Developing Yourself as an Effective Human Resources or Learning and Development Practitioner - Essay Example

Rooda Al Qebaisi Unit Title Developing Yourself as an Effective Human Resources or Learning and Development Practitioner Unit Code 4DEP Level 4 Credit value 4 Assessment method Written answers to questions Learning outcomes: 1. Understand the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to be an effective HR practitioner. 2. Know how to deliver timely and effective HR services to meet users’ needs. 3. Be able to reflect on own practice and development needs and maintain a plan for personal development. All activities should be completed Activity 1 (Note: The CIPD Human Resources Profession Map (HRPM) can be accessed at: www.cipd.co.uk/cipd-hr-profession/hr-profession-map/explore-map.aspx ) Write a report in which you: briefly summarise the HRPM (i.e. the 2 core professional areas, the remaining professional areas, the bands and the behaviours) comment on the activities and knowledge specified within any 1 professional area, at either band 1 or band 2, identifying those you consider most essential to your own (or other identified) HR role. Activity 2 With reference to your own (or other identified) HR role, outline how an HR practitioner should ensure the services they provide are timely and effective. You should include: understanding customer needs (include examples of 3 different customers and 1 need for each, and explain how you would prioritise conflicting needs) effective communication (include examples of 3 different communication methods and the advantages and disadvantages of each) effective service delivery (include: delivering service on time, delivering service on budget, dealing with difficult customers, handling and resolving complaints) Activity 3 Note: CIPD Associate Membership Criteria can be downloaded at www.cipd.co.uk/ Membership/transformingmembership/New-membership-criteria/about-associate-member.htm) Undertake a self-assessment against the CIPD Associate Membership criteria, identifying any areas you need to develop in order to meet them. Using a template, such as www.cipd.co.uk/cpd/guidance/cpdrecordandplan, devise a plan to meet your development needs, including those identified above, and the achievement of your CIPD qualification. The plan should be for a minimum of 6 months. Discuss your plan with (or provide a written note to) your tutor explaining why you believe CPD to be important and explaining at least 2 of the options you considered for meeting your development needs. 1.1 2.1 2.2 2.3 3.2 3.4 3.1 3.3 Evidence to be produced Activities 1 & 2 Report of approximately 1500 words Activity 3 A Development Plan/Record Tutor’s written confirmation that the Development Plan has been discussed (OR a written explanatory note from the learner). 4 DEP Assessment Guidance AC 1.1 The explanation should refer to the HRPM, and include a summary of the HRPM (particularly the 2 core professional areas) and an explanation of the activities and knowledge, at either band 1 or 2, of any one of the professional areas. AC 2.1 Learners should identify 3 users of HR services and one need for each. They should also explain how conflicting needs would be identified and prioritised. AC 2.2 Learners should identify 3 methods and advantages and disadvantages of each. AC 2.3 The description should include: delivering service on time; delivering service within budget; dealing with difficult customers; and handling and resolving complaints. AC 3.1 Learners should define and explain the importance of CPD. AC 3.2 Learners should self-assess against the CIPD Associate Membership requirements to identify development needs. AC 3.3 Learners should evaluate at least 2 options for meeting development needs. AC 3.4 The plan should be for a minimum of 6 months. A template is available at www.cipd.co.uk/cpd/guidance/cpdrecordandplan Rooda Al Qebaisi 4DEP Assessor General Feedback Rooda, this is a fair submission but few areas need further improvement. Your writing is satisfactory but some of your answers need to be enhanced by including further detail. You clearly demonstrate your understanding of the topics you have successfully discussed. Well done. However as mentioned the referred areas need to be improved by incorporating the suggestions so that all the criteria would have been met. Remark 06/06/14 Rooda, you have made some good additions to this report, however you still need to include some detail to meet 1.1, (please read my comments in text). Development point : in order to enhance your report writing it is a good idea to add examples and ensure that you have explained the ‘hows and whys’ this will and depth to a report. Assessor name: Dilini Premachndra Lisa stevens Signature: Dilini Premachndra Date: 23/05/14 06/06/14 Decision: Pass Date Refer 1 Date 23/05/14 Refer 2 Date 06/06/14 Fail date Internal Verifier name: Signature: Date: Decision: REFER 1 REFER 2 FAIL Action to be taken by assessor(s) following I/V sampling Rooda Al Qebaisi 1.1 Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours Required to Be Effective in an Identified HR Role Decisive Thinker An HR practitioner has to demonstrate an effective ability to understand and analyse company data and information quickly and has to analyse and understand company data in a way which can help the company make effective decisions. Skilled Influencer and To be an effective HR practitioner, the professional needs to be a skilled and effective influencer who can inspire his people and can propel the people to do their best. Personally Credible An effective HR practitioner needs to have the ability to build and deliver professionalism by putting