HRM Report: Analysis of HR Practices at Chocolate Presence Company

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of human resource management (HRM) practices at Chocolate Presence, a company specializing in chocolate-based greetings cards and presents. The report is divided into two parts. Part 1 focuses on the purpose and functions of HRM, including HR planning, recruitment and selection, training and development, and performance management. It evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the current selection methods, proposes potential improvements such as psychometric testing and personality profiling, and develops a person specification for a receptionist position. Part 2 shifts its focus to Microsoft, examining the benefits of various HRM practices such as flexible working arrangements and employee engagement. The report also evaluates how Microsoft motivates its workers through job role design and identifies key elements of UK employment legislation. The report emphasizes the importance of HRM in achieving organizational goals, improving employee engagement, and ensuring effective decision-making.

Human resource management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1 (LO 1)................................................................................................................................3
Purpose of HR function and its importance to organization.......................................................3
Strengths and weakness of current selection methods used by organization..............................5
Potential improvements which could be made for enhancing to selection process....................5
TASK 2 (LO 4)................................................................................................................................6
Person specification....................................................................................................................6
Advantages and disadvantages of current methods of advertising jobs......................................7
Recommendation the job advert for the receptionist vacancy....................................................8
PART 2............................................................................................................................................9
TASK 3 (LO 2)................................................................................................................................9
Benefits of different HRM practices...........................................................................................9
Evaluation of benefits of flexible working arrangements.........................................................10
Evaluation of how Microsoft motivates its workers through the way it designs its job roles. .10
TASK 4 (LO 3)..............................................................................................................................11
Meaning and importance of employee engagement in effective employee relations...............11
Evaluation of key approaches to engaging workers for improving communication................12
Key elements of UK employment legislations & their influences on decision-making...........13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human Resource Management plays an important and strategic role in managing the
people of company and also maintains the culture and environment of workplace (Bacon and
Hoque, 2018). The human resource management plays an important role for every company
including small, medium and large enterprises. There are two parts in the report in which part 1
is focused on the purpose, scope of HRM and recruitment, selection and application of HRM
practices in the workplace. Part 2 is based on the employee performance, development, rewards
and factors which leads to influence HR decision-making process.
Part 1 is based on the Chocolate Present company which aims at hiring HR Officer this is
because HRM assists in strategic hires that refers to right hiring and it makes great positive
impacts on the company. And the HRM will also help in solving the problems and issues of
Chocolate Presence in systematic way. The report will describe about purpose and functions of
HR and its importance to organization. Strengths and weakness of current selection methods of
organization will be explained and also potential improvements will be evaluated for the
selection process. Advantages and disadvantage of current methods of advertising will be
discussed and person specification will be made for the Receptionist job role.
Part 2 is based on the Microsoft that maintains the culture which encourages personal
growth and development opportunities. The report will describe about benefits of graduate
training schemes and internship programs to both organization and employees. Identification and
evaluation of benefits of flexible working arrangements will be done in the report. Explanation
of employee engagement and its importance will be discussed and key approaches for engaging
workers will be discussed. Key elements of UK employment legislations will also be identified
in the report.
PART 1
TASK 1 (LO 1)
Purpose of HR function and its importance to organization.
Chocolate Presence is focused on providing tailor-made chocolate-based greetings cards
and presents across the UK. Human Resource Management refers to practice of hiring,
recruiting, deploying and managing the employees of organization. Responsibility of HR
includes creation and putting into effects and also overseeing the procedure and policy that

governs the workers and relations of company with its employees (human resource management
(HRM), 2019).
Functions of HRM
HRM plays various roles and function such as recruitment & selection, training and
development, reward performance management and HR planning, which are explained as
follows:
 HR Planning: This refers to process which helps in identifying current and future human
resource needs of the company to accomplish the goals and objectives. Chocolate
Presence need to focus on HR planning function as the company is rapidly expanding and
will require workforce for managing the future activities of business.
 Recruitment & Selection: Chocolate Presence needs to focus on this function of HR as
it helps the company to obtain and maintain effective and efficient workforce who can
meet targeted goals and objectives of company (HRM Functions, 2019).
 Training & Development: After selection and recruitment of most suitable and capable
candidates, HR aims at providing required training and development program to them.
This is important for the Chocolate Presence as because this will help in increasing the
knowledge and understanding of employees and will also enable them to perform new
competitive activities in effective manner (Hauff, Alewell and Katrin Hansen, 2017).
 Reward performance management: The performance and reward management function
is done for evaluating the performance of employees and recognizing and rewarding them
for their efficient efforts. Chocolate Presence needs to perform this function for
motivating and encouraging employees. This function will also help the organization to
resolve the issue of high turnover rate and retain employees.
Purpose and Importance of HRM
Purpose of HRM is to increase the productivity of company by effective optimization of
the employee's effectiveness (Objectives and Importance of Human Resource Management,
2019). Chocolate Presence company is experiencing rapid expansion but it is also facing high
turnover rate and feedback from the long-standing customers.
 HRM will help the Chocolate presence to achieve the goals and objectives by creating
positive attitude among employees.

