Human Resource Management Unit 3 Report: Chocolate Presence Analysis

This report delves into the Human Resource Management (HRM) practices of Chocolate Presence, a UK-based company specializing in chocolate-based greeting cards and gifts. The report begins by outlining the core functions of HRM, including planning, recruitment, selection, training, development, and reward programs, emphasizing their importance in employee retention and performance management. It then critically examines the strengths and weaknesses of Chocolate Presence's selection methods, particularly the interview process and reference checks, and suggests potential improvements such as incorporating technical and communication assessments and adopting a more formal interview process. The report further explores the benefits of internship and training schemes, flexible working arrangements, and employee motivation strategies. It also addresses employee engagement, key legislation influencing HR decision-making, and the impact of external and internal factors on the organization. Overall, the report provides a comprehensive analysis of HRM principles applied within a real-world business context, offering valuable insights into effective HR strategies.

Unit 3Unit 3
HUMAN RESOURCEHUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENTMANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................1
a) Purpose of HR functions and their importance..................................................................1
b) Strengths and weakness of selection methods...................................................................3
c) 2 potential improvements that can be made by Chocolate presence in selection process..3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................4
a) Person specification for receptionist..................................................................................4
b) Advantages and disadvantages of current advertisement methods....................................5
c) Recommendation for job advert for receptionist................................................................6
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................7
a) Benefits of internship and training schemes for employees as well as Microsoft.............7
b) Benefits of flexible working arrangement..........................................................................8
c) Ways for motivating employees.........................................................................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
a) Employee engagement along with importance in employee relations at Microsoft........10
b) Approaches for engaging workers...................................................................................11
c) Key legislation which influences decision making of HR in Microsoft..........................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management refers to practice of recruitment, hiring, deployment as
well as management of employees of organisation. HR within an organisation is responsible for
creation, putting into effect and sight policies by governing employees as well as build up
relation of organisation with their workforce (Becker and Smidt, 2016). They are responsible for
carrying out job synthesis, planning of personnel requirements, recruitment of appropriate
employee for job, orientation as well as training, management of wages along with salaries for
rendering and incentives. This report is based on Chocolate Presence that is based in North
Yorkshire and renders chocolate-based greetings cards that are provided across the markets of
UK. They also deal with the creation of more specialised gift orders along with creative
chocolate flavours as well as glorious designs. This report comprises of HR functions, their
importance along with their strengths and weaknesses as well as two improvements that can be
carried out by Chocolate Presence in terms of selection process. In addition to this, person
specification, pros and cons of advertising methods and job advert has been illustrated.
Furthermore, benefits of training as well as internship, working arrangements and the way in
which Microsoft inspire their employees are discussed. At last, external and internal factors
which impact decision-making of an organisation has been illustrated.
Task 1
a) Purpose of HR functions and their importance.
Human resource management refers to a term which is used for the description of
management along with development of employees within an organisation (Bounfour, 2015).
They emphasise on operations carried out by people in a firm and make sure that effectual work
practices are followed within place all the time. Within Chocolate Presence, employees are
considered as crucial assets and focus is laid on management of human resources as per
assumptions carried out.
Functions of human resource management: There is a wide number of functions which
must be followed by the human resource officer contracted by Chocolate Presence for resolving
the issues associated with employee’s turnover.
Human resource planning: It is initial stage within human resource function that has to
be carried out by human resource officer. In this they will be emphasising on carrying out
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analysis with respect to vacant position which will be left due to certain reasons (Bringezu and
Bleischwitz, 2017).
Recruitment: It is the process for analysing the requirements of the job and then
identification of potential individuals who will be inspired, as well as stimulated for applying for
the specific profile. The recruitment programme is formulated by Chocolate Presence to attract a
greater number of applicants so that pool of candidates can apply the job and organisation have
diverse options for identifying the best candidates. For this, they can make use of employment
agencies, advertisements as well as word of mouth. Furthermore, they can also opt for either
internal or external methods of recruitments. Due to the shortage of of employees, external
method of recruitment is best option for them.
Selection: The process of choosing or picking up right or appropriate candidate who are
most apt for specific job position within an organisation (Coetzee, Ferreira and Potgieter, 2015).
