Human Resource Management Report: Say it with Chocolate Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices, specifically focusing on the fictional company "Say it with Chocolate." The report begins by exploring the importance and purpose of HR functions, including staffing, training, and compensation, and the roles and responsibilities of a Human Resource Officer. It then assesses the current selection methods used by the company, comparing them with alternative approaches and suggesting improvements. The report also creates a person specification for a receptionist role and examines various mediums for advertising job vacancies, evaluating their advantages and disadvantages. Furthermore, it delves into the benefits of apprenticeships, developmental opportunities, and flexible working practices, alongside how Microsoft motivates its workers. The report concludes by defining employee engagement, discussing its importance in employee relations, and outlining key approaches to engaging workers, including the impact of UK employment legislation on HR decision-making. The report offers a comprehensive understanding of HRM principles and their practical application within an organizational context.

Human Resource
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Importance and purpose of HR function for “Say it with Chocolate”..................................1
1.2 Role and responsibilities of a Human Resource Officer.......................................................2
1.3 The advantages and disadvantages of the current selection methods used by “Say it with
Chocolate” and comparison with other approaches of selection methods..................................3
1.4 Improvements that could be made to the current selection methods. ..................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Create a person specification for the role..............................................................................4
2.2 Mediums for placing advertisement for recruiting Receptionist...........................................5
2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of the previous methods of advertising job.........................6
2.4 Questions which could be asked at the interview for the Receptionist.................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Benefits of Apprenticeship to both the Microsoft and employees........................................7
3.2 Developmental opportunities available to staff once they are in permanent job role?.........8
3.3 Benefits of Microsoft's flexible working practices...............................................................8
3.4 How Microsoft motivates its workers through its job design and reward systems...............9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
4.1 What is meant by the term employee engagement?............................................................10
4.2 Why is employee engagement an integral strategy of employee relations?.......................11
4.3 Key approaches to engaging workers & their
importance in terms of improving communication in the workplace......................................11
4.4 Employment Legislation in UK and its impact on Human resource decision making.......12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management is very important function for an organisation. It not only
focuses on the recruitment and selection process but also looks upon the overall decisions
regarding the human resource in an organisation, such as compensation, training and
development, job designing, etc. Human resource officer of an organisation have responsibilities
such as staffing, policies formulation, training, resolving conflicts, employee retention, etc.
There are various approaches of selection methods. An organisation can place their
advertisement for recruitment in many sources. Apprenticeship and graduate training schemes
are structured training programmes where graduates or students are been trained practically on
the job training at actual work place along their theoretical knowledge at their classroom.
Flexible working practices are been used by the organisations to motivate and retain employees
within the organisation. Through job design and reward system the HR motivates employees to
retain them. Present report show an understanding and ability to apply the principles of
effective Human Resource Management.
TASK 1
1.1 Importance and purpose of HR function for “Say it with Chocolate”
Human resource manager's functions have three major areas, which are staffing,
employee compensation and designing work for the human resource or the employees in an
organisation (Mess, 2004). Following are some of the main functions of an HR :
 Staffing : This is the activity of hiring of new employees according to the required skills
and qualification needed. It means to hire right person and placing him at a right job.
◦ Purpose : Identifying and fulfilling talent needed, adopting various technologies of
recruitment to acquire a high applicants volume, maintaining ethical hiring practices,
etc.
◦ Importance :
▪ For efficient performance of other management functions.
▪ Optimum utilization of resources.
▪ Developing human capital
▪ Human resource motivation
▪ Building higher morale
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 Development : It is the key investment for the Say it with Chocolate. HR has to maintain
an approach for training and development of the employees.
◦ Purpose : Preparing new employees through training for their roles, to keep
employees up-to-date in their respective fields, etc.
◦ Importance :
▪ Performance improved
▪ Fostering growth
▪ Enhancing satisfaction
▪ Reduces turnover
 Compensation : HR identifies appropriate compensation based on the performance, role
and legal requirements.
◦ Importance and Purpose:
▪ To attract top Talent
▪ To retain & reward personnel
▪ To boost motivation
There are certain problems that are faced by HR or Say it with Chocolate are:
 Compliance with Laws and regulations: Say it with chocolate have to keep up
with changing employment laws. They have to follow local, state and federal
labor laws related to compensation, payroll, safety and health of their employees.
