Developing Individuals, Teams, and Organisations: Skills Audit

This report provides an overview of developing individuals, teams, and organizations within a Human Resources context, using Marks and Spencer as a reference. It determines the appropriate knowledge, skills, and behaviors required by HR professionals, analyzes a personal skills audit to identify areas for development, and proposes a professional development plan. The report also differentiates between organizational and individual learning, training, and development, emphasizing the need for continuous learning to drive sustainable business performance. Furthermore, it demonstrates an understanding of how High-Performance Work practices contribute to employee engagement and competitive advantage and evaluates different approaches to performance management, illustrating how they support a high-performance culture and commitment.

DEVELOPING
INDIVIDUALS,
TEAMS AND
ORGANIZATIONS

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Determine appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviors that are required
by HR professionals.....................................................................................................................3
P2 Analyse a completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills and
behaviours and develop a professional development plan for a given job role...........................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
P3 Analyse the differences between organisational and individual learning, training and
development.................................................................................................................................8
P4 Analyse the need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable
business performance.................................................................................................................11
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................12
P5 Demonstrate understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and
competitive advantage within a specific organisational situation..............................................12
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................13
P6 Evaluate different approaches to performance management (e.g. collaborative working),
and demonstrate with specific examples how they can support high performance culture and
commitment...............................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
They say employees are the greatest asset for an organization which takes it to just
another level. And hence, the responsibility to manage the employees comes upon the shoulders
of Human resource department. Human resource department is concerned with managing all the
employees in working in an organization. They are the people who generates the recruitment and
selection program and hires the talented forks for the company. Human resource department also
has the responsibility to place the employee at their right position into the organization. The
department has to manage the employees such a way that the goals of both the employees and
the organization should get attained. Apart from this, the department also concern to provide the
required training and development programs to the employees which increases their efficiency
(Albrecht and et. al., 2015). They say a happy employee gives its best in his work and there are
many motivational things which keeps an employee motivated to perform its tasks with full zeal
and motivation, for this the HR department constantly comes up with motivational rewards.
These rewards can be financial and non financial. Financial rewards include prize money, bonus,
rewards, salary and the like. Whereas non financial motivation includes appreciation, certificates,
awards and much more. for reference purpose this report has taken the example of a company
marks and Spencer. Marks and Spencer is a British multinational company which specializes in
making quality clothes, home products and food products. The company succeed in opening
around 1467 stores, serving worldwide.
This report includes the appropriate behavior, skills and attitude which should be present
in a HR manager. A skill audit is also presented in the report which identify appropriate
knowledge, skills and behaviors and a development plan for a given job role is also included.
Apart from this the report also gives the difference between organizational and individual
learning, training and development.
TASK 1
P1 Determine appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviors that are required by
HR professionals.
Human resource management is a process of recruiting, selecting, hiring and providing
training and development programs to the employees. This department also works to provide the
required training and development programs to their employees. The human resource department
also responsible for placing the employees at the right position in the organization. They say if
an employee does the work of his interest or forte, he performs this with great interest and
energy. The Hr manager smartly integrates the objective for both the employee and the
organization in one direction, so that goals and objective for both would get completes (Alfes and
et. al., 2013). There are some required set of skills which is very important for a HR manager to

have because he has to manage all the elements related to their employees. The skills which the
HR manager of marks and Spencer has are as follows:
Knowledge
Management: The HR manager should have the managerial skills. He must have the
ability to handle the people and their issues. He should have the critical thinking of
understanding the situation and then take the required decision. Apart from the internal
environment, the manager should be capable to manage the external environment also. External
environment includes political, technological, economical, and legal factors. As in the case with
marks and Spencer, the manager keeps a close view at internal and external environment which
surrounds the business. Along with it, he also works very closely with all the departments
working in an organization. Apart from this the HR manager also keeps the data and records of
every employee who is working with them. The HR manager maintains a data about what and
how much employees they might be needing and what skills and knowledge they should have in
them. some of these skills and knowledge may include:
Information technology: The candidate should have a fair understanding of computers.
He must have some knowledge of MS office so that it become easy for him to work also it is
easy for the organization as they don’t have to train their employees to such a basic thing. The
HR manager has the sufficient knowledge about the computers or information technology. They
know how to use technology (Armstrong and Taylor, 2020). The use the information technology
to post about the vacancies which they have in their company at various social platforms such as
linkedIn, facebook, Indeed and much more so that people can get aware about the same and can
approach to the company.
Skills
Group and team work: The HR department has to work very closely with all the
departments present into the company. They collect the information about what number of
employees would be needing by the department currently or in the near future along with the
skills and knowledge set they required to present in a person. Using such information, the HR
manager of marks and Spencer, starts the process of recruiting and selection accordingly. The
HR manager should have the skills to work in group so that he can easily coordinate the
activities with other departments and work very effectively and efficiently with them.
Leadership skills: The HR manager should have the leadership skills to influence the others
towards the direction of organizational objectives or goals. A good leader has the quality of
showing the direction to the people, and he does it by giving the required training and
development programs to the people (Aswathappa, 2013). HR manager also is responsible for
creating an comfortable environment for their employees to work, so that they feel no hesitation
or any sort of discomfort at the work place.
Behaviour
Self motivating: The HR should have the capability to motivate himself, as he himself
has to motivate others. They say only a motivated and confident leader can motivate others, if he
himself is motivated he can easily builds confidence into the minds of other people. The HR

