Human Resource Management Report: Recruitment and Selection

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices, specifically focusing on the case study of 'Say it with Chocolate.' The report begins by defining the purpose and importance of HR functions within an organization, emphasizing their role in recruitment, selection, and employee management. It then delves into the roles and responsibilities of an HR manager, followed by an evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of the current selection methods employed by 'Say it with Chocolate,' including assessment tests and informal interviews. The report proposes potential improvements to these methods. Furthermore, it includes the creation of a person specification and job description for a receptionist role, along with a rationale for suitable advertising mediums. The report also examines employee benefits, developmental opportunities, and the motivational strategies employed by companies like Microsoft, along with an exploration of employee engagement strategies and relevant UK employment legislation. The report concludes with a summary of the findings and references.

HUMAN RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................4
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
a) Purpose of HR function and its importance to the organization.............................................4
b) Roles and responsibilities of Human resource manager officer.............................................6
c) Advantages and disadvantages of current selection methods used by organisation and
comparison with other approaches of selection methods............................................................6
d) Improvement that could be done in current selections method .............................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
a) Create a person specification for the role................................................................................8
b) Provide a rationale for a suitable medium for placing the advertisement..............................9
c) Advantages and disadvantages of the previous methods of advertising jobs in the
organization.................................................................................................................................9
d) Questions asked at the interview for Receptionist................................................................10
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
a. Benefits of both employer and employee..............................................................................11
b) What developmental opportunities are available to staff once they are in a permanent job
role?...........................................................................................................................................12
c) Benefits of the approach Microsoft has taken in respect of flexible working practices.......12
d) Explain how Microsoft motivates its workers through its job design and systems of reward
...................................................................................................................................................13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................13
a) What is meant by the term employee engagement ..............................................................13
b) Why is employee engagement an integral strategy of employee relations...........................13
c) Identify some of the key approaches to engaging workers ..................................................14
d) Main pieces of employment legislation in the UK .............................................................15
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................16

REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Human resource management term can be understood as an effective strategy through
which a company can gain many competitive advancements. Apart from this, it is being found
that business organisations in modern world, consists with various departments so that their
operations can get done in a successful manner. Here, HR department within an enterprise plays
a crucial role which looks at different things like provides training, manages and controls staff
members so that they can perform well (Anderson, 2013). On the other hand, it has been
analysed that HR manager stays responsible for various tasks like he/she recruits or hire
candidates who are having distinctive talents. Away from this, it can be said that effectiveness
among this department can be helpful in hitting targets of the organisation. In present
assessment, firm which has been taken i.e. Say it with Chocolate. It is an organisation that
manufactures greeting cards made up of tailor made chocolates. Company deals in all over
United kingdom and sells their products with an aim of hitting their targets. Report will show
different things like purpose along with functions of HRM which can be applied to workforce
planning and various employment legislations that will help company in running business in a
smooth manner.
TASK 1
a) Purpose of HR function and its importance to the organization
Human resource management is the crucial department that facilitates better
management, controlling of business operations. Their main responsibility is associated with
recruitment and selection of desired candidates for company which have the capabilities to
enhance organisation's productivity and profitability. They also formulate plans and strategies
which facilitates employees and employers to manage their work properly and achieve their
future targets within specified time limit (Aswathappa, 2013). Say it with Chocolate is a
company that is established in North Yorkshire and is famous due to their different tastes and
innovative chocolate flavors and designs. It is established in an area where rate of unemployment
is high unemployment rate, so in that scenario, it is beneficial for company to attract eligible
candidates towards their company. As they are implementing assessment test on English
Comprehensions and maths in order to evaluate candidates and selected candidates will appear
for informal interview. These all procedures are undertaken by HR department and manager.

