HR Report: Employee Engagement, Training, and Development at Whirlpool

This report examines the human resource practices at Whirlpool, focusing on employee engagement, training, and development. It begins by outlining the essential knowledge, skills, and behaviors expected of HR professionals, including expertise, communication, compassion, integrity, leadership, and continuous professional development. The report then analyzes a personal skills audit, identifying strengths and weaknesses in areas such as communication, problem-solving, and time management, and proposes a personal development plan to address these weaknesses. Furthermore, it differentiates between organizational and individual learning, training, and development, highlighting the importance of both in achieving organizational goals. The report also explores various training and development programs, such as mentoring, coaching, and team-building activities, and discusses the role of performance management in enhancing employee performance. Finally, it examines the impact of leadership styles on employee motivation and productivity, and the importance of creating a positive work environment. The report uses the case study of Whirlpool to illustrate how effective HR practices can contribute to a high-performance culture and competitive advantage.

Developing Individuals,
Teams and Organisations

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
In today's business Era, human resources are the most essential part of the organisation as
they have the main responsibility of recruitment and selection of skilled workers on the vacant
post so that aims can be achieved in effective manner. Other main responsibilities are to allocate
the resources in rightful manner and maintain healthy relationship within organisation (Bolman
and Deal, 2017). Different tools and techniques which are available and can be adopted by the
HR management team so that effectiveness which is expected by the higher authority can be
fulfilled. Company chosen for this assessment is Whirlpool which was established in 11th
November, 1911 by Louis Upton. This company deals in small home appliances. In this
assignment, research report contains applying programmes of learning which will contribute
towards engagement of employees in order to achieve high performance level and competitive
leader by working collaborative and communication.
TASK 1
P1 Knowledge. Skills and Behaviour of HR professionals
There are certain characteristics which enables HR management to strike a balance
between being professional and yet being approachable as they have main duty towards
supporting the whole workforce and certain skills are:
 Expertise: HR function is sorted fundamental but yet it is difficult to process as they are
mainly dependent on the knowledge of generalist of HR disciplines like compensation,
safety and risk management, employee relations, recruitment and selection and training
and development. There are two different aspects in HR management of Whirlpool
which are management and process in which HR managers needs to be expert so that he\
she can supervise HR team for effective follow of HR disciplines. Business mainly runs
on human resource department which needs expertise workers so that whenever a
situation arise of conflicts it can be resolved (Chaskalson, 2011).

 Communication: There is a basic but important requirement of having strong
communication skills so that HR managers can interact with wide range of people,
executives, staff, suppliers and internal staff so that pattern of effective communication
can flow throughout organisation. Even there are certain situations in Whirlpool in which
HR has to act as representatives of the company to the outside world so confidence and
effective skills of communication should be present in order to make a positive
impression. Another essential element which should be available listening because
sometimes there are particular situation in which they have to act as mediator of higher
and lower division. Comments of the staff members regarding workplace should be
considered seriously and respect the speeches of chief executives about organisational
strategy .
 Compassion: In Whirpool, the least favoured task of an HR manager is to execute
employees but still it is need to be done with compassion in best possible way. Breville
follows the footsteps of Whirlpool, so their HR manager's empathy is appreciated by the
employees who share the issue regarding their personal medical and thus whenever
required by the employees for leave it should be approved and moreover complaints
about workplace harassment (Conboy and et. al., 2011).
 Integrity: It is an approach on which HR managers seeks up to their integration on equal
employment practices. There are some fundamental rules for the fair employment
practises like no partiality and equal importance to everyone and it takes proper
understanding of employment along with labour laws to support compliance which helps
in regulating the workplace. Moreover, there is need to make strict confidentially and to
maintain that employment data, organisational strategy and company's vital data.
 Leadership: For understanding human behaviour, leadership skills must exhibit skills
of a leader. Managers of the department who are involved in recruitment and selection
should recommendations for hiring workers and thus they can lead various departments.
Like for example if the manager of Whirlpool who has engaged to training and
development of the staff members and thus they can show other section's managers that
improving set of skills can provide several advantages. Moreover, when it comes to the
respect of employees, there is code of conduct made for it and thus HR managers have to
make sure that it should be followed in every corner of an organisation.