 Management Changes: As business of Say it with chocolate keeps on growing,
organisation's strategies, internal processes, structures, etc changes. It is hard for
human resource for coping with those changes. Which would, decrease morale
and productivity of employees during changes.
Future plans for further growth:
 Employee development plan: A better employee development plan is been made by Say
it with chocolate's HR for their employees. This would help to prepare a clear direction
for how to increase their skills and for career development, so that business would also
grow with increased productivity of employees.
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 Gap Analysis: Say it with chocolate while preparing gap analysis, helps them to identify
resources available with organisation and what they require in future. It helps to improve
company's current procedures and implement new practices that will better support
business’s growth.
1.2 Role and responsibilities of a Human Resource Officer.
A Human Resource Officer is responsible for hiring, developing and controlling the
employees of the Say it with Chocolate (Hendry, 2012). Below given are some of the roles and
responsibilities of an HR officer :
 Staffing : As, Say it with chocolate's HR officer, I have the power to hire any staff as
right staff and right amount of staff is placed at right place or at right work.
 Training : The HR officer of the Say it with chocolate, I would provides training to the
newly hired staffs so that they work effectively and efficiently.
 Policies : My main purpose as an HR officer is to communicate the policies of the Say it
with chocolate derived by its management to the employees and the staffs.
 Compensation or payment : HR officer is the one who looks after the payment of wages,
salaries, bonuses, etc to the employees or staffs.
 Resolving conflicts : when different people have different views, conflicts can occur
among them. It is my duty to resolving those conflicts and prevent it from occurring
again.
 Maintaining work culture : My responsibilities is to maintain a healthy, safe and fun
environment in the Say it with Chocolate to make ensure a comfort level and eliminate
stressful environment among the employees.
 Employee Retention : An HR officer I should make employee feel comfortable to coming
up with their problems to them and have a good interpersonal relationship with them to
make the employees to stay with them.
1.3 The advantages and disadvantages of the current selection methods used by “Say it with
Chocolate” and comparison with other approaches of selection methods.
Current selection method used by Say it with Chocolate is of placing of advertisement for
recruitment of employees. Candidates applications are collected and screened for further
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selection process. Screened applicants are called for interview and for assessment tests. Passed
candidates are been oriented and provided induction to organisation.
The advantages of the current selection method used by the “Say it with Chocolate” are as
follows ;
◦ The present interview method for the cited organisation is very beneficial for
recruiting highly knowledgeable employees as the passing criteria is very high.
◦ The review of reference related to candidates is also very helpful to recruit reliable
and good employees in the organisation.
◦ The informal chat provides a major advantage to the company in employing
employees with good communication skills.
Following are the disadvantages of the current selection methods used by the “Say it with
Chocolate” are :
◦ The reference check for the applicants is being done before interviewing them, which
is a bit lengthy process which is a major disadvantage for the company that utilise
huge amount of time.
◦ Interview is being conducted on an informal manner that develops a unprofessional
environment in the organisation.
◦ Failure of new recruits during their probationary period is a also negative point of the
present selection method.
Comparison with other approaches of selection :
 Systematic recruitment method : The aim of the systematic approach is to minimise the
amount of biasness from the selection process. There are sub-systems in a normal
recruitment drive, they are : manpower plan (vacancy, numbers, timescale), job analysis,
job description, employee specification, advertising, handling responses, short-listing,
candidates assessment, selecting, obtaining references, making offer, appointing new
employees (Pilbeam, and Corbridge, 2010).
 Personalised Recruitment Method : It is a personalised selection process where we get
to know about the candidates, about their work and life history, to make sure that the
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relationship would benefit both. It let the owner makes the final decision where he picks
who he wants from the available candidates using “school team captain” approach.
1.4 Improvements that could be made to the current selection methods.
For improving the current selection methods of the “Say it with Chocolate” the HR has to
adopt different selection strategies in which there is a proper selection process involved. The
systematic approach would be perfect for the selection of employees in “Say it with Chocolate”,
in which the manpower planning is being done regarding the vacancy, number of post, etc.
