1.4 Managing People Flashcards
How are staff an asset to a business?
They bring knowledge, skills and expertise to the business. They also increase productivity, drive innovation and enhance customer service.
How are staff a cost to a business?
Cost of hiring and training workers, paying salaries, wages, fringe benefits, redundancy.
What is the impact of national minimum wages on staffing costs?
Only applies to people with a wage not a salary so businesses that employ workers on a wage basis will face higher labour costs.
What is a flexible workforce?
The development of a culture where workers are equipped to do different roles or where they work in a range of employment patterns.
What are the four ways to develop a flexible workforce?
1)Multi-skilling
2)Flexible hours and home working
3)Outsourcing
4)Part-time and temporary
What is multi-skilling?
the process of training workers to fulfil multiple job roles within a business.
What is the advantage of multi-skilling?
-Businesses utilise their workforce more efficiently which reduces labour costs and increases productivity.
What are the disadvantages of multi-skilling?
-May require significant investment in training and development.
-May not be appropriate for all job roles, especially those that require a high level of expertise.
What is part-time and temporary working?
-Someone who works part-time may only work two or three days a week.
-someone who works temporarily shows up to work whenever the business needs them.
What are the advantages to a business of part-time and temporary working?
-Flexible working arrangements can help businesses to attract and retain talent, especially staff who value work life balance.
-This may improve productivity, as staff can work during their most productive hours and avoid distractions
What are the disadvantages to a business of part-time and temporary working?
-Flexible working arrangements can create challenges in terms of communication and collaboration.
-Monitoring and managing flexible workers can be more difficult.
What is outsourcing?
Hiring a party outside a company to perform services or create goods, allowing companies to produce with lower costs and maintain competitive pricing.
What are the advantages of outsourcing?
-This may allow the business to access specialised skills.
-may reduce labour costs.
What are the disadvantages of outsourcing?
-This may lead to a loss of control over quality and delivery.
-this may create ethical concerns, especially if the partner is based in a country with lower labour standards.
What are flexible hours in a business?
Allow employees to schedule working hours around their individual needs and accommodate their commitments outside of work.
What are the advantages of home working for the business?
-smaller premises may be required
-High quality workers may be attracted to
-workers may be more productive, if they work in isolation away from distractions.
What are the disadvantages of home working for the business?
-The cost of equipping workers with technology may be significant.
-There may be less opportunity for collaboration between workers, reducing innovation.
-Careful monitoring will be required to ensure remote workers remain focussed on tasks
What are the advantages of home working to the employee?
-Commuting costs eliminated
-Stress reduced as a result of not having to travel to work.
-Some flexibility in hours may be possible.
What are the disadvantages of home working to the employee?
-Staff may feel isolated from colleagues
-Household costs such as electricity and heating may increase
-A health work life balance may be difficult to manage.
What is dismissal?
The termination of employment by an employer against the will of the employee.(Firing or sacking)
What is redundancy?
When the job is no longer available and the business reduces the size of its workforce.
What are the two approaches to employer/employee relationships?
-Individual Approach
-Collective Bargaining
What are the key parts to the individual approach?
-Focuses on the relationship between an employee and their employer.
-Assumes that each employee is unique and has their own goals, motivations and interests
-Emphasises the need for tailored compensation packages that cater to each employees uniques skills and needs
-The employee relationship is a voluntary agreement between two parties
-The employee has the power to hire, fire, and set the terms and conditions of employment
What are the key parts to collective bargaining?
-A process whereby a group of employees negotiate with their employee for better wages, working conditions and benefits.
-Employee’s have more bargaining power when they negotiate collectively rather than as individuals.
-The employment relationship is seen as a power struggle between two parties with conflicting interests (employer wants to maximise profits by keeping labour costs low but employees want to maximise their wages and fringe benefits)
what is recruitment?
The process of attracting and identifying potential job candidates who are suitable for a particular role.
What is selection?
The process of choosing the best candidate.
What are the 9 stages of the recruitment process?
