Employability Skills and Professional Development

This document provides a comprehensive guide on employability skills and professional development. It covers topics such as skill audit, interpersonal skills, personal SWOT analysis, and personal and professional development plans. The document is relevant for students studying business management (BMGT101) or related courses.

Employability Skills and
Professional Development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Conduct skill audit to perform the personal roles and responsibility..........................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
a) Analyse tools and technique to enhance interpersonal and transferable skills........................4
b)Personal SWOT analysis..........................................................................................................7
c) Proforma for individual appraisal............................................................................................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
Personal and professional development.....................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
TASK B...........................................................................................................................................2
What did I do well in the completion of my development plan?.................................................2
What were the problems?.............................................................................................................2
What do I want to further improve?.............................................................................................3

INTRODUCTION
Employability skill includes the trait, skill as well as knowledge of the candidate that
make them suitable enough to perform their responsibilities effectively. To improve the
employability skills of an individual the organisation offer training and development sessions
that practically help to inculcate the talent for the success of an organisation. This main
advantage associated with employability skill for the employee is that it may position one to
perform the higher roles with the greater potential to grow (Asonitou, 2015). Training and
education are provided by the employer act as an opportunity that enrich the existing knowledge
of an individual and leads to personal professional development. These development plan define
the activities, time frame as well as desired outcomes required to meet the specific goal of an
organisation. For the better understanding of report Harrods company has been selected which is
the retail store of United Kingdom that functions in different parts of the national and
international countries in order to provide the luxury as well as quality products to the consumer.
It was founded in 1849 which depict that the company is functional for 170 years and cover the
huge customer base by dealing with them through physical stores and online platform. This
report cover topics like preparation of skill audit in order to perform the individual roles as well
as responsibilities of an organisation. Identify the essential interpersonal as well as transferable
skills which are required to enhance the skill of an individual. Moreover, prepare the SWOT
analysis that indicate personal strength, weakness, threat and opportunities. Along with that carry
out the individual appraisal for an organisation. Furthermore, prepare personal and professional
development plan on the basis of personal as well as organisational objective.
TASK 1
Conduct skill audit to perform the personal roles and responsibility
` Performance objectives are basically the targets that an individual needs to attain within
specific duration i.e. quarterly or annually. The key performance objective needs to be smart
(smart, measurable, achievable, relevant as well as time bound) so that it can be effectively
implement by reducing the chances of deviation (Bilsland, Nagy and Smith, 2014). In context to
Harrod company which has offered me the placement opportunity for Sales Associate, so their
my performance objective is to understand the confines roles as well as responsibility and
perform actions in order to enhance the sales of retail store by 10% within 6 months.

Personal roles and responsibility: Being sales associate I have to perform various
predetermined activities to order to generate the awareness regarding offerings and retain the
trust of existing and potential employee. Some of the personal responsibilities are stated below:
 Enhance the customer engagement by communicating regarding the product or services
of company and understanding their perspective or interest areas. Along with that by
gaining superior product knowledge I can resolve the queries of customer which can
reduce the chances of dissonance
 Cross selling is a vital strategy that I have to focus on in order to generate the additional
revenue for the adequate functioning of company. This strengthen the customer
relationship as they get best dealings at reasonable prices which help in developing leads.
 Engage in Visual merchandising which means I have to display or present the goods
within retail store in such a manner it gain the attention of customer and stimulate their
interest which can entices the customer to make final purchases.
Skill Audit: It is a prominent process that help to determine and identify all the essential
skill or knowledge required to conduct the specific job of an organisation.
Skills Good Average Bad
Communication skill ✔
Complaint handling ✔
Persuasion skill ✔
Negotiation skill ✔
Empathy ✔
Decision making ✔
Time management skill ✔
Problem solving ✔
Technical skill ✔

