Human Resource Management Report: Chocolate Presence Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices, focusing on recruitment, selection, training, and employee engagement within the context of Chocolate Presence and Microsoft. The report begins by outlining the purpose and importance of HRM functions, including recruitment and selection, and then examines the strengths and weaknesses of current selection methods, proposing improvements to enhance the process. It also includes a person specification for a receptionist role, analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of current job advertising methods, and offers recommendations for placing job adverts. Furthermore, the report explores the benefits of graduate training schemes and internships, flexible working arrangements, and motivation techniques through job role design. Finally, it delves into employee engagement, its importance in employee relationships, and key UK employment legislation influencing HR decisions. The report aims to provide insights into effective HRM strategies for organizational success.

Human Resource Management

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
a) Purpose and importance of HR function.................................................................................1
b) Weakness and strengths of current selection methods............................................................2
C) Improvement to enhance selection process............................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
a) Person specification for the role of Receptionist....................................................................4
b) Advantages and disadvantages of current methods of advertising job...................................6
c) Recommendation for placing job advert for vacancy of receptionist.....................................7
PART 2............................................................................................................................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
a) Benefit of graduate training schemes and internships to employees and Microsoft...............8
b) Flexible working arrangements and its benefits to employees and Microsoft.......................9
c) Motivation among workers of Microsoft through designing of job roles.............................10
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................11
a) Employee engagement and its importance in employee relationships in Microsoft.............11
b) Approaches to engage workers and its importance in improving communication...............12
c) Key UK employment legislation and their influence on HR decisions................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Management of people at work which includes planning, organising, directing, staffing
is refer to managing humans. It is the sequence of process that binds people with organisation
and help them in acievement of both individual as well as organisational goal. The report will
outline the purpose and importance of HR function of Chocolate presence. ‘Chocolate Presence’
is a company based in North Yorkshire which is expanding it operations with a increasing pace
and speed which provides hand made chocolate-based greetings cards to its customers across
UK.
Also, the study outlines the selection methods which are very important to hire the
appropriate person. The two-selection process will be discussed in project report that are
assessment test and informal interview, and also the advantages and disadvantages will be
discussed in this report. Also, person specification for post of a receptionists will be highlighted
in the report. Even the graduate scheme and apprenticeship programmes of Microsoft and
benefits thereof will be discussed in the adjoining report discussed. With these programmes, the
flexible working arrangement and their benefits are going to be discussed in the report below.
Even how employees will be motivated through designing of job roles will also be a topic in the
following report.
PART 1
TASK 1
a) Purpose and importance of HR function
HR function is charged with finding, screening, recruiting and training job applicants. Its
work is to manage employee from recruitment to retirement (Noe, Hollenbeck, 2017). The
different HR functions in company's context are:
Recruitment and selection of employees
It involves inviting candidates then selecting potemtial candidates for the particular job
requirement bnased on their skills and knowledge. The purpose of recruitment and selection
process is to vacant right person at the correct job at the time when it is required. Their
importance is to find quality candidates to save time and cost of the company.
The current recruitment and selection process of Chocolate presence company is that they
conduct their own assessment test on English and Maths and based on that they recruit
candidates and the candidates who pass go through an informal interview of 15 minutes. On

based on current situation analysis HR manager will change the informal way of interview to
formal way and also rather than selecting candidates based on assessment test, he will judge
them on their chocolate making skills as that is more relevant (Jensen, 2017).

Training and development
It is the process of improving current abilities of employees for efficient working by
training them and providing them with knowledge and skills that will lead to their and company's
development. The purpose of training and development is to enhance skill and growth of
employee and bridging the gap between planning and implementation (Bailey, Mankin, and
Garavan, 2018). The importance of training and development is it led to improvement of
performance and increase productivity.
Currently Chocolate presence does not train its company efficiently and number of
people failed their probationary period. To deal with this problem the HR manager will train the
trainees more effectively by making a proper schedule of training and will keep in touch with the
trainees if they have any queries.
b) Weakness and strengths of current selection methods
Selection methods are the methods by which firm uses specific instruments to choose
from a pool of candidates given company's goal and requirements. The selection methods used
by Chocolate presence with their weakness and strength are -
 Assessment test - The Chocolate presence company for the selection of employees use
assessment method. They conduct assessment test of the employees based on English
Comprehension and Maths. They can give it online or in person. They have fixed 50
percent criteria as passing mark for both the subjects. Those who pass the test get their
references checked and then employees get selected for further training. The advantages
and disadvantages of this process in chocolate presence is as follows:
Advantage Disadvantage
 It helps in testing the knowledge of the
person who will be employed in the
company.
 It is a simple method to select
candidates and does not involve
complexities.
 It is a time-consuming process as it
takes another person to evaluate the
results of candidates who has given the
test. It is also cost ineffective as it
involves the expenditure of paper and
pen.
 It is not an efficient way of selecting
candidates for Chocolate company as it

