Human Resource Management Report: Chocolate Presence Case Study

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Chocolate Presence, a UK-based company specializing in chocolate-based products. The report begins by outlining the core purpose and importance of the HR function within the organization, addressing current challenges and future growth plans. It then evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of existing selection methods, such as the use of interviews and skills tests, and proposes potential improvements to enhance the recruitment process. The report also includes the creation of a person specification for a Receptionist role, a discussion of advertising methods, and recommendations for job advertisement placement. Furthermore, it explores employee motivation strategies employed by Microsoft, including the evaluation of benefits offered to both the organization and its employees. The report concludes with an examination of employee engagement, particularly focusing on approaches to improve workplace communication, and identifies key elements of UK employment legislation and their influence on HR decision-making processes such as recruitment, training, and reward systems.

Human Resource
Management
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
a) Explains the purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization, given its
current problems and future plans for further growth............................................................3
b) Explains the strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used by the
organization............................................................................................................................5
c) Evaluate at least 2 two potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate Presence
to enhance its selection process..............................................................................................6
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
a) Create a person specification for the role...........................................................................6
b) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of advertising jobs in the
organisation............................................................................................................................7
c) Explain where you would recommend the job advert for the Receptionist vacancy to be
placed......................................................................................................................................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
a) Evaluate the benefits to both the organisation and employees of such schemes.............10
b) Evaluate the benefits of offering to both Microsoft and its employees...........................11
c) Evaluate how Microsoft motivates its workers through the way it designs its job roles. 13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................14
a) What is meant by the term employee engagement and why is employee engagement such
an..........................................................................................................................................14
important part in effective employee relations in Microsoft?..............................................14
b) Critically evaluate the key approaches to engaging workers in the Summit and how these
approaches improve communication in the workplace........................................................15
c) Identify the key elements of UK employment legislation, explaining how they influence
HR decision making such as recruitment, training and development and reward...............16
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

INTRODUCTION
Humans are the necessary requirements for any organisation to carry out their activities
and operations. These plays a very crucial part in the development of organisation. Human
resources management deals with the management of these human resources for utilising them in
an appropriate manner. The main work of HR department is to recruit, retain the talented
workforce and also to implement new strategies for these employees. The chosen firm for this
assignment report is Chocolate Presence is a fast growing firm having headquarter in North
Yorkshire and provides chocolate based tailor-made greetings cards and presents all across the
UK. This report will discuss the purpose and importance of HRM along with the evaluation of
selection methods. Further this report will prepare a person specification for the executive
position and also the recommend the place for placing job advert for the Receptionist vacancy.
Further different approaches which are used by Microsoft to motivate their employees will be
discussed in this report. In the end, evaluation of key legislations of employment and their
influence on HR decision making will be done in this report.
TASK 1
a) Explains the purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization, given its
current problems and future plans for further growth
Purpose of HR functions
Training and Development: HR function is responsible for providing training and
development sessions to their employees for their success and to adapt to the organisational
culture (Abdelhak, Grostick and Hanken, 2014). Several HR departments provides professional
development and leadership training to their employees for enhancing their skills and
knowledge. Chocolate Presence also needs to provide such programs to their workforce for
improving their skills and quality of work.
Staffing Needs: HR departments is mostly known for hiring the candidates for the vacant
job position. Staffing refers to the recruitment of right candidates for the available job position.
Chocolate presence also needs to recruit right candidates as their employees which will also be
beneficial for resolving the issues and problems of firm. Also these new recruited employees can
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be proved beneficial for firm and the quality of products and services can increase along with the
productivity.
Performance Appraisal: The purpose of HR function is to coordinate with the managers
of different departments in order to evaluate the performance of their employees. The HR
managers based on this evaluation provides the appraisal to the employees. Whereas if the
performance is not satisfactory then employees can be demoted, or terminated.
Importance of HR function
Strategy implementation: The major function of HR is to manage the resources in an
optimum manner. Chocolate Presence is facing the issue of reduced quality of their products.
The managers needs to ensure that they develop and implement new and improved strategies so
that this issue can be regulated. This can impact the productivity of company so it is the
important function of HR department to resolve such issues of firm in an earliest manner
(Ageron, Gunasekaran and Spalanzani, 2012).
Salary and pay: The HR department is also responsible for providing the salaries and
wages to the employees. Labour turnover of the Chocolate Presence is increasing. For resolving
this issue, HR managers of the firm needs to discuss with the employees regarding their concerns
and issues. Also the issues associated with salary must be resolved quickly for decreasing the
labour turnover.
Roles and responsibilities of HR function
Provide training to employees: The HR department is responsible for providing training
sessions to their workforce for enhancing their skills and knowledge. Through this training, they
can effectively achieve their predetermined goals and objectives. The employees also feels
motivated when provided with training. HR manager of Chocolate Presence needs to ensure that
they are providing the training to their employees for enhancing their morale and efficiency.
Recruitment and selection: It is the major role of HR department to hire the skilled and
talented candidates. The HR manager of Chocolate Presence needs to analyse the suitable
candidates from a pool of applicants who then are selected based on the scores of both interview
and aptitude tests.
Current problems

