Aldi: HR Skills, Development, and Performance Management Report

This report delves into the critical aspects of human resources within an organizational context, using Aldi as a case study. It begins by outlining the essential skills, knowledge, and behaviors expected of HR professionals, emphasizing active listening, coordination, monitoring, and system evaluation. The report then presents a personal skills audit and a professional development plan, highlighting strengths and weaknesses in areas like information technology, communication, and problem-solving. Furthermore, it examines the differences between organizational and individual learning, training and development, and the importance of continuous learning and professional development. The report also explores the contribution of high-performance working to employee engagement and competitive advantage, followed by an analysis of different approaches to performance management. This report is a comprehensive resource for students seeking to understand the multifaceted role of HR in fostering individual, team, and organizational success. This report is available on Desklib, where students can find past papers and solved assignments.

Developing
Individuals, Teams
and Organisation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Section 1...........................................................................................................................................1
P1 Abstract of professional skills, knowledge and behaviour required by HR professionals.. . .1
P2 Personal skills audit required to determine appropriate skills, knowledge and behaviour &
creation of professional development plan.................................................................................2
P3 Analysis of difference between organisational and individual learning; training and
development................................................................................................................................5
Training and development..........................................................................................................6
P4 Need for continuous learning and professional development ...............................................6
Section 2...........................................................................................................................................8
P5 Contribution of HPW in employee engagement and competitive advantage in specific
organisational situations..............................................................................................................8
P6 Different approaches to performance management ..............................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
In the current market scenario, the success of any business organization depends on its
ability to constantly develop individuals, teams and the joint efforts of its employee's. The need
to develop individuals and teams determines the working of that organisation and how effective
they are. Developing work force means increasing their capabilities to achieve the pre-set
organizationals goals (Burt, Sepie and McFadden 2008.). This will enable the organization to use
the skills to maintain the working requirement. In the present report, the organization which is
considered for example is Aldi which is German discount supermarket chain headquartered in
Germany. This report generates the analysis of employee's knowledge, skills, Behaviour
required by HR professionals and the factors to be considered when implementing and
evaluating inclusive learning and development to drive sustainable business performance. Beside
this, it also includes application of knowledge and understanding to the ways in which high-
performance working commendates to employee's engagement. At last, certain ways are
evaluated that will lead to effective communication, cooperative working and performance
management.
Section 1
P1 Abstract of professional skills, knowledge and behaviour required by HR professionals.
For any organisation to be successful and effective it is required to shape the professional
skills, knowledge and behaviour of their employee's. Shaping these will help in accelerating
overall productivity of organisation. Various function are required to be performed by HR of
Aldi so that all activities and operations are performed in a effective way (Lozano, 2008.). For
this managers are required to be highly skilled and professionally competent to take the best
decision. Various skills, knowledge and behaviour required by HR professional are discussed
below :-
Skills
 Active listening: this skills requires giving full attention to what people says, taking time
to understand and interpreting the things efficaciously. HR of Aldi should listen to the
problems of the employee's with full concentration and should provide them with best
solution as early as possible which will help in gaining employee's confidence.
1

 Coordination: The HR should impose the skill of coordination among their employee's so
that they can collaborate with others to accomplish the organizations mission. HR of Aldi
requires this skill so that they can adjust actions in relation to other's action.
 Monitoring: The HR of any organization requires monitoring the performance of
organization to make improvements or take corrective actions (Stewart 2001). It will
help the organization as HR will monitor the behaviour of employee's and will take
necessary actions.
 System Evaluation: The HR should identify the measures or indicators of system
performance and action needed to improve the performance according to the goals of
organization . In Aldi, as it is large organization the evaluation of system is necessary
from time to time correct the performance.
Knowledge
 Personal and Human resource: Knowledge of principals and procedures for personnel
recruitment, selection, training and compensation are required by HR professional. This
is needed in case of Aldi as it will help in recruiting the best employee's at the
compensation which suits the organisation.
 Law and Government: Cognition of laws, legal procedures, government regulations,
political process are desired for the job role. As this impact Aldi's working routine so HR
of requires the knowledge of above
Behaviour
 Integrity: The job profile of any HR should be honest and ethical. One should follow
integrity in his job role (Matlay, 2000). As it impacts the decisions of employee's
working. So the HR of Aldi should work in Ethical manner and should contribute to the
good working environment.
 Cooperative: The profile requires being pleasant at job with others and displaying a good
nature and cooperative attitude. As Aldi has a large work force which has to managed, so
it requires cooperative behaviour of HR.
P2 Personal skills audit required to determine appropriate skills, knowledge and behaviour &
creation of professional development plan.
Skill audit is a key piece of information an organization requires to know so that it can
recognize whether the required individual possess the skills requirement or not. Without this
2

