Human Resource Management Practices in Chocolate Presence

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Human resource management

Table of Contents
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
Explain the purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization, given its current
problems and future plans for further growth..................................................................................4
Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used by the organization.5
Evaluate at least 2 two potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate Presence to
enhance its selection process...........................................................................................................5
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
a) Create a person specification for the role of a receptionist.........................................................7
b) Advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of advertising jobs in the organisation. 8
c) Explain where you would recommend the job advert for the Receptionist vacancy to be placed
and why..........................................................................................................................................10
Task 3:...........................................................................................................................................12
Advantages of graduate training programs and internships to candidates................................12
Advantages of graduate training programs and internships to companies................................12
Work arrangements in Microsoft...............................................................................................13
Advantages of a flexible schedule for employees.....................................................................14
Advantages of a flexible schedule for employers......................................................................15
Motivational techniques of Microsoft.......................................................................................15
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................17
Employee Engagement..............................................................................................................17

Importance of Employee engagement in Microsoft..................................................................17
Fundamental approaches discussed in the Summit...................................................................18
How legislation affects the HR division of Microsoft...............................................................18
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
Reference List:...............................................................................................................................21

Task 1
Introduction
The HR manager is one of the significant entities in an organization; hence the purpose and the
functions of them will be discussed in the sections below.
Explain the purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization, given its
current problems and future plans for further growth.
The Human Resource Management is one of the most important departments that are present in
case of any organisation. If the case of Chocolate Presence is seen, then it can be seen that the
organization lacks the presence of a proper human resource department. In a situation when the
organization has been facing ample labor turnovers, it is of course essential for Chocolate
Presence to develop and appoint a proper human resource department for the organisation.
The main purpose of the Human Resource manager in this particular scenario are looking after
the staffing needs of the organization, reducing the labour turnover rates, providing the
performance appraisal to the employees. In the case scenario, the chief role of the human
resource manager will always be staffing, considering the fact that this will be useful for the
organization in overcoming the current scenario. As put forward by Noe et al. (2017), the
staffing needs of course forms the most important of the purpose and the Human Resource
Manager needs to maintain a proper relation with the marketing, finance and the production
departments of the organization. However, it is also among the chief purpose of the human
resource manager to ascertain that the performance appraisal process is being conducted in the
right manner and the right individuals get the appraisal. It has been identified that in most of the
cases, these serves as one of the significant factors that affects the labor turnover rates in a
positive manner.
The different HR functions on the other hand include the planning, staffing, recruiting, and co-
coordinating. In the current scenario, it is the duty of the newly appointed Human Resource
Manager to look after the staffing needs and hence develop proper planning programs for

looking after these needs of the organization. Co coordinating with the needs of the organization
will however be useful in controlling as well as ensuring the seamless activities in the
organization.
Explain the strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods used by the
organization.
It is quite evident from the case study, which the organization is currently suffering from the
labor turnover rates. Moreover, since the organization is located in one of the areas of high
unemployment rates, hence the unemployment rates are quite high. The organization has
organized the own tests in English and Mathematics for ensuring the efficiency of the individual.
The different strength and the weakness of the process can be included as
Weakness
- The chief weakness lies in the process itself. It has been mentioned in the initial sections,
that this is basically a chocolate manufacturing organization; hence it checking the math and
the English of the individuals would be of little use to the organization. Chocolate Presence
needs to check the skills of the individuals based on their abilities and the knowledge about
the chocolates. Selecting the candidates based on their English and mathematics skills will
never do any good to the organization (Becker and Gerhart, 2016).
Strengths
- One of the significant strengths in the process or rather the only strengths of the process is
of course the interview or rather the informal chat process, In the words of Armstrong
(2016), in most of the cases, it has been identified that the individuals open up more in the
informal chatting process. Hence, if conducted effectively, this will be useful in knowing the
individuals as well as their skills effectively. Moreover, this will also be useful in knowing
the person individual.
- Moreover, checking the English and the Mathematics skills will be useful in analysing the
analytical skills of the individual.

