Personal and Professional Development: A Study of Asda Stores Limited

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes professional development strategies at Asda.

Personal and Professional Development
1

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................4
Task 2.............................................................................................................................................12
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................18
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................19
2

Introduction
Individuals and teams are integral parts of an organisation. Developing individuals helps them in
improving self-awareness, developing skills and strengths, fulfilling aspiration and others.
Individuals in an organisation understand their roles through the help of development tools. The
study on developing teams and individuals will be performed by taking examples from Asda
Stores Limited, UK. The retail company deals with products general merchandise, grocery,
financial services, and others. The study shall analyse behaviour, skills, and understanding that
are necessary for an HR professional. It shall analyse the factors to be determined during the
implementation and evaluation of inclusive learning. It shall discuss the contribution of high
performance working to employee involvement and competitive advantage.
3

Task 1
Determine appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviours that are
required by HR professionals
HR professionals are key personnel of organisations like ASDA. The professional knowledge,
behaviour, and skills required by them are as follows.
Skills
HR professionals should have certain primary skills such as communication, critical thinking,
organisational and others (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Their core job is to facilitate discussion
between the staff and the employer. If they cannot communicate clearly, they may not be
successful in establishing a good employee-employer relationship. Both written and oral
communication skills are required to relay information effectively. Effective communication
skill gives HR professionals an edge of resolving conflicts. HR professionals require balancing
complex situations by thinking outside the box. They need to cultivate a work environment
strategically in which everyone can work together for business improvement. HR management is
a difficult task for which professionals need to be more organised. Professionals can get more
time to work for employee welfare if they have superior organised skill. Conflict management is
another skill required by professionals that helps them to resolve issues among ASDA and its
employees. The professionals need to emphasise employee problems patiently to resolve
problems appropriately. They are responsible for securing personal information provided by
employees. They should acquire the skills of discretion that shall enable them to protect
information without credentials.
Knowledge
The basic knowledge required by an HR professional is personnel and human resources.
Knowledge of procedures and principles for compensation and benefits, personnel recruitment,
training, selection, labour relation, and negotiation and others is required for professionals. The
professionals also require knowledge of management and business principles related to resource
allocation, strategic planning, leadership technique, human resource modelling, and others
(Carnevale and Smith, 2013). This knowledge helps in effective management and administration
4

of human resources. Knowledge of customer and personal service processes and principles is
required for customer need assessment, evaluation of customer satisfaction and meeting quality
of customer service. The professionals should acquire technical knowledge including handling of
software, developing report and presentation through Microsoft software and others. They should
proper knowledge on HR policies including employee relation, reward structure, compensation,
benefits and others so that they can answer to employee queries.
Behaviour
HR professionals need to show certain behaviour like trustworthiness, transparency, purpose-
oriented, solution-oriented, adaptability, versatility, and others (Cohen, 2015). They are expected
to handle sensitive issues like benefits, pay, violation of organisational policy and others. They
need to speak honestly and openly while making a judgment. They have to walk through the
tough path of confidentiality and transparency that leads to trustworthiness. They need to
understand the purpose and scope of ASDA’s business and their actions and words must reflect
their purposes. HR professionals need to align the business purpose with the individual purpose
for obtaining overall wellbeing. Adaptability is a great trait that helps professionals to respond to
change. Adopting solution focused approaches for managing complexities require creativity. HR
professionals need to have a solution-oriented attitude that can help them in resolving individual
and organisational problems.
Analyse a completed personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills, and
behaviours and develop a professional development plan for the external Learning and
Development Consultant.
Personal skill audit is a comprehensive assessment of skills and qualities of an individual. The
following audit shows the skills of an external learning and development consultant.
Personal skill audit
Skills Competencies acquired In need of development
Communication I am able to communicate
with learners due to high
confidence and focus on body
I need to develop my written
communication skill.
5

language.
Leadership and influence I am good at inspiring and
influencing others.
I need to practice more
leadership skill.
Coaching and development I tend to be supportive. I am excellent at this skill.
Creativity I develop innovative ways for
the overall development of
the workforce.
I should improve my
creativity skill to bring new
solutions for the learning and
development field.
Table 1: Personal skill audit
(Source: Created by the learner)
A professional development plan for external learning and development consultant has been
developed to improve certain skills.
Objectives Action Resources Success Criteria Target Date
To develop a
better written
communication
skill
Attending online
communication
class and
assessment
Online class and
materials
Clarity and
concision in
written
documents
23/06/2019
To develop
desired
leadership skills
Practice
discipline actions
Materials and
inspiring cases
Influencing
others with
higher
motivation and
inspiration
14/05/2019
To improve
creativity skill
Puzzle solving Online puzzle
test
Creative ideas in
learning and
development
programmes
23/09/2019
Table 2: Professional development plan
(Source: Created by the learner)
6

