Human Resource Management Report: Selection, Training, and Roles

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of human resource management (HRM) principles and practices, focusing on employee selection, recruitment, training, and development. The report begins by outlining the purpose and importance of the HR function within an organization, particularly in the context of a company experiencing high employee turnover. It then delves into the roles and responsibilities of a Human Resource Officer, including tasks such as recruitment, training, and employee relations. The report also evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of current and alternative employee selection methods, such as external versus internal recruitment, and suggests potential improvements to the selection process. Furthermore, the assignment includes a practical application section, where a person specification for a receptionist role is created, along with a rationale for suitable advertising mediums and a discussion of their advantages and disadvantages. The report concludes with an evaluation of apprenticeship and graduate training schemes, highlighting their benefits to both the organization and the employees.

Human Resource Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................4
Task 1 – (LO1).............................................................................................................................4
Task 2 – Application (LO 4)........................................................................................................8
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................10
Task 3 (LO2)..............................................................................................................................10
Task 4 (LO3)..............................................................................................................................13
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................16
Reference list.................................................................................................................................17
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Introduction
Human resource management is a significant aspect of every business organization. It is
considered a strategic approach towards effective and successful management of the workers of
an organization in order to facilitate the business in gaining competitive advantage in the market.
The human resource department of a company is responsible for improving the performance of
the employees in consideration to the strategic objectives of the business organization. In other
words, the human resource department of an organization is responsible for managing the
individuals working within an organization, keeping in mind the systems and policies of the
company (Cascio, 2018). In addition, the human resource department ensures effective employee
recruitment and training, performance appraisal, managing pay and reward system and so forth,
thus ensuring effective productivity and management within an organization.
In this assignment, the scope and purpose of human resource department and the selection and
recruitment of employees will be taken under consideration. Furthermore, the project will discuss
the significance of the functions of the human resource within an organization. The roles and
responsibilities of a HR officer will also be highlighted below. Besides, the project will shed
lights upon the factors, which persuades the decision making process of human resource within
an organization.
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PART 1
Task 1 – (LO1)
a) The purpose of the HR function and its importance to the organization, given its current
problems and future plans for further growth.
In order to effectively meet the business requirements of the company, the human resource
department must be able to successfully manage the valuable resources of the company. Since,
the owner of ‘Say it with Chocolate’ is not experienced in employees people, the company has
experienced huge employee turnover. As a result, the productivity and performance of the
company is affected. The key purpose of the HR functions is explained below:
Selection and Recruitment
Selection and recruitment is the most crucial and primary function of the human resource
department of the company. Therefore, recruitment function is important for an organization in
order to ensure that the company holds a strong and effective workforce. In order to ensure
effective recruitment, the company must consider effective recruiting methods, such as,
interviewing candidates, promoting open positions, and so forth (Rao, 2014). In this context, the
human resource department of the company must make sure that suitable and qualified
employees are recruited in order to avoid employee turnover.
Employee Relation
Employee relationship is also a significant function of the human resource department of the
company. It is the responsibility of the human resource department to ensure a secure and
healthy relationship between the employer and the employees. In this context, the HR
department of the company must ensure a smooth relation between the different employees. In
addition, a positive work environment must be provided to the company. This will help the
company to reduce its employee turnover rate (Abu Amuna at al., 2017).
Development and Training
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Training and development of the newly recruited employees is crucial in order to ensure that
they work effectively towards the objectives and goals of the company. Besides, the existing
employees must also be provided with effective and necessary training in order to improve and
enhance the knowledge, skills and performance of the employees. In this context, the HR
department of the company with the help of effective training must encourage the employees to
improve their skills and efficiency so as to lessen the employee turnover of the company.
b) How you see your role and responsibilities as a Human Resource Officer.
The responsibilities and roles of the human resource officer of ‘Say it with Chocolate’ are as
follows:
 Employing candidates and providing them with training and development programs.
 Ensuring that the employees are getting correct wages on time
 Administering the benefits and pension policies of the employees
 Approving advertisements and job descriptions
 Ensuring the welfare, safety and health of the employees
 Organizing and conducting development activities, training sessions and workshops for
improving the skills and abilities of the employees
 Monitoring the attendance and performance of the workforce
 Making the employees and line managers aware of the employment laws and legislations
along with employment procedures and policies of the company
 Making sure that the employees are availing the rights to work within the organization
 Negotiating working conditions, contracts, salaries, redundancy packages and so forth
with the representatives and the staff of the employees (Marchington et al., 2016).
c) The advantages and disadvantages of the current selection methods used by the
organization and compare it to other approaches of selection methods.
