Unit 6. Human resources Flashcards
What are the values of HR obj
1.able to motivate workers by setting target
2.provide clear guideline
3; good HR- good reputation -brand image
From having high expectation of its employees
Types of HR objective
1: labour productivity
2: # and location of the biz workforce
3: employee engagement and involvement
4: Training
5: Talent development
6: Diversity
7: alignment of values
Factors that effect employee cost in relation to revenue
1: wage rate
Rising wages without a corresponding revenue will worsen the value.
2: productivity rates of the workforce
Higher productivity can lead to increased sales without increasing the in put of the labour.
3: non wage employment cost
Offering generous pension scheme or similar benefits could drive up the labour cost without necessary increasing the revenue
4: The management of capacity
If biz doesn’t utilize its HR efficiently they may be paying for employees who are not necessary creating sales.
Formula for absenteeism
of days staff absent /total days workers could work x 100
%
What is empowerment
Involves redisgning employees job to allow them greater control over their working lives
Making work more interesting as it offers opportunities to meet a number of individuals needs
What is org design and
what are the key factors of it
the framework that provides a biz with a structure to achive its objectives
-levels of hierarchy
-spans of control
-delegation
-authority
-centralization and decentralization
What is org structure
Way biz is arranged to carry out its activities
What is levels/layers of hierarchy
Refer to the number of layers of authority within and org
What is span of control
Number of subordinates directly responsible to the manager
What is delegation and pros and cons
passing down of authority through the org
Pros:
-can speed up and improve the quasi of DM e.g. DM made by employees who are close to consumers and have a better understanding of their needs and they do not have to refer decisions to managers.
-can reduce the workloads of senior managers allowing them to focus on key tasks and to improve the skill of junior employees and prepares them for more senior roles in org-higher skill for junior managers potentially-higher efficiency.
Cons:
-the cost of training. May require a biz to spend heavily on training employees to ensure they have the necessary skills.
-may be inappropriate in some org where leadership styles are authoritarian and managers may be unwilling to pass control to junior managers
-not a suitable strategy to adopt to manage a crisis. ( give ex) such situations would require rapid decisions by experienced senior management.
-
What is centralized
where the majority of decision are taken by senior management
What is decentralization
where they gives greater authority to employees lower down the org structure.
What are the internal influences on delegation centralization and decentralization
- Leadership and management:
if laissez faire or democratic-more delegation - Biz overall or corporate obj:
if wanting to supply high quality-may be decentralised and delegate as more opinion-more potential new products. - Skill of workforce
if high skilled-decentralised.
External influences on delegation centralization, decentralization
Technological:
tech-effective decentralisation
competitive:
-high competitive-flexible and adaptable to meet consumers demand fully-decentralised
Economic:
if on the boom:hard for managers to control firms from the centre-more decisions-may be decentralised
Benefits of changing job and organizational deign
Pros;
1.improve their competitiveness
2. Improve performance of worker
more productivity-lower unit labour cost
3.makes job entertainig-builds up employer brand-high skilled worker joining
What is HR flow
Is movement of employees through an org starting w recruitment
Human resource flow
Recruitment-training- redeployment and redundancy
Cost of recruitment
-fees paid to recruitment consultancy
-placing advertisement in newspaper or journals
What are the two types of training
On the job
Off the Job
Pros of On the job
pros:
1. Can be tailored to the needs of the biz such as using the specific machinery that biz uses
2.easy to organize and can be completed at short notice
What is on the job training
Cheaper training option such as training existing employees to use equipment
What is off the ob training
More expensive but can be more effective in.e trading away from workplace
Cons of on the job trainng
Unlikely to bring new skills
Employee proving the training may be ineffective
Pros and cons of off the training
Pros:
1. Can bring new ideas into a biz
2. Employees may feel more valued and motivated
Because expensive
Cons:
1.it can be expensive
2. Lost productivity while the trainee is away from their role
Def of redeployment
the moving of an employee from one job or role to another
Def of reduduncy
Biz dismiss an employee cuz the biz no longer needs anyone to do their job
Why biz avoids redundnacies
-negative publicity
-biz may lose skilled workers
-negatively affects motivation of employees left behind
Def of dismissal
when an employees contract is terminated due to a breach of the terms of that contract by employee
What is employee engagement
when an employees are positively present during performance at work willingly contributing interllectual effot experiencingg positive emotions and meaningful connections to others.
