Your Assignment : 2013-04-14

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

The Toyota way of recruitment

Executive Summary

This assignment is based on recruitment and selection and performance management, two of the most important areas in human resources management. For the better illustration of these management concepts, Toyota Company is selected, since its human resources practices portray a vivid picture of the human resources concept under discussion.

The assignment discusses both principles and practices in recruitment and selection and performance management in strategic approaches.

The section of recruitment and selection covers the areas such as importance of recruitment and selection, its theoretical background, and finally, application of these theories for the selected organization.

The second half of the assignment is concerned on the performance management systems. It covers the topic of importance of performance management for an organization, its theoretical background and finally its application on the selected organization.

Based on the analysis of Toyota Company, the conclusion is arrived, which is basically that the success of Toyota depends on its wise decision of selecting best suitable recruitment and selection processes and performance management for its operations.

The selected company – Toyota

Toyota Motor Corporation is selected for the purpose of completing this assignment. The reason behind selecting Toyota Motor Corporation is its strength of workforce and global human resources practices.

Toyota Motor Corporation is a multinational automaker and the headquarters is located in Japan. The capital value of Toyota is 397.05 billion yen and it has employed 317,716 employees. Main business activities of Toyota are that motor vehicle production and sales but it has diversified the business to housing, financial service, e-TOYOTA business, marine, and Biotechnology & forestation (www.toyota-global.com, accessed April 2012). The main competitor of Toyota is General Motors and Volkswagen. The total market share of Toyota is 11% (www.toyota-global.com, accessed April 2012). The Toyota Way (TTW) was introduced in 2001 with the philosophy of continues improvement and respect to people (www.toyotauk.com, accessed April 2012). This philosophy allowed Toyota to implement many human resources strategies to gain the competitive advantage through its human resources. This assignment is based on the human resources practices of Toyota Motor Corporation.

Being a multinational competition and a one of largest employers in the world, Toyota is practicing best and innovative human resources management. Eiji Toyoda expressed that "Because people make our automobiles, nothing gets started until we train and educate our people"(www.toyota-global.com, accessed April 2012). This statement of Eiji Toyoda indicates the whole Human Resources policy of Toyota. According to these words Toyota believes that people drive their business. Also they believe values and perspective of people are essential for the development of human resources. Further, with the vast geographic expansion of Toyota’s business, human resources development has become a priority issue of the company. Thus, Toyota has had to develop both tangible and intangible structures in order to conduct Toyota’s global business in the 21^st century. The recruitment and selection process and performance management process of Toyota has been designed to face these challenges in this highly competitive business world.

Task 1. Recruitment and Selection

1.1 Why recruitment and selection vital in today’s turbulent world?

In the today’s turbulent world, many organizations are struggling to gain competitive advantage. This competitive advantage can be gained through many ways. Human resources of an organization are one of the critical factors for gaining competitive advantage. Effective usage of human resources will increase the productivity of an organization. Finally, this superior productivity will help to gain superior profit or performance of an organization. Employees’ talent and capabilities are more important to achieve profit or performance of an organization. Thus, recruiting talented and capable employees to the organization is vital. Because of this competition for talent, recruitment has become more important for managers. On the other hand, many companies are keen on recruiting most talented personnel to their business entities, especially when compete in the international market. In that case, managers have to think internationally when they recruit employees to their firms. Thus, in the today’s turbulent business world, recruitment and selection is more important for managers since it is the beginning of talented and capable workforce.

On the other hand selecting wrong individuals to the company will create many operational problems. Multinational companies like Toyota are very keen about the recruitment of right employees to their organization. Basically wrong recruitment and selection will create two main problems to the company. The first problem is that these employees cannot perform up to the standards of the organization and it will directly make negative impact to the day-today operation. The second problem is that wrong recruitment and selection is a cost to the company. The company has to expend more money to select an employee again.

1. 2 Theoretical background of recruitment

Recruitment can be defined as “the process of locating potential individuals who might join an organization and encouraging them to apply for existing or anticipated job openings” (Snell, 2010: p188). Today, recruiting is sometimes referred to as talent acquisition to reflect the importance of the human factor in the organization’s success (Draft, 2010: p318). According to these definition, organizations have take necessary steps to aware applicants about two main areas (Snell, p188). Those are,

Ø Qualification which need for particular job

Ø Career opportunities which offer by respective organization.

The recruitment process will either internal or external (Leopold, 2009: p185). The internal recruitment can be defined as “recruiting employees within the organization” (Draft, 2010: p318). Internal recruitment has two major advantages. The first advantage is internal recruitment is less costly than external recruitment. The second advantage is that it generates higher employee commitment, development, and satisfaction because it offers opportunities for career advancement to employee rather than outsiders (Draft, 2010: p318). Many scholars have introduced many methods for identifying qualified candidates within the organization. After proper analysis, these methods can be summarized as inventorying management talent, job posting and bidding, identifying talent through performance appraisals and using assessment centers (Snell, 2010: p204). Inventorying management talent involves new technology. Some organizations use information systems which allow organizations to screen its entire workforce to find suitable candidate to fill an internal job opening. These systems help organization for internal promotions and succession planning. Job posting and bidding is posting vacancy notices and maintaining list for employees looking for upgraded positions (Snell, 2009: p202). Some organizations effectively use their executive support systems for internal job posting. Further, some organizations use their performance appraisal system to identify talented employees for internal recruitment. In this system quarterly or annual performance appraisal system is used to identify the performance rating of employee. Employees who have higher rating for performance are identified to the further talent pool. The finally identified internal recruitment method is assessment centers. By this system, employees are tested under series of situations and are selected most talented employees accordingly.

