HRM in Practice Report: Chocolate Presence HRM Development Plan

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within the context of Chocolate Presence, a UK-based company. It begins with an overview of the purpose and importance of HR functions, including recruitment, employee relations, and compensation, while also addressing current challenges and future growth plans. The report evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of current selection methods, such as interviews, and proposes improvements to enhance the recruitment process. Furthermore, it delves into person specifications and the advantages and disadvantages of various job advertising methods, recommending a specific job advert for a receptionist vacancy. The report also assesses the benefits of training schemes and flexible working arrangements for both the organization and employees, along with an evaluation of employee motivation strategies. Finally, it explores the meaning and importance of employee engagement, key approaches to engaging workers, and the impact of UK employment legislation on decision-making processes.

HRM In Practice

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
a) Purpose of HR functions and its importance to the organisation, current problems and
future plans for growth...........................................................................................................3
b) Strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods..............................................5
c) Two potential improvements to enhance selection process...............................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
a) Person specification............................................................................................................6
b) Advantages and disadvantages of current methods of advertising jobs.............................9
c) Recommend the job advert for the receptionist vacancy to be placed ..............................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
a) Evaluation the benefits of training scheme and internships for organisation and employees
..............................................................................................................................................11
b) Identify flexible working arrangements and their benefits to employees and Microsoft 12
c) Evaluation the ways of motivation to workers of Microsoft............................................13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................14
a) Meaning and importance of employee engagement in Microsoft company....................14
b) Key approaches to engaging workers and its importance in improving communication 15
c) UK employment legislation and their impact on decision-making such as recruiting,
reward, training and development........................................................................................16
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is a systematic approach and a process which does
effective management of people in an organisation that involve training, recruiting and
motivating employees. Chocolate presence is developing and expanding organisation which is
situated in North Yorkshire, UK. This company has various team which include finance and
marketing team, chocolate production team and packaging and distribution team. It is famous for
creating innovative chocolates which has different flavours and designs.
This study shows different functions and purpose of human resource officer in an
organisation (Murthy and Kinange, 2018). It plays various roles and uses the best selection
method to ensure that the company is recruiting and retaining the best workers for developing
and growth. This report also evaluates
Improvement methods and advantages and disadvantages of current methods of advertising.
Employment engagement also plays a vital role in Microsoft company which uses different
approaches to engaging workers.
TASK 1
a) Purpose of HR functions and its importance to the organisation, current problems and future
plans for growth
Human resource officer plays a significant role in Chocolate presence company as it
provides the ability to accomplish business goals and needs through recruiting and managing
most valuable resource. The purpose of these functions is to ensure that staff is performing their
duties well which promotes the goals of the company. There are many functions which HR play
in an organisation such as recruitment, planning of compensation, workplace safety, building
employee relationship etc.
Recruitment: The main important function of HR officer of chocolate presence is to
recruit the right and skilled people in the company in order to gain team goals. For recruiting
right people HR advertise for job posting and conducts preliminary interviews (Treweek and
et.al., 2018). They take the final decision of selection of candidate with the help and opinion of
manager. The purpose of this function is to provide skilled and knowledgable employees to the
company.

Build employees relationship: Employee relationship with employers also play an
important role. HR officers tries to maintain and build employee relationship by providing job
satisfaction, resolving workplace conflicts. Purpose of this function is to reduce staff turnover
and absenteeism.
Compensation and benefits: It is another function which HR officer plays in an
organisation for motivating employees towards achieving desired goals. Compensation and
benefits includes retirement savings, health insurance and pay at the time of injury. The main
purpose of this function is to motivate and encourage staff for working hard.
Current problems and future plan for the growth of company
There are some problems which chocolate presence at workplace that involve: labour
turnover, workplace conflicts and miscommunication. For solving this problems HR officer
make some strategy and plan for growth of the business.
Illustration 1: HRM functions
Sources: (HRM functions, 2018)