The current recruitment method used by ‘Say it with Chocolate’ within the organization is
external recruitment method. The advantages and disadvantages that the company experiences
owing to this selection process are as follows:
Advantages:
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 External recruitment helps the company to recruit fresh and talented candidates.
 It provides the company with an opportunity to interview a larger section of people thus,
being able to recruit better qualified and skilled employees
 It further facilitates the company to improve the diversity of the workplace. A diverse
workplace helps in better growth and development of the organization, as different
perspectives and ideas of different individuals are availed (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016).
Disadvantages:
 External recruitment is an expensive affair, thus being a drawback for the company. It
requires huge expense for arranging interviews, job vacancy announcement and so forth.
 External recruitment is a long process, thus wasting a lot of time.
 The response from the side of the candidates is quite uncertain in this selection process.
This is for the reason that the candidates interviewed or recruited may not be suitable for
the organization thus, affecting the productivity of the company (Sekaran and Bougie,
2016).
However, another significant employee selection process is the internal recruitment process. In
this process, employees are recruited from within the organization for the required post or
designation. This process also contains a number of advantages and disadvantages. Internal
recruitment helps in influencing the morale as well as retains the employees. Through internal
recruitment the company can reduce the training time, as the existing employees are already
aware of the policies and frameworks of the organization, therefore do not take much time in
coping up with the new roles and responsibilities. This is not possible in external recruitment, as
the company needs to give proper training to the new employees before they begin to work
within the organization. Internal recruitment saves a lot of time and money, therefore, is more
beneficial for the company. Internal selection in some cases creates a barrier in incorporating
fresh and innovative ideas and perspectives within the organization. Internal selection restricts
diversity within the workplace hence, innovation and changes within the organization becomes
difficult. On the other hand, external selection and recruitment further helps in improving the
diversity of the workplace.
d) Potential improvements that could be made to the current selection methods.
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In order to ensure effective and successful recruitment within the organization, the company
must incorporate both external as well as internal recruitment process within the workplace. This
will facilitate the organization in minimizing the disadvantages of both the recruitment processes
and avail their advantages as well. This will further help the company to maintain a balance
within its workplace. For instance, the company must organize interview of fresh candidates as
well as offer promotions to the existing employees in accordance to the need and requirement of
the company and job vacancy. This will help the company in availing fresh and talented
candidates as well as retain its existing employees. Furthermore, the company must expand its
reach in the external recruitment process with the help of different mediums such as,
employment agency, traditional methods and so forth (Gaudet et al., 2018). This will help the
company to interview more candidates, thus being able to form a better and capable workforce.
The job description being prepared by the human resource department of the company must be
designed efficiently so that unwanted candidates do not apply for the post, thus saving a lot of
time and expense.
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Task 2 – Application (LO 4)
a) Create a person specification for the role
Job title: Receptionist
Department: Administration
Purpose of job:
 The candidate must have a welcoming and professional attitude towards the visitors.
 The candidate needs to answer the incoming calls as well as cater to the enquires of the
caller in an effective manner.
Job specification:
 Meeting the clients and greet them with a welcoming attitude
 Arranging and booking meetings with the clients and suppliers
 Arranging courier services
 Maintaining a clean and tide reception area
 Attending and forwarding the incoming calls
 Communicating with the different departments about the deliveries and visitors
 Distributing and sorting posts
 Completing the paper works of the administration
 Offering customer support service
 Maintaining the stock of the stationery of the clients
 Other reasonable tasks assigned by the administration manager of the company
b) Provide a rationale for a suitable medium for placing the advertisement.
The most suitable medium for placing recruitment advertisements are the internet and paper.
Various recruitment software are available that work to optimize the end-to-end process. ATS or
applicant tracking system is such software that measures and manages the whole recruitment
process and enables the recruiter to take control of the hiring process. The most conventional
way of posting an advertisement of recruitment is the newspaper. Almost all young job aspirants
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are aware of the various advertisements on the recruitment section of the paper. The aim of any
recruiter is to hire personnel quickly. The easiest way to achieve effective and quick hiring as
well as effective responses from interested candidates is online recruitment. Online recruitment
helps the recruiter in terms of wider reach of the advertisement, better reporting of responses and
faster hiring. Moreover, the process is less costly than conventional advertisements and the
software are easy to use on all sides, the applicant and the recruiter. ‘Say it with Chocolate’ has
chosen ATS based online advertisement and newspaper as medium of advertisement.
c) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the previous methods of advertising jobs in
the organization
Advantages:
Online Advertisement:
 Online Recruitment advertisements reach a wider audience
 The whole hiring process consumes less time
 Applicants can read all scheme related documents before applying
 Online recruitment provides value for money
Newspaper:
 Newspapers have been and always will be the most used medium of advertising
 Newspapers are circulated throughout the nation.