Chocolate Presence is facing various issue of employees such as labour turnover,
degrading quality of work, issues in selection process etc. which are impacting the firm
negatively. For resolving these issues in an effective manner, the management needs to
communicate with their employees regarding their problems. Through this the employees can
share their concerns and ideas for determining the possible solutions. The HR manager needs to
convey such issues to high authorities for taking appropriate action towards the problems.
Future plans
The future plans of Chocolate Presence is to motivate their employees by proving them
monetary benefits based on their performance. Through this, the employees will work with their
full capabilities and the quality of products and services provided by the firm will also improve.
The firm can gain an upper competitive edge when employees are motivated for the work. For
resolving the issue of selection process, company has decided to formally chat with the
candidates for determining their skills and qualifications. Through this, the firm can retain their
employees for a long period of time.
b) Explains the strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used by the
organization
The company Chocolate Presence is currently using the interview for selecting the
potential candidates. In this method, company prepared Maths and English skills test. The
passing marks are selected as 50 for both of the tests. Then qualified candidates are called for
interview. The interview session will be a 15 minutes informal chat. This method of selection has
some strengths and weakness as discussed below:
Strength Weakness
 Skill test is useful for the firm in
recruiting the suitable candidates on the
basis of their skills and capabilities
which are identified in face to face
interview.
 Skill test is very quick and provides the
results very quickly. The limitation is
that skills and capabilities of a person
can't be judged so quickly.
 Interview method is also helpful for the
firm in asking the situation based and
 Another weakness of interview is that
there are chances of forgetting
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position based questions from
interviewee. Through this, the firm can
recruit the candidates who can survive
in the firm.
important questions which can restrict
the candidates in getting proper
information. If the interviewer of the
firm will not take interview properly,
then wrong candidate can be hired by
the firm which will effect the business
operations.
c) Evaluate at least 2 two potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate Presence to
enhance its selection process
There are several issues in the selection process of Chocolate presence company. The
firm need to make some improvements in their selection process which are discussed below:
 The major issue in the selection process of company is that the HR managers directly
state the candidate to give interview in firm based on an informal chat. This can act as a
barrier for the firm due to not focusing on professional skills and knowledge of the
candidates (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). So it is recommended to HR managers of the
firm to use the structured interviews, presentations, group discussions etc. in their
selection process for determining the capabilities of the candidates.
 It is recommended to HR manager of Chocolate Presence to conduct a mock test for the
candidates. This mock test will be based on the job position for whom the interview is
going. Through this test, interviewer can determine the knowledge of the candidates in
terms of innovation and creativity. The company can hire more talented candidates which
can work for long period of time to achieve the desired goals of organisation. Also the
firm can use the psychometric test for evaluating the mental capability of the candidates
while hiring them.
TASK 2
a) Create a person specification for the role
Person specification
Post: Receptionist

