Human Resource Management: A Case Study of 'Say it with Chocolate' and Microsoft

This report explores the purpose and scope of Human Resource Management (HRM) in the context of two organizations: 'Say it with Chocolate' and Microsoft. It examines the key functions of HRM, including recruitment and selection, employee relations, training and development, and motivation. The report analyzes the effectiveness of various HRM practices in both organizations, including apprenticeship, graduate training schemes, flexible working practices, and job design. It also discusses the impact of internal and external factors, including employment legislation, on HRM decision-making. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of effective HRM practices for organizational success.

[HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT]

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
PART 1............................................................................................................................................6
TASK 1 (LO1): EXPLAIN THE PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT IN TERMS OF RESOURCING AN ORGANISATION WITH TALENT
AND SKILLS APPROPRIATE TO FULFIL BUSINESS OBJECTIVES.....................................6
a) PURPOSE AND FUNCTIONS OF HRM IN ‘SAY IT WITH CHOCOLATE’................6
b) ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF RESEARCHER AS HUMAN RESOURCE
OFFICER.................................................................................................................................8
c) ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CURRENT SELECTION METHODS
OF SELECTION WHICH ARE USED BY THE ORGANISATION....................................9
d) IMPROVEMENTS TO BE MADE IN CURRENT SELECTION METHODS..............12
TASK 2 (LO4): APPLY HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN A WORK-
RELATED CONTEXT.................................................................................................................13
a) PERSON SPECIFICATION FOR THE ROLE OF RECEPTIONIST.............................13
b) SUITABLE MEDIUM FOR PLACING THE ADVERTISEMENTS IN ‘SAY WITH
THE CHOCOLATE’.............................................................................................................15
c) DISCUSSION OF ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF JOB
ADVERTISEMENTS............................................................................................................16
d) PREPARATION OF QUESTIONNAIRE FOR INTERVIEWS TO BE ASKED BY
RECEPTIONISTS.................................................................................................................17
TASK 3 (LO2): EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE KEY ELEMENTS OF
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN AN ORGANISATION.........................................18
a) EVALUATION OF BENEFITS OF DIFFERENT HRM PRACTICES FOR
EMPLOYEES AND EMPLOYERS IN MICROSOFT........................................................18
b) DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES MADE AVAILABLE TO STAFF AFTER THEY
GOT A PERMANENT JOB..................................................................................................20
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c) BENEFITS OF FLEXIBLE WORKING PRACTICES IN MICROSOFT.......................21
d) MOTIVATION BY MICROSOFT TO ITS WORKERS VIA JOB DESIGN AND
SYSTEM OF REWARDS.....................................................................................................22
TASK 4 (LO3): ANALYSE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT AFFECT
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT DECISION-MAKING, INCLUDING
EMPLOYMENT LEGISLATION................................................................................................24
a) MEANING OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT...............................................................24
b) EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN TERMS OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONS VIA
VARIOUS FACTORS OF HRM..........................................................................................24
c) PROCESSES TO ENGAGE WORKERS TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION AT THE
WORKPLACE......................................................................................................................26
d) EMPLOYEE LEGISLATION AND THEIR IMPACT ON HRM...................................26
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................29
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................30
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INTRODUCTION
Figure 1: Human Resources
Source: [Reiche, et al. 2016]
Human resources have been considered as a most important asset of any organisation when skills
and abilities are taken into consideration. In the form of individual, personnel and workforce;
they take the full responsibility of successfully managing the whole task of an organisation
(Mallén, et al. 2016). They undertook various functions such as recruiting, selection, hiring,
onboarding, paying, promoting and so on. So, human resource management (HRM) could be
defined as an organisational department which deals with looking for a proper management of
the workforce and ensure the utilisation of best practices within the office environment all the
times (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
The given report is based on a rapidly expanding organisation called- “Say it with Chocolate”
which is based in North Yorkshire and provides a tailor-made chocolate greeting cards and
presents across the UK. The reason behind conducting this study by the organisation was
increased in staff turnover and feedback from the customers which indicated the decrease in the
quality of the company. Furthermore, there was also complaining regarding the bias towards the
candidates in the interview round. So in the given report, there would be detailed discussion
regarding the purpose of HRM, various approaches to recruitment and selection with their
4

strengths and benefits. Besides, the study would also take the performance of the employees, and
the factors affecting HR decision making into consideration.
5

