If people are badly managed at Sainsbury’s, it would lead to:
- High absenteeism rates
- High labour turnover
- High accident rates
- Low productivity
- Low quality
- Poor customer service
Sainsbury’s can use these to plan for the future in terms of training and recruitment and selection.
Forecasting Internal Employee Supply:
Sainsbury’s are a firm constantly expanding. New stores are being opened in different areas and therefore new workers will be needed. Before Sainsbury’s go out and start advertising for jobs, they first evaluate labour turnover, labour stability, sickness rates, absenteeism rates and productivity within the business. When Sainsbury’s require labour, they mention it in their corporate plans.
The wastage rate used at Sainsbury’s is used to measure the total number of employees leaving an organisation in a given period of time, usually a year. It is calculated in percentage terms using the formula:
Labour turnover=
Number of employees leaving over specific period
X 100
Average number of people employed
A labour turnover ratio of 25% is generally considered acceptable but 30% or more is very concerning and unacceptable. This is according to Sainsbury’s. Sainsbury’s labour turnover is quite low. Sainsbury’s are a firm who are constantly expanding therefore always look to recruit future employees. High labour turnover might be indicative of a number of problems such as there could be poor recruitment, with ‘wrong’ people being selected for jobs, low levels of motivation within a department, or employee dissatisfaction with unfavourable wage rates or working conditions. Sainsbury’s know that if they are to meet their objectives, it is important that it minimises labour turnover.
Sainsbury’s also use the stability index rate to find out an indication of those employees that stay rather leave. This is very important at Sainsbury’s as the manager will then know who plans to stay on at the company for whatever of period of time. If employees are planning to leave in the near future then, the manager will be prepared for it as he can put out notices for vacancies available. The formula that Sainsbury’s use is:
Labour Stability=
Number employed with more than 12 months service
X100
Total number of staff employed one year ago
The Effectiveness of employee Organisation
At Sainsbury’s, the method used to analyse how effective their human resources policies are, is by measuring the level of employee satisfaction and this is where Sainsbury’s use wastage rates and stability indexes ratios to find out. If employees are happy with their work, they are most likely to turn up for work on a regular basis. If there is a poor human relation atmosphere then levels of stress will be high.
Sickness and accident rates
Sainsbury’s keep a record of the following types of absences:
-
Notified absences- When an employee is going to be absent from work and have told their boss at Sainsbury’s. (E.g. to attend a funeral, hospital appointment, wedding etc.)
-
Absences due to sickness- Employees at Sainsbury’s will need to produce a doctors note so that they are entitled to sickness benefits.
-
Unauthorised absences- this is when an employee simply does not turn up for work without telling anyone
These records are used at Sainsbury’s for employees, and for the workforce as a whole.
The sickness rate is measured by the following formula:
Sickness rate=
Number of working days lost per year due to illness
X100
Total number of available working days
At Sainsbury’s, they are required by law, under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to investigate and keep a detailed record of its accident rates. Accidents can be caused by factors such as insufficient safety training, stress, a lack of safety equipment or poor motivation. All of these factors can result in ineffective working practices and reduced efficiency. Keeping records enables Sainsbury’s to protect itself from legal action and to identify and deal with the causes of accidents before problems escalate.
Finding out sickness rates helps Sainsbury’s plan for the future. If there are shortage of employees when an employee is absent due to sickness, then Sainsbury’s may recruit part-time staff for filling in. This would however cost the business to recruit them.
Statistics for age, skills and training
The information on the age structure of the workplace at Sainsbury’s can be used to highlight a potential staff shortage problem that might be caused by a large number of employees all reaching retirement age during a relatively short period of time in the near future. It may even show a particular age group that is dominating certain positions within the company.
A detailed analysis of the age structure of the workforce when linked to the skills audit can also be of considerable value when deciding upon the allocation of training opportunities. An example of this at Sainsbury’s is that when they want to train all its employees to use a new form of computer technology by the end of the year. When deciding who should receive training, Sainsbury’s needs to know which employees already possess the required skills and which employees are nearing retirement age, as training people who are shortly to leave the company would not be cost effective.
Skills level needs to be rising within Sainsbury’s and that the training programmes are devised to make sure people have the skills to meet Sainsbury’s job requirements.
Productivity
New technology is becoming more and more common at Sainsbury’s. Advanced computers and tills make employees jobs much more easier if they know how to use it (and if they don’t they would get trained). The fact that the new technology is making the employees job more easier may mean that Sainsbury’s want to give them that 10% extra work to do. Or they could use another approach and downsize the workforce as computers may be able to replace some workers. This will definitely reduce costs.
Succession
This is the way in which one person follows another person into a particular job or role at Sainsbury’s. Sainsbury’s need to make sure it is grooming people to take on the responsibilities required.
Sainsbury’s pay close attention to their internal staffing, as this will help them plan for the future.
Sainsbury’s are recruiting staff of 70 years old. This is because they have signed up to Age Positive, the government’s anti-ageist campaign.
Certain laws are in place at Sainsbury’s to ensure that individuals are not being discriminated against because of their gender and or race. Sainsbury’s do not discriminate against disabled and the process is adjusted in line with individual requirements.
When Sainsbury’s plan for the future, they look at trends in employment in the area. Sainsbury’s will have a hard time recruiting if unemployment is high. This could however be due to skills shortages and therefore it would be even harder for Sainsbury’s to recruit the right person. If unemployment is high in the area then Sainsbury’s could either look elsewhere or ‘poach’ employees from rival firms in the area by offering higher pay.
The area in which Sainsbury’s is located is clean and friendly. Attracting employees in the 16-19 age range within the area would almost guarantee some sort of IT skills from them although training may be needed for more advance skills. The reason they would have IT skills is because the schools in the South Harrow area all posses computers and students are taught how to use them. The fact that they have been taught the basics at the very least helps Sainsbury’s reduce costs for training when employing some of these students.
Sainsbury’s Human Resource Plan
When Sainsbury’s have identified the strengths and weaknesses of their existing workforce and the external labour market factors impacting upon its ability to recruit and retain labour, a Human Resource Plan is then drawn up. A Human Resource Plan relates the future availability of labour to Sainsbury’s future demand of labour. Sainsbury’s HR plan deals with:
RECRUITMENT
Sainsbury’s produce a schedule that deals the timing of the recruitment programme for the various types and levels of labour. They set out an approach to tackling any possible labour recruitment difficulties that have been identified by earlier investigations.
TRANSFERS
It covers the future redeployment of existing employees between various jobs, departments, sections and locations. The plan covers not only relocations within existing premises but also any transfers involving proposed movements of employees to different geographical locations where the organisation operates.
REDUNDANCY
If some jobs have become out of date, or Sainsbury’s needs to reduce its activities in certain areas, it needs a programme for redundancies. This covers the timetable and selection procedure for redundancies and or early retirements and the determination of redundancy payments and pensions.
TRAINING
Deals with the duration, structure and content of training and apprenticeship courses. It covers induction and training of young recruits and the training and retraining courses for existing employees. Details are provided on how the training programme takes account of changes in technology, working methods and other developments that require the acquisition of new skills and techniques.
