7CO03 Assignment Example

Result

Manager was defensive and denied at first. However, after a series of discussions, the manager admitted that he was in the wrong and agreed to recruit people going forward according to the company policy. This behaviour change was a result of my taking action to resolve the problem, taking charge and acting in doing so with professional courage by challenging a higher-level senior leader. Therefore, the organisation introduced a new protocol, whereby all recruitment decisions needed to be brought through HR before final offers were made. This change ensured transparency and accountability in ethical practice. I also led training sessions for all hiring managers regarding ethical recruitment and decisions made.

Personally, I felt that was an accomplishment because that I made something that was a very difficult situation, an opportunity for good change. The situation only reassured me with the importance of continuing with ethical principles even when resistance is implemented. In addition, it helped me understand how to deal with conflicts with senior colleagues a professional and composed manner during challenging conversations.

Reflecting on this experience, I believe I demonstrated personal integrity by deciding to do what was ethical even if it meant disagreeing with a senior manager. CIPD Profession Map highlights the importance of the core values that I upheld including adhering to principles led and evidence based practice (CIPD, 2021). I remained committed to the ethical values of the organisation and challenged the status quo, despite the personal risks involved.

I do however realize that at some level the process could have been more collaborative from the beginning. Although I performed professionally, I could have built more informal alliances within the organisation that could provide emotional and logistical support. In future instances, I would look for mentorship or peer support when facing a similar situation so that I can enter into these situations with better emotional intelligence.

Based on professional courage, I realize that the hardest part of this situation was not only addressing the issue but also maintaining my integrity and remaining committed to my values despite questioning authority.  Research by Abdulai et al. (2025), emphasizes the importance of integrity and making ethical decisions, which I adhered to throughout the process.

Conclusion

Overall, I came to understand the significance of personal integrity and professional courage in helping me address the unethical recruitment practices. It helped me realize what it means by being an ethical HR professional; standing our ground when it is not easy to do so. I resolved the problem while being honest to my ethical commitments, and I protected the integrity of our recruitment process, as well as contributed to building an environment of a fair and transparent organization.

Learning Outcome 2 Be able to achieve and maintain challenging business outcomes for yourself and organisations. 

AC 2.3 Demonstrate impactful behaviour that is aligned with wider organisational vision, values, strategies and plans.

Introduction

Effective people practice requires impactful behaviour. Impactful behaviour entails acting with an understanding of the wider organisational context, purpose and intent (CIPD, 2023). It involves making sure that one’s activities, decisions and actions are in line with the organisation’s vision, values and strategic goals. I describe in this reflection the real life scenario of when I exhibited such behaviour when implementing a new business performance management system at my organization.

Situation

In recent years, our organisation had just reviewed its strategic plan, which was based on engagement as a means to increase performance accountability from employees. This helped to shape one of the strategic objectives, which was to build a high performance culture based on continuous feedback, development and recognition. Unfortunately, we had an old outdated annual appraisal system that was inconsistent across departments and were poorly received from staff and managers. As a HR professional, my role was to be at the forefront of transitioning the organization to a new performance management framework necessary for realizing the organization’s long-term vision.

Task

My role was to design and implement a performance management’s approach, which would enable the company to support its values of transparency, innovation, and employee empowerment. In addition, the initiative also had to be culturally appropriate and accommodated employees at all levels (Morris, 2023). The most difficult aspect was resistance to change, especially from managers already comfortable with the status quo or with a scepticism concerning the new approach.

Action

I started by reviewing the company’s strategic plan and value statements to make sure that there was alignment between organizational goal and the wider strategic organisational strategy. Within the identified themes of agility, collaboration, continuous improvement, I determined which maturity models would be most applicable to the automotive industry. Using such, a more dynamic, and development focused performance model was brought to life through regular check-ins, 360 feedback, and personalised development plans.

To gather buy-in I did series of focus groups with different managers and employees across departments. These sessions were a chance to understand what is not working with the current system and what they would like in a new one. This inclusionary behaviour demonstrated the importance of impactful behaviour of consulting with others as described by the core behaviour of working inclusively core behaviour.

