Activity 1

CIPD is a professional tool developed for HR professionals all around the world. The map contains a set of standards in terms of professional areas, activities, behaviors, skills, and knowledge necessary to perform the job. It was developed by collaborating with leading HR experts and it is updated constantly. The map sets out crucial details that may help an HR to realize their current skills and knowledge, update it as needed and what to do at each step. It works like a benchmark around which they enhance their capabilities and improve on an organizational level. The map contains ten professional areas along with eight types of behaviors. It also lays out four bands to measure an individual’s competence in fulfilling the role. The professional areas are meant to explore the areas an HR has to cover professionally as well as to explain the activities they need to conduct. The major two professional areas, which are at the core, are – leading HR, and Insight, strategy, and solution. HR needs to act as a role model by their actions and performance while supporting and managing other employees in an organization (Brewster et al., 2016). As a leader, their contribution needs to be as much as the team requires. They also need to explore and understand the organization and its all aspects for clear insight. Thus, they will be able to form effective strategies to solve issues and take care of the organization’s needs. HR plays a key role in organizational development. Other areas involve designing the organisation to maximise its proficiency, resourcing talents to the floor to enhance the organisational performance, developing the employees’ abilities via learning and training, building the work culture which would increase the workers’ performance level as well as reward them for their skills, build work communication and relationships among the employees, and ensuring that the employees and the organization are working keeping the customers in mind. The behaviors laid out on the map are to ensure the HR professionals which behaviour they have to hold in order to perform their job (Collings, Wood & Szamosi, 2018). It includes being curious or inquisitive and open-minded to all values, ability to analyse a situation or information quickly to make a decision, influencing the stakeholders through support, building the values by adding professionalism to other expertise, acting in collaboration with everyone related to the organisation, determined to drive others and provide resources to deliver, taking up challenging situations and handling competently, and leading the team by setting up an example. The four bands provide an insight into the contribution they require to make to demonstrate their competency and to prepare the activities to develop the organisation as a whole. The band one suggests acting and behaving in customer-centered ways, to support the employees with supervision and resource along with managing information effectively. The second band aims for a clear understanding of evaluation and solution and managing an individual or the team to resolve HR-related concerns. Leading the team, advising colleagues and addressing the major challenges in HR practices to improve the organization’s impact is part of band three. Band four is to take responsibility for the organisation by developing its strategies and managing the professional areas (Stewart & Brown, 2019).

As a new HR assistant, I need to identify some skills and knowledge I must acquire in order to perform the job efficiently. Looking at the CIPD map, my focus would be on band one and cover the professional areas to accomplish the band one responsibilities and prove my competency. Band one focuses on supervising the employees and providing them with needful resources so that they can perform their job proficiently and in favour of the organisation. One of the major skills I will require for this is communication. I have to interact with the workers on a daily basis as well as the departmental heads and other management to locate the necessities. Additionally, I have to supervise the team in their daily activities. I need to act curious to have insights into the resources they need. Apart from that, I will need to enhance my organisational skills which will help me to develop the strategies and resolve issues. The organisation and its activities must be customer-oriented. Therefore, I will require a collaborative attitude to cooperate with the teams and support them. Moreover, band one also requires me to support the clients or customers. So I will need to develop policies and actions for the organisation which will support them and processes their concerns as well. I will also need to explore the organisation and be updated on current activities. Thus, I will be able to handle any new information or sudden circumstances. My behavior should reflect my decisive skills. In order to manage unexpected situations, I will need to process it quickly, analyse it and make a fruitful decision rapidly. Lastly, I must act like a role model to the individuals or teams and set examples of actions. Thus, they can follow a similar and act in customer-centric ways (Banfield, Kay & Royles, 2018).

