Developing professional practice (DVP) assessment activity 1
template
How to be an effective and efficient HR professional – written discussion
Name: Ritu Batra
Word count: 2412
a)
There is no straight jacket formula to being an effective Human Resource Professional
(“HR”), however, as the world came to be more industrialized and huger amount of
people got employment and so arose the need for Human Resource Management for
proper and efficient management of industries, hence giving birth to HR Professional
as a profession. Through studies and research over decades, many theories have
been formulated and tested to ensure the effective and efficient functioning of an HR
professional, hereinafter, it has been explained ‘how can an HR professional function
effectively and efficiently with reference to CIPD professional map.
Nature of Work as an HR
Payroll, pay scales, employee relations, incentives, and employment directors for each
employee, including recruiting, firing, performance evaluations, and benefit
coordinators, are just a fraction of the responsibilities which an HR professional may
perform. They are also the most strategically important part of the company.
As an HR my professional expertise is employee relations, I have created employee
handbooks that outline the main objectives of the business and ensure adherence to
all applicable local, state, and federal laws and regulations. I have been chosen to look
into any allegations of harassment or discrimination. My weekly routine includes
developing programs on a variety of topics, such as workplace harassment, better
productivity, mentoring for employee advancement making all the documents and
forms that the entire business uses establishing a setting that fosters teamwork etc.
Key roles and contributions of HR
Apart from the above, following is brief list of tasks/contributions that an HR may
perform from time to time for an organization as per the CPID in order to add value to
an organization:
CIPD Level 5 HR DVP assessment activity 1 template v1.0
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Training and Development.
Employer-Employee Relations.
Maintain Company Culture.
Resource and Talent planning
Recruitment and hiring.
Manage Employee Benefits.
Create a Safe Work Environment.
Handle Disciplinary Actions.
Origination Design
Conflict Resolution.
Professional/ casual mentoring.
Whether you have an HR professional or not Human Resources is likely the single
greatest contributor to your organization’s success.
The CPID professional map, which identifies four different impact levels and details
the knowledge and behaviours required to excel at each of them (i.e., Foundation
Level, Associate Level, Chartered Member Level, and Chartered Fellow Level), allows
you to see exactly what it takes to make a positive contribution in an organization. For
most individuals, perceptions represent reality. All company's founders are aware of
its plan. However, explaining this approach and how it will materialize calls for a
broader outlook and comprehension of human dynamics. A beautiful and useful
account of team formation and behaviour is provided by the "Forming, Storming,
Norming, and Performing" theory or Tuckman's Team-Development Model.
However, to discover commonalities, other models could be contrasted. In order to
drive the element that can drive an organization's continual improvement and growth,
an HR's responsibility is to assist the professional in remembering the organization's
concerns and priorities in all operations and acting with a commercial attitude. This is
especially true for IP businesses (such as software, biotech, entertainment, etc.),
where employees represent the company's biggest expense (or investment). There is
a greater requirement for an HR professional in environments where people are an
organization's primary resource. Professional Map 2018 outlined six knowledge
domains that are necessary to influence change, add value, and have a positive impact
in the workplace.
Core knowledge aims to describe the areas you need to be an expert in your
profession i.e., people, work, and change. They set out everything you need to know
to be an effective practitioner, regardless of your role, sector, or specialism.
For example, business acumen, an HR professional is supposed to have business
acumen in order to plan the HR strategy to sustain the business at different stages and
in different scenarios, for example, an HR plan for recruitment would be much different
in the situation of a financial crisis than when the organization is making unlimited
profits.
Core behaviours refer to a set of behaviour that all professionals should keep in
practice no matter the position. For Human resource professionals’ ethical practice,
professional courage and influence, valuing people, working inclusively, commercial
drive, passion for learning, insights focused, etc.
For example, if an HR professional is recruiting for a particular organization, he/she is
supposed to recruit by keeping the goals of the organization in mind and shall make a
CIPD Level 5 HR DVP assessment activity 1 template v1.0
judgement in an unbiased/non-partial manner i.e. he/she shall follow an ethical
practice in recruiting.
With a greater focus on ethical and evidence-based decision-making, an HR
professional will create value for people, organisations and the society. Certain ways
of thinking and acting should be universal and consistent, even in new and challenging
situations.
Specialist knowledge areas shows a professional, how to apply his/her expertise to
make a positive impact. For HR professional this area is very dynamic and fluid. There
is straight jacket for to decide a particular kind of skill and understanding a specialist
knowledge, however, it is more subjective and will vary from organization to
organization as per their needs.