How to improve labour productivity
invest in employee training
Measure performance and set targets
Apply different type of mix of resources
Problem caused when there is an increase labour productivity
Trade off between quality
May demand higher wages for their improved productivity
What are the issues of high staff turnover
But what it depends on?
High recruitment cost on biz, and also on training-high cost for business.
Increased pressure on remaining staff and feeling unsettles as working groups are disrupted.
Depends on the type of the biz:
company that operate employing in skilled part-time employees on a season basis and pay low wage rate
May be expected to have high labour turnover as paying low wages and offering short term contracts.
Not impacting the business heavily as it doesn’t require significant training cost.
How to improve staff turnover
reward staff loyalty
Effective recruitment and training
Consequence of good motivation
1: increase productivity
-increase output-increase quality- low unit cost -competitive advantage
2: increase staff retention
They stay longer- increase skill and experience
Pros and cons of delayering
Improve communication
Reduce cost as less employee required
May feel motivated for existing workers
Cons
1.may increase work load and stress workers
Depends on skill/experience of workers
4 motivational theories
Taylor
Herzberg
Moscow
Mayo
Taylor
-where managers should maintain close supervision
Motivate workers by pay
Autocratic
What are the financial method
- Piece rate: paid according to the # of output they make
- Wages
- Salary
- Bonus
- Commison
Moslow
Separated in five layers
1.self actualisation
2. Self esteem
3.Social
4.Safety
5.physiological
5: wage to exist
4: Job security
3: Social gatherings
2: promotion
1: Upskilling in new areas
5.4 basic needs
3.2 psychological needs
1 self Fulfilment needs
Herzberg
Two factor theory
Motivator: factors that directly motivate
Hygiene: factors that can demotivate workers if not present but do not actually motivate
Herzberg suggest to motivate by using motivators and ensure hygiene factors are met
What are the factors of motivators
Responsibility at work
Meaningful fulfilling
What are the factors of hygiene
Wage
Working condition
Appropriate supervision
Mayo
He believes worker are best motivated by
- better communication
- team work
- greater manager involvement
What are non financial method of motivation
Job enrichment
Flexible working
Delegation
Empowerment
Team working
Factors influencing whether the choice is non financial or fianncail
-cost involved:
if expensive, they may not have the funds for training and supporting staff.
if low profit making firm, may not be able to motivate finically as this may dissatisfy shareholders
-skill level of workforce
if no skilled impossible to delegate them and empower them as they can’t plan the work
-attitude of management team
if autocratic-love controlling-financial.
Benefit of motivated and engaged employees
- low level of absenteeism at all levels low layout turnover increase retention low cost of recruitment
-high level of labor productivity-low unit cost ad for conpetitvieness
What are the characteristic of Hackman & Oldham job characteristics models
He suggest that there are 5 characteristics that can identify how much job satisfaction they get.
- Skill variety
- Task identity
- Task significance
- Autonomy
- Job feed back
What are two methods of employee representation
- trade union
- Work council
What is trade union
1: an external org that acts on behalf of its members
What is work council
An internal committee of management and employees
-represent all employees
Representative must be elected
Employees with 50 or more staff are legally obliged
Hat do trade union focuses to discuss on
- Their pay
- Working condition
- Job security
What are the influence on the methods of employee representation in DM.
