HRM in Practice: A Report on Chocolate Presence and Microsoft

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes HRM practices at two companies.

HRM in Practice
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................. 3
PART 1 –The Purpose and Scope of HRM and Recruitment and Selection & the
Application of HRM practices in the workplace...........................................................4
Task 1......................................................................................................................4
Task 2......................................................................................................................7
PART 2 - Employee performance, development and reward & Factors that influence
HR decision making....................................................................................................9
Task 3......................................................................................................................9
Task 4....................................................................................................................10
Conclusion................................................................................................................ 11
Reference..................................................................................................................12
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Introduction
The basic principles of effective Human Resource Management include the creation
of a perfect vision and equality of relation with other colleagues such as supervisors
and subordinates in an organisation. It is the duty of a Human Resource officer to
develop the skills of subordinates and on the other hand, analyse the liabilities and
take action accordingly. In this study, the purpose of understanding the principles of
HRM and its effective utilisation is to be discussed. In the first part, the discussion
will be on ‘Chocolate Presence’, a company located in New York, which produces
tailor-made chocolate products. As the company belongs to an area of high
unemployment, it is having a huge number of applicants but has to select or recruit
new ones effectively through proper selection & assessment. In the second part, the
topic of discussion will be ‘Microsoft’, a well-known organisation which encourages
opportunities for personal growth and development of their employees and provide
scopes for training & internship courses to the graduated students.
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PART 1 –The Purpose and Scope of HRM and Recruitment and Selection & the
Application of HRM practices in the workplace
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.
The HR function comprises of all the duties, roles and activities to be performed by
an HR for the organisation. Previously, the functions were completely administrative,
but in the present scenario, the HR performs the complete process of recruitment of
new employees and getting them ready to serve the organisation. The importance of
the HR function towards the organisation is un-comprehensible. The focus from the
management of HR functions has shifted to the maintenance of effective
development of the organisation. HR is in charge of recruiting and selecting new
employees for the organisation. After the selection process, the HR trains them and
develop the skills required for the job designation. The complete planning of Human
resources is done by the HR, after proper consideration of the provision of contracts
that the organisation will sign in future. They must provide equal and unbiased
opportunities for all their employees. The HR assesses the performance of every
employee, and if they feel that any one of the employees is facing a problem in
performing his or her task, then they motivate them as well. The HR looks after the
complete welfare of the employees including their remuneration, health condition and
safety (Phillips, J and Phillips, 2016).
These are the roles, responsibilities of an HR in an organisation. The current
problem that the organisation ‘Chocolate Presence’ is facing is a shortage of workers
in their company. This problem is definitely to be catered by the HR of the
organisation. As the company’s location is responsible for huge unemployment and
the number of applicants for the post is excessive, to fulfil the shortage of
employees, the HR has to take steps accordingly to recruit employees and meet the
increasing demands but at the same time maintain the quality of their products
keeping the customers satisfied. As the competition for the post of production,
worker and administration are so high, proper methods are needed to be
implemented to shortlist candidates by their merit and skills. If candidates
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appropriate for the posts are recruited, then only the company can successfully
flourish in their future.
b) Explains the strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods
used by the organization.
At present, the methods of selection used by the organisation to shortlist applicants
for the vacant posts includes two assessment tests by which they are judged. The
subjects on which the test will be conducted are English comprehension and
Mathematics. Candidates who would score 50% or more in both the tests will be
shortlisted for the next recruitment processes. The first and foremost strength of this
selection process is that the applicants are judged by their merit. Not only technical
strength but also merit is required for every job in an organisation. Candidates with
merit as well as technical skills are highly appreciated. Lacking any of the required
aspects will make rejection of the application. This kind of strictness is required in the
selection process when it comes to dealing with such a huge number of applications
for a single post. It is always expected that the deserving candidate should get the
opportunity to work in the organisation.
But along with these strengths of the selection process, there might be some
weaknesses as well. Recently the company faced some objections and complaints
regarding the selection process from its earlier applicants. They questioned the fact
of a fair judgement of the tests. The selection process of the organisation cannot
convince the applicants on the fairness of the tests. They are suspecting that there
might be some unfair loopholes inside the organisation to prefer candidature of their
own will and not by qualification. The company should look after this fact so that they
regain the trust and confidence of the future aspiring candidates who might work for
the organisation.
c) Evaluates at least 2 two potential improvements that could be made by
Chocolate Presence to enhance its selection process.
The steps that can be taken by Chocolate Presence to improve the fairness of the
selection process and its quality are: they can improvise on the methods of
conducting the test, increase the number of parameters of judging the candidate,
proper invigilation should be done while the test is being conducted. Other than
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checking the answer sheets manually, machines should be incorporated to analyze
the answers so that not a single fault is left unobserved. At present only two tests are
conducted to shortlist candidates, in future the number of subjects can be increased.