PRODUCTIVITY
Recruitment, selection, training and promotion measures are designed to ensure that the best possible people fill existing and future positions. The HR plan at Sainsbury’s describes changes that will contribute to higher productivity. It needs to consider these potential sources of greater efficiency:
- The application of new technology to production methods and administrative procedures
- The role of training programmes in raising productivity through the development of new skills and techniques
- The use of incentive schemes to encourage higher productivity such as bonus payments for higher output targets, sales commission and profit-sharing schemes allowing employees to gain some of the benefits of higher productivity.
LABOUR TURNOVER
A high labour turnover is bound to affect the quality and level of output as well as incurring costs associated with the recruitment and training of labour. When Sainsbury’s have found out the avoidable causes of manpower wastage, the HR plan may suggest some remedies to reduce wastage:
- Giving pay rises to employees that might be poached by rival businesses that are offering higher pay to attract workers with skills that are in short supply
- Introducing a productivity scheme so that employee’s effort and attitude are more closely reflected in their earnings
- Identifying sources of stress and conflict between employees, management and supervisory staff and introducing methods to improve industrial and human relations.
- Improving recruitment, induction, promotion and training programme by placing the right person in the right job and ensuring that they receive adequate support.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
Sainsbury’s demand for labour will depend on the plans that Sainsbury’s have for the future. Sainsbury’s demand for human resources must be estimated by analysing its future plans and by estimating the levels of activity within the business.
Sainsbury’s must examine the numbers of people available to work, how long they can work for, their ability to do the required jobs, their productivity to work out the supply of labour available to work.
After Sainsbury’s have produced a HR plan, they make every effort to ensure that it is continually updated in the light of both internal and external developments that affect Sainsbury’s ability to meet its demand for labour.
The supply of labour is made up of two sources: internal and external.
The Recruitment of a Flexible Workforce
The recruitment and maintenance of a flexible workforce is vital at Sainsbury’s if they are to remain competitive. In recent years, the general composition of the workforce has altered to create a demand for more flexible working practices such as:
Full-time
Full-time or core employees are those staff that work what is considered to be a standard week of 37 and a half hours or more. Full-time workers benefit from increased pay and benefits. For Sainsbury’s, to employ full-time employees can be good because they can be trained more quickly to become multiskilled.
Part-time
Part time positions are sometimes taken as a ‘hobby’, to supplement other jobs or because there is no full time work available. For employers, the attraction of part time working is that it can offer more flexibility. Part time workers, students or school employees are beneficial because they can be used to cover evening and weekend shifts. Many workers at Sainsbury’s are part timers form school. At Sainsbury’s they are also used to cover full-time workers if they are absent.
Temporary or Casual
Temporary employees are used by firms to:
- Cover another employee’s maternity leave
- Assist with large orders or special projects
- Cover periods of sickness or unforeseen absence
- Help cope with seasonal changes in demand
The problems of flexible working are:
- The use of short-term contract employees actually increases costs because new people are being recruited very frequently and this increases the amount of basic training needed
- Treating employees differently clashes with the harmonisation of conditions.
- Many employees want to get investors in people status
Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment is an important part of HRM. The personnel department will aim to attract the ‘best’ candidates for the job and then to choose the most suitable. If Sainsbury’s recruited the wrong person, this can cause problems for the business. If the person then leaves because they are finding the job too boring or too difficult as a result of lack of motivation, then there will be administration costs for the personnel department. The business will face the extra costs of advertising, interviewing and training.
Employing a suitable person should allow the person to get the most out of its Human Resources. In addition, recruiting the best employees may give Sainsbury’s a competitive edge over rivals such as Tesco and Safeway.
To make sure the ‘best’ person is chosen for the job, businesses must be clear about:
- What the job entails
- What qualities are required to do the job
Sainsbury’s recruit staff for a variety of different reasons such as:
-
Growth of the Business- As the business grows in size, it will usually need more people to carry out:
When existing jobs are being expanded, human resource specialists simply need to copy existing practice on a larger scale. This can be done by interviewing more people, advertising more widely. In creating new jobs more detailed thought is required, particularly if the jobs are quite different from those that already exist.
-
Changing job roles within the business- Increasingly employers have sought to develop new jobs involving information and communications technology, and which involve ground-level employees taking more responsibility for decision-making through empowerment.
-
Filling vacancies created by resignation, retirement or dismissal- At Sainsbury’s and other organisations people move on. They get older, they hand in their notice or they are dismissed. In most cases it is necessary to replace the employee
-
Internal Promotion- At Sainsbury’s there are opportunities for internal promotion. Internal promotion gives an employee something to aim for at the company rather than looking elsewhere.
- Someone has died
-
Someone has left- could be because they did not like the job or have found a better job elsewhere
- Vacancies caused by labour turnover
Methods of Recruitment
If methods do exist then the personnel department must fill them. Often Sainsbury’s fill vacancies through internal or external recruitment.
Internal Recruitment- meeting the needs of a business from existing owners. This is recruiting form within the business.
Advantages of Internal recruitment:
- It gives employees within the company a chance to develop their career
- There may be a shorter induction period as the employee is likely to be familiar with the company
- Employers will know more about ‘internal candidates’ abilities. This should reduce the risk of employing the ‘wrong’ person
- Internal recruitment may be quicker and less expensive than recruiting from outside the business
Disadvantages of Internal Recruitment:
- Internal advertising limits the number of applicants
- External candidates might have been of better quality
- Another vacancy will be created which might have to be filled
External recruitment- meeting the labour needs of a business by recruiting from outside the organisation
Sources of External Recruitment:
- Commercial employment agencies
- Job centres
- Headhunting
- The careers service
- Government funded training schemes
- Advertising agencies
Sainsbury’s are using the capabilities of technology to their advantages. The internet can now be used to look for jobs at Sainsbury’s.
Recruitment at Sainsbury’s
Recruiting for store
Sainsbury’s have a large number and great variety of job opportunities available in many of our stores covering a whole range of different departments. They are looking for people with good customer service skills but we also have positions in clerical, stockroom and technical roles throughout the store. They also offer colleagues the opportunity to work hours that reflect today's busy lifestyles including flexible contracts, term-time contracts and dual store contracts. Further details are available by contacting the local store. Sainsbury’s advertise their vacancies on in-store job boards and also in the local press and Job Centre Plus.
Sainsbury’s are currently in the middle of a major refurbishment programme across all our stores, creating many new vacancies. They are also operating new supermarkets and Local and Central stores in many towns. In general Sainsbury’s tend to recruit staff two to three months in advance of a store opening in order to allow time for staff training. Successful candidates will receive some of the very best training available and take advantage of a competitive benefits package, as well as the opportunity to further their career through internal promotion routes. They will also become part of a lively, professional and energetic store team striving to achieve the highest standards of retail excellence.
Vacancies arising in their Business Centre are filled using a combination of internal transfers and new external hires. This combines excellent career development opportunities for their existing colleagues but also ensures that they use effective and leading-edge skills and experience from the wider market.
Recruitment for Graduates
Below is an advertisement about how regularly Sainsbury’s recruit and who they are looking for. It‘s got information on the person specification. It is a quote directly from the Sainsbury’s website.
