Professional Behaviors and Valuing People

1 Professional Behaviors and Valuing People 1) Define the term professional and explain what it means to be a 'people professional.'

A professional is an individual who gets income by carrying out activities requiring skills, education, and training. Thus, professionals are members of a profession that suggests expertise and trust. Professionals usually are disciplined and work according to the ethical standards set by their professional bodies. Their conduct is typically guided by professional standards established by the professional body that governs their respective profession. A professional boasts unique skills and knowledge acquired from education, research, and highlevel training as recognized by the public (Watts & Watts, 2021). They use such skills to the benefit of other people.

A professional must be an individual of high moral integrity, not short of promoting the public good and remaining accountable to those they serve and society. The CIPD Profession Map identifies the core knowledge areas, core behaviors, and specialist knowledge areas that guide professionals in making personal, professional, and organizational decisions.

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2 The core behaviors professionals should have include ethical practice, which plays a significant role in determining the decisions and actions professionals take in managing issues and finding solutions to dilemmas. Other core behaviors include situational decision-making, insights focused, commercial drive, working inclusively, valuing people, professional courage, and influence.

Similarly, the Core knowledge areas described in the CIPD Profession Map include evidence-based practice, business acumen, culture and behavior, people practice, change, people, and technology. Lastly, the map identifies the specialist knowledge areas that professionals require as people analytics, resourcing organizational design and development, talent management, rewarding employees, learning and development, inclusion and diversity, and employee relations. Professional values guide professional behaviors and decisions made to support the organization. On the other hand, personal values are known to determine the standards and levels of ethical practice that ensure integrity in decision-making.

2) Explore how the role of a people professional (either a generalist or a particular specialist) is evolving and the priorities this raises for continuing professional development.

Van de Broeck et al. (2017) point out that people's profession is unique, especially when facilitating a good change in the working sector. The profession provides sustained business results that work to the benefit of everyone by comprehending, articulating, and unlocking employees' values in an organization. People professionals support a company’s mission and objectives through people intervention. Given that people run businesses, people professionals have the responsibility of helping these people to prosper. People professionals need to be supported to give better work and working lives and excel because of their instrumental role in

3 an organization's success. People professionals' role is not limited here. Such individuals are aligned more toward meeting a firm's goals and objectives and being more strategic in handling organizational members.

Continuing professional development refers to the ongoing process of maintaining, developing, and documenting an individual's professional skills (Watts & Watts, 2021).

Continuing professional development ensures that an individual's knowledge, skills, and qualifications are kept up to date in a constantly changing world. Given the changing trends in operational activities, people professionals also need to understand and embrace the changes that are taking place in their roles. The impact of the changes in the role of people professionals is favorable as continuing professional development offers new opportunities, knowledge, and skills. Continuing professional development is today considered proactive instead of reactive or passive. The present-day businesses are currently experiencing a great need to close the skill gap as individuals in different organizations across the globe are making severe steps to enhance their knowledge. People professionals should self-assess themselves to determine their abilities and collect as much feedback as possible from their colleagues to understand better the areas they need to develop and plan appropriately.

3) Discuss the concept of 'ethical values and how at least three ethical values that you hold personally impact (or could impact) your work as a people professional.

Organizations across the globe have witnessed an increase in unethical behaviors, shown by employees from all categories within the firm. Cases of unethical behaviors primarily arise due to the failure to exhibit professional values and ethics. Values refer to the personal drivers of how one acts and what one does. On the other hand, ethics represents a belief in what is right and wrong. Ethics differentiate proper from wrong and is based on one's values. Being ethical

4 requires individuals to make moral judgments that take courage (Sharma, Agrawal, & Khandelwal, 2019). Thus, ethical values offer the moral compass by which people lead their lives and make decisions: 'doing the right thing' not because of financial or personal gain but because it is the right thing to do. People professionals are responsible for promoting and managing core values in an organization and creating people practices around the established values.

