Importance of KSB for an HR Manager

MAIN BODY

1.

The human resources department plays an important role in an organization for managing the workforce. They help in maintaining and enhancing their skills and performance, which will help them manage the whole company effectively. The human resources department is responsible for managing the resources that are helpful for their workforce (Briscoe, Tarique, and Schuler, 2012). The HR department plays a significant role in employee satisfaction and provides them with effective training and development to enhance their skills.  A human resource manager is a professional who makes all the policies and decisions regarding the HR department and the management of the workforce in different departments of Whirlpool. As per considering the current scenario of Whirlpool in NAR, it can be ascertained that knowledge, skills, and behavior are a must for an HR manager to manage the performance of the HR department in NAR Whirlpool plc. The KSBs that are required by a human resource manager in a company are as follows:

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Knowledge:

The HR manager of Whirlpool needs to have some basic as well as technical knowledge of the organization. It is an important factor as it would reflect the personality of the HR manager in making effective strategies to manage the employees of the organization (Werner and DeSimone, 2011). The HR manager should understand the organization's structure. The HR manager should have the proper knowledge of accounting and other technical fields so that he can easily access and understand the technical workings of the organization. HR managers of Whirlpool should have enough knowledge to understand the operations and business environment that are reflected in the financial performance of the company (Bratton and Gold, 2017). He should possess ethical knowledge as well as the corporate governance of the organization system.

Skills:

There are various skills that an HR manager should possess to be successful in fulfilling their responsibilities in an organization. He has to possess the excellent ability to speak in front of anyone as well as the ability of effective listening (Budhwar and Debrah, 2013). Communication skills are a must that a successful HR manager should have. The manager of Whirlpool should have the ability to create and interpret the information received from various departments of the organization, which would help them to make effective strategies and decisions. He also has to play the role of leader for the employees in Whirlpool (Boxall and Purcell, 2011). The HR manager needs to increase the team working in the organization and increase the personal relationships internally and externally across Whirlpool.

Behaviour:

It is an important trait that should be considered for being a successful HR manager (Chai, Das, and Rao, 2011). It includes the factors that represent their personality and method of conducting their operations. Such behaviors comprise the adaptability of changing priorities and working requirements to maintain high standards in a changing business environment. Their behavior in engaging with the wider business environment and their personality traits of being honest and possessing transparency with their employees help them to be successful HR managers at Whirlpool.

2.

A skill audit may be defined as a technique or process that helps one in analyzing their skills and capabilities against the requirement. With the motive to improve my skills in line with the concerned designation, I did a skill audit. This in turn helped me in assessing skills that I possess. It indicates skills that I need to develop to meet organizational requirements and goals.

The personal audit can be done by evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of the HR manager.

Strength:

• A good understanding of the organization and the structure of the organization.
• Ability to understand and interpret the information received from different departments for effective decision-making and strategies.
• A good leadership quality can help in managing the HR department as well as the employees.

Weaknesses:

• The problem is effective communication skills.
• Lack of technical skills and use the HR software.
• Lack of understanding of Excel spreadsheets.

PERSONAL AUDIT

As per the self-assessment of the skills, behavior, and knowledge, certain fields require improvement. The major areas for improvement can be communication skills, as it is the most important factor to be an HR manager. Following is the professional developmental plan.

The advantages and disadvantages of skill audit are enumerated below:

Advantages

• Assist in identifying training needs
• Helps in improving workplace skills and knowledge
• Helps in becoming more competent
• Develops knowledge  about work activities and professional knowledge

Disadvantages

• Negatively affects motivation 
• Time-intensive exercise
•  Lack of reliable feedback 

As seen above, it is important to improve communication and technical skills. These skills are the most required in human resources, and they can ensure that appropriate growth and development is taking place. It is important to develop and gain better knowledge and improve verbal and written communication skills. These overall developments can ensure that set growth and development are taking place in HR and employees are working in cooperation with the department.

3.

As per considering the scenario of Whirlpool in NAR, it is crucial to increase the learning, training, and development of individuals (employees) and organizations (Curado, 2018). Skilled and well-trained employees are key for the effective and efficient working and performance of the organization. The aid in enhancing performance is achieved with the help of proper training and development programs. Organizational learning is a process of creating, using, and sharing knowledge within the organization. Individual training is a program that helps to increase the skills and knowledge of the employees as per their area of work.

Training and development

A training and development program can be defined as an activity conducted by a business to provide appropriate training to its employees and improve their efficiency of working. The company needs to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each employee carefully and should conduct the training and development program for each employee accordingly. It would help the firm improve the efficiency of its employees more effectively.

