Employees are a business's most important assets; this is why they created the Human Resource department.

Benjamin Black

Task 1

Employees are a business's most important assets; this is why they created the Human Resource department. Its purpose is to manage, train and look after the workers of the business. It is also their responsibility to implement health and safety legislation at work and look after the employees. There are many roles that this department manages; these ultimately help the business to achieve its objectives. These include:

Manpower planning.
Recruitment and selection.
Induction and training.
Promotion and transfers.
Appraisal and termination of employment.
Rewards and conditions of employment.
Working conditions.
Career development and welfare.
Wage bargaining and disputes.

An effective and efficient business manages their employees or human resources well. The better this is done, the more the workers will be happier, better motivated, more productive and more responsive. Badly managed workers are more likely to skip work, be less enthusiastic and less willing to show initiative.

The HR department at Chester Zoo fulfils the responsibilities of looking after its staff according to court laws and employees’ rights. It has to deal with employee issues such as equal employment and unjust dismissal, plus in rare occasions, drug testing and “Aids in the work place”.

There are several things involved in human resource, these are:

Planning how to motivate and satisfy workers.
Planning how to develop a certain organisational culture or approach in employees.
Planning how to support or develop employees, i.e. training.
Analysing current employment needs.
Forecasting the likely future demand for employees by the business.
Forecasting the likely future supply of workers that will be available to hire.
Predicting the extent to which workers leave the business.

The HR department controls many important parts of the company and without it the business would collapse. There are several areas of importance that the department looks after.

Recruitment, retention and dismissal of staff. There are several stages, which the department goes through to recruit the correct person for the job. Once you’ve got the staff you need, it is very important to keep them happy and inspired about the job, this is where the task of retention comes in. Dismissal of staff can become very expensive if not done properly. Unfair dismissal could mean that ex-employees could sue the company for thousands of pounds. In the Zoo this is done on the advice of the human resources department. If the department has decided to recruit staff they would advertise and read the applications and personal statements. However the department that is looking for staff would undertake the interview. The Zoo’s HR department would do the necessary paper work and help the new employee settle into their job. Retention in the Zoo works around motivating the staff. The HR department has to find ways of motivating staff, other than money.
Training, development and promotion of staff. Through training and development the staff become more experienced and the more experienced they become, the better they’ll be able to do their jobs. Promoting staff not only saves time in having to recruit more experienced staff, but also keeps the employee happy. A disadvantage to promoting staff is that you need to recruit more, less experienced staff that then requires training. At the zoo the HR department would look at the budget and if there was enough money and the rewards out weighed the disadvantages of training then they would go ahead with it. They would also make sure that there were enough staff to cover emergencies. The Zoo’s aims to develop its staff:
Encourage them to attend and be involved in planning meetings.
Give opportunities to attend relevant training courses, conferences and seminars.
Give opportunities to visit other Zoos.
Encourage them to share experiences with other Zoo staff.

The Zoo prefers to promote its existing staff, as it not only encourages everyone to work harder, but is also cheaper.

Monitoring and maintenance of good working conditions. Poor working conditions lead to employees becoming unhappy and dissatisfied with their job. Working conditions need to be high to help retain workers. The Zoo ensures that the working environment for its employees remains good by offering coaching, advice and sorting out disputes.
Health and safety. The health and safety standards must be high to keep the workers happy, but also to keep them safe from danger. If a worker had an accident at work then they could sue for thousands if it is proved to be the Zoo’s fault. At the Zoo the HR manager oversees both monitoring & maintenance of good working conditions and health & safety.
Liaison with employee organisations and trade unions. The business needs to get on well with the trade unions and employee organisations, so the groups don’t start making big demands. If the groups are happy with the business they usually don’t start asking for massive pay increases or demands which could cost a lot to the business. The Zoo doesn’t have a union; instead it has a staff association that does the same role.

The human resource department has a manager; there are four different types.

