Report on Developing Individuals for Unit 35: Whirlpool Case Study

This report examines the significance of individual development in enhancing business growth and productivity, using Whirlpool as a case study. It details the essential knowledge, skills, and behaviors for HR professionals, including contract law, recruitment procedures, and technological proficiency. The report includes a personal skill audit and a professional development plan to address weaknesses, such as time management and decision-making. It differentiates between organizational and individual learning, training, and development, and emphasizes the need for continuous learning. The report also explores how high-performance work contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage, and evaluates different approaches to performance management.

Unit 35 Developing
Individuals

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Presenting professional knowledge, skills and behaviour for HR professionals..............1
P2 Presenting personal skill audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skill and behaviour...3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
P3 Presenting the difference between organizational and individual learning, training and
development...........................................................................................................................5
P4 Presenting need of continuous learning and professional development for Whirlpool....7
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................8
P5 Describing how HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage 8
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................10
P6 Evaluate different approaches to performance management..........................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Business growth with higher productivity is required in order to increases the competitive
advantage. Report main aim is to analyse the importance of an individual and their high
performance as it directly affect the company's growth. Present study is based upon a case
scenario of Whirlpool where the firm faces some issues regarding high performance of their
employees and conflicts.
Report presents the professional knowledge, skills and behaviour which are actually
required by HR of a quoted firm. Further it also presents personal skill audit and to overcome
from these skills, report also develop personal developmental plan for HR professional. In
addition to this report describe the difference between organizational and individual learning,
training and development and analyse the need of continuous learning and professional
development to cause property business performance. It also describes importance of HPW that
also contributes to employees engagement and also evaluate different approaches for
performance management with different examples.
LO 1
P1 Presenting professional knowledge, skills and behaviour for HR professionals
Definition: HR professionals are the important part of a business because they are
responsible for hiring, training and performance management. Further they also introduce
different programs in order to make their employees feel comfortable in the working area.
HR professionals of a company must posses different knowledge, skills and behaviour in
order to run the company for further level of success. Some of them are as follows:
Knowledge: The professional knowledge required to HR is such that they must posses
contract law so that they easily recruit the best candidate for better performance. Further they
should also have the knowledge of recruitment procedure so that they select best candidate in
order to raise the business performance. Apart from this, HR professionals should also have the
knowledge regarding training and development techniques which assist many employees to raise
their current performance and they can do better for their firm which help to increase the
productivity and profitability as well (Austin and Pinkleton, 2016). They also have the
knowledge of skill management. Moreover, the professionals should also posses the knowledge
1

of advance technologies which can be applied into a working area so that it will help to enhance
the performance of a business in market.
Skills: the skills required by HR professionals is such that they should have better
communication skills that help to convince their employees and the clarity of the communication
skills as well as negotiation skills help to keep focused in particular situations. HR professionals
should also have problem solving skills which help to keep working together in working area and
high productivity also demands that people work together with least civilly. They should also
have data skills knowledge which help to measure or track various aspect of a business. Apart
from this, HR professional should also have the decision making skills and must have the skills
of planning skills in order to develop new strategy for the welfare of the firm. Technology skills
should also be possessed by them in order to cope up with different advance technology, so that
it will help them to lead the business for further level of success.
Decision thinker and collaborative is the another skill which should also be possessed by
HR professionals and as a result, there is a need to be able to work effectively and inclusively
with their colleagues as well as clients so that they will perform their work in more effective
way. Dual focus can be consider another skill because generally employees are expected that HR
professionals should be advocate for their concern and provide the best policies for their
betterment. Apart from this, the HR professionals must posses ICT skills as well so that they can
easily introduce advance techniques in order to minimize the cost of their expenses.
Behaviour: HR professionals of Whirlpool also follow the ethics in which they are given
a great deal of moral and ethical or legal responsibilities as this creates direct impact upon
performance of the company (Bush and Middlewood, 2018). Further they should also maintain
the confidentiality in which all the private data should be kept confidential and it should be share
only in the case of permission of user. Such type of behaviour is appreciated by the employees
and they also take that HR as a role model and through good collaboration, they all work
together in order to achieve the target and objectives of Whirlpool.
Apart from this, the HR professionals must posses the ethical behaviour as well such that
honesty, fairness and diversity towards their work. Therefore, if these skills, knowledge and
behaviour are possessed by HR professionals then it will help Whirlpool to reach at further level
of success and also increases the performance of their employees.
2