manager of Marks and Spencer, motivates other to approach their company at the time of
vacancies. A motivated HR can take the interviews and all the associated rounds with
recruitment and selection throughout the day.
Problem solving: The HR manager of the organization should have such behavior that he
focuses more on solutions rather than problems. He should have the skill to identify the problem
and founds out the required solutions for it. Same goes with the marks and Spencer, the HR
manager focus more on providing solutions to the problems (Berman and et. al., 2019). He
identifies the major issue and searches for solution for very right movement.
P2 Analyse a completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills and
behaviours and develop a professional development plan for a given job role.
Development is an ongoing process and also plays an important role in any business. The
business would make progress when the skills and knowledge of its employees gets developed or
upgrade. The companies like marks and Spencer considers their employees as their asset which
takes the whole organization in to a very next level. Maintaining of records about all the
employees regarding their personal information, performance given yet, department and the so
on which helps the company in making various decisions like promotions, demotions, evaluation
of performances and the like. The CPD helps the companies in knowing what skills and
knowledge their employees has gained formally or informally. Development is consider as a
continuous process. The CPD helps both the employees and the organization in evaluating their
performances so that they can make necessary changes or modification to it according to the
requirements. It is a process which has many steps in it, and the steps may includes, plan
identification, activities learning, reflection of your learning into the work and at last sharing of
your learning to others (Brewster and Hegewisch eds., 2017). Marks and Spencer also maintains
such records. It helps the company in making many decisions such as promotion time, evaluation
of performance, the requirement for training and development programs and the like. This also
helps in predicting the strengths and weakness of an employee.
Personal skill audit: Personal skill audit is used to evaluating the strength, weakness,
threats and opportunity of an employee. By knowing so the company would have better
understanding of their employee. As far as strength, the company will be using as an asset and as
far as weakness, the company would try to minimize it by giving the required training and
guidance to the employee. This technique helps in introspecting the organization as well as an
employee. This also allows an individual in knowing the area where he need to put more
attention for development.
Skills Personal audit questionnaire 1 2 3 4 5
Management Ability to manage the team and time *
Computer Skills and knowledge about information
technology
*
MS office *

The usage of Microsoft office *
Communication Vocal communication *
Written communication *
Presentation skills *
Non-verbal communication *
Leadership Creative and innovative thinking of the
employee.
*
Influencing power of that individual *
Self motivation and motivation skills of a
person
*
Teamwork Group or team work of a candidate *
Good listener *
Participation into the meetings *
Problem solving Critical and problem solving ability *
How well he can handle the situation *
Self-motivate Positive behaviour and attitude *
Takes initiatives *
Positive and helpful *
Guidance
1- Poor
2- Not bad
3- Average
4- Good
5- Excellent
The table present above tell about the skills and qualities which is inculcate into an employees.
The rating has been given to the employee skills on 1 to 5. Where 1 represents that the employee
is lacking in that skill or quality and 5 denotes that the employee is very excellent in that skill or
quality. From personal skills audit, SWOT analysis can be done which is presented as below:
Strength Weakness
 The managerial skills of a person are  The verbal communication of the

very good. He is best at managing
things and people.
 The written communication of an
employee is very much good. He must
be given the work of drafting the letters
or any sort of official mail.
 The employee is very much good at
managing the people. He can perform
his best when allotted with a team. He
has the capacity to take care of all the
members allotted.
candidate is not as good, he needs to
work more upon it.
 The leadership skills of the candidate is
average, he needs to develop it.
 The basic skills related to computers
are very bad of the candidates which
make him quite lack in his skills.
Opportunity Threats
 The candidate has self motivation skills
which helped him in motivating himself
and other also.
 The communication of the candidate is
good that he can grab the opportunity
for the business by taking over large
and huge projects.
 The employee lacks in the technical
skills which makes it very much
difficult for him for his growth.
 As the communication is not very good
of the candidate, the company may not
allot him the work of presentation
which works as a big threat for him.
Proper training and development programs can be given to this employee so that he can
minimize his threats and weakness. A personal development plan has been made for him in
whom the required training and development program has been schedule. The personal
development plan of the candidate is as follows:
Area for
development
Date on
which
skills are
learned
How to learn
skills
Current
situation
How to
monitor
success
Progress
Computer 20-02-
2020 to
12-02-
2020
For developing
the knowledge
of the
candidates in
Information
technologies.
Through taking
the necessary
classes the
skills can be
developed.
Guidance
from the
people who
have this
knowledge
can prove to
be a great
It will
become easy
for the
employee to
perform the
required

