Managing People

• Approaches to staffing

  1. Staff as an asset: Employers value their employees and have concern for their welfare by providing acceptable remuneration, reasonable holiday, sick leave, maternity/paternity leave or pensions, a safe and comfortable working environment, training, job security, opportunities for interaction and development, recognition, effective leadership, chances for promotion, and opportunities for problem-solving and creativity. Employers make an effort to retain staff if they treat them as assets.

  2. Staff as a cost: Employers focusing on staff as a cost may pay just the legal national minimum wage
• Flexible workforce


  • This helps a business adapt to change more easily
• Multi-skilling


  Enhancing the skills of employees to deal with a greater variety of issues
• Part-time and temporary staff normally work for not more than around 20 hours per week
• Zero-hour contracts


  • Piece-work or on-call work where workers are on call to work when needed or do not have to work when asked
• Flexible hours and home working


  • Staff working flexible hours or from home, allowing businesses to remain open longer, workers to take time off using flexitime, and reducing costs for office space and equipment. However, communication problems may arise, and monitoring work quantity and quality can be more difficult
• Outsourcing


  Getting other people or businesses to carry out tasks originally done by in-house employees
• Outsourcing


  This involves getting other people or businesses to carry out tasks that were originally carried out by people employed by business
• Outsourcing


  • Allow a business focus on business
  • More specialists are employed
  • Cost will be lower since no need to pay for welfare
  • Loss of control and the dependence on supplier
  • Different culture therefore increase in conflict among groups of worker
• Rate of pay

  • Employers often attempt to restrain wage growth to help control costs and remain competitive. In contrast, employees want higher wages to keep up with rises in the cost of living and standard of living
• Employers and Employee relationships

  The relationship between employer and employee is important. However, there are different objectives so there might be conflict among parties
• It is more difficult to monitor the quantity and quality of work undertaken
• The introduction of technology


  • Employers are often keen to use new technology because it helps to increase efficiency in their business. However, an increase in technology might increase the rate of unemployment
• Flexible working


  • Employers prefer to employ a flexible workforce since it helps to manage production more efficiently. While workers want permanent jobs and security
• Approaches to shaping the relationship between employers and employees

  Individual approach: Terms of employment and disagreements are settled through negotiation between an individual employee and a representative of the employer. Also, perhaps human resources. Collective bargaining: This involves determining wages, conditions of work, and other terms of employment through a negotiation process between employer and employee representatives such as trade unions
• Work conditions

  • Employees may want better conditions or facilities from employers but employers need to control costs
• Recruitment


  Businesses hire new employees to attract and appoint the best people with the right skills and appropriate experience. Reasons for hiring new staff include: The business is expanding and more labor is needed, People are leaving and need to be replaced, Positions have become vacant due to promotion, People are required for a given period to cover temporary staff absence, due to maternity or paternity leave
• Internal and External Recruitment

  Internal Recruitment: Recruitment from within the business. External Recruitment: When someone is appointed from outside the business. Advantages and disadvantages opposite to internal recruitment
• Job description and person specification

  Job Description: States the title of a job and outlines the tasks, duties, and responsibilities associated with that job. Person Specification: Provides details of the qualifications, experiences, skills, attitudes, and any characteristics that would be expected of a person appointed to do a particular job
• Advantages of internal recruitment

  • It is cheaper because of no adverts
  • Internal recruits might already be familiar with the producers and working environment, therefore less training cost
  • The qualities, abilities, and potential of the candidate should be better known to the employer
  • Regular internal recruiting can motivate staff
• Costs of recruitment, selection, and training

  Recruitment and selection cost: Human resource department, Administration cost increases, Job advertising cost, Time spent handling and sorting applications, Expensive interviewing process, Negotiation of higher salary or better benefits for new recruits, Training cost: Training courses and other resources
• Stages in the recruitment and selection process

  1. Identify the type and number of staff needed

  2. Prepare job description and person specification

  3. Advertise the job using appropriate media

  4. Evaluate applicants and select a shortlist for interview

  5. Carry out interviews

  6. Evaluate interviews and make appointments

  7. Provide feedback for unsuccessful candidates
• How to apply external recruitment

  Word of mouth: Person hearing about job from someone else, Direct application: Jobseekers send their details to employers, Advertising: Employers place advertisements in local or national newspapers or on the internet, Private employment agencies: Business may employ a private employment agency to find candidates
• Disadvantages of internal recruitment

  • Less creativity from outsiders
  • Not specialized
• Training


  Process of increasing the knowledge and skills of workers so that they are better able to perform their jobs
• Off-the-job training


  Training which takes place away from the immediate workplace, can be expensive but provides courses which a business internally would be unable to provide
• Induction training


  Designed to help employees settle quickly into business and their jobs. Introduces workers to the nature of the business and work practices including health and safety issues
• Training can be expensive for a business as it may involve highly paid senior staff
• Training costs

  • Training courses and other resources
  • Loss of output
  • Employees leaving
• On-the-job training


  Training given in the workplace by the employer
• Benefits of training for Managers, Owners, Employees, Customers
• Managers

  Benefit because workers may be better motivated and more satisfied, making them cooperative and easy to work with
• On-the-job training methods

  • Learning from other workers
  • Mentoring
  • Job rotation
  • Traditional apprenticeship
  • Graduate training
• Employees


  Benefit from reduced anxieties about work, more job satisfaction, motivation, potential for promotion or better job
• Owners


  Benefit from more flexible workers with higher skills, improved business image, higher productivity, competitiveness
• Customers

  Benefit from better quality products, improved customer services
• Span of control or subordinates


  The number of people or subordinates a person directly controls in a business
• Chain of command

  The way authority is organized. Order passes down, info passes up. Businesses try to reduce chain of command as short as possible to increase effectiveness of communication
• Centralised and decentralized

  Centralisation: Subordinate would have no authority at all. Decentralisation: Subordinate would have all authority to take decisions
• In centralisation, procedures such as ordering are standardised leading to economies of scale and lower cost