Human Resources Flashcards
What is HRM?
Human resource management is the design implementation and maintenance of strategies to manage people for optimum business performance
What do functional objective set for human resource management need to be?
Consistent with the corporate objectives it’s kids to remember that human resource management is a strategic approach
How does human resource management meet the strategic needs of the business?
Uses a variety of tools which knead together in an integrated way
Define HR objectives
The target pursued by the human resource management function that fit in with the overall corporate objectives of the company
What are the values of setting objectives?
Means of judging the performance of the business
Source of motivation
Helps the business image
Maintains the employee performance
How does judging the performance of the business help the business?
So you can see if the business is being successful track progress make changes help business achieve corporate objectives
How does a source of motivation help benefit the business in terms of setting objectives?
For employees, if rewards are linked to achievements of objectives
How does help in the business image as a value of saying objectives?
If it seems to have high and clear expectations of it some point
Explain commenting employee performances value of setting objective
It’s a vital competitive weapon for many tertiary base businesses clear objectives and ensure the business has the right number of skilled and engaged in employee
What are the seven main HR objectives?
Labour productivity
Number and location of businesses workforce
Employee engagement and involvement
Training
Talent development
Diversity
Alignment of values
ExPlain labour productivity
Quantity of the products that employees should produce over a specific period of time
It can help control the costs as the higher of the labour productivity lower the unit cost helps business business competitive comp
Explain the number in the location of the businesses work force
businesses need to have sufficient employees to ensure can meet the needs of its customers and provide the best quality
Is the workforce the right size in the right location and will it assist in providing high-quality community services? Some businesses opt for employees to work remotely?
Explain employee engagement and involvement
Businesses benefit from having engaged employees in terms of improve performance
Employee involvement means employees contribute to decision-making
Examples of employee engagement and involvement
Intellectual engagement – thinking hard about the job and how to do it better
Effective engagement – feeling positively about doing a good job
social engagement taking opportunities to discuss work related improvements with others at work
Explain training and give examples
Improving skills and knowledge of the workforce improves performance
Long-term benefits
Examples are induction on the job and off the job
Explain talent Development and example
Focuses on fulfilling the potential of employees with their ability and potential to shape the businesses future performance
Key people to retain manage and develop talents
Trainingfor future jobs and promotion
Examples are mentoring and coaching
Explain diversity
Aims to treat people as individuals and will value the benefits that diverse individuals and groups in a workplace may offer to a business
He do race gender religion, age
Explain alignment of values and give examples
Values are referred to as core values and they underpin how employees behave and influence the decision as they make
Core values should be embedded into workforce
I believe the specific mode of conduct is preferable to an opposite or contrary mode of conduct
Examples are Sainsbury’s where quality is the mostimportant core value
What Are HR strategies
This is the medium to long-term plan implemented to achieve the HR objectives
Why are hr strategies important
Competitive advantage to the business
changes an organisation structure as business becomes flatter and employees have more responsibility. Psychological approach to motivation means people want more than just a highly paid job.
Define hard HR
Treating employees simply as a resource of the business like machinery and buildings
What are the features of hard HR?
Short-term changes in employee numbers (recruitment redundancy
Minimal communication from the top down
Motivation focuses on financial methods (Taylor scientific approach
Little empowerment of delegation
Taller organisational structure
Autocratic leadership style
advantages of hard hr
More cost-effective workforce – if labour used effectively
Quicker decision-making by senior manager
Disadvantages of hard HR
High absenteeism and high labour turnover – difficulties with employee retention – potential damage to business reputation
Define soft hr
Treats employees as the most important resource in the business and the source of competitive advantage
What are the features of soft HR?