- Leadership and management style used in the biz if autocratic-
- The history and ownership of the biz- if the owners are ethical
- The nature of the work and employees hired-if high skill job-more significant impact for firms if they leave
- Employment legislation
What is industrial disputies
exist when there is a disagreement between the employee and the employer
How to resolve industrial disputies
- Arbitration
- Concilatation
What is the value of goof employer-employee relations
Benefit for employers:
1. Helps and develop a strong employer brand
- attracts potential employees
2. Improve biz corporate image
- increase reputation-investors and customer
3. Strengthening competitiveness
-reduce cost -increase layout producitivity
benefit for employees
1. Study shows good relationship with employer grows 5 times faster than bad relations
2.could lead them to have an increase motivation
Low layout turnover
Save cost
What is no strike agreement
- Agreement between employers and unions where unions whereby in return for a pay and conditions package a union agrees to refrain from strike action for an agreed period.
What is ACAS
Independent structure that can be called in to help avoid disputes by helping both parties work together.
What is arbitration
contract-based form of binding dispute resolution
What is concilitaiton
involves an independent conciliator who facilitates communication between the two parties having the disput
Benefit of job design and what is job design?
Job design is the process of grouping or dividing up the task and responsibilities to create complete jobs.
Pros:
Improve labor productivity
Careful design create employees to avoid simple and boring tasks-offer higher authority and control over-engages and motivate employees
What is job enlargement
It is when there is an increase in the number of task associated with a certain job in order to make a job more entertaining
What are the techniques of job deseign
- Job enlargement
- Job rotation
- Job enrichment
- Empowerment
What is job rotation
When employees switch regularly from one duty to another
What is the difference between:
Job enrichment
Job enlargement
Job design
Org design
Org structure
Job enrichment refers to making jobs more interesting so employees enjoy their work.
Job enlargement is a process in which a persons responsibilities are expanded to include more work than they originally had.
Job enlargement and job enrichment is considered as one of the technique from job design. Therefore job design is the process of establishing employees roles and responsibilities and the system and procedure they should use or follow.
Org structure: defines the hierarchy of different positions within a company, while design concentrates on how employees interact with each other, resources and information.
Org design: concentrates on how employees interact with each other information, and resources.
What do treadle union do
Acts on behalf of groups of employees in the workforce when negotiating rates of pay and working conditions with employer.
By joining, employee strengthens their bargaining power in a way that would not be possible if they tried to bargain as an individual.
It allows employers and workers to communicate with each other.
They give advice and assistance to individual employees who are having problems with their employer.
What are the internal and external factors influencing the HR objectives
Internal
-the culture within the business.
Firms like fast food restaurant may not be worried about having high labor turnover, therefore they wouldn’t spend time or money to focus on HR to reduce their turnover.
-other department
They may need to predict workforce needs depending on their department
-amount of funding available
External
-state of the economy(boom/recession)
This could affect the level of activity such as recruitment and training
-legislation
Such as UK employment Laws
-technology
HR might recruit people who can use a certain type of software
Hard HRM
-see as a resource like any other
-hired on short term basis
-managers believe employees are mainly motivated by money and think they will do little as possible
-training is only made for production needs.
-can benefit business because managers can keep control of the workforce, so people are less likely to make a mistake. Since employees are seen as a resource, it is easy for business to replace them.
-they don’t use employees to their full potential, so could be missing out on chances to increase profits.
-Can also be demotivation for the workforce, boring, repetitive jobs can make employees feel undervalued.
-they are unlikely to be loyal to their organization, leading to high staff turnover.
May lose high skilled workers-loss of competitive advantage-loss in producitivy of labour-high labour cost per unit-lower profit margin-lower over profitability
Soft HRM
-seen as most important asset
-managed on long terms basis
=managers motivate employees through empowerment and development.
-training is done to meet development needs
-is likely to increase staff morale because employees will feel valued. This will make it easier to retain staff, and the business will also benefit from their skills and experience of its staff. It encourages commitment and good performance from its worker, since they feel loyalty towards the organization.
-it isn’t always appropriate. They may not be interested in development or empowerment, and soft HRM usually involved more cost for business because it encourages investment in employees. The extra training is also time-consuming, and productivity drops while staff get trained. There is also a risk that employees who have completed all the training might want to leave for a better job.
employee costs as a % of turnover
Employee cost as a % of turnover:
-employee costs(labour cost)_/sales turnover x 100
Labor cost per unit
-How much money the business has to pay employees to make one unit of output
-They can be reduced in two ways: increase labour productivity or decrease the labour cost
Employee cost( labour cost ) as a % of labour turn over
-Shows what percentage of the revenue made, is spent on employees.
