Unit 6- Decision making to improve human resource improvement Flashcards
What are some key HR objectives?
Right number, skills and location of staff
Diversity
Talent development
Employees engagement and involvement
Training
Alignment of values
What is hard HR?
Treats employees as just another asset or resource that must be used as efficiently as possible
What is soft HR?
Treats employees as a valuable asset or resource that needs to be developed
Go to key formulas
GO TO KEY FORMULAS
Consequences of high labour turnover?
-Costs of recruitment, training
-Loss of trained staff
-Lower productivity
-Errors or waste due to new inexperience staff
-Low motivation of remaining staff
Ways of improving labour turnover?
-Pay staff more
-Soft HR
-Redesign jobs
-offer training, promotion and career development
What is organisational structure?
The way in which the workforce within a business is organised including job roles and communication flows
What is delegation?
Delegation is the passing of authority to a subordinate within a business.
Benefits of a centralised structure?
-Consistency of produce or service
-Bulk buying and economies of scale
-Effective with low skilled workers
Drawbacks of centralised structure?
-Problem solving may take longer
-Generic product may lack adaptation and may not sell
-Local knowledge exp is ignored
Benefits of a decentralised structure?
-Better customer experience
-Quicker decision making
-Increased motivation
Drawbacks of a decentralised structure?
-Loss of bulk discounts
-Duplication of actions roles
-Lack of control may lead to inconsistency
What are the influences of organisational design?
-Customer expectation
-Ability of staff and manages to make decisions
-Leadership style
-Need for economies of scale
-Strategy of the business
5 key features of a ‘tall structure’
-Many layers
-allows tighter control
-more opportunity for promotion
-longer for communication to pass through the layers
-More layers=more staff=higher staff
4 key features of a flat structure
-Less direct control
-Greater responsibility
-Vertical communication
-Lower costs
What is the benefit of a narrow span of control?
-More opportunities for promotion
What are the benefits of a wider span of control?
-Staff given greater responsibility
-Vertical communication is improved
What is delayering?
Removing layers from the management from the hierarchy of the organisation
What is the human resource flow?
The management and movement of workers within an organisation.
What does the HR flow include?
-Inflow: Recruitment and selection
-Internal flow: Training and redeployment
-Outflow: Resignations and redundancies
What is recruitment?
The inflow of workers into a business or identifying a vacancy and attracting suitable candidates.
Methods of internal recruitment?
-Jobs given to staff already employed by business
-Involves promotion and reorganisation
Methods of external recruitment?
-Job centres
-Job advertisement
-Recruitment agencies
-Headhunting
-Personal recommendation
Benefits of internal recruitment?
-Quick process
-Lower cost
-Strengthen employee engagement
Benefits of external recruitment?
-Select from more candidates
-Find specialised candidate
-Enhance diversity
What is training?
The process of increasing the knowledge and skills of the workforce to enable them to perform their jobs effectively
What is on the job training?
Where an employee receives training whilst remaining in the workplace.
Benefits of on the job training?
-Relatively cheap form of training
-Tailored to needs of business
-Easy to organise and complete
Drawbacks of on the job training?
-Done by other employees so decreases productivity
-Unlikely to bring new ideas and skills
-Employee providing training may be ineffective
What is off the job training?
Training that takes place away from the workplace
What are the benefits of off the job training?
-Many options available
-Trainer more likely to provide high quality training
-Can bring new ideas to the business
What are the drawbacks of off the job training?
-Expensive
-Risk of new employee leaving
-Might not be tailored to business
What is redundancy?
When an employee is dismissed due to their job no longer existing
What is redeployment?
The process of moving existing employees to a different job or location
What is Herzbergs theory?
Some elements of a job make staff turn up for work (hygiene factors) and others make them work hard (motivators)
What is Maslow’s theory?
people work to fulfil some needs. The two bottom needs to make staff turn up for work (basic needs) and the three levels above make them work hard (Higher level needs)
What is Taylor’s theory?
Money is the only way to make staff work hard reward staff for the amount of work they produce
Maslow’s pyramid?
-Phycological needs
-Security need
-Social need
-Esteem need
-Self actualisation need
Some examples of motivating factors?
-Company policy
-Responsibility
-Relationships at work
-Working conditions
-Learning and growth
-Achievement
-Promotion
-Recognition
-Status
Some examples of hygiene factors?
-Pay and benefits
-The job itself
-Job security
What is job design?
Job design is the way in which jobs are arranged in order to reduce boredom and employee dissatisfaction. it includes the number and variety of tasks to be undertaken by an employee
Methods of improving job designs?
-Job enrichment
-Job enlargement
-Job rotation
-Working in groups
-Empowerment
What is Hackman and Oldham’s model?
Based on the belief that the task itself is key to employee motivation.
Financial incentives?
Piece rate
Performance related pay
Bonus
Salaries
Wage
Profit sharing
-Share option
-Commission
-Fringe benefit
Non-financial incentives?
-Delegation
-Consultation
-Empowerment
-Team working
-Flexible working
-Praise
-Promotion
-Fulfilling jobs
-Job enlargement
-job enrichment
-Better communication
What are employer-employee relations?
The defining features of how employers and employees interact with each other on a day to day basis
What is a trade union?
Organised group of employees that aims to protect and improves the economic position of its members
What are the roles of trade unions?
-Protect and improve the real working condition of their members
-Provide or improve job security
-Protect workers against unfair dismissal and other issues relating employment legislations
-lobby for better incomes
-Offer a range of other work-related services including support for people claiming compensation for injuries sustained in a job
What is a works council?
A formal group of employees representing a workforce in discussions with their employers on one business
What do works councils do?
-Business objective and performance
-Employee welfare
-Workforce planning issues
-Performance and development programmes
-Compliance with legislation
What are the advantages of employee representation ?
-Increased empowerment and motivation of the workforce
-Employees become more committed to the objectives and strategy of the business
-Better decision-making because employee experience and insights taken into account
-Lower risk of industrial action
What are disadvantages of employee representation?
-Time consuming, potentially shows decision making
-Conflicts between employer and employee interests may be a block to essential changes
-Managers may feel their authority is being undermined
What are some examples of industrial action?
-Strikes
-Work-to-rule (follow the strict conditions of contract)
-Go-slow (Work at their slowest pace)
-Overtime ban (do not work overtime)
Damage to the business due to industrial action?
Loss of sales and profit from the lost output
Damage to customer satisfaction
An internal distraction for management and the business
Damaged relationship with staff may adversely affect motivation
Damage to the employee due to industrial action?
-lost pay
-Potential loss of jobs
-Possible loss of customer and public support
-Risk that illegal action will result in legal proceeding