Strong regular two body communication
Competitive pay performance release rewards
Motivation – greater use of non-financial methods for example empowerment, delegation
Focuses on job design and satisfaction
Flatter organisational structure
Suits democratic leadership style
Advantages of soft HR
Higher levels of motivation and productivity
Low absenteeism and low labour turnover and high employee retention
reputation as a great place to work
Advantages of soft HR
Higher employee cost leaves business at competitive disadvantage
Define labour productivity
Measure the output or number of units produced per employee in a specific time period
Formula labour productivity
Total output in time period/ no of employees
Explain how increased labour productivity helps with business profit
Increase labour productivity can mean more output some more sales and more revenue thus more profits
Labour productivity unit cost increase which means a bigger profit margin and this increases profit
if demand is price elastic it can lower selling price which increases total revenue therefore profit
How to Improve labour productivity
Financial awards such as piece rate bonuses and commission
You could also reduce the size of the workforce by making redundancies , invest in machinery or have a very effective recruitment and selection process
Training
Effective leadership and management process
How do you interpret labour productivity?
Labour productivity Wage rates labour cost per unit of output is maybe a better guide
Overall productivity depends on capital investment
Define unit labour cost- manufacturing
Measures the labour cost per unit of output produced based on total labour cost including non-wage cost such as national insurance and pension contribution
What is the formula for unit labour cost and given an example?
Total cost divided by a number of products produce
Example: represents the amount of money needed to pay employees to make one unit of output
Explain unit labour cost
If you increase labour productivity unit costs of labour decreases as they have an inverse relationship because output increases depends on labour productivity went up as long as labour cost don’t increase as a quicker speed than the output
Define employee cost as a percentage of revenue/turnover-tertiary
An important measure of performance for businesses that supply services – where labour costs are a higher proportion of total cost done in manufacturing
Formula for employee cost as a percentage of revenue/turnover
Labour cost divided by total revenue times by 100
The lower the score, the better as you keep more of the revenue
Define labour turnover
The percentage of a business employees who leave the business in a specific time period (usually per year)
Formula for labour turnover
No of staff leaving/total number of staff x100
What are the internal causes of labour turnover ?
Mistreatment of staff
Reduced pay
Lack of training
Poor management/leadership
Poor working conditions
What are the external causes of labour turnover?
Increased opportunities outside the business
Set up of or expansion of other firms
Better transport links allowing people to work further afield
What are the negatives of high labour turnover ?
Investing in recruitment and selection cost
Negative reputation
Loss of productivity while new workers adjust
Time taken to settle in and adopt new firms culture
What are the positives of high labour turnover ?
New ideas skills to business
Workers with specific skills can be employed rather than trying to train existing workers
Older employees productivity may have fallen and redundancy and retirement may help business
What can high labour turnover cause for a workforce ?
Generally undesirable but so can too little-it can make a workforce stale and set in their ways. Lacking ideas and unable and unwilling to embrace change . Finding correct balance is key
What does the correct level of labour turnover depend on ?
The business- if you have skilled workforce that has significant training then a low labour turnover is desirable
Low skilled jobs that are of ten seasonal pay low wages rates and they accept high labour turnover rates . It’s easy to obtain new staff and training is limited
How do you reduce labour turnover ?
Monitoring and benchmarking to identify if this is the problem
Exit interviews to find out the reason people are leaving the business
Adequate recruitment and selection budget to ensure you hire the right people in the first place
Induction and training
Define absenteeism
Refers to employees not attending work when they should be there . It isn’t pre planned or authorised like a holiday
Formula for absenteeism
no of staff absent/ total number of staff x100
What is the other formula for absenteeism?
Number of days taken off through absence/total days worked by workforce over same period
What are the avoidable causes of absenteeism ?
Sleeping in
Low motivation
Burning and monotonous work
Poor working conditions
What are the avoidable causes of absenteeism ?
Sleeping in
Low motivation
Burning and monotonous work
Poor working conditions
What are the unavoidable causes of absenteeism?
Illness
Death of family
Weather issues
Dependence (looking after relative)
Strikes
What are the unavoidable causes of absenteeism?
Illness
Death of family
Weather issues
Dependence (looking after relative)
Strikes
What are the problems of absenteeism?
Increased workload for a small number of staff
Lower productivity
Costs-paying sick pay for now work, covering employees-expensive
Quality of customer service may suffer
How to reduce absenteeism?