TASK 2
a) Analyse tools and technique to enhance interpersonal and transferable skills
Interpersonal skill include the behaviour or tactics of a person through which they
interact with other individual of an organisation effectively. As different individual have
different roles and responsibilities like some people born with these skill and other may have
inculcate such practices (Deeley, 2014). The manager of Harrods company practices
interpersonal skill by expressing appreciation, listening to the suggestions of employee and help
to resolve dispute which leads to increase chances of cooperation.
Communication: Effective communication skill is the root ability that help to gather all
the vital information related to business by interacting with the internal and external
stakeholders. The Sales associate are representative of company so they need to be interacting in
terms of generating the brand awareness and deliver effective values for the proper functioning
of an organisation (Jackson, 2015). Further, there are various tools and technique that can be
adopt by employee in order to perform their roles and responsibility effectively. Like, active
listening is an effective tool which need to be adopted by Sales associate otherwise the whole
conversation can go vague or in different direction. Along with that giving presentation is
useful technique as it overcome the hesitation and leads to easy flow of information which act as
a base and helps the team member to attain the target effectively.
Negotiation skill: It is again the other type of effective interpersonal skill that refers to
the ability of Sales Associate to discuss either with customer or employee and reach out to the
certain conclusion in professional manner. As business operate in dynamic environment so there
are various there are different situations under which the concerned authority needs to
understand different perspective and then land up coming with fair solution (Jackson, 2016). A
successful negotiation can only take place when the two parties come forward and involve in
preparing an agreement based on mutual consent. Further, the necessary tool and technique
required to enhance negotiation skill is to conduct the meeting. So before entering the
negotiable meeting, the negotiator is responsible to study whole scenario and prepare them for
final meeting. Usually, this preparation part includes determining the objective, identify areas for
trade as well as access the alternative strategy to reach out stated goal.

Empathy: Empathy refers to the emotional intelligence that is used by Sales Associate of
Harrod company to clearly understand the feeling of others. This crate synergy between the
relationship of employer and employee by creating positive surrounding within the organisation
to function (Jackson, Sibson and Riebe, 2014). This skill need to be improved and implement by
the Sales Associate within the outlet of Harrod company as through active listening the employee
can basically understand the requirement or problem faced by customer. Specifically, if the
customer is frustrated or unhappy due to their past experience then it is vital to understand as
well as identify others feeling and communicate with them accordingly. Thus, it help to easily
relate with others and expand the understanding between different stakeholders of company after
using certain tools and technique. Further, Developing curiosity about others via direct
feedback is a viable method that helps the Sales Associate to clearly understand the
circumstances as it offer great understanding like whether the organisation offer the great
experience to the customer or not (Kaushal, 2016). These feedback can either be received from
the digital platform or via face to face interaction with customer. So contractive feedbacks are
taken forward by company to determine the problem faced by company and accordingly Harrod
company can bring certain alterations in their functioning for the convenience of end user. The
primary objective of this interpersonal skill is that it help the organisation to generate the leads
and remain ahead of their competitors by gaining the advantage of fast mover. The other tool can
be being Active listener which is necessary for the respected profile to cultivate as it refer to
the trait under which employee remain focused to what other's are saying. This practice helps in
gaining the additional information which the employer may miss out from the feedback. For the
better evaluation the Sales Associate can further stretch the communication by responding back
to the customer in order to derive clear understanding and draw out to final conclusion.
Decision making: It refer to the process under which the organisation identify external
environment and gain the required information in order to make the effective solution. It involve
the course of action that is selected among the alternative to attain the overall objective of an
organisation (Law, Perryman and Law, 2015). The method that is used by the Sales Associate of
an organisation based on customer behaviour as well as different task that an organisation can
perform to overcome the gap and attain the objective effectively. Brainstorming method is an
effective tool that can help the team member to put their ideas forward and make innovative idea
that can tackle the hurdle and reduce the chances of variance. Such creative tool widen the

perspective to take decision and together involve the efforts of each and every member by
thinking feely or without any judgement.
Transferable skill are used within the workplace to enhance the existing knowledge of
an individual that can be transferred from one to another. It basically include the time
management, conflict handling as well as problem solving skill which act as an opportunity to
build up effective strategy for the functioning of an organisation. Some of the transferable skill
required for Sales Associate role is defined below:
Time management skill: This skill is used to organise as well as plan out the time to
carry the specific activities of an organisation that help to boost up productivity by managing the
time as well as efforts effectively (Mishra, 2014). It is vital that the Sales Associate need to
prioritise their workload effectively on the basis of different activities for which jotting down
routine activity is a successful tool. Along with the activities, the list must consist weight-age
and time period that help the whole teammate to primary focus on the urgent task and carry out it
effectively without procrastination. Therefore, this minimises the chances of distraction where
focus is given to concentrate on the important task or practice of an organisation.
Problem solving: is the most essential part of Sales Associate position under which
they are liable to reduce the chances of customer frustration by tackling their problem in a wise
manner. This will help the company to reduce the chances of negative referrals and discover new
methods to solve the problem effectively (Pârvu, Ipate and Mitran, 2014). As each business
function can encounter some type of issue so to enhance problem solving skill Sales Associate
can take the training or guidance from the top level. Therefore, this can help the employee to
identify the problem at its implication at greater aspect in order resolve the issues effectively.
b)Personal SWOT analysis
Strength
I believe that communication skill is my
strength because whenever I interact either
with my colleagues or customers I make sure
they understand the message delivered to them.
Also the sound and updated knowledge
regarding products and offering of Harrods has
assisted me to deal with the end user
Opportunity
With the increase in awareness among
customer and more engagement in electronic
devices to incur online shopping is an
opportunity for company on which it is
performing explicitly well. However, use of
latest technology and innovation is an
opportunity for me within Harrods company