Department: Administration
Key: Evidence required:
(A): Application form, (I): Interview,
(R): Role
Requirements
Skills  Strong analytical skill with the ability to collect,
organise and analyse large amount of data accurately.
 Ability to book meetings and greet the guests.
 Providing customer service support
and maintaining stock of client stationery
 Ability to manage different tasks according to the
appointments.
Education qualification  Frequent in English and French
 Masters or bachelors degree in business management.
 MBA from any recognised university
Responsibility for
equipment
 Use of IT facilities and telephone switchboard.
 Stationery stock and ordering of refreshments
.
 Allocation of visitor badges and the attendance
log.
b) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of advertising jobs in the
organisation
There are generally two methods which are used by the Chocolate Presence for
advertising the job openings which are internally and externally. The internal process is done
within the organisation and external advertising is done on the notice board of organisation. The
advantages and disadvantages of both methods will be discussed below:
Internal Advertisement
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Advantages
Cost and time saving: Internal advertisement of job in the organisation is helpful in
saving the cost and time for hiring the candidates within the company. When job advertisement
is done internally then the cost and time of recruiting the right candidates (Bailey and et. al.,
2018). Through this method, Chocolate Presence can invest the saved cost at anywhere else in
the organisation for other purposes.
Fast recruitment: Internal recruitment is useful for hiring the candidates in a time
efficient manner. Through this, lot of time of the firm can be saved. The deadline of these
advertisements is less as compared to external recruitment. Chocolate Presence can use this
method for selecting the right candidates in order to fill the vacant position in less time possible.
Disadvantages
Advertised to less people: When advertised internally, the job posting reaches to a small
number of candidates which is the biggest drawback of this method. In this, the job does not
reaches to efficient candidates due to which they remain unaware regarding the openings. This
results in filling the vacant position with a improper candidate (Beare, Caldwell and Millikan,
2018). Due to this, Chocolate Presence's operations and activities can be hampered.
Low skills or knowledge: When advertisement is done internally, job does not reaches to
proper and suitable candidates. Due to this, low skilled employees can be recruited which can
adversely impact the business activities of Chocolate Presence. These low skills can leads to
poor performance of the firm in the market. So, firm needs to hire suitable candidate for the
vacant position if advertised internally.
External Advertisement
Advantages
Promotion of company: It is considered as a biggest advantage for company when
advertised externally. Chocolate presence can use external advertisement methods such as notice
boards for placing the job advert. Through this method, the name of company will also be
promoted and advertised. externally than it will also advertise its name. This is also helpful for
the firm in sustaining itself in the market due to increased brand image and support from
customers. This support is helpful in increasing the sales and revenue of the firm along with the
profitability (Boxall and Purcell, 2011).

Recruitment of right candidate: When advertising using the notice boards, the firm can
attract large number of candidates for job specification of receptionist. Through this, the
competition among the candidates will increase and the firm can select right and suitable
candidate for the position. So, Chocolate presence can use this method for recruiting the right
and talented candidate for the vacant position of receptionist.
Disadvantages
Weakened corporate culture: Notice boards are very useful for the firms in selecting the
candidates from outside of organisation (Bratton and Gold, 2017). These external candidates can
impact the culture of firm as they can be from other cultural backgrounds than of existing
employees. Variation in culture of Chocolate presence can leads to weakened culture of firm
which will reduce the productivity of the employees and organisation.
Needs time for adjusting: Notice boards assist the firms in hiring candidates outside of
organisation as the advertisements are placed on the notice boards of colleges and universities
etc. (DuBrin, 2011). These candidates needs more time to adjust according to the environment of
the firm. Whereas the candidates hired from within the organisation takes less time to adjust for
the position.
c) Explain where you would recommend the job advert for the Receptionist vacancy to be placed
The taken organisation can place the job advert both internally and externally. But social
media platforms are most suitable for the firm “Chocolate Presence” for placing the job
advertisement. The social media platforms are used by a large number of people for sharing the
information, image and videos. Social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, twitter, etc.
are rising and the users of these platforms are also rising simultaneously. These social media
platforms are advantageous for firms and HR professionals. The importance of social media is
discussed below:
Increased job visibility: Social network networks are used by a large number of people
for placing the advertisements for job. Presently, plenty of candidates are using the social media
in their daily life and looks for the job online. This increases the job visibility of the firm.
Less hiring time: The traditional methods for recruiting the candidates takes more time
in the entire process. Using social media, firms like Chocolate Presence can save their time for
hiring the suitable candidates. For filling the vacant position on time, firms can use the social
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media. Through the social media, firm can communicate with the applicants in an effective
manner through which the firm can establish good relations with them (Guest, 2011).
Reduced cost of recruitment : Recruitment and selection process take good amount of
money. Social media is comparatively cheap than other recruitment channels. The vacancies can
be shared free of cost on different social media channels (Keupp, Palmié and Gassmann, 2012).
Some platforms are paid on which the jobs can be placed at a small amount of money. The job is
visible to a large number of people and is also cost effective for the Chocolate Presence.
TASK 3
a) Evaluate the benefits to both the organisation and employees of such schemes.
Microsoft offers graduate training schemes and internships to the new candidates and
their employees for enhancing their skills and knowledge. The mission of Microsoft is to
encourage every person and every organization on Earth to achieve more. The firm believe that
shared goals of people and firm can impact the world using the technology and innovation of
Microsoft. Through this training and internship, the firm is encouraging the employees to
achieve more goals and objectives by enhancing the skills and knowledge (Kim, Kumar and
Kumar, 2012). Through the training, the workers can improve their efficiency and performance
which will support the firm in achieving their shared goals and objectives of gaining more
growth and revenue. When the employees are provided with training sessions, the employees
retaining rate can be improved for the firm. The graduate training schemes of Microsoft are
beneficial for the firm in retaining their employees. Through the training, employees work
efficiently which assist the firm in achieving the desired organisational goals in an effective
manner and to improve the productivity of the firm. Also the firm can sustain for a long period of
time when the employees are motivated in their working which is possible by providing the
training.
The internships provide a proper kick-start to the career of new graduates through which
they can enter in the professional world. Also the new graduates get the opportunity to
understand the corporate life before starting the career. Through the internship, both employer
i.e. Microsoft and employees get the opportunity to improve their performance and productivity.
The employees can work with the required efficiency after getting the training sessions. After
receiving the training, workers feel motivated and encouraged in their working which is