For example, other than English comprehension and mathematics, general
knowledge can also be incorporated in the test syllabus. This would help to analyse
the candidate’s all-around knowledge. Interference of people to influence the
candidature of any applicant should not be entertained.
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Task 2
a) Create a person specification for the role
Presently, Chocolate Presence is going to hire people for the post of ‘Receptionist’
in the administrative department. The organisation will provide a professional
platform to the candidate who would be recruited for the post. Candidates who would
like to apply for this post should have these qualities:
o Diploma or graduation in any of the subjects, with one year experience in this
field
o Good typing skill
o Basic computer knowledge such as in MS Word, MS Office, and others
o Good communication skill
o Fluent speaker
These are the required criteria for the candidates who want to apply for this post.
Moreover, the duties that they have to perform as a receptionist includes; greeting
the clients that come to the organisation because he or she will be the first person of
the organisation to meet the clients. They have to maintain records and fix the
meetings with the guests. They have to answer the incoming phone calls and
forward them if required. They should be comfortable enough to work in MS Word,
MS Office, and access the internet when required. They have to figure out
administrative paperwork as well. They have to organise all the essential documents
and files of the organisation. The person recruited as a receptionist should converse
fluently with the clients. Along with all these qualities, he or she should be well
mannered and well-behaved (cerebralpalsy.org.au, 2019). Proper support of
customer service should be provided to the candidate.
b) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of
advertising jobs in the organization
The current methods of advertising jobs in the organisation include advertising
through e-mails, official notice on the notice board of the organisation, through
official chat groups internally. For external advertisement, the organisation can use
the medium of online websites where they can give up a pop-up, pop-down message
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as an advertisement for their vacancy to drag attention, in local newspapers, through
social networking sites, can ask for references from different colleges and
universities to encourage their students to apply for the job. In consideration of the
methods of advertisement, the main advantage is that; it would provide a wide base
of promotion as their advertisement would stream online. People would come to
know about the organisation through the advertisements. This kind of advertisement
would increase its popularity. Along with the advantages, some disadvantages will
also be there. The disadvantage that the organisation might face due to these
methods of advertisement is that the number of applications would be huge. As
people from different sources would come to know about the vacancy, they would
look forward to apply for the job. Proper management of such a huge number of
applications and their selection process would be a great challenge for the Human
Resource management team. As the number of applications increases, the
organisation has to arrange for the evaluation of their talent. The number of
applications might be ten to a hundred times more than the number of vacant posts.
Nothing can be done on that matter because the organisation is bound to arrange
selection methods for every applicant. For this process, the organisation might
require to incorporate extra employees to look after the whole procedure, who are
not supposed to be in this charge.
c) Explain where you would recommend the job advert for the Receptionist
vacancy to be placed and why.
Being one of the most popular business firms across the UK premises, “Chocolate
Presence“ requires focusing upon developing their recruitment system for better
fulfilling the vacant job designations of the company. Currently, the company is
using internal recruitment process. They have been circulating job vacancies
internally to the existing employees as well as their family and friends. They use
physical vacancy notice boards at the main entrance of the company for infirming
existing employees regarding the vacancy (Gu et al., 2016). Recently, the company
has been seeking for an eligible and most suitable candidate along with all the
required skills and adequate knowledge for the designated job role of a receptionist.
The HR manager of the organization has understood the inefficiency of the current
recruitment system and he has decided to adopt the external recruitment system for
filling the vacant job role.
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In this modern era, a wide range of daily users is using internet and social media
platforms indiscriminately. Thus, the hr manager of “Chocolate Presence “has
decided to use different social media platforms for advertising the job vacancy.
Through using social media platforms, company can easily reach more numbers of
potential and eligible candidates for the vacant place.
Additionally, different online job portals are useful in this process. Candidates those
are seeking for job vacancies, follow online job portals on regular basis. Therefore,
company can attract those enthusiastic candidates for the vacant job role of the
company through just advertising their job vacancy in online job portals (Khatri et al.,
2015). Both of the methods are effective for attracting more numbers of eligible
candidates along with all desired skills and adequate knowledge as well as
“Chocolate Presence“ can use both online job portals and different social media
platforms like Facebook, Linkdln, Instagram and others for fulfilling the receptionist
vacancy along with all required skills.
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PART 2 - Employee performance, development and reward & Factors that
influence HR decision making
Task 3
a) Microsoft offer graduate training schemes and internships. Evaluate the
benefits to both the organisation and employees of such schemes
“Microsoft Corporation” is an American based multinational technology firm that
mainly deals with software, personal computer and consumer electronics and
relevant different services. This company was founded in 1975 and through
continuous innovation, implementation of technological advancement and meeting
the demands of the customers; the company has reached a new level of success.
