HR Professional Skills Analysis, Development, and Learning at Tesco

This report examines the critical skills, behaviors, and knowledge required of HR professionals, using Tesco as a case study. It includes an analysis of personal skills audits and the creation of a professional development plan for an HR officer, Jane Cambridge, highlighting areas for improvement such as IT skills and negotiation. The report differentiates between organizational and individual learning, training, and development, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning for sustainable business performance. Furthermore, it analyzes the contribution of High-Performance Work (HPW) systems to employee engagement and competitive advantage, exploring various performance management approaches and their support for a high-performance culture. The report provides practical examples and templates for development plans, illustrating how organizations can enhance their HR practices to achieve their goals.

DEVELOPING
INDIVIDUALS, TEAMS
AND ORGANISATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
SECTION 1......................................................................................................................................4
P1. Analysing the knowledge, behaviour and professional skills of an HR professional..........4
P2. Analysis of Personal skills audit and professional development plans for Jane Cambridge
and creation of professional development plan...........................................................................5
P3: Difference between organisational and individual learning, training and development......7
P4.Analyse the need for continuous learning and professional development to maintain
sustainable business performance...............................................................................................9
SECTION 2....................................................................................................................................10
P5 Contribution of HPW in employee engagement and competitive advantage in specific
organisational situations............................................................................................................10
P6: Different approaches to performance management and how they support high
performance culture and commitment......................................................................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
In business world, collective and individualistic abilities of employees determines the
success of an organisation. Most of the organizations focuses on improving the capabilities of
their staff through target trainings and mentoring. Developing manpower means improvising
their business knowledge and working potential (Baiden and Price, 2011). Basic criteria for team
development is to ensure that employees must understands their job and specified roles. The
present assignment is based on Tesco which is a renowned British Multinational company and
marketer of groceries and general commodities. It is headquartered in England. This report
acknowledges the behaviour, knowledge and working skills needed by the HR professionals
along with a precise development plan regarding the roles of HR officer. Apart from this,
differences between individual and organisational learning will be discussed. At last the ways in
which HPW influences employees engagement and its impacts on performance, working and
communication within an organisation are mentioned.
SECTION 1
P1. Analysing the knowledge, behaviour and professional skills of an HR professional.
In order to increase the effectiveness within any organisation the major aspects are
knowledge, working skill and behaviour of the employees. Determining these will helps in
improving the productivity at workplace. To carry out the operations and tasks in an effective
way human resource professional of Tesco is required to do distinct functions. This will helps the
organisation in achieving its targets along with increased market growth. Various skills,
behaviour and knowledge required by the HR professional are outlined below:
Skills:
 Negotiation: The negotiating power of a HR manager must be up to the mark. He must be
able to bring everyone close. The HR team of Tesco should be able to reconcile the
differences among the working staff. This will helps in providing a friendly environment
within the company (Bolden, 2016).
 Multitasking: HR professionals must be able to Handle several issues together or within a
short time. This multitasking factor will helps the Tesco in resolving the problems at a
faster rate. This will results in healthy working environment.

 Team working: Team work helps in completing the tasks within time and in a better
way. Administrator of Tesco requires team working skill as it will ensure a positive
impact on the organisation.
 Analysis: Better analysis skill can help the organisation to solve the problems which are
facing by them in the business operations.
 Critically evaluate: It helps the organisation to evaluate the performance of workers
so that it can know the strength and weakness of employees.
Knowledge:
 Personnel and Human resource: Managers of Tesco must have procedural knowledge
regarding the recruitment, selection and training of employees. Apart from it principals of
negotiation, benefits and compensations must be acknowledged (Blandford, 2012).
 Law and Government: Knowledge regarding laws, legal codes, government regulations,
political processes is very important for the HR professional of Tesco. It will help Tesco
in holding a strong position globally.
 Media and communication: Human resource officer of Tesco should have knowledge
regarding media. It will helps in increasing online reputation of the brand. HR team will
be able to provide information to more customers about their products.
 Education and qualification: Person should have done management of business
administration course in the specialisation of Human Resource.
Behaviour:
 Transparency and trustworthiness: Managers are the leaders who guides the staff
regarding their specified tasks. HR Manager of Tesco must be fair, professional and
transparent while taking decisions. As employees must trust their heads for effective
working.
 Versatile and adaptable: Adaptability determines a person behaviour in changing
environment. A human resource professional must be flexible and versatile enough to
deal with variants. This will helps Tesco in competing against challenging situations.
 Solution oriented: Successful HR officer has a positive attitude while resolving issues.
They seeks a solution that will satisfy everyone concerned with that particular problem.
This behaviour of Tesco manager will create a harmony among working staff.

