Developing Individuals, Teams, and Organisations Assignment Sample

Developing Individuals, Teams, and Organisations

Introduction

Developing teams and individual is all about determining the development opportunities for the teams and individual in order to meet the organisational objectives. This report will provide underpinning knowledge to the learner and HR about ways to improve their skills and carryout a performance assessment. The overall report will have two sections each covering a different aspect. In the first section, a thorough understanding of developing the skills and knowledge of the workers so as to increase their performance will be developed. In addition, the role of HR in doing so will be elaborated. A small piece of discussion will be done on the organisational and individual learning process. In the second section, the concept of high-performance working conditions will be emphasised. All that will be elucidated in this section will highlight how it leads to improved performances and developed communication.

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Section 1

1. Determine appropriate knowledge, skills, and behaviours (KSB) that are required by HR professionals across the department. (P1)

The role of an HR is dynamic and it changes with challenges and organisational scenarios. HR officers have to keep their focus on hiring, managing, directing, and retaining the talent within the organisation. In addition to this, HR contributes to managing the healthy working conditions within the organisation. The primarily focused on the sustainable growth of the business and direct the organisation and its stakeholders in achieving the goals and objectives. The KSB that are required to be reflecting in an HR officer is shown in Figure 1 and enlisted below:-

• An HR should have certain technical skills to manage the working environment. This can be done with an appropriate knowledge of some specialised software for resource planning and performance management system (Hirst, et.al, 2016).
• HR should have a required knowledge of maintaining a healthy employee-employer relationship, managing change, and should promote equality among the employees, especially when there is too much diversity in the company.
• HR officers have to keep their focus on hiring, managing, directing, and retaining the talent within the organisation.
• HR should be promoting a healthy working environment within the organisation. He/she should be motivating the employees.
• HR should recognise the challenges and problems employees are facing in order to keep them motivated for a longer period.
• The HR officers should not be too flexible that everyone starts taking them for granted and not too hard that employees get demotivated. Their role should be changing with the circumstances.

Here, one can learn that HR officers are the engines that drive an organisation on the path of achieving its goals and objectives.

b) Analyse a completed personal skills audit for an employee: Jane Cambridge (See Appendix B) to identify training and development need considering the knowledge, skills, and behaviours you identified in task (a).

Before carrying out the personal skills audit, it is important for the learners to understand what actually it means. A personal skill audit is an assessment process that is quite helpful for an individual in determining his/her strengths and weaknesses. It outlines the needs for development. This would be very beneficial for keeping the career on the right track. Here, a personal skill audit of Jane Cambridge, HR officer has been analysed in order to determine the needs for training and development (Hargreaves, et.al 2014).

IT Skills:From the analysis, it has been identified that Jane Cambridge needs to work on his skills to employ the database information and HR specialist software. However, he is excellent at using the internet, MS Word, and PowerPoint. Moreover, it was identified that he is average in MS Excel.

Communication Skills:the communication skills of Jane are moderate. Being an HR, he is poor at drafting contracts of employment. This shows his little experience in HR field. Another shortcoming that was outlined in the audit was that he is poor at training the employees. All that is required from him is two work on these two areas. In addition to this, his other communication skill is moderate that also requires a bit of attention.

Problem Solving Skills:The audit highlighted that the problem-solving skills of Jane are better than the average. All that is required from him is to work on his reasoning skills.

Supervisory Management:the experience in supervisory management is a bit low. Due to this, he lacks in many areas. Some skills he will develop with time and experience and for others, he will have to work on.

Hence, the overall personal skills audit helped in identifying the areas of improvement in Mr. Jane Cambridge.

1. Create a professional development plan for Jane Cambridge in her HR Officer role. (P2)

Report

Introduction

This report will cover a discussion on the need for inclusive training and development practices that are important in an organisation. In addition to this, the difference between organisational learning and individual learning will be done.

1. Analyse differences between organisational and individual learning; training and development. (P3)

Meaning of Inclusive Training and its perks

The concept has a different meaning in different domains. As an organisation constitutes people from different background and expertise. Therefore, all of them need to be considered while planning a development program. Inclusive training is a concept that promotes a climate where employees get equity, respect, growth, and positive career impact. An employee hones his/her skills in such a developing environment.

Difference between individual learning and organisational learning

Individual learning is based on the intentions, expectations, and needs of an individual. Capabilities play a crucial role in the individual learning process. On the other hand, organisational learning is more about learning and developing while being a part an organisation. Most of the corporate entities have well-defined culture and structure that encourage workers to be innovative, inquisitive, and willing to learn.

