Development Portfolio: Personal And Professional Objectives, SWOT Analysis, Essay, And Personal Development Plan. (70 Characters)

Task-1

The recommended word limit is 1,000–1,500 words, although you may not be penalised for exceeding the total word limit.

You need to create a development portfolio which shows your ‘own’ learning progress and acquisition of key skills. The portfolio should include evidence for the planning and monitoring of progress towards the achievement of personal and professional objectives.

You are required to produce a portfolio containing the following documents:

• Skills and attributes analysis required by HR professionals, based on a range of different roles within an organisation.

• Personal SWOT analysis.

• Personal development plan based on the SWOT analysis for a one of the job roles.

• Reflective statement.

Task-2

The recommended word limit is 2,500–3,000 words for this task, although you may not be penalised for exceeding the total word limit.

You are recruited as an external Learning and Development Consultant by a large global organisation (choose an organisation of your choice. Preferably the organisation you work for). The Director of Human Resources of this organisation requires you to produce an individual report which must address the following question:

‘To what extent does the organisation effectively utilise learning and development to support individuals and teams to help it to operate high-performance working (HPW) in a
high-performance culture?’

You are required to demonstrate the use of critical thinking to support a conclusion that justifies your arguments. The report should cover the following:

• An introduction to the organisation.

• An analysis of continuing professional development (CPD) and the requirements for individual and organisational development.

• An evaluation of what HPW is and how HPW contributes to employee engagement and motivation, providing specific examples as evidence.

• Evaluate the different approaches to HPW and make recommendations for improvements.
 

Task-1

Skills and attributes analysis required by HR professionals, based on a range of different roles within an organisation 

HR professionals must possess some qualities, skills and characteristics in order to survive within an organisation. The HR professionals can achieve success through possessing the variety of social skills, honesty, integrity, good manner and good quality (Albrecht et al. 2015).

An HR professional should have strong communication skill as the words of HR professional can impact on everyone around. If the HR professionals cannot convey what they want to communicate, this situation will make the conversation problematic. As a successful HR professional, one of the most important attributes is to communicate effectively with all associated parties.

As stated by Bratton and Gold (2017), HR professionals must have strong ethics as the HR professionals are believed to be trusted and can keep confidential matter. The HR professionals have employee information and the professional ethics of the HR professionals not to disclose this to anyone. Moreover, the job of the HR professionals is to set the ethical standard within the organisation and to promote the ethics within the workplace.

HR professionals should possess the strong conflict management skills to deal with workplace conflict. HR professionals use to have strong thinking skills that help them to solve or manage the situation effectively. The HR professionals gather information regarding problems and they come up with the managerial solution to negotiate the issue. Conflict is natural within an organisation and right conflict management skills must be developed by the HR professionals (Brewster and Hegewisch 2017). 

HR professionals have the attribute of strong organisational skill like they can do hiring, selection, providing rewards and recognition to the employees, maintain the official records and educate the team regarding office rules. The HR professionals do a large amount of paper works and they also do database management about the employees.  

Within an organisation, HR professionals must possess the knowledge and expertise of human resources as they have to resolve the issues of the employees with the daily issues that arise. The HR professionals must know the Code of Conduct of the organisation and they need to convey these to the employees calmly and politely (Cascio 2018).

 The behaviour of the HR professionals should be helpful and their behaviour must not contain any rudeness. The professionals can maintain good time-management skills and self-discipline will eventually let the HR professionals complete all the works on time. The trustworthy attribute of the HR professionals easily makes the professionals reliable towards the employees as the employees must believe that the professionals will do the right things for them.