PART 1
TASK 1 (LO1): EXPLAIN THE PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN TERMS OF
RESOURCING AN ORGANISATION WITH TALENT AND
SKILLS APPROPRIATE TO FULFIL BUSINESS OBJECTIVES
a) PURPOSE AND FUNCTIONS OF HRM IN ‘SAY IT WITH CHOCOLATE’
Figure 2: Human Resource Management
Source: [Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017]
Human Resource Management (HRM) could be defined as a strategic and integrated approach
which device policies and procedures for the development and well-being of people working in
an organisation (Bratton and Gold, 2012). There are various important functions of HRM which
highlights its importance such as:
 Recruitment and Selection: HRM plan strategies for hiring right kind of people by
designing criteria best suited for a specific job description using the given two factors.
These factors are important for an organisation because they help in the reduction of the
costs of mistakes such as removal of unmotivated and under-qualified employees.
6

 Orientation: It is an important part of the HRM as it helps the new employee to know
about their role and responsibilities and thus take an active role in an organisation
(Mallén, et al. 2016).
 Managing relations with employees: It is another important part as it helps the
management to know about their employees at a personal and professional level which
would enable to promote a healthy relationship between them and thus increase the
chances of an organisation to become successful.
 Maintaining a good environment: HRM plays an important role in providing an
environment where employees could work for their best. Besides, it also promotes
employee welfare which provides job satisfaction to the employees.
 Training and Development: It helps in increasing the skills and ability of the employees
to improve their performance (Rees and Smith, 2017).
There are various problems which are currently faced by HRM and these issues are:
 Recruiting new staff
 Retaining the old staff
 Providing sufficient training to the employees
 Increase the productivity of the company
 Maintaining Payroll
 Managing workforce diversity (Tummers, et al. 2015)
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b) ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF RESEARCHER AS HUMAN RESOURCE OFFICER
Being a Human Resource Officer, my roles and responsibilities in ‘Say it with the Chocolate’
would be:
 Recruiting and training the new employees
 Providing compensation and benefits
 Enforcing disciplinary procedures
 Resolving conflicts
 Identify the skill gap in the existing workforce
 Ensure that the company is able to meet its business and organisation objectives
 Cultivation of creative leaders who could handle their team well (Hollenbeck and
Jamieson, 2015)
This using above HRM functions, I would be able to provide efficient employees which could
help the company with their skills in increasing not only its productivity but also fulfil its goals
and objectives. Furthermore, I would provide training to the employees who would become a
leader so that they would lead their group in accomplishing the goals effectively. Furthermore, I
would also help the company to decrease the employee turnover rate and increase the retention
of the existing employees which would thus save the company from getting the unnecessary
financial burden.
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c) ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF CURRENT SELECTION METHODS OF
SELECTION WHICH ARE USED BY THE ORGANISATION
Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment is a process of establishing a contact with the applicants who want to apply for a
job, while a selection is a process of selecting more suitable and competent candidates from the
given job aspirants. Furthermore, there are internal and external recruitment processes. An
internal recruitment process is the selection of candidates within the given employees via
promotion and external candidates is the selection of candidates from the outside sources (Coller,
et al. 2018). There are various types of recruitment and selection methods which are explained as
follows:
Online Job Boards and Websites:
This could prove to be useful for the organisation as they have their own websites where the
vacancies related to the job is posted so that the designated candidates could read the post and
apply for the job.
Strengths:
 They are cost-effective
 Speeds up recruitment cycle
 Have a wide appeal
 Handle high volume of application in an efficient way
 Effective management of job vacancies due to technology
Weaknesses:
 Difficult to handle a large number of inappropriate job applications
 Promote discrimination among the selection of employees especial in case of computer
literacy
 Badly designed website could refrain potential applicant to apply for the job and thus
damage the reputation of the company (Heilman, et al. 2015)
The company, “Say it with Chocolate” utilise this approach as it helps the company to spread the
job vacancies to a large number of people via the internet. In order to remove the flaw of badly
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design websites, it helps to improve the features of the websites by enhancing its qualities so that
more and more potential candidates could apply for the job.
Recruitment Agencies
These are private sector agencies which provide temporary as well as permanent placements for
the company.
Strengths:
 Selects highly qualified candidates
 Preferred by most of the job seekers
 Decrease the task of management of the company by performing all the important tasks
Weaknesses:
 More motivated by short-term gains and thus harming the long-term relationship with the
employers
 Less reputed
 Sometimes a good candidate might directly contact the potential employer
 Sometimes are a bit costly (Almeida and Fernando, 2017)
This service is utilised by the company only when there is an urgent requirement of the
candidates and a large number of the employees are required to fill up the vacancy.
Press Advertising
This is a method of posting a job vacancy by the company using print media such as newspapers,
journals and magazines by negotiating with special rates.
Strengths:
 Help in communicating positively with job applicants
 Conveying a positive message about the fortune of the company towards the marketplace
 Increase the brand awareness of the company
 Also, provide online packages with the publications
Weaknesses:
 No guarantee of success to the potential candidate
 High administrative cost
 Limited appeal
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 Limited tracking of the selection of candidates due to no involvement of technology
 Slow process (Rees and Smith, 2017)
This approach is utilised by the company by daily updating the employment news on the paper as
it helps the company to spread the message of the job to a large number of people.
Recruitment Events
This includes job fairs, campus placement and seminars where the candidates are selected by
face-to-face interviews.
Strengths:
 Cost effective as a large number of candidates are selected at a single platform
 Increases the brand awareness
 Time effective
Weaknesses:
 Competition with other employers
 No use if there are fewer vacancies (Mallén, et al. 2016)
This is the most effective technique which has been utilised by the company to a larger extent as
it helps to have a direct interaction with the suitable candidates and thus help them to select large
potential candidates. Also, this approach is time and cost effective for the company.
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d) IMPROVEMENTS TO BE MADE IN CURRENT SELECTION METHODS
The current selection methods could be improved by following ways:
 Increasing the participation of management with HR
 Providing certain criteria for the completion of selection process to the candidates
 Providing a proper training with paid internships to increase the efficiency of the
candidates
 Increasing the involvement of current employees to select the candidates which would
suit the designated roles (Rees and Smith, 2017))
12

