Developing yourself as an effective HR Practitioner Essay

Briefly summarise the CIPD Profession Map (i.e. the core professional areas, the specialist professional areas, the bands and behaviours) In this report I will summarise the CIPD Profession Map which is made up of Ten Professional areas, Eight Behaviours and Four Bands. The two core Professional Areas Insights, Strategy and Solutions – This area of the map concentrates on developing an understanding and prioritising the direction of the organisation. Leading HR – Shaping and driving themselves and other employees to deliver a valued service to the organisation. The Professional Areas are made up of Organisation Design – This area of the map concentrates on shaping the organisation structure to the business needs. Organisation Development – This area of the map concentrates on developing skills and training of all employees to build a strong team. Resourcing and talent planning – This area of the map concentrates on identifying and developing talent within the organisation, seeing where the need is for new talent within the organisation, making sure the survival of the business continues to grow. Learning and Development – This area of the map concentrates on developing employee’s knowledge and skill in all levels of the business. Performance and reward – This area of the map concentrates on recognising performance and experience of all employees by rewarding them. Employee Engagement – This area of the map concentrates on insuring employees engage with each other and their work at different levels through the organisation. Employee Relations – This area of the map concentrates on keeping accurate records, supporting employees at all levels and rewarding employees in performance. Service Delivery and Information – This area of the map concentrates on delivering accurate information to the customer within an agreed time frame within an agreed cost. Eight Behaviours Curious – New ideas wanting to update technology and training needs. Decisive Thinker – Being able to analyse information and identify solutions. Skilled Influencer – The ability to influence customers in the direction of organisation needs. Personally Credible – Delivers and builds HR expertise to add value to the organisation. Collaborative – Cooperation between departments making positive contribution to the organisation. Driven to Deliver – Being able to deliver a service on time within budget by prioritising agreed tasks and goals. Courage to Challenge – Being able to challenge by specking skilfully when confronted with challenging situations. Role Model – Respected by other employees by using integrity and tact being able to deliver a solid service. Encourages others to act in the same way. The Bands are made up of four levels – Starting at Band One – Entry Level. Focusing on being accurate and flexible on collecting and providing data to the customer. Band Two – Advisory Level. Leading and advising individuals and teams, understanding issues when they arise and resolving them quickly and professionally. Band Three – Consultant Level. Addressing and leading all HR challenges providing ideas and solutions, analysing risks. Band Four – Leadership Colleague / Coach. Coaching and leading, developing strategies and plans for the customer needs. Comment on the activates 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/L&D Role. I will select one Band and one Professional area which I consider most essential to my current employment. Band 1 and Service Delivery and Information as the Professional Area. In my employment I have to have a clear idea of what the Line Managers and Senior Managers want me to deliver. As listed in Band 1, Listening to them and asking the right questions understanding their needs, getting a time frame on when they want it to be delivered is essential. Its gives me a clear picture of what information I have to collate using the technology provided this saving time when delivering the information to them. Keeping the channels of communication open is essential in case of delays or other customer complaints that arise. Activity 2 2.1 Understanding customer needs (including examples of 3 different customers and 1 need for each, and explain how you would prioritise conflicting needs) In this activity I have chosen three customers, Staff, Line Managers and Senior Managers with reference to my own role I will identify their needs and prioritise conflicting needs. Staff – Pay Queries If a member of staff comes to the HR Department with a Pay Query the HR Department must deal with the query within an allotted time. In the Company I work for this time is 48hrs from the time of receiving a pay query. The next step of the process is to talk to the Line Manager to identify where there might be a problem, if this is to do with hours. This will then be passed on to the Payroll department to be rectified, the member of staff will be notified by email or phone call of the progress of the query. If this cannot be resolved by theses means the employee and the line manager will be asked to come to a meeting to discuss the query. Not resolving pay issues in an agreed time frame, can lead to low moral within your employees and give a negative response to the HR Department. Line Managers – Performance At the Company I work for the HR Department is requested by the Line Managers to be responsible for monitoring performance of all employees and reporting back to them if an employee falls below the agreed target. This has to be done daily and weekly depending on what department the employee is from, to keep the continuity of production flowing and reducing problems later on. Without the HR Department doing this as requested by the Line Managers the quality and productivity could