Human Resource Management Analysis: Chocolate Presence & Microsoft

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of human resource management (HRM) practices, focusing on two case studies: Chocolate Presence and Microsoft. The report begins by examining the purpose and importance of the HR function, its activities, roles, and responsibilities within Chocolate Presence, including an assessment of current problems and future growth plans. It then evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of Chocolate Presence's selection methods and suggests potential improvements. The report further explores job advertising methods, person specifications, and placement recommendations for a receptionist vacancy. Shifting focus to Microsoft, the report analyzes graduate training schemes, flexible working arrangements, and motivational strategies through job design. It concludes by examining employee engagement, communication approaches, and key elements of UK employment legislation and their impact on HR decision-making. The report utilizes academic sources to support its findings and recommendations.

Human resource
management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
A)Purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization, along with its current
problems and future plans for further growth.........................................................................3
B)Strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used by the organization......6
C)Potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate Presence to enhance its selection
process. ..................................................................................................................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
A)Person specification for the role.........................................................................................8
B)Advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of advertising jobs in the
organization............................................................................................................................8
C)Explanation about where you would recommend the job advert for the Receptionist
vacancy to be placed and why................................................................................................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
A)Microsoft offer graduate training schemes and internships, evaluation of the benefits to
both the organisation and employees of such scheme..........................................................10
B) Identify and evaluate flexible working arrangements to Microsoft and its employees...11
C) How Microsoft motivates their workers through designing of job roles.........................12
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................13
A)Employee engagement and its importance in achieving effective employee relations in
Microsoft..............................................................................................................................13
B)Key approaches to engaging workers discussed in the Summit and how these approaches
improve communication in the workplace...........................................................................13
C)Key elements of UK employment legislation, explaining how they influence HR decision
making such as recruitment, training and development and reward....................................14
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERNCES.................................................................................................................................16

INTRODUCTION
In order to meet the needs of time, every field has gained advancement and probably the
management which is gaining more advancement in an organisation is human resource
management. A company cannot put together a great team of working professional without the
help of good human resources. The main role of human resource management is to maximise the
workforce performance in an organisation by using different strategies, techniques and practices.
This assignment is covered up into four specific task in which first two task explains
about the purpose of the HR function and its importance to the Chocolate Presence organization
as well as potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate Presence to enhance its
selection process. Also, this report will point out the strength and weaknesses of current selected
methods where as advantages and disadvantages of Job advertising are also mentioned. (Alfes
and et. al., 2013.)
In task third and forth the discussion will be all about how Microsoft provide opportunity
to graduated students and why they provide the proper working condition to their employee's and
what is the main reason to motive them. In addition, what are the different roles of employee's in
Summit and why this approaches help the company.
TASK 1
A)Purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization, along with its current
problems and future plans for further growth
Human resource management:
Human resource management is termed to be the process of hiring and developing
applicants in order to make them a more valuable asset for the organisation (Human resource
management, 2019). Therefore as per scenario, human resource management of Chocolate
Presence tends to perform several functional activity, roles, responsibility and purpose which are
examined below (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014):
Functional activity of HRM:
 HR Planning: It is the process of forecasting the prospective demand and supply of
manpower with an objective to achieve goal in future. The main functional activity
performed by the HR manager of Chocolate Presence is planning of human resources.
Moreover, it can also be termed as reviewing the necessity requirement of manpower so

as to ensure that right types of skills are being delivered within manpower which are
necessary for the sustainable development of an organisation.
 Recruitment and selection: Another important functional activity performed by HR
manager of Chocolate Presence is of recruitment and selection. Recruitment is termed to
be the process of inviting candidate to apply for the job vacancy in an organisation
whereas selection is the process of short-listing best and talented candidate taking into
consideration that person specification matches with the job specification of an
organisation. As per the case study of Chocolate Presence, company require talented and
knowledgeable workforce who can easily achieve long term goal for company.
Overall purpose and importance of HRM:
The main purpose of HRM of Chocolate Presence company is to maximise the
productivity level of an organisation taking into consideration that effectiveness of the workforce
is being optimized (Bakker and Demerouti, 2014). Moreover other main purpose is to acquire,
develop and to retain talented workforce within an organisation and to be an excellent
contributor to an organisation. On the other hand, importance of HRM of Chocolate Presence
company is that HRM helps
 To encourage their employees so that worker can perform at there top level.
 To solve the dispute between employers and employee's.
Roles of HRM:
In every company HRM plays the vital role, as every responsibilities are given to them
whether it is related with recruitment or solving any complicated issue. The role of HRM in
Chocolate Presence is to help an organisation to develop a competitive advantage by building
the capacity of company and which involves rendering of unique set of goods and services to its
customers (Reiche and et.al., 2016). Addressing issues is the another important role of HRM,
which requires strategic planning by human resource management so as to address not only the
changing needs of workers but also a perpetually shifting competitive job marketplace. In
addition to this HRM also perform other also like addressing of employees benefits packages for
the cost to the employer.
Responsibility of HRM:
The main responsibility of HRM of Chocolate Presence is of payroll management means
that human resource specifically look after the benefits and compensation by conducting research

