The assignment discusses the importance of employee recognition in improving engagement and morale. It also highlights key elements of employee legislation, such as equality act, health and safety, workmen's compensation act, and trade union act, which influence HR decision-making in a company like Microsoft.
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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
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INTRODUCTION Human resource management is an important concept for every organisation success. Dealing with thepractice of hiring, recruiting, training, developing and managing the employee performance. It is designed to maximize employee performance and achieve the organization goal. Report will lay emphasis on organizations like chocolate presence and Microsoft(an American multinational company which has its headquarter in Redmond, Washington).Study will lay emphasis on the purpose and functions of HR. It will also highlight the strength and weakness of current selection methods of firm.Study will lay focus on potential improvement methods of selection that can be used by enterprise. TASK 1 A. Purpose of HR function and its importance to organization & future plans for further growth. Human Resource Management(HRM)is a process of planning, organising, managing human manpower of the organisation for the fulfilment of business goals and objectives(Cascio,2015). HR functions are as follows: - PLANNING: -It is the important function of Human Resource Management process. Human Resource Officer of 'Chocolate Presence' must ensure at the time of planning that the company is hiring the right employees of the production team (Purce, 2014). Human Resource Department for reducing the problem of employee turnover can make various plans related to training and development, reward management so that employee stays motivated and problem of attrition is been removed from firm. ORGANISING: -Another important function is organising which means to allocate the task to the employees as per their skills to achieve a common objective of the company. After completing the planning stage, the overall work of the company. Organizing of employees to reduce the turnover and enhancing the quality of services must be based on their skills. Delegation of authorities and task assigned must be related to the qualification and talent of workers. Company can also provide the incentives to their workers which are working in different departments like, Financial and Non- financial incentives which will helps in boosting up the morale of the employees of Chocolate Presence and they will ultimately give their best and results in growth of the company. CONTROLLING: -It means to control the activities of employees and comparing the performance with standard performance and taking corrective actions. HR Manager must adopt 1
some techniques to evaluate the performance of workers of chocolate production department, packaging department. If actual performance of employees is not as per the standard then corrective action must be taken to improve it. In this way, the quality of chocolates can be improved. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT: -By providing proper training to the employees of chocolate department the productivity of the workers of Chocolate Presence will get improved and it will result into improvement in the quality of the chocolates Through overall development of employees, skills of workers will improve and they will perform their work in a better way and overall development of workers will lead to Improve in the morale of employees and they will not leave the company. Hence, proper development of employees will help in reducing the employee’s turnover. Reward Management- Chocolate presence can also motivate employees by providing them reward and incentives. This can be based on their performance. It will help them in removing employee turnover. Overall purpose and importance of HRM Recruitment and selection –Help the organisation in creating the pool of talented candidates for selection of the best suitable candidatesfor chocolate presence. It is important as efficient selection will support organization in improving their quality of service. Performance appraisal-Performance appraisal is important as itallows Chocolate presence employeesin receiving positive feedback & helps in identifying the areas of improvement. Organising training sessions, induction programs can improve the skills, knowledge base of employees.Its purpose is to retain the workers in an organization. B.Explainthestrengthsandweaknessesofthecurrentselectionmethodsusedbythe organization The various types of selection methods are as follows: - A. EMPLOYEE REFERENCES Employee references meansseeking the help of its employees for recruiting the best suitable candidates for the specified job role. In this process, employer ask the employee for references among their social network. Also, employee provides details of them know candidates to employer for purpose of recruitment.In this method, employees prefer to nominate their friends and relatives. The nominated people are in very close relation with them. Therefore, company 2