Activity 2

Three types of customers who require HR services are Line managers, employees, and consumers. Line managers and employees are the internal customers whereas consumers are external. The line manager is responsible to administer the production plants and managing the employees on their day-to-act activities while ensuring their safety and health. The main need for the manager is to schedule a timely service in the production plant so that all manufacturing employees attend the same work hour. Thus, it will be easy for him to supervise them all together and monitor the project. On the other hand, the employees’ needs are flexible work hours. The employees are the base of any organisation and their efficiency at work is the most valuable factor which determines the company’s well-being and overall performance. The employees are demanding different shifts which they can select from according to their efficiency. Some other employees are demanding work from home facility. If the employee does not need to be physically present in the office or the plant in order to do their job, they are asking to be allowed to work from home when they need (Nankervis et al., 2016). The external customers or the consumers need a proficient customer service which can take their concerns, issues, and queries into account and provide them with solutions. The customer service department should be skilled and qualified at their job so that they can satisfy the customers and ensure customer retention.

Each need conflicts with one another in terms of priority. But it is essential to prioritize one need before another. Since the employees are the key aspects of the organisation, their demands should be prioritised before the line manager. Even though the line manager needs to reduce their workload by reducing the monitoring hours, but it is important to provide the employees’ flexibility at work. On the other hand, the organisation is customer-oriented. Therefore, their demands are the top priority here. Each employee related to customer service must be trained at first to be efficient at ensuring customer satisfaction (Bratton, & Gold, 2017).

Three methods of communication selected by the HR service are written, interpersonal and oral communication such as group discussion. I will use written communication to interact with the employees, for instance writing them official e-mail or issuing an office memo. The main advantage of this, is the message I want to convey can be easily presented with clear understanding. It will negate any chance of miscommunication or misconception. On the other hand, it is time-consuming and the message cannot be altered at once after issuing it. I will communicate with the line manager using interpersonal methods and express my thoughts on the matter. It is easy to use this method as I will be able to know their reaction and attitude towards the issue and influence it positively. Then again, it also opens up a chance that the communication will go negatively and thus, it may create conflicts. Oral communication will be suitable for customer service employees. I can gather them for a group discussion. I can handle the situation delicately and utilise effective communication and active listening skills to interact. Another major advantage is that there will be more than one person conveying their issues. It is more likely that together they will give more insight and it will be easy to receive their feedback at the end. Although, this method has its own disadvantages since this method may not be appropriate for all the employees. It raises difficulty if one of the employees has poor communication skills or is afraid to speak clearly (Morgeson, Brannick & Levine, 2019).

HR service has a wide range of functions and all the functions impacts each stakeholder, the consumers and the organization as a whole. Therefore, it is not easy to handle all the responsibilities while paying separate attention to the customers who are complaining or demanding their needs. On the other hand, it is also important to maintain work relationships and encourage workplace communication amongst each other to ensure everyone’s satisfaction. As an HR assistant, it is my duty to supervise the employees in their daily activities. But I will ask someone else amongst the HR team to handle the supervision duty for some time while I will be communicating to the customers about their needs. Besides, it is possible to interact with the employees while supervising and ask about their needs. Communication on a regular basis is essential since the customers need to feel comfortable conveying their needs to me while complaining. I will address the issues as soon as someone complains so that the employees do not feel ignored or overlooked. If I maintain a positive work relationship with the management and the workers, it will be easy for them to point out concerns and not wait for the issue to get bigger (Kavanagh & Johnson, 2017). Attending a concern at once and addressing it will ensure that their expectations from the HR service are taken care of. Besides, it is also significant to encourage work-life balance in the workplace so that each employee feels valuable to the organisation and perform their job with the utmost efficiency. Appraisal, promotions, and incentives are some of the common ways to boost employees’ motivation. This will also allow them to come forward with their suggestions which may enhance the service altogether. Another major aspect is to provide them with developmental opportunities via training, learning and face-to-face conversations.

Activity 3

CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development. It is a significant aspect of an employee. Professional development refers to an individual’s skills and knowledge along with their experience while working in an organization. The development can be tracked by looking at one’s skills and knowledge before they joined the company, their improvement after they receive training and then their development throughout the years of their work life. It tracks one’s experience, and what they have learned at work either formally or personally.

