Employability skills and professional development Assignment : Harrods

Employability Skills
and Professional
Development

Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................4
Task 1 .............................................................................................................................................4
Skill Audit in the context of Human Resource Manager.......................................................4
Task 2-.............................................................................................................................................7
A) Key interpersonal tools and ways to enhance these skills-...............................................7
B) SWOT analysis of Human Resource Management-..........................................................8
C) Individual Appraisal-.......................................................................................................10
Task 3- ..........................................................................................................................................13
Personal and professional development- ............................................................................13
TASK -B........................................................................................................................................15
REFLECTION .....................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

Introduction
Employability skills are a mixture of behaviours and skills which is required in every job. Sometimes
they refer to soft, job readiness, work readiness or foundational skills. These skills help in communicating
with the team, solve issues, they help in understanding your role in the team, helps in taking responsible
choices and decisions. Company value these skills because they show them the profile of the employees
that how they work as a team, your performance, your achievements. Company seeks for those employees
skills essentially required such as they want them to be organized. To be punctual arrive on time and can
depend on them. They should have a positive attitude towards the organization and work. They must put
high level of effort in completing the work on time and doing it accurately. They should play their role
flexibly and be adaptable to new trends. Company look for those who follows the code of conduct and
maintain personal hygiene.
Professional development is practising of professional credentials like degrees related to coursework,
conferences. There are various ways to this development such as coaching, consultation, lesson study and
technical assistance.
Harrods is a department store and deals in retail which is situated in Brompton Road in London, England
and is owned by state of Qatar. They also have other brands in their group such as Harrods Estates,
Harrods Aviation and Air Harrods. Their store is build on a land which occupies 5 acres of retail space
which has 330 departments in it and was founded in 1849. It is the largest retail in Europe.
This questions covered in this report are skill audit, enhance these skills, SWOT analysis, individual
appraisal, professional development with aims, objectives and areas of development and my personal and
professional development plan and activities.
Task 1
Skill Audit in the context of Human Resource Manager
This process helps in recording, measuring and evaluating the skills of people. It is mainly used to know
what skill the organization requires and what they currently has. It helps in knowing the organization that
whether or not they can meet their goals and without this information the organization will remain
clueless for where to improve and it also helps in better targeting for training and development.
Benefits of Skill Audit-
Improves knowledge and skills (Hill, 2016)
Lower the cost of training and development as focus is more on development efforts.
Information can be used for various purposes such as placement for employees and their selection.
Gives results in increase in productivity as they match people to their positions.

Need to improve the work Not 100 per cent sure Confident
TIME AND SELF MANAGEMENT
I organise my work in such a way that I complete it before the deadline.
I know where to get help if I am facing difficulty in completing a task.
I keep diaries to remind myself when to attend the seminars, meetings or
lectures
I organize my work time in such a way that it reduces my waste time when I
have a lot of work pending.
I have set my targets for future related to my education and qualification to help
me on completing my current tasks.
CRITICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING
I take different methods for resolving a problem be it academic or non academic
. I even think of different options to resolve them.
What I do is I consider different method and solutions for a issue, I predict the
best option and choose it.
Ability to work with the team conveniently without any disputes when the task
is given.
Ability to find out the expected result from the task.
I break down problems into simple parts.

I know what company expects from me when it comes to a particular task.
ORAL COMMUNICATION
During group discussions I listen to other people and respond to them with
positive attitude even when I don't agree.

I believe in immediate feedback or immediate follow up when they are finished.
I am sure that I will be an asset to this company I will be the one coming with
most of the ideas and opinions during group discussion. (Hildebrand, 2018)
Confident in explaining the new thing to people.
Ability to give the presentation with the full confidence.
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
I can assure you that I can make assignment in paragraphs with posting of sign
language to communicate my ideas.
My written work will have no errors of spelling, punctuation and grammatical.
Ability to create notes and points from the presentation and meetings.
The content written by me will have correct format for letters and documents.
I will present my sources in such a way that my argument looks convincing and
the company will know that I am informed and aware of the topic.
I write in academic style. (Dorociak and et.al., 2017)
Ability to work with the no plagiarism with taking the reference from the other.
INFORMATION LITERACY: READING
I can collect information from many sources such as data on internet, from
books etc.