need innovation and skills not aptitude.
 Informal interviews – Informal interviews are the interviews conducted between
employer and employee informally. The Chocolate presence company has also used this
method to select their candidates (Brewster, 2017). In this method the company just take
the interview for 15 minutes in a form of chat. They talk with employees and create a
friendly and comfortable environment. The advantages and disadvantages of this process
are -
Advantage Disadvantage
Creates a friendly and comfortable
environment for employees.
The duration of interviews is very small which
can lead to wrong selection of employee and
can affect the productivity of company
C) Improvement to enhance selection process
The 2 improvement to enhance the selection process of Chocolate Presence can be -
 The assessment instead of based on English comprehension and Maths should be based
on questions related to cooking, baking, flavours of chocolates and ingredients used in
chocolates to make sure that whoever the company is hiring has a basic knowledge about
chocolates. Also, while taking an assessment online and in person, it can focus on just in
person because in online test there is a chance of misconduct whereas in person employer
gets a chance to judge the person, his knowledge, personality and skills. This will
enhance selection process (Barrena-Martinez, ópez-Fernández and Romero-Fernandez,
2018). Also, before taking any assessment test of the candidates they should be given
details about the job. They must know the designation and description of every aspect of
position, how much experience is needed, job expectations, and daily tasks to be
performed
 The process of informal interview can be changed to enhance selection process. The
informal way of interview is a nice technique to interview candidates as it creates relax
and comfortable atmosphere for candidates and they feel confident and free to share their
views but the only problem in this process is insufficient time given to the interview.

Instead of 15 minutes it can be increased to 30 minutes so that employer gets a clear idea
about the person and his attitude and knowledge about the work. The more time
employer will take to interview the candidate and selecting him the less time he will have
to take in train them. Interview is also a two-way process and it should work like that.
Enough time should be available for both employer and employee to ask each other
questions and queries. By improving this process selection process can be enhanced.
TASK 2
a) Person specification for role of Receptionist
Person specification – Receptionist
The post holder require to be able to demonstrate the various qualities and skills to a high
level and use this efficiently in their profile of work (Brewster, 2017). It is more important than
to have direct experience in the field. of job content, and company will be looking for following
competencies during the process of selecting candidates. Qualities to have in the candidate are-
Attributes Item Relevant criteria Essential/
Desirable
Core
competencies
 Customer focus (Should be able
to deal with problems and queries
of customers regarding quality of
chocolates, packaging on calls
and in person) etc.
 Good and adequate
communication skills with
fluency.
 Self-motivated and should
motivate others as well with good
attitude towards work.
 Ability to work unsupervised and
sincerely.
E
E
E
E

Skill and
abilities
 Communication skills.
 Ms Office knowledge (Ms Word,
Ms Excel, Ms power point)
 Language proficiency with
certificate.
 Answering & forwarding calls to
respective departments.
 Maintaining stock of client
stationary.
 Completing administrative
paperwork.
 Have the ability to deal with
difficult situations in case of
customer's complaint.
E
E
D
E
D
E
D
General and
specialist
knowledge
 Knowledge about HR system of
company.
 Knowledge about operational
systems and processes of
company.
E
E
Relevant and
experience
 Ability to promote company's
image to customers.
 A good standard of image
presentation.
 Experience of greeting customers
and making them feel welcome in
positive and friendly manner.
D
D
D

 Hold a certificate from
recognised organisation. D
Special
requirement
s
 Proficiency in other languages
with certificates to deal with
customers outside the country.
 Degree of college from
recognised university.
 Certificates of participation in
culinary activities.
D
b) Advantages and disadvantages of current methods of advertising job
Current methods of job advertising used by Chocolate presence are internally within the
organisation and by inviting candidates outside the organisation by placing noticeboard outside
the organisation(Sparrow and et.al, 2016. ). The Chocolate presence company use both the ways
to invite applicants for jobs.
Within the organisation – In this process the job vacancy circulates internally within the
existing employees by promotion or by inviting their relatives and friends so that if new person
will join the organisation it can be easy to train them as the person joining will already be related
to existing employees.
Advantages Disadvantages
This process is cost effective in nature as no
training or a very little training is required.
This process initiates lack of knowledge,
creativity and innovation.
It saves the time and energy of employees and
employer.
It circles around limited people of the
organisation and hence lead to less diversity.
Notice board outside the organisation – In this process the Chocolate presence company
placed notice board outside the organisation to invite job applicants from outside the
organisation (Eaton, 2017). As the company need employees for its production and
administration area and the company is situated in the area where people are highly unemployed

