Human Resource Management Report: Chocolate Presence and Microsoft HRM

This report delves into the realm of Human Resource Management (HRM), offering a comparative analysis of practices at Chocolate Presence, a UK-based chocolate manufacturer, and Microsoft, a multinational technology company. The report begins by elucidating the core purpose and importance of HR functions, specifically examining recruitment, selection, training, and development, alongside performance appraisal. It then scrutinizes the strengths and weaknesses of current selection methods employed by Chocolate Presence, proposing potential improvements to enhance the process. Furthermore, the report details the creation of a person specification for a receptionist role at Chocolate Presence, followed by a discussion of job advertising methods. The analysis extends to Microsoft, evaluating the benefits of training and flexible working arrangements for both the organization and its employees. The report also explores employee engagement strategies and the impact of UK employment legislation on HR decision-making, including recruitment, training, and reward systems. The report concludes with an overview of the key findings and recommendations for improving HRM practices in both organizations.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
PART 1............................................................................................................................................4
TASK 1 (LO1) ................................................................................................................................4
a) Explains the purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization..................4
b) Explains the major strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used by the
organization.................................................................................................................................6
c) Evaluates the potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate Presence to
enhance its selection process.......................................................................................................7
TASK 2 (LO4) ................................................................................................................................7
(a) Creation of the person specification for the job role.............................................................7
b) Discussion of the various advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of
advertising jobs in an .................................................................................................................9
organization.................................................................................................................................9
c) Explain where you would recommend the job advert for the Receptionist vacancy to be
placed and ................................................................................................................................10
why...........................................................................................................................................10
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................11
TASK 3 (LO2)...............................................................................................................................11
(a) Evaluate the benefits to both the..........................................................................................11
organisation and employees of training and internship by the Microsoft.................................11
(b) Identify the flexible working arrangements and also evaluate its benefits to both Microsoft
and employee............................................................................................................................12
TASK 4 (LO3)...............................................................................................................................13
a) What is meant by the term employee engagement and why is employee engagement such
an...............................................................................................................................................13
important part in effective employee relations in Microsoft....................................................13

(b) Critically evaluate the key approaches to engaging workers discussed in the Summit and
how these...................................................................................................................................14
approaches improve communication in the workplace............................................................14
(c) Identify the key elements of UK employment legislation, explaining how they influence
HR decision...............................................................................................................................14
making such as recruitment, training and development and reward........................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is an area which basically deals in guiding the
manpower and strategic compliance in an organisation. HRM has played the pecuniary
role in the development of an organisation with sustainable practices and work
(Nohria, 2014). Apart from this, HR practices are the major part of entire human
resource managerial system. In the current scenario, human resource has become an
important concept in every organisation to enables the effective manpower regulation
and working culture in an organisation. This report will be covered on Chocolate
Presence, which is rapidly expanding organisation which is based in North Yorkshire,
whose main focus is on providing tailor-made chocolate based greeting cards and
present in the UK. Also, this detailed report will be carried on Microsoft's, which is the
American multinational technology company which deals in the develop, manufactures,
licensees, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal
computer etc. This report will discuss the purpose and function of the HR function. Apart
from this, report will convey the employee engagement and its contribution to an
effective employee relation in the company. Along with this, report will cover the various
legislation which has been result into the employee morale and confidence.
PART 1
TASK 1 (LO1)
a) Explains the purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization
Human resource management is one of the major strategic approach for the
purpose to the effective management of manpower in an organisation, so they would
help the business gain the competitive advantage (Rosenzweig, 2013). HR practices is
also the major part of human resource management which consists of recruitment,
selection, training & development along with effective appraisal of performance etc.
Such practices is helpful in designing the legal compliance and procedure for effectively
continuing the business activities of an organisation. In Chocolate Presence, where
organisation is suffering with an issue of heavy unemployment of their administration as
well as production department, hence in that case, it is necessary to take over such HR

