Impacts of Human Resource Decision Making-Microsoft.

Consequently, the present research report is divided into two parts. The first part will throw light on the purpose of and scope of human resource management, recruitment and selection in Say it with chocolate”. Under this, various functions of human resource manager, his roles, responsibilities and approaches to recruitment and selection will be discussed. On the other hand, the second part of the report will focus towards performance of the employees, reward, motivation factors, developmental opportunities and other factors that influence the human resource decision making in Microsoft. The later part of the report will also evaluate the key approaches of employee engagement and employment legislation relation to UK that impacts the decision making of HRM.

TASK 1

A.Purpose of HR function and its significance, current problems and future plans for growth

Throwing light in relation with the Human Resource Management, it is concerned with the application as well as comprehension of human resource and their management within an organization. They also help in developing, training and managing the human capital in order to achieve the organizational goals (Bratton and Gold, 2012). HR department is also liable for efficient utilization of the resources so as to minimize the costs and take the firm to the path of success. Thus, it can be said that the main purpose of HRM is to improve the abilities and skills of the employees, achieving the organizational objectives, maintaining good relationship and developing each and every individual by creating strategies, policies and plans.

Focusing towards Say it with chocolate”, the HR department of the firm adopts the general functions of Human resource so as to make the organization run successfully. In addition to this, the firm also takes into account particular HR methods as well as varied approaches to recruit eligible and qualified applicant for the required job (Robert, 2000). Pertaining to this, the main function of HR of Say it with chocolateis being defined underneath:

• Recruitment and selection– This is considered as the main function of HR. With this function in place, potential candidates are being selected for the vacant job. Various approaches are used for recruiting and selecting employees such as aptitude tests, interviews and group discussions.
• Training and development– In this function, the department makes arrangement for effective training and development events as per the need of the employees and areas that are required to be improved.
• Human resource planning– This is also a vital function, as it helps in forecasting the future needs of the human resource and makes arrangement in advance so that operations and working of the firm is not affected (David, 2002).
• Compensation and benefits– Each and every employee work in return of getting something. Through this, the HR department of Say it with chocolate makes sure that proper and effective compensation is being offered to the employees so that they feel motivated.
• Performance management– With this function, the performance of employees is being appraised and evaluated so that better performance can be recognized and flaws if any can be identified at the early stages and corrective actions can be taken timely.

B.Roles and responsibilities of HR officer

Human resource officer is responsible for making plans and policies that leads to the development of the organization. Basically, he is required to handle the employment sector of the firm. In the current case study, Say it with chocolateis facing problem of high employee turnover and the firm is not able to manage the increasing workforce. Furthermore, the feedback of the clients also reveals that the quality of some of the products is decreased relatively from the previous one (Govaerts, 2013). Pertaining to this, there is high number of vacancies in the production and administration department. Consequently, the main role and responsibility of HR officer in Say it with chocolateis:

• Development and implementation of HR initiatives as well as systems
• Involvement in the recruitment and selection process by creating proper job description, posting advertisement and preparing for varied tests
• Supporting management in relation with grievance issues
• Evaluating working conditions and environment

C.Pros and Cons of selection methods used by Say it with chocolate”

In each and every organization irrespective of the industry to which it belongs, large amount of profit is re-invested in recruitment and selection processes. It means that if there is high employee turnover rate within the organization than surely it will costs more to the firm. It is the experience of the organization in the market which helps in reaping out effective performance of the firm (Costen and Salazar, 2012). Similarly, Say it with chocolatehas also made efforts in recruiting best worker on board and make sure that they stay within the firm for long period of time so that their abilities and experience of the company merge with each other and deliver efficient performance. Recruitment is nothing but pool of applicants being made available to the firm so that best candidate is selected for the right job and at right time. In order to select the best candidate, the manager of the Say it with chocolatehas created own assessment test related to English comprehension and Mathematics. Furthermore, they are required to achieve 50 percent marks to pass and move on to the next level, which is an interview. Interview is just an informal chat of around 15 to 20 minutes and afterwards the applicant gets selected for the specified job. However, the applicants have complained about the fairness of the test. Thus, it is important to take into consideration the pros and cons of the selection method being adopted by Say it with chocolate(Smith, 2017)