Handmaidens. They help other line managers to do their work, but not in a very co-ordinated or systematic way.
Regulators. Set out and put into practice employment rules. They only set out short-term rules about how people should conduct their business at work; they do not develop an overall pattern covering long-term human relations in the workplace.
Advisers. Generally don’t get involved in managing human relations at work, leaving the line managers to do it. However if the line managers need help, the human resource manager is there to advise.
Change-makers. They want to make a deal with issues relating to motivating people. They introduce a range of related initiatives in order that the development of workers is given high priority.

Chester zoo has an adviser style manager; they initiate the process of recruitment and decide whether they can afford it. They also decide if they need a full time or part time worker. If they do decide to recruit then the job of interviewing would be handed over to the head of that department, since they would know what type of person would be best for the job.

The HR department has the task to make sure that the business sticks to legislation acts, because if they don’t they put the business at great risk of being sued or fined.

Equal pay act 1970. Covers the equal value for the same work performed by men and women.
Rehabilitation of offenders act 1974. Aims to help people who have served prison sentences to have a reasonable chance of securing employment following a period of rehabilitation.
Sex discrimination act 1975. Covers the basic premise that it is unlawful in employment to discriminate on the basis of sex or martial status.
Race relations act 1976. Makes it unlawful to discriminate in employment on the grounds of race, colour, nationality or ethnic origin.
Disability discrimination act 1995. Grants statutory rights to people with disabilities and gives limited protection to them.

Chester zoo covers all these issues, except with some cases the disability discrimination act. They can justify that they can’t put a disabled person into the lion cage, because it would be dangerous for both the disabled person and the lion. Cages are designed to house animals in the best possible way, and incorporating disability equipment could be dangerous for the animals.

Effective HR management can improve competitiveness of the Zoo by analysing the current and future needs of its workers and what other businesses are doing to recruit skilful workers. HR can improve efficiency and save money with effective operating model, e.g. by preventing accidents at work HR could promote safety at work, with the aim of cutting both on and off the job accidents.

The Zoo can’t rely on a cheap labour force to keep them competitive, instead they must invest in human resources to train and develop their staff. With new technologies and IT playing a bigger role in business, they must keep up with the necessary skills to stay ahead and innovate new attractions for the Zoo.

The Zoo needs to anticipate the visitors’ needs for the present time and in the future. With the help of the HR department they can analysis data and work out what the public needs are. This information can then be used to decide on new and improved attractions.

Competition by other firms for workers may affect the supply of labour available to a business. If competitors offer higher wages to workers with specialist skills then a business may have to raise its wage level to recruit the staff it needs. The Zoo’s HR department has to decided where to draw the line between skilful and cheap workers.

Task 2

Major conflicts can occur between the HR department functions. Below are examples of such conflicts and what the Zoo would do to sort out the situation.

Finance and the number of employees. The more employees you have the more work can get done and also the less work each employee needs to do. This makes the workers less stressed, but at the cost of employing more people. It’s a choice between more profit for the business or happier workers. At Chester Zoo if two departments wanted seasonal staff, it would be up to the human resource department to work out how many they can afford in each department. However, because the zoo is a charity, it only has a limited budget and so money is always an important factor.
Need for training and constraints of time. The more experienced and knowledgeable the workers the better and quicker they can do their job. Training workers costs money and also means that whilst they are being trained they can’t do their job. Since the job needs to carry on, with or without the worker, other employees will have to cover or temporary workers hired. Human resources have to keep within the budget so they can only allow so much training. Improving workers skills is essential to keeping them motivated, especially since their pay isn’t very high. The department has to balance these two points successfully. The Zoo is a charity and therefore has a small budget to deal with. This unfortunately could lead to the situation where little training goes on. However, the zoo has a small wage bill and therefore one of the ways in which to retain staff is to train them. It works out cheaper to train and retain staff, than recruiting new staff.
Career progression. If for example there was a promotional job and two people applied it would be up to the human resource department to tell the person who didn’t get the place feedback on why they didn’t. At the Zoo it is very important to retain staff and therefore they would tell the unsuccessful candidate what to improve on and what courses/training needs to be done. It is quite likely that the Zoo will also pay for this training; therefore next time the candidate would be in a better position. If the Zoo didn’t do this, it would have a high labour turnover and lose trained workers.
Getting the job done quickly versus health & safety. The HR department needs to make sure that the health and safety laws and legislation are being meet by all departments. A Zoo is a very dangerous environment and with wild animals means that situations will occur which wouldn’t happen in an office. If a worker had an accident at work and it was found out the HR department had failed to do its job then the worker could sue. But following health & safety regulations can slow the job down. In the induction part of a new job, the HR department at the Zoo puts great emphasis on the health & safety instructions, making sure that everyone knows them as it could mean a matter of life or death.
Personal conflict. Employees who experience conflict with each other would be sent to the HR department to smooth problems out. For example if a managing director disliked a subordinate and this affected his appraisal, then a conflict between the two could occur making the subordinate unhappy. The human resource department would then have to chat to the manager about not bringing personal feelings into work and reassure the subordinate. Conflicts in the business place could end in good workers leaving, law suits against the business and/or that company being know as a tough place to work, discouraging new people to join. The Zoo’s grievance procedure is:
Bring the problem to the attention of the line manager.
Or if the employee feels unable to do this, or feels they have not got a satisfactory result.
Bring the problem to the attention of the personnel manager.
Or if the employee feels unable to do this, or feels they have not got a satisfactory result.
Talk to a member of the staff association who will raise the issue on their behalf and accompany them to any meetings with management.

