Developing Individuals, Teams, and Organisations: An HR Analysis

This report provides an analysis of the knowledge, skills, and behaviors (KSB) required by HR professionals, along with a professional development plan for an HR officer, Jane Cambridge, based on a skills audit. It examines the differences between organizational and individual learning, as well as training and development, highlighting the importance of these elements in driving sustainable business performance and employee engagement. The report emphasizes the need for HR professionals to possess strong communication, problem-solving, and technical skills to effectively manage employee relations, implement HR policies, and contribute to the overall success of the organization. The professional development plan outlines specific training activities and resources aimed at improving Jane's skills in areas such as contract drafting, disciplinary hearings, candidate interviewing, and the use of HR software. This assignment solution is available on Desklib, a platform providing study tools and resources for students.

DEVELOPING INDIVIDUALS, TEAMS AND ORGANISATIONS
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Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................3
Section 1 (LO1 and LO2)...................................................................................................4
Section 2 (LO3 and LO4).................................................................................................14
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................18
Reference List..................................................................................................................19
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Introduction
In modern days, several business organizations are booming up their business models
through using effective training and development program. In order to accomplish the
business goals and to sustain in this competitive market place, focusing on training and
development program has become necessary. Additionally, by offering proper training
and arranging development program, a company can easily increase its overall
organizational performance level in an effective manner. This assignment will outline the
employee knowledge, behaviours and skills that are required by the HR professionals
and the factors that are needed to be considered while evaluating as well as
implementing inclusive learning and development for driving sustainable business
performance. In addition, the knowledge and understanding to ways in that high
performance working or HPW contributes to competitive engagement and employee
engagement will also be included in this assignment.
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Section 1 (LO1 and LO2)
a)Determine appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSB) that are required
by HR professionals across the department. Please refer to Appendix A for an
overview of HR Officer responsibilities. (P1)
The human capital department is one of the vital departments in an organization. An
officer of the human capital department needs to have certain knowledge, skills and
behaviour in order to increase expertise in the organization. The collection of behaviour,
skills and knowledge are discussed below:
Knowledge:
 In the organization as well as the department, the human resource officer must
implement policies in order to enhance the productivity of the employees. This
will help the organization to achieve fast growth.
 The chief officer of the human resource department should cooperate with the
chiefs of the other departments in the organization to have a thorough knowledge
about the vacancies so that the officer can draft interview procedures
accordingly.
 Drafting of effective interview procedures is one of the vital responsibilities of the
human resource officer (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
 The human resource officer should have a thorough knowledge about the
grievances of the employees so that they can be resolved at the earliest.
 The chief officer of the human resource department should possess thorough
knowledge about how to inspire and motivate the employees. By applying this
knowledge, the human resource manager can improve the employee
engagement and productivity of the employees.
Skills:
 Communication is one of the most vital skills which should be present in an
efficient human resource officer. This help the HR officer to deal with the
employees in a better manner (Bailey et al., 2018)
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 The HR officer should possess excellent skills to promote diversity and equality
in the organization. On the other hand, a HR officer should have the skills to
increase and maintain high values of organizational culture
 Liaising the performance of the staff should be skilfully done by the HR officer.
The HR officer should communicate to the employees as well as the other
departments, the safety measures that needs to taken in the organization in
times of emergency (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017).
 The HR officer should be skilful enough to draft effective training procedures for
the existing and the new employees
 The HR officer should competent enough to solve the queries of the employees
and should review the salary system of the employees on a regular basis.
Behaviour:
 The HR officer should have a calm and composed behaviour. This will help the hr
officer to deal with different employees in the organization.
 The HR officer should regularly interact with the employees and make them
aware of the recent employment laws.
 The officers of the HR department should be competent enough in dealing with
the queries and confusion of the employees. This will help him or her to eradicate
confusion among the employees and bring in effective organizational culture
 The HR officer should possess coordinative and flexible approach while dealing
with the employees which will help him or her maintain a disciplined environment
in the organization (Snell et al., 2015)
b) Analyse a completed personal skills audit for an employee: Jane Cambridge
(See Appendix B) to identify training and development needs considering the
knowledge, skills and behaviours you identified in task (a).
