Analysis of Business and Management Concepts

This assignment delves into various aspects of business and management, including strategic management, human resource practices, employee engagement, performance management, and knowledge management. It also touches on innovation, global strategic management, and information systems management. The analysis is based on a collection of articles, books, and online resources that provide insights and perspectives on these topics.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
a) Purpose and Importance of HR function.................................................................................3
b) Strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used by the organization .........5
c) Potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate Presence to enhance its selection
process.........................................................................................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
a) Person specification for the role..............................................................................................6
b) Advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of advertising jobs in the
organization.................................................................................................................................7
c) Recommending and placing importance of job advert for receptionist vacancy....................8
PART 2............................................................................................................................................9
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
a)Microsoft offer graduate training schemes and internships, evaluation of the benefits to both
the organisation and employees of such scheme.........................................................................9
b) Flexible working arrangements and their evaluation............................................................10
c) Evaluate how Microsoft motivates its workers through the way it designs its job roles......11
TASK4...........................................................................................................................................12
a) Explain employee engagement and its importance in effective employee relation..............12
b) Key approaches to engaged workers and improving communication at workplace.............13
c) Key elements of employment legislation and their influence on HR decision.....................14
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is defined as an approach which is used by the firm for
managing the people in the organisation so that the competitive advantage can be achieved
within the marketplace. In other words, it consists of three elements which includes human,
resources and management. Human are defined who are working in the firm. Resources are
defined as the raw material that are essential for completing the task. Whereas, management is
defined as the effective utilisation of human and resource so that, the desired goals can be
achieved in proper manner. Two organisations are taken for this assignment such as chocolate
presence and Microsoft. This assignment will discuss about the purpose of Human resource
department along with its importance to firm. Current method of advertisements will be
evaluated and person specification will also be created as per the specific job. Different types of
training which are given by Microsoft to their employees along with its benefits will also discuss
in this report. Various kinds of employee’s legislations will also covered in this assignment.
PART 1
TASK 1
a) Purpose and Importance of HR function
Human resource management is an essential procedure of a firm which is used for
managing the employees so that desired objectives and targets can be attained in the allotted time
period. The main purpose of HR is to process and manage the administrative programmes so that
the productivity of the firm will be increased (Laudon,2016). These are the main functions which
are essential for the Chocolate presence for achieving their desired targets. The purposes of HR
functions are given as under:
 Staffing- Primary function of HR is to hire employees for the firm so that the needs of
human resource can be fulfilled. The main objective behind this is to attract a large
number of candidates towards the chocolate presence. It also helps in recruiting the best
candidate so that the vacant job will be fulfilled and desired objectives will be achieved
in given time period. The main purpose of this function is to providing assistance to the
HR manager in recruitment and selection of skilled candidate who can contributes
maximum efforts in achievement of organisational goals and objectives. It increases the
chances of achieving desired goals within predetermined time period.

 Development- It is also an important function which includes proper training to be
provided to their employees so that their skills can be enhanced. The main purpose
behind this is to remove the conflicts which are faced by the firm in their workplace.
Providing training and development programmes to the employees increases their work
commitment with company which directly makes positive impact on the productivity and
profitability of Tesco plc.
 Compensation and performance management- This is an effective tool through which
the firm can easily get maximum contribution from their employees. It also helps the firm
in attracting the staff members towards the organisational tasks due to which the desired
tasks can be accomplished in the given time period. It also provides guidance to the HR
in measuring the performance level of their employees so that they can give motivation to
their lower performer. With the help of this issues and conflicts will be removed from the
workplace of chocolate presence. The motivated employees will more contributed their
efforts for improving the quality of firm' offerings. The importance of Compensation and
performance management is that, It brings motivation among the employees of Tesco plc.
so that, they perform on the given task with full confidence and zeal due to which the
desired goals can be achieved within a specific time period.
Importance of HR function
Strategic implementation: The main function of HR manager is to managing the
resources in an effective manner. As the firm is continuously facing the challenge of reducing
quality of their products so that they have to formulate some effective strategies for controlling
such issues. It can also negatively impacts on the productivity of firm so that, it is an important
function of the HR manager to overcome such issues from the firm in easy manner.
Wages and Salaries: The HR manager have responsibility to providing salaries to their
employees as per their working hours. As the employee turnover is regularly increasing in the
firm so they have to discuss with the managers for this purpose. For this, their important
function is to formulate an effective salary plan due to which they can motivate their employees
towards the organisational goals and overcome this issue from the workplace.
In current scenario, the managers of firm are facing various issues which are related with
employee turnover, utilisation of resources, Test methods which are used by the firm for
selecting the candidates. To overcome this kind of issues, the management should discuss with

