HRM Assignment: Developing Personal Business Model & Self-Reflection

Question

Task: HRM Assignment Part 1: Development of Personal Business Model Choose any existing or future employment role/position that you might occupy, not necessarily within an HRM environment, and develop a Business Model Canvas (BMC) for your current or envisioned situation

HRM Assignment Part 2: Critical Analysis and Reflection
In this part of the report you must reflect on your experience in drawing up your career model. For example, discuss positive and negative aspects of the process that you followed to complete your new career model and speculate on whether this tool could substitute traditional career planning in organizations. Answer the following questions with the support of academic research/literature:

• Evaluate its strengths and weaknesses for individuals and HRM in organisations?
• How has this been a useful exercise for you?
• How has this process of career planning and career management contributed to meaningful outcomes if any? Would you recommend this for HR departments in entrepreneurial organisations?

Answer

Executive Summary
The business canvas model developed in this HRM assignment is an important business tool. However, the career model or personal business canvas model is a different concept. This concept is being used by HRM for helping the individuals prepare and plan their own career and manage it effectively. Through the preparation of the career model, the employees get an insight into their career paths and are able to set better and achievable goals. In the first part of the assignment, a personal business canvas model or career model will be prepared. The model will take into consideration all the significant aspects of the business canvas model. In this part of the assignment, for an envisioned situation or career path, the career model will be developed. IN the second part of the assignment, a personal reflection and critical analysis section will be presented. In this section, the strengths and weaknesses of individuals and HRM in any organisation would be discussed. Further, the section will reflect upon the importance of career planning and career management. It will also focus on the positive outcome of career planning and management that was initiated through the career model. The report also ends suggesting that this exercise of career model development could be used by various HRM for their entrepreneurial organisations as it brings forth successful professionals, who are confident about their career management.

Part 1: Development of Personal Business Model
Introduction
The business canvas model refers to the template in which the strategic management for a business is developed. This business canvas model helps in creating new ideas for business, develop new models for business and also document the existing business strategies (Daouet al, 2020). The major components of a business canvas model include key partners, key activities, value propositions, key resources, customer relationships, customer segments, channels, cost structure and revenue structures. In this case, the business canvas model has been used in a personalised form. I have used the business canvas model for my envisioned career path or job role. As I am presently working as a customer care executive of Amazon, I choose to prepare the business canvas model from my job role’s perspective. Through this model, I will define my job responsibilities and the activities I regularly engage in.

Part 2: Reflection and Critical Analysis
Strengths and Weaknesses for HRM in organisations
The HRM has an important role to play in any organisation. The main job of the human resource managers is to direct and supervise the administrative and related operations of the human resource department. The work of HRM comprises ensuring that the employees meet the regulatory compliances, overseeing the relationships between employees and employer, administration of the services related to the employees like training, payroll and other benefits (Delery and Roumpi, 2017). According to me, the HRM have some strengths and weaknesses, which they come across while operating within the organisation.

Strengths
Focus on training and development:
The HR managers value training, learning and development. The HRM organises conferences, seminars, etc. that would enhance the knowledge and skills of the employees. The HR managers personally attend professional classes and take part in professional associations to improve their HR skills. This emphasis laid on training and development is one of the strengths of the HRM. The HR managers are involved in all such activities that lead to professional development of the employees like for coaching, mentoring and training. As per my experience, I have come across the HR managers first after being recruited for a job. The HR managers have been my first point of contact in the organisation. The HR managers not only make successful recruitments but also ensure that the new employees are integrated into their job roles. The HR managers also get back to the employees with productive feedbacks that help the employees to improve their performance at work (Kianto, Sáenz and Aramburu, 2017). Thus, this constant effort of the HRM towards development of the employees is a strength.