Analyse the differences between organisational and individual learning, training and
development.
Organisational learning aims to develop, retain, and transfer knowledge within the work
environment of an organisation (Campbell and Armstrong, 2013). ASDA stores limited improve
organisational learning overtime to ensure high productivity. Individual learning is an
individualised instruction-based teaching method in which pace of learning, content and
instructional technology relies upon own interest and abilities. The differences between
organisational learning and individual learning are as follows.
Bases of difference Organisational learning Individual learning
Motive To improve an employee’s
ability to manage
organisational systems and
processes effectively
To acquire a great knowledge
base and improve own skills
Benefits It creates a culture that
encourages employees to
become innovative, and
inquisitive.
When an individual learns and
develops, the organisation
develops (Kennett, 2013).
Table 3: Differences between organisational and individual learning
(Source: Created by the learner)
Organisational training is the process of providing training to employees. Some examples are
soft skill, customer service, personal development, and other training (Brix and Lauridsen,
2012). Individual training is the participation of the individual employee in training programme
arranged by the organisation. The differences between individual and organisational training are
as follows.
Bases of difference Organisational training Individual training
Purpose The purpose is to improve
knowledge and skills of staff
members so that they can
The purpose is to fulfil own
training needs.
7

become capable of performing
roles efficiently.
Benefits It strengthens skills of
employees and brings them in
higher levels of knowledge
and expertise, which
ultimately improves overall
organisational productivity.
Individuals can show their
expertise and efficiency by
applying skills learned
through training.
Table 4: Differences between organisational and individual training
(Source: Created by the learner)
Organisational development is a change-based approach within an organisation’s system,
procedure, and process. Individual development is the process of improving identity, awareness,
potential, and talents (DiPaola and Hoy, 2013). The differences between individual and
organisational development are as follows.
Bases of difference Organisational development Individual development
Concept It is an entity wide or planned
process of improving business
profitability and effectiveness.
Individuals set their short-term
or long-term goals for
personal development.
Process It can be possible through the
adoption of new practices,
sensitivity training, behavioural
techniques, and others.
It can be possible through
acquiring new skills,
competencies, and knowledge.
Benefits The benefits of organisational
development are increased
communication, profit,
product and service
enhancement, and others.
The benefits of individual
development are improved
effectiveness and focus,
greater resilience, sense of
direction, more motivation and
others.
Table 5: Differences between organisational and individual development
8

(Source: Created by the learner)
Analyse the need for continuous learning and professional development to drive
sustainable business performance
Continuous learning is the concept of expansion of knowledge continuously for gaining new
expertise and skills (Sessa and London, 2015). ASDA encourages its employees to learn
constantly by providing tools that facilitate learning (Cipd.co.uk, 2019). Employees can regularly
upgrade their knowledge and skills through continuous learning. Professional development is the
learning process for maintaining professional credentials including formal coursework through
learning opportunities. It is a collaborative and intensive stage of professional career. A
difference remains between the individual skills and the organisation’s expectation. This
difference can be fulfilled through continuous ongoing learning and professional development.
ASDA can find out this difference within employees through gap analysis, which involves
evaluation and assessment of individual skills.
Need for continuous learning
It is essential to remain relevant as per the organisational standard and this can be possible
through adapting new skill sets and remaining up-to-date with the trend. Continuous learning is
required for functioning effectively within the rapidly changing business environment.
Employees require learning new things for remaining valuable and efficient. The continuous
learning process can let employees adapt to sudden changes in the workplace. For example, an
employee is moved from the sales department to the marketing department within ASDA. The
ongoing learning can help in sustaining in the marketing department. Boosting own profile is
possible through such a learning process. When individuals keep learning, they receive
recommendations from managers and senior executives that help them to gain promotion
opportunities (Sessa and London, 2015). With availing recognition, employees work satisfaction
increases that enable them to perform in a unique way for sustainable business performance.
Learning new things let individuals acquire a feeling of achievement of accomplishment that
boosts individual confidence. People can take new challenges in their workplace and handle
difficult projects of their own through continuous learning. Acquiring new skills and knowledge
through continuous learning will unveil new opportunities that make individuals to find out a
9

