Unit 3 AOS 2 Flashcards
(14 cards)
Human resource management
Is the organisation of employees roles, pay and working conditions, as well as the managing of employee and employer relationships.
Maslows hierarchy of needs
Is a motiational theory that suggest all humans have five fundamental needs that they strive to achieve, being physiological, safety, social, self esteem, and self actualisation.
**Strengths: **
* Gives managers a clear structure
* Once established, hopefully ‘set and forget’
**Limitations: **
* Assumes all employees are more motivated by the same things in the same order
* Assumes nothing else motivates employees
* Can be tricky to track where each employee is on the hierarchy
Four Drive Theory
Is a motivational theory that suggests that employees strive to achieve four fundamental needs being acquire, bond, learn and defend.
To Acquire: employees are driven to acquire material items such as clothing, shelter and other material goods, they are also driven to acquire status, power and accomplishments.
To Bond: employees are driven to seek strong relationships with others, feel as they belong to the business.
To Learn: employees are driven to learn and to be challenged in their roles.
To Defend: employees are driven to defend themselves, their accomplishments and those they care for, this is a ‘negative’ or ‘reactive’ drive. Businesses should aim to provide an environment where the employee doesn’t need to defend themselves.
Strengths:
* A manager can target the different drives of specific groups of employees
* A manger can attempt to motivate all employees by supporting all four drives simultaneously
Limitations:
* Employees may not value all drives equally
* Determining specific needs of specific groups/ individuals can be time consuming
Goal setting theory
Is a motivational theory stating that setting goals improves performance and that these goals should be clear and specific as well as challenging but achievable.
Strengths:
* A very focused and ‘individual specific’ approach
* hopefully aligns with business objectives
* Easy to assess whether the goal is achieved
* Improve trust and relationships
Limitations:
* Can be extremely timw consuming
* Can be hard to allign personal and business objectives
Motivation strategies
Performace related pay: salary or wages system based on how well an employee works. i.e. sales people, real estate agents.
Career advancement: the prospect and opportunity of developing your career through being promoted or taking on new roles
Investment in Training: A business pays for training programs to develop the individual employees, skills and knowledge to make thgem more efficient and effective. i.e. On/Off-the-job training
Support: Involves providing employees with any assistance that improves their satisfaction at work to help cope with woprk related problems. i.e. mentoring, counselling.
Sanctions: Involves penalising employees for poor performance ore breaching business policies. i.e. demotion written warnings, loss of benefits
Employee training
Training: Where an employee learns and improves their skills so they are able to perform their job to a higher level.
On-the-job training:
+ Normally cheaper
+ being trained with the equpiment they will be working with
+ can work while being trained
- quality of training can vary
- poor work habvits can be passed onto new empluzz
- Person training them cannot perform their own role
Off-the-job training:
+ Learn from people specialised in that field of work
+ Less interruptions from workplace
+ Can provide a formally recognised qualification
- Most expensive
- May not learn on same equipment used in business
- Could leave the business after the training
- Lost working time
Performance Management
Management by objectives: Where the manager and the employee collaboratively set individual employee goals that contribute to the achievement of broader business objectives.
+ clear and logical
- not much flexibility for individual goals
Performance appraisals: a process which measures an employee’s performance against a set criteria, provides feedback and develops new objectives for the employee.
+ Gives insight to individual performance
+ Can target specific areas for improvement
- Can make staff feel uneasy/nervous
- Can encourage staff to do ‘just enough’ to meet criteria
Self-evaluation: where an employee assesses their own performance in relation to predetermined objectives.
+ Helps the business to better understand
employees
+ Identified training opportunities
- It reflects only what the employees sees
- Can over/underestimate their performance
Employee observation: Is where an employee’s performance is evaluated by watching
them in action. Feedback is then provided.
+ Different perspectives
+ gives a ’real’ indication
- Can come with bias
- Staff can perform better or worse than they normally would “bad day”
Termination Management
The ending of an employment contract, where the employee ceases to work at a particular
business. Can be voluntary and involuntary
Retirement: Where the employee decides to permanently leave the workforce. This is generally determined by Age you can access your superannuation and the age you can access a pension.
Resignation: Where an employee voluntarily leaves the business. This usually occurs when an employees wants to leave and go to another job.
A period of notice normally needs to be given
Exit Interview is recommended.
can help business to know why the employee left and better understand how they can improve the operation/ training/ communications etc
Redundancy: when the employee leaves the business because their job no longer exists.
This can be when:
1. Employer no longer needs the job to be done by anyone
2. The business becomes bankrupt.
This happens because:
* Introduction of new technology
* Slow down in sales and production
* Closing down
* Relocation interstate or overseas
* Restructure/merger or takeover
Dismissal: when an employee is terminated due to unacceptable behaviour or performance. There are two types of dismissal:
1. Summary Dismissal - when an employee commits a serious breach of their
employment contract and can be dismissed immediately.
(eg. theft, sexual harassment, assault, breach of OH&S policies)
2. On-notice Dismissal - When an employee is not performing satisfactorily they must be
given notice and an opportunity to improve their performance.
