Analyzing HRM: Recruitment, Performance & Development in Organizations

This report provides an analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within organizations, focusing on recruitment, selection, employee performance, and development. It examines the purpose and scope of HRM, particularly in the context of 'Say it with Chocolate,' evaluating their recruitment and selection methods and suggesting potential improvements. The report further explores employee performance, development, and reward systems at Microsoft, emphasizing the importance of employee engagement and compliance with labor laws. The role of a Human Resource Officer is also discussed, highlighting their responsibilities in recruitment, employee relations, and ensuring fairness in selection processes. The analysis includes a person specification for a role, rationale for advertisement mediums, and concludes with insights into enhancing HRM practices for organizational success. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Human Resource Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Part 1: The Purpose and Scope of HRM and Recruitment and Selection.......................................4
Task 1 (LO1)................................................................................................................................4
Task 2 (LO4)................................................................................................................................8
Part 2: Employee performance, development and reward & Factors that influence HR decision
making...........................................................................................................................................12
Task 3 (LO2)..............................................................................................................................12
Task 4 (LO3)..............................................................................................................................17
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
Reference List................................................................................................................................22
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Introduction
The Human Resource Management is crucial to manage the highest level of Human Resource
activities within the organisation all across the globe. Every organisation essentially has a
department that looks after the Human resource issues within the organisational level.
Nowadays, the HRM has been integrated the management functions with the latest features of
Information Technology such as Cloud computing, SAP, Mobile technology and BigData
Analytics that automates and facilitates the overall Hunan resource activities within the
organisation. Systems used for HRM, influences individual as well as the organisation, so that
they are able to operate effectively. In order to operate the HRM effectively and efficiently
within the organisation, they set up strategies and objectives, so that the employees are able to
improve their knowledge, skills, motivation in order to function according to the opportunities
offered to them. The main job role of the HRM department in the organisation is to build
commitment within the employees through selectively recruiting them and provide them with
intensive training and development in order to make them efficient.
The assignment is upon the role and responsibilities of Human Resource Management within the
organisation. The assignment is divided into two parts and each of them has a respective case
studies.
The case study in the first part is about the “Purpose and Scope of HRM, Recruitment and
Selection” in context of “Say it with Chocolate” company (Godivachocolates.co.uk, 2018). The
first part firstly explains about the purpose of Human Resource functions and its significance to
the organisation. The rest of the first part explains the existing selection and recruitment
procedures applied by the HRM department of the organisation and also includes
recommendations to improve those recruiting processes.
The second part of the assignment enumerates the “Employee performance, development and
reward & Factors that influence HR decision making” with references to “Microsoft.” In the
first section of this part, the content explains about the current processes through which the
employees are trained and developed within the organisational boundary of Microsoft
(Microsoft.com, 2018). The part also explains about the importance of employee engagement
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and employee relations within Microsoft. The part has stressed upon the role of employee
legislations of UK upon the organisations all across the globe.
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Part 1: The Purpose and Scope of HRM and Recruitment and Selection
Task 1 (LO1)
Introduction
This report will cover purpose and importance of various HR functions in context to “Say it
chocolate”. Roles and responsibilities of human resource officers are clearly stated in this report.
In addition to this, the major issues of recruitment and selection methods used in this
organization are mentioned.
a) The purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization, given its current
problems and future plans for further growth.
Purpose and importance of HR function in context to “Say it with Chocolate” are as follows.
Recruitment, selection and Training: Purpose of this function is to advertise vacant position,
conducting interview and hiring desired candidates along with providing proper training suitable
for job position. Selection is important to short list the applicants and choosing right employee
for the right position. This department generates qualified applicants for the organization. HR
department publishes various training materials and tools by covering all aspects of job
(mallbusiness.chron.com, 2018).
Payroll and Benefits: The sole purpose of this function is to determine salary and compensation
structure for employees irrespective of their position. This function takes care of all aspects of
employee benefits including health insurance and facilities. It also manages compensation
programs like fringe benefits and pension. Another purpose is to keep track on long term leave
and absence of employee.
Employee Relations: This function aims at handling various disputes among employees as well
as encouraging them to work together. In addition to this, its purpose is to strengthen employee-
employer relationship by measuring employee satisfaction level, improving working condition
and providing work support to employees (Leat, 2012).
