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Importance of Achieving Work-life Balance

Case study

You have recently been appointed as a member of a People Practice outplacement company. One of your first assignments is to support a client called Technow, a rapidly growing technology company started four years ago by a brother and sister partnership.

In your first meeting with the partners, they inform you that they are planning to recruit a new management team which will consist of 5 section heads and 10-line managers, many of whom will be new to the company. The partners main concern is that as the company evolves, they can no longer have personal control over people matters. They request that you take responsibility for raising awareness of people practices to the new management team such as recruitment, work/life balance and engagement, key legislation, diversity, performance management, reward and learning and development. The intention is that the values and practices that the partners hold dear will not be lost in the expansion.

Task One – Standard operations guide for Technow recruitment.

In preparation for recruitment of Technow’s new management team you are required to produce a standard operations guide to provide the partners and their organisation with a step-by-step, easy to understand set of instructions so they can achieve formalisation of the recruitment practice. It must include and consider:

• An assessment of each of the different stages of the employee lifecycle, illustrated where appropriate by your role as an outsourced people practice professional within the lifecycle. (AC 1.1)
• An explanation of the stages and different methods available within the recruitment process and when it is appropriate to use each of them. (AC 1.2)
• An explanation of the different methods and techniques that can be used to prepare and provide information for the various parts of the recruitment process for specific roles. (AC 1.3)
• An assessment of the different materials and methods that can be used to attract talented individuals internally and externally for a range of roles. (AC 1.4)

Your evidence must consist of:

• Standards operations guide (approximately 1200 words, refer to CIPD word count policy)

Task Two – Interview preparation pack.

In readying Technow for interviews, create an interview preparation pack to advise on different types of selection methods that can be used and when it is appropriate to use each of these.

The pack must:

• Compare and contrast different selection methods that are used to assess the suitability of candidates and when it is most appropriate to use each method (AC 2.1)
• Discuss the records that need to be retained following a selection process (contributes to AC 2.4).

• Interview preparation (approximately 500 words refer to CIPD word count policy) to include selection criteria matrix (excluded from the wordcount).
• Produce a narrative which can, if you wish, include illustrations, images, diagrams and flow charts, in order to provide the managers at Technow with a fundamental understanding of employment legislation and organisational practices.

Task four – Narrative -legislation and organisational practices    

During the initial meeting, the owners wanted an emphasis to be placed on clear explanation that highlights the importance of work-life balance, engagement, diversity and inclusion and how these are influenced by legislation. In addition, they wanted you to identify the main points relating to employee discrimination, fair and unfair dismissal law, since fairness was explained to be critical in driving Technow’s business values.

The narrative must include an:

• explanation on the importance of achieving work-life balance within the employment relationship with an overview of the regulations relevant to work-life balance. (AC 3.1)
• explanation of what is meant by, and the importance of, wellbeing in the workplace (AC 3.2)
• assessment of how the positive and negative aspects of employee engagement can impact the way people feel at work, and the likely results. (AC 3.3)
• summary of the main points of discrimination legislation and the impact that discrimination can have throughout the employment relationship (AC.3.4)
• explanation of what diversity and inclusion means, how it differs from equal opportunities, and the importance for business and for social justice (AC 3.5)
• explanation of the difference between fair and unfair dismissal as defined in legislation, and as perceived by those involved and not involved. (AC 3.6)

 Task Five – Performance management and reward

Prepare a presentation, to include slide deck and supportive notes, aimed at providing Technow’s new management team with essential knowledge and understanding of performance management and reward. You need to ensure that you explain:

• the purpose of performance management, and the factors, information and components that influence and affect performance management systems. (AC 4.1)
• the main factors that need to be considered when managing the performance of teams and individuals. (AC 4.2)
• the key types of appraisal and how they are used in performance management. Include reference to the key skills needed by those holding the appraisal. (AC 4.3)

With regard to employee reward, your presentation must clarify the importance of different approaches to reward that can be used for attracting, motivating and retaining individuals.

