HRM Report: Analysis of Chocolate Presence and Microsoft Companies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices at two companies: Chocolate Presence and Microsoft. The report begins with an introduction to HRM and its functions, emphasizing their importance in organizational success. Task 1 examines the purpose of HR functions, the current problems, and future growth plans of Chocolate Presence. It also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the company's current selection methods and suggests improvements. Task 2 focuses on the person specification for a receptionist, the advantages and disadvantages of current job advertising methods, and includes a sample job advert. Task 3 delves into the benefits of graduate training schemes, flexible working arrangements, and job roles within Microsoft. Task 4 explores employee engagement, the key approaches to engaging workers, and the impact of UK legislation on HRM decisions. The report concludes with a summary of the findings and includes references.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
a) Purpose of HR functions and its importance to the organisation, organisations current
problems and future plans for further growth.........................................................................1
b) Strength and Weakness of the current selection methods used by the organisations .......3
c.) Improvement that could be made by Chocolate Presence to enhance its selection process.. 4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
a.) Person specification for the Receptionist for the organisation..........................................4
b.) Advantages and Disadvantages of current methods of job advertising in the organisation. 6
c.) Job adverts for the Receptionist vacancy..........................................................................7
TASK 3 ...........................................................................................................................................8
a) Benefits of graduate training schemes and internships to organisation and employees....8
b) Benefits of offering flexible working arrangements to both Microsoft and its employees9
c.) Microsoft motivates its workers through different job roles...........................................10
TASK 4 .........................................................................................................................................11
a) Meaning of the term Employees Engagement and its importance in building effective
relations in microsoft............................................................................................................11
b) Key approaches to engaging workers in summit ...........................................................11
Zinger Model of Employee Engagement ............................................................................11
c)Key elements of UK legislations and its impact on HRM decisions................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................15
Appendix........................................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
HRM is a process of procuring, developing and maintaining competent human resource
in the organisation so that the goals of an organisation are achieved in an effective and efficient
manner(Wheatley, 2017). This report is based on study of two company: Chocolate Presence,
which is a rapidly expanding organisation based in North Yorkshire, which provides tailor made
chocolate based greeting cards and presents across the UK and Microsoft is founded on 4 April
1975 by Bill Gates. It is a public company which manufacture computer hardware and software.
Report includes the HR functions and the current selection method and current method of job
advertising of the organisation and the potential improvement that could enhance the Chocolate
Presence's selection process and advertising method. Furthermore, this report includes the
graduate training scheme, job role and employee engagement of the Microsoft company. It also
includes UK legislations and how it influences the HR decisions.
TASK 1
a) Purpose of HR functions and its importance to the organisation, organisations current
problems and future plans for further growth.
Human Resource Management is the practice of recruiting, hiring, deploying and managing an
organisation's employees.
An organisation's HR department is usually responsible for creating, putting into effects
and overseeing policies governing workers and the relationship of the organisation with its
employees.
Purpose of HR Functions in the organisation
As chocolate Presence is a small organisation which provides tailor made chocolates and
greeting card and gifts across UK. Business comprises finance. Marketing, packaging,
production, creative and design team. For expanding their business and organisation, HR
Management has to implement some functions in the organisation.
 Recruitment and selection One of the primary function of the HR. purpose of this
function is to bring the pool of the prospective candidates who can help organisation to
achieve their goals and allows management to select right candidates from the pool. As
the Chocolate Presence follow the informal selection method, So Chocolate Presence
company has to change their HR policies for recruitment and selection procedure to hire
the employee in the organisation. (Noe, 2017.)
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 Training and development Purpose of this function is to make employees up- to date in
their respective areas as required by the Chocolate Presence company in its different
departments like finance, marketing, production. With the help of this function,
Chocolate Presence HR can monitor and measure to find out if the employees require any
new skills in addition and can enhance their productivity and achieve targets.
 Orientation Giving the intensive orientation to employee is major functions of HRM.
Purpose of Orientation is to help the employee to know their assigned duties and their
exact job description, job role. This will help Chocolate Presence's employees to know
about their specific job role in the company which will provide addition to their
performance.
