Developing HR Skills, Teams, and Organizations at Whirlpool

This report analyzes the professional knowledge, skills, and behaviors required by HR professionals at Whirlpool Corporation, an American multinational manufacturer of home appliances. It includes a personal skills audit, SWOT analysis, and a professional development plan to identify areas for improvement. The report examines the differences between organizational and individual learning, training, and development, highlighting the need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business performance. It also discusses how High-Performance Work systems (HPW) contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage, evaluating different approaches to performance management with specific examples to support a high-performance culture. The report covers key aspects of HR management within the context of Whirlpool, providing a comprehensive overview of training, development, and organizational learning strategies.

Developing individual, teams and
organisation

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P.1 Professional Knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required by HR Professionals at
Whirlpool................................................................................................................................1
P.2 Completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours
and develop a Professional development plan for a given job role in an organisation with
special reference to the case study Whirlpool........................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P.3. Analysing the differences between organisational and individual learning, training and
development with reference to Whirlpool..............................................................................5
4. Studying the need for continuous learning and professional development to drive
sustainable business performance in the.................................................................................6
5. Understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive
advantage................................................................................................................................8
P.6 Evaluate different approaches to performance management and illustrate with specific
examples which support high- performance culture and commitment..................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Developing individual, teams and organisation means improvement of overall
organisation and its employees for better working. In this present assignment Whirlpool
corporation has been chosen for assessment. Whirlpool is an American Multinational
manufacturer which deals in home appliances. Organisation has it’s headquarter in Michigan,
United states. It has annual revenue of US $21.25 billion. It has around 70 manufacturing units
around the world. This report will cover Professional Knowledge, skills and behaviours that are
required by HR Professionals at Whirlpool. In addition to this, differences between
organisational and individual learning training and development with reference to the case study
at Whirlpool will be analysed. Furthermore, Understanding of how HPW contributes to
employee engagement and competitive advantage will be described briefly.
TASK 1
P.1 Professional Knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required by HR Professionals at
Whirlpool.
Human resource is that department of company which is responsible for all the work
related to employees. This includes hiring people for vacant position, training and payments. It is
duty of HR department to guide entire organization about how workers should be treated.
Following are the knowledge and skills that are required by HR department:
Skills of Human resource department
Effective Communication Skills: It is the major function of HR department to facilitate
and fill the gap between employers and employees. Human resource department must be good at
oral and written communication skills. As they need to give training to new joinee and required
to speak about ethics and policies of company to employees. HR of Whirlpool should be
confident enough to give speech at conferences and meeting with work man of Whirlpool. This
skill is very much important and essential for HR professionals as will be helpful for them in
communicating with clients and employees as well.
Employee relation: To run an organization successfully it is really important to maintain
a healthy environment of working. Employer and employee should have respect for each other. It
is the major work of HR to maintain the conflicts that arises between work men. HR is like an
advocate for both the employer and employees of the company. HR of Whirlpool must have the
skills of maintaining the coordination between every person of organization. This is very much
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required skill for HR as with the help of it they could be able to provide effective relations with
all employees of company.
Timely decision making: HR must have the skills of taking all the decision on time. HR
of Whirlpool has the duty of making payment slips of employees, training to workman etc.
Everything should be done at proper time because every department is interconnected with each
other. So HR must have the skills of timely decision making.
Listening skills: HR should have proper listening skills which helps employees. As it is
the duty of HR to listen problems of every worker in the organisation. So they must listen it with
patience and take every decision after listening effectively to the whole situation.
Professional knowledge of HR
Personnel and Human resources: Every HR must have the knowledge of procedure that
is required to be followed for the purpose of recruitment and selection of Applicants. HR should
have complete professional knowledge about labour relations and negotiation (Stout, 2017). As
an HR consultant for Whirlpool it is suggested to hire such Human resource for the company
who have knowledge of principles related to training and development of new joinee. The
professional knowledge like that related to HR is very much essential as this will provide in
correct usage of approaches or activities.
Computer and Electronics: HR of Whirlpool must have the knowledge of Basic
computer operations and software that is used by major companies. As HR has to make salary
slips of employees with the use of computer and every small work is related to Applications and
software. Professional knowledge related to computers is the major feature of HR.