Ability to understand the requirement of the client with the take the right step to
solve it.
I can easily look out for main arguments in the text by author and distinguish
them from example and references
I make notes when I am looking for information regarding an assignment.
NUMERACY
Ability to study the graphs and tables and analysis of the present data.
Ability to create a budget for each departments so that funding can be done
accordingly.
Task 2-
A) Key interpersonal tools and ways to enhance these skills-
Time and Self Management
Manage and prioritise time to balance work.
Use the feedback which was obtained from
tutors to improve and set targets.
To help and motivate each other find a study
partner or study group.
To encourage or motivate yourself join a
society of sports or enter into a sports team.
Attend the workshop of ASK and use those
resources on managing time and study.
Must gain work experience or volunteer for
work.
Problem Solving
Assignments are completed by reading a
question in a methodical way to figure out
what information is needed to answer the
question and explore ideas which are
alternative and communicate them effectively.
Effectively contribute your group projects of
your course.
Successfully share a living place.
Join a society of students to gain experience of
organising events and activities.
For critical thinking use ASK workshops.
Must have work experience or volunteered for
work.

Oral communication
One must effectively contribute in group
discussion and seminars.
Talk with study partner about the ideas
presented and related to your course.
Practise more to increase your skills of
presentation and take feedback of your
assignments and job interview.
Improve your listening and communication
skills.
To meet with new people attend events of sports
union.
Involve yourself in group work by taking part in
sports or other activities.
Use the resources from ASK workshop on
presentation and communication skills.
Must gain work experience or volunteer for
work.
Information Literacy
Complete research for your assignments by
using resources from library.
Remember your subject liaison and contact
them in case of help.
From the reading list read widely and beyond to
experience a wide range of approach to your
subject.
Talk and consult about your reading with your
study partner or study group.
Make notes that are full of information and
useful and make them by using different styles
Written Communication
While completing the assignment look
carefully for the feedback to find the areas of
improvement.
Take feedback of what you have written from
your study partner, study group or from ASK.
Carefully read the content to get good
examples for writing your subject.
Practice regularly by writing roughly in your
diary or write on a blog.
To write academically attend ASK workshops
or their resources.
Must gain work experience or volunteer for
work.
Numeracy
Assignment based on numerical skills must be
completed.
Practice and improve your skills by using
illustrations and discuss them with your study
partner or study group.
Attend and use resources of ASK workshop for
maths, statistics and numeracy.
Must gain work experience or volunteer for
work with numbers.

of note making and thinking critically.
Use ASK workshop or resources for reading and
note making.
Must gain work experience or volunteer for
work with information.
B) SWOT analysis of Human Resource Management-
Currently I am working as an HR manger in Harrods and my strength, weakness,
opportunities and threats are as follows-
As this analysis help assist the team of human resources to achieve goals and it helps in
sustaining the workforce. (Choy and Chua, 2019)
Strength-
My department strengths are beneficial for internal factors and supports my strategy and
function. My strategy includes functions like long term goals and be updated so that we can keep
up with the recent trends which is concerned to employees or being as an HR I will attract the
most talented people and retains them as engaged workers. The general public who will apply to
work for my company, they might not know their strengths which will be beneficial for the
organization and as a HR I won't believe things they said like this is my dream job, if you give
me one chance I will be a asset to your company or its my childhood dream to be a part of your
organization. No HR must believe these and if they does their whole department is going to fall.
This analysis helps in revealing the strengths of a person in every functioning area of HR.
internal factors that they say are strengths are basically HR staff expertise. (Núñez Pardo and
Téllez Téllez, 2015)
Weakness-
In addition with what's working well this analysis also tells you what's not working well.
As strength reveals area of my expertise, weaknesses will reveal the weakness in my expertise.
HR supports the employees of the organization and weaknesses are said to be the scope for
improvement. For example, if and when a HR does not have a full knowledge about an ongoing
process or topic that is a weakness and that can become a liability for the company. Surely that

weakness can be improved by providing regular and required training which will improve the
knowledge and skills of the HR so that he can keep up and be aware of his surroundings that
what is going on and how to counter that measure. If it does not improve then it will affect the
decision making, their skills of communication and their time management skills. This all will
lead to reduction in productivity and profitability of the company. (Ramia and et.al., 2016)
Opportunities-
This factor looks out for the opportunities for growth and development of the
organization and I make sure of it to never loose that opportunity, it is need for growth for my
department. If we successfully grow it will help us in expanding or entering into new markets or
develop a new line of service or a product. For that kind of organizational growth, I need to make
growth in my department in the area of expertise or staffing. Otherwise the growth factor will
turn into a weakness factor if I cannot accommodate that at macro level. Another opportunity for
me would be to hire a professional in the department of business development so that they can
improve the profit margin of your business by their own networks and connections. This kind of
opportunity requires growth and increase in staffing to support it. (Hill and et.al., 2016)
Threats-
This factor in this analysis focuses on the threats that my department will be facing.
These factors are external and can create a negative reputation for the department of HR and the
organization. For example my sales executive who gives me the highest sale leaves my firm and
not only I need to fill that vacant position but I need to develop a strategy for achieving the
organizational goals successfully without him, despite any measure to attain them. Another
threats on the basis of wage rate can also impact and affect badly to my department. It affects
both the small and large firms. At this my department is at a disadvantage as my department is
not concerned with generating revenues and funding is less that is the time when SWOT analysis
is done to minimize the effect of external threats. (Brody and Hadar, 2015)
C) Individual Appraisal-
Skills Position Rating
Decision Making My decision making skills as a HR
in a situation is good enough I
meet up with the work criteria. I
provide with consistent set of steps