information the person does not know where it has to improve or not. This helps the organisation
to target better training and development needs of the candidate (Paulus, 2000). Recruiting needs
would be better defined and will result in appropriate worker. The outcome of this is to analyse
and identify the areas which requires training and development. Some skills are required by Aldi
which includes:
1. Advising on HR related issues
2. Developing job description, selecting candidates and fixing their compensation.
3. Encouraging disciplinary actions among employee's
4. Advising the managers of their legal conduct.
5. Making code of conduct regarding the job profile.
As in the report Janes Cambridge has gone through the evaluation sheet in which she has rated
herself according to which the training and development plan would be made.
Very good Good Adequate Little or no
experience
Information Technology
Use Microsoft Office Word √
Use Excel spreadsheet √
Use a Database √
Use specialist HR software √
Use the internet √
Use e-mail √
Use PowerPoint √
Very good Good Adequate Little or no
experience
Communication Skills
Drafting contracts of √
3

employment
Taking notes of
disciplinary hearings
√
Write reports √
Produce material to support
presentations
√
Delivering a training
session
√
Resolving
disputes/complaints
√
Interviewing √
Advising on HR issues √ Very good
Very good Good Adequate Little or no
experience
Problem solving skills
Make good use of verbal
reasoning skills, able to
handle complex data and
make selective use of
information
√
Explore more than one
solution in order to solve a
problem
√
Consider the ideas of others
to help solve problems
√
4

On the basis of the table above the strengths and weakness of Janes Cambridge are defined
below:
Strengths Weakness
Information technology skills of Janes
Cambridge above average and he knows how
to use internet and emails also knows how to
use power point.
Janes Cambridge does not know the use of
Data base and specialist HR software.
The communication skills including writing
reports and producing material to support
presentation is good. It will help the company
in communicating with the employees more
efficiently.
Drafting contracts of employment, delivering
communication session and advising on HR
issues are the weakness that Janes Cambridge
has.
Problem solving skills of Janes Cambridge are
above satisfaction level as she is able to
provide the solutions to company in much
more efficient way.
Verbal reasoning skills of Janes Cambridge is
the weakness as she does not have any
experience in solving the problems.
Personal development programme: it is the process of creating an action plan that helps an
individual in identifying the skills and weakness and provide them the method of overcoming the
failing within them.
PDP plan is given below:
Sr.
No
Learning
Objective
Current
Proficiency
Target
Proficiency
Development
Opportunities
Criteria
for
judging
success
Time
Scale
Evide
nce
1 Information
Technology
Janes
Cambridge
To enhance
Janes
By providing
her training
Team 1
mont
By
judge
5

information
technology skills
are above
average this
means that this
skills requires
more emphasis
to enhance and
make her IT
ready.
Cambridge
IT skills
and
understandi
ng about
various
tools and
technology
specially
in HR
software
and use of
Data base.
from IT
department
and online
tutorials will
help her in
enhancing the
skills and
understanding
various tools
required.
members h ment
of IT
mana
gers
and
the
peer
collea
gues.
2 Communication
skills
Janes
Cambridge is
average at
problem solving
skills this means
that she requires
training and
development so
as to enhance
her
communication
skills.
To enhance
Janes
cambridge
communica
tion skills
in drafting
employees
contracts
and
delivering
training
session
Hence in the
training
programme it
should
include the
areas such as
how to draft
contracts of
employment,
learning of the
theories used
in advising
HR related
issues, how to
resolve
disputes and
complaints
Team
members
3
mont
hs
By
judge
ment
of the
mana
geme
nt and
the
empl
oyee's
.
6

