Managing People 1.4 Flashcards
Labour turnover definition:
Number of staff leaving a company as a percentage of the number employed
Outsourcing definition:
Taking a task traditionally run by your own staff and putting it out to tender, with the lowest bid winning the contract
Redeployment definition
Retraining a staff member to give the skills required to take on a new job role
Zero hours contract definition:
Employment contracts that agree employee duties and hourly pay rates, yet offer no guarantee of any work ( and therefore income) in any specific week
What are the two chains of viewing people in a business - 4 steps in each:
People
- Our most important asset - permanent secure jobs - high quality training - high value staff
- Costs - temporary jobs - or outsourcing/ offshoring - low cost staff
What do well run companies with long term sights do with employees?
Keep the trust between the employees and management
What are the two key goals of managing people?
- Making sure you have the right number of staff, with the right skills and experience to meet all production and customer service requirements
- Making sure staff understand the business culture and are motivated in the right way
What are the 4 key components to planning staffing needs?
- Audit what you have at the moment, how many staff and their skills and their aspirations perhaps
- Analyse the business plan to turn plans into people - how many new staff will be needed
- Take into account the changes on the way from here to there. - how many will retire, have kids, or a career change?
- Calculate the gaps that need to be filled between now and two years time
Why may it be hard to ensure that the personnel plan fits with the new business strategy?
Because staff develop ways of thinking and working that can be hard to change
Why should companies take plenty of time deciding on their staff recruitment?
Because customers are more likely to come into contact with the ‘ordinary staff’ rather than managers, so the attitude and competence of shop floor staff is vital to competitiveness
Why might some recruitment managers be more interested in skills rather than staff attitudes?
The jobs may not be customer facing, and therefore the skills are more important
Why may staff redeployment prove more expensive than redundancy plus fresh recruitment?
Redeployment may cost more training than the cost in redundancy plus recruiting a new employee
Why may incentives not motivate?
An incentive focuses behaviour on one aspect of a job, motivated staff give their best in general and because they enjoy doing so
Why does a workforce need to be flexible? (3)
- An ever improving technology means the marketplace is subject to frequent and rapid change. Firms need to anticipate these changes and respond to them quickly in order to maintain a competitive edge
- Many consumers want more customised goods and services - firms have to adapt the production process in order to meet demand whilst still keeping costs down
- Increasing competition especially from overseas firms, has forced businesses faced with fluctuating or seasonal demand to introduce greater flexibility, to eliminate unnecessary costs.
What are the 4 ways which a firm can attempt to increase the level of workforce flexibility?
- Multiskilling
- Part time and temporary
- Flexible hours and homeworking
- Outsourcing
What are the benefits of multiskilling? (3)
- Increases in productivity
- Reduction in disruption to production caused by staff absence
- Greater employee motivation created by more varied and challenging tasks at work
What are the drawbacks of multiskilling? (3)
- Potential loss of production as workers switch between different tasks
- Greater training requirements and cost as individual workers acquire a wider range of skills
- Workers may be reluctant to acquire new skills especially if there is no increase in pay
What are some negatives for the employee of having part time/ temporary contracts?
- They may not be earning enough regularly
2. May not be able to get a mortgage with no definitive salary.
What is a benefit for increasing flexibility? (3)
- Improve recruitment
- Increase motivation
- Reduce labour turnover
What is an example of a type of flexibility with working hours:
Zero hour contracts
What are the three main circumstances when companies need to dispense with the services of staff? (3)
- When individual staff members lack the competence to carry out their duties effectively
- When economic or other factors depress demand throughout an industry, forcing companies to cut costs in order to stay above their breakeven levels of operation
- When competitive or other factors cause the business to lose market share in a way which causes management to cut staff
Core workers definition:
Employees who are essential to the operations of a business, supporting whatever makes it distinctive or unique. They are likely to receive good salaries and working conditions
Flexible approach definition:
An approach to operations that implies a move away from mass production to batch productions, the use of machinery which can quickly be reprogrammed to carry out a range of tasks, and the creation of a multi skilled and flexible workforce which can adapt to meet a firms changing requirements
Hot desk definition:
An approach that provides a temporary desk for home workers to use when they come to the main office, they aren’t allowed to leave their own possessions there.