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Ensure Compliance with Labor Laws: HR department comply with all labor laws through
setting minimum working hour and wages. HR department is adhering to occupational safety and
health act in order to provide a safe working environment reducing work place injury (Friend and
Kohn, 2014).
There are number of complaints came from applicants that n “Say it with Chocolate” is not
using a fair way to conduct the test and most of the recruits have failed their probationary period.
Therefore, HR officer should take necessary steps for conducting a fair selection process as well
as arranging job specific training in probationary period. Staff turnover has increased in this
organization. HR department should provide performance benefits to their customer satisfaction.
This will help in reducing staff turnover. Say it with Chocolate” is planning to improve its
performance appraisal system and providing long term benefits to employees such as medical
facilities, insurance and quarterly bonus. It also aims at improving employee relationship through
a committee.
b) How you see your role and responsibilities as a Human Resource Officer.
Human resource officer plays a role of changing agent, business partner, employee advocate and
also as an administrative expert for organization.
As a changing agent HR officers focus on changing work culture and responds to dynamic
management process. They develop and execute employee development program in order to
motivate them adapt quickly in organization.
As a business partner HR officers try to maintain relationship between management and
employees. They also contribute their idea in strategic planning process and also suggest some
new improvements in business operation.
As an employee advocate introduce employee grievance process and resolve their issues related
to working condition. They stand on behalf employees for protecting their right.
As an administrative expert they manage all regulatory changes and report all business activities
to management.
Major Responsibilities of Human Resource Officers
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They are responsible for recruitment process through presenting talented and desired employees
before management. They are responsible for fairness of different selection process. They build a
suitable work culture for employees and try to maintain a relationship between employer and
employees. They motivate employees to work effectively through performance and reward
planning. Another key responsibility of HR officer is to support innovative steps taken by
employees and give a chance to show their talent outside the organization.
c) The advantages and disadvantages of the current selection methods used by the
organization and compare it to other approaches of selection methods.
“Say it with Chocolate” is based in a highly unemployment area and the administrative
vacancies are high. In order to shortlist applicants, the organization has started using following
selection methods.
Inviting Application: The organization calls candidates to apply for open position. Detailed job
specification and description are provided in advertisements. This is the initial phase of selection
method used by “Say it with Chocolate”. This process gives information regarding professional
and personal data of applicants. However, demerit behind this selection method is human
resource department has put more effort in analyzing candidate’s profile (Singh et al., 2014).
Assessment test: This test is based on mathematics and English compensation. Organization has
fixed a pass mark of 50% in both subjects. Candidates are shortlisted based on the passed mark.
This selection method helps to compare applicants based on their analytical skills. This method
does not focus on candidate’s job specific knowledge.
Reference: This selection method is used by “Say it with Chocolate” to cross check the
information provided by candidates in application form. Candidates have to give at least two
references during selection process. This method does not focus on candidate’s skills and ability;
it is just a rechecking of personal detail (Singh et al., 2014).
Face to face interview: “Say it with Chocolate” conducts personal interview, which is an
informal chat between applicant and interviewer. This interview process is not suitable for the
organization, as it does not involve any check for subject knowledge.
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“Say it with Chocolate” implement other approaches of selection method like group discussion
and job specific interview. This will make short listing process easy for organization by selecting
right candidate for right job.
d) Potential improvements that could be made to the current selection methods.
Current selection method of “Say it with Chocolate” is not fair as complained by some
applicants. In addition to this, face to face interview process is just an informal chat.
Organization need to avoid such practices as these things may discourage applicant and they may
lose faith on organization.
The organization need to truly prepare for interview process. Human resource officers should go
through all application forms in detail without overlooking. They must be proactive towards
candidate’s responses. Applicants must be allowed to ask their queries regarding open position
during interview process (Bratton and Gold, 2017).
Human resource department should tighten selection process by providing equal chance to each
candidate. It must explore all recruiting sources in order to invite a number of candidates.
Interviewer must ask relevant and straightforward questions suitable for specific position.
Candidates must given chances to appear another round of interview based on their honesty.
Organization must choose candidate who has right experience and positive references.