It denotes activity of interviewing as well as evaluation of individuals for a peculiar job as well
as selection of a candidate for employment on the basis of certain criteria. With respect to
Chocolate Presence, they need to select knowledgeable as well as experienced persons as per job
position. The management of organisation have decided to have English along with maths
comprehension and criteria for clearing these tests will be 50% for them. Individuals, who have
cleared these guidelines, will be called for an interview.
Training: A planned process for modification of attitude, knowledge or skilled behaviour
by learning experience for attaining effectual performance within range of activities. Its purpose
is to formulate capabilities among individuals for development of individuals through which
current as well future requirements of organisation can be satisfied. Chocolate Presence renders
their employees with training so that their employees can have enhanced abilities as at present
scenario they are also going through quality issues.
Development: It is a process which comprises of attainment of skills and insights as
well as factual knowledge for enhancing effectiveness and potential of individuals (Crawshaw,
Budhwar and Davis, 2017). Basically, it denotes process of creation of growth, progress,
affirmative alterations or addition of economic, physical, social, environmental as well as
demographic constituents through which quality as well as level of services can be raised. With
reference to Chocolate Presence, they are going through diverse issues which are linked with
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quality as well as employee turnover. This makes them mandatory to opt for development
programmes so that they do not have to face any kind of problems.
Recognition and reward programs: Chocolate Presence needs to have effective
activities like appreciating as well as giving them reward through which they can attract and hold
on their employees (Deery and Jago, 2015). Recognition is defined as a process of
acknowledgement of the fact that employee has carried out their role in enhanced manner. This
involves giving employees rewards like bonus while they do their job in required manner or even
better than this. With reference to Chocolate Presence, employee’s turnover is a common
problem so they need to have strategies through which they can provide their employees with
recognition as well as rewards. It will motivate and inspire workforce which in turn will lead to
enhanced performance.
Purpose of HRM:
Employee’s retention: HR department of an organisation is responsible for employee
retention practices. For this they need to analyse several techniques through which they can
easily retain employee in firm for long run duration. These
kinds of practices are based on different benefits that HR manager can provide to their
employees.
Performance management: It is the responsibility of HR manager to analyse skills and
capabilities of their employees in order to appraise them accordingly (Donate and de Pablo,
2015). Such kind of practices aid in retaining employees in firm for long run duration easily.
b) Strengths and weakness of selection methods.
Chocolate Presence has adopted selection, as well as an interview process for selecting
employees within their working place. In this, they are open to questions associated with
desirable profile. They possess various strengths as well as weaknesses that have illustrated
below:
Strengths:
Information can be acquired about an individual such as their hobbies, interests, creativity and
many others (Helmreich and Merritt, 2017). These will assist Chocolate Presence in other
activities where they have to deal with greeting cards as this will amplify quality of their cards.
1. It aids them to have appropriate individuals as questions are dependent on job role as well
as knowledge associated with respect to specific role can be analysed.
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2. The information attained by interview needs to be precise in comparison to other
techniques along with this supplementary information related with characteristics of
personal can also be attained.
3. Interview process is flexible approach that will yield Chocolate Presence better results,
for an instance depending upon the answers given by an individual’s questions can be
asked.
4. Interviewer present on the spot will be able to observe gestures, facial expressions, etc. of
the informants with respect to situation prevailing during interview. This assists
interviewer to analyse meaning of verbal replies that are being furnished through
interviewee (Kavanagh and Johnson, 2017).
5. Test devices as well as scoring can be utilised as interviewer acts as experimenter, in
addition to these visual stimuli in which informant react is presented.
6. This method assists individuals within facilities that will aid them in spot adjustments as
well as make sure response material. For an instance, interviewer can sensibly sandwich
questions related to which informant is sensitive.
7. Face to face screening assists within attainment of precise outcomes as well as apart from
verbal capture, non-verbal aspects like body language can also be analysed (Klingner,
Llorens and Nalbandian, 2015).
Weaknesses:
1. It is not an absolute process as this assist them (Chocolate Presence) to have essential
details related with individuals but by this practicality as well as technical details cannot
be identified.
2. Interviewer gives their judgement with respect what they perceive from behaviour of
individuals, nature and personality (Lasserre, 2017). Words or little minute conversation
will not be enough to analyse them.
3. This is costly process as employees are needed for carrying out this which also denotes
personnel cost.
4. The human equation can lead within distortion of returns. Efficacy of interviews entirely
depends on in-depth skills and training of interviewers, if they fail in this process then it
won’t have fruitful impact on Chocolate Presence.
