Employee Engagement Strategies and Legislation

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.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is an important concept for every organisation success.
Dealing with the practice 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
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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 candidates for chocolate presence. It is important as efficient
selection will support organization in improving their quality of service.
Performance appraisal- Performance appraisal is important as it allows Chocolate presence
employees in 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. Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used by the
organization
The various types of selection methods are as follows: -
A. EMPLOYEE REFERENCES
Employee references means seeking 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
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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 interview is 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. These interviews' generally conducts out of the organisation. In Microsoft, 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.
 Opportunity for bias & Perceived difficulties in comparing data -In informal
interview, use of bias by the hiring managers of Chocolate Presence can be there which
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greatly affects validity of the interview's gathered knowledge & make it difficult to be
compared.
Strengths –
 Balance in power relationships - Instead of doing conversation formally where
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 tests help 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 are selected 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
the knowledge of candidates. Also, the ability to assess the candidate level of
development within a specific area can be done with the help of such test.
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C. evaluate at least two potential improvement that could be made by chocolate presence to
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 is formal group created
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 a structured 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 is conducted 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.Not full reports -It doesn't permit for full exploration of individual perspectives and
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
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TASK 2
a) Specification for role of receptionist
SPECIFICATION
Title of job Receptionist
Date: 28/02/2019
Qualification required Essential Desirable Met
1.High school diploma
certificates or
equivalents.
2.Basic computer
knowledge and good
typing ability.
3.Should be capable of
multi-task handling and
clerical actions.
4.Knowledge of
Microsoft office
application.
5.Excellent speaking and
communication skills.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Need of Experience
1. 1-3 years of
experience.
2. Should be capable of
speaking & writing
regional language.
Yes
Yes
Personal characteristics
& conduct
1.Greeting visitors who
enters the organization
and enquire at the
reception area.
Yes
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2.Attending telephone
calls by providing
caller the required and
relevant information.
3.Maintaining the basic
office equipments
including fax, copier,
printers etc.
4.Sorting & replying
mails, maintaining
office record.
5. Time Management
Yes
Yes
Yes
Roles and
Responsibilities
1. Knowledge of using IT
facilities and telephone
switchboard.
2.Should always update
the Stationery stock
and ordering of
refreshments.
3.Allocating every visitor
badges and attendance
log.
4.Keeping a check on the
cleaning of reception
area, organisation
premises.
5. Validating parking
tickets
6. Maintaining security
and telecommunications
systems
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
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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:
 Chocolate Presence hires employees familiar with candidate’s work ethic and
methodology used in the organisation (Nieves, Quintana and Osorio, 2014)).
 Chances are there that word of mouth advertisement have minimal downtime and
doesn't affect business operations.
 Less paperwork because chocolate presence needs to change HR forms only which
doesn't involve huge paper work and hence decrease confusion.
Disadvantages:
 Limited choice among talented candidate is there, as the 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 appointing fresh and skilled
candidates for their job role.
 Bringing in fresh talent from outside can help motivate the current employees to work
hard as it will create competition between them.
 Targeting key players of the organisation make competition successful. Recruiting
candidate with good track record helps business in successful achievement of its goals
and objectives.
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 Opportunities to find experienced, highly-qualified, skilled candidates become 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
is not that approachable to people in need. Rarely people stay and check out the
noticeboard.
 Noticeboard recruitment method that Chocolate Presence follows is very time
consuming compared 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 which will contain different section for the vacancy of the receptionist. It will
contain details like, name of the department that is Administrative department ,the employee
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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
from a specific geographic audience. It will also help the company to hire the person
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 regarding the 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 seekers who 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.
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 Explore a career path - Microsoft organises training sessions, induction programs which
helps interns in acquiring specialised knowledge in their fields.
 Perks to gain Attraction and Motivation – Microsoft offer Compensation and
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.
 Enhance perspective – Newly recruit employees have fresh ideas, thoughts and
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 opportunity to
either do part-time work, job share, flex their schedules or work compressed weeks. Each
employee is given a personal laptop so they can work from home and can complete their work
from outside. Microsoft offers wide range of benefits and fitness facilities which promote better
employee health.
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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 – A standard work week is reduced by fewer than 5 days. In
case of emergency when employee has some urgent work, the employee has 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 are self-motivated and 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
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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 group membership. 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 role and 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-ACTUALIZATION NEEDS - It consists of morality, 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.
Figure 1: Maslow hierarchy of needs
Source: (Maslow hierarchy theory, 2019)
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TASK 4
a) Employee engagement and its benefit to Microsoft
Employee Engagement defines the 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 & Recruitment process is a time-consuming and costly process. 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. Better Customer 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.
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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.
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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
Employee Recognition is another important approach to improve employee’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
recognition from management, they will be motivated to work towards achieving the
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
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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
relevant monetary benefits to employees who are suffering. In Microsoft, Workmen
compensation act, 1923 follows. By this act, employee feel satisfied that they will get
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.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
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