The major difference between the two terms are (Hargreaves, et.al 2014):-

• Individual learning is all about dealing with employee's personal development, whereas organisational learning is more focused on overall needs for organisational transformation. The latter term is all about the development of the whole team along with the individual growth.
• One thing that is common in both type of learning is that both are elements of a cycle. Individual learning will definitely impact the organisation as with the learning of an employee, an organisation also develop and learn and vice versa.
• Individual learning will result in the development of an individual only, whereas the in organisation learning, the whole team learn and grows.
• The latter concept is costlier than the former as it would require a large amount of time, resources, and technical support.

Understanding the difference between Training and Development

Employee training and development is one of the crucial parts of the HRM. Both the processes aimed at increasing the performance and productivity of an employee. Training is the learning activity that is provided from the organisation's side so as to develop the skills and knowledge. On the other hand, development is a well-structured activity which is a self-assessment. The main aim is to make the organisation grows while learning (Marzilli, 2014).

Development:This process is linked with the top-level workers and therefore, it is also called executive development. It is the systematic procedure the management employees have to undergo in order to hone their existing skill set.

Training: Training is a learning the process, wherein trainees are provided with some opportunities to learn the crucial and quintessential skills that would be required for the job.

The major difference between the two terms are (Yang, et.al, 2014).:-

• Training is short-course activity i.e., 1-6 months, whereas the development is a long-term process and may take years to complete.
• The main aim of the training is to develop the skills of the employees, whereas the development aims at building the knowledge.
• Training takes place under some instructor who provides necessary guidance on regular basis, whereas in the process of development, the manager prepares his modus operandi and learning schedule and future assignments.
• If it’s an individual learning, then a person undergoes training and development simultaneously.

1. Analyse the need for continuous learning and professional development to drive sustainable business performance (P4)

The continuous learning process is characterised as the process of constant expansion of knowledge, skills, and understanding through the mediums of learning. As the business world is rapidly changing and new variables are introduced every day, there is a need for continuous professional and learning development. This is important from the organisation's sustainability point of view. Continuous learning is essential for both employees and organisation. Many employers provide financial support for training while a few offer financial incentives (McDermott, 2014). On a personal level, it is about improving the skills-sets. Organisations should embrace a culture of "showing concern for the employees" as it would help in retaining experienced and talented employees. Hiring a new employee is a costlier option for the organisation. The organisation is running behind creating a pool of talent by training their employee regularly. This continuous learning process is important as it would help the employees to respond to ever-changing needs. In addition to this, it is also necessary for keeping employees engaged and motivated as the new learning and knowledge would add to their arsenal. Employees will also feel that they are being valued by the company.

There are many benefits of the continuous learning process:-

• It increases the productivity, employee satisfaction that further results in higher retention rate.
• It is said that a company that emphasises learning are always in profits.
• It helps in combating with business uncertainties and issues.

Provide a detailed professional skills audit that demonstrates evidence of personal reflection and evaluation [M1]

Being an HR officer, I am responsible for carrying out a wide range of operations. Even though I know I am not a perfect piece of HR, I did nothing to turn my weak leadership skills into my strengths. The professional skills audit helped me in knowing what my actual strengths and weaknesses are and where I do stand as a manager. Now, I have a list of areas and fields which I am lacking in. I will try to improve my IT skills, communication skills, and problem-solving skills.

Apply to learn cycle theories to analyse the importance of implementing continuous professional development [M2]

According to Kolb, “learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience.”He proposed his famous Kolb's theory that is totally focusing on the internal cognitive process of the learner. It is a four-stage learning cycle theory through which a learner has to go through. These stages are “concrete experiences, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, active experimentation.”The significance of the learning theory in the context of continuous professional development is that it helps in sound decision-making (McLeod, 2017). This may result in improved performance, enhanced results and productivity. All this would be beneficial for individual growth and organisational growth as well.

Produce a detailed and coherent professional development plan that appropriately sets out learning goals and training in relation to the learning cycle to achieve sustainable business performance objectives [D1]

Conclusion

In this report, a discussion on the need for inclusive training and development practices that are important in an organisation was done. In addition to this, differences between organisational learning and individual learning were enlisted.  

Section 2

1. i) Demonstrate an understanding of how HPW contributes to employee engagement and competitive advantage within a specific organisational situation. (P5)

High-Performance work culture are designed to improvise the productivity and effectiveness of the organisation and employees as well. In addition to this, companies can cut their financial expenditure by following the guidelines and HPW systems. The characteristics of an HPWS include employee creativity, job engagement, organisational identity, employee proactive nature, and employee voice. One of the most important features of an HPW is that it creates values for the employees. Currently, different researchers have given their own definition based on their understanding of HPWS. According to Austin (2013), it is a system of vertically and horizontally aligned work practices that are structured in such a way that it affects both motivation and ability of the worker.

