- Analyse employee knowledge, skills and their behaviour which is needed for the HR professional.
- Access the given factors which are to be considered when implementing and analysing the learning and development to have the sustainable business performance.
- Explain how the High-performance working contributes to employees engagement and its competitive benefits.
- Analyse ways in which the performance management, collaborative working and better communication can help the higher performance culture and commitment.
INTRODUCTION
Individual development is the most crucial factor that a company must consider for achieving higher productivity and competitive advantage. This focuses on enhancing the skills and capabilities of employees by regular training and guiding them. The current assignment is about Whirlpool corporation which is an American manufacturer and seller of home and kitchen appliances (Aarons, Hurlburt, and Horwitz, 2011). This report elaborates on the skills, behavior, and knowledge that an HR professional has along with a personal skill audit and professional development plan. It also describes the difference between organizational & individual learning and training & development along with the importance of continual professional development. It further describes the contribution of HPW to employee engagement and competitive advantages. It also explains different approaches to performance management.
TASK 1
P1. Skills, knowledge and behaviour required by an HR professional
Human resource management refers to the systematic structure which aims toward management of employees working within the organisation. HR manager perform several operations such as recruitment, training, payroll and formulation of policies for develop a high skilled workforce and aligning their work toward accomplishment of organisational objective. But in order to perform these operations effectively a HR manager must have certain skills and characteristics which lead them to formulate better strategies that support in achieving the pre specified goals of company. Following are the skills and characteristics that an HR manager of Whirlpool must have:
Skills:-
- Leadership:- Human resource manager must have an ability to guide and motivate employees to perform their operations in an effective manner (Bolman and Deal, 2017). This help them Whirlpool in accomplishing their organisation goal as well as targets effectively by enhancing the morale of employees through effective leadership.
- Communication skills:- Human resource manager is responsible for the management of people working within the organisation for which they have to interact with them on regular basis. So in order to manage personnel effectively within the organisation it is very essential for manager to have greater communicational skills. This support them in influencing employees effectively which also reduce the chance of conflicts among them.
Knowledge:-
- IT:- HR manager must have a basic knowledge about information technology for managing the information as well as confidential data for performing their operations effectively. Being an international brand it is very essential for HR manager to have a knowledge about IT this will support them in communicating with other branches located over different geographical region.
- Governmental law:- Human resource department is responsible for the formulation of policies as well as long term plan for organisation. So it is very essential for HR manager of Whirlpool to have a thorough knowledge about common laws and legislations that are required to be consider while performing operations.
Behaviour:-
- Ethics:- As a HR manager have to take several decisions in order to maintain the effectiveness of operations at workplace. So, a manager must take decision in ethical manner by following all the policies as well as regulations of organisation (Choi and Ruona, 2011). This help HR manager of Whirlpool in earning the trust and confidence of employees as well as company that further support them in motivating workforce toward performing their operations ethically.
- Problem solving:- HR manager must known how to deal with different situation the may arises during the course of operations performed within the organisation. Whirlpool is a global brand where multicultural employees work together this may create several conflicts among employees. Therefore, HR manager must know how to influence multicultural people to work together as a team.
P2. Personal skill audit and professional development for human resource manager in Whirlpool
Human resource manager plays a crucial role within the organisation by managing employees by formulating policies and strategies toward the achievement of company's goal. Being a global brand it is very essential for HR manager of Whirlpool to perform several activities for continually updating their knowledge regarding the changes in external environment for maintain the competitiveness in marketplace (Hartnell, Ou and Kinicki, 2011). This can be done using CPD (Continuing professional development), it refers to the ongoing process for maintaining, enhancing and documenting professional skills. CPD is a framework which includes several step that are explained below:
- Planning:- This step includes formation of a plan that consists of skills that person has to improve and method that can be used to learn those skills and capabilities.
- Action:- Under this step the plan for professional development is executed where different source of learning are assessed and activities are performed which was decided during planning.
- Evaluation:- After performing all the planned activities next step is to evaluate the performance to determine the improvement over skills.
- Reflection:- This step focuses on reflecting the result of CPD by providing the accurate image of activities performed during development cycle. It provide information about the skills that get improved and other which still required to improve.
These are the steps involved in CPD cycle which support HR manager of Whirlpool to develop skills on continuous basis (Herrmann and Herrmann-Nehdi, 2015). But in order to determine the skills required to be develop HR manager can use personal skill audit method.
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Personal skill audit:- It refers to the process which is used to identify the performance gaps of an individual within the organisation which help in identifying the skills that are required to improve. Being a HR manager of Whirlpool, I conducted my personal skill audit for determining the skills which are required to improve.
