Analysis of HR Practices and Development Strategies at BUPA: A Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Human Resource (HR) practices within BUPA, a UK-based international private health and care service provider. It examines the roles and responsibilities of HR professionals, including the skills, knowledge, and behaviors necessary for effective performance. The report delves into individual and organizational learning, training, and development, highlighting the differences and interconnectedness between them. It further explores the importance of continuous learning and professional development in driving sustainable business performance. The report also discusses performance management approaches and how they contribute to high-performance culture and employee engagement, using BUPA as a case study. It includes a skills audit and a personal development plan for an HR professional within BUPA, illustrating practical applications of HR principles.

Developing Individuals,
Teams and Organisation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
SECTION 1......................................................................................................................................3
P1(a) Determine appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours required by HR professionals
across
the department............................................................................................................................3
P2 (b, c) Audit of personal
skills to identify appropriate
knowledge, behaviours
and developing a job plan..........................................................................................................5
P3(d) Analyse differences between organisational and individual learning, training and
development................................................................................................................................7
P4 Need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business
performance.................................................................................................................................9
SECTION 2....................................................................................................................................10
P5(1) Demonstrate understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and
competitive advantage
within a specific organisational situation. ...............................................................................10
P6(2) Different approaches to performance management and using specific examples showing
how they
support high performance culture and commitment................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Development indicates towards growth, improvement in the nature of environment
physically and geographically (Berry, 2011 ). In this context development is defined in respect of
an individual, team and in organisation. Enhancing performance and work efficiency of
employees are the most essential motive of the organisation. It helps to achieve the goals and
objective in perfect manner and also make the functions smooth and flexible. Developing the
professional and personal skills helps the employee to teach them that how should employees
behave in a business environment. BUPA is taken to understand the dynamics of development
as an individual, team and organisation. BUPA is international private health and care service
providing organisation in UK. It is providing its health care service to 35 million customers
across the world. It is outsourcing its services in 195 countries all over the world.
SECTION 1
P1(a) Determine appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours required by HR professionals
across
the department.
HR professionals are the persons who works in HR department of an organisation. It
provides employees and managers to the organisation (Bolman and Deal, 2017). Identifying best
and perfect employees and recruit them in the organisation is the major work of HR department.
Employees are the key persons who work in the organisation as an individual and as a team to
accomplish the goals and objectives of the organisation. HR professionals remain responsible for
growth and development of the organisation and its employees too. HR department of any
organisation works around different key factors these are as under :
 HR policies are made by the department to explain the nature of the organisation. It
provides a path to perform well in the organisation to achieve best results. It makes
compliance policies to maintain discipline and decorum in the organisation.
 Organisation culture is made of around its work dynamics, style and theme of the
organisation. Organisational activities of performing the task and actions make the
organisational culture. HR department helps the employees to motivate by promoting
them, giving rewards and recognitions and appraisals.

 Analyse job criteria and requirement for new recruitment plan is prepared by the HR
professional in the organisation. It make the selection plan and system of taking interview
and shortlist the candidates as per their skills and knowledge.
 Making healthy and effective employees relation is also one of the prime responsibility of
HR department. HR professionals explains the policies, payment details, health and
safety features and other beneficiary informations to the employees. It helps to make
approachable staff to the employees.
 HR Department evaluate the training and development needs for employees. Making
development plan, training programs, one on one interactions are few examples of
practices which are performed by the HR professionals in the organisation.
BUPA health and care organisation is known for better operations and HR
practices in UK. Its HR department understand the serious concerns related to heath and care
issues and facilities. They hire experienced and professional teams, and specialists to operate the
functions effectively. Its health and insurance services are made for every individual or group.
There are some required criteria to be fulfilled by HR professionals of an organisation.
Because if the base of HR profession will strong then it automatically helps to get best
employees to the organisation.
 Knowledge : Employees of any organisation are required to have vast knowledge
to work field to perform the tasks and operate the departments with their
knowledge and understanding (Ford, 2014). HR department of the organisation
remains responsible to provide health and safety assurance to employees and staff.
 Skills : Skills of the employees improve by performing the same task
continuously and constantly. HR professional skills develop by performing HR
practices constantly in organisation. Apart from work skills there should be good
communication, comprehensive and administrative skills in HR professionals of
an organisation.
 Behaviour : HR department always remains work for it employees and
organisation. Their behaviour must be appropriate in the organisation. Polite
nature and helping others shows the bright side of the HR managers.

