Human Resource Management: A Comprehensive Analysis of HR Practices in Say it with Chocolate and Microsoft

This assignment delves into the crucial role of the Human Resource (HR) department in organizations, focusing on Say it with Chocolate and Microsoft as case studies. It examines the functions, duties, and responsibilities of the HR department, including recruitment and selection processes, employee performance management, development opportunities, and reward systems. The assignment also explores the importance of employee engagement and its impact on employee relations, highlighting key approaches discussed at a summit organized by Microsoft. Furthermore, it analyzes the influence of UK employment legislation on HR decision-making across various aspects, from recruitment and training to redundancy and retirement.

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
PART 1 –The Purpose and Scope of HRM and Recruitment and Selection...................................4
Task 1 – (LO1).................................................................................................................................4
Task 2 – Application (LO 4)............................................................................................................8
PART 2 - Employee performance, development and reward & Factors that influence HR
decision making.............................................................................................................................12
Task 3 (LO2)..................................................................................................................................12
Task 4 (LO3)..................................................................................................................................15
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................19
Reference list:................................................................................................................................20
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Introduction:
The human resource department of an organisation is a significant part, which is necessary in
order to measure the business process. The roles and responsibilities of the HR department has
been analysed. In this assignment, the roles and responsibilities of the HR department of Say it
with chocolate has been evaluated and determined. Along with this, the concept of employment
relations and employee engagement with respect to Microsoft has been discussed.
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PART 1 –The Purpose and Scope of HRM and Recruitment and Selection
Task 1 – (LO1)
Introduction:
In this section of the assignment, the functions, duties, roles and responsibilities of the Human
Resource department of Say it with Chocolate has been analysed and discussed. The specific
functions of the HR department of the organisation along with the roles of the HR manager have
also been analysed. Along with this, the selection methods that the organisation uses for
recruiting candidates have also been discussed.
a) The purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization, given its current
problems and plans for further growth
The Human Resource department of Say it with chocolate has a wide range of roles and
responsibilities. The functions of the HR department are primarily concerned with the welfare
and wellbeing of the employees (Armstrong and Taylor 2014).
The functions and duties of the human resource department of Say it with chocolate are as
follows:
 The first and the most important role of the human resource department is hiring and
recruitment of new candidates. All the duties and steps concerned with the selection
procedure is addressed and conducted by the human resource team of Say it with
chocolate.
 The human resource team also addresses all the issues and problems of the employees
and staffs. For example, if there is an issue where there is an ambience of bewilderment
and disagreement among the employees and staff or if a specific employee is having a
query, then it is the duty of the human resource team to address the issues and provide
potential and feasible solution to the concern.
 All the needs and requirements of the employees and staffs are also looked over by the hr
team. The parameters regarding the leaves, health and insurance benefits and other plans.
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As the employment turnover of the country is huge, it is necessary for the human
resource team to focus on the needs of the employees in order to keep them satisfied
(Bratton and Gold 2017).
The present scenario of the organisation might affect its business process in the near future.
As the company is located in an area where rate of unemployment is huge, the company
management executive needs to focus on the selection procedure of the company. Along
with this, the management team needs to introduce more incentives and reward system for
the staffs and employees in order to influence employee engagement and introduce better
employment relations (Say it with chocolate 2018).
b) How you see your role and responsibilities as a Human Resource Officer.
As a part of the human resource team, there is an array of responsibilities and duties of the
human resource manager.
The roles and responsibilities of the human resource manager include:
 The human resource manager of say it with chocolate monitors and checks the
performance of the employees and staffs on a regular basis.
 The HR manager looks into the specific matter concerning the selection procedure of the
candidates (Bratton and Gold 2017).
 All the training and development process of the employees are monitored and structured
by the HR manager (Armstrong and Taylor 2014).
 If there is a disruption among the employees, the HR manager presents the final solution.
 All the factors related to appraisals, reward systems and incentives are also addressed by
the hr manager.
c) The advantages and disadvantages of the current selection methods used by the
organization and compare it to other approaches of selection methods. 230
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Say it with chocolate company uses external selection and recruitment process within their
industry to select and recruit new candidates for their company. This external selection and
recruitment process have both of the advantages and disadvantages for using.