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can trust the candidates. In the company like Microsoft they follow this method to fill their vacant posts. Although this method has strength and weakness both which will be discussed below. Weakness - Decreased workplace ideas– Employee and their referrals will have almost same thoughts, ideas and skills. If employer recruits the referral of employee then it will decrease the ability of workplace to come up with new and innovating ideas. Lack of diversity- The relationship between employee and hired referral sours, it could affect their individual work as well as team work. Strengths - Decrease cost & time of hiring– Helps in finding the right candidate faster than compared to the process of regular recruitment which is time consuming. Also, it saves money as required for publishing advertisement for recruitment through resumes and interviews. Referee will be able to discuss employees’ current skills– Employees reference helps in recruiting the best suitable candidates which in turns leads to accomplishment of organisational goals and objectives. B. INFORMAL INTERVIEWS Informal interviewis not structured or contains pre- decided questionnaires. But the interviewer's aim is same to assess whether the candidate would fit in job role of the organization.These are best because the interviewer conducting interview coordinate with candidate in a very friendly manner.Theseinterviews'generallyconductsoutoftheorganisation.InMicrosoft,the candidates are interviewed in hotels which are holding good ambience. So, candidates feel free to talk and can open up with their expectations with the company. Weakness - Time Consuming-No prearranged questions were there which consume a lot more time of both Chocolate Presence employers & candidates. Opportunityforbias&Perceiveddifficultiesincomparingdata-Ininformal interview, use of bias by the hiring managers of Chocolate Presence can be there which 3
greatly affects validity of the interview's gathered knowledge & make it difficult to be compared. Strengths – Balanceinpowerrelationships-Insteadofdoingconversationformallywhere interviewer of Chocolate Presence holds power over conversation, interviewer attempts to retrieve interviewee’s world by understanding the perspective in a language that is natural to them. More complex issues can be probed -It allows for the interviewer of the Chocolate Presence to build better rapport with interviewee due to its parallels with a normal conversation & can be useful when asking about personal experiences of the candidates. C.Psychometric tests Psychometric testshelp in measuring and monitoring the candidates' suitability and capability for a job role by making an assessment on personal characteristics, skills and aptitude knowledge of employee.These tests are generally done for candidates who areselected to perform special skills. In Microsoft, these test are performed by web developers and technicians. So, that company choose the best among available. Weakness - Cost-benefits in the long term -The expenses involved in psychometric assessment conducted by the Chocolate Presence are minimal when compared with the costs of high- turnover, under-performance or unemployment of staff. Uncertainty of Measurements -It measures things that are not directly observable, there is always a gap between what a test is attempting to measure and what it actually measures. Strengths - Valid Judgements -Correct assessment of candidate knowledge can be done by interviewer of Chocolate Presence company. Easy to administer -The hiring manager of Chocolate Presence can easily administer theknowledgeofcandidates.Also,theabilitytoassessthecandidatelevelof development within a specific area can be done with the help of such test. 4
C. evaluate at least two potential improvement that could be made by chocolate presenceto enhance its selection process Recommendation for future improvement in selection process that Chocolate presence can follow are as below: Assessment Test: Chocolate presence can make use of assessment test as the method of selection. This test will support company in measuring the aptitude level of workers before selecting them. It assists in raising the productivity, reduces the hiring cost and also will help in retaining employees. Develop a selection committee -A Selection Committee or a task force isformal groupcreated and appointed by management authority to perform certain functions or tasks.This committee can support Chocolate Presence in enhancing their selection process. This committee supports in improving the cooperation and solving the existing problems related to selection of workers. Structured interview -In astructured interview, interviewers asked the candidates questions which are predetermined and decided. A questionnaire is designed for conducting interview properly.This method will support in hiring and retaining the efficient talent in Chocolate presence. Advantages of Structured interview: 1.Lesser interviewer bias- The questions is pre-decided, so the element of ‘interviewer judgement’ is not influenced by any employee reference, as a result of which it leads to consistency in both methodology and information gathering from each participant. 2.Faster execution –As questions are pre – decided, it isconducted relatively faster than compared to unstructured or semi-structured interviews. 3.Questions are subject to interpretation -All candidates do not possess same knowledge and always interpret questions in different manner based on their personal view. Disadvantages of Structured interview: 1.Notfullreports-Itdoesn'tpermitforfullexplorationofindividualperspectivesand circumstances. 2.No flexibility- Interviewers have pre-decided questions, as a result of which they cannot chose unanticipated and interesting topics for the interview process 5
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TASK 2 a) Specification for role of receptionist SPECIFICATION Title of jobReceptionist Date:28/02/2019 Qualification requiredEssentialDesirableMet 1.Highschooldiploma certificatesor equivalents. 2.Basiccomputer knowledgeandgood typing ability. 3.Shouldbecapableof multi-taskhandlingand clerical actions. 4.Knowledgeof Microsoftoffice application. 5.Excellent speaking and communication skills. Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Need of Experience 1.1-3yearsof experience. 2. Should be capable of speaking&writing regional language. Yes Yes Personal characteristics & conduct 1.Greetingvisitorswho enters the organization andenquireatthe reception area. Yes 6
2.Attendingtelephone callsbyproviding caller the required and relevant information. 3.Maintainingthebasic officeequipments includingfax,copier, printers etc. 4.Sorting&replying mails,maintaining office record. 5. Time Management Yes Yes Yes Rolesand Responsibilities 1. Knowledge of using IT facilities and telephone switchboard. 2.Shouldalwaysupdate theStationerystock andorderingof refreshments. 3.Allocating every visitor badgesandattendance log. 4.Keeping a check on the cleaningofreception area,organisation premises. 5.Validatingparking tickets 6.Maintainingsecurity andtelecommunications systems Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes 7