together commercial and HR expertise to add value to the organization, peers and stakeholders. Collaborative An HR practitioner needs to collaborate and cooperate with his/her subordinates and colleagues to carry out his/her daily activities so that he/she can play a crucial role in company development. Driven to Deliver An HR practitioner tries his/her best to deliver for the company, and gives his/her best in every attempt. Courage to Challenge A leader is courageous and confident and challenges others to give their best even in adverse conditions. Role Model A leader sets examples and acts in a manner, which portrays integrity, honesty and impartiality. Curious A potential HR practitioner is focused, open minded and seeks out innovative and thought provoking ideas for the company on a regular basis. Insights, strategy and solutions, and Leading HR are the core professional areas and are applicable to all HR practitioners despite their role, stage in career, or location. Insights, Strategy and Solutions An HR practitioner need to understand the organization well and its context so as to use these insights to formulate strategy and solutions that suit the organization current and future needs. Smart HR professionals works from a deep contextual, organisational and business understanding to formulate actionable insight, and give priority to HR strategies that make the most difference at any given time. They are capable of identifying risks and opportunities and act on them with insight-led solutions. For example, they have a good understanding of the vision and strategy of the organization, product and services, financial and non-financial performance, the industry and related regulations, political, economic and social environments, structure, culture and values of the organization. This understanding helps in creating and prioritising HR strategies that bring change. Leading HR HR practitioner is supposed to be a role model leader by maximising the contribution of your HR function throughout the organisation through own efforts and supporting, measuring and developing others in the organization. Great professionals are not just leaders by observing and facilitating but rather, by owning, driving and shaping others. They develop along personal leadership, leading issues and leading others. A good HR professional keeps in mind all organisation issues and their priorities and provides advice confidently based on sound understanding of the organisation practices and policy. He/she also works collaboratively with colleagues to deliver the best policies, advice and practice in reference to opportunities or risk the organisation is facing. Other professional areas include: Organisation Design Ensure that the organisation design is appropriate to deliver maximal in the short and long term. Organisation Development Provide insight through identifying individual and organisational capabilities and aligning with strategy, process and people for an effective organisation. Resourcing and Talent Planning Ensure there are right capabilities, talent and resource in the organisation in order to achieve strategic and immediate goals. Learning and Development Build individual and organisational capabilities and knowledge in order to meet strategic and current requirements as well as creating a learning culture. Performance and Reward Assist in creating a culture of high achievement through delivery of programs that recognise employee skills, behaviours and capabilities, and reward them too. Employee Engagement Provide efforts that strengthen employees, work and colleagues connection to ensure greater contribution towards organisation’s objectives. Employee Relations Ensure a clear framework underpinned by organisation practices, culture, policies and relevant law to manage individual and collective relationship of employees and the organisation. Service Delivery and Information Ensure an excellent customer-focused HR service delivery across the entire lifecycle of employee by applying exceptional project management and processes that ensure cost-effective HR services. The four bands defines an HR profession contribution at each stage of HR career Band One HR practitioner supports colleagues with processes, administration, and Involves in effective management of data and information. Band Two Manages or/and advices on issues of HR that touch on individuals or team and has clear mastery of evaluation process and possible solutions. Band Three Acts as a consultant or partner and deals with key challenges in HR at the organizational level for medium and long-term. Band Four Manages and leads professional area and/or the organization and is responsible for HR strategy in the organization. A learning and development practitioner A learning and development practitioner has skills to ensure that all employees at all levels of the organization develop and posse skills, experiences and knowledge to enable them to fulfil the short and long-term goals of the organization and ready to learn, develop and perform. An L&D practitioner has skill to identify individual or team capabilities and gaps, recommend a suitable learning option that will meet the individual or team requirements and facilitate a learning event and workshop that deliver appropriate content. For example, to equip employees with skills and knowledge about the marketplace, L&D practitioner can provide external learning and training from relationship with external experts and providers. A learning and development practitioner at band two posses knowledge to advice on learning and development of individuals and groups in the organization and has mastery of learning and Talent development