Advantages
 In this type of selection and recruitment process, company mentions the entire vacancy
details along with pay scale, job shifting and each detail about the designated job post
(Hunter et al., 2016).
 In addition, an aptitude test is arranged in this process to check out the merit of the
candidates. Candidates those who successfully complete the merit test are asked for the
interview with the manager, where managers communicate with the candidate and
acquire the entire important information about the candidate. Thus, the manager gets the
opportunity to understand the quality of handling various organizational situation of the
candidate.
Disadvantages
 External selection and recruitment process does not focus on selecting the most eligible
candidates for the designated job role. Say it with chocolate company uses external
selection and recruitment system. Thus, the company has not focused on selecting and
recruiting the best candidates for the designated job role.
 The company has not focused on selecting the most qualified and eligible candidates for
the designated job post (Cohen, 2017). This will affect the company tremendously. In
addition, the company will face difficulties in accomplishing the business goals and
achievements.
D) Potential improvements that could be made to the current selection methods.
Say it with chocolate company is facing critical difficulties in their organization due to lack of
effectiveness in selection and recruitment process. Thus, the company needs to improve their
system to increase the revenue and sustain in the current market.
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 Internal selection and recruitment process takes lees cost and time to conduct within an
organization rather than external method. Therefore, the company can use internal
recruitment process to select and recruit the best quality of eligible candidates.
 The company needs to employ an effective HR officer to manage all the recruitment and
selection process in a more effective way that it can assist the firm to gain competitive
advantages in the present market.
 The company should offer all the details about the designated job role to the entire candid
dates. This will influence the candidates to attend and perform better in the interview.
Conclusion
This can be concluded this task has covered all the important aspects of HR practices that can
assist an organization to increase the overall business organization in an effective manner. In
addition, the purpose of HR practices, role of a HR officer and the advantages and disadvantages
of using external selection and recruitment process has been included in this task. At the end of
this task, a recommendation part has also been provided to manage all the organizational
activities of Say it with chocolate company in an effective way.
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Task 2 – Application (LO 4)
Introduction:
In reference to the case study given here, Say it with chocolate needs a receptionist. The
organization has well evaluated and analyzed the different roles and responsibilities of a
receptionist. Say it with chocolate uses an external recruitment process where the candidates
have to go through an aptitude test. In addition to this, the advantages and disadvantages of
posting job vacancies in different mediums has also been discussed here.
a) Create a person specification for the role
A receptionist is the first person an individual encounters when he is going into a workplace. The
receptionist is the face of the workplace. He or she has to handle the queries of the visitors and
the clients. The issues of the customer needs to be solved by the receptionist(Kinderman 2015).
Say it with chocolate focuses on some key roles and responsibilities from its receptionist. The
roles and responsibilities are as follows:
 The candidates who are applying for the role of a receptionist should have a calm and
composed nature. This will help him or her to deal with different kinds of clients.
 A receptionist should have excellent qualities of listening and communicating with
different people. To deal with the visitors and clients in an effective manner, good
communication skills are necessary(Kinderman 2015).
 For making growth in the business it is of utmost importance to introduce technical
advancements in the organization. A receptionist should be competent enough to use the
technical advancements in order to increase his or her productivity (Neuwelt et al., 2016).
 A receptionist should have the quality to make effective decisions in times of crisis and
emergency
b) Provide a rationale for a suitable medium for placing the advertisement.
To get the best candidates for the organization, it is very important to post the vacancies n the
different mediums. This would help in getting more number of entries and the company can
choose the best candidate among the many. In the recent times there are 3 mediums available
where job vacancies can be posted. The three mediums are:
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 Newspaper and television in the most traditional medium where job vacancies and
advertisements can be posted. For marketing and advertisement, newspaper is the best
way possible to reach thousands of people. In the recent times even, a huge percentage of
populations depends upon newspaper and television to acquire information and news. It
is will be effective for Say it with chocolate to post their vacancies in newspaper and
television.