Proper job analysis and job specification should be derived for selecting right person for the right
job (Armstrong, and Taylor, 2014). Appropriate assessment of candidates should be done,
effective training and development strategies are to be implemented and better compensation is
to be offered to motivate employees and to reduce the labour turnover.
TASK 2
2.1 Create a person specification for the role.
Person Specification for the role of receptionist
Job Title Receptionist
Details of Job Responsible for receiving and forwarding calls, meeting and
greeting clients, booking meeting
Qualifications Minimum graduation
Experience Minimum 1 Year experience
Skills  Excellent communication skills, both oral and in written.
 Multitasking ability.
 Strong organizational and Prioritizing skills.
 Efficient administrative skill.
 Computer knowledge.
 Ability to work under pressure.
Physical fitness Needs to be fit, attentive
Personal characteristics Responsible, friendly, helpful, organized
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Receptionist in Say it with chocolate have to aware of their job within organisation. They
have to assess certain qualification required for the job that is of having minimum qualification
of graduation. They must have excellent communication skills, both oral and in written,
multitasking ability strong organizational and prioritizing skills efficient administrative skill
computer knowledge ability to work under pressure.
2.2 Mediums for placing advertisement for recruiting Receptionist.
Below given are some of the suitable medium for placing the recruitment advertisement
for the job of a receptionist :
 Print Media Advertisement : It is the traditional method of recruitment. Print
recruitment uses physically printed medias, such as newspapers and magazines for
attracting the candidates. Newspapers have a wide reach and are available everywhere.
Print recruitment is targeted marketing as it helps to drive the local candidates for apply
for the job. Print media advertisement is cost effective.
 Online Job Portals : Through online job portal or online recruitment the HR can reach
to broad area of candidates who are willing for the post of receptionist. Posting jobs in
online recruitment is time saving and the cost of hiring can be minimized. With this we
can filter the candidates according to our required specifications. There are various
websites that promotes job ads available, the internet users can get attracted to these
advertisement and can get in touch with the organisation to apply for the job.
 Mobile device advertising : Mobile device market is being growing continuously, it
allows the user to stay informed and communicate with others without any physical
location barriers. Through SMS messaging and email service the HR can provide
information regarding the vacancies to the eligible candidates. This method can help to
recruit external employees by attracting a large number of candidates looking for jobs,
mobile is used by almost every individual they can get update related to job opportunities
. Nowadays there are apps been developed for recruiters for the recruitment procedures.
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2.3 Advantages and disadvantages of the previous methods of advertising job
Previous methods of advertising jobs in the organisation were the recruitment within the
organisation and on the job board outside the main site. Below are their advantages and
disadvantages :
 Print Media Advertisement : Also known as internal recruitment, in this the
organisation fills the vacancy within the existing employees.
Advantages Disadvantages Cheaper and Quicker  Limited number of potential applicants Employee familiar with operations and
business
 Lack of fresh ideas
 Motivation to employees  Another vacancy is been created Knows strength and weakness of
candidates
 Employee development  More unemployed
 Online Job Portals : Online Job Portal recruitment is done through wesites which
provides recruitment services for example monsterjobs.com, timesjobs, etc. Below given
are the advantages and disadvantages of the Job Board recruitment :
Advantages Disadvantages Cost effective  Too many candidates Quick  Won't always work Bigger audience  Know less about candidates Is easy for the candidates and
organisation
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2.4 Questions which could be asked at the interview for the Receptionist.
Questions which could be asked at the interview for the Receptionist are as - “Explain the
role and responsibilities of a Receptionist?”, “What are the skills you have with respect to the
job position”, “How can you handle an annoyed visitor or a client?”, “Mention your previous
duties as a receptionist?”, “What should be a personal characteristic of a receptionist?.How
would you deal a high stress situation?”. All these question can be help to identify the knowledge
of a candidate, their skills and experience related to the job position.
TASK 3
3.1 Benefits of Apprenticeship to both the Microsoft and employees.
Apprenticeship and graduate training schemes are structured training programmes run by
the Microsoft to develop future leaders of their organisation. The graduates or students are been
trained practically on the job training at actual work place along their theoretical knowledge at
their classroom (Kaufman, 2010).
Benefits of apprenticeship and graduate training schemes for the organisation are given below :
 Apprentice and fresh graduates are easy to handle. It helps them to easily mould fresh
employees according to the skills and abilities needed for performing tasks at Microsoft.
