2.1: Human Resource Management Flashcards
Def. HRM
Human Resource management: the strategic approach to the effective management of an organisation’s workers so that they help business gain competition.
HRM focuses on? (6)
- Planning the workforce needs
- Recruiting and selecting staff
- Appraising, training and developing staff
- Preparing contracts of employment for all staff (permanent, temporary, full- or part-time).
- Developing appropriate pay systems
- Measuring and monitoring staff performance.
Def. workforce planning
Analysing and forecasting the number of workers and the skills of those workers that will be required by the organisation to achieve its objectives
What is the starting point of workforce planning?
Workforce audit: a check on the skills and qualifications of all existing workers/managers
Def. Labour turnover
Measures the rate at which employees are leaving an organisation.
number of staff leaving in 1 year/ avg number of staff employed (all) x100
What does the number of staff required in the future depends on? (5)
- Forecast demand for the firm’s product: influenced my external conditions. Might recruit temporary or part-time staff with the flexible hours contracts
- The productivity levels of staff: the higher the productivity the less staff needed
- The objective of the business: such as wanting to expand => more employees needed.
- Changes in the law regarding worker’s rights: such as introduce minimum wage level
- The labour turnover and absenteeism rate: if more employees leave, more needed to be recruited.
What are the required skills of staff based on?
- The pace of technological change in the industry such as machinery used.
- The need for flexible or multi-skilled staff as businesses try to avoid specialisation.
When is workforce planning effective?
Only if it is linked in closely with the firm’s long term objectives
Def. Recruitment
The process of identifying the need for a new employee, defining the job to be filled and the type of person needed to fill it, attracting suitable candidates for the job and selecting the best one.
What are the 5 stages of recruitment?
- Establishing the exact nature of the job vacancy and drawing up a job description
- Drawing up person specification
- Preparing a job advertisement
- Drawing up shortlist of applicants
- Conducting the interviews
Step 1: drawing up a job description
Def + What it includes + What for
Job description: A detailed list of the key points about the job to be filled - stating all its key tasks and responsibilities.
i) job title
ii) details of the tasks to be performed
iii) responsibilities involved
iv) place in the hierarchical structure
v) working conditions
vi) how the performance is assessed
Used for attracting the right type of people
Step 2: Drawing up person specification
Def + What for
Person specification: A detailed list of the qualities, skills and qualifications that a successful applicant will need to have.
-Helps eliminate applicants
Step 3: Preparing a job advertisement
self explanatory
Step 4: Drawing up shortlist of applicants
self explanatory
Step 5 Conducting interviews
What are the types of interviews? (3)
- Methodical: assessed according to achievements, intelligence, skills, appearance…
- Aptitude: to assess abilities in certain tasks
- Psychometric: assess character, attitude, personality
Advantages of internal recruitment (6)
- Saves cost for induction training
- Quicker
- Saves cost for advertising
- Applicant knows the culture, doesn’t take long to get used to
- Provides motivation from promotion
- The assessor is aware of applicant’s abilities
What are the three types of training?
- Induction training
- On-the-job training
- Off-the-job training
What is off-the-job training? (3)
- Training away from place of work e.g university
- Expensive
- Brings in new ideas
Advantages of external recruitment (4)
- External applicants bring in new ideas and practices
- Wider choice of potential
- Avoids resentment within the business
- Standards of applicants may be higher
What is induction training? (5)
- Given to all new recruits
- Introducing them to co-workers
- Explaining internal organisational structure
- Outline the premises
- Making clear of health and safety issues
What is on-the-job training? (3)
- Training at the place of work
- Cheaper
- Content of training is controlled by the business
Disadvantages of not training. (5)
- Less productivity in staff
- Inflexibility in variety of tasks
- Poor quality
- Demotivation due to boredom (lack of challenge)
- Accidents may occur
Disadvantages of training. (2)
- Expensive
- “Poaching” - well qualified staff leaving for better businesses
Def. Staff appraisal
Why is it important?
The process of assessing the effectiveness of an employee judged against preset objectives
-To enable a worker to continuously achieve a sense of self-fulfilment.
Why should the HRM involve all managers in staff development?
-To ensure that the training and development needs are well coordinated between all departments.
Def. Employment contracts
What does it include?
A legal document that sets out the terms and conditions governing a worker’s job.
-Employee’s working hours, rate of pay, holiday entitlement, the employer.
Def. Dismissal
Being dismissed or sacked from a job due to incompetence or breach of discipline.
An employer must give warning before dismissal can take place, however in cases such as stealing, the organisation can dismiss with immediate effect.
Def. Unfair dismissal
Ending a worker’s employment contract for a reason that the law regards as being unfair.
Possible reasons for dismissal could be:
- Inability to do the job
- Continuous negative attitude
- Continuous disregard to health and safety procedures
- Deliberate destruction of an employer’s property
- Bullying
Def. Redundancy
When a job is no longer required, so the employee doing this job becomes redundant/unnecessary through no fault of their own.
How can redundancy be carried out?
- Often follows “last in, first out” because there would be smaller redundancy pay, and these employees would have less experience in the business
- Voluntary redundancy. However employees who are easily employed elsewhere may be the ones to leave
What are the effects of redundancy?
Employees loose job security
* the firm is seen as acting in an unethical manner => external stakeholders may react negatively.
How do HRM make sure of employee welfare?
*Offer counselling or other services where staff need support for example for family or financial problems
=> would lead to higher sense of loyalty and motivation to do well in the business
What are the 6 types of employment?
Temporary employment contract
Permanent employment contract
Part time employment contract
Full time employment contract
Flexi-time contract
Outsourcing
Advantages of part time and flexible contracts for employees?
Suitable for certain types of workers like students, or elderlies
Adds variety to their working lives
What are the 6 types of employment contracts and definitions of them?
Temporary employment contract: lasts for a fixed time period e.g 6 months
Permanent employment contract: last forever until dismissal or redundancy
Full time employment contract: for a fixed hours and time of the days or the week.
Part time employment contract: for a less than the normal full working week e.g 8 hours per week
Flexi-time contract: employment contract that allows staff to be called in at times most convenient to employers and employees e.g at busy times of the day
Outsourcing: not employing staff directly, but using other agencies
Advantages of part time and flexible employment for the business?
Staff can be required to work on busy periods
Available staff if another is absent
The efficiency of staff can be assessed before offered full time
‘teleworking’ saves overheads
Disadvantages of flexible and part time employment for the business?
More staff to manage
Hard to establish effective communication -meetings are hard to plan
Motivation may be less because of lack of involvement of the staff w the business
Disadvantages of flexible and part time employment for the workers?
Earn less
Paid at lower rate
Less rights
Def. teleworking
Staff working from home but keeping contact with the office by means of modern IT communication
What are core and peripheral workers?
Core: Full-time, Permanent
Peripheral: Temporary, Part-time, Self-employed.
Def. Soft HRM
An approach to managing staff that focuses on developing staff so that they reach self-fulfilment and are motivated to work hard and stay in the business.
Disadvantages of hard HRM?
May increase recruitment and induction training cost as temporary workers have to be frequently recruited
Demotivated workers from little job security
Bad publicity
Def. Hard HRM
An approach to managing staff that focuses on cutting costs e.g temporary and part-time employment contracts, offering max flexibility but with min training cost.