etc.
3 Problem solving
ability
Jane Cambridge
is average at
taking decision
and providing
the solutions on
time. To make
her overcome
this ability it is
required that
proper training
is provided.
The need to
increase the
skills of
verbal and
reasoning
is required
as to handle
the
complex
data.
For improving
this Janes
Cambridge
proceed to
take guidance
from the
superiors and
also seeks to
join training
program from
upper level
management.
Managers
of top
level will
asses
Janes
Cambrid
ge
performa
nce.
2
mont
hs
Top
level
mana
geme
nt.
On the basis of this table it is concluded that some of the requirement of table has been achieved
and rest need training and development programme.
P3 Analysis of difference between organisational and individual learning; training and
development.
Learning: it is a process that leads to change, which occurs as a result of experience and
increases the potential for improved performance and future acquisitions. It is one of the
effective tools to improve professional skills, knowledge and behaviour. It is important aspect for
organisation as well as individual to grow their knowledge and skills.
Organisational Learning: it is a process where managers and leaders give priority to
learning as a integral part of organisation. In this learning, knowledge is created, retained and
transferred within the organization. In an organisation individuals interact between them and
learning takes place (Senior and Swailes 2004). Aldi is following organisational learning in its
culture which helps them in achieving their goals and target.
Individual Learning: It is defined as the capacity to build knowledge through individual
refection and through personal re-elaboration. In this learning process manager has to identify
the strengths and weakness of the employee's and develop training session accordingly. It implies
7

how employee's learn and how it is beneficial for the company. Aldi is identifying the
prospectus for individual learning and helping their employee's enhancing their skills.
Difference between organisational and individual learning
Organisational learning Individual learning
This is the learning where the organisation has
its impact and focuses on the team as a whole.
In this managers of the organisation develop a
learning plan for the team and evaluate them
on the basis of the outcomes which they
generate.
While in the case of individual learning,
individuals of the organisations learns
themselves with the experience and the training
session developed according to the individual
needs.
This helps in building effective teams within
the organisation and enhance performance of
the company as in the case of Aldi happens.
This helps in building skills in the individuals
which further helps in attaining the overall
objective of the organisation.
Training and development
Training is the programme that helps employee's gain specific knowledge or skills to
improve performance in their current roles. Development is more expansive and focuses on
employee's growth and future performance (Garavan 2002). It is vital function of HRM that will
improve the skills and develop a level of professionalism among the employee's. In case of Aldi
effective training sessions are conducted during the year so that employee's gets updated to the
current market trends and are able to work according to the requirement.
Training Development
Training is mostly short term and focuses on
the job profile of the employee's.
Development is the long term activity, with
goals that are open ended and ongoing in the
organisation. It focuses on the individual
person.
Training revolves around immediate and
present role needs and enhances the knowledge
or skills for the particular job role.
This activity is futuristic and aims at career
building and progression of the individual.
8

Organisation takes the responsibilities for
training.
Development is the self-assessment procedure
where individuals have to develop themselves.
P4 Need for continuous learning and professional development
In order to sustain Aldi company in top form, continuous learning and professional
development can be one of the best techniques. Talent development Association based in the
United Kingdom lays an important fact that an organization are more nimble and competitive
when skills and knowledge is constantly and freely shared from time to time (Chang, 2006).
Continuous learning and professional development is essential for the existence of an
organization. Today, continuous learning has become an important function which need to to
performed through innovation of training session in an organization. This helps in acquiring and
enhancing critical and analytical thinking skills.
The term continuous learning refers to the strength of acquiring cognition and the ability
to expand skill opportunities in order to develop upcoming opportunities for an organization.
Some of the important reason why continuous learning is important for Aldi company are
mentioned below:
 Development of critical thinking skills is important for the workers of Aldi company. As
the company takes into consideration their points of views at the time when their arises
some issues. So it is very much essential for the employees to be updated about the
changing environment that takes place in an organization. This will help the Aldi
company in achieving the target goal on time.
 As well as to achieve the global status in the market continuous learning is important for
the Aldi company (Jeffcott, Ibrahim and Cameron 2009). So effective training session
programmes are being provided by the company for their workers so that they get
updated and acquire some skills and knowledge about the changes that are taking place in
the workplace environment.
Kolb's experiment learning theory: This theory is typically represented by four stages
of learning cycle in which learner touches all the bases which are stated below: Concrete experience: In this stage the Aldi company provides some kind of lab session
and field works so that the employees actively experience an activity.
9