Developing yourself as an effective Human Resources practitioner Essay

Briefly summarise the HRPM and comment on the activities and knowledge specified within any one professional area, at band two, identifying those you consider most essential to your own HR role The HRPM is a working tool that underlines behaviours, knowledge and skills that the CIPD understand are needed for the personal and workplace development on all levels of the HR profession, and how it will add value to yourself and your organisation. It looks at improving things not just at the present time but looks forward at how improvements can be made in the future. It has been created to be of use to all levels of professionals in all sectors in any part of the world. The HRPM is set out over ten professional areas; there are 8 specialist Professional areas that specify the activities and knowledge that are needed to provide HR support to your organisation. They are Service delivery and HR, employee relations, performance and reward, employee engagement, learning and development, resourcing and talent planning, organisation development and organisation design. There are also two core professional areas, ‘insights, strategy and Solution’ and ‘Leading HR’, they are at the centre of the map and are professional areas that are considered relevant to all HR Professionals at any stage in their career. The ten professional areas cover what you need to do and what you need to know at all four bands and the behaviours you will need to carry out your activities. The eight behaviours identify how professionals should be carrying out their daily work activities to ensure that they achieve success for themselves and their organisation . The eight behaviours are Role model, Curious, Decisive thinker, skilled influencer, courage to challenge, driven to deliver, collaborative and personally credible. The behaviours are all about helping you to identify how to carry out your professional activities in order to benefit your organisation; each behaviour comes with a contra behaviour which outlines the negative impact. The behaviours are then split out into four bands, (The relationship between professional and customer, where they spend their time, the focus of the activity what services are provided, how  their contribution and how their success is measured) they set out the competencies you need at each level of the HR career, and it also has guidelines to help move from one level to the next. I have chosen the professional area of resourcing and talent planning at band two. I believe that the most essential activities and knowledge of my role within band two is advising and managing individuals or teams based on HR issues and problems. I help managers to identify the skills and capabilities they need to deliver current and future work and support them in making the right choices to fill the need. I manage and resource talent, ensuring they are fit for purpose and can deliver required out comes. I have the knowledge on how to execute a recruitment plan to agreed standards and deadlines and I know how to deliver effective talent and succession solutions whilst working with managers needs. I can also use a variety of induction and transitional tools as an outlined below. I have just finished a module on Resourcing talent in my CIPD level three; I have used the knowledge gained to improve the recruitment and talent management process in my organisation. I arranged meetings with directors and managers to discuss a more effective way of recruiting, and suggested ways to train and develop the staff that we already have. I also created more effective exit interview and appraisal forms, improved the induction process and brought in sifting tools and interview documents. Outline how an HR practitioner should ensure the services they provide are timely and effective As the sole HR practitioner in my company, I deal with many varied customers. I need to ensure that I deal with them in a fair, timely and efficient manner at all times. I have given three examples of customers as per below; Payroll/finance I assist the Payroll/finance department in many ways but mainly I provide them with reports on sickness and absences or changes to pay/salary due to overtime, pay rise or a promotion as an when required. Managers/Line managers I assist Mangers and Line mangers to support their staff and help keep them informed of any changes to policies and procedures. They also require my assistance when the need arises to take on new staff. Recruitment Agencies I assist recruitment agencies when managers/line managers inform me that they are looking for new staff. I will prove the agencies with a good brief of the job and all necessary information they will need. Then keep an open communication with them regarding interviewees. Prioritising conflicting needs Often customers will need help information or reports from me at the same time. As I am the sole HR practitioner in my work place it is important for me manage my time effectively. I will make a list of the jobs I need to get done and then check the deadline for each and prioritise in order, often there are conflicting needs, when this happens I contact the customers involved and let them know that I have other jobs that need doing with equal importance often talking this over resolves the problem and deadlines are moved or I am able to send parts of reports over and send the rest at a later date. Effective communication in my workplace In my organisation I tend to use the following methods of communication; I have given examples below:- Verbal – Telephone or face to face This method of communication works well for me when I need to inform a manager if I am unable to meet a deadline or if there is a delay with  sending a report, speaking to them face to face or over the phone I will be able to get much better feedback with regards to rescheduling the deadlines and what they require of me. The disadvantage of this is that I would have no record of the conversation and details can be forgotten, with this in mind I always follow up any conversation with an email to reiterate. Written- Email I find that in my organisation an email is best for communication when you need to give managers or staff information or reports as you can ensure that all the information is passed across and none is missed as could be the case if you were to tell them face to face. The disadvantage of this method is that sometimes emails go missing, so I will always call and check the managers have received the email and also use a read receipt on the email. I would also use email to invite attendees to interview; I will be able to send them a list of documents required and information of the date and time. I would also call and speak to them to get confirmation of attendance in case they do not check their emails regular or do not have a lot of access to a computer. The company intranet The company intranet is great for letting staff know about up and coming changes in the work place or staff social functions as it is open to view but all members of staff. The disadvantage of using the intranet is that not everybody may use it, or check it regularly. I would always send a backup email with updates via email or make sure that it is communicated to staff through their line managers. Effective Service delivery Delivering services on time It is important in my job that I respond to all requests from customers in a timely and efficient manner, I am the sole HR Practitioner in our  organisation and I cannot delicate or ask advice. With this in mind I need to spot problems early, isolate and solve before it becomes an issue. I also need to prioritise my work load and deal with each job as efficiently as possible, it is important for me to communicate clearly with each person requesting work from me regarding the urgency of the job, sometimes line managers will issue a job as a priority when in actual fact they do not need the requested report until next week. Delivering services on budget I am not asked to comply to a budget, but I am always aware of funds and I make a conscious effort to keep costs low where possible. Dealing with difficult customers I have to deal with negative employees in my organisation; I deal with this by listening to the employees’ complaint. Sometimes that is all it takes to resolve the issue, as they feel that their grievance is being listened to. I always make sure to ask relevant questions, this lets them know that I am listening and helps me to decide if they have a valid complaint, or if they are just sounding off. I will always follow this on by asking if they would like my help or support in the matter. Most of the time they just wanted somebody to listens to them. Handling and resolving complaints I don’t see complaints as a bad thing in my organisation; I think that I can learn from them so that things can be done better or I can put in place things that are missing. Feedback is a good thing regardless of whether it is positive or negative. I have set up a suggestion box in the kitchen so that employees can give feedback or complain anonymous. If an employee makes a serious complaint I will always defer to the directors and line managers.