Human Resource Management Report: Chocola Fantastica and Microsoft

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at Chocola Fantastica and Microsoft. The report begins with an overview of the purpose and importance of HRM functions, focusing on compensation, performance management, staffing, and training and development. It then evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Chocola Fantastica's current selection methods, including assessment tests and interviews, and suggests potential improvements. The report further explores the benefits of graduate training schemes, internships, and flexible working arrangements for both organizations and employees. It analyzes ways Microsoft motivates employees and examines the concept of employee engagement, its importance, and approaches to improve workplace communication. Finally, the report discusses key elements of UK employment legislation and their impact on HR decision-making, including the creation of a person specification for a receptionist and recommendations for advertising the job. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for improving HRM practices in both organizations.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
a) Purpose and Importance of HR Function in Chocola Fantastica, Giving its Current Growth
and Future Plans for Further Growth......................................................................................1
b) Strengths and Weaknesses of Current Selection Methods Used in Chocola Fantastica....2
c) Potential Improvements to be Made in Chocola Fantastica to Improve their Selection
Process....................................................................................................................................3
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................4
a) Evaluate benefits of graduate training schemes and internships to organisation and
employees...............................................................................................................................4
b) Explain benefits of different flexible working arrangements to organisation and employees
................................................................................................................................................5
c) Analyse ways of motivating employees by the way Microsoft design job roles...............6
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
a) Explain Employee Engagement and its importance in building effective employee
relationship in Microsoft........................................................................................................7
b) Critical evaluation of engaging employee approaches and its importance in improving
communicate at workplace.....................................................................................................8
c) Key element of UK employment legislation & explain how those legislation impact on HR
decision...................................................................................................................................9
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................11
a) Create a person specification for receptionist..................................................................11
b) Advantages and disadvantages of current methods of advertising at Chocola Fantastica12
c) Recommendations for advertising job of Receptionist....................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management refers to the term which focuses on different processes
such as managing, planning, organising the personnel in a business with the help of which it is
possible to make the achievement of goals and objectives of an organisation in an effective and
efficient way. Cholcola Fantastica and Microsoft are the companies chosen for the completion of
this assignment. Chocola Fantastica provides their customers with chocolate based greetings card
across UK and Microsoft which was founded in the year 1975 and is headquartered in
Washington. It provides their customers with products such as Windows, Skype, Xbox and
services such as Azure, Bing, Linkedin, Office 365 and many more. The following assignment
will focus on purpose of HR Function and its importance to organisation along with strengths
and weaknesses of current selection methods. In addition to this, it will also provide person
specification for the job role, advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of advertising
jobs in organisation internally as well as externally. Further, it will focus on benefits of training
schemes and internships programs and flexible working arrangements to employees as well as
employers and evaluation of ways by which Microsoft motivates their workers will also be done.
Lastly, the assignment will make its focus on employee engagement and its importance in
organisation along with key approaches to engaging workers and how they improve
communication at workplace. The key elements of UK employment legislation, and influence of
these legislation on HR decision making process will also be discussed.
LO 1
a) Purpose and Importance of HR Function in Chocola Fantastica, Giving its Current Growth and
Future Plans for Further Growth
HRM is an important function of an organisation with the help of which it is possible to
manage the workforce in an organisation. In an organisation, employees are the most important
asset which could make sure about the efficient running of all the processes of the company.
Proper management of workforce will help the company to achieve competitive advantage over
its competitors in the marketplace. So, the description of HRM, its function, purpose and their
importance has been provided as under:
Compensation and Performance Management: Compensation refers to the pay which is
provided to employees for work they had done in the organisation. Performance management is
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related to making improvement in the efficiency level of employees in performing task
(Anderson, 2013). The purpose of this function is to run the operations of organisation without
being effected and also to provide customers with better services. It is important function
because it helps in improving customer satisfaction and efficiency level of employees.
Staffing: It focuses on hiring employees in an organisation. The purpose of this HR Function is
to eradicate the issues of lack of workforce in organisation. It is an important function because
the selection of wrong candidates will impacts upon profit, sales, incomes and revenues of the
organisation.
Training and Development: It refers to improvement in the current skills and efficiency of
employees along with their personal and professional development. The purpose of this HR
Function is to improve the functioning of organisation, to reduce per unit cost of production and
increase employees' confidence. The importance of this HR function is related to achievement of
low cost productivity to gain competitive advantage over the competitors.