Flexibility -can work remotely
Increase motivation -more interesting / challenging job
Improved working conditions
Create effective relations between employers and employees
Introduce attendance bonuses
Closer management of absenteeism-link to pay
Define human inflow
A term used to describe the process by which employees pass through the organisation
Define Human outflow
A term used to describe the process by which employees pass out of a business
Define HR planning
The continuous process of systematic planning to achieve optimum use of an organisations most valuable asset- quality employees
Define recruitment
The actions undertaken to attract and appoint future staff members.
Define a job description
. A job description may include the job title, rate of pay or salary, hours of work, location of work, all duties included in the role and whom the new employee would report to in the business.
What does a job description include?
job title, job purpose, job duties and responsibilities, required qualifications, preferred qualifications, and working conditions.
Define person specification
A person specification is a document created by a business that wants to fill a vacancy. This document provides information about the type of person the business wants to hire. A person specification includes details about the educational background, skills and experience the business wants applicants to have.
What does a person specification include?
Includes: Often, a person specification is split into two sections – ‘essential’ and ‘desirable’. If a skill or experience is essential, a person must have it in order to apply for the role
Define internal recruitment
Internal recruitment is when a business fills a job vacancy with an existing member of staff. This could be as a promotion to a higher position or a transferring an employee to a different area of the business. Job vacancies may be advertised via word of mouth, employee newsletters, staff noticeboards or internal emails or intranet
Define external recruitment
External recruitment is often carried out through external job adverts published via external emails, job websites, recruitment agencies, the business’ own website, newspapers and trade magazines
Pros of external recruitment
• may bring new ideas into the business
• fresh enthusiasm and skills
• larger pool of potential applicants
Cons of external recruitment
• may take the new employee time to settle into the business
• expensive to recruit
• new employee not previously known to the business
• can take more time than internal recruitment
Pros of internal recruitment
• a quick process
• applicants will already be known to the business
• applicants may have previous experience in the role
• cheaper to recruit and advertise roles internally
Cons of internal recruitment
• usually a small pool of applicants
• applicants may not be experienced in the role
• a lack of fresh ideas in the business
Define a CV
A CV (or ‘curriculum vitae’) is a document that applicants complete and submit alongside a job application. It is a personal document that includes information about an applicant’s skills, experience, qualifications and hobbies. This document is used by a business to decide whether applicants match the requirements of the person specification.
Define an application form
An application form is completed by a potential employee applying for a job. Application forms include a series of questions for an applicant to answer, and a section for applicants to write about why they are suited for the job.
What an application form allow a business to do ?
Application forms allows a business to learn more about the applicants and their experiences.
Why do large businesses use CVs?
CV is for large businesses because they want to know everything about you and why you are suitable for the job whereas an application form is for small businesses as they want to know why you would be good for the job specifically.
How do businesses selection?
After the closing date for applications, the business must select the best applicants. The first step in this process is to produce a shortlist, this is completed by reading through applications and deciding which ones meet the needs of the business.
Why is it important to select the right worker?
It is important to select the right worker because if you do not then it could decrease productivity and quality and therefore decrease sales and revenue thus profit.
What are interviews?
Interviews are the most common form of selection. These are meetings, either face-to-face, via telephone or through a video link between the employer and the applicant, where questions are asked to assess how suitable an applicant is for the job role. Some businesses undertake group interviews, where a number of applicants will be interviewed at the same time.
Advantages and disadvantages of interviews
Advantages
Identifies personality of candidate
Allows further clarification on information provided in the application form
Disadvantages
Time consuming
Candidate may not react well in stressful situations – meaning the best candidate for the job is not selected
What are psychometric tests?
Psychometric tests are designed to measure aspects of an applicant’s personality by asking a series of multiple-choice questions. Businesses use the results to judge which applicant is most suitable for the job and who will fit in best in the workplace.