As per the recent statistics of the company, “Microsoft Corporation” has more than
1,34,000 employees those contribute for organizational growth and prosperity
(microsoft.com, 2018).
Being one of the most successful business organizations, the company has always
focused on improving the employee performance and enhancing job satisfaction
level of the employees so that they can continue working in the company happily.
In 2018, “Microsoft Corporation” came up with graduate training schemes and
internships to enhance the output of the staffs effectively. One of the most effective
apprenticeship program arranged through the “Microsoft Corporation” Open
evening 2018. In March 2018, this apprenticeship program was offered to existing
employees of the firm as well as outside graduate trainees. Through arranging this
apprenticeship program, both of the company and employees can be benefited. The
employees can get an overall idea of working in an MNC and they can prepare
themselves as per the requirements. This apprenticeship training is designed for
influencing the employees to learn several new things related to business operations
and extending their performance level to the maximum level. On the other hand,
through using trained employees, organization accelerates the production rate and
sales revenue of the company successfully.
Another important graduate training program used by “Microsoft Corporation” is
MACH, which is a two years course. During these two years, company provides
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customised learning experience to employees, which alternatively allows generating
better profits to employers. Employees get benefits simultaneously. Training is the
seedtime of an employee’s life, while he learns several new things related to
organization and business operations. Both of the program are designed in such
manner both the employees and the organization. Employees enhance professional
knowledge and organization this knowledge will assist the company to massively
contribute for the organizational growth and progress. Alternatively, through this way,
company successfully harvests efficient employees those will support the
organization to face different organizational challenges in upcoming future.
“Microsoft Corporation” provides more focus on improving their employee
performance, as they are the main asset of the organization. These two programmes
are effective for extending employee performance and skilled employees can
effectively support an organization to incise the brand of the company as well.
b) Microsoft offers a range of flexible working arrangements for staff. Firstly,
identify some of these arrangements and then evaluate the benefits of offering
these to both Microsoft and its employees.
In IT hardware and software industry, “Microsoft Corporation” is the leader in
current market. A range of flexible policies are used through the administration of the
company for making the work environment of the organization more friendlier for the
employees, where they can perform in better manner. Flexible policies are designed
in such manner that they can benefit both the employees and the organization
simultaneously. Recently, “Microsoft Corporation” has adopted an effective
approach of flexible working arrangements for employees that is popular as Flex
Time (resources.techcommunity.microsoft.com, 2019). This Flex Time generally
implies flexible time. By the use of this effective approach, the employees will be
able to set their working hours frequently.
Flex Time provides employees an opportunity to choose their own working hours so
that they can better achieve the target of the organization. In “Microsoft
Corporation”, every employee has to work 40 hours at least in a week and this is up
to the employees how they select their working time hours. Through this company
provides motivation to employees for extending their current organizational
performance to the maximum level. Flexible working practices make the employees’
work with ease. This provides more job satisfaction to the employees that is
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important for better employee engagement and organizational development
altogether.
c) Evaluate how Microsoft motivates its workers through the way it designs its
job roles.
Employees are the most important asset of an organization. Skilled employees
always support organization to be more productive and successfully enhance sales
revenue of the company. “Microsoft Corporation” always focuses on providing
motivation to the employees so that they can perform and contribute in better
manner. Not only that but also the company has designed their structure of job roles
in such manner that it can provide adequate motivation to their employees. Being
one of the most successful business organizations, “Microsoft Corporation” has
different job designation for performing different important functions within the firm.
They have added several reward systems along with job designations and salary
scale. This extrinsic reward includes bonus, incentives and other additional benefits.
“Microsoft Corporation” provides these all rewards to employees relied upon their
performance standard and contribution towards accomplishing the business target.
These keep the employee motivated all around the firm and motivated employees
are more productive. Alternatively, this extends the performance of the employees,
which influences accelerating organizational profit generation.
Additionally, “Microsoft Corporation” uses an effective and attractive job design.
The company has provided their experience and knowledge to design this type of
effective job design. Jobs in “Microsoft Corporation” are designed in an effective
way that this brings out the best qualities staff without crating high pressure upon her
or him. Moreover, too many accomplishments are not clubbed within a single job
designation of “Microsoft Corporation”. Design of the job is clear and quite easy to
understand by the employees (resources.techcommunity.microsoft.com, 2019).
Clear job design makes the work of the staffs easier as well as hassle free. Hassle
free work allows increasing the productivity of the company. Job roles are designed
in such manner that employees feel stronger connection with the company, which
positively influence them to perform better. This enhances motivation of the
employees as well. The company has successfully designed their job roles aligning
with the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for better meeting the requirements and
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