‘We recruit about 150 graduate colleagues every year of whom about 100 work within our stores. We are looking for graduates with good degrees who are good at relating to and working with other people and have a genuine interest in food retailing. Graduate recruitment is initially conducted online at the .
The trainee management scheme in stores is designed to train graduates in all aspects of store management. During this period they will work in all areas of a store, first shadowing a manager and later doing the job under the manager's supervision. They will also be asked to complete some project work during the training period as well as a number of workbooks.
For graduates working at Head Office the same programme applies, although there is more emphasis on project work within a graduate's selected work area.
Work experience offered to school students
Sainsbury’s encourage school students to come to both our stores and our offices for work experience. These placements are organised at a local level. Within the stores work-experience students work in a number of departments during their time with at Sainsbury’s. This gives students an understanding of work in general and the running of a supermarket in particular.
Recruitment Process
A HRM approach can be adopted to recruitment, which involves taking much more care in matching people to the requirements of the company as a whole as well as to the particular needs of the job.
A recruitment process can be costly, in terms of resources devoted to the process and cost associated with recruiting staff that then perform badly or poorly. It is important for Sainsbury’s to accurately select people for an interview. Sainsbury’s need to be very clear about the requirements of the job, and about the kind of the person they are looking for. The following is Sainsbury’s recruitment process:
Steps in the recruitment process
1) Human Resource Planning
- Is there a need for recruitment?
- Can the post be filled internally?
- Does the vacancy fit with the Sainsbury’s objectives?
-
Can Sainsbury’s afford a new recruit?
2) Job Specification:
The job specification has a number of uses. It allows the firm to tell candidates for a job what is expected of them. It also helps personnel officers to decide on the qualities that successful candidates must have.
Contents of a job specification:
- Job title
- Duties/tasks
- Responsible to…
- Responsible for…
- Location of the job
- Geographical location
- Organisational structure
Purpose of a job specification:
- The firm needs to be clear on its mind about what it wants the new person to do
- Enables potential applicants to make a considered judgement about whether to apply
Sainsbury’s draw up the job specification before the advert is placed.
3) Person Specification:
A person specification shows a profile of the type of person needed to do the job. It is important that the person specification fits the ‘culture’ of a business.
Contents of a person specification:
- Education and Qualifications
- Experience
- Skills
- Personality/qualities
Purpose of a person specification:
- The firm is clear about the type of person it is looking for
- Candidates can judge whether or not is worth applying for
Sainsbury’s draw up the person specification before the advert is placed.
4) Advertising-:
The nature of the advert will depend on the following:
- Who the target audience is
- Where the advert will be placed
Sainsbury’s advertisements contain at least the following information:
- Job title
- Job description
- Location
- Address and contact
- Qualifications
- Experience
The presentation of the advertisement is very important
Evaluation of the recruitment process
The recruitment process should be under constant review. Question that Sainsbury’s will be asking are:
- How many application forms sent to enquirers came back?
- How many were sent back incorrectly or incompletely filled in?
- How many job applicants were shortlisted for each interview?
- If only a few good quality candidates bother to apply, why is this so?
- What percentage of candidates accepted a job when offered it?
- How many successful candidates were still in the organisation:
- After the induction period?
- After 6 month?
Selection Process
Selection is a huge importance at Sainsbury’s if the candidate chosen is unsuitable, the business may be faced with the cost of poor performance by the employee. There will also be extra costs in selecting and training a replacement when that employee leaves. Sainsbury’s want the right person for the job and want to go about appointing this person effectively. Sainsbury’s have also realised the need for a fair and valid choice of candidate. The most suitable applicant will only be chosen if selection is based on ability, skills and knowledge, rather than race or gender. For example, Equal opportunities legislation has helped to make impartial selection more likely, although there are still arguments about the ‘fairness’ involved in selection. Businesses use many methods for selection such as:
- Interviews- this is used by Sainsbury’s
- Selection tests
- Indicates skills, knowledge, attitude, behaviour and personality
- Tests of ability
- Aptitude tests
- Personality test
- Group discussion
- Role play
- Business games
- In-tray exercise
- Specific test(for HIV, drug or alcohol abuse) may be used for particular job categories
- A series of exercises which job applicants carry out to give a fuller picture than that provided by an interview alone
Selection is very important because:
- Obtains the best person for the job
- Employees are the firm’s most important asset
- It is often difficult, costly and painful to get rid of people
- An inappropriate appointment might undermine good employee relations
- Labour turnover is costly
Below is Sainsbury’s selection process:
Sainsbury’s Selection process
Sainsbury’s just as any other firm take their selection methods very seriously.
1) The first method that they use is collecting Curriculum Vitae’s (C.V.), Letter of applications and Application forms from applicants.
A CV is a summary of your career to date and includes a list of the applicant’s personal details, educational qualifications, hobbies and interests, past job experience, reasons why the candidate is suitable for the job, references or names and addresses, of referees who will provide references.
A letter of application is simply a letter asking for a job and explaining why the writer is suitable for it. If the letter is badly structured, poorly expressed and full of spelling mistakes, it could indicate that the applicant is not suitable for the certain job they have applied for.. The letter of application is rarely used at Sainsbury’s but some individuals do send them in with a CV.
An application form is commonly used at Sainsbury’s. Consultants devote hours to designing new and better forms which will extract even more accurate information from people. A typical application form at Sainsbury’s will require details on addresses, next of kin, education, training, qualifications, work-experience, hobbies and names of references.
2) Sainsbury’s would then begin to shortlist applicants. The recruitment manager will discard any applicants that do not meet criteria that they are looking for. This is to eliminate less promising candidates before the interview stage.
3) Next would be the interview stage. Interviews are the major technique of selection undertaken on either a one to one or panel basis. A series of structured questions are designed to provide a deeper insight into candidates. An interview enables candidates to present their case for selection. It will show the difference between those who are good on paper and those who are good verbally. There are however weaknesses of interviews such as:
- The halo effect
- Stereotyping
- Self fulfilling prophecy
- Personal bias
- Time consuming
4) Now the business will select the suitable person for the job. They would judge the applicants against the person specification.
Analysis of key Recruitment Documents
The two main recruitment documents at Sainsbury’s are the job description and the person specification.
A job description lists the main tasks required in a job. Sainsbury’s have job descriptions for every job they have from the caretaker to the managing director. The job description describes two types of information: it describes the tasks of the job and it describes the behaviour necessary to actually do these tasks satisfactorily.
In drawing up a job description the personnel department at Sainsbury’s has a number of alternatives. These are:
- The line manager can draw up a description of what the job entails
- The existing job holder can do it
- The Human Resources Manager can interview the job holder and the line manager to find out what the job involves. I
It is better to combine these approaches.
The list of tasks and the relative importance of each one, is vitally important for a number of reasons:
- In carrying out appraisals of employees as the manager cannot appraise employees if the employees do not know what the job involves
- When analysing the job for training needs the manager must be able to see what tasks a job involves so that s/he can determine ehat training may be required
When Sainsbury’s draft the job description, the main features are:
- The job title
- The location of the job
- A brief outline of what Sainsbury’s does
- The main purpose of the job
- A detailed list of the main tasks required in the job
- Pay and other benefits
- Promotion aspects
Sainsbury’s expect employees to more flexible and to do a wider range of work. The presentation of a job description is important and Sainsbury’s job description is always neatly presented.