 Continuous professional development : This is the process of tracking and
documenting the skill, knowledge and experience that individual and teams gain
formally and informally. These skills are important because this process will help the
manager in managing the development of on going process and useful in reflecting and
reviewing what individuals and teams are learning. It assures the abilities in keeping
pace with the current standards of others in the same field. This can be done by
conducting internal and external training, online courses, etc.
 Internal and external training : HR is responsible for providing internal and external
training to the people for their regular development and improvement in personal and
professional era. Internal training utilises the companies internal resources and expertise
to develop and deliver specific type of training like on the job training, monitoring and
coaching, internal training sessions include presentation, etc. On the other hand external
trainings are conducted outside the organisation premises by expertise and it includes six
sigma training, field work, etc. This will be useful for team and individuals in learning
new techniques, approaches, methods of operation which are essential in conducting the
various activities of the business on daily basis. This will develop the mind, skills,
knowledge of the individuals and they will be able to work more on advanced methods.
There it can be stated that by implementing these approachable and professional knowledge , HR
professional will be enabled to create effective environment so that aims and objectives can be
attained in effective manner (Dahlgaard, Pettersen and Dahlgaard-Park, 2011).

(Source: HR department structure,2017)
P2 Analysing personal skills audit to identify knowledge, skills and behaviours and development
of a professional development plan
When an individual works in the company he\she is called an employee whose skills are
determined as those skills will enable company to allot the tasks to them. The current
performance level of employees is analysed and after that it is matched with the expectation
level of performance which is required by the company and thus various tools like training,
meetings are conducted to enhance the skills (Day and et. al., 2014). In the context of Whirlpool,
staff members of that company must acquire the skills of improving the sales level of company
and selling the product in market will enable the company to know about the areas where he is
Illustration 1: Structure of Human Resources

strong and where he is weak and thus more analysation can be done on the basis of area they are
working on.
My personal skill audit being a human resource manager at Whirlpool is as follows:
Personal skills audit (Out of 10)
Skills Self-analysis Analysis from others Positive/ Negative
Commercial
awareness skills
10 9 1
Communication 8 9 -1
Problem solving 7 8 -1
Interpersonal 8 7 1
Conflict management 9 8 1
Multi- tasking 7 7 0
From the above personal skill audit I analyse various positive and negative outcomes. All
the above given skills are essential to perform a specific job role at workplace. for an example, it
is very essential for an individual to have good communication skills so he can make the other
aware about his/her point of view. In addition to this, conflict management skill is also very
essential to develop good relations with others.
Skill audit indicate some difference in self-analysis and other analysis and this help me in
identify the areas in which I need to improve. Given table in indicating my strengths and
weakness:
Strengths I have good communication skills and this help me to exchange my views and
ideas in better manner.
I have good knowledge about internet and its usage and this enhance my
research skills.
My listening skills ae also good and this help me in solve conflicts and deal
with problems at workplace.
Weakness My decision skill is not that appropriate as sometimes it become difficult for
me to choose the best option.
I have lack motivational skills and due to this I fail to encourage other to

perform well at workplace.
Further I don’t have effective time management skills.
All above given strength are necessary for perform various roles at workplace. Some areas are
there in which I need make improvements for perform my role in better manner.
In order to deal with my above mentioned weakness I can take help of personal
development plan. As it help in identified the action required to be taken to improve skills.
Personal development plan is as follows:
Learning
objectives
Current
proficiency
Target
proficiency
Development
opportunities
Criteria
for
judging
successful
Time scale Evidence
Time
managemen
t
Lack of time
management
skills.
I want to
improve on
my time
management
skills in
order to
complete all
activities in
given time
period.
With
effective time
management
skills, I can
ensure
completion of
all activities
in time.
Feedback
of
superiors
2 months Effective
time
management
leads to
completion
of all tasks.
Motivation
skill
My
motivation
skills are not
adequate
and due to
this I fail to
encourage
individuals
to work
I want to
improve my
motivation
skill in order
to
encourage
worker to
work well.
By motivate
workers I can
enhance their
productivity.
Feedback
of peers
2 months By
motivate
employees
company
can easily
achieve it
set goals.