Advantages	Disadvantages
Seeking help from the external method, the firm will be able to have large pool of applicant for the specified job and can select best out of them	This method of selection will prove very costly for the company
With the external method and online exams, innovative and skillful human resource can be made available within the firm	It is also possible that the candidate being selected lacks necessary qualities being required for performing tasks (McQuerrey, 2018)
The performance of the company will improve, as new set of skills will occupy the vacant job	It is a time consuming method

D.Potential Improvements can be made to the current selection method

The current selection method being adopted by firm has several negative and positive factors being attached to it. However, it is quite important to consider that many applicants have complained about the fairness of the tests being adopted by HR department of Say it with chocolate”. Thus, it becomes necessary to make improvements in the selection method. Firstly, it is recommended to implement aptitude and personality tests in place of mathematics tests. Through this, the overall personality of the candidate will be judged. In addition to this, at the time of interview, behavioral questions should be included so as to understand the way of thinking of the prospects and the type of choices he or she will going to make at work. Finally, a panel interview should be arranged, as different people will oversee different things in applicants (Kumari, 2018).

TASK 2

A.A Job specification for a role of Receptionist

Required qualification	For the Receptionist in Say with It chocolate”, there is a need of Bachelor’s degree in the field of management. In addition to this, certified course in Human resource development and communication is necessary
Personal characteristics	Basic knowledge about computers, communication and inter-personal skills, time management and basic knowledge related to HRM (Davidson, McPhail and Barry, 2012)
Experience required	More than 2 years of experience

B.Rationale for a suitable medium for placing the advertisement

Say it with chocolateis making use of on the jobs board outside of the main site as well as the vacancies is circulated within the organization. However, the management is of the belief that this medium of placing the advertisement is insufficient and they need to change their medium of advertisement. The HR department has a vacancy of Receptionists and the most suitable advertisement media can be print media. The firm can publish the vacancy in newspaper, radio and magazine. It is being growing in most of the industries and is one of the easiest ways to reach the target audience (Crick and Spencer, 2012). With this awareness about the vacancy will be spread easily. Finally, in the print media, the team of HR can manage the budget and expenses, as they can select their own space for placing an advertisement.

C.Advantages and disadvantages of the previous methods of advertising jobs in the organization

Advantages	Disadvantages
It helps in increasing the motivation of the existing employees and retain them in the firm	There will be lack of diversity, innovation and uniqueness in work
The operations within the firm does not get affected and a continuity is maintained if the internal recruitment is done (Chan and Kuok, 2012)	There will be less generation of new ideas, as same workforce is placed at a new job role
There will be less paper work, as employee has already gone through this process earlier	There are chances of creation of discord among the employees in this method of advertising jobs

D.Questions for interview

At the time of taking interview for the job position of receptionists, various questions can be asked that can render a support in making the decision making process related to selection of the best candidate easy. While asking the questions, the human resource manager and his team needs to take into consideration the type of job roles, responsibilities, the market to be targeted and the culture within the company (Doyle, 2018). Following are the few questions that will significantly improve the selection decision making process and are described beneath:

1.What will you do to keep up in this fast paced working environment?

2.What makes you best fit for this job position?

3.How you keep your daily work schedule organized?

4.What type of role is being played by a receptionist in a client’s first impression of an organization?

5.How you will deal with an angry customer either on phone or in person?

6.Can you describe your previous duties as an administrative assistance?

TASK 3

A.Evaluating the benefits of apprenticeship and graduate training to both the organization and employees of such schemes

Management of human capital can be performed within an organization by taking into consideration numerous practices and method. Taking an example of Microsoft in this part of the report, the firm is an American multinational technology company engaged in the development, licenses, manufacturing, supporting and selling of computer software, electronics and personal computer and services. The main mission of the firm is to empower each and every person as well as organization to achieve more (Microsoft, 2018). The HR department of the firm undertakes various practices such as recruitment and selection, flexible working options, performance management system, training and development programs etc. However, the most important and popular among them is apprenticeship and graduate training schemes.

Throwing light towards the graduate training schemes, Microsoft invest huge amount on employing graduates who have established impressive academic ability but have no experience of the outer world of work. This program helps in bridging gap and provides skills to the graduates so as to become a part of larger team in the near future. The training period last for one to two years and provides an opportunity to the student to have an experience of numerous areas of business prior selecting a final career path in the firm. On the other hand, apprenticeship is defined as a system of training a new generation or profession with on the job training. Most of such type of training is performed while working. It last for 3 to 7 years and after completion of apprenticeship, individuals gets a professional certification level of competence (Routledge and Goss-Turner, 2013).