 Posting jobs on the online sites and social media network is the new way of reaching
out to the people who are in need of jobs. The various online job portals are
Monster.com, Scrumcarrers, Reed.co.uk and Jobsite are there where job vacancies can be
posted. These vacancies can be seen by people all around the globe. The advantage of the
job portals is candidates get to know about various vacancies and even can apply for
more than one job
 Nowadays organizations all over the world utilize the mammoth reach of the social media
networking sites in the maximum way possible. Say it with chocolate had done a research
can to a fact that 70 percent of the populace in UK is hooked on to social media
networking sites. It will be of great help to Say it with chocolate if it posts its vacancies
in the various social media networking sites. The various social networking sites which
are prevalent in today’ world are Facebook, Instagram, Tumbler, Pintrest and
YouTube. Among all these sites LinkedIn is the only site and which is used only for
making professional connections and posting job vacancies. Recruiters in this particular
sites gets to interact with many candidates and the candidates even get to communicate
with many stalwarts of the professional industry (Rana 2015). LinkedIn is a great
platform to post job vacancies.
c) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the previous methods of advertising
jobs in the organization
The advantages and the disadvantages of the 3 methods that are used in the organization to post
job vacancies are as follows:
Medium of advertisements
for Job vacancies
Advantages Disadvantages
Newspapers and Cable Television and newspaper are still The younger generation is hooked on
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Televisions used by lakhs of individuals.
Therefore it is an effective way to
reach out to the job seekers (Fred
and Kinange 2018). .
to the virtual that is the online world.
The companies who advertise in
television and newspaper may not be
able to attract the interest of the
younger generation
Online Job Portals By using online job portals
candidate can apply for more than
one job at a single go, which is
not possible, if the candidate is
applying via the newspaper or the
television.
Sometimes there is a death of
transparency in the vacancies that are
posted in the online sites. Many
fraudulent cases have been registered
regarding fake job vacancies (Fred
and Kinange 2018). .
Social media Platforms Nearly 70% of the population
uses the social networking
mediums (Fred and Kinange
2018). . It is a great way for
the organizations to reach out to
the competent employees through
this medium
Sometimes all the specification of
the job roles are nor present in the
vacancies that are posted in the social
networking sites (Fred and Kinange
2018). This may be misleading to the
candidates who are applying
Table 1: Advantages and disadvantages of mediums of advertisement
Source: (Created by Learner)
d) Produce a minimum of 6 questions which could be asked at the interview for the
Receptionist, which would help to improve the selection decision making process.
When some candidate has to be interviewed, it is of utmost importance to carefully draft the
questions so as to screen the abilities the candidates in the best way possible. In the questions
that are asked in an interviews, some parameters like salary expectation, the organization’s
policies and the design of the job role should be included. The six questions that can be asked to
a candidate who is appearing the role of a receptionist are as follows:
 What particular skill set of yours makes you the perfect choice for the role of the
receptionist?
 The job role demands handling of different kinds of visitors and clients. Would you be
able to handle them?
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 What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
 What is your expected salary?
 Are you competent enough to use technical advancements in your daily job role? What
are the software that you are familiar with?
 Are you ready to relocate if the company bears the financial expenditure?
Conclusion:
All the specifications that are required for the role of a receptionist in Say it with chocolate has
been discussed. The different mediums which can be used to post job vacancies have been
highlighted. Further, the advantages and the disadvantages of the three mediums used for posting
job vacancies have also been discussed.
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PART 2 - Employee performance, development and reward & Factors that influence HR
decision making
Task 3 (LO2)
Introduction:
HR practices are crucial to increase the overall business model of an organization. The
importance of employee performance, reward system and development factors, which influence
human resource decision making within the organization will be included in this task. This task
will outline the importance of apprenticeship and graduate training scheme that is offered by
Microsoft Corporation, development opportunities and the benefits of the flexible working
practices within the firm.
a. Microsoft offer apprenticeship and graduate training schemes. Evaluate the benefits to
both the organisation and employees of such schemes.
Being one of the leading business organizations across the globe, the apprenticeship and graduate
training scheme that is offered by the Microsoft has great importance. The company has more
than 1, 26,000 numbers of employees that contributes to the growth of the success (Bratton and
Gold, 2017). In recent days, the company has decided to offer apprenticeship and graduate
training scheme to the entire employees. This can help the organization as well as the entire
employees in an effective way that it can assist an organization to gain competitive advantages.
