1.4 Managing People Flashcards
What does treating staff as an asset mean?
The staff are developed and seen as benficial to the business.
What does seeing staff as an asset mean for the business?
-Staff are trained and have experience relevant to the needs of the business
-Staff are able to participate in decision making
-The business can respond quickly to market changes
-Staff have mlore autonomy over there work
What does treating staff as a cost mean?
Seen as a cost rather than adding value.
What does seeing staff as a cost mean for the business?.
-The cost of wages, holiday ans sickness
-Costs through staff recruitment
-Training costs
-Staff making mistakes
-Some workers are inefficient
What is a multi-skilling worker?
A worker being able to be moved round from one job to another.
What are the advantages of a multi-skilling worker?
-Fewer staff are needed as staff can fill many different roles
-Variety gives workers more interesting jobs
-Increases efficiency, productivity and quality
What is a part time worker?
This is a worker who works less than the full time hours (35+ hours a week)
What are the advantages of a part time worker?
-No specific set amount of hours
-Allows the firm to be flexible with hours to meet the planned workload
-Many businesses use part-time workers to fill evening and weekend hours not covered by full-time workers
-Some workers may only be
available part-time
What are temporary workers?
Workers employed for a fixed time such as 6 months or year.
What are the advantages of a temporary worker?
-Employed on a seasonal basis to cover busy periods of the year
-Can be used to fill posts that will be phased out due to business reorganisation
What are flexible workers?
This involves allowing some flexibility in the hours workers need to be at the business, or allowing some work to done at home.
What are the advantages of flexible workers?
-Staff can be scheduled to fit the peak times for the business
-Can increase productivity and attract more qualified workers
-Makes commuting easier
What is a home worker?
When people work from their homes or from other premises of their choosing other than the
workplace.
What are the advantages of home workers?
-Office running costs and
overheads can be reduced
-Travel-related problems may be reduced
-It may tempt better staff to come and work for the company
What is a flexible workforce?
They are able to meet changes in business circumstances.
What are the advantages of a flexible workforce?
-Business can expand or contract quickly in response to rise or fall in demand
-Temporary staff and subcontractors are cheaper to imploy because they are unlikely to get benefits that
-The business is more efficient with lower costs and so is more competitive
What are the disadvantages of a flexible workforce?
-Temporary workers are going to be less commited to a business compared to full time workers
-Communicating with a flexible workforce can be an issue and the benefits of teamwork may be lost
What is a zero hours contract?
These are employment contracts with noguaranteed hours. This means that employeesare not guaranteed any work by their
employers (and therefore no pay).
What is outsourcing?
Paying a specialist business to carry out a specific task for the business such as market research, accounting or legal advice. Some companies will also outsource
production.
What is redundancy?
A reduction in the size of the workforce, due to mergers or closures of a business, new technology or relocation.
What is dismissal?
A worker may be dismissed or fired from a job for:
-Absenteeism/long term illness makes it impossible to do the job
-Gross misconduct (e.g assault)
-Theft of company money or property
-Not being able to do the job due to not having a driving license or refused to complete training
Workers are not entitled to a pay-out from the business if dismissed.
What are the impacts of dismissal?
Worker:
-No compensation
-Poor reference
Business:
-Short staffed
-Need to recruit and train new workers
What are the impacts of redundancy?
Worker:
-Compensation based on years worked
-Help finding new job
Business:
-Re-organise staff due to lower numbers of staff
What are employee relations
How employers work with their employees is of vital importance in Human Resource Management.
When engaging with employees, it is done either:
-Individually
-Collective Bargaining
What is the individual approach when engaging with employees?
This means the worker and the manager sit face to face to discuss terms and conditions of the workers contract.
What are the advantages of the individual approach to engaging with employees?
There is no compromise because it is just the views of one worker being discussed.
What are the disadvantages of the individual approach to engaging with employees?
The manager might not take any action following the discussion as its only one worker.
What is the advantage of the collective bargaining approach when engaging with employees?
This involves a representative of all the workers meeting with the manager to discuss terms and conditions (usually pay) of employment.
What is the disadvantage of the collective bargaining approach when engaging with employees?
It may lead to strikes or industrial action.
What are the stages of recruitment?
Job analysis ~> Job description ~> Person personification ~> Job advert ~> Shortlisting ~> Interview
What is job analysis
It is the process which identifies and determines in detail the particular duties and requirements of the job, and also what the position requires in terms of aptitudes, knowledge, and skills.
What is the job description?
This outlines the tasks involved with the job, the job title, responsibilties and employment conditions.
What is the person specification?
Describes the skills, knowledge and experience needed by an individual to complete the job.
What is the job advert?
Involves using internal methods (e-mail, noticeboard are in-house magazine or external ( website,
recruitment agency, job centre) to make people aware of the
job vacancy.
What is shortlisting?
Involves reducing the number of applicants down to the most promising list of candidates.
What is the interview?
Is for the candidate to be able to explain their suitability for the job and for the interviewers to gather as much relevant information about the candidate as possible.