Stage 1:Identify the vacancy
Stage 2:Write a job description
Stage 3:Write a person specification
Stage 4:Advertise the vacancy
Stage 5:Candidates apply
Stage 6:Candidates shortlisted
Stage 7:Shortlisted candidates interviewed
Stage 8:Other recruitment activities
Stage 9:Successful candidate is offered the job
What is internal recruitment?
It means selecting and hiring an employee from within a business.
What are the advantages of internal recruitment?
-The business already knows the candidate and is aware of their strengths and capabilities.
-Very cost effective as there are no advertising or agency fees to pay.
-Increases morale if other staff see there are promotion prospects in the job.
-Less time consuming as references do not need to be applied for
What are the disadvantages of internal recruitment?
-Smaller pond of candidates to choose from.
-Staff who are not hired may be discontented and demotivated.
-Lack of new ideas in the business.
-Causes another internal vacancy to arise as staff are moved from one job to another.
What is external recruitment?
The selection and hiring of staff from outside of the business.
What are the advantages of external recruitment?
-Attracts a wider pool of candidates to choose from.
-May need to attract a candidate with a specific skill set.
-Recruitment agencies are very experienced at finding the right people with the right skill set for the business.
What are the disadvantages of external recruitment?
-Candidates fired from outside the business will require training.
-Hiring external candidates can be demotivating for staff who feel there are no promotion prospects.
-External recruitment agencies can be very expensive and charge thousands to find candidates.
-External recruitment takes longer than internal recruitment.
What are the three types of training?
-Induction
-On the Job
-Off the Job
What is induction training?
Training that occurs when an employee starts working for a new business.
What are the advantages of induction training?
-Many employees make their mind up if they are staying-The first week of employment.
-Induction training will help to inspire the employees and integrate them with the company culture.
-Good induction training will help reduce the numbers of employees that leave.
What is the disadvantage of induction training?
Induction training can cause information overload for an employee trying to find their feet in a new organisation.
What is on the Job training?
coaching or mentoring while doing the job.
What are the advantages of on the job training?
-Specific training needed for the job.
-Less expensive than off the job training.
-learning can be put in practice immediately.
-Trainees can see relevance to the job more clearly when skills are taught in the workplace.
What are the disadvantages of on the job training?
-Taking time away from employees job for them to be trained.
-Reduces efficiency of both the person giving the training and new employee.
-some workers have bad habits they could pass on to the trainee.
-The new worker may not pick up the skills straight away, may be worries about asking for help.
-Workers which are badly trained may make expensive mistakes or be a safety hazard.
What is off the job training?
This involves trainings outside of the workplace usually at home or courses at company training centres.
What are the advantages of off the job training?
-more focused environmental with less distractions.
-Increases a workers motivation as they feel valued by the company to have money spent on their improvement.
-Less stressful compared with on the job.
-Individuals teaching the courses are trained to train.
-More chance to gather specialist skills.
what are the disadvantages of off the job training?
-More expansive than on the job training.
-Employees may fail to see the link between training and workplace.
-employees are taken away from production so the business loses their productivity for that day.
What is an organisational design?
Organisational design refers to a diagram or chart which shows the lines of authority and layers in the hierarchy of the business.
What is decentralisation?
Where a business divides up the organisation into areas.
What is centralisation?
Where a business has its organisation of management and administration at one central head office.
What are the key features of a centralised structure?
-Less delegation, the management at head office will make all the key decisions.
-All recruitment is carried out at head office, all accounts are made here.
-Only small decisions such as rotas and stock merchandising can be made at branch level.
-Branches follow direction from head office.
What are the key features of a decentralised structure?
-Authority and power is given to the divisions to make decisions that affect that division.
-Quicker decisions can be made as they do not have to go through a central office for approval.
What is a hierarchy?
A system in a business where employees are ranked due to their status and authority.
What is a chain of command?
The flow of information and authority through the organisation.
What is the span of control?
This is the number of subordinates that they can delegate to.
What does an organisational chart show?
1)Names of departments.