 Due to the HR policies and procedures, employees are provided with proper training so
that they are capable for managing the future operations of company effectively (Noe and
et.al., 2017).
 HR also enable in identifying potential employee and preparing them for future activities
of business. This will Chocolate Presence to effectively maintain the current and future
activities effectively.
 HR follows proper selection and recruitment methods that can help the Chocolate
Presence to select right people for right position and bring out effective results.
Strengths and weakness of current selection methods used by organization.
The current selection method of Chocolate Presence is their own made assessment tests
in English and Maths which applicants can complete through online or in-person. The passing
marks of the test are 50% for both tests. References are checked of those people who passes the
tests, and then they are called for interview. In the interview process, informal chat happens
around for 15 minutes.
Tests are conducted for measuring the knowledge and skills of person. Test validity and
reliability are the technical properties which indicates usefulness and quality of conducted test.
The home-made test are not reliable and valid as it will note help in assessing and evaluating the
knowledge and skills of candidates which is required for accomplishing the business operations.
50% passing marks are also not justified and fair as person having good knowledge of English
and maths can achieve but fails in properly managing the business activities (Ranjan, 2017).
The current selection process conducted by Chocolate Presence is not effective enough as
these test does not focus on evaluating the hard and soft skills of candidates which are required
for effectively managing the business activities. Instead of informal chat, Chocolate Presence
needs to conduct Formal Interview Process as it will allow the company to properly assess the
capabilities of candidate.
Potential improvements which could be made for enhancing to selection process.
Chocolate Presence should focus on bringing changes in the recruitment and selection
methods to reduce the employee turnover rate and achieve positive outcomes. The company can
focus on following for enhancing the selection and recruitment procedure:

Psychometric Testing: Through this selection method, Chocolate Presence can assess the skills,
intelligence, personality and skills of candidates. The company may use the results of this test for
determining that is candidate is suitable match for the job position.
 Advantages: By this testing, a company can easily find out more about cultural fits.
 Limitations: It is not possible that tests will be accurate all the time.
Personality Profiling: Through this selection method, Chocolate Presence can measure the life
skills, values, personal attributes, behavioural style and personality of candidates (Wilton,
2016). The question of the personality profiling tests are related with the aspects of the
personality that are relevant to workplace.
 Advantages: This testing method can decrease the chances of getting the wrong person
in wrong role.
 Limitations: It is time-consuming process.
TASK 2 (LO 4)
Person specification
Person specification plays an important part in recruitment process. It allows the
company to achieve and get an individual who has desirable traits. The main aim of Chocolate
Presence company is to fill vacant post by getting skilled and acquired skills of candidates. It is
important for HR manager to use fair and relevant person specification in their hiring and
recruiting process (Furuya, 2017).
Person specification for receptionist of Chocolate Presence company is described as below:
Criteria Requirements
Skills and abilities
Ability tom work independently & having excellent communication
skills.
Desirable
Ability to handle customers complaints in an effective manner Essential
Good standard of literacy and numeracy Essential
Experience
Public facing experience Essential

General practice experience Desirable
Qualifications
High school diploma is required for receptionist Essential
Roles and responsibilities
Main role as a receptionist is to use of telephone switchboards. Desirable
Ordering of refreshments & maintain attendance log Essential
Key tasks
The main tasks of receptionist is to greet clients and customers and
booking all meetings.
Essential
To keep receptionist area clean and answer all calls. Essential
To make communicate all departments for coordinating and
delivering of services.
Desirable
To provide customer service support & maintain stock of client
stationery.
Desirable
To perform all duties which are being assigned by administration
manager.
Essential
Advantages and disadvantages of current methods of advertising jobs
There are several internal and external methods of advertising jobs which are being
adopted and used by various companies.
Internal advertising and promotion includes notice boards, E-mail
Notice boards: Notice board also can be used by Chocolate Presence company to give
advertising of selected and required criteria of candidates for job role. Chocolate Presence
company that has a chocolate production team and attract wider range of customers. When
customers enter the company then they can see notice board and on the basis of them they can
recommend their family and relatives about job role.
Advantages
 It is also cheap method of advertising.

