HR Report: Developing Individual, Teams and Organization at Whirlpool

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of HR development within the context of Whirlpool Corporation. It delves into the essential knowledge, skills, and behaviors required by HR professionals, emphasizing the importance of continuous professional development (CPD). The report includes a d...Read More

Developing Individual, Teams
and Organisation

INTRODUCTION
Development is considered as a fundamental requirement of every organisation. If
companies will not develop properly then it become hard for them to sustain at market, When
employees will feel satisfied, motivated and committed towards company then they will give
good results to company which will ensure growth. For growth and development, teams play a
major role in the organisation (West and et.al., 2014). When all the employees work together, a
strong bond is made between them which helps company in achieving their objectives easily. For
developing goals and objectives in an organisation, they should align them properly to the
respective employees who can handle them properly. The organisation which will be referred
here is Whirlpool Corporation which is a multinational manufacturer of home appliances. It is
the world's largest home appliance maker. In this report, knowledge, skills and behaviour
required by HR professionals, factors responsible for learning and development with the
engagement of high performance working and evaluation of carrying out management will be
included in this report.
TASK 1
P1. Knowledge, Skills and Behaviour of HR professionals
Continuous professional development is very important in an organisation. It is a process
of tracking and documenting the skills, knowledge and experience that is gained by conducting
both formal and informal work. It is a record of experiencing, learning and then applying in an
organisation. Companies generally use this in a training and development plan and is very
helpful in it. CPD process helps in the development of own skills on daily basis. It helps the
employees in recording and reviewing what they have learned during the whole learning session
conducted by company (Holden and et.al., 2012).
In the present scenario, HR manager plays an important role in development and growth
of business entities. They also have an effect on business performance and its operations. They
are only responsible for handling the whole work performed in an organisation and are also
required to initiate changes wherever required in company. In Whirlpool, HR professionals help
in introducing various types of policies and procedures that help employees in performing their
work easily and in an effective manner. The skills that are required by an HR manager are:-
1

1. Leadership and Management skills –HR manager should be a good leader and
responsible for handling all the activities in an organisation. It will help company in
achieving high competitive advantage and maintaining performance of all the employees
by providing them necessary directions so that they are able to execute their work without
any difficulty (Liljenberg, 2015).
2. Good Communication Skills: - It is one of the most important skills that an HR
professional should necessarily have. If HR manager will be able to communicate with
the employees in an efficient manner then, he/she can help them in solving their problems
and issues and will become able to make them comfortable.
The behaviour that is expected from the HR professionals are:-
1. Ethical Behaviour: - HR manager should behave ethically in front of employees and
management. They are the ones who make laws for the company but some rules are made
for them also and they should follow it as then only, employees will follow the rules of
company.
2. No Partiality: - Any kind of action or decision making that is happening in companies
are done by HR department so HR professional should be fair in their behaviour and treat
all the employees equally. There should not be any kind of partiality inside the
organisation.
The knowledge that an HR professional should possess are:-
1. Business Knowledge: - HR manager should have knowledge of what company is all
about and what kind of operations are conducted by employees. This is important because
they can also help in developing ideas and concepts inside company.
2. Knowledge related to laws and regulations: HR manager should have all the
knowledge about rules and laws that will be applied in organisation. They should know
how to manage the employee relations and ensure coordination in company (Johansson,
Miller and Hamrin, 2014).
P2 Personal Skill Audit
Individual ability recognition evaluated as an appropriate way for an employee to check
the skills that they are possessing in themselves and where they need development. While doing
audit of an employee , HR manager checks what is the current performance level of employees
and how can it improved. Whirlpool needs to conduct a personal skill audit of their employees so
2

as to know their strengths and weaknesses and helping them further in improving it. It helps the
employees to keep their career on track. It is basically dependent on the area of business which
decides what kind of qualities are required in respective employees (Duffield and Whitty, 2015).
On the basis of HR, personal skill audit is define as follow which are related with Whirlpool are
as follow:
Skill Very Good Good Adequate Little or no
experience
Information
Technology
Use Microsoft
office word
✔
Use Excel
Spreadsheet
✔
Use a database ✔
Use the internet ✔
Use Email ✔
Use PowerPoint ✔
Skill Very Good Good Adequate Little or no
experience
Communicati
on skills
Drafting
contracts of
employment
✔
Taking notes
of disciplinary
hearing
✔
Write reports ✔
Produce
materials to
✔
3

