Human Resource Management Practices at Chocolate Presence

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Human Resource Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
PART 1 –The Purpose and Scope of HRM and Recruitment and Selection & the Application of
HRM practices in the workplace.....................................................................................................5
Task 1 – (LO1).................................................................................................................................5
a) Explains the purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization, given its
current problems and future plans for further growth.....................................................................5
b) Explains the strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used by the
organization.....................................................................................................................................7
c) Evaluates at least 2 two potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate Presence to
enhance its selection process...........................................................................................................9
Task 2 – Application (LO 4)..........................................................................................................10
a) Create a person specification for the role..................................................................................10
b) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of advertising jobs in the
organization...................................................................................................................................11
c) Explain where you would recommend the job advert for the Receptionist vacancy to be placed
and why..........................................................................................................................................12
PART 2 - Employee performance, development and reward & Factors that influence HR
decision making.............................................................................................................................14
Task 3 (LO2)..................................................................................................................................14
a) Microsoft offer graduate training schemes and internships. Evaluate the benefits to both the
organization and employees of such schemes...............................................................................14
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......................................................................................................................................15
c) Evaluate how Microsoft motivates its workers through the way it designs its job roles..........15
Task 4 (LO3)..................................................................................................................................17
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a) What is meant by the term employee engagement and why is employee engagement such an
important part in effective employee relations in Microsoft?.......................................................17
b) Critically evaluate the key approaches to engaging workers discussed in the Summit and
how these approaches improve communication in the workplace................................................18
c) Identify the key elements of UK employment legislation, explaining how they influence HR
decision making such as recruitment, training and development and reward...............................19
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................21
Reference List................................................................................................................................22
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Introduction
Human resource management is one of the most crucial parts of the organization, which deals
with shaping the performance of the organizational workforce, while ensuring overall welfare of
the employees in the organization. The human resource management unit is playing some crucial
functions in the organization, including recruitment, selection, workforce planning,
compensation, employee engagement and safeguarding employees in the organization. The HRM
team in every organization is responsible for recruiting and retaining the best talents in the
organization and ensuring that the organizational workforce is able to meet the demands of the
competitive market (Banfield et al., 2018). Engaging employees in organizational activities and
decision making is crucial for empowering them. In order to understand HRM and its function in
the organization, it is crucial to understand the key factors, which are influencing the HR
decision making. A range of factors, as well as legislations are influencing the HR decision
making in an organization. In the following assignment, the key emphasis would be to explore
the key purpose and scope of HRM in context of an organizational case scenario of “Chocolate
Presence”. In addition, the factors influencing the HR decision making and the aspects related to
HRM, including employee performance, reward and development would also be discussed.
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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 – (LO1)
a) Explains the purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization, given its
current problems and future plans for further growth
Human resource management is referred to the strategic approach towards effective management
of people in the organization in such a way that they can effectively contribute in gaining
competitive advantage for the business (Bratton and Gold, 2017). The human resource
management activities are designed for maximizing the employee performance in service of an
employer’s strategic objectives. The key purpose of HRM in the “Chocolate Presence” is “to
achieve business objective, meet organizational staffing needs and maintain employee
satisfaction”.
Functional activities of HRM – Chocolate Presence has different HRM functions, including HR
planning, recruitment & selection, reward, performance management, training and development.
The HR planning is the process for identifying the current and future human resource needs for
the organization, in order to achieve goals. In Chocolate Presence, the HR planning function
might link between human resource management and the organizational strategic plan. The
organization follows four steps in human resource planning. The first step is “assessing the
current HR capacity”, which has been seen to be low in case of Chocolate Presence. The next
step is “forecasting HR requirements”. It has been revealed that Chocolate Presence should
strengthen its workforce by increasing number of employees and developing a strong HR team.
Further, the third step is “developing talent strategies” (Cascio, 2015). It includes devising the
strategies through which required talent could be acquired, developed or retained to meet the
demand forecasted, which include, recruitment, selection, training and development,
compensation and rewards, performance management, employee relations. Final step is “review
and evaluation”, when the HR personnel would ensure that the company is achieving its goal and
employee satisfaction through the procedure.
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Recruitment & selection is crucial HR function at Chocolate Presence. The organization might
include both internal and external recruitment. In the past the organizational recruitment was
internal, when the recruitment from existing staffs and their referral or physical vacancies on
notice boards on the external wall of the main entrance have been done. Due to its insufficiency,
the organization has planned for external recruitment. Due to high number of applicants, the
selection method is complex and includes English and Mathematics assessment, followed by
reference check and informal interview (Conway et al., 2016).