A person specification sets out the qualities of an ideal candidate whereas a job description defines the duties and responsibilities of the job. It describes the characteristics and attributes which a person needs to be able to do the job to the required standards.
A person specification is normally set out under these headings:
- Physical make up- what should the job holder look and sound like
- Achievements- what education, qualifications and experience does the applicant need
- Specific skills- what special skills and talents are needed by the applicant
- Interests- hobbies
- Personality- what motivation and temperament and attitude should the applicant have
- Personal circumstances- what personal and domestic arrangements might the ideal person have?
The selection documents used at Sainsbury’s have many advantages and disadvantages. Each document has its own benefits over the others.
Applicants may have collected details about the job from Sainsbury’s itself or from a job centre.
A CV is a document usually initiated and prepared by a job seeker. It supplies a prospective employer with the job seekers details. A CV is a list of the applicants:
- Name and address
- Telephone number
- E-mail address
- Date of birth
- Marital status
- Education and qualifications
- Training
- Employment history
- Hobbies and interests
- References
CV’s are collected by Sainsbury’s. CV’s are really good as they provide Sainsbury’s with the relevant information needed. The advantage of CV’s is that it enables key data to be compared with the person specification, so that unsuitable candidates sifted out. The other main advantage is that carefully chosen questions are asked. The disadvantage is that the information desired by the business perhaps not provided by CV. Applicants can now send their CV’s through the internet via e-mail.
Application Forms are also common at Sainsbury’s, and a lot of care is taken into designing these application forms. An application form will have a layout of headings and spaces in which the applicant enters details according to the heading. It will have headings such as:
- Personal details
- Education and training
- Employment history
- Interests
- References
The main difference between application form and CV is that a CV is designed by the applicant whereas the application form is handed to the applicant to fill in.
The advantages of application forms to the employer are:
- The personnel staff will have identified specific requirements from the job and person specifications.
The forms can act as a framework for the interviewer to use should the applicant get shortlisted.
The quality of information in a CV or an application form when received back from the applicant is relevant and identifies the areas in which the applicant has strengths and weaknesses.
Letter of Application’s are rarely used at Sainsbury’s. When an applicant does send a letter, a CV is normally attached with it. The applicant simply writes a letter asking for the job. A letter of application can be structured in any way the applicant thinks is suitable. The main advantage of this method is that badly or poorly structured letters would indicate that the applicant is perhaps not suitable for certain jobs. The disadvantage of letters of application as an assessment method is that:
- The letter writer may miss out information which is important.
When all the documents are gathered, Sainsbury’s evaluate them choose the best ones. There can however be problems such as, if the applicant has a brilliant CV in all areas but has no IT. Skills, Sainsbury’s may feel that this individual is to vital to let go, and may rather give this individual training for IT than letting him go.
Interview Stage
When the applicant has successfully reached the interview stage, there are techniques the interviewer uses and by studying this before the interview, the applicant gets an insight into what the interviewer is thinking about and looking for.
Opening the Interview- the interviewer will normally make the interviewee feel relaxed and ask a question such as ‘Did you find it easy to get here today?’ etc.
But on rare occasions the interviewer may deliberately ‘put you on the spot’ and make you feel uncomfortable.
Asking Questions- The next stage is to ask the interviewee a set of predetermined questions. The questions asked should relate to the person specification and job description.
Using body language- People do not just talk to each other through words. They also talk through their body language. The interviewer should not cross his or her arms or make threatening gestures such as pointing a finger or banging a fist down on the table. He or she should smile and use clear eye contact.
Closing the interview- The interviewer would usually ask the interviewee if there is anything he or she would like to ask. After that has been completed the interviewer would then say something like ‘Thank you very much for coming to the interview’. A handshake would then follow.
Interviews can be nerve-racking. The candidate must convince the interviewer he or she is the best person for the job. They can do this by:
- Preparing
- Showing confidence
- Good body language
- Listening to others
- Listening to questions
- Asking questions
- Being clear and concise
Equal Opportunities
Equal opportunities mean that everyone has the same chance. In other words if a candidate or employee is discriminated against because of their sex or race.
Reasons for discrimination can be because of women, people from ethnic minorities, disabled people, and older people. All of the following Acts exist at Sainsbury’s.
Equal Pay Act 1970
States that women should be paid equal pay for work which is ‘like work’ or ‘work rated as equivalent’ to that of a man. Prior to this Act many jobs paid lower rates of pay to women.
Sex Discrimination Act 1975
States that it is unlawful to discriminate against someone on the grounds of their sex or being married. It makes it illegal to discriminate a particular sex when:
- Advertising to fill jobs available
- Appointing employees for those jobs
- Promoting staff into better jobs
- Determining the terms and conditions of the job
- When offering employees opportunities for training and development
Race Relations Act 1976
Makes it generally unlawful to discriminate on grounds of race. It’s illegal in the same areas as described above under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.
There are a few exceptions to the Act including:
- Ethnic restaurants can specify they want people of a particular race to work as waiters/waitresses to make the restaurant look more authentic
- Social work departments can specify they want to appoint staff of a particular race when they have to deal with social problems of people of the same race
Disability Discrimination Act 1995
This is defined as ‘a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term (at least 12 months) adverse effect on people’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.’ The Act makes it unlawful for a business to discriminate against a person in:
- Recruitment
- Selection or dismissal
- The terms of employment offered
- Promotion, transfers, training or other benefits
Training and Development
Training is a form of investment in the workforce. It’s a sacrifice in the short term for benefits in the longer term. By increasing in its workforce, Sainsbury’s hope to increase output and sales, and thereby increase profits.
Development is providing employees with a variety of experience to equip them for promotion in the future. (Job rotation). Development is also about having people lined up to take on more responsibility in the future.
Training can be broken down into a number of elements:
Traditional Training: Training to promote learning of specific facts and content which enable improvements in job performance, such as technical training. New employees at Sainsbury’s are in particular involved in this type of training at the start.
Education: The act or process of acquiring knowledge, skills and understanding, usually in school, college or university.
Vocational education: Somewhere between educational and traditional training (e.g. apprenticeship training)
Management Training: Activities designed to improve managerial competence.
Organisational development: Activities designed to change the way in which individuals operate within an organisation
The main aims of training at Sainsbury’s are:
- Well trained workers will be more productive. This will help the business to achieve its overall objectives such as increasing profit
- It should also help create a more flexible workforce
- It would lead to job satisfaction
- The attitude of the workers would be improved and therefore the image of the company may improve
Employees at Sainsbury’s and at any other job will feel better and more comfortable if they are trained before hand. The employee would reach their potential and the business will be profiting as well as the employee.
