HR Professional Development: Starbucks Skills, Teams, and Org. Report

This report analyzes the essential skills, knowledge, and behaviors required of HR professionals, particularly within the context of Starbucks, an international coffee chain. It begins by identifying key skills like communication and decision-making, alongside ethical conduct and confidentiality. The report then details a personal skills audit using SWOT analysis to identify strengths and weaknesses, followed by a personal development plan (PDP) to address areas needing improvement, such as communication and decision-making. The report then provides an overview of Starbucks, differentiating between organizational and individual learning, and emphasizing the need for continuous development. It explores how high-performing workplaces contribute to employee engagement and competitive advantage, and discusses different approaches to performance management. The report concludes by highlighting the importance of continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business performance and improve outcomes within the company.

Developing Individual, Teams
and Organisation

Table of Contents
INTWRODUCTION........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
Determine the appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required
by HR professionals in an organisation..................................................................................1
Personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours and develop a
professional development.......................................................................................................2
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
Overview of organisation.......................................................................................................6
Differences between organisational and individual learning, training and development......6
Need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business
performance............................................................................................................................8
Understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage
................................................................................................................................................9
Different approaches to performance management (e.g. collaborative working)................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13

INTWRODUCTION
Development is indispensable in a firm for rapid growth in competitive business
environment. Thus, it is necessary maintain continuous development of individual, organisation
and working teams in regard of creating efficient outcome out of the operated actions (Belbin,
2012). It is requisite for an organisation manager to aid people of company, lead personnel and
direct their operations to achieve their set target and goals. This report is associated with
Starbucks which is an international coffee chain and American Coffee company which was
enlisted as one of the largest coffee chain worldwide. The assessment will discuss various
knowledge, skills and behaviour i.e. required for an HR professional. This will also evaluate
personal skills audit technique, training and development along with individual and organisation
learning for further development of organisation. This will also assess role of high performing
working within a company. Basic concepts of performance management and its various
approaches will also be elaborated to understand how this help organisation in sustainable
development and better outcome in a company.
LO 1
Determine the appropriate and professional knowledge, skills and behaviours that are required by
HR professionals in an organisation
Generally, human resources refer to the administration of employment legislation in
regard of dealing with firing and retirements practices. Therefore, human resource manager has
significant role in the administration of personnel of workplace. Starbucks is a large company
which mainly focus on more satisfied workplace in order to provide effective service delivery to
their consumer (West and et. al., 2014). HR of organisation will need some specific skills,
knowledge and skills in order to provide improved productivity and a better workplace to
Starbucks which is mentioned as below:
Skills Required by HR:
 Communication skills: This is one of mandatory functional skills which should have in
HR professional as they are accountable for creating proper communication among
worker and organisation. Human resource manager of Starbucks should be a good
communicator to elaborate all policies and information of organisation to personnel,
conduct reviews deliver presentation to employee and direct meditation.
1

 Decision-making skills: Human resource manager is liable for undertaking essential
decision of an organisation from resolving disputes among worker to recruiting and
training them. Therefore, it is fundamental for HR of Starbucks to have good critical
thinking capabilities and decision making skills to manage negative consequences and
take appropriate decision.
Behaviour Required by HR Ethical Behaviour: Starbucks’s HR professional sets the structure of conflict resolution
whether among organisation or its employee. Hence, they are liable for managing
personal information and handling sensitive problems of company. Thus, HR manager
should have ethical behaviour to corporate with issues so that future conflicts can be
avoided before their emergence (Mahembe and Engelbrecht, 2014). Confidentiality: HR manager should be more confidential in behaviour to manage work
activities, policies and worker information within Starbucks only.
Knowledge Required by HR
 Contract Law and other legislation: Knowledge of legal codes, contract law court
procedure, precedents etc. are essential to have within an HR professional of Starbucks in
order to appropriately creating policies, functions workplace and manage the ethical
practices in more authentic manner (Berry, 2011)
 Personnel Management: Information of personnel management, workforce planning and
resourcing, training and development etc. are significant for HR manager of Starbucks to
focus on collaborative working and effective outcome along with productive work
environment in company.
Personal skills audit to identify appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours and develop a
professional development
A key information piece that an organisation requires is to consider what knowledge,
qualities and skills their personnel have. Thus, skill audit can be defined as the process which can
be opted to set the gap qualification and skills in an organisation (Swanwick and McKimm,
2017). As an HR professional of Starbucks, i should continuously conduct proper skill audit to
match the skills and qualities which is needed in the company within an HR. Here is mentioned a
skills analysis of my own through using SWOT analysis mentioned as follow:
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SWOT analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
 I have all required technical skills and
knowledge and needed skills of related
work which is my strength as an HR
professional.
 I have also effective writing skills that
are helpful in performing HR related
written work such as email formation,
documenting paper, formal writing
communication etc.
 I am not good at making effective
communication which is essential for
managing ER and proper interaction
as an HR officer.
 I should work on my decision making
abilities in regard of maintain effective
work environment (Bolman and Deal,
2017).
 I dearth at management and
administration skills that are one of
indispensable skill of a human
resource manager of Starbucks for
managing workplace and related work
operations effectively.
Opportunities Threats
 Upcoming training program can lead
to better learning which can enhance
my skills.
 My patient behaviour can lead to
opportunities in future that can direct
to better learning.
 My short-tempered nature can be
considered under my threat as this can
restrain the learning.
 My slow learning process is also one
another threat that can be obstacle for
me.
Thus, it can affirm from the above notion that i am good at writing and technical skills
i.e. essential for an HR professional of organisation such as Starbucks. On the other side, i need
to focus on development of numerous skills such as decision making, communication and
administration skills which are needed to improve to be a good HR professional (Mahembe and
Engelbrecht, 2013). Hence, in regard of improving these skills, i can use PDP technique to i.e.
discuss as below:
Personal Development Plan: This refer to the procedure of designing an action plan
related with panning, awareness, values and goals setting for individual improvement for self-
3