practices for getting the right worker for right tasks. For Chocolate Presence, the
purpose and function of the HR function is as follows:
HR functions
Purpose: The primary & foremost purpose of the HR function is to bring effective
work accountability and goals accomplishment by hiring and developing an individual in
any business entity (Jackson, 2012).
 HR function comprises of strategic recruitment & selection, training & development,
enhancing the learning & knowledge along with the rewarding & giving the
compensation on the basis of performance and task done.
 Also, the HR function are locate to maintain the common interest of an employee,
 In Chocolate Presence, HR functions are aimed at bringing compliance and rapid
expansion into the organisation for future growth and removing any business
barriers.
Importance: Before beginning with the discussion, it is necessary to identify
what all sort of HR functions are there. It comprises of hiring, compensation,
performance, safety, training and motivation for the particular employee or person in an
organisation. HR function has initiated to protect the common interest and talent of an
employee to be get benefited for goal and targets accomplishment for any business
entity. In context with Chocolate Presence, HR functions such as recruitment &
selection, performance appraisal, training & development, remuneration etc., bring the
positive work environment and culture to enhance the chocolate production and growth
in the near future. Also, the Chocolate Presence is facing an critical issue of heavy
unemployment for production & administration Dept. for which they are seriously
concerned.
 When this chocolate firm has opened, HR function have provided support and
trust to establish the business till now. Now, the firm is looking for expansion
through HR function by recruiting, giving the training & knowledge to their
employee for building the business at the optimized level.
 The importance of the HR function is evolved with lots of changes which need to
made in order to get the suitable results while expanding the business
sustainability.

 Also, the major importance of HR function is its contribution towards
development & empowerment into the business goals and target
accomplishments. It has given important enrichments such as effective people,
process, development as well as knowledge enrichment to the business entities.
Apart from this discussion, there are several problems which organisation has
faced in context with recruitment & selection, appraisal and rewarding along with
comprehensive training & development in their past time. Also, these problems has let
down the confidence and culture of the Chocolate Presence in their workplace, which
has also effected their profitability and goal accomplishment. The future plan is to
develop the hiring, T&D, appraisal and rewarding system etc., in this firms to enables
the future growth and productivity in an organisation. Also, the future planning is to
adopt the corrective measures and actions to achieve the pre-defined goals and
objectives of the organisation.
b) Explains the major strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used
by the organization
For hiring purpose, it is necessary to cumulate the selection process for checking
of right skills and talents in an organisation (Schuler, 2018). Generally, selection comes
after the recruitment process, in which several tests and examinations are used to be
conduct to know and identify the actual suitability of the manpower in an organisation. In
context with Chocolate Presence, company is using their own assessment test on
Maths and English comprehension for getting an actual ability of an individual to work
in the production and administration department of this chocolate firms. It has been
observed that this selection procedure is limited to some limited extent. In order to
analyse this, strengths and weaknesses of this selection criteria are required to taken
care for making it far better and optimized for getting the most suitable and relevant
manpower.
Strength: Assessment of Maths and English is helpful in getting the right
command over the language and ability to have critical thinking. Also, this method of
selection is used to judge the fluent conversation of an employee to perform their task in
an organisation.

Weaknesses: This selection method is limited to only one variable of assessing
the Maths and English comprehension. It is important to measure the other aspects of
analytics such as critical thinking, analytical solution and instant problem action making
etc. Also, this test is limited one common language namely English and also checking
only Maths, hence, it will not be sufficient for this chocolate firm in the organisation.
It is suggestible that Chocolate Presence needs to look over different selection
methods such as personality test, knowledge test and psychometric test to check the
actual potential and ability of their prospective candidate to hire for the job position of
production and administration Dept.
c) Evaluates the potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate Presence to
enhance its selection process
In context with Chocolate Presence, it is necessary to ascertain the
improvements needed in their selection process. First, it is required to know their actual
selection process, which they are undertaking to hire right and prospective candidate in
their organisation. Presently, company is using their own assessment tool of Maths and
English comprehension to check numeric ability only and candidate fluency over
speaking any language (Huselid, 2016). In addition to this, Chocolate Presence needs
to have improvements over their selection process by initiating the psychometric test,
case study to check their instant decision making ability and personality test to analyse
their actual and real during its work tenure in an organisation. There are two potential
improvements which are required to be discussed such as:
(1) Giving priority to check the confidence and passion of the prospective
candidate to doing several practical activities and creative work during the
selection process, firstly to create the common interest and confidence of
an employee into the entire selection procedure, and
(2) Chocolate Presence are suggestible to bring more practical intervention
into their selection process rather than the testing aptitude and language.
It was noticed that these aspects are learnt while simultaneously working
in an organisation. It is necessary to uphold and involves various
innovative test such as planning & corrective action, quick decision
making by role play and simulation.