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Effectual interview needs to possess appropriate rapport with their respondents as well as
control atmosphere of interview in an effectual way that will benefit them within frank and free
responses. But it is very complex requirement as this requires resources, skills and time
(Marchington and et. al, 2016).
Reference Process: It involves that a person working within organisation gives reference for
of other person for specified job. The strength of this process is that the cost and time that is
involved within finding out apt candidate will be reduced (Mone and London, 2018). Drawback
is that there is probability that person may not fit into desired job role and there can occur
favouritism.
English and math test: Diverse tests are being carried out by Chocolate Presence to ensure
that they can employees who possess adequate knowledge. Its strength is that it depicts the
knowledge of an individuals in both which will aid organisation to enhance their operations and
carry out them quickly. Limitation of this is that it can be costly as well as time consuming
process.
c) 2 potential improvements that can be made by Chocolate presence in selection process.
Chocolate Presence is going through diverse situations within their process of selection.
For this, they can opt for diverse steps for resolving such kind of issues. Some of these
improvements are illustrated below:
 They need to have communication as well as technical assessment exam within process
of interview. These tests must be completely dependent on appropriate job needs
(Morschett, Schramm-Klein and Zentes, 2015). This will assist management to examine
abilities of an individual within appropriate way. This method must be utilised by
Chocolate Presence for hiring individual for specified job profile.
 Major issue that is faced by HR manager of Chocolate Presence is that they have opted to
hire staff from internal environment due to favouritism or references when interview is
carried out. For this they need make sure that they have a formal method for interview
rather than going for informal process (Marler and Parry, 2016). HR manager must make
use of selection process by an enhanced loyalty along with focus on capabilities of
individual.
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 Job analysis can be adopted by Chocolate Presence, it refers to process of collection and
analysing data associated with human needs of job. The advantage of this method is that
renders first-hand information related with job and assists within creation of right job
employee fit. This also assist within performance evaluation as well as appraisal
processes. The drawback of job analysis is that; it is time consuming as well as involves
personal biasness.
 Job description is the other method that can be opted by Chocolate Presence, this is
informative document that involves responsibilities, duties and roles related with job role
(Mone and London, 2018). The major asset of this is that it furnishes opportunities for
communicating direction of Chocolate Presence as well as inform individuals about ways
in which they fit within bigger picture. Its weaknesses are that there is no flexibility and
reviews are not provided with respect to day-to work.
Task 2
a) Person specification for receptionist
Job Title: Receptionist
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Criteria Essential Desirable
Qualifications Functional Skills
Level 2
Customer Service
GCSE’s min 5
Skills/competencies Communication
Basic IT and
literacy skills
Problem solving
skills
Customer service
Conflict
management
skills
Strong clerical
skills
Knowledge Dealing with a
high volume of
incoming
calls/queries on a
daily basis
Knowledge of
computerised
systems
Previous experience A minimum of 6
moths experience
working in a
customer service-
oriented role
1-2 years
customer
service -oriented
role in a similar
industry
Experience
Required
Customer service
background and
dealing with
people on a daily
basis
Manufacturer’s
customer
service
background
Special attributes
(for example, a track record of writing
financial reports for a company board)
Flexible approach
and being able to
resolve any
problem related
to the role on a
daily basis
Ability to use
booking systems
for taxis, hotels,
trains etc
Health and
safety and first
aid knowledge
Personal qualities
(for example, self-motivation)
Strong multi-
tasking skills
Presentable in
appearance
Caring attitude
Tolerance and
Enthusiastic and
confident
Desire to
undergo further
training and
development

(Beta.acas.org.uk, 2019)
The person specification created for the role show the basic skills, experience and personal
qualities that should the candidates possess in order to be eligible for the role (Omotayo, 2015).
b) Advantages and disadvantages of current advertisement methods.
According to the discussed organisation, the company has adopted an internal method of
recruitment i.e. among their friends or families. They have posted vacancies on their notice
boards which are maintained at entrance of working premises (Morschett, Schramm-Klein and
Zentes, 2015). By this existent staff will have a chance to improve their career in the same
organisation. The vacancy posted by Chocolate Presence, is of a receptionist. For this, the
candidate must possess a minimum of Functional Skills level 2, along with experience of at least
r six months. In addition to this, they must have strong communication and interpersonal skills.