In the business case, I linked the new system to some key drivers in achieving the organisation’s long-term objective, which in turn would improve employee motivation, goal alignment, and performance tracking. In presenting my evidence, I leveraged on data from external sources such as a studies that demonstrate the value of ongoing feedback in driving engagement (Giamos, Doucet and Léger, 2023).

I began a pilot phase with two departments, as soon as it was approved. I coached managers on coaching skill set for giving feedback and co-worked with the IT department to design a simple digital tool for goal setting and giving feedback tracking. I also set up a performance champion network that included people in the organisation who would act as early adopters and advocates for the system.

Throughout the process, I consistently created those modelled behaviours that we hoped to embed. I gave and received feedback frequently with my own team, had regular meetings regarding plans together and announced their contributions. This also aligned with one of our core values of mutual respect and accountability.

Result

The implementation was successful and was received well. The results from the pilot survey also indicated that 82 percent of personnel found the new system more transparent in understanding expectations and growth opportunities. It was reported that managers were having more meaningful conversations with their teams, as well as, that their engagement had improved.

This allowed us to roll out this new approach company wide. In just one year, our internal mobility increased by 15%, with employee engagement score up 10% as well. The outcomes were ‘directly aligned’ to our strategic goals of building on the empowerment of staff and improving retention.

Beyond that, the initiative confirmed more generally, encouraged a culture of openness and continual improvement. However, HR was also right for recognizing the contribution senior leaders were making by driving meaningful change. This project showed demonstrated my professional courage – I took the risk to challenge outdated processes and lead change, even when it was difficult.

This experience underscored the importance of ensuring HR practices not done in isolation but tied to an organisation’s strategic direction. According to Ulrich’s HR competency model, strategic positioning and change management are amongst the most important skills of an HR practitioner (Polc, 2023). Notably, I applied both the aforementioned capabilities in this scenario.

I also recognised that there was great power in personal influence in driving change. I also appreciated that demonstrating impactful behaviour in the people profession is not simply about getting things done but doing so in a way that earns trust, aligns with shared values, and delivers sustainable success.

A key area for future improvement was the timing for manager training with some finding it it was found to be too close to the pilot start date. In future I will offer staggered training to allow more preparation. However, there was still an overall approach, that showed agility and that HR can be a strategic partner.

Conclusion

By matching the organisation’s values and strategy to my own actions and engaging stakeholders at all levels, I was able to deliver successful change to the performance management process. Not only was it a key business objective but it also reinforced the role of HR as adding value to the business. Demonstrating impactful behaviour in this empathy, influence, and strategic thinking demonstrate impactful behaviour in this context, and all three are necessary elements for the HR professional in today’s role.

Learning Outcome 3 Be able to apply learning to enhance personal effectiveness. 

AC 3.3 Network to enhance own career and contribution to organisational effectiveness

Situation

Professional networking has an important role for personal development and organisational effectiveness. The CIPD Profession Map highlights how successful people professionals do not work in isolation but form connections both to share knowledge, co create solutions and influence change (CIPD, 2024b). As a HR, professional networking is something that really has helped my career path as well, as contributed to strategic goals and has been something that has occured in my role. This reflection analyses how I have used networking to improve mine capabilities, and help the organisation to deliver more value.

When I took my current role in HR there, the organisation was undergoing a digital transformation for which new competencies were required including analytics, digital on boarding, digital employee engagement via modern technology. This was also a period of evolving people strategy and added importance on employee retention, building leadership potential and learning agility. In order to achieve these goals, I realised I had to look beyond our internal capacity and engage with the broader HR community including other peers and experts in the field. Networking, therefore, became a critical learning and influence tool.

Task

Notably, I had two primary goals. First, I wanted to strengthen my ability to lead the digital transformation in the people function. Secondly, I aimed to bring back to the organisation insights and best practices, which could be customised for our organisational strategy, more specifically in terms of engagement and leadership capability. It was necessary to build trust and credibility within my network, as part of demonstrating influence and leverage on the knowledge gained to inform internal decisions.