CPD is important to the employees as it helps them understand their capabilities as well as what more they need to learn to be credible to perform their job. Besides, it also ensures that the workers keep their skills and knowledge updated with time. Otherwise, they cannot keep up with the organisation or its needs. It is also important to make sure that an employee is capable of contributing to their team professionally and effectively. It is as important to the employer as they can keep track of their employees’ professional abilities with the help of it. The employer can easily identify an employee suitable for a task or project by looking at their development (Emmott, 2016). This ensures that the employer is giving necessary opportunities to the employees as per their abilities while motivating others to work for the same.

Personal developmental plan:

Looking at the CIPD map, my skills need to be developed so that I can be fully qualified for my HR role. As an HR assistant, it is my responsibility to think quickly and process the information to make fast decisions. But I am not capable to make any rapid decision yet. As I am learning and improving my thinking and analyzing skills, I need to update my knowledge of each aspect of the organisation. For this I will need help and support from my superiors primarily. While the advantage is that based on their years of experience they can offer me genuine insight here, but the disadvantage would be that their methods may not align with the latest HR practices and procedures. Besides, due to busy work schedule they may not find time for me to guide me personally. But if I get hold of them and get some guidance, I will be able to process new information based on the current events and this will motivate me to decide quickly. I also aspire to act as a leader and set examples for others to follow (Pepple & Zhang, 2019). I will need to enhance my other skills to attain the leadership skill. For leadership, I will have to consult my employees in the HR department and pick their brain to know what advices they have to give for this. Moreover, I also want to know what qualities they look for in a leader based on this organisation’s value and culture. I will need help of my seniors once again. While consulting my employees would be beneficial as they are familiar with leadership roles in HR, but not all of them might be interested to give me any advice. And the seniors may not have time to provide me with the best knowledge they have to offer.

 Activity 4 

I am currently working on my managing and analysing information effectively to help other employees and support them. The main option I have available is the HR training sessions. I will take the training for 4 months, in the beginning, to understand how to handle the information and sharpen my inquisitive skills. Later I will consult the HR manager and other superiors and arrange weekly meetings with them outside or insider work. There I can ask them questions, convey my concerns and ask for their insights based on their experiences. Additionally, I will also follow my superiors’ activities and learn from them on a daily basis. Eventually, I will make some analysis and decisions and ask for their feedback. I will also ask other employees for their feedback and suggestions (Anderson, 2017).

After 3 months of working in this organisation, I have made progress on my skills and knowledge about the organisation and regarding my HR responsibilities. I have developed analysing skills along with enhancing my curious behaviour. This helps me to stay updated with the organisational needs and design plans and strategies accordingly. On the other hand, it is also an important and major part of my job descriptions that I support the employees as well as the clients. I have realised that I will need to sharpen my communication and active listening skills in order to realise everyone’s needs and support them with resources. Apart from that, I have to work on my skills of influencing my teammates and other colleagues positively to unify them and help them maintain the organisational value together. Therefore, I have revised my personal developmental plan (Pylat, 2016).

References

Anderson, V., 2017. HRD standards and standardization: where now for human resource development? Human Resource Development International, 20(4), pp.327-345.

Banfield, P., Kay, R. and Royles, D., 2018. Introduction to human resource management. Oxford University Press.

Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2017. Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.

Brewster, C., Vernon, G., Sparrow, P. and Houldsworth, E., (2016). International human resource management. Kogan Page Publishers.

Collings, D.G., Wood, G.T. and Szamosi, L.T., 2018. Human resource management: A critical approach. In Human Resource Management (pp. 1-23). Routledge.

Emmott, M., 2016. CIPD. In Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management. Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

Kavanagh, M.J. and Johnson, R.D. eds., 2017. Human resource information systems: Basics, applications, and future directions. Sage Publications.

Morgeson, F.P., Brannick, M.T. and Levine, E.L., 2019. Job and work analysis: Methods, research, and applications for human resource management. Sage Publications.

Nankervis, A.R., Baird, M., Coffey, J. and Shields, J., 2016. Human resource management: strategy and practice. Cengage AU.

Pepple, D. and Zhang, C., 2019. Financial and Managerial Aspects in HRM: A Practical Guide.

Pylat, N., 2016. Expected HR competencies: what do companies want from HR managers? EDUCATIONAL REFLECTIVE PRACTICES.

Stewart, G.L. and Brown, K.G., 2019. Human resource management. Wiley.