Human Resources Practice Essay

1. Introduction The HR Profession Map was developed using the following design principles: †¢ It describes what you need to do, what you need to know and how you need to do it within each professional area at four bands of professional competence. †¢ It covers behaviours as well as the technical elements of professional competence required in the HR profession. †¢ It is organised around areas of professional competence, not organisation structures, job levels or roles. †¢ The scope of the Map will cover the breadth and depth of the HR profession, from small to large organisations, from fundamental to sophisticated practice, local to global, corporate to consulting, charity to public sector, traditional to progressive. †¢ It has the versatility to be used in part, or viewed as a whole, with the core professional areas acting as the key or centre that is relevant to all. 2. Activity 1 Summarise the HRPM The Profession Map captures what successful and effective HR people do and deliver across their specialist profession, and sets out the required activities, behaviours and knowledge. Covering 10 professional areas and eight behaviours, set out in four bands of competence the Map covers every level of the HR profession, from band one at the start of an HR career through to band four for the most senior leaders. The Map has been designed to be relevant and applicable to HR professionals operating anywhere in the world, in all sectors and in organisations of all shapes and sizes. Professional Areas 1. Insights, Strategy and Solutions 2. Leading HR 3. Organisation Design 4. Organisation Development 5. Resource and Talent Planning 6. Learning and Development 7. Performance and Reward 8. Employee Engagement 9. Employee Relations 10. Service, Delivery and Information Behaviours 1. Curious 2. Decisive Thinker 3. Skilled Influencer 4. Personally Credible 5. Collaborative 6. Driven to Deliver 7. Courage to Challenge 8. Role Model (www.cipd.co.uk) 2.1Insights, Strategy and Solutions Human Resources professionals work from a deep business, contextual and organisational understanding to develop actionable insight, and prioritise HR strategies that make the most difference at any given time. You develop insight-led solutions, prioritised and tailored around a good business, contextual and organisation understanding – identifying opportunities and risks and acting on them. Business Vision and strategy of the organisation Products/services and customer profiles Financial and non-financial performance information Contextual Your sector and related regulations/legislation Political, economic, social, technological and environmental issues. Organisation Structure, processes, governance Culture, values, behaviours Key relationships, stakeholders, how decisions get made This understanding – and the resulting insights – allow us to create prioritised and situational HR strategies that make the most difference and build a compelling case for change. Includes these topics: Building a picture Developing actionable insight Delivering situational HR solutions that stick Building capacity and capability -Working with agility Organisation context determines the influence and priority of stakeholder roles and individuals, it also determines how readily new systems/ applications or methods can be adopted, and whether we can get there. If customers / principal stakeholders come from different contexts, this may systematically shape the goals and requirements 2.2 Leading HR Resourcing Band 1 Human Resources Professionals need to have a good knowledge of the principles and procedures for organisations recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits of labour relations and personnel information systems. A sound knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, modelling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources. Motivating, developing, and directing people, as they work, identifying the best people for the job also been able to identify potential for succession planning. . 3. Activity 2 Timely and Effective Service With any organization, we will typically find the customers HR supports are within recruiting, employee relations, training, etc, all pretty much the same, regardless of department, our customers are anyone who uses the HR services we provide we interact with supervisors, managers, employees, external candidates, and external organizations. The way that HR interacts with each of these groups is different depending on what is being delivered, but in the general sense, our customers are all as important as each other. 3.1 Employees Employees want professional HR support from real people and HR need to be responsive and clear about what services we offer. HR need to be easy to contact and able to respond quickly and effectively. Obviously employees require accurate pay and benefits, on time. They also want to be given the opportunity for training and development. 3.2 Managers Managers want an HR function which understands the workforce and can help management balance employee and business needs. They want a proactive HR function which identifies issues before they happen and works with managers to address them. They would like HR to help them with their most challenging people issues including motivation, change and skills development. An HR function which does not understand the business and the workforce completely loses its value. The needs of both employees and managers are sometimes be conflicting. For example, managers require a higher level of production and sometimes longer working hours whereas employees tend to want more time off and more focus on a work/life balance. A good HR department needs to work with both groups to find the best balance. A way of resolving these conflicts is to focus on the overall needs of the organisation, ensuring that the right employees are recruited and retained will help this. The skills and abilities of all employees need to be aligned to their job role and as HR we need to provide development and training to ensure productivity is reached and to manage turnover of employees. Coaching and counselling employees will also help and providing an effective reward and recognition system. 3.3 Recruitment Agencies HR and recruitment agencies are committed to developing and maintaining closer relationships, the outcomes for both parties are more positive, and from a strategic perspective, it’s the formation of these stronger partnerships that bring mutual business benefits and added value. Good reasons why an organisation would use recruitment agencies Gain access to job-seekers (both active and passive)  source candidates from more specific talent pools and match them to an  organisation’s vacancies reduce the time and in-house resources dedicated to recruitment use a range of specialist skills offered by recruitment experts Access specialist services such as screening, filtering and profiling of candidates Gain flexibility in recruitment to meet cyclical/ market demand Get expert opinion about and knowledge of current recruitment legislation Benchmarking purposes – access to salary data and local market knowledge. However in past experience working with some recruitme nt agencies it can become an expensive option as they tend to charge anywhere from 12.5 percentage of the starting salary upwards and a finders fee if the candidate does become permanent. 3.4 Communication Communication Type Advantages Disadvantages Email Easy to send Fairly quick to send Can send 365 days of the year Can send to a group of people at once Email can get stuck in spam and not received Attachments could contain viruses Internet could go down and may not receive mail for sometime Phone call Calls can be made 24 hours a day 7 days a week Get your message across and gain feedback immediately You cannot see each other’s body language Things could get mis-interpreted Costly Fax Can send exact copies of documents Easy to train how to use No immediate response Could misdial number sending documents to wrong person Poor quality of received document 3.5 Effective Service Delivery An effective HR services for all employees is seen as be supportive, not to dilute the responsibility of people management. Also have the ability to coach line managers, especially around managing performance. 3.6 Delivering Service HR should obtain thorough feedback from internal customers, line managers, senior managers and employees. This should cover both what they need from HR, and their user experience of current services. Such feedback could generate a clear and more effective HR function within the organisation. It can provide fresh insights and help the HR function to focus its efforts in these areas could add value to the business. 3.7 Difficult Customers Assuming that the employee provides value to the company and possesses redeeming qualities, there are ways to deal with difficult employees. Most often, managers will simply ignore problematic staffers. Managers who live by this rule hope the problem will just go away; that these people will somehow turn themselves around or stop being troublesome. Ignoring the situation is the wrong solution to what could likely become a progressive problem. It is important to take action as soon as the negative behavior pattern becomes evident when left untouched, this problem will only escalate. (http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/201950#ixzz2h4AjsnQf) 3.8 Resolving Complaints Employee complaints alert us to potential problems within the business Depending on the type of complaint that comes in you’re going to want to keep relevant portions of your staff appraised of it while simultaneously safeguarding the privacy of the individuals involved. It’s important to be transparent in these situations because â€Å"employees are probably going to know this on the office gossip vine anyway,† says Kelly. â€Å"They want to see that management is aware of it too and that management does take action and demonstrates a commitment to a higher ethical standard.† (http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/04/handle-employee-complaints.html/1)