support
presentations
Delivering a
training
session
✔
Resolving
disputes
✔
Interviewing ✔
Advising on
HR issues
✔
Skill Very Good Good Adequate Little or no
Experience
Problem
solving skills
Make good
use of verbal
reasoning
skills, able to
handle
complex data
and make
selective use
of information
✔
Explore more
than one
solution in
order to solve
a problem
✔
Consider the
ideas of others
to help solve
problems
✔
A PDP is prepared to know the steps that will be taken by company to achieve its goals
and objectives. In context of Whirlpool, it specified about a person individual skill where they
are yet and where they want to reach. This helps in increasing focus and dedication of employees
towards company (Mahembe and Engelbrecht, 2014).
A professional Development plan for Whirlpool is as follows:-
4

Name Jane Cambridge
TIME
FRAME
Personal Goals Professional goals:
Next 12
months
To gain more efficiency in
performing the tasks that are being
assigned to me.
To gain promotion and become an
officer
Next 3
years
Get Settled in personal life To become senior HR manager in the
company
This Professional Growth Plan was discussed and approved on 30/10/2017.
Instructor Signature____________________
Coordinator Signature________________________________
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES
Planned Activities Objective of Development
Required knowledge/skills
The skills that are missing in
me should be developed by
focussing on work and taking
skill development classes
regularly.
To become more
knowledgable and become
more competent in performing
my work.
5

Strengths
The training which was
provided to me by the
professionals were very helpful
in gaining knowledge and
improving skills . A test was
also conducted by them to test
the learning.
To become more efficient
Weaknesses/gaps
Frequent changes in
technology
Employee will have to learn
entire skills again.
I have completed the
professional development
activities as described.
I have granted 72 professional development hours for the
professional development procedure.
Instructor Signature
Date - 30/10/2017
The SWOT analysis helps the HR manager in analysing the strengths and weaknesses of
the employees who are working in the organisation. Conducting such analysis is very crucial for
the HR manager to manage all these activities because they are also a part of the company and
they are not perfect. So , if they conduct some mistake while setting up the development plan of
the employees then it is expected that the management will take a note of this analysis.
Skill Audit
Skill Basic Satisfactory Proficient Evidence
6

Communication
skill
✓ I have always been a very good
communicator. The mentor and
supervisor have been complementing
me numerous times on my
interpersonal skills, therefore I can say
that this skills is proficient.
Decision Making
skill
✓ When it comes to decision making, I
have been performing optimum. The
decisions which were taken by me
turned out to be good leading to ideal
development on personal and
professional grounds.
Leadership Skills ✓ I have been opting out of opportunity
of leadership as I am scared of such
endeavours and not confident as well. I
have always worked as team members
and have performed decently.
IT skills ✓ I have missed a lot of classes due to
which a possess a very nominal
understanding of the subject. Although
a little more effort can help me
become proficient in this sector.
Personal Development Plan
S.
No.
Learning
target
Present
Proficiency
Target
Proficiency
Development
Opportunities
Criteria for
Judging
Attainment
Time
Scale
1 Use a
database
4 10 By implementing
uses of advance
technology in
Senior manager 60 days
7

working practices.
2 Delivering a
training
session
5 10 By putting better
efforts to perform
continuously with
team or group to
generate ability of
performing well in
each task or by
conducting different
training sessions for
employees.
Peers or
colleagues
80 days
3 Consider the
ideas of
others to
help solve
problems
5 10 By analysing
problems of
individuals and
providing them
soution for it.
Superiors and
colleagues
120
days
4 Leadership
Skills
4 10 By making decision
for different
situations and
leading them through
superiority.
Superiors 120
days
TASK 2
P3 Difference between Organisational and Individual Learning
Group Learning
Acquisition is the only way through people can enhance their knowledge and improve
their skills as well. As per Brown and Duguid, organisational learning is “a span between
operative and innovating”. Organisational development always takes time as it is gained through
experience (Swanwick and McKimm, 2017). It helps company in dealing with the internal and
external issues in an adequate manner. The best and most common way to measure
8