Disadvantages
 There is no surety of getting appropriate candidates.
External advertising methods involves print advertising, TV, Radio, Signs & displays etc.
Internet: Internet advertising is increasing and is in trends. In this type of advertising,
Ads of the company for job roles present & appear on the pages of a variety of websites. With
the help of this advertising method an organization can attract wider range of candidates towards
them. By paying more, a company can have attention by multimedia videos.
Advantages
 Can get candidates from anywhere as there is no limitation of getting candidates of
particular place and country.
Disadvantages
 Unexpected and unskilled employees can apply.
Television Ads: It is an other mode of advertising as it is also in trend. There are almost watch
TV and on the basis of this, a company can attract wider range of candidates. It is stated that
there are various companies who do not prefer TV ads because it is expensive then others. On the
other hand with this, an organization can find good deals for placing candidates (Bernardo and
et.al., 2016).
Advantages
 The main advantage of this method is the company can get a larger pool of skilled
employees.
Disadvantages
 It is expensive than others advertising methods.
Recommendation the job advert for the receptionist vacancy.
From the above study it can be recommended to Chocolate Presence company that they
should prefer Internet and social media advertising. The main benefit of using this advertising
method is it is cheap comparatively to other advertising methods. This company wants to give
advertising for resectionist post which plays an important role in a company. For getting required
skills and criteria of candidate it is important for them to give and select appropriate method of
advertising.
In the context of internal advertising it can give advertising through E-mail. It can mail to
their employees and can say to them to pass on it to their contacts. It is the best internal way of

advertising because it does not require much cost. On the references of their existing employees
it can get required skills of candidates.
PART 2
TASK 3 (LO 2)
Benefits of different HRM practices
There are various HRM practices that are being followed by Microsoft company with the
main aim of motivating their employees. Microsoft follows various policies and styles of
leadership and management that all are relationship and employees oriented rather than task
oriented. For fulfilling all needs of employees they provide them various benefits which includes
training, rewards system, career development, fair compensation, providing security etc. The
main practice on which it more focuses in training schemes and internship.
Training scheme: The main vision and mission of Microsoft company is to empower
every person & every organization. It wants to work with different type of people in order to
share global vision, motivation and passion. HR department of this company mainly focus on
recruiting skilled employees in the company to accomplish their goals. After recruiting they
provide them training which help them in increasing their skills and abilities for competing their
work with effectively (Hassan, 2016). It is beneficial for both employers and employees as
employees can increase their knowledge and skills which can make them able to work
productively and it increases their self-esteem. On the other hand when employees provide
qualitative products to customers then it increases customers satisfaction and sales. Microsoft
interns work on important and meaningful projects that can help the company in solving
customers problems.
Reward system: Reward system is a other way of motivating employees for
accomplishing goals and tasks. It is an important program that is being set up by Microsoft
company in order to reward performance to employees. Employer of this company give financial
and non-financial rewards when workers perform beyond the expectations. When employees
achieve rewards & benefits for their job performance that time they feel encourages and stay in
the company for the long run that is good for both employees and employers. It decreases labour

turnover which cuts costs of the company in recruiting process. Employees also feel happy and
motivated at workplace.
Evaluation of benefits of flexible working arrangements
Microsoft offers various benefits to their employee as they want to get work done from
them with ease and productively. The main aim of this company is to complete tasks by
satisfying all employees and customers.
Flexible working scheme: There are various flexible schemes which are being offered
by this company such as: part-time working, Job sharing, work remotely, flexible schedule or
work compressed week. Each employee at Microsoft are given a laptop so that they can work
remotely. It is the way of motivating them and retaining them in the company for the long run. It
has a technology that includes a distributed network via virtual hardware that makes able to
employees to access their work from any device. On occasions, it also offers part-time positions
which range from 15-39 hours per week.
There are several benefits of flexible schemes that Microsoft company provides to its employees.
Remote working and part-time working have mainly 3 benefits for the business such as:
Improve retention: According to the states it is stated that around 72% of employers
believe that telework has the highest impacts on employee retention. With having flexibility of
working remotely and access work from any device make them more able to complete their other
work along with (Cook, MacKenzie and Forde, 2016).
Increase productivity: Approximately 91% of people surveyed and stated that they feel
more productively working remotely. It motivates and encourages them.
Attract the best talent: Flexible working increase brand image of the company and
every people want to work with those companies that provide them flexible and other benefits.
77% of employees believes and said that flexible working arrangements a major consideration
while evaluating the future job opportunities.
Evaluation of how Microsoft motivates its workers through the way it designs its job roles
Microsoft is an American multinational technology company that has around 134,994
employees. It main focuses on motivating its employees and for that it makes and designs
attractive job roles. It has mainly 5 job components that helps the company in increasing
motivating potential of a job such as: Task identity, autonomy, skill variety, task significant and
feedbacks. Microsoft is the one who creates the future which people prefer and want, they also