help. work easily.
Communicatio
n
12-02-
2020 to
27-01-
2020
Improving the
verbal
communication
Through taking
the English
classes and
lectures this
skills can be
developed.
These skills
would be more
enhanced when
a candidate
would do more
practice of
that.
The
employee
would give
good
presentation
before
others.
The
presentation
should be
delivered in a
standard
manner.
Reflective statement
Name Description
Reflection for selecting a job The profile is for assistant sales manager. As
the job role required to have a good
communication skills to convince the clients or
customers for making a purchase.
The challenging task of this job profile. Managing the conflicts among the employees
is a big task. An assistant manager has to
identify the real problem and thinks about the
solution.
As per audits, most challenging task The challenging task is to influence the clients
and the customers to make a purchase of the
product. For this the employee should have a
good communication skills and right attitude.
TASK 2
P3 Analyse the differences between organisational and individual learning, training and
development.

High performance working is an approach of management, in this approach the
organization tries to involve its employees in the decision making process. The organization has
understood that company cannot be run alone by the raw materials, or more supply of products
or services, but from the employee participation (Bratton and Gold, 2017). Employee
participation is very much valuable now in working place and every manager makes sure that his
every employee participates in it by putting his own ideas and opinions onto the table. The same
approach is also applied in marks and Spencer, the company tries its best to engage its employee
participation in decision making process. This enhances the productivity of both the employee
and the organization also the employees start feeling valuable.
The organization which adopts and implements the characteristics of high performance
working in its system is known as an organization for high performance working. There are
various characteristics and elements of marks and Spencer which makes it different from all the
other organizations:
Features of high performance working organization:
Equality in status: The organization which adopts high performance working treats
every employee equal to all irrespective to the level of management he belongs. When an
organization exercises equality in its operations then it would bring more value and good culture
in the work place. This will keep on motivating the employees as they know that the organization
would pay back of their hard ships (Budhwar and Debrah, eds., 2013). Marks and Spencer
exercises no discrimination policy. The organization does no discrimination on the bases of
caste, religion, color, gender, age, culture, physical disabilities and so on.
Employee security: People generally prefers those organization which provides security
to them regarding their job. The organization which provides no securities to their employees,
there the workers stay in tension and performs the work under pressure. But the organization,
like marks and Spencer, the employees work free mind as their company has provided jib
security to them.
Selective hiring: An organization’s HR selects or hire to those candidates which he
thinks has the talent and required determination. Selective hiring leads to the increase of
productivity. As in the case with marks and Spencer, the company focuses on the candidates
which have good communication skills and who can present the brand.
Delegation of authority: The delegation means giving authority to someone for
performing a particular task or work. The delegation of authority gives confidence to the other
people. It also helps in the completion of the work early. Whereas lack of delegation of authority
would take more time to complete a particular task. As in the case with marks and Spencer, the
company believes in delegating the authority to others. This activity also helps the other people
in developing confident as he would be given a responsibility by his manager. This activity apart
from all increases accountability and employee engagement (Buller and McEvoy, 2012).
Result based reward model: When an organization links its compensation model with
the work performance done by employees, it gives more motivation to employees to perform
better and better in their work. Marks and Spencer gives target to their every employee so that
the employees are very much aware about their targets and work so they handle their work