Labour turnover: It is the biggest problem which company is facing. There are some
reason that are increasing labour turnover like discrimination, unequal wages, unhealthy working
environment etc. For eliminating these problems HR officer follows rules and laws of equal pay
and wages, provides healthy and conflict free environment to their employees.
Workplace conflicts: It is another problem which company is facing. Workplace
conflicts happens because of miscommunication between employees, autocratic leadership etc.
For solving this problem HR make the best strategy which include the use of democratic
leadership that involves their staff in decision-making process which help in increasing morale of
employees. It also focuses on effective communication within organisation for that it uses new
techniques for communicating (Jimeno, Martínez-Matute and Mora-Sanguinetti, 2018).
b) Strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods
There are various types of methods of selection which every organisation use such as:
Application forms, interviews, online screening etc. Chocolate presence uses interview selection
method for selecting the beast candidates.
Interview: HR officer uses interview method which include individual interview,
interview panels etc. An interview is the process of asking questions and giving answers and in
another words it can be say that it is one-to-one conversation between an interviewer and
interviewee (Khan, 2016).
Advantages of interview
 It provides opportunities of probing questions which includes personal opinion and
feelings.
 This method gives an opportunity to candidate to ask questions to interviewer.
 It is the realistic job preview because it describes job and organisation face to face.
 It is cost effective procedure if interviewer uses time management strategy.
 They can achieve high response rate.
Disadvantages of interview
 It completely relies on the skills of the interviewer and many people are poor in
interviewing and they have better writing skills.
 Candidate can manipulate by favourably answering to the questions (Jović, Brkić and
Bogunović, 2015).
 It is time consuming process when there are larger number of applicants.

c) Two potential improvements to enhance selection process
Chocolate presence uses interview method for selecting better candidates. Sometimes
interviewee get confused and hesitate at the time of interview like sometimes managers and
interviewer ask hypothetical questions to the interviewee which distract candidates, bad
infrastructure also affects in attracting contingent workers. In this process it faces some problems
and disadvantages and for solving this it can improve its selection methods process by:
Adding more details in job posting
It is the best method and way of improvement for selection process. Job posting is the
very first step of recruiting and selection which should be clear and have detailed information in
order to attract the best candidates. Generally company listed some questions and things in their
job posting like needed experience, education. Besides of these questions and information it
should include the day to day activities which employees will have to perform of the position
(Murthy and Kinange, 2018).
Remove discrimination on the basis of gender
Most of the companies give priorities to male candidates rather than female candidates.
Chocolate presence company should hire the candidate on the basis of skills and knowledge not
on the basis of gender. For avoiding and eliminating this type of problem it can hide the name of
the employee which can show interviewee only details like experience, knowledge not the name
of candidate. It can improve morale of the employees and candidates.
TASK 2
a) Person specification
Person specification is a description which contain skills, qualifications , experience and
other characteristics of candidates. The main purpose of using this person specification is it helps
managers in decision-making process by providing all the necessary details of candidates. It is
the best way to find desirable candidates with desirable skills and attributes (Press, 2016).

