1.4 managing people

Question 1

what is staffing?

Answer 1

the process of hiring, training and supervising employees within a business.

Question 2

what is staff as an asset? (soft HRM)

Answer 2

treating staff as a useful or valuable thing / person. seen as a benefit to the business

Question 3

what is staff as a cost? (hard HRM)

Answer 3

treating staff as an expense rather than an asset. they are not seen as a benefit to the business

Question 4

what if flexible working?

Answer 4

a work practice that allows the employees a certain degree of freedom in deciding how the work will be carried out with the agreement of the employer

Question 5

what is outsourcing?

Answer 5

the delegation of one or more business processes to an external provider who then owns, manages and administers the selected processes to an agreed standard

Question 6

what are the flexible working methods?

Answer 6

part time work
job sharing
remote working
compressed hours
annualised hours
career break
flexi time
zero hour contracts
term time
outsourcing

Question 7

what is severance?

Answer 7

severance refers to the ending of the employee/employer relationship. eg. retirement, redundancy etc

Question 8

define redundancy

Answer 8

the state of being no longer in employment as the job role no longer exists. redundant workers receive severance / redundancy pay
voluntary - volunteering to leave as the business needs people to
mandatory - job no longer exists

Question 9

define retirement

Answer 9

when someone leaves their job and stops working either because they’ve reached retirement age (66 in the uk) or early retirement because they’ve achieved their goals. state pension is given by the government

Question 10

define transfers / resignation

Answer 10

transfers - someone moves to another location but within the same company
resignation - when an employee ends their contract. expected to work the notice period

Question 11

define fair dismissal

Answer 11

when a company dismisses someone without notice because of gross misconduct. evidence must be in place as the employee may challenge

Question 12

define unfair dismissal

Answer 12

employment termination made without good reason. this could be constructive dismissal where the employer makes the environment unpleasant so the employee leaves

Question 13

define restructure

Answer 13

reorganising the legal, ownership, operational or other structures of a company. eg. delayering

Question 14

why might a business need to end the relationship?

Answer 14

demand / sales have fallen - not enough work
delayering - organisational structures
change in focus - new market
dismissal - gross misconduct

Question 15

define training

Answer 15

training is an ongoing process for all employees - teaching staff new skills to make them more effective within the workplace

Question 16

define on the job training

Answer 16

training that is carried out inside the workplace - eg learning new equipment, machinery or processes

Question 17

define off the job training

Answer 17

training that is carried out outside of the workplace - eg training centres, workshops

Question 18

define induction training

Answer 18

when staff start work, they are usually given an induction. the induction process should help workers settle into the workplace and inform them of what they need to know - eg. health and safety, tour of workplace

Question 19

what are the advantages and disadvantages of training staff?

Answer 19

advantages:
>increase motivation
>higher quality
>lower staff turnover

disadvantages:
>time consuming
>costly
>trained staff may leave