Human Resource Management Practices in Chocolate Presence

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HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT
1

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................................3
TASK 1.............................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................4
TASK 1.............................................................................................................................5
a).................................................................................................................................. 5
b).................................................................................................................................. 7
c).................................................................................................................................. 8
TASK 2.............................................................................................................................9
a) ............................................................................................................................... 9
b)................................................................................................................................ 10
c).................................................................................................................................11
TASK 3...........................................................................................................................12
a) ............................................................................................................................. 12
b) ............................................................................................................................. 13
c) ............................................................................................................................. 14
TASK 4...........................................................................................................................15
a) ............................................................................................................................. 15
b) ............................................................................................................................. 16
c) ............................................................................................................................. 17
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................... 18
REFERENCE................................................................................................................. 19
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INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this assignment is to learn and appreciate the importance of human
resource management application in the organization. In any organization, the people or
the employees are the true assets of the organization. And the human resource
department is responsible for the recruitment of these assets as well as the overall
development of them (Armstrong et al., 2014). Human resource management includes
overall development of the employees, from the joining in the company to the
retirement. Human resource management also plays a major role in the development of
the organization as ultimately Human resource department is responsible for the
employees in the organization and they need to hire the best candidate for the job and
give them the right training to increase the growth of the company. Human resource
department takes care of all the legal issue of every employee in the organization as
well as they have all the information regarding the particular employee. The human
resource department plays a crucial role in the growth of any organization (Armstrong et
al., 2014).
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TASK 1
INTRODUCTION
This case is about the company ‘Chocolate Presence’, which is based in North
Yorkshire. Chocolate Presence is a company which provides handmade chocolate-
based greeting cards and presents in all over the UK. The organization is comprised of
3 departments; chocolate production team, finance and marketing team and the
packaging and distribution team (Cascio, 2015). As the company is growing rapidly they
need to hire some new candidates in the production or administration department. But
the company doesn’t have any earlier experience of hiring people and also didn’t have
any HR department so for shortlisting the candidates hey have created the assessment
test, in which the criteria was of 50%. But the problem is that after hiring the candidates
the turnover is increased but they also have complaints from their long-standing
customers. And they also received the complaint from the candidates regarding the
unfairness in the test. To solve this entire problem the owner has recruited the Human
Resource Officer to recruit and retain the best talent for the growth of the company.
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TASK 1
a)
Human resource department is the department which deals with all the employee-
related issues in the organization and takes care of all the rules and regulation related
to the employment. Human resource management is the process of acquiring,
developing, motivating, and maintaining human capital. The main functions and
activities of human resource management are as follows;
1. Staffing
Staffing includes all the process regarding obtaining people with the right skills and
abilities which suits best for the job. The function of staffing includes other functions
inside it like HR planning, Job Analysis, Recruitment, Selection and Placement
(DeCenzo et al., 2016).
2. Rewards
It is a process which is applied for encouraging employee performance. The reward
includes job evaluation, appraisals, coupons, etc… in this process the HR
department tries to inspire people to give their best.
3. Employee Development
The development process includes the overall development of the employee. And
for the development of the employee, there are various training is given by the HR
department for the long term acquisition of the employee as well as for the growth of
the company to (DeCenzo et al., 2016).
4. Employee Maintenance
Employee maintenance includes overall monitoring of the employee needs from the
workplace safety to the employment legislation.
5. Employee Relations
To maintain relations with the employees is also the responsibility of the Human
resource department. Human resource department is responsible for managing the
relationship between the manager and employees.
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The HRM activity involves human resource planning, acquisition of human resource,
motivation, managing performance, recruitment and selection and training and
development (DeCenzo et al., 2016).
Current problems and plan for the growth of Chocolate presence are as follows;
1. Chocolate presence is having complaints from there long term clients,
2. As the company is growing they need to hire more workforces in the production and
administration department.
3. They are having a problem in finding out the right employee for the task.
The company should use the best-fit approach for the growth of the organization as
there are two approaches in the HRM practices; best fit and best practices. Best
practice approach is a certain set of bundles of HR activities which are used to increase
the company’s performance regardless of the situation or the industry type. This
approach is closely related to the HR practices as well as organizational performance.
These HR practices are implying to increase workforce competence. There are also
some limitations of best practices, the first one is there could be a risk of the team
working, compensation based on each and individual working which results as conflicts
in the organization. The best-fit approach often called a "matching model or matching
approach". This approach is different from the best practice, in this approach the
strategies or HR practices are decided according to the situation or the industry type
(Ekwoaba et al., 2015).
With the best fit practice, another model that could be applied here is the soft model of
HRM. In the Soft model, employees are treated as the most important asset to the
organization. In the soft model, the main focus is on the employees training, their needs,
development, participation, motivation and workforce flexibility.
This will help in the growth of the company as chocolate presence is on the early stage
of the expansion and here they need to build the relation with the employees so that the
employees feel attached towards the organization and the growth of the company a;
also grows (Ekwoaba et al., 2015).
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b)
Selection is the process of human resource management to find out the suitable
candidate for the respective job. Here the company is Chocolate presence and they are
looking for a candidate in the production and administration department. There is no. of
methods which are implied for the selection of the right candidate (Furtmueller et al.,
2011). The basic steps of any selection methods are as follows;
1. Preliminary Interview
2. Selection Tests
3. Employment Interview
4. Reference & Background Checks
5. Selection Decision
6. Physical Examination
7. Job Offer
The selection method differs according to the industry or according to the organization.
Selection method used by the chocolate presence is;
1. Assessment test
2. Shortlisting of candidates
3. Interview
4. Job offer
Strengths and weakness of chocolate presence selection process;
Strength –
 The no. of applicants is very high as the North Yorkshire is an area with high
Unemployability ratio.