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In personal audit skills, the skills, behaviour and the knowledge of the employees are
analysed and highlighted. In this assignment, an audit of Jane Cambridge’s personal
skills will be done. The personal audit skills will be analysed in the later part. For
analysing the skills, three important stages needs to be considered. The three stages
are:
 Making a list of skills that the employee needs to have
 Making a list of the skills that are already present in the employee
 Analyzing the obtained results and determining the skills that needs to be
developed
In case, the outcomes of the analysis bears negative results, an effective training and
development programs needs to be designed for the future development of the
employee
A list of the skills that a human resource needs to possess is as follows:
In order to increase the productivity of the human resource department, the human
resource officer needs to have an array of skills which will make his work in the
department easy. The important skills that a human resource officer needs to possess
are as follows:
 It is very important of a HR officer to have good communication skills. When an
officer of the HR department possess good writing skill, it becomes easy for the
individual to draft employee contracts with ease. Good verbal and written
communication skills also help the human resource officer to take interviews
efficiently and effectively.
 All the functions of the HR departments now use software. The HR officer should
be competent enough to use the technical advancements used in the work of the
department. An officer of the HR department should know how to use MS Word,
MS Excel, MS Power point and other software as well (excerpted from case
study).
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 Issues between the employees come up in the organization on a regular basis. A
HR officer should be competent enough to resolve the issues and maintain
employee engagement and satisfaction within the organization.
 Data collection and data reviewing is an important task of the human resource
department. All complex data should be effectively handles by the HR officer so
that effective decisions take be taken which affects the employees (excerpted
from case study).
Jane’s Audit of her Personal Skills is done below:
Skills Very Good Good Adequate Little or no
experience
Skills of
Communication
Drafting of
contract for the
employees
Keep a note of
the disciplinary
hearing
Producing
materials to draft
informative
presentations
Conduct training
sessions
Solving the
grievances and
the complaints
Interview of the
Candidates
Advising the
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department of
HR
Skills Very Good Good Adequate Little or no
experience
Information
technology
Make use of
MS Word
Make use of
MS Excel
Make use of
special
software used
in the HR
department
Make use of
Database
Use the internet
Make use of e-
mail
Make use of
PowerPoint
Skills Very Good Good Adequate Little or no
experience
Skills
regarding
solving of
problems
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Managing of
complex data
and using
verbal
communication
skill
Find more than
one solution for
resolving a
problem
Considering
other’s idea to
resolve a
problem
Jane needs to work on many of her skills in order to become an efficient and effective
human resource officer. The three key skills which are the most important ones in the
HR department are communication skills, problem solving skills and the skills to use
technical advancement in the working process. These three key skills can be subdivided
into many more divisions of skills on which Jane has to work upon. In the
communication skills criterion, Jane does not have any knowledge on how to draft
contract letters for the employees. In addition to this, Jane does not know how to
conduct interviews for recruiting candidates. Jane has does not have any knowledge on
how to resolve the grievances of the employees. In the information technology sector,
Jane has knowledge about how to use MS Word and MS excel. However, she does not
have any knowledge about how to use the data or special human resource software
(excerpted from the case study). Jane knows how to draft emails and use the internet
for getting relevant information. Jane does adequate knowledge about the ways which
are used to handle complex data and information. Jane’s problem solving skills are
good but it needs improvement in order to excel as a human resource officer in the near
future.
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c) Create a professional development plan for Jane Cambridge in her HR Officer
role. Tasks (b) and (c) is linked to (P2)
Professional Development Plan
Development
areas
Developmental
Plan
Objectives
Developmenta
l Activities
Resources Timeline
Drafting of
contract for the
employees
In order to
understand the
hr policies in a
better way
Training
sessions from
the human
resource
manager
Previous drafts
of employee
contracts
15 days
Keep a note of
the disciplinary
hearing
In order to
understand the
hr policies in a
better way
Training
sessions from
the human
resource
manager
Records of
previous
disciplinary
hearing
4 days
Conduct
training
sessions
In order to train
the future
candidates
effectively
Training
sessions from
the human
resource
manager
Attend dummy
training session
1 month
Solving the
grievances and
the complaints
In order to
increase
employee
engagement
and satisfaction
Training
sessions from
the human
resource
manager
Study various
previous cases
of employee
grievances
1 month
Interview of the
Candidates
In order to
recruit effective
employees for
the
Training
sessions from
the human
resource
Attend dummy
interview
session
2 weeks
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organization manager
Advising the
department of
HR
Gain
substantial
knowledge
about the
policies of HR
Training
sessions from
the human
resource
manager
Training
sessions
3 weeks
Make use of
special
software used
in the HR
department
In order to
make the
activities easier
in the hr
department
Training from
technical heads
Practical
sessions
1 month
Make use of
Database
In order to
analyse data in
a better way
Training from
technical heads
Practical
sessions
1 month
Managing of
complex data
and using
verbal
communication
skill
In order to
handle data in
an effective
manner
Training
sessions from
the human
resource
manager
Training from
soft skills
managers
3 weeks
Table 1: Professional Development Plan
(Source: Created by the learner)
d) Analyse differences between organisational and individual learning; training
and development. (P3)
The points of comparison between individual learning and organizational learning has
been analysed in the table below:
Individual Learning Organizational Learning
The learning process which is designed for Organizational learning is defines as the
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individual purpose of learning is defined as
individual learning
learning procedures which is drafted to
enhance the knowledge of the employees
All the plans drafted are designed by the
individual
All the plans drafted here are designed
with the collaborative initiative of the
managers
Individual learning considers the skills that
needs to be improved in the personal life
Organizational learning involves
development of all the skills that are
required in the personal as well as
professional life
Table 2: Comparison between Individual and Organizational Learning
(Source: Created by the learner)
The differences between development and training are as follows:
Development Training
Development is a process which takes a
long time when compared to training. This
is a long term process
Training happens for a fixed period of time.
