Solution

Task One- 2,302 words

1.1 Professional; Meaning of People Professional

A professional is defined as people who adhere to ethical standards and hold themselves as and accepted amongst the public as possessing specialised knowledge and skills (ACP, 2022). For their success, Swann et al. (2021) note that their operations are under a regulation of a particular body, profession and occupation.

People professional are defined as individuals supporting vision and goals of organisations through significant people interventions (CIPD, 2022). Hence, with organisations being made of people, people professionals roles is empowering organisations in thriving individually and collectively.

Types of activities people professional carries;

L&D Strategies– People professionals starts by identifying learning gaps of their employees and recommend best strategy of meeting these gaps through different L&D strategies (CIPD, 2022a). For example, in my organisation (Saudi Aramco) people professionals ensure that coaching and mentoring sessions are facilitated to ensure employees adhere with change in the oil and gas industry.

Organisation design– People professionals ensure that they are influencing their organisations activities and shaping outcomes as a core factor of a successful practitioner (Forbes, 2018). In Saudi Aramco for example, people professionals develop policies and approaches for sourcing, support and people development. As a result, Saudi Aramco is regarded as an employer of choice.

In line with the CIPD Professional Map (CIPD, 2022), the core behaviours of people professionals include;

Ethical Practice–  For people professionals, even in a decision which does not elicit positive outcomes to all, behaving in an ethical way ensure that all people are satisfied. This is in decision making, challenging others decisions, transparency on their roles and role modelling of their professional values (Sezer et al., 2019).

The importance of this include improving overall morale and reducing risks emerging due to lack of ethical practice. The consequence of failure to be ethical lead to reduced financial performance of an organisation and bad relationships with customers.

Valuing people– People professionals must behave by appreciating value of other people bring to the organisation and integrating people perspectives in their business-based decision.

The importance of this behaviour include increasing efficiency with full respective, listened to and appreciated. The consequence of lack of this include lack of meaningful voice on issues impacting their work lives.

3.1 Role of people professional evolving; priorities

In Personio (2022) CPD is defined as “integration of initiatives, ideas setting and technique followed to assist managing people individually for success in L&D”.

Transitioning from Admin to Strategy

In line with Forbes (2013)  report, the people practice professional transition from administrative to strategy. Before the pandemic arose, the roles of HR admin strategically was not a common practice. The technology demand increase has a positive impact on support of talent management initiatives and engagement assessment with talents developed.

People focused practice and tech-savvy

From year 2010, HR function has transitioned to being people-focused and tech-savvy. This is attained by improving resourcing and management strategy. With the successful transition of technology, innovation embrace is a major investment in doing things (CIPD, 2022c). According to Chang-Richards et al. (2022), the examples of this include big data, mobile tools application, integrating social media tools, technological growth and data analytics.

Increase in Specialisation and Job Titles

Taking into the people practice professionals, there are various professionals lacking in the past as a best practice. This is with approximately 50 new job roles having been developed in the past 10 years. According to Forbes (2022), job titles and specialism include job analytics, workplace management and flexible working manager. In Saudi Aramco, there are fresh job roles such as CHO (Chief-Happiness-Officer), CHO (Chief-Heart-Officer) and Data Analytics (DA).

Implications on CPD

Considering the first example which is transition from admin to strategy, I make sure that my learning is aligned to best practice in initiating changes in world of working. In specific, this is strategic in areas of health and safety, employees engagement and active communication. I intend to change my CPD to integrate short-term courses in areas of strategic oranisatio operation with all challenges mitigated. I would achieve this while gaining appropriate insights on how to improve my specialisation in various job positions.

Further, considering the use of technology to become tech savvy, I possess a feeling that I am appropriately placed in using my skills to leverage on use of various technology actively in my operations. As part of my CPD, this can be changed to integrate use of Excel and SPSS tools to improve how analysis is done in my area of practice. I feel that I am appropriately positioned to manage the CPD by taking part in short-term course in use of modern technology.

1.2 Ethical values; impact on work as people professional

Ethical values is identified as “moral-based compass for people lives and ensuring decisions are made, executing the appropriate practice”. Also, in line with provisions presented by CIPD HR Professional Map, the ethical practice represent a main behaviour evidencing the level of impact on people lives and reputation.

The personal values examples are;

Equality– Basically, according to AIHR (2022), this include managing the employees similarly with equal opportunities granted. Equality is assured irrespective of employees possessing varying ages, genders, and demography.  Working in Saudi Aramco for example, as part of my recruitment initiatives, the employees are provided with equal amount of time to execute their roles as a core area for resourcing. This influence a feel of appreciation in their functions and readiness in joining the resourced functions. This is at the same time increasing the employees retention.