Benefits of training for the employer:
- Equips new people with new skills
- Improvement in quality of labour
- Fewer mistakes, less waste
- Fewer accidents (Health and Safety training is a legal requirement)
- Better able to cope with changes in technology
- Increased motivation
- Increased morale
Benefits of training for the Employee:
- Increased motivation
- Better able to cope with work
- Less stress
- Promotion opportunities
- Helps with job applications
- Increased job satisfaction
Training on the whole has a number of advantages:
- Improved job performance
- Increased productivity
- Increased motivation
- Increase in job satisfaction
- Improvement in quality
- Improved customer service
- Increased competitiveness
- Increased flexibility through multi-skilling
- Provide for succession
- Attraction by higher quality employees
- Better able to adapt to change
- Development of a positive culture in the organisation
Methods of Training
Businesses such as Sainsbury’s use a variety of training methods. Some of the training methods that exist not only at Sainsbury’s but at other businesses are:
Induction Training
New appointed employees are most likely to leave the business in the early weeks of employment. This is called the induction crisis. To prevent this, an Induction programme can be used to help the new employee settle in quickly and feel comfortable in the new job. An induction programme may contain information about some or all of the following:
- The organisation
- Personnel policies
- Terms of employment
- Employee benefits and services
- Physical facilities
- General nature of the work to be done
- The role and work of the supervisor
- Departmental rules and safety measures
- The relationship of new jobs to others
Induction Training would be used to help new employees start work and generally ‘fit in’.
Even with these, induction is unlikely to work without careful timing and without making sure that the employee adjusts to the new social and work environment.
Coaching
This is where a coach will guide the trainee through the use of the equipment or a process in the same way that swimmers are trained. The coach will provide continuous feedback on performance and how this is progressing. Coaching does not only benefit person being coached but it also aids the coach’s own personal development. Coaching can sometimes be used to get the best ability out of an individual.
Mentoring
This involves the trainee being ‘paired’ with a more experienced employee. The trainee carries out the job but uses the ‘tutor’ to discuss problems that may occur and how best to solve them.
Apprenticeships
In the past, business took on ‘trainee’ workers. They served an ‘apprenticeship’ over a period of time, often in a skilled trade to become a tradesperson, such as a carpenter. When they ‘qualified’ they were made employees of the business.
In-house and External training
In-house training is where an organisation has its own training department. External training is where employees are sent on external course, or are trained in other ways, away from the organisation. In-house training can take place on the job or off the job within the company, but external training always takes place off the job.
Training is designed mainly to help people do current jobs better.
On-the-job and Off-the-job Training
On-the-job Training is training that takes place on at the normal workplace. It often takes place when employees are trained while they are carrying out an activity. Sainsbury’s use this training method, and have found it very successful.
Advantages:
- Inexpensive
- Related to realistic work practices
Disadvantages:
- Trainer is often not a specialist trainer
- Often pick up bad habits
- The trainer will be less productive and might lose money
- The training is limited- gives a narrow view, subject to distraction
Off-the-job-Training is training away from the workplace. This can either be internally within a company or externally using outside trainers. Many large companies will engage in a great deal of internal off the job training.
Advantages:
- Specialist trainer
- Specialist facilities
- Away from distractions
Disadvantages:
- Lose production
- Costly
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Might not be relevant to the needs of individuals and the organisation
Colleague Training and Development at Sainsbury’s
This below is a quote from Sainsbury’s about their colleague training and development programme:
‘We want everyone who works for us to have the opportunity to develop their careers. We have a company-wide development programme based on a personal management agenda (PMA) where each manager has an individual training and career development programme. Senior managers meet twice a year to discuss their own teams and succession planning. Colleagues in store have a 'how well am I doing?' meeting with their manager to assess their progress and training needs.’
Store construction
Any type of building work causes environmental impact and store development is no exception. Sainsbury’s supermarkets’ Property Services Department works closely with local Environmental Health Officers to ensure that the store construction creates as little disruption as possible. The construction time of Sainsbury’s stores - an average of 30 weeks - is currently an industry best, cutting down the period when local nuisance can be caused.
Health and safety legislation requires a planning supervisor to be appointed for each project. The supervisor makes sure that contractors follow procedures aimed at preventing:
- nuisance caused by noise, dust and smoke;
- water pollution;
- unnecessary damage to flora, fauna and archaeological features;
- Poor waste management.
Senior management training
Senior management training is very focused, meeting both the individual's needs and those of the business. We develop the capabilities of our senior management team through promotion, through external recruitment and through training
Training needs Analysis
REQUIRED WHAT THE WORKERS WANT
Training gap consists of skills/knowledge etc. that the workforce (or individual) lacks. This is a TRAINING NEED which can be revived by some form of training.
TRAINING NEED has been identified and now we have to be plan how to train the workforce to close the gap.
Continual change in job means that frequent training if retraining is essential for all workers.
Training is not just done for the employee’s benefit. Sainsbury’s will aim to achieve specific benefits from running training courses, and if those benefits are not achieved, then the training needs looking at again.
For Sainsbury’s, training and development helps improve quality and service and therefore will raise productivity. The more training given to more employee’s, then these individuals would be better prepared if they were to be promoted. Training would create flexibility around the workforce and also increase the individual’s motivation.
Investors in People (IIP)
Investor in people is a government initiative that recognises businesses that train and develop their workforce effectively by awarding them an IIP kite mark.
In February 2001 Sainsbury’s became the first major food retailer to achieve corporate Investors in People recognition. This followed a three-year programme involving 450 assessments by 45 assessors covering 13,500 Sainsbury's colleagues. It is a unique achievement in that they gained Investors in People recognition from the bottom up rather than the top down. Almost every unit that makes up Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd. went through the process individually and was recognised in its own right.
Companies that have been recognised by IIP have been successful in adopting and maintaining its four fundamental principles:
- Commitment to develop all employees to achieve business goals and targets;
- Regularly reviewing training and development needs in the context of the business;
- Taking relevant action to meet training and development needs throughout people's employment;
- Evaluating outcomes of training and development for individuals and the organisation as a basis for continuous improvement.
Training is not just done for the employee’s benefit. Sainsbury’s will aim to achieve specific benefits from running training courses, and if those benefits are not achieved, then the training needs looking at again.
For Sainsbury’s, training and development helps improve quality and service and therefore will raise productivity. The more training given to more employee’s, then these individuals would be better prepared if they were to be promoted. Training would create flexibility around the workforce and also increase the individual’s motivation
Motivation
Motivation is the level of commitment individuals have to what they are doing. Sainsbury’s feel that all members on workforce should take great pride in what they are doing and feel as though they are making a great difference in the business.
If the needs of the employee are not satisfied then the employee will not be motivated to work. It is very important for Sainsbury’s to continue motivating their workers, because in the short run, a lack of motivation may lead to reduced effort and lack of commitment. In the long term, a lack of commitment may result in high levels of absenteeism and falling productivity and profit for Sainsbury’s. There are a number of different Motivational theories being used at Sainsbury’s to satisfy the employees needs. They are:
F.W. Taylor
Based on his work Principles of Scientific Management, Taylor advanced the view that employees are basically motivated by money. The Job of management was to provide formal order and control in the working environment. Management did the planning and provided to show the workforce how best to do the job. Taylor felt that, with this clear line and staff organisational structure, productivity would increase because the employee would recognise that higher output would lead to higher pay.
Taylor set out a number of recommendations:
- Managers should study the tasks being carried out by workers and identify the quickest way of doing each one. Any unnecessary movement or tasks should be eliminated.
