Human Resource Management: Functions, Methods, and Legislation Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) functions, focusing on two organizations: Chocola Fantastica and Microsoft. It explores the roles of HR managers, including selection, recruitment, training, and compensation, and examines the strengths and weaknesses of different selection methods. The report also includes a person specification for a receptionist position, discusses the benefits of training and internship programs, and evaluates employee engagement strategies. Furthermore, it delves into UK employment legislation and its influence on HR decision-making, offering recommendations for improving selection processes and enhancing employee relations. The report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of HRM practices and their impact on organizational success, offering insights into how companies can effectively manage their human resources to achieve their goals.

Human Resource
Management

Executive Summary
In the present report, various roles played by HR manager within the company is
going to be explained. For conducting the present report effectively two organisations
have been chosen which includes Chocola Fantastica and Microsoft. In this, various
functions which is played by HR manager are includes with the help of which employees
will be able to perform their task effectively. Apart from this, various selection method
are involved where both strengths and weakness of these methods are going to be
discussed. In addition to this, person specification are going to be prepared for the job
position of receptionist. Along with this, various legislation are explained in detail in this
report which influences the decision making process of HR manager.

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
LO 1................................................................................................................................................4
(a) Function and purpose of HRM..........................................................................................4
(b) Strength and weakness of selection method which is used by the organization...............5
(c) Two potential improvement that could be made by Chocola Fantastica for enhancing its
selection process.....................................................................................................................6
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................7
(a) Benefits to employees and organisation which is furnished by Microsoft.......................7
(b) Evaluation of benefits which is providing to both employees & Microsoft.....................8
(c) How Microsoft motivate its staff members through the method they design their job roles
for the employees...................................................................................................................9
LO 3...............................................................................................................................................10
(a) Explain the term employee engagement and why it is an essential part in developing
effective employee relationship within Microsoft................................................................10
(b) Key approaches to engage workers and how such approaches enhance communication
process within the organisation............................................................................................11
(c) Important elements of UK employment legislation and how they affect decision-making
process of HR. .....................................................................................................................12
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................12
(a) Person specification........................................................................................................12
(b) Advantages and disadvantages of actual methods used by companies for advertising jobs.
..............................................................................................................................................14
(c) Recommendations...........................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
HRM refers to an approach with the assistance of which management policies
and strategies of the business organisation get easily influenced. It is an strategic
approach which is mainly designed to gain competitive advantage at the marketplace by
enhancing brand image of the company. It has been said that main purpose behind
developing HRM practises is to increase overall performance and effectiveness of
business entity. Along with this, it has been observed that there are some functions
which need to be perform by HR manager in order to enhance the performance of
organisation (Albrecht and et, al., 2015). These functions includes selection,
recruitment, training, compensation and many more. In the context of present report,
two organisation has been chosen which are Microsoft and Chocola Fantastica. In this
report, HRM functions and purpose are going to be explained. In addition to this,
present report includes selection method as well as person specification is discussed
below. Apart from this, internships and training schemes are included which is provided
by the management team of Microsoft. At last employee engagement is discussed
along with employment legislation which influences decision making process of HR. LO
1
(a) Function and purpose of HRM
Human resource manager plays very essential role in the attainment of
organisational goals and objectives within stipulated time frame. Human resource
management provide guidance and direction to their staff members in order to improve
their performance. It has been said that HR department includes in every level which
affects decision making process of Chocola Fantastica.
HRM plays very important role in the attainment of organisational goals and
objectives. It has been identified that, Human resource management includes various
functions which assist in the accomplishment of pre defined goals within given time
frame. Primary aim or purpose of HR functions is to enhance the effectiveness of
employees and increase brand image of organisation effectively (Chowhan and et. al.,
2017). In addition to this, there another purpose is to conduct every activity of Chocola
Fantastica in an effective manner and produce positive results.
Main functions of Human Resource Management team

