HR Flashcards
What is workforce performance?
How well employees are carrying out their duties and tasks.
What is absenteeism?
The proportion of employees not at work on a given day. 40 million work days are lost annually in the UK.
What do high levels of absenteeism indicate?
-Demotivated staff.
-Increases costs and can lead to poorer quality service or products.
How to calculate absenteeism?
-Multiply number of workers by the typical working days in a year.
-Divide the number of sick days by this number.
What is labour productivity?
A measure of output per worker
How to calculate labour productivity?
output per time / number of employees.
What does high productivity mean?
-Lower costs per unit.
What is labour turnover?
The proportion of employees leaving a business over a period of time - usually a year.
Why does labour turnover occur?
-Retirement, illness.
-Seasonal turnover.
-Varies on industry and geographically.
-Hospitality and retail have high turnovers.
How to calculate labour turnover?
(Number of staff leaving / average number of staff employed) x 100
Why is workforce performance important?
-Shows effectiveness of HR policies.
-Indicates problems with pay and working conditions.
-This helps to put strategies in place.
What are internal factors that can affect workforce performance?
Demotivation, poor pay and working conditions, changes to production method, redundancy.
What are external factors that can affect workforce performance?
-Economic condition.
-Competitor action.
-Local transport links to other jobs.
impact of workforce performance on stakeholders?
Owners/shareholder- efficiency is linked to profitability.
Customers- increase/decrease in quality and satisfaction.
Employees- High absenteeism means increased pressure and stress for remaining employees.
Managers- accountability.
Suppliers- more/less orders.
What is training?
developing the skills, experience, and knowledge employees need to perform their jobs or improve their performance
Why is training workers important?
-Motivation.
-Customers get better quality.
-Workers can reach full potential.
-Retain high quality staff.
-Staff are more flexible to change.
-Attracts potential employees.
What is induction training?
Training given to new employees when they first start a job, to familiarise them with colleagues and the production methods, so they are more comfortable.
What is on the job training?
Training at the workplace that lets the employee learn by doing or by watching others for a while and then imitating them.
-Mentoring, gradual training schemes, job rotation.
Advantages of on the job?
Cost effective. Allows for usual work to continue and existing equipment to be used. Specific to the business.
Disadvantages of on the job?
Training may be provided by an inexperienced trainer. Can disrupt usual routine. No qualification.
What is off the job training?
Training that takes place away from the workplace.
-University and college courses, online courses, external training providers.
Advantages of off the job?
- Delivered by experts and specialists
- Qualifications gained
- Output not affected by mistakes
- No distractions
Disadvantages of off the job?
- May not apply for exact role
- Lost working hours
- May take time to organise
- No output produced
- Cost of course and travel.
What are apprenticeships?
A formal agreement for an employer to facilitate training and the workplace experience.
-Employees get a recognised qualification and a wage.
-Good for a business to gain low level motivated staff.
-But can be misused, businesses use cheap labour.