However, training and development also play a great role in increasing the knowledge and skills of employees so that they can contribute more efficiently to their performance (August and Shanahan, 2017). There is a difference between training and development that is discussed below:

Effective training and development can enhance the growth and development of the individuals working in the organization. Along with it, it can help the organization to ensure that its employees are working to their full potential. These all activities can help the organization and its human resources to enhance employee perception and achieve better growth and development.

Example: Whirlpool could align its training and development programs with its overall business strategies. The company has focused on developing a training session for its employees, such as a team-based leadership development program that emphasizes finding the solution to material business problems. It could provide more on-the-job training to its employees for their productivity. It could organize conferences and training programs where they would be taught new skills and methods of doing their jobs.

4.

In Whirlpool, the employees have made an individual commitment to self-improve their skills to increase their behavior for the newly developed team. In Whirlpool, there is a need for continuous development and learning to increase the sustainable business performance of organizations (Kennedy, 2011). Continuous professional development is a set of standards, skills, and knowledge with the help of interactive, participation-based learning for the employees and their industries. In many organizations, business entities take initiatives for continuous professional development to keep up with the changes in the external business environment. Many organizations encourage their employees to the CPD programs to enhance their efficiency and performance.

Continuous professional development includes workshops, seminars, courses, further designations, and other activities that are directed toward the improvement of skills and knowledge. CPD helps professionals to always be ready to apply and pay attention to the opportunities for development. CPD is more important as a means for separating employees from a bulk of employees with similar qualifications. CPD is an important concept not just for the employees but for the company also (Boud and Hager, 2012). Adapting CPD in Whirlpool will enable the company to ensure the ever-changing, growing, and increasing knowledge and skills of the employees. It will help the company increase its productivity and lead the business to sustainable success.

The following are the benefits of learning and continuous professional development for Whirlpool:

• CPD helps in improving the professional capability of an employee to work in a changing business condition as well.
• It assists in retaining a consistent set of high-quality, relative skills and knowledge throughout their career.
• It improves the efficiency and productivity of the company with highly skilled and motivated staff.
• It helps in enhancing the company's reputation among the customers and clients as well as the employees of the company (Megginson and Whitaker, 2017).
• CPD enables the organization to adopt new and better ideas and grab new development opportunities.
• When employees know that with the help of CPD, they are empowered to observe, analyze, and improve the way they work, they feel motivated in their work.
• Continuous professional development helps the company to accept the current trend positively and shifts in their industry easily.

The barriers to continuous professional development are:

• There is no effective participation from the employees.
• Lack of time is the biggest hurdle in CPD.
• Some employees thought that CPD was more about personal learning than learning to grow in an organization.
• It can be said that to conduct CPD, outsiders visit companies that have little or no idea of the company's structure and employees' needs.

As per Kolb's experimental learning theory, there are four stage cycles of learning and four separate learning styles. Kolb states that learning involves the acquisition of abstract concepts, which can be applied flexibly in a range of situations. This theory will assist the company in taking out more potential employees for continuous professional development.

Concrete experience: In this stage, a person re-encounters old experience or experiences a new situation for which it requires learning            The cycle has four parts through which an individual can go through for continuous development. These are :

• Reflection: At this stage, the person observes himself to find out the variation between understanding and the experience they encountered.
• Conceptualization: Here, an individual, after observing himself, forms new ideas or thoughts for confronting the experience they had. It also includes modifications to the existing concept, which it had learned from its previous experience.
• Experimentation: In this stage, the person applies their ideas and modifications in their surroundings to ascertain what happens next.

Whirlpool can apply this model to engage its employees in continuous learning and development. This will help in achieving efficiency in the performances of the HR employees in the company.

5.

The HPW is a process of creating a work culture in an organization with transparency and trust between employees and the organization. It enables the employees to better communicate and coordinate with each other in the organization (Ross, 2017). It helps create a flattered business structure where all employees are treated equally. In such a working environment, employees feel happy, engaged, and motivated to share their vision and work to achieve the organization's objectives. Recently. In Whirlpool NAR, staff are facing problems in strategy and decision-making, which are responsible for restructuring. HPW was hence an important concept for motivating and developing the staff of Whirlpool and ensures that the HPW encompasses increasing employee engagement and increasing the competitive advantage for the firm.

HPW has become an important source of competitive advantage in the current business environment (Lakin and Scheubel, 2017). The HR department plays an important role in attracting, selecting, retaining, and motivating the workforce in Whirlpool. Employee engagement is the result of a better assessment of the HPW in the organization. Employees feel committed to their organization and its values, goals, and objectives to work with better efficiency.

Employee engagement is the result of the commitment and loyalty of the employees to their organization's goals and objectives (Boer et al., 2017). Employee satisfaction, retention of their talents and knowledge. It helps the employees in increasing their performance and thus help in increasing their productivity. These lead to better customer service and, hence, greater customer satisfaction. It will help the organization gain customer loyalty towards the company and customer retention.