Organising training and development sessions: In the present context of
Chocola Fantastica, human resource manager plays very important role in the overall
development of the company. They identify the gap between actual and standard
performance of employees and then provide training sessions if required. It is very
essential for the management team of Chocola Fantastica to provide training and
development sessions on a regular basis. Therefore, it will assist in enhancing the
performance of employees. Apart from this, managers identify current requirements of
market and then adopt new technologies for the attainment of organisational goals. With
the help of this, managers will be able to resolve current issues arise within the
marketplace. Therefore, employees requires training sessions so that they can perform
their work effectively by using upgraded technologies (Direnzo and et. al., 2015).
Selection: It is one of the most important function of HRM which assist in
attaining organisational objectives by selecting best candidates. In the present context
of Chocola Fantastica, main purpose of HRM is to hire skilled candidate within their
company. In the present context of Chocola Fantastica, managers of the company
select best and suitable candidate's for their organisation so that they can attain
organisational goals and objectives effectively. With the assistance of this function,
manager of the company grab various opportunities available at the marketplace. It is
essential to have capability and competencies in order to fulfil the requirement of job
position. So that they can resolve current issues and leads to future growth.
(b) Strength and weakness of selection method which is used by the organization.
In context to “Chocola Fantastica” human resource management department has
particular methods by which new employees can be selected and able to increase
companies performance in effective manner (Donate and de Pablo., 2015). HR
department of company should adopt new methods of selecting to improve overall
productivity of worker which will aid to reduce grievances of employees.
Selection: It is an activity which includes two rounds at first step written test is
conducted and in second round personal interview is conducted of those candidate who
has qualified first round.
Written test: In case of written test, HR manager of the company examine
candidates knowledge on various subjects such as logical, analytical, communication

and many more(Stone and Deadrick, 2015Guest, 2017). This is the method which is
designed by the managers where they get specific time period in order to answer
maximum number of questions. In this, managers develop multiple choice question, true
and false, essay questions and many more. There are some strength and weaknesses
of this approaches which are as follows:
Strength Weakness
 One of the biggest strength of
written test is that it give proper
feedback to the candidates. Along
with this, it will assist in selecting
best and qualified
candidate(Collings, Wood and
Szamosi, 2018).
 Disadvantages of this test is that
candidate sometimes get confused
about the meaning of questions
which leads to affect their answer.
Apart from this, it takes lot of time in
order to provide feedback.
Personal Interview: On the other hand, personal interview is the method where
managers of the company call those candidate's who are qualified in written test. It is
the method which is chosen by the manager so that they can gather more and more
information about the candidate's in an effective manner(Abubakar, Chauhan and Kura,
2015).
Strength Weakness
 Strength of this method is that it will
assist in examining the
communication skill of candidate's.
 On the other hand, it is the method
which requires lot of time and cost
of both manager and candidate.
(c) Two potential improvement that could be made by Chocola Fantastica for enhancing
its selection process.
There are various ways through which Chocola Fantastica HR manger can
improve their selection process, two essential improvement which are discussed below:-

 In Chocola Fantastica, HR manger of this department need to focus on sorting
new candidate on the bases of their skills which are not based on technical skills
rather then those skilled workers should be assessed who can can make
chocolate and can mange other work-related to it (Girard and Girard,
2015).Apart from this, in case of personal interview manager need to examine
candidate's potential skill and capabilities so that they can hire and select best
person in their organisation.
LO 2
(a) Benefits to employees and organisation which is furnished by Microsoft.
Microsoft company is an IT organisation which was formed in 1975, and its
headquarter are in Washington. It involves different products like personal computer,
software and various electronic items. They uses different tools and techniques to
increase their employees potentialities in best effective way. They have started to
provide training and internship programs for the betterment of future growth. Through
these programmes companies can adopt new strategies to retain their employees for
long term and which will ultimately reduce employees turnover cost. In the present
context of Microsoft, it has been identified that managers use On the job training and
apprenticeship internship method. On the job training: It refers to the method which is used by HR manager of
Microsoft in order to provide training sessions to their employees. In this method,
employees get training while they actually working within the organisation. On the
job training means learning while doing. Positive impact of this approach is that it
will assist in motivating employees and develop effective working environment
within the workplace. But on the other hand, negative impact of this method is
can be in Microsoft, that it is not a systematic approach which creates confusion
and misunderstanding between their employees. This leads to affect the overall
process of on the job training sessions.
 Stipend based internship: It is a method which is used by Microsoft in order to
provide internship to the students or employees. With the help of this, method
candidate will be able to earn some amount. It is also known as earning while
learning. Positive impact of this method is that company will get best candidate