-particularly useful when comparing different-sized business that make similar products.
Human resource management on labour/employee cost
-controlling employee cost is a main objective of the HR department- meaning increasing or decreasing them
Ex) if they recruit more employees employee cost will increase but they will look at labour per unit or employee cost as a % of turnover to see the impact the recruitment had on the business
-employee cost can be decreased by reducing wages and benefits, but
HR will try to avoid this if possible as it could result in a demotivated workforce which could actually make the problem worse.
They need to consider about the ethics of the business, might be be more important that staff are treated well and feel valued even though it will cost more, since reputation of the business could be impacting their level of sales.
Formula of :
Labour turnover(%)
Number of staff leaving this year /average number of staff employed x 100
As number of staff: (number of staff at the start+ at the end )/2
Labour turnover
What are the causes of high labour turnover
How to improve labour turnover?
-The higher the future the larger the proportion of workers leaving the firm each year.
causes of high labor turnover:
-high recruitment cost to bring new ideas to biz from new employees-but lay off workers to cut the labour cost
- the growth of other local firms using staff with similar skills.
-poor motivation of staff, low wages and a lack of opportunists for promotion.
How to improve labour turnover:
-increased delegation
-job enrichment
-higher wages
- better training
-business need some labour turnover to bring new ideas in. If it is 0% no one ever leaves.
High labour turnover: pros/cons
Pros:
-constant stream of new ideas through staff
-firm can recruit staff who have already been trained by competitors-saves money
Cons:
-lack of loyal and experienced staff who know the business
-firm loses staff it has trained, often to direct competitiors
-training costs money and productivity drops while new staff get trained
-recruitment costs are high.
Labour retention
What is it?
What is the foruma?
What is the relationship with labour turnover?
-measure as a company’s ability to keep its employees
-#of employee employed for one year or more/ average number of staff x 100
-inverse relationship with labour turnover. The higher the turnover, the lower the retention rate.
How to improve the rate of retention rate:
-improve the induction process. could highlight the opportunities available to all employees and indicate the values and goals of the business so that employees feel included and valued.
)- hierarchy and span of control.
-organizational design shows structure and hierarchy
The hierarchy of the firm is followed as :
-Board of directors
-Managers
-Team leaders
-Supervisors
-Shop-floor workers.
Firm with lots of levels in their hierarchy are called “tall”.
They have long chains of command, which is the path of communication and authority up and down the hierarchy.
Their communication takes long time to get from the top to bottom, vice versa, meaning decisions take a long time.
“Flat” firms only have few levels in their hierarchy. People are given more responsibility and freedom
It could lead managers to get overwhelmed since they have wide span of control, which is number of people who report directly to the manager.
If the structure is “flat” they have wide spans of control.
If the span of control is too wide, managers find it hard to manage effectively
Managers in tall structures have narrow spans of control- they aren’t responsible for many people, which allows them to monitor the people below them more closely
If the spans of control is too narrow workers can be demotivated- feeling they are being micromanaged.
delayering pros and cons
Delayering, meaning removing parts of the hierarchy- crating flatter structure with wider spans of control
-can help lower cost-cutting management jobs can save a lot of money
-it gives junior employees enhanced roles with more responsibility and can improve communication.
-it can cost business money in the short term since remaining staff may need to be trained in their new roles.
-could stress managers and overwork with huge spans of control as it gets wider. If overdo.
Pros and cons of Centralised /Decentralised.
And what it depends on?
Centralised :
-all decisions are made by senior managers at the top of the business.
pros:
-usually senior managers or business leaders have lots of experience of making business decisions.
-senior mangers aren’t biased towards one depeartmnet os they can make the best decisions for the business as a whole.
