5HRF Managing and Coordinating the HR Function

Unit Overview

5HRF is a unit within CIPD level 5 course that focuses on managing and coordinating the human resource functions. The course is critical in ensuring that the human resource professionals are prepared to fulfill their mandate within the organisation. The unit provides training to the professionals on the process of acquiring necessary support from HR professionals including HR business partners or by acquiring HR function from outside the organisation.

This process is important in ensuring that the organisation is able to meet its needs in terms of relevant skills within the HR function. The unit further ensures that there is effective setting of goals and objectives for the HR unit in general which enables the organisation to understand the necessary strategies and techniques to take in achieving its overall mission. 5HRF is a critical unit that introduces the learners to the human resources field in general hence suiting them appropriately for the engagement within organisations.

Unit Objectives

This unit focuses on providing a strong basis from which the learners can pursue their education and learning in other human resource areas. Some of the main objectives of this unit include:

• Providing an understanding of the Human Resource function within the modern organisational context

• Understanding how HR objectives can be achieved within different organisational settings

• Master the influence of HR values on organisational performance

• Determine how HR functions add values within the organisation

• Generate a relationship between effective HR management and organisational performance

Unit Applicability

Different stakeholders within the organisation are motivated by the need to ensure that the organisation is successful in achieving its goals and objectives. 5HRF brings into context the role that effective management of the workforce can play in ensuring that these goals and objectives within the organisation are effectively managed. The unit further suggests effective measures that can be used to outsource the HR functions hence providing the necessary support where necessary within the organisations.

As such, this unit is highly applicable within the context of top and executive organisation management. The top management within any organisation has the duty of making decisions, based on the needs of the organisation, on acquiring external services from professionals. As such, the unit helps the executive management to determine the need and necessary approaches that can be put in place to ensure relevant HR functions are provided to the organisation. Secondly, the unit is highly applicable to HR professionals or learners pursuing course in HR profession. These are groups of individuals require to play critical roles within the organisation.

The HR functions helps the organisation to succeed and professions within this roles must understand the contribution that they make to the organisation to add value to its proposition. By pursuing this unit, HR professionals are able to acquire the theoretical and practical background of HR functions, which they are required to be playing within the organisations, hence building a huge information base from which this professionals can improve their practice. Lastly, line managers and other individuals interested in understanding the role of HR professions within the organisation can pursue the unit to boost their understanding and competence in HR practices and processes.

Unit Content

The course has diverse learning content that is covered in providing HR professionals with relevant information. Some of the main learning areas include:

HR Function

This area focus on preparing the learner for their duties as HR professionals. It provides the necessary information including the function of HR professionals in an organisational setting and the tools that can be used to identify the need for outsourcing of HR functions. This unit provides the leaners with the chance to develop an understanding of the needs of the organisation and examine this against their capabilities hence identifying the value that they add to the organisation as professionals in the field of human resource.

Change Management

Change management is a wide area of study that HR professionals need to master. While this could be classified as n HR function, 5HRF provides specific training to the professionals on the theoretical frameworks that exist in guiding the process of change within the organisation. It develops a specific framework that can be effectively followed to ensure that the organisation is able to adapt change suitably that improves the ability to achieve set objectives and goals. In this process, the HR professional have a critical role to play in ensuring that the change is accepted within the workforce and utilise the set principles, in theories of change management, to create a sustainable environment.

Application of HR Functions to Organisational Performance

The learner must understand approaches that can be utilised to implement the learned processes and practices into organisational contexts. This involves understanding the relationship between effective management of the workforce and the performance of the company. As HR professionals, it is important to ensure that by effectively fulfilling the HR functions expected, the professional adds value to the organisation.

This involves ensuring that the workforce is able to contribute to the productivity of the organisation as well as setting up an organisational culture that is associated to improved performance and productivity. In this unit, the learner is trained adequately on the development of the desired contributions to improving the organisational performance and ensuring that it can meet its goals and objectives.

Assessment and Evaluation

A written assessment is used as the main approach of assessing the students. The learner is required to respond to five questions with approximately 3900 words. This written assessment is used to gauge the ability to relate academic concepts and learned theories to professional practice and operations within the organisation.

The criteria for assessing the assessment, therefore, will include the ability to communicate decisions based on learner content that are made in a critical and informed way and applicable within organisational contexts. The assessment will gauge both the theoretical knowledge of the content and the ability to relate this to the learners’ own organisations.