Performance Management and HPW at Marks & Spencer Analysis

This report assesses the skills, behaviours, and professional knowledge required for an HR manager at Marks and Spencer. It includes a personal skills audit and development plan, analyzing the differences between organizational and individual learning, training, and development. The report also examines the need for continuous learning to drive sustainable business performance and how High-Performance Work systems contribute to employee engagement and competitive advantage. Finally, it evaluates different approaches to performance management within the organizational context of Marks and Spencer, providing a comprehensive overview of HR practices and their impact.

Developing
individuals’ teams and
organisations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Determine appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required by
HR professionals. ..............................................................................................................................3
P2 A completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours and
develop a professional development plan for a given job role..........................................................5
P3 Analyse the differences between organisational and individual learning, training and
development.........................................................................................................................................7
P4 Analyse the need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable
business performance.......................................................................................................................9
P5 Demonstrate understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and
competitive advantage within a specific organisational situation...................................................10
P6 Evaluate different approaches to performance management ...................................................12
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................................................13
REFRENCES ..........................................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Human resource department is defined as group of people who are responsible for
various activities of company such as training, recruiting and others. In simple words HR
department is accountable for effective and efficient management of people within a
company which could assist them in accomplishing organisational objectives (Coetzer,
Bussin and Geldenhuys, 2017). The following report covers the what skills, behaviour and
professional an HR manager of Marks and Spenser requires. Marks and Spencer is a
multinational retailer which has its headquarters in London, UK. The report discusses
personal development plan along with personal audit. Furthermore, it has also been
mentioned in the report that what differences does organisational and individual learning,
training and development possess. How High-Performance Work system helps company in
enhancing engagement of employees and achieving competitive advantage has also been
mentioned. Lastly, the report analyse various approaches to performance management has
also been provided.
MAIN BODY
P1 Determine appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required
by HR professionals.
Skills
The skills required for HR manager are mentioned below:
Communication skills
Effective communication skills are the most important ability which is required by
HR manager. The capability to represent them self in front of a team is a key skill to become
a successful HR professional. These skills help them in building a clear and transparent
conversation pathway between them and team. These skills also help HR professionals in
minimising conflicts between employees by understanding their opinions.
Leadership skills
This is also an important ability which is required in a personality of an HR
professional. Leadership skills help them in mentoring and controlling a team in order to
accomplish organizational objectives (Morgan-Jones, 2018). Leadership skills assist them in
providing right guidance and direction two their theme members or subordinates in order to
accomplish goal successfully.

Behavioural practices
The behaviour practices which a successful manager should conduct in themselves are
explained below
Transparency and Trustworthiness
HR managers are considered as an individual on home employee’s trust. A manager
should be fair and transparent towards every employee in the organization. It is very essential
that manager should treat employees equally and maintain transparency (Halton, 2019). This
behaviour practice is important because it creates positive environment end make employees
feel valuable.
Purpose oriented
An HR manager must be fully dedicated towards accomplishing organizational goals.
They should inspire their employees in order to align them to achieve the purpose behind
business. This behaviour practice is essential for HR manager to implement because it
motivates their employees to work with all their efforts and achieve success.
Professional knowledge
Professional knowledge which is required to have in an HR are mentioned below
Personal and human resources
An HR must possess knowledge about procedure of recruitment, training, selection
and personal information systems. They should possess information about how to recruit
talented individuals for specific position. They must also know how to train employees in the
right direction so that they could work towards achieving organizational goals. This
knowledge is very crucial because it helps them in maintaining professional environment in
organization.
Psychology
An HR manager must have a knowledge about human behaviour and performance.
We must know about how to handle different personalities in an organization and should
know what are their distinctive interests (Ruiz, Raglin and Hanin, 2017). They must have this
capability to understand opinion about different behaviour of every employee. This
professional knowledge help managers in minimizing misunderstandings and conflicts in the
organization.

P2 A completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours
and develop a professional development plan for a given job role
Personal Development Plan
Skills How to improve Who will judge Time required
Leadership
skills
As a manager leadership
skill are very essential
which I will develop
through taking more
responsibilities. I will take
initiative and volunteer to
complete projects on
specific time period. I will
also try to listen other
people carefully in order to
learn from their experience.
I will start practicing
delegating task within team
members (Naim and Lenka,
2018). I will start learning
constantly and would
challenge myself to achieve
my objectives. I will also
try to motive my
subordinates or team
members by encouraging
them to perform well during
the given task.
I will request my mentors
to constantly guide me
and provide me feedbacks
on my performance. I will
also tell my team
members to constantly
supervise my
improvement in
leadership skills.
The time
required to
improve this skill
of mine will be
around 3 months.
Purpose
oriented
In order to improve my
purpose orientation
professional knowledge, I
will try to create detailed
plans in order ensure they
must complete on time. I
To judge this skill of
mine I will take support
from my superiors so that
they could supervise me.
I will also take initiatives
in my team to complete
To improve this
professional
knowledge, I will
need a time
period of almost
2 months.

