Overview
Welcome to this support video for Unit 5 CO03. The video is one of a series of support videos providing guidance on the assessments for the CIPD Associate Diplomas in People Management and in Organisational Learning and Development. The videos are aimed at learners working towards these qualifications and those who are supporting learners. This video relates to Unit 5 CO03, the third core unit in the qualifications, which is entitled Professional Personal behaviours and valuing people. Unit 5 CO03 explores the core behaviours expected of people professionals at this level.
Specifically, it considers 3 main areas: personal and ethical values and how we apply them in our work, the importance of us role modelling and championing fair and inclusive work practices, and how we develop and maintain our own professional competence. The unit includes some theoretical aspects but also gets personal, asking you to focus on yourself in the later questions. Assessment briefs are provided which enable learners to meet all the requirements of the relevant units. This video focuses on the current brief for 5CO03 released in June 2026. The slide shows an image of the front page of this assessment brief.
It should be noted that the assessment briefs are revised on a regular basis and the last moderation window window for this one is September 2027. This is stated at the bottom of the assessment brief page. The assessment brief sets out two tasks. Task 1 centres on a case study with six related questions. Task 2 is a professional review in which you are required to consider your own behaviour and development needs and the action you will take to meet these needs.
The brief also asks you discuss the impact that previous development activities have had on your performance. As the slide shows, you have 2,400 words to answer the 6 questions in Task 1. In practice, you are allowed 2,400 words plus or minus 10%, which means that the word count parameters are 2,160 to 2,440 words. Although the word count does not have to be split evenly, it may be helpful to think in terms of around 400 words per question, for this task to ensure they are all covered in sufficient depth. For Task 2, you are allowed approximately 850 words, 775 to 935 words, plus your CPD record or report, which is not included in the word count.
Remember that any assessments that exceed the overall allowed word count will be automatically referred in line with the CIPD word count policy, so it is important to accurately calculate the total word count your work. A little bit of guidance before we dive into the brief. In completing your assessment, your responses should be submitted as a Word document, with the possible exception of your CPD record where different formats may be acceptable. You should ensure that you respond to all the questions, including examples where relevant and helpful. Most of the questions in this assignment do not require academic referencing but a couple of them do—questions 1 and 5.
Watch out for these and make sure you respond appropriately. You should also ensure that your responses are clearly linked to the relevant question, ideally using the question number, the question, or a shortened extract of it, as in the example on the slide, and the AC reference. However, when calculating the word count, you should only include your answers. The question number, question, and AC reference are not included in the word count. We will now consider Task 1 in detail.
Task 1 begins with a case study in which you are positioned as the team leader of a small people practise team in an organisation called Plyton. You should read the case study carefully as it may help and inform your responses to the 6 related questions which follow. Let's explore these questions. Question 1: The question links to the area of the case study in which Tom and Shavy's roles are mentioned. You are told in the case study that whilst all team members come together on different projects, Tom and Shavi are two of the team members who have specialist areas of work.
The question requires you to discuss the activities that might be involved in these specialist areas of work and how this work might contribute to Pleiton's success. The next slide looks at how you might respond to this question. Essentially, the purpose of this question is to draw out your understanding of what it means to be a people practitioner and how people practitioners can add value to their organisations. In responding to this question, you might introduce the fact that while some people practitioners are generalists working across many different areas— you could identify some of these— others can take a more specialised role. Use the majority of words available for this response to discuss in some depth about Tom and Shavi's specialist areas.
Remembering to take these from the case study. The profession map would be a good source of information for this discussion. You might also give examples contextualised to the case study to illustrate your response. Importantly, remember that the question does not only want you to discuss work activities, but also how this work might contribute to Playton's success. Ensure your response covers both these aspects of the question.
Remember also that this is one of the two questions in the assignment that requires references or in-text citations, and so this might be a good point to bring in your wider reading and understanding about the potential value of people professionals to their organisations. Question 2: Still relating to your role at Plyton, the case study informs you that you came into people practise because you have always believed in fairness of opportunity and helping people to thrive. Taking these two beliefs as your values, the question requires you to explore how these values align with your role at Pleiton and different ways these values might impact your work as a people professional. The purpose of this question is essentially for you to show your understanding of how personal and ethical veils can be applied in the context of people practice. The next slide looks at how you might respond to this question.
Your response to question 2 might include an identification of your values, as per the case study, that is fairness of opportunity and helping people to thrive, and an explanation, expansion on what these mean. What do you understand by these values? An identification of your role, again, as set out in the case study, team leader of a small people practise team. And an explanation of how these values are a good fit with the people practise role. Use your knowledge of this kind of role to expand on the information in the case study.