P2. Analysis of Personal skills audit and professional development plans for Jane Cambridge and
creation of professional development plan.
Personal skills audit is essentially a process for measuring and recording the skills of an
individual. It helps to identify the skills and knowledge that an organisation requires, as well as
the skills and knowledge that the organisation currently has (Cerovsek, 2011). This audit is also
done to determine training needs so the employee can improve its skills and knowledge (Conboy
and et. al., 2011). Some skills are required by Tesco for the job profile which include :
1. Promoting equality and diversity in the culture of organisation.
2. Making policies for the betterment of the employee's.
3. Advising on remuneration issues and employee's career enhancement.
4. Encouraging disciplinary actions.
5. Study training needs of employee's.
6. Consultancy on employment law to managers at the time of recruitment.
7. Developing job description, conducting interviews and selecting candidates.
As James Cambridge has gone through evaluation sheet in which he has rated himself according
to which the development plan would be made, so the skills which he has achieved are,
Sr. No. Skills and competencies` Achievement
1 Advising on HR issues Adequate but need training.
2 Writing reports Achieved
3 Information technology skills Partial achievement requires
training
4 Problem solving skills Achieved
5 Interviewing Adequately achieved
6 Disciplinary knowledge Achieved
7 Negotiating staff salary Partial achievement
8 Assisting line managers Achieved
9 Analysis skill Partial achieved

10 Team working Partial achieved
As per this table some of the requirement of job profile has been achieved and the rest
not achieved needs training and development programme.
The programme of professional development which is specifically designed for Jane Cambridge
will enhance his skills and knowledge and determine his weak points,
Development objectives includes developing new skills and knowledge this can be done in the
case of Jane Cambridge by providing her seminars and lectures,
 Advising on HR issues can be developed by giving practical examples on it and
providing case studies to read. This can increase the knowledge of employee which will
help organisation in getting the job profile done. The timeline for acquiring this should be
1 month.
 Information technology skills will be developed through providing proper knowledge of
IT, the way the staff handbooks are prepared and giving the knowledge to run HR related
software. The organisation working culture will help in achieving this skill. The timeline
for this learning objective cannot not be greater than 1 month
 Negotiating staff salary skill can be acquired, while giving her live examples and making
her sit in the interview to listen how other HR does the work (Goodwin and et. al., 2014).
This skill can be achieve in the time span of 15 days and for judging this top management
can be used.
 Developing and implementation of policies skill can be acquire by making the employee
sit in the conference and evaluating how the policies are drawn and implemented. For this
the timeline must be around 1 month. To evaluate this skill help of upper management
would be taken.
By implementing skill audit process Jane Cambridge can adequately increase her skills in HR
and can help organisation in achieving its pre set goals. This process would help in selecting the
employee's as per requirement. By implementing this process organisation can ensure skill
development and other HR related work is successful (Huczynski, Buchanan, and Huczynski,
2013). A skill audit plan has contain rules, regurgitations, policies and training and development
practices and organisation can instruct their employees to work on the basis of this. It helps to
develops the various effective skills in the employees

Appendix A- Template of CPD development action plan
Date Ref. In what area
do I need to
improve my
performance
?
How does
this link to
other
objectives
?
How do I
need to
learn in
order to
achieve
this ?
What
will I do
to
achieve
this ?
What are
the
likely
resource
s and
support
that I
will
need?
How will
I evaluate
a
successfu
l
outcome?
What are
my
deadlines
for
meeting
this
target ?
I need
training and
disciplinary
knowledge.
Training
and
disciplinar
y
knowledg
e can help
me to
improve
my
performan
ce and
productivi
ty in the
company.
I need to
learn
about
organisat
ion
culture
and its
policies.
Through
commitm
ent
towards
the work.
I need
team
leader
support
so that I
can do
work
more
effective
ly.
I can
evaluate
successfu
l outcome
when I
achieve
my goals
and target
and I will
perform
my duties
efficientl
y.
I need
approx 6-
8 months
to meet
the target
which I
have set.
Appendix B- Template of CPD personal development record
Details of Dates Effective Dev. Plan Key Key Future

