Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Define the term 'Labour Turnover" and how it might me calculated. Give an equation.
Labour turnover is the rate at which employees leave an
organisation as a proportion of total workforce.
Labour turnover = Number of leaver per year / Average
number of staff X 100%
High turnover might be indicative of poor wages, poor
working conditions, job dissatisfaction, and low morale.
Describe the role of HR department within an
organisation.
HR stands for Human Resources (old name if Personnel
Department). This department aims to make the most
efficient use of a firm's employees in order to achieve the
organisation's goals. It has the function of recruitment,
management and providing direction for people who
work in the organisation.
Explain the essential steps that a business must take to have an effective recruitment process.
In order for a recruitment process to be effective it must follow a logical sequence to ensure that a suitable number of
employees with their appropriate skills are employed in order to meet the manpower requirements of the business.
This sequence of events should ensure that the applicants fit the job on offer and the successful candidate has the requisite
skills to do the task.
Effective workforce planning aims to have the right quantity and quality of employees doing the right things in the right place
at the right time and at the right cost of the organisation. If the HRM can achieve this the following benefits should be
obtained:-
- the workers have the correct skills to carry out the tasks thus ensuring that rejects are kept to the minimum and the quality
is guaranteed. This will reduce the cost of reworking faulty items and refunding to dissatisfied consumers.
- the business has the correct size of workforce thus ensuring that forecast production levels are achieved without excess
labour. This will help reduce the unit cost of the finished product.
- the correct recruitment and training of staff should ensure a motivated workforce. This in turn should lead to lower labour
turnover and higher productivity. Both of these factors will have a favourable impact on the cost i.e cost will be lowered.
Job enrichment is a vertical loading of job tasks. i.e contain several tasks of different ability levels. Job enrichment will motivate
i) employees as they will get opportunities to use their different abilities. This would provide some progression. The employees
is involved in a complete unit of work in order to achieve a sense of achievement as the task is more meaningful. The
employees have the opportunity to work in teams and are more accountable for the roles they perform. Job enrichment is
based on Herberz's theory.
Job enlargement involves additional tasks of same level to the present job. It is also known as horizontal extension. Job
enlargement adds variety to the job and the job becomes not so monotonous. Job enlargement may result in greater
ii)
workforce flexibility. One important negative aspect is that job enlargement is sometimes viewed by employees as a
requirement to carry out more work for the same amount of pay.
On the job' training - is the instruction at the place of work on how the job should be carried out. It might consist of observing
iii) how an experienced operator carried out the task and being talked through the job by the supervisor. Whichever method
chosen, it is cheaper than 'off-the-job training' and more suitable for the company. Some of the common methods are Job
shadowing , job rotation and attachments or secondments.
Off the job' training - Training away from workplace and conducted by a professional or experienced person and may be
iv) tailored to the needs of the organisation. 'Off the job training' can be formal external education and training courses run at
universities and colleges on a day release, evening or full-time basis, as well as distance, open and flexible learning courses.
This will lead to some form of qualification or certified recognition of achievement.
Advantage 1 - course conducted by a professional and experienced person and easily understandable
Advantage 2 - the chance to network with other employees and share ideas
Job Rotation - Moving an employee from job to job. The objective is to expose the employees to different experiences and
wider variety of skills to enhance job satisfaction and to cross-train them. Job rotation reduces boredom and monotony of the
v) job. Job rotation may offer the advantage of making it easier to cover for absent colleagues, but it may also reduce’ productivity
as workers are initially unfamiliar with a new task.
Job shadowing (often called sitting by Nellie) Job shadowing is actually one of the most common of all training techniques for
new employees. Job shadowing involves spending a period of time with a seasoned expert, observing everything that he or she
vi) does that is related to the work that is expected to be accomplished as part of the daily routine of the job.
Attachments or secondments - Trainees spend period of time in various departments often as assistant to a more senior
vii)
member of staff in order to get knowledge and experience of the organisation and its activities from a different perspective.
Fringe Benefits are benefits received by the employees in addition to their wages or salary. Common fringe benefits are a
i) company pension scheme, a company car, subsidised meal, medical insurance, transport allowance , education loan and
discounts when buying company products.
Empowerment is the granting of employees greater control over their working tasks. It gives employees more authority to
ii) organise their own work and to take decisions without reference to managers. With empowerment, employees tend to be
more motivated with improved productivity and lower labour turnover.