analysis of salary trends and pay practices so that accordingly HR can formulate compensation
plans and strategies (Berman and et. al., 2012). Another important responsibility of HRM of
Chocolate Presence is to conduct timely appraisal for the workers taking into consideration the
policies of an organisation. It mainly includes performance evaluation of workers, giving them
feedback with suggestion so that they can improve there performance level and to generate
performance appraisal reports so as to pass it to higher management authority.
Current problems and future plans for future growth:
Current problems:
As per the scenario Chocolate Presence is one of the rapidly expanding organisation of
which the main purpose is to provide tailored made chocolate based greeting cards. The owner of
the organisation is termed be master chocolatier i.e. who is excellent in creating innovative
flavour chocolates. But the current problems faced by Chocolate Presence is that the owner has
no experience of regarding increased workforce and because of that there has been increase in
staff turnover (Rowold, 2015). Moreover other current problem faced by Chocolate Presence is
that feedback from long standing customers of an organisation indicates that the quality of some
items rendered by company is not high as it used to be in past. Thus, in order to overcome this
two current problems HRM plays an important role in order to plan for future growth of an
organisation.
Future plan for growth:
The two major problem were faced by Chocolate Presence first is increase in staff
turnover and second is decrease in the level of customer satisfaction, so in order to overcome this
problems, HRM plays an important role so as to develop future plan for growth.
In order to solve the problem of staff turnover, HRM of Chocolate Presence adopts the
practice of motivation techniques in the form of monetary and non monetary like increase in
salary, bonus, appreciation etc. this will help company to retain talented workers and to
influence worker to give there best for achievements of organisational aims and objectives.
In order to solve second problem that is decrease in the customer satisfaction level HRM
plays an essential role like HR of Chocolate Presence has planned to render quality products and
services as per the preferences of customers (Palgrave.Bratton and Gold, 2017). So in order to
analyse the changes taking place in the preferences of customers, HR has also planned to make
and research analysis so that taking customer preferences into consideration company can

produce and render products and services. Thus, such improvement will help the Chocolate
Presence to achieve increase in future growth by achieving competitive advantage in
marketplace.
B)Strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used by the organization
As per the scenario current selection method used by Chocolate Presence organisation
possess certain strength and weakness considering the issues of reliability and validity are
specified below (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013 ):
ASSESSMENT TESTS - The first process of selection method used by HR manager of
Chocolate Presence is that they have created their own assessment test on English compression
and maths which applicant complete online and should achieve 50% marks in order to get
selected for second process of selection method.. Therefore this method possess strength too as
with the help of this process company get to known the mathematical and statistical skill of
applicant which is very much essential and reliable for organisation. As the person with best
mathematical skill will be helpful for organisation in maintaining true fact and records in term of
revenue and expenses of an organisation. Whereas the weakness of this method is that company
will loose those candidate who are expert in theoretical concept as there has been some
complaints too from applicant that it is not fair enough to select candidate who possess 50%
mark in English and maths test. In this, Personal skill test should be conducted for providing job
to those deserving candidate only. This test will help to know the skills of a particular person,
which will help to distribute responsibility.
REFERENCES- It can be defined as act of referring or consulting for particular work or
project in order to complete given task. The second process of selection method of Chocolate
Presence is references. Main strength of this method is that it is reliable for the organisation as
the company get to known whether the applicant specification matches the requirement as per
job specification or not, if it matches then the person is being called for interview (Buller, and
McEvoy, 2012). Whereas its weakness is that its is not valid as it is not necessary that all the
data rendered by applicant is true it may be false even so in that case company can call upon
those applicant too who are not eligible for job, which will result in wastage of time for
company. References are important tool which help an organisation to collect valid and reliable
data about the respondents.