Benefits of apprenticeship to employer and employee

• It helps the workers in gaining knowledge and skills being needed to succeed in the selected industry or area
• It gives a best chance to people to put their skills and abilities into practice
• Apprenticeship helps Microsoft in reducing employee turnover and employee absenteeism
• Increases the productivity of the firm and improves employee relations

Benefits of graduate training scheme to employer and employee

• Employee gets training and development opportunities
• Get a chance to rotate in various departments and can get an experience of numerous functions
• Microsoft gets an opportunity to choose the best applicant from the pool of graduates
• Graduates are paid lower salaries as compared to the experienced hires and thus, it is quite affordable for the firm (Benefits for Worker & Employer, n.d)
• Graduates contributes to millions of new ideas and skills and hence, increases the return on investment

B.Developmental opportunities available to staff once they are in a permanent job role

Microsoft follows apprenticeship and graduates training scheme in order to recruit best candidate for their organization. In apprenticeship, training is performed while working and it lasts for 3 to 7 years. However, in the graduate training scheme, student works in different departments for more than 2 to 3 years and once they are permanent, numerous benefits as well as developmental opportunities are available to them. Getting a permanent job role is an achievement in itself. They become eligible for receiving perks and other monetary benefits. In addition to this, they also receive more compensation package. The most important is the security of jobs and advancement opportunities in respective field (Hoque, 2013). It is not sure that each and every permanent job holder will be offered an opportunity of promotion, but there are chances that permanent employees might qualify for advancement opportunities which are not possible in case of temporary job role. Microsoft oversees their permanent employees as their long term investment and therefore, getting a promotion might serve a best interest for the workers.

C.Benefits of flexible working practices

Focusing towards flexible working practices, it means offering flexibility to the workers on hours, where and when they work. It is traditionally related with the needs of parents and careers. However, now organizations are also realizing the benefits of these practices in the way of working. Microsoft has significantly adopted flexible working practices such as home working, part time working, compressed hours, job shares and variable hours in order to provide their workers an opportunity to achieve work life balance (The pros and cons of flexible working, 2018). There are many benefits of these practices to the company such as:

Accessibility– Nowadays, companies are making use of information and innovative technology like Google Apps and staff members can make use of communication and collaborative tool to stay connected with the clients and colleagues. In addition to this, the affordability and accessibility of smart phones has enabled employee to access their mails, contacts, files and other options in a single touch at the time when they move. Thus, it has made employees to work remotely from any part of the world (Hendry and Pettigrew, 2000).

Automation– It is not necessary that only by sitting in the office one can communicate with their clients and pass on information. The use of automation such as Tweetdeck, Wordpress has helped Microsoft to allow their employees to work from home and or any other location and maintain online presence.

Increase in the productivity– With the flexible working practices, employee feel comfortable and motivated and employ their best efforts so as to achieve individual as well as organizational goals.

Employee retention– When the employees are satisfied, they put in more efforts to take the company to the path of success. With these practices in place, they feel belongingness and stay within the firm for longer period of time.

D.Motivating workers through job design and systems of reward

Microsoft has adopted various techniques to motivate their staff members. However, the most important among them is job design and systems of reward. At Microsoft, each and every employee gets an equal opportunity to be rewarded, as they are excellent performers. Those workers who have showed commitment to excellence and performance have been given stock options (Cocca and Alberti, 2010). They are also given equal incentives and rewards. In addition to this, the company also offered many benefits and rewards such as food availability, transportation, discounts and child care benefits in order to motivate their workers. Other than rewards, benefits and compensation, the company has adopted an important solution to curtail down all the HR issues is the creation of new workplace setup and creative job design so as to encourage effective communication amid the employees. Under this system, the employees of Microsoft are clustered together as per their roles and responsibilities to ensure that they will build a strong team. Employees regained their confidence and have started learning to trust each other and face the challenges effectively.

