This BTEC Business assignment brief outlines the essential tasks for human resource management, including HR planning, employee motivation, cooperation, and performance measurement. Students are expected to complete essays, presentations, and posters that demonstrate understanding of internal and external HR factors, motivation theories, employee cooperation techniques, and performance management strategies. The document provides detailed criteria for assessments and emphasizes the importance of effective HR practices for organizational success.

1. BTEC Assignment Brief
Qualification
BTEC Business (Extended Diploma) – ALL PATHWAYS
Unit number and title
16
Learning aim(s) (For NQF only)
Assignment title
The Essentials of Human Resource Management.
Assessor
Des Corlis; Scott Haragan; Barbara Mercer; James Brown
Hand out date
14 September 2018
Hand in deadline
21 September 2018
Vocational Scenario or Context
As a WKC business student, you are trying to gain as much
experience of business functional areas as possible and have
managed to gain a two-week placement with a leading company
in their Human Resources (HR) department. There is the
possibility of an internship at the end of your course depending
on how well you complete the placement in researching and
reporting back on the following factors:

2. 1. The internal and external factors that are involved in the HR
planning in organisations
2. How the employee skills required are identified
Your placement provider is very keen for you to demonstrate a
range of communication skills and expects your feedback in a
variety of formats.
Task 1
In order to complete this section of the assignment, write an
essay describing the factors that impact Human Resource (HR)
planning in an organisation of your choice.
You will need to consider:
a) Internal planning factors such as organisational needs, skills
requirements, workforce profiles
b) External planning factors such as supply of labour, labour
costs, workforce skills, government policy, labour market
competition, changing nature of work, employee expectations,
impact of automation, demand for products and services
You now need to develop your work to explain why HR
planning is important in your organisation? You should explore
the following:
a) Why your organisation needs effective HR planning to
succeed
b) What constitutes effective HR planning
Make sure you provide specific examples and that you have
clearly demonstrated and explained the advantages of good
planning and how poor planning can have severe implications.
Checklist of evidence required
Essay

3. Criteria covered by this task:
Unit/Criteria reference
To achieve the criteria you must show that you are able to:
P1
Describe the internal and external factors to consider when
planning the human resources requirements of an organisation.
M1
Explain why human resource planning is important to an
organisation
Task 2
Through your research for Task 1, you should have developed a
good understanding of your chosen organisation and now need
to describe how it identifies the labour (employee) skills it
needs now and in the future. Consider the different ways it
could find out the existing skills base. Are there particular
skills sets that will become more or less in demand?
Importantly, how can the current skills sets be identified and are
there implications to the methods involved?
Prepare a presentation (no more than 15 slides) for your
placement manager.
Checklist of evidence required
Presentation
Criteria covered by this task:
Unit/Criteria reference
To achieve the criteria you must show that you are able to:
P2
Describe how the skills that employees require to carry out jobs
in an organisation are identified

5. Vocational Scenario or Context
You are trying to gain as much experience of business functions
as possible and have managed to gain a two-week placement
with a leading company in their Human Resources (HR)
department. You have already demonstrated your understanding
of many of the key factors that are involved in HR planning and
your placement provider now wants you to explore how
employees are motivated.
Task 1
In this task you need to explain the views and ideas of at least
three writers who have shaped the waysthat organisations
motivate their employees. Their ideas should be related to
processes such as reward systems and employee-engagement
practices in an organisation of your choice.
You should then compare how the different theories contribute
to the techniques used for employee motivation in a specific
organisation. This could be achieved by looking at jobs in the
organisation and explaining how factors such as pay, status,
team membership etc. impact staff motivation. It is likely that
more than one theory could apply to a particular job.

6. Once your analysis is complete, you should also reach justified
conclusions about how the organisation might modify and
develop the motivational techniques and associated reward
systems it uses. You should consider the following:
· How it could learn from practice elsewhere to adapt its own
motivational techniques?
· Detailed suggestions/recommendations that are backed up with
relevant evidence
· The theories and systems it currently uses and why you think
they could be improved. This may require “tweaking” of
existing systems, or it may require a complete change of the
theory used.
Checklist of evidence required
Business report
Criteria covered by this task:
Unit/Criteria reference
To achieve the criteria you must show that you are able to:
P3
Outline how an organisation motivates its employees.
M2
Compare the motivation theories in an organisation.
D1
Suggest with justification ways of improving motivation in an
organisational setting.