B. Advantages and disadvantages of current methods of advertising jobs Current method of job advertising has following advantages and disadvantages: Word of mouth advertising Word of mouth advertising means where the promotion is done by exchanging the information through mouth via person to person. It is an internal method of Job advertisement. Advantages: ChocolatePresencehiresemployeesfamiliarwithcandidate’sworkethicand methodology used in the organisation (Nieves, Quintana and Osorio, 2014)). Chances are there that word of mouth advertisement haveminimal downtimeand doesn't affect business operations. Less paperworkbecause chocolate presence needs to change HR forms only which doesn't involve huge paper work and hence decrease confusion. Disadvantages: Limited choice among talented candidateis there, asthe organization avoids the arrival of fresh candidates (Kerzner, 2019). In this the job vacancies are been posted outside the main gate of firm. It is an external method of advertising. Advantages: Notice board recruitment provides an opportunity for appointingfresh and skilled candidatesfor their job role. Bringing in fresh talent from outside can helpmotivate the current employeesto work hard as it will create competition between them. Targeting key playersof the organisation make competition successful. Recruiting candidate with good track record helps business in successful achievement of its goals and objectives. 8
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Opportunities to find experienced, highly-qualified, skilled candidatesbecome easy because it attracts the candidates which helps the company in meeting its diversity requirements. Disadvantages: This method followed by Chocolate Presence is not very successful because noticeboard isnotthatapproachable to peoplein need. Rarely people stay and check out the noticeboard. NoticeboardrecruitmentmethodthatChocolatePresencefollowsisverytime consumingcompared to all other external recruitment. C. Recommendation for the job advert for the Receptionist vacancy to be placed and why. The recommendation for the Job advert of receptionist are as follows: SOCIAL MEDIA- Chocolate Presence can opt social media platform for giving advertisement for the vacant position of receptionist. As per the recent survey,90% of the companies are now using social networking sites for in their recruitment process. Company can give advertisement for the post of receptionist on Facebook,Twitter,LinkedIn. Ex. -On face book company can give advertisement containing the details of the responsibilities of the job , name of the department etc. social media platforms can be used by the company for filling the post of the receptionist. The benefits of using social media platform for recruitment are: It requires lesser time as compared to other mediums of advertisement. Company will attracts better quality candidates mainly young youths because they generally uses social media in day to day life. Company will be able to recruit the receptionist at low cost Company can use different social media recruitment tools like, Job Cast, Link Up etc. LOCAL NEWSPAPER- Chocolate Presence can also give the advertisement for the vacancy of receptionist in local newspaper whichwill containdifferent section for the vacancy of the receptionist. It will contain details like, name of the department that is Administrative department ,the employee 9
have to report to whom?, main purpose of the post like, answering the incoming telephone inquiries. Through this medium, Chocolate Presence will be able to hire the person for receptionist post fromaspecificgeographicaudience.Itwillalsohelpthecompanytohiretheperson immediately for the post. It is a good medium for receptionist post if, the company requires the candidate from local area .ex. People who cannot drive etc. Chocolate Presence have to provide each and every details in the newspaper regardingthe post like, what task is required to be performed by the candidate , location , values of the company. Benefit Local newspaper in a specific location is more accessible to the job seekers of every age whether they are young like boys and girls COMPANY'S WEBSITE- Chocolate Presence can also its own website for giving the advertisement for the vacant post of the receptionist. Through company's website all the job seekerswho wants to apply for receptionist job will be able to find out the details regarding the post and also regarding the company like, values of the company, purpose and duties of the job, culture of the organisation, founder of the company, markets served etc. Benefit It is a cost effective method. TASK 3 a) Benefit of training and internship to both employees and organization The benefits of training and internship are as follows: Benefit to employees: Gain valuable work experience -Interns in Microsoft can apply their skills, knowledge in workplace which they had gained from experiences. 10
Explore a career path- Microsoft organises training sessions, induction programs which helps interns in acquiring specialised knowledge in their fields. PerkstogainAttractionandMotivation–MicrosoftofferCompensationand accommodation in a nice hotel during internship. Microsoft also offers team outing and parties. Benefits to Organisation Find future employees –Trained interns have the opportunity of being hired in the respective company which benefits both the interns and company. Increase productivity-An internship program in Microsoft allows them the advantage of short-term support. The interns increase employee's productivity, prevents them from overburden by side projects, and free them to accomplish creative tasks. Enhanceperspective–Newlyrecruitemployeeshavefreshideas,thoughtsand specialized strengths which can be used for the benefit of the company. Foster leadership skills in current employees.As current employees of Microsoft mentor and supervise interns, they gain valuable leadership skills. This is