1.4 Flashcards
How are employees an asset to a business?
- the skills and abilities of the staff add value to the product by
- good manufacturing skills = high quality products
- efficient work rate = higher output
- excellent customer service = repeat custom
How are employees a cost to a business?
• employees get remuneration(payment)
• recruitment and training of staff
• staff welfare and healthcare
• severance
What is the difference between dismissal and redundancy?
• Dismissal is when an employee breaches their contract of employment (legally-binding agreement between both parties)
• Redundancy is when the employee’s job is no longer required but the business has to pay a redundancy fee if the employee has been with the firm for atleast two years
7 stages of recruitment
Identify vacancy
Write job description
Advertise job
Process applications
Shortlist suitable candidates
Assess candidates (interview)
Appointment most suitable candidate
How are candidates assessed during the recruitment process?
• Interviews
• Assessment days
• In-tray exercises (candidate plays a member of staff in a scenario)
Pros of internal recruitment
• Pros
- candidates already know the business
- short and cheap process
- motivates workers to go for promotion
Cons of internal recruitment
- leaves vacancy in another department
- can cause conflict or resentment among colleagues who aren’t selected
Pros of external recruitment
- brings in new ideas/skillset
- brings in experience from other firms
- larger number of applicants
Cons of external recruitment
- long and expensive process
- candidates will need a longer induction/training period
- candidate at recruitment might not be representative of candidate at work
What are the costs recruitment and training?
- Advertising the vacant post
- Specialist recruitment agencies
- Shortlisting and assessing requires existing staff, so they can’t do their regular job
- Travel expenses of candidates
What is labour turnover?
The percentage of employees that leave a job over a period of time (usually in a year)
Pros of on the job training
- easy to organise
- lower cost of training
- training is job specific
Cons of on the job training
- trainers are not fully productive during training period
- bad habits are passed on
- no new skills are brought to the workforce
Pros of off the job training
- trainers are specialists
- no job distractions during training
- new ideas brought to workforce
Cons of off the job training
- expensive
- they are of no benefit to business while training
- might not be specific to day to day job
What is induction training and why is it important?
• introduces new employees to their workplace and role
• important as if they are not supported they may make mistakes and feel overwhelmed and demotivated making them unable to work effectively
Give an example of the chain of command
- board of directors
- managers
- team leaders
- supervisor
- shop-floor workers
Pros of tall structure
- lots of layers of management so more opportunities for promotion (motivates workers)
- narrow spans of control, can monitor and supervise closely
Cons of tall structure
- communication from the top can take a long time (negatively impacts efficiency)
- narrower span of control, workers feel demotivated (feel micromanaged)
Pros of flat structure
- employees are given more freedom and responsibility, more motivated
- wide span of control
Cons of flat structure
- if span of control is too wide, managers can struggle to manage and become demotivated
What is the matrix structure
Staff are organised by project and function
Pros of matrix structure
- Means staff are pursuing clearly defined objectives
- Encourages departments to build relationships with one another
Cons of matrix structure
- This structure could lead to conflict, project managers might have different ideas about how a strategy should be implemented
Pros of centralised organisations
• all decisions made by senior managers
- have lots of experience
- they can make decisions quick because they don’t have to consult anyone
Cons of centralised organisations
• decision making power is all at the top
- not many people are expert enough to make decisions about all aspects of the business
- excluding employees may be demotivating
Why is motivation important for workers?
- less labour turnover as workers are more loyal
- more productive, reliable workers
- increases customer satisfaction as workers are engaged
Describe Taylor’s scientific management theory
- motivated by money
- favoured division of labour
- financial incentives
Describe Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
- Basic physical needs
- Safety
- Social needs
- Self-esteem (achievement )
- Self actualisation
Business meet these needs through different means to motivate their employees. Workers may put their needs in a different order.
Describe Mayo’s human relations theory
• Productivity increases if :
- improve communication between managers and workers
- workers opinions are more valued
- work in teams
What 5 financial incentives?
- piece work
- commission
- bonus
- profit share
- performance related pay
Describe piecework, its pros and cons ;
- workers are paid per unit produced
+ high quantity produced
- quality can suffer as workers may rush it
Describe commission, its pros and cons ;
- money paid for completing tasks (making sales)
+ can support customer service because workers are more engaged
- can lead to overselling, customers may feel overwhelmed
- business can’t predict their labour costs each month (varies on their workers’ sales)
Describe bonus pay , its pros and cons ;
- workers are paid extra on top of their salary once they meet an agreed target
+ if the target is set too high, might demotivate as they think they will never reach the target
- if target is set too low, it is not worth it to the business, lose money
Describe profit share, its pros and cons ;
- firm sets profit targets and share a proportion of its profits if targets are met
+ includes all employees, motivate everyone
- doesn’t reward a worker due to their sole excellence
Describe performance related pay, its pros and cons ;
- workers are paid based on performance
+ workers are motivated to meet their targets and business objectives
- lead to demoralisation if only certain people get paid when the whole business is doing well
What are the non-financial incentives
- delegation
- consultation
- empowerment
- team working
- flexible working
- job enrichment
- job rotation
- job enlargement
Difference between management and leadership?
Managers tend to focus more on reaching targets over innovation and inspiring (motivating) workers.
