Employees as costs and assets. Flashcards
How are employees often considered an asset to a business? How can staff add value to products? Why should businesses treat their staff as assets?
Staff are often seen as valuable to businesses, where the skills and abilities of said staff are able to add value to products. They can do this in good manufacturing to produce good quality products efficiently, or provide excellent customer service where customers will pay more.
Businesses should adopt this mentality and invest in staff to see the best ROI - better training/environments should motivate staff and increase productivity.
Why do some businesses consider staff to be a cost? What are wages.
Employees are paid for their work to a business so are a cost. They are paid through wages or salaries.
- Wages are paid to workers in return for their work and usually paid to low skilled workers based on hours worked.
How does the government protect workers from being exploited in the UK?
They set a minimum wage - they vary on a number of factors but is the general amount businesses are required to pay staff for an hour of work.
What are salaries?
A salary is a fixed amount that is usually paid monthly and it is usually fixed, so workers are not paid for extra work - usually paid to highly skilled workers.
Other than remuneration, how are employees a cost to businesses?
They cost money in other ways such as training, welfare and severance (when they leave the firm.)
What is a contract of employment?
A legally binding agreement between employers and employees about their duties and rights for both of them (e.g. hours and salary.)
What is a dismissal?
This typically occurs when an employee has breached their contractual agreement, seeing the agreement end - by choice of the employer not the employee.
What is redundancy?
When the employees job role is no longer required - the business may be reducing staff or closing down or may have new technology and no longer require human labour.