PepsiCo Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

PepsiCo - Case Study Example Amidst these discussions, the paper will aim at answer several questions related to the company’s survival during global economic slowdown, its balance food portfolio, workplace culture and diversity and commitment of company towards environmental sustainability. It was ascertained that PepsiCo is the largest manufacturer and distributor of food and beverage in the United States and from its traditional business of soft drinks, the company has adopted a multi segment approach over the years. The present offerings of the company can be segmented in terms of variety of snacks, sports drink, juice, bottled water and cereals. The soft drink segment of the company includes Starbucks ready-to-drink beverages, Mountain dew, Sierra Mist, Sobe, Pepsi-Cola, 7UP, diet Pepsi and Lipton iced tea. The juice segment of PepsiCo comprises brands such as Naked Juice and Tropicana. The snack segment of the company includes brands such as Lays, Cheetos and Tostitos (PepsiCo, 2014a). The complete set of global brands of PepsiCo can be classified in three categories, namely, fun-for-you, good-for-you and better-for-you brands. Fun-for-you brands include basic savory products such as chips and cold drinks. Good-for-you brands are focused on delivering healthy choices that include vegetables, dairy products and fruits. Lastly, Better-for-you brands offer mostly low calorie food products that have low sugar and fat content (YouTube, 2011a; PepsiCo, 2014a; 2014b). PepsiCo is a global company and it can be naturally assumed that the company is susceptible to various social, economic and geo-political issues. Social factors comprise lifestyle and cultural aspects of consumers. PepsiCo is well-aware of its consumers’ preference which is significantly influenced by their lifestyle. Consequently, PepsiCo classified its products in three unique

Bayesian Networks Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

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The impact of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles on our society Essay