will maintain my positive
attitude towards any
challenges and try to find
solutions to overcome them.
I will make effective
decisions which could help
me in completing my
objectives more efficiently.
I will set personal and
professional deadlines for
me to ensure I could
complete all the assigned
task on certain time period.
certain task and would
ask my team mates to
monitor my skill while
performing project.
Psychology
behaviour
To improve this
behavioural knowledge, I
will observe myself and
other while communicating
to understand each other’s
reactions (Mintrom and
Thomas, 2018). I will try to
be attentive during
interaction with someone in
order to listen them
carefully. I will try to
understand opinions of
others so that I could be
able to understand their
different personality and
thoughts. I will also observe
my subordinates and other
people so that I could gain
knowledge about distinctive
personalities.
I will conduct some
online tests and request
my co-workers to
supervise my behaviour.
To improve this
ability of mine to
understand
psychology
behavioural i
will require
approximately 1
month.

Personal audit
Skills and abilities Score by me Score by others
Communication skills 9 5
Leadership skills 6 9
Transparency and
trustworthiness
8 5
Purpose oriented 5 8
Personal and human
resource
9 6
Psychological behaviour 5 9
P3 Analyse the differences between organisational and individual learning, training and
development.
Basis Organisational Individual
Learning Organisational learning is
described as a processs of
engaging whole group of
people to learn new skills or
abilities. It is a method
where learders or mentors of
the company helps in
providing guidance to
employees so that they
could improve their
capabilities to perform better
(Sharma, 2018).
Organisational learning is
the procedure of developing,
creating, transferring
knowledge within a
company. The organisation
gorws as it gains experience
and must be improved over
Individual learning is
defined as the process of
evolving or bringing
modification by a person in
their personality. This
learning process is mainly
focused on the requirements
of a person rather than on
whole community. This
learning method helps
employees of the
organisation to learn new
skills on their own by
analysing their strengths or
weakness. Individual
learning assist employees in
gaining their confidence. It
also aid them in putting their
maximum efforts by learning

time. Organisational
learning is executed by
company so taht it could
gain competitive advantage
as well as ensure its long
time success.
new capabilities (Joyce and
Laverick, 2021). Under this
learning procedure a person
learns on the basis of their
needs. This also allows
employees to complete their
learning procedure by their
own.
Training Organisational training is
defined as the procedure of
conveying information and
providing direction to a
large group of people. Under
this training method
employees of the company
are allowed to upgrade their
skills which could be later
utilized in further projects.
Organisational training are
organised by company in
order to prepare employee
for accomplishing certain
goals that could help it in
enhancing profitability
(Darling-Hammond, 2017).
It assist company in
minimizing cost and saves
time. Under this training
procedure employees are
allowed to provide feedback
for each other which further
assist them in improving
their weak skills.
Individual tarining is defined
as the process of improving
or learning new skills
according to desire of an
individual. It is also
described as one-on-one
training procedue where a
person pays attention in
learning specific ability.
Under this training
procedure an individual
receives personal attention
by mentor and ensures taht
they learn everything. This
training is taken by a person
for their own development.
The barriers of a person
could be handled by their
mentor personally. This
training method assist a
person in evolving their
personality so that they
could accomplishing success
in their career.

Development Organisational
developement is defined as
the procedure that mainly
focus of improving
capabilities of organisation.
This developement process
helps company in aligning
structure, management and
people. There are five
phases of an organisational
developement which
includes Entery, diagnose,
feedbacks, solution and
evaluation. It is very
important for company to
execute organisational
developement programmes
in order to make itself and
employees adaptable to
market changes and
technological advancements.
Individual development is
the procedure that starts
from self discovery and
continues to self
actualization. The person
mainly focus on developing
their skills and abilities
continously. Under this
development process a
person self discover
themselves through
analysing their own
character, belives, value and
purpose of life. The person
mainly focus on develop
their personality through
continous learning and
experience. Personal
development assist a person
in expalining their personal
vision and life aims more
clearly.
P4 Analyse the need for continuous learning and professional development to drive
sustainable business performance.
Continuous learning is very important for both individual and organisation so that
they could develop their personalities and image respectively in the market. Employees who
are engaged in the professional development feel more confident and work towards achieving
desired goals for their successful career growth (McCance and McCormack, 2017).
Continuous learning also provides people an opportunity to learn new skills and abilities that
could make them more proficient in their profession. The following learning cycle will help
the Marks and Spenser company to implement effective learning approaches at its workplace.
Kolb’s Learning Cycle