Evaluate at least 2 two potential improvements that could be made by Chocolate Presence
to enhance its selection process.
Instead of concentrating on the above process, the organization can indeed opt for any one of the
two methods of selection as mentioned below
Screening the application forms- This is considered as the most traditional approach in the entire
process. In the words of Huselid (2015), one of the significant advantages of this is that, it helps
saving time and if conducted effectively, can actually prove to be useful for the organization.
This will help Chocolate presence in filtering the correct employees for the organization based
on some pre decided criteria. The selected candidates can then be called for the interview and
after the process; if applicable the candidate can be stated. The greatest advantage of this is that,
this will be useful in selecting the correct employee for the process.
Aptitude and the ability tests- the importance of this test is much more vivid when it comes to
selecting the right candidates for the job. One of the important advantages is that, this helps in
bringing about the best of the candidates with the help of certain ability tests. With the help of
this the practical experience of the individuals can be accessed. Chocolate Presence can actually
call the candidates and ask them to produce something of their choice in chocolates. The ones
whose product, matches the company criteria will be selected. One of the significant advantages
of the method is that, this helps in knowing the individual as a person. It also helps in knowing
the skills as well as whatever he is good at. The adoption of these will be useful for chocolate
presence for selecting the best of the candidates (Wright and McMahan, 2015).
Conclusion
The above report has provided a clear idea as to the purpose and the functions of a human
resource manager in case of Chocolate Presence. The current selection system of the organisation
has been identified and the strength and weakness of them have also been included in the above
sections.

Task 2
a) Create a person specification for the role of a receptionist
Person Specification: Receptionist
The post holder must possess core competencies to an extraordinary level and must perform
their work with accuracy. It is vital for the person to have primary experience on the business
content, and we would be looking for the competencies as evidence during the selection
process if the person is shortlisted:
Core Competencies:
 Good communication
 Friendly behaviour
 Self-motivation
 Excellent timekeeping
 Customer focus
 Ability to work unsupervised
 Organised systems and processes
Education: Must have a bachelor’s degree in any related field
Experience:
 The person must have excellent interpersonal skills with approachable behaviour
 The person must have a good standard of personal presentation
 The person will have to experience office procedures and primary clerical duties
 The person will have to promote the right brand image to the customers
 The person must experience coordinating a high volume of calls every day even after
prioritising the situations and work
 The person must have good experience in welcoming guests and visitors in a much
friendly and positive manner

Special knowledge
 Excellent communication skills with the customers and the senior management and
other people of the organisation
 Excellent time keeping skills
 Ability to work under pressure
 Ability to work unsupervised
 Friendly and approachable behaviour
 Ability to work mainly on self-initiated
 Good working knowledge related to the field
 Must have good experience in Microsoft Office and must be completed and in the uses
of software like Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook in an office environment
Additional job requirements
 Extensive interest in the leisure and health industry
 Flexibility in work
 Adapt to changing environments
b) Advantages and disadvantages of the current methods of advertising jobs in the
organisation
Advantages of internal recruitment
Internal recruitment is always a good option for large organisations where it has extensive
employees, and this area can even affect the work ethics and approach positively. It has been
seen that internal recruitment can increase the morale and retention of the employees, as there is
increased room for advancement among the employees and can even get a reward for a job well
done. It also helps in the continuity of operations and reduces hassles for the human resource,
and there are chances of internal employees to be transferred to a new role with minimal
downtime (Sparrow and Otaye-Ebede 2017). This also produces paperwork, it becomes easy for

