Career Planning for HR Executive Role in Next Plc

Module code:	BMAF008-20
Module title:	Planning Your Career in Business
Assignment:	1
Word count:	3,000 words – 10% +/-
Contribution to module mark:	100%
Submission deadline:	7th Oct 2024 (Time: 23:59)

Student name:

Student ID:

Introduction

The goal of career planning is to reach and set a consistent goal with a long-term career objective (Fahmi and Ali, 2022). This assignment is based on the skills and knowledge of the individuals, which are highly important for the development of an action plan and to get the development in personal and professional life. A detailed CV will be identified to highlight the skills, abilities and working experience. The self-assessment, SWOT and skill gap also will be identified for focusing on the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats.

Section 1

Importance of Personal statement

• It is important to provide a personal statement as it will be allowing to highlight the unique qualities, demonstrate the fit along with sharing the personal insights.

• A platform is offered by a personal statement to showcase motivations, values and personality. It will be helping me to stand out from the other candidates having the same qualifications.

• The statement can also be tailored to the specific HR roles, which will help me in demonstrating how the experiences and skills are aligned with the goals and culture of the company.

• Moreover, the statement can be used for sharing the personal experiences and anecdotes, which shaped my professional philosophy and career path. It will help in providing valuable insights into the work ethic and character.

Importance of CV

• The reason for presenting the CV is to get a detailed overview. It will be helping me to present the credentials, quantify the achievements along with highlighting the relevant skills.

• CV presents a comprehensive overview of professional background, which includes work experience, education, achievement and skills.

• With the use of data and metrics, the accomplishments can be quantified along with a demonstration of the impact I had in roles in the past. The experiences and skills can be selected carefully which is relevant to the position of HR executive.

• It will be helping me showcase the expertise in different areas like employee relations, talent acquisition, and management of performance along with the HR strategy.

Hence, by submitting the CV and personal statement, a well-rounded and compelling application can be created. The overall combination will be allowing me in strengthening the narrative, providing a holistic view along with demonstrating alignment. A complete candidacy can be offered by presenting qualifications from various perspectives. The personal statement can be providing depth and content to information presented in the CV, which will help to create a narrative, which is more compelling. Key points in the personal statement can be aligned with relevant CV sections, which will help me in reinforcing my suitability for the desired job role of HR executive.

Overview of Next Plc to justify particular interest to work there

The company Next Plc is a multinational fashion retailer from Britain and a strong presence has been established by them in markets globally. Moreover, the company has become the leading brands in fashion and was founded in 1982 (Next Plc, 2024). Next Plc is renowned for its affordable and contemporary clothing. A diverse range of products is offered by the company, which includes men’s, women’s, and children's apparel, which includes homeware. Moreover, the company has an extensive network of online platforms and stores, which allows them in catering to a wide base of customers across the globe.

My interest to join this company as an executive of HR has been due to several factors. The commitment of the company is towards providing excellent service to customers, which is perfectly aligned with my vision and values. Additionally, the focus of the company is to create a positive experience of shopping for the customers. It is evident from the product range, which is well curated, effective platforms online along with dedicated staff in stores. A key driver for me has been to focus on satisfaction of customers and believe that happy customers are important for the success of the business. The next reason is the strong corporate culture of the company. An inclusive and positive environment at work is fostered by the company where the employees are motivated in contributing their perspectives and ideas. Hence, the focus on inclusivity and diversity creates a stimulating and dynamic workplace where the individuals can be thriving to develop skills (Javed, 2024).

The commitment of the company is towards sustainable and ethical practices. Next Plc also puts efforts in minimising the impact on the environment along with ensuring fair practises oflabour, which is aligned with my own beliefs and values. With the desired role of HR executive in the company, I can be contributing to the success and play an important role in the strategies of human capital management. The key roles and responsibilities will be including the acquisition of talent, relations with employees, management of performance, development and training, benefits and compensations along with the HR procedures and policies (Tamunomiebi and Worgu, 2020).I will work towards attracting and identifying talent of top quality for supporting the expansion and growth of the company. My focus will be on maintaining and building positive employee relationships by resolving conflicts and addressing the concerns. Systems of performance appraisal will be implemented for the evaluation performance of employees, identification of development opportunities along with providing feedback (Awan et al., 2020).The other roles in which I have a keen interest are delivering and designing programs of training for enhancing the knowledge and skills of employees. Competitive compensation will be administered and developed along with packages of benefits for retaining and attracting the top talent (Mahapatro, 2021). Compliance will be ensured with the different laws of employment, which will allow me in implementing and developing effective procedures, and policies of HRM.