well.
Decision
making
skills
My decision
making
skills are not
much
effective as
I become
confusion in
choose the
best
alternative.
I want to
improve my
decision
making skill
to perform
my role in
better
manner.
With
effective
decision
making skill,
I can easily
take quick
actions as per
the
requirement
of situation.
Feedback
of my
peers.
3 months By improve
my decision
making skill
I can
perform my
role in better
manner.
TASK 2
P3 Differences between organisational and individual learning, training and development
Organisational and individual learning are two different aspects from each other as they
both are most essential and detachable part of an organisation but their conduction can not be
done with the same methodology and not even same time. Both these learnings are described as:
Organisational Learning: It is an approach in which an employee seek for a platform on
which more knowledge and experience can be gained in order to be more effective and
developing various elements like capabilities, skills of analysing and many more. This is a long
process because gaining experience and learning through it takes more time and thus it enables
company to achieve aims and objectives in effective manner (Goetsch and Davis, 2014). There
are various steps involve in planning of organisational learning as it compiles of analysing skills,
capabilities tracking, blueprint of attaining goals and its culture which needs to obtained.
Incident which took place in north region area of Whirlpool, made employee's of company to
focus on enhancing in decision making and problem solving and improving knowledge set and
understanding level. Learning is bridge between the staff member's working efficiency and
innovative ideas which will help them to connect with each other and thus in result productivity
and profitability will be improved. Organisational learning is based on applying knowledge for a
specific purpose and learning from the process and from the results produced by them. It is a

useful method in which leaders and managers gives emphasis on learning as a central part of an
organisations practice. There are number of theories which gives an explanation on
organisational learning. For instance, Huber assumes that learning occurs through the effective
procedure and interpretation of information that an organisation finds useful.
Individual Learning: It is another approach in which chances are given to the employees
in order to enhance their set of skills via training and development sessions for the allotted task
which needs to be performed. This process can be said as time consuming yet effective because
through this certain set of skills can be improved and even knowledge can be shared among the
other employees which will help in effective communication and less chances of error
(Herrmann and Herrmann-Nehdi, 2015). Like it said it is time consuming due to analysation on
single individual turn by turn and then implied. This brings burden to the employer as he\she has
to attend every single employee and teach them on the same time and due to this it becomes
hectic. Benefit of this learning is that it makes every person skilled and qualified.
Whirlpool can use styles of learning in order to attain short and long term objectives as they will
enhance growth and development of the company.
Organisational Learning Individual Learning
 This process allows to make strong
bond between employee and
organisation which will help in
effective performance .
 Aids in providing new and innovative
ways to conduct work inside.
 It is very hectic and also long term
process.
 Motive behind conducting of this
learning style is to enhance skills along
with the knowledge and behaviour
regarding performance.
 This learning style is considered as
training programme in which person
who are not related to the managerial
work learns for particular motive.
 When they become more skilled and
knowledgable, they are able to work in
better manner.

When it comes to skill and capability improvement, training and development
programme is the best way top enhance them and achieve what has been expecting (Hitt and et.
al., 2011). From this WHIRLPOOL can attain their respective targets in ease manner.
P4 Need of continuous learning and professional development
From the aspect of a business operations, whether it is continuous learning programmes
or it is professional development programmes, they both work with the common aim of growth
and development for the whole business operations. Professional development plan aids an
individual to gain knowledge and spreading among all employees for effective work and this
gaining of knowledge helps an employee to complete the tasks in effective manner in the allotted
time for the aim of growth and development. There are various tools and techniques which are
used in the process of professional development like coaching, reflective supervision, technical
assistance and many more. All these equipments are helpful in achieving good performance and
the process which will be used in business process needs to be very effective as the profitability
totally depends on it. Continuous learning and professional development is important because :
 Development of new concepts : Evolution and development of new concepts in the
business environment has put influence on the companies to leave traditional concepts
and accept new and advanced concepts. They can be in any field like marketing,
promotion, selling, etc. for instance, new methods and concepts of marketing like social
media, internet, new concepts of selling like selling products online on e commerce
applications and websites, etc.
 Changes in laws and regulations : Learning is important because of changing business
environment which also changes the laws and regulations. For instance, when legal laws
places emphasis on adopting sustainable environmental practices. This forces companies
to learn and gain knowledge regarding the environmental protection laws so that it does
not create danger for the surroundings.
 New production system : With the enhancement and development in technology, it
become very important for individuals and organisations to gain knowledge and
understanding relating to the advanced technology in new production system.
In Whirlpool, after the incident which took place employers understood the importance of
being flexible and gaining knowledge so they promote their employees to gain experience along
with the knowledge so that at certain phase they can adopt dynamic nature. Whirlpool has