Valuing others–  In CIPD Map, this is identified as a practice of core behaviours. This entail valuing the rest and critical to ensure people perspectives are included in organisation decision making. In my position in Saudi Aramco, I make sure that I value others by improving decision making by being dedicated in offering clients with services expected. The outcome of this is sufficient organisation support. I ensure that I empower all employees and encourage them to use knowledge to implement their functions. In Saudi Aramco for instance, after a feel of unappreciation, reduced performance was evident and impacting organisation practices.

Fairness– A process of treating all people in a fair manner is a strategy of balance of stakeholders interests and support. For example, in my role as a people professional for Saudi Aramco, I pursue the process to ensure entire policies and initiatives for reward management fairly pursued. For example, issue employees with rewards, I make sure men and women who work in same job roles are paid the same. This is while gender pay reporting being provided as part of their practice. Through a fair treatment of employees, trust levels in the organisation is harnessed, morale increase, loyalty increased with performance. In cases where fairness is lacking, employees possess less productivity and engage in unwarranted activities leading to increase in their turnover.

1.3 Professionals contribute confidently to discussions

In my role working in Saudi Aramco, after COVID-19 pandemic occurred, my roles involved implementation of a program where the employees would be working from home. This was meant to reduce the rates of infection amongst the employees, manage the performance level and enhance consistency in working.

Informed

To successfully implement the program, I utilised peer reviewed journals and various articles to obtain quality information on strengths and weaknesses of working from  home for an organisation. Further, I embarked in benchmarking process where I acquired insights and data on how other organisation have been implementing home working arrangement. As explained in CIPD (2022), by implementing remote working successfully, it is possible to improve employees voice and engagement level. The best organisations which had succeeded in this area included Walmart, Google plc, and Tesco which are core for success of flexible working plan.

Clear

Working on clear discussions include implementing detailed communication, working in confidence and with courage (Fernandez & Gallardo, 2020). Therefore, as part of implementing working from home plan in Saudi Aramco, I managed to evidence my capacity for implementing effective communication by evidencing and with concise participating in a discussion and content development. The importance of the clarity obtained is ensuring various players are engaged in a discussion appreciating used content and clear message shared amongst all the stakeholders

Engaging

This include a practice where capacity for being patient and offer an opportunity for others to share their possessed ideas, prioritise on them and eventually come up with the most appropriate decision (CIPD, 2022g). In my practice implementing working from home arrangement in Saudi Aramco, I made sure that I obtained the overall appropriate information and data for success in making decisions. I also engaged the teams in L&D, Finance and management to understand how the process would be best implemented with less challenges being encountered.

In CIPD HR professional map, this is categorised as a core behaviour. The importance of people professionals influencing others improve ability of challenging when there is resistance, speaking up when something is not right and taking a strong stand when it is the right thing to be done. Also, as evidenced in CIPD (2022), when people practice voice is heard, it assists to develop courage in understanding when mistakes are made, assuming responsibility and learning on best practice for the future.

The methods used by people professionals to influence others include;

Confident- By providing timely feedback, people professionals would ensure employees confidence is improved. This is since it evidence where employees did well and areas of improvement.

Informed- People professionals can achieve this by creating a long-term internal communication strategy. This can include employees engagement applications, intranet platforms and other communication strategies.

Clear– People professionals can use the RACI Chart. This include factors of responsible, accountable, consulted and informed. The framework is relevant for having clarity on people responsibilities and stakeholders.

1.4 When and how to raise concerns

In my role working  in Saudi Aramco, I was able to identify a concern which conflicted with legislations set by the organisation. In specific, an issue was noted evidencing on pay disparity of people who were doing the same job. Further, some of the employees had noted that they ended up receiving their payment late while others were receiving it on time.

The noted issue was against Saudi Labour Law and the Equality Act 2010 which require all employees not to be discriminated in pay due to possession of protected characteristics.

From my input to obtain detailed information and data to support the concerns raised by the employees, I used in-depth communication process. Through being able to obtain sufficient data, information and evidence I utilised good communication channel. A case example, considering whistleblowing on the issues of payment offered to the employees despite of executing similar roles, it is important to designate their operations such as suggestion box and assure anonymity. The process which I used to communicate was also made successful since I used social media platforms and technology to communicate effectively.

Example of Unethical Issue

Working in Saudi Aramco, an unethical issue had been identified where there were cases of manipulation of pay reimbursed to employees.