effectively. This further positively influences
the behaviour of customer towards company as
their problem gets resolved suitably. Proficient
communication skill are essential for nearly all
types of retail position. As I have to
communicate with customer, employees as
well as employer either through face to face
medium or virtual channels. This also involve
the active listening ability which itself is a part
of communication process so I have to listen to
the customer and respond according in order to
build interpersonal relationship. Hence, this
skill can help to perform different roles like
greeting customer, explaining to customer
regarding product, addressing customer
complaint as well as order taking effectively.
Along with communication, persuasion and
maintaining interpersonal skill is my strength
that help me to engage the interest of customer
towards company and overall enhance the
customer engagement. In case of new customer
I make sure that they make final purchases for
which I help them to find right fit based on
their likings or interest area and in relative with
repetitive or loyal customer I more likely focus
on cross selling strategy. Hence, my strength
does not only work to satisfy the customer and
influence them to maintain long term
relationship but also to maintain the goodwill
of company.
which I need to acquire and remain flexible to
adapt the changes for the welfare of an
organisation.

Weakness
I need to work on complaint handling because
sometimes I lack to handle the tough situation
or overcome the dissonance of customer.
Although I have adequate knowledge on the
company's product but it become difficult
when customer has rigid attitude towards the
brand. So by focusing on this area I will
acquire new skill that can help to me tackle the
complaint sensitively or reasonable otherwise
this can decrease the per head profit generated
by company.
Time management is the skill on which I need
to work upon to give equal; attention to
different customer. Something due to the
burden to multiple tasks like engaging in
merchandising can leads to mismanagement or
procrastination which can lead to operational
issues.
Threat
Due to immense growth of retail sector and
emergence of major competition is a threat to
company. Thus, being the part of Harrod
company this is challenge for my position too
as it leads to the pressure of job insecurity.
c) Proforma for individual appraisal
An individual appraisal is a process under which the management provide the feedback to
an individual on the basis of their past performance. This redirect the activities of staff to
enhance their performance on the regular basis as standards are set based on which performance
are measured (Rowe and Zegwaard, 2017). The main significance of such evaluation process is
that it help the individual to gain the understanding regarding the skills which they have to
improve that finally help to enrich the overall performance. Further, the main focus is presented
to enhance the potential of an individual and improve their skill which is required to achieve the
objective effectively. Therefore, being Sales Associate in Harrod company my performance
appraisal is drafted below:

Quality Unsatisfactory Satisfactory Good Excellent
Quality of Work ✔
Knowledge of work ✔
Work Relations ✔
Integrity ✔
Work Consistency ✔
Technical skills ✔
Creativity ✔
Listening Skill ✔
Time management ✔
Decision making ✔
Empathy ✔
Communication skills ✔
Negotiation skill ✔
Problem solving ✔ ✔
Persuasion skill ✔
Hence, based on my personal appraisal gave me a wider arena about the skills on which I
am good efficient enough to handle the situation and vice versa. Like, my knowledge towards
work as well as work relation is desirable that leads to achieving shared objective. Contrary, time
management and enhancement on technical knowledge is somewhat I need to work on to attain
desired result.
TASK 3
Personal and professional development
Personal and professional development is basically formal mean through which an
individual set the required goal as well as outcomes to carry out the whole study effectively. The

