Q1) a) Recruitment is the process by which a business seeks to
hire the right person for a vacancy. The firm writes a job
description and person specification for the post and then
advertises the vacancy in an appropriate place.
b) An employment contract is an agreement between both
the employer and the employee which govern their relationship
and is enforceable by law. It establishes both the rights and
responsibilities of both the parties. More specifically, the
employment contract can include salary and wages, schedule,
duration of employment, general responsibilities and
confidentiality.
Q2)
First problem is labour turnover. It is mentioned in the case
study that one of the workers it sent on a long college training
course last year has taken a better-paid job with another
company. This shows that workers might take advantage of offthe-job training, paid for by their workplace in order to train and
advance the skills and knowledge of the employees at a specialist
training centre, and use this extra skills gained in order to look
for a better workplace with better salary. This is a loss for the
business as it has wasted its money on sending employees for
training who eventually left the company.
Second problem is that the business doesn’t know what kind of
employees it wants. It is mentioned in the case study that the
management never really know what they are looking for and
they often have to let unsustainable people start here before
they find out what they are really like. This shows that the
management has not specified the certain skill sets it requires
from employees. Hence, possibly the company has difficulty
establishing the exact nature of the job vacancy and drawing up
a job description.
Q3)
Recruitment is the process of finding candidates for the vacant
position and encouraging them to apply for it. Selection means
choosing the best candidate from the pool of applicants and
offering them the job.
According to the case study, the main problem arising from the
new computer-controlled machinery is that it takes so long to be
trained up on it. Hence, through recruitment and selection
policies, the Human Resource Management (HRM) can narrow
down on appropriate employees. For example, on the person
specification, the HRM can write down the list of the qualities,
skills and qualifications that a successful applicant will need to
have. In this case, workers need to be patient and diligent as it
will take a long time for them to be trained on how to use the
machinery, and HRM can write these qualities on the person
specification. Hence, those who possess those qualities will apply
for the job.
Secondly, through recruitment and selection policies, the HRM
can establish the exact nature of the job vacancy, which is in this
case operating new machines, and draw up a job description.
This provides a complete picture of the job and will include job
title, details of the tasks to be performed, responsibilities
involved etc. The advantage of this job description is that it
should attract the right type of people to apply for the job, as
potential recruits will have an idea of whether they are suited to
the position or not. Hence, those who have past experiences of
working with machineries and operating them might apply for
this job and it will be easier for this business to train them as
they already have past experiences.
Q4)
Human resource management is the strategic approach to the
effective and efficient management of people in a company such
that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. It is
designed to maximise employee performance in service of an
employer’s strategic objectives. Employee motivation is the level
of energy, commitment and creativity that a company’s workers
bring to their jobs.
According to the case study, Harryo, the operations manager of E
and B, does not want to drive the existing workers away through
overworking them. Therefore, he wants to recruit extra workers.
Overworking causes employees to work beyond their capacity of
strength. Overworked employees are more likely to lash out,
make mistakes, lose focus and make bad decisions. These make
workers less efficient and productive and their inefficiency and
unproductiveness will be shown through their work. The product
or service being provided will be of low quality, which leads to
customer dissatisfaction and hence, customers will stop buying
from this company and the profits and revenue earned will
decrease. Hence, by hiring more workers, the work load will be
spread out among all workers and each worker can focus on
their specific task and put in their full effort into creating or
producing their work with high quality. Moreover, wastage
levels, reject rates and consumer complaints will be reduced.
According to Herzberg’s two-factor theory, the work itself is a
motivator. Hence, when workers are not being overworked, it
motivates them to work willingly and to always do their best.
Secondly, according to the case study, Harryo wants to recruit
someone from outside. When companies recruit externally, it may
affect employee morale, especially if employees expect to progress
at the company. The outside hire can feel like a missed opportunity.
It's important to discuss the organization's reasons for external
recruitment to help ease employees' concerns. You can also review
employees' career goals with them to ensure them there is still a
path for them to move forward. If not, labour turnover rates will rise
and the business will end up with fewer workers, which means each
worker will be overworked again and the aforementioned cycle will
continue.
Moreover, according to the Vroom’s expectancy theory, Valence is
an important belief, which is the depth of the want of an employee
for an extrinsic reward, such as money, or intrinsic reward, such as
satisfaction. Hence, whenever employees have successfully
completed a job, reached an important milestone or an important
business goal, HRM should recognise their achievements by giving
them performance-related pay (PRP). PRP is a rate of pay which is
based on how well someone does their job. Hence, this encourages
employees to meet agreed targets and improve productivity and
performance. They will be motivated to perform better as time goes
by in order to receive PRP.
A well motivated workforce will result in lower levels of
absenteeism, improved relations between management and
workers, improved worker performance, improved quality and
improved customer service.