Be sure to provide an:

• explanation of the key components (financial and non-financial) that are required to achieve an effective total reward system. (AC 5.1)
• exploration of the relationship between reward and performance, and the links to motivation. (AC 5.2)
• explanation of at least two reasons for treating employees fairly in relation to pay. (AC 5.3)
• Set of presentation slides and supporting notes. (Approximately 1000 words, refer to CIPD word count policy).

It is only required that the candidate prepares the documents for the presentation, it is not necessary to make this presentation.

Task Six – Supporting skills and knowledge development in the workplace.

Currently employee development at Technow is non-existent.  This is an area of people practice that the two owners of Technow are keen to address. To this end they have asked you to develop a factsheet to guide the new managers as they start to support others to develop the skills and knowledge to meet both individual and organisational objectives.

Your factsheet should include:

• examples of different learning needs that might arise for individuals and organisations, explaining how they might arise. (AC 6.1)
• a summary that briefly explains different approaches learning, which must include at least: facilitation, consulting, training, coaching, and mentoring. (AC 6.2)
• an explanation of how, in the design and delivery of learning and development initiatives, individual requirements and preferences must be accommodated. (AC 6.3)
• examples of at least two methods of evaluating learning and development and its impact, and how evaluation benefits both individuals and organisations, (AC 6.4).

Task 1: standards operation guide

Different stages of the employee lifecycle

Employee lifecycle entails mainly six stages, including attraction, recruitment, onboarding, development, retention, and separation. Employee attraction is the first phase of the employee lifecycle. The firm’s effectiveness is mainly aligned with its ability to attract and equally retain great talents within its workforce. Therefore, any company’s development relies on the attraction phase of the worker lifecycle. Further, attraction is the employer brand as it proceeds any vacancy within the firm. Numerous approaches can ensure a successful attraction phase and a stronger employer brand. Such approaches consist of raising brand awareness, providing attractive compensation and benefits, and creating a more incredible working culture within the company (Ervinta¹, Prihanto & Sudiyono, 2021). n this case, my responsibility is to create a greater culture that would attract the top talented employees.

Employee recruitment is the second phase in the employee lifecycle. This is the phase in which the employer must get the correct individual of the top talent in the required time. This phase happens when a novel vacancy is established or fills a vacancy for the existing role. My present responsibility in Technow company is to ensure that the form of recruitment technique applied leads to the best employee experience. Onboarding is another phase of the cycle that ensures that the workers quickly and effectively adjust to their novel work settings. Further, this stage aids the new workers in comprehending their novel responsibilities through the identification of their knowledge, attitude, skills, and behaviors (Gal et al., 2019). My responsibility in this case is ensuring that workers swiftly adjust to their novel work setting. The fourth phase in the cycle is employee development, ensuring that the workers develop professionally via skill development. The firm can guarantee that the workers develop professionally in this phase by motivating external learning and rewarding workers who are involved in their learning activities. My present role is to motivate external learning that guarantees that workers professionally develop.

The following stage is employee retention. The employers are responsible for retaining the top talents in the firm via promotion and better compensation and pension plans to ensure their satisfaction. My role in this stage is to facilitate the work and life balance, engagement, and employee diversity to retain the top workers. The last stage in the cycle is the separation, whereby the worker’s life in a company is terminated, which could be through retirement, dismissal, or the end of the contract. The company can avert legal challenges linked to the separation by adequately handling the process (Ervinta¹, Prihanto & Sudiyono, 2021). Besides, the HR manager could prevent the adverse influence created by leaving workers to the remaining workforce by handling such procedure with equal significance similar to onboarding procedure. My duty for this case is to guarantee that the organization averts legal matters, like unfair removal, linked to separation. This can be attained by remaining positive, mainly if the top-performing workers leave and comprehend the reason for their departure.