for the organisation but on the other hand negative impact of this method is that it
is for a limited time period. Candidate will not be able to learn new thing due to
restricted time frame.
Some of the benefits to Employees:
 They conduct various internship programmes which aid people in increasing
their skills and knowledge. This will aid to increase in future growth.
 Through these internship programmes company can develop various innovative
ideas and implement them for creating new opportunities for talented
candidates (Head and Alford, 2015). These types of programmes is very
beneficial from the view point of employees.
Advantages to Microsoft
 Training and development, internship programmes which will aid to build brand
image of company and increase their competence level, this increases their
productivity at workplace. Another advantages is that through this company will
get competitive advantages because all other companies are having some other
uniqueness which aid them to create and dominate the position in industry.
 In monetary terms they can avail lot of benefits and savings. Company have to
pay stipends to their interns, as these stipends are low in amount as compared to
salaries paid to regular employees (Hitt and et. al., 2016).
(b) Evaluation of benefits which is providing to both employees & Microsoft
Flexible timings are very essential as it helps employees to work according to
their feasibility. Microsoft is providing flexible working timing to its employees, they can
work according to their suitability. There are different types of benefits given to the
employees which includes flexible working hour, part time work and many others.
Positive and negative impact: All these benefits have both positive and
negative impact on the employees as well as on Microsoft. Positive impact is that it
create positive brand of the company in the competitive marketplace which leads to
increase profitability as well as performance of the company. Along with this, it will
increase the efficiency of employees. On the other hand, negative impact of all these
benefits is that employees sometime misuse all these which affects the revenue of

organisation. For example, flexible working hours leads to decrease the productivity of
employee's.
There are many benefits of this facility to both employers and employees as discussed
below:
Benefits to employees:
 Employees in Microsoft will feel it very convenient as they are able to manage
their time according to their need. This helps employees in feeling relaxed and
they can work with more enthusiasm(Cascio, 2015) There is a policy in Microsoft that employees while they are at work can contact
and talk to friends, family and other known ones. They can video chat, email and
messages, this helps them in having feeling of connectivity(Ahmad, 2015).
Benefits to employers:
 When employees in Microsoft are working with increased satisfaction level then
there productivity is also enhanced which is very beneficial from company's
point(Bratton and Gold, 2017).
 In Microsoft, employees get flexible timings for work it provides them relaxation
from rigid timings of work and they can work with increased morale (Hornstein,
2015). This leads to reduce employee turnover which helps in maintaining
effectiveness in overall operations of company.
(c) How Microsoft motivate its staff members through the method they design their job
roles for the employees.
In present scenario, companies provide many benefits to their employees to keep
them motivated towards their work. In context of Microsoft, they provide many benefits
to their employees such as flexible timings of work, timely incentives, monetary and non
monetary motivation tool and many others. All such efforts of companies help them in
keeping their employees satisfied and encourage them towards work (Linnenluecke,
2017). This helps in increasing overall productivity and effectiveness of employees.
Below mentioned are some initiatives on part of company:
Health and safety: To keep their employees motivated towards their job,
managers of Microsoft try to provide healthy environment to work. There are basic
facilities such as drinking water, cleanliness, updated technology and many others. All

