HR Skills, Learning and Development at Whirlpool Corporation

This report analyzes the HR practices of Whirlpool, an American multinational home appliance company. It begins by identifying the essential professional skills, knowledge, and behaviors required of an HR manager, including organizing, teamwork, communication, and knowledge of laws and government regulations. The report then includes a personal skill audit and a personal development plan for an HR officer. The report further evaluates the differences between individual and organizational learning, and between training and development, highlighting their roles in enhancing employee performance and achieving organizational goals. The report also defines high-performance working practices and performance measurement, detailing how these help Whirlpool improve employee productivity and customer satisfaction. The report emphasizes the importance of continuous learning and professional development within the organization.

Developing Individuals, Teams
and Organisations

INTRODUCTION
Development of particular person and group is mandatory i.e. it is the duty of Human
Resource manager of a company. HR manger has to execute certain roles and functions to
identify the basic needs of their members and issue them accurate sources which help in
improving their knowledge and skills (Baxter and et. al., 2016). This report consist of a case
study about Whirlpool, an American multinational company who are the marketer and producer
of daily home appliances. Louis Upton and Emory Upton was the founder of this in 1911. This
assignment explains various skills, knowledge and behaviour that a HR manager must have to
perform its operations more efficiently. Furthermore, it also explains difference between
individual & organisational learning as well as training and development along with the
importance of continuous learning and professional development within an organisation. In
addition to this, report also define how high performance working practices and performance
measurement help Whirlpool in enhancing the productivity and operational skills of their
employees to achieve customer satisfaction.
TASK 1
P1 Identify professional skills, knowledge and behaviour required by HR professional
For performing and controlling operations more efficiently, human resource manager of
Whirlpool must perform certain tasks in order to deal with variety of conditions. This requires
multiple ability and understanding to create and manage people which further help in regulating
and resolving problems that are faced by worker throughout production process. It directs HR for
identifying elements which affects the performance and area to be improved in future . Human
resource office of Whirlpool has different skills and knowledge to deal with difficult situation in
an easy way (Brett and et. al., 2014). This also produces a probability to identify the need for
instructions events and to enhance the talent of employees to achieve better result which provide
benefit to company in a long run. Some of the different types of skills, knowledge and behaviour
which are required by human resource officer of Whirlpool:
HR Skills: Organising People:- Organising generally refers to managing the employees of an
organisation. This is an essential skill which help HR officer of Whirlpool in evaluating
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the capability of an individual and enhancing their performance by providing proper
training and development program in timely manner. Team work skills:- It is very essential for the human resources officer of Whirlpool to
have team building skill (Darcy and et. al., 2014). An HR professional must communicate
all the information to their subordinate, invite suggestion from them to develop an
environment of coordination.
Knowledge:-
Knowledge refers to the information, skills or facts that a person gained through
experience or education. For becoming more successful HR, officer should have command in
different areas such as Law & government, personal services, languages etc. Following are kind
of knowledge that is required by human resource manager of Whirlpool: Communication and Media:- It is the most essential part in human resource practices in
order to distribute knowledge regarding Whirlpool's product, process and service for
promoting their company and creating goodwill in the market. To improve this , they
must use various source of media technology to communicate regarding company such
as TV commercials, social media, newspaper etc. Law and government:- HR manager must have complete knowledge about various laws,
rules, procedures and standards that must be followed by company to avoid legal
practices. This must help Whirlpool in maintaining powerful goodwill at global level and
in eliminating legal issues.
Behaviour:
The behaviour of HR office have an direct impact over the growth and development of an
organisation (Eaton, Roberts and Turner, 2015). It assist company in achieving the company's
objective and also help in enhancing the performance of their subordinates. Following are the
behaviour that an HR manager of Whirlpool must poses : Accountability:- It refer to an obligation for accepting a responsibility of performing
certain task and disclosing the result of it. This kind of behaviour assist human resource
officer of Whirlpool in minimizing the issues and help in maximizing utilization of
resources in more efficient way.
 Adaptability:- This behaviour will help HR officer of whirlpool in gathering the
appropriate data and in addressing multiple requirements arising in energetic
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environment by applying critical thinking. So that, company can fulfil current
requirements of their customers and remain competitive in market.
These all are the qualities which HR manager of Whirlpool must poses in order to get
better result from their subordinates and for the development & growth of this organisation.