Apprenticeship and graduate training scheme that is offered by Microsoft Corporation assists the
entire employees to learn a lot of things about the organizational activities. In addition,
employees will get the opportunity to work in one of the leading business organization around
the globe. In other hand, Microsoft offers their employees apprenticeship and graduate training
scheme to improve the performance level of the employees. Alternatively, the rise of employee
performance allows increasing the overall performance of the firm. Thus, Microsoft Corporation
can increase the profitability of the firm. Therefore, both of employees as well as Microsoft
Corporation will be benefited by the apprenticeship and graduate training scheme.
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b. What developmental opportunities are available to staff once they are in a permanent
job role?
Permanent job role provides many developmental opportunities to the employees that are listed
below,
 Permanent job role increases the performance level of the employees that allows
performing better within the firm. High confident employees can work in a more
effective way that it can assist an organization to accomplish the business goals (Bailey et
al., 2018).
 After getting the permanent job role in the company, the employees get excellent
opportunity to learn new organizational activities. In addition, the employees can enhance
their knowledge and skills at the maximum level once they are in a permanent job role.
This knowledge and improved skills will assist the employees to accomplish business
goals and objectives of the company.
c. Explain the benefits of the approach Microsoft has taken in respect of flexible working
practices.
Being a successful multinational company, Microsoft Corporation always try to use new
approaches to gain competitive advantages in the present market. In recent days, the company
has decided to use Flex time that is a new approach instead of using flexible working practices
within the firm (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016). Flex time offers the opportunity to the employees
for selecting working hours. Employees get the excellent opportunity to select their arrival as
well as departure time from the office. It implies that the employees need to work for at least 40
hours in a week. Thus, employee can feel free to select their working hours can perform better
within the firm. In addition, this approach will assist the entire employees to start as well as
finish their organizational work according to them. Therefore, the company has decided to use
this new approach in their organization to increase the performance level of the employees and to
enhance the profitability of the company.
d. Explain how Microsoft motivates its workers through its job design and systems of
reward
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The entire employees need continuous motivation as well as encouragement to accomplish the
business goals and achievement in an effective manner. In addition, job design and reward
system of an organization is very effective in encouraging and motivating the employees
(Gatewood et al., 2015). Keeping this on mind, most of the successful organizations, which are
well established in their industry use a proper job design and reward system. Being a
multinational company, Microsoft Corporation has adapted a specific job design and a more
effective reward system to motivate as well as encourage the entire employees in an effective
way. This helps to increase the performance level of the employees within the firm. Microsoft
Corporation has used an effective reward system and job design to continue their flow of
success. In addition, the employee performance and behaviour are also impacted by the effective
job design and reward systems.
Conclusion:
This can be concluded that every successful business firm needs to use effective HR practices to
increase the overall business structure of the firm. The importance of permanent job role, job
design and reward system in Microsoft Corporation to increase the profitability of the
organization has been included in this task.
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Task 4 (LO3)
Introduction:
In this section of the assignment, the basic idea and necessity of employment reactions have been
discussed. The principles of employee engagement and its necessity that has been discussed in
the summit conducted by Microsoft. Along with this, the impacts of the laws and legislations on
the business process of the functioning organizations have also been discussed.
What is meant by the term employee engagement?
The term employee engagement is in relation to the needs and requirements of the employees
and staffs. The process by which the management of an organisation looks into the parameters by
which the needs are met, and providing amenities by which the employees and staffs can be
encouraged and inclined towards their job is called employee retention.
Employee retention can be differentiated from employee satisfaction. Employee satisfaction is to
figure out the issues and problems of the employees and staffs, and employee retention focuses
on presenting possible changes in the system by which the em ployees can be encouraged and
influenced (Anitha 2014).
b) Why is employee engagement an integral strategy of employee relations?
For any organisation, the concerned management of the organisation needs to addresses the
issues, needs and requests of the staffs and employees. This approach is necessary in order to
determine the factors, which affects the employees and how possible solutions can be provided
in order to amplify the efficiency and effectiveness of the business process. For example, if there
is a situation where the employees have reported grievance regarding the food that the canteen
serves, and if the management looks into the matter and resolves the issue. The employees will
be satisfied and happy, and thus, the chances of employment retention will increase, along with
this, the business productivity will amplify because of better commitment of the employees
(Brewster et al., 2016).