The external recruitment is different from the all above systems. The external recruitment can be defined as “recruiting newcomers from outside the organization” (Draft, 2010: p318). The main advantage of external recruitment is it allows organization to welcome new blood to its operations. New employees will come with new technology, new ideas, new systems and finally with fresh energy. These attributes will help organizations to achieve competitive advantage through its employees. External recruitment methods can be mentioned as advertisements, unsolicited applications and resumes, internet recruiting, employee referrals, executive search firms, educational institutions, professional associations, labour unions, public employment agencies, private employment and temporary agencies, and employee leasing (Snell, 2009: p190). Organizations use these methods as per their requirements. One of the most common methods is advertisements. This method is used worldwide for external recruitment. For this method newspaper, magazines, posters, e-mail, radio, television, etc. can be used. Also, unsolicited applications and resumes are commonly used. Many employees receive applications and resumes and most of them maintained job banks for these applications. Further, internet recruiting is becoming more popular. With the development of information technology and networking, many candidates are used to apply through internet and on the other hand, many organizations are maintaining online job banks. The duty of executive search firm is to find right candidates for their client employers. This is often called “headhunters”. Some educational institutions and professional associations directly introduce professionals for firms. Finally, public employee agencies and employee leasing companies provide employees for firms where necessary.

1.3 The Toyota way of recruitment

As at 31^st March 2011, Toyota’s total workforce is 317,716 (www.toyota-globle.com, accessed April 2012). Thus, recruitment activities are vital. The best human resources strategies and best technology are to be used for the recruitment activities to compete with other major competitors like General Motors and Volkswagen. The Toyota’s human resources policy is “in-house grooming” (www.toyota.co.za, accessed April 2012). The essence of this policy is that employees should grow with the company. According to that Toyota recruit many trainees to their company and allow them to grow with the company. Learning and development opportunities are provided for their development. Because of this policy, Toyota’s graduate recruitment programme is very important. Thus, the Toyota graduate recruitment programme will take as an example to identify the recruitment procedure of Toyota. The main fields of recruitments are engineering, HR, marketing and IT. As explained above, at the theoretical background they use the recruitment method of “educational institutions” for this programme. In this method Toyota invite students of various universities to make applications for this programme and it is coordinated by local career centers. The below activities are carried out to attract students for this programme (www.toyota.co.za, accessed April 2012).

Ø Career exhibitions – The main purpose of career exhibitions is to facilitate for students of universities. In these career exhibitions facilities have been given for students to inquire about the graduate recruitment programme.

Ø Toyota representative – A representative from Toyota has been appointed to discuss the programme with interested students.

Ø Interested student can apply for this programme at the career exhibition itself.

Apart from the above Toyota recruit many employees from director level to conservancy labour. For these recruitments Toyota is using many recruitment methods for these recruitments. (Kelly, 2008: p39-40). These recruitment methods can be summarized as advertisements, unsolicited applications and resumes, internet recruiting, executive search firms, public employment agencies. The most common method among these are advertisements and internet recruiting (Kelly, 2008: p39-40). Toyota uses many advertisement methods to attract employees to their company. News papers, magazine and social media are very popular among them. Also internet recruiting is widely use as a recruitment method. Candidates can log to the Toyota web site and submit their resumes. This is a very effective and widely used method at Toyota. Apart from above Toyota received thousands of thousand unsolicited applications and resumes. These applications are carefully reviewed and maintained in a job bank for future requirements (www.toyotauk.com, accessed April 2012). Further executive search firms are playing major role for the recruitment of Toyota. Especially key positions are recruited through executive search firms. Because of the extensive competition of the job market, this method is very important for Toyota. Public employment agencies are also important for the recruitment process of Toyota. In this method candidate can register at a public employment agency and when a vacancy arise Toyota can recruit employees through these public employment agencies.

Further, Toyota has an equal opportunity policy and it is described that at the recruitment stage no candidate will be unfairly treated according to their gender, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, or nationality (www.toyotauk.com, accessed April 2012).

1.4 Theoretical background of selection

Selection can be defined as “the process of choosing individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill existing or projected job openings” (Snell, 2010: p254). Some scholars have comment that selection is the most important topic in human resources management. The argument behind this comment is that organizations success or failure depends on the talent on its employees. Thus, selecting right person is vital.