Action

First, I joined a local CIPD branch and regularly attended the monthly HR forums, webinars and learning events. These sessions were not only a major source of learning from how other organisations address the same problem, but also helped I build a bigger professional community. The sessions focused on different trends including people analytics, hybrid working, and digital learning tools. I also ramped up my activity on LinkedIn by following leading HR professionals and joining HR technology conversation groups. My contacts enabled me to regularly engage and build connections with other experienced HR peers, across a range of sectors, and some who would, becoming informal mentors and sounding boards for ideas.

One particularly impactful initiative was joining a peer-learning network that was facilitated by a personal consultant. They were bi monthly virtual meet ups between HR managers from sectors. We discussed about real time problems, shared toolkits and thought about potential solutions in a confidential and trusting environment. While these sessions allowed me to reflect on my practice, they also served to provide ideas that I could contribute to others, making sense of the idea of reciprocal value in networking.

I also chose to work more closely with my non-HR colleagues internally. When, for example, our team rolled out a brand new digital on boarding platform, I worked with the company’s IT department to guarantee that both the platform and the launch were seamless. This partnership not only improved the project outcome but also resulted in improving the HR’s image as proactive and strategic partner. Beyond, I also set up a cross-functional working group that consisted of colleagues from communications, learning and development, and from operations department. We met quarterly, gave feedback, and co-designed initiatives with the group. This networking allowed HR initiatives to be embedded in a wider organisational context.

Result

The impact of these networking activities has been significant. On a personal side, I became more confident about applying HR analytics and digital tools, which later proved useful in my growth to a strategic role. Besides, a contact I gained from LinkedIn network introduced me to a practical online course in data visualisation, which improved the way we presented our HR data to senior management. The lessons from my external HR network helped my organisation to redesign the way our employee engagement survey worked. I was able to learn about pulse survey techniques that had been successfully used in a financial services firm and adapted that approach to use it ourselves. This had the positive effect of boosting participation rates by 20 per cent and generating more useful information from employees.

Additionally, my increased cross-departmental communication meant HR was consulted earlier in strategic HR discussions, particularly involving workplace culture or digital strategy. It allowed HR to be portrayed as an innovative and collaborative function. By transforming the cross-functional employee experience group into a trusted space for early input in HR plans, we were able to provide a proposal for testing before full implementation, and thereby increasing their chances of succeeding.

I have learnt is that networking is about more attending events and collecting contacts; it entails building genuine relationships where if you invest you will gain something back (Michael Page, 2022). In both of cases, the inclusion of inclusive networking is also highlighted in the CIPD Profession Map to ensure these spaces are welcoming to different viewpoints. Going forward, I hope to repay with mentoring early career HR professionals through the CIPD mentoring programme, adding another base to ethical and inclusion practice.

In conclusion, the role of networking has greatly enhanced my personal and professional development and had great influence for HR within the organisation in terms of strategic presence. Learning from others, having insights and collaborating across boundaries, have helped me develop people strategies that are more agile, informed and impactful. In addition, with networking as the foundation of working forward, we will deliver on that long-term value. Because work is changing and it continues to evolve.

Learning Outcome 4 Be able to influence others during decision-making while showing courage and conviction. 

AC 4.3 Promote organisational improvement through courage, political acumen and the willingness to challenge.

Situation

For people professionals to drive meaningful organisational improvement they have to display courage, political acumen and be daring to challenge the existing norms (CIPD, 2023a). As a HR professional in the organisation, I faced a scenario in which the organisation’s reward strategy, which included a performance bonus scheme made employees demoralized and led to the perception of unfairness. Although it was once motivational, as the organisation evolved, the bonus strategy no longer aligned with its evolving values and strategy including increasing emphasis on collaboration and innovation.

