HR Report: Whirlpool's Approach to Developing Employees and Teams

This report examines the crucial role of Human Resources (HR) in fostering the development of individuals, teams, and organizations, using Whirlpool as a case study. It begins by outlining the essential professional knowledge, skills, and behaviors required of HR professionals, emphasizing the importance of business acumen, international HRM knowledge, strategic thinking, and technological proficiency. A personal skill audit is then presented, identifying strengths in problem-solving and communication, and weaknesses in decision-making and IT skills, followed by a development plan to address these gaps. The report further differentiates between organizational and individual learning, highlighting the benefits of each, and contrasts training and development approaches. It also discusses the impact of High-Performance Working (HPW) practices on employee engagement and competitiveness and concludes with an overview of various performance management approaches. The report underscores the significance of continuous learning and professional development within the HR field to achieve organizational goals and enhance employee productivity.

Developing Individuals, Teams
and Organisations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK1.............................................................................................................................................1
1 Professional knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required by HR professionals......1
2 Analysis of personal skill audit. .........................................................................................3
TASK2.............................................................................................................................................6
3 Difference between organisational and individual learning, training and development:....6
4 Need for continues learning and professional development................................................7
TASK3.............................................................................................................................................8
5 HPW contribution to employee engagement and competitive............................................8
TASK4.............................................................................................................................................9
6. Different approaches of performance management:..........................................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In the changing and competitive world it is very necessary for companies to develop their
individual, team and organisation that will help them to grow and attain its goal. In a company
HR are the one that perform specific roles and function to ascertain the measure drawback within
the employee and organisation as whole (Manuti and et. al., 2015). They are the one that provide
accurate sources that help in improving the knowledge and skills of worker and develop the
performance of company as well as of teams. In this report case study related to Whirlpool is
done to understand the ability, Cognition and behaviour of HR that help to perform business
activity more efficiently.
In this project report, different role and responsibility of HR is discussed and personal
skills audit chart is prepared. This report will also specify how High performance working
practices and performance measurement help Whirlpool in enhancing the productivity and
operational skills of their employees to achieve customer satisfaction.
TASK1
1 Professional knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required by HR professionals.
Knowledge is understanding of facts, information same as skill is ability of an
individual to perform a task within given time and behaviour is the action and manner made by
an individual. Being an HR professional of Whirlpool's, it requires all three competencies for the
smooth functioning of organisation. This helps the HR managers of company to manage the
organisational activities efficiently and effectively. As a Whirlpool's HR manager it is essential
to have good knowledge, a competitive skill set and ethical behaviour for creating and sustaining
a productive workforce. For formulating the human resource plan and policy of company, HR
should possess the skills and attitude, which are as follows:
Knowledge:
The knowledge is an important element for the HR professional of company. It includes
the understanding of information, facts and awareness. Being a HR manager of Whirlpool's, one
should be very quick to understand the information and facts, so one can take decisions on the
basis of information (Moxen and Strachan, 2017). An HR should be aware of the legislation
related to the employment so they can formulate the policies for employees according to laws.
The following knowledge required by an HR professional of Whirlpool's:
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 Knowledge of business: The knowledge of business includes, information about the kind
of business that company is doing as company like Whirlpool's have diversifies business
around the world. So being an HR one should be aware about these businesses, it will be
easy for HR to plan and formulate policies accordingly.
 Knowledge of International HRM: Today's time is, Go Global, so every company
wants to go national to international for capturing the wider market. The Whirlpool's is
also doing its business globally, so for HR of company must possess knowledge of
international human resource management. So HR can use that knowledge for overall
development of organisation.