evaluation process and the possible solutions, such as facilitating job moves for individuals in line with their plans and talent management principles of the organization. The practitioner can support and challenge managers in order to understand learning needs and career aspirations of employees and develop a talent pool members and coach them. He/she also evaluates learning and talent development programs for effectiveness, efficiency and business relevance, and continuously works on ways of improving these activities. The practitioner also demonstrates ROI by analysing the investment made. The essential behaviours for practitioners working on this profession area and band are: Personally credible- applies professionalism in all activities of learning and talent development to ensure organizational success. Curious- always works towards new ways of improving the learning and talent development programs Driven to deliver- always focuses of delivering best L&D programs for employees and teams based on their capabilities and gaps Needs of People Using HR Services in an Organisation   The HR customers want the following things to be done by the HR department, which are as follows: 1. To identify their customer’s needs and demands. 2. To make their customers fully aware regarding the services which it offers to its customers 3. To operate with an independent mindset, which would assist the HR department in understanding the employees in a better way, and this would ultimately facilitate the administration to create a balance between the organisation’s and employee’s needs. 4. To operate with a proactive approach in order to identify the issues prematurely How to Identify and Prioritise Conflicting Needs   At times, it happens that different needs of customers conflict with one another. For example, employees request additional time to complete a particular task, while the manager requires them to complete the task within the specified time, or the employees in one place would like the manager to support them, while my manager requires me to be somewhere else doing a different activity. In such cases, the issue is usually resolved per the company’s underpinning policy or procedures that are set to deal with such situations. If it is not possible to do so, however, those with the supreme authority and responsibility seek to resolve the issue in the light of their relevant knowledge and experience. If there is no set procedure, it becomes necessary for the manager to help develop by prioritising the conflicting needs. In the above cases, for example the issue on employees requiring support and the manager required to undertake another task, the manager can take into account the relative urgency and relative importance of each. To achieve your goals, it is important to prioritise activities that are both of high importance and high urgency. Priority may be given to employees since the task on which they need support is more important because its part of organizational efforts to meet its goals compared to the other task. Striking a balance between two high priority tasks by meeting both to some extent can also be a good way forward. Prioritising can be a difficult choice but as a manager, it is always important to remind yourself at times that you doing the best in the circumstances and be positive about your choices. 2.2 Different Forms of Communication   There are various forms of communication which can be categorized into four basic types as follows: Verbal communication Nonverbal communication Written communication and Visual communication We will discuss each of these types briefly along with their respective advantages and disadvantages. Written Communication Effective written communication is vital especially for business purposes. Written communication in a business environment is practised in various forms such as: Letters Emails Reports Memos Internet/Intranet/Website It can be edited and customised accordingly to ensure correctness and simplicity. As written information can be stored, so it can also be used for future referencing. It is effective especially when the message is to be delivered to a larger audience. It is possible that the information may be sent to the wrong recipient. At times, it can be time consuming. It diminishes the chances of feedback. Advantages Disadvantages Verbal Communication In a business environment, verbal communication plays a crucial role because one deals with people belonging to different backgrounds, cultures and races and of different ages. Examples of verbal communication include:    Face-to-face meetings and discussions Presentations Telephone Team briefings Conference/seminars It facilitates the speaker to give a brief idea to the audience regarding each point, which the speaker wants to discuss with the audience. It also assists the speaker in discussing in detail, with the audience, any point which may seem to be unclear to the audience. As the information cannot be stored in this type of communication, it cannot be used for future referencing. As it is open to distortion, so it is possible that the objective of communication may not be achieved. Disadvantages Advantages 2.3 Delivery of Customer Service   In order to build and maintain effective service delivery, the following steps are required to be taken: Provision of Service as per the Agreement After agreeing on the particular service to be provided, it should be provided accordingly, i.e. as per the agreement. This would assist you to in obtaining the customer’s confidence in you, which is the foundation of strong business relationships with customers. Keep Customers Updated It is essential to keep the customers