Task

I was called upon to investigate the issues raised by the staff feedback forums and come up with ways to improve the current reward policy. This required a good understanding of the political landscape within the organisation that included a formal and informal power structure of a senior leadership team that was not open to change and several departments that operated in silos. It was a sensitive undertaking that demanded bravery and tact. Since leadership did not consider this as a problem, I had to take on an ingrained system that was otherwise non-problematic, and at the same time persuade for a solution that was aligned with employee voice and organisational objectives.

Action

I began by gathering evidence to support the case for change. Interviews with managers; interview attendees and owners of the management; review of engagement survey results; review of engagement survey results of workers; comparison with competitors on the level of the current reward practice. What the findings revealed was consistent dissatisfaction, especially from high performing teams that were not happy with how the bonus system showed the team achievements or creative problem solving.

I then went on mapping out the political dynamics within the organisation. Outside of senior leadership team, I identified key influencers who would open to the new ideas and who appreciate fair, transparent yet rewarding systems. I was able to get enough support to build a small internal working group to experiment with different reward models.

I demonstrated political acumen by ensuring that our recommendations resonated with different stakeholders. For example, I Knew that the finance director would ask for a data driven justification so as developed cost effective alternatives such as recognition awards and team based incentives. Concerning senior managers, we ensured the proposed changes reflected increase in productivity enhanced engagement and alignment with the organisation’s new, strategic goals.

Despite careful planning, the proposal initially faced some resistance. One senior executive dismissed the proposal as unnecessary ‘disruption while others feared losing control of discretionary bonuses. I had to exercise both a professional courage and resilience here. I put together a business case, which included some employee testimonials, some industry comparisons and some predicted retention risks. Therefore, I requested to meet with the executive leadership team and presented the proposal, backed by evidence, through evidence-based storytelling, describing how current reality was juxtaposed with our values of equity and continuous improvement.

I had to be assertive and diplomatic in order to be able to challenge authority. I acknowledged the original bonus system for its success, but pointed out that if we continue with it unchallenged it will in the long-term cause more disengagement, most especially amongst younger, value driven employees. I also mentioned our strategic ambitions with respect for innovation and inclusivity, the outdated system made us compete more with each other than grow as a team.

Result

The results of the initiative were slow but effective. The senior leadership team started hesitant, and agreed to run a pilot on a new reward model in two departments. Team-based rewards based on collaborative, innovative, customer satisfaction work aligned with the values of our new strategy. The pilot gathered positive feedback. For instance, employee satisfaction scores improved by 18 percent and metrics such as team productivity increased. This provided the momentum needed to scale the new model across the organisation within the next 12 months.

More importantly, the experience changed HR’s influence strategically. I demonstrated courage, competence, and understanding of political acumen, helping to position HR not just as administrators but also as a tool to cultural transformation and a change driver. The experience strengthened my own learning, reinforcing the importance of listening to employee voices, building alliances, as well as speaking persuasively in the midst of resistance.

Demonstrating courage to challenge, allows HR professionals to be accountable for themselves and others to do the right thing (LaLonde, 2024). I leveraged on this principle to raise difficult conversations and navigate through organisations politics consequently building my political acumen. Besides, political acumen allowed me to understand situations, which was when it was important to push forward, when to step back and regroup how to communicate with various stakeholders.

Reflection

Notably, promoting improvement through courage and political acumen, it is not a one-time event about a practice but a continuous practice (Raftery, Sassenberg and Bamford-Wade, 2021). In this case, I learned that ethical and strategic influence is obtained by combining evidence with emotional intelligence and building internal coalitions for change. Willing to challenge, not only involves saying no or point out flaws, but rather the willingness to advocate for realistic, better alternatives and lead others towards realising them. The second approach herein ensures the HR decisions are relevant; people focused and stay aligned to organisational goals.

Looking forward, I hope to use this experience to continually improve my influencing skill set further, mentor junior HR professionals on how to navigate internal politics in appropriate ways, and continue to keep employee feedback mechanisms as tools to foster organisational learning.