a great training for an employee who will occupy a management position. Supervising interns is often less stressful than supervising established employees (Kerzner, 2019). Mentoring and guiding others motivates employees to become effective leaders. In this way, adding interns to Microsoft can enhance and multiply leadership of employees. Improve the overall work environment.With interns on board, employees have lighter workload and have more time for creative or advanced projects. The opportunity to build confidence and leadership by guiding others increases. Interns often bring enthusiasm, motivation, and positive energy. B. Flexible working arrangements in Microsoft and its benefits to employee and Microsoft: - Yes, Microsoft have flexible working arrangement as its employee have the opportunityto either do part-time work, job share, flex their schedules or work compressed weeks. Each employee is given a personal laptop sotheycan work from homeand can complete their work from outside. Microsoft offers wide range of benefits and fitness facilities which promote better employee health. 11
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Benefits to employee: - Tuition reimbursement -It helps employee to continue their remaining education and Microsoft pay for a portion of amount for their education. Work life balance –The most important benefit to employees of Microsoft is that they do not need to worry about their balance between work and life. They get enough time and holidays to meet and greet relatives and also they are provided with ample of opportunities. Compressed work week –Astandard work week is reduced by fewer than 5 days. In case of emergency when employee has some urgent work,the employeehas the flexibility of taking this option(Nieves, Quintana and Osorio, 2014). Flexplace -The most important benefit provided by Microsoft is 'flexplace ‘means that employees can work from any place as they like. Benefits to Microsoft: - Employee retention –The main benefit is employee retention as the company offers flexible arrangement to its workers therefore the employees do not quit the job more often and they give their best efforts to the company (Cavallo and et.al., 2014). Increase in productivity –This flexible arrangement leads to increase in productivity of the company and hence maximise the profit of the company. Profit maximisation –As the arrangement is flexible workers work in a free environment and give their best performances as they areself-motivatedand hence it leads to profit maximisation for the company. C)Evaluate how Microsoft motivates its workers through the way it designs its job roles Microsoft follows Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory. This theory divide needs into 5 level, beginning with the basic psychological needs and continuing through safety, belonging and love, esteem and self-actualization. Individual always seeks to move towards higher need when lower needs are fulfilled. PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS - The basic requirements of human like: breathing, food, water, sex, sleep etc. should be satisfy in order to survive. Microsoft focuses on these needs to be met so that the workers do their job roles properly. Microsoft provides a good environment which 12
includes fresh air and sunlight. Workers feel positivity and motivated within premises and resultant they are more focused on their jobs as compared to other companies. SAFETY AND SECURITY NEEDS -Microsoft facilitates health and medical insurance, personal security, job security, economic status and safety against illness, accidents. By these workers feel that they are safe and secure and get motivated towards their job role to perform the functions well. SOCIAL NEEDS –Workers feels belongingness with co-workers and superiors. Workers engaged themselves in social activities and groupmembership. The interpersonal relationships motivate workers to work with dedication and inspire them towards their job role. ESTEEM NEEDS– It defines need for self-esteem and respect. By satisfied esteem needs workers dedicates themselves towards their job roleand try to give their best to the company. By promoting hard working employees to higher position as a reward, rest of the employees get inspired and work hard. SELF-ACTUALIZATIONNEEDS-Itconsistsofmorality,creativity,spontaneity, individual’s desire to grow and develop to his or her fullest potential. Employees can growth as per own capabilities and positions which supports help the organisation in achieving its goals and objects. Figure1: Maslow hierarchy of needs Source: (Maslow hierarchy theory,2019) 13
TASK 4 a) Employee engagement and its benefit to Microsoft Employee Engagementdefinesthe concept which helps in understanding & describing both qualitatively and quantitatively, nature of relationship between an organization & its employees(Purce, 2014).It involves development of team, retaining of workers and satisfaction. Importance of employee engagement in an organisation are as follows:- 1. High Employee Satisfaction Satisfied employees of Microsoft feel connection with company and produce quality work, which benefits both company & customer of Microsoft. Thus, employee satisfaction is key for every company, & unsatisfied employees lack enthusiasm about their role and growth of company at large is affected. 2.Higher Retention And Lower Turnover Selection&Recruitmentprocessisatime-consumingandcostlyprocess.Thus, employee engagement process helps Microsoft in understanding its employees and thus helps in retaining top employees and decreasing turnover rates by ensuring that team is happy. 3.Higher Productivity&Profitability Motivated employees work hard because they like what they do which improves quality of product and reduces cost of production which leads to happy customer & they keep coming back, also refer other people about company. Employees on being treated well, develops a sense of responsibility, to reciprocate their best efforts. 4.Lower Absenteeism & Happier Employees Adopting the performance appraisal methods like employee recognition,one-on-one meetings, and 360 feedback helps in monitoring the performance of employees on regular basis which reduces the rate of Absenteeism. 5.Increased Employee Loyalty Satisfied employees of the organisation contribute to the productivity of the business and for its success, which shows their loyalty status. 6. BetterCustomer Service & Quality When employees are motivated & satisfied, customers are more likely to be well-served because employees care about their jobs and customers of Microsoft as well. 14