TASK 2 (LO4)
(a) Creation of the person specification for the job role
Person specification is the complete structure of the traits, skills, qualification,
knowledge along with language required for the job role. In context with Chocolate
Presence, this structure will be applicable for the job role of receptionist, target
candidate will be people with right and appropriate knowledge of both management &
administration and also be graduated from the recognized university. Candidate have to
be enriched with suitable and logical skills set.
Chocolate Presence
Job title Receptionist
Job code J123
Department/section Administration
Reporting to General manager
Requirements:
Qualification: The candidate should be graduated with commerce field and must have
relevant knowledge and information regarding the administration. The candidate should
have record keeping knowledge and technique to maintain the critical record and data
entry.
Experience: Both fresher/experienced person are allowed for the above job position.
Candidate must have experienced in the field of management and administration with
the right exposure in any industry.
Knowledge: The candidate should be able to apply his/her knowledge and exposure
to working and respective job role.
Skills required: Candidate must have basic skills along with accurate communication
manner while taking with the respective customer. Also, the candidate must be
enriched with people management skills to maintain the administration of the work in
an efficient ways. Candidates should have potential to interact with other people and
customer of the organisation in very efficiency. Along with this, person must have
ability to instant take the decision and action.

Language: English as the major priority language. Also, person with French and
German speak will be entertained.
Characteristics/Traits: The candidate must have effective personality, attitude and
charismatic behaviour to manage the people or guest in the company. Also, they must
have potential to lead the administration from the up-front of the job. Along with this,
the person should have realistic potential to guide and motivate its co-employees.
b) Discussion of the various advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of
advertising jobs in an
organization
Job advertising has become necessary to give an information about job related
matter such as person requirements, his/her skills & knowledge, competencies/traits
along with education. Job advertising can be circulated using employee referral and
posting it on the main website (Delaney, 2017). In the previous time, companies use to
give the job advertisement through newspaper advertisement and pamphlets. But now,
they have transformed this by generating job advertisement on their main website to get
the attention of maximum candidates. In context with Chocolate Presence, company
uses both internal and external source of job advertising to give accurate information
about the job vacancy. In internal, it consists of job information to existing staff or their
family friends and in external, company uses advertising displaying on the noticeboard
of main websites of the Chocolate Presence. Apart from this, both have their own
strength and weaknesses which are required to suggest any new methods for the job
advertisement are as follows:
Internal sources: It includes job advertising through existing staff or sharing with
their family/friends or colleagues. The advantage and disadvantages is as follows:
Advantage: The main advantage of this internal source is the convenience and
reliability, while sharing any kind of information. In this company, this approach is
suitable to save both time and cost. Also, it is helpful in getting the right employees with
reference to know their truth and reality as the person.

Disadvantages: Organisation is missing the huge crowd from where they could
get the right person for the job role of receptionist or any other administrative job role.
External source: It include the job advertising using the company's websites or
any other recruitment agencies portal. These are basically considered as the third
parties. The advantages and disadvantages of the external sources is as follows:
Advantages: The major advantages of this approach is to receive the
information about the different candidates, irrespective of their castes, creeds, gender
and religion too. Through this source, company would get the perfect employee for the
job role of receptionist. This approach has resulted for an inform regarding the skilled,
talented and informed candidate.
Disadvantages: The main disadvantages of this source is that, it could be
difficult to find the best person out of the huge crowd and many applicants who have
applied for the job vacancy. Hence, it would not be possible to get the best suitable for
the job role on spot. In context with Chocolate Presence, this approach will incurred the
time and cost both for taking the whole process of Interview and different selection
process.
c) Explain where you would recommend the job advert for the Receptionist vacancy to
be placed and why
For displaying the person specification, it is necessary to release the job
advertisement for giving the information about the job opening in an organisation. Here,
for hiring the suitable candidate, it is suggestible that job advertisement should be
printed in the newspaper, because maximum people is still reading the newspaper in
their daily life. Newspaper would be considered as the effective way to post the job
advertisement to wide range of audiences and people. The reason behind giving job
advertisement, because of continuous reach of people to the newspaper, irrespective of
belonging to older era. Newspaper also have ability to carry source of information
related to any issues along with job advertisements. Newspaper consists of several
column, which attracts reader minds towards it to get right and prospective information
on any topic. It is also justified that newspaper will enrich the information transfer in the
most corrective ways.

