HR Flashcards
What is workforce performance?
How well employees are carrying out their duties and tasks.
What is absenteeism?
The proportion of employees not at work on a given day. 40 million work days are lost annually in the UK.
What do high levels of absenteeism indicate?
-Demotivated staff.
-Increases costs and can lead to poorer quality service or products.
How to calculate absenteeism?
-Multiply number of workers by the typical working days in a year.
-Divide the number of sick days by this number.
What is labour productivity?
A measure of output per worker
How to calculate labour productivity?
output per time / number of employees.
What does high productivity mean?
-Lower costs per unit.
What is labour turnover?
The proportion of employees leaving a business over a period of time - usually a year.
Why does labour turnover occur?
-Retirement, illness.
-Seasonal turnover.
-Varies on industry and geographically.
-Hospitality and retail have high turnovers.
How to calculate labour turnover?
(Number of staff leaving / average number of staff employed) x 100
Why is workforce performance important?
-Shows effectiveness of HR policies.
-Indicates problems with pay and working conditions.
-This helps to put strategies in place.
What are internal factors that can affect workforce performance?
Demotivation, poor pay and working conditions, changes to production method, redundancy.
What are external factors that can affect workforce performance?
-Economic condition.
-Competitor action.
-Local transport links to other jobs.
impact of workforce performance on stakeholders?
Owners/shareholder- efficiency is linked to profitability.
Customers- increase/decrease in quality and satisfaction.
Employees- High absenteeism means increased pressure and stress for remaining employees.
Managers- accountability.
Suppliers- more/less orders.
What is training?
developing the skills, experience, and knowledge employees need to perform their jobs or improve their performance
Why is training workers important?
-Motivation.
-Customers get better quality.
-Workers can reach full potential.
-Retain high quality staff.
-Staff are more flexible to change.
-Attracts potential employees.
What is induction training?
Training given to new employees when they first start a job, to familiarise them with colleagues and the production methods, so they are more comfortable.
What is on the job training?
Training at the workplace that lets the employee learn by doing or by watching others for a while and then imitating them.
-Mentoring, gradual training schemes, job rotation.
Advantages of on the job?
Cost effective. Allows for usual work to continue and existing equipment to be used. Specific to the business.
Disadvantages of on the job?
Training may be provided by an inexperienced trainer. Can disrupt usual routine. No qualification.
What is off the job training?
Training that takes place away from the workplace.
-University and college courses, online courses, external training providers.
Advantages of off the job?
- Delivered by experts and specialists
- Qualifications gained
- Output not affected by mistakes
- No distractions
Disadvantages of off the job?
- May not apply for exact role
- Lost working hours
- May take time to organise
- No output produced
- Cost of course and travel.
What are apprenticeships?
A formal agreement for an employer to facilitate training and the workplace experience.
-Employees get a recognised qualification and a wage.
-Good for a business to gain low level motivated staff.
-But can be misused, businesses use cheap labour.
Impact of training on stakeholders?
-New employees feel comfortable and motivated.
-Employees feel motivated.
-Better quality services for customers.
-Productivity can enhance profits.
-Can be expensive for a business and they may lose staff who gain new skills.
What is the recruitment process?
Job analysis - job description - person spec - job advert - shortlisting - interview - job offer.
What is internal recuitment?
filling a vacant post with someone already employed in the business
Advantages of internal recruitment?
- Boosts employee morale
- Reduces risk for the firm
- Lowers costs of both recruitment and training
Disadvantages of internal recruitment?
- Applicants are drawn from a limited pool so the business may not hire the best person for the job
- Promoting one employee creates a vacancy in their old post
- Organisation misses out on bringing fresh, new ideas and skills into the business
- Employees can resent fellow colleagues being promoted over them, causing conflict and making relationships strained
What is external recruitment?
External recruitment is when a vacancy is filled by someone who is not an existing employee and will be new to the business.
Advantages of external recruitment?
- New skills and ideas brought to company to improve
- More experience in position in previous company.
- Avoids conflict amongst employees.
Disadvantages of external recruitment?
- Will not know existing teams or employees
- Will not have specialised knowledge of industry of clients
- Cost on job adverts
What is job analysis?
a purposeful, systematic process for collecting information on the important work-related aspects of a job
What is a job description?
a written description of the basic tasks, duties, and responsibilities required of an employee holding a particular job
What is a person specification?
A profile of the type of person needed for a job - their skills and qualities.
Selecting employees: interview?
-Can see a applicant’s personality and how they act under pressure.
-The candidate can find out about the job.
-Interviews are time consuming so can only be done after shortlisting.
Selecting employees: work trails?
-An extended interview that can last up to 30 days.
-See them in the working environment.
-Introduced to the tasks of the job.
-Time consuming.
Selecting employees: testing?
-Applicants compete a range of written tests to assess qualities and key skills.
-Aptitude tests, psychometric tests.
-Can create anxiety which could eliminate some suitable candidates.
Selecting employees: selection activities?
-Activities to test candidates key skills such as teamwork or presenting information.
-Greater level of detail on candidates but are expensive to administrate.
Selecting employees: telephone interview?
-Asked questions but over the phone.
-By larger businesses.
-Time and cost effective, tests verbal communication.
Impact of recruitment on stakeholder?
Customers- motivated staff provide high quality product/service.
Employees- more motivated if all workers are heading towards the same goal.
Owners- can enhance profits.
Local community- hire local people, multiplier effect.
Government- wants more employment because of more income tax.
What is an appraisal?
The evaluation of an employee’s performance over a period of time by reviewing and setting new targets.
What are the types of appraisals?
Superior’s, 360 degree feedback, peer assessment, self assessment.
What is a superior’s appraisal?
-The most common.
-The employee’s direct line manager conducts the appraisal.