The Zoo can’t afford lawsuits or bad publicity; it is quite concerned about person conflict issues and hope to resolve then as soon as possible. Neither do they want to lose workers and gain a reputation as being a bad employer. If this happens the Zoo would have to increase wages to attracted workers back, which would be bad for their tight budget.

Time keeping, commitment, sickness and holidays. If a worker was being consistently late then the human resources department would need to talk to the worker and find out what is happening and whether the issue could be ...

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Time keeping, commitment, sickness and holidays. If a worker was being consistently late then the human resources department would need to talk to the worker and find out what is happening and whether the issue could be resolved by them starting work 30 minutes later and adding the time to the end. Workers by law have at least some holiday time off and it is up to the human resources department to organise this. They would approve or decline holiday requests depending on whether the business can do without them for that period of time. If a worker were consistently being sick and having too many sick days then again it would be the HR department responsibility to talk to the worker and find out why and what the problem is. For example it could be a stress-related condition. The Zoo is very concerned about issues like this, as they would have to recruit more staff to deal with the work. The Zoo encourages employees to take holidays when the Zoo is closed and maybe offer more time off if they did.

Conflicts might also arise between different HR management activities within the Zoo. Some of these possible conflicts include:

Training v recruitment. Training motivates staff, and ultimately training someone is meant to get them a better job. However it might be cheaper to recruit a new member of staff, rather than training an existing one.
Catering v keepers. The Zoo’s mission statement is saving animals and plants from extinction, this requires keepers to look after the animals. Caterers though aren’t needed for the animals; instead they are needed to feed the visitors. A caterer might be employed instead of a keeper just to increase profits by selling more food.
Gardening v keepers. Again gardeners aren’t a crucial to looking after animals, but they are needed to keep the Zoo looking smart and tidy. If the gardens were poor, visitors might not return, as they didn’t like environment.
Pay v holiday. This only applies to keepers. Workers who don’t take as much paid holiday might expect to get increased salaries. The Zoo wants keepers to take as little holiday as possible, as holidays would require more temporary workers. However the Zoo has limited money and therefore can’t pay as well.

Task 3

Chester Zoo uses external data to work out future employment trends, how many males and females are unemployed and whether they are looking for full time or part time work. For example if the trend showed in the future there would be a growing female part time workforce, the Zoo might offer part time jobs catering towards female needs.

External data can also predict whether there will be skill shortages, if so the Zoo might increase staff training or increase salaries for workers with more skills. Availability of labour locally and internationally and competition for employees can also be attained from the data. Once Chester Zoo knows what the current and future situation is they can plan how to retain and/or recruit staff in the future.

Population by Broad Age Groups

The population for Cheshire & Warrington has steadily increased since 1991. The 15-29 years olds have decreased by 19% (a loss of 33,000) from 1991 to 2001 whilst the 75+ year olds have increased by 17% (a gain of 9,000).