improvement, relationship and career education etc. In this report, for accomplishing the
basic skills of Starbucks of HR, i have opted this method to improve some certain weaknesses
of my including decision making, management and communication skills elaborated as below:
OBJECTIV
ES: What
do I
want/need
to learn?
What will I do to
achieve this? Or
What resources or
support will I need?
What would be
the hurdles in
achieving my
goals
What will my
success criteria
be? / How the
progress will be
monitored?
(workshop
feedback, class
feedback, tutor
feedback, by
applying to work
etc)
Target dates for
review and
completion
Manageme
nt Skills
It is one of most
crucial skills which a
human resource
manager requires for
effective, i need to
improve these skills
through assistance of
seniors worker to
administrate
workforce inn more
efficient manner
(Duffield and
Whitty, 2015).
Dearth of
practice, dearth
of workplace
administration
Senior worker
evaluation and
feedbacks
undertaking
management
decisions.
Within 15 days.
Communica
tion Skills
This is indispensable
for human resource
manager to have
good interaction
Hesitation,
Dearth of
confidence and
actions in
By peer review,
colleague
responses and
results.
2 Months.
4

skills as he/she is
liable for creating
link between
organization and its
workforce. I will
require proper
practice of
communicating and
training as need to
take training and
practice to
communicate more
and more to meet the
requirement.
process of
learning.
Decision-
making
Skills
Human resource
manager are
accountable for
resolving issues of
workplace and HR is
liable for avoiding
such issues that can
lead to negative
consequences
(Wellin, 2016). I
require developing
my decision making
through handling,
controlling and
managing conflicts
arise in workplace.
Wrong
judgments can be
major obstacles
in development
and can lead to
dearth of
confidence in
decision making
later on.
Through
evaluation of
performance at
working
environment and
review of
colleagues.
1 month
5

LO 2
Overview of organisation
Starbucks Cor. is one of most popular American Coffee Company and chain of
coffeehouse which was initially established in Seattle, Washington in year1971.The organisation
operates its business in more than 28,218 spread worldwide (Duffield and Whitty, 2015). This is
considered key representatives of second wave coffee, primarily distinguishing themselves from
other venues of coffer serving in United Stated through quality, taste and experience of consumer
while popularising for their darkly roasted coffee. The restaurants serves old and hot drinks,
whole beans coffee which consist of numerous products such as caffe latte, espresso, loose and
full led tea etc. Also this evolved several juices, Frappuccino, snacks, La Boulandge Pastries etc.
that are specific as per locality and are seasonal. The coffee cafe is popular for its products and
service quality and its consumer experience which they provide along with the quality of their
beans.
In this report, learning of their team members, development of workplace and
engagement of worker is promote along with their benefits which Starbucks can opt for their
better efficiency and keep sustaining in the market.
Differences between organisational and individual learning, training and development
Organizational learning: Organizational learning is the procedure of transferring
knowledge, retaining, and creating within an enterprise. An enterprise improves their profit as it
increases their knowledge and experience. Knowledge is build at four disparate units:
organizational, group, inter-organizational and individual. The easiest way to estimate
organizational learning is a learning curve (West and Lyubovnikova, 2013).
Individual learning: Individual learning is a particular program or planning of education
or training that takes reflection in the student’s weakness and strength. Individual learning plan
used by a single person on their posses or a group of interest. Starbucks estate that persons are
more interested to perform better activities that similar to their learning styles.
The company optimise both approaches for their team, individual and whole company’s
development to prosper and thrive toward success (Chaskalson, 2011). Here are mentioned
some of the basic difference between both of these approaches:
Organizational learning Individual learning
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Organizational learning is a section of a course.
When staffs develop and teach then, company itself
develops and learn.
Individual learning is a work-based,
self-directed process. Learning and
working are interconnect and getting
more involved in daily activities.
Individual learning in Starbucks deals with
individual improvement and their skills
enhancement.
Organisation learning in Starbucks
whereas copes up with entire
requirement for change of enterprise
which basically done due to competing
requirements within the market
business.
Individual learning generally focus over each
individual’s development that is carried out for their
skills, abilities and behaviour of people to improve
their overall personality.
Organisation learning basically focus
over entire company’s development and
skills improvement of organisation to
meet standard outcome and achieve
vision. This does not focus over each
individual’s development.
Hence, this can be claimed from the above analysis that both are essential learnings for
Starbucks in which one assist them in developing their workplace whereas other leads to
organisation development, better outcome and improved sustainability along with the company’s
skills and capabilities (Sessa and London, 2015).
Training: Training is learning or developing for individual and others, any knowledge
and skills that related to particular useful knowledge. Training has particular targets of improving
individual’s capacity, performance, capability, and productivity. In introduction to the primary
training needs for a profession, trade, and occupation, training is a requirement element which
supports learning of Starbucks’s employee. Company use this technique to support the skills and
qualities development of workers of organisation to deliver organisation and individual learning.
Development: Development is a procedure that creates economic, progress, positive
modification of physical, environmental and growth, demographic and social components
(Darling-Hammond and McLaughlin, 2011). Development is a process of being developed that
can simply define as an establishing a new stage in any situation. There is huge difference
7