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b) Critically evaluate the key approaches to engaging workers discussed in the Summit and how these approaches improve communication in the workplace COMMUNICATION It is one of the approaches that is being discussed in employee engagement summit held by Microsoft that is how company can improve the engagement of the employees at their workplace. Listening to employees is as important as listening to the customers. Company can conduct regular meetings with their employees like, conducting meeting for 30min.twice in a week. By having regular communication with employees through meeting the company will be able to determine at what areas of the workplace there is a need of improvement o through conducting regular surveys Ex. Through questionnaire, an opportunity can be provided to the employees to describe their problems related with the work place. Through effective communication between employees and management they will come to know that management concerns and hear their concerns, in this way the engagement of workers at their workplace will be improved. If, there is lack of proper communication then, workers will remain demotivated and they will not engage at their workplace for a long time. TEAM WORK- Another important approach which is discussed in the summit held at Microsoft for the employees of the company to improve engagement of the workers is team work.In which, the company Human Resource Officer has described the way in which company can increase the engagement of workers. Firstly, whenever a project is assigned to the employees they have to work in a team and every employee have to contribute their own ideas to complete the project. In this way employees feel proud for their contribution and they work towards achieving the common goal of the organisation. 15
Team work improves loyalty of the employees towards the organisation which leads to a higher level of job satisfaction among the employees. It will help in directly connecting the employees with their workplace and they are more likely to stay with the company. So, team work allows employees to engage with the company for a long time. If, there is lack of open communication then there will be conflicts at the workplace among the employees as a result they will remain absent from the workplace and will not work with their full potential which will ultimately affects the growth of the company. EMPLOYEE RECOGNITION EmployeeRecognitionisanotherimportantapproachtoimproveemployee’s engagement. In the engagement summit, the benefits of employee recognition have been discussed by the company. In this, HR team has explained the complete procedure of recognizing the performance of the employees. Employees must receive recognition for their good performance. If they get positive recognitionfrommanagement,theywillbemotivatedtoworktowardsachievingthe organisation goals. Recognition can be given in monetary and non-monetary forms which will improves the communication and ultimately the morale of employees will be improved and it will result into increase in employee’s engagement at their workplace. C.Key elements of Employee legislation The Employee legislation have following key elements: Equality act, 2010 - law which protects human rights of individual from unfair treatment and decisions and also promotes a fair decision and equal rights of individual. This act influences the decision making of HR of Microsoft as while recruiting they need to make sure that equal pay and opportunities are been given to workers working at the same level. Health and safety, 1974-Protecting persons, against the risk to health or safety arising in the work place. HR of Microsoft as while recruiting, training developing they need to make sure that they provide the health and safety protection to the employee. The duty of the HR to make sure that all the facilities provided to the employees and maintenance of plant and systems of work is good so employee feel the good environment provided the medical benefits when occurring in 16
the work place so the employees doing the best work, they have now any issues for the job. So, these act help to influence the HR decision to get the more benefits on health and safety. Workmen‘s Compensation Act, 1923 –This act protect certain class of workers by providing compensation for the injury in accident that is arising during the job. The compensation amount in this act will be payable by the company only. Therefore, it is beneficent for the beneficiary or dependent. The duty of HR is that they need to evaluate the accident properly and provide relevantmonetarybenefitstoemployeeswhoaresuffering.InMicrosoft,Workmen compensationact,1923follows.Bythisact,employeefeelsatisfiedthattheywillget compensation on any accident that occurs with them. Trade Union Act, 1926 –This act is bases on British trade union act. Trade union is formed by political parties for the welfare of workers. In Microsoft, seven members nominated or 105 out of 100 workmen's whichever is less are needed to formulate a union. The leaders of trade union are generally concerned with interest of employer or employee. The HR department of Microsoft makes coordination among trade union and the company itself. CONCLUSION From the above study, it has been summarised that functions of human resource management have supported organization in improving the recruitment and selection process.It has also assisted in enhancing the efficiency of employees which leads to effective and efficient achievement of organisational goals and objectives. 17
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