 Compared to regular employees the amount paid to them as stipend is very much
negotiable. New employees can work in minimum salary or money.
 This way Microsoft can gives a bunch of graduates with good exposure, ready to face
challenges of today's world. This way they are contributing to the society.
Benefits of apprenticeship and graduate training schemes for the employees are discussed below
-
 It provides great exposure in terms of application of theories to the graduates while they
are studying.
 Will be working with a reputed organisation such as Microsoft, where one could only
dream of working and is very difficult to get job there.
 Helps in improving employability skills of an apprentice or graduates and increase his
experience.
 Earn stipends even during studying or completing graduation.
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 Gets to know practical knowledge along with theoretical knowledge.
3.2 Developmental opportunities available to staff once they are in permanent job role?
There are many developmental opportunities available to a staff of Microsoft once they
are in a permanent job role. In this context the below given are some of the developmental
opportunities:
 After apprenticeship the employee can remain with the Microsoft, if they offer the staff
permanent position in the company after completion of the apprenticeship and graduate
training scheme (Darwish, 2013).
 Microsoft will offer a salary increase due to their performance, increase in skills and
knowledge after the apprenticeship and permanent job role is been given.
 Microsoft may also offer benefits like pension scheme and health insurance policy, etc.
 In a permanent job the employees will have long-term job security as well as income
security.
 Get to work on actual projects in the organisation to prove their performance and ability
for career development.
 After being in permanent job roles the employee can enjoy all the benefits of that a
permanent employee enjoys that are been determined by the nation's employment laws.
 Can get promotion benefits in the organisation if their performance is outstanding and
works effectively and efficiently.
3.3 Benefits of Microsoft's flexible working practices.
Flexible working practices is growing, which gives employees flexibility over where,
when and how many hours they work in the Microsoft. The employee can choose accordingly
the suitable place from they work and for when and for how many hours they work (Marescaux,
De Winne, and Sels, 2012). They are been given targets to complete there tasks on given time.
Following are the benefits of flexible working practices in the Microsoft :
 More productive workforce : When the employees are allowed to choose their preferred
working hours, they will be more productive during those hours. Employees can focus
more during their preferred working hours and feel relaxed and refreshed. This would
improve the mental health of the employees which would leads to better productivity.
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 Happy Employees : Flexible working practices in Microsoft is not only make employee
a value proportion but also makes the employees happy. As they feel happy they are
relaxed, feel free and responsible towards Microsoft. They feel motivated, perform better
and are more satisfied.
 Balanced work life : Flexibility in Microsoft allows their employees to have a balanced
work life. Employees can schedule the things that they like doing while work. Microsoft
gets benefited as the employees feel positivity and gets motivated.
 Better morale, reduced turnover and cost effective : Flexibility in working practices
creates a better morale and better atmosphere. Retaining talents through better morale
reduces the turnover in Microsoft. It is cost effective for Microsoft as the time is managed
by the employees according to their desire and complete task within the scheduled time.
 Best Talents are attracted : By providing flexibility in working practices by Microsoft,
the employees are getting what they desire for in a job is able to attract the most qualified
candidates as company is offering what they wanted.
3.4 How Microsoft motivates its workers through its job design and reward systems.
Along with the pay, job design also has a major influence in motivating the workers of
the Microsoft. Employees motivation, job satisfaction, their commitment to the company,
absenteeism and employees turnover are all impacted by how the job is been designed. It is a
psychological theory of motivation which systematically allocates the tasks to individuals or
groups within Microsoft. Microsoft motivates their employees through identifying the five core
characteristics of job design, which are been discussed below :
 Skill Variety : As Microsoft requires a range of abilities to perform a job, the workers
will be more motivated by using variety of skills, rather than one thing repeatedly.
 Task Identity : Employees at Microsoft are motivated to complete task that are been
identified by them and seen them from start to finish. An employee who knows his task
would be motivated to do that, and employees who have contributed a small in many
projects but never sees the outcome will identify less creating lower motivation.
 Task Significance : It means the importance of the job impacting others within or
outside the Microsoft. When an employee gets to know how the work is significant for
the company, they feel motivated to complete tasks efficiently.
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