Conclusion
From the above report, it is stated that HR department performs various functions in order to
support in activities of organization like recruitment, selection, employee laws and others.
Human resource officers should take necessary measures in order to avoid issues involved in
selection process.
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Task 2 (LO4)
a) Create a person specification for the role
The individual has to necessarily have th4e following core competencies in much higher level
within their work.
Core Competencies
 Shall have proper focus upon customer and their behaviour
 Shall be of friendly nature
 Shall have the ability to work without supervision
 Shall have Good written and verbal communication
 Shall be self-motivated
 Shall have excellent management of time.
Experience
 Shall have experience of having guests within their homes and managing them efficiently
 Shall have the experience of working in collaboration
 Shall have the experience of simple clerical duties
 Shall have the experience of good interpersonal skills
 Shall be presentable in nature.
Special Knowledge and Role Requirements
 Good grasp of knowledge of working in MS Office.
 Shall have the ability to work upon a large initiative completely on its own
Additional Job Requirements
 Shall be willing to work flexibly in any circumstances Shall have an interest in health and leisure industry.
b) Provide a rationale for a suitable medium for placing the advertisement.
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With the course of time, the traditional recruitment mediums have become less influencing and
demanding in the competitive market. Every organisation has similar aim to successfully recruit
the efficient candidates within smaller time period. Job Advertisement through Online
Recruitment comes in this scenario as an aid for the cause of recruitment (Brandão et al., 2017).
Some of the major benefits of placing the job advertisements in the online websites are as
follows:
 With the help of online job advertisements through websites helps the organisations in
having the benefit to gain maximum revelation to a huge numbers of job seekers all
across the globe. There are many online portals through the organisations will be able to
advertise the job openings within their boundary such as Indeed, LinkedIn, TimeJobs and
others. These online job portals provide an advantage to the organisation to be flexible.
 With the help of the online portals, the organisations are able to report along with the key
data and insights that provides them with an advantage to monitor the progress of the
recruitment campaigns, the organisations conducts. The online job portals have in-built
options to create automatic resume under the guidance of the particular organisation, so
that the portals are able to provide right kind of candidates according to the organisational
needs.
 Online job portals helps the organisation in saving time since, the procedures that are
conducted are quick and efficient.
 The online job portals are able to provide more returns to the organisations from their
investments for the job advertisement campaigns.
 The interfaces that are provided by these online portals are easy to understand and easily
accessible therefore, the organisations as well as the candidates who are applying for the
job vacancies have an advana6tge ease of access.
c) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the previous methods of advertising jobs in
the organization
The organisation “Say it with Chocolate” previously used the following methods to advertise the
job vacancies within their boundary and they are as follows:
Writing effective advertisement proposal
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One of the main advantages of using this mode of advertising the job openings is that to provide
traditional scope to the candidates (Grandey et al., 2015). However, with the course of time, the
younger as well as the older generation are more dedicated towards the online web portals to
meet with the need of employment.
Local Newspaper
The advertisement of job openings is very beneficial for recruiting workers from the locality.
However, when it comes for large scale employment, the advertisement through local newspaper
is inefficient since, the cost for printing the advertisements will be comparatively high in this
case (Brooks and Pinson, 2017).
Social Networking Sites
Job Advertisements through social networking site are very efficient in case of recruiting
candidates in international level however, when it comes to employ candidates within the
national and local boundary, advertising through the social network platforms are pretty much
expensive than compared to that of local newspapers and advertisement proposals (Buettner,
2016).
d) Produce a minimum of 6 questions which could be asked at the interview for the
Receptionist, which would help to improve the selection decision making process.
During the interview, the questions that are going to be asked to the candidates are as follows:
Q1. Tell me about your qualifications.
Q2. What are your hobbies?
Q3. Elaborate your strengths and weaknesses?
Q4. Have you done any internship, if yes; share your experience and your performance.
Q5. What are your technical skills?
Q6. What in your extent of knowledge in MS Office?
Q7. Do you have any prior experience in Database Management Systems?
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Q8. Are you in favour of relocation?
Q9. What is your experience in managing and handling the common people conflicts?
Q10. Share your experience about the interview.
Q11. What is your preferred salary package?
Q12. How you would like to rate the interviewer?
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