 The online advertisements as well as advertisements on newspaper will approach the
interested candidates in the most efficient way.
Disadvantages:
Online Advertisement
 Setting up the advertisement is a tedious task
 Many applicants are not competent and apply out of curiosity
 The installation of the ATS may take time
Newspaper
 Advertising on newspaper is costly
 Most people overlook the advertisement
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d) Produce a minimum of six questions, which could be asked at the interview for the
Receptionist, which would help to improve the selection decision-making process.
 Brief us about your past work experiences and why are you looking for a job change?
 What is your educational background?
 Why have you chosen to apply for this post?
 What are your technical competencies?
 How do you rate your communication skills?
 This post requires utmost professional approach and problem solving capabilities; do you
think you are up for the job?
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PART 2
Task 3 (LO2)
a) Microsoft offer apprenticeship and graduate training schemes. Evaluate the benefits to
both the organisation and employees of such schemes.
Microsoft came up with the apprenticeship programmes in 2010, to provide a vital first step to
young, promising and motivated people in their ICT careers. Both the business and the
candidates have benefited from the apprenticeship scheme. The company has provided more than
7000 apprentices responsible and secure roles in their chosen businesses. The Microsoft
Company provides paid work-placements to its apprentices or provides high-calibre human
resource to subsidized clients. These provisions are backed up by a range of training courses
designed by their partners with certification from Microsoft. The employees on the other hand,
receive effective training in IT and software development and management from professionals to
fill their digital gaps, that enable them to secure high positions within the company or outside in
a company of their choosing (Yokoyama, 2016). Therefore, the apprenticeship programme has
been mutually beneficial for the company and the apprentices. Microsoft’s mission is to enable
every person and organisation to achieve more, by empowering them in the field of technology
(Bratton and Gold, 2017).
This motto helps apprentices to lay their foundations for a secure and productive future.
Microsoft encourages women to apply for digital apprenticeship programmes to increase
awareness of such apprenticeships and their benefits. The company has significantly benefited
from their apprenticeship schemes. A large number of apprentices are absorbed within the
company, who were trained in various fields by company professionals. Therefore, their works
generally meet high company standards. The company has also benefited from retaining
employees who have shown progress, and they help secure a brighter future for the company
(Rees and Smith, 2017).
b) What developmental opportunities are available to staff once they are in a permanent
job role?
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Microsoft strives to produce respectful, diverse, rewarding and inclusive work environment for
employees that enable them to develop products and services to help others. Microsoft also
considers employee benefit and employee satisfaction. Every employee who has acquired a
permanent role within the company is subjected to proper human rights activities and schemes
that help them in their endeavours (Armstrong, and Taylor, 2014).
The performance and development programme applies to every employee, local and global, at
every level of the organization. Stock-based compensation is the most relevant reward
programme at Microsoft as it provides ownership stakes to employees in case of the company’s
success. Over 85 percent of its employees of Microsoft are eligible for annual stock reward. In
addition to that, 90% of Microsoft’s employees receive cash bonuses, which focus on an
employee’s impact on the business over the past year. Microsoft assesses the workspaces to
ensure that they are constructed with effective design-for-safety principles. The company also
considers the healthcare of employees (Marchington et al., 2016).
This is evident from the activities engaging the employees and management to various safe-work
practices, hazard control and training. To make the employees competent in their fields, the
company imparts training in classrooms, through videos, online as well as on mobile
applications, podcasts and various other formats in multiple languages. Other developmental
schemes include on-the-job stretch opportunities, frequent promotion opportunities, coaching on
career development and customized training for managers to amplify their coaching and
mentoring skills (Brewster et al., 2016).
c) Explain the benefits of the approach Microsoft has taken in respect of flexible working
practices
Microsoft is in charge of the world’s largest SharePoint installation, which means that the
company is the first to learn various lessons about procuring the most out of these
communication and collaboration tools (Othman et al., 2018). The most important
communication tool within Microsoft is the Microsoft Lync, which is used by most of the
employees. The Lync requires minimal resources and connects every employee to the hierarchy
of the company. This has resulted in 80% of the meetings being online and enabled the
employees to share documents, presentations and other applications in real time with minimal
requirements like laptop, or windows phone with internet connection. SharePoint is another
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