P2 (b, c) Audit of personal skills to identify appropriate knowledge, behaviours and developing a
job plan
Individuals skills refers the specialities and tactics of the person (Hoch, 2013). Skills
refers that how the specified works and tasks are performed by professional and working
knowledge. Skills comes from regular efforts of performance and hard work. Regular practice of
same work improve the capacity of completing the work and by practising the task a person
achieved perfectness at a particular level.
HR professional of BUPA introduce high skilled employees and managers who remains
perfect in their streams and field. Jane Cambridge is a HR professional in BUPA. She wants to
appoint skilled and professional employees to run the operations and management in effective
manner. There is a new HR specialist software installed in organisation which contains the data
base of employment. The software is new to her and she has no any vast knowledge about the
software. Training and development program is organised in respect of understating the
dynamics and use of software. large database and In health and care insurance services managers
and employees require effective and professions skills so that they can explain the policies,
advantages and procedures to the clients.
Personal Skill Audit
Name: Jane Cambridge
Job role: Human Resource Manager
Mention all things properly which are related with personal related things of your
own:
Very good Good Adequate Little
Information
technology
Significant
knowledge of
sources of getting
information through
mass media, internet
and social media.
Require to
enhance the
knowledge of
software and
programs of
information
system of the
organisation.

Communication
skill
Grasping power of
Opportunity to
excel the
performance and
knowledge by
interacting with
people and clients
formally and
casually.
Interaction helps
to strong the
communication at
large level and
ground level.
Problem solving Listen the issues and
problems of the
employees and
Resolve them by
providing best
options is the main
objective of HR
professionals.
Professional Development plan
Development plan defines the improvement criteria for employees to work effectively.
HR professional of BUPA need to plan the development program as per the above requirement.
Target Actions to achieve Evidence of
completion
Duration of plan
Enhance the
Communication skills
 To improve the
quality of
Project works and
training programs with
From November 2017
to jan2018

services in
expressive way
to the
customers.
 Make
sustainable
model to create
global image in
health and care
insurance
services.
examination.
Knowledge of policies
and procedures and
insurance plans
Clear the conflicts and
confusions regarding
insurance and
coverage plans of
policies.
Conferences and
meetings for
evaluating the policies
and advantages.
Defining the coverage
plans and medical
claims.
Fro every year.
Gain customer faith
and belief
By providing
satisfaction and
support services in
miserable conditions.
Increasing number of
clients and customers
will prove the
effectiveness.
From December 2017
to December 2018
Motivating employees
for better results
Organisation works
around keeping people
first and it motivates
the employees for
working constantly.
Better control and
operations in multiple
departments.
Achievement and
rewards in exchange
of team work.
Annual basis

P3(d) Analyse differences between organisational and individual learning, training and
development
Individual and organisation learning both are same in nature but their scope and criteria is
differ from each other (Hu and Liden, 2011). Both the aspects remain centralised to achieve
proficiency and developing skills for attain adequate results in organisation.
Individual and organisation development and learning look alike but in growth
prospective both have different meaning. Individual leaning refers single person's development
and skills improvements whereas organisation learning focus upon group or team learning.
Personal and individual training program are made by HR professional of the organisation.
Development plans are designed as per feedbacks and reviews of customers. In BUPA
employees are trained to behave politely with customer. They provide approachability to its
clients so that they would get easily understand the procedures and the policies. Development
programs not only beneficiary to the organisation it is also helpful in personal life too.
Individual Learning
A person always works for maintain his status and fulfil self needs and requirements or
for his/her family (Légaré and et. al., 2011). Earning high profits and emoluments remains the
prime objective for every individual while working in the organisation. Personal or individual
learning helps individual to improve skills and knowledge of work to attain profits and high
earnings. Personal learning helps to execute the efforts in effective and systematic manner to
fulfil the task.
In health and care insurance services individual training and development program helps
to improve the interpersonal skills and soft skills. In health and care industries hospitality consist
specific role in building customer faith and interest which is require for any organisation.
Training programs helps to find out personal needs and requirement and organisation become
eligible to provide required sources. Evaluating personal and individual conflicts are also one the
major aspect to of developing and training program.
Organisation learning
An organisation always works for its people and people works for their organisation. It is
a give and take process (Lloyd-Walker and Walker, 2011.). A business is only be eligible to
achieve it goals and objectives when its people are happy and satisfied in the organisation.
Organisation learning and development helps to maintain healthy and helpful employee relation