Behaviour of HR
Purpose oriented: HR of Whirlpool should understand the main purpose of the
company. But to understand the purpose is not only the thing but HR should live with the
purpose of the organisation. It should be the behaviour of HR to understand the purpose of
employees that why they are working for the establishment. A successful HR is the one who
understand the purpose of company and employees both and align both the purpose so that it can
be attained.
Solutions oriented: HR should always be good at negotiating and must have the attitude
of solving problems of employees. It requires lots of creativity to manage all the problems of
workers by keeping in mind about the company. HR of Whirlpool has a mind-set which should
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be designed in such a way that they do not focus on problem, rather they concentrate on
solutions. It is behaviour of HR to find solutions of every problem that is being faced by
employees while working with the establishment.
P.2 Completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours
and develop a Professional development plan for a given job role in an organisation with
special reference to the case study Whirlpool.
Personal skill Audit: It is a process of identifying and measuring the skills of person or
group of individuals. It is conducted to know the skills of an employee and where they lack so
that it can be improved to achieve organisational objective (Baldry, 2018). Here with reference to
case study of Whirlpool, personal skill audit of HR is carried to know their knowledge and skills
and where they are lacking.
SWOT ANALYSIS
Strengths: HR of Whirlpool has the skill of effective communication with employees
and other management of company. It helps them in conveying message and solving conflicts of
the workers. Amazing communication is required for giving training to new joinee which helps
them in delivering ethics, work culture and knowledge about all the policies and procedure of the
organisation (Argyris, 2017). While conducting audit it has also been determined that HR of
Whirlpool is effective at maintaining employee relationship. Whirlpool has excellent
management system because of their HR department which is professional at maintaining
healthy working environment of the company.
Weaknesses: Human resource department of Whirlpool has many skills but no one is
perfect and they lack at some or the other point. Likewise, HR of Whirlpool majorly lacks at
their listening ability. It is major work of HR to listen to all the problems of employees and give
solutions to them for their troubles. HR of whirlpool also has the weakness in technology
knowledge. It is really important to have software knowledge that is used for working in HR
management.
So to develop skills in which HR of whirlpool has imperfection. A professional
development plan is prepared to analyse the areas for improvement and actions that can be taken
for development of those skills.
Opportunities: As a HR manager, an individual can develop specific skills of develop in
and managing the strong workforce of an organisation. It can help to provide a good opportunity
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for achieving career growth and development. It can help to develop time management and issue
handling skills.
Threats: The major threat of working as a HR is the lack of knowledge and
understanding of other areas of career and development.
Personal Skills Audit
Skills High Moderate Low
Communication skills
✓
Listening skills
✓
Solutions oriented
✓
Higher Technology
knowledge ✓
Effective Planning
✓
Professional development plan
Skills Areas for
improvement
Actions for
development
Time required Evidence
Listening skills Lacking in
patience to listen
By being more
attentive and
keeping mind
open
1 month Feedback from
employees.
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Solutions
oriented
Lack of providing
solutions such
that it can satisfy
both the parties
Organising
meeting for
employees who
need solution of
their problem
1 week Seniors and
subordinates.
Higher
Technology
knowledge
In depth
knowledge of
software and
hardware
Pursuing
certificate course
of computers and
attending
seminars and
workshops
2 Months Effective
planning of IT
project effectively
Effective
Planning
Proper
implementation
of plan that is
prepared.
Attending local,
regional and
national seminars
of functions of
management
6 months Contributing in
different projects
of planning
TASK 2
P.3. Analysing the differences between organisational and individual learning, training and
development with reference to Whirlpool
Training: It is a process which is carried out by company to give guidance and
knowledge to employees. It is majorly given for a specific job role so that workers can learn
about the work they have to do in the organisation. It is mostly for new joinee to make them
familiar about the company and its laws and policies (Rahim, 2017). Whirlpool provides training
to its workers for a period of 6 months. A special training programme is designed by Whirlpool
to train its work man so that they can contribute more to the establishment.
