Approaches to Staffing Flashcards

1
Q

What is flexible workforce?

A

working arrangements where there are a variety of options offered to employees in terms of working, time, location and pattern

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2
Q

What are examples of flexible workforce?

A

Part time = describing various methods of employing people who don’t have full working week
Homeworking = people working at home
Outsourcing = delegating 1 or more businesses processes (subcontracting) to an external provider
Flexible hours = when employees have choice over the actual times they contract work
Multi-skilling = staff allowed to do varied tasks rather than specialising

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3
Q

What is meant when staff are viewed as an asset?

A

staff are seen as most important resource that is worth investing in. Treated as individuals and planned + cover for - welfare,train,rewards,pay well,empower staff,employment rights

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4
Q

What is meant when staff are viewed as a cost?

A

staff are simply as a resource corporate business planning how much costs

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5
Q

What is a hot desk?

A

when companies have a limited number of staff in physical stores.

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6
Q

What are positives and negatives of viewing staff as a cost?

A

+ short term, minimise expenditure, efficiency

- higher staff turnover, difficult recruitment, poor reputation, increased absenteeism.

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7
Q

What are positives and negatives of viewing staff as an asset?

A

+ better individual relations, staff retention, better staff morale,
- long term, more expensive, tall structure/flat, not harsh enough, no criticisms

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8
Q

What are options of flexible working?

A

part time working
flexitime - clock in times + overtime
mobile working

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9
Q

Why is there an increase in flexible workings?

A

employment legislation = laws allow certain group of employees the legal right to request flexible working
economic facts = offer part-time working or career breaks as a method of minimum redundancies and reducing costs.
need 24/7
benefit from technology development
staff retention
dynamic markets and competition

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10
Q

What are benefits of having flexible workforce?

A

cost savings, better morale/productivity, motivated, more influenced are working practices, maximises staffing to strengths, retain staff, growth

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11
Q

What are drawbacks of having flexible workforce?

A
  • admin work involved in setting up timetables etc
  • potential loss of customers is reducing working hours
  • lower employee productivity
  • inability to substitute for skills
  • managers overworked to manage and admin flexibility
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12
Q

What is mobile working?

What is required for this?

A
  • When employees are allowed to work from wherever they want as long as the work gets done.
  • This requires the business to have good communication infrastructure and no trust issues allowing almost autonomy over work
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13
Q

Why does mobile working motivate staff?

A
  • This motivates staff as it increases trust and develops relationships between subordinates and line managers.
  • Gives staff more freedom over working environment
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14
Q

What are positives and negatives of mobile working?

A

+ improved customer service, fit with business theory on motivation, doesn’t completely isolate workers, increased mobility, increased productivity, more ideas
- disrupt production, disrupt work/life balance, costly, legal issues, trust, loyalty to business

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15
Q

What is a zero-hour contract?

A

when a employees have a minimum zero hours of work a week, employees then choose when they can work
Maslow, Mayo

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16
Q

Why does a zero-hour contract motivate staff?

A
  • Incentives the reward of working in order to have a chance to be promoted after effort put in.
  • Given freedom and choice over work,
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17
Q

What are positives and negatives of zero-hour contracts?

A

+ allow multiple jobs, keep personal life important, similar employment rights as full time, may lead to a better job/full time job
- not stable income, unpredictable hours, hard to support people off of, worse customer service, bad relations between staff - who works when.

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18
Q

What is outsourcing?

A

When a business contracts another business to obtain and this contracted business does the work in the deal.
This can be a service, production and manufacturing,

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19
Q

How does outsourcing motivate staff?

A

As it makes staff do less repetitive and monotonous jobs. It also encourages staff to delegate work that is easier. May satisfy the self-actualisation and esteem of Maslow’s needs

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20
Q

What are the positives and negatives of outsourcing?

A

+ cheaper, faster, quality, less work, empower staff, grow brand image and name, provide jobs worldwide, cheaper imports and regulations on certain produce
- less control of individual employees, may not be exactly what the business needs, bad working conditions, slow production, costly

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21
Q

What is : job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment?

A

Job rotation is when employees are shifted around an organisation to expose them to all aspects of the business (Maslow)
Job enlargement is when staff are given more tasks to do horizontally that are the same difficulty and responsibility (Herzberg)
Job enrichment is when employees are delegated work of higher responsibility and complexity in a vertical increase (Herzberg)

22
Q

How does job rotation, empowerment and enrichment motivate staff?

A

job rotation reduces monotony, gives staff broader horizons and experience, gain skills, (self-actualisation)
job enlargement gives people more dynamic work that fluctuates causing, making staff valued
job enrichment gives staff opportunities for better payed jobs, feel valued and respected, broadens the aspects of an employee and relations with superiors

23
Q

What are positives and negatives of job rotation?

A

+ motivates, trains staff, discover hidden talents, wider work experience, develop staff, fulfil self-actualisation
- not suitable for all organisation, can create confusion, employees may find new task difficult, slow production

24
Q

What are positives and negatives of job enlargement?

