PD Portfolio
Table of
Contents
Introduction
Personal
development and learning would be helpful in order to perceive decided
profession and helps in order to attain long terms goals of an individual. In
the present paper there are four major activities which would be performed
related to professional development and learning process. Firstly, reflection
of the professionalism in human resource management decision would be developed
so as understand various professional’s traits attained through present course.
Secondly, reasons for choosing three particular skills in the PD plan developed
would be justified. Thirdly, present paper would provide the evaluation
technique for the learning & professional development program in the
organizational context. Finally, present paper would provide the outline of CPD
plan for any individual.
Reflection on the nature of
professionalism in the chosen career
Professionalism
can be defined as the aim, characteristics or qualities exhibited as a mark of
particular profession or professional person. Hence professionalism includes
several characteristics and aspects which would identify a professional. I am
into the professional of human resource management for a telecommunication
organization. The first question arises in the present context “What is the
importance of human resource manager especially into telecommunication field”?
Human resource manager would be critical resource to an organization so as to
attain talent pool and manage the most important resource in the organization.
What
skills are important for the personal development in order to manage human
resource in an organization in effective manner? I have gained three key skills
which are helping me in the current human resource profession and these skills
are communication skills, people management and time management. Attaining
these three skills have helped me to become a perfect human resource manager
thereby utilizing these three skills in order to accomplish present job role.
The next question arises for the present context “What is the importance of
communication skills, time management skills and people management skills for a
human resource manager”?
A
human resource manager need to deal with people and motivating people towards
their work is the primary job responsibility for me. Hence people management
skill learned by me through present course is helping in my job so as to
develop good relations with the human resource deployed in the organization and
motivate them towards work. Further communication skills acquired by me are
helping me to interact with employees, supervisors, colleagues and counter
parts in other organizations. With help of effective communication skills I
establish work relation with people at workplace and communicate my views clearly.
Similarly, time management skill would allow me to accomplish job
responsibilities within given timescale and exhibit ideal employee behaviour at
workplace.
The
next question of importance is “How I acquired the professional skills relevant
to workplace”? The learning process is important so as to attain these skills
for me and I admire the contribution of the class learning process for
providing theoretical framework for learning these skills and practical
experience. The personal development module helped me to understand the
importance of professional development skills and provided an important
platform in order to learn these skills. Further class activities for
developing these skills such as giving presentations and taking part in the role
play has helped me to develop communication skills and people management
skills.
Major
responsibilities handled in the current organization include maintaining
regular contacts with the employee so, payroll management, recruitment &
selection, employee grievance handling, employee welfare and performance
management. Professionalism in the current organizational role demands for specialized
knowledge, competency, accountability, self-regulation and image (Fullan, 1992). Human resource
management is a vast field and require specialized knowledge and I have gained
this knowledge through college and on job training. I am known in my
organization for the specialized knowledge I posses especially in area of
manpower management techniques and personality evaluation during selection of
candidates. From the start of my professional career I was committed to gain
more and more knowledge pertaining to human resource area and with the help of
certifications, trainings and seminars this knowledge collection process has
been initiated.
Area
of human resource demands for specialized knowledge e.g. manpower management
require use to understand difference between hard management and soft
management which can be used for managing base level employees and senior
people working in the organization. Further it is important for us to
understand the technical evaluation skills for personality traits such as
psychometric tests and behavioural questionnaire for assessment of behaviour
for a person (Gordon, 1991).
The
expected set of competencies from us i.e. professionals in human resource area
includes good communication skill, manpower management skills and evaluation
skills. As a professional I have always focused on delivering the work creating
high reliability on me without putting excuses for failure of any work
activity. In case I am not able to do any task, I take complete responsibility
for my action and manage the situation by putting best efforts. For example in
last quarter employee churning in the division handled by me increased up to
27% against the ideal churning rate of 15%. I have taken the responsibility for
these results and developed a plan in order to control employee churning in the
organization by understanding entire situation. Survey was conducted in order
to known major reasons and by sorting out the issue our team was able to manage
churning level in next quarter at 9%.
We
being the professionals are responsible and accountable for our actions, words
and thoughts. At the time of any mistaken being done I take sole responsibility
with honesty and integrity which are vital elements for the professionals. Self
regulation is another important skill which I exhibit in order to abide by
processes and policies of the organization. For example there was an irate
employee but instead of being angry I managed him with complete
professionalism. I am very conscious for image and always look polished while
working in the organizational environment so that I gain confidence and respect
from the organizational stakeholders (Hall
& Hord, 1987).
Being
a professional I always strive to attain respect and value in the organization
and try to act as the genuine credit for the organization. My ultimate goal
while working in the organization is to earn professional reputation while working
in the organization. Though self-evaluation I have found out that I am
exhibiting all essential professionalism traits but I keep on carrying out self-evaluation
on periodic basis so as to found any issues with my professional conduct and
engage myself in continuous learning process for development of these
professional traits (Joyce, 1993).