such facilities also play a necessary role in maintaining employees efficiency and overall
effectiveness at workplace. It also acts as a motivation tool for employees. In case of
Microsoft, they organize timely health care sessions for their employees which helps
them in being motivated and they work with their full capacity(Cristiani and Peiró, 2015).
Training sessions: Training sessions organised by companies help their
employees in coping up with requirements necessary to fulfil their job responsibilities.
These sessions are essential for increasing growth opportunities for employees of
company. It also helps management of company to address any weakness if present in
employees and provides various solutions to overcome it. There is investment needed
by company but that is valuable as when employees work with increased motivation
then it is beneficial for company(Brewster, 2017). Microsoft also organizes timely
training sessions for their employees which helps them in managing their work.
LO 3
(a) Explain the term employee engagement and why it is an essential part in developing
effective employee relationship within Microsoft
Employee engagement basically defines relationship between employer and
employee in a company, basically this relates to enthusiasm at work place of employees
which is very necessary for achievement of overall objectives. It is also very important
for maintaining relationship between employer & employee. Engaged employee is
regarded as one who is always having a positive attitude towards their job (Rondeau
and Wagar, 2016). Following points justify importance of employee engagement in
Microsoft: Better communication: Communication is a important part of employee
engagement, it is very necessary that employees are able to communicate with
top management of company. As this is a tool which can help in building of
proper relationships within employees and employers. Effective employee
relation helps in performing of all functions in a more effective manner (Shen and
Benson, 2016).
 Clarity: If there is clarity in all types of communication taking place between
employer and employee then it will lead to achievement of objectives in specified
time period. Also, there will be no repetition of tasks and employees will have

clarity about what are their roles and responsibilities related to their job. This will
lead to betterment of relation among employers and employees as, employees
will not have any type of ambiguity regarding their job.
 Better decision making: When decisions are made in a proper way then it leads
to increased satisfaction among employees. They are able to feel contended and
their productivity at workplace will increase. Employees will feel more satisfied
and their relationship will also become more better and effective at same time.
(b) Key approaches to engage workers and how such approaches enhance
communication process within the organisation
The given summit in link shows various employee engagement approaches used
by different organisations. There are different tools used for driving employee
engagement, open communication and teamwork in workplace.
Yammer – Yammer is a service of social networking used for the purpose of
private communication in Microsoft. It was launched in year 2008 and was later
acquired by Microsoft in the year 2012. it is basically used for internal communication in
companies. Yammer allows employees in creating private or public groups in Microsoft.
This is a tool which helps in improving engagement with employees working in the
company (Employee Engagement Summit, 2019). When there is good communication
within the organisation then it helps in enhancement of building culture of transparency.
According to Yammer, several communities are build for bringing people together on
common interests, topics and area of practise. Gathering of ideas and feedback form
different colleagues helps in attaining better results. There are both negative as well as
positive aspects of this tool. Organisation can use this for increasing employee
engagement. On the other hand, there is requirement of lot of investment for doing such
activity. Share Point – This is another tool discussed in Summit. According to this,
employees are informed and engaged with news, dynamic pages and beautiful sites
which integrates from Office 365. This helps in connecting people at workplace with
mobile intranet. By using this tool, employees can stay up to date with happenings
around the workplace and news of office is easily available everywhere. It can be said

that there are also negative consequences of using this application as sometimes news
can be available to any person who can misuse it.
(c) Important elements of UK employment legislation and how they affect decision-
making process of HR.
It is important that every company follows some employment legislations of UK
government. There are some regulations imposed by UK government which are as
follows:
Equal Pay act 1963: This is act of UK, passed in 1963. Main motive behind this
law was to abolish any discriminations made in payment of wages to employees based
on their sex. HR department of company have to take into consideration this act and
according to that they have to frame policies regarding to pay to their employees. Equal
pay act makes it illegal if companies are involved in paying different wages to
employees at same position and having same amount of responsibilities. All employees
have right to receive equal wages irrespective whether they are on full time, casual, part
time or temporary (Chowhan and et. al., 2017). If there is any such practise done by HR
department than employee can complain in employee tribunal.
Employee rights Act, 1996: This act deals with relationship among employers
and employees. This explains expectation of employers from employees of company.
Every employee in Microsoft is treated equally and no discrimination is done on any
criteria of caste, creed, colour, sex or anything else. It is the responsibility of HR
department to ensure that there are no discriminatory policies in company, additional
facilities for employees such as maternity leave, flexible working hours etc. are also to
be provided to employees in this law.
Working Time Regulation Act,1989: This act states that employee should be
given work according to specific timings. This means that there are decided timings
according to which every employee's working hours will be decided. HR department of
Microsoft must ensure that there are flexible working hours where every employee is
allowed to work according to their convenience. This helps in reducing absenteeism and
also has a positive impact on maintaining overall employee satisfaction (Direnzo and et.
al., 2015).LO 4