Link between the Employee and Employer:
The HR managers narrow the gap between the employers and the employee. The HRM acts like a voice for the employees. I have often approached the HR manager for my problems at workplace. The HRM tries to make the workplace environment pleasant and workable for the employees and at the same time facilitates productivity and efficiency at work. There are instances when the employees face certain issue regarding the employment terms, leadership or with the co-workers. During these situations, the HR managers come to resolve the problems. As per Kim et al(2019) the strength of the HRM is that they act as advocates for the employees in an organisation. The HR managers bargain on behalf of the employees with the employers on working terms, payment terms and autonomy.

Understanding the Compliances:
The HR managers need to be aware of the employment laws, the employee benefits to compensations. The employers depend on the HRM for ensuring that the employees meet all regulations and compliances within the organisation. While hiring and training the employees, the employers expect the HR managers to make the employees accustomed with the rules and regulations of the organisation. The employers also require their HR managers to ensure that all the complaints made by the employees in an organisation are addressed appropriately. Having this clear understanding of the regulations and compliances in an organisation is another strength of the HR managers (Guest, 2017).

Weaknesses
Ignorance of Finances:
One major drawback or weakness of the HRM is that they fail to consider the finances in favour of the organisation while planning their activities. It often happens that the HR managers fail to take into account the financial feasibility of a HRM program involving training of employees or recruitment process. The HRM managers face the budgetary issues as they are unable to establish a link between the financial aspect of the organisation and the human resource management. As stated by Zaid, Jaaron and Bon (2018), the HR managers are often blamed for increasing the cost of operation of an organisation instead of generating higher revenues.

Lack of Strategic Base:
The HRM has been relatively slow among the other departments to adopt the new systems or processes. The HRM should try to collaborate with the other departments to be useful to the organisation. The HR managers need to bring about changes in an organisation. Therefore, they need to understand the strategies and implement it to their HR operations. The HR analytics is a new inclusion to the strategic management of HR, which has proved to be useful for organisations (Hoon, Hack and Kellermanns, 2019).

Less focus on consumers:
The HR managers have been focusing less on the customers. They mainly try to ease the communication and operations between the employers and the employees. In trying to bridge the gap between these two, the HRM often neglects the customers. The HRM deviates from the actual focus of the business and concentrates more on workforce management and welfare of human resources. The HR managers need to understand the challenges of business and try to incorporate changes within their operations to generate better outcomes, which would be beneficial for the organisation.

Strengths and Weaknesses for individuals in organisations
The individuals when they join an organisation as its employees may face varying situations. There are certain characteristics or skills of an individual that might act as their strength while others might be their weaknesses.

Strengths:
There are certain traits or skills of an individual that might act as their strength at work. These include their skill of effective communication, skill of negotiation, leadership skills, adaptability and change management skills, problem or conflict solving skills, etc.

Weaknesses:
There could be some characteristics or lack of certain skills that could become the weakness for an individual while at work. These weaknesses could be lack of farsightedness, low productivity, less efficiency, lack of ability to work as a team, getting involved in disputes or conflicts at work, etc.

Usefulness of Preparing a Career Model
The preparation of the career model has been a very different and new experience for me. I have learnt to prepare business canvas models for organisations. However, preparing a personal canvas model has been challenging. I had to visualise and plan my job responsibilities and segregate it on the basis of the headers of the canvas. Through the preparation of this personal business model, I have been able to plan my actions well, sort the customer segments as well as focus on customers relationships. The personal business model has enabled better understanding of the chosen job and career. For being successful in any job or business, there is a need for supporting partners, which have been identified in the personal business model. Besides, the key resources and key activities pertaining to the job of a customer care executive had been streamlined. This adds more focus on the job role and generates better performance outcomes.

Importance of career planning and career management
The personal business model that I have prepared has helped me in my career planning as well as effective career management. Career planning is like a self-evaluation through which an individual plans for a strong and focused career path (Charoenarpornwattana, 2020). The process of career planning is a reiterative process. The process helps an individual to understand his or her own aptitude and interests. It facilitates setting of the career goals for short term as well as long term. The skills can be learnt and revised during the process of career planning. The right career options should be chosen and further worked upon to attain success. I have been immensely benefitted by the career planning task.