SNO |
Skill & Competencies |
Self-Assessed Score |
Score from Others |
Variances |
1 |
Leadership skill |
8 |
9 |
-1 |
2 |
Communication skill |
9 |
8 |
1 |
3 |
Information technology |
9 |
7 |
2 |
4 |
Conflict management |
8 |
9 |
-1 |
5 |
Presentation skill |
8 |
6 |
2 |
6 |
Time management skill |
7 |
9 |
-2 |
7 |
Decisive thinker |
8 |
8 |
0 |
Here negative variances reflect my strength and positive variance depict my weaknesses which I required to improve.
Strength |
Weaknesses |
|
In order to overcome these weaknesses I have prepared a Personal development plan which support in improving my skills.
Personal development plan:- It refers to the process through which a person set out the goals, strategies and outcomes for training and learning in order to enhance skills.
SNO |
Learning Goals |
Targets |
Development Opportunity |
Judgement |
Time |
1 |
Communication skills |
I need to improve my communication skill for effectively managing orientation program of new employees by interacting with them regarding the policies and their work. |
I decided to attend seminar for improving my communication skills. I will also participate in debates for overcoming my hesitation to speak in public. |
Higher management |
3 months |
2 |
Information technology |
I want to improve my knowledge regarding the Information technology so that I can manage my computer related work on myself. |
I decided to visit online classes for learning basics about IT. Apart from this I have also decided to concern with IT department for improving my skills |
IT department, higher management |
4 months |
3 |
Presentation skills |
To improve my presentation skills so that I can present information effectively which I want to communicate. |
I decided to take online classes for learning the tricks to make my presentation more attractive and representative. |
Colleagues, subordinates |
2 months |
TASK 2
P3. Difference between organisational & individual learning and training & development
Organisational learning refers to the process of developing, retaining and transferring knowledge within the organisation for enhancing the skills and knowledge of employees. On the other hand individual learning refers to the process through which a person can enhancing its knowledge individually (Hislop, 2013). Following table describe about the differences between organisational & individual learning
Organisational learning |
Individual learning |
|
Training and development
Training refers to the organised activity aims toward transferring information or instruction to improve the performance or help employees to attain their objectives (Landy and Conte, 2016). On the other hand development refers to the process which strives over building the capacity to achieve a new desired state for the benefit of organisation.
Training |
Development |
|
|
|
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P4. Need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business performance
Continuous learning and professional development is a crucial part of an organisation that support them in enhancing the profitability and in achieving competitive advantage at workplace. Through these processes Whirlpool can improve the productivity of employees and overall performance of company.
- Continuous learning:- It is an ongoing process which focuses on enhancing the knowledge of individual and organisation by adopting changes in business environment and industrial development (Nahavandi, 2016).
- Professional development:- This process focuses on improving the employees capability through several training opportunities within as well as outside the organisation.
Continuous and professional development plays an essential role within the organisation for enhancing the performance level by developing an environment of continuous learning which support company in achieving sustainability in marketplace. Following are the importance of continuous learning and professional development for Whirlpool:
- Employees advancement:- Continuous learning help in enhancing the skills and capabilities of employees which support them in performing their operations effectively;y and deal with contingent situations. Through this Whirlpool will be able to prepare high skilled and competent workforce that have the capacity to handle each situations effectively.
- Improve employees performance:- Continuous learning and professional development process help Whirlpool in enhancing the employees' level of performance by improving their knowledge periodically as per the changes anticipated in external environment. It also support in increasing the morale of employees which leads to increase in productivity.
Learning is an ongoing process which consist of acquiring new or modifying the existing skills, knowledge and preferences of employees that support in their personal as well as professional development (Penuel and et. al. 2011). Learning cycle model was given by Kolb which represent this procedure of learning in 4 different stages which are as explained below:
- Experience:- This step state that employees experience new things or situation at workplace and try to solve them.
- Reflect:- Under this step they think about their experience and develop an understanding about the situation tat support them in dealing with same contingency in future.
- Conceptualise:- Reflection stage gives rise to new idea or method that can be used to deal with such situation. This will modify the current knowledge as per the situation experienced.
- Plan:- After getting idea, learner try to apply their ideas in their regular practices to identify what happen when they deal from same situation with experience and learning.
TASK 3
P5. Contribution of HPW in employment engagement and competitive advantage
High performance working refers to the environment within organisation that focuses on bringing transparency and proper communication among employees for improving the level of performance (Robbins and Judge, 2012). Being an international brand it is very essential for Whirlpool to improve performance of their employees which further support them in achieving competitive advantage at marketplace. The Whirlpool's team of North American region was the first to implement High performance working in their operations that involve five core dimensions which support them in achieving the expected team performance. So for improving the overall performance of employees company must follow these dimensions of high performance. Following are the characteristics of HPW organisation that Whirlpool must follow :
- Shared commitment to company vision and extraordinary goals:- Whirlpool must share company's visions as well as goals with its employees that support them in improving the relation with employees. It also help in providing the direction to employees on which they have to work for the accomplishment of organisational objective. This leads to more employee engagement and enhanced performance that further support in achieving competitive advantage.
