People and Finance

• Workforce planning


  Forecasting future supply and demand to ensure an organisation is always appropriately staffed
• Workforce planning process


  1. Labour market analysis

  2. Determine staffing for seasonal changes

  3. Decide on hiring new external staff or planning internal changes
• Businesses must think more flexibly to keep up with workforce changes
• Flexible working patterns


  • Part-time working
  • Flexi-time
  • Job-sharing
  • Home working
  • Teleworking
  • Term-time working
  • Staggered hours
  • Shift-working
• Part-time working


  Working less than full-time hours
• Flexi-time


  Employees can choose their own start and finish times as long as they work a set number of hours per week
• Job-sharing


  Two people share the responsibilities of one full-time job
• Home working


  Employees work from home rather than commuting to an office
• Teleworking


  Working from your car or other remote locations
• Term-time working


  Employees only work during school term times
• Staggered hours


  Employees have different start and finish times to spread the workload
• Shift-working


  Widespread in industries which must run on a 24-hour cycle, such as newspaper production, utilities and hospital and emergency services
• It is common for such a worker to have many different jobs over the course of a year
• Challenges to businesses of frequent job changes

  • Continuity of service issues
  • Induction training costs
• Benefits of frequent job changes

  • Workforce is more responsive to change
  • Reduced costs as more employees work from home
  • Greater motivation and performance as employees can focus better on their employment and fit work around family needs
• Part-time working


  An employee may only work 2 or 3 days per week instead of the traditional 5
• Flexi-time


  Employees may be required to work within essential periods but outside 'core times' they often get flexibility in how they work their hours
• Job-sharing


  Typically, two employees share the work normally done by one employee
• Home working


  New technology makes communication with office and customers possible by telephone, fax and email from home
• Term-time working


  An employee on a permanent contract takes paid or unpaid leave during school holidays
• Staggered hours


  Employees in the same workplace have different start, finish and break times - often as a way of covering longer opening hours
• Shift-working


  Widespread in industries, which must run on a 24-hour cycle, such as newspaper production, utilities and hospital and emergency services
• Businesses need to take a holistic look at their workforce to determine where and when a vacancy may exist
• Businesses need to take account of future demand and the existing skillset of the workforce
• Businesses will look to see if any areas of the business are overstaffed and if moving staff within the business may be possible
• Job analysis


  1. Look at the main physical and mental elements of the job

  2. Identify the specific skills that are required

  3. Determine who the job holder would be responsible for

  4. Determine who they would be responsible to

  5. Identify the location where they will work

  6. Identify the main health and safety considerations
• The job analysis provides the basis for the job description
• Job description


  1. Include the job title

  2. Outline the overall purpose of the job

  3. List the main tasks and responsibilities

  4. Specify what decision-making powers they have

  5. Identify who they are responsible for and to, and who they will work with

  6. Specify the skills, qualifications, and experience required to do the job

  7. Identify where the job will be based

  8. List the resources required to do the job

  9. Provide details of pay, conditions, hours of work, and holiday entitlement
• Person specification


  Identifies the individual that the organisation wants to do the job
• Person specification


  1. Identify the physical attributes the successful candidate should have

  2. Identify the skills, educational qualifications, training and experience the candidate should have

  3. Determine the level of intelligence needed

  4. Identify the kind of personality that is preferred

  5. Specify any special skills that are required
• The person specification is used to match against job applicants to identify who to interview
• Internal recruitment


  Advertising vacancies within the business for existing employees
• Secondment


  An individual temporarily works in a different department for a fixed time period
• Advantages of internal recruitment

  • Lower costs
  • Existing employee is known to the organisation so risk of appointing the wrong person is reduced
  • Existing employee has benefited from the organisation's training investment
  • Prospect of internal promotion can motivate employees
• Disadvantages of internal recruitment

  • Restricts the number of applicants
  • New workers can bring new skills and ideas
  • Promotion will create another vacancy to fill
• External recruitment


  Recruiting staff from outside the organisation
• Advantages of external recruitment

  • Larger pool of potential employees
  • New ideas and experiences brought in
• Disadvantages of external recruitment

  • Takes longer to attract someone
  • More expensive than internal recruitment
  • Difficult to really know a person from just an interview
• Internal recruitment source


  • Word of mouth
  • Intranet
  • Noticeboards
  • Staff newsletters
• External recruitment source


  • Recruitment drives
  • Head-hunters
  • Job centre
  • Trade journals
  • Internet
  • Email