3.6

• 6 HR objectives


  employee engagement (involvement/motivation)

  developing talent for the future

  training staff (specific skills)

  ensuring diversity and inclusion within workforce

  aligning all staff to corporate values (mission/aims)

  allocation (skills/location of workforce)
• Hard HRM treats employees as only a resource
• Soft HRM treats employees as most important resource and a source of competitive advantage
• Hard HRM is more cost effective as decision making is quicker and focused on senior managers
• soft HRM is an inclusive approach which rewards employee performance and motivates staff more effectively
• Soft HRM is a more progressive way to manage costliest asset
• Soft HRM generates loyalty
• Soft HRM - some staff may 'abuse'
• five key performance indicators

  labour turnover

  labour retention

  labour productivity

  employee cost as a percentage of turnover

  labour cost per unit of production
• what is labour turnover?

  how many workers leave
• What is labour retention?


  how many workers stay
• what is labour productivity?

  output per worker over a given period of time
• productivity is important because higher labour productivity = low labour costs per unit
• 4 types of organisational structure


  functional

  regional

  product based

  matrix
• managers in a functional organisational structure are responsible for coordinating with managers of other departments
• two advantages of functional organisational design

  more likely to find and hire the people you need

  faster response
• two disadvantages of functional organisational design

  people only operate/communicate within their function and so do not hear about other aspects of business

  employees won't learn new skills
• what is a regional organisational structure?

  a company structures its organisation according to geographic area/ region
• two advantages of regional organisational structure

  diverse workforce

  more jobs
• two disadvantages of regional organisational structure

  may be expensive in some regions

  lack of communication for businesses e.g. language barrier
• What is a product based organisational structure?

  a business is organised in separate divisions, each focusing on a different product/service and functioning as an individual unit within the company
• 2 advantages of product based organisational structure

  faster response, more likely to find and hire people you need
• 2 disadvantages of product based organisational structure

  employees won't learn new skills, struggle to get new job
• 2 reasons why a firm might change its organisational structure

  change in customer needs, change of leadership
• what is a centralised structure?


  majority of main decisions will be made centrally, among fewer people who hold authority
• what is a decentralised structure?

  decision making moves 'down' or 'out' to branches which means more people hold authority
• centralised structures allow decisions to be fast and more aligned to aims/objectives
• decentralised structures gives junior employees the opportunity to progress and reduced senior management workloads
• 2 internal factors that could influence centralised/decentralised structures

  leadership styles, amount of engagement needed in 'job design'
• 2 external factors that influences centralised/decentralised structures


  technology (availability in data), competition ( flexible structures = meeting changing customer needs)
• HR flow

  people entering org -> people moving around org -> people leaving org
• the HR inflow involves planning the structure, recruitment and selection
• working in organisation involves promotion, training, allocation
• HR outflow involves retire, dismissal
• what is intellectual engagement?

  individual is thinking about doing something well and better
• what is affective engagement?

  individual feels positive about doing job
• what is social engagement?

  employee is 'positively present' for the duration of their work
• reasons how businesses benefit from having a motivated and engaged workforce?

  higher productivity, better rep on workforce, more likely to commit long term
• how do staff benefit from having a motivated and engaged workforce?

  feel valued, improved peer relationships, sense of stability
• organisations maximise HR which means staff retention improves, staff are more willing to take larger workloads, staff more likely to carry out tasks with conviction