8. Vocational Scenario or Context
You are trying to gain as much experience of business functions
as possible and have managed to gain a two-week placement
with a leading company in their Human Resources (HR)
department.
You have already demonstrated your understanding of the key
factors that impact HR planning as well as how employees can
be motivated and your placement provider now wants you to
explore the various ways in which employees can be engaged
and encouraged to cooperate for the good of the business, as
well as the overall management of staff including performance
measurement. As before, your provider is very keen for you to
demonstrate a range of communication skills to show your
versatility.
Task 1
Your first task is to explain how an organisation of your choice
(your case study from the first two assignments) obtains the
cooperation of its employees.
Yourfindings should be in the form of a poster and should
include some or all of the following:
· Contracts of employment - contractual entitlements, employee
and employer rights, types of employment contract, disciplinary
procedures, grievance procedures, union membership, codes of
behaviour
· Employee involvement techniques -membership of work

9. groups, suggestion schemes, devolved authority and
responsibility, open communications, types of communication,
organisational culture, national accreditation, sporting
activities, rewards and benefits etc.
There may be other ways in which the organisation gains the
cooperation of staff and these should also be included in the
poster. Make sure you illustrate it with some specific examples.
Checklist of evidence required
Poster
Criteria covered by this task:
Unit/Criteria reference
To achieve the criteria you must show that you are able to:
P4
Explain how organisations obtain the cooperation of their
employees
Task 2
Getting the best out of staff is essential to the success of an
organisation and you have now been asked to identify the main
methods which two organisations use to measure staff
performance. You should also state what performance
indicatorsare used and why, given that different measures may
be used for different categories or levels of employees.
Make sure you consider the following:
· Measuring performance (performance indicators, goal theory,
SMART targets, benchmarking)
· Managing performance (probation, appraisal, supporting

10. employees, occupational health, managing workloads,
delegating authority, responsibility, capacity, competence,
autonomy, linking rewards to performance, discipline, employee
development)
Different job roles require different ways of measuring and
managing performance. Your next step is to take two different
job roles in the two organisations and explain how the results
from measuring and managing performance informs future
employee development and can therefore improve performance.
You must include:
· The main factors that each job entails and how they will be
managed and reviewed
· Performance indicators for each role
· How to improve performance for each role
· A detailed explanation of how the above information can be
used to plan their future development
Finally, you should assess the importance of measuring and
managing employee performance at work. The benefits of
performance management should be contrasted with the
consequences of failing to manage performance. You should
ensure that you:
· Make judgments about the value of monitoring and managing
employees (give examples of businesses including your chosen
organisation that do this well and not so well)
· Contrast the benefits of performance management with the
consequences of failing to manage performance
· Explain the benefits to the business and to employees of
measuring and managing staff performance
Checklist of evidence required
Essay
Criteria covered by this task:

11. Unit/Criteria reference
To achieve the criteria you must show that you are able to:
P5
Explain how employee performance is measured and managed.
M3
Explain how the results from measuring and managing
performance inform employee development.
D2
Assess the importance of measuring and managing employee
performance at work.
BTEC Assignment Brief Version 1.0 August 2016
Prepared By: BTEC Internal Assessment QDAM
Approved by: Delivery Manager
8
BTEC Assignment Brief Version 1.0 August 2016
Prepared By: BTEC Internal Assessment QDAM
Approved by: Delivery Manager
FYI: Required Textbook: If you need it for assignment.
Render, B., Stair, Jr., R. M., Hanna, M. E., & Hale, T. S.
(2018). Quantitative analysis for management (13th ed.). New
York City, NY. Pearson. ISBN: 9780134543451
You will need access to this book yourself! I will not be able to
provide it.
1. List the advantages and disadvantages of solving integer
programming problems by (a) rounding off and (b) enumeration.
2. How do the three types of integer programming problems
differ? Which do you think is most common, and why?
3. What is meant by satisficing, and why is the term often used
in conjunction with goal programming?
4. What are deviational variables? How do they differ from

12. decision variables in traditional LP problems?
5. The campaign manager for a politician who is running for
reelection to a political office is planning the campaign. Four
ways to advertise have been selected: TV ads, radio ads,
billboards, and social media advertising buys. The costs of these
are $900 for each TV ad, $500 for each radio ad, $600 for a
billboard for 1 month, and $180 for each buy on social media
(approximately 40,000 unique impressions). The audience
reached by each type of advertising has been estimated to be
40,000 for each TV ad, 32,000 for each radio ad, 34,000 for
each billboard, and 17,000 for each social media buy. The total
monthly advertising budget is $16,000. The following goals
have been established and ranked:
a. The number of people reached should be at least 1,500,000.
b. The total monthly advertising budget should not be exceeded.
c. Together, the number of ads on either TV or radio should be
at least 6.
d. No more than 10 ads/buys of any one type should be used.
i. Formulate this as a goal programming problem.
ii. Solve this using computer software.
iii. Which goals are exactly met and which are not?
6. Mick Garcia, a certified financial planner (CFP), has been
asked by a client to invest $250,000. This money may be placed
in stocks, bonds, or a mutual fund in real estate. The expected
return on investment is 13% for stocks, 8% for bonds, and 10%
for real estate. While the client would like a very high expected
return, she would be satisfied with a 10% expected return on her
money. Due to risk considerations, several goals have been
established to keep the risk at an acceptable level. One goal is
to put at least 30% of the money in bonds. Another goal is that
the amount of money in real estate should not exceed 50% of
the money invested in stocks and bonds combined. In addition
to these goals, there is one absolute restriction. Under no
circumstances should more than $150,000 be invested in any
one area.
a. Formulate this as a goal programming problem. Assume that

13. all of the goals are equally important.
b. Use any available software to solve this problem. How much
money should be put in each of the investment options? What is
the total return? Which of the goals are not met?