- The skills of each employee should be matched to the tasks that need to be carried out, and each given specific instructions on what to do and how to do it.
- All workers should be supervised and controlled, and those who do not work efficiently should be punished
- Workers should be rewarded financially for being efficient, and pay schemes designed to pay more to those who produce more.
Managers at Sainsbury’s understand that there will be employees who are just motivated by money and this could be because the importance of the money is huge to them.
Taylor believes that workers seek to maximise their pay, he said, and want managers to design a system that will allow them to do this. Taylor’s principles would support the use of these three pay systems:
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Performance-related Pay (PRP) - Performance-related pay schemes are operated for middle and senior management in both stores and at Head Office. In stores the bonus scheme is linked to store performance in terms of sales, customer and colleague satisfaction and targets are set at the beginning of each year. In Head Office personal targets are also set. The bonus paid is then a mixture of company and personal results. Sainsbury’s use PRP for when an employee sells a certain product or item.
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Piece rates- provide employees with a variable income; payment is directly linked to output. Employees are encouraged to produce as much output as possible and maximise productivity. The piece rates system allows employers identify good performers.
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Commission-based pay- is often used for sales staff and employees are paid a percentage of the value of the goods they sell. Commission-based pay motivates employees because the level of their salary is determined by their own performance and ability to sell the company’s products.
The main problems objected to Taylor’s theory are:
- The approach treats workers as machines to be used and controlled, creating an atmosphere of conflict between workers and managers
- Money is not the only motivator, nor is it the most important one for some people. Taylor’s ideas ignore the personal and social needs of individuals at work
Elton Mayo
Elton Mayo did a lot of research in the workplace in 1927 and 1932. He drew up 2 different but equally important conclusions from his results of his workplace experiments. They are
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The importance of teamwork- The experiments had lead to group’s of individuals becoming a team, whose members worked closely in co-operation with each other. A sense of team spirit, and doing what the group expected, motivated employees to work harder.
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The need for managers to take an interest in their workers- Workers responded well to being observed and to the feeling of importance that this produced. The morale-boosting effect of the experiments suggested that managers who communicated closely with workers and showed an interest in them would be rewarded with an increase in productivity- the so called Hawthorne effect.
Mayo’s findings led to a number of practical conclusions for motivating workers:
- Getting the physical conditions of work and the financial rewards right is less important than getting right the social conditions, teamwork and good communication are essential.
- Giving workers the opportunity to be involved in making decisions and to be creative is more likely to motivate them than Taylor’s assembly-line approach.
- Personnel departments that focus on the well-being of workers are central to business success.
The problems with Mayo’s theory are:
- The experiments themselves were far from scientific as only small groups of workers were observed, and subsequent experiments have failed to confirm the findings.
- Workers will not always share the goals of managers, despite their best efforts. Trade unions may see these efforts as management attempts to fool workers into boosting productivity when there is little gain for workers in doing so.
At Sainsbury’s teamwork is essential as the company is known very well and a lot of customers shop there.
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s theories of motivation have been around and popular since the 1950’s. The theories are based on meeting people’s needs in thee workplace. The theory suggests that unsatisfied needs can lead to dissatisfaction. The hierarchy is normally presented as a ‘pyramid’ with each level consisting of a certain class of needs. Maslow argued that needs at the bottom of the pyramid are basic needs. They are concerned with survival. These needs must be satisfied before a person can move to the next level. The levels are:
Physiological Needs: People need food, shelter and clothing in order to survive. The workplace can offer decent pay to enable needs to be met and acceptable working hours and conditions.
Safety Needs: Concerned with physical survival. In the workplace high standards of health and safety, job security, absence of bullying adequate rest periods, pension and sick schemes are the security needs. At Sainsbury’s, all these security needs are satisfied.
Love and Belonging: Being part of a group, giving and receiving affection and friendship. In the workplace needs can be satisfied by working part of a team, social facilities and working friendship. Sainsbury’s are a big team working together and employees working their feel part of a team.
Self-Esteem: Getting the respect of others, feeling valued, having confidence and self respect. In the workplace, businesses can offer rewards for achievement or promotion.
Self-Actualisation: All people need to achieve their full potential. Businesses can offer training, challenges and opportunities to develop each individual’s needs.
There are problems with this theory such as:
- Workers may not seek all levels of need within the workplace. They may be satisfied with pay alone from their job, meeting other needs through their leisure time
On the next page is a diagram of Maslow’s pyramid.
Self
-Actualisation
Self- Esteem
Love and belonging
Safety Needs
Physiological needs
Sainsbury’s need to satisfy all these needs if they are to have a fully motivated worker. Physiological needs are met by Sainsbury’s as they give good pay and this satisfies the employees needs for now but then the next stage has to be satisfied. The safety needs are met by Sainsbury’s as shelter and health and safety is in place. At Sainsbury’s employees constantly work as a team and ensure that everyone is working together, and therefore the next level is met by Sainsbury’s. Now comes the needs where to feel valued and appreciated. This can be done if the employee is promoted rightfully. The need at the top is when the employee feels that they have reached their potential. Sainsbury’s would then provide training for new areas for the individual. The performance of employees will be far greater if these needs are met and at Sainsbury’s they are met.
Frederick Herzberg’s two factor theory
In the 1950’s, Herzberg identified 2 different sets of factors that influence job satisfaction. Herzberg stated that the first sets of factors are those that induce job satisfaction, known as MOTIVATORS. The factors that have the potential to motivate workers by providing job satisfaction include:
- A sense of achievement
- Recognition of effort
- Interesting work
- Responsibility
- Opportunities for promotion
- Opportunities for self-improvement
These factors help to meet the human need to grow psychologically. If a job can provide these motivators, workers will want to work and will enjoy their work. If the motivators are absent from the job, this does not by itself create dissatisfaction- only a lack of motivation.
The second set of factors that Herzberg identified is referred to as HYGIENE factors. Just as poor hygiene can cause illness, the factors that can cause dissatisfaction in the workplace are all related to the working environment. They include:
- Company policy
- Relationships with supervisors or colleagues
- Working conditions
- Pay and status
- Security
- An employees salary
If hygiene factors are not right (e.g. pay is low) people will be de-motivated and act negatively. Herzberg also involves job enrichment, job rotation and job enlargement as a key to employees being motivated to work.
Herzberg’s theory has problems such as:
- Research around the world has failed to confirm that Herzberg’s theory can generally be applied to workers in every business.
- Some jobs especially low skilled ones cannot be easily ‘enriched’ and many workers may not seek responsibility or advancement.
There is some similarity between Herzberg’s and Maslow’s ideas. They both point to needs that have to be satisfied for the employee to be motivated.
McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y
The motivation of employees is normally the responsibility of the manager. After McGregor’s study- The Human Side of Management suggests that two types of employee exist, each possessing different needs.
Theory X- conveys a negative view of human nature, portraying employees as lazy, unambitious people who dislike work and need to be controlled through punishment.
Theory Y- argues that employees are not money motivated but gain reward from the job itself. Theory Y presents employees as self-disciplined, work appreciative people who crave responsibility and creative fulfilment. Sainsbury’s adopt this style.