Person specification:
Title of job Human resource officer
Date: 21 February 2019
Qualification required Essential Desirable Met
Degree in any discipline &
professional qualification in
Human resource
management.
MBA in Human resource
management.
Yes
Yes
Need of experience
Candidate should have
around 4 years of working
experience in several HR
processes.
3 years of administrative
experience in any reputed
organisation.
Yes
Yes
Personal characteristics &
conduct
Collaboration, time
management skills,
preparing staff handbooks,
problem solving and
multitalented.
Yes
Yes
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Effective communication
skills.
b) Advantages and disadvantages of current methods of advertising jobs
Advertising job plays a significant role in an organisation. It is process and way of filing
the job with the most skilled and qualified candidate. There are an advertising department in
Chocolate presence company which is highly responsible for the growth of the company. There
are various methods of advertising jobs that includes social media marketing, door hangers and
flyers, newspaper Ads, television advertising, public speaking or mouth advertising etc.
marketing department of Chocolate presence company uses social media marketing for
advertising jobs for fulfilling vacancies (Stephen, 2016).
Social media marketing: Social media marketing is the best way of advertising jobs
which most of the company are using. HR officers does advertising with the use of social media
platform and websites in order to promote their products and services and tell about the
requirements for the job. Nowadays almost all type of people uses social media and are more
active on social media. It allows business to connect with persons and build relationship in order
to communicate online and give details about job.
Advantages of social media marketing
 It helps marketing manager in reaching a high number of people.
 It reduces marketing costs because most of the work has been done by online.
 Social media marketing is time consuming process of advertising.
 It helps in increasing awareness about products of the company.
Disadvantages of social media marketing
 It requires constant and latest updates and monitoring which become sometimes
more hectic for marketing manager.
 Social media marketing requires knowledgable people, uneducated people does
not know how to use social media.
 There are most of the people which do not believe on online marketing so it can
decrease sales (Tuten and Solomon, 2017).
 There is a risk of negative comments in this type of marketing.
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c) Recommend the job advert for the receptionist vacancy to be placed
A receptionist is an employee whose main work is to contact and greeting with clients
and customers. For becoming a great receptionist there should be some attributes and
characteristics that includes: technical powers, effective communication, ability to use internet
and e-mail (Vanhala and Ritala, 2016).
For getting the best receptionist, chocolate presence company give the advertisement in
newspaper like this:
RECEPTIONIST REQUIRED
We are one of the leading and developing company in UK. We require the
services of receptionist. Ideal candidate should have strong MS office skills,
word and power point for this position. There is an also requirement of
excellent communication skills and good skills of handling customer services
at all levels. Our working environment is lean oriented so a candidate must
have excellent time management skills.
Major duties and responsibilities
 Fluent in English and computer literate.
 Ability of handling public relations and correspondence.
 Ability to handle multiple line calls.
 Communication skills with good command on spoken and written
English.
Qualification: Minimum bachelor's degree
Experience: Candidate must have minimum 2 years of experience at a
reputed organisation.
Age limit: 30 years
An attracting salary package will be offered to the selected candidate.
Interested applicants may send their resume and can contact at
[e-mail]
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Need for giving advertising for the receptionist
Chocolate presence company requires a receptionist or office coordinator because it
interacts with clients and customers and aware of everything which happens within an
organisation.
 They inform all the employees or staff about visitor's arrivals and cancellation.
 They maintain all the important electronic documents and files.
 To answer enquires related to products or company to visitors and customers.
 It makes appointment.
TASK 3
a) Evaluation the benefits of training scheme and internships for organisation and employees
Microsoft takes pride in having a great culture that provides many benefits and rewards to
its employees in order to encourage personal development and growth opportunities. A graduate
training scheme and internships are a type of program which is provided by an employer to its
students and employees. The main aim of providing this facility is to give experience to students
by working in an organisation (Wang, Lin and Tsai, 2016). These training scheme and
internships have various benefits for the organisation and employees that include:
Create a larger pool of talents: There are high numbers of interns which are getting
converted into full-time position. It is important for Microsoft company to hire workforce ready
by graduates and skilled employees.
Gain valuable work experience: From internship programmes, interns get the
opportunity to shoe their ability by putting the knowledge to real work experience. They can
develop their other skills being an internship such as: commination skills, computer proficiency,
teamwork etc.
Explore a career path: Internship allows students and employees to work in their
desired field and explore their skills and knowledge. By this opportunity they feel very confident.
During an internship employees can learn a lot about their weaknesses and strengths. By
observing these weaknesses they can develop their refined skills.
Receive financial compensation: Microsoft pay salary to their interns which means
employees can make money and gain experience at the same time. It increases their morale and
decrease staff turnover.
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Greater productivity: Training programmes allows employees to improve their skills
and knowledge which leads higher quality and greater productivity. It is beneficial for Microsoft
as-well-as employees. Greater productivity increases sales and revenues of organisation and
increases morale of employees (Veth and et.al., 2017).
Less supervision: By training programmes, employer enhance skills of employees,
Hence, the responsibilities and time of supervision is lessened. Training and internship
programmes reduces the need of detailed supervision which help in consuming the time of
employer.
Higher morale: Proper training helps in increasing morale of the employees. This
program encourages staff and mould employees attitude towards organisational goals. For
achieving goals employees support business activities which help in maintaining loyalty within
an organisation. Organisation can take the benefits by the training programmes like: it can reduce
dissatisfaction among employees, reduces absenteeism and turnover.
b) Identify flexible working arrangements and their benefits to employees and Microsoft
Flexible working arrangements refers the freedom of choosing to work time accordingly.
Microsoft provide this freedom to their employees by which employees can maintain their social
life with business life. There are mainly three types of flexibility which are given by company to
its employees such as: flexibility in scheduling like alternative work schedule, flexibility in place
of work like working at satellite location and at home, flexibility in the amount of working hours
like part-time work, job sharing (Bryan and Sevilla, 2017).
Remote working: Remote working refers to perform work away from the office which
include working at home, working at another place. It may be temporary or permanent. It is good
for those women who wants to earn money with taking care of their families.
Job sharing: It in another type of flexibility which give freedom to choose their time or
part-time work. In this type of flexibility two or more than two part-time employees share their
work as full-time job. It is good and beneficial for employees and employers as employee can get
their full work by hiring more people and employee can earn money and live their soicial life at
the same time.
Telecommunication: This flexibility allows employees a greater freedom in working
hours and work location. This facility makes workers more productive which is beneficial for
company. Employees who are getting this facility are likely to be more happier in thir work and
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