It has been in many cases that lack high-performance culture within an organisation results in low responsiveness to ever-changing business scenarios. In addition to this, it may act as a barrier to creativity, improvement, learning, job engagement, and proactive behaviour. The HPWS improves the organisational flexibility that helps the workers to establish relationships with another department that can improve the flow of information and performances(Moga, 2017).In addition to this, it enhances the overall development opportunities. Workers are more engaged within the organisation. Organisational performance improves and that ultimately result in gaining competitive advantages (Rabl, et.al, 2014).

Analyse the benefits of applying HPW with justifications to a specific organisational situation [M3]

Many research studies have given their overview on the high-performing culture within an organisation. One of the most significant benefits of the HPWS is that it provides an opportunity to evaluate both financial and non-financial perks that such systems bring to the organisation. The benefits of HPWS consist of the following:-

• Improvement in employee attitude:In HPWS, employees take more responsibility than the normal which enhances the organisation’s services, products, and processes. They are more innovative and creative (Qi and Tian, 2012).
• Better Cooperation within an organisation:In such an environment, employees tend to be more cooperative, supporting, and helping towards each other and the customers. They believe that they are important for the company and their contribution matters to the organisation.
• Better performance and financial results:The organisation can achieve higher results and outcomes by establishing a culture of high-performance. Productivity enhances the same number of employees are doing more amount of work. This ultimately
• Better Competitive Advantage:Having higher high-performing scores will result in better financial results and help in achieving a better competitive advantage. The organisation's revenue will grow and perform at its best in order to achieve the best performance.

1. ii) Evaluate different approaches to performance management and using specific examples showing how they support high-performance culture and commitment. (P6)

For every organisation, it is essential to measure the performance of workers as it is a part of effective performance management. Majority of the organisations measure the workers’ performance by assessing their contribution to the firm's growth. There is a number of factors, such as compensation, working conditions, job satisfaction, company policies, bonus systems, technology, etc., that plays a significant role in measuring the employee productivity. There are five approaches for performance evaluation, result approach, behavioural approach, comparative approach, quality approach, and attribute approach (Austin, 2013). Out of these approaches, there are two of the widely used approaches that have been explained here:-

Result Approach:Here, the performance of the workers is compared with the desired results. The basic aim of the employing such approach in analysing the performance of employees is to ensure the effectiveness, relevance, and efficiency in the working environment. In order to get the best results, the employees should be provided training sessions in order to improve the overall performance.

Comparative Approach: This approach is a bit different than the aforementioned. Here, certain criteria are set for each employee in order to evaluate the performances. This is necessary when there is some skill gap. This helps in maintaining the performance of an employee even if a person lacks in some skills. This will the employee to manage the work accordingly and contribute to the organisations (Rabl, et.al, 2014).

Critically evaluate the different approaches and make judgments on how effective they can be to support high-performance culture and commitment [M4].

The result approaches focus on the four major aspects of performance, such as customer satisfaction, financial, internal & operations, and learning & growth. The advantages of using a result-based approach for measuring and evaluating the performance are many. It converts business strategy into tasks. It considers both internal and external environment of an organisation. This method is not relying on the financial and other operational indicators of job performance. On the other hand, there is a certain downside to this. It puts a lesser focus on human resource aspect and stakeholders in performance evaluation indicators (Real, et.al, 2014). The comparative approach makes use of graphic rating scale and paired comparison. Based on this, the employees are ranked in groups. However, the downside of this method is that the ranking is based on subjective judgment. This may induce the biasedness in the result.

Provide a valid synthesis of knowledge and information resulting in appropriate judgments on how HPW and mechanisms used to support HPW lead to improved employee engagement, commitment, and competitive advantage. [D2]

In an organisation with a high-performing culture, the workers' performance is better than par. The reason being their better productivity and satisfaction. In addition to this, effective leadership also plays a vital role in managing the employees, resolving their issues, and helping them to achieve their personal goals along with a contribution to the organisational goals. Employees take more responsibility than the normal which enhances the organisation’s services, products, and processes. They are more innovative and creative (Yang, et.al, 2014).

Conclusion

In this report, an underpinning knowledge to the learner and HR about ways to improve their skills and carryout a performance assessment were provided. The overall report had two sections each covering different aspect. The first section gave a thorough understanding on developing the skills and knowledge in the workers so as to increase their performance. In addition, the role of HR in doing so will be elaborated. A small piece of discussion was done on the organisational and individual learning process. In the second section, the concept of high-performance working conditions was emphasised. All that was elucidated in this section. In addition to this, the report highlightedhow it leads to improved performances and developed communication.

References

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