collaborated for this with the several popular Institutions of the country who are providing
training and educational sessions to then employees. This will enable the company to establish
more strong bond between employers and employees and thus friendly environment can be
created within workplace (Légaré and et. al., 2011).
This type of approach brings loyalty among the employers and employees as they both
are devoted towards the company goals and solve the problems arsing in the environment.
Activities are allotted to the employees and those activities are out of box because they are
conducted with the aim of making employees working together and thus learning can be
improved. HR department of the company mainly focus on managing the employees and thus
that can be done through applying of various plans for the ultimate growth and development.
There are some benefits which are derived from the continuous learning and professional
development in an organisation are:
 Facilitation of Employees growth: There are various opportunities provided for the
individual by the company so that new experience can be gained and also gained
knowledge can be spread within organisation.
 Competency Leads to Confidence: If the employee contains appropriate knowledge of
the task which is allotted to him\her then it will bring confidence into him\her as this is
the human tendency (Marquardt and et. al., 2011). This is due to the attention that they
are getting from the people and achievement of it.
TASK 3
P5 Contribution of HPW in employee engagement and competitive advantage
High performance work is an process of HRM activities whose motive is to increase the
performance level of employee and organisation. Companies who are working in domestic and
international levels are able to conduct these types of activities and the reason behind conduction
is economical growth in UK. In simple words, employee engagement can be explained by the
environment which is created manually by the company so that employees who are working
under that workplace can give their best output on the expected level of the company. This is
highly essential due to the vision which has been seen by the company and its achievement
within tenure. In this format leaders plays an vital role as they are the only person who comes in

contact with employees on regular basis, so they can enhance the efficiency of employees and
productivity and performance of company as well.
Competitive advantage always come with lot of benefits to the company and thus enables
them to take advantage of lot of factors. Most important is that it enables them to improve their
monetary terms and assets level. They have an advantage of analysing other company's market
structure and thus it allows to design a framework in which low costs of products can be opted
which will meet the requirements of the customers and satisfy them in effective manner ( Rock,
2014). When company comes into leading position then they automatically grab more customer's
attraction and when they does they can launch new unique products. Moreover, after capturing
market share company can focus on being sustainable so that more difficult it will be for
competencies to break that leading structure.
In Whirlpool, strategies are being made to make organisation more effective and High
performance work plays a vital role in it along with the policies designed by employer.
Performance level and output of the company totally depends on the production of the employees
as more the production , higher will be the output. Managers have vital role to play in the
organisation as the effective planning is done by them only and they invite employees to
participate in the planning and decision making process which will help higher authority ton
achieve aims and objectives in better manner. If the staff members of the of Whirlpool can work
together in effective manner then the objectives can be achieved. It is highly essential for them to
maintain a healthy and positive environment so that ethical feeling can be spread around
workplace.
TASK 4
P6 Approaches of performance management
Various strategies and approaches for the purpose of measuring performance of their
employees. The five major approaches are:

(Source: Performance Measurement Approaches, 2016)
 Comparative Approach: Comparative approach helps in determining performance of
the employees and they are ranked on the basis of highest to the lowest performer. In this
kind of approach there are various techniques like forced distribution, paired comparison
and graphic rating scale. This approach makes sure that employees who are on the top has
to be rewarded and those employees can be promoted onto higher post with more training
and development while the employees who are in lower scale are given proper training
for reaching high and if that does not happen then new candidate can be hired who is
more effective (Woodcock, 2017). For example: In Whirlpool, there is group of top
performers of 10%, a group of average performers which constitute of 40%, another
group of good performers consist of 40% . Finally group of low performers constitute
remaining 10% . This approach is very effective for Whirlpool as with this company can
identify the training needs of employees and at the same time can promote the high
performers to highest post. with help of this company can ensure right individual at right
job role and at the same time can retain employees for long time period.
 Attribute Approach: There are certain parameters on which employees are rated like
problem solving skills, teamwork, communication, judgement, creativity and Innovation.
This approach measures employee performance on the scale of 1 to 5 which brings a
Illustration 2: Performance Measurement Approaches