What is peer assesment?
An individual is assessed by their fellow employees & this info is then used in an interview by the employee’s line manager.
-Can be less critical and is useful when a large number need appraising.
What is self assesment?
> Employees give feedback on their own performance.
Complete a self-appraisal form & rate themselves & identify future aspirations, accomplishments & training needs.
What is 360 degree feedback?
a performance appraisal process in which feedback is obtained from the boss, subordinates, peers and coworkers, and the employees themselves.
-Useful for getting the full picture.
Why are appraisals important?
-Employee reward and recognition.
-Clear objectives.
-Culture of trust and openness.
-Support and training.
Benefits of appraisals?
-Can improve employee’s importance.
-Identifies were training is needed.
-Career growth and employees are clear on their targets.
-Motivation.
-Provides basis for pay increase.
Drawbacks of appraisals?
-Can cause tension and stress.
-Prone to bias and favouritism.
-Contrast error can occur= when performance is compared to past, worse than past but still above target.
-Sampling error if a small sample of work is used.
-Difficult in jobs where performance naturally varies.
What is the HR function?
The department that handles the employees of the business.
What is a flexible workforce?
A workforce that can respond, in quantity and type, to changes in market demand
Flexible hours?
-Workers have core hours that they must work at specific times, but the rest of their hours then can work whenever.
-Can match demand in the core hours but also cater for the employee’s personal needs.
-However, if given too much flexibility, there may not be sufficient staff at one time.
Home working?
-Part or all of the job can be fulfilled at home.
-Reduces overhead costs of the business and the worker may be more productive at home.
-Saves time and cost for communicating.
Part time working?
-Less than 35 hours a week.
-Hours can be tailored to suit times of higher demand.
-However, more to train and recruit, so these costs are higher.
Temporary working?
-employee works for a short period of time for an employer, sometimes on a short-term contract or seasonally.
-Offers less career security and it takes time for them to get used to the business.
Job sharing?
-To share the responsibilities and duties of a single full time job with one or more other employees.
-Professional workers can continue working, whereas they may have otherwise taken a career break.
-Keeps expertise of valuable staff.
-However, more employees to manage and there must be flawless communication.
Multiskilling?
-Training employees in several skills so they can do different jobs in the business.
-Can cover different roles.
-Needs to be good training so they are efficient.
-More adaptable and motivated workforce.
Zero hour contracts?
-A contract that does not guarantee any particular number of hours’ work.
-Is called to work when demand requires it.
-Reduces costs, but may become demotivated and undervalued.
Hot desking?
-a policy of sharing desks in an office, so people sit at whichever desk is free on a particular day.
-Saves resources as members who are not in do not take up office space.
-Poor management of schedules mean not enough workspace.
What are the specific impacts on new technology in the workplace?
-Manufacturing has sped up.
-Fewer errors.
-More flexible working.
-More emphasis on tertiary sector jobs.
Advantages of new technology?
-Increased productivity.
-Increased flexibility which helps motivate and increase job satisfaction.
Disadvantages of new technology?
-Technology can be unreliable which disrupts production.
-More difficult to monitor and evaluate performance of employees.
-Redundancy as machinery replaces workers.
Benefits to employees of changing work practices?
-Can work around personal commitments.
-Save time, money and stress.
Drawbacks to employees of changing work practices?
-Hard to evaluate performance so may not get bonus that are deserved.
-Workers on temporary/part time may not be as valued.
-Workers can have less career security.
Benefits to a business of changing work practices?
-Can respond to rises/falls of demand.
-Temporary and zero hour workers are cheaper to employee.
-A more flexible workforce is more efficient so productivity improves.
-More motivation.
Drawbacks to a business of changing work practices?
-Temporary workers are less committed and loyal.
-harder to manage performance/productivity.
-Workers may feel isolated and may leave.
What is workforce planning?
the process of predicting an organization’s future employment needs and the availability of current employees and external hires to meet those employment needs and execute the organization’s business strategy. This makes sure the business will have employees with the right skills, in the right place at the right time.
What are long term staffing problems caused by?
-Staff loss, retirement and promotion.
-Changes in population, government policy, competitor actions, unemployment.W
What are the components of a workforce plan?
-How many workers are needed and with what skills.
-The estimated cost and who needs training.
-Where workers will be.
-the balance between full and part time.
Benefits of workforce planning?
- Gaps in the current workforce can be identified
- Relevant training can be given to upgrade the skills of existing staff
- Managers can prepare and plan for changes rather than react to them
- Avoids overstaffing/the employment of surplus staff
- Can decrease the organisation’s costs through outsourcing and sub-contracting
- Allows the business to prepare for periods of significant change (e.g. restructuring and growth)
- Staffing forecasts can be carried out
Drawbacks of workforce planning?
-May not be carried out effectively.
-The plan may not be flexible to external changes.
-May not be detailed enough to make effective decisions.
Why is workforce planning important?
-Ensures future consumer demand can be met so the business remains competitive.
-The right skills mean the products will have the best quality.
What are employee relations?
activities designed to build sound relationships between an organization and its employees; critical in fostering positive attitudes and behavior of employees as ambassadors of the organization
Contract of employment?
A written agreement between an employer and an employee in which each has certain obligations.
-Employers must provide within 12 weeks.
-Both sides must stick to the contract until it ends.
-Protects the employees as well as the law.
Health and safety?
-A legal obligation to provide a safe working environment and be train employees in the risks of their jobs.
What must employees provide in dismissal?
-Provide a valid reason.
-Act reasonably.
-Not dismiss someone for something they let others do.
-Fully investigate the situation.
-Not treat part time workers less favourably.
What rights do workers have at dismissal?
If you have worked for 2 years, you are entitled to ask for a full written statement and employers must provide this.