There are two main areas which need to analyze before start the selection process of an organization. Those are person-job-fit and person-organization fit (Snell, 2010: p255). Job analysis is done to identify the competencies of employee which need to perform a job. These competencies are; knowledge, skills, abilities and other factors that need to perform the job well. Selection methods are used to measure these competencies of employees. This is referred to a person-job fit (Snell, 2010: p255). On the other hand, organizations are very keen on whether applicants fit to their values and culture (Snell, 2010: p255). Many selection methods are used to check this suitability and often it is referred as person-organization fit. The whole selection process is depending on these requirements.

Many scholars have defined selection process as an ongoing process. After proper analysis, the selection process can be identified as completion of application, initial interview in HR department, employment testing, background investigation, preliminary selection, supervisor/team interview, medical exam/drug test, and finally hiring decision (Snell, 2010: p256). For the purpose of completing this assignment the selection process is divided in to four (4) main areas and analyzed. These main areas of selection are sources of information about job candidates, employment test, the employment interview, and reaching a selection decision (Snell, 2010: p259). Many sources of information will be checked to prove the reliability and validity at stage of sources of information about job candidates. To prove this application forms, biographical information, background investigation, polygraph tests, honesty and integrity tests, graphology, medical examinations and drug testing will be used (Snell, 2010: p270).

The next step is employment tests. Employment test generally use to gauge a candidate’s competencies compare to others. These employment tests are generally classified into two main categories. Those are aptitude tests and achievement tests (Leopold, 2009: p185). The aptitude test will measure a person’s capacity to learn or acquire skills (Snell, 2010: p272). On the other hand, achievement test will measure what a person knows (Snell, 2010: p272). The next step is the employment interview. The methods of interview can be identified as nondirective interview, the structured interview, the situational interview, the behavioral description interview, the personal interview, the computer and virtual interviews, video, and digitally recorded interview (Snell, 2010: p282). The final and most important step is reaching a selection decision. At this step managers can accept or reject applications. Also summary forms, reports, checklist, etc. will be used to take the final decision.

1.5 The Toyota way of selection

The selecting process of Toyota is comprehensive since it determines the future talent pool of Toyota (Burgess-Wilkerson, 2008: p100-102). Also Toyota has two major competitors in the world market and to compete with them in an effective manner, it is essential a good selection process. Further, the future of Toyota will be depended on its selection process. The process is started with the source of information about job candidates. At this stage source of information of the candidate will be checked. This process is called screening process. The most common tool at Toyota for source of information is background checks (Burgess-Wilkerson, 2008: p100-102). At this stage reference check is very important. Toyota checks all references regarding the pervious employers of candidates. At the next stage candidate test is conducted. For this purpose both aptitude and achievement test are used. Some jobs at Toyota are highly technical. Thus, these tests are very important at the selection stage. At the aptitude test person’s capacity to learn or acquire skills are tested. The Toyota Way describes continuous improvement. This continuous improvement is not only for the production but also for the continuous improvement of the human resources. Thus, company expects continuous learning and acquired skills of its employees. On the other hand, achievement test will measure what a person knows. Skills and knowledge are important to perform at Toyota. The next step is interviews. The interview process of Toyota is so comprehensive. It involves many steps. Also, interview method is totally depended on the nature of the job. Almost all interview methods, which include nondirective interviews, structured interviews, situational interviews, behavioural description interviews, personal interviews, computer and virtual interviews, are used as per the nature of job. Some candidates are gone through many interviews according to the nature to job. For an example some managers will go through structured interviews, situational interviews and behavioural description interviews before they arrive to a final decision. The final step is reaching the selecting decision. The Toyota human resources policies will not allow to select any candidate who does not match with the Toyota culture (Burgess-Wilkerson, 2008: p100-102). Thus, selecting decision is taken after many considerations. But once they reach to the selecting decision it communicated to the candidate very fast. By that method they build first impression about the company.

Task 02 – Performance management

2.1 Why performance management is important?

The main purpose of performance management is to maintain and enhance the productivity of employees. It will finally pave the way for superior productivity. In the today’s turbulent world, superior productivity is essential to gain competitive advantage. Many of organizations have same kind of human resources to lead their business. But some organizations perform while others fail to perform up to standards. Further, some organizations make high profit while others making losses with same human resources. The main reason behind this superior performance of employees is effective performance management systems.

The performance management can be defined as “the process of creating a work environment in which people can perform to the best of their abilities” (Snell, 2010: p362). According to this definition there are two main areas of performance management. Those are creating a work environment which helps employees to perform and this work environment should help employees to perform to the best of their abilities.

Many scholars have argued about the elements of performance management. After reviewing of these arguments, the elements of performance management can be identified as performance measurement, target-setting, competency frameworks, 360⁰ appraisal, personal development plans, performance-related pay and techniques for dealing with ‘problem’ staff (Leopold, 2009: p221). These all areas can be summarized to the cycle of performance management (Leopold, 2009: p222). At the cycle of performance management, ‘planning’ is very important. At this stage objective setting is conducted. The organizational strategies should be included employee objectives. The second stage of performance management cycle is regular discussion of objectives. The set objectives should be discussed throughout the year. If necessary, they should be corrected. The final and most important stage of performance management cycle is assessment stage. At the assessment stage, performance appraisals take place. Further, it is a tool to identify employee strength and weakness. Also, by this assessment, training and development needs can be identified. Further, it will help to develop succession plans and personal development plans of organizations.

