HUMAN RESOURCES BLOG – highlighting the latest thinking in specific HR topic areas.

You are just starting in a large blue chip organisation in the retail sector on their HR graduate scheme. The HR Director has recently attended a CIPD conference and wants some more information on the latest thinking and research into managing people. She has asked you to work in a team of four to produce a ‘Blog’ on current HR thinking and trends that she can load on the company intranet for the management team. Your team of has been asked to produce the Blog which needs to cover different managing people topics which will be posted on the Company Website for managers to access. The Blogs are intended to provide an up to date and accessible insight for those employed as Line Managers who face these managing people issues on a daily basis. Your team Blog should cover the topic in 3 pages (there is no word count but size 11 font should be used on the following topic): Work Life Balance To ensure that the BLOG is read your team has been asked to pay particular attention to the creative use of space and produce an eye catching and attractive BLOG which captures the key issues around each topic so that the line managers will pay attention to it. To produce this you must give attention to the overall appearance of your work as it needs to look professional, be accurate and up to date as well as make an immediate impression. (See the marking criteria – design and layout accounts for 20% of the marks). For each topic you need to find material on the following: • Definitions of the topic under review. • Current contextual data (UK based) to show what is happening in the wider business arena e.g. current facts and figures relating to the topic area. Use several up to date sources to show trends and patterns. • Two examples of company practice being used in the UK – how is each company dealing with the topic area and what benefits have they achieved. Ensure that you take each company example from a different source. • Identify the main benefits and barriers or challenges that any company could face in addressing the topic under review. These should be drawn from a range and mix of published research evidence and not be your own personal opinion. • For each topic area your Blog should end with a section headed ‘Two Media Links to Explore the Topic Further’. In this section you simply include two different media sources to those you have used for your Blog and put the link with a brief explanation of what the reader can expect to find. These have to be sources published from 2017 onwards that the line managers can click on, to explore the topic further. You should number each link (max 2) and briefly explain why this is an interesting article/ news item etc. (Please note that these two extra sources do not need to be listed in your Reference list – see below for more detail) Reference List: – At the end of your BLOG you must attach a list of references set out following the Harvard system. This list should be divided into four sub sections with each topic area used as a heading and the sources used for each topic listed separately in alphabetical order following the Harvard system. A minimum of eight references per topic is required with a range and mix of sources used. All sources also need to be referenced within the text of the assignment e.g. ACAS (2017) suggest that ………… or Pilbeam & Corbridge (2010) argue that….