Unit 6

Question 1

Name the 6 HR objectives

Answer 1

1. employee engagement and involvement
2. talent development
3. training
4. diversity
5. alignment of values
6. the number, skills and location of employees

Question 2

name 3 internal influences on HR objectives

Answer 2

1. money - enough to train, employee …
2. CEO - decisions they make based on past experience
3. marketing - companies rebrand so can have an impact o personnel spending

Question 3

name 4 external influences on HR objectives

Answer 3

1. economic factors - cant afford training or employing
2. legal - any laws to do with recruitment
3. social - consider what is on trends and in fashion
4. ethical - do what is morally right

Question 4

what is hard HRM approach

Answer 4

staff management system which workers are just seen as another resource that needs to be controlled to achieve maximum profit

Question 5

pros and cons of hard HRM approach

Answer 5

pros: cost efficient, ideal organisation during recession

cons: high labour turnover, demotivated staff, high absent

Question 6

what is soft HRM approach

Answer 6

employees are treated as the most important resource in the business and a source of competitive advantage, rewarded for performances, open communication

Question 7

pros and cons of soft HRM approach

Answer 7

pros: motivated workforce, reduced absenteeism and labour turnover, better performance, committed

cons: expensive, time consuming

Question 8

Name the 4 motivation and engagement theorists

Answer 8

Taylor, Mayo, Maslow, Herzberg

Question 9

what is Taylors theory

Answer 9

Financial
work purely for money and incentive for financial rewards, focus on efficiency and competitiveness, efficiency improved via standardisation, employees given training, reduced need for workers as improved productivity

Question 10

what is Mayos theory

Answer 10

Social
workers not simply motivated financially, informal working groups known to increase productivity, social interaction outside work is essential, efficiency achieved through teamwork, focus on needs of employee

Question 11

what is Maslows theory

Answer 11

Hierarchy of needs
self-actualisation
self-esteem
love and belonging
safety and security
physiological needs

Question 12

what is Herzbergs theory

Answer 12

factors of satisfaction
hygiene factors dont motivate when present but demotivate when absent

Question 13

name 5 financial methods of motivation

Answer 13

piece rate, performance related pay, commission, salary scheme, profit sharing

Question 14

what is piece rate and its pros/cons

Answer 14

payment based on number of output produced
pros: appropriate for production jobs, incentive to increase output
cons: quality ignored

Question 15

what is performance related pay and its pros and cons

Answer 15

salary or bonus scheme linked to job related targets, reviewed every 6 months or annually
pros: encourage review of employee performance
cons: expensive if large workforce achieve targets, difficult to ensure fairness across organisation

Question 16

what is commission and its pros and cons

Answer 16

bonus paid based on achieving sales target
pros: appropirate for sales job, incentive to increase sales revenue
cons: focus takes away from other areas of the job

Question 17

what is salary schemes and its pros and cons

Answer 17

set income based on the job role and calculated as an annual fee
pros: easily comparable, appropriate when work isn’t time specific or hard quality
cons: not linked to performance, little interactive to increase productivity

Question 18

what is profit sharing and its pros and cons

Answer 18

distribute a percentage of net profit across the network
pros: reward linked to overall success of business
cons: depends on profitability of business

Question 19

name 4 non-financial methods of motivation

Answer 19

1. jobs design
2. appraisal system
3. teamworking
4. employee recognition

Question 20

what is job design and its pros and cons

Answer 20

design the role, tasks and responsibilities in a way to maximise employee motivation
pros: create new challenge fro employees
cons: remedial tasks still required in most jobs, always be aspects employee dont like

Question 21

what is appraisal system and its pros and cons

Answer 21

review employee performance and recognise achievement
pros: allow business to recognise achievement of employees, give feedback, promotion opportunity
cons: takes away time of employee doing their actual job

Question 22

what is team working and its pros and cons

Answer 22

organise workforce into teams in order to benefit social aspects of motivation
pros: meet employee social needs and sense of belonging, employee develop connection to organisation
cons: individual performance harder to identify in a team, ineffective workers not identified

Question 23

what is employee recognition ands its pros and cons

Answer 23

employee of the month
pros: recognise achievement, encourage positive competitiveness and boost self esteem
cons: only best employees benefit

Question 24

define organisational design

Answer 24

creating a formal hierarchy that establishes who is answerable to whom throughout an organisation.

as a diagram it shows the departmental functions plus the vertical and horizontal links that represent the formal communication

Question 25

define centralisation and decentralisation

Answer 25

centralisation: decision making power and control remains with the people at the top management levels decentralisation: delegates decision making power to workers lower down the organisation

Question 26

name the 3 characteristics of influences of job design of the Hackman and Oldham model | motivation

Answer 26

1. core job characteristics 2. psychological state 3. outcomes

Question 27

what is involved in core job characteristics

Answer 27

factors involved in the heart of the job: **skill variety, task variety, task significance, autonomy, feedback**. should all be measured against a scale from very low to high coverage

Question 28

what is involved in psychological state

Answer 28

this aspect of the theory focuses on people rather than the job. the core factors: **meaningfulness in the job itself, responsibility for work outcomes, knowledge of result of work**. greater the level of one of the three the more relaxed the individual will be.

