
to deliver an authentic way of guiding, training and empowering employees regarding
professional aspects of organization environment.
Kolb's learning cycle model is applicable to organizational learning programmes that can
be altered with the circumstances.
This model reflects different learning behaviour or stages, these learning stages have
unique identifications and organizations must identify these learning patterns of individual and
group to rectify faulty situations and achieve professional development (Breevaart and et.al.,
2014).
“Concrete experience” are bound with specific ideologies that is difficult to alter and
may create organizational issues (Kolb, 2014).
Learning facilities to new employees bring a “Reflecting observational nature” to solve
any issue take place in an organization.
After proper utilization of training aids and formal protocols, employees generates
desirable “active conceptualisation”.
“Active experimentation” are strategic in nature and deliver organizational success with
the help of trained employees through continuous learning and help organization to achieve
strategic results.
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Illustration 1: Kolb learning theory
Source: (Kolb learning theory, 2013)

Without proper training and learning aids, employees may stick to concrete experiences
and thus affecting the flexible decisions in organizations. On job and situational learning
modules provide active experimentation to the employees.
Organizations like EasyJet provide adequate training facilities and formalized learning
methods to analyse any situation and follow abstract conceptualisation or active experimentation
rather than a concrete experiences (Valentine and Bowman, 2018).
Learning culture of EasyJet transforms its employees' productivity. It alters learning
methods more comfortable by setting incentives for maintaining high standards of Physical and
Financial health. Thus, EasyJet has created an outstanding learning modules that provide
continuous personal and professional development of employees.
P5. The way HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage
High performance work practice is a frame work which is used in organization to
improve efficiency of work place. It is used to make environment positive and to enhance
employees to work hard. High performance work improve organization's selection, development
and it is a key to success (Moorley and Chinn, 2015). High performance work in EasyJet is a
management practice which provide employees a positive environment to engage with their
work and to enhance their abilities. HPW align EasyJet in a systematic structure which hike
company's management system and work profile of employees.
 Employees’ Involvement and Training: Training is very essential to increase
confidence of employees in EasyJet. It is directly linked to profit of company. High
performance work improves employee’s involvement for EasyJet and promotes them to
increase their abilities. Considering high performance work practice, employees can
compete to their competitors easily whereas employees who are poorly motivated may
waste and lost competition in market. It also increases self-esteem, confidence and give
right direction of employees (Mahembe and Engelbrecht, 2014).
 Increase in Employee’s Engagement: High performance work practices exceeds
employee engagement towards EasyJet. Like, engagement of employees in company can
only be achieved by well-maintained management and leadership. A well improved
management in EasyJet can bring interesting, motivating and challenging environment
which create a healthy competition among employees. In EasyJet, well knowledgeable
leaders give their team a correct vision to achieve their goals.
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 Increase in Employees Efficiency: High performance increases employee’s efficiency
in tasks given to enhance their abilities. It brings employees commitment to EasyJet and
improves their vision day by day. For example Rewards, financial rewards like shares
which belongs to EasyJet, after becoming shareholder of company, employees relevant
themselves more to EasyJet and they work more efficiently. Rewards which are related to
performance are also essential to move employee’s commitment towards EasyJet and to
bring positive outcomes (Kontoghiorghes, 2016). Increase in Productivity of Employees: High performance work practices boost
productivity of employees. For example: to bring positive outcome from employees,
coaching and mentoring is essential. Employees should know how their performance is
affecting EasyJet and this need better mentoring between employees and management
(High performance work practice, 2015). There is good mentors in EasyJet who motivate
employees that helps them to improve their work (Dixon, 2017). Self-Directed Work
Team: High performance work practice promotes teamwork as well. It builds helpful
correlation between EasyJet and its workers which make employees more comfortable
not only with each other but also with company and management. These efforts make
employees more enthusiastic, energetic, motivated and challenging towards their goals
and also create a healthy relationship among co-workers in EasyJet.
Contribution of HPW in employee engagement
 A Better Employee Attitude: High performance work practice fill employees full of
positive attitude. It makes employees more responsible and motivated about their work
and improves productivity of EasyJet. HPW makes employees creative enough to bring a
clear vision for their goals.
 A Better Organization: By using high performance work practices, EasyJet has become
a better organization in market which has different and unique ideas to execute. This
makes EasyJet different from its other competitors in market. EasyJet attracts its
customers with new innovations and brings some new appealing experiences which make
company more popular than its challengers.