Skill:
Skill is considered as an ability of HR professional to carry out task effectively and
efficiently. A skill is something which can be learned or something that you are naturally good at
something. So being an HR of Whirlpool's one should possess following skills:
 Strategic Thinking: Strategy is a high level plan to achieve the goal under conditions of
uncertainty. As being an HR of Whirlpool's, it is important to make the strategy
according to the situations, it can be seen from the above case that Whirlpool's went for
restructuring in North America region. So the HR implied the High performance working
model which helped the employees to improve their efficiency in working to be more
innovative while working.
 Knowledge of different programs- : This is an essential skill for an HR professional, as
technology is changing day by day and one should be able to adapt these changes. As big
company like whirlpool's uses the software for the managing the data of employees
(North and Kumta, 2018). So being an HR of Whirlpool's it is important to have
technological skills for managing the activities.
Apart from this an HR should have change management skills, effective communication,
leadership skills and decision making skills so HR can perform his work effectively.
Behaviour:
Behaviour is the action or manner performed by an individual, it is very important for HR
to behave positively in the organisation so HR can able to manage the human resource properly.
The following are the behaviours for an HR professional:
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 Ethical: Being an HR of company, it is important to follow the ethics of organisations.
As whirlpool's is a big company and if HR of whirlpool breach the code of conduct, it
can be a big loss for the organisations.
Fairness: Being fair with everyone is very important for HR, while recruiting the
employees.
(Skills of HR, 2017.)
2 Analysis of personal skill audit.
In general, Skill audit is a process related to the measure and record of skills of an
individual or a team. Same as personal audit is a process that is totally related to the measuring
and recording of individual performance whether strong or weak. In contrast it is an activity to
analyse and report the ability and skills that an individual has and develop a plan accordingly to
improve the necessary changes if required. It will increase the leading power and efficiency of
individual that help to achieve organisation goal. There are definite abilites that a HR officer of
Whirlpool must have such as conflict resolution, decision making power, abstraction skill, time
direction quality etc. (Oliver, Foot and Humphries, 2014). As per the needed skills, I have
created a personal audit plan in order to examine my strength and weaknesses related to HR
position that is being discussed below:
Sr. No. Skills and Competencies Self-assessed Score from others Variances
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Score
1 Team Building Ability 9 7 2
2 Conflict Solving 7 8 -1
3 Decision making Power 9 7 2
4 Confidence Level 8 7 1
6 Communication skills 9 10 -2
7 Information Technology Skills 8 9 2
8 Time Management Ability 7 8 -1
(In the above table the negative variances show the positive ability whereas the positive
variances shows the weakness.)
As a result, from the personal skill audit following are the strength and weaknesses that
are listed below:
Strength Weaknesses
 It is observed that I am good enough to
solve issue and other problem that may
arise with company or among worker.
 The main strength of Mine is
communication skill so that ideas and
order are easily communicating to other
within company.
 Time management is most important
skill and this is one of my strength that
influence other team member for doing
task within specific time.
 One the major weakness of my is not
making effective decision in any
context and my IT skill are also not
good enough.
 My major drawback is that in some
situation I am overconfidence that led
me to the make ineffective decision.
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So, in order to overcome these weaknesses HR develop plan that help in ascertaining the
weakness (Performance Management, 2018). This plan is mentioned below:
Sr.
No
Learning
Objective
Current
Proficiency
Target
Proficiency
Development
Opportunitie
s
Criteria
for
judging
success
Time
Scale
Evide
nce
1 Information
Technology
My IT skill is
moderate, that
help to increase
my
performance at
workplace.
To improve
my
information
technology
skills and
understandin
g about
various tools
of
technology
that assist in
completing
project more
effectively.
As getting
training from
IT department
and online
instructor,
help in
intensify my
understanding
of various
tools and
techniques
used in
system.
Team
Members
4-5
mont
hs
Judge
ment
of IT
mana
gers
and
Colle
agues
2 Decision
making quality.
I am not too
efficient at
decision
making skill so
to overcome
this I put more
attempt over
examining
I demand to
alteration
my
knowledge,
which help
in improving
my decision
making skill.
