HR Development Manager: Reflective Blog on Career Development Plan

This report is a reflective blog created by a student, focusing on the career development plan of an HR Development Manager. It begins with an introduction to Human Resource Management and the role of an HR Manager, highlighting the importance of transferable skills. The core of the report is Task 1, which details the student's personal career development plan, including self-assessment, market research, focus, and planning stages. The student discusses their strengths and weaknesses, market research methods, and the use of tools like LinkedIn and Wet Feet Inc. The report also emphasizes the importance of lifelong learning and provides tips for effective learning. Finally, the report concludes by summarizing the key takeaways and the importance of continuous skill and knowledge development for an HR Development Manager, referencing relevant academic sources.

MANAGING SELF & OTHERS:
REFLECTIVE BLOG

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Own career development plan and reflect
succinctly on the knowledge, and transferable skills that you currently have that you will
need
to function effectively as a newly promoted HR development manager...................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management is a process of hiring people, providing them training,
correcting them, developing strategies to retain them. Human Resource Manager has three major
responsibilities: staffing, employee benefits, and managing work (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
The function of Human Resource Manager is to maximize productivity of an
organisation. Role of HR manger is the development of a staffing plan, recruitment, development
of the work place, dealing with the laws, and so on.
Transferable skills are those skills, which an individual develops as he develops through
education, employment or training. Communication skills, problem solving, personal motivation,
research and analytical skills and teamwork are all transferable skills.
TASK 1
1.1 Own career development plan and reflect succinctly on the knowledge, and transferable skills
that you currently have that you will need to function effectively as a newly promoted HR
development manager
My personal development plan describes specific learning goals and ensures to make the
most of my learning opportunities. If I want to continue moving forward, I must continue
growing my knowledge and skills(Personal or professional development plans, 2012). A good
career development plan focuses on improving knowledge and skills and connects your goal with
your plans for the future. Career development plan helps us to identify and focus on the learning
opportunities that will be benefited to us.
The Four Stages of Career Development Plan are as follows:
1. Stage 1 Self-exploration: - self-assessment is important for career planning and personal
development. My knowledge regarding computer skills, various academic skills got
improved in recent years. My communication skills, listening skills and I am also good at
interacting well with different people. My strength is that I am very expressive, patient
and good communicator. Weaknesses are lack of time management, over talking and
sharing responsibility.
2. Stage 2 Market research: - there are two sources of market research i.e. public
(Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2017) and published. People are excellent resources to gather
1

information. My market research will be focused on collecting information about
organisation functions, industries to inform my career choices. I will ask about: my duties
and tasks, my role, responsibilities, rewards provided by them, their culture. Published
resources include books, websites, professional associations that are essential for
gathering basic functional industry and company’s information.
 Wet Feet Inc.:- It is an online career research tool(Personal or professional development
plans, 2012). It helps me with research and tips for preparing for interviews and other
parts of job. LinkedIn: - It is the world's largest networking site, which helps in job
search and networking tremendously (Harteis and Goller, 2014).
3. Stage 3 Focus: - it is the mixture of the first two stages, overlapping your interests with
what is happening in the market and setting a goal for internship. As I evaluate the match
between information collected in the market and the result of my self reflection, I will
direct my search towards a particular functional focus. These choices are core factors for
personal development plan. My goal is to identify a functional role whose tasks,
responsibilities, duties fit with my interests, skills, experience and knowledge.
Personal SWOT analysis reveals Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It helps to
specify goals and objectives to mitigate gaps.
4. Stage 4 Planning: - in this, I will integrate what I have learned in the previous
stages and convert it into a strategic development plan that includes midterm
objectives as well as five year vision. Writing down the vision will help me to
create goals and plans. A strategic plan is a document, which helps me to update it
periodically as my environment changes. Moreover, my personal SWOT analysis
may tell that may I need to follow an alternative step for other development
experiences (Marchington and Kynighou, 2016).Lifelong learning skills are
defined as all learning activities undertaken throughout the life, with the purpose
of improving knowledge, skills and competencies. Lifelong learners are motivated
and dedicated towards learning. It can help enhance our understanding of the
world, provide us with better opportunities and improve our quality of living. A
lifelong learning helps in keeping both body and mind in shape.
Tips that made me a good lifelong learner:-
2

 Audio books are perfect way to boost knowledge. I used to listen the political debate or
even new languages.
 Practice made me perfect; reading books and applying practical skills had fun.
Human Resource Development Manager is a person who helps employees in developing their
personal and organisational skills, knowledge and abilities. They are involved in training of
employees to achieve organisational goals. The nature of HRD manager requires skills such as
decision-making, communication, teamwork and multitasking skills (McGrath, 2014).
It consists of opportunities such as employee training, employee career development,
performance management etc. to become a HR manger I had taken relevant courses in school
and I had earned bachelor's degree. To be a HR manager, various skills are required to deal with
different situations. It takes multiple skills to create and manage people(Personal or professional
development plans, 2012).
I need to make regular assessments of the ways I work and the progress I am making. I
need to manage my work efficiently to achieve deadlines. As part of my assessment, I need to
find areas for improvement and skills to learn. I will monitor my own performance regularly to
make sure that it is effective.
CONCLUSION
Throughout this report, I had learned that if I want to continue moving forward, I must
continue growing my knowledge and skills. A good career development plan focuses on
improving knowledge and skills. Transferable skills are those skills, which an individual
develops as he develops through education, employment. Further, I concluded that the lifelong
learners are motivated and dedicated towards learning. It can helps to enhance our understanding
of the world. To be a good HRD manager, I need to make regular assessments of the way I work
and the progress I am making. I need to manage my work efficiently to achieve deadlines.
3

REFERENCES
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Chelladurai, P. and Kerwin, S., 2017. Human resource management in sport and recreation.
Human Kinetics.
Marchington, M., and Kynighou, A., 2016. Human resource management at work. Kogan Page
Publishers.
McGrath, M., 2014. Personal development plan. Leading the Way. 11(1). p.21.
Rocha, M., 2015. Predictors of the acquisition and portability of transferable skills: a
longitudinal Portuguese case study on education. Higher Education. 69(4). pp.607-624.
Quendler, E. and Lamb, M., 2016. Learning as a lifelong process-meeting the challenges of the
changing employability landscape: competences, skills and knowledge for sustainable
development. International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life Long
Learning. 26(3). pp.273-293.
Harteis, C. and Goller, M., 2014. New skills for new jobs: Work agency as a necessary condition
for successful lifelong learning. In Promoting, assessing, recognizing and certifying
lifelong learning (pp. 37-56). Springer, Dordrecht.
Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Personal or professional development plans, 2012 [Online] Available through:
<https://faculty.londondeanery.ac.uk/e-learning/assessing-educational-needs/personal-or-
professional-development-plans>.
4