Generally training needs 3 to 6 months in
general
Development has wide scope of learning
and is career oriented.
Training only includes the points which are
required for a specific job role and has a
narrow scope of learning
Development is an individualistic approach Training is attended by many people in
groups.
Development involves a single person
whose skills needs to be developed
While training occurs between a trainer
and a trainee
In a developmental process, an individual
has to work up on the skills that he already
possesses.
In a training process, the individuals are
taught about what key skills they need to
develop
Table 3: Comparison between development and training
(Source: Created by the learner)
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e) Analyse the need for continuous learning and professional development to
drive sustainable business performance. (P4)
In order to achieve sustainability in business performance, the employees need to have
continuous professional development and learning procedures (Charles et al., 2017).
The different ways in which sustainable business performance can be achieved has
been discussed below:
 The scenario of the external factors keeps on changing. To cope up with the
changes, the employees need to be trained on a regular basis. Continuous
learning and professional development will make the employees competent
enough to deal with the changes and ensure guaranteed profits for the
organization
 Professional development and continuous learning ensures that, the knowledge
of the employees is enhanced and up to date. This will help the employees to
deal with different kinds of clients and stakeholders in the future
 In the continuous learning the professional development procedures, the
employees should gather recent information regarding the company. This will
make the employees understand the strategies of the company better. This will
also result in greater productivity from the employees (De Mauro et al., 2018).
 When employees are provided with continuous learning and professional
development programs, the confidence level of the employees increase.
Confident employees proves to be beneficial for the growth of the organization
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Section 2 (LO3 and LO4)
Introduction
Improving the organizational performance is necessary for accomplishing the maximum
success in the business. High performances from the employees are needed for
increasing sales and profitability of an organization. In the given case scenario,
Sainsbury’s is one of the leading business organizations, the company needs to focus
on improving organizational performance, employee engagement and gaining
competitive advantages in the market place. This task will outline those factors and
evaluate the role and importance of those factors.
i) Demonstrate understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement
and competitive advantage within a specific organisational situation. (P5)
Employee engagement is considered as one of the most crucial factors that really
contribute in making a business organization successful in a more significant way. In
addition, by engaging more numbers of employees, a company can easily increase
performance standard of the business (Kumar and Pansari, 2016). The main motive of
the HPW is influencing the overall organizational performance in an effective way.
According to the market researchers, the concept of HPW was initiated for improving
the performance level of the employees as well as improving the quality of the product
to increase the sales. Additionally, it encourages management to engage more numbers
of employees in the organizational activities as well as decision-making process. In
order to sustain in this competitive market place, it has become very crucial to take help
of HPW. Most of the successful business organizations such as Sainsbury’s has
introduced HPW in its organization in place to improve their performance standard in a
more significant way that it can help the organization to accomplish the business
achievements (Albrecht et al., 2015). The HR manager of Sainsbury’s named Jane
Cambridge knew the importance of HPW method to increase the standard of all
organizational activities. Thus, company will able to accomplish their predicted level of
success in the business. Jane Cambridge, the HR of Sainsbury’s has focused on
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improving team performance and employee relationship for integrating the concept of
HPW in their business.