Cholcola Fantastica is passing through a bad time as the staff turnover of this
organisation has increased much which has impacted upon the quality of its products and
services in the market. So, in order to deal this situation and make everything good again, it is
important for the company to make its focus on removing these issues. It will be done with the
help of creating an effective communication channel in between employees and management so
that it could be possible to know about reasons due to which employees are quitting the
organisation. Further the implementation of quality management approaches will also be
beneficial for Chocola as with the help of these approaches it will be possible to know about the
areas of deviations, so that improvement could be made and good quality products could be
provided to customers (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).
b) Strengths and Weaknesses of Current Selection Methods Used in Chocola Fantastica
Selection refers to the process of selecting and short-listing of right candidates for the
vacant posts in an organisation. The process used for selection in this organisation is conducting
assessment test in English Comprehension and Maths. Achieving 50% marks is important to
achieve in both of these tests. After that interview will be conducted of 15 minutes. So the
processes of selection of Chocola Fantastica is conducting are Ability and Aptitude Tests and
Direct Interview.
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Assessment Tests: In these tests, knowledge of candidate is checked on different aspects such as
general intelligence, verbal ability, numerical ability and many more.
The Strengths and Weaknesses of this method are provided as under:
Strengths Weaknesses
 It reduces the cost of the organisation
as tests are conducted on computers
which are cost effective for
organisations.
 In the assessments tests as well, there
are some issues which are being faced
by companies as well as candidates
such as the use of unfair means to
achieve competitive advantage in tests
and interviews.
 This test helps in selection of
candidates with right knowledge related
to subject area.
 There are chances of biasness in tests.
Direct Interview: It is the process in which communication occurs in between two or more
persons sitting in front of each other.
Strengths Weaknesses
 This will help interviewer in knowing
about communication skills and
personal background of employees.
 Weakness is related to the inadequate
evaluation of the performance, nature
and behaviour of candidates on the
basis of time period of 15 minutes
because it is not easy to judge an
individual in only 15 minutes.
 It allows interviewer to ask more
detailed questions to the candidate.
 It is a time consuming and cost
increasing ways of conducting
interviews.
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c) Potential Improvements to be Made in Chocola Fantastica to Improve their Selection Process
The company is facing issues in their selection process so there needs to be made some
improvements in the selection processes of the company (Aswathappa, 2013). This will help in
selecting better candidates for the organisation and these processes are provided as under:
 There is requirement of formal personal interview through which it will become easy for
managers to understand whether individual have good interpersonal skills or not. This
would be the best way to check vocabulary and knowledge about universal and regional
language.
 As many people complaints that assessment test are conducted under bias manner, so this
test has to be conducted in better and appropriate manner which says that the conducting
of test must be done bias free way that could provide only right results to company in
order to make effective decisions for the company. There is a need for the organisation to
remove biasness so that only the capable and talented employees could be hired by the
company.
LO 2
a) Evaluate benefits of graduate training schemes and internships to organisation and employees
Microsoft provides great opportunities that empower students and graduates to create
things which will helps others and bring changes in world. Organisation support interns to work
with teams on real projects to get insights of tasks. There are aspire programs for graduates
which helps them to start their career with challenging tasks to work on real projects. There are
also software engineering programs to help passionate student to bring innovation in technology.
Even there are internships programs for digital sales in Microsoft which helps graduate to excel
their skills in international market while finding unique paths (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013).
These sessions are helpful for both organisation and employees in many ways, some of them are
as follows:
Benefits to Microsoft:
 Through these programs and internships, Microsoft is brining new and talented
candidates in organisation to create things that will change the world and hence its
organisational objectives are achieved.
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 This also serves as selection process for organisation as skilled students are offered jobs
positions in Microsoft which helps company to retain employees.
 Stipend of such internships programs are less competitive as compared to hiring
employees for that positions, which provides cost benefits to Microsoft.
 It creates competent environment in organisation for existing employees to work with
talented and skilled graduates which helps company in improving its productivity.
Benefits to Employees:
 Employees gets the opportunity to work with Microsoft's team on real project which
helps them to develop skills of group dynamics (Noe, and et. al., 2015).
 Challenging tasks develops skills and ability in employees to innovate ideas and solutions
for different problems.
 This helps graduate to build their career in Microsoft and other reputed organisation of
world.