P2 Presenting personal skill audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skill and behaviour
In order to identify own strength, weaknesses it is quite necessary to use SWOT model
which help to analyse the capabilities, weak points, opportunities and threat. Being a HR
professionals it is quite necessary to have many skills and to overcome the weaknesses. I will
also plan which is discussed below
Strength Weaknesses
 Strong communication skills and
interpersonal skills.
 Confident and dynamic with pleasing
personality.
 Good in presentation and easily
convince.
 Risk management skills (Cacioppe,
2017).
 I can easily work under the pressure
with proper deadlines.
 Time management skills.
 Decision skills because of emotional
attachment.
 Confidentiality.
 Lack of some technological advance
facility such as Internet.
 Lack of training and developmental
skills
Opportunities Threats
 Opportunity in order to learn from new
jobs roles and responsibilities.
 Create better career options and learn
corporate and business ethics.
 Job uncertainty.
 Competition from other people who
have same qualifications and
experience.
Personal Skill audit: It is a simple way that help to analyse or identify different strength
and weakness to promote the healthy atmosphere in the company. Using Brunal skills audit it
can be easily identifies which needs to be improved and Personal skill audit is as follows:
Particulars Rating
Needs to be improved
High
3

Average
Skills Rating
Communication skills
Technological skills
Risk management skills
Decision making process
Confidentiality
Time management skills
Presentation skills
Training and developmental skills
In order to overcome the weakness, I used Professional developmental plan that also help
to solve many problems. This is a plan that actually set out the goals, objectives and get frequent
result by using different activities for development. PDP of my weaknesses is as follows:
Skills needs to be
overcome
GAP Action taken Tenure
Time management
skills
Need to improve time
management skills for
coming in office and
completing the work
on time.
Start attending some
seminars and reading
motivational books so
that it will helps to
improve my time
management skills.
1 month
Confidentiality Need to familiarise
myself in order to
learn new rules for
GDR
Start reading some
books and refresh
knowledge. So that it
will remove my
Ongoing 1 week
4

weaknesses.
Technological skills Need to learn all new
and advance
techniques for growth.
Start attending classes
related to learn new
technique in order to
apply those into
working area that help
to improve my
weaknesses as well.
1 month
Decision process Need to improve my
decision process
because of emotional
attachment.
Watching videos of
role model and stop
attaching emotionally
with my employees.
on- going 1 week
Training and
developmental skills
There is a need to
improve some skills
for development
techniques.
Start attending training
and developmental
seminars and watching
motivational videos.
3 months
By using PDP plan, I am sure that I can easily overcome my weaknesses and in order to
improve more of my strength such as communication skills, I can start speaking in meetings and
give power point presentation in order to make my strength stronger. Further in PDP, the
deadline which is assigned can also be extended if the skills are not improves. I realized that in
define time, if I improve my all weaknesses then it will be more beneficial for my career growth
and I can easily attain my goals and objectives.
LO 2
P3 Presenting the difference between organizational and individual learning, training and
development
Organizational learning: It is a process that is actually used for creating, retaining and
transferring knowledge of an individual in an organization. In this, an organization can easily
improve this as per passes with time (Dawson-Shepherd, Kellner and Neumann, 2015). The
5

most common way in order to measure the organizational learning is Learning curve that actually
shows the relation that how a firm actually produce the product and offer that to the customers.
In this, Espoused theory is a formalized part of an organization where an organization provide
various ways in order to improve the performance of an employee and also solve the conflicts
between each other (Organizational Learning, 2018).
Individual Learning: It is the capacity in order to build the knowledge which further
help to raise the performance of their own. Further it is a method of teaching in which an
individual can also pace of learning and they are based upon the abilities and their interest.
Through individual learning, a person can make their goals by own and only take help of
someone who can reach to their target.
Training: It is organized by a firm in order to raise the working performance of an
individual. It is quite important for the firm to provide proper training session so that it will help
a increase the production level and as a result the firm can easily meet out to their defined goals
and objectives. The main motive to provide training to their individual is to improve the
capability and performance of an employee.
Development: It is long termed process which can be used by an organization and
individual as well. Through this process, the person can easily motivate and can easily achieve
defined goals for a company and self (Konak, Clark and Nasereddin, 2015). A particular trainer
is hired in order to meet out all the different objectives of an individual.
Organizational learning Individual Learning
 It deals with the organizational change
in order to compete other in the
business market.
 This is also based upon the learning
with proper timetable and the routine
are actually assigned by firm i.e.
Whirlpool.
 Organizational learning is actually done
in order to raise the performance and
solve the conflicts between each other
so that it help to improve the
 This learning only deals with personal
development in order to make a person
career oriented.
 Individual learning is done in order to
improve the skills of a person so that
they can easily attain their future goals
without any hurdles.
 Individual learning is long termed
process which a person can be used in
whole life because this is actually done
to improve current weaknesses for
6