I feel that career management is very important to have a successful professional career. According to Mobley et al (2017), career management refers to the process of planning one activity after the other that would help to shape up one’s career. In career management, one consciously plans the activities that would keep an individual engaged in the given job role. It is very important for an individual for attaining fulfilment in life. I believe through effective and conscious career management, I can attain financial stability, professional growth and completeness in life as an individual. Career management is a sequential and continuous process, which begins with understanding oneself, developing awareness about the occupation and planning actions that would bring success (Chetana and Mohapatra, 2017). The preparation of the personal business model or career model has been useful as it has helped me in embracing various professional aspects. These include self-awareness, career exploration, networking, career development planning and life-long learning. The task could be very useful for HRM in achievingand accomplishing the career goals. Career management is not a one-time step or measure. It is a life-long continuing process where the individual has to constantly work towards managing the ups and downs and changes in one’s career path (Ma et al, 2020).

I would highly recommend such tasks to be given to the employees by the HRM in entrepreneurial organisations. This would give the individuals the required confidence to plan and manage their careers, set their goals and work towards achieving them. The development of the career model has added meaning to my career planning and management.

Conclusion
It can be concluded from this report that career planning and career management are very important in life to attain professional success. Through the exercise of preparing a career model or personal business canvas model, an individual can give a direction to their actions. The career path needs a properly carved direction to follow. This career model adds focus and sharpness to the career path. Through the career planning, one can plan where he or she wants to see themselves in the next five to ten years. It is almost like a blueprint or flowchart for the career. The career management makes a person aware of their strengths and weaknesses. It facilitates building the required confidence and enhancing the knowledge and skills, which are needed to achieve the career goals in future.

References
Charoenarpornwattana, P., 2020. Career Planning and Development of Four and Five-Star Hotels in Chonburi and Rayong Provinces. Journal of HR intelligence, 15(1), pp.8-38.

Chetana, N. and Mohapatra, A.K., 2017. Career planning and career management as antecedents of career development: A study. Asian Journal of Management, 8(3), pp.614-618.

Daou, A., Mallat, C., Chammas, G., Cerantola, N., Kayed, S. and Saliba, N.A., 2020. The Ecocanvas as a business model canvas for a circular economy. Journal of Cleaner Production, 258, p.120938.

Delery, J.E. and Roumpi, D., 2017. Strategic human resource management, human capital and competitive advantage: is the field going in circles?. Human Resource Management Journal, 27(1), pp.1-21.

Guest, D.E., 2017. Human resource management and employee well?being: Towards a new analytic framework. Human resource management journal, 27(1), pp.22-38.

Hoon, C., Hack, A. and Kellermanns, F.W., 2019. Advancing knowledge on human resource management in family firms: An introduction and integrative framework. German Journal of Human Resource Management, 33(3), pp.147-166.

Kianto, A., Sáenz, J. and Aramburu, N., 2017. Knowledge-based human resource management practices, intellectual capital and innovation. Journal of Business Research, 81, pp.11-20.

Kim, Y.J., Kim, W.G., Choi, H.M. and Phetvaroon, K., 2019. The effect of green human resource management on hotel employees’ eco-friendly behavior and environmental performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 76, pp.83-93.

Ma, C., Ganegoda, D.B., Chen, Z.X., Jiang, X. and Dong, C., 2020. Effects of perceived overqualification on career distress and career planning: Mediating role of career identity and moderating role of leader humility. Human Resource Management, 59(6), pp.521-536.

Mobley, C., Sharp, J.L., Hammond, C., Withington, C. and Stipanovic, N., 2017. The influence of career-focused education on student career planning and development: A comparison of CTE and non-CTE students. Career and Technical Education Research, 42(1), pp.57-75.

Zaid, A.A., Jaaron, A.A. and Bon, A.T., 2018. The impact of green human resource management and green supply chain management practices on sustainable performance: An empirical study. Journal of cleaner production, 204, pp.965-979.