Employment engagement is an integral part of employment relations because of the following
reasons:
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 If there is an effective employee engagement process, then the employees and staffs will
be inclined towards working efficiently for the company, as the organization provides
necessary assistance and support to the employees. Therefore, the efficiency and
effectiveness of the overall business process and the productivity will increase.
 If the employee engagement is productive, rate of employment turnover will decrease. If
the environment and ambiance of the work setting is fair and suitable for the employees
and staffs, then the employees will be unwilling to quit their jobs.
 Another factor that needs the concerned organisations needs to consider in this case is the
approach of the employees and staffs. Employee engagement is used effectively will
reflect an optimistic approach. There will be a positive approach of the employees
towards the business process and functions, which will help the overall business process.
 There will be more influx of creativity and fresh ideas if the employees are satisfied and
are an active part of the organisation and its business process. If the ambiance of the
business process is supportive and appreciates new and fresh ideas from the employees,
then the employees will be willing to participate. This approach will help support the
business to flourish.
c) Identify some of the key approaches to engaging workers discussed in the summit and
explain their importance in terms of improving communication in the workplace.
In order to discuss the possibility, necessity and progress of employment relations and how the
method and mediums of communication can be improved among the employees of the
organisation, a summit was organised by Microsoft in 2018. Along with Microsoft, six other
organisations also participated in the event (Resource Center. 2018).
The topic of the summit was “Employee Engagement Summit” and in this summit, the needs
and requirements of the staffs and employees, the factors which results in employment turnover
and possible solutions for employment retention. Along with this, the technological
advancements and other mediums that can be used in order to amplify the communication
process among the employees. Communication is an integral part of the business process and it is
mandatory for the employees to have a just and transparent medium of communication among
themselves. In order to achieve that, they management of the organisation introduced two
approaches in order to improve the communication process among the employees:
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SharePoint: Microsoft SharePoint is an application presented by the company which is a part of
Microsoft office. SharePoint is a collaborative and concerted business tool that can be used by
the employees of the organisation in order to construct, alter and share all kinds of corporate and
confidential documents among themselves. Along with this, all the necessary information on
current news regarding Microsoft, the business polices, updates are accessible by the employees
of the organisation. This approach was presented by the organisations in order to avoid confusion
and disruption, and unnecessary multiple mails can be avoided (Resource Center. 2018).
Microsoft Stream: Microsoft on the same summit introduced another application called the
Microsoft Stream. The principle idea of the software is to engage the employees together. The
application provides a more stern searching mechanism for the employees, thus providing a
better and seamless Office 365 working experience. Along with this, via Microsoft Stream, the
employees can share content among themselves, this approach is necessary in order to improve
the communication process (Resource Center. 2018).
d) Identify the main pieces of employment legislation in the UK and explain how they
influence human resource decision making (from recruitment, training and development
and reward, to redundancy and retirement)
For any organisation, functioning in a particular nation, it is necessary for the organisation to
work on the structure and outline presented by the working government of the nation. In this
case, the policies, regulations and legislations of the United Kingdom is taken into consideration.
The policies and legislations presented by the government which affects the decision making
process of the HR department are:
Employment Rights Act of 1996: The employment rights act presented by the government of
UK dictates that, there can be no discrimination or biasness among the employees with respect to
caste, community, gender and sexual preference.
National Minimum wage Act of 1998: According to the act, there needs to be a minimum wage
of the employees and this minimum figure changes in accordance to the economy of the country.
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The functioning organisation needs to alter their employment payment ad business structure
according to the polices presented by the government (reed.co.uk. 2018).
Conclusion: In this section of the assignment, the necessity of employment relations has been
discussed. Along with this, the necessity of an effective medium of communication has been
determined in a summit organised by Microsoft.
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Conclusion:
This assignment reflects the functions and duties of the HR department in an organisation. Along
with this, the recruitment and selection procedure of Say it with Chocolate has been discussed.
The need of a receptionist in an organisation and the overall impact of the decision making
process of the HR department in an organisation. In the second part of the assignment the
necessity of employee engagement has been discussed and how Microsoft has introduced new
approaches for better communication.
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