Topic 6 - Improving Human Resource Performance Flashcards
What are some HR objectives ?
Employee engagement
Talent development
Training
Diversity
Aligning values
Location and skills
What is employee engagement as a HR objective ?
Employee engagement involves listening to staff, involving staff in decision making processes and building relationships between staff and managers.
For example, Google allows its employees to spend 20% of their working time on a project of their choice
What is talent development as a HR objective ?
Talent development involves a business developing their current employees so that they can support the business’s future success.
What is training as a HR objective?
A way of developing skills
What is diversity as a HR objective ?
Having people from different cultures, personalities, gender to religion
What is aligning values as a HR objective ?
Aligning values involves ensuring employees have similar values and beliefs to a business’.
For example, a business may seek to change an employee’s values, through training, or may only recruit individuals who have demonstrated at interview that their values are similar to those of the business.
What is location and skills as a HR objective ?
Human resources (HR) are responsible for recruiting so can determine the number of employees available and the skill set of each of these individuals. HR may also employ staff to work at different locations within the business, for example across several factories or stores.
What are some internal influences on HR objectives ?
Objectives of the business - as objectives at a functional or departmental level must support the overall business.
of internal funding - as this may determine how many vacancies are advertised.
Objectives of the other business functions - For example, if the operational objectives are focussed on flexibility and require the recruitment of additional temporary staff for the festive period, the human resources department will need to support this through focussing on recruitment.
What are some external influences on HR objectives?
Legal considerations - as HR departments will have to comply with laws around recruitment and employment.
Technological advancements - For example, developments in technology may require HR to organise training on new technologies used in the business
Ethical considerations - as HR departments may need to consider whether to pay the National Minimum Wage, or whether to use zero-hours contracts.
What is hard HR management?
employees are seen simply as a resource to be used.
employees are not trusted and will be closely supervised, with little training given.
What is the benefit of hard HR ?
Hard HR allows managers to retain full control of employees
What is the disadvantage of hard HR ?
does not allow employees to contribute their full potential to the business
What is soft HR management ?
employees are recognised as the most important resource within the business.
employees are trusted and given opportunities to develop.
What is the benefit of soft HR management ?
empowers employees which can increase production and efficiency.
What a disadvantage of soft HR management?
Soft HR gives employees more freedom so mistakes may occur if employees make poor decisions
What is labour turnover ?
Labour turnover refers to the percentage of staff that leaves the business per year
What is retention ?
Retention refers to the percentage of staff that stays at the business per year.
How do you calculate labour turnover ?
Labour turnover is expressed as a percentage. It is calculated using the following formula:
Labour turnover = (Total number of staff leaving ÷ Average number of total staff) × 100
To calculate the average number of total staff, use the following formula:
Average number of total staff = (Number of staff at the beginning of the year + Number of staff at the end of the year) ÷ 2
How do you calculate average number of total staff ?
Average number of total staff = (Number of staff at the beginning of the year + Number of staff at the end of the year) ÷ 2
In January 2017 a business employs 100 staff and in December 2017 the business employs 90 staff. During the year, 10 of these staff left.
Calculate the labour turnover.
Total number of staff leaving the business is 10.
The average number of employees throughout this time is calculated by adding the number of staff at the beginning of the year with the number of staff at the end of the year and dividing by two. 100 employees at the beginning of the year plus 90 employees at the end of the year equals 190 employees, divided by 2, equals an average of 95 employees.
Therefore, 10 staff leaving divided by 95 average staff multiplied by 100 gives 10.53% labour turnover. 10.53% of the business’ staff left during the period of one year.
What are reasons labour turnover may be high ?
The higher the labour turnover percentage, the higher the number of staff leaving during the period calculated. This could be because:
If competitors offer higher wages and salaries, employees may leave.
If employees are demotivated, they may leave.
What are the advantages of low staff turnover ?
Low staff turnover means that experienced employees remain within the business.
Low staff turnover means that training and recruitment costs are low as there are fewer vacancies to be filled
What is the disadvantage of a low staff turnover?
Low staff turnover means that there are fewer opportunities for the business to recruit new talent, skills, and ideas.
How do you calculate retention rates ?