A

+ reduced monotony, (against taylor’s theory), more meaningful work, wider range of activities, make employees more efficient.
- costly, training, slow production, create industrial action (collective bargaining), some jobs may still be boring

25
Q

What are positives and negatives of job enrichment?

A

+ learn new skills, learn new employees, new teams, reduce boredom, less workload for someone else, realisation of themselves (Self-Actualisation)
- lack of training, increases workload, poor performance, trust in delegation, slow production

26
Q

What is consultation?

A

When managers has conversations with employees taking their needs into consideration.
Maslow, Paternalistic, democratic

27
Q

How does consultation motivate staff?

A

it can make staff feel valued and part of an organisation if the managers make time to spend it with them and consult their personal needs

28
Q

What are positives and negatives of consultation?

A

+ boosts team working and morale, helps people gain managerial experience, paternalistic leaders can persuade staff, helps meet maslows needs
- pointless for some businesses if they are large, some workers would rather work in freedom without restraints and managers wanting to control them, time and costly

29
Q

What is delegation?

A

The process of empowering employees to complete certain tasks given by an employee of higher authority

30
Q

Why does delegation motivate workers?

A

gives employees clear instructions, given important tasks, gifts the opportunity for employees the excel in areas they are new to, to show off to superiors

31
Q

What are positives and negatives of delegation?

A

+ empowers staff, tasks are completed quickly and efficiently, consistency within the business as all decisions originate from one figure
- restricts freedom, added pressure on employees, may slow workflow,

32
Q

What is job empowerment?

A

form of non financial motivators. It gives workers not only the authority on a task but also input on what the task should be

33
Q

Why does job empowerment motivate staff?

A

employees feel valued as they are given tougher jobs, this responsibility can motivate staff to work harder

34
Q

What are positives and negatives of job empowerment?

A

+ gives workers power and control, gives workers responsibility, lead to advancements, make employees gain skills
- easy for workers to lose focus/direction on task, can increase pressure on staff, hard to choose who to empower due to trust issues.

35
Q

What is piece-rate?

A

when employees get paid additional from the more produce that employees make.
Linked with production (PRP)

36
Q

Why does piece-rate motivate staff?

A

as it can ensure than the most money gained is from production so over time the most produce made the more money made, so for Taylors theory people would be motivated. Also by the fact that it would give them recognition and a status amongst employees.

37
Q

What are positives and negatives of piece-rate?

A

+ greater productivity, time efficient, cost accountable, manageable, higher staff retention,
- sacrifices quality, costly for business, employees could be stressed, bad working environment, poor relations, poor communication, low standard pay

38
Q

What is a bonus?

A

a monetary payment given to workers to reward above average production that is additional to their standard wages or compensation package.

39
Q

Why does a bonus motivate staff?

A

a bonus is money so it links to Taylor, therefore, people would be more likely to work harder to receive a financial reward that keeps people on task and completing tasks quickly.

40
Q

What are positives and negatives of a bonus?

A

+ sense of recognition, staff retention, big bonus for working harder, incentive working hard
- costly, conflicts, poor quality, poor working condition, poor customer service

41
Q

What is profit share?

A

When staff receive some share of the profit from a business.

42
Q

Why does profit share motivate staff?

A

This will make people committed to tasks to increase the chances of increasing the success of the planned project. This would also make the task vital to lives of people tying work and personal lives together

43
Q

What are positives and negatives of profit sharing?

A

+ staff retention, quality, teamwork, future products, see who is good in roles, work out what is successful
- takes away profit of organisation, may not increase customer satisfaction, cause conflicts, unequal contributions

44
Q

What is commission?

A

it is a bonus additional to the standard salary that comes from a relationship with the sales figures and how that impacts profit. Staff then get a share of the money based on their input

45
Q

Why does commission motivate staff?

A

it makes staff work harder to achieve a greater sum of sales, it also makes staff want to acheive better quality good so the produce sells and is liked. This is further a motivational technique as it can influence the potential sales of other produce whether that being competitors or increased sales in the business therefore, causing more opportunities for an increased wage

46
Q

What are positives and negatives of commission?

A

+ increases sales, better teamwork, better employee and manager relations, may increase future sales and customer loyalty, better retention, make staff feel like a valued part of an organisation
- poor pay if the industry has poor sales in general, the business may provide small sums, workers may produce worse quality goods, may slow production if people want to find best way to solve a problem

47
Q

What is performance related pay (PRP)?

A

It is a financial reward when the staff are rewards based upon their above average performance
These rewards are usually made after appraisals has evaluated the employee performance

48
Q

Why does PRP motivate staff?

A

This motivates staff as it overall contributes to the effort of staffing giving more effort in production and increasing the potential output may that be the environment they work within or the rate at which they work

49
Q

What are positives and negatives of PRP?

A

+ Managers can use defined framework to set goals, measure success, improve individual skills and performance, effective way of singling out poor performers
- employees can be demotivated if goals are set too high, this is subjective by the manager and general operators

50
Q

What is multi skilling?

A

Multi-skilling involves the training of staff that ensures they can perform a range of different roles within a business.

51
Q

What is a benefit of multi-skilling?

A
  • motivation benefits

- greater flexibility