Even though for the benefit of an example, we can say that for an HR professional, a
specialization in employee relation can constitute as specialist knowledge. An HR
professional is supposed to hand employee from the stage of hiring to firing in a
manner which is most suitable for the fluid functioning of the company.
Significance of the above-mentioned examples and explanations
The above mentions area of the professional map and the following examples are
significant as to the fact that universally all HRs should have the skill of Employee
relations which shall be practised ethically in favour of enhanced business acumen for
the organization, henceforth increasing the opportunities which will convert in future
gains for the organization. Also, as a matter of fact, HR in the current fields may not
perform their job correctly in the favour of the organization due to conflicting business
interests of the shareholders/directors. To overcome these challenges the abovementioned skills are essential for efficient and effective HR management in the
organization and to produce future results. Also, the examples are derived from my
own life experience as an HR and have been tested in the fields. Hence, such
examples were chosen as the most proper for this explanation.
Conclusion
Henceforth, an HR professional is involved in a variety of different roles and contributes
multi-laterally to an organization. As, the globe became more industrialized and a
greater number of people found work, the necessity for human resource management
for good and efficient administration of companies grew, giving rise to the profession
of human resource management ("HR"). There is no straight jacket method to define
the ambit of the role and contributions of an HR professional because of such huge
scope of job and role and responsibility is different for every organization the best
ability for an HR professional would be to adapt to the needs and requirements of an
organization. The above answer sufficiently explained the same with reference to CPID
professional map with examples derived from real professional experience.
b)
As per the results of the 'my CPD Map' diagnostic online tool, my capabilities for
analysing key processes, systems, and structure are exceeding, planning and
managing change is also exceeding, and organizational culture as a potential barrier
to change the design is also exceeding, identifying lesson learned means analysing
CIPD Level 5 HR DVP assessment activity 1 template v1.0
individual performance by setting the benchmark to compare individual performance,
and supporting managers to develop their skills are also exceeding. I must endeavour
to ensure that the managers understand the investment so that they can appropriately
implement the change in the organization. To ensure learning and growth at all
organizational levels, I must establish an effective training and development program.
However, my approach is evidence-based and my skills in employee relations, ethics,
and business acumen is way past the point of an average HR professional as a
consequence of my experience and professional qualifications.
SWOT analysis
The below analysis is conducted in relation to the HR professional areas:
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Strength: According to the analysis, my area of strength includes organizational
development, employee relations (i.e. also my core specialist knowledge area), and a
performance and reward system which helps to motivate the employees towards
improving their performance to achieve organizational goals. Apart from that I also
have a human touch which makes the employees & other employees comfortable
around me.
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Weakness: My weakness is in prioritization of needs between the employees and
clients, there are times when employees and the organization may have conflicting
interests, hence, managing the employees well enough to reach an amicable solution
is an area where I have not had much experience. I also believe that I need to be more
aware legally, which also gives rise to being up to date with the HR professional news.
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Opportunity: The field of Human resources is booming and there is a wide variety of
new organizations where Hr professionals are required throughout the world. There is
a shortage of supply for such professionals in western countries which is one of my
biggest opportunities as an HR professional.
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Threats: It is important to develop HR skills otherwise I will not be able to perform roles
and responsibilities in an effective manner which may hamper my professional growth.
It is essential to develop HR skills in the heat of competition as a large proposition is
willing to perform in such positions, otherwise, I will not be able to reach a position to
satisfy my personal needs and goals leading to unsatisfactory professional
development.
c)
In the early 1940's, Kurt Lewin, a social psychologist and age management
expert, remarked that people often adopt different roles and behaviours when working
in groups. Group dynamics then explain the outcomes of these roles and behaviours
in the other members of the group, as well as in the group as a whole. According to
Tuckman's theory, there are five stages of group development: Formation, Storming,
Norming, Performing and Adjourning. During these phases, the members of the group
need to address various problems, and thus the way these problems are solved
CIPD Level 5 HR DVP assessment activity 1 template v1.0
determines whether the group will be successful in its tasks. Here are a few elements
of group dynamics explained briefly.
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Forming: This phase is usually characterized by some confusion and uncertainty, such
as: the Main phase Objectives If the group has not been established, neither the nature
of the task nor the leadership of the group is fixed
Storming: During this phase, the group going up see the highest levels of
disagreement and conflict because members often challenge group goals and struggle
for power within individuals who often vie for positions of leadership. If the members
are not willing to resolve these conflicts, then the group will often split up or survive,
but will be ineffective and never to the others get to phases.