PART 2
TASK 3 (LO2)
(a) Evaluate the benefits to both the organisation and employees of training and
internship by the Microsoft
Training and internships both are focused toward the enrichments of an
employee and focusses towards increasing the person's confidence and motivation in
an efficient manner (Huselid, 2015). Various companies provides training and
internship program for some specific period of time to their candidate with the focal
purpose to give them real working situation and role play to raise their confidence to
work into the same organisation or other. In context with Microsoft, which is the Tech
giant of this era has focused towards maximum engagement towards learning new
things and technical aspects. In the present time, Microsoft has offered various training
scheme and internship opportunities such as university and PhD level to the people to
make them aware about the technological involvement in our daily life. Currently,
Microsoft is offering Microsoft Aspire Experience with the right believe for place of the
exploration, creativity, innovation and professional growth. Aspire experience is part of
the Microsoft training scheme, which is an on-boarding experience, designed to equip,
develop and empower to those who wants to join this tech giant after their graduation
and MBA programs. Also, the Microsoft is offering training for IT, marketing, operations
and marketing department along with technical developer module.
Such training schemes are aimed at personal as well as career growth of an
individual employee and market growth & profitability to the Microsoft. The major
benefits of this training program is to bring all person who wants work or learn under the
umbrella of Microsoft, under the reach of its appropriate and accurate learning to raise
the career expectancy of an individual. Also, this has benefited the Microsoft in getting
the right and suitable employee for the suitable job position in the company. Such
training scheme has given scope to the candidate to raise their career expectancy and
ensure the career and personal growth into their work tenure.
In context with Microsoft, such training & internship schemes has given the
expectancy for company to grow and develop in terms of productivity, efficiency and

profitability in the future with right and equal opportunity to everyone. The benefits of
training and internship to both employee and organisation is as follow:
Employee: Such type of training & internships will helpful in development of an
individual employee in the Microsoft. For example: Microsoft has brought e-learning for
their employee to make them comfortable during the process of training period. They
also brought various training & internship material, to bring utilized practical knowledge
practical knowledge of individual person with motive to enhance their knowledge &
learning for future development.
Organisation: This kind of training & internship would help company to get right
use of employee's for enhancing the business profitability & productivity. For example:
Microsoft has got increased profits by help of their employee's development as compare
to other business entities. They also get increased productivity and efficiency towards
their business.
(b) Identify the flexible working arrangements and also evaluate its benefits to both
Microsoft and employee
Flexible working arrangements is term which means about the condition and
situation of working which are majorly responsible for effective working in an
organisation. It is necessary to have the flexible working environment in the company to
control any kind of the burden, which would cause the stoppage of work in an
organisation. Every company should have the flexible working environment to maintain
the positive decorum and culture into the company. In context with Microsoft, company
has faced lots of issues while engaging their employee into the work process of an
organisation, but due to lack of flexibility and strictness, this tech giant has faced the
high employee turnover rate. After realizing this, top level management has decided to
make the flexible working arrangements, which is identified as “We Work As One”, “We
listen and learn from the entire world” and “Being work as strong together”, these are
some of the flexible working arrangements developed by Microsoft to maintain the
decorum and reduce the high employee turnover rate from the company. Microsoft
provides projects that are real based and related to company with relying on skills that
are provided by their employees. Also, company aspires their new employees who joins