I have strong interpersonal skills along with the passion for people development. It makes me suitable for the role of HR executive in the company. Moreover, I have confidence in my abilities to effectively communicate, build strong relationships, creative problem-solving, adaptation to the changes along with leveraging technologies. I will look to work on skills in maintaining and building strong relationships with stakeholders, managers and employees. Moreover, I have skills of concise and clear community and information will be effectively conveyed. Identifying and addressing the challenges also adds to my strength along with development of innovative solutions. I am willing to work in a dynamic and fast-paced environment and can be adapting to the new challenges and situations. My other interest is using systems and tools of HR technology, which will help in staying updated with best practices and the latest human resource practices. Hence, it can be concluded that the commitment of the company towards customer satisfaction, strong culture along with the ethical practises make it important personally in pursuing my desired role in the company. My passion for human resources and skills will be helping me in meaningfully contributing to the success of the company.

Section B

Personal statement

I am an enthusiastic and highly passionate for working in Next plc as a HR executive. Next plc works with the employee-led networks to celebrate diversity in the cultural background and to increase well-being in this workplace (careers.next, 2024). I have been working at a warehouse since the start of my career. I have been working since 2015 in the UK, which has been highly beneficial for me to get an idea about the demands and requirements of the common people and about the employees. I have also a degree in haircuts, also I have worked as a hairdresser, which has been helpful in identifying the personal choices of individuals. I have improved my communication power also by working as a hairdresser. I gathered work experience selling cars, which helped me increase my selling power in Next plc. In order to work as an HR executive at Next plc, I need to be focused on the safety and security of the people. On the other side, I also need to be motivated to achieve my potential. My priority areas are to maintain health, safety and well-being for increasing equality, diversity and inclusion.

All my working experiences will be helpful for working professionally in Next plc. On the other hand, it will also be helpful for me to get a successful career for mine. In order to get an inclusive approach, all the employees and their well-being can get an amazing experience during this time. In the job role of payroll and recruitment, all the team members need to be supportive in the business field. Working in the warehouse has been highly useful in increasing my knowledge of the transportation and logistics system. On the other side, it also helped me to improve my communication with others. Being an HR executive, it is required to focus on communication and spend more time with the communication coordinator. On the other side, as an HR business partner, I need to be focused on increasing my ability to make a huge difference to others.

I also need to get more ideas on decision-making, training, empathy, financial management and others for improving strategic thinking, building relationships and improving teamwork with intercultural sensitivity. It is required to focus on the HR strategy, coaching, improving data-driven policy and others for working with different new technologies. As an HR executive, I have been focused on English and Romanian, which are highly useful for me to communicate with employees coming from different backgrounds. I have been working since 2015, also I have experience living in UK, it will be easier for me to retain more employees. On the other side, working with different individuals can be helpful for me to get a diverse idea about them and to create a safe workplace for all the other people. Managing and getting employee benefits can be useful for emphasising achievement. As an HR professional, I should describe the entire job role to the team members to increase the clarity in their job. Additionally, managing the benefits, payroll and compensation also will be required for getting and maintaining a proper position in the HR executive role at Next plc.

Working at Next plc will be a huge and ultimate success for me, which will help to get all the required data and information about the employees. Being an HR executive, I need to be focused on getting and managing the employee benefits to get all the compensation package. On the other side, managing employee separation is also required for working with a positive attitude and to fulfil all the needs. I hope that, I will be able to work in Next plc with all my expertise and acquired skills.