TASK 2 (LO4): APPLY HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
PRACTICES IN A WORK-RELATED CONTEXT
a) PERSON SPECIFICATION FOR THE ROLE OF RECEPTIONIST
Job Advertisement
JOB ROLE- RECEPTIONIST
There is a vacancy in the Department of Administration in the company-‘Say it with chocolate’.
All the interested candidates could apply for this role through the company's website. The
vacancy is for Receptionist post that is capable of handling all the administrative activities.
REQUIREMENTS
The candidate must have an MBA Degree with Human Resources as a subject.
EXPERIENCE
Candidate must have 3+ years of experience working as an HR in a reputed company.
RESPONSIBILITIES
 Providing a professional and welcome experience for clients and visitors to the site
 Efficiently answering incoming telephone enquiries
KEY TASKS
 Meeting and Greeting Clients
 Arranging Couriers
 Booking Meetings
 Answering and forwarding phone calls
 Keeping the reception area tidy
 Completing administrative paperwork
 Providing customer service report
 Maintaining stock of client stationary
 Sorting and Distributing Post
 Providing customer service support
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 Other duties assigned by the Administration Manager
COMPANY INFO
‘Say it with Chocolate’ is a chocolate based greeting card company involved in packaging and
distribution of the gift items. This company is located in North Yorkshire, UK. Email:
[e-mail]
HOW TO APPLY?
The interested candidates could directly apply on the website of the company-
[e-mail] and submit the required documents as soon as possible.
Personal Specification for the Job Profile
DESIRED PRIORITY
3 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN
MANAGEMENT
YES
DEGREE IN MBA YES
HANDLING OF ADMINISTRATIVE
ACTIVITIES
YES
UK CITIZENSHIP YES
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b) SUITABLE MEDIUM FOR PLACING THE ADVERTISEMENTS IN ‘SAY WITH THE
CHOCOLATE’
There are various ways through which HRM practices could be utilised for posting job
advertisements such as in the case of the company, “Say it with Chocolate”:
Recruitment via Social Media
Although it is not a new process of recruitment, yet it is gaining momentum because of new
methods applied in the selection via social media. For example, using video interviewing; the
company could get information about the social media profile of the candidates and could be
taken into consideration by calling them for an interview (Bogdanović and Cakić, 2017).
Tracking System of Applicants
The most important and helpful part which impact which proves to be advantageous for the
recruiters of the company. This could be best utilised by using Applicant Tracking System.
Mobile Recruiting
A better way to recruit the suitable candidates; where career page of the suitable applicants are
evaluated thus allows them to get a positive response from the organisation (Cromheecke, et al.
2014).
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c) DISCUSSION OF ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF JOB ADVERTISEMENTS
For the company, ‘Say it with Chocolate'; job posting is an important part and helps the
applicants in getting to know vacancies published by the HR of the company online. There are
various advantages associated with the advertising jobs such as:
Wide appeal to a large audience: When job posts are posted on various social networking sites
and other job portals, more and more candidates would be able to view it and could apply for it
with great ease.
Helps in finding a suitable candidate for the required job: It becomes very easy for the
company to select suitable candidates which would thus save the time of the company.
Faster filling of job vacancy: Advertising job online attracts thousands of candidates which
would thus become easy for the company to select the suitable candidates to fill its job vacancies
at a faster pace (Almeida and Fernando, 2017).
However, there are various disadvantages associated with advertising jobs such as:
 Large number of applicants which creates a headache for HR of the company
 Difficult to filter the job as candidates from across the world could apply for the job
 High-cost investment for selecting suitable candidates (Tan and Laswad, 2018)
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d) PREPARATION OF QUESTIONNAIRE FOR INTERVIEWS TO BE ASKED BY
RECEPTIONISTS
QUESTIONNAIRE
An admin professional like receptionist have the responsibility of efficient handling of all the
administrative activities of an organisation. In order to find a suitable candidate for the
company-‘Say it with Chocolate’, its HR manager must frame a questionnaire which must
include some important questions which could be helpful at the time of conduction of an
interview. The lists of questions asked are:
Q.1 What strategies you would adapt to tackle any administrative failure?
Q.2 Which social media strategies would be applied by you to efficiently manage a company's
administrative activities?
Q.3 Whom would you approach if your ideas are rejected by the director of the company?
Q.4 Which software tools would you utilise in managing your admin work?
Q.5 What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Q.6 Who are the biggest competitors in our industry?
Thus it could be said that it has been essential for any company to follow HRM practices in order
to monitor as well as control welfare activities of the employees, provision of proper training to
the employees and to ensure their safety and security. The employee regulation procedures are
strictly followed by the company without deviating from its original path. The HR managers in
the organization also ensure that there is no violation of the laws which are formulated by the
government and follow all the instructions during the selection of a suitable candidate.
Moreover, the HR managers also monitor compliance and all the rules and regulations of the
organization being followed by employees.
17