Clearly Theory X and Theory Y workers will react in contrasting ways to different management attempts to increase motivation. The Theory X employee is more likely to respond to financial inducements, the Theory Y employee would be stimulated by job enrichment, job enlargement, job rotation and quality control circles. Theory X would lead to productivity falling.
Performance Management
Performance Management is a means of getting better results from the company, individuals and teams by understanding and managing performance within an agreed framework of planned goals, standards and competence requirements.
Performance Management is very important at Sainsbury’s. Sainsbury’s manage the performance of its employees effectively to remain competitive. At Sainsbury’s, a range of processes and techniques are used to allow individual employees to know how well they are doing and for the managers to be able to monitor how well they are performing.
Performance monitoring provides information which is of value for identifying future training or promotion opportunities and areas where insufficient skills or knowledge could be deemed a threat to an employee’s efficiency.
Managers exercise control at an individual and organisational level through:
- Planning by setting objectives and targets
- Establishing performance standards
- Monitoring actual performance
- Comparing performance against targets
- Rectifying mistakes and taking action
Management by Objectives
The process described above contributes to management by objectives, in which the performance of the individual and Sainsbury’s is consistently being measured against objectives and targets which have been agreed jointly by managers and employees. Objectives at Sainsbury’s are determined through discussions between managers and employees. This approach will involve both a top-down and a bottom-up approach. The manager at Sainsbury’s presents the corporate objectives and the individuals and team members then state what they feel can be achieved. The objectives are more likely to be successful if they are:
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Specific
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Measurable
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Agreed
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Realistic
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Time-related
Relationship between Motivation theories and Performance Management
Motivation describes the extent to which an individual makes an effort to do something. Sainsbury’s improve performance, in terms of productivity, attendance rates, cooperation and quality by increasing the willingness of their employees to make even greater efforts at work. Motivation enhances the performance of the employee.
Job satisfaction is achieved through the work environment and this is influenced by factors such as target setting, responsibility, independence, teamwork, interaction, high degree of autonomy: control over work pace and work methods and achievement. These are a product of management by objectives. Motivation may be generated by a pay increase or by promotion.
Managers use both financial and no financial means to motivate employees. In doing so, they hope to minimise labour turnover, attract new recruits and create an effective, productive working environment.
Financial incentives can be like piece rates, commission or performance related pay. Performance Related Pay is used at Sainsbury’s and is supported by Taylor who believes money is the key motivator to workers. This would then enhance the performance of the employees and Sainsbury’s would benefit as the employees would give good customer service and sales would rise.
Non financial incentives can be job enlargement, job rotation or job enrichment.
When targets are set for individuals, managers will assess over a period of time whether these targets have been met or not. If the targets have been met then the managers of Sainsbury’s would praise the employee and as a result the employee’s confidence will increase and will feel more motivated to work
Abraham Maslow’s theory can draw up many conclusions. The theory can help managers at Sainsbury’s identify weaknesses within the company. For example, if an employee is performing badly and the manager doesn’t know why, it could be that some of the needs in Maslow’s theory are not satisfied or that the employee is unhappy with some of them. In order for Sainsbury’s to sort this out, they would give training and satisfy the employees needs in order to improve performance. There is therefore a relationship in Maslow’s theory between performance management and training.
Legislations such as The Working Time Directive are of great benefit to Sainsbury’s and their employees. This is because the employee will not therefore exceed how much wok they can do. If the employee works too much, then the performance of the individual will not be up to standard and therefore the service won’t be as good as it should be. The legislation is there to protect the employee but also helps the business as well.
Performance Reviews
Appraisal
Performance Appraisal is a process of evaluating performance, systematically and of providing feedback on which performance adjustments can be made. It is used to review the standard of work being undertaken by employees at Sainsbury’s and to assess the value of contribution of individual employees. Appraisal systems are being used at Sainsbury’s by employees to:
- Reinforce Sainsbury’s goals
- Identifying training needs and career opportunities
- Recognise good performance
- Review and set targets
- Measure past job performance accurately
- Justify the rewards given to individuals and or groups
Good appraisals have a positive effect on an employee’s motivation, but bad appraisals can be costly, time consuming and have a negative impact on the manager-employee relationship. An example of a poor appraisal is to simply appraise employees by rating their performance against specific factors such as knowledge of the job, accuracy, reliability and output capability. This system discourages employee involvement and does not identify the means of overcoming weaknesses.
The main advantages of Appraisal are:
- Employees are made aware of what is expected of him/her
- Feasible targets can be set and agreed upon
- Valuable feedback received
- Managers can learn what the employee is actually doing rather what s/he thinks s/he is doing
- Improves communication and motivation
- Training needs can be identified
The disadvantages of Appraisal’s are:
- The process is subjective
- Managers are often inadequately trained
- Can be little more than a form filling exercise
- Is time consuming
- Can be stressful
- Temptation to go for a bland average evaluation
- Appraiser could well concentrate on isolated cases of excellence and or bad performance without taking into account the appraisee’s overall performance
- Only worthwhile if taken seriously by all concerned
After the manager has reviewed the appraisal, s/he will evaluate it and decide whether or not the employee needs to be trained in any specific areas to improve the performance of the employee.
Performance related pay is being used at Sainsbury’s. This depends if the manager has reviewed the employee and are impressed. Sainsbury’s give them bonuses depending on how well they did. Sainsbury’s pay every employee £1.50 for every Sainsbury’s reward card they sell to the customer.
The stages of Sainsbury’s staff appraisal are as follows:
- The line manager meets with the job holder to discuss what is expected. The agreed expectations may be expressed in terms of targets, performance standards or required job behaviours.
- The outcome of the meeting is recorded and usually signed by both parties.
- The job holder performs the job for a period of six months or a year
- At the end of the period, the job holder and line manager or team leader meet again to review and discuss progress made. They then draw up the new action plan.
Much better is the personal performance review interview. This allows solutions and objectives to be identified by both the manager and employee. Under this system, the formal appraisal interview should cover:
- A review of performance against objectives over the previous year
- An assessment of an employees strengths and weaknesses based upon key job-related criteria
- A personal job improvement plan
- A career development plan
- A performance rating
- Comments form the employee and reviewing manager
- Agreement or reconfirmation of the objectives for the next year
Following the appraisal interview, the manager needs to help the employee to determine a suitable strategy and plan of action in order to help them to achieve their objectives and take advantage of future opportunities. This often involves drawing up a personal job improvement plan and a career development plan.
The Personal job improvement plan- recognises that all employees can improve their performance. The plan deals with areas for improvement and considers the need to respond to new demands.
The Career Development plan- helps to identify the most suitable job progression for the employee. Career development takes account of the employee’s aims but will also take into account of the needs of the business. Development is not just concerned with promotion.
Self Evaluation
Sainsbury’s use self evaluation to help and encourage employees to establish meaningful goals and then to evaluate performance in meeting these goals. Self-evaluation is related to Herzberg’s motivators and McGregor’s Theory Y. Sainsbury’s allow employees to decide what their objectives are and identify training and development needs. Employees consider their own view of their performance. The main problem with self evaluation is that it can be highly biased. Some employees overestimate their performance through a fear of admitting their weaknesses. Others underestimate their performance because they do not want extra responsibility or because of false modesty.