Already large workforce is working with company and it is responsibility and duties of HR
managers to manage them effectively so that their organisation can meet desired targets.
Purpose of HR functions:
HR department is responsible for performing various activities and functions that help
company to achieve set goals and objectives. Following are some purposes of HRM:
Management of employee relations: HR managers should work towards betterment of
employees working in the organization (Brewsterand Hegewisch, 2017). For this they can
organize different activities in company which will allow every employee to come together and
perform activities. This will lead to interaction and communication between them and thus will
lead to development of relations between employees.
Developing healthy atmosphere: It is responsibility of HR manager to create healthy
and stress free atmosphere so that employees can perform their work effectively and result in
more outputs. In “Say it with Chocolate”, HR professionals are responsible for developing
positive environment within enterprise. They can do this by celebrating employee's birthdays etc.
HR FUNCTIONS
Training and development: It is an important function of HR department to identify the
need of training and provide appropriate training classes to needy employees. It is a necessary
requirement for employees to undergo training if they are unable to perform their activities
smoothly and properly. Proper development of employees will enhance company's profits and
will earn more revenues.
Compensation and benefits: This is another function of department to provide
compensation and benefits to deserving candidates (Cascio and Boudreau, 2010). By providing
necessary benefits, it will boost their motivation and confidence level and they will work harder
in order to get more benefits.
Recruitment and selection: This is the major function of HR department as they hire
eligible candidates who can maximize company's profits and achieve goals and objectives on
time.
Problems:
Say it with Chocolate company is facing problem with recruitment and selections as there
were few complaints against fairness of the test and number of few recruits which have failed the
probationary period. This can be improved if HR manager concentrate more on equality and

provide equal chances to ever candidates. They should also give numbers according to their
abilities and performance and avoid partiality.
b) Roles and responsibilities of Human resource manager officer.
As mentioned above, there are various functions and responsibilities performed by HR
department in order to achieve all goals and objectives set by company. This facilitate
organization to achieve desired success and establish a good position in the market (Chelladurai
and Kerwin, 2017). HRM Officer is appointed within organization in order to perform HR
functions in right directions. As I am a HR officer in Say it with Chocolate, I have to perform
different responsibility such as for attracting, hiring, developing and looking after subordinates.
Following are some responsibilities that are performed by me as HR officer:
 I have to attract individuals for vacant job position and hire them according to needs of
company.
 It is responsibility of HR Officer to provide pensions and necessary compensations to
employees who will go on retirement in sometime.
 It is my duty to approve job description and advertisements which is developed by
marketing department in order to attract desired candidates.
 I have to provide positive and healthy atmosphere to my employees so that they can
perform their duties in better manner and produce maximum outputs.
c) Advantages and disadvantages of current selection methods used by organisation and
comparison with other approaches of selection methods
Recruitment and selections are two crucial procedures which is carried out by HR
department in order to hire eligible candidates who is most suitable for vacant position in
company (CHUANG and Liao, 2010). HR manager first analyze characteristics and
requirements of vacant job post and then attract candidates according to those features. Is any
candidates fulfill all criteria, then that person is selected for particular job post. Say it with
Chocolate is one of the growing company and following are some advantage and disadvantages
of current selections methods used by them:
Assessment test: Advantages: Company is using Assessment Test in order to scrutinize talented and
eligible candidates on the grounds of skill, knowledge, talent, etc. This help in measuring
actual knowledge and skills present in the candidate. Company might use both online and