help employees in exploring their unique passion & empower billions. Some features of job
design of Microsoft company includes:
Job Rotation: Job rotation means to move employees from job to job at regular intervals.
Job rotation has several benefits for both employees and employers as it decreases stress level of
employees. Employees can learn different things and acquire new skills. It increases the overall
skill level of the company.
Skill variety: Skill variety refers an extent to which a specific job requires a person in
order to utilize and gain multiple high level skills. In the context of Microsoft company it does
not change their people and like them just the way they are. This company celebrates diversity in
all its forms.
Task identity: Task identity refers a degree to which a person is in charge of completing
a specific piece of work. This company do not only hire skilled employees but also provide them
tools that can help them in discovering their perfect job match (Lutscher, Dean-León and Cheng,
2017).
Task significance: It refers affects whether an individual's job sustainability affects and
impacts on other people's health and work. Microsoft company gives freedom to its employees
and support them to take their career to the next level.
Autonomy: Autonomy is also refers the degree to which an individual has the freedom to
decide the way of performing their work.
Feedback: Feedback also refers a degree to which people at work learn and understand
their working effectiveness.
All these characteristic have relationship with job performance that give several
outcomes to Microsoft company as it give job satisfaction to employees by which they stay in the
company. It motivates employees towards achieving organizational goals. It reduces absenteeism
at workplace. It helps the company in increasing turnover and overall productivity.
TASK 4 (LO 3)
Meaning and importance of employee engagement in effective employee relations
Employee engagement: Employee engagement refers an extent to which employees feel
motivated and passionate about their jobs and are committed to the company. It is an emotional
state where employees feel fully energetic and passionate towards competing their work.

In the context of employee engagement, Microsoft company Accenture collaborate on
Microsoft teams whose relationship partners and leaders give opportunities to innovate &
working with Microsoft teams. It has greater diversity and also celebrates diversity at its
workplace. For developing and engaging employees, Microsoft focuses on an effective
communication. It communicates via threaded & persistent chat in order to keep everyone
knows. It also extends its workspace with suitable apps to bring all tools and services which
people use every day into one place. For example, Office 365 apps are being built for making
access easy to One Note, SharePoint etc. When employees require to contact each other than
they can make use of PC, Phones & mobile. Microsoft also held and design for all their meeting
needs to live streaming and dialling into a conference call.
Employee relations: Employees relation refers company's efforts and functions which it
performs in order to manage and develop relationship between employers and employees. The
main aim of Microsoft company to focus on employment relationship is to solve workplace
issues and make productive working environment (Lu and et.al., 2016).
Importance of employee engagement
Employee engagement plays an important role as it helps the company in improving and
developing a strong relationship between employer and employees. Those employees who feel
more energetic and passionate about their work they look at whole of the company and try to
understand their vision, purpose and importance of their contribution. Employees engagement is
all about employees relationship. It is stated that engaged employees are dedicated towards their
work and do not waste time in gossiping and spreading rumours. Engaged employees are more
likely to avoid fighting with others and want to enjoy a warm and strong relationship with their
colleagues. The main aim of employee engagement is to feel happy at workplace.
When employees feel happy at workplace then they more focus on their work. Increased
relationship and engagement with the company decrease their stress level which is good for
them. By working more productively they can get promotional opportunities. So it can be said
that employees' engagement helps and important for increase relationship and accomplishing
goals (Art, 2016).
Evaluation of key approaches to engaging workers for improving communication
There are several approaches which are being used by several companies such as
Microsoft, KFC, Mondalez international and many more. An effective and improved