Skills and attributes analysis required by HR professionals

Personal SWOT analysis 

Strengths	· I am good at multi-tasking as I can manage more than 1 work at a time · I have good time management skills as I always try to finish any work on time · I can manage the stress as I always try to think the matter strategically to find the way less stressed · I am a good tutor; I can teach people easily about the matter what I know · I am a good counsellor also. People come to me with problems and I always try to help them with my solutions. · I am a good communicator as I can communicate my words easily.
Weaknesses	· I feel I do not have leadership skill as I always like to take the decision in the group. · I am not assertive always as I feel lack of confidence when I go to someone to discuss my issue · I am not good at presenting something in front of people · I am not good at negotiation as at that time I do not find the right words to convince · Effective delegation of work is another issue that I face.
Opportunities	· I attend training programmes and that can provide me extra knowledge about HR · I have practice skills through presentation of the report · I have an opportunity in career advancement as I have both theoretical and practical knowledge · I have all potential to get success · I follow strong ethics in my life
Threats	· In coming days, the competition get the desired job is going to be a threat · I have a financial constraint as I cannot spend lots of money for doing any expensive courses · I do not have such panel of observers who can help me to solve the issue · The economic stability of the industry can be a threat to find the desired job · I am a bit introvert, therefore, I face lack of confidence to start any conversation

Table 1: SWOT analysis

(Source: Self-developed)

Personal development plan based on the SWOT analysis for Human Resource Manager role 

The professional development plan is for the role of Human Resource Manager. This plan is to develop my characteristics to improve the weaknesses and threats.

Short-term goal
Target	Actions to achieve	Target time frame (within 12 weeks)
Leadership skills Cross-functional expertise	· Have a clear vision · Be passionate · Speak to leaders and managers · Maintain positive attitude · Gain knowledge about different departments · Gaining knowledge about the subjective matter	01.05.2018- 01.08.2018
Mid-term goal
Target	Actions to achieve	Target time frame (within 24 weeks)
Communication skills Negotiation skills	· Body language development · Listen to others carefully · Be specific in communication · Making eye-contact · Short courses on communication · Considering viewpoints and limitation · Evaluating the leverage · Building communication power	01.05.2018- 01.11.2018
Long-term goal
Target	Actions to achieve	Target time frame (within 52 weeks)
Strategic thinking Boosting confidence	· Short course on professional development · Read books on the subject · Online test · Communicate with leaders · Grooming myself · Dress nicely · Taking control of self-confidence · Act positive way · Get to know yourself	01.05.2018- 01.05.2019

Table 2: Professional Development Plan

(Source: Self-developed)

Reflective statement 

I want to be an HR manager in future and I am developing the theoretical understanding of HR practices. In order to be the HR manager, I have already done the SWOT analysis of myself where I have identified my strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. In order to be the HR manager, I need to develop the communication skill, knowledge and expertise on HR, presenter skills, innovation, approach to human resource and delegator of tasks. I have identified my strengths that can be required to be HR manager. I have understood that I can do multi-tasking and I can manage the stress at work easily. In addition, I am a good tutor that means I can teach about the training and induction to the people. Moreover, I am a good counsellor and people can fetch my assistance in any needs. On the other side, I have several weaknesses that are required to improve in order to be an HR manager in future. I lack the quality of leadership as I always take a decision in the group and I am not assertive. I cannot present thing logically in front of all and I am not proper orator who can deliver the promises easily. In addition, I am not effective delegator of the tasks and I face lack of confidence. I have made a PDP (Professional Development Plan) segregating the work in short-term, mid-term and long-term. In order to reach the professional expertise, I am going to set the action plan to develop my expertise. In order to develop the communication skills, I am going to admit myself in short professional courses and I am going to improve my listening skills. I am going to gain knowledge in a different department and I will try to face the fears.  

Introduction to the organisation Accenture

Accenture is a public organisation and it is a global management consulting service provider. It is in the industry of technology service and professional service. Accenture was founded in the year 1989 and it has it headquarter in Dublin. It serves in worldwide basis and it has more than 435,000 employees across the globe. Accenture has its offices in more than 120 countries. Accenture provides services to the clients like consulting, strategy, digital, operations and technology (Accenture.com 2018). Globally, the revenue of the organisation was US$34.85 billion and operating income was US$4.70 billion. 

Personal SWOT analysis

 Accenture organisation is a global leader in giving the innovative solutions that can drive towards measurable experience and performance. Accenture provides extensive experience with many of the HR technologies with solutions. Accenture has deep industry experience and it helps to reach global scale and reach.