This was purposed by David Kolb in the year 1984 which explained that for executing
effective learning companies have to pass through four levels. This four-stage procedure is
useful in explaining that a person learns from their experiences. The four stages of the
learning cycle is a continuous process that defines how individuals learn by performing their
activities. The four learning styles are defined below:
Concrete Experience
This is the first phase of learning cycle which describes that people learn either from
completely new experience or reimagined their previous activities. In this level of experience
every learner involves themselves in certain tasks or projects (Munro, 2017). It has been
observed that participation plays very important role in learning procedure. it explains that in
order to learn some new skills or knowledge people must engage themselves in tasks.
Reflective Observation:
After involving themselves in concrete experience learners must evaluate their own
personalities. This phase of the learning cycle helps people in asking queries and discuss
experience with each other. At this stage effective communication plays very crucial role as it
allows them to examine any misunderstandings or conflicts.
Abstract Conceptualization:
This is the third stage of learning cycle where learners try to draw assumptions of
experiences by discussing their previous knowledge through utilizing thoughts. This stage
assists in producing new ideas or modifying existing concepts.
Active Experimentation:
This is the last phase which is described as testing stage where learners participate in
projects again by applying their conclusion to new experience (Ibrahim, Boerhannoeddin and
Bakare, 2017). At this stage people are able to make plans, prediction and acquired
knowledge in their future projects.
P5 Demonstrate understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and
competitive advantage within a specific organisational situation.
High performance working is described as a general method to organise Companies
that Aims to provide effective involvement of employees and a committed to accomplish
high level of performance. High performance working is mainly focused on creating a culture

for employees which is transparent and have effective communication. This practice of
working health companies in enhancing their productivity through engaging employees. High
performance working system help Marks and Spencer in enhancing employee engagement
and provide it competitive advantage. The contribution of high-performance working system
is explained below in detail:
Provide better employee attitude
Through implementing this working system employees of the organization feel more
accountable for improving product and services of company. Employees take more initiative
by participating in projects and provide innovative ideas to gain competitive advantage over
their rivals (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). The positive attitude of employees towards
company assists it in bringing new or innovative products and services in the market.
Workers in the company try to achieve organizational objectives with all their efforts and
their behaviour towards company become responsible. They also engage themselves in
developing or improving their skills which could help them in accomplishing goals
effectively and efficiently.
Enhance inter relationships
Because of this working system the cooperation between employees become better
and they start cooperating with all internal and external sources. Employees become more
open two thoughts from others and represent themselves as a valuable asset of the
organization. Employees of their companies start respecting each other and put efforts can
understanding opinions of different people. They start communicating with each other which
leads to development of inter relationship between them. The effective communication and
cooperative working with each other assistant minimising possibility of conflicts.
Build positive environment
When employees work with cooperation and are satisfied with their job it leads to
positive working environment at the workplace (Gerpott, Lehmann-Willenbrock and Voelpel,
2017). This behaviour of employees persist company in creating positive image in the
marketplace which sets it apart from its competitors. Employees of the organization feel Moll
responsible socially which assist Co gaining better reputation in community and in business.
The satisfaction from their workplace makes employees feel valuable which encourage them
to play put their maximum efforts.

Competitive advantage
Achieving higher working system assist in creating better financial results which help
the company in developing competitive advantage over its rivals. Profitability of the
company also increases and start market share of the company keeps growing. To positive
working environment and increased employees’ engagement also assist company in attracting
new candidates. The positive image of the company in the market assists it in gaining
competitive advantage over others.
P6 Evaluate different approaches to performance management
Performance management is described as a tool which is utilized by companies to
monitor and evaluate working style of employees. It is essential essential for company to
implement as it helps it in developing employees' performance so that they could work
effectively and efficiently. There are various performance apparaisal methods which Marks
and Spencer could implement that could support high performance culture and commitment:
Management by Obejctives
This is the method which could help the organisation in boosting productivity of
employees and improve their ability to perform better. This is defined as the process where
managers and employees work together to plan, determine, manage and communicate goals
to focus on during a certain appraisal period. After the objectives are set managers and team
mates discuss the succession and make debate on the feasibility of accomplishing desired
aims. This appraisal approach is utilized by companies to meet their overaching
organisational objectives with aims of workers through implementing SMART method
(Tattum and Tattum, 2017). The SMART metod is defined as Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic and Time-sensitive. For insatnce, the company could evalute
performance of employees on quarterly, half yearly or annually basis. The employee with
good performance could be rewarded through promotion, incentives or salary hike. This
method will assit company in improving performance of employees as well as make them
responsible for completing their commitment.
360-Degree Feedback
This is also a method which is used for managing performance of employees through
providing them feedbacks. This method will assist teh respective company in developing and
improving skills of employees on the basis of their feedbacks. This approach is consist of five
stages which are self-appraisal, managerial reviews, peer reviews, subordinates appraising