Reason for skill choice in PD
plan
The
three skills chosen in the PD plan are time management, leadership and
communication skills. These three skills have been chosen keeping in my
personal weakness in these three areas and selecting these skills would help me
to improve upon these three skills. This has been evident through self
assessment sheet and feedback received. These skills would be quite helpful in
pursing my human resource management career in future. Reason for choosing each
skill can be given as under:
§ Time management:
Time management is the ability of making efficient utilization of time in order
to accomplish the important tasks within the given timeframe. There are several
benefits of time management skill due to which it is of vital importance for me.
With good time management skills I would be able to cope up with the tuff
situations, problem facing approach would be favourable to find solution,
better planning for future and would have spare time for development of other
professional skills (Parry, 1996).
One of the major benefit offered by time management skill is the better
decision making process as with managing time in efficient manner would allow a
professional to have sufficient time in order to collect relevant information
and make decision based on the information. In lack of time decision making
quality would reduce as decision making process would not be rational.
§ Leadership: Leadership
skills are important for my professional development as success of the
organization depends upon the leadership traits of their leaders and people
with leadership skills can manage organizational issues in effective manner.
Leadership skills have been chosen in present context as leaders know how to
deal with the crisis situation and take responsibility for the action of their
team. Leadership skills attained by a person would be helpful for him in order
to handle senior management position in the organization at later stages. With
the help of leadership leaders would be able to keep their team motivated with
positive thinking for driving results. A good leader would be having healthy
relations with his team hence this quality would help in order to deal with the
issues of team management and working with the team. Leadership skills are
important in order to undertake a particular task in methodical manner i.e.
starting from the forecasting & planning stage to the end stage where
results are tracked in order to match with the desired results (Sparks & Hirsh, 1997).
§ Communication skills: Communication
skills would be the most important part of the overall professional development
of a person as these skills would help a person in order to create impact with
their communication skills. Communication skills have high importance not only
at workplace but also at personal level, workplace, communities and our
interior work. Interior world communication is with self which took place in
case someone is in anger, violence, dislike or any other similar communication
status. For professional development communication skills provide an edge to a
person in order to communicate his or her ideas clearly to the target audience.
Further this would build stronger impact on the target audience and
communication would be done as per the audience which needs to be targeted
through communication (Guskey, 2000).
Written communication skills are important in the professional development in
order to represent organizational reports, presentations and other activities
for the internal as well as external stakeholders of the organization. In
organizational environment a leader can be identified through effective
communication skills due to which communication skills are considered as the
first stepping stone to become a successful leader at workplace.
Evaluation of learning and
professional development as a result of putting PD plans into action
Evaluation
means the process of systematic investigation carried out in order to explore
the worth or merit, evaluation is conducted with clear intention and to clarify
the reasons behind a particular trend of the activity exhibited. Evaluation has
high importance for the current scenario so as to carry out evaluation for the
professional development and learning plan as developed through PD plan. Evaluation
of the learning and professional development plan would tell about whether or
not objectives set for the plan has been attained in the organizational
context, what are the limitations for the present plan so as to improve them
into next learning and professional development plan. For the presently
developed PD plan which focuses on three prime factors which are communication
skills, leadership skills and time management skill.CIS 1101 business online assignment 2
Evaluation
of professional development and learning would be done basis on the information
collected pertaining to the captioned area and interpretation made for
evaluation process. There are basically five levels based on which evaluation
for particular professional development and learning is being conducted, each
level involved in evaluation process would make the data gathering process more
complex and would involve step which has come before this one (Guskey, 1997). Hence in order to
ensure success at overall evaluation process it is important that every step
has been done in appropriate manner. The five levels of professional
development and learning evaluation for the present case can be given as under:
1. Participant reaction
In
order to accomplish any stage of evaluation there would be four parts which
would be questions to be asked, information gathering process, element to be
measured and appropriate usage of information. For the professional development
& learning skills which were communication and presentation skill,
leadership skills and time management skills, question to be asked would be
whether process of professional development was useful, whether resources are
enough to allow further learning process and whether or not these skills are
relevant for the further professional development. In order to collect
information at this step questionnaire would be developed and respondents
undergoing professional development plan would be asked to fulfil it. The item
under measurement would be initial level of satisfaction with the experience of
professional development and learning. Information collected through this
source would be used in order to design effective program for imparting skill
and at the same time in case of lack of effectiveness resources used would also
be changed (Todnem & Warner, 1993).