Analysis of continuing professional development (CPD) and the requirements for individual and organisational development 

Continuous Professional Development (CPD) exists to provide an individual's skills and abilities enhancement. The individuals who have completed the academic qualification and are waiting for the entering the professional life; they must know about the industry and job function. Therefore, CPD is a sign to ensure the further learning and this framework is applied to provide efficiency in learning. As stated by Burrow et al. (2016), CPD allows the people to focus on knowledge and skills as these are needed for short-term. In recent time, the society is globalised and the professionals have to accept the competitive nature. CPD helps an individual to give attention to most of the significant areas of development, most importantly; CPD takes the exact measures to decrease the shortfall of the concept as well as knowledge. According to Sperling (2017), CPD helps the individuals to remain competitive with the colleagues and peers to provide an opportunity to make the differentiation. Professionally qualified people with similar qualifications must opt to CPD in order to become important in the field. A planned CPD can allow the individual to put the employees to grab the career development with work-related ambitions. A personal empowering can be brought through the CPD framework to build the confidence and it can result to build the abilities in the employment environment. As opined by Church and Waclawski (2017), CPD can ensure the capabilities to keep the pace of the organisational current standards and CPD helps to maintain the knowledge and skills that the persons deliver to the professional services. CPD framework of the organisation tries to provide a relevant update of the knowledge with this changing trends and direction in the profession. Moreover, CPD assists to continue to provide meaningful input to the team.

Employers are recently taking the supportive and proactive role to ensure the CPD required for the employees. In general organisations, the importance of CPD is growing as most of the employees seek benefits from the CPD. Organisations observe the advantages of the CPD when the employees are getting motivated, highly skilled and committed workforce (Cook et al. 2018). On the other side, some of the managers of the organisations think that CPD takes extra time that can result in out-of-the business. The availability of the flexible CPD can meet the business requirements that have been increased in recent time. The employers are providing online learning to the employees and the employers are also providing short-courses to the employees. The employees are given on-the-job training during the working hours and the employees are provided with half-day workshops. The organisation provides CPD to bring the networking opportunities and new business venture (Wittich 2018). Accenture can build the CPD framework for the employees in order to have the motivated employees with skills. CPD framework will help to access the self-assessment of the employees, development of skills and knowledge and benchmarking of team leaders. Accenture can also use the analysis of needs for the clients as well as the partners. Accenture can also use the modular and portfolio to develop the training and development of materials. In addition, Accenture can assess the impact of the professional development of the employees. 

Personal development plan based on the SWOT analysis for Human Resource Manager role

Evaluation of HPW and how HPW contributes to employee engagement and motivation, providing specific examples as evidence 

High-Performance Working (HPW) can create working culture within the organisation where transparency, trust and communication must be there for all. High-Performance Working is eroding traditional hierarchical structure that the organisations must operate and instead this organisation can opt to take flatter structure where the employees can become engaged, happy and motivated. The organisation needs to understand and share the vision of the organisation in order to evaluate the High-Performance Working. As stated by Jeon et al. (2015), High-Performance Working is the approach to control and manage the organisation that targets to stimulate more efficient employee involvement and commitment to gain high levels of employee performance. High Employee Performance is the fundamental process, policies and practices that should be put into place. HPW framework integrates the result to improve the performance of the staffs. HPW has three broader areas, high employee involvement, human resource practices and reward and commitment practices (Argyris 2017).

High-Performance Working can change Accenture to have the high performance working culture where the employees can be motivated, skilled and engaged. The concept of HPW came from the United States, HPW helped to increase the working performance of the employees in the US's manufacturing sector. Of late, the concept of HPW is using the mass-production that is often related to the low in giving discretion and responsibility. Accenture can invest in HPW in order to have the workforce skills and the organisation can provide incentives to provide emphasis on the production. According to Yang et al. (2015), HPW allows the employees to have autonomy for the working styles as the employees can work in their own way. Accenture needs to allow the employees to decentralise the structure and self-management reinforcement. In addition, Accenture can share the information with the staffs to have regular communications detailing the organisational structure. Sharing the information can lead to the feeling that the employees are valued and consulted before taking any decision. Accenture needs to provide enforce on people-focused culture. For instance, the management needs to focus on providing the rewards and recognition to the hardworking and honest employees. As pointed out by Flin and O’Connor (2017), in addition, the management needs to adapt to friendly policies so that the management needs to take the flexible working policies. Flexible working hours will give work-life-balance of the organisation. HPW will eventually emphasise on the learning and development so that it can provide opportunities to the employees regarding new learning skills and it would enhance the skills of the employees that they already have. Finally, as opined by Yang et al. (2015), HPW introduces staffs' support system in order to manage the employees successfully. Accenture can do the regular appraisals as well as multi-source feedback in order to provide the employee-support system.