 Compensation and Benefits HRM handles the Compensation and Benefits function with
the purpose to ensure every employees are paid accurately and on time and provide
various welfare benefits to employee so they can work effectively. This will also help the
finance department of the company.(Human Resource Management (HRM): Definition &
Functions, 2019)
As Chocolate Presence is a rapidly expanding organisation which need a large amount of
workforce to perform task and achieve targets. Its current problem is untrained and unqualified
employees according to their job and also unprofessional administration who is not able to hire
right people for the right position.
As a HR Manager of Chocolate Presence company have to change their HR policies and
make a proper plan to implement all these functions in the organisation like hire right candidate
with correct recruitment procedure, train them, organise orientation program for the future
growth of the company and achieving target on time.(Human Resource Management (HRM):
Definition & Functions, 2019)
At all levels of the organization, managers and HR professionals role is to work together
to develop employees' skills. HR professionals advise managers and supervisors of Chocolate
Presence company, how to assign employees to different roles in the organization, thereby
helping the future growth of the organization adapt successfully to its environment. In a flexible
organization like Chocolate Presence's employees are shifted around to different business
functions based on business priorities and employee preferences.
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b) Strength and Weakness of the current selection methods used by the organisations
Chocolate Presence company follow informal Interview method for the selection of
candidates in which manager shortlist the applicants on the basis of assessment test on English
and maths. They have fixed pass marks of 50%. Those who achieve the pass marks, is being
called for the interview but their references checked before being called for the interview.
Strength and Weakness of the Interview selection method
Strengths
 Face to face interview helps with more accurate screening. The individual being
interviewed is unable to provide false information.
 This method also helps to capture the non-verbal quest including body language which
can indicate the level of discomfort, level of enthusiasm.
 This helps to capture the emotions and behaviour of the interviewee.
Weakness
 Cost is the major disadvantage of the face to face interviews. They require a staff of
people to conduct the interviews, which means there will be personnel cost.
 Quality of the data you receive will often depend on the ability of the interviewer. Just
like the Chocolate Presence company's interviewers are not much able.
 It can be time consuming to conduct interview and analyse the qualitative data.
Strength and weaknesses of the Assessment test method
Strengths
 It provides the immediate feedback.
 Provides extensive information on applicants skills, knowledge and experience.
 It requires less time as group of applicants can give assessment test at same time.
Weakness
 Applicants may feel pressured which can affect their p[performance.
 Required a skilled assessor.
 Difficult to set up and administer, especially with the large number of students.
 Difficult to assess skill through paper and pencil measures.
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As the Chocolate Presence company's manager is failed in taking assessment test method
and also in a new recruitment of the employees. If HRM of Chocolate Presence company follow
the effective selection method to hire the candidates for their organisation, they can maintain the
quality of the items as high as it used to be.
c.) Improvement that could be made by Chocolate Presence to enhance its selection process.
A comprehensive selection process is based on the through review of the knowledge,
skills, and abilities required for the position, as well as organisational culture. By analysing the
hiring need of the Chocolate Presence company in depth, organisation can create selection
practice that best fit the requirements of the position.( Evaluation of Recruitment and Selection
Process of Mutual Trust Bank Limited, 2017)
 Interview can be structured that are easy to replicate as a fixed set of questions are used,
which are easy to quantify- this means easy to test foe reliability.
 Company manager can use technical assessment test for the different department.
 The cut-off score can be raised depending upon the number of the applicants. This helps
the company to assessment of the candidate.
 As Chocolate Presence is rapidly expanding its organisation, new positions are getting
open. Although every candidate may not be right for every position, they may have their
skills and talents. By conducting meaningful and in-depth interview with candidate,
previously submitted resume can become a rich resource for future hires. ( Evaluation of
Recruitment and Selection Process of Mutual Trust Bank Limited, 2017)
TASK 2
a.) Person specification for the Receptionist for the organisation
Job Title- receptionist Company-
Chocolate presence
Criteria Essential Desirable
Qualifications-
Bachelor of commerce(B.com)
Masters of commerce in accounting(ABST)
E
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Management of business administration. E
D
Experience-
1 year job experience.
Supervising a staff.
Worked with group of people.
E
D
D
Skills-
Excellent communication skills.
Basic numerical skills.
Learning skills.
Basic computer skills.
Proficiency in English.