prime purpose is to focus on the weakness of an individual so that they get specific time to
overcome their shortcomings required for business success (Spence and Hyams-Ssekasi, 2015.
Clear aims &
objective
Areas for
development
Resource and activities Time scale
Complaint handling
objective is to pay
attention to the
query of an
individual and make
effort to change
their behaviour,
attitude as well as
believe of customer
towards company.
Complaint handling I need to adopt significant
ability that is beneficial to
influence the mental state of
customer. So constant written
or oral communication with
the end user can help the
company to resolve the query
of customer and promote
them to be the part of
organisation for long
duration
1 month
The objective of
effective decision
making is to
identify the various
alternative and
select the best
possible one for the
adequate
functioning of an
organisation
Decision making I being sales associate of
Harrod company need to keep
my knowledge updated
regarding the customer and
product so that they we can
plan out and implement the
effective decision for the
adequate functioning of an
organisation. Further, the
decision are made at different
level of the organisation in
order to maintain the smooth
functioning and ensure
driving factors that lead to
2 - 3 months

optimum growth and
development of an
organisation.
Good time
management skill
objective is to plan
out the day to day
processes, minimise
the chances of
distractions that
finally lead to
systematic
functioning to make
progress.
Time management
skill
As Harrod company provide
various training conferences
for its employees in order to
enrich their capabilities. So
by attention the seminars, I as
well as other staff of an
organisation come to know
about the different ways we
can manage our work within
the firm effectively. Along
with that I will gain various
advantage through it by
which I can possibly change
my attitude towards work that
leads to the positive outcome.
4 months
The aim and
objective of
Negotiation skill is
to analyse the
history of the
relationship which
company has
experiences with
other parties. So
according to the
past relation the
negotiator can
Negotiation skill I can enhance my Negotiation
skill by maintaining adequate
relationship with different
stakeholders. As effective
negotiator maintain the
significant working
relationship with other parties
in order to promote positive
atmosphere. So by
inculcating such skills can
help me to enhance the trust
of employee or customer on
5 - 6 months

design the whole
meeting in order to
attain desired
outcome. The main
purpose of such
meeting is to create
win win situation.
me due to which I can easily
persuade or manipulate the
other person involved in the
negotiation process. Hence,
negotiation skill like other
skills are equally important
for me as it help the
organisation to improve the
mutual understanding
amongst inter department so
that they can together
function and bring desired
result.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been determined that employability skill is itself a very
essential aspect and holds great relevance within the organisation. So the employers are liable to
enrich the skill of their workforce so that they can tackle the situation in an effective manner.
The role of Skill audit is to determine the areas on which an individual has to focus on to attain
the business success, There are basically different types of skill which fall under either
transferable or interpersonal skill so it need to be applied in different situations effectively.
Therefore, the purpose of Personality Development Plan to work work on the shortcomings for
the particular time scale in order to achieve the long term profitability.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Asonitou, S., 2015. Employability skills in higher education and the case of Greece. Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences. 175. pp.283-290.
Bilsland, C., Nagy, H. and Smith, P., 2014. Planning the Journey to Best Practice in Developing
Employability Skills: Transnational University Internships in Vietnam. Asia-Pacific
Journal of Cooperative Education,. 15(2). pp.145-157.
Deeley, S. J., 2014. Summative co-assessment: A deep learning approach to enhancing
employability skills and attributes. Active Learning in Higher Education. 15(1). pp.39-
51.
Jackson, D., 2015. Employability skill development in work-integrated learning: Barriers and
best practice. Studies in Higher Education. 40(2). pp.350-367.
Jackson, D., 2016. Re-conceptualising graduate employability: The importance of pre-
professional identity. Higher Education Research & Development. 35(5). pp.925-939.
Jackson, D., Sibson, R. and Riebe, L., 2014. Undergraduate perceptions of the development of
team-working skills. Education+ Training. 56(1). pp.7-20.
Kaushal, U., 2016. Empowering Engineering Students through Employability Skills. Higher
Learning Research Communications. 6(4). p.n4.
Law, P., Perryman, L. A. and Law, A., 2015. Badging and employability at the open university.
European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, Best of EDEN 2013-2014.
Mishra, K., 2014. Employability skills that recruiters demand. IUP Journal of Soft Skills. 8(3).
p.50.
Pârvu, I., Ipate, D. M. and Mitran, P. C., 2014. Identification of employability skills-starting
point for the curriculum design process. Economics, Management and Financial
Markets. 9(1). p.237.
Rowe, A. D. and Zegwaard, K. E., 2017. Developing graduate employability skills and attributes:
Curriculum enhancement through work-integrated learning.
Spence, S. and Hyams-Ssekasi, D., 2015. Developing business students’ employability skills
through working in partnership with a local business to deliver an undergraduate
mentoring programme. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning. 5(3).
pp.299-314.
Zacharopoulou, A., Giles, M. and Condell, J., 2015. Enhancing PASS leaders’ employability
skills through reflection. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. 1.
pp.1-19.
1