Induction is in introductory training programme designed to familiarise new employees with the basic running of the firm
iii) including introduction to other employees, physical lay-out of the workplace, health and safety, security systems and
administration procedures. It is also an opportunity to meet key personnel. The purpose of induction is to enable the new
employee to understand and work effectively in both in the organisation and the job itself
Explain each of the following types of remuneration and comments on the effectiveness of each in boosting
production.
i) Piece rates
ii) Performance related pay
Piece rate means an employee is paid for each unit of product produced at a fixed rate. If everyone is paid on a fixed wage,
there is little motivation to increase productivity. With this piece rate method, the worker will be more productive as the more
i) they produce, the higher the wages will be.
Performance related pay is a method used to reward higher performance. The better you or your team carry out the work,
ii) the more your employer will pay you. It means that the pay increases when you do your work very well. The advantage is that
it will motivate employees to increase productivity because of higher wages and also get unmotivated employee to improve
productivity.
FEDERICK TAYLOR
Employees motivated by money. If workers are paid according to the number of items they produce which is by piece-rate
pay; the workers will work hard to maximise their productivity. The increase in productivity will lower unit cost.
ELTON MAYO
Elton Mayo believed that workers are not just concerned with money but could be better motivated by having their social
needs met whilst at work.
MALSOW
Maslow put forward a theory that there are five levels of human needs which employees need to have fulfilled at work.
All of the needs are structured into a hierarchy (see below) and only once a lower level of need has been fully met, would a
worker be motivated by the opportunity of having the next need up in the hierarchy satisfied. For example a person who is
dying of hunger will be motivated to achieve a basic wage in order to buy food before worrying about having a secure job
contract or the respect of others.
A business should therefore offer different incentives to workers in order to help them fulfil each need in turn and progress up
the hierarchy (see below). Managers should also recognise that workers are not all motivated in the same way and do not all
move up the hierarchy at the same pace. They may therefore have to offer a slightly different set of incentives from worker to
worker.
SELF -ESTEEM
achievement, recognition and status
SOCIAL NEEDS
family, relationship and work group
SAFETY NEEDS
security + protection
PHYSIOLOGICAL NEEDS
basic needs-food , water, shelter and air
Maslow broke down the needs hierarchy into five specific areas:
Physiological needs. Maslow grouped all physical needs necessary for maintaining basic human well-being, such as food and
drink, into this category. After the need is satisfied, however, it is no longer is a motivator.
Safety needs. These needs include the need for basic security, stability, protection, and freedom from fear. A normal state
exists for an individual to have all these needs generally satisfied. Otherwise, they become primary motivators.
Belonging and love needs. After the physical and safety needs are satisfied and are no longer motivators, the need for
belonging and love emerges as a primary motivator. The individual strives to establish meaningful relationships with significant
others.
Esteem needs. An individual must develop self-confidence and wants to achieve status, reputation, fame, and glory.
Self-actualization needs. Assuming that all the previous needs in the hierarchy are satisfied, an individual feels a need to find
himself i.e personal growth and fulfilment.
FREDERICK HERZBERG
Herzberg believed in a two-factor theory of motivation. He argued that there were certain factors that a business could
introduce that would directly motivate employees to work harder (Motivators such as achievement, recognition, work itself,
responsibility , advancement and growth). However there were also factors that would de-motivate an employee if not
present but would not in themselves actually motivate employees to work harder (Hygiene factors such as company policy,
salary, working conditions, supervision, relationship with boss and relationship with peers/colleagues
For example a worker will only turn up to work if a business has provided a reasonable level of pay and safe working conditions
but these factors will not make him work harder at his job once he is there.
Herzberg believed that businesses should motivate employees by adopting a democratic approach to management and by
improving the nature and content of the actual job through certain methods. Some of the methods managers could use to
achieve this are:
Job enlargement – workers being given a greater variety of tasks to perform (not necessarily more challenging) which should
make the work more interesting.
Job enrichment - involves workers being given a wider range of more complex, interesting and challenging tasks surrounding a
complete unit of work. This should give a greater sense of achievement.
Empowerment means delegating more power to employees to make their own decisions over areas of their working life.
1 Explain the essential steps that a business must take to have an effective recruitment process.
6 Explain each of the following types of remuneration and comments on the effectiveness of each in
boosting production.
i) Piece rates
ii) Performance related pay
8 Define the term 'Labour Turnover" and how it might me calculated. Give an equation.