Human resources 123-133

Question 1

Flexible hours

Answer 1

-Agreed number of working hours, made up from core hours which must be worked and the remainder of the contracted hours can be worked on a flexible basis

Question 2

Part time staff

Answer 2

• suits women/workers with young children and helps to meet their needs and requirements
  -can also benefit business by having more staff working during peak hours and meet needs of employer

Question 3

Zero hours contracts

Answer 3

• Employee has to be
  available for work but is not guaranteed any work. This
  provides employers with total flexibility
• No income security?

Question 4

Homeworking

Answer 4

Employees benefit from time saved and the stress of commuting. Businesses
benefit by a reduction in overheads if less office space is required.

Question 5

Hot desking

Answer 5

• no fixed work space within an office environment
  (+)Reduces need for office space
  (-)Breakdown of workplace relationships and can feel disconnected from the organisation

Question 6

Temporary staff

Answer 6

-Employed for a limited time period
(+)Hired when required
(+)Try out workers before hiring
(+)Costs lower - don’t receive same benefits as full-time staff
(-)less motivated
(-)less reliable

Question 7

Define workforce planning

Answer 7

Deciding how many and what types of workers are required (planning for the future)
-Trying to ensure there are the right number of workers, with the right skills, doing the right jobs, at the right time and in the right place
- Can mean recruiting or shedding workers (e.g.redundancy and early retirement schemes)

Question 8

Internal and external staffing issues

Answer 8

Internal:
-staff loss, retirement, training, promotion, flexibility
External:
- competitors, availability of skills, unemployment

Question 9

Evaluate the impact and importance to a business of having the correct number of employees with appropriate skills and experience

Answer 9

(+)Ensure the workforce is the right size - cuts costs by not over or under hiring
(+)Encourages managers to prepare and plan for future requirements rather than reacting to them
(+)Identifying problems early
(+)Preventing problems
(-)Decisions may have cost implications - training, recruitment, redundancies

Question 10

The recruitment process

Answer 10

Job analysis -> Job description -> Person specification -> Job advert -> Shortlisting -> interview

Question 11

Explain what is meant by internal and external recruitment

Answer 11

Internal:
- Fill the vacancy from within the business from its existing workforce
-Through promotion (e.g. notice board, in house magazine, email etc), reorganisation
External:
- Looks to fill the vacancy from any suitable applicant outside the business
- Advertisements, job centres, recruitment agencies, personal recommendation etc

Question 12

Benefits and drawbacks of internal recruitment

Answer 12

(+)careers development - greater motivation and staff retention
(+)Faster - shorter induction
(+)know more about the internal candidates abilities, skills, experience - reduced risk
(-) external may be more suitable
(-)another vacancy will be created and will need to be filled

Question 13

External recruitment benefits and drawbacks

Answer 13

(+)potentially new ideas and skills
(+)Reduced training expenses by hiring staff with required experience/skills
(-)Takes longer and can cost the company more
(-)Increased risk of appointing the wrong candidate and may not be able to tell if they will fit in
(D)structure of the business

Question 14

Explain what is meant by job analysis

Answer 14

process which identifies and determines requirements of the job, and what the position requires in terms of aptitude, knowledge and skills

Question 15

Explain what is meant by:
-Job description
-Person specification

Answer 15

-sets out the purpose of the job and should contain basic details about the job e.g.job title
-sets out the details of the qualities of the person required to fill the vacancy e.g.skills, necessary qualifications, personal attricutes and experience required

Question 16

Different appropriate methods of selecting employees

Answer 16

*interviews
*Work trials
*Testing - psychometric (personality, suited to job) and aptitude and ability testing
*Telephone interviews
*Assessment centres (hosted over a one to three day period usually 6-8 candidates)

Question 17

Evaluate the importance of recruitment to a business and its stakeholders

Answer 17

-they effect the outcome of the business and how well the business handles: HR, marketing finance ad operations
-Higher labour turnovers if its poor

Question 18

Define training

Answer 18

Training provides workers with knowledge and skills which enable them to perform their jobs more effectively. Modern theories of motivation suggest that training is successful in motivating staff. Untrained staff may feel let down by their employers as they may not be able to reach their full potential