Moving on to the second part of the question, you can use your knowledge and creativity to provide some examples, maybe 2 or 3, about how someone with these particular values might carry out their role. That is, how their work would be impacted by these values, Importantly, remember to keep checking back to the case study context and reflect this in, at least some, of your responses and examples. Question 3. Continuing from the case study, Question 3 informs you that one of the newer members of your team, Monique, is quite low in confidence and tends not to contribute her views at meetings and discussions. You believe that being able to communicate in an informed, clear, and confident way is an essential skill for a people practitioner and have worked hard to develop this skill yourself.
The question requires you to explain why you consider this skill area so important and to provide two techniques or pieces of advice you could offer Monique to help her with this issue. The next slide looks at how you might respond to this question. Remember that the skill area being discussed here, as per the case study, is being able to communicate in an informed, clear, and confident way. To help you explain why you find this skill area so crucial for people practitioners, you might consider each of the three words. These have been chosen for a reason.
For example, consider why we need to be informed. This could be around our professional credibility or about being legally current and compliant in what we say. Also, why do we need to be clear? Consider, for example, our role as advisors, consultants, or trainers, often interpreting complex information for others. And why do we need to be confident?
Is this 'could' about our role as influencers and the need to make others feel confident in what we are saying or something else? There are lots of examples for all three of these words which would lead you to a full answer to this part of the question. However, remember that there is also a 'to end' part of the question. Two techniques or pieces of advice you could offer Monique to help her with this skill area. Here you can draw on your own communication abilities and skills.
How do you seek to be competent in this area? What techniques or advice can you offer? When considering this, remember to read the case study, which can help you target your answer more fully around Monique. Question 4. Still continuing from the case study, Question 4 informs you that one of your team members has come to you with a serious concern.
Whilst assisting with a health and safety issue, they have discovered that a manufacturing operative is regularly taking home materials from manufacturing processes to use in their DIY projects or to give to friends. The operative felt that, as they usually only took waste materials, they were not doing anything wrong. The question requires you to explain how and why you would take this matter forward. The next slide looks at how you might respond. In responding to the question, you might consider the following: What is the specific issue being raised, and why would you want to raise it?
Is it illegal? How? To show your knowledge here, you could reference relevant laws and regulation. You might consider the relevance of the operative's belief that they are not doing anything wrong as they are only taking waste material. Does this make a difference?
Explain how you could take the matter forward. As you do not have access to Playton's procedure, you could describe a typical one or one you know in a similar organisation. Explain who you would involve in this. Would your team member be involved in any way? What would you say to them?
Before finalising your response, cheque that you have covered both the why and the how of this question. Question 5 begins by informing you that in your last monthly catch-up, the people director asked you to help her prepare a paper for discussion at the next board meeting. She is impressed with how knowledgeable you have become about people practise and the theory that underpins it, and she would like you to bring some of this into a section of the paper around 400-500 words in length covering fair and inclusive working practices. You have agreed to this request and have decided to entitle your section: The human and business benefits of Pleiton employees feeling included, valued, and fairly treated at work. The question requires you to draught your content for the section, ensuring it discusses two relevant theories that argue for these benefits.
The next slide looks at how you might approach this. This question is a major opportunity for you to show off your wider reading and knowledge about this essential subject area for people professionals. As people practitioners, we need to be able to convince others about the value of fair and inclusive working if we are to be effective in our purpose. In responding to the question, ensure you consider both human and business benefits, and that you discuss two relevant theories—you can decide which these are. Whilst discussion of these will be a main part of your written piece, you might choose to reference other reading as well, to show your knowledge.
There are an increasing number of articles, research papers, and blogs being written about this area, and a few examples are provided here. Note the comment about word count, which suggests you may make this answer one of your longer responses. This response should be between 400 to 500 words, so you may want to adjust one of your others to accommodate this in your overall word count allowance. Note also that this is one of the two questions in the assignment that does require references or in-text citations. Question 6 informs you that after the board meeting, the People Director contacts you to say how well received the paper was.
Your section on fair and inclusive practise was of particular interest and led to questions about the practical steps that the People Practice team take to ensure initiatives are inclusive and reach all the people they are intended to reach. The director would like you to attend the next meeting with her to tell the board about the work you are doing on the new employee benefits programme. Specifically, she would like you to discuss the strategies you will use: firstly, to make your design of the programme fair and inclusive, and secondly, to cheque after implementation that the programme is as inclusive as you intended it to be. The question requires you to draught notes covering both these points. It should be emphasised that there is no requirement to develop an employee benefits programme for this question, nor to attend any meeting.