between both terms development and training as this is provided to worker which are loyal to
organisation for their long term learning. Here is discussed the key difference between both of
the terms mentioned as follow:
Basis Training Development
Meaning Training is a learning procedure in which
workers get a chance to improve their
knowledge, skills, and competency as the job
necessity.
Development is a learning
process which is apprehensive
general growth of the workers.
Term Training is provide to workers for short-
term.
Development is a long-term
process.
Focus on Training focus on present knowledge and
skills of a workers.
Development focus on future
growth and development of an
organization.
Orientation Training is a job-oriented. Developing is a career-oriented.
Motivation In training, the trainer give motivation to
trainee so that they can give their best to the
organization.
In development, an employee
motivates individuals to learn
more things.
Objective To improvise the work performance of a
staff.
For preparing staff for future
hurdles.
Need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business
performance
Continuous professional development simply means to pursuing and documenting of
talent and experience which helps the professional to enhance their creativity. This is the
reflection of individual’s learning, experience then execute (McKenzie, van Winkelen and
Grewal, 2011). Management of Whirlpool is required to have consistent learning in order to have
the best life demands. Continuous learning at workplace covers over-viewing of re-assessing
theories, tools, practices, values and individual’s experience. Management is required to improve
its workplace by inserting new standards. For executing this, there is a need to implement
continuous learning system along with professional development approach. Hereunder, there are
some of the CPD procedures mentioned:
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Make Employees for Unexpected: This kind of learning style helps workers of Whirlpool
for executing unbelievable changes. Via continuous learning, firm could smoothly run operations
and also grab opportunities from the market.
Improve brand reputation: At constant learning, management of the cited company
could enhance and emerge their operations and started to get recommendation gathered from the
market. It also enables to get opportunities for learning new skills.
This enables opportunities to prosper and learn new knowledge and skills accordingly.
Competence direct to confidence: There is diverse learning which provides an effective
viability that would enhance workers confidence. Moreover, management of the cited company
face challenges which would enable to explore new creativity for competing its competence.
Sustain in market: CPD assist the cited company for sustaining their reputation in the
competitive market and stick under the appliance industry (DuFour and DuFour, 2013). For
operating effectively, company needs to cooperate the market ad pace up with the trend and
technology. Whirlpool is required to learn approaches in order sustain in the market.
Henceforth, it is useful for the firm to implement CPD learning process in the workplace
for meeting competitive outcome and learning advance competences.
Understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage
The concept of high performance working assists the workers to keep motivated and
committed toward work. This is an approach to manage company that focus on inspiring more
effective employee involvement and commitment in order to attain higher performance working
level. This is designed to enhance worker discretionary action put into their performance to
entirely optimise skills that an organisation possesses (Duffield and Whitty, 2015). Generally,
this method is about improving a culture which has open lines, more transparency and open
interaction among workers. It is all about dissolving traditional hierarchal framework which
numerous organisation still opt and beside this, develop a flat framework where employee are
more engaged, committed and share common vision and commitment of Starbucks. There are
mentioned some of high performance outcome which lead to worker engagement and create
competitive edge:
 Better employee behaviour: Employee become responsible for improving the products,
services and procedure of Starbucks in their high performance working environment (Hu
and Liden, 2011). The culture promotes the vision which is beneficial for organisation as
9

