Developing Yourself As An Effective HR Practitioner

Developing Yourself as an Effective HR Practitioner

Report – Part 1

The HR Map

The HR Profession Map covers the large scope of how the HR function adds value to a business. The map is made up by combining highly skilled abilities with company goals, resulting in maintaining continued performance. The Map breaks down what each HR role entails across all the specialist areas including the skill set, behaviour and knowledge to succeed, therefore adding career progression.

The HR Map is made up of ten professional areas. The professional area of ‘Strategy, Insights & Solutions’ is about understanding the business operation and the impact any changes would have on it. It is also about understanding what and how the HR function
The activities involved in this area include supporting and coaching managers on company policies and processes, ensure fair treatment for all employees, give advice to employees and managers on all disciplinary, grievance redundancy, relocation and recruitment issues, ensure that all policies and contracts of employment remain up to date with constantly evolving employment legislation and play an active part in Trade Union activity including pay negotiations and CJC’s. The knowledge needed in this area is about understanding the business, the changes and updates in employment law to ensure that risks are minimised and being able to coach managers in these areas to enable them to handle as best they can. The behaviours needed to succeed in this area are having the courage to challenge by observing situations, asking questions, providing solutions and alternatives and having the confidence to speak up and not avoid confrontation, showing empathy when needed. All of these help in different situations, for example, during disciplinary hearings when giving advice and guidance to managers and minimising tribunal risks. You also need to be a skilled influencer to understand different individuals and how to adjust to your audience and the situation e.g. adjusting to either a redundancy situation or a disciplinary situation. Working with these people and understanding them is key when trying to
There are many different methods of communication and each has their advantages and disadvantages. Communicating by email is one of the most common methods amongst a workplace. It enables us to have a paper trail and can be used for internal audit purposes. It is also advantageous when having to communicate a message to a large group of people as if you had to do that by telephone it would be rather time consuming. Emails can be misread though and, taken in the wrong context, can cause conflict and miscommunication. It can also at times come across as impersonal. Team Briefing is another method of communication which can engage people into a wider discussion. This can make it easier for some people to get involved but can make it harder for those who lack confidence to speak up. It can at times also make a message inconsistent when being communicated by different people e.g. different management presenting styles can report the message in different ways.
A third method of communication is video conferencing. This method saves a person having to travel to meetings which allows a better use of their time instead of travelling. The downside to video conferencing is that technology can sometimes cause issues e.g. when a network or server is not working or any other kind of technical