Task-2

Accenture can support HPW and it can include annual appraisal, formal feedback, reviewing vacancies, an annual review of staffs and continuous skills' development programmes that are aligned with work-design. The Accenture can gain the economic competitiveness through introducing HPW. 

Evaluation the different approaches to HPW and make recommendations for improvements 

High-Performance Working can be segregated into three different approaches. The Universalists opine that HR practices may produce the maximum results and it can be adopted in different types of organisations and irrespective nature of the organisation. Universalists also provide the view that HPW can be described as best practices to develop the employee performance within the organisations across the globe. The companies need to recognise the best-fit bundle of the employees so that any kind of issue can be solved effectively. On the other side, according to Katzenbach and Smith (2015), the HR team needs to identify the inherent issues associated with recognising the right combination of high-performance working that makes capable to yield superior working performance. The second approach is about Contingency approach, this approach believes that bundle of HR practices may work in the best way if the management can apply this from the specific organisation or set of specific workers. Contingency approach is different from the Universalists approach as it is not about right combination rather it is associated with the alignment of the practices. The third type of approach of HPW is Configurational view as this describes relationship, structures and boundaries with which the organisations operate. HPW can be associated with the issues of employment relationships and HPW has broadly two dimensions, these two motivations are workers motivations and workers skills. Abraham et al. (2015) supported this by adding more dimensions of the HPWs and these could be a human capital enhancing system, profit sharing, employee participation and human resource system. In addition, Flin and O’Connor (2017) stated that High Working Performance can be structured into four groups, these are employee involvement, employee performance, involvement in decision-making and knowledge and information sharing.

Three broad areas of HPW are high employee involvement, rewards and commitment to practices and HR practices within the organisation. Accenture can follow the basic improvements:  

Employee involvement: Accenture can start creating tasks forces in order to delegate the work as well as a decision-making process. Accenture can encourage the people to work within a collaborative environment. Employee involvement can only be possible when the employees will gain top-level support and the employees must gain the feedback from the managers. Employee participation in the group work is needed in order to solve the issue to contribute the success of the organisation.  

An introduction to the organisation

Rewards and commitments of the employees: The employees of Accenture should be given with maximum rewards and recognition so that the employees can work with motivation. The extrinsic motivation comes from the rewards and incentives. Rewards can be given in the form of a bonus, incentives, salary hikes and fringe benefits. The motivated employees provide commitments towards the organisational works.

HR practices: HR practices of the organisation Accenture must focus on Talent Development and Management within the organisation as part of HPW. HR professionals need to do HR Automation through using software and Accenture can use HR as a business partner in order to ensure the organisation success. Training and Development should be given to the employees so that the employees can work with skill. Accenture can do constant innovation in order to improve the employee condition.

Conclusion

Effectively engaging conflict within the organisation often needs new insights, strategies and skills. Personal development builds individuals capable to engage themselves the complexity of change and conflict. Personal development can be gained through the training, coaching and team building elements can impact on the employees also. Organisational development is the engagement of building the specific skills of the leaders and strategies that help the organisation ensure about the problem solving. The leaders regularly develop skills in improving the leadership, team building and conflict management negotiation. Therefore, Accenture can take the strategy of CPD in order to have the skilled and motivated employees. In recent time, continuous improvement of the employees’ quality is increased and changing environment and competitiveness in the market demands more of CPD for employees and for the organisation also. Organisational design is the outcome of shaping and process an organisational structure to align with business purpose. Organisation development is the systematic planning of sustained performance through involvement of the employees. HPW can stimulate the employee effectiveness within the organisation and it can design to increase the employees' effort to bring the productivity. Accenture organisation can take the strategy of employee commitment, rewards and recognition and efficient HR practices in order to develop HPW within Accenture.   

Reference List 

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