Human Resources Flashcards
(36 cards)
Why is it important to have clear internal organisational structures?
Makes it easy for everyone to know who is responsible for what
Helps the company to make sure that it has people in every job role to deal with each of its activities
What are the four basic layers of staff within a hierarchy (chain of command) ?
- Directors - responsible for business’s strategy and targets
- Managers - organise the carrying out of of the director’s strategy (large firm may have senior, middle and junior managers)
- Supervisors - usually look after specific projects or small teams of operatives
- Operatives - workers who aren’t responsible for other staff - often given specific tasks to perform by managers or supervisors
What is span of control?
At each level of the chain of command a certain amount of responsibility is delegated (passed on) to people in the level below.
Span of control is the number of workers who report to one manager in a hierarchy
What are the two hierarchical structures?
Tall:
- Long chain of command
- More layers of management
- Each manager only has a narrow span of control - managers can monitor the employees they’re responsible for more closely - more effective
- Can be difficult and slow (less verbal communication)
Flat:
- Short chain of command
- Less layers of management
- Each manager has wide span of control - have to manage a lot of employees at once - difficult to do effectively
- Can be much faster (verbal communication still tricky - can use group meetings instead)
What two types of organisation are there?
- Centralised
- Decentralised
This effects how much power and authority is delegated at each layer in a hierarchy
What is involved in a Centralised Organisation?
All major decisions are made by one person or a few senior managers at top of hierarchy
Advantages:
- Senior managers tend to have plenty of experience - can get an overview of the whole business
Disadvantages:
- All decisions are made by one or two people - can slow down decision-making and communication so organisation reacts slowly to change
- Senior managers can become very powerful - relying on only a few people means lack of specialist knowledge - could start making poor decisions
What is involved in a Decentralised Organisation?
Authority to make most decisions is shared out (e.g delegated to regional managers or junior employees)
Advantages:
- Employees can use expert knowledge of their sector for decisions - don’t always need to communicate for those decisions with managers for approval - changes can happen quicker
Disadvantages:
- Inconsistencies may develop between departments or regions
- Decision-makers may not be able to see overall needs of the business
What three other ways can a business be organised by?
1 - Function
- Seen a lot in limited companies
- Each functional area does one part of the work
Advantage - specialists can concentrate on their particular job
Disadvantage - different departments may not work well together
2 - Product
- Seen a lot in large manufacturers who make a variety of products
Advantage - managers can make decisions that are relevant to each product sector
Disadvantage - there can be a wasteful duplication of resources between sectors
3 - Region
- Seen a lot in multinational businesses
- Divisions may be regional or national
Advantages - makes day-to-day control easier
Disadvantages - there can be a wasteful duplication of resources between regions
What is a contract of employment?
A legal agreement between an employee and an employer
- contains information that most employers must give employees in writing within two months of starting work
What must a contract of employment include?
- Job title
- Starting date of employment
- Hours of work
- Starting pay - regular date of payment
- Where employee will work
- Holidays employee is entitled to
- Details of sickness pay and any company pension
- Information about disciplinary procedures
- The length of notice the employee has to give if they want to leave
What are the benefits of part and full-time work for businesses?
Full-time advantages:
- Likely to only have one job so business has more control over their hours
Part-time advantages:
- Makes more financial sense
- If hours are flexible they can fill in when others are absent
What is job sharing and what are the benefits for businesses?
Some employees job share - get work and pay of one full-time job with another person
- Employees can work full-time hours
- The people could have two different strengths
- If one person is absent the other could do extra hours
What are zero hour contracts and what are their benefits?
The employer doesn’t have to offer the employee any work at all and the employee doesn’t have to accept any work offered
- Used in businesses where there can be lots of fluctuation in demand
Benefits:
- Cheap form of labour for businesses - don’t waste money paying workers when not needed
What is recruitment?
The process of finding that is the best person to do a job
- Helps gain new people with expertise or to replace staff that have left
What are the three main steps of recruitment?
- Job analysis - firm thinks in depth about every detail of the job
- Advertisement - usually includes a job description and person specification
- Selection - select best candidate
What is a job description and person specification?
- Job description - Includes formal title of job / main purpose of job / main duties in job / who job holder will report to / other responsibilities
- Person specification - Lists the qualifications, experience, skills and attitudes needed for the job
What is internal recruitment? What are the benefits and drawbacks?
Involves recruiting current employees into new roles - advertised within the company
Advantages:
- Much cheaper
- Job can be filled much quicker
- Candidates know a lot about the firm
Bosses already know the candidates
Disadvantages:
- No new ideas
- Employee’s move will leave another vacancy to fill
What is external recruitment? What are the benefits and drawbacks?
Involves recruiting from outside the business - job can be advertised in lots of places
Advantage:
- Advert will be seen by more people - more likely to find someone well suited to the job
Disadvantage:
- Advertising externally isn’t cheap - only specialist and senior jobs get advertised in the national press because it’s expensive
What are the benefits of businesses recruiting the right people?
- High productivity - new employee may only need minimal training and will be more productive
- High quality output - better skills means higher quality products
- Good customer service - employees who enjoy their job could provide better customer service
- Staff retention - if job isn’t well suited to them they may leave
What is a CV?
Curriculum Vitae - a summary of a person’s personal details, skills, qualifications and interests
What are references when applying for a job?
Statements about the character of the candidate written by someone who knows them - often a previous line manager
- Usually confidential - candidate won’t see what’s written about them
What do interviews include and why?
- Same questions are asked to all candidates so the process is fair
- Used to assess candidates confidence, social skills and verbal skills
- Can see if they’ll be compatible with existing workers
- Can find out candidates general attitude
Criticism:
Skills needed for an interview often aren’t the skills needed for the job
What are the four main types of tests to select someone to employ?
- Skills tests or in-tray exercises - test whether candidate has abilities for the job
- Aptitude tests - find out whether candidates has potential to learn how to do the job
- Personality tests - Used to assess candidates personal qualities
- Group tests - find out if candidate can work in a team and if they have good leadership and decision-making skills
What are the three basic types of training?
1 - Induction training - for new staff
- Makes employee feel confident - less likely to make mistakes - more productive
- More likely to stay in job if they feel welcome
2 - On-the-job training - learning by doing
- Suitable for learning practical skills
- Cost-effective
- Often given by colleagues so bad working practices can be passed on
3 - Off-the-job training - not done while working
- Suitable when employees need to learn general information about the business or procedures
- Useful when training for promotion
- More expensive than on-the-job training but often higher quality