-senior managers can make big decisions quickly becasue they don’t have to consult anybody else.
cons:
-not many people are expert enough to make decisions about all aspects of the business
-excluding employees from decision making can be demotivating
Decentrailsied strucutres :
-shares out authority to more junior employees
-national and multinational firms decentralize DM and delegate power to regional managers
Pros:
-involvement in decision making motivate employees
-day to day decisions can be made quickly without needing to ask senior mangers
Cons:
-junior employees may not have enough experience to make decisions
-inconsistencies may develop between divisions in a business
-junior employees may not be able to see the overall situation and needs of a firm
Evaluation:
-the size nature objectives and culture of the business whether a Centralised or decentralised approach is used- which will then impact on the structure of the business.
-business might decentralize as they are expanding and operating from a number of different locations.
A decentralised approach will create more levels of authority and increase the amount of delegation,=.
Managing the HR flow(1)- recruiting and planning
HR flow is how people move into, out of and within the business.
HR planning starts with anticipating future staging needs(right number/right sills it meet)
-need to decide whether they need in SR, or LR, or technology, current staff details, retention rate, demand of the produc
-may check the level of unemployment in the area, how many school and college leaders are seeking employment locally,
Recruitment
Internal recruitment:
pros:
- candidates already know the business, vice versa
- short and cheap process
- motivates workers to go for promotion
cons:
- can cause resentment among colleagues who aren’t selected
- leave a vacancy in. Other department
External recruitment:
pros:
- brings in fresh new ideas
- brings in experience from other organization
- larger number of applicants
- sometimes done using professional social media such as Linkedln- large candidate with very specific skills
cons:
- long and expensive process
- candidates will need a longer induction process
A good recruitment process can HR department achieve its diversity objectives : make sure they are recruitment with a variety of skills and from various different backgrounds
Internal recruitment also helps to improve employer/employee relations as employees feel motivated by opportunity’s to progress in their career, vice versa, however.
Managing the HR flow(2)-training and development
Training and development can be done off-the job( studying part-time at a local college, e.g. ) or
on-the job ( new worker is trined by an experienced worker)
On the job training:
pros:
- easy to organize
- lower cost of training
- training is job specific
cons:
- bad practices are passed on
- no new ideas are brought to the business
- trainer/trainee are not productive during training- loss in productivity
Off the job training:
pros:
- trainers are specialists
- new ideas are bought to business
- no job distraction during training
cons:
- can be expensive
- no benefits to business while training
- training might not very specific to their day to date job.
Managing training correctly can help HR to are employees feel engaged and involved
It can make workers feel as if the business is investing in them and really values them.
Which could lead workers to be less likely to be absent or to leave the company
HR plans are influenced by internal and external factors
internal:
-Corporate, marketing and production plans. E.g. if production is expanding they will need to recruit more staff and offer more training.
-changes in production style may lead to retraining recruitment or redeployment of staff
external:
- employment legislation protects employees rights and restricts companies ability to dismiss or transfer workers
- new technology might change the number of staff and the skills needed- business might have to retrain their staff
- labour market trends like migration and the aging population have an effect on the supply of workers
Motivation and Job design (2)
Job design sets out the details of what is to be done and how it is to be done, influenced by internal and external factors that affect how the job can be carried out effectively.
The day to date tasks are the main influence on the job design.
The things that need to be considered are:(internal)
- the speed the tasks need to be done, the quality required and the number of people required to complete the task
-external factors:
- new technology
- law
- legislation
-customer demand
-availability of certain skills
-Hackman and Oldham
they believe that more than money was needed to motivate workers
their model is broken down into five key elements of job design which led to worker motivation, involvement, higher performance, lower staff turnover and lower absenteeism
Hackman and Oldham job characteristics:
-Skill variety
-Task identity
-Task significance
↑they make work more meaningful for the workers
-Autonomy
↑workers will have more responsibility
-Feedback
↑workers know how well they are performing and aim to improve.
-Motivation quality of work, commitment of the work improves- increase productivity reduce costs.