organisational learning is through a learning curve which shows how an organisation is
performing more of a product or a service with diminishing returns. In Whirlpool, organisational
learning helps in achieving sustainability at market world and make operations effective in
nature as well. A major concept signifies that a unit is more capable in order to enhance results
and productivity of a company so that association would become able to deal with diverse
situations properly.
Individual Learning
It is gained by employees by getting proper training from the training and development
depart6ment of the company. It is very important for the employees as it helps in their overall
growth and work performance in companies. If an employee will not be self developed then they
will not be able to perform good and thus the decided goals will not be achieved. In Whirlpool ,
employees given responsibility to develop self learning in themselves so that they become
efficient in learning new skill everyday (Westand and Lyubovnikova, 2013).
Difference between Organisational and Individual learning is as follows:-
Organisational Learning Individual Learning
 It is helpful in bringing co-ordination
and cooperation between the employees
and organisation. This is done so that
they can serve their customers without
any problem.
 It helps in creating and maintaining
knowledge in an organisation which
will further helps employees in
maintaining good employee relations
and removing the misunderstandings
between them.
 It helps in determining various new
ways of conducting work in an
organisation.
 It is a long term process which is
managed by people who are considered
 It is performed in company to improve
the skills, knowledge and behaviour of
employees and improving their
performance.
 Individual learning in an organisation is
provided through various types of
seminars, workshops, conferences etc.
Here, the employees are given facility
to improve their skills in their own way.
 Individual learning is considered as a
training program in which non-
managerial person learns various new
skills with a specific purpose.
 It very beneficial for the work
performance of employees and
management as skilled employees are
9

highly skilled inside an organisation. more productive than unskilled one.
P4 Need for continuous learning
Learning never stops whether it is in personal life or professional life. In Whirlpool
continuous learning of employees is always prescribed so that employees present there are able
to perform their work in a better way. Employer wants to recruit and select only such personnel
in an association whom have better and effective knowledge as well as capable to met with each
and every task properly. This enables management to utilise each and every resources in an
appropriate manner for better working productivity. For this many companies collaborate with
different universities all over the world so that employees can learn new skills while working in
the company itself.
The approach to continuous learning can be best explained with the application of Kolbs
learning cycle. It is one of the renowned tool which is being undertaken for purpose of learning
and acquiring knowledge. The major elements of this learning model are as follows:
Experience: The primary elements focuses on the a person encountering new situation or
an experience. The experience can be referred to be the best teacher through which information
could be availed.
Observations and reflections: Observation can be referred to as key teachers as it
undertaken a concise and logical approach. This elements specifically focuses on the reflecting
and reviewing of experience so that learning could be identified.
Development of ideas: This element focuses on the learning from experience which
assists in development of new ideas with which practical issues could be delivered.
Testing ideas: This is the last element in this model which attempts to examine
practicality of knowledge and information which has been availed through experience.
In whirlpool, the employees very well knew that their work is just effective which is not
goods for them so they tries to restructure the company but this will also help them only when
the employees will have latest knowledge about what is going on in different industries . The
team present there knows very well that for restructuring employees should be well informed ,
efficient and effective . So, if the employee is a continuous learner then they will be innovate and
productive which will help company in developing professionally (Payne and Calton, 2017).
Whirlpool always tries to regulate the personal and professional development plan for the
employees for developing their skills and knowledge. It is very helpful in sustaining good
10

