Human Resource Management: Recruitment and Selection at Microsoft

This report provides an overview of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices within an organization, focusing on the purpose and scope of HRM, recruitment and selection processes, and the application of HRM practices in the workplace. It begins by explaining the role and importance of the HR function, particularly in addressing issues like employee turnover and training. The report then evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of current selection methods, such as online tests and informal interviews, suggesting potential improvements. Furthermore, it includes a person specification for a receptionist role at Chocola Fantastica, discussing the advantages and disadvantages of internal and external job advertising methods, and recommending online job advertising for the receptionist vacancy. The report also briefly touches on employee engagement and its importance in an organization, using Microsoft as an example for graduate training and internship schemes.

Human Resource Management
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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
Section 1- (L01)...........................................................................................................................4
Section 2 - Application (LO4).....................................................................................................8
Section 3 (LO2).........................................................................................................................13
Section 4 (LO3).........................................................................................................................19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................22
Reference List................................................................................................................................23
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Introduction
The practice of managing employees within an organisation is called Human Resource
Management (Brewster et al., 2016). HR department needs to recruit and train employees who
will work for growth and development of an organisation. This study will present different roles
of HR department and strengths and weaknesses of its current selection process. In this study a
brief about advantages and disadvantages of current methods of advertising jobs will be
presented. It will also give a brief detail about how graduate training and internship schemes are
provided by Microsoft. Microsoft is a multinational software company headquartered in
Redmond, Washington. It has more than 144,106 employees and it generates revenue of 125.8
billion dollars. Moreover, this study will state the term employee engagement and its importance
in an organisation
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PART 1- “The Purpose and Scope of HRM and Recruitment and Selection & the
Application of HRM practices in the workplace”
Section 1- (L01)
Introduction
Chocola Fantastica offers tailor-made chocolate-based greetings cards and distributes all across
the UK. This company consists of a production team, a finance team, a marketing and packaging
team. This report will present the importance of the HR department for the organisation and the
strengths and weaknesses of the different selection procedures followed by the department.
A. Explain the purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organisation, given its
current problems and future plans for future growth.
Chocola Fantastica is facing the problems of employee turnover along with proper training
facilities for the employees. The company is facing lack of development facilities and monitoring
employee’s performance. Work-place safety is essential for employees and the company lacks
proper techniques to overcome them.
Recruitment and selection: The main purpose of the HR department is to recruit and select
employees so that there is less employee turn-over. The organisation will benefit from this
practice as the employee turnover will decrease.
Training and development: This practice gives on-field training on the work process of the
company, which enhances their skills. It will increase the productivity of the employee, which
will help increase the profit of the organisation in the near future.
Maintaining legal aspects: This department ensures that no laws such as Equality Act, 2010,
National Minimum Wage Act, 1998 are violated by the employees during their work process in
order to maintain the ethics within the organisation. It will help the company avoid any kind
conflicts between the employees in the future.
Monitoring Employee performance: The employees work for getting paid and the HR
department evaluates and make changes to an organisation’s pay structure. The performance
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appraisal of the employees is also undertaken by the HR department (Arvanitis et al., 2016). This
will ensure that all the employees are getting paid equally. With the help of this practise the
organisation can keep a track about the employee’s progress and can increase the productivity of
the organisation in the near future.
Maintaining workplace safety: The safety of employees must be looked after by the HR
department. It needs to solve all the issues arising with or within the employees of Chocola
Fantastica (Wilton, 2016). Employees feel secured when the organisation makes arrangement
such as staff training improved lighting or anti-slip flooring for the safety of the employees.
B. Explain the strengths and weakness of the current selection methods used by the
organisation.
The HR department follows different ways to select employees, which are as follows:-
Test- Online In-Person- This test is conducted by the organisation in order to measure the
knowledge of the candidates on a given topic through which the company can select the
employees.
Advantages
 This process is cost effective and is able to reach a larger number of audiences. It is easy to conduct and can be accessed from any part of the world. This practise saves a lot of time for both the organisation and the candidate.
Disadvantages
 This process will not be enough to understand the effectiveness of the candidate as she/he
would not be able to showcase the talent and skills.
 It can create a bad impression for the company as it is not a proper way to recruit
employees (Dore et al., 2017).
Informal Interview- These kinds of interview are created in an informal way and can be
conducted at any cafe or a restaurant. The purpose of this interview is that employers can use
what they learn from informal interviews to flesh out the exact responsibilities and expectations
for the role.
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Advantages
 This helps the interviewer to establish a good relationship with the candidate that will
result in higher chance of the candidate (Carduff et al., 2015).
 Candidate gets a better impression of the company, which gives a brief about the work
atmosphere and company culture.
Disadvantages
 The communication gap can be broken between the interviewer and the candidate by the
surrounding noise of the location, which will mislead both of them.
 The interviewer can be more biased towards the candidate as they would not be in the
office and there are chances that they indulge in some personal conversation.
C. Evaluates at least two potential improvements that could be made by “Chocola
Fantastica” to enhance its selection process.
Test- Online In-Person
 The way that Chocola Fantastica can improve honest selection procedures by
implementing efficient interview procedures and it is needed to be transparent and answer
sheets will be published with right and wrong answers along with marks of individual
(Noe et al., 2017).
 Technology can reduce the time, which is taken by the interviews conducted. The
questions can be framed according to the work that is expected out from candidates
during the business operations of the company.