2.2 The Toyota way of performance management

Toyota since a large employer, who has employed 317,716 employees, has effective performance management system. The Toyota way of performance management is unique to Toyota Motor Corporation (Mcphaul, 2005: p32).

The performance management process of Toyota is started with planning process. At this stage, the chairperson of Toyota gives his objective for the financial year. It is clearly indicated what he wants to achieve during the year. Also these objectives may include long term plans of the organization. Further, these objectives are selected from the corporate strategies of the company. These objectives are followed by the next level of hierarchy. Accordingly top management to operational level these objectives are followed. These all objectives are properly documented. Hence, at the beginning of the year all employees are well aware about their objectives for the next financial year.

The second stage is regular discussions of objectives. Toyota has effective methods for regular discussions. Those include guidance programmes, critical incident books, midyear review, etc (Thun, 2010: p18). At the guidance programme employee can discuss their shortcoming and line-up again to achieve company objectives. Also critical incident records are maintained by managers to analysis the performance of their respective employees. Further, midyear review is a good tool to analyze whether employee are in correct tract.

Then assessment stage is critical. At Toyota, all compensations, promotions, career development plans, succession plans, and training and development activities are depended on the performance assessment of respective employees (Mcphaul, 2005: p32). Normally end of the financial year the performance assessment is conducted but it is an ongoing process. During the year employee performance are measured by using deferent methods. For these measurements both qualitative and quantitative methods are used. Finally, at the end of the year these all results are summarized and compared with the year-end results. The rating obtain by respective employees are very important. Firstly, their salary increments, bonuses, and any other compensation depend on the rating, which they obtained throughout the performance management process. Also, their promotions are depended on assessment rating. By that method, company has assured to minimize the mistaken promotions. The costs of wrong promotions are very high. Thus, this method has help Toyota to select best talent and maintain their competitiveness. Further, succession plan is done according to the result of end year assessments. By this method, best talented employees will be identified to develop as future leaders. Also, training and development is a vital area of Toyota. The investment for training and development is huge and management is more concerned about the productivity improvement through training and development. At the assessment stage, all training and development needs are identified. These identified training needs are amalgamated to the next year training plan of the organization. Thus, all training needs are address by a very systematic way. Toyota use many ways as assessment tools. Those tools are depended on the level of management. A most commonly used method is 360⁰evaluation. By this method stakeholders will comment on the performance of employees.

The Toyota’s performance management system is very critical to the organization. Further, it has helped organization to achieve superior profit in a highly competitive environment.

Conclusion

Recruitment and selection and performance management are most crucial aspects of the field human resources management today. Hence, companies pay an immense attention for these aspects. The company’s ultimate goal is to achieve the superior profit or performance. To achieve these superior profit or performance, many organizations effectively use of their human resources. To gain this competitive advantage through human resources, recruitment and selection policy of the organization and performance management policy are crucial. Thus, these two areas are vital for any organization.

Toyota is one such company that has given the due consideration for these human resources areas. The result is that, Toyota is able to reach its peak of success in today’s business arena. Among many success factors, selecting appropriate recruitment and selection processes and also utilizing effective performance management systems hold upmost positions. Further, Toyota indicated its success consecutively beside major competitors like General Motors and Volkswagen. Toyota achieved this competitive advantage through its best human resources practices like recruitment and selection and performance management.

References

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Armstrong, M. (2008) Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action, Kogan Page Publishers

Beardwell, I. et al. (2004) Human Resource Management a Contemporary Approach, 4^th ed. Prentice Hall, Harlow.

Bohlander, G., and Scott, S. (2010) Principles of Human Resources Management, South Western Cengage Learning.

Bruce, A. (2006) How to Motivate Every Employee: 24 Proven Tactics to Spark Productivity the Workplace, McGraw-Hill Professional

Burgess-Wilkerson, Barbara. (2008) Selection and interview procedures at a multinational

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Cole, G.A. (2002) Personnel and Human Resources Management, 5^th ed. ELST, London

David, D. (2009) Factors Affecting the Performance of Employees in an organization, Business and Finance Article

Daft, R. L. (2010) New era of Management, South –Western Cengage Learning

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Automotive News Europe

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Personal Development Plans

Executive Summary

The primary objective of this assignment is to understand my career aspirations and understand the ways of developing the same. In the first task, my dream job, my strengths and weakness, and personal development plan are identified to achieve above mentioned primary objective. In the second task, workplace problems, effective communication and time management are discussed since those areas are very important for career development. Finally, my own learning style is identified and it is integrated with lifelong learning styles and sources of information. Thus, the ultimate goal of this assignment is to identify my own responsibilities for my career growth.

Task 13.1.a How my strengths and weakness are related to my dream job?

After the proper analysis of current job market I can determine my dream job as human resources officer.