You are only required to provide notes about the strategies you will use to make your design of the initiative as inclusive as possible, and the strategies you will use to cheque inclusivity after implementation of the program. The next slide looks at how you might respond. Firstly, it is important that you recognise the two aspects to this question—the design stage and the post-implementation stage—and that you address both. Ideas you might consider for each of these are: At the design stage, who will you involve? How will you obtain relevant views, needs, and concerns?
How will you make use of this information? For example, you might think about users, managers, or experts, and about focus groups, interviews, surveys, etc. When considering these things, you should remember that this is design in relation to an employee benefits program, which may help to inform your response. After implementation, you will need to consider specifically what you need to find out. Again, remember that this is design in relation to an employee benefits program.
Essentially, you are likely to want to cheque whether or not the programme is working for all, all intended and that it is or will be of benefit to them, consider: who to involve, how to involve them, what to ask. Again, you may think about focus groups or analysis of data or sample feedback processes or many other approaches. This is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your knowledge, understanding, and creative ideas. When you have responded to questions 1 to 6, Task 1 is complete. As discussed earlier, your only evidence for Task 1 is the 6 responses, and these should equate to approximately 2,400 words plus or minus 10% as per the CIPD word count policy.
Having completed Task 1, it is now time to progress to Task 2, although of course you can address these in any order. Task 2 is a professional review in which you are required to consider your strengths, weaknesses, and development areas. The task also requires you to look back at some of your previous development activities and the impact these have had on you. Some important points to note about Task 2 are: Task 2 is not connected to the case study in Task 1. The questions are now about you personally.
There are 5 mandatory questions, questions 7 to 11, for you to respond to. Feedback from others is required for question 9, be prepared for this. It may take time to identify a suitable person, and they may take time to provide it. Question 11 requires continuing professional development documentation, and we will explore formats for this later in this video. The word count for questions 7 to 10 is approximately 850 words.
This is not a large amount, so it is a good idea to plan ahead and allocate the available words in the best way to suit your responses. Helpfully, Question 11 is not included in the word count. We will now look at the questions. Question 7 requires you to reflect on your approach to working inclusively. It states that you should use the current CIPD Associate Level Working Inclusively standard as a framework for this.
It also states that in your reflection, you can consider your behaviour in current or previous work experience or in your studies. The question requires you to summarise your reflections from this activity, highlighting your strengths in this area and identifying areas that you may wish to develop. The next slide provides some information to help with this. The CIPD Working Inclusively Standard at Associate Level can be seen here, and the link for you to access it is provided in the brief. As well as on this slide.
For your reflection, you should consider the extent to which your behaviour, in current or previous work or your various study contexts, matches up to the standard. Consider: are there some areas where you feel confident? Are there some areas where there is room for development or improvement? Try to think back over specific interactions you have had and how you have worked with colleagues or fellow students. Only a summary of your reflections is requested in response to this question, as there is a low number of words available for the whole of Task 2.
This may be one question where you use less words than for some of the others. However, ultimately, it is up to you to decide how best to spread the word allocation across your 5 responses. Question 8 brings in the subject of AI. It states, that artificial intelligence is impacting the way most people work or will work in the future. The question requires you to explore the potential impact of AI on the work of a people professional and the implications this might have for your own professional development.
The next slide looks at how you might respond to this question. A possible approach to Question 8: You might begin by talking generally about the impact of AI on the people profession, giving some examples, These could include areas such as automation and changing work procedures, new knowledge demands, for example, working with AI agents. Also, some areas could be issues around cybersecurity, the vast availability of AI-generated data and how this can be used, or many other examples. You may have some specific examples from your own or other people practitioners work to illustrate your response. There is a huge amount of information around about this subject at the moment.
To assist your thinking for this question, you could access some of the many HR podcasts, surveys, or reports that are available via a simple search. In response to the second part of the question, you may want to begin by explaining your role. Are you a HR specialist, a HR generalist, an L&D professional, or maybe studying towards such a role? It then follows logically to discuss any implications that you have identified for your development in relation to AI. These might be areas that would improve your effectiveness at work, such as building competence in relation to a specific software programme or application, or just areas that will generally enhance your career prospects.
Question 9 sets out the following task: using a combination of your own thoughts, including those resulting from Q7 and Q8 if relevant, and feedback from at least one other person, assess your strengths, weaknesses, and development areas in relation to people practice. Your response should include who you involved and how their feedback informed your assessment. The next slide offers some advice regarding this task. Questions 7 and 8 have already begun your thinking around your strengths, weaknesses, and development needs. This question now seeks to bring all of that together along with any other thoughts you have and some feedback from a relevant person.