Improving Employer-Employee Relations
benefits for employer:
-business develops a great reputation among prospective employees-attracts good employees during recruitment
-increases productivity/efficiency-competitive advantage
-more diverse opinions-more informed decisions made
-. Improve biz corporate image
- increase reputation-investors and customer
benefits for employees:
-employees will feel involved in the business-gives sense of job security
-as productive and efficient could have an increase in bonus or pay increases as business could be more profitable
-Study shows good relationship with employer grows 5 times faster than bad relations
employers need to be careful not to become too close, since they need to be able to keep some control over.
pros and cons of employee representation
pros:
- will be able to get a fair judged on their request
-senior management get a direct insight into the concern of the workforce
cons:
-strike action can get out of hand and violent
-industrial action can undermine the trust between employee and employer
-could decrease productivity
Factors influencing the employee costs in relation to revenue
-the productivity rates of the workforce
If high productivity, could increase production and revenue with fewer labor cost
-wage rates
-non-wage employment cost
-management of capacity
influences to job Seigen
-skill of the workforce
Managers need to resign jobs to fit as far as possible with the skills profile of existing employees.
-the resource available
Radical change in job design within a business may require the business to invest in trading an recruitment
-health and safety and other legal requirements
Design of the jobs should take into account the possible risks associated with work.
Such as working environment in manufacture in or avoiding the extended periods of using computers
What is organizational design composed of
-level of hierrarchy
-spans of control
-authority
-delegation
-centralization/decentralisaiton
what are three brief elements that creates human flow
1:human inflow
- covers recruitment decisions about where and how to recruit employees
2:Internal human flow
-covers the flow of employees through the org and includes transfer such as to temporary projects
3: Human outflow
-relates to the release of employees may entail retirement redundancy(voluntary or compulsory)
or dismissal
tell me the cost and benefits of training
costs:
-uses up valuable resources that could be used elsewhere in the org-opportunity cost
-employees are unable to the org for a period of time-loss productivity-loss output
-employees, once trained may leave for better jobs
benefits:
-can improve employee performance and the competitive position of biz
-improve motivation and productivity
helps detect and nurture the talented workers
-reputation for training attract or retain high quality workers
tell me how business recruit internally.
Internal recruitment though:
-promotion/redeployment
may mean potential applicants are poor although they may be familiar with the business.
tell me how business recruit externally.
external recruitment though:
-corporate website, recruitment agencies
-much more wisely used
-likely to be very expensive(2017 Av.$2 grand)
could also recruit by:
-headhunt employees who works for other companies
how technology is playing a n important role on recruitment recently
growing popularity of social entering sites
such as Facebook or LinkedIn are used as a management of HR flow.
however, only minority have a social media strategy and they tend not to understand fully how to maximise its use
what is on the job training
training that doesn’t require employees to leave the workplace, commonly used to entry level workers.
learn from experienced workers
What are the reason for dismissal/redundancy
reasons for dismissal:
-employees are unable to do their job properly,
may be due to lack of skills or qualifications
-as a result of persistent or LT illness
-for gross miss conduct (theft or violence)
-substantial reason such as not agreeing to reasonable changes in employment terms
reasons for redundancy:
-a business closes down
-jobs of some employees are replaced with tech
-business move some operations overseas -lost jobs
what is redeployment
occurs when an employee is offered a suitable alternative employment within the same biz
whether or not it is suitable include:
-the employees skills abilities, location, pay, etc
-the proximity of the work to the current job
What could determine and influence the HR objectives and decisions
-corporate objective
If biz has a corporate objective of long term profit, HR objectives may be focused on reducing about cost or making the most effective use of workforce.
-behavior of senior management(soft/hard)
If operated under SOFT approach:
-seen as employees as a most valuable asset biz has.
Should be developed to maximize their value to the org-creating long term approach vital-developed over time in response to changing market conditions.
If operated under HARD approach:
-seen employees as just another resource to be deployed as efficiency as possible.
-obtained cheaply as possible on short term, zero-hour contracts, as an example(no guarantee of work)
-type of product
If product requires high skilled labor force-obj such as talent development and training may be vital.
-tech environment
Tech advance-replacement of employees to save up labor cost in long term.