beneficial for the company (Liu and Liu, 2011). These motivated employees perform in an
effective manner in the assigned work. Through the internship, new graduates can implement the
academic knowledge into professional skills. Through the internship and training, the confidence
level among the employees can increase which will also assist the firm in improving the
productivity and performance in the market.
b) Evaluate the benefits of offering to both Microsoft and its employees.
Microsoft is a software firm who provide different programs and policies to employees
for improving their skills. Through these programs, the activities and operations of the firm can
improve which assist the employees in attaining organisational goals and objectives (López-
Nicolás and Meroño-Cerdán, 2011). Some of the programs which are used by the firm are
discussed below:
 Healthy and safety working environment
 Flexible working hours
 Time off / vacations
 On campus improvements
 Provided discounts and rewards
 Continuous knowledge gain
These above discussed arrangements are beneficial for both employees and for
organisation. The benefits of these working arrangements for employees and organisation will be
discussed below:
Benefits for employees, Microsoft and organization.
 Through health and safety program, employees feels safe and motivated towards their
assigned work. Microsoft focus on innovations and implementation of software used in
computers. It is providing facilities to it's employees and their family such as medical
treatments, 24 hour nurse, economic and social support to families of employees etc. to
their workers. Through this, the employees feels secure about their health and family and
can perform their daily activities with accuracy without any errors. Which directly or in-
directly helps in Microsoft productivity and enhance work efficiency in an organizations.
 Also, Microsoft is providing several perks such as retail shops in campus, social clubs,
loan refinancing program like education loan at cheaper rate etc. to their employees
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which promotes the interaction among the employees. When employees are satisfied with
the terms and conditions of the organization as well as the working atmosphere is
pleasant enough the output from the employees will be incredible as compared to other
organization. Microsoft has taken great step to combine personal and organizational goals
together which is showing it's incredible outcomes in the form of work productivity and
efficiency level. The innovations in Microsoft is taking the firm to another level.
 Long working hours ends up with less productivity in the organization. For effective and
efficient working the working hours should be flexible enough for the employees. The
working hours should not be rigid enough to work within that particular timings. The
opportunity should be provided to work from home, weekly holidays should be alloted
according to the work loads and organizations norms. Microsoft should be more flexible
in it's working style so the efficiency level of employees can be achieved as well as
retention of cream employees can be reduced.
 Time off is vacations given to the employees who are working in Microsoft. Vacations or
breaks during the working loads helps the organizations to work more efficiently and
effectively. Company Microsoft gives 12 days paid leaves to it's employees out of which
10 days are US trips and 2 days are for personal work which directly helps the employees
to get motivated and work harder to achieve the targets on time. Moreover 20 paid leaves
are provided to the newly made parents so, that they can take care of their child properly
and mentally as a parents they can focus on the work allotted to them.
 Any organization can flourish when there is continuous gaining of knowledge flow from
employers to employees. More the flow of knowledge on the floor more efficient work
can be seen from the employees side. Microsoft continuous innovations helps the firm to
grow and expand at all levels. The effective results can be seen from continuous gaining
of knowledge on the floor.
 On campus improvements means solving the employees quarries on the floor by reducing
the work loads or troubles that can be faced in the near future. Company Microsoft has
opened up many paths to solve their upcoming quarries like firm has opened up many
shops within the premises like, grocery stores, shopping entertainments etc. which has
created impact on the employees to work with full potentials so, the targets can be