Development: It is that programme which is conducted by organisation to improve the
skills of employees in order to make them more efficient for work assigned. This is majorly for
seniors and managers of the company (Trorey and Cullingford, 2017). Whirlpool conducts
different development programmes for overall development of employees and organisation as
well.
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Organisational training and development is made for attaining growth and objectives of
the firm. Whereas, Individual training are to enhance skills and their overall performance.
Difference between training and development
Basis Training Development
Meaning It is a process to enhance
knowledge and for giving
guidance to workers.
It is that process which is
carried for growth of
employees.
Duration Training is a short term
process, it is carried by
company for a fixed period.
It is a long term process which
does not have any fixed period,
rather it is a continuous
process for the lifetime of a
person
Nature It is carried by seniors to train
newly joined employees.
Employee development
programs are carried for
managers to make them learn
new things.
Objective This process is carried so that
employees can do their job in a
better way.
Employee development
program is carried for overall
growth of managers and
employees.
4. Studying the need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable
business performance in the
Continuous learning is a process of increasing knowledge and skills by carrying out
different practices. It is required to accept daily changes and life demands (Dixon, 2017). At
Whirlpool, continuous learning is adopted to learn new things come sin the way of employees.
Everyday innovative ideas are implemented by seniors which is required to be adopted by
employees. So there is always a need to learn on continuous basis.
Need for continuous learning
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Continuous learning is required at workplace so that employees can enhance their skills
and knowledge for the purpose of improvement in their working style. It also helps in boosting
motivation of employees and gives them job satisfaction. If a person will learn new things on
daily basis than it will increase their morale and satisfaction towards working.
In the terms of organisation, continuous learning helps in adopting changes that are being
implemented by Whirlpool. It is essential to learn because of the rapid changes in the
environment and economic policies in United Kingdom. Continuous learning helps in adapting
changes and it prepares a company to stand in every situation.
Professional development
It is that process which is carried out by giving special training or formal knowledge
about the work to develop professional knowledge among employees (Carpenter, Ashdown and
Bovair, 2017). It is a way to retain employees and give them job satisfaction.
Professional development and continuous learning has benefited Whirlpool in many ways. Some
of them are as follows:
Enhance communication skills: Employees of Whirlpool has got effective
communication skills after continuous learning programme of the company. Whirlpool always
believes in giving effective training and develops professional skills in employees for their
individual growth. It will help organisation as well because employees will contribute in better
way.
Critical thinking skills: Professional development helps a person in increasing their
ability to think about both the aspects. It develops critical thinking skills of a person and it gets
improved by continuous improvement program of Whirlpool.
KOLB's learning cycle
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5. Understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage.
High performance working refers to an approach which manages company that aims for
more effective involvement of employees. This is idea to achieve high level of performance of
employees. High performance working results in giving tough competition to competitors of
whirlpool. It can be achieved by combination of HR practices which provides training that
improves skills of employees (Megginson and Whitaker, 2017). High performance working is
required at firms so that employees can enhance their skills and knowledge for the purpose of
improvement in their working style. It also helps in boosting motivation of employees and gives
them job satisfaction. If a person will learn new things on daily basis than it will increase their
morale and satisfaction towards working. High performance working provides various benefits to
the organisation. Some of them are discussed below.
Competitive advantage: High performance of employees gives better financial results to
the company. This will bring the company on top in their industry. It will give tough competition
to the competitors of whirlpool. Completive advantage can only be given by way of better
working personnel. All the companies can be same in every aspect buy can never be same with
their human resources and their brains (Vangrieken, 2017). So improvement in performance of
employees will result in overall growth of Whirlpool. This will give a tough competition to other
establishments.
Better financial results: High performance increases the productivity of the employees.
This has helped establishment in improving its performance. As a result, it will rise the company
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in terms of finance and budgets. Overall financial condition of Whirlpool will improve and
stabilizes.
Example: Whirlpool has always managed to improve its performance and give tough
competition to other electronic companies by concentrating on High performance working.