TASK 3 (LO2): EVALUATE THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE
KEY ELEMENTS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN
AN ORGANISATION
a) EVALUATION OF BENEFITS OF DIFFERENT HRM PRACTICES FOR EMPLOYEES AND
EMPLOYERS IN MICROSOFT
The given report is based on the Microsoft who boost about it work culture by encouraging
personal growth and development opportunities for the benefits of its employees. The given
study describes the benefits availed to the employees to increase their job satisfaction.
Apprenticeship and its Benefits
These are structured programs which help a trainee to gain some skills and knowledge which
they could utilise in their work after their training phase has been completed. There are various
advantages associated with apprenticeship which has been utilised by the Microsoft and they are:
Employees
 Increasing the awareness about the selected job resulting in an increase in the chance of
getting employed
 It is a paid salary and thus candidates earn while working with experts and thus increase
their motivation
 Provided a variety of learning experience to the trainee and help them to enhance their
skills in an efficient manner
Employers
 Provides excellent progression opportunities
 Helps in increasing confidence among the candidates
 Help in increasing social connectivity among other employees within the office premises
and thus increases their productivity and in turn profit for the company(Taylor, 2014.)
Graduate Training Schemes and its benefits
These are training offered by Microsoft for a larger period ranging from 18 months to 3 years so
as to train the employees perfectly for their designated job. Unlike apprenticeship, it is offered to
18