The human resources officer is a highly skilled job which needs specific competencies. In that case, not only skills but also proper knowledge and attitude are needed to perform this job well. Skills which need for the post of human resources officer can be summarized as follows;

Ø Peoples’ management skills

Ø Work supervision skills

Ø Team building skills

Ø Grievance handling skills

Ø Counseling skills

Ø Time management skills

Ø Communication skills

Ø IT skills

Ø Administrative skills

Ø Effective negotiations skills

Ø Problem solving skills

As identified above, the most important skill for a human resources officer is people management skills. Human resources management, by nature, is all about how we can manage people to achieve ultimate corporate goals. Also effective work supervision skills are very important. Human resources officer has to supervise all related work of his job. Those include supervision of workers’ discipline, workers’ engagement activities, worker facilities, training and development, etc. Human resources officer should be a good team player. He/she should know how to motivate his/her team and how to achieve organizational goals through his/her team. As a business partner, he/she should support the ultimate corporate goals of the organization, which are to achieve profit or superior performance. Maintaining a best motivation level of workers is a one of the main responsibilities of human resources officer. Thus, he/she should have good grievance handling skills and counseling skills. Also, time management skills are essential in the today’s turbulent world. The best performance of the human resources officer is depended on how he/she manages time. Further, effective verbal and written communication skills are needed. Those include presentation skills and report written skills. Also, negotiation skills are critical. He/she has to negotiate with different stakeholders to perform his/her job well. Administrative skills include administration office work, document handling, and maintaining personal files, managing human resources information systems, IT management, etc. Finally, problem-solving skills are very critical, as the human resource officer has to attend day-to-day HR related problems.

Before develop my career in the field of human resources management and as a human resources officer, it is very important to asses my internal strengths and weaknesses. These strengths and weaknesses can be summarized as follows;

Strengths	Weakness
Good peoples management skills	Lack of presentation skills
Listen to others	Difficulty in meeting dead-lines
Strong written communication skills	Take emotional decisions
Sufficient academic background in management and administration	Lack of academic qualifications in labour laws, counseling, work place safety and health
Ability to work with teams which have diversity	Inability to work in remote areas because of family commitments
Experience in the field of human resources management	Inability to work under pressure

As summarized above I have identified some strengths and weaknesses before I start my career as a human resources officer. The most important strength I have is people management skills. I have experiences in this skill when I lead my football team at school and when I was doing my academic work with colleagues. Further, people management skills are interrelated with my ability to work with team. In my college, I have experiences regarding working with teams, which have more diversity. Also I am good at listening to others and I can understand their problems. Further, my strong communication skills, sufficient academic background and my experience as a human resources trainee can be identified as strengths.

On the other hand, I have my own weaknesses. The first and foremost weakness is lack of presentation skills. I have a stage-fear from childhood. I believe this weakness can be a significant impact on my career if I fail to correct the same. Also, I used to postpone my work until deadlines are reached. The result is, sometimes I have failed to meet deadlines. Further, I take emotional decisions, which are not professional. When we consider the nature of this job emotional decision taking will be a definite disadvantage. Also I need to gain some academic qualifications in related fields to human resource management such as company law, counseling, and workplace safety and health. Finally, I have some family commitments and if I fail to resolve the same, it would be a definite weakness in my part.

As discussed above, I can identify by dream job, what skills are required to perfume the job and finally I can identify my strengths and weaknesses.

Task 13.1.b – Self assessment inventory

Purpose – The primary objective of this self assessment inventory is to identify the major skills which need for a human resources officer. The secondary objective is to identify my strength and weaknesses in relation to respective skills.

Scale: 10 - Highest skills

1 - Lowest skills

Area of skills	Scale
Area of skills	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Peoples management skills
Work supervision skills
Team building skills
Grievance handling skills
Counseling skills
Time management skills
Communication skills
IT skills
Administrative skills
Effective negotiations skills
Problem solving skills

As identified above, my most strong skills are people management, IT skills, administrative skills, effective negotiation skills and problem solving skills. I am average in work supervision skills, team building skills and communication skills. But when analyze this inventory properly, I can determine that those are my strengths rather than weaknesses. I can identify my weaknesses as grievance handling skills, counseling skills and time management skills.

Task 13.1.c. – CV for the post of Human Resources Officer

Eduardo Cruz

123/1, Misty Avenue,

Bradford, BS8 7SK

Tel – 01274871180

E-mail – Eduardo.cruz@gmil.com

OBJECTVE:

To develop career as a human resources officer in the hospitality industry

CAREER HISTORY (In reverse chronological order):

Human Resources Assistant – Midland Hotel, Bradford - January 2011 to date

Ø Assist human resources manager for HR administration which include; staff attendance, staff leave, documentation, personal file handling, payroll administration and statutory requirements

Ø Coordinating recruitment and selection activities

Ø Facilitating for company induction program

Ø Assist human resources manager for staff engagement activities

Ø Coordinating staff medical schemes with insurance agents

Ø Follow the company grievance handling procedure and handle grievances where necessary

Ø Coordination of training and development activities

Ø Following the exit procedure of employees

Human Resources Intern – Hilton Bradford, Bradford – January 2010 to December 2010

Ø Assisted the HR consultant to prepare job descriptions for non-executive level staff members

Ø Assisted human resources assistant to maintain personal files

Ø Engaged with staff engagement activities at Hilton Bradford

Ø Coordinate staff transport facilities

Ø Maintained staff lockers and staff accommodation facilities

Ø Maintained on-line time attendance system by providing appropriate information

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS

BTEC Higher National Diploma in Human Resources Management - Overall GPA: 3.2 / 4.0

BTEC Certificate for Business Management – Overall GPA:3.0/4.0

IT SKILLS

Ø Excellent knowledge in SAP system.