P.6 Evaluate different approaches to performance management and illustrate with specific
examples which support high- performance culture and commitment
To measure the performance employee is the most essential part of a company
management system. This is also conveyed to workers during the time of giving salary to them in
the form of appraisals. Performance is always measured by company and feedback is given to
employees by giving appraisals which helps in motivating them. Performance is measured by
knowing their time management, quality of work and ethical behaviour in the company. The
collaborative working within the company will be helpful for identification of cultural changes
and training as well.
There are five approaches to performance management
Comparative approach of measuring performance: In this approach employees are
being judged and ranked on the basis of other members of the team. This approach is very
beneficial for top performers of the group (Approaches to performance management, 2017.) It
results in giving higher position to top level people of team. Whirlpool does not follow this
approach for measuring performance of its employees.
Attribute approach of measuring performance: Employees are rated on some specific
parameters under this approach. Some parameters are specified below.
 Ability to work with a team
 Communication skills
 Conflict management skills
 Effective time management skills
 Innovative ideas
Workers are rated on the scale of 1 to 5 after considering the above points. But the major
disadvantage with this approach is that best employees and worst ones are rated as per their
skills. But the average ones are neglected and suffer under this approach of performance
management.
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Behavioural approach of measuring performance: This is the oldest approach of
measuring performance of employees. Vertical scales are being created for various dimension of
jobs. Same is done by using BAR or BOS technique. The Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale
(BARS) technique consists of five to ten vertical scales. Whereas, Behavioural observation scale
(BOS) is more specified to measure the behaviour of employees and their effective performance.
Whirlpool measure by using this approach and give appraisals to employee’s fir better
performance.
Result approach of measuring performance: This is most easy approach where
company measure performance on the basis of their results. This approach majorly focuses on
the following things
 Growth
 Customers
 financial
 Internal operations
All the above factors are considered by Whirlpool and workers are judged by the same.
Major benefit of this approach is that planning and strategies are being converted into operation
with more atomistic view.
Quality approach of measuring performance: This approach has only aimed to attain
satisfaction of customers (Franke, Carpenter and Battey 2017). For that it takes in to
consideration both system and person factors. Employers of Whirlpool take regular feedback on
personal and professional characteristic and behaviour of employees from the manager. Here,
performance is being measured on the quality of work employees have provided to the company.
All the above approaches have helped in measuring performance of employees, this helps in
improving performance and commitment of workers towards the work and company.
Example: To major the performance of employees Whirlpool follows result approach
where the performance is measured on the basis of growth of the organisation.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is to be summarized that Human resource is that department of
company which is accountable for all the work related to employees. HR should be good at
communication and listening skills for achievement of objectives and goals of company. In
addition to this, a professional development plan is prepared to analyse the areas for
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improvement and actions that should be taken for improvement of skills in which HR lacks.
Furthermore, it has been concluded that High performance working increases the productivity of
the employees and efficiency of working which helps in competitive advantage and employee
engagement.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Argyris, C., 2017. Integrating the Individual and the Organization. Routledge.
Baldry, E., 2018. Community Justice in Australia: Developing Knowledge, Skills and Values for
Working with Offenders in the Community.
Carpenter, B., Ashdown, R. and Bovair, K. eds., 2017.Enabling access: Effective teaching and
learning for pupils with learning difficulties. Routledge.
Dixon, N.M., 2017. The organizational learning cycle: How we can learn collectively.
Routledge.
Franke, M.L., Carpenter, T.P. and Battey, D., 2017. Content matters: Algebraic reasoning in
teacher professional development. In Algebra in the early grades (pp. 333-360).
Routledge.
Megginson, D. and Whitaker, V., 2017. Continuing professional development. Kogan Page
Publishers.
Rahim, M.A., 2017. Managing conflict in organizations. Routledge.
Stout, B., 2017. Community justice in Australia: Developing knowledge, skills and values for
working with offenders in the community. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 29(3),
pp.135-136.
Trorey, G. and Cullingford, C., 2017. Professional development and institutional needs.
Routledge.
Vangrieken, K., 2017. Teacher communities as a context for professional development: A
systematic review. Teaching and Teacher Education, 61, pp.47-59.
Online
Approaches to performance management. 2017. [Online]. Accessed through:
<https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/performance-management-systems/
9789332503335/xhtml/ch3-sub77.xhtml>.
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