productivity of the employees.
 This theory is a formalized part of an
organization where an organization
provide various ways in order to
improve the performance of an
employee and also solve the conflicts
between each other.
attaining goals.
 Through individual learning, a person
can make their goals by own and only
take help of someone who can reach to
their target.
Training Development
 It is a short term process.
 It main aim is depended upon specific
task and job role for the employee of
Whirlpool (Liu and Maitlis, 2014).
 Main purpose of training is to provide
the ability in order undertake in a task
in Whirlpool.
 Training main objective is to improve
the work performance of their
employees.
 It is also based upon job oriented.
 It is a long term process.
 The main aim of development is to
develop relationship and to improve the
leadership skills in an individual.
 It objective is to prepare the employees
for their future challenges and its
orientation is only career oriented.
 Development is provided in order to
prepare their employees for their future
challenges.
 It is also based upon the career
oriented.
P4 Presenting need of continuous learning and professional development for Whirlpool
Continuous Learning: it is the process which help to expanding the ability in order to
learn all new skills and to increase the knowledge. Hence, strong continuous learning is also
required which should be successfully adapt in order to change the work and demands.
Professional development: It is a learning cycle which help to earn and maintain some
professional certification and it can also be describe as an intensive and collaborative stage that
help an employee of Whirlpool to help in the success.
7

Using Kolb learning style, the employees of Whirlpool can learn different style. This
model is a method where peers can be applied flexibility in some range of situations. This cycle
is also explained on two basic dimensions such as how a person understand and the process of
information which is classified as concrete experience/ abstract conceptualization. There are foru
styles which can be used by employees of Whirlpool in order to realize the need of continuous
learning (Martin and Siebert, 2015).
 Diverging: This style will help a people to look the things in more different perspective.
In this style people of Whirlpool also perform better in situation which also require idea
generation such as brainstorming.
 Assimilating: This type of style are less focused on people but are more interested in
ideas. Further this is also helps to realize the effectiveness in an information.
 Converging: In this type of leadership style, people can solve problem and also use their
learning in order to find practical issues such as technical issues.
 Accommodating: this learning style is actually prefers in order to do things practically
and they also attract new challenges in order to solve problem.
It has been analysed that continuous performance is quite important for the employees of
a Whirlpool because using this, the employees of the firm start believing to each other and in this
competitive world, there is a need to raise the production level of the firm and it can be only be
done if Whirlpool provide proper continuous learning then it will be provide proper tool and also
inspire others for further exploration.
 CPD also makes sure that the HR of the company should be maintain and also enhance
the knowledge as well as skills which needs to be deliver a professional service (Need of
continuous learning, 2018).
 It has been analysed that If Whirlpool uses Continuous learning and professional
development which also help the employees for their better performance and to keep their
performance raise in order to provide better productivity as well as profitability.
 Through this learning, the employees of Whirlpool can also deliver the deeper
understanding with reference of professional that also create positive impact upon the
system (McSherry and Pearce, 2017).
8

 This also increases the loyalty from each other and as a result, the employees become
more happy and creates high value in a workplace so that it will help them to reach the
goals or objectives in order to drive sustainable business performance.
LO 3
P5 Describing how HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage
High performance work: It is a general approach that is actually used by Whirlpool in
order to boost up employee and its main aim is to provide more effective employee involvement
in order to achieve high level of performance. This is actually designed in order to enhance the
performance of an employee which cane be put into their work.
Employee engagement: It is a stage in which the employee actually feel passionate
regarding their jobs and also put discretionary efforts into their work. It is quite necessary for
Whirlpool to keep satisfy their employee so that it will help them to increase the performance.
Competitive advantage: It is the condition that also allow Whirlpool in order to produce
the best quality of goods as well as service with low rate (Mendes and Machado, 2018). That is
what a quoted firm also offer good quality of products but on the other side, the employee are
not satisfied as per their work.
HPW also contributes in order to employee engagement and competitive advantage and it
further creates positive impact upon business such as:
 if the employee of Whirlpool have high performance then it further helps to create
positive impact upon company's brand image and raise the profitability. If such changes
are occurred then it will also help to keep their employee engaged and also create the
competitive advantages.
 Using high performance will also create better employee attitude and as a result they will
also take more responsibilities in order to improve the organization's products and
services with process. Using high performance in the working area of Whirlpool will also
create a better organization that has a more unique strategy as compared to their peer
groups.
 High performance work also achieve the HPO scores such that it provide better financial
results and as a result the brand image of the company also sustain in this competitive
market (Mone and London, 2017). As the productivity of Whirlpool increases then at the
9