The feedback you request can be in relation to any aspect of your people practice. It may, for example, be in relation to your current work role or to your studies and should be from someone who knows you in this capacity. Some tips to help in the collection of feedback are: remember that giving and receiving feedback is a valuable but demanding and sometimes sensitive activity. Carry this out carefully and make the most of this valuable opportunity. Choose the best person, someone who you trust to be honest and fair and has sufficient awareness of you to give feedback that is meaningful and useful.
People are busy, give them plenty of advance warning and make it easier for them, perhaps by creating a small questionnaire detailing the areas you want the feedback to cover. Your final response to this question, and remember the limited word count, should include your conclusions on your strengths, weaknesses and development areas. Plus a short explanation of who you involved in giving you feedback and how their feedback informed your assessment. Note: if you are appending the feedback you receive to your assignment, which is good practise and may be requested by your study centre, you should not include the feedback words in your word count for this question. Following on from your self-assessment, Question 10 asks you to identify at least 2 development activities you will undertake or commence in the next 6 months to support your learning journey.
Your response should include a brief explanation of the activities you have selected and a brief explanation why you have selected them. The next slide considers this instruction. Remember that there are many kinds of development activities. For example, activities might be formal and planned, like attending a course, a lecture, an event or programme. Or they might be more informal such as reading a book, subscribing to a blog or researching something online.
They might equally be work-based activities. Perhaps you have taken on a new project or role that has enhanced your learning. Your reasons for undertaking an activity will also vary. They could, for example, be in response to a performance issue or as preparation for a new role or the activity might just reflect a new area of interest for you. Your reasons could also be about the nature of the activity.
Perhaps it involves a learning method that you like, has convenient timing, low cost, or involves collaborative working and networking with others which appeals to you. For Question 11, we move from looking forward to future development to looking backwards at development that you have already undertaken. Therefore, these are quite different activities to those you have discussed in the earlier questions.
Question 11 states, shifting your focus to development activities you have already undertaken within the last 3 years, reflect on the 2 activities, formal or informal, that you believe had the greatest impact on your behaviour or performance. Consider why these 2 activities were particularly impactful and what their impact was. You are asked to provide your reflections attached to your assessment as either your own format CPD record edited to include just the 2 selected activities, or a report or reports from the CIPD My CPD Records tool. The next slide provides a few insights to help. Remember to choose activities that had the greatest impact on your behaviour or performance.
Development activities are not developmental unless they have resulted in some kind of change, whether that is to performance or behaviour or in the short term, to knowledge and ways of thinking which will ultimately affect behaviour. The purpose of the question is to draw out your ability to manage your own development, and so it is important that you select two examples that will give you enough material to demonstrate this. When thinking about impact, it can be helpful to consider some specific questions, such as: Did you gain skills, knowledge, or a greater understanding of something? And if so, how has that impacted your behaviour? How are you, or is your performance, different because of the learning undertaken?
Was the activity worth doing in terms of its impact on your behaviour or performance? Here you could think about factors such as time, cost, and effort. Did the activity make you aware of, or maybe generate, other development needs? What conclusions did you draw about the type of activity, and will this affect your selection of further activities?
The task requires you to provide your reflections attached to your assessment as either: asterisk your own format CPD record edited to include just the two selected activities, or asterisk a report or reports from the CIPD MyCPD Records tool. The slide above gives you an idea of these two formats. However you choose to provide your response to this question, remember that it is not included in the word count. When you have responded fully to questions 7 to 11, Task 2 is complete. Your evidence for the whole of Task 2 should be: written responses to questions 7 to 10, using approximately 850 words plus or minus 10%, as per the CIPD word count policy, remembering that questions 1 and 5 must include referencing or in-text citation, and a CPD record or reports.
As described at Question 11, which is not included in the word count. And when both tasks are complete, you will have the overall evidence shown in the slide. That is a written response to Questions 1 to 6 and 7 to 10, equating to approximately 3,250 words, and a record of your CPD in your chosen format. You will have worked hard to reach this stage. However, before submitting your work, there are a few final cheques to consider.
Have you added essential details such as your name and learner number? Have you checked your layout? Is it clearly presented using subheadings and links to questions as needed? Have you included academic references where required? Have you proofread your work?
Have you checked word count? And a final piece of advice: after all that hard work, make sure you submit your assignment on time. We have now come to the end of this webinar. We hope that you have found it useful and wish you all success in achieving the unit. Finally, please note that recorded webinars are also available for other units in the CIPD Associate Diplomas.