Better customer engagement with the company will help in increasing the sales volume of the company, greater profitability, and increasing shareholder value (Mone and London, 2018). It will help Whirlpool gain a competitive advantage in the market. Thus, HPW plays a significant role in increasing employee engagement in organizations.  Engaged employees are more likely to deliver better services to the customer, which helps in increasing customer satisfaction. Better customer service will drive the increase in profit, market share, and shareholder return.

The resource department plays a great role in increasing employee engagement in organizations. An HR department needs to analyze and measure the performance level of the Workforce. It helps them to create strategies to increase employee engagement in the organization. The strategies can involve the filling of communication gaps between employees and employers (The Competitive Advantage of An Engaged Employee, 2018). Building trust through involving the employees in decision-making processes. Motivating the employees through monetary and non-monetary sources. Teamwork in an organization also helps in achieving competitive advantage, as productivity and performance increase when working in groups with coordination.

6.

An organization needs to measure the performance of its employees; it is the basis for better improvement in their performance to enhance their productivity. Performance measurement is also a way of getting feedback on an employee's performance (Hislop, Bosua, and Helms, 2018). Performance measurement of an individual employee creates a link between their behavior and the organizational goals. The employees can get to know about their performance measurement during appraisal time. Performance appraisal of the employees refers to the assessment of the employees, providing them with proper feedback on their jobs and the areas where they need improvement. It will help in creating a positive effect on the future performance. Various factors affect their performance. Like their work profile, bonus, motivational techniques, etc.

Collaborative working:

It is also be termed as working together, which covers a way in which two or more companies can work together. This method can be for a fixed period and form a permanent arrangement (Hayes, 2018). These options involve a set of common or mutual advantages which benefit the users. It is the basis for bringing ideas, knowledge, experience, and skills together in a team to the development of a new product more effectively than an individual employee could do. It helps in accomplishing the organizational target more efficiently.

Collaboration also allows new ideas to flourish. Along with it, it enhances the employee's motivation and makes them reach new growth and success.

There are different approaches through which Whirlpool can evaluate the measures of performance of employees, which helps in supporting a high working culture. They are:

• Behavioral approach:

It is the most common strategy for measuring the performance of the employee. It includes the vertical scales, which are based on some specific parameters. There are two techniques to measure employee performance: the behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS) & the behavioral observation scale (BOS) (Shore, Cleveland, and Sanchez, 2018). The BARS techniques consist of five to ten scales; these scales are based on certain parameters, and employees are then ranked according to the parameters of their performance. Whereas BOS provides a more specific description along with the frequency regarding the employees' behavior for effective performance.

The behavioral approach allows for the identification of the employee's needs and requirements and ensures that they are having an effective behavior to reach a new class of growth.

Whirlpool could use this approach for measuring the performance of its employees. For example, how an employee behaves in the company, what kind of relations he holds with others—colleagues, seniors, managers., etc.—and whether their behavior is impacting the working environment in a good or adverse way, etc., could be parameters on which the performance could be measured. This approach would help the company in making the behavior of the employees favorable to the working conditions. The overall effect would increase the productivity of employees as well as the company.

• Comparative approach:

This involves ranking the employees' performance based on the performance of other employees in the group. The employees in this approach are ranked from highest to lowest performers (Kearney, 2018).  For example, the best performers in a company are 10%, the average performers are 40%, and another group has an average performer of 40%. Hence, the remaining will be counted as the lowest performer.

This is another approach that could be employed by Whirlpool to raise the productivity and efficiency of employees. This approach would create a healthy competitive environment within the organization where employees would desire to outperform one another.

• Result approach:

It is one of the most simple approaches in which the workers are rated based on employee performance (Hill, 2017). Result approaches use the balance scorecard techniques, which focus on financial performance, customer service performance, internal performance, and operations performance.

The resulting approach allows the human resource to effectively enhance growth and development and ensure that set growth is taking place within the department and overall organization.

For example, Whirlpool can set the target that employees have to achieve based upon which its performance would be judged and scored. This would make the employees put more of their effort into completing their job duties more efficiently. The balanced scorecard method would allow the company to evaluate the performances of its employees with more reliability and correctness. A fair evaluation would also act as a motivating factor for the employees to work with more dedication.

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CONCLUSION

From the above report, it can be concluded that the HR department is crucial in a successful organization. It is important to manage the main resources of an organization, its workforce. The report has discussed the importance of KSB for an HR manager. The roles and responsibilities that an HR manager possesses in an organization have been discussed in the report. A professional development plan has been shown in the report. Furthermore, the report has explained the difference between organizational and individual learning. Apart from this, the report will discuss HPW and its contribution to employee engagement.

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