major disadvantage with it which is that this accurate at determining only the best and
worst, middle ones are not judged properly but due to its simplicity most organisation
adopt these kind of approach for measurement of employees performance level. For
example: Employers working in Whirlpool are often scaled on the basis of their
performance of the month and this is mainly done in the sales management as the
employee who has sold 50 appliances will be at number 1 and another who has sold 45
will come on last. So this kind of approach allows company to know just the good and
bad, not the middle ones who can perform better or whose performance needs training.
With help of this approach, Whirlpool can determine the employees who perform best
and with help of those workers company can easily attain its set goal or objective. but as
there some disadvantages related with this approach, company require to access those
also before going to use this.
 Behavioural Approach: This is considered as one of the oldest performance
measurement techniques. Behavioural approach consists of vertical scale for the different
corner of the job. BARS technique which is known as Behaviourally Anchored rating
Scale and it compiles 6 to 10 vertical bars and they are totally based on the performance
of all the employees. BARS have new version which has been launched in current known
as BOS in which status is being taken of the employees performance and then average is
being taken out and thus frequencies are given according to that. For example:
Employees of Whirlpool in earlier times were scaled on this approach like their annual
performance level was measured and thus average was taken out and then they were
mentioned on the frequencies graph and thus according to it rewards and training were
given. This is one of the traditional method of performance measurement but there are
some advantages of using this approach. It is effective for Whirlpool as with this
company can easily determine the offer rewards to the workers who perform best and at
the same time this helps in provide training to workers who need some improvement.
 Result Approach: This approach is very simple in nature and cut to point concept in
which staff members are being rated on the basis of their annual performance level.
Neither they are put on scale nor their performance average is being taken out. This kind
of approach is done on the basis of four perspectives which are: Financial, Customer,
Internal, operations, learning and growth (Performance measurement approaches. 2017.).

It is highly effective in terms of motivating staff members and measure out feedbacks.
Main advantage of result based approach is that it converts strategies into operations
with more broad view. The main drawback is the lack of aspect of focus on human
resource and the absence of certain key stakeholders in indicators. This approach is also
effective for Whirlpool as with this manager can formulate better strategies in order to
enhance employee’s performance so they can perform well. In this way, employee’s
contribution in company’s success can be maximised, further, they can be promoted to
perform higher roles.
 Quality Approach: This approach is highly focused on applying satisfactory level of
customers by minimising errors and attaining continuous service improvisation. It mainly
focus on the use of Kaizen process in order to improve the business process in continuous
manner. Benefits of this approach is: Assessment of employee and system, problem
solving through teamwork, usage of various resources for evaluating performance and
involvement of internal and external factors (Organisational learning.2017). It is an
effective approach for Whirlpool because teamwork is used for identify solution of a
problem and this help manager in develop an effective solution of a problem and this
make workers feels and motivated.
These approaches will be useful in maximising the performances of the people in the
organisations which will make them feel motivated towards the goals and objectives of the
organisation. By providing effective communication organisation will make people clear with the
mission and vision of the company so that they will be aware of what and how they have to work
in accomplishing objectives. This will also minimise the chances of conflicts.
Therefore, it can be stated from the above statement that to evaluate various performance levels ,
new and old approaches can be adopted for taking out the best of the an employee.
CONCLUSION
As per the above assessment, it can be concluded that approach of team working is highly
effective in terms of attaining all aims and objectives of an organisation. Employees who have
adopted the individual learning style have benefit to enhance their skills and abilities so that new
and effective innovation can be done through ideas and thus allotted tasks can be performed in
effective and planned ways. In order to establish strong coordination and cooperation, effective
teamwork can be established for attaining goals and objectives. Elements which are discussed in

this report is factors considered for learning and development for enhancing performance and
collaborative working as well.

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