Integrity, equality, and empathy are the three ethical values that I hold personally.

Regarding integrity, I believe in doing the right thing fairly and reliably. Acting with integrity can be instrumental in helping me develop a solid foundation for successful working relationships at my place of work. Integrity can also help me make good decisions in high-stress situations based on the available evidence and evaluation of the possible consequences of every decision made. Unfortunately, I have found myself in situations where rash decisions have been made without considering their impact on people, resulting in distrust and a lack of harmony in the workplace.

I also believe in equity – treating others as equals in the same respectful manner. Equity has significantly helped me to establish a positive and diverse working environment. Holding equity as a personal value has ensured that applicants are accorded equal opportunities throughout the hiring process, that each of them is passed through the same process, and that judgments are made based on an applicant's qualifications, skills, and ability to do the job. For example, I once found myself in a situation where the hiring manager opted not to hire a female applicant because he considered the position advertised as a man's job. I gathered courage and informed the manager that the organization could not hire people because they were male or female. I helped him understand the benefits of having a diverse workforce and why equal

5 opportunities should be promoted in the organization. I received a lot of appreciation from colleagues at that time for standing up against such unethical behavior.

Lastly, as far as empathy is concerned, I consider other people's thoughts and feelings and how actions may impact them. To be empathetic, I pay close attention to what people tell me while simultaneously considering their thoughts and feelings. Doing so has been instrumental in helping me build strong relationships in the firm and perceive things from a different perspective, thus, enhancing my style of work.

4) Explain why it is essential for people professionals to contribute confidently to discussions and ways of doing this that are informed, clear, and engaging.

The ability to contribute to discussions is a crucial behavior of professionals, given that they champion better work and working lives. People professionals should, therefore, consider the organization's views and how such views affect people when they are not aligned with the legislation or ethical values, in addition to establishing whether people's practice initiatives match the corporate values. Compiling research, providing evidence to support the stakeholders' views and values, and ensuring that the findings are presented clearly and informally can help comprehensively complete this.

I usually contribute to people practice discussions by paying close attention to the views of the stakeholders during the introduction of new people practice initiatives. I never shy away from speaking up when conflicts with legislation or ethics and prioritize other people's welfare.

That notwithstanding, I also communicate effectively to ensure the successful application of people practices by conducting thorough research and offering evidence-based facts on proposals clarifying how the organization benefits from institutionalizing specific ideas. I usually present

6 my research using well-prepared briefing notes that specify the critical points crafted using concise words, appropriate voice tone, and body language.

5) Discuss when and how to raise concerns when issues such as organizational policies or leadership approach conflict with ethical values or legislation.

Conflicts should be dealt with immediately after they arise. For example, should a conflict arise at my place of work, I would first notify human resources or my line management.

If it is not solved, I will have no option other than to process a formal meeting, follow the process, and ensure that organizational policies are adhered to. If it continues, I may seek the help of such external bodies as the courts, trade union representatives, or ACAS. I once realized that some of our new hires struggled to complete the onboarding IT modules and paperwork. For instance, my current place of work's onboarding process is entirely online and requires one to have basic IT knowledge to complete the modules successfully.

Driven by the desire to create a positive employee experience from the moment a new hire engages with our organization, I decided to organize a set time for our new hires to visit the office and spend some time on the training computer machine to finish up the onboarding. In addition, I requested a member from the human resource department to come and help the new hires who had any issues with the process. Apart from showing empathy, such gestures showed that everyone is valued in our organization.

6) Provide a robust argument for ethical people practice that is supported by academic theory and details both the business and human benefits of people at work feeling included, valued, and fairly treated.

When people are included, feel valued, and treated fairly, such individuals will find satisfaction and feel motivated in their work. This will positively affect productivity, and the

7 business will experience fewer disputes and lower staff turnover. Many theoretical views on this topic exist. The theoretical views support the organizational benefits of employees feeling valued and treated fairly.