their employees so that the reason behind this issues can be achieved by the firm with the help of
this they will know about why the employees have left their jobs. To overcome this issues, HR
manager has responsibility to discuss this problem with their superiors so that it can be resolved
by providing them attractive salaries and compensations for their work.
When the employees will provide their maximum contribution towards the task, the
quality of product will have improved automatically. With the help of this, company will easily
gain competitive advantage in future. To overcome the another conflict of selection methods, HR
manager have to interface in the selection process. The managers of Chocolate presence have to
adopt the suitable selection method through which the faith among candidates will be increased
and issue will automatically remove from the workplace of firm.
b) Strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used by the organization
The management of firm is using Mental ability and aptitude test for selecting the
applicants. In this test method the company have created their own questionnaire which includes
25 question of maths and 25 questions of English (Mone,2018). For this, they have set a criteria
for passing which is 50% of this test. The applicant who will pass this criteria will be invited for
interview. Interview will be taken by the HR which includes normal questions. The strength and
weakness of this method is given as under:
Strength
 It provides helps the firm in selecting the right candidates because with the help of this
they can understand the skills and strength of candidate in face to face interaction.
 It also guides the interviewer in changing their questions as per the conditions and
requirements of the vacant job in the firm. By doing this, they will easily determine that
the selected candidate will able in surviving within the firm or not.
Weakness
 The major weakness of this selection method is that it provides result so quickly but it is
not possible to understand the capabilities of a person within 15 minutes of interaction.
 Another limitation of this method is that there are major chances that interviewer will
forget the frequently asked questions from the candidates. Then, it will provide
incomplete information to them (Maylor, 2016). In the context of given scenario, if
interviewer will not take interview from the candidates in attentive nature then the right
candidate can't be selected by them.

Aptitude test – This is organised for evaluating the ability of candidates in a particular
field who will pass this test will be invited for an interview some strengths and weaknesses of
this test are given as under:
Strength of Aptitude test
 Aptitude test enhances the ability of candidates due to which their efficiencies and skills
has been utilised by the managers of firm in future.
Weaknesses
 It is mainly concentrated on a single language if an able candidate who have all the
qualities of the job but it don't understand that language then it will be disqualified from
the test. Hence, it can be said that it provides inappropriate results sometime due to which
the able candidates will be disqualified from the recruiting process.
c) Potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate Presence to enhance its selection
process.
There are various issues which are present in the selection process of cited firm. Some
improvements are identified which can be implemented by the firm. They are discussed as under:
 The major issue in selection process of cited firm is that, their HR manager is providing
its preference for interview which is based on informal chat. In this, the manager is not
focusing on the professional knowledge of candidates so that, it is very important to
improve the selection method because the inefficient employees in the workplace
(Schwalbe, 2015). For improving this method, The HR manager have to add some
questions in their interview process which are related with their past experience and skills
through which their capabilities and knowledge can be easily known by the HR manager.
 It is also recommended to the HR manager to organise a mock test in the selection
process which will based on the specific vacant position. It also helpful for understanding
their knowledge for the vacant position. With the help of this, they will easily select a
right candidate for the job which will helpful for the firm for a long time period.
TASK 2
a) Person specification for the role
Person specification is defined as a description of the person who have applied for the
vacant job position within the firm. In the cited firm, Their HR manager has analysed that there

is a requirement of Receptionist who has a long time experience of attending the call and
welcoming experience of guests.
Person Specification
Post: Receptionist
Department: Management
Key element required: Application form, Updated C.V
Attributes Essential Desirable
Qualification & Experience Graduation in any stream from
a recognised university or
institution. Minimum 3 years
of experience as receptionist is
essentially required.
The working experience of 3
years as a receptionist is
mandatory. Highly experienced
will achieve priority.
Skills or knowledge Candidate should have an
effective communication skills
so that welcoming of guest can
be handled by them in easy
manner.
Knowledge of using IT tools is
mandatory with a good
experience of multitasking
work such as conversation on
phone and working on
computer.
b) Advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of advertising jobs in the organization
The management of cited firm is mainly using two methods through which they advertise
their jobs such as in internal they convey the vacant job information with in the firm. For
externally requirement they put vacant job information on the noticeboards which are placed at
the main entrance of site (Vaiman, 2013). The advantages and disadvantage of these methods are
given as under:
Advantages of internal advertising method
Reduces time and cost to hire: This method helps the managers in saving time and cost
for filling the vacant job by right candidate of the firm. With the help of this, the funds of firm