The majority of part time staff at Chester Zoo are between 15 and 29 and this is the only age range to decrease in numbers since 1991. A high demand for young workers would lead to an increase in how much you can pay them. This could leave Chester Zoo having to increase their entrance fee or doing without as many part time workers.

However, the local population has increased from 841.2 thousand to 865.5 thousand (an increase of 24.3 thousand). Good news for the Zoo as this means that there are more potential visitors.

Major Employers in Cheshire

The employers listed above represent major components in the Cheshire economy. The manufacturing sector is still an important employer in Cheshire, within which the chemical industry is a key element (7% of all Cheshire employment in 1991). The service sector (not included in the table above) is also a major employer in Cheshire, including for example, local and central government, the health sector, the post office and major retailers. In recent years there has been considerable employment growth in the financial services sector.

The twelve companies above don’t cause any direct threat to the Zoo’s potential staff basin, because Chester Zoo’s workers are students and people who want to work with animals. However the right type of employees could be choosing to train at the above companies instead of going to Chester Zoo, as the companies might be seen to offer more money and better career prospects.

There is a growing trend for people to want flexible or part time working hours to fit in with family commitments. The Zoo could take advantage of this by offering job shares or hours to suit the employee. A job that is flexible may compensate for lower wages paid.

Distribution of Employment Cheshire & Great Britain

The industrial structure of Cheshire in 2001 was similar to that of Great Britain. The principal differences came in relation to public administration, education and health (Cheshire 22.1%, Great Britain 24.3%) and manufacturing (Cheshire 18.7%, Great Britain 14.2%).

There are significant differences in the industrial structure of the six Cheshire districts. In Chester 88.8% of employment is in the service sector compared to 62.2% in Ellesmere Port & Neston. Congleton has the highest proportion of employment in the manufacturing sector (31%), closely followed by Ellesmere Port & Neston (29.7%). Chester has just 6.7% employed in the manufacturing sector.

In every district the amount of people employed in services has increased with Chester in 2001 employing 59,700 (an increase of 2,300). This means that there are more trained people in services within the local area, if the Zoo doesn’t have to train workers as much, they can save money. However with more people being employed in services, the Zoo has to compete to keep and recruit trained staff.

Expenditure and Employment in the Tourism Sector

Tourism is an important component of Cheshire's industry, reflected in the most recent volume and value statistical produced by the English Tourism Board. In 1997, approximately 6.9 million visitor nights were spent in the county, generating an income of around £241 million.

As shown in the chart above, the retail and catering sectors benefited the most from the £412,234,532 million spent on tourism in 1997. In addition, the accommodation and transport sectors benefited substantially from tourism receipts. Although visitor attractions benefited the least in terms of direct expenditure, they play a vital role in the initial attraction of tourists to any one area.

The Zoo’s Human Resource department could use this information to calculate where visitor’s money is being spent. Diversifying or squashing competition from more profitable sectors could increase the Zoo’s income.

For Chester Zoo to receive more of the expenditure, it should improve or open up more shops and restaurants/cafes in the Zoo. This would require recruiting caterers. The growth in the service industries in the UK is echoed by the growth in employment locally and at the Zoo within the same industrial sector.

An alternative idea would be to create package deals with local hotels, restaurants or transport systems. For example the Zoo could create a package deal that would give customers good value if they bought their accommodation at a local hotel with tickets to visit the Zoo as well. Coach and rail operators could join with the Zoo to offer a special package that would be cheaper than buying separate tickets for transport and the Zoo. This would be most popular with families and groups of people.

Unemployment National, Regional and County Claimant Rates by Gender

Unemployment for both males and females, in Cheshire has remained consistently below those of the North West and Great Britain as shown above.

In the 12 months to April 2002, male unemployment in Cheshire fell by 4% compared with a fall of 5% in the North West and a fall of 3% in Great Britain. In the same period, female unemployment in Cheshire increased by 2% with a fall of 3% in the North West and hardly any change, 0% in Great Britain.

The majority of people of Cheshire’s’ unemployed are males. Therefore any job vacancies might get a better response if they had a more masculine emphasis. Although this could aggravate legal issues, where companies are not allowed to favour males over females, or visor-versa.