2. Participant’s learning
Second
step in the evaluation process would be the output from the professional
development and learning program developed for the participants. The major
question in the present step would be whether or not participants under
professional development program attained the desired skill set which was aim
of this development program. In order to gather information pertaining to this
area major resource would be through paper & pencil instruments,
demonstrations, reflection of participants and simulation activities. Present
evaluation technique would measure the newly acquired knowledge and skills from
the participants of professional development and learning programs. Information
collected through various sources in present context would be used in order to
enhance the efficiency of program content and organization (Sparks & Hirsh, 1997).
3. Organization support and
change
Third
step used in the evaluation of professional development and learning process
would include important questions such as whether implementation of program was
well supported, whether there was availability of quick problem resolution
system, whether resources were available sufficiently and whether success was
recognized or not. There can be numerous ways in order to collected information
in this step such as questionnaire, structure interviews and participant
portfolios etc. The element under evaluation for the present stage would
include the value of advocacy, support and facilitation from organizational
point of view. The information collected in present context would be used in
order to document the event and improve organizational support for the
captioned professional development program. At the same time this information
would be helpful in order to change future change efforts (Guskey, 2000).
4. Participant’s use of
knowledge and skills
Present
stage of evaluation for the professional development and learning would
emphasize on one critical question that whether participants were able to
effectively applied newly gained knowledge and skill set in area of
communication skill, leadership and time management at workplace environment.
In order to gather information regarding captioned question several instruments
can be used such as the structure interviews, questionnaire, participant
portfolios and direct observations. The major factor under measurement for the
present stage would be the level or degree of implementation for the desired
skill set among the individuals. Information gathered in the present context
would be used so as to document the experience and improve implementation of
the content for the present professional development and learning program (Guskey, 2000).
5. Learning outcomes
The
final stage of the evaluation stage in present context would be to understand
and measure learning outcomes. The question asked in this stage of evaluation
would be overall impact on the professional, whether participant’s performance
has improved post learning stage, whether this affect the overall physical and
emotional well-being of the participant going under the professional
development program. Further present stage of evaluation would consider whether
participants are more confident learners after this experience and whether it’s
all helping in organizational improvements (Sparks,
1996). Major tools used for the evaluation would
include cognitive aspects for participants such as achievement and performance,
affective outcomes such as dispositions and attitude and psychomotor such as
behaviour and skills. The information collected in this step would be highly
valuable and can be used in order to focus on several improvement areas such as
implementation, follow up and design part. Also this information would become
the key evidence in order to demonstrate participants and other stakeholder
about the overall improvement in the performance through professional
development and learning program.
Outline of CPD planning for
future
Continuous
professional developments are the self-development program which may take place
during any stage in work life and committed towards self-improvement. The main
objectives of the CPD plans are to help you in developing important skills so
as to take you to your desired position. A CPD plan would be helpful in below
aspects:
§ Would
focus efforts on specific four or five objectives which needs to be attained
§ Would
help in measuring current position and would provide pathway to reach up to the
desired position through self-development (Parry,
1996)
§ Would
help in managing work load
§ Secure
organizational opportunities and allow to make best possible use from the
opportunities confronted in the organizational context
A
future CPD plan would include below mentioned important factors:
- Current role and future aspirations: A CPD plan would provide the
key areas of the present role of a person and the target developed by
participant in order to achieve the long term career aspirations.
- CPD goals would be four or five steps and these would be helpful
in bringing a person closer to his/her final career aspiration planned
- Development needs: Development needs would be the most vital part
of CPD and would enlist all the skillset, knowledge areas and experience
required by a person so as to move from the current position to the
ultimate desired position. Further developmental need would be required
for each specific CPD goal set by an individual.
- CPD activities: CPD activities would be the actual action plan
adopted by a person in order to reach its career aspirations and these
activities would be designed as per SMART tool (Guskey & Sparks, 1996).
An
example can be taken to demonstrate way in which CPD goal can be broken into
developmental needs and CPD activities as under:
CPD
Goal: I would to possess higher manpower management skills in order to evolve
as a better manager for volunteer
Developmental
needs: Developmental needs in the present context would be to understand how
team management is being done, how to meet needs of volunteer and to bring
confidence in myself to become a good manpower manager
CPD
activities: Courses and certifications for managing the volunteer can be attended;
interviews can be conducted with the senior managers to understand the tactics
for management of volunteer and reviewing & rewriting the induction program
for volunteers.
Conclusion
With
the help of current paper professional development and learning process has
been witnessed in order to understand the reflection of professionalism in
career which demands manpower management, accountability, knowledge and
specific competencies. Reason for choosing three skills i.e. time management,
leadership management and communication skills have been highlighted as these
are vital in the organizational context and career progression. Evaluation of
professional development and learning process is five stage process and need
accurate processes for obtaining better results. A CPD plan demands for the CPD
goals, development needs and activities to be done in order to achieve the
goals.
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