P2 Analyse personal skill audit
Skill Audit can be defined as the process of measuring and maintaining data of individual
or a team. It helps to determine the weaknesses and strength on an individual. It is a process of
measuring and recording the ability and skills that a person has and help in improving the
performance and productivity to perform operations more efficiently (Ellinger and Ellinger,
2014). Abilities that HR officer of Whirlpool must have such as conflict solving, decision
making power, communication skill, time management ability etc. As per the needed skills, I
have created an personal audit plan in order to examine my strength and weaknesses related to
HR position:
Sr. No. Skills and Competencies Self-assessed
Score
Score from others Variances
1 Team Building Ability 8 9 -1
2 Conflict Solving 7 8 -1
3 Decision making Power 9 8 1
4 Confidence Level 8 7 1
6 Communication skills 8 10 -2
7 Information Technology Skills 9 7 2
8 Time Management Ability 7 8 -1
(In above table negative variance is considered as my strong point and positive variance are
identified as my weak point)
Following are the strength and weakness as per my personal audit :
Strength Weaknesses
 I am quite good at solving issues and
conflicts that may arises among
 My decision making ability and IT
skills are average.
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employees.
 My communication skills are excellent
as I'm good at communicating
information with others.
 I am quite good at time management
which help in managing the time of
team members for completing task
within a given period.
 I'm overconfident which proves to be a
major drawback for me.
Personal development plan: It is a process of creating an action plan that help an
individual in identifying its weaknesses and methods to overcome these (Flin and O'Connor,
2017). My personal development plan as an HR is explained below:
Sr.
No
Learning
Objective
Current
Proficiency
Target
Proficiency
Development
Opportunities
Criteria
for
judging
success
Time
Scale
Evidence
1 Information
Technology
My
Information
technology
skill is
moderated,
which affect
my
performance at
workplace.
To enhance
my IT skills
and
understandin
g about
various tools
and
technology
that help me
in
performing
tasks more
effectively.
As getting
training from
IT department
and online
tutorials, help
in
enhancing my
understanding
of various
tools and
techniques
used in
organisation.
Team
Members
4-5
mont
hs
Judgemen
t of IT
managers
and
Colleague
s
2 Decision I am average at I need to For improving Managers 6 Top level
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making quality. decision
making skill so
for overcoming
this I put more
efforts over
analysing
factors creating
particular issue
for making
better decision.
increase my
knowledge,
which help
in improving
my decision
making skill.
this I proceed
to take
guidance from
my superiors
and also seeks
to join
training
program from
upper level
management.
of top
level will
asses my
performa
nce.
mont
hs
managers.
TASK 2
P3 Evaluate the difference between individual & organisational learning and training &
development
Learning can be termed as the process of acquiring new things or modifying existing
skills, knowledge or values. This is a long term process as learning comes from experience and is
essential for organisation as well as individual for enhancing their performance which help in
achieving predetermined goals (Hawkins, 2017). It is further divided into two parts, which are as
follows:
Individual learning:- Individual learning helps to determine the reactions of every
particular member of Whirlpool after having interaction with external and different other source.
Under this, learning they have to identify their weak and positive point of individuals for
organising learning events as per their requirements.
Organisational learning:- Organisational learning can be defined as process of
communication, creating, transferring and retaining the knowledge within the boundary of a
company. This is an productive way of communicating the procedures and rules and regulations
that can be used by Whirlpool to accomplish their goals (Macdonald, Burke and Stewart, 2017).
This learning process is used by HR officers of Whirlpool in order to implement unique and
innovative styles of learning for contributing toward the success of company.
Differences between individual and organisational learning
Individual learning Organisational learning
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 This process focuses on enhancing the
productivity and performance of an
individual.
 Individual learning is career oriented
which more focuses on developing the
interpersonal skills among employees
of an organisation.
 Organisational learning focuses more
on group hence work toward
developing skill and understanding
among the workforce of Whirlpool to
enhance their performance.
 It aims over enhancing skills and
capabilities to develop employees and
turning their efforts toward the
achievement of organisational
objective.
Training and Development:- This is the major function of HRM in which
organisational activities are being organised to improve the performance of group and
individuals working in an organisation (Manuti, and et. al., 2015). This is essential aspect in term
of organisational and individual learning within a company. It is an educational activity that
includes gaining knowledge, learning concepts, sharpening the skills and changing of attitude
which help in improving the performance of employees. Training & Development both plays an
important role in overall development of individuals working in organisation.
Difference between training and development
Basis of comparison Training Development
Nature Training is a short term process as it
provide little time to teach skills and
knowledge which are required by
company's employee.
Development is a long term
process as HR manager of
Whirlpool have to develop
strategies, procedures and
schedule the set of activities to
be executed for developing
professional.
Job/Career This program is designed to provide a
training for particular job position
related to certain tools and skills
which are required by individuals.