Unemployment: Vacancy Ratio

Whilst unemployment over the period has dropped from 9656 to 7060, the amount of vacancies has stayed around the 5000 mark. This could cause several problems with any employer; the remaining unemployed usually aren’t very skilful. However there is high demand for more workers, so the employers will have to compete for them, causing wages to go up. The Zoo will have to deal with this short fall of local labour, by either advertising nationally or making the jobs better (usually by increasing salaries).

The Zoo uses labour market trends for future human resources planning to estimate what type of potential workers are on the market and how to recruit the most skilful ones. If there is an excess of skilful unemployed workers the Zoo could offer jobs with decreased salaries and still get the vacancy filled. If there were very few skilful unemployed workers or high competition from other employers the Zoo would need to offer better jobs.

The HR department also looks at the likely skills of school leavers/graduates in five years time to estimate what the skill level will be and how to attract these people to the Zoo. They also examine projected visitor numbers and consider what staff will be needed. For example if figures look high, more cleaners and restaurant/cafe staff would be needed to provide a quality service for the public.

If the current population require new attractions to increase visitor numbers then the HR department would identify what type of staff would be required to staff it, and whether it would be an affordable option.

Retention is an important aspect of looking after staff, so if competitors were stealing the Zoo’s staff, the HR department would look into how to retain them. One idea would be to increase their wages, but this would be too expensive. However training and developing the staff would achieve the same effect, whilst being a cheaper alternative. Job satisfaction is an important area in retaining staff.

Chester Zoo has seen an increase in staff numbers due to an increase in visitor numbers and the animals it has on show. More seasonal staff to perform roles as litter picking, catering and customer service roles have increased. The Zoo has also increased the number and size of exhibits it has on show to ensure visitors return.

Chester city is also a popular tourist attraction due to its history and architecture; many jobs in the summer will be available for students here. The Zoo has to compete with this by offering more money or better working conditions. Working with animals is always a popular choice with young people and the Zoo needs to play on this by offering jobs, which are interesting to attract them.

Task 4

The Zoo’s documents serve the purpose they were intended for. Several factors need to be considered before planning to fill a vacancy. These include whether the job is necessary since the Zoo doesn’t have much money and therefore have to restrict their workers to a minimum. The budget would be checked to calculate if there is enough money, and if not whether they could find a cheaper alternative. For example it might be cheaper to train an existing member of staff and recruit a cheaper less skilled worker.

Task 5

There are several key aspects to the Zoo’s training and development programme, these include:

Induction training.
Mentoring.
Coaching.
Apprenticeships.
In-house training.
External training.
Qualifying.

The first few weeks for a newly appointed employee are the most likely time for them to leave. This is called the induction crisis. To help retain the worker and make them feel comfortable in their new job an induction programme is used. The Zoo manages to do the induction programme with a checklist like this.

Who to report to.
Uniform and badge.
Lockers/keeping personal belongings safe and where things are.
Terms and conditions of employment.
Health and safety information.
The Zoo’s policy.
Specific information for the area itself.
What to do in an emergency.
Wages.
Tax forms and bank arrangements.
How to deal with customers.
Zoo disciplinary and grievance procedures.

Mentoring would also be arranged at the beginning of a new job at the Zoo, to make sure that the person was settling in okay, and whether or not they need any help. If a worker started to have problems with the job, the HR department would give the person coaching, to help with the problem or start to motivate them.

Apprenticeships would be offered to people who wanted to move from a part time seasonal worker to an animal keeper. They wouldn’t be paid as much, but the apprenticeship would teach the person the necessary skills and give the Zoo extra man-hours.

In house training would be given to workers to improve their skills; such things in the list would be taught:

Presentation and personal appearance.
Aims and missions.
Where are the….?
Communication.
Importance of own role in the organisation.
Specific department training.
Complaints procedures.

However not everything can be taught in the Zoo, in which case external training would be given. External training might mean giving the employee the chance to study for qualifications such as IIP, NVQs or GNVQs.