 Better Financial Results: High performance work increases profitability of EasyJet and
gives better financial result as well. These positive results motivate employees towards
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more hard work. Profitability takes EasyJet to the top of market and creates its image
more powerful.
P6. Importance of collaborative working, communication and performance management in
EasyJet for high performance culture
EasyJet has had a long standing commitment to growing talent through strong
performance management processes and thus it strongly believed in collaborative working
system.
Learn from each other - As it has been known that unity helps in facing every problem
and unity is very important in any field. In corporation, manager emphasises on collaboration
which gives an opportunity to learn from each other's successes and failure which is useful in
high performance culture. In EasyJet, team members work in collaboration which helps it in high
performance culture.
Better problem solving- Collaborative working brings varied talent together and it
makes a pool of different skills and knowledge which helps in problem solving of each other so
it also helps in better high performance of EasyJet.
Break down barriers- Successful EasyJet always put their employees in collaboration.
As everybody can contribute their skills and efficiency towards certain goals in company which
helps in high performance culture and it breaks down barriers in high performance culture.
Importance of effective communication in EasyJet for high performance culture
Effective communication is important for the development of an organisation. It helps in
better performing the basic functions of management like planning, organizing and controlling.
Effective communication in EasyJet allows company to be more productive and in operating
effectively. Effective communication exchange information and ideas which helps in better high
performance culture. Manager in EasyJet communicate to their employees effectively as they
give the information face to face in convenient language or they create a better way to
communicate which leads a high performance culture.
Importance of Performance management in EasyJet for high performance culture
Performance management is a process of creating a positive work environment where
employees can perform the best of their abilities (Katzenbach and et.al., 2015). In EasyJet,
manager directly interacts to employees for knowing their efficiency, changes and requirements
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and then work on that for making better work place which helps in high performance culture.
Performance management helps in development planning, reward and recognition which is very
useful and helpful in high performance culture. In EasyJet, performance management identify
the barriers of communication and then work accordingly to overcome the barriers in
communication which leads high performance culture.
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been concluded that human resource manager plays a
significant role in EasyJet. HR professionals encourage people and raise their confidence as
well. Appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviour help human resources for
becoming professionals. Professional knowledge is effective for the high performance working
with increasing employee’s engagement and competitive advantage. Collaborative working has
created an effective work culture in the organisation. It has also been interpreted that high-
performance work practice has motivated employees to perform better. This has also helped in
enhancing skills and knowledge of workers working in the firm.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bolden, R., 2016. Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower handbook
of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Rout ledge.
Breevaart and et.al., 2014. Daily self-management and employee work engagement. Journal of
Vocational Behavior.84(1). pp.31-38.
Dixon, N.M., 2017. The organizational learning cycle: How we can learn collectively.
Routledge.
Fausset and et.al., 2017. September. Developing a model of team skill decay. In Proceedings of
the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting (Vol. 61. No. 1. pp. 735-
739). Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.
Katzenbach and et.al., 2015. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-performance organization.
Harvard Business Review Press.
Kolb, D.A., 2014. Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development.
FT press.
Kontoghiorghes, C., 2016. Linking high performance organizational culture and talent
management: satisfaction/motivation and organizational commitment as mediators. The
International Journal of Human Resource Management. 27(16).pp.1833-1853.
Lo, K. and et.al., 2015. The HR competency requirements for strategic and functional HR
practitioners. The international journal of human resource management. 26(18).
pp.2308-2328.
Macdonald, I., Burke, C. and Stewart, K., 2017. Systems leadership: Creating positive
organisations. Routledge.
Mahembe, B. and Engelbrecht, A.S., 2014. The relationship between servant leadership,
organisational citizenship behaviour and team effectiveness. SA Journal of Industrial
Psychology. 40(1). pp.01-10.
Megginson, D. and Whitaker, V., 2017. Continuing professional development. Kogan Page
Publishers.
Moorley, C. and Chinn, T., 2015. Using social media for continuous professional
development. Journal of Advanced Nursing. 71(4). pp.713-717.
Morgan and et.al., 2018. The Business Performance Outcomes of Market Orientation Culture
and Behaviors. In Innovation and Strategy. (pp. 255-282). Emerald Publishing Limited.
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