The performance management and reward is also crucial for the organization. It includes annual
appraisal of employees, based on which their performance development plan might be devised.
The organization should also have a reward system for empowering employees towards
organizational objectives. In this regards, for improving their performance, some training and
development should also be offered by the organization.
Importance of HRM – In case of Chocolate Presence, the organization is undergoing some key
issues related to its overall quality and performance. Like any other organizations, HRM plays a
crucial role in shaping the overall business performance and growth of Chocolate Presence.
However, reviewing the overall structure of the organization, it that been revealed that being an
SME, it does not possess a definite human resource management team and the owner has no
experience of employing an increasing workforce. The organization is current facing staff
turnover issues, quality issues and issues related to overall performance. In this regards,
developing a HRM team is important for influencing the organizational growth by eliminating
the employment issues (DeCenzo et al., 2016). The effective HRM team would be able to
understand the organizational requirement for staffing and recruit the best talent pool, while able
to nurture them with best resource to reduce turnover, thereby ensuring that the quality of overall
performance is improved.
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b) Explains the strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used by the
organization
The organization Chocolate Presence is using the following selection methods, which has some
strengths and weaknesses. The key methods are evaluated below, to understand their
effectiveness.
Home-made assessment tests in mathematics and English
Chocolate Presence has created their own selection method for shorlisting candidates, through
English comprehensive and mathematics assessment, which applicants need to complete online
or in person. They have a fixed pass mark of 50% to be selected for the further rounds.
Strengths
 Most of the organizations usually select candidates through aptitude based test and this test by
Chocolate presence resembles such test, which helps to assess candidate’s analytical skill,
which is crucial in business context
 It is an less expensive method of selection, compared to others
Weaknesses
 It does not enable the employer to assess the candidate’s job related skills, which is related to
chocolate firm or the vacant designation
 50% passing marks is not sufficient to ensure that the candidate is able to accomplish the role
successfully
 The recent complaints are indicating that some new recruits have failed their probationary
period, which can be attributable to this inadequate procedure, which enables the recruiters to
select incapable or less capable candidates (Noe et al., 2015)
References
The candidates who pass the first round of assessment are checked for referral at Chocolate
Presence. However, it has some pros and cons also.
Strengths
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 There is a chance of have a guarantee to have high quality candidate from trusted sources
 It is an inexpensive process
 It is also saving time from external recruitment process
 It empowers the existing staffs, in regards to monetary rewards for referral, thereby improving
their productivity
Weaknesses
 The risk of biased decision is high in this case
 As it is hindering the candidates from pool of external resources to approach, the chance of
innovation or creativity reduces
 The chance of negative organizational politics increases, which affects organizational
environment, might not be validated (Noe et al., 2017)
 In case of Chocolate Presence, review of the procedures identified that the referral procedure
is not fair and justified for all, resulting in failure of new recruits in probationary period
Informal chat
It is the final step of the selection procedure in Chocolate Presence, which includes informal chat
with the candidate through the interview, the pros and cons of which are evaluated below.
Strengths
 The informal chat helps to build rapport with the candidate and gives the opportunity to
understand candidate’s commitment
 It is more flexible and interactive
 It creates a good hope for both the candidate and employer
 Candidate’s hidden positive and negative behavioral attributes could be identified
 It does not need any structured pattern to follow
Weaknesses
 It is time consuming
 There is a chance to get diverted from the focus of the job requirement
 There is a significant risk of communicating about confidential matters during interview
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 It could lead to biased outcomes, based on the preferences upon informal chat with
candidates, not reliable (Dany and Torchy, 2017)
 In case of Chocolate Presence, such biasness led to failure of some candidates in
probationary period
c) Evaluates at least 2 two potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate
Presence to enhance its selection process
Chocolate Presence can make potential improvement for enhancing the quality of selection
procedure. There are different other types of selection processes, apart from the ones, used by the
company, like “semi-structured interviews, presentations and group work, work sample, a bought
psychometric test, etc”. The following two methods are suggested here.
Semi-structure interview – Unlike the informal chat during interview, which is bringing
biasness, the organization should include semi-structured interview. In this case, each candidate
is asked moreover questions in similar context. Unlike unstructured interview, it would emphasis
more on past experience and individual asset related to the job. It would eliminate the chance of
getting diverted and help the interviewer to assess candidate’s potential to accomplish the vacant
designation. However, it’s limitation is that it is not much flexible, but would eliminate the issue
the company is currently facing (DeVaro, 2016).