E
E
D
D
Knowledge-
Knowledge of word and excel.
Working knowledge with numerical data.
Attitude-
Greeting and helping attitude.
Positive attitude.
Willingness to learn
Polite way of talking.
E
E
E
D
D
D
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b.) Advantages and Disadvantages of current methods of job advertising in the organisation.
Chocolate Presence applying internal recruitment method to fill the vacancy. Vacancy
have been circulated internally, to existing staff and their family\friends within organisation and
on the physical vacancy noticeboards on the external wall of the main site entrance.
Recruitment advertising is broadly classified into two different categories − Internal
Sources and External Sources.
Internal sources of recruitment refer to hiring employees within the organization internall,
like promotions, transfer, recruiting former employee, internal advertising, employees referrals
etc.
Advantages of Job Internal advertising
 Advertising jobs internally in the organisation can be cheaper than doing so externally.
 In a small operation like Chocolate Presence, keeping thing all in the family can help
create a sense of security for other employees, and even increase productivity.
 The applicant's strengths, weakness, skills and training needs all be on their record.
 Existing employees know the rules. They understand the culture of the organisation and
its regulations. That means they can get straight down to business without fear of
inadvertently messing up.(Strömgren and et. al., 2016.)
Disadvantages
 Opening up a role to internally through advertising, employees can have the negative
impact on moral. If staff feel disgruntled and this reduces team moral than business of
Chocolate Presence company can really suffer.
 Internal advertising for recruitment provides limited choice of relent available in the
organisation as it avoids the arrival of fresh candidates.
 There is a tendency of referring friends and family members in the organisation. Then,
the organisation will be overstaffed with talent-less crowd (Disadvantages Of Internal
Recruitment, 2019).
Advantages of External job advertising
External sources of recruitment refer to hiring employees outside the organization
externally where the recruitment of qualified candidates are done by placing a notice of vacancy
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on the notice board in the organization. This method of sourcing is also called as factory gate
recruitment.
Advantages
 It encourages new opportunities for job seekers.
 Organisation branding increases through external souses.
 There will be no biasing or partiality between the employees.
 The scope of selecting the right candidate is more, because the large number of applicants
appearing.
Disadvantage
 This process consume more time.
 The cost incurred is very high when compared to recruiting through internal sources.
 External candidates demand more remuneration and benefits (Farndale, Nikandrou and
Panayotopoulou., 2018).
c.) Job adverts for the Receptionist vacancy
Chocolate Presence company can post advertise externally for the Receptionist vacancy.
External recruitment is concerned with generating a pool of qualified candidates through the
external sources of employment. Company can post advertise for the post of Receptionist
through E – Advertising.
E – advertising is also called the online advertising. It is the process of hiring the
potential candidates for the vacant job positions, using the electronic resources, particularly the
internet. Companies make use of the internet to reach a large numbers of job seekers and hire the
best talent for the company at a less cost. This includes the entire process of finding the
prospective candidates, assessing, interviewing and hiring them, as per the job requirements.
Through this, recruitment can be done more effectively and efficiently.(The seven benefits of e-
recruitment, 2012)
As Chocolate Presence company posting job internally within existing staff, their
friend/family, which reduces team moral, provides limited choice of talent, and avoids the arrival
of fresh candidates.
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 But through e – advertising candidate for the Receptionist job can be hired from any part
of the world. So it will remove the limitation of fresh talent in the organisation
 It's a low cost per candidate, as compared to the other method. So it is a budget friendly
for the Chocolate Presence company.
 Less time required in hiring the potential candidate for the firm. Because managers don't
have much time that they can give their whole time each and every candidate.
 Right people for the right job can be easily found through this method, as Chocolate
Presence company require a Receptionist who can manage the different department 's
data. So with the help of this method and place of advertising company can hire perfect
employee for their department (The seven benefits of e-recruitment, 2012).
 This process is more efficient and easy to record details of the applicants and the
information provided by the applicants are obtained in a standard, uniform format which
facilitates easy comparison. It helps the Chocolate Presence company HR managers to
maintain data of each candidates who applied for the Receptionist job, and on the basis of
these data they can make their selection.
 Websites also provide valuable data and information regarding the compensation offered
by the competitors. Which helps the HR to take various HR decisions like promotions,
salary trends in Chocolate Presence organisation.