among the employees and team. To perform large size of tasks and objectives people of
organisation works as a team and group. These kind of training and development programs are
designed to motivate the team and group of entity. Group or team learning improve the
performance and skills of work competency.
BUPA's aims and objectives are centralised around developing the people first.
Development and training programs are categorised among small groups of staff in supervision
of teacher from hospitality sector. The spoke person provide all related handbook and material to
teach them principles and rules of hospitality. In development programs staff members are
guided that how should they treat different type of cases and situations. Dementia is one the
subject which is covered in development and training program. Its programs are framed in
different seminars, lectures and tours. Development and training programs' success is celebrated
by entire people of the organisation. Their achievements and credibility are address in the end of
the year.
P4 Need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business
performance.
Proper learning and development programs helps the organisation to learn new
advancements and tactic (Marquardt And et. al., 2011). New learning helps to sort out the size of
the work and reduce the time and energy. Professional development improve sensuality of ethical
behaviour in the nature of employees. It helps to make employees aligned with the objectives of
the organisation. Learning always advise to enrich attainments of work and helps to get higher
earnings.
Sustainability of a business depends upon earning and profitability graph. Training and
development programs help the organisation to keep up to date with the external environment.
Now a days organisations are more concerned about their sustainability in organisational
environment. It remains very cost consuming to recruit new employees in organisation so
organisations invest it cost in training and development programs. Cost effective productivity
and profitability make strong the sustainability of the organisation in future. There are few points
which defines the requirement of development of continuous learning in the organisation :
 For better control and smooth operations in multiple departments of the organisation.
 Understanding the dynamics and changes of environment in effective manner.
 Keep align employees for better learning and learn new tactics of performing the task.

 Improve competency of work and gain knowledge regarding specified subject.
 For growing continuously and get advantage of competitive environment.
 Training and development programs introduce new methods and approaches to the
employees (Shin And et. al., 2012). It helps to keep motivating them while working in the
organisation.
As per above points relation between sustainability and development program can be
easily under stable.
SECTION 2
P5(1) Demonstrate understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and
competitive advantage
within a specific organisational situation.
High performance working indicates towards emphasize the performance and
productivity of employees in the organisation (Warrick, 2011.). It remains difficult to improve
the capacity of the employee at their best. And it also become hard to get effective productivity
from employee so it is require to enhance and build up the capacity of an employee so that
organisation become eligible to perform effectively in business environment. Performance and
improvement of an employee depends upon training and development programs organised by the
entity. High performance working is only be attainable when an employee perform same task or
working continuously in the organisation. Many organisations invest high cost in advancements
and technology to attain maximum returns in minimum time duration. At initial level an
organisation have to face the challenges regarding accept the changes and it also consume lots of
time. But after getting touch in practice it helps to gain high profits and earning in competitive
environment. Technology and advancements are the only option which reduce the competition
level in the organisation.
BUPA invest in training and development programs to get high performance working.
Below are the points which defines the tactics of HPW in respect of BUPA health and care
insurance.
 Providing quality and approachable customer services help the organisation to attain
maximum customer satisfaction and profit.