well informed about the current situation regarding the service to be provided. This would be helpful in case it becomes difficult to provide the service to the customer in the agreed time period, and a reasonable justification is required to be presented to the customer as to why the service could not be offered in the agreed time period. Prioritise Work to Manage Time It is necessary to prioritise work in order to manage time. It should be determined which work is very important and urgent and which work is the least important and urgent so that it can be carried out accordingly. Review the Service at Regular Intervals It is imperative to keep reviewing the service at regular intervals by acting as per the feedback of the customers. This would facilitate you to improve to the quality of your service and would also create a positive impact on your customers.   3.1 Continuous Professional Development (CPD)   CPD is basically a mixture of various approaches, thoughts and methods which facilitate a person to learn and achieve growth constantly. The essential focus of CPD is on the practical advantages which it offers to people. CPD varies from profession to profession and should be implemented in a manner which best suits a particular person belonging to a particular profession. Importance of CPD   The importance of CPD can be evaluated from the fact that if a person follows the guidelines below, then he/she would be able to get the benefits which CPD offers to people. The guidelines are listed below: In order to accomplish professional goals and objectives, the primary focus should be on training and growth. One can evaluate what he/she has achieved in his career from the training by tracing it to what he/she learned from the training. In order to be more prolific and proficient, deficiencies should be identified within the company, which can help in enhancing employee knowledge and expertise and taking appropriate measures to resolve such deficiencies. Adjust your abilities according to what the circumstances may require from you. This would assist you to deal confidently with the change. 3.2 Undertake a Self-Assessment of Capabilities As an HR or L&D Practitioner and Identify Development Needs To acquire associate membership, which is the first level of professional membership in HR, one should build a practical and technical knowledge that helps understand the breadth of HR, and its role in performance of the organization. On assessing myself as a HR practitioner against the Associate membership criteria, I have capabilities such as: Ability to collect, analyse and interpret HR related data, able to undertake discrete projects and tasks and deliver favourable results and capable of gathering, translating and making presentations of vital information and facts that are key to organizational performance. To be a better HR practitioner with practical and technical knowledge of the practice, I need to develop more on building the technical and practical knowhow of the practice so that I can work collaboratively with different people of different cultural diversity and deliver to the organization. To facilitate this following options are available: Learning and professional development On-job training methods and techniques Understanding the business environment 3.3 Evaluate Options to Meet Identified Development Needs   Learning and professional development is not certainly limited to professional training; rather, it is a lifelong process. It provides an opportunity to develop deeper knowledge of the practice. Training methods such as off-the-shelf training packages and various other training methods can be helpful because they are pragmatic plans and can save time. They also expose one to knowledge on a wide range of organizational activities and skills. It is very important to understand the business of an organisation in which an HR practitioner practices, and it is equally important to spend time in specific areas where the culture of an organisation could be easily understood. Understanding of the environment of the environment allows collaboration in a diverse environment. 3.4 Produce a Plan to Meet Personal Development Objectives   The following plan gives examples of how to complete your PDP.  A blank template is available for you to download. Objective Action Resources When Dealing effectively and   professionally with adverse   situations Shadowing   E-Learning 3   months Regular   appraisal of organisation staff Regular   meetings with line managers Employee   KPIs 2 months Becoming   a member of CIPD Complete the online   registration form   Contacting CIPD for relevant   information 1 month Finding other relevant courses   and certifications for my career enhancement Checking the   CIPD website   for further details   6 months   3.5 Reflect on Performance against the Plan, Identify Learning Points for the Future and Revise the Plan Accordingly   By evaluating my PDP, further questions, which can arise for my future improvement, can be: What could I further do to improve my performance in the future? What knowledge, skill or competence do I now have? How well did my chosen method of development work? Would I choose the same method for this or other development needs? Did I make the best of this activity? Overall, by evaluating my performance I can conclude that I have done well enough to achieve my goals. Some of the objectives which I have been unable to achieve have been because I have been unable to prioritise some of my personal objectives and goals. Learning is definitely a continuous project, and I want to be able to implement certain different plans to improve my learning objective. Read More