business performance of employees by investing more in them . Many activities that should be
performed by the managers of company to maintain this are:-
 if an employee is is not giving results as per the expectation then they should provide
them proper training instead of firing them from their job.
 If an employee is not able to manage the work that is to be performed by them then they
should provide them with a plan in which all the activities should be written as per the
time allotted to them (Hylton, 2013).
There are various methods of continuous learning that is prescribed by companies like
Internet, Seminars, conferences, workshops etc. there modern methods are considered as very
helpful because through this employees interact with various other people and they get to learn
something new from every other person.
Several benefits which derive from the continuous learning and individual learning are
described as follow:
 Competency Leads to confidence:- when an employee is having so many skills in them
that is required by company then it builds a certain kind of confidence in them. Because
of this they can help company by giving innovative ideas and opinions which are can
benefit the company.
 Facilitates employee growth:- There are wide range of opportunities are provided by an
business association which enables employees of a company to gain growth.
Opportunities are the only thing which facilitate growth for employees of a company in
order to make things correct and utilise resources properly.
TASK 3
P5 Contribution of HPW in employee engagement and competitive advantages
For increasing an association productivity and performance, HPW is a major tool which
used by an organisation HR manager. Such practices are mainly for the large and big
associations whom want to make their productivity better and effective in nature and gain
maximum number of clients. It is being adopted by these companies to boost Economic growth
and competencies in UK. Employee engagement can be defined as a workplace approach where
a right kind of environment is created by companies so that employees can give their best and
11

become committed towards organization by following their goals and values sincerely (Truss and
et.al., 2013).
Competitive advantage is define as technique which facilitate business vast opportunities
and make them distinct from others as well. Associations could take competitive advantage only
by delivering high quality products to their target users (Wilson and et.al., 2012). it is essential
for an association to gain competitive advantage so that they become able to deal at market world
in more appropriate manner. For generating more sales than competitors, competitive advantage
support and increase revenue generation capacity as well.
 Teamwork perspective – Higher performance working practices assist in motivating
employees towards team working approaches. Through this, employees can easily
enhancing their working abilities by distributing responsibilities with others.
 Effective communication – High performance working ascertain effective
communication practices that helps in resolving issues and conflicts from the team
working as well as individual approaches. In this procedure, manager and leader plays a
most important role in managing productivity of employees on high level.
 Increase Productivity – There are various kinds of educational events which should be
organized by Whirlpool Corporation to boost up skills or abilities of employees for
increasing their regular productivity. Thus, it is helpful to grab more customers and gain
better profits share in market along with maintaining strong position as compared to other
competitive firms.
In Whirlpool, HPW practices are implemented to make the business strategies effective
and policies that are made for employees. For improving employee engagement, employees are
required to engage employees in more business activities so that they will be busy and their
productivity increases. If the employees will have more productive employees then they will be
able to compete with the external forces in their best possible way and gain competitive
advantage.
TASK 4
P6 Approaches to performance management
Performance management can be defined as a process which is conducted by managers of
company to check the performance of employees of organisation. Through this employer makes
12

sure that whether the employees are working as per the instruction given to therm or not. It
should not be considered as an ordinary annual preview because it is a continuous process which
conducts objective setting, assessing them and then providing coaching to complete the work and
in case any feedback is there then correcting it so that individual and organisational goals are
achieved.
Whirlpool is using different tools and approaches to monitor and analyse their employees
performance which are :-
1. Comparative Approach:- Here, the performance of the candidates will be ranked in
comparison with other employees of the team. Here, rank is given on the basis of highest
to lowest performer. The various techniques that are used by them are – forced
distribution techniques, paired comparison, graphic rating scale etc. for ex in Whirlpool,
employees can be divided on the basis of their performance like top performers are 10%,
average performers are 40%, good performers are 40% and low performers are 10%. So,
company can give proper training to these top performers so that they can be promoted to
higher managerial level and then lowest performers are given chance to improve their
skills again and perform better (Ryan and O’Connor, 2013). This approach can be
considered as effective for whirlpool because by giving the ranks, it becomes very easy
for the management to analyse that which candidate is more effective and which is less.
2. Quality Approach:- The main aim of this approach is to boost the customer's satisfaction
and minimising all the issues related to the product. Here, services of employees are
regularly improvised so this is beneficial for both employees and company (Cherubini
and Nielsen, 2016). It is also having link with HPW because it is the duty of the
management to make sure that the customers are getting satisfied with their goods and
services and for this they are required to take care of their quality.
3. Behavioural Approach :- It is one of the oldest performance techniques. This approach
consists of series of vertical scales for dimensions of the job. This can be done through
using BARS techniques or BOS techniques. In BARS, five to ten vertical scales are given
and these scales are based on parameters which are decided as per the employees. The
major disadvantage of this approach is that here manager has to remember huge amount
of information. So, it can be effective for improving the performance of employees as by
13