will be saved due to which they can make better decisions for investment these funds anywhere
for betterment of firm.
Quick recruitment: This is also helpful in recruiting a best candidate within a short time
period. The deadline of this recruitment will also shorter than the other method of external
advertisement. In the context of Chocolate presence, the management use this method so that
their vacant job can be fulfilled in short period of time.
Disadvantages of internal advertising method
Advertised to less people: This is the major disadvantage of this method because when
the advertisement of vacant job will be communicated within the firm then a large number of
able candidates will remain unaware about this process which increases the possibility of
selection of incapable candidate for specific job position.
Selection of incapable candidate : When the advertisement of job will be discussed with
the employees who are working in the firm they will aware from the vacant position which is
placed in the organisation. It increases the chances of selection of incapable candidate who has
no ability of handling the job position through which the overall performance of the firm will be
influenced.
Advantages of Externally advertising methods
Advertisement of company: This is the major advantage through which the brand image
of firm will be increased. When the management of Chocolate presence put their advertisement
of vacant job at the main entrance of firm than the name of firm will also advertised with this due
to which the goodwill of firm will be increased. With the help of this, the faith of various
customers will also increase towards the offerings of firm due to which the sale of products will
automatically increases.
Selection of right candidate: When the firm will have advertised the advertisement of
vacant job on the main entrance of firm, it will attract a large number of candidates towards it
due to which the managers of firm will get a right candidate for the vacant position of
receptionist.
Disadvantages of externally advertising methods
Low reach to maximum number of candidates - When the firm will have advertised
their advertisement on the notice board which is placed on the outside of firm, it can't reach to a

large number of candidates towards the vacant job position which will be the major drawback of
this method (Coetzee, 2015).
Long adjustment period: By using this method, the management can choose right
candidates from the outside of firm but it takes a long time period for adjusting the candidate
within the existing culture of firm.
c) Recommending and placing importance of job advert for receptionist vacancy.
The company is using two methods for advertising their job requirement but these
methods are not providing effective results sometime then the expectations. For removing the
difficulties from recruitment process. The managers of cited firm can choose social media
platforms for advertising their job requirements. This will be helpful for attracting a large
number of candidates towards the vacant job of firm because the social media platform has wide
reach which help them in getting best candidates who have unique skills and long-time
experience. On the other hand, it also helps in short-listing the candidates because there are
various software which can be adopted by the firm for selecting the candidate according to the
needs of firm. By doing this, organisation will easily select a candidate who have all the skills
which are required by the firm for the vacant position.
PART 2
TASK 3
a)Microsoft offer graduate training schemes and internships, evaluation of the benefits to both
the organisation and employees of such scheme.
Internship and training scheme is the popular culture which is used by the firm for
finding the best candidates who have all the skills and knowledge and also fulfils the expectation
of firm. The main purpose behind organising these schemes to find out those candidates who can
easily adjust in the existing culture of the firm and also assist the firm in enhancement of
productivity and efficiency. Microsoft is the largest firm who provides training and internship
programmes to the thousands of trainees in every year. The firm organises various kind of
schemes and programmes of internship such as business programmes and operation in which the
individual should have master’s degree in business administration and knowledge of offerings of
firm for the entrance in the training programmes. In the case of work description, individuals