offline assessment test whichever is most suitable for company as well as individuals.
Online test is more suitable as it is highly managed and customized and cab be accessed
in multiple devices (Daley, 2012). It also eliminates cheating and frauds which are easy
to do in offline assessment test. Disadvantage: There are not much disadvantages of assessment test and when it comes to
online assessment, it is much more lesser. In order to give test online, the candidates
should have proper knowledge related to computer and should know how to operate it
efficient in order to waste any time during test.
Informal interviews: Advantages: By taking informal interviews, managers checks the behavior and body
language of candidate (FultonAnd et. al., 2011). This type of interview helps in better
understanding of candidates by employer as compared to formal interviews. It is flexible
and more comfortable approach.
 Disadvantage: It is time consuming process. As in the case study, informal interview was
consuming 15 minutes. This is a disadvantage to company. There might be chances to get
diverted from main interview.
Other selection methods
Internal sources: Company might shift eligible employees to other position depending
upon their work done and performance. It basically involves transfer, promotion, shifting, etc.
d) Improvement that could be done in current selections method
'Say it with Chocolate' requires to do modification in existing selection methods in order
hire suitable person for vacant designations (Glendon, Clarke and McKenna, 2016). Employers
are liable to those carry on those alternations. Some of the potential changes that is needed to be
done by them are following :
 A special team should be built for examining results of each examination such as aptitude
test, personal interviews, debate, etc. The main reason of doing this is to improve overall
decision-making since some of the outcomes are technological in nature that should be
checked by a person who is from technical background.
 This should be noted that while selecting workers, discrimination should not be done on
any ground. In this context, each person ought to be given equal opportunity for proving

their skills. Besides this, concept of partiality must be removed from entire decision-
making.
TASK 2
a) Create a person specification for the role
Person Specification – Person specification defines the qualification and skills of a
person who fills the application for a particular job role (Guest, 2011). For an instance, a
receptionist can be graduate with BBA from the University of London.
Personal specification
Qualification required Bachelors of Business Administration
or
Diploma in management
Experience  2-3 year experience in same field
Area of expertise Proficient to communicate effectively with
customers and business clients.
Management activities
Number of vacancies 1
Job description
Job title Receptionist
Department/Section Administration
Reporting to Administration Manager
Purposes of job To provide a professional and welcome
experience for clients and visitors to the site.
To answer incoming telephone enquiries
efficiently.
Key tasks Meeting and greeting clients.
Booking meetings.

Arranging couriers
Keeping the reception area tidy.
Answering and forwarding phone calls.
Liaising with departments in relation to visitors
and deliveries.
Sorting and distributing post.
Completing administrative paperwork .
Providing customer service support .
Maintaining stock of client stationery.
Any other reasonable duties assigned by the
Administration Manager
Responsible for equipment/materials Use of IT facilities and telephone switchboard.
Stationery stock and ordering of refreshments
Allocation of visitor badges and the attendance
log.
b) Provide a rationale for a suitable medium for placing the advertisement.
In this era of digitalization, it is seen that some aspects of pre online are being mutated
into new fascinating forms that are evident to be more efficient and used by today's tech savvy
people. Thus , Say it with chocolate make use of both traditional and modern media to attract
new potential candidates for its vacant job profiles. The traditional methods includes advertising
through print media comprising newspapers, leaflets, trade journals and business magazines as
potent weapons for advertising job vacancy (Knowles, Holton and Swanson, 2014). It is an cost
effective way for the company and also helps it to reach out wide audiences anywhere across
world. Although language may differ however message remains the same. Besides cartoons and
pictures used in advertisement have an universal appeal. Modern methods on the other hand
involves making use online media comprising one of the most happening social media. It
invokes placing job vacancy advertisement on various social sites such as LinkedIn, Whatsapp
etc. and also on various online job portals, websites, online job agencies etc. that helps Say it

with chocolate to reach out wider audience around the world. Also, it proves to be less time and
cost consuming methods for the firm to attract most prominent and potential employees.
c) Advantages and disadvantages of the previous methods of advertising jobs in the organization
There are various advantages and disadvantages of previous advertisement that can be
stated as -
 Advantages  Disadvantages
 High level of reader involvement and
circulation is already known.
 The costs of local newspaper
advertisement is low.
 It includes great deal of flexibility and
has much frequency.
 The previous resources easily available
to everyone with less cost and people
can keep the hard copy with them.
 It has short life span and people forget
about advertisement easily.
 Quality of production is not so
attractive.
 Newspapers and magazines are less in
approach to the public although it is
available to everyone but they may be
not interested in reading these sources
of advertisement.
 There are various kinds of methods that
are used previously for advertising jobs
in the company 'Say it with Chocolate'
to provide information yo people about
vacant positions.
Social media: The social media platforms are very quick to spread message of job
vacancy because it facilitate fast reach to desired individuals (Marchington and et. al. 2016).
 Advantages  Disadvantages
 It is capable to reach a wide network
and covers large population at a time.
 It provides required information about
employer and recruiter.
 It results into networking exhaustion
and user get frustrated sometimes.
 It may damage present employment
status of company.