 Employees will get experience while working with team of Microsoft on real projects
which will help in building strong career.
b) Explain benefits of different flexible working arrangements to organisation and employees
Employees these days are not confined to office hours to work, there is need that some
practices should be adopted. Flexible working environment provides no boundation of working
hours to sit and work in office instead quality work is appreciated. Microsoft offers various
arrangements for employees of flexible working so that qualitative aspects are not hindered. This
provides various advantages to both employer and employee in many ways, here are some of
those arrangements of Microsoft:
Work from Home: Microsoft have adopted one of the most efficient work arrangement
for its employees and this is one of those companies which started this culture. Under this
approach, employees are allowed to sit back at home and work from there keeping in mind
quality of output (Buller and McEvoy, 2012). This is started to empower women personnel to
build their career while managing other aspects of regular life. It provides advantages to both
Microsoft and employees such as:
Benefits to Microsoft Benefits to Employees
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 No loss of work if employee is not
physically present in office premises.
 This increase employee productivity
and build relationships which retains
staff in company.
 This reduce work stress and burden
which improves their health and mental
well-being
 This supports their career as well if
employee is not in conditions to attend
office physically.
Flexible Working Hours: Under this approach of working arrangements, Microsoft
provides flexible timings schedules to employees to attend office at their ease. Nowadays, staff is
required to be at toe even after office hours which creates mental stress and hinder health. So to
improve this, Microsoft has come up with liberal office hours, here are some advantages of this
scheme:
Benefits to Microsoft Benefits to Employees
 This will increase employee
productivity which helps to achieve
organisational goals.
 This will reduce absenteeism and
employee turnover which increases
firm's productivity.
 Balance between personal and
professional life of employees becomes
easy.
 Completion of projects assigned to
them on time due to flexible working
hours creates less burden.
c) Analyse ways of motivating employees by the way Microsoft design job roles
Microsoft is one of those organisations which motivated its employees through
innovative ways and methods. One of its process is while designing job roles, it lay down certain
aspects that motivates employees to work with more efficiency and achieve organisational
objectives. Here are some ways by which Microsoft plan its job role to motivates employees:
Skill Variety: This states all those abilities that are needed to perform certain job in
organisation. Microsoft while designing particular job ensures that there is need of different
skills to perform responsibilities which will satisfy their job and its role. This will motivate
employees to grab knowledge of that skills and then apply it to practical use so that there is no
routine job skills required.
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Task Identity: This means extent to which task completion is connected with visible
outcome in project. If employees can identify their part of task in bigger projects they are more
likely to get motivated to finish that job. If their presence is there from starting to end, they are
more likely to put efforts to achieve outcome (Cascio, 2015). Microsoft ensure that actions of
every employee in project is visible in results so that they gets motivated for next.
Autonomy: In this employee are provided with certain level of freedom while preparing
responsibilities which includes decision making. Microsoft ensures that every personnel has
authority to take some actions to get their work completed. This motivated employees as they
feel empower and responsible for their actions.
LO 3
a) Explain Employee Engagement and its importance in building effective employee relationship
in Microsoft
Employee Engagement: This term defines relationships between organisation and its
employees which ensures that personnel is motivated to work. This is emotional level of staff to
put their efforts in direction of organisational objectives. Microsoft is one of best organisation in
world which is effective in engaging its employees (Jiang, and et. al., 2012). It is important to
engage employees so that relationships are effective between employer and employee and it
sustains for longer period and helps organisation to achieve objectives.
Employee engagement is also carries out by organisation with means of different
activities so that relations can be build in formal and informal manner. Microsoft makes teams by
choosing member of different departments so that communication takes place. This also breaks
barrier between employees of different division and build effective relationships. Organisation
makes sure that departments also stays interconnected while achieving business goals and work
in collaborations. This interactions will also brings out relations between them so that it foster
communication in organisation and reduce rigidity.
Microsoft's office designs of cubicles is one of major base for communications and
building relationships between colleagues. This design allows flow of ideas, suggestions and
feedbacks with ease so that there is no confusion and conflict. Relationships are build on basis of
communications and Microsoft ensures that there is proper channel between employees,
departments and management so that effective and sustainable relations grows in organisation
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(Cascio, 2015). Through all activities of Microsoft to engage employees maintains
communication between organisation and employees which is basic need in managing
relationships. Design of office provides smoothness in communication which reduce hesitation
of staff to talk to management in issues and problems which ensures that employees feel safe and
relationships are build.