Leaders and higher authority of management of Sainsbury’s also has focused on
gaining competitive advantages in the market place. In this process, the HR manager of
Sainsbury’s has decided to create a more transparent and healthier working
atmosphere, where more numbers of employees can be engage in work and contribute
their performance for the growth of the organization in a more significant way. By
engaging more numbers of employees, the company will also be able to gain
competitive market advantages that will lead the company to sustain in the market place
(Anitha, 2014). In addition, employees of Sainsbury’s get motivated through the HR
manager named Jane Cambridge. Motivated employees can perform better in the
organization. This helps an organization to gain competitive market advantages through
which Sainsbury’s can easily enhance its overall structure of the business.
ii) Evaluate different approaches to performance management and using specific
examples showing how they support high performance culture and commitment.
(P6)
Performance management is another important business function that is done within an
organization to maintain the quality of performance level of the overall business
organization. The current market is very much competitive and the customer purchasing
decision is changing all the while. Performance management depends on several
factors such as knowledge and skills of the employees, organizational policies regarding
HR management, pay package that the employees receive and so on (Goetsch and
Davis, 2014). In order to improve the performance management, Sainsbury’s can use
several effective approaches that are listed below:
Quality approach
Quality approach is an effective approach for managing the quality and performance of
the employees. It analyses the standards of the performance of the employees through
analysing the strengths and weaknesses properly (Buckingham and Goodall, 2015). By
maintaining the quality and performance level, companies like Sainsbury’s can easily
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enhance their overall structure of the business organization in a significant way. This is
considered as one of the easiest approach to performance management.
Behavioural approach
Behavioural performance management is one of the most useful and popular
approaches to performance management that can be used by any successful business
organizations such as Sainsbury’s. In this process, Behavioural Anchored rating Scale
is used for measuring and managing the performance level of the employees (Luthans
et al., 2015). Through this techniques or approach, business organizations such as
Sainsbury’s can judge performance standards of the entire employees in a more
significant way.
TQM approach
TQM or total quality management is one of the best techniques to improve performance
management in a significant way. Total quality management can be used to maintain
the quality of the overall performance of an organization (Chang, 2016). TQM is used by
most of the successful business organizations such as Sainsbury’s to control and
maintain the total quality of performance of the entire business organization. In addition,
by implementing TQM approach, business organization such as Sainsbury’s can be
benefited with several advantages like cost reduction, defect reduction, quality
improvement in product, customer satisfaction and many more. Alternatively, it allows
increasing the sales and profitability of a business organization through maintaining the
quality of performance of the overall business organization.
Each of the business organization needs to focus on improving their performance
management for the betterment of their organization. Alternatively, it can assist an
organization to sustain in this present competitive market. Both of the approaches can
be used as an approach to performance management. Most of the successful business
organizations such as Sainsbury’s can use both of the approaches to develop their
performance management system within the organization in an effective manner.
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Conclusion
This can be concluded that most of the successful business organizations needs to
focus on HPW to maintain the standard of performance level of the employees. In
addition, approaches such as behavioural approach, quality approach and so on can be
used to maintain and increase performance management system and skills. This task
has covered the importance HPW in engaging employees and gaining competitive
market advantages and the approaches that can be used to improve performance
management.
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Conclusion
This can be concluded that training and development program is crucial for improving
the performance level of the entire employees of an organization. High performance
form the overall organization is mandatory for sustaining in this highly competitive
market. Additionally, by developing individuals of the company, company can surely
increase the rate of sales as well as profitability through right HR process and proper
system within the organization. HR department requires appropriate knowledge,
behaviors and skills across the department for making a revolutionary success within
the organization. Several important factors are included that are important for improving
business performance. In addition, high performance working (HPW) contributes to
competitive advantages and employee engagement. The ways to contribute high
performance has also been included in this assignment.
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Reference List
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employee performance. International journal of productivity and performance
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Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2014. Armstrong's handbook of human resource
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Chang, J.F., 2016. Business process management systems: strategy and
implementation. Auerbach Publications.
Charles Jr, O.H., Schmidheiny, S. and Watts, P., 2017. Walking the talk: The business
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Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to
planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
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Kumar, V. and Pansari, A., 2016. Competitive advantage through engagement. Journal
of Marketing Research, 53(4), pp.497-514.
Luthans, F., Luthans, B.C. and Luthans, K.W., 2015. Organizational Behavior: An
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