d) Questions asked at the interview for Receptionist
It is the responsibility of an employer to recruit skilled and suitable workers for every
organisation. In context to 'Say it with Chocolate', managers are liable to hire appropriate
candidates for the job of a receptionist since there is a need of talented receptionist at this venture
(Meredith Belbin, 2011). In order to employ correct person, interviews of those people should be
conducted by manager. For doing so, some of the important questions that could asked from
participants while taking their interviews are following :
 What is your name ?
 Do you have any experience in this sector ?
 What do you think about the roles and responsibilities of a receptionist ?
 What is your short term goal ?
 Depict your long term ambition ?
 Would you feel comfortable in doing night shift ?
TASK 3
a. Benefits of both employer and employee.
Microsoft has some HRM practices that is beneficial for the employer and employer this
provides benefits to both of them and that can be define as -
Apprenticeship and graduate training schemes – Microsoft offers apprenticeship and
graduate programs for the people its major focus is on to capture the new talented brains. It
provides apprenticeship to the students who are between 16 to 24 years and wanted to innovate
some special therefore the organization gives them training in the very beginning of their career
so that they do not look somewhere else to get the training (Purce, 2014). It provides them
training with a technical knowledge and skills which can support them to grow in the same field.
On the other hand, graduate training schemes are provided to the under graduate students
who have interest in technology in order to get the job opportunities. There are several benefits
of the apprenticeship and graduate schemes for the employee and organization that can be define
as -
Training and development – Training and development is the the best way to enhance
the skills and knowledge of the people who wanted to work in the technology industry. These
schemes will also provide the increase the possibilities of getting job with the high skills.

Microsoft can get the benefits from the staff through increased productivity and the skilled
employees support to the profit, productivity and performance.
Culture : It supports to establish culture as there are diverse people who came from
different background that makes this make it possible to gather all the employees under one
umbrella that has vibrant cultures. The HR of Microsoft ensures that all people work in happy
and positive atmosphere. They don't raise the conflicts and issues regarding the culture and other
things.
Increase in Confidence –HRM helps in increases confidence of employers as it assures
knowledge and capabilities of their employees by conducting training and learning sessions for
them as well as it also help in motivating employees by making open communication with them.
Whereas employees become strengthen and develop their skills through training and coaching
which increase their confidence individually as well as for organisation role. Employees
confidence also increase when they feel valued by organisation and their problems and queries
are resolved quickly. In addition to this, employees also get better career opportunities and
growth.
b) What developmental opportunities are available to staff once they are in a permanent job role?
If an employee get permanent on their job role then they can maximize their efforts and
working capabilities. Because there may be a time when they needs to manage several task at
one time. They can earn more and can incline in their career with increasing skills and
knowledge as much as much they learn they will explore the opportunities. They can involve in
the activities and learn new things that can lead them to open the new doors of the opportunities
to promote themselves.
c) Benefits of the approach Microsoft has taken in respect of flexible working practices.
There are various benefits of flexible working practices that are adopted by Microsoft
that can be stated as -
Reduced costs – It reduces the cost as there is an arrangement of communal seats and use
of computer that can be used by them on their working day. This does not requires more space
as the working staff is come to work on alternative days.
Increased productivity – An individual can work for home this saves the time and
increase in productivity. This allows them to start their work early and finished it later in an
effective way.