therefore the company focuses on inviting applicants outside the organisation because as people
are unemployed, they won’t demand high salary.
Advantages Disadvantages
As new people join the company, it leads to
more talent and creativity.
Company is situated in the area of
unemployment, it will lead to employment
opportunities for people and efficient working
of company.
It will lead to loss of resources and time as
trainers will train the new candidates which
will affect human resources of the company
and also will be time consuming and cost
inefficient.
It will lead to increase in competition as new
employees will join the company, existing
employees will feel competent and work might
suffer.
c) Recommendation for placing job advert for vacancy of receptionist
Through Local Newspapers
To select the most appropriate person for the job of receptionist at the Chocolate
Presence Company should give their advertisement in newspapers so that it will find more
candidates. The company should choose that Newspaper that have advertisers similar to the type
of company or the job they need to fill.
Through online sites of job
There are a lot of of job websites where Chocolate Presence Company should advertise
the vacant profile which is usually free of cost, usually every industry has one or more job
websites focused toward specific types of jobs (Kianto, Sáenz, and Aramburu, 2017). The
websites normally charge a fee to post a job, but it is a reasonable cost for reaching such a wide,
targeted audience in one step. The online job advertising helps in poling diverse range of
candidates for particular job.
Through Trade Publications
The Chocolate Presence Company can search the publications that read or scan regularly
for the business, whether in print form or online. The chances are high that job seekers find the

advertisement ans apply for the job (McPherson, 2017). Many print publications are available as
well which are same as print media or somewhat different. The Company can give the
advertisement in both the mediums of publication to attract more applicants.
Through Social Networking sites
The Chocolate Presence Company should post receptionist job openings on social
networking sites to pool diverse range of candidates. These sites are used by wide range of
people so job seekers will be targeted in huge proportion. The Company can post vacancy on
blogs, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
PART 2
TASK 3
a) Benefit of graduate training schemes and internships to employees and Microsoft
The graduate training scheme provided by Microsoft includes Cyber Security Graduate,
2019. Specifically, for Security candidates where employees develop knowledge and awareness
of the cyber threat landscape. This is in the context of supported customer solutions and their
business impact (Cyber Security Graduate, 2019.). It will include investigation and analysis of
potential alerts/security incidents. Here training is given for Windows Server, Windows Client,
TCP/IP networking, AD management, MCSE/MCITP or equivalent, VMware and Cloud
technologies, Windows 8, Exchange 2007 or above, and Cyber Technology
Benefit to employees: Benefit is that the employees are trained on the job which supports
individual learning. They do not have to take leave from the job and then go for training
program. They get thorough knowledge of all the recent developments in the environment.
Benefit to Microsoft: the company is benefitted from the fact that all the employees will get
trained and will work exceptionally well because in the training they will be educated to the
latest trends (Howells, 2016).
Microsoft also launched Microsoft Apprenticeship Programme in 2010 to give,
motivated and promising young people a vital first step in their ICT careers. Apprenticeship is a
system of training with on- the job and often some accompanying study (Microsoft wants more
students to ‘earn and learn’ in apprenticeships, 2018).
Benefits to employees: It builds skills among the employees, increases their productivity and
competitiveness and creativity.

Benefits to Microsoft: Benefit to the company is that it attracts numbers of highly qualified
applicants, increase productivity, reduce absenteeism, reduce turnover,, and improve employee
relations and also reduce the cost of training (Karadjova, 2016. ).
b) Flexible working arrangements and its benefits to employees and Microsoft
Flexible working arrangements provide a management alternative for niche situation. The
working arrangement of Microsoft is as follows: -
Flexible Working
Arrangements
Benefits to Employees Benefits to Microsoft
Stay healthy and plan for
future: Whatever is the goal
of the employees, Microsoft
offers plenty of ways to help
employees to save for the
future.
Benefit to employee is that his
goals and objectives are
achieved with less efforts.
Benefit to the company will be
that as the employees are
satisfied, so, they will not
switch the job. Hence it will
lead to labour retention for
Microsoft.
Take time away: Microsoft Benefit is that employees job Microsoft enjoys the benefit of
Illustration 1: Flexible working arrangement in Microsoft
(Source: Make the most of life, 2019)