Some Business Study stuff

Chapter21/ Developing an effective workforce: recruitment, selection and training.

Recruitment – attract the ‘best’ candidates and then select the most suitable.

Workforce planning ( considering what human resources are required)

Job descriptions (tell what the job is about – skills, responsibilities, duties and performance level)

Specification (should include details of skills, aptitude^{способности}, knowledge and expertise; qualifications; personal qualities relevant to the job, such as ability to work as part of a team)

Internal or external recruitment ( internal – filling a job vacancy for selecting a person who is already employed in the organization; external – filling a job vacancy by advertising outside the firm

For internal: the employees’ abilities are known already, internal promotion opportunities are motivating for the workforce, the recruitment and selection process is quicker, a shorter induction period is required, it is less expensive, it reduces the risk of employing the wrong person

For external: it tends to provide a larger choice of well-qualified applicants, it brings in new blood with new ways of thinking, it overcomes jealousies^{ЗАВИСТЬ} that may occur if one member of a group is promoted above his or her colleagues, it can help a firm to improve its understanding of how other firms operate)

Advertise ( newspaper or magazine; job centre, commercial employment agencies; headhunting)

Application (qualifications, work experiences, references)

Assessment^ОЦЕНКА (interview, aptitude and attainment^{приобретение} test, psychometric test, assessment centres)

Appointment

Factors affecting methods of recruitment and selection

- The level of the job in the organization, whether shop-floor or senior management level

- The size of the organization, whether a large multinational or a small shop

- The resources available to fund the recruitment and selection process

- The cost of any particular method – recruitment and selection can be an expensive process and includes the cost of advertising, the cost of administering, perhaps, thousands of applications, and the time spent shortlisting, interviewing and assessing

- The supply of labour – whether there are plenty of potential applicants with relevant skills and experiences or whether there are few

- The culture of the organization and the extent of which this dictates that internal recruitment and promotion are the norm

Practice exercise

1) vacancy arises – job description – personal (job) specification – deciding on internal or external recruitment – advertising – application forms – assessment – appointment

2) Recruiting an internal candidate for job

- The employees’ abilities are known already. The company has already known what this worker is able to do and how he\ she is responsible. So there is no risk that the company employees the wrong person, unless this worker will be changed.

- The cost of internal recruitment is quite low, so the company doesn’t have to spend a lot of funds on recruitment.

Recruiting an external candidate for job

- It involves new way of thinking to the company, which could be a big benefit for the whole business

- Larger choice of possible employees

3) Job description – tells us about the job, what kind of person we want to do a job, gives us a job title, the purpose of the job, accountability, responsibilities and duties. Personal specification – characteristic needed, skills and qualifications, experiences

4) Headhunting organization – recruitment agency, looking for people who tend to be top workers.

5) Aptitude and attainment , psychometric or personally tests, assessment centres

6) Level of job; resources available; costs; supply of labour; internal or external

7) Reducing labour turnover , increasing productivity, increasing profit, motivation.

Case study. Searching for stars on the shop floor.

1) They use internal recruitment. They are training their managers (talent spotting)., having regular meetings with their staff. To identify a potential of their workers.

2) Benefits of staff meetings

- Motivation

- Fill the gap

- Short induction

- it reduces labour turnover

- reduces absenteeism

- less risky

3) In general

- Productivity increases

- Low labour turnover

- Low absenteeism

- More cost effective

- Moving upwards

Store management

- Management become more effective and efficient

- Internal recruitment

4) Advantages of internal recruitment for senior management

- short induction training period

- labour turnover decreases

- costs decrease

- available stuff

- already trained by the company

Disadvantages of internal recruitment of senior management

- Lack of new ideas, new ways of thinking

- Very competitive, so some people could be demotivated

- It could gaps to fill

- It might lead to decrease in productivity, because of different ways of thinking that could be a negative while changing managers in different departments

Training

Training – the provision of work-related education, either on-the-job or off-the-job, involving employees being taught new skills they already have.

Training is often a response to some changes:

- The development and introduction of new products

- Restructuring of the firm

- The development and introduction of new technology

- Changes to procedure, including improvements to customer service

- High labour turnover

- Low morale

- Changes in regulation

Benefits of training

1) It helps new employees reach the level of performance expected of experienced workers

2) It ensures^{обеспечивает} that employees have the necessary skills, knowledge, attributes and qualifications for the job, both at present and in the future

3) It develops a knowledge and committed workforce, with increased motivation and job satisfaction

4) It increases efficiency and productivity, enabling the firm to produce high-quality products and services, which may in turn lead to improved profits

5) It can identify employees’ potential and thus increase employees’ job prospects and changes of promotion, which may improve motivation

6) It reduces costs in the long term by, for example, reducing the number of accidences and injuries, reducing wastage and poor-quality work, and increasing workers’ productivity

7) It encourages employees to deal with change more effectively and to be more flexible – for example, about the introduction of new technology.

8) It encourages employees to work towards the organisation’s aims and objectives

9) It improves the image of the company. Customers will have more confidence in well-trained stuff, and a better image will attract more able recruits.

Induction^{введение в должность} training

Education for new employees, which usually involves learning about the way the business works rather than about the particular job that the individual will do.

Benefits

- Reduction in labour turnover

- Improve employees’ understanding of both the corporate culture and the situation in which the organization is placed

- Means that employees contribute to he organization more quickly

- Increases motivation

On-the-job training – where an employee learns a job by seeing how it is carried out by an experienced employee

Off-the-job training – all forms of employee education apart from that at the immediate workplace.

Practice exercise

1) Training is a process of instructing people about how to carry out tasks directly related to their current job. Development, on the other hand, involves helping individuals to realize their full potential. It covers general growth and not necessarily related specifically to employees’ existing posts.

2) It reduces labour turnover. As employees get new information about how the whole company is works, it is becoming more interesting and existing to work for the organization in order to aim general goals. As people get interested with their jobs they are less likely to leave the company, so the labor turnover is decreasing.

3) External training gives employees opportunities to meet other workers from other companies, allowing an interchange of ideas and a broadening ^{расширение} of understanding. It also makes employees feel valued and increases motivation. Internal training could be very efficient if the worker need a particular skill. Here internal training is less expensive than external.

4) On-the-job training: cheaper; no loss of output. Off-the-job training: less pressure from work; focused on skills that are needed.

5) Market failure- when free market system fails to achieve economic efficiency (productive and allocative). Poaching employees means attractive workers who have already been trained by another business. One company attracts employees from another company by offering higher salaries. ( loss to company that have trained employees and lost them because of higher wages, that were offered by another company)