TASK 3
a) Benefits of graduate training schemes and internships to organisation and employees
Graduate training schemes are the training programme provided by a company to the students of
university or colleges.
Internship is a period of work experience given by an employer to give students exposure of
work environment in the company.
Benefits of graduate training schemes & internships to organisation
As graduate trainees are the freshers and they come up with an enthusiasm to experience
the corporate world. This is the perfect way to develop any graduate for settling into the work
culture of the organisation. Graduate trainees don't have knowledge about the functioning of the
company so Microsoft provides them practical training which would be benefited for the
company. Graduate trainees also work for less salary which would be benefit for the company.
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Through interns also Microsoft gets benefit as they also work on less pay(Chillas, Marks and
Galloway, 2015).
Benefits of graduate training schemes & internships to employees
Employees of Microsoft gets proper training after joining the company through which
they can understand the working environment of the company in more proper manner. Employee
gets time to improve their skills as per the working of the company. Employees gets benefited as
they get help from the graduate trainees they assign some work to them and told to complete
them on time which helps employees in working. As internships are paid sometimes through
which employees can get benefit of earning money as well as they also get experience with the
company. (Heffernan, 2016)
b) Benefits of offering flexible working arrangements to both Microsoft and its employees
There are three types of flexibility arrangements in the company are:
 Functional Flexibility: It is the concept in the company where employees have to
perform different functions and then they are assigned with their duties &
responsibilities.
 Numerical Flexibility: It is related to the volume of the worker available in the market. In
this flexibility the labour demand should match with the company's employees.
 Financial Flexibility: It possesses the characteristics of both functional and numerical.
Benefits to Microsoft
Microsoft is adopting the financial flexibility arrangements in the company. Some
employees want to work from their homes. They feel better while doing work from home and the
company will give feedback to them through e-mail or any other source of communication.
Sometimes an employee is getting bored from the work it will be doing so far so it will be shifted
from one job to the other job i.e. Job Rotation . Job rotation helps Microsoft to grow as
employees take interest in their work because of changing jobs. Microsoft also provides
personalised working hours to the employees as most of the employees are interested in working
in the morning while some want to do work in night shifts which will increase the productivity of
the company so the employees are also working according to them and give best results to the
company. Because of providing flexibility to the employees the retention rate also increases i.e.
employees remain in the company for long time. Through Job enlargement also employee gets
benefited.(Mwangi and et. al., 2017)
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Benefits to Employees
Microsoft is adopting functional flexibility working arrangements to the employees so
that they get flexible working hours . It provides flexibility to the employee as to maintain their
interest in the work environment. . While getting this flexibility employees get job satisfaction so
they work effectively and efficiently. There is a work life balance between an employee's
personal as well as professional life. Health of an employee also plays an important part for the
company i.e. if an employee is in stress it will not be able to complete its work so the Microsoft
is providing flexibility to the employees.(Wheatley, 2017).
c.) Microsoft motivates its workers through different job roles
As discussed in the above section that Microsoft is adopting Financial flexibility working.
Microsoft motivates its employees through Maslow's Hierachy theory of motivation this theory
said that there are five needs which will be fulfilled by the company to motivate employees to do
work. The company motivates an employee by fulfilling the following five needs:
Psychological,Safety,Social,Esteem and Self actualisation needs. Microsoft by fulfilling all the
needs motivates employees as by providing them refreshment facilities in between the work so
that they get energised to work again. It provides its employees financial security,insurance
policy which will motivate en employee that it will be safe for en employee to work. Motivates
an employee by making relationship between the colleagues and by organising an event in the
company through which there is an interaction between the employees of the company and they
don't feel lonely at the time of working hours. It also pays rewards, incentives and extra benefits
to employees through which their efficiency increased and they work more. Working
environment of the microsoft is good which motivates an employee of the company to give its
best result (Daneshkohan and et. al., 2015.)
TASK 4
a) Meaning of the term Employees Engagement and its importance in building effective relations
in microsoft
Engagement employees is the emotional attachment which an employee feel towards its
work, job role,culture etc. Engagement of employees is a positive attitude that denote employees
are enthusiastic about their work and job.
Employees engagement are important in Microsoft company because :
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