Apart from this, organisation has opted to make use of internal recruitment for this post. It can be
observed a set of pros and cons relating to the current recruitment methods:
Advantages
1. Time to hire is reduced: When external recruitment is carried out then recruiting
teams have to look for qualified candidates as per requirement either by sourcing or
posting them (Omotayo, 2015). After this analysis will be carried out and if they are
able to clear it, they will be convinced to be a part. It is a time consumption process.
But in case of internal recruitment, candidates will be considered from internal
environment which will take less time to engage them.
2. On-boarding time is shortened: Internal hires are faster to on board with respect to
external hires as more time is needed for adjusting in a new environment.
Furthermore, when internal hires possess the ways in which organisation carry out
their operations and know about their policies. As Chocolate Presence is a small
organisation, they can acquaint people within new teams.
3. Less expensive: When individuals are hired in an organisation then they do not have
to invest or spend money for posting advertisements on notice boards, instead of
sourcing candidates on the basis of resume database, along with this top management
can look forward for team members who fit within this role (Reiche and et. al, 2016).
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4. Employee engagement is strengthening: A message is delivered to employees that
they are precious for organisation. Morale of employees is boosted up when
management provides them with higher position at the same role level. These
employees are developed professionally; this will provide them opportunities for
future.
5. Limited risk: Team leaders or managers know their employees; this will lead to
elimination of risks associated with recruitment of wrong individuals. For an instance
candidate can have anything on their CV or resume portraying themselves as best for
specific job role (Rosemann and vom Brocke, 2015). But with respect to internal
candidates, the potential of every individual is known to them.
6. Improvised employee relation: Promotion while sending message that leads to
giving value to their employees as well as needs to make investment in them. More
opportunities are delivered with respect to advance careers.
7. Induction process is easier: If recruitment is carried out externally then, it will lead
them to acknowledge their responsibilities along with culture and their intricacies.
The internal people works for business and they are aware about different procedures.
Disadvantages
1. Limit pool of applicants: Chocolate Presence possess wide range of well qualified
employees for specified position. An instance can be taken into consideration for
acknowledging that employees possess effectual skills according to their job role and
they might not possess essential skills that are crucial for post of receptionist, this is
known as skill gap (Becker and Smidt, 2016). When they are entirely dependent on
internal hiring then they are minimising the chances for hiring new skills as well as ideas.
2. Builds a gap in existing workforce: When someone within Chocolate Presence is
promoted then it will lead to have vacant position in their place. This means that
organisation has to carry out promotions as well as moves so that these positions can be
filled up. Therefore, they can opt for external methods of hiring in addition to internal.
3. Effect in inflexible culture: A stagnant culture is built up while internal hiring is carried
out. As employees are getting more comfortable, then they need not to opt for
experimentation of new methods while working (Bounfour, 2015). On the other hand,
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while external recruitment is carried out within Chocolate Presence then they can have
new perception for existent problems.
4. Creation of resentment between managers and employees: In case if colleague is
hired then it will lead to feeling of resentful among employees. This leads management of
organisation to lose their good team members.
5. Results within inflexible culture: Hiring within business leads to stagnant culture as
employees get comfortable in the ways through which activities are being carried out and
do not opt for experimenting new ways of working (Bratton and Gold, 2017). This means
that external hires are necessary for shaking up culture as well as providing perspective
with respect to existent problems.
c) Recommendation for job advert for receptionist.
There exist two ways where vacancies can be posted by organisation. They can opt for
external recruiters or agencies and advertisement on newspaper. But they are not able to
captivate a greater number of individuals according to expectations. Chocolate presence can go
for means of advertisement by the usage of social media for the vacancy of receptionist. This
will assist them to pull in huge number of candidates towards themselves as people are more
addicted to social media at present scenario. Through this, they will be able to possess
individuals who have unique skills along with higher level of competencies. In addition to this,
there are diverse software’s that can be utilized for short listing candidates according to
organisational needs. Apart from this, it acts like a good mark for organisation in context of
profitability. Social media is cost friendly approach through which large pool of candidates can
be attracted to apply for job profile which is vacant within Chocolate Presence.
Task 3
a) Benefits of internship and training schemes for employees as well as Microsoft.
Training is defined as a process of definite steps which must be followed systematically
so that skills and knowledge are transferred to employees. Basically, it is a unionised process
through which individuals can acquire skills with respect to a particular intent (Brewster and et.
al, 2016). This acknowledges teaching, as well as learning activities for major purposes like for
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