creative solution to problems. When employees develop new skills and competencies within
them, the organisation takes advantage of individual skill in fulfilling business goals. New ways
of performing work help in driving sustainable business performance within ASDA.
Need for continuous professional development
Continuous Professional development or CPD is needed for future employability, the growth of a
team, retention, and others that contribute towards sustainable business performance (Harrison,
2012). The growth of the organisation depends on individual skill development. If employees are
looking for progress in the workplace, professional development opportunity can enable them to
learn new skills. Professional development is required to nurture the necessary skills within
employees so that they can participate in the organisation’s strategic planning process. When a
team forms within the organisation, individuals with diverse qualities commit to working
together. If they do not have the necessary skills, they cannot perform well and sustain in the
business. Therefore, ASDA comes with professional development training courses like ethic
training, teamwork, negotiation, creativity, problem solving and others.
Employees are the important assets of an organisation. Their loyalty and commitment can enable
ASDA to ensure sustainable business performance. Therefore, professional development
programme is arranged to develop employees, build a powerful team and retain them. It makes
employees stay interested in initiative activities. If employees are interested in the work, they
will put effort into it, generate a better result for the organisation and stay for the long run. It
helps staff members to become competent in each work. The ongoing progress can develop an
individual’s career and business efficiency. It opens the organisation up to new strategies,
possibilities, and skill and knowledge areas. Boosting employee morale is another need of
professional development in ASDA. Professional development programmes are great sources of
inspiration, ideas and insight that improve employee morale (Mackay, 2017). When the
organisation is full of people with high value and morale, its productivity and sustainable
business performance will be high always.
Apply learning cycle theories to analyse the importance of implementing continuous
professional development.
10

Implementing CPD in the workplace is important, as it delivers benefits to employees, their
profession and the organisation. CPD ensures that the capabilities of employees keep pace with
the latest trends of the industry. Here, the learning cycle can be applied to state its importance.
Learning cycle involves three major steps including exploration, content development, and
content application (Mackay, 2017). Exploration stage enables employees to explore new skills
and knowledge through continuous development. The second stage is content development that
ensures that employees have learnt something from their learning. The content application lets
them apply the desired skills in the business practices. It indicates that CPD helps employees to
give a meaningful contribution to teams so that organisational change can happen faster.
11

Task 2
Introduction
The task demonstrates the contribution of HPW or high performance working to competitive
advantage and employee involvement. It analyses the benefits of implementing HPW within
ASDA and evaluates some performance management approaches.
Demonstrate an understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and
competitive advantage within a specific organisational situation.
High-performance work organisation or HPWO is a concept that proposes high employee
involvement in business decision-making (de Waal, 2012). It provides greater capability for
employees for controlling their reward structures.
ASDA comes under high-performance organisations that value collaboration and teamwork in
the organisational system. It flattens the organisational hierarchy for which cross-functional
collaboration can occur easily. For example, ASDA allows employees to perform distinct
functions for which they work in collaboration with each other; thereby results in a strong
relationship among employees. The organisation values are sharing information through top
down and bottom up to the process. This makes the employee feel important and special, which
contributes to increased employee engagement throughout the business processes.
Another characteristic of HPWO is autonomy among teams that they manage quality, set
schedules and solve problems. The self-directed teams of ASDA do not need direct supervision
from their seniors, and they have greater flexibility to resolve issues effectively. In ASDA, self-
directed teams have greater levels of job satisfaction and more idea to input. The team members
share complementary skills for which they function at high-performance zones. Members who
belong to high-performance teams have a personal commitment to each other’s success and
growth. The sense of commitment allows teams to have more accountability and actionable goals
that enable them to ensure greater productivity.
HPWO concepts foster the organisation of learning in which the management invests heavily on
employees. This is typically done through competency management and leadership development.
12