Norming: This phase is characterized by the acknowledgment of individual differences
and shared expectations. At this stage, group members begin to develop a form of
group cohesion and identity. Therefore, the collaboration should start producing results
and some responsibilities will be shared among the members and the group can decide
how to assess progress
Performing: This occurs when the group has matured and reached a form of cohesion.
During this development phase, individuals accept each other and conflicts are
resolved through group discussions. Group members make decisions through a
rational process that focuses on relevant goals and not emotional issues
Adjourning: Not all groups experience this developmental phase because they do so
is characterized by the demobilization of the group. Some groups are relatively
permanent (Luthans, 2005). Reasons why separate groups are different; The most
common reasons are task completion, or people deciding to go their own way, or group
members experiencing feelings of completion and sadness as they prepare to leave.
Conflict resolution
It is a method of forging solutions for human problems in an organization. For example,
an employee has a problem relating to performance review and is unsatisfied with the
review of his performance by the organization and he/she expresses his problem to
the HR professional; now, the HR professional is responsible for managing the
problems of the employee in an unbiased manner and act as an intermediary between
the top management and the employee while satisfying the interest of both the parties
in this process. When both parties come out satisfied, we can say that the conflict is
resolved and this process of resolution is known as conflict resolution.
The conflict resolution method is designed by Thomas and Ralph who reflects five
methods to resolve conflicts, hereinafter are the following:
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Collaborating: Here the HR professional will resolve the conflict by respecting the
mutual concerns and will understand and empathize with the other party. In the end,
the parties will try to reach a conclusion through the mutual corporation. For example,
if there is a tussle between 2 employees and they both don’t like working with each
other, so the HR professional can put them in a team together and give them work
where they collaborate to come to a resolution. Similar techniques can also take place
between the HR professional and the employee.
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Compromising: Here both parties get something out of the resolution process but not
everything. This can manifest in many ways, for example, an employee who needs
maternity leave and is having some health problems as a consequence and wants
medical leave as well but it would be unproductive for the organization to grant the
CIPD Level 5 HR DVP assessment activity 1 template v1.0
such leave at the time. Hence, after a mutual understanding, she can be given work
from home which shows corporation on both sides.
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Accommodating: It is the situation that is considered as the charity given to one
another by considering the point of view of others. For example, if an employee needs
his salary in advance for his daughter’s wedding, the HR professional will facilitate this
by accommodating and providing his salary in advance.
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Avoiding: It is the form of a disappointing situation where the individual is withdrawing
by simply threatening the situation. In this resolution process let’s say if in the above
example the employee will ask for his salary in advance, the HR professional will
simply say no to that after careful consideration.
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Competing: It is an uncooperative approach to resolving the conflict in which the
individual is standing for their rights. Here, the demand of the party opposing the
organizational goals is rejected in an uncooperative manner.
The ability to resolve conflicts is often seen as a leadership trait. People who can
identify conflicts, acknowledge different opinions, and build a consensus are valuable
to many organizations. They make it more likely for personal differences to be set aside
so work can continue.
References:
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Coetzer, A., Ryan, M.M., Susomrith, P. and Suseno, Y., 2017. Challenges in
addressing professional competence expectations in human resource management
courses. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 55(4), pp.454-475.
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Elgoibar, P., Euwema, M. and Munduate, L., 2017. Conflict management. In Oxford
Research Encyclopedia of Psychology.
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Emmott, M., 2016. CIPD. In Encyclopedia of Human Resource Management. Edward
Elgar Publishing Limited.
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Federici, E., Boon, C. and Den Hartog, D.N., 2019. The moderating role of HR
practices on the career adaptability–job crafting relationship: a study among
employee–manager dyads. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, pp.1-29.
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Hamberger, J., 2018. Workplace Dispute Resolution: What Guidance Does Existing
Research Provide?. In Advances in Industrial and Labor Relations, 2017: Shifts in
Workplace Voice, Justice, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution in Contemporary
Workplaces (pp. 29-55). Emerald Publishing Limited.

Johansen, M.L. and Cadmus, E., 2016. Conflict management style, supportive work
environments and the experience of work stress in emergency nurses. Journal of
nursing management, 24(2), pp.211-218.
CIPD Level 5 HR DVP assessment activity 1 template v1.0