have to perform their duties with the senior executives of each departments due to which, they
will understand about their roles and responsibilities and perform in well manner in future.
Benefits for Microsoft
 Recognition of Hidden talent: It is very difficult for every firm to determine proper
skills and abilities through interview or campus placement in the universities and
educational institutions. Skilful and knowledgeable candidates are those who have all the
skills such as critical thinking, effective communication skills, innovative mid etc. which
cannot be determined by the interviewer at the time of interview (Ageron, 2012). With
the help of internship and training scheme, the managers of Microsoft will easily found
those candidates who fulfils their needs and expectations. On the other hand, if the
candidates will not adjust with the existing culture of firm then it makes negative impact
on their working behaviour which indirectly decreases their performance level as well.
 Retain employees: Any firm can't achieve growth and success if the employees of firm
will not retain for a long time period. For acquiring new talent from outside, The firm
have to organise internship programmes so that the employees can easily understand the
culture of the firm and management can determine the perfect candidate for their firm.
According to the survey of NACE, 50% of the candidates who came from the internship
programme they will be retain for more than 5 years due to which the productivity will
automatically increases of the firm. By running internship programme, the firm have no
need of recruiting candidates from the outside.
Benefits to candidates
 It also assists them in building their own professional network and enhancing their
understanding about the working culture of firm along with required skills, capabilities
etc. with the help of these, they will easily grab success in their future life.
 It provides opportunity to those candidates who have all the skills and capabilities and
wants to work in the workplace. Through this, candidates will easily decide their future
targets.
b) Flexible working arrangements and their evaluation.
Microsoft firm is known as a software company which offers a large number of
programmes and computer products along with the related services (Gassmann, 2012). The
purpose behind this policies and programmes is to create a better workplace for their employees.

With the help of this, the firm can easily achieve their desired targets and objectives. The
programmes and policies of Microsoft are given as under:
 Protected and well-being environment
 Plan for taking growth in future
 Utilisation of current resources
 Flexible working hours
 Making balance between work and personal life
 Increasing the engagement in cultural activities
 Provide discounts and offers
 Grabbing knowledge on the regular basis
All the above mentioned flexible arrangements are more beneficial for the employees and
the firm. The major benefits of these arrangements for the both are given as under:
Benefits to the employees
 Protected and well-being atmosphere for employees are very essential at the workplace so
that they will feel safe and secured in the firm and they will have focused only on the
given task. For this, the firm provides various facilities to their employees such as
medical care, 24 hours health team for maintaining well-being of the family of
employees.
 The future is uncertain in nature and every employee plans for future. For this, the firm
offers various plans to their employees for securing their future such as employees stock
purchase plan, education programme for their child etc.
 Employees also get various benefits from the facilities of Microsoft such as retail shops
in the campus, social clubs and network from which they get large discount on their
shopping.
Benefits to the organisation
 Through providing safe and healthy environment to their employees, they will feel
motivated and provide their full efficiency on the given task which will be profitable for
the firm in achievement of desired goals.
 Through providing them discounts and offers to their employees the sales and
profitability of the Microsoft will be automatically increased which improve the
sustainability of the firm in the marketplace.

 Through engaging in cultural programmes, Microsoft will easily maintain their corporate
social responsibilities which will be advantageous for them in making a good image of
firm in the marketplace.
c) Evaluate how Microsoft motivates its workers through the way it designs its job roles.
The firm is focusing on bringing efficiencies and effectiveness in their employees for
this, they assisting their employees so that they feel motivated and perform their task with their
full zeal and confidence (Parry,2016). There are various ways which are followed by the
managers of Microsoft for motivating their employees which are given as under:
Training and development: Every firm provides training to the new joiners so that they
can easily understand the organisational culture and their duties. In the context of Microsoft,
their managers are using a large number of training and development programme for enhancing
the understanding of organisational structure among the employees. With the help of this, the
skills of employees are also increased due to which they perform their duties in well manner.
These training opportunities includes various learning programmes such as individual and
integrated learning which are given by the LinkedIn, Facebook etc.
Total rewards: Managers of firm have also provided rewards and bonuses to their
employees on their excellent performance due to which their efficiency will be increased and
they will dedicated towards achievement of organisational goals. Microsoft organise sustainable
and strategical programmes through which the confidence level of the employees can be
increased. These programmes also help them in improving the culture of workplace and it also
helps the managers in improving performance level of the employees (London,2018).
Wellness and safety: The management of firm have to ensure that are their employees
perform their duties in safe and healthy environment or not. For this, the management have to
organise some sports and cultural programmes in their workplace so that their wellness, physical
stability can be maintained. The firm have also organised some safety programme through which
the well-being of employees can be maintained in proper manner.
TASK4
a) Explain employee engagement and its importance in effective employee relation.
Employee engagement is considered to be very crucial for maintaining an effective
relation with the employee in the organisation. It defines the level of attachment of the