well as their workers. Thus, it emphasise over innovative practices and creative ideas
along with worker opinions which overall enhance the outcome productivity and
engagement of worker in Starbucks’s practices.
 Effective Cooperation: Employee of Starbucks under HPW coordinates with their
members of team, internal and extrinsic individuals of organisation including supplier,
consumer and colleagues (Esposito, Berlin and Lal, 2012). It opens creative activities in
Starbucks and develop effective value chain which can assist in efficient operation
functioning and increase their competitive edge. Entire practices are operated in context
of their worker to develop their engagement in workplace activities which lead to value
added services delivery and competitive advantage to organisation.
 Effective financial results: Achieving high performance culture lead to enhancement in
financial outcomes through delivering the best services and gaining consumer as well as
employee loyalty toward the brand (Ruch, 2011). Hence, Starbucks can meet optimum
results through performing effective operations and attain the competitive edge relatively.
Hence, it can see that high performing culture and workplace of Starbucks promote not
only organisation in meeting their standard outcome but also aid organisation in earning
employee loyalty and enhancing employee engagement in the workplace activities that lead to
better outcomes. This is the cause why Starbucks in one of the popular Coffee chain worldwide.
Different approaches to performance management (e.g. collaborative working)
Performance management is refer to the procedure optimised for developing entire
worker performance concerning to definite target of organisation. An effective and efficient
performance administration play significant role in enterprise like Starbucks and managing their
employee (7 Reasons Why Continuous Learning is Important, 2017). More interaction is the core
impact of this approach along with power forces, team and relations among members that work
to accomplish the task outcome. Key purpose of this is to develop the performance, productivity,
gain worker loyalty, retention, create clear accountability and cost benefits within Starbucks as
this is essential to meeting standard benchmark to achieve success (Ford, 2014) (Hsu and et. al.,
2012).
Need of Performance Management
It is one of the essential management approaches which is required for efficient time and
energy investment of organization. One of the most essential cause of opting this method in
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Starbucks is that this help in attaining better return on investment of company. There are
numerous benefits of using performance management approach as this is an effective tool to
monitor he issues which are incurring emerging in organization. It also help in carry out focused
appraisal, effective goal setting and create transparent workplace within organization..
Types of Performance Management
 Collaborative Working: As per this technique, the workforce performs at its best ad
deliver more efficient outcome out of their performed practices (Mosadeghrad, 2015). In
this, members of team perform their work in collaborative way for attaining their targeted
outcome (Flint, Zisook and Fisher, 2011). To meet the shared commitment, goals and
vision and establish more transparent communication, this approach is more suitable for
organization like Starbucks. The approach also promotes innovative and productive work
as well as worker engagement in decision making procedure. Behavioral approaches: Under this, administration framework lies on the concept that a
company can get accurate staff working level grounds on advisable behavior verification.
Worker at Starbucks receive direct appreciation or clarification of their expected
attribute. Various certain procedure are followed in this report for e.g. such worker can be
expected to meet the designed flow charts, routines that aims to improve Starbucks‘s
worker decision making. Attribute approaches: This approach aims on the particular business scope which consist
of numerous attributes and behavior believed which are suggestible for achieving success
Attribute approach can be refer to determination of many knowledge, skills and qualities
i.e. assessed to pursue accomplishment in Starbucks. This focus on measurements goals
and outcome of objectives performed in workplace by teams.
 Comparative approaches: This method consists of ranking an employee’s performance
in context of their other worker (Holden and et. al., 2012). Few techniques of this
approach are forced distribution method, graphic rating measurement, paired comparison
etc. The technique is outlined in incurrence of Starbucks within a certain staff group
associated with specific work profile.
After studying entire mentioned approach, this can state that Starbucks, in order to
support employee engagement should focus on collaborative performance management
11

approaches as this offers motivation of employee, emphasize on better efficiency, environment,
quality of work and assist in sharing same vision to meet the set outcome.
CONCLUSION
This can propound from the above mentioned report that it is requisite for an organisation
to improve their individual, team and company itself in order to sustain in market and achieve
competitive edge. An HR is one of the crucial players of an organisation who is liable for
handling and managing enterprise’s personnel and related practices. Hence, there are certain
skills, behaviour and knowledge which are essential within the individual to perform the
respected functions and roles of company. In order to identify weaknesses and strengths, an
individual can use personal skill audit method. To improve indentified drawbacks, personal
development plan is effective process which can help one in improving the weaker areas within
determined period of time. Also, through creating high performance working environment and
culture, a firm can maximise their potential outcome and can get optimum utilisation of
resources. Using an effective performance management, enterprise can assess their current skills
and enlarge their outcome by reaching to the standard outcome.
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