Ø Excellent knowledge in frequently applied computer applications (MS word, Excel, Access & Power point, etc)

Ø Sound knowledge in data base Management

REFERENCES

Available upon request

I solemnly declare that all the above particulars given by me are true and accurate to the best of my knowledge.

---------------------------- --------------------------

Signature Date

13.1.d. Personal Development Plan of Eduardo Cruz

Objective

To become a Director of Human Resources in an international hotel chain by 2020.

Sort term goals

Find a job as a human resources officer in Hilton international by June 2012.

Moving close to Hilton international by June 2012 to balance work-life.

Medium term goals

Complete Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resources Management at the University of Bradford by 2014.

Develop presentation skills by 2014 by actively participating to the cause related presentations.

Develop time management skills by 2014 by regular practicing of time management

Long term goals

Complete Master of Business Administration by 2016 at the London Business School.

Gain international exposure by working for different international organizations in hotel industry which have different organizational cultures.

Become a Director of Human Resources by 2020 in an international hotel chain.

Core-Values

I will be standout wherever I am. Fineness and integrity will be kept for all professional work. All actions will be done to gain sustainable competitive advantage in the turbulent world. Close interactions will be kept with all people who engage with me. All actions will be proactive rather than reactive.

Task 13.3.a. Work base problems and the possible solutions

Work-base problems can be identified as the related problems, which can be happened when an organization is functioning. These problems can be related to any resources of an organization. Further, these problems can be affected to any levels of hierarchy of an organization. These levels of hierarchy can be identified as top management, functional management, and operational management (Daft, p10).

The top management level is in the summit of the pyramid. Also, top managers are the policy makers of the organization. One of the main work-base problems faced by top management is how to implement policies, which have been prepared by the top management. Policies are a tool of strategic implementation of an organization. Thus, those policies are very important to gain the competitive advantage and finally to gain superior profit or performance. Thus, effective implementations of policies are so important. Many organizations have prepared various policies for their organizations, but those policies have been limited to documentation and some policies are not practical. There are many possible solutions to overcome this problem. The first argument is that policies can be included as objectives for the function level managers and operational level managers. Policies are a broad area but it can be narrowed down as specific objectives of individuals. On the other hand, this is called manage by objectives. When policies are included to objectives, they have to be followed and implemented by the down the line. The second solution is to strengthen communication channels to communicate policies to the next level of hierarchy. By proper communication, all will be aware about the policies and finally organization will be able to achieve the ultimate goal of the organization.

The next level of the hierarchy is functional level. The identified problem is how to maintain the different organizational culture of different SBUs. On the one hand, diversified organizational culture is advantageous to superior profit or performance of the organization and on the other hand, it would be a one of the main obstacles. Thus, in today’s turbulent business, world managing organizational culture is vital. In a diversified organization there can be different strategic business units (SBUs). Some of these SBUs may operate in an international scenario and others may operate in a local scenario. Because of these circumstances organizational culture can be differ from on SBU to other. One of identified solution to overcome this problem is to accept all cultures and make fair policies for all workers of the organization. Accepting all cultures will bring equal opportunities to all. On the other hand, fair policies for all cultures will build the trust among workers. As the second solution, team building activities are very important. This includes staff engagement activities. By effective team building activities, an organization is able to overcome cultural differentiations. Also, staff engagement actives will help build the trust and harmony among workers who are come from different cultures.

The next level is operational level. This level is very important for the workplace problems since they directly engage with the operations of organization. The identified problem of this level is how worker can be motivated and on the other hand how to handle de-motivated workers. Workers’ motivation is an essential part of the success of an organization. Also, de-motivated workforce will create unproductive scenario of an organization. There are many motivation theories which have been introduced by many scholars (Cole, p95). These all theories are not applicable to one workplace and the applicability can differ from one organization to another. But there are many identified ways to overcome the problem of motivation. The first identified way is objective based reward system. In this system, all workers will be given objectives or goals. Finally, end of the year they will be evaluated as per their performance. These performances will be measured according to their achievements of the objectives. The objective based reward system is a good tool for motivation. In this system, workers clearly know what their objectives are. On the other hand, if they cannot perform well, the circumstances have been prior defined. The second most effective solution for workers motivation is recognition. This is not necessarily monitory rewards. Workers should be recognized for their good work. This includes rewards for superior performance, appreciation letters, appreciation certificates, promotion for exceptional performers, etc.