TASK 4

A.Defining employee engagement

Speaking in relation with the employee engagement, it is nothing but a workplace approach which results in the right conditions for all the employees of the firm to give their best efforts in each passing days. They show their commitment to the goals of the organization and motivated to achieve success for the firm. Seeking help from the engagement strategies, company reduce their employee turnover rate, retain the customers and workers, improve the productivity and can earn high amount of revenue (Campbell, 2012). There are many researches which have showed that each and every worker is confident enough that they will get the same job in two or three months, if their job is lost or quit. This trend reveals the fact that if organization does not offer a compelling reason to employees to stay, they will definitely find a new job.

B.Employee engagement an integral strategy of employee relations

Articulating in relation with the employee engagement, it is defined as a situation where each and every employee is engaged and busy in their work that they have no time to spread rumors and gossip. It has been noticed that if the employees are engaged in their work than they are more likely to avoid fights with their colleagues and therefore, enjoys warm and healthy relationship with each other. It is quite obvious that most of the time the workers is busy in his or her work and stays away from nasty politics and interfere in each other’s work (Castellanos, Rubia and Conrod, 2011). Thus, it can be said that employee relation and employee engagement has direct relationship with each other. Of more employees are affianced in their work, the better will be the relationship amid them.

It is a right saying that an empty mind is a devil’s workshop. People who are not involved in any kind of productive work are actually looking for excuses to argue and starts fighting. They involve themselves in destructive work and break the peace of the firm. On the other hand, those employees who think that there job is interesting would never bother about what their colleague are chatting. They are just attentive and concerned with their piece of work and strive to complete within a stipulated time period. Thus, it can be rightly said that employee engagement is integral strategy of employee relations (Bühler, 2010).

C.Key approaches to engaging workers and their importance in improving communication in the workplace

Talking in reference with the employee engagement strategies, it is not only money or remuneration package that will go in a long run to keep the employee engage. In fact, it is the three key elements that make the employee feel engaged i.e. makes them that their work in meaningful, they are trusted and respected and finally, they feel secure and self-confident. In the summit, various strategies have been discussed to make the employee engaged in his work. The most important among them is, understanding the opinions and feedbacks of the employees. The organization should understand that the employees are the bedrock on which the whole firm is founded. The more the organization will take the opinion of their workers, the more they will feel trusted, empowered and respected and in turn will be more engaged (Employee Engagement Summit, 2018). Secondly, it is important to create that culture which considers the preferences and learning styles of each and every worker. If training and other projects are according to their learning style, employees will be more motivated to perform better. Other than this, good constant and steady communication, effective training and development events, company and employee meetings are some of the approaches through which employee engagement is possible. All these approaches helps in improving the communication within the workplace, as more they will communicate, more they will involve and trust each other. Through this, employee relation with improve and they will work together to achieve organizational objectives. Get Assignment help Perth with the Australian Experts Team.

D.The main pieces of employment legislation in the UK and their influence in HRM decision making

• Workplace equality– It is important at the time of recruitment to pass on minute information to the applicants. Further, there should be no criteria related to selection of a particular caste, society, age, gender and creed. They should be treated equal and must be given all the facilities stipulated in the law (Abdi and Aulakh, 2012).
• Compensation and benefits– Another important legislation related to employment is compensation and benefit. It is vital that HR department of the firm should clarify the remuneration to be paid to the employee prior their selection. Furthermore, minimum wage limit being described in the act must be followed.
• Health and Safety at Work Act 1974– Further, it is crucial for Microsoft to offer healthy and conductive working environment to their employees. They must offer safe instruments to work, medical facility, travel and tour allowance etc. Through this, there will be good relationship between employer and employee (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

CONCLUSION

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Consequently, it can be said that for every organization who desire to operate successfully requires involvement of human resource in relation with customers, employees or owners. They also need management of these resources so that it is possible to achieve the main aim of the firm in a systematic and efficient manner. Because of this, HRM and HR department came into existence. Further, it was identified from the analysis human resource management and it numerous practices as well as approaches supported Say it with chocolateand Microsoft in achieving their goals and expectations.

REFERENCES

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• Bratton, J. and Gold, J., 2012.Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Bühler, M., Vollstädt-Klein, S., Kobiella, A., Budde, H., Reed, L.J., Braus, D.F., Büchel, C. and Smolka, M.N., 2010. Nicotine dependence is characterized by disordered reward processing in a network driving motivation.Biological psychiatry, 67(8), pp.745-752.
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