Pros of psychometric tests
psychometric tests are proven to be reliable and objective measures of a person’s abilities and traits. This means employers can make more accurate predictions about how candidates perform in a given role. Additionally, they provide a standardised approach to recruitment, allowing employers to compare candidates based on the same criteria.
Another advantage of psychometric testing is that it can help reduce bias in the recruitment process. By focussing on objective measures, employers can avoid relying too much on personal opinions and other subjective factors.
Cons of psychometric tests
However, there are also some potential drawbacks to using psychometric testing for recruitment. One of the main concerns is that these tests may not necessarily predict job performance accurately. While they can provide an indication of a candidate’s abilities and personal traits, they may not always translate into success in a particular job
There is also the danger that psychometric testing may be used in isolation, without considering other important factors such as a candidate’s experience, qualifications and work history. This can lead to overlooking candidates who may be well suited for a role but do not perform well on a specific psychometric test.
Define skills testing
Skills testing allows for managers to understand the skills of individuals and identify where training is needed
Pros of skills testing
objective evaluation, accurate skills matching, and efficient screening,
Cons of skills testing
employers should avoid assessments that are excessively time-consuming and arduous to the point where they deter quality candidates from applying.
Define trial
Trial is a way of trying out a potential employee before they start a job
Pros of trials
Work trials provide valuable insights into a candidate’s skills and performance. They also help assess cultural fit and commitment, offering a two-way evaluation for both the candidate and the company
Cons of trials
work trials can be time-consuming for both candidates and the hiring team.
Describe assessment centres
Businesses also assessment centres to select employees. In an assessment centre, applicants will be asked to complete a number of tasks such as role-play, psychometric tests, interviews and practical tasks
Pros and cons of assessment centres
Advantages
Saves time and money for both applicants and companies
Disadvantages
No personal observation of candidate
How does technology help recruitment and selection?
Computers could be used to create job adverts.
• The internet can be used to advertise job vacancies.
• Applications are often filled out using an online form.
• A database can be used to store information on candidates applying for positions within a company.
• Video conferencing on a pc or smartphone could be used to conduct interviews.
• Online tests and assessments can be used during the testing stage of the selection process.
• Background checks can be ran digitally by accessing their online files
Describe full time work
Full time usually refers to an employee working more than 35 hours per week, often spread over five days each week. Part time refers to an employee working for only part of the working week, or anything less than full time
Contrast a permanent and temporary contract
A permanent contract is one that has no fixed end date. The employee may stay within the business until either they decide to leave or the job role no longer exists. A temporary contract is one that has a specific end date, where the worker is only employed for a certain period of time.
Contrast a part time and full time contract with a zero hour contract
Part time refers to an employee working for only part of the working week, or anything less than full time. In a zero-hours contract, an employee has no specified number of hours per week. Instead, they are given work when the business requires them.
Pros and cons of part time work
Part time
Pros
• Lower costs. …
• Increase diversity. …
• Introduce flexibility. …
• Improve productivity. …
Cons
• Organisational difficulties. …
• Difficulties integrating
Pros and cons of full time work
Pros
• Greater consistency and reliability.
• Increased productivity.
• Better team integration.
• Improved employee loyalty
Cons .
• Reduced flexibility.
• Higher fixed costs.
• Increased risk of burnout.
Pros and cons of a permanent contract
Pros
Builds business network.
No fear of high labour turnover
Cons
No variety of skills for business
Employees may become demotivated and ruin productivity
Pros and cons of temporary work
Pros
Allows company to match demand for their product or service with the supply of workers
Cons
Staff may be less demotivated as they know they’re leaving and this can lead to lower quality
Pros and cons of zero hour work
Pros
This is beneficial to the business as it fills business shortages.
Cons
Lack of worker commitment to business
Define remote working
Remote working is where employees are able to work from home or somewhere that is not the main working environment of their employer
Pros and cons of remote working
Pros
Employees are more flexible so it increases productivity and efficiency for the business
Cons
Business cannot actually monitor the productivity of employee
Describe training and development
Training and development is the process in which employees are provided with additional skills, knowledge and qualifications. It’s good because it increases motivation and it can lead to high staff retention
Describe induction training
Induction training is the training an employee receives when they start a new job. It is designed to help the new employee settle into the business. It also means that the new employee feels valued and supported, which reduces the risk of them leaving the business.
