Unit 6

Question 1

What is meant by Human Resource objectives?

Answer 1

Targets that the HR section of a business (responsible for all employee related issues) want to achieve in a given period of time.

Question 2

Name potential Human Resource objectives

Answer 2

Employee engagement and involvement
Talent development
Diversity
Alignment of values 
Training
Number, skills and location of employees

Question 3

What is meant by employee engagement/involvement and what are the positive effects of this objective?

Answer 3

Degree of commitment shown by employee to their work. Involvement is the amount of contribution made to work and decision making.

• motivated
• positive
• more innovative

Question 4

What is meant by Talent Development and what are the positive effects of this objective?

Answer 4

Identify potential in employees and help them progress. Important to retain these employees as
talented employees have potential of growing business and achieving goals.
- New ways of thinking
- Increases performance

Question 5

What is meant by the objective of Diversity and what are the positive effects of this objective?

Answer 5

.Respecting the fact that all employees are different. Ensure that personal differences do not hinder progress in the work place and that employees are not discriminated against in terms of: age, gender, religion, background.

• good public/brand image
• learnt from different cultures, believes…

Question 6

What is meant by the HR objective of ‘training’ and what are the positive effects of this objective?

Answer 6

equipping employees with skills and knowledge to do their job effectively

• improve productivity
• high quality standards
• increase job satisfaction
• increase staff retention

Question 7

What is meant by Alignment of values and what are the positive effects of this objective?

Answer 7

Bringing the CORE VALUES of all employees together to focus on achieving a common aim.
- Strong corporate culture

Question 8

What is meant by the objective of ‘Number, skills and location of employees’ and what are the positive effects of this objective?

Answer 8

Matching workforce skills size and location to business needs.
- enable all aspects of business to function

Question 9

What is the difference between soft and hard HRM?

Answer 9

/

Question 10

What are the benefits of soft HRM

Answer 10

• Motivation

Question 11

What are the drawback of soft HRM?

Answer 11

-

Question 12

What are the benefits of hard HRM

Answer 12

v

Question 13

What are the benefits of

Question 14

What information would a HR manager want to know?

Answer 14

• Labour cost per unit
• Retention rates
• Labour productivity
• Employee costs as a percentage of turnover

Question 15

What is meant by human resource data?

Answer 15

quantifiable information that can be used to measure workforce performance

Question 16

How do you calculate labour turnover?

Answer 16

of staff leaving
over x 100
Average # of staff

Question 17

What is a retention rate?

Answer 17

Measure of a firm’s ability to keep its workforce (one year)

Question 18

What are problems associated with high labour turnover and low retention rates?

Answer 18

High labour turn over is the number of people that leave the business. This could result in low employee moral, skill shortage and high costs in terms of recruitment.
Low retention rate is the

Question 19

How to calculate retention rate?

Answer 19

amount of staff that stay per year

amount of staff on average that stay/

Question 20

What is meant by labour productivity?

Answer 20

A measure of workforce performance that looks at output per worker

Question 21

How do you calculate labour productivity?

Answer 21

Total output

over ———–

of workers

Question 22

How do you calculate employee cost?

Answer 22

employee costs
x 100
revenue

Question 23

What factors inf

Answer 23

week 20

Question 24

How do you calculate labour cost per unit?

Answer 24

Total labour costs

Total output

Question 25

What is meant by labour costs per unit?

Answer 25

A measure of the average employee cost per unit of output

Question 26

what are labour costs per unit are affected by?

Answer 26

labour productivity

average employee costs

Question 27

What would HR data enable the manager to do?

Answer 27

identify areas of improvement to come up with appropriate HR strategies

Question 28

What are key measurements of workforce performance?

Answer 28

Labour productivity
Employee costs as percentage of turnover
Labour cost per unit
Labour turnover and retention

Question 29

What are way of improving productivity?

Answer 29

Training
New technology
Set targets