Question 29

what is involved in the outcomes

Answer 29

the core job characteristics and psychological state impact on the outcomes. these outcomes should be measured and consist of: **employee motivation, employee performance(productivity), employee job satisfaction, labour turnover and absenteeism**

Question 30

what concept did Michael Beer (1984) cover

Answer 30

human resources flow

Question 31

what can inflows be managed by (human resource flow)

Answer 31

recruitment and selection of suitable individuals, induction training

Question 32

managing the internal flow which involves decision about (human resource flow)

Answer 32

promotion, demotion, transfers, redeployment, redundant, retirement, dismissed

Question 33

what are the 4 key objectives of training

Answer 33

1. help new employees reach standard of experienced workers 2. provide a pool of skills for now and future 3. provide high quality products and good customer service 4. develop knowledgeable workforce yet committed and loyal

Question 33

what is the recruitment process

Answer 33

1. identify a vacancy 2. write job description/job specification 3. advertise the vacancy 4. shortlist candidates 5. interview 6. appoint

Question 34

name the 3 types of training

Answer 34

1. induction training 2. on the job training 3. off the job training

Question 35

what is induction training and whats its pros and cons

Answer 35

training at the start of the contract pros: given important policy, learn how to do job cons: too much information, quick and stressful

Question 36

what is on the job training and whats its pros and cons

Answer 36

training that takes place at work, can involve shadowing experience worker pros: learn job in real environment, learn from experienced people, cheap cons: slow/poor customer experience, could learn shortcuts or bad habits

Question 37

what is off the job training and its pros and cons

Answer 37

training that takes place away from work pros: expert knowledge not attainable at work, motivation factor, help others learn cons: expensive

Question 38

why does redeployment happen?

Answer 38

- changes in market demand or technology can make certain tasks or responsibilities redundant - some have general skills allowing them to be redeployed

Question 39

benefits of redeployment

Answer 39

- saves the cost of redundancy payment - helps internal morale - avoid recruiting from outside

Question 40

6 key value of a good employer-employee relation

Answer 40

1. worker participation 2. implementing change 3. motivation 4. achieving objectives 5. improving competitiveness 6. decision making

Question 41

how to calculate labour productivity

Answer 41

output per period/number of workers per period

Question 42

how to calculate labour turnover

Answer 42

number of staff leaving the firm per year / average number of staff x 100

Question 43

how to calculate labour retention rate

Answer 43

staff not leaving in the past year / average number of staff employed in year x 100

Question 44

HR decisions and other functions

Answer 44

- it is naive to think that HR departments make decisions that the other business functions have to follow - more likely to be the board to decide on general aims and objectives, that these are firmed up into an overall corporate strategy by chief executive or their team - the functional areas gave to play their part in making things happen - the relationship between HR and operations or marketing has to be collaborative

Question 45

HR decisions and market conditions and competition

Answer 45

- key impact on HR decision comes from the labour market, if jobs are plentiful HR departments have to focus hugely on staff recruitment and retention. This ensures that issues such as flexible working are tackled with people in mind instead of company - During tough times HR focuses on flexibility from a company's point of view, like zero hour contracts. Turn sa fixed cost into a variable cost for the business - during times of recession many firms will adopt the hard HR approach as they can get away with it, and vise versa if there is a boom = soft HR - Competition is the key factor affecting HR performance, japanese business writer kenichi said ‘without competitors there is no need for strategy’. The competition here is the battle to hire and keep the best people. - when the labor market is buoyant, the best graduates expect lavish inducements from prime employers such as management consultants and investment banks - kale marx said ‘the unemployed are the reserve army of capitalism’, so unemployment makes it easier for companies to get their way in the labour market, because competition from them meant that HR departments didn't have to try hard.

Question 46

ethical and environmental influences on HR decisions

Answer 46

- people think ethical environment for businesses are improving because companies sound more concerned, yet little evidence of improvement - when your working in an organizational structure where health and fairness come second to maximizing your personal bonus or achieving your targets, logical thing is to lay low and often look for a new job and often whistleblowers find it hard to get a new job in their profession - Environmental influences on HR perhaps focus mainly on transport factors, London 2001-2011 number of people cycling to work rose by 144%, much of this reason for the increase was a government scheme offering tax incentives to firms to encourage cycling. The reality is that such schemes were pushed by HR departments that could see fitness benefits for their staff with environmental benefits to the city.

Question 47

technological influences on HR decisions

Answer 47

- tendency to assume that information technology will grow ever greater in importance in every aspect of business - there has been a move to online training course HR professionals believe that the boom is over now Important technological influences on HR decisions include: - constant development of communication internationally, makes it more people to interview and recruit overseas, and to discuss common problems with HR departments for other parts of the world. - impact of real technological change, for instance if a high street seller decides to switch to online selling. There would probably be redundancies, retraining and new recruitment needed to carry out