Employment engagement is beneficial to maintain effective relation with other
employees of the company. It help in minimizing the rate of absenteeism and make improvement
in the performance of employees. To build effective relation, the management of respective
company can use open communication within the firm., With the help of it employees easily
share their issues and problems with the seniors and get solution of them at that time so that they
can resolve timely without create other problem. With this they can share their ideas with their
seniors if the ideas and thoughts are goods then they can be implemented in organisation which
favourably affect employees in terms of growth and development.
b) Critical evaluation of engaging employee approaches and its importance in improving
communicate at workplace
All activities of Microsoft helps in building long term relations with employees by
engaging them in communication and breaking barriers. Employee engagement is necessary for
organisation to reduce turnover and increase performance. This brings emotional state of morale
to higher level so that they support others and work in direction of attaining organisational
objectives. Microsoft is known as one of best organisation which operates globally and these
practices proves that employee engagement is important part of its policies. Some of them are:
Inspiring and Sustaining Engagement: Microsoft in this activity use large space to
gather employees with leaders to share experience and knowledge. This builds relationship while
interacting and bring learning process. For this company will use Yammer approaches will
allows employees to communicate transparently, share ideas and feedbacks so that better
outcomes can be attained. Through this employees are inspired to share experiences using
communication and assisting others by providing support. This will bring innovative and new
ideas to solve problem by brainstorming sessions and will break barriers in communication for
employees from different department. This can also increase informal activities as compared to
engaging practices which can hinder quality of this approach (Jiang, 2012).
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Open Communication: Microsoft clearly understand importance of employee
engagement in organisation and for this best way is communication. Company provides open
channels to inform, share and provides feedback to colleagues, employer and management
through use of SharePoint approach of informing and engaging employees at workplace. By this
activity of Microsoft inform about changes, plans, policies and strategies in storytelling way
which engage employee and foster channel for feedback. This will increase morale of employees
as they feel their importance in organisation and work more efficiently. On the other hand
passing on every information to employees may get pass on to competitors about future plans
and strategies.
Key approaches of Microsoft to engaging workers
There are various approaches which are development by the management of Microsoft to
engage their employee and making improvement in the communication in workplace. The brief
description of these approaches are as following:
Yammer- It is framed by the management of respective organisation to develop
connectivity and engage staff members of the firm. It help in modifying the engagement with all
in the work environment. The main objective to develop this approach is to ameliorate the
communication and culture of the company so that everyone can share their issues and ideas with
each other.
Microsoft teams- It is another tool which was developed by the management of
respective company to enhance team work. With the implementation of it, employees can engage
with each other through persistent chat, group chat and sharing within the organisation.
Share point- It is termed as intelligent internet and mobile and noviced to support the
workers updated about news, sites,changing pages so as to integrate conversation and matter
with the help of office 365.
Microsoft stream- It is developed by the company, to create, detect and provide
information, through videos within small team and across the firm to communicate relevant and
appropriate information of training and engagement.
c) Key element of UK employment legislation & explain how those legislation impact on HR
decision
In present scenario, HRM plays crucial role in any of organisation as it directly helps to
accomplish the goals of a company. In an organisation, HR department has the role that how they
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can enhance performance of any individual, how effectively they can guide employee's to
perform their work for achieving targets in specific time period. Whenever any of plans and
policies related to operational activity are being formed within the organisation, it becomes
important to consider rules & regulation of legislation (Chelladurai and Kerwin, 2018). In
context of Microsoft, its HR department understands that legislation has a huge importance for
their daily basis operational activities. If they will work according to laws and policies, it will
enhance the ratio of achieving goals and target in shorter period of time. For the purpose of
maintaining effective environment, Microsoft is needed to follow some of the legislation which
are explained below:
Equality Act, 2010: Law and regulation which prohibits discrimination against
employees within the business organisation is known as equity act. This law clarifies that any of
employee should not be discriminated in any situation. It is law which applies on business
organisation so that everyone can work freely to meet out their personal needs. In context of
Microsoft, equity act helps to provide equal rights to every employee while working within the
company. In addition, equity act helps HR in decision making because it will give them idea that
how they need to treat any of employee and orders can be easily followed by them too. This will
also support the HR manger in motivating their employees in such a way so that the employees
working within the organisation will first consider their business goal in comparison to their own
goals (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang, 2014). If the management of respective company follow this
act properly, then it discrimination which are made discrimination on the basis of age, gender,
education and others from recruitment, selection and reward systems.
National Minimum Wage Act, 1998: It is the law which clarifies about minimum wages
that should be given to any employee working within the premisses of company. While talking
about Microsoft, its HR manager is needed to understand about the law and decide the salary of
each employees according to their specialisation. It will have a great impact on decision making
process because HR manager can easily decide who should be paid with what sum of money
when they works for organisation. In Microsoft, by follow this act, the management of the
company can remove favouritism form reward system during the time of rewarded employees
for their good performance. Because some times, administration rewarded employees on the
basis of their past performance or their experience.
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