 Employees get trained time to time to achieve the best outcome by providing health and
care services to the organisation.
 Building healthy and supporting relations between staff and managers also helps the
organisation to achieve the employees' satisfaction and believe.
 Award and recognitions for best efforts also helps the organisation to motivate the
employees in the organisation. In BUPA training and development programs are designed
to build strong relations with organisation and customers too.
 HR professionals plans some set of events and programs which helps to identify personal
and professional needs of employees in organisation. HR department provide optimum
resources and help to the employees so that they could perform continuously without any
conflicts and problems.
BUPA is one of the organisation which is providing health and care insurance services
across the world. Its customers are getting effective health and care coverage on medical claims.
Its disorder cases are managed in very impressive manner so that the client gets high satisfaction
and faith in organisation. Its functions and operations always work around keeping people first.
For any organisation it is required that its employees work independently and feel free to share
their issues and problems to HR department or managers.
P6(2) Different approaches to performance management and using specific examples showing
how they
support high performance culture and commitment.
Performance management is one of the important factor which plays a vital role in
functions of organisation ( Wegge and et. al., 2011). It is considered as essential element to
evaluate the performance of the employees in the organisation. There are majorly five
approaches are used to evaluate the performance management.

(Source : Performance management approaches, 2017.)
1. Comparative approach : Comparative approach helps the organisation to bifurcate the
employees according their performance of work. In this approach performance is
evaluated on the basis of results and figures among the staff members who remains
involved while performing the same task. There are many approaches also used to
evaluate the performance of the employees in comparative approach. Force distribution
is one of the technique helps ranked the employees as per their work effectiveness.
For example team size of 20 people the performance is evaluation on the basis of accuracy of the
task performed by the employees. Top five performers are bifurcate first and then 10 persons are
categorised as average performer and last group of 5 members are considered as law performers.
2. Attribute approach : In this approach performance is categorised as per the
characteristic of employee while working together in a team. In this approach skills and
specialities are divided in to different parts as problem solving skills, team work,
communication, judgement, creativity and innovation (Mollick, 2012). It is also
considered as over all evaluation of performance of the employee.
It is considered by an example, that there is a graph prepared as per the above
characteristics and evaluated on the basis of specific measurements and figures. That graph
shows the overall rating through presenting results. Response is evaluated on the basis of
positive (+), Constant (0) and negative(-).3. Behavioural approach : it is considered as traditional approach among the all
approaches. In this approach the rating of an employees is evaluated as per the standard

which is BARS ( Behavioural Anchored Rating Scale). It uses five or ten measurement
scales to analyse the performance of the organisation. It also helps to analyse the
behaviour of the employee in the organisation. It is considered as Behavioural
Observation Scale (BOS). In this approach performance is evaluated by monitoring the
behaviour of the employee. For example his attitude, actions and thinking while
performing the task.4. Result approach : Result approach defines actual impact upon the sustainability of the
organisation. It works around financial, customer relation, Internal and operations,
learning and growth. For example an employees performance during the year helps to
attain customer interest and productivity. By this efforts organisation get eligible to get
optimum results and able to reduce the cost.
5. Quality approach : This approach is centralised upon qualitative deliverables and
effective product and services to the customers (Wildman And et. al., 2012). In this
approach performance is evaluated on the basis of resolving the issues and feedbacks of
the customers. It focuses upon continuous improvement and development of employee
while working in organisation.
For example a customer is unable to get the details reading his service which is
under process in that situation the executive should response the complaints and keep update the
status on the information system so that it remains conveyable to the customers.
CONCLUSION
This report provide enough knowledge of development programs for individual, team and
organisation. It describe that how a development plan helps the organisation to enhance the
capacity of work, performance and skills for better accomplishment of objectives and results.
This report is able to bifurcate learning and training programs for individual and organisation.
BUPA health and care insurance organisation is taken for better understanding of development
program. How a development program helps to make sustainable business performance is
explained in this report. There are many performance approaches are discussed under this
context to provide competitive advantages of the organisation.

REFERENCES
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Performance management approaches, 2017. [online] Available
through :<https://www.projectguru.in/publications/approaches-measuring-performance-
employees/>. [Accessed on 13th November 2017]