employees to the job they perform and relation with the Microsoft. This process describes the
level of enthusiasm an employee contains at the time of performing their work. A concentrated
employee focusses on his work and performance of the company. It basically focuses in creating
a channel through which knowledge can be shared among the workers, encouraging employees
to share thoughts and ideas, knowledge about the future opportunities, learning programmes
should be conducted. The relationship with the employees depends on the efforts made by
Microsoft in managing the communication between the employers and the employees. If they
have great employee relations within the organisation, then it will provide consistent treatment to
all employees so that they will be committed to their jobs and the company will get profit of
lowering labour turnover rate. Every employee shares special relation with the workers. It helps
in making effective decision-making, resolves conflict among the employees.
Employee engagement is very important in Microsoft because it leads in effective and
efficient relations within the organisation and if not considered properly then the employees will
not be passionate about their work in the organisation. Good employee relations result in
motivating the workers to work towards the attainment of desired goals and objectives.
Employee engagement also leads in effective leadership skills for the organisation, team work
coordination. Communication is the tool which is essential for the effective employee
engagement and it is termed as corner stone of an engaged workforce.
b) Key approaches to engaged workers and improving communication at workplace.
There were various approaches explained in the summit to engage employees. Some of
the approaches are discussed below :
 Microsoft : The approach Microsoft use for improving communication was shared by
Kathleen Hogan who is EVP of human resources department of Microsoft. They
discussed regarding cultural alterations and technology enabled leadership styles to
connect with employees for better relations.
 KFC : The approach of KFC was shared by Jonathan D’Souza who is a people
capability director (HR) at KFC (Schwalbe, 2015). They explained about the attempts
and efforts to engage employees by improving employee experience during the
managerial work, security and safety at work place etc.
Microsoft being a software company will lead to positive impact on using technology and
the workforce will use the technology for creation of products which will be advanced and

innovative in comparison to others as a team. But the problem faced by Microsoft is lack of
qualified employees. It is considered very important to have employees with proper skills and
abilities to perform the task effectively. To control this Microsoft takes use of an approach which
is termed as Yammer. This approach ensures about the proper communication among the
workforce to make clarity in the business actions performed.
Whereas, in KFC the customers are treated as the assets of the company. And being in the
food industry it is very essential for them to satisfy their customers. To make this possible the
company makes effort in keeping effective communication with the customers and keeps
knowledge of the suggestions or remarks made by them. According to those feedbacks company
makes necessary changes in the business activities to become better and this also involves
improvement of productivity of the employees. But if the company misses to surmount the
problems of the discontented customers then the employees will have problems in working
together and this will eventually lead to rise in conflicts within the company.
Communication is very essential in all the organisations and there are several methods
which can help in rising the communication in Microsoft which are as follows: -
 Checking employees regularly: It is very necessary to meet the employees on daily
basis for interaction as employees want that they should be heard and talk about their
thoughts which will improve the internal communication system of the organisation and
will encourage the employees to work effectively in the organisation.
 Implement social intranet software: This method consist of different tools that assist in
rising the communication in the organisation. It also allows employees to grab thoughts
among themselves and opinions they feel about the concerned issues of the company. The
quality of social intranet software is increasing at a tremendous rate and the technology is
becoming advanced on regular basis.
c) Key elements of employment legislation and their influence on HR decision
Employment legislations are the laws and regulations which are set to protect the rights
of the employees in an organisation. They are described as follows:
 The equal pay act, 1970: This law is constructed to give equal pay to men and women
for doing equal work in an organisation (Rothwell, 2018). This law is important as it
make sure that the employees are treated of same value without being biased on grounds

of race, religion, etc. It will be helpful in carrying the compensation activity of HRM
which consider of incentive, allowances etc.
 The national minimum wage act, 1998: This law motive is to provide secured minimum
wage which is entitled to the employees legally. These wages are accumulated every year
and it is assured that everyone will be paid according to it only. It influences the HR
decisions in accordance to the deciding of salaries and wages, as the law makes sure that
no company can hire a person below the set minimum wage and if found legal actions
will be taken against the firm.
CONCLUSION
The above given report explains the important aspect of the human resource management
in an organisation. The different practices of HRM and their managerial functions in the
organisation are described. The report further contains the strengths and weaknesses of the
selection and recruitment process. Employment engagement and approaches used to improve the
communication within then organisations is discussed. At last the elements of employment
legislations and the impact of them on HR policies are discussed.

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The Employee Engagement Summit. 2018. [Online] Available Through :
<https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2018/03/20/improve-employee-
engagement-in-the-modern-workplace-the-employee-engagement-summit/>