Describe on the job training
On-the-job training is training that happens in the workplace. Employees learn from more experienced colleagues. There are a number of different methods including work shadowing, formal training sessions and computer-based training.
Pros and cons of on the job training
Pros
On-the-job training has a number of benefits. It is a relatively cheap form of training as there are no travel costs and training is done by another employee, not an expensive external trainer. On-the-job training also allows a business to reduce costs by offering e-learning, a form of on the job training which is done via a computer
Cons
on-the-job training has a number of disadvantages. As the training is usually provided by other employees, it may mean that more people are unavailable to work as they are both providing and receiving training. It is also unlikely to bring new ideas and skills into the business.
Describe off the job training
Off-the-job training is training that happens away from the employee’s workplace.
Pros of off the job training
Off-the-job training can bring new ideas into a business. As off-the-job training is expensive, employees who receive it may feel more valued by the company and therefore more motivated and loyal. In addition, the trainer is more likely to provide high quality training, as they will be a skilled expert in this specific area.
Cons of off the job training
Disadvantages of off-the-job training include that it is expensive and there is a risk that the newly trained employee will leave the business. In addition to this, the training might not be tailored to the business and the employee is spending time away from the workplace to complete the training.
Which is cheaper out of off and on the job training ?
On the job is cheaper and the business can monitor what is being trained and the issues with training in general is that it can be costly and the staff could use the training and go to another business .
What is dismissal ?
Dismissal is the act of ordering or allowing someone to leave
What are the reasons for dismissal?
• Reasons for dismissal: Not being able to do your job properly. You may not be able to do your job properly if, for example, you: …
• Illness. …
• Redundancy. …
• Summary dismissal. …
• A ‘statutory restriction’ …
• It’s impossible to carry on employing you. …
• A ‘substantial reason’
Define gross misconduct with examples
Gross misconduct is when an employee has done something that’s very serious or has very serious effects. Examples could include: fraud. physical violence.
Define minor misconduct with examples
Minor misconduct when an employee performs actions in the workplace that are unacceptable but not criminal. Examples of minor misconduct include poor task performance
Define redundancy
Redundancy is the state of no longer being in employment because there’s no more work available
Why may some people take voluntary redundancy?
Some people might be happy to take voluntary redundancy because sometimes employers offer incentives for taking voluntary redundancy, like extra redundancy pay or not having to work your notice period. You’ll also still get any other redundancy rights you’re entitled to, like time off to look for a new job.
What are issues for a business offering voluntary redundancy?
Problems for business for offering voluntary redundancyis they need to be aware that selecting employees or preventing them from taking voluntary redundancy based on their gender, age, disability, or other protected characteristics could be considered discrimination.
What does a business need to do if it intends to make 20 or more redundancies?
if a business in the UK intends to make 20 or more redundancies it is obligated by law to consult with any relevant trade union or other employee represented group at least 30 days before the redundancy occurs. The employer must also consult with individual employees employees who have been continuously employed by the business for two years are entitled to compensation in the form of redundancy payments. The minimum legal redundancy pay is calculated based on the employees age and length of service.
Why do businesses offer more attractive packages than the legal requirement ?
It shows that business cares for their employees so they offer more attractive redundancy packages than the legal requirement
Define redeployment
Redeployment can be used to move, or redeploy, staff around the business according to business needs and demands and this can support business objectives.
When is redeployment used?
• It’s often used when an employee is at risk of redundancy
What factors determine whether redeployment is agreeable to an employee.
. The factors that determine whether redeployment is agreeable to an employee: last in, first out (employees with the shortest length of service are selected first)
• asking for volunteers (self-selection)
• disciplinary records.
• staff appraisal markings, skills, qualifications and experience.