the human resource to keep up the staffing process, and the company does not have to issue new
insurance and tax paperwork for the same. The company, to reduce the time of hiring, uses this
process and it becomes easier to access internal candidates because their record of
accomplishment is accessible and sometimes they do not need full interviews with the
managers. It also reduces the cost of the advertisements, as the company does not have to invest
in resume databases, background checks and job boards.
Disadvantages of internal recruitment
However, internal recruitment has some disadvantages out of which one of the significant
disadvantages is the potential animosity among the ranks, and when a person promise one person
to another position, it can create contention in the workplace. There is a stagnation in the
procedures and does not allow too much room for new ideas and direction which can put the
company at a competitive disadvantage (O’Donovan 2019). It also results in a lack of diversity
because if a person is recruited from a different background, age or ethnicity in the workplace, it
can introduce new ideas and perspectives to the organisation. Sometimes there exist limited band
of the existing workforce because the position becomes vacant and limits the pool of applicants,
as the company cannot reach out to a large number of candidates for the specified position.
Advantages and disadvantages of notice board advertising
Advantages:
 Can focus on a wider audience
 Can find the right candidate for the job
 Can be accessed 24 hours
 The procedure is easy to apply
 Inexpensive affair
 Saves a lot of time connecting with the candidates
Disadvantages:
 Can receive many unwanted applications
 It cannot end sure the filling up of the vacant position
 People from far away and apply for the position

 Can introduce and informal way of interviewing.
 'By-chance’ probability is reduced (Tiwari et al. 2019)
c) Explain where you would recommend the job advert for the Receptionist vacancy to be
placed and why
The first option that the company can get is to get employee support for recruitment. If the
employees share the news with the family, colleague and friends, it will be easier for the
company to recruit people at low cost, can encourage a healthy culture and can even advocate
and promote the company. The company can introduce an incentivised referral program, as
employees are powerful job promotion tools and can even increase the network of the
candidates. The company can also make use of the organic and paid social media presence, and
this can help the company to build candidate familiarity and general interest. The social media
platform can be a place to show the culture to the candidates and provide excellent customer
service, which can influence the company's brand awareness extensively (Caldwell and Peters
2018). For example, a post on Facebook can be shared to the employees and other people’s
account, who can act as an influencer to attract the right talent to apply. Paid social media
platforms like LinkedIn is also an excellent place to start as it gets an organic social following
and can help the company to target specific audiences.
This kind of social media platforms can help to promote the products and can act as a valid form
of advertising because it can reach out to a large number of people all around the world and can
find the right candidate even through online communication. The company can also post on the
job sites like Google reviews, Glassdoor, Indeed and many others and these paid promotions can
increase engagement and consider industry for specific job sites for a particular opening
(Collings et al. 2018). It can also gather reviews from the former and current workers and the
latest generation of workers focuses more on this kind of platforms as it provides flexibility in
application and can help to learn about the company culture, and other competitive offers.
Finally, the company can also participate in hiring fairs and local events as this creates a face-to-
face relationship, and it becomes an ample opportunity to showcase the culture and personalities
of the company. This method allows the company to engage personally with the candidate and
can carry on the process without consuming much time.

Task 3:
Advantages of graduate training programs and internships to candidates
The graduate training programs are essential for the candidate as it helps to support the transition
from the university to the workplace, and within this period, the candidate will be able to gain
plenty of work experience. Good graduate training programs can help university students to
provide valuable support and skills that are needed in the workplace. It can also help to decide
the chosen career path and can specify the skills learnt in the university to relate it with the
workplace skills. It can also help the students with career opportunities and narrow down the
interest (Mendy 2018). The process of graduate training programs can help in continued
professional development, which can help in qualifying to the job training and develop a chance
to gather for the qualifications to suit the particular career path chosen by the student. The
graduate training programs provide a clear development plan for the students, which provides
permanent job opportunities at the end of the program and can also help to provide with the right
aptitudes and skills so that the candidate can secure the job role (Weibel et al. 2016).
Internships allow the candidates to gain valuable work experience and can gather ideas and
perceptions in a classroom setting, applying acquired knowledge in real life experiences,
completing the first and day-to-day duties and encounter situations in the chosen field. It also
provides an opportunity to explore the career path and helps the candidates to be familiar with
roles and responsibilities. It also allows the candidates to have an edge in the job market and
stand out to the potential employers (Nie et al. 2018). This process can also allow the candidates
to develop and refine the skills that are needed for a particular position and have a unique
learning opportunity that can help in real life situations. The candidates can even receive
financial compensation and have a network with the professionals in the field. They can slowly
gain confidence in the work they do and make a favourable impression to the potential
employers.