Retention rates are expressed as a percentage. They are calculated using the following formula:
Retention rates = (Total number of staff who worked at a business for the whole period of time ÷ Total number of staff at the beginning of the period of time) × 100
In December 2016, a business employs 90 staff. During the year, 15 of these staff left.
Calculate the retention rate ?
Total number of staff leaving the business is 15.
Total staff at the end of the year = 75.
Total staff at the start of the year = 90.
Staff at the end of the year ÷ staff at start of the year = 0.833.
0.833 X 100 = 83.33%.
A retention rate of 83.33% shows that the business retained 83.33% of its staff during the time period.
What are the reasons for high retention rates ?
High retention rates could be because the business pays a higher salary or wage than its competitors.
High retention rates could be because employees are motivated, empowered and valued.
A business has 1,600 staff. The total number of staff leaving the business is 45. What is the average number of employees?
Total staff at the beginning and end of the year.
1,600 + 1,555 = 3,155
Find the average of the total staff.
3,155 ÷ 2 = 1,577.5
At the start of the year, a business employed 45 staff. During the year, 5 people leave. What is the retention rate?
89.9%
What is labour productivity?
Labour productivity is a measure of the units produced by an employee in a given period of time.
HR managers use this as a measure of an employee’s performance during appraisal reviews to inform decisions about employee pay and any possible training requirements
How do you calculate labour productivity?
Labour productivity is expressed as a number of units. It is calculated using the following formula:
Labour productivity = Total output ÷ Total number of employees
If a business has 1,000 employees, and during a one month period, produces 250,000 bottles of orange juice, what is the labour productivity?
The labour productivity can be calculated by dividing 250,000 units by 1,000 employees to give 250 units per employee.
Once a HR manager finds labour productivity what can it be used to do ?
A Human Resources manager could compare a labour productivity calculation with previous years to assess how productive the current workforce is.
HR managers may reward employees if productivity is increasing, though may plan training for employees if productivity is decreasing.
A business has 3,000 employees. They produce 600,000 pencil cases. What is the labour productivity?
200 units per employee
How do you calculate employee costs as a percentage of turnover ?
Employee costs as a percentage of turnover = (Total employee costs ÷ Total revenue) × 100
Why is employee costs as a percentage of turnover important ?
Calculating employee costs as a percentage of turnover allows HR managers to assess, as a proportion of total revenue, or turnover, the amount that is spent on staffing costs.
If a newsagent had staffing costs of £105,000 in 2017, and had total revenue of £1,100,000, employee costs as a percentage of turnover is what ?
Calculated by dividing £105,000 by £1,100,000, to get 0.095, multiplied by 100 gives 9.55%. This means that the business spends 9.55% of its total revenue on employee costs.
Why is knowing employee costs as a percentage of turnover important ?
A Human Resources manager could compare their employee costs as a percentage of turnover with data from previous years, with data from competitors, if it is available, or with data from the industry.
If employee costs as a percentage of turnover are higher than they have been in previous years, a Human Resources manager may decide to try and reduce their total employee costs.
Why is having lower employee costs as a percentage of turnover important ?
Some businesses, for example, Aldi, have much lower employee costs as a percentage of turnover, because they place emphasis on cutting costs by operating minimum numbers of checkouts and limited numbers of shop floor staff, compared with supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s and Marks and Spencer.
What does labour cost per unit allow ?
Labour cost per unit allows a business to calculate the cost of labour for every one unit produced.
How is labour cost per unit calculated?
Labour cost per unit can be calculated using the following formula:
Labour cost per unit = (Total labour costs ÷ Total units produced)
If a business has total labour costs of £250,000 and produces 1,500 products, what is the labour cost per unit ?
The labour cost per unit can be calculated by dividing £250,000 by 1,500 products to get £166.67.
For every one unit produced by the business, there is a labour or employee cost of £166.67.
Why is known the labour cost per unit important ?
HR managers may use the calculation of labour cost per unit to compare data to previous years, to competitors and to the wider industry.
If HR managers are unhappy with their current labour cost per unit, they may decide to increase productivity, so that employees produce more, or they may reduce employee costs.
What improves labour cost per unit ?
Increasing productivity or reducing employee costs would improve the labour cost per unit.