he Development Of Hr Practitioners Sample Guide

Question: Discuss about the Human Resource (HR) for The Development of Hr Practitioners? Answer: Introduction Hr Human Resource (HR) is a department within an organization that has the responsibility of screening, hiring and training of new recruits that fill the job vacancies in the organization and administering programs for the welfare of existing employees. The main objective of the HR department is to enhance the productivity of the employees, resolve any conflict that arises within the workforce and increase the Return On Investment (ROI) for the company. Apart from hiring training, this department is also responsible for performance management, appraisals, promotions, monetary non-monetary compensation, employee satisfaction, conflict management, foster innovation, enforcement of company policies/ procedures and firing of employees. The HR department is involved in Human Resource Planning (HRP) while maintain a balance between the employees and the job positions in order to avoid a condition where there is shortage of employees or where there is surplus manpower. HR professionalism To understand the HR professionalism and to conduct myself as the HR professional, the study of the CIPD HR professionalism map is done. In the CIPD HR map, the core behaviors that are needed for the effective HR professionals are explained. It gives the outlines of the skills, knowledge, and behavior that an HR professional needed to be successful by dividing them into 8 behaviors, 10 professional areas, and professional competences 4 banks (Gareth Bell, 2013). Credibility and integrity are two fundamental attributes of professionalism. HR professional should exhibit several qualities like integrity, situation analysis, strategic decision making, leadership, initiative, commitment, involvement etc. I will be working with Vodafone. Vodafone is a telecom company that is headquartered in London. Vodafone has its network in 26 countries. The organization has over 1 lac employees. The organization has retail stores and also provides online services to its customers. The company offers postpaid and prepaid services (Ulrich et al., 2013). CIPD is a professional benchmark for HR professionals. It ensures knowledge of latest practices and theories and best practices to be followed in the field of HRM. HR professional areas and behaviors Following are the different professional areas and behaviors related to HR professionalism: 10 professional areas - Insights, strategy and solution, HR leads, Good employee relations, Learning and talent development, Employee engagement, Resourcing and talent planning, Performance and rewards, Organization design and development, Service information and delivery (Biswas and Islam, 2012). 8 behaviors- Courage to take challenges, curiosity for new ideas, decisive thinker, ability to influence, personally credible, pro-active, collaborative, driven to deliver. The qualities needed to become an effective HR professional An HR profession should have the following qualities (refer diagram 2) to rise the ladder of success: Talent development: It is the responsibility of the HR team to recruit the right candidates for the job openings in the company. Once an employee gets on-board, HR department need to develop a training program in order to enhance his efficiency. It is important to monitor the performance of employees and recognize their talent and hard work. Flexible: The most important role of the HR professional is being reactive, as the unexpected can happen anytime (Segon, 2014). There are situations like breach of code of conduct, issues related to discrimination and harassment, issues related to inter-department conflicts etc. Each situation should be handled very tactfully. Integrity: The behavior of HR professional should always exhibit honesty and truthfulness. This behavior is seen in the CIPD code of conduct and ethics of the profession (Brimberg and Drezner, 2015). Other employees of the organization look at the HR department for the high behavioral standards. Code of conduct should be followed while dealing with situations. Confidentiality: HR professional has access to a great deal of information that should not be disclosed such as payment records, disciplinary records, medical records, previous employers reference. Corporate social responsibility: There is a necessity to have ethical behavior not only on the personal level also on the organizational level. The eternal stakeholders and employees also expect ethical behavior from the organization (Ellwood, 2011). The HR professionals should exhibit ethical behavior so that they become role models for others. Communication skills: An HR professional should have excellent communications skills and credibility to influence the employees of the organization and should be confident enough to put across his point. Team management and leadership: It is very important for an HR professional to be able to work as a team member and a team leader (Schroeder, 2012). For a team to function properly, a team should be a right size and everybody should be given a clearly defined role. There has to be proper communication between team members and there should be group norms applicable to each team member. HR professionalisms four concentric circles There are four concentric circles that refer to HR professionalism: (2.1) First circle related to HR professionalism The first circle refers to self-management. An HR professional has to improve his knowledge regarding various issues that will increase his personal credibility. The HR professional should have in-depth knowledge of company's rules, policies and