Question 19

What does training do

Answer 19

• ensure high quality
  -staff flexibility
  -motivates
  -retaining high quality staff

Question 20

Explain the different methods of training

Answer 20

*Induction training- training employees receive when they first join the business
*On-the-job - learning by doing, occurs in the workplace
* Off the job - courses in a college for qualifications or internal courses structured directly for the needs of the business
*Apprenticeships - training and workplace experience, leading to a recognised qualification
*Retraining - training to cope with the changing working environment

Question 21

Explain what is meant by appraisal

Answer 21

A regular meeting in which the staff member’s performance is analysed, normally against performance targets

Question 22

Explain the different methods of appraisal

Answer 22

> Superior assessment - direct line manager completes an assessment of your performance
Self-assessment
Peer assessment
360 degree appraisal - receiving feedback from people whose views are considered helpful and relevant

Question 23

Evaluate the importance and impact of appraisal for a business and its stakeholders

Answer 23

(+)motivates, improves performance
(+)allows achievable targets
(+)identifies training needs and potential
(-)can cause tension in he workplace
(-) puts workers under a lot of pressure and stress
(-)places too much power in the hands of line managers who may be ill-equipped o abuse the power given to them
(d) how workers react and participate
(d) if the managers are able to use the appraisals to solve any problems and the criteria of it must be clear so it can be understood

Question 24

Define workforce performance

Answer 24

Measuring the effectiveness of the workforce. When managers examine workforce performance they are examining the effectiveness of human resource management (HRM) policies.

Question 25

Define labour productivity include the formula

Answer 25

Labour productivity is a measurement of
the output per employees. It is an important measure of the efficiency of the workforce.
- output (per period)/number of employees (per period)

Question 26

Absenteeism formula

Answer 26

Number of staff absence days over a year/ total number of working days x100

Question 27

Labour turnover formula

Answer 27

number of leavers/average number of employees x100
- how quick staff leave the firm

Question 28

Evaluate the importance and impact of workforce performance for a business and is stakeholders

Answer 28

labour productivity - increase LP results in lower labour costs because fixed costs are being spread across ore units and workers are still getting paid the same amount of money
Labour turnover - save money long term e.g. recruitment process and training
Absenteeism - high costs and often a sign of a bigger problem e.g. demotivated staff

Question 29

Define organisational design

Answer 29

the process of aligning the structure of an organisation with its objectives with the ultimate aim of improving efficiency and effectiveness

Question 30

Define authority and chain of command

Answer 30

Authority - the power to make decisions and take action
Chain of command - the paths along which communication take place

Question 31

Define span of control and hierarchy

Answer 31

span of control - how many workers a manager or supervisor is directly responsible for
Hierarchy - ranked according to status or authority

Question 32

centralised organisations

Answer 32

• most decisions are take by senior managers and then passed down the organisational hierarchy
  (+)standardised procedures are often used
  (-)may lead to demotivated staff as they are not involved in decision making

Question 33

Decentralised organisations

Answer 33

• decision making is spread out
  (+)delegate down the chain of command thus reduce speed of decision making
  (-)control is delegated to department managers so this may lead to poor decision making and branches may begin to compete

Question 34

Define delayering

Answer 34

the process of removing one or more layers in a hierarchy/organisational structure. It can result in a flatter organisational structure and wider span of control

Question 35

Tall vs flat hierarchical structures

Answer 35

tall has many layers of management and often uses top-down approach with a long chain of command. Managers will have a narrow span of control. Flat is a short chain of command, few levels of hierarchy and wise spans of control, leading to employees operating with more independence

Question 36

Matrix structure

Answer 36

often used when cross-functional teams are created t0 run a project
(+)helps ideas and innovation
(+)breaks down barriers to communication and ensures that projects are better coordinated
(-)defining each employee’ main responsibility is difficult
(-)expensive because extra support systems may be needed or work space

Question 37

Empowerment

Answer 37

Giving the employees greater control over their work lives
(+)motivation and productivity
(-)may be expensive in short term for training costs etc

Question 38

Evaluate the choice between empowerment and control in the workplace

Answer 38

-control may be better due to less risk
-depends on the experience of staff
-depends on trustworthiness of staff and whether they welcome authority and accept responsibility