2)Job roles.
3)Responsibilities and accountability.
4)Lines of authority.
5)Lines of communication flow in the organisation.
6)Chains of command in the organisation.
What are the three types of organisational structure?
-Tall structure
-flat structure
-Matrix structure
What is a tall structure?
Tall structures are characterised by multiple levels of management and a more centralised decision making process, with a long chain of command.
What are the advantages of a tall structure?
-Supervisors have a small span of control so they can get to know their subordinates really well.
-Knowing subordinates means they can delegate the right tasks and make sure their team is well trained.
-There are more opportunities for promotion.
What are the disadvantages of a tall structure?
-Lots of layers and a long chain of command can mean that the business is very inflexible.
-It can also mean that communications within the organisation are slow.
-This is an expensive way to structure a business as there are more managers and supervisors.
What is a flat structure?
a flat structure is characterised by fewer levels of management and a more decentralised decision making process, and a short chain of command.
What are the advantages of a flat structure
-In a flat structure there are fewer layers of hierarchy between the bottom and the top of the organisation, this may mean that communications within is fast.
-Lots of delegation means that staff are given grater responsibility, which might mean more opportunities to use their abilities.
What are the disadvantages of a flat structure?
-In a flat structure staff can become ever stretched or overworked as there is less supervision, this can cause stress and be demotivating.
-Can create a power struggle if the manager is rarely around as subordinates compete for roles and responsibilities.
-Wide span of control means managers have too many staff to manage and may lose touch with them.
What is a matrix structure?
Matrix structures are usually built around specific products or projects. They combine functional areas of a business with a specialist team that operates inside the business.
What are the advantages of a matrix structure?
-Matrix structure is ideal for a business that works on a project by project basis.
-Very flexible structure means that staff from different departments can jump in and out of different job roles.
-Perfect to exploit the specific skills of staff.
What are the disadvantages of a matrix structure?
-In a matrix organisational structure there may be possible coordination problems between departments.
-Employees can have conflicts of interest across projects.
-staff can become stretched across different projects, not spending time in their own departments.
What is the benefit of motivation?
Having motivated staff leads to greater productivity which means less wastage and higher profitability for a business.
What are the 4 motivation theories?
1)Taylor (scientific management)
2)Mayo (human relations theory)
3)Maslow (hierarchy of needs)
4)Herzberg (two factor theory)
What was Taylor’s theory?
-He believed in a fair days pay for a fair days work.
-He also believed that employees would do the minimum amount of work if not supervised.
-He carried out time and motion studies.
What were the implications of Taylor’s theory?
-The main form of motivation is high wages, higher wages = 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.
Where did Mayo base his theory?
Research undertaken with workers at the Hawthorne factory of the western electric company in Chicago.
What were Mayo’s findings?
-When he changed the working conditions such as break times and duration he found that the employee’s level of motivation increased.
-He found that working in teams was more important than money.
-non financial motivators were the most important.
-Boring and repetitive work can be a demotivator.
What did Mayo conclude from his theory?
The concept that the employees purely work to earn money and living is totally false.
What was Maslow’s theory?
that we all have a pyramid of needs. We start by meeting our needs at the bottom. We then look for a secure job to meet our safety needs, we then look for teamwork and a social job, we then look for responsibility and promotion. When all of these are met we start to self actualise which is where we reach our potential.
What is the hierarchy of needs pyramid?
-Physiological needs
-Safety needs
-Love/belonging needs
-Esteem Needs
-Self-actualisation needs
What are some examples of physiological needs?
Food, water, warmth.
What are some examples of safety needs?
Having a roof over our head, job security, correct clothing/tools for job, first aid, risk assessment.
What are some examples of Love/Belonging needs?
Social groups, clubs, community groups, staff party, team building days.
What are some examples of Esteem needs?
Cars, furniture, gym membership, credit cards, bonuses, promotional opportunities, shares in business.
What are some examples of Self-Actualisation?
Learning programmes, perusing leadership roles, funding a hobby