CPD
activity
ref. learning
points
benefits/
value added
comments:
Was the
plan
successful?
How can I
improve it
in future?
Training
and
developmen
t program,
problem
solving
secession.
I need
approx 6
months
It is
effective
because It
helps me to
improve my
knowledge,
skills and
helps me in
overall
developmen
t and it
makes me
more
respomsible.
Individual
skill and
developmen
t plan which
is organised
by the
management
.
I learn about
Organisatio
nal learning
and
Individual
learning
which helps
me to
improve my
skills.
It develops
confidence
and
motivates
me and
helps to
enhance my
ability.
Yes plan
was
successful
and in future
improvemen
ts can be
done on
effective
training and
learning
process so
that new
employees
can enhance
its skills.
P3: Difference between organisational and individual learning, training and development.
Learning:
It is the process of improving skills, Knowledge, behaviour and values. It is a important
factor for individual and an organisation in order to achieve more growth and knowledge for the
successful completion of organisational goals.

Organisational learning: refers to the process of gaining knowledge in an organisation
about its culture, Environment, goals and processes. In this, Individuals interact with other
employees and learning takes place between them. Hence, learning is a direct outcome of
interaction. Tesco is following such type of learning in order to achieve their organisational
objectives in a specified time and also it will provide opportunities to employees to gain new
knowledge. The employees of Tesco are now identifying their mistakes as well as solving them
by themselves.
Individual learning: refers to the learning of an individual in an organisational whether
learn consciously or unconsciously. It is the ability to gain knowledge through experience or
interaction with other employees and the culture. It involves how an employee learn and how it
is beneficial for the company. In case of Tesco, Managers are identifying the strength and
weakness of their employees and providing necessary skills required for their self-development.
Trait model can be use for the learning so that efficiency can be improved and skills of workers
can be developed and it helps in maximization of productivity.
Difference between organisational and individual learning
Organisational Learning Individual Learning
This learning involves development of an
organisation by implementing policies by
managers in order to provide required skills
and methods in the company
It involves individuals knowledge and skills
required in the company. It is continuous
process with respect to time (Mesoudi and
Thornton, 2016).
It change the behaviour of people which
develops positive attitude (Duffield and
Whitty, 2015).
It builds the confidence in individuals so they
feel motivated and perform well.
Training and Development
It is a essential function of management in order to improve and develops skills and
behaviour among employees of an organisation. Training helps in development of knowledge,
Skills and attitude for doing job more conveniently and effectively. The management of Tesco is
providing technical training and engaging courses to the employees to ensure that the employees
stay updated with technological and other advancements (McCormack, Manleyand, Titchen,

2013). It will help the employees in increasing productivity and performance both in terms of
individuals and organisation. Such trainings and courses provided by management will drive
more growth and opportunities for employees.
Basis of Comparison Development Training
Definition It is an educational process
which involves overall growth
of individuals to overcome
future problems.
In this, individuals develops
and improve their skills and
knowledge with the work
requirements.
Focus It focus on gaining knowledge
and develops an understanding
for upcoming problems.
It develops skills and
knowledge for the present job.
Number of persons Mostly, it involves one person
having good skills and
understanding to handle
various tasks.
It involves group or large
number of persons so that they
can increase their performance
at work.
Duration It is short term process and
fixed duration.
It is a long term precess which
takes through out of life of a
person.
Objective It helps to maximize the
performance of employees.
It ensures the overall growth of
employees.
P4.Analyse the need for continuous learning and professional development to maintain
sustainable business performance.
On a professional level, constant learning includes the continuous enhancements of skills
and working pattern through increasing knowledge. Employees must respond towards the
changing atmosphere and new developments in a competent way. It involves the actions which
leads in achieving the required targeted growth. This will helps the management and employees
to augment their achievements and abilities. At team level, constant learning is depicted by a
team changing itself in response to varying situations. Learning of new strategies and tactics can