What are the benefits of internal recruitment?
-They are typically loyal to the business.
-They will fit in with the company culture straight away.
-Less expensive due to less advertising.
What are the drawbacks of internal recruitment?
-Limits the number of potential applicants.
-No new ideas can be introduced from outside the business.
-Potential conflict between the apllicants that don’t get picked.
-Creates other vacancies that need to be filled.
What are some methods of external recruiitment?
-Job centres
-Job advertisments
-Recruitment agencies
-Personal accomodation
What are the benefits of external recruitment?
-New candidates bring new ideas.
-Larger pool of candidates to find the best applicant.
-Wider range of experience to draw from.
What are the drawbacks of external recruitment?
-Its a long process.
-Higher cost when externally recruitment.
-If the process is not effective they may not get the best candidate.
-Transition period may cause a drop in productivity.
What are the drawbacks of external recruitment?
-Its a long process.
-Higher cost when externally recruitment.
-If the process is not effective they may not get the best candidate.
-Transition period may cause a drop in productivity.
What are the 3 types of training and explain which each of them are.
-On the job: Coaching or mentoring whilst doing the job by someone more experienced.
-Off the job: Working on cources or going to company training centre.
-Induction training: An introduction for new starters to enable them to work there new proffession.
What are the pros of a flat structure?
-Greater communication between mannagement and employees
-Less bureaucracy
What are the cons of a flat structure?
-May hinder growth of the organisation
-Strucutre limited to small organisations
What are the pros of a tall structure?
-Clear progression and promotion ladder
-There is a narrow span of control so employess can be closely supervised
What are the cons of a tall strucutre?
-High management costs because managers are generally paid more than subordinates
-Decision making could be slowed down as approval may be needed for each layer
What is span of control?
Is the number of people who report to one person.
What are the advantages of a wide span of control?
-Workers are given more independance
-Reduces the number of managers required
What is the matrix stucture?
A company structure in which the reporting relationships are set up as a grid, or matrix, rather than in the traditional hierarchy.
What is the centrelised structure?
A hierarchy decision-making structure where all decisions and
processes are handled strictly at the top or the executive level.
What is the decentrilised structure?
A structure in which daily operations and decision-making
responsibilities are delegated to middle and lower-level managers.
What is a functional structure?
The organisation is divided into smaller groups based on specialized functional areas, such as IT, finance, or marketing.
What is a project structure?
The organisation is divided into teams of workers with different skills who focus on one product or project.
What are the advantages of a matrix structure?
-Help improve communication in the business
-People can use particually skills within a variety of contexts
What are the disadvantages of matrix structure?
-Clear line of accountabillity for project teams
-Difficult to coordinate
-It takes time for employees to get used to
-Team members may neglect their responsibillities
What are the advantages of a centralised structure?
-Ensures consistency throughout the business
-Easier to coordinate activities
-Easier to achieve economies of scale
-Easier to make changes across the while business
What are the disadvantages of a centralised strucutre?
-Less flexibility
-Doesn’t take into account local differences
-Reduces manager motivation
-More bureaucratic
What are the advantages of the de-centralised strcture?
-Desicions made closer to customers
-Improved customer care
-Local managers have more authority
What are the disadvantages of de-centralised structure?
-Harder top keep financial control
-Services across different locations is inconsistant
-May have diseconomies of scale
Why are financial methods of rewards used?
-Motivate employees
-Designed so that employees gain a monetery reward for better performance
Why are non-financial methods of rewards used?
-Motivate employees
-Studies say that money has limited motivation on employees
-Non-financial incentives inspire and engageemployees in ways that money is incapable of doing
Give some examples of financial motivation.
-piecework
-commission
-bonus
-profit share
-performance-related pay
Give some examples of non-financial motivation.
-delegation
-consultation
-empowerment
-team working
-flexible working
-job enrichment
-job rotation
-job enlargement
What is piecework?
Workers are paid per each finished item or unit.
What are the advantages of piecework?
-Experienced and efficient workers can earn more
-Incentive to complete the work
-Employees may work more hours to get the job done
What are the disadvantages of piecework?
-As workers work quicker they might miss steps out to make more products
-Slower workers may fall under the national mimimum wage
What is the definition of motivation?
‘the willingness to work’
What is taylorism?
A fair days pay for a fair days work
What did taylor believe in?
He believed that employees would do the minimum amount of work whilst unsupoervised
What did taylors studies find?
-The main form of motivation is high wages, higher wages equalled
higher output
-A manager’s job is to tell employees what to do
-A worker’s job is to do what they are told and get paid accordingly
What did mayo do in his experiments?
He changed the working conditions such as break times and lighting for two groups of workers in the relay assembly room at the factory.
What did mayo find?
-Found that just by being studied - the employee’s levels of motivation increased
-Working in teams was more important than money
-Non-financial motivators were the most important
-Boring and repetitive work can be a demotivator
What was maslow’s theory?
We all have a pyramid of needs
-Physological
-Safety needs
-Love/belonging needs
-Esteem needs
-Self actualisation