which helps in making my choices
more effective. I try my best to
avoid traps and errors. I believe in
discovering new and creative skills
to bring alternatives for situations.
I manage time to implement
decision for successful completion
of task.
5/5
Communication Skills I have good communication skills
and I have proved that at the time
of my interview. My skills help
me at the time when I take
interview of prospective
candidates and ask them
appropriate questions about work.
Employees come to my
department when they have a
problem related with job or its
personal that they fear will affect
their performance and I solve them
out for them. When there is a
problem between two employees
they share it with me they open up
with me because they feel
comfortable and they know they
can trust me. I am also good in
written communication skills as it
is needed when I convey important
notifications and messages through
my e mail. The more I
communicate in a better way more
4/5

it will help the organization.
Time Management Skills I put my focus immediately when
a task is urgent. I answer, respond
and make myself always available
whenever my services are needed.
I manage my time and complete
one thing at a time I never
multitask as it leads to errors in
work.
4/5
Problem Solving Whenever it comes to problem
solving I take time in solving
problems and my department is
full of addressing issues. It gets
difficult for me sometimes and to
train employees with problem
solving adds to the list of
difficulties. Degree of paramount
is increasing as critical problems
related to technology or operations
are increasing and getting more
complex. (Shuler and Keller-
Dupree, 2015)
3/5
Ethical Earlier policies were made by HR
department of the individual
company but now because of the
trade union policies are made by
the government and I have no
problem with that some oppose it
but I agree with it as forming
policies and agreements is not
3/5

something I am good at but I have
always followed every policy,
guideline, (Agafonova, Bryukhova
and Kaigorodov, 2015) rules and
ethical conduct of my organisation
and I intend to keep it that way. I
have never judged or
discriminated someone on my
team on the basis of race, gender
etc. Even at the time of interview I
am fully fair with candidates I
evaluate them on the basis of their
knowledge and performance.
Technical Skills These skills require a long time of
training and experience for
perfection and are considered into
one of the hard skill and for me I
was never a tech guy. I was more
of a guy with attributes like soft
skill which helped me personally
to succeed at work. Technical
skills often relate to IT,
mathematical, scientific, coding
and programming. Of course these
skills are applicable to selected
kind of jobs but still it would have
been good for my profile and
would have given a good
impression at the time of
interview. (Rønnestad, Orlinsky
01/05/19

and Wiseman, 2016)
Task 3-
Personal and professional development-
Key Skills to be
developed
Activities
Required For
Development
Duration Development
Monitoring
Approach
Assessment of
Development
Detailed
Evaluation
Decision Making Always be
aware with
full
information
3 months Decision skills will
improve after taking
bad decisions. That
bad experiences
help an HR to
improve decision
making skills as he
would not make the
same mistake again.
Goal is to reduce
the risk of these
external factors and
their consequences
that comes from
taking bad
decisions.
The
supervisor or
someone from
top level
management
must check
and ensure the
decision
making
capabilities of
HR and
evaluate their
skills and
figure out
where they
need
improvement.
It is a very
important aspect
and role of HR.
He or she needs
to be 100 per
cent confident
before
performing or
taking any
activities which
concerns to
decision
making.
Technical Skills Knowledge of
Technical
resources
(Avidov-
Ungar, 2016)
10 months I want to gain full
knowledge of this
aspect as I want this
attribute to be
added in my profile.
I am willing to
The
supervisor
will give job
which requires
technical
aspect of
Company will
evaluate the HR
on the basis of
work given and
work done
which is

work for it and it
will help me to take
decisions which
require practical,
technical and
statistical decisions.
Also this will help
me to open up a
new field of work
for me and give a
good impression to
HR at the time of
interview.
knowledge
and HR must
complete it in
given time.
basically they
will be checking
him or her for
efficiency and
figure out if they
need to practice
or improvement
or not.
TASK -B
REFLECTION
According to the above SWOT analysis of the growth development plan in Harold, I have
gone through the various activities for carrier growth in Harold. For became a manager of the
Harold I have boost up my knowledge and skills in many different ways. I have done hard work
for the completion of my development plan. various things are mentioned under this which I
have done for the growth of my carrier in the Harold. I have improved my decision making skills
for the completion of my carrier development by developing new idea and the decision helps me
for my future growth in the Harold or for became a manager from a employee. I did change in
my communication skills know I can easily make other understand my thoughts it helps me a lot
in developing plans. With the use of the good communication skills in the developing plans in
respect to the my growth in the Harold. I have learned many things under a process of the
development plans for examples I have learned how to deal with the managerial problems In the
different business environment. I have enhance my knowledge in the terms of Harold product or
services and I have boost up my self confidence among all on the other hand I have develop and
learned time management for the works , how work load can be manage in the given time,how
task should be complete. I have learned the leadership skills and motivation skills in