help a firm in competing with its rivals in a better way (Mahajan, 2011). Professional
development is necessary for the survival of a company due to altering economic capabilities.
Development in professionalism of employees positively influences the Tesco's reputation at
market level. At an individual level, learning is about upgrading our working skills. In the case
of Tesco advancement and proper learning about new developments are needed for the
achievement of goals and targets. Some of the points related with constant learning environment
are undertaken below:
 For managing difficult situations and resolving them in an efficient way constant learning
process is vital. In context of Tesco, critical thinking must be given consideration. It will
helps in improving the connection between staff members and managers. Improved
relation results in the positive work atmosphere. Continuous learning and professional
development can help the employees to groom their skills and maximize their knowledge.
It improves the efficiency of staffs and they can aware about the use of new technology.
It helps in overall growth and development of the workers. It develops the analytical
skills in the employees and organisation can able to evaluate the performance of their
workers.
 Both learning and advancement to pursue tasks leads to individual growth along with
organisation's benefit. In this aspect Tesco focuses on holding their working staff through
considerable means. Effective training is provided to the employees so that they can learn
new approaches from time to time.
Some of the points to enhance sustainable business performance are outlined as follow:
 Partnership and collaboration: Managing the whole business effectively at small scale is
possible. But when it comes to large organisations it is not effective. Tesco can
collaborate with other institutions, especially in those areas where they lack experience.
This will helps them in expanding their business in new sectors (Mittal and Dhar, 2015).
 Customer retention: For a sustainable growth within an organisation it is essential to hold
the old consumers along with attracting the new ones. Tesco can reduce customer
defection rates which will results in the generation of high margin profits.
 Repeatable sales: Launching new product and brand is not sufficient. To maintain a
scalable business repeatable sales are required. Customer wishes to use those products

which are reliable. Employees of Tesco must focus on providing the required products to
the right people at the right place.
SECTION 2
P5 Contribution of HPW in employee engagement and competitive advantage in specific
organisational situations
High-performance work systems are designed to improve the effectiveness and the productivity
of employee's. In addition, this system can reduce costs for the organisation and helps in creating
value for employee's. It is an organisation where the employee's has greater involvement and
responsibilities. HPW is all about what jobs a company needs to do, designing the jobs and
identifying the employee's needed for the job. As in the case of Tesco, it has taken care of its
employee's and has implemented HPW in the organisation so as to enhance employee's
productivity and organisational performance. The elements of HPW includes organisational
structure, task design, performance, organisational goals, people etc. The elements of high
performance work systems links the firms job infrastructure that equip workers with the proper
ability to do their jobs, provide them with the means to do their work. Elements for this include
training programme to enhance employee's skills, ability and knowledge. As Tesco provides it
employee's regular training and knowledge which helps it in making their service available to
their customer in a great way. Compensation and promotion opportunities that provide
motivation to skilled employee's to engage in overall outcome of firm and fulfilling their needs.
The outcome of HPW comes out to be positive most of the times where it can have significant
impact on financial performance of the organisation, can create a positive culture change within
it, it creates higher degree of job satisfaction among employee's, it increases the production
capacity and quality performance. It also comes with the outcome where employee's are
challenged to explore new ideas. A high-performance work system has to be on the basis of
bang-up strategy that sets out intention and plans through which HPW can be created in the
organisation. The strategy has to be aligned in the way of organisations goals. There are some
conditions that will contribute to high-performance work system which are knowledge sharing,
job satisfaction, employee's reward and compensation tied to companies performance etc. If
these conditions are engaged in any organisation then it will create HPW among employee's. If
these elements are applied in the case of Tesco then it will create job satisfaction among

employee's which in turn will increase the performance of organisation. Ongoing training
programme in the case of Tesco will result in better skills and abilities of employee's. If Tesco
applied the programme which includes job security as a part of HPW then the performance of
employee's would be more committed to the organisation success.
For example, If all employees are performing as per the set standards of organisation than
it leads to higher productivity. Efficiency of workers will also improves and it is possible through
high performance working.
HPW helps in performing very well and have a competitive advantages against other
organisation. It provides successful situation in the organisation as both employee's and
employer gets benefit (Succar, Sher and Williams, 2013).
P6: Different approaches to performance management and how they support high performance
culture and commitment.
Performance Management is the process in which the managers identifies and measures
the performance of employees in organization. It is the continuous process of setting new
objectives, evaluating progress and providing feedback to guarantee that the workforce is
meeting their objectives and goals (Tynjälä, 2013).This is also helpful in execution of activities
in a proper and detailed manner in order to increase the knowledge of each employees in the
company. Fundamentally, performance management involves several element such as;
promotion of workforce, generating trust toward each other and effective communication
mediums between staff members. An organization need to plan their activities in a systematic
and easy manner to perform the task in order to get maximum output. Companies are using
various approaches for evaluating the performance and productivity. These approaches have a
positive effect on the motivation of employees and they perform better. As the employees know
their organizational objectives and goals, They can work further on themselves in order to
achieve them. Five major approaches among these are described below:
Comparative approach: as per this approach, An organization compares two or several
persons in order to measure their performance and talent and after that ranks them according to
their performance. By this, organization can aid them in their given task and goals in a fix period
of time. By this approach, Tesco can identify their star players and can assign the work based on
their expertise which lead to increase in productivity of company in desired time.