the permanent employees. There are various advantages associated with these schemes and these
are:
 A good way to start a bright career
 Provision of training and development opportunities to enhance the skills
 Provides opportunities to study professional qualification which is funded by the
employer
 Allows rotation to different departments which helps the employees to gain enough
experience about the working of the company
 Provides job security
 Provide a chance to permanently work with the reputed organisation, Microsoft in the
given case
 Provides opportunities to work abroad (Goel and Vijay, 2017)
Benefits of Training and Development
For Employees:
 Increase job satisfaction
 Increase process efficiencies
 Increase capacity to adopt new methods and technologies
For Employers:
 Increase employee motivation
 Reduce employee turnover
 Enhanced image of the company
19

b) DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES MADE AVAILABLE TO STAFF AFTER THEY GOT A
PERMANENT JOB
There are various development opportunities available for the staff once they have got a
permanent job. These opportunities are:
 Getting a fixed amount of salary per month which would increase with the performance
 Getting trained within the company to enhance the career-related skills
 Provision of more promotional opportunities
 Getting more learning opportunities to enhance the skills to work better
 Helps in increasing social contacts with the people working in the organisation (Almeida
and Fernando, 2017)
20

c) BENEFITS OF FLEXIBLE WORKING PRACTICES IN MICROSOFT
Flexibility in working practices is provided in Microsoft via numerical, structural and functional
flexibility. The flexibility in Microsoft could be explained using Handy Shamrock’s management
model which is based on three layers. The first layer represents the multi-talented team, second
represents contractual fringe for effective communication and third represents the flexible
workforce of the company (Herbert, 2016).
Benefits of flexible working practices for the employees and the organisation
There are various benefits associated with flexible working practices in Microsoft which would
be beneficial not only for the employees but also for the organisation.
Benefits for employees
 It provides flexibility which helps in maintaining a balance between professional and
personal life
 Reduction in unnecessary cost for employees such as fuel cost
 Avoid stress and tension while rushing to the office during a traffic
 Increase personal control over schedule and work environment
 Allowing employees to work when they like to enjoy working
 Reduction in employees burnout due to overload (Cooper and Baird, 2015)
Benefits to the organisation
 Reduction in absenteeism among the employees
 Reduction in turnover
 Increase in employee morale, their engagement and efficiency towards accomplishing the
objectives towards the organisation
 Extended hours of various departmental operations such as customer service (Cooper and
Baird, 2015)
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d) MOTIVATION BY MICROSOFT TO ITS WORKERS VIA JOB DESIGN AND SYSTEM OF
REWARDS
Job Design
Figure 3: Job Design
Source: [Giorgino and Walsh, 2018]
Job Design could be defined as a core human resource management function which outlines and
organise tasks, responsibilities and duties into a single work unit and thus achieves certain
business’s objectives (Oldham and Fried, 2016). Microsoft motivates its employees through job
design in the following ways:
Job Simplification: In this process, the job is divided into smaller units and then assigned to the
workers as a whole. This allows the workers to learn the tasks quickly and motivate them to
enhance their performance.
Job Rotation: It is a job design method where the company rotate its employees through various
departments so that they would gain some experience. This motivates the employees which result
in their enhanced productivity via multi-skilled capabilities and thus proves to be an immense
benefit for the company.
Job Enlargement: It is a process which allows workers to work as per their pace with given
responsibilities for quality control. This would motivate them as they would now be able to work
as per their comfort and without much pressure and thus would be able to perform effectively
(Vanhala and Ritala, 2016).
22