 More chances to get the right candidate for the job.
Weaknesses –
 They have kept the passing criteria for the test only of 50%.
 There was not an equal opportunity given for every candidate as there were
compliant against the fairness in the test.
 The interview was also just 15 minutes and was very informal.
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c)
The company ‘Chocolate Presence’ haven’t used the right selection process to find the
right candidate for the job (Furtmueller et al.,2011). The potential improvements that
could be done by the company are;
1. Firstly the company could be clearer about the assessment test and the thing that
each and everyone is given equal opportunity.
2. Secondly, they can conduct the recruitment and selection process in a more specific
or formal manner.
Conclusion
According to the case, it can be concluded that there was not the proper recruitment
planning that is why organization have to see the complaints against. And recruitment is
the main part of the organization and should be done very carefully.
Recommendation
According to Armstrong et al.,(2014) human resource management is the
comprehensive study regarding the employment and development of people and then
managing the employee in the organization. It is also related to employee engagement
as well as employment legislation.
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TASK 2
a) Person specification for a receptionist role
Job Title: Receptionist Department & Business: Administration &
Handmade Chocolates and greeting cards
Reporting to: Administration Manager Responsible for: All the administrative work
Salary: £ 1400 pm Hours of work: 8 hours
Job Type: Permanent Job Location: North Yorkshire, United
Kingdom.
Academics: High school Diploma, Graduation Degree, Any degree in management.
Skills Required
 Strong intrapersonal skills
 Organizing skills,
 Should have a good hand on computers (Microsoft office)
 Knowledge about the industry,
 Should be good in maths
 Confident enough to handle the clients
Roles and Responsibilities
 Keeping all the records,
 Meeting and greeting the clients,
 Taking a follow up from the clients as well as from the team,
 Approaching new clients.
Experience
0-1 year experience as a receptionist or in the administration department (freshers can also apply)
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b)
There are two methods of the recruitment process which are done in any organization;
1. Internal recruitment
2. External recruitment.
Internal recruitment is the process in which the candidates are hired either within the
organization or promoted. In the chocolate presence the method which is used for the
job vacancy of the production and administration is the internal recruitment method
because there they haven't advertised outside the organization, the job vacancies are
also circulated internally to the staff so that they can tell about the vacancies to their
friends, family, and relatives and there was only where the physical advertisement of the
job vacancy has been done and that too on the notice board of the main entrance of the
site (Bagenstos, 2013).
External recruitment is something that is done for the mass people. This is done when
the organization wants to hire some fresh talent from outside of the organization. For
this the advertisement is given from where it can reach to the mass people, The way to
advertise for the external recruitment can be advertising in newspapers, on the site of
the organization, advertisement on the different job portals, etc (Bagenstos, 2013).
The current method which is applied for an advertising job in the organization is internal.
The advantages and disadvantages of this method are followed;
Advantages
1. There would be fewer expenses on the training and development of the candidate as
the candidate is already familiar with the organization.
2. Less time-consuming process
3. No expenses on the advertisements
4. An employee is already familiar with the environment and with the other employees.
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Disadvantages
1. Competence and increasing bitterness among the employees.
2. No new idea creation.
3. As it is internal recruiting and advertisement is also circulated internally, there is a
limit on the no. of potential candidates.
4. Chances of discrimination between two employees.
c)
The place where the job advert is placed plays a main role in the recruitment process
because the candidates are only going to know about the vacancy through the job
advert. It should be very appropriate so that the right or suitable candidate doesn’t miss
the opportunity (Gimpelson et al., 2010).
According to me the job adverts for the post of Receptionist should be placed at various
places in the North Yorkshire so that maximum people get to know about the post and
can apply. The advert for the receptionist could be placed in the newspapers; the
circulation of the newspapers is mass so by giving the job advert in the newspaper,
there would be a surety that maximum no. of people would see that. Another place
where the job advert could be given is on the online job portals. Nowadays job portals
are the best place to give the job adverts because major no. of job-seeking candidates
are on these job portals and they are continuously searching for an opportunity. Other
than these two places the job advert should be placed on the noticeboard of the
organization (Hendry, 2012).
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TASK 3
a) Graduate training schemes and internships.
Graduate training scheme or internships are the way to bridge the gap between the
fresher graduate and organization work. The organization invests thousand in the
recruitment and selection of the candidate and this all investment for the candidates
who have little or no work experience (Kadiresan et al., 2015). A graduate training
program is a way to fill the gap between the organization work and candidates
knowledge. It lets the candidate familiar with the organization culture and work.
Graduate training scheme last for one or two years. There is some organization too,
which allow the candidate to experience in all the departments in the organization and
they decide from where they want to start there career. Graduate training scheme and
internship are the programs to prepare or develop the candidate for the work. These
programs also let help the candidate to be familiar with the new culture as well helps in
understanding the nature of the work. Once the training period is over, the candidate is
ready for the job and as the candidate is already familiar with the nature of the work so
they don’t have to face many problems in their work-life (Kadiresan et al., 2015).
Microsoft also provides the graduate training scheme and internship to the candidates.
There are lots of benefits of the graduate training scheme and internship; some of them
are as follows;
Benefits for the employee
1. It allows the employee to understand the job role.
2. Many opportunities are available for training and development.
3. There is always a mentor available to guide you.
4. The chance to work in different departments within the organization and then
choosing the right career.
Benefits for the organization
1. The organization can analyze candidate skills.
2. The organization can shift the candidate when they realize that a candidate is not
the right match for the job.
3. As the candidate is fresher organization can mold them according to the work.
5.
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