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5CO03 – Professional Behaviors and Valuing People Assignment

Assignment Task

This unit focuses on how applying core professional behaviours such as ethical practice, courage and inclusivity can build positive working relationships and support employee voice and well-being. It considers how developing and mastering new professional behaviours and practice can impact performance.

Ethical practice and the role of people professionals

Scandals involving workplace harassment and poor treatment of workers have highlighted what can happen when ethics aren’t integral to the way organisations operate. With unique access to staff throughout their careers, as well as opportunities to influence an organisation’s strategy and the way it manages its workforce, people professionals are uniquely placed to support embedding principled decision-making into daily practice. Ethics are at the heart of professionalism. To create cultures of transparency and trust, practitioners should demonstrate strong standards of integrity when advising business leaders. This factsheet explores what ethical practice means and why it matters in an organizational context.

It outlines the trade-offs involved in upholding ethical values and the challenges faced by people professionals. Finally, it looks at the profession’s role in creating ethical organizational cultures.

People Profession 2021 UK and Ireland Survey Report (CIPD in association with Workday)

In the unparalleled and unforeseen context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the findings of this People Profession survey are exceptional. This report reveals how practitioners responded to changes and challenges while maintaining their level of professionalism.

Key findings (headlines)

  • External factors and digital transformation have driven organisational change
  • Working from home makes key aspects of people professionals’ work more challenging
  • People professionals have upped their skills and understanding
  • The people function plays a vital role in influencing organisational strategy
  • Despite the pandemic, people professionals remain positive and proactive in their career progression
  • Purpose and principles are very important in people professionals’ work

Tasks:

  • Refer to the indicative content in the unit to guide and support your evidence.
  • Pay attention to how your evidence is presented, remember you are working in the People Practice Team.
  • Ensure that the evidence generated for this assessment remains your own work.

Professional, ethical, and inclusive behaviours.

In this this task, you are required to demonstrate a professional level of knowledge and understanding in relation to ‘professional, ethical and inclusive behaviours’.

To complete the task, you should provide a written response to each of the points below, making appropriate use of academic theory and practical examples to expand your response and illustrate key points.

To help the reader, please make use of headings and assessment criteria references to signpost the assessment criteria being addressed.

1) Define the term professional and explain what it means to be a ‘people professional’

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

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

4) Explain why it is essential for people professionals to contribute confidently to discussions, and ways of doing this that are (AC 1.3):

  • Informed
  • Clear
  • Engaging

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

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.

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.

Professional Development

This task requires you to evidence your commitment and approach to continuing professional development (CPD). It is divided into three activities, which must all be completed.

There are 2 different options for how you complete the 3 activities: these are

  • The CIPD Profession Map Self-Assessment Tool,
  • Offline documentation

Your evidence must consist of

1. A short written summary of information used to inform the assessment plus, CIPD Learning Hub ‘Self-assessment’ screenshots OR assessment templates for all 5 behaviours.

2. A short written explanation for the choice of development activities plus, CIPD Learning Hub ‘My Learning Plan’ screenshots OR relevant pages (extract) from PDP.

3. Written reflections on 3 different development activities, presented either in CIPD Learning Hub ‘My Reflections’ format or as a free text written section within the assignment.