development plan or carrier plan I can guide other staffs or employees related to the objective or
make them influence towards there common goal. I do effective planning for completion of
carrier development of the plans and apply those effective plans in the organisation for the
achievement of the designation as a manager. I have motivated others for the achievement of the
common goal or towards the time management of the work. For the completion of my
development plans or for the boost up of the designation in the Harold from being a employees
to a became a manager I did all such activity for the achieving the desired designation. Use of
different skills, effective plans and controlling over them plays an important role in whole
completion process of the development plan.
From the above study of my development plans in the Harold I examine that there are
some problem which were I am facing for development in the Harold. Being as a employee in
the Harold due to some problems I am not able to develop my growth in the harold. The main
problems such as the collection of the data, identifying elements etc are described below:
 As per the study of strength and weakness I examine a problem related to the the
collection of data in the Harold for example there is incomplete information given in data
related to the customers of the Harold this is the biggest problem I faced during my
personal development or growth in the Harold.
 During the SWOT analysing of the development plan in Harold I faced the problem
related to the lack of skilled such as there is a lack of the skilled found on me related to
the data , I am not able to understand its customers and business, data from the scientific
purpose and many more this is the genuine problem I analysis during the SWOT OF
development plans due to the availability of the inaccurate data(Farrell., 2015).
 I observe from above analytical study commonly I faced a problem of lack of confidence
and identifying the element or key, it is difficult for me to identifying the for element of
the SWOT analysis that is strength, weakness, opportunity threat. Mostly it is very
difficult for me to identify my threat or opportunity during the development plan of the
Harold (Farrell., 2015).
 Mostly I faced the problem of lack of the control during the development plan. I am not
able to control the changes to government rules and regulation, control over the level of
inflation and in price of the materials etc.

According to the brief study of above SWOT analysis generally I faced the problems in
terms of the analysing the key such as data, situation of the Harold in change in business
environment. On other hand i faced problem in the in that condition when harold situation cannot
fit in any of the four SWOT categories. ( strength, weakness, opportunity and threats).
As according to my strength and weakness I analysis that being as a employee of the
Harold I would further improve some of the basic things on which I m lacking for my personal
development plans. It is important to analysis weakness and strength for the development of the
plans. By analysing or knowing the weakness I am very clear with the objective what should be
done next and it helps me to understand or provide base for what improvement should be needed
for the development of the plans it is difficult for me to analysis my weakness and strength on
the other hand this two were playing very important role in my personal development plan. From
above analytical study I found that there are some qualities which I require for being a manger of
the Harold or need to do some changes or improvement for my future growth in the Harold or
(for being a manager of the Harold ) firstly I would like to make change or improvement in my
decision making skills for becoming a manager of the Harold by improving the decision making
skills it helps me a lot in future to take some of effective decision at different situation. By
stimulating the effective decision in the changing business environment I can save Harold and it's
employees by affecting to sudden change in the business environment. From analysing my
weakness I also found that I need to improve my communication skills so that I can freely
communicate with the each and every member or staff of the Harold. Having good
communication skills helps me and other to understand easily regarding the objective Or I can
share my new ideas or information to every individual. For my future growth in the Harold I
need to improve my self knowledge or awareness regarding the Harold for example I must have
a complete knowledge or awareness of product and services of the Harold so that I can easily
solve all the queries or doubt of everyone who were have issues related to anything in the
Harold. Or for my future growth I need to develop my self aware skills or should be self aware
regarding each and every change or different product service or policy of the Harold. From the
above study I also observe that I need to adopt or follow the proper time management for work in
Harold as a manager, need to utilise each second or minute for the better productivity result of
Harold and influencing other staffs for proper time management of the works. by adopting time
management to the entire organisation which helps to complete the task on time or before the

expected time by them for better productivity or work efficiency time management is necessary
part which I need to improve or follow. Above all the describe things are necessary which I need
to work on them for my future growth in the Harrods or for being a manager of the Harrods.
CONCLUSION
From the above studies it has been concluded that employees are judged on the basis of
their skills and the department of HR emphasises on their selection, recruitment, training and
development. Employees are more comfortable with HR they take their problems such as work
related or personal which affects their performance. This study also emphasizes on the
department of HR that what their role in the organization is, where there expertise is needed,
where they lack, where they can help the situation by providing decision alternatives and where
they lack and they needed to improve themselves.

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