TASK B
What did I do well in the completion of my development plan?
After 6-7 months of my placement I prepared PDP plan to focus on the area which I need
to enhance or work upon in order to perform my roles and responsibility within Harrod company
effectively. On the basis of Skill Audit or my weakness where I find difficulty to tackle the
situation as well as the feedback or guidance received from other people such as team member
and employer assisted me to incorporate the whole PDP plan. So I was bit curious to understand
the areas on which I was either good, average or better. The reason of emergence of such feeling
is that I gained the better insights regarding myself and understand the way I need to actually
perform my work. Further, if I describe about the evaluation then initially I was unaware about
how the whole PDP plan needs to be prepared due to which I find difficult and confusion to carry
out the effectively plan that can lead to effective result. Contrary, as I was aware about the time
scale so I mention the required time to be needed to enhance my skills and assign particular time
effectively. Hence, the whole process helped to clearly understand the skill on which I average or
bad and effectively assisted me to adopt the required tool for enhance the same.
What were the problems?
The main problem which I faced to prepare PDP plan was inadequate guidance that
actually led trouble and caused mismanagement due to which I allotted more than preferable
time to complete the task. Although I took the help from my colleague but due to vague
information and different opinion does not worked in my favour. Although there are different
situation within the organisation so it is not necessary that if the particular skill goes not work at
one situation can not work on the other as well. Like, I feel that I am average on decision making
but sometimes during the group decision making I put forward valuable opinions that are
considered by the other staff within the organisation. Although sometimes when I have to take
the final decision I remain confused about which alternative can possibly give best result. So
there are certain skill on which I am bad such as compliant handling and time management on
which I will extensively pay attention for the self development. On other side, I have
experienced that I always may best possible effort to enhance my capabilities and over the
chances of mistake by making vital effort.
2

Another problem which was faced by me while completing this project is lack of time.
The time which was provided to me in order to complete this project in an appropriate manner
was less as compared to which must be needed in order to fulfil this project in an appropriate
manner. But I realised this problem at my early stage, due to which I was able to tackle with this
problem of time limit. I overcome from this problem by indulging myself and my team members
in overtime. Me and my team members worked really hard to accomplish this project within
given time period in an effective manner and we are also able to fulfil its objectives and targets.
Another problem that was faced by me while completing and accomplishing this project was lack
of coordination between me and my team members. This problem has been arisen due to lack of
communication flow between my team members and me. There were differences in opinions and
views among us which lead to inappropriate coordination among us. I overcome from this
problem by engaging myself and my team members in various team building activities which
help us in forming effective flow of communication among us. I also asks all my team members
regarding their opinions and views upon this project topic which helps me in getting various
creative and fresh ideas. In order to eliminate this problem, I conducted various employee
engagement programmes and conduct various activities that helped in formulating an effective
engaged working environment. This helped me in maintaining coordination between me and my
team members and we were able to accomplish this task within given period of time.
What do I want to further improve?
As now I have gained the knowledge and experience to prepare PDP so in future when I
will again get the chance to prepare it then I can relatively manage my time. Earlier it really took
me huge effort and time but in near future I can do the same work in more effective and efficient
manner. Along with that in case of problem instead of first going to the different colleagues I
will take the help from expert that will help me to perform the work in more positive and better
way. This exercised help me to analyse the different situation and how I dealt with them in order
top perform and sustain my task. This can further be used to present the new standards or
benchmarks with the purpose to groom overall skill and gain the better position by working and
enhancing different skills required to perform the organisational objective. Therefore, the
current performance can further help me to enhance my existing capability and exploit the
opportunity effectively.
3

Moreover, the other thing which I can do in order to improve in future is that I can
improve my certain set of skills such as I lack in communication skills due to which me and my
team members are not able to communicate with each other in an effective manner. For this
purpose, I can improve my communication skills which will help me to formulate better
communication with my future team members and also help in expressing myself in an effective
manner. This will help me to exchange various opinions and views of me as well as my team
members. I can also develop my management skills which will help in managing various
activities of mine and help me in executing task on time.
4