Job Enrichment: It is job design method which increases the autonomy of the employees over
the planning and execution of the work performed by them. The greatest motivational benefit
provided by this design is that it allows workers to grant autonomy to them which would not
only enhance their productivity but would also allow them to execute the work in an efficient
manner (De Voorde, et al. 2016).
Reward System:
It is an HRM process which provides benefits to the employees in the form of rewards when they
have accomplished their job objectives efficiently. The Microsoft utilise this system to motivate
its employees in various ways:
 Involving all employees in implementation, development and revision of reward
programs
 Ensure that the reward is viewed by the employees as a worth to their effort
 Make understand the employees how to earn the reward
 Link rewards with the performance
 Given recognition to small as well as larger accomplishments
 Reward the employees also for their co-operation and teamwork (Foss, et al. 2015)
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of different HRM practices, various models have been used
to raise the organisational profit and productivity out of which Hamblin model of evaluation has
been used.
The effectiveness of training programs has been evaluated by:
 Cost efficiency of the training program
 Feedback from the trainees about the process of training
The effectiveness of job design and reward system has been evaluated by:
 Increment related to productivity
 Improvement in employees’ attendance, morale and retention
The effectiveness of the flexible organisation and working options:
 Strengthening the commitments of employees
 Motivating them to work for the best (Vanhala and Ritala, 2016)
23

TASK 4 (LO3): ANALYSE INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL
FACTORS THAT AFFECT HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT DECISION-MAKING, INCLUDING
EMPLOYMENT LEGISLATION
a) MEANING OF EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
Employee Engagement: Employee Engagement is a workplace approach where right conditions
are provided to all the members of the organisation so that they could provide their best and
commit themselves to all the goals and values of the organisation. Furthermore, it also motivates
them to contribute to organisational success, with an enhanced sense of their own well-being
(Mone and London, 2018).
b) EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN TERMS OF EMPLOYEE RELATIONS VIA VARIOUS
FACTORS OF HRM
There are various internal as well as external factors which affect the functioning of HRM in
Microsoft and are as follows:
Employee relations: It could be defined as a procedure where there is an interaction between the
employees with the management where the manager addresses their employee. When there is a
good relationship between the employees and management, there is a significant reduction in
conflicts and the employees work with more satisfaction with high morale which thus results in
high productivity (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). At Microsoft, there have been different ways that
are used for the improvement of relations between managers and employees such as:
Enhanced Communication: It implies that it is the duty of the management to ensure that their
employees have a proper access to them at each and every level so that they could discuss their
issues and prepare better working plan thus benefiting both of them. Furthermore, it also ensures
that the employees are getting better care in the company and are given much importance so that
they would be able to work for their best to achieve a good result (Wang, et al. 2015).
24

Career Development: The most important aspect for any employee is their career development
and for this, it is required that they stay in a company for a significant amount of time. So to
decrease employee turnover rates and to enhance their career development, the company have
adopted certain roles in terms of staff career development.
Sharing of vision: To allow employees to consider as a part of the organisation; it is required by
the company to prepare a plan which would share a vision regarding their roles and
responsibilities in the organisation. This would be beneficial to each and every staff and enhance
their productivity.
Employee engagement is an integral strategy of employee relation because of its long-term
success in the business. As employee engagement is expressed using some sort of organization-
wide number, it has been essential to have good relationships with the employees so as to
increase average employee satisfaction and thus bring more friendly culture in the company. The
employee relation with their management is successful only when there is a vigil watch over the
actions of the employees and their network quality which would then be evaluated as to how to
develop and deepen their engagement with the management successfully. By understanding
where each employee is in their employee journey, managers can develop an “engagement plan”
that would help them to remain in touch with their fellow employees. Employee engagement
when become an integrated part of employee relation which could be done by building trust,
getting involved in tackling issues, providing employees with a sense of purpose and identity
where employees’ contribution to business success is seen as a very important part (Conway, et
al. 2016).
25

