human resource management

Question 1

Human resource management (HRM

Answer 1

the strategic approach to the effective management of an organisation’s workers so that they help the business gain a competitive advantage.

Question 2

responsibility of HRM

Answer 2

■ Workforce planning: Planning the future workforce needs of the business
■ Recruitment and selection: Recruiting and selecting appropriate employees and inducting them into the business.
■ Developing employees: Appraising, training and developing employees at every stage of their careers.
■ Employment contracts: Preparing contracts of employment for all employees and deciding on how flexible these should be: permanent or temporary, full- or part-time.

Question 3

HRM tended to be

characteristics

Answer 3

■ bureaucratic in their approach, with an inflexible approach to employee issues
■ focused on recruitment, selection and discipline rather than development and training
■ reluctant to give any HR roles to any other departmental managers

Question 4

Recruitment and selection will be necessary when

Answer 4

■ the business is expanding and needs a bigger workforce

■ employees leave and they need to be replaced– this is called labour turnover

Question 5

The recruitment and selection process involves several steps

Answer 5

1 Establishing the exact nature of the job vacancy and drawing up a job description 
2 Drawing up a person specification 
3 Preparing a job advertisement 
4 Drawing up a shortlist of applicants 
5 Selecting between the applicants

Question 6

Job description

Answer 6

a detailed list of the key points about the job to be filled– stating all its key tasks and responsibilities

Question 7

Benefits of internal recruitment

Answer 7

■ applicants may already be known to the selection team
■ applicants will already know the organisation and its internal methods– no need for induction training
■ culture of the organisation will be well understood by the applicants
■ often quicker than external recruitment

Question 8

Benefits of external recruitment

Answer 8

■ should be a wide choice of potential applicants– not just limited to internal staff
■ avoids resentment sometimes felt by existing staff if one of their colleagues is promoted above them
■ standard of applicants could be higher than if just limited to internal staff applicants

Question 9

Labour turnover

Answer 9

measures the rate at which employees are leaving an organisation.

It is measured by:
number of employees leaving in 1 year divided by average number of people employed× 100

Question 10

Costs of high labour turnover

Answer 10

■ difficult to establish loyalty and regular, familiar contact with customers
■ difficult to establish team spirit
■ costs of recruiting, selecting and training new staff

Question 11

Potential benefits of high labour turnover

Answer 11

■ low-skilled and lessproductive staff might be leaving– they could be replaced with more carefully selected workers ■ new ideas and practices are brought into an organisation by new workers
■ a business that plans to reduce staff numbers anyway– due to rationalisation– will find that high labour turnover will do this, as leaving staff will not be replaced

Question 12

different types of training:

Answer 12

1 Induction training is given to all new recruits. It has the objectives of introducing them to the people that they will be working with most closely,
2 On-the-job training involves instruction at the place of work
3 Off -the-job training entails any course of instruction away from the place of work

Question 13

Employee appraisal

Answer 13

the process of assessing the eff ectiveness of an employee judged against pre-set objectives.

Question 14

Redundancy:

Answer 14

when a job is no longer required, the employee doing this job becomes unnecessary through nofault of their own.

Question 15

Unfair dismissal

Answer 15

ending a worker’s employment contract for a reason that the law regards as being unfair

Question 16

To show that a dismissal is fair, employers need to be able to show that one of the following is true and, except in the case of gross misconduct, that the agreed procedures have been followed:

Answer 16

■ inability to do the job even after sufficient training has been given
■ a continuous negative attitude at work, which has badly affected the employees or their work ■ continuous disregard of required health and safety procedures
■ deliberate destruction of an employer’s property

Question 17

There are certain situations in which dismissal can be considered unfair or in breach of employment law. Th ese include:

Answer 17

■ pregnancy
■ a discriminatory reason, e.g. the race, gender or religion of aworker
■ being a member of a union

Question 18

Work–life balance

Answer 18

a situation in which employees are able to give the right amount of time and eff ort to work and to their personal life outside work, for example to family or other interests.

Question 19

the pace of hours and times people work has is now more rapid than ever because:

Answer 19

■ customers expect to have goods and services available outside traditional working hours
■ organisations want to match their business needs with the way their employees work
■ globalisation has led to much greater levels of competition, so efficiency and flexibility are important to a business to remain competitive.

Question 20

Th e following methods have been used by some businesses to allow employees to take more control of their working lives to allow for more leisure and relaxation time, more time for creativity and more time with family:

Answer 20

■ Flexible working
■ Teleworking – working from home for some of the working week.
■ Job sharing – allowing two people to fill one full-time vacancy, although each worker will only receive a proportion of the full-time pay

Question 21

Policies for diversity and equality

Answer 21

Equality policy: practices and processes aimed at achieving a fair organisation where everyone is treated in the same way and has the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

Diversity policy: practices and processes aimed at creating a mixed workforce and placing positive value on diversity in the workplace.

Question 22

The advantages of promoting equality in the workplace include

Answer 22

1. creating an environment with high employee morale
2. developing a good reputation and the ability to recruit top talent.
3. the effectiveness of employees is measured by their contributions, which may motivate them to willingly contribute to the business in a positive way

Question 23

the advantages of diversity in the workplace include

Answer 23

1. capturing a greater consumer market as consumers will be attracted to a diverse sales force
2. employing a more qualified workforce and reducing employee turnover.
3. an increase in creativity because individuals from different backgrounds approach problem solving in different ways.
4. diversity in language skills allows the company to provide products and services internationally.