The Zoo needs motivated staff, because motivated staff performs their job better and you may not need to pay them as much. Training and developing staff, not only improves the skills of the workers, but also motivates them. They feel happy about themselves, they feel that they are progressing, and so achieve job satisfaction.

Task 6

Performance management is where the performance of an employee is assessed. One way of doing this is through an appraisal. Basically this is a formalised judgement on an employee’s performance over a period of time. The same appraisal form is used to determine the performance of everyone in the business and is done at a prearranged time. The manager that has the most knowledge of the employee usually performs it. During the appraisal interview the manager analyses the employee’s past performance with the objective of improving future performance. Items of discussion in the interview may include:

Successes and failures.
Achievement and non-achievement.
Strengths and weaknesses.
Rewards and training.

Chester Zoo has just started to do appraisals for its staff and so the benefits haven’t come into place. They have two different types of appraisals; formal, which is yearly with the line manager and informal which involves day-to-day conversations. They could use performance management to find out how motivated the staff are and how to improve conditions. If a particular worker is having problems the HR department would talk to them and see what’s happening, why they are feeling demotivated and tries to improve the situation.

There are several motivation theories, which are listed below.

Frederick Taylor’s principles of scientific management

Before Taylor introduced his principles, management did not understand the work floor and allowed wasteful work practices to continue. Workers would do as little as possible and carry out tasks in a way they were used to rather than the most efficient way.

Taylor’s scientific principles were designed to reduce the inefficiency of workers and managers. Taylor believed his principles would create a partnership between manager and worker, based on an understanding of how jobs should be done and how workers are motivated. He used money to motivate the workers to choose the most efficient way to produce the goods. Workers who didn’t would have their wages docked, whilst workers who achieved the target would gain a bonus.

The Zoo depends on it’s workers to carry out efficient and safe practices so it uses a mentoring system for new employees and all keepers are shown good practise by the head keepers. However there are no dockings or bonus available.

Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Maslow’s theory consisted of two parts, the classification of needs and how these classes are related to each other. The basic needs must be satisfied before the person can move to the next level. Once each level is achieved, the needs at this level become less important.

A business can use this model easily; all they need to do is find out which level each individual is at and decide on suitable rewards.

The Zoo needs to provide a good, safe working and resting environment. Each department needs to work as a team and demonstrate that every keeper is valuable and provide opportunities for everyone to continue to learn and improve through training programmes.

Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

McGregor’s theory is the mix of Taylor and Mayo, to create a workable theory for business. These are Theory X and Theory Y.

Elton Mayo theory

Mayo found out that it wasn’t the physical conditions being changed that made people more motivated. There is more to motivation that pay and working conditions. Employees are group members and therefore work is a group activity. Informal groups create an important influence on employee’s attitudes. Supervisors need to focus on the individual social needs and the influence of informal groups. Motivational factors include recognition, belonging and security.

This theory is important to the Zoo, as they are unable to motivate people through money alone. They need to give their employees a sense of belonging to a team and that everyone is very important whatever their job.

Frederick Herzberg’s two factor theory

Herzberg divided strong feelings of satisfaction or dissatisfaction in the work place into two categories, these are:

Motivators. These are the factors that give workers job satisfaction, such as recognition for their effort. Increasing these motivators is needed to give job satisfaction. A business that rewards its workforce for achieving a target is likely to motivate them to be more productive.
Hygiene Factors. These are factors that can lead to workers being dissatisfied. Improving hygiene factors should remove dissatisfaction. An improvement in hygiene factors doesn’t motivate an individual, but if they are not met, there could be a fall in productivity.

Seasonal jobs such as litter pickers aren’t motivated by ambition to do well in their job, because it isn’t what they want to do. Instead McGregor’s Theory X applies to them. Students fill seasonal jobs, as it fits in with their commitments at school/colleague/university and want a disposable income. They will apply for the job that offers them the most money. Workers, who are motivated by Theory X, need to be controlled and directed by management. Chester Zoo supervises their employees to maintain standards and the Head Groundsman will ensure that the job is being done and carried out correctly. The Head Groundsman will ensure that staff is wearing their uniform and that patrolling litter pickers are visiting the areas prone to litter.