The advantages of self evaluation to Sainsbury’s are:
- The employees take more responsibility for their own work area and for monitoring their own performance in this area. This is motivational
- It is cost effective and avoids wasteful expense (including time) of having external evaluators.
Peer Evaluation
Peer evaluation is also used at Sainsbury’s. Peer evaluation at Sainsbury’s is where employees (that are part a co-operative team) are checked on how much team members are contributing to the product of the teamwork. Peer evaluation helps individuals help each other to improve performance. There are a number of factors that help peer evaluation be a success:
- Respect for each other
- Trust in each other
- Non-competitive atmosphere
- Willingness to take risks
- Confidentiality
- Listen and give full attention
- Say what you feel
- Value each others contribution
- All members participate
- Be honest
- Don’t interrupt
- Feel free to challenge
Measuring individual and group output
Often at organisations there is a considerable amount of dissatisfaction about the way different individuals or groups are rewarded. At Sainsbury’s there is a fair method to avoid this:
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Behaviour Scales- This describes the behaviours that contribute to the successful achievement of tasks that make up a job. Supervisors carrying out an appraisal are asked to indicate which statements on the specially designed form most accurately describe an individual’s behaviour.
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Job Evaluation- This is the process of assessing at Sainsbury’s the value of one job in relation to another, without regard to the ability or personality of the individual’s currently holding the position. It results in a pay range in each job.
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Merit Rating- is a system whereby the individual employee is awarded increments or bonuses based on a systematic appraisal for his or her developed skill level and performance. The typical pattern is:
- STARTER- Degree of efficiency expected from a learner
- QUALIFIED- Able to perform normal aspects of the job
- EXPERIENCED- Able to deal with all circumstances of the job
- SUPERIOR- Ready for promotion
Relationship between Appraisal, Training and Performance
Sainsbury’s use performance appraisal to review the employees work currently being carried out. When the appraisal has been evaluated by the manager, they will find out if any areas of their job needs strengthening. Sainsbury’s would then train the employee and this will lead to improved performance.
Sainsbury’s need to identify the training needs of the workforce as a whole and of individuals. The way in which the business can evaluate if the training has worked is by using:
- Interviews
- Questionnaires
- Observations
- Tests
- Impact on performance
- Output
- Productivity- if low then could be result of poor HRM
- Waste- possibly the cause of worker error, because training was inadequate
Appraisal identifies weaknesses that can be remedied with training. As a result of this a training programme could be introduced.
Legislations
The working time directive
This limits a persons weekly working hours to 48 per week. The aim is to put employees under less stress because this makes them ill.
The Minimum Wage
The government now sets a minimum hourly pay rate. The minimum set is not very high (£3.70 per hour in 200-2001) but it is still a lot higher than some employers had been paying before.
Maternity and Parental leave
As well as improved maternity leave both parents are now entitled to take time off from work to look after their children (up until the child’s fifth birthday).
Health and Safety regulations
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 states that an employer must have a ‘written statement’ of its health and safety policy. This must be available for all staff to read. The statement includes:
- An explanation of how all accidents must be reported by staff
- A list of all staff trained in first aid and details of where first aid boxes located
- A list of safety representatives
Contribution of HRM to improve Competitiveness
Human Resource Management is the most important department at Sainsbury’s. As mentioned previously, the HRM department seeks to ensure that Sainsbury’s has the right quantity of labour, the right skills of employees, the right degree of motivation to enable Sainsbury’s to achieve its corporate objectives such as the target rate of profit.
The key question asked of the HRM department is that ‘Are they doing their job and if so are they doing it effectively?’
To see if Sainsbury’s are competitive compared to their rivals, they need to see how their prices of products are in comparison to that of their rivals. A way of finding out this kind of information is by going undercover. A member of the Sainsbury’s workforce could into a rival supermarket such as Tesco and take note of prices that are charged for the same product that Sainsbury’s are selling. If the price is cheaper then Sainsbury’s know that they have to knock their price down for that particular product. If the price is more expensive at Tesco than at Sainsbury’s for that product, the Sainsbury’s are gaining a competitive advantage over Tesco.
Whether or not Sainsbury’s is competitive depends upon a number of factors such as:
- Cost of raw materials
- Quality of machinery
- Amount of machinery
- Quality of it workforce
The workforce at Sainsbury’s is key. A poor workforce in terms of lazy workers could and most probably will result in poor output. The HRM department at Sainsbury’s monitor the workforce continuously and see how they are performing.
Mayo’s theory about the importance of teamwork is vitally important at Sainsbury’s. The workforce does work together at Sainsbury’s and create a friendly environment which is reflected in the company’s profit.
The HRM department acquire the workforce and the main problem after that is keeping them happy. Rivals may seek to attract Sainsbury’s existing employees in the form of better pay. The HRM department at Sainsbury’s are well aware of this problem and in order to keep the employees at the company, they may offer more pay and or promotion. Maslow believed that fulfilling and employees needs are essential. If promotion or better pay was offered to the employee then s/he would feel wanted and feel very important to the business. HRM department seeks to ensure that Sainsbury’s have the right quality and quantity of workers.
Also the HRM department at Sainsbury’s seeks to plan in advance. If a manager is leaving in the near future then early planning for recruitment interviewing and selection will be carried out in order for the department not to suffer and the business not to be affected by a member of staff leaving.
When a new manager that needs training is almost certain to be employed in the near future, Sainsbury’s would provide time for this to be done before s/he takes over so that the business does not suffer and continues to be competitive.
Sainsbury’s HRM department also identify training needs within the workforce so that contribution of the employees is strengthened.
When evaluating the HRM department, the labour turnover at Sainsbury’s is important to analyse.
Some people leave for perfectly acceptable reasons where blame cannot be laid on the HRM department. But there are some reasons where it can be concluded that HRM was at fault.
Instances such as
- Worker could not cope- this could be a failure in the selection methods by HRM. Also it could be a failure by the HRM to identify training needs.
- Job dissatisfaction- the nature of management could be weak, such as the employee may have been badly treated. The employee may have had no promotion opportunities and therefore lacking self esteem which is a need in Maslow’s theory. Pay may have something to do with the employee being dissatisfied as well.
If there is a high labour turnover at Sainsbury’s, they regard this as a failure by the HRM. However if labour turnover is low, then it would be regarded as a success by the HRM department at Sainsbury’s.
The absenteeism rate is also important to analyse. High absenteeism is a reflection of lack of commitment, poor motivation and poor management by the HRM. HRM seeks to ensure that absenteeism is low.
If wastage (defected goods) is common, then this could be because of worker error. If this is the case then either the wrong people were selected or training was inadequate or they were not sufficiently motivated and committed.
Low productivity could also be the result of HRM failure.
Bibliography
Textbooks-
Advanced Business by Michael Fardon, Franck Adcock, Ian Birth, David Cox, Michael Matchan, Sean O’Byrn and John Prokopiw.
Heinemann AVCE Advanced Business by Dave Needham and Rob Dransfield
Other sources-
Internet- Sainsbury’s website
Teachers Notes