INTERVIEW- The last process of selection method of Chocolate Presence organisation
include interview which is being carried out for near about 15 minutes. After a reference check,
applicant is called upon for final round interview in an organisation. The strength of this method
is that it is valid for the company, as during interview section an interviewer get to known about
detail information about candidate (Education.Hill, Jones and Schilling, 2014). In addition to
this, applicant's confidence level is also being acknowledge during 15 minutes interview session.
Whereas the weakness of this process for Chocolate Presence organisation is that its reliability is
low as there has been complaint from applicant that it is a time consuming process. Interview is
consider most significant techniques which support an organisation to gather real data about the
candidates for vecant position.
C)Potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate Presence to enhance its selection
process.
Chocolate Presence organisation can take into consideration two other selection
interview method in order to improve potentially and to enhance its selection process. Thus, the
two improvement selection process possess advantage and limitation too which are mentioned
below (Frank and Obloj, 2014):
Structured interview:
It is the type of interview in which all the questions have been prepared from
beforehand. Chocolate Presence organisation can take this method into consideration in selection
process as variations of responses term to be minimal. Therefore this type of process possess
certain advantage and limitations which are mentioned below:
Advantages:
The main advantage of this method is that it make the process easy ans simpler as in this
method of interview standardized questions are being asked and each question can be repeated
all the time so as to check the reliability. So Chocolate Presence organisation must consider this
method into consideration during selecting the applicant for vacant job.
Disadvantages:
The disadvantage of this method is they it tend to be intimidating to those candidate who
are experienced or do qualify as job candidates.
Psychometric test:

This test can be used by an organisation in order to test the intellectual and emotional
abilities of the applicants. Thus, this test too possess certain advantage and disadvantage which
are mentioned below:
Advantages:
The main advantage of this method of selection is that the result obtained term to be
appropriate and accurate from any other means of selection process. As well as this method
terms to be reliable, sturdy and unbiased So, Chocolate Presence organisation must consider this
method into consideration during selecting the applicant for vacant job.
Disadvantages:
The disadvantage of this selection method is that candidate become nervous at the onset
as well as cultural barriers are present and even employees tend to render fake answer.
TASK 2
A)Person specification for the role.
Person specification of a Receptionist for the Chocolate Presence organisation
Person specification refers to the description of the candidate skills, qualification, and
other attributes which must be possess to perform the job duties (Rowold and Bormann, 2015).
Person specification of a Receptionist
Name: XYZ
Job Title applying for: Receptionist
Department/Section applying for:Administration
Particulars Essential criteria Desirable criteria
Qualification Post graduate in any stream
and 3 years of experience as a
receptionist.
Minimum of 2 years
experience as a receptionist in
any sector.
Experience Experience of using IT
facilities and telephone
switchboard.
To answer incoming telephone
enquiries efficiently and to
provide profession and
welcome experience for
clients and visitors to the site.

Qualities There must be communication
skills.
Must be able to prepare
presentation report with
innovative ideas.
B)Advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of advertising jobs in the organization.
There are different methods that are adopted by chocolate presence organisation for
advertising about the job vacancy like of receptionist available in an organisation. Therefore
while conveying this message to the family members and friends they also give the detail about
the skills required for the vacant job and about the salary that might be paid for such roles.
Skills required for to be receptionist as per the job specification of chocolate presence
are (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang, 2014.):
 Must be post graduate in any stream.
 Must be 2 years of experience as a receptionist
Salary that will be paid for the role of receptionist is approx 11000 pounds. Thus all this
information is conveyed by employees to its friends and family member by using different
methods of advertising.
Types of advertising method considered by chocolate presence organisation are
mentioned below:
Circulating jobs within the organisation –
To existing staff and their friends/family: This method refers to the word of mouth
advertising. In this method the employees of the organisation itself does the advertisement about
the vacancy that is of receptionist by conveying the message to each other, friends and families.
Circulating job is effective method used by an organisation to circulate employees job as per
their performance and work. It is beneficial for an enterprise by retaining employees for long
time.
On physical vacancy noticeboards on the external wall of the main site entrance:
Other important techniques used by chocolate presence organisation while advertising
about the job vacancy of the post of receptionist is through notice board on the external walls of
the main site of entrance by specifying the skills required for job and the salary that will be paid
for the specific role so as to convey information to many more candidate so that those possess
the skills required for vacant job can apply for it (Jiang and et. al., 2012 ). Thus, this process of