Informal Interview
 As the organisation conducts a general interview pattern the outcome is not effective
enough (Nagel and Molloy, 2019). The Human Resource Department can increase the
efficiency of the interview procedure by calling it of more on a formal manner rather than
an informal. This will allow candidates to speak freely about themselves thus allowing
the company in understanding the details behind the physical and mental capability of the
candidates.
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 An initial research on the career field or employer with the help internet and print media
can be beneficial to improve informal interview.
 Pursue the contacts of the people to be interviewed.
 Company can review the books of lists or a directory of leading employers in major
urban areas.
 A brief introduction about the interviewer can be developed to increase the chances of
getting recruited.
 Person can be contacted through email or phone.
 Ask whether it’s a good time to talk for a few minutes.
 In Chocola Fantastica the selection process can be improved to bring enhancement in the
recruitment process. This will assist management of Human Resource Department in
delegating job roles according to the talent and calibre of the candidates.
Conclusion
This report briefed about different purposes of the HR department and how HR department solve
the different problems of an organisation. Advantages and disadvantages of the online and
informal selection method were briefly stated in this task.
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Section 2 - Application (LO4)
A. Create a person specification for the role
Person Specification has been presented in terms of job vacancy for the job role of receptionist in
Chocoal Fantastica.
Criteria Essential Desirable
Knowledge/ Education  The person should
have a working
knowledge in the
reception area.
 The candidate should
have knowledge in IT
and must be literate to
deal with the clients.
 She/he should have
skilled knowledge in
maths and analytics.
 A basic knowledge of
Microsoft Word and
Excel is a must.
 The candidate should
have an experience in
dealing with daily
clients.
 An experience in
electronic booking
system would be
beneficial.
 Must ensure safety of
clients.
 GCSE or Diploma
degree.
Multitasking  The candidate should
be able to work under
pressure.
 She/he should have the
ability to work as a
part of a team and with
less amount of
guidance.
 The literacy standard
should be high.
 Must have good
 Customer care degree.
 Good decision making
skills
 Organisation and
marketing skills.
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communication skills
along with spoken,
written,
comprehension, and
reading in English.
 Good tone and attitude
in order to deal with
the customers over
telephonic
conversation.
 She/he should be
capable to handle the
customer complaints in
a good manner.
Attributes  Must look presentable
in appearance.
 Good listener
 Adaptable and
approachable.
 The applicant should
have a flexible
approach towards
work.
 She/he should be
confident and
enthusiastic towards
work (Specification,
2016).
 Must be curious for
further training and
career development
prospects.
Other  The applicant should
have the ability to
work in odd hours and
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during weekends.
Table 1: Person specification for Receptionist
(Source: Created by the learner)
B. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of advertising jobs in
the organisation (internally) within the organisation and on the notice board outside the
main entrance).
Job Advertising is defined as the process of posting jobs regarding a job opening or vacancy
within a company, which is created by the employer (Thurgood et al., 2018). The HR department
is responsible for recruiting and alerting the current employees about different job vacancies in
the organisation. Job posting is categorised into two types, which are as follows:
1. Internal Job Advertising- This practice is to inform the current employees working in the
organisation (McAlister, 2016). It is conducted in order to create internal hiring by promoting the
experienced employees to a higher position.
Advantages are as follows:
 This allows a better understanding about the company.
 The environment of the company is understood well by the existing employees.
 It is very cost effective as the company does not need to spend a lot of money on job
advertising.
 It improves the loyalty of the employees (Altstiel et al., 2018).
The disadvantages are as follows:
 Chances of loosing better and effective employees outside the company.
 It creates conflicts within the organisation as it tends to create jealousy among
employees.
 This job advertisement compromises the growth of the organisation as there could be
more effective employees outside the company.
 The employer might be biased towards the selection process.
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2. External Job Advertising- It is posted in order to alert the job seekers outside the organisation.
It informs the general public or targeted to a selection segment of candidates outside the
company.
Advantages of external job advertisement are as follows:
 It aims towards getting wider audience.
 The right person can be recruited with the help of this process.
 It is accessible 24 hours from everywhere and anywhere.
 It is easy to apply as the organisation is looking for candidates.
 Job advertisement simplifies the filtration of candidates.
 Candidates can apply from all over the world.
Disadvantages of external Job advertisement are as follows:
 The company receives a lot of unwanted applications, which consumes the essential the
time of the organisation.
 It does not guarantee filling up of job vacancies.
 If the job advertisement is not attractive then it can create a negative image about the
organisation.
 It is often considered as an informal way of advertising (Boselli et al., 2018).
C. Explain where you would recommend the job advert for the Receptionist vacancy to be
placed and why.
In order to create job advertising for the Receptionist Vacancy On-line job advertising would be
most preferable. A Receptionist should be able to greet client and visitors with positive attitude.
External job advertisement will help the organisation reach a large number of audiences. The
company can post job advertisement on social media websites or distribute pamphlets among the
people. The organisation can get more candidates if the job is posted on the internet and a million
of users from all over the world can view the job vacancy. The organisation can easily filter the
candidates through online portals, which will save a lot of essential time. The candidates can
easily apply through the internet without any hassle. The company can keep a track about the
progress about the application through online job advertisement. When the candidate has applied
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for the job it can keep a track about the status of its application. Online job advertisement has
help both the candidate and the job seeker to remain updated on the status. It is very cost
effective as some portals offer free job posting (Breaugh, 2017). This process becomes very
affordable as the company can tie up hands with other companies in order to recruit efficient
candidates. Online job advertisement can be easily accessible as internet can be accessed from
anywhere and everywhere of the world.
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