Attribute approach: In this, Work force is evaluated on the basis of some factors like
Problem solving skills, Team and work cooperation, Judgment and innovations. Company can
also use Graphic Rating Scale, in order to rank employees. With the help of this approach, Tesco
is easily measuring the potential as well as performance of their employees.
Behavioral approach: It is the oldest technique for measuring the performance. In this
approach, companies are using BARS technique or BOS technique. The Behavioral Anchored
Rating Scale (BARS) ranks workforce based on vertical anchors where company measures
employees on a scale of 5 to 10. Mostly, this technique is used by top level managers to measure
the characteristics and traits of employees. Tesco is using this technique to measure the
characteristics and performance of workforce in identifying the issues faced by employees to
provide right solutions. It will help in achieving the targeted goals.
Result approach: In this, the rating of employees is based on their performance. This
approach is very effective in motivating workforce to increase the productivity. Tesco measure
the performance of their employees based on this approach. Tesco sets two categories i.e.
Balanced Scorecard and productivity measurement for the evaluation of total performance of
workers.
Quality approach: This approach focuses on increasing job satisfaction among
employees by minimizing the conflicts and by providing services to meet their needs and
demands at work place. Management tracks regular feedback of workforce from managers and
their colleagues. Tesco is trying to keep the corporate standards and motivation of employees to
achieve the desired goals. Motivated employees tends to work efficiently which results in
increase in productivity (Wickramasinghe and Widyaratne, 2012). Tesco is providing discounts,
holidays and incentives to their star players and hence employees are taking interest in their work
for these extra rewards and avoiding conflicts by mutual understanding.
So these different approaches help the organization because performance of employees
can enhanced and they can do work more effectively and efficiently. It helps the company to
achieve its goals.
CONCLUSION
As mentioned above in this report, it has been concluded that for the success and growth,
it is necessary to develop both teams and individuals within organisation. It is the major duty of
human resource manager to interpret the needs and demands of employees. There are various

approaches to inspire the employess in order to achieve their both long and short term goals with
maximum efforts. Motivated employees tends to work hard than demotivated one and brings
more growth and productivity for the organisation as well as for themselves. Managers should
take employees seriously and must have understanding of their needs and desire in the
organisation.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baiden, B. K. and Price, A. D., 2011. The effect of integration on project delivery team
effectiveness. International Journal of Project Management, 29(2). pp.129-136.

Blandford, S., 2012. Managing professional development in schools. Routledge.
Bolden, R., 2016. Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower handbook
of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
Cerovsek, T., 2011. A review and outlook for a ‘Building Information Model’(BIM): A multi-
standpoint framework for technological development. Advanced engineering
informatics. 25(2). pp.224-244.
Conboy, K., and et. al., 2011. People over process: key people challenges in agile development.
Goodwin, N., and et. al., 2014. Providing integrated care for older people with complex needs:
lessons from seven international case studies. London: King's Fund.
Huczynski, A., Buchanan, D. A. and Huczynski, A. A., 2013. Organizational behaviour (p. 82).
London: Pearson.
Mahajan, R. P., 2011. The WHO surgical checklist. Best Practice & Research Clinical
Anaesthesiology. 25(2). pp.161-168.
McCormack, B., Manley, K. and Titchen, A. eds., 2013. Practice development in nursing and
healthcare. John Wiley & Sons.
Mittal, S. and Dhar, R. L., 2015. Transformational leadership and employee creativity: mediating
role of creative self-efficacy and moderating role of knowledge sharing. Management
Decision. 53(5). pp.894-910.
Succar, B., Sher, W. and Williams, A., 2013. An integrated approach to BIM competency
assessment, acquisition and application. Automation in Construction. 35. pp.174-189.
Tynjälä, P., 2013. Toward a 3-P model of workplace learning: a literature review. Vocations and
learning. 6(1). pp.11-36.
Wickramasinghe, V. and Widyaratne, R., 2012. Effects of interpersonal trust, team leader
support, rewards, and knowledge sharing mechanisms on knowledge sharing in project
teams. Vine. 42(2) .pp.214-236.