A detailed CV

Name: XYZ	Phone Number: +441172345678 Email Address: xyz.189@gmail.com Location: UK About me: I am highly passionate about my job role. As an HR executive, I need to be focused on the training and development relating to employability. On the other side, I have dreamt about working in Next plc, as it is a well-known and reputed organisation in the UK. It will be great achievement for me to get hired in the new job role with all my previous skills.
Education: Bath Spa University and Elizabeth School of London	Career Objective: To get the job and be hired as an HR executive in Next plc
Skills: Communication, Time management, car selling, Decision-making	Experience: I have worked from the year 2015. I have worked at Wear House at the beginning of my career. I have also got the selling skills by working in the car selling company.
	Language: English and Romanian

Figure 1: CV

(Source: Created by Learner)

Section C

Self-assessment reflecting skill gaps

As a self-reflection, I have understood that I need to work on some of my skills like problem-solving, building and maintaining relationships, leadership and active listening. However, these skills will be highly important for working in Next plc as an HR executive (Sadeeq et al., 2021). On the other side, these skills also can be helpful for managing the roles and responsibilities of an HR in Next plc. Working in the warehouse, car selling business and working as a hairdresser helped me to gather new experiences for working with different new team members. On the other side, these experiences are also helpful for identifying different types of challenges and issues in the business (Pellegrini et al., 2020). The identified skills like active listening, building relationships and leadership can help to mitigate the risks and issues in the HR role at Next plc (Holowka, 2020).

SWOT analysis

Strength I have the strength in communication and selling skill I can work with different and diverse team members	Weakness Building relationships with others Maintain relationship, leadership and active listening
Opportunity To work with diverse new people Get hired in a more respectable and recognisable position	Threats Lack of collaborative power Lack of leadership and active listening

Table 1: SWOT Analysis

(Source: Created by Learner)

I have good language proficiency, also I have depth in English and Romanian. This efficiency and skill in the language helped me to increase my strength and confidence to communicate with different people coming from different backgrounds. On the other side, as an HR executive, I can get more different ideas and knowledge about the employees for working in a respectable and recognisable position. I need to be focused on managing the relationship by improving my active listening and to improve my leadership. The lack of collaborative power can create huge problems and issues in working within a team (Xu et al., 2023). On the other side, I need to get a recognisable and respectful position at Next plc by mitigating the skill gap and by focusing on the problem and issues. The skills like active listening, collaboration and leadership are highly important for building and maintaining relations and working properly with trust and communication (Pellegrini et al., 2020).

These skills can help in enhancing mutual respect among the individual team members. Strengthening the relationship is required to avoid and mitigate interruption and to encourage others with new skills. I need to build a strong relationship with my team members to boost their problem-solving attitude. Improving active listening skills is required to get ideas about other’s opinions and to identify the demands and requirements of others. As an HR executive of a well-known organisation, I need to encourage others to increase their productivity and to work in a positive way. It is also necessary to support others by exploring new problems and issues and to get an idea about the main reasons. By improving active listening, leadership, problem-solving and collaboration can help increase clarity, also it is required for building a strong and better relationship with others (Schindler and Bakker, 202).

As an HR executive, it is necessary for me to grab new ideas about all the other team members. It is also beneficial for resolving the issues and conflicts in the upcoming work life. Fostering empathy is required for improving leadership and enhancing the productivity and goals of Next Plc. It is required to gain knowledge about others to avoid issues and misunderstandings and to make a better decision in the workplace. I felt the requirement of discussing all the issues and problems with others to get a productive solution and to mitigate the problems in the works easily. In order to overcome the issue and barrier in the workplace, it is necessary to get help from all the senior managers. On the other side, creating an inclusive environment is also required to get diversity with the team members. Active listening will be helpful and beneficial for me to provide good customer service and to eliminate the problems and issues in the workplace conflict.