For improving
this I proceed
to take
counsel from
my superiors
and also
desire to join
education
Decision
maker of
upper
level will
audit my
performa
nce.
6
mont
hs
Top
level
mana
gers.
5

factors creating
special
problem for
making better
decision.
program from
superior level
management.
TASK2
3 Difference between organisational and individual learning, training and development:
Learning is process of acquiring new things or improvement in existing skills, knowledge
or behaviours. It is a long term process and learning comes from experience and is important for
the development of organisation as well as individual. Further it is divided in two parts which are
as follows:
Organisational Learning: It is the process of creating, retaining and transferring
knowledge within an organisation. It helps in overall development of the organisation and
organisational activities (Rienties and Kinchin, 2014). In organisational learning people at all
levels, individual and collectively, are continually increasing their capacity to produce result.
This process is used by HR managers of Whirlpool's in order to implement unique style of
learning for achieving the organisation goals.
Individual Learning: It refers to development of individual through identifying the strength and
weakness of individual and take corrective actions where needed. It helped the whirlpool's
employees at the time of restructuring, as they have performed their work efficiently and
contributed in the success of organisation.
Difference between Individual and Organisational Learning
Organisational Learning Individual Learning.
This learning focus on group development and
increasing their skills, capability and turning
their effort in achievement of organisational
goal. For example HR of Whirlpool keeps on
increasing the skills of team member so that
goals are achieved.
Individual learning is an activity related to
career oriented that focus more on
developing the skills among worker within
an organisation. For Example, in Whirlpool
manager conduct personal seminar for
increasing the productivity of individual
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employee.
Difference between training and development
Basis Training. Development.
Nature It is considered to be a short
process to teach skills and
knowledge that are required by
worker.
It is a long process as HR of
Whirlpool create strategies,
techniques and procedures for
doing activity in company.
Job/career The main purpose of providing
training for a job is the set of
certain tool and skills that are
required to complete that job
(Robbins and O'Gorman,
2015).
It focusses more on getting
best out of each professional
working in firm by
ascertaining their interested
job so that they can do better
work.
Objectives Effective Training program
are helpful in building skill to
deal with present situation.
On the other side development
seminar are future oriented that
create understanding to cope
with future situation.
4 Need for continues learning and professional development.
It is observed that continuous learning of various skill helps in development to
personality and increase the understanding of HR to perform different task in effective manner
that increase the efficiency of company.
Continuous learning: This process is related to the increasing and improving the skills,
knowledge and personality for doing specific business activity and becoming capable enough to
survive in Channing environment. This continues learning ability guide worker of Whirlpool to
be updated with current techniques and latest technology that help in doing business operation in
order to increase their job performance.
Professional development: This process is related to enhancing the ability of workforce
by providing proper training and educational conferences at workplace and sometime conducting
program or seminars outside the company. In Whirlpool professional development and
continuous learning is very crucial that increase the morale of employee and efficiency of
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company as well for future success. There are certain specific importance of professional
developing and continuous learning that are described underneath:
 Higher employee retention: Both the above mention factors help in increasing and
maximising worker retention rate. Manager of Whirlpool emphasis on conducting various
professional development seminar in order to give training on regular basis to their
worker that will enhance the productivity and motivate them to continue with their job. In
some case manager of company consider its employee in decision making process that
promote them to be in same company for longer time (Baxter and et. al., 2016).
 Encourage problem solving:- Continuous learning program germinate the skills and
quality among respective worker that help in handling with challenging situations in most
effective manner. Whirlpool maintains flourishing relationship with its workforce so that
they can minimizes the difficulty or overcome issue effectively by interacting with
worker and identifying the ground behind these certain problems and developing
suggestions from them.
 Respond to technology: To cope up with changing technology is the main reason that
help company to survive in competitive world and bring changes in its operation.