The impact of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles on our society - Essay Example The possibilities of building systems that openly endanger societies all over the world are at least as huge as the possibility of applying this technology for constructive intentions or for the greater good. This essay presents an analysis of the positive and negative impacts of UAVs on societies and warfare. The Costs and Benefits of Unmanned Systems The design, construction, and use of UAVs will transform national security policy and society significantly. As more and more societies begin to use more automated processes, movement into areas affecting national security policy will certainly take place. The likelihood of building remotely operated, armed UAVs no longer sounds unbelievable. As expected, the development of UAVs would radically transform air battle. UAVs offer numerous advantages over manned structures, such as preventing human casualties, enabling flight control, and being more affordable or cost-effective (Bone & Bolkcom 2004, 10). UAVs enable a range of military and civilian operations not possible beforehand with manned systems and enable these operations to be carried out without risking the lives of the pilots, who operate at distant control centers. In counterinsurgency combat, the primary advantage of UAVs is an enhanced capacity to locate, deal with, and terminate enemies, while reducing civilian fatalities. Usually, UAVs would monitor a suspect and send the coordinates to a control station, where staffs would discuss with senior officials and look at maps in order to track civilian networks or buildings. After the discussion, the control station would dispatch directives to an airborne vehicle (Owen & Mueller 2007, 49). Moreover, as P.W. Singer observes, using UAVs give pilots the opportunity to engage in further risks with their vehicles, like hanging around longer and flying closer to the ground, hence resulting in a more precise attack. UAVs hence help commanding officers prevent civilian casualties during their attacks—an imp ortant factor in counterinsurgency combat (Callam 2010, 3). Unmanned aerial vehicles have further strengthened and sped up the evolving characteristic of warfare, and have been promoted for civilian uses such as search and rescue, wider security, and in observation of disaster-prone territories. Advancements in technology currently allow combatants to employ UAVs to deal with opponents from distant locations such as the Middle East. It also enables search and rescue attempts to be carried out in isolated locations or inaccessible ruins via the application of search and rescue automatons (Valavanis et al. 2009, 452). These automated machines have kept humans from entering dangerous situations. In a nutshell, the benefits of employing UAVs in comparison to using a manned system, are UAVs do not include, or require, a trained pilot aboard; lessen the exposure hazard to the pilot; can go into places that are hostile to humans; can remain airborne for more than 24 hours, conducting an ac curate, constant monitoring of a territory (e.g. conducting thermal or visual scan of an area, conducting a geological scan, etc.); and can be designed to accomplish operations independently even without communication with its operator (Callam 2010, 2). But UAVs are not completely blemish-free. The use of UAVs has also received several criticisms. Several learned observers argue that the application of

Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 9

Report - Essay Example This report is about the development and analysis of a database system for a recruitment agency that is operating worldwide and specializing in short contracts for programming and website development work. This report will offer a deep analysis of the main database design and development aspects for the business of recruitment agency. According to Oz Effy (2008), the processes of decision making and problem solving both are based on information. In addition, the decision making is vital process of everyone’ life, people work, play, communicate or do anything they need and use information. In the same way, in a corporation gathering the correct information efficiently, keeping it properly consequently thus it could be utilized and manipulated when needed, as well as making use of it to facilitate the corporation or individuals to attain personal or business objectives. Consequently, the main intention of database and information systems development and implementation is to have facility and support in the above discussed areas. We can use and apply these understanding and database information for getting success in every department of a business. However, in a corporation information system consists of databases, hardware, data, telecommunications, software, procedures and people. In addition, the use of in formation systems and databases can be seen in every walk of life. Their capacity to facilitate and resolve problems as well as making decisions makes them fundamental in our lives, society, business and management (Oz, 2008; Whitten, Bentley, & Dittman, 2000; Turban, Leidner, McLean, & Wetherbe, 2005). The recruitment agency has carried out a survey among 30,000 people and taken response against different personnel, job and web development related aspects. This data is available in form of flat file database. In other words, the

Auditing research paper on Apple Inc Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) Research Paper

Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) - Research Paper Example In order to ensure security of information over the Internet various security technologies have been proposed that usually work on the higher layers of the OSI model and provide security in terms of authentication, confidentiality, integrity and availability. IPSec is one such security technology that operates on the IP layer and provides confidentiality, integrity and authentication. As it operates at the IP layer, its implementation provides security in the higher layers as well. And its implementation is such that the existing setup of Internet does not have to be changed in order to implement it. This report presents an overview of the IPSec technology. It discusses the general architecture of the technology, briefly covering its technical details and its operation modes. Furthermore the report discusses how IPSec can be integrated into the existing Internet setup. 1. Introduction The security of information is defined by four attributes; confidentiality, integrity, privacy and a vailability (Adeyinka, 2008). In the past, when computers were not that common a commodity let alone the Internet, virtual private networks were formed through installation of dedicated leased lines between the hosts e.g. networking of remote offices (Liska, 2003). Figure 1 Dedicated Leased Lines VPN Since these lease lines were private the information sent or retrieved remained within the related parties and so the communication was fast and secure. Thus private networks were formed. But the setup was costly and very few companies could afford it. Later on, in order to accommodate the mobile users, the companies installed dedicated remote dial-in servers (Remote Access Servers) that had modem(s) each connected to a separate dedicated phone line (Liska, 2003). Figure 2 Dial-up VPN Although the networking was achieved, yet the effort was not that useful as the speed of these networks was very slow. With the advent of the Internet and its global web servers that provided larger and ea sier access worldwide, the use of leased lines became an expensive burden and remained limited to very few resourceful companies. In view to the easy access to worldwide communication granted by the Internet, the element of security somewhat lost its significance and every other school, office, company and business sought out to be connected through the Internet. The instances of some serious cyber crimes (â€Å"Cyber Crime Stories†) led to the realization that the Internet is not at all secure. Being a public medium, the information sent across the Internet in the form of data packets passes through various networks until they reach their intended destination. Since the Internet protocol (IP) offers no built-in security, this plain text data in the IP datagram cannot be prevented from unauthorized access from the public network. Any third party can easily inspect, even modify or generate false data and compromise system security. For instance the passwords that are sent can be tracked and looked into (packet-sniffing), IP packets