Action plan

Specific objectives	Measurable tasks	Achievable criteria	Relevant resources	Time-bound
To improve problem-solving issues	Participate in different new problems	Getting effective solutions to different problems	Different new problems	4 to 6 months
To build and maintain relations with others	Frequent communication and increased teamwork with others	Getting diverse ideas from different team members	Strong communication skills and power	6 months
To improve leadership	Getting guidance and suggestions from seniors	Leading successfully different teams	Previous ideas and suggestions from the leaders	6 to 8 months
To enhance active listening	Spending more time with others	To get different new ideas from the conversation with others	Getting effective solutions from others	3 months

Table 1: Action Plan

(Source: Created by Learner)

This action plan table will be helpful for me to mitigate the gap and lack of my skills. It will also help to get hired or recruited in more reputed organisations. Moreover, it will be helpful for getting effective solutions to get rid of all the issues. Apart from that, I can manage all my problems and issues to achieve more success and to reach my goal for the desired role as GR executive in Next plc. Working as an HR professional will be helpful for me to gather more new work experience for my professional life. This action plan can also help to improve all the skills, including attentiveness, voice tone and asking new questions to clarify the understanding of the individual team members.

The roles and responsibilities of an HR executive are to improve human resource planning, job analysis, maintain work culture, hire candidates and process the payroll. Being an HR executive, I need to bridge the gap in all the required skills to achieve huge success and achievement in my future job role and to get ideas about maintaining employee records. My previous work experiences also can be helpful in achieving my goals based on this action plan. I have also realised that increasing or improving communication can help in building strong relationships with others. On the other side, constructing the work policy is also required for minimising the issues and conflict and to identify the legal issues and concerns in the workplace. All the acquired knowledge and skills are also useful for maintaining the employee record, which is important for managing all the recruitment strategies.

Conclusion

A strategic initiative and employee engagement are also required to get an idea about the strategic decision with the HR professionals. The description of the personal statement and portfolio helped to focus on the future scope of the business organisation. The use of a detailed CV will help to get an idea about the skills and previous work experience. On the other side, it is required to identify the skill gaps by SWOT analysis. A proper and strong communication will be highly helpful for maintaining all the employee records by updating the HR database. On the other side, it can also help in managing and getting employee benefits from the organisation.

Reference List

Awan, S.H., Habib, N., Shoaib Akhtar, C. and Naveed, S. (2020) Effectiveness of performance management system for employee performance through engagement. SAGE open, 10(4), p.2158244020969383

careers.next (2024) About us Available at: https://careers.next.co.uk/en/sites/CX_3001/pages/14008 (Accessed: 16 September 2024)

Fahmi, I. and Ali, H. (2022) ‘Determination of Career Planning and Decision Making: Analysis of Communication Skills, Motivation and Experience’ (Literature Review Human Resource Management). Dinasti International Journal of Management Science, 3(5), pp.823-835.

Holowka, P.F. (2020) ‘Collaboration and communication in the leadership of educational technology’. Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, 18(1), pp.261-272.

Javed, H. (2024) ‘Creating a positive workplace culture: diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives’. In Innovative Human Resource Management for SMEs (pp. 367-394). IGI Global.

Mahapatro, B. (2021) Human resource management. New Age International (P) ltd..

Next Plc (2024) About Us. Available at: https://www.nextplc.co.uk/about-next/our-history (Accessed: 16 September 2024)

Pellegrini, M.M., Ciampi, F., Marzi, G. and Orlando, B. (2020) ‘The relationship between knowledge management and leadership: mapping the field and providing future research avenues’. Journal of Knowledge Management, 24(6), pp.1445-1492.

Sadeeq, M.M., Abdulkareem, N.M., Zeebaree, S.R., Ahmed, D.M., Sami, A.S. and Zebari, R.R. (2021) ‘IoT and Cloud computing issues, challenges and opportunities: A review’. Qubahan Academic Journal, 1(2), pp.1-7.

Schindler, M. and Bakker, A. (2020) ‘Affective field during collaborative problem posing and problem solving: A case study’. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 105(3), pp.303-324.

Tamunomiebi, M.D. and Worgu, V.O. (2020) Talent management and organizational effectiveness. Journal of Contemporary Research in Social Sciences, 2(2), pp.35-45.

Xu, E., Wang, W. and Wang, Q. (2023) ‘The effectiveness of collaborative problem solving in promoting students’ critical thinking: A meta-analysis based on empirical literature’. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 10(1), pp.1-11.