analysing their behaviour, the management can handle the employees in a proper manner.
Therefore HPW will be enhanced.
4. Attribute Approach :- In this, employees are charged on the base of particular factors
set by company like:
 Issue handling skills,
 Judgement, Creativity
 cooperation, connection,
 innovation
Graphic rating scale helps in rating the employees from scale 1 to 5. In Mixed Rating
scale, employee is rated as high, medium and low. The major disadvantage of this approach is
that measurement is heavily dependent on the nature of evaluator. This can also be connected
with HPW case because in this the skills and competencies are described which are required in a
employee so as to perform their work in a proper manner.
Result Approach:- This is a simple approach where employees are rated on the basis of their
performance in the company. The various techniques that are used here are – Balanced scorecard
approach, productivity management and evaluation system, employee evaluation approach. Its
main advantage is that it converts strategy into operations with a more holistic view. This
approach is also having a connection with whirlpool case because through this it is ascertained
that whether the employee is working in a proper manner or not.
Source:- Approaches of Performance management, 2017
14
Illustration 1: Approaches of Performance management

CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that, development is very essential in an
organisation. It plays an important role in attaining individual;s and organoational goals and
objectives. Employees should always see that they are growing their skills and capabilities in
regular basis so that they are able to contribute in their companies in a good manner. In this
report, a discussion about Whirlpool company is conducted in which th skills and capabilities
that are required by HR professional in their employees is discussed and a personal and
professional development plan is also made to analyse own skills and knowledge. Organisational
learning is also conducted there so that whole staff is going to learn something new from that and
it will benefit the organisation. Individual learning sessions are also conducted so that individual
skills of employees are also developed.
15

REFERENCES
Books and journals
West, M.A., and et.al., 2014. Developing collective leadership for health care. London: King's
Fund.
Holden, L., and et.al., 2012. Validation of the research capacity and culture (RCC) tool:
measuring RCC at individual, team and organisation levels. Australian Journal of
Primary Health. 18(1). pp.62-67.
Liljenberg, M., 2015. Distributing leadership to establish developing and learning school
organisations in the Swedish context. Educational Management Administration &
Leadership. 43(1). pp.152-170.
Johansson, C., D. Miller, V. and Hamrin, S., 2014. Conceptualizing communicative leadership:
A framework for analysing and developing leaders’ communication
competence. Corporate Communications: An International Journal. 19(2). pp.147-165.
Duffield, S. and Whitty, S.J., 2015. Developing a systemic lessons learned knowledge model for
organisational learning through projects. International journal of project
management. 33(2). pp.311-324.
Mahembe, B. and Engelbrecht, A.S., 2014. The relationship between servant leadership,
organisational citizenship behaviour and team effectiveness. SA Journal of Industrial
Psychology. 40(1). pp.01-10.
Swanwick, T. and McKimm, J., 2017. ABC of clinical leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
West, M.A. and Lyubovnikova, J., 2013. Illusions of team working in health care. Journal of
health organization and management. 27(1). pp.134-142.
Payne, S.L. and Calton, J.M., 2017. Towards a managerial practice of stakeholder engagement:
Developing multi-stakeholder learning dialogues. In Unfolding stakeholder thinking (pp.
121-135). Routledge.
Hylton, K., 2013. Developing ‘sport for all’. In Sport Development (pp. 57-99). Routledge.
Truss, C., and et.al., 2013. Employee engagement, organisational performance and individual
well-being: exploring the evidence, developing the theory.
Wilson, R.M., and et.al., 2012. Patient safety in developing countries: retrospective estimation of
scale and nature of harm to patients in hospital. Bmj. 344. p.e832.
Ryan, S. and O’Connor, R.V., 2013. Acquiring and sharing tacit knowledge in software
development teams: An empirical study. Information and Software Technology. 55(9).
pp.1614-1624.
Cherubini, F. and Nielsen, R.K., 2016. Editorial analytics: How news media are developing and
using audience data and metrics. Available at SSRN 2739328.
16