code of conduct. He should have a sound decision making ability and ability to take feedback in a constructive way (Bailey, 2011). After making an assessment, I have realized that I should understand all the company policies and code of conduct so that I can be a guide to others in Vodafone. (2.2) Second circle related to HR professionalism The second circle refers to team management. While leading a team it is very important to make impartial decisions, coordinate with other team members, motivate the team, have well-developed plans and delegate tasks in order to meet deadlines. After making an assessment, I have realized that I need to work on my team management skills. In a company like Vodafone, it is very important to have good interpersonal skills, ability to make quick and rational decisions and delegate work to team members. (2.3) Third circle related to HR professionalism The third circle refers to the ability to manage higher authorities. An HR professional should have excellent communications skills and credibility to influence the higher authorities (Ellwood, 2011). Confidence, passion, pro-activeness and the ability to accept challenges are some of the key qualities that an HR professional should have. After making an assessment, I have realized that my pro-activeness and the ability to take initiatives will help in managing higher authorities in Vodafone. (2.4) Fourth circle related to HR professionalism The fourth circle refers to the ability to manage the entire organization. Good interpersonal skills, sound knowledge of company protocols, ability to convince others and rational decision-making are the key qualities that an HR professional should have. Recruitment, training and development, job designing, performance and rewards, motivation and job satisfaction are the areas where HR professionals are involved (Segon, 2014). I have realized that Im good at making rational decisions but I need to improve my communication skills in order to manage people from different departments in Vodafone. Two scenarios where involvement of HR advisor is required An HR advisor needs expertise to advice employees of the company on various laws, company policies and code of conduct that needs to be followed. Recruitment, training and retention of employees is also taken care of, by the HR advisor. (3.1) Scenario 1- Lack of support from immediate seniors The employee's boss does not support him in his learning phase rather pressurizes him to deliver his targets on day one and threatens him that if he will not meet his targets, his performance appraisal will get affected. The boss also threatens that if he does not deliver the expected results his profile or territory will be changed (Bailey, 2011). In such a scenario, the intervention of the HR advisor is required. When a new employee joins an organization, he should be given considerable time to adjust and learn the processes/ technology related to his job position. The HR advisor should interact with both the parties- new employee and his boss to find a way out (Ellwood, 2011). It is important to understand the needs and requirements of the employee in order to enhance his efficiency. The manager should be issued a warning for his rude behavior to his juniors. An HR professional should possess qualities like situation analysis and conflict resolution to handle such a solution. (3.2) Scenario 2- Case of harassment and bias For example, there is a manager who made an indecent proposal to a female employee which she declined. As a revenge the manage always finds faults in her work, humiliates her in-front of other team members, makes deadlines more stringent for her and delegates work to her that is not relevant to her role in the organization (Zheltoukhova, 2015). This is a case of harassment and bias. The employees should be made aware of whistleblowing. They should be made aware that if they encounter any situation that is against the ethics, they should report the incident to their manager or HR professional. A warning letter should be issued against the manager for his behavior. Approach towards CPD CPD (Continuous Professional Development) is an important part of professionalism because of the following matters: there is need of up to date knowledge in the professionalism; new challenges are faced that need new skills; need for the development of progress; requirement of the professional life; intrinsic motivation (Gray, 2014). For the personal development plan, I need to know what my role in the organization is and where I want to reach. For this, I have to focus on the current role and the need of the development that is needed for the achievement of the goal. For this consideration of current, evolving and future role is necessary and also the reflection on the current role is necessary (Ireland, Cure and Hopkins, 2009). The reflection on the current role and development can be done through the self-assessment. It is important to ask for a feedback. (4.1) Three development needs for CPD With the analysis of my strengths and weakness, I have discovered that meeting deadlines, improving communication skills and team work are my development needs that I need to work upon for the achievement of goals (Zheltoukhova, 2015). Thus my top three development needs are: multitasking in order to meet deadlines, improving communication skills and team work. (4.2) Initiatives towards development needs In order to work on the development needs, I have taken the following initiatives: In order to improve my communication skills, I am attending various seminars and tutorials on language proficiency, body language and personality development. I have attended a course