Presentation and group work – It is also a significant improvement in the existing procedure. As
the employees need to work in teams in the organization, this selection procedure would help
employees to be familiar with organizational environment and assess their potential to work
under similar circumstances. On the other hand presentation would help to show the employee’s
capability to accomplish work-based problems. One limitation is that it is unable to evaluate
individual’s own potential; but it would be tested in the other levels.
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Task 2 – Application (LO 4)
a) Create a person specification for the role
Receptionist – Person Specification
Qualification
 Minimum of GCSE English and Mathematics
 Specified degree for a receptionist from any UK based college or university
 Manual handling certificate (Optional)
 Fire Safety / First Aid certificate (Optional)
Experience
 Minimum 2 years of experience of working as a receptionist or office assistant
 Office administration experience is essential (Proven documentation)
Qualities / Skills
 Excellent verbal and written communication skill, including ability to communicate with
wide range of people
 Standard speaking and writing skill in English
 Effective time management and organizational skills
 Ability of multi-tasking and prioritizing workload
 Effective interpersonal skills and ability to work as a active member of team
 Ability to work autonomously and take initiative
 Highly attentive and accuracy
 Willingness to learn and develop continuously with the work system
 Effective IT skill, knowledge of MS Office software (MS Word, MS Excel)
Other Desirable Criteria
 High level of personal presentation
 Good health to carry out the desired work level
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 Understanding of general practice reception environment
 Effective knowledge on Health and Safety at Work place
b) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of advertising jobs in
the organization
Chocolate Presence is currently including both internal and external methods of advertising jobs
for the organization; both have some advantages and disadvantages, which are demonstrated
below.
Internal advertisement
The scenario at “Chocolate Presence” revealed that the organization circulated job vacancies
internally, to the existing staffs, their known people and within Chocolate Presence.
Advantage
The internal advertisement possesses are consistent in several manner, as it saves time and
money for the organization. It ensures a better understanding of the company for the recruited
employees, as they have already familiarly with the organization. It also improves loyalty of the
existing employees, which is reflected through increased productivity. It enhance employees the
willingness to perform better to be promoted to higher designation. For example, when posting
advertisement for receptionist, considering the types of skills required, this method enables the
existing employees to refer to their known candidate, who must possess these skills and suitable
for the job (DeVaro, 2016). On the other hand, in case of the salary, the employer can offer a
salary hike to junior staffs, while posting an advertisement for higher position like marketing or
sales manager.
Disadvantage
Sometimes, this process does not remain fair and consistent, as the recruiter shows biasness, for
some preferred referrals, which leads to poor performance and overall production. Further, it also
reduces best potential candidates from external pool to be selected.
Notice board outside the main entrance
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The scenario revealed that in regards to job advertisement externally, Chocolate Presence used
its physical vacancy notice board on the external wall of the main entrance.
Advantage
External job advertisement possesses significant benefit to grab and hire the best talents for the
vacant position in the organization. The process for external job posting, i.e. job posting in the
physical notice board is saving both time and money for SME like Chocolate Presence. For
instance, a receptionist should possess specific communication and interpersonal skill, which
should be clearly explained during hiring process through advertisement. In this advertisement,
the organization can explain skills, salary and other details required for the job role, which are
often ignored in case of internal recruitment (Abzug, 2017). Thus, this advertisement can find the
best match from wider talent pool considering these factors.
Disadvantage
The external advertisement through physical notice board used by Chocolate Presence is
inconsistent; because, this is limited to grab attention of people, who would pass through the
organization, but cannot reach to wider population. In such manner, it can be interpreted as
unfair for the candidates, who are looking for job, but not living in the locality.
c) Explain where you would recommend the job advert for the Receptionist vacancy to be
placed and why
There are different alternative medium, which are suitable for job advertisement for receptionist
vacancy. Being a SME, it is recommended that the organization should put the job vacancy to an
online job portal, which is a less expensive and reliable way, used by small, medium and large
organizations for gaining the best potential employees. For instance, a range of online job portals
are available, which has low registration charge, suitable for SME like Chocolate Presence,
including Indeed and Monster Jobs. This type of job advertisement is appropriate for receptionist
vacancy. It is because; it is a realistic and cost saving (Abzug, 2017). For instance, in case of
Indeed, which can post a job over 100 job boards and reach to millions of potential candidates,
seeks starting rate of $189/month for 3 job posting, which is cheap and suitable for SME like
Chocolate Presence. Getting reach to wider pool of eligible candidates, the employer would be
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