According to Maslow, human beings have five sets of goals in their life, which he termed basic human needs. As identified by Maslow, the needs include self-actualization, esteem, love, safety, and physiological (Rybnicek, Bergner, & Gutschelhofer, 2019). In addition, according to him, individuals are typically motivated by the desire to maintain or achieve such conditions.

Building on Maslow’s work, McClelland came up with three needs that he believes every individual has, irrespective of culture, age, or gender. The needs include the need for affiliation, the need power, as well as the need for achievement (Rybnicek, Bergner, & Gutschelhofer, 2019).

Frederick Herzberg came up with the two-factor theory. In this theory, Herzberg points out the two factors an organization can use to encourage motivation within the workplace (Alshmemri, Shahwan-Akl, & Maude, 2017). The first one includes the motivating factors found within the job, which can encompass achievement, recognition, growth, advancement, and responsibility. The other one entails the job's hygiene factors, including security, status, salary, working conditions, relationships, and policies (Alshmemri et al., 2017).

Another scholar, Pink (2010), points out that 'carrot and stick' approaches are inadequate in present-day society. Instead, he argues that businesses should become more creative and innovative and embrace policies encouraging administrative staff to be intrinsically motivated.

Pink makes it known that giving employees the freedom to complete the job they enjoy will make them successful and happy, thus, helping their respective organizations develop a more productive workforce.

8 7) Drawing on your own or a hypothetical example of providing a people practice solution to meet a particular need or introducing a new policy or initiative, describe: 

Strategies for designing the solution/initiative so that it will be inclusive.



Strategies for checking that, when in practice, the solution/initiative engages and meets the needs of all those it is aimed at.

Providing feedback and meaningful engagement with the employees can significantly help to improve productivity, thus promoting job satisfaction, which ensures a more productive workforce. A recent study that was carried out in our organization revealed that some of our staff members were struggling with mental health and wellness. A new people practice initiative was thus developed to identify issues surrounding this outcome. The initiative aimed at enabling and empowering the employees to support themselves or each other.

Regular mental health workshops were carried out for the employees. Such workshops proved to be instrumental in promoting the development of trusted relationships and offered significant confidence and knowledge to the mental health first aiders, which enabled them to support others. Similarly, the regular workshops also helped the employees better understand how they can manage their well-being, enabling them to express to speak by themselves in an open and trusted environment.

Continuous evaluation of the effectiveness of the initiative is necessary. Measuring the success of the new solutions provided under this new initiative can be achieved by conducting surveys immediately at the end of each workshop through open questions and active listening.

Data can also be obtained from the organization's employee assistance program by looking into the number of referrals made to occupation health, the number of days an employee has been

9 logged in, and the number of employees logged in. Continuous data monitoring is required, and the findings are communicated to the organization.

10 References Alshmemri, M., Shahwan-Akl, L., & Maude, P. (2017). Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Life Science Journal, 14(5), 12-16.

CIPD, (2022). The professional map. https://peopleprofession.cipd.org/Images/full-standardsjune-2022-v3_tcm29-109853.pdf Pink, D. H. (2010). The surprising truth about what motivates us. http://ebsp.s3.amazonaws.com/pdf/drive.pdf Rybnicek, R., Bergner, S., & Gutschelhofer, A. (2019). How individual needs influence motivation effects: a neuroscientific study on McClelland’s need theory. Review of Managerial Science, 13(2), 443-482.

Sharma, A., Agrawal, R., & Khandelwal, U. (2019). Developing ethical leadership for business organizations: A conceptual model of its antecedents and consequences. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 40(6),712-734. https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-102018-0367 Van den Broeck, A., Vander Elst, T., Baillien, E., Sercu, M., Schouteden, M., De Witte, H., & Godderis, L. (2017). Job demands, job resources, burnout, work engagement, and their relationships: an analysis across sectors. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 59(4), 369-376.

Watts, G., & Watts, N. (2021). CPD in the built environment. Routledge.