on time management and implementing all my learnings in the practical tasks. Setting priorities at work: It is very important to prioritize the tasks at hand. We should distinguish between important work and urgent work. The best way to manage time is to make a to-do list. After completing the list, rank the tasks in order of their priority. Use of a planning tool: A personal planning tool can be used to enhance productivity. We can use diaries, white board, stick notes, calendars etc. to write down the tasks to be completed along with their schedule. It is important to review the planning tool on daily basis. Tasks with the highest priority should be marked or highlighted. Use of PDA: Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) can be used to keep a record for all meetings and appointments (Hirsh, 2010). The technique of color coding can be used to distinguish between business meetings and personal appointments. Tasks can be prioritized and deadlines can be assigned to each task. Work in organized manner: It is very important to work in an organized way to get rid of clutter. Delete all the unwanted information from your desktop/laptop and diaries. All the files and documents should be stored in an organized way so that time is not wasted in sorting out information from files and documents (Hirsh, 2010). Delegate tasks to people who can handle them efficiently and have the appropriate skills to handle a task. Managing time schedules: At this time the person should take up challenging activities and complete them without any interruption (Hempel, 2004). A person should manage time in such a way that he can create a balance between work life and professional life. Breakdown of task: It is always advisable to break a task into smaller tasks with specific and realistic deadlines. This will help in proper utilization of time. Manage external factor: There are external factors that may hamper time management and time scheduling like an unexpected phone call, unexpected visitor, sudden family obligation etc. It is important to keep a check on these factors and stay away from factors that result in time wastage in order to stay focused. In order to be an efficient team leader and team player, I'm working on my interpersonal skills, ability to make quick and rational decisions, work delegation and ability to motivate the team members. I am attending seminars and reading articles on team work/ team management. (4.3) Performance measurement against development plan Performance measurement tools are used to measure the performance against set objectives. In industries various tools like KPIs, performance appraisals (360-degree feedback, management by objective, forced distribution, performance ranking), dashboards, six-sigma, benchmarking, rating scales, self-assessment, balanced scorecard are used for performance management (Ireland, Cure and Hopkins, 2009). 360 Feedback has been used to measure performance related to deadlines, communication skills and team work. As per the feedback obtained from juniors, seniors and co-workers, there is improvement in communication skills and team work but deadlines have not been met for some assignment. As per the graphic rating method, on a scale of 1-5, communication skills have been rated as 4, team work has been rated as 4 and meeting deadlines has been rated as 3. 1 stands for poor and 5 stands for excellent. Appendix Figure 1: CIPD HR Professional Map Figure 2: Qualities required to become a competent HR professional Figure 3: CPD Cycle Figure 4: CPD for the last 12 months Figure 5: PDP plan References Bailey, M. (2011). Policy, professionalism, professionality and the development of HR practitioners in the UK.Jnl Euro Industrial Training, 35(5), pp.487-501. Biswas, H. and Islam, M. (2012). Ergodic theory of one dimensional Map.Bangladesh Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, 47(3). Brimberg, J. and Drezner, Z. (2015). A locationallocation problem with concentric circles.IIE Transactions, 47(12), pp.1397-1406. by Gareth Bell, I. (2013). HR at the heart of SME performance: an interview with Dr Jill Miller, Research Adviser, CIPD.Human Resource Management International Digest, 21(5), pp.43-45. Ellwood, F. (2011). Understanding the importance of a personal development plan.Dental Nursing, 7(3), pp.160-163. Gray, D. (2014). 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Zheltoukhova, K. (2015). New ways of working: what is the real impact on the HR profession?.Strategic HR Review, 14(5), pp.163-167. Bibligraphy Bailey, M. (2011). Policy, professionalism, professionality and the development of HR practitioners in the UK.Jnl Euro Industrial Training, 35(5), pp.487-501. Brimberg, J. and Drezner, Z. (2015). A locationallocation problem with concentric circles.IIE Transactions, 47(12), pp.1397-1406. Ellwood, F. (2011). Understanding the importance of a personal development plan.Dental Nursing, 7(3), pp.160-163. Gray, D. (2014). Evaluating CPD provision: is it a qualification or a CPD course?.Veterinary Nursing Journal, 29(6), pp.210-212. Hempel, P. (2004). Preparing the HR profession for technology and information work.Human Resource Management, 43(2-3), pp.163-177. Hirsh, W. (2010). Thought leaders share their views on the HR profession and its direction for the future.Strategic HR Review, 9(5). Schroeder, H. (2012). Developing a skills assessment tool for specialist jobs.Strategic HR Review, 11(3). Ulrich, D., Younger, J., Brockbank, W. and Ulrich, M. (2013). The State of the HR Profession.Human Resource Management, 52(3), pp.457-471. Winkler, V. (2008). CIPD HRD conference and exhibition, London, UK, 14-17 April 2008.Strategic HR Review, 7(5).