The stages and different methods available within the recruitment process

The process of recruitment entails planning, strategy development, searching, screening, and assessment and control. The initial stage, planning, entails formulating the specific goals on the forms and number of the candidates to be contacted by translating the possible job positions and data regarding the various aspects of the job. Besides, this stage guarantees that several applicants that are more than the needed number are contracted to ensure that the required number is attained after the elimination of the unqualified and uninterested individuals. Most companies utilize the formula yRs in setting their targeted number of candidates that should be contracted to fill in the vacancy. The next stage, strategy development, entails developing the approaches like technological advancement of recruitment, which would guarantee the recognized number of candidates are enlisted. The searching stage entails marketing as well as source activation prior to the definite enrolment to certify the accessibility of the new position is approved by different line administrators (Johansson & Herranen, 2019). The screening phase guarantees that only the eligible candidates are contacted for the interview via screening the received candidate applications aligned with vacancy advertisement. Finally, the assessment and control stage is conducted to assess the amount of the resources utilized in the recruitment procedure and the applicant’s appropriateness to be selected for the position.

On the other hand, the recruitment methods entail internal job postings and recruitment agencies. The internal job posting involves a situation where the company favors filling the new vacancy utilizing the current workers to outside workers. This recruitment technique is mainly appropriate if there is a requirement to endorse the present workforces and save time. Additionally, the recruitment agencies entail the recruitment technique in which the company contracts a recruitment agency to aid in finding the suitable individual for the particular position. This technique can primarily be utilized where the firm desires to save time as well as brand itself within the market.

Explain different ways in which you can prepare information for specified roles.

There are numerous strategies of preparing data for detailed responsibilities, including performing job analysis, creating the essential functions, concisely organizing the data, the addition of compensation and disclaimer, and the addition of signature lines. The job analysis is conducted to gather precise data regarding the specified roles by examining and interpreting information concerning the task of the job. Various companies often apply questionnaires to gather the correct data for the task. Further, the data offered during the job analysis guarantee the data offered on skills, ability, and knowledge are aligned to the detailed role. Further, establishing the essential functions entails highlighting the position’s essential functions, which is carried out after the firm formulates the performance standard. Also, the section explores the way various responsibilities would be conducted as per the job requirement. On the other hand, the organization of information accurately guarantees the structure of the detailed duties remains aligned to the firm’s vision and mission. Moreover, it identified the job classifications and titles, the wage grade, the individuals to report to, information and summary, and the goals of the role. Numerous firms include physical demand, work environment, and the type of vacancy being advertised. Lastly, the data for the stated roles could be prepared through addition of disassociation to notify candidates of the responsibilities and duties entailed in the position could be restructured or adjusted without notice.

Assess different materials and methods used to attract talented individuals for a range of roles.

The various ways that can be applied in attracting talented individuals include employee referral program, shorter time to hire, better reward and compensation program, and building a positive firm culture. The worker referral program entails utilizing the existing workers as the brand ambassadors of attracting the highly talented workers for the positions. Willis, Cave, and Kunc (2018) express that approximately 27% of the promising and talented employees are attained via referral programs. Thus, Technow firm requires to implement the application of an employee referral program to attract the highly talented candidates possibly. Further, many companies often lose talented workers to rivals because of the longer periods in the hiring process. Hence, the shorter hiring period presents a high opportunity for the firm to recruit these top talented employees for the specified roles. Therefore, Technow should equally reduce the duration it implements for hiring novel workers. Moreover, highly talented candidates are always looking for firms that provide rewards and compensation which match their skills and talents. Hence, Technow could attract the top talented workers by providing better rewards and compensation programs. Overall, most talented workers are inclined to be attracted to companies that have well established positive firm culture. A positive organizational culture certifies a better compensation program, a high degree of worker engagement, and a balance of better work and life (Willis, Cave, & Kunc, 2018). Technow requires reinforcing a positive organizational culture to attract talented candidates for the roles.