- Shared accountability for result:- Whirlpool must share the accountability of result with its employees of the work performed by them in form of reward or other monetary as well as promotional benefit (Shin and et. al. 2012) . This support in improving the trust of employees toward management which contribute toward motivating them and building up a strong relationship. This further help in increasing employment engagement in business operations and productivity enhancement.
- Transparent communication:- It refers to the removing of authority layers by developing an structure where communication can flow in upward as well as downward direction. Whirlpool must encourage employees to share their view and suggestion for improvement to higher authority this help in building up a employer-employee relation that contribute toward encouraging employment engagement (Von Krogh, Nonaka and Rechsteiner, 2012). This further support in developing effective strategies which help in enhancing productivity and achieving competitive advantage at workplace.
- Constructive conflicts:- Whirlpool must encourage employees to involve more in constructive conflicts rather than destructive which help in identifying the solution which provide benefit to both employer as well as employee. This also support in strategy formulation which results in improving the employees productivity that further help in achieving the competitive advantage.
- Mutual respect & solidarity:- For achieving high performance working, Whirlpool must ensure to develop an environment of mutual respect and trust where employees feel comfortable and motivated to work. This help in brining coordination among employees that further support in enhancing the level of employment engagement which in turn will improve productivity and contribute toward achieving competitive advantage.
TASK 4
P6. Different approaches to performance management that support high performance culture and commitment
Performance management is defined as the process of regularly measuring, determining and developing the performance of employees within the organisation (Performance Management, 2018). Main aim behind the performance management system is to enhance the level of performance and productivity by improving the skills and capabilities of employees (Wates, 2014). It is a systematic process which includes following steps:
- Setting up the standards over the performance of employees.
- Providing training or guidelines to employees for enhancing their productivity or minimizing the error in work.
- Continuously monitoring the performance for keeping employees engaged with their targets.
- Comparing the actual work with planned performance for determining the gap between them.
- Determining the measures to eliminated those gaps and rewarding the employees over their accomplishment of targets.
Performance management help in improving the productivity as well as profitability within the organisation. But in order to encourage effective PM, HR manager of Whirlpool must maintain an effective and open communication channel with employees and also try to invite suggestions for improvement. Performance management help in developing the culture of learning that support in enhancing the knowledge of employees individually and skills of team for the attainment of specific goal.
Organisational cultural:- The culture which an organisation have also influence the effectiveness of performance management. It company have learning and flexible structure then it will act as a facilitator toward the performance enhancement. Other side if company has the culture hat follows more strict and structured procedure then it act as a barrier for the performance management (Von Krogh, Nonaka and Rechsteiner, 2012).
Performance management provide better result if it is measured properly that support in determining the gap between the performance and areas that required to improve in order to achieve the targets or benchmark that have been fixed. Following are the tools that can be used by Whirlpool for performance measurement:
- Comparative approach:- Under this method, employees are ranked from top to lowest performer on the basis of their performance level as compare to other groups. In this high performers are rewarded and then trained for promoting them to higher position. The lowest performers are given a chance for improvement.
- Behavioural approach:- Under this method various vertical scales are used that consists o0f different dimensions which are decided by the employees. These scales are then used to rank the employees according to their performance level.
These two are the performance measurement tool out of which behavioural method is better option for Whirlpool because company have larger workforce and comparative method is applicable over small workforce.
CONCLUSION
From the above given report it can be concluded that human resource manager plays an essential role in the management of employees working within the organisation. But for this there are certain skills and capabilities that a HR professional must have to perform their operations effectively. Apart from this in order to achieve higher productivity and competitive advantage a company must try to involve High performance working at their workplace which help in enhancing the level of employees performance.
REFERENCES
Aarons, G. A., Hurlburt, M. and Horwitz, S. M., 2011. Advancing a conceptual model of evidence-based practice implementation in public service sectors. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research. 38(1). pp.4-23.
Bolman, L. G. and Deal, T. E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.
Choi, M. and Ruona, W. E., 2011. Individual readiness for organizational change and its implications for human resource and organization development. Human Resource Development Review. 10(1). pp.46-73.
Hartnell, C. A., Ou, A. Y. and Kinicki, A., 2011. Organizational culture and organizational effectiveness: a meta-analytic investigation of the competing values framework's theoretical suppositions.
Herrmann, N. and Herrmann-Nehdi, A., 2015. The Whole Brain Business Book: Unlocking the Power of Whole Brain Thinking in Organizations, Teams, and Individuals. McGraw Hill Professional.