A keeper’s job is a full time job and therefore they must enjoy doing it. Money alone wouldn’t motivate keepers, nor can the Zoo afford to pay high wages. Instead Maslow’s hierarchy of needs would apply. The keepers must enjoy doing their job and feel that the working environment and conditions are good. They must feel that their job is very important and skilful, something which only a few people can do. That is one of the reasons why you need at least four years experience and qualifications before you can take on the job.

Office jobs can either be full time or part time, but Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can’t motivate either, as there isn’t enough caring or love in that type of job. Neither can money alone motivate office staff. Instead Herzberg’s Theory best motivates them, with a combination of money and a good working environment. The Zoo has to achieve all the hygiene factors, for the staff to be satisfied with their job. The motivator factors will get the office staff achieving their best.

The more the Zoo has trained and developed it’s staff the more motivated they will be. More motivated staff will do a better job and therefore achieve a better performance appraisal. If workers are getting poor reports then the HR department might suggest motivating poorly performing workers another way.

Training and development and performance management are both linked to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Maslow’s theory stated that the basic needs of the staff must be satisfied and continued to improve, until self-actualisation is achieved. Moving up the pyramid of needs helps to retain and improve the happiness of the staff, and therefore allowing them to work harder, work for less and achieve more for the business. It is the Zoo’s mission to achieve self-actualisation for at least their full time work force and staff who may consider staying at the Zoo for a long time.

Training and development moves people up the pyramid of needs, because the employees believe the business cares about them. If the business is spending money and time on an employee, they believe that the business cares that the employee succeeds in life.

Performance management also achieves the same result. Effective and efficient performance management that gives recognition to employees for good work is an effective tool for keeping staff happy. Happy employees are one step closer to self-actualisation and therefore reliable and efficient staff.

Whilst performance management and training and development can be very effective in retaining staff, if problems and issues aren’t resolved, then staff will become unhappy and want to quit. Staff who quit could mean loss of skills and money wasted on training and development. Fast problem solving by the HR department would reduce the number of unhappy employees.

Task 7

As Chester Zoo is the largest Zoo in the north of England and the second largest in the country, many of the animal keepers are required to have at least five years relevant experience in exotic animal husbandry. For these positions they usually advertise in the weekly/monthly specialist publications such as ‘Cage and Aviary Birds’, senior vacancies can sometimes be found in the ‘New Scientist’ as well.

For example, this is what might happen if a keeper in the elephant house retired and that department decided it needed to replace the worker. The HR department would consult the budget and see what money was available. As it is a replacement vacancy rather than a new place, money shouldn’t be a problem. Next they would start the recruitment process.

The HR department would consider if they would recruit a new keeper or promote an existing one. Promoting an existing member of staff would increase their motivation and they would also know what was expected of them. It would also depend on if they knew there was already someone suitable for the job. However recruiting a new keeper might bring fresh new ideas to the job and need less training if he/she was already doing a similar job elsewhere. However you would also have to consider whether to offer relocation expenses if you were expecting someone to move to a new area.

If the HR department decided to recruit a new keeper, then they would ask the department concerned with the elephant house to create a person specification. The HR department would then create an advert and put it in animal journals, as there would be a better chance of getting a more skilled keeper.

Application forms would be sent to candidates, who would return them with their CV and any other information. If any candidates looked promising and matched the job and person specification the Zoo would ask then for an interview. The interviewers would consist of people from the department concerned and maybe the retiring keeper.

New keepers are given experience of working in all sections of the Zoo and are trained in their duties by the Senior Keeper on each section. All keepers are encouraged to study for and obtain the Animal Management City and Guilds qualification. The Animal Management course is run internally with lectures at the end of a keeper’s normal working day.

The Zoo needs the HR department to make sure there are enough workers to keep the activities of the business going, not just because it would affect revenue, but also for health and safety reasons. If the Zoo were incapable of recruiting enough skilled workers, the training and development bill would have to increase. The Zoo can’t afford high costs and therefore would need to increase revenue. That’s why the HR department likes to have a highly skilled unemployed workforce; the better the choice and the cheaper it will be.