Breaching Ethical Code– Working in Saudi Aramco, after COVID-19 pandemic emerged, employees were offered with a chance of participating in flexible/remote working. The organisation took a holistic charge in facilitating and supporting the remote working process. The areas of facilitation included subscribing for internet, different systems used such as Zoom and Microsoft 365. There were expectations that the entire incurred costs in implementing the remote working would increase significantly. The employees had been identified to have manipulated/altered the accurate amount which required to be paid. Their action of taking money with false pretence represent unethical issue.

2.1 Ethical people practice; business and human benefits of included, valued and fairly treated

Feeling included is identified as a strategy in which the employees who possess differences and disability are involved and valued for positive contribution in the organisation. According to CIPD (2022i) feeling fairly treated include ensuring that pay, benefits, facilitation and maternity and paternity leave provided.

McClelland’s Human Motivation Theory

For demonstrating business and human benefits, McClelland’s Human Motivation Theory is relevant. According to Johnson et al. (2018), this theory is informed by the view that people have a single or up-to 3 core motivation drivers. These include achievement, affiliated and power-based balance. Hence, for business benefits, they entail reduced turnover levels. Business benefits entail efficiency and effectiveness in roles implementation. In prevalent misunderstanding being evident, it is possible to manage overall disputes and conflicts in-depth. Further, for business benefits, profits would be achieved and leverage on competitive advantage.

Dan Pink Model

For human benefits, individuals positively gain from the provided total rewards/strategic rewards and embrace of successful L&D successfully. An appropriate instance is relevant positioning and large talent pool established, staff wellbeing and motivation attained. Considering of Dan Pink Model, it identify people need to be intrinsically motivated when the internal drivers are a priority. Hence, Saudi Aramco provide total rewards with reduced staff absenteeism. In this regard, for Saudi Aramco for example, by offering total rewards, staff absenteeism are lowered, turnover and entire wellbeing increased. The rationale of this entail achieving a feeling of high-level appreciation and recognition and as such implementing their functions successfully and with less coercion.

In summary, considering my views, by enhancing inclusivity, fairness and valuing others, organisations are able to leverage on competitive advantage. This is since they are able to promote a mutual-based respect and accepting all people despite of their differences.  Further, working as a people practice professional, I feel that this is important to ensure employees feel their input is a priority in different issues and needed respected by all people.

2.2 People practice solution for a policy/initiative

For this question, people practice issue selected is employees turnover. This represent the number of individuals leaving an organisation in a stipulated period of time established through determining the percentage of the entire employees number (CIPD, 2021).

A good policy which can be implemented would include employees retention policy as part of Saudi Aramco operations. The policy would include putting priority on different roles and regulations pursued by employers for increasing their will to remaining for a long-term in their job functions. The relevance of the policy is achieving 70% of an increase in staff retention scope.

The ways for people professionals building inclusivity into people practice initiative include;

Carrying out Surveys– The staff surveys work well when they are issued in a way that encourage feedback. Instead of part of the questionnaire requiring the employees to give their identity/disclose, anonymous and confidential answering of the questions would be encouraged. This is since people practice professionals need to leverage on significant amount of time to administer surveys and encourage provision of varying perspectives (Mohamadian et al., 2022).

Using suggestion boxes– Considering the turnover issue being designed, surveys are not appropriate and relevant for all users. This is the case when the survey questions are not appropriate and well aligned. Suggestion boxes can be appropriate to ensure a good initiative to ensure that teams are encouraged for engaging in active varying views sharing and strategically putting them in these boxes. The importance of using suggestion boxes is to support application of various members voices identifying their priority areas to improve L&D.

In the policy evaluation, the different approaches are;

Exit Interviews– Exit interviews is used as a tool for enhancing the ability of recognising turnover causes in an entity and holistic management (CIPD, 2021a). This is attained through an evaluation of a successful identification of their input for achieving employees retention. The strengths of this include assessment of entire employees experience, identifying opportunities for improving retention. For the drawbacks, data obtained could be incorrect and not applicable in different contexts.

Informal Chats– These are used as tools used to share information, developing individualised engagement, resolving conflicts and attaining a relaxed and sourcing an escape route for monotonous oriented job roles. Through a successful participation in informal chats, it is possible to achieve an improved support system inclusive of evaluating employees retention successfully. The pros of this approach include building shared understanding and experience for working life. This is while appreciating varying perspectives and trust-based relations initiated. For drawbacks, inaccurate data would be transmitted and hurting employees and an organisation.

Task Two- Professional Development -1259 Words

2.3 Reflection of Working Inclusively and Build Positive Work Relations

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