Whirlpool bring effective new technology to produce their product that will attract more
customer. In case of adopting new techniques and technology manager of Whirlpool
provide necessary training to their employee that keep them updated about new tools and
techniques used in production process.
 Enhance performance:- Continuous learning and professional development both are
very necessary activities for heighten the presentation as well as productivity of employee
and employer. By organising learning programs in company itself, they try to build up the
ability of its workforces to raise their performance. This is done because high skilled
employees are more productive and contribute toward the success of an organisation in a
predefined manner.
TASK3
5 HPW contribution to employee engagement and competitive.
High performance working system is an approach to managing organisations that aims to
more effective employee involvement and commitment towards achievement of organisation
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goal. It includes series of process and policies in which employees are engaged. By high
performance working system Whirlpool can achieve competitive advantage through more
effective employee engagement (Brett and et. al., 2014). There are following ways through HPW
contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage like-
Conflict Resolution:
Conflict resolution help to more engagement of employees in organisation. Conflict
between management and employee, employee and employee. Conflict can be like- on the basis
of working environment, responsibility and common goal. If Whirlpool has conflict in its
organisation, then Whirlpool can solve the conflict between management and employee so that
employee engagement will increase and willingness towards their work will also increase.
Willingness towards work leads to more employee engagement and if employee engagement will
be more then it becomes competitive advantage of organisation because of high performance of
workers.
Transparent communication:
Transparent communication helps to more employee engagement in the organisation.
Communication can be transparent by following things such as- providing appropriate
information, avoid surprises, follow-up for concerns that are raised etc. If Whirlpool has not
transparent communication in its organisation, then it can improve its communication with
employees by providing proper information related to their work and listen the problems which
are raised by the employees (Darcy and et. al., 2014). These things contribute to employee
engagement because employees feel that their problems are listened and they have proper
information and they are connected with the management of organisation. It can become
competitive advantage of organisation because of transparent communication.
Commitment towards goal:
Commitment towards goal is the need of an organisation. It means dedicating yourself to
something for the achievement of goal. Commitment helps to increase employee engagement in
its work because employees want to achieve their goals. Goals can be high productivity, better
quality in production, promotion etc. To achieve its goal employee will put his 100% efforts
because he is committed towards its goal. If Whirlpool has not committed towards its goal, then
it should committed towards its goal that is achieve sustainable growth. If company is committed
towards its goal, then it motivates their employees to achieve the goal. . More employee
9

engagement in work leads to the competitive advantage for the organisation. Always employees
and company goal should be match together so it can become competitive advantage for the
organisation.
TASK4
6. Different approaches of performance management:
Performance management is process by which an organisation, department and
employees are measured to achieve the organisational goal. A Company can increase its
productivity through presentation management. Whirlpool can use different approaches of
performance management to achieve sustainable success. Some of these are explained below:
Collaborative working approach:
Collaborative working approach is that approach in which all departments and its
employees work together to meet deadlines, provide deliverables and continue to progress on the
goals of the company. For example, if a company has not collaboration in work of its
departments and employees than they would not be able top perform work properly. By using
this approach company can maintain collaboration in work by maintaining proper
communication between departments and employees. Whirlpool can use this approach to make
collaboration in its organisation because all departments and employees will work together for
high performance (Flin and O'Connor, 2017). If performance will better than its shows that
everyone who is working in the organisation is committed towards its work. Collaborative
working approach helps to improves the communication between management and employees.
Comparative approach:
Comparative approach involves ranking the employees according to their performance in
the organisation. Rank is given on the basis of highest and lowest performance. For example, a
company consist of 13% of top performers, 45% of average performers, 30% of goof performers
and remaining 12% of low performers. According to the rank company can ensures the reward
system for its employees. Whirlpool can use this approach to know the performance of its
employees and according to the performance and capabilities it can divide the work.
Attribute approach:
In this performance measuring approach employees are rated on the basis of specific
parameters like- capability, analyses and problem solving skills, communication, uniqueness in
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