Task 13.3.b. –Effective ways to communicate among various levels of hierarchy

Communication is one of the vital areas of workplace problems. If communication is effective, work place problems can be reduced. On the other hand, if communication is ineffective work place problems will be increased. Thus, proper communication is one of the modes to solve workplace problems effectively. Communication can be defined as “the process of which information is exchanged and understood by two or more people, usually with the intent to motivate or influence behavior” (Draft p537).

In this discussion communication among various levels of hierarchy is important. This communication is done through ways of communication. In today’s world, there are plenty of communication channels, which have been emerged with the new technology. But not all these communication channels are applicable to all hierarchies of the organization. Top managers have to communicate their decisions by using various communication channels but those may be not practical if the same is used by operational level managers.

As discussed above, there are many communication channel but most effective communication channels can be identified as face-to-face communication, telephone, electronic massage, letters, memos, and reports (Draft p541).

In a well structured organization, communication is flowed from top to bottom. The feedback communication will be bottom to top. Thus, flow of the communication can be identified as from top management to functional management level and then to operational level management. At the first step from top level to functional level communication will be identified. The identified workplace problem of the top level is how to implement policies which have been prepared by the top management. This communication should be a very formal communication and thus most effective communication channels would be Letters, memos and reports. Since, this is a policy matter documentation is very important.

The second level is from functional management to operational management communication. The identified workplace problem of this level is how to manage different organizational cultures of an organization. To solve to this problem, face-to-face communication, letters and memos are important. When it is a policy matter, letters and memos are important. If the problem solving way is informal, it is advisable to use a channel like face-to-face communication. This communication channel is very important when addressing problems related to sensitive matters like culture.

The third level is from operational level to workers who are in the operational floors. This is a crucial area where communication should be very diplomatic. The identified problem is how to motivate workers and how to maintain the maximum productivity level. The given solutions are objective based reward system and workers recognition. For the objective based reward system, letters, memos and report can be used as communication channels since they are is very formal and structured. On the other hand, for the worker recognition it is very important to use face-to-face communication because recognition should be done, soon after where it is identified. Thus, it is very important to use very effective communication channel like face-to-face communication. On the other hand, telephone, letters and memos can be used more effectively.

How can recognize worker’s good performance by using letters?

The selected scenario is an operational manager needs to motivate one of his/her worker by using letter as a communication channel. This scenario was identified as a workplace problem at the third level of organizational hierarchy.

07^th April 2012

The General Manager,

Midland Hotel, Bradford

Eduardo Cruz

123/1, Misty Avenue,

Bradford, BS8 7SK

Dear Eduardo,

Appreciation.

This refers to a written comment made by a guest of room No 705 who was our in-house guest from 01^st April 2012 to 06^th April 2012.

The service rendered by you is been highly commended by the guest that has made him very much happy. The management recognizes and thank you for the contribution made by you on your part in rendering a good service that has made the guest happy and feel comfortable during the stay.

Once again, a Big thank to you and wish you all the best for a bright future.

Thanking you,

General Manager.

Task 13.3.c. Impact of effective time management in maximizing the productivity of managers

Time management can be defined as the “behaviours that aim at achieving an effective use of time while performing certain goal-directed activities” (Claessens et al., p262). This definition explains that time management needs effective usage of time to achieve a specific goal.

There are many effective time management strategies, which have been introduced by many scholars. These strategies can be summarized as goal setting, planning, prioritizing, and decision-making, delegating, and scheduling (Claessens et al., p263). Goal setting strategy explains that by setting goals prior to begin work, time can be managed. The goal setting and planning has close relationship. Thus, proper planning will manage the time. The next characteristic is prioritizing. By this method, managers can identify what work is urgent and important. Then priority should be given to top urgent and top important work. Past and correct decision making is one of the characteristics of effective time management. It will bring down the unnecessary cost involved with operation. Further, delegating is important. Not all work can be done by managers. They have to delegate certain work to others. By doing that managers can save time. Finally, scheduling is a good time management strategy. This strategy is used by project managers very effectively. In scheduling, all work has to be prior scheduled and specific times should be given.

Effective time management maximizes the productivity of managers in different ways. The first identified way is cost reduction. It has been proved that ‘time is cost’. By using effective time management techniques, managers are able to reduce the cost, which is related to time.

Further, effective time management helps increase the production or service. All unnecessary activities will be reduced by the effective time management and finally it will help increase the production or service of the organization.

Also, if managers follow effective time management techniques they have more time to supervise their departments and workers. This regular supervision will help maximize the productivity of the department.

The most important area of effective time management is it will help to save more free time for managers. This free time will help managers to maximize their productivity by different ways. Managers can use this free time for learning and development. On the other hand, they can use this free time for new initiatives. Finally, leisure can reduce the pressure of managers and reduced pressure will help uplift the motivational level of managers.

Task 13.4.a Understanding different learning styles and identifying my own method.