be dropped if this is not monitored. This is essential for the business to produce good quality produce for the external customer thus reducing customer complaints. The HR Department would have to prioritise this service. If an employee has been identified that has fallen below the set target, they will work alongside with the Line Manager and agree what course of action should be taken i.e. Would the employee benefit from more training and what type, bearing in mind this would be an extra cost (has a budget been put in place for retraining employees) has the  employee performance dropped due to other circumstance, this would all have to be investigated. The employee would then be invited to attend a meeting with their Line Manager and a member from the Hr Department to discuss this. Senior Managers – Labour and Budgets At the Company I work for the Senior Managers puts together a Labour and Budget plan at the beginning of the year, for the amount of staff they will need each month. This plan is then given to the HR Department to recruit the right amount of staff on budget within the agreed time frame. The HR Department would have to prioritise this plan if they did not it would have a detrimental effect on the business no employees no product no business. The conflicting needs of all the different customers at any one time would have to be prioritised in order, for example Senior Managers requesting information would normally come first over other customers. Line Managers would then come second leaving the Employee last, but is this right does this mean the employee is less regarded in the organisation. No this should not be the case no matter what position you are in. It’s about prioritising what needs to be done first, not what level you work at. This may mean extending your delivery time within an agreed time frame with other customers, keeping channels of communication open with them until you can deliver the service to them. 2.2 Effective communication (include examples of 3 different communication methods and the advantages and disadvantages of each) Daily / Weekly Meeting The advantage of having a daily or weekly meetings is that a manager from each department usually attends a meeting discussing what will be happening or if there have any problems that need to be aired with other colleagues. This keeps communication following. The disadvantage of this, is another colleague would have to cover the manager’s work, while doing their own. Putting pressure on themselves to deliver their own work. Also information may not get passed down to other workers or the information may get distorted causing problems later on. Skype The advantage of using Skype that you can conduct meetings or interviews  with other sites and conduct interviews this would save on travel costs. The disadvantage of using Skype is if you are in an area with a poor signal. Newsletter – Monthly Advantage – A monthly newsletter is a good way of communication to employee’s especially to the ones that don’t have a company email or attend a regular meetings on what is happening in other departments on different sites. At the company I work for our newsletter is divided up into four section on what is happening and what is going to happen this usually starts with Operations Directors talking about what’s happening on their sites. It then moves on to Hello’s & Goodbyes announcing who has left and who has joined the Company and what department and position they are in. As well an email being sent out about a new employee starting this gives other employees a chance to know new faces. A Birthday or Celebration section has also been added. The last section is about Who Are We getting to know an employee each month. These newsletter is attached to the payslips monthly. The disadvantage of printing individual newsletters is the Cost depending on how many employees you have this could be high, the alternative is to place this on a notice board for all employees to see. 2.3 Effective service delivery (include: delivering service on time, delivering service on budget, dealing with difficult customers, handling and resolving complaints. The way to build and maintain an effective service delivery fast and professional, is to have a set procedure in place of: Who does what Has a time frame been put in place to respond, are you in receipt of all information to deal with this Request / Complaint. If you receive a complaint are you appropriately trained to deal with difficult customers. Keep the channels of communication open to all customer needs by the ways of a Phone Call, Email or a Letter or invite them to a one to one meeting. This all helps to keep the customer informed and make them feel valued. Interview the customer, identify key bits of the complaint, do you need to interview anyone else. All these factors need to be addressed to avoid a lengthily drawn out process. Any delay could prevent the Company from having  a successful result. What is it going to cost, is it within the budget. The key is to keep the channel of communication open, inform customers straight away of changes that may affect them. If there is a complaint react straight away. Bibliography ACAS. Workplace relations the key to better UK productivity – Sir Brendan Barber. Available at: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5169 Accessed (25 February 2015) ACAS. Top tips for better management. Available at: http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=2966 Accessed (12 February 2015) CIPD. CIPD Profession Map. Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/cipd-hr-profession/profession-map/ Accessed (21 December 2014) Martin, M and Whiting, F (2013) Human Resource Practice. 6th Edition. London: Chartered Institute of Personal and Development.