(eg. verbal, written, final written and then dismissal)
Entitlement considerations
Are legal obligations an employer owes to its employees following the termination of their employment contract.
Annual or long service leave:Any annual leave or accumulated long service leave must be paid out to an employee upon the termination of their contract.
Redundancy pay/severance pay: When an employee is made redundant, they are often entitled to financial compensation from the business for the termination of their employment.
Notice of termination: There must be sufficient notice for any redundancies and dismissals to provide the employee with time to prepare for their loss of employment.
Justifiable reasons for employment termination: An employer must provide valid reasons for the redundancy or dismissal of an employee for it to be considered lawful.
Transition Considerations
Are optional, social and ethical practices that a manager can consider implementing when terminating employment.
This can be in the form of:
* Outplacement services - counselling, skill development, resume writing, interview preparation and job searching
* Assisting employees to transition - superannuation, pension entitlement, lifestyle planning, farewell parties/ speeches, etc.
Participants in the workplace
Employees Roles:
* Perform duties with care and diligence
* Follow OHS guidelines and procedures
* Obey contractual obligations
* Serve faithfully
* Account for all money & goods received
* Not misuse confidential information
HR managers: are individuals who coordinate the relationship between employees and management within a business. Roles:
* Negotiating employment agreements with employees and their representatives
* Ensuring all key terms / agreements and legal obligations are met
* Dealing with disputes and conflict that may arise during the life of an agreement
* Maintain positive working conditions/ environment
Unions: Organisations formed to protect the rights of empluzz and represent them to improve wages and conditions in a particular industry.
Roles:
* Negotiating a new wage agreement
* Offering advice to employees
Supporting and representing employees in disputes
* Organising industrial action, such as strikes
Employer associations: Advisory bodies that assist employers in understanding and upholding their legal business obligations.
Roles:
* Negotiate new wage agreements (representing employer or offering advice)
* Advice on changes to legislation in workplace relations
* Employee disputes - represent employer or offer advice
* Provide business consulting
Fair Work Commission: Australia’s independent workplace relations tribunal (court).
Roles:
* Resolve disputes
* Maintain and review awards
* Set minimum conditions of employment
* Sign off EBA’s (contracts b/w employers and employees)
* Deal with applications for UNFAIR DISMISSAL
* Regulate industry action
Awards and Agreements
Employment Contracts: are legal documents, or agreements, which outline the wages and conditions of employees within a business.
Awards (AKA Industry Reward): A legal document which outlines the minimum wages and conditions of work across an entire industry
Adv. Wage equality and transparency across industry
Stability and predictability in negotiation process
Employees can be represented by people skilled in negotiating, including unions
Dis. Less flexible to needs of individual businesses
Hard to build in individualised productivity incentives
Some strong unions can exert enormous influence
No incentive for local employee-employer relations
Agreements (AKA Enterprise Agreement): A legal document which outlines the wages and conditions of employees and is
applicable to a particular (specific!) business or group of businesses
The process of establishing an agreement is known as collective bargaining
* Can be tailored to meet the needs of particular businesses
* To be approved, it must leave the employee better off than the relevant award(!)
* FWC can assist with and approve agreements & deal with disputes regarding them
Adv.
More flexible to needs of individual businesses
Easier to build in individualised productivity incentives
Large incentive for good employee-employer relations
Dis.
Less wage equality and transparency across industry
Less collective employee strength in bargaining
Dispute Resolution process
Negotiation: is the least formal method of dispute resolution, in that it involves
direct discussions between the parties, without the involvement of external third
parties
Mediation: Mediation involves an impartial third party facilitating discussions between disputing parties to help each side of the conflict reach a resolution themselves. NOT legally binding decision.
Adv. + Promotes positive working relationships the two parties ultimately make the decision together.
+ The outcome should be a win/win for both parties, as no party needs to concede.
+ The independent mediator is more likely to help prevent the relationship from breaking down.
+ It is less formal, time-consuming, and expensive than arbitration.
Dis. - There are no guarantees that the dispute will finally be resolved.
- As there is no final legally binding decision, the end decision could be dismissed in the future.
Arbitration: Is a method of industrial dispute resolution where an independent third party listens to both sides of the dispute and then makes a legally binding decision based on the arguments.
Adv. + There is a guarantee that the dispute will
be resolved.
+ The final legally binding decision must
be adhered to.
Dis. - This method can destroy positive working relationships due to the win/lose nature of the decision, and the fact that the decision is now out of both parties’ hands.
- It is more formal, time-consuming, and expensive than mediation.
industrial dispute
An industrial dispute is a withdrawal from work by a group of employees,
or refusal by an employer to permit some or all of their members to work
Forms of Industrial Action
● Strike: Withdrawal from labour
● Picket Line: Happen outside
workplace; associated with
strikes
● Work-to-rule: Refuse work
outside normal duties/hrs
● Work Bans: Refuse to work w/
certain people, materials,
processes, or overtime
● Absenteeism, vandalism,
sabotage: Usually covert!
● Lockout: Employers don’t allow
employees to work
Protected Industrial Action
Action taken that is approved by the FWC
Unprotected industrial action:
Not approved by FWC