method helps in saving of time and cost as well. The main advantage of this is related with
recruitment process because it will help to hire the right candidate according where cost will be
minimum.
C)Explanation about where you would recommend the job advert for the Receptionist vacancy to
be placed and why.
In order to advertise about the job vacancy of receptionist, chocolate presence
organisation takes into consideration two methods. First is by circulating through word of mouth
advertising among families and friends and the next methods is through on physical vacancy
noticeboards on the external wall of the main site entrance (Jiang, Lepak and Baer, 2012). Both
this methods term to be appropriate and can be recommended that this method of advertisement
terms to be effective and can be adopted by chocolate presence organisation because it is a cost
saving process. Additionally, it can be recommended that both the above mentioned method
term to be realistic and appropriate because both the methods are under the budget of chocolate
presence. Moreover as employers of chocolate presence organisation were looking to attract
talented workforce by cutting recruitment cost so in order to reduce such cost company stared
rendering financial incentives to employees so that they can help in advertising and to fill job
vacancies by providing information to individuals they know outside of organisation like
families and friends. This recommendation will help to reduce the cost of organsiation.
TASK 3
A)Microsoft offer graduate training schemes and internships, evaluation of the benefits to both
the organisation and employees of such scheme.
Internship and graduate scheme is one of the popular cultures which every company
follows to find out the potential candidates according to their skills and competencies. Aim of
every company is to find out capable candidates who can fit themselves in the pre existing
culture and climate and assist company to enhance overall productivity and efficiency. Microsoft
is one of the largest organisation who admits thousands of candidates in a year for their schemes
and internship. Microsoft provides various types of schemes and internship programs like
Business programs and operation in which minimum qualification to get qualified is individual
should have masters in business administration and have some knowledge regarding the products
and services offered by Microsoft. In context of work description, person have to closely work

with sales leader of Microsoft so that interns would be able to identify work which they have to
do in future (Kehoe and Wright, 2013).
Benefits for Microsoft
 Hidden talent: It is hard for any company to find out right talent by taking interview or
conducting recruitment drive in colleges or universities. Skilful candidates would be one
who are equipped with, critical thinking, excellent communication, creativity and
collaboration and all these things can not judge within 5-10 minutes. Internship helps
Microsoft to assess and analyse candidates from every aspects. By giving internship to
new candidates it would help Microsoft to find out exact match for them. Though on the
other side if those candidates does not mix with the culture of Microsoft then it will
affect negatively on company as money and time has been consumed to train them.
 Retain employees: Any company would only achieve their goals and objectives if their
employee turnover ratio is low as high amount of cost and time is consumed while
acquiring new talents from outside. According to NACE survey, 40% of employees who
came in the job through internship is retain for more than 5 years. It indirectly enhance
productivity and efficiency of Microsoft in a positive way as company does not have to
spend their money on acquiring new talent or providing training to them.
Benefits to candidates
 It assist new candidates to gain real life experience from companies who are already
operating in the real world. From this, candidates can deicide their future professional
goals.
 It also assist individual to to build their professional network and moreover knowledge
about working culture, rules and regulations while working, skills and capabilities etc
would be known to person which would help to become successful in their life.
B) Identify and evaluate flexible working arrangements to Microsoft and its employees
Various types of arrangements which Microsoft provides to their employees are as
follows:
Get and stay healthy:
Offers various programs such as medical care, dental care, 24 nurse line etc. Main aim of
Microsoft is providing these types of benefits so that employees health will remain at its best

because if it deteriorates then they will ask for leaves which hampers performance of company
for a shorter period of time (Eaton, 2017).
Take time away:
It means Microsoft provides various types of leaves to their employees without cutting
their salary. Moreover, flexible working conditions is also given by Microsoft so that their
personal life wont get affected due to company operations.
 Time off: It offers 37 days leaves in a year including paid vacation leaves.
 Work life balance: Offers various tools which assists in adjusting family needs with
flexible working hours
Get great discounts:
Various kind of discounts is provided to the employees which comprises of prime and
employees discounts.
Microsoft can only attain success in the future if their assets i.e., employees are not
motivated enough or loyal to their company. To maintain their motivation higher, Microsoft
spends high amount of funds on these types of arrangement so that employees motivation would
remain higher. On the other hand, if employees are satisfied with the benefits Microsoft is
providing then their loyalty towards them would increase to a certain level which leads to higher
retention rate of employees. This will motivate employee's to work more harder as company
wants to provide incentives in terms of discount.
C) How Microsoft motivates their workers through designing of job roles
Microsoft always tries to satisfy their employees needs and preferences as then only they
would be able to attain their purpose of existence. On Why Microsoft page, company has
provided different kind of department in which they work and vacant position so that potential
candidates would be attracted from it. Besides this testimonials of employees have given in
which they are sharing their enriching experience with Microsoft. Company try to satisfy their
employees at the time of designing job roles and to explain this Herzberg’s two factor theory will
be discussed.
This theory is given by Frederick Herzberg which states that there are two factors which
motivates or demotivate an individual i.e., hygiene and motivational factors.