c) PROCESSES TO ENGAGE WORKERS TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION AT THE
WORKPLACE
There are various strategies which have been used for improving and building employee
relations with employees’ engagement and improve communication in the workplace. These
strategies are:
 Assessing the employee engagement by utilising the services of a good quality survey
 Focussing on the employee engagement at the organizational and local levels
 Selecting the right kind of manager who could increase the productivity of the
organisation
 Provision of training to the managers and hold them responsible for getting accurately
engaged with the employees
 Defining engagement goals in everyday terms (Goetsch and Davis, 2014
d) EMPLOYEE LEGISLATION AND THEIR IMPACT ON HRM
Employee relations and the law:
The very purpose of employment law such as Company Law, 2004 is to get into effect as soon as
possible whenever there is a conflict or issues arising out during deterioration of the relationship
between employees and management. It is an important part as it helps in finding a proper
solution which would help the company as well as employees to tackle any crisis in a most
appropriate way (Talbot, 2015). The legislative part includes:
Fair Hours and Wages: The main reason for implementing the employment law is to provide
fair working hours and equal pay for work to the employees as well as workers. At Microsoft, a
proper legislative procedure is followed where each employee has been empowered to get a good
working environment with a proper salary. If they are denied this, they have every right to sue
their employer and increase the condition of the environment where employees are working with
the provision of a good salary.
Equity at Workplace: Another important reason for implementing laws is providing equity in
the workplace. This ensures that all the employees working in the Microsoft are not getting
exploited and are not favoured in bias against other employees. Thus, each employee is provided
26

with an equal working environment in the company and is not discriminated against in any kind
(Allen and Kraakman, 2016).
Trade unions and workplace representation:
There has been an important role played by the trade unions. The Trade Union in various
countries where Microsoft operates follows some typical activities so as to provide proper
benefits such as the provision of services and assistance to the employees who are members of
the union. The most common method used by the union is the collective bargaining which is
done for the provision of a suitable working condition where each employee would receive equal
pay for their work. They also engage themselves in bringing improvement in the public services
such as political campaigning and industrial actions (Brewster and Hegewisch, 2017). The
members of the trade union could include:
 Engineers
 Bus drivers
 Apprentices
 Technicians (Egels-Zandén and Merk, 2014)
It must be noted that most of the trade unions work independently with workplace
representatives. These representatives provide helping hand to them by resolving their issues and
problems as early as possible.
The significant role of the Trade Unions
Trade union plays a significant role in the welfare of the employees and balancing the
relationship between employees and management. Its roles are:
 Abolishing the practice of child labour in the office premises
 Implementation of the minimum salary for the employees nationally
 Provision of safe and secure working conditions for all the employees
 Bringing improvement in the living standard of the employees by reducing the working
hours in a week and promotion of healthy balance between the professional and personal
life of the employees
 Provision of parental leaves for the pregnant women
 Provision of an equal legislative process for all the employees
27

 Proffering minimum sickness entitlements along with lesser holidays (Hui and Chan,
2015)
Furthermore, there are various issues of the trade unions which impact the working of an
enterprise at its workplaces such as negotiation, bargaining and consultation.
28

CONCLUSION
It has been concluded in the report that it is essential for the company-‘Say it with Chocolate’ to
adopt best HRM practice to achieve success and enhance its growth. The study disclosed that
HRM practices help the company to select the best candidate with specific job roles which could
prove to be profitable in the long run for the company and thus plays a significant role in turning
a company into a profitable enterprise. The study also concluded about the struggling of the
company for hiring a Receptionist which it solved by designing a Job description and a
questionnaire to find out a suitable applicant for the job.
29

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