Learning can be defined as “a change in behavior or performance that occurs as the result of experience” (Daft, p458). Many scholars have introduced many learning styles that can be used for personal and professional development. These learning styles can be summarized as labeled diverger, assimilator, converger, and accommodator (Draft, p459).

Dominant learning abilities of diverger are concrete experience and reflective observation. Divergers have creativity and imagination ability. They generate more ideas (Draft, p460).

Assimilator’s dominant learning abilities are abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. Assimilator’s can Understand and create theories (Draft, p460).

Dominant learning abilities of convergers are abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. Convergers have practical applications of idea (Draft, p460).

Accommodator’s dominant learning abilities are concrete experience and active experimentation. Accommodator’s involve them self in experience (Draft, p460).

The Honey and Mumford Questionnaire was developed to identify the learning method preference of individuals. This questionnaire was developed by Peter Honey and Alan Mumford in 1986 (Cole, p323) Based on the Honey and Mumford Questionnaire I can understand my learning style as diverger. According to the Honey and Mumford Questionnaire the first justification is that, I am good at generating ideas. At school, I have participated many brainstorm sessions. Further, I can see a situation form multiple perspectives and being aware of meaning and value. In that case, I have used to see a situation from 360⁰ perspective. Also, I am interested in people, culture and art. I generally respect the views of people and also respect different cultures. Finally, according to the Honey and Mumford Questionnaire I can determine that I am good at human resource management.

Task 13.4.b. Ways in which lifelong learning could be encouraged. Which method attracts me the most?

Lifelong learning can be defined as “all learning activities undertaken throughout life, with the aim of improving knowledge, skills and competence, within a personal, civil, social and/or employment-related perspective” (www.esae.org, accessed April 2012). Further, these lifelong learning ways are included formal education, non-formal education and informal education.

There are many ways to encourage lifelong learning. When someone is motivated with lifelong learning, they may use formal, non-formal or informal education to achieve their goals. Personal life goals will encourage lifelong learning. Researchers have proven that many individuals tend to learn after 24 years since they need to achieve personal life goals.

Further, today’s world is very challenging. Thus, to gain competitive advantage, learning and development is essential. Many people come up with many initiatives, findings, new products and new technology. To survive in the today turbulent world, day-to-day updating is essential. Many individuals have engaged in lifelong learning since they need to survive in today’s turbulent world.

Also, learning new things are very interesting. With the new technology, initiatives, finding and product development, there are many things to learn on-going basis. Not only above but also, many scholars come up with new theories that are very interesting to learn. These new things have encouraged professionals and also academic individuals to follow lifelong learning.

The most attractive way for my lifelong learning is that personal goals. As I have mentioned in my Personal Development Plan, I have many areas to develop prior to become a director of human resource management. Thus, my all lifelong learning activities will depend on my personal goals.

Task 13.4.c Sources of information utilized to answer Task 4

Two kinds of sources of information were used to answer task 4. Those include book references and web sources. Especially Honey and Mumford Questionnaire has been illustrated by many web sources. The questionnaire has been defined in deferent ways by many web sources. But the result is same. On the other hand, many books have introduced Honey and Mumford Questionnaire. But web sources are still more efficient and the result can be obtained within few minutes with a proper analysis. Thus, web sources are more effective for the Honey and Mumford Questionnaire. But different learning styles have been introduced by many books and those sources are very important. Thus, to identify learning styles it is better to use book sources.

Lifelong learning also has been introduced by many web sources and book sources. But ideal illustrations have been given by book sources. On the other hand, encouragement for lifelong learning can be differed from time to time. There are many reasons for that. For examples with the development of technology and with the development of new industries, the purpose of lifelong learning has be changed. In that case, web sources provide more updated information. Thus, both book sources and web sources are important to study lifelong learning.

Task 13.2.a, 13.2.b. Evaluation of my personal/professional learning and development.

According to my personal development plan all of my learning and development activities are depended on my ultimate career goal, which is become a director of human resources in hotel industry. My learning and development activities are twofold. The first activity is personal learning and development. The aim of personal learning and development is to minimize my weaknesses that have been identified by SWOT analysis. The main weaknesses that identified are; lack of presentation skills, difficulty in meeting deadlines, take emotional decisions and inability to work under pressure. All my personal learning and development activities will be focused on correcting these weaknesses. Since these areas are very difficult to address in an academic scenario, informal learning activities will be applied to achieve this goals. Further, these areas are directly related with my lifelong learning activities.

The second learning and development activity is professional learning and development. Under this area, I will focus on my professional development as human resources personnel. These activities included following postgraduate diploma in human resources management and completing master of business administration. As same as personal learning and development, these activities are also related to my lifelong learning activities. These learning and development activities are very structured and formal learning methods will be used to achieve the aim.

Conclusion

Individuals are responsible for their own career development. The first step of professional development is to understand a clear career path. Also, personal development plan is essential to set future career goals. For that understanding, the internal strengths and weaknesses are very important. Once personal development plan is clarified, it is essential to understand the business environment. Understanding hatchery of the organization, workplace problems, communication and time management are important for that case. Finally, maintaining professional development is vital. All learning and development activities will help to maintain the professional development.