Development focuses on
getting best out of each
professional working in
company by identifying their
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field of interest in which they
can perform better (Moxen and
Strachan, 2017). It focuses on
building professional career.
Focuses on Training programs are more focused
over building skills for present.
Development programs are
future oriented and it is a
continuous process.
Objective To enhance the work performance of
workers.
To develop employees for
future challenges.
P4 Need for continuous learning and professional development
Continuous learning:- It refers to the ability for continually improving and enhancing
the knowledge and skills for performing work more efficiently and for becoming adaptable to
changing environment. This ability help in keeping workforce of Whirlpool up to date about
current techniques and technologies includes in organisational operations in order to enhance
their job performance.
Professional Development:- Professional development can be defined as the process of
increasing the mental capabilities of every employees by providing different training sessions,
educational programs, conducting seminars or by observing the performance of other
employee's. Professional development program help in motivating and developing the morale of
employees.
In case of Whirlpool, professional development and continuous learning is very necessary
for both organisation as well as employees for success of the company. Importance of both the
concepts are explained below: Higher employees retention:- Frequent learning and professional development help
company in maximizing their employees retention rate. Whirlpool emphasis on
organising professional development programs in order to provide regular learning
sources to their employees which in turn will improve the productivity and also motivate
employees to continue with their jobs (North and Kumta, 2018). Company also consider
their employees in decision making process which encourage them to maintain their
position for long term within an organisation
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 Respond to technology:- Technology is the main factor which affects the operations of
an organisation and bring changes. Whirlpool uses advance technologies in their products
for attracting customers and provide regular training to their employees for improving
their productivity. For implementing new technologies, Whirlpool provide regular
training to their workforce for keeping them up to date about new tools and techniques
used in production process. Encourage problem solving:- Continuous learning program develop the skills and ability
among individuals which help in dealing with difficult situations in most effective
manner (Oliver, Foot and Humphries, 2014). Whirlpool maintains healthy relationship
with their employees so that they can minimizes the problems or can solve them
effectively by interacting with employees in identifying the reason behind the problems
and inviting suggestions from them.
 Enhance performance:- Continuous learning and professional development both are
very essential activities for enhancing the performance as well as productivity of
employee and employer. By organising learning programs at workplace, Whirlpool tries
to develop the skills of their workforces to enhance their performance as high skilled
workers are more productive and contribute toward the success of an organisation.
TASK 3
P5 State how HPW contribute to employee engagement
High performance working refers to the environment of an organisation where trust,
transparency and free flow of communication is provided to every individuals. The main focus of
this theory to help the employee's regarding sharing their views and issues which are taking place
in regular intervals in an organisation as employee's are considered as the major asset of an
organisation.
Whirlpool always have a thinking of creating something new in the market to achieve
desire goal. For better result, whirlpool try to manage their team members in respect of there
achievement in North American Region as they calculate the performance of employee's on the
basis of five core dimension such as constructive conflicts, shared commitment of companies
vision and extraordinary goals, transparent communication, accountability for result, mutual
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respect, etc. Beside these, whirlpool also have to follow HPW practices which are explained
below: Selective hiring of employees:- As every company follows rules and regulation for hiring
new employee's, whirlpool also put some additional efforts for hiring their employee's.
They follow different steps to select the best candidates from different applications. Their
main focus is regarding educational qualifications and extraordinary skills for creating
something new. For more efficient result, Whirlpool must hire the new talent having
different skills and ability so they can contribute more towards companies growth. Shared Commitment toward vision of company:- Whirlpool also involve their
employees in decision making process as well as in deciding visions and missions of
enterprise in order to identify each and every aspect that contribute toward the betterment
of the company. It also help in motivating and encouraging the employees, which
develop trust among them and create an environment of team work. Conflict Resolution team or group:- A separate team have been managed to look after
the issues and conflicts that arises in between employee's of Whirlpool. The main work
of this team is to hear the issues and problem of every employee's which they face during
their work premises and try to come up with the solution as quickly as possible. They
also exchange the words with their employee's so chances of arising conflicts or
misunderstanding decreases.
 Flexible job statements:- Whirlpool provides the working area, where there is no
communication gap between employee's and top management so better result can be
achieved. If the required knowledges is given to employee's then appropriate result can be
achieved in less period of time. Whirlpool must maintain this flexible working
environment so employee's can work freely and more efficiently result can be obtained in
pre-specified time duration.
TASK 4
P6 Different approaches to performance management
Performance management can be defined as the process of communication which take
place between manager and their employee's for monitoring the work performance so the
capabilities to achieve particular target is more effective and efficient (Performance
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