-economic environment
If declining market, or decline in sales, may be cut cost-decline training, lay off as an example.
-social environment
If unethical employee obj, may be criticized lowering the brand image-potentially low sales-profit-low dividends
-competitors
If price elastic competitors, may lower the labor cost to stay competitive
-political environment(government legislation law)
Legislation to protect the work force, law may make it harder to hire AND fire employees.
How to measure labor productivity
And what it shows?
What does this number depend upon on?
Total output/number of employees at work.
Shows how productive workers are and productive workers produce larger quantities of output per worker per time period.
Allows biz to have higher profit margin or reduce price while maintains profit margin potentially leading to higher sales
Depends upon various factors such as:
- the extent and quality of capital equipment available
- the workforces motivation
What is labor cost per unit
What does this value determined by?
What is the relationship with labour productivity?
labor cost➗total output (DO NOT FORGET THE UNIT)
Determined by:
-the cost of employing workers
-the speed at which they make the products (such as cars )in other words their productivity
Has an inverse relationship with labour productivity.
How to interpret labor productivity data, and what may depend upon?
If high labor productive data-shows an improvement efficiency of the workforce-can reduce labor cost involved in a producing an output.
Depends on:
-scale of the data
If the data includes all UK economy, particular sectors or industries may
Performed differently or worse. Therefore it is hard to judge whether the particular biz have improved or not.
-existence of the wage rate
Although if the labour productivity is low, if the wage rate is low, biz may not be making a lot of loss, and may manage to stay competitive. May consider labour cost per unit as it takes into account of both labour cost and productivity.
-capital productivity measured.
If biz is capital intensive biz, may not value hugely on labor productivity data hugely. Instead focus on capital machinery
-competitors labour productivity data
Although if biz decided to increase labour productivity by training, if biz achieved similar improvements, may not be beneficial.
How to interpret unit labour cost data?
What does unit labour cost depend on in terms of improving the competitiveness within the biz?
-preferred especially if cost are below those achieved by competitors.
Useful to look at unit labour cost over period of time as heavy investment in train may increase ST labour costs but reduce in long run
BUT
Reducing unit labour cost will not improve its competitiveness if other cost such as overheads are rising quickly
How to use data for human resource planning?
1:Biz first need to consist the overall objective of the biz. HR planning must be achievement to this objective initially.
2:biz needs to take the strategic view of the employees, considering how HR can be managed to assist overall objectives.
3:at this time biz needs to plan to make a judgement about the size and type of the workforce biz will require.
4:this workforce is then compared to current workforce.
5: after this comparison firm can decide necessary decision (ex)training, recruitment) to create a desired workforce.
What is required for managers for HR plan?
-info on the biz current workforce
such as the # of the employees biz currently has or their skills
Data relating to labour productivity for the existing work
-info from outside the biz
Such as expected demand for the products supplied by biz
Likely prices which biz can expect to sell its products
Especially important using external data if newly establishes or limited historical data to draw upon as external data is used to plan the HR.
What’s good of applying HR data into the decisions making?
What it may depend on?
Pros:
Can lead directly to improve performance by the biz
Can provide an insight into the performances of workforce and individuals employees
It is quantitative information
Offers clear advantage in making goof quality humane resources decision by analyzing
May also use to forecast and predict the future, also depends on the use of BIG DATA as prediction analysis requires large sample groups to consider legit.
however, there is a reluctance of managers to use HR data for DM
Also, HR data alone doesn’t give managers effective info to take what can be a major Decision.
what is job enrichment
And what do they have to be careful on?
When employees jobs are redesigned to provide them with more challenging and complex task
Examples
-giving employees greater responsibility for managing themselves
-offering employees the authority to identify and solve problems relating to their work.
Involves high degree of skills
Managers must ensure they they do not ask employees to carry out duties of which they are not capable of.
Formula for labor turnover
Number of employees left in a year/number of employees in the biz x 100 (%)
Formula for retention rate
Number of worker who stayed in a year/number of employee as a start x 100(%)
Formula for absenteeism
Number of staff absent during period/number employed during period x 100(%)