accordingly. The company gives compensation to their employees according to the performance
they have done in the work place.
Training of employees: Organization also invest more on their employees by giving
them appropriate training and development programs to their people. As they know that training
and development program helped the employees in developing and increasing their skills and
knowledge, indirectly this has helped the organization in better performance of work.
High performance working and employee engagement:
The contribution done by employee in his work which is above the work expected by
them is referring as employee engagement. Employee engagement and high performance
working are closely related with each other. Employee engagement in an organization helps in
more effectiveness and efficiency in their system and this is very not certainly possible without
determination, trust, motivation, commitment and so on. There are various elements which can
be identified as the factors for employee engagement into the organizational system. These
factors are career growth, job motivation and satisfaction, balance between work life and
personal life and the so forth. Whereas employer factors may include hiring of talented
candidates, determined candidates and etc (Cascio, 2015). And the organization which practice
the high performance working, they would seeks a increase in the innovation and creative ideas.
In the company marks and Spencer, the company increases the practice for high performance
working to achieve the desired goals and objectives.
Benefits of high performance working organization:
Better attitude of employees: The employer which follows the high performance
working, they would notice a positive change of behavior in their employees. The employees
now have become more serious about their jobs and tries to brings more creative and innovative
ideas in the company which ultimately benefits the company. This also leads to the better culture
in organization. As in the case with marks and Spencer, the company has noticed the same
change in their working which was good for them.
Better cooperation inside the organization: This approach also increases the
coordination among the different department in an organization. The coordination would bring
less confusion and creates more align tasks which can result into more optimization of resources.
As in the case with Marks and Spencer, the company gains the above stated merits from this.
They experience align tasks and work, discipline in the operations and optimum utilization of
resources.
Better financial performance: According to the reports the company has reported an
increase in its profits or revenue which was because of some contribution by high performance
working module (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2018). The organization which adopts such approach
in its operation is likely to come up with more productivity of goods and services and people can
focus more on management areas which is responsible for better financial performance of their
business.
Competitive advantage: An organization can gain competitive advantage from the
adoption of high performance working. And competitive advantage helps the organization in
becoming unique and distant from the other organization.

A better organization: The performance of an organization increases through the
adoption of such approach because the company is able to execute all the functions and
operations very well into the company. It fosters the management functions and operations. As in
the case with Marks and Spencer, the company experienced a better working in their departments
and operations which is very much good for company’s performance.
Barriers in implementation of high performance working system:
There are various factors which are barriers in the implementation of high performance
working system in company. Some of these are:
1. Lack for trust
2. Restriction of activities by their own departments
3. Lack of proper leadership
4. Conflicts between the members and among teams
5. Lack in clarity
6. Improper feedback
High performance working and Human-resource management:
It is the responsibility of human resource department to analyses the need for high
performance working approach into the system of organization. The HR department is
responsible for the proper installation of this approach (Daley, 2012). They made the plan for
establishing it and then they performs a little trial of it. The HR department makes sure that the
approach should be smooth and well establish. The HR department also handles any sort of
grievance which comes under the process. The managers should also on the other hand must
coordinate with the changed policies and rules and must make sure that every employee must
follows it. The HR managers adopt such practices which enhances the engagement of employees
in the work.
P4 Analyse the need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable
business performance.
Performance management: In this approach, the manager monitors, observes and
analyses the performances of his sub ordinates and help them in knowing about the area where
they all are lacking behind. From the performance management, the manager gets to know about
performances or contribution given by his members. Most of the organization which serves
globally considers this approach as an important one. As in the case with Marks and Spencer,
seeking the performances of employees is very more crucial so that the managers can properly
manage them by finding out about the loop holes. There are various approaches which can be
followed by Marks and Spencer, some of them includes:
Comparative approach: In this approach the performances of employees are compared
with one another. Here the ranking is given to the performances or the contribution done by the
employees then the comparison is made about the performances and then shown to the
employees. The marks and Spencer has been using this approach in managing the performances
of their employees and it also helps in motivating the employees. It on the other hand

implements a system of high performance working through direct improvement into the
productivity of workers (DeCenzo, Robbins and Verhulst, 2016.).
Attribute approach: In this approach, the performance of an employee is evaluated onto
many grounds some of them may include innovation, critical thinking, problem solving skills,
group work, communication skills and etc. As in the case with marks and Spencer, the company
has evaluate its employees on these basis also because they think these factors do play an
important role in evaluating an employee.
Collaborative working: In this approach the organization employees do collaborative
working of operations and activities with different employees. Here in the world of globalization
where the resources, capital, technologies integrating among countries, the work of companies
are also getting such collaboration. These collaborations provides the new ideas and creative
approaches to the organization.
Result approach: This approach is very much simple and straight as it evaluates the performances
of an employee on the basis of the results which has get from their work (Jackson, Schuler and
Jiang, 2014). If his performance has yield a good result then his work be appreciated otherwise
not.
TASK 3
P5 Demonstrate understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and
competitive advantage within a specific organisational situation.
HPW represents the elite working. It is tied in with making a culture into an association
which empowers the trust, straightforwardness and open correspondence for all. It is worry with
the closure of conventional progressive structure and embracing another structure into an
association. This energizes the representative contribution and duty into the association. The
HPW falls under the 3 general classes, specifically:
1) Greatest representative association
2) Legitimate human asset rehearses
3) Practices of remunerations and responsibility
Characteristics of HPW affiliation
Populism and Commitment: This supports the equity among the working environment. Here the
representatives are propelled and have the inclination to work with one another energetically
(Jiang and et. al., 2012).