Marketing department:
Pascalls marketing department works to sell their service and products to their customers, they have to go through many different methods and ways to make their business more visible to attract customers.
Pascalls marketing department has to make sure that the business get new customers and keeps there existing ones, they do this by advertising and promotion, this makes new customers aware of the business and makes existing customers feel satisfied with the business and would recommend it to people they know that would be interested in what Pascall have to offer.
Pascall use many ways of advertising, these include:
- Websites, Pascalls website has all there items on there, they also have a lot of information about there business which makes the customer know more about the business to make them feel safe and secure.
- Brochures, Pascall have brochures that have their offers and also has a bit of information about how to contact the business with any queries.
- Posters, Pascall doesn’t have many posters but they have a few that promote any products they’re selling.
- Mail, Pascall post mail to customers that would like to be contacted by them when they have any new deals or products.
- Emails, Pascall also offer their customers to contact them via email about any new products or news.
- Word to word, Pascall make sure they make all there customers satisfied with there service and products, there products have to be 100% excellent condition and in working order because the items they sell are necessary to the business they’re selling them to, so when there customer is satisfied and happy with Pascall they recommend Pascall to any body they might know that would be interested in what they have to offer.
Pascall spend a lot of money on the marketing department trying to attract new customers and keep existing ones, therefore the marketing department has to be successful so that customers will come and use there products and services so that Pascall make there money back with a profit. Pascall have to do a few things to insure that their marketing department is successful, some of these things are:
- There website has to be updated regularly, this gives the customer a reason to come back to the website, because if its never updated regularly the customer will have no good reason to come back to it. Also if the website is updated regularly, search engines will put there website address in the top search links because they know that the site is not closed.
- Pascal Brochures make sure that they always are attractive and informative, or customers will have no reason to read them.
- Pascall make sure that there posters are informative, eye catching and simple, because they want customers to get enough information about what is on offer, notice the poster, and remember what it says.
- Pascalls mail that is sent to customers has all the new products and new offers so that the customer is interested in what is on offer, also Pascall have different products in there news letters every month or so, delivering mail that has the same deals and products is pointless, it wont doesn’t encourage the customer to buy any thing.
- Pascalls emails are eye catching, and very informative, this makes customers that are interested in what they have to offer more interested in reading the email.
Pascalls marketing department is a very important part of the business, it is one of the few sources that attract their customers to the business, and without this department working successfully the number of customers would fall heavily. This department is very necessary and is one of the main reasons for the business being so successful, it provides the business with a good income because of the number of customers they have attracted and kept, and they make hardware for very important businesses to.
The marketing department communicate to different functional areas of the business for many reasons, these are:
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Marketing Department Production department: The marketing department would contact the production department to ask them if they can make a certain type of equipment that is being bought a lot around the world. This is normally done by phone or email because it is instant and they would need to know so they can know whether or not to advertise it.
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Marketing department Human Resources: the marketing department may contact the human resources department to ask them if they can train some engineers to use some new equipment that produces new products that are selling well all over the world to big companies. This is normally done by email.
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Marketing department Sales: Marketing department would contact Sales to ask for money for a new campaign or more advertisement. This is normally done by a using a notice board then a meeting, this is because its not too urgent and can wait.
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Marketing department Magazine: The marketing department contacts suitable magazines to pay them to advertise Pascall. This is normally done by phone or email, this does not need a meeting because they are not signing a contract but just paying for them to display Pascalls advert.
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Marketing department Other Businesses: Pascall contact other businesses to discuss putting up Pascalls posters or broachers in the business. This is normally done by phone or email, this does not need a meeting because they are not signing a contract but just paying for them to display Pascalls advert.
Human resources:
Human resource is basically the process of recruitment, hiring, training, and promotion, of the most important part of the business, its employees. The Human Resources department is a vital part of the business; all their employees are hired, trained and promoted from this area of the business.
Human resources also finds the employees needed by advertising or promoting, so its really important that they are working sufficiently so that they can find employees with certain qualifications or experience in good time for an open job.
Human resources is a key part of the business, because for example if an employee decides to quit or gets fired, then they will need to find a replacement as fast as possible, especially if he or she is a key part of the business (e.g. a manager or supervisor).
The main activities in the Human Resources department are:
- Pay Rolls: Human Resource pay all Pascalls employees salaries through the businesses bank, therefore Human Resources need to check there data base to see if any employees have missed any days from work.
- Performance: The human resources department also review all employees progress, so if any employees are working exceptionally well and Pascall can see that they should be working in a high job, then they would be promoted when needed. Human Resources also monitor progress because if some employees are working at a low level then they would be warned or fired.
- Job Application forms and job Descriptions: The human resources department write up job descriptions and job applications when they need new customers.
- Jobs Adverts: Human Resources also design a Job advert that has all information about the pay and the hours they need there employees to work.
- Posting to interested candidates: Human Resources also post Job application forms to candidates that are interested in the job.
- Interviewing and Reading CV’s and Application forms: : The. Human Resources also read all CV’s, application forms and interview all candidates that post there application forms in.
- Training: Human Resources also deal with all new employees that need training, and also deal with training current employees if a new type of machinery is purchased or a new type of product is needed to be produced.
- Health & Safety: Human Resources have to inform all new employees about the health and safety regulations in the business, this could also include training on how to carry heavy equipment. If Pascall do not do this they could be sued if an employee gets injured.
- Tours of the business: Human resources also deal with tours round the business, the tours are normally for new customers or for educational purposes from schools (i.e. like the one our class went to). Human Resources would select one of the employees in the department to guide the group or individual round the business and would explained to them all the activities and jobs they have to do in the business and answer any questions if asked.
Human resources also needs to interview any new employees and train them for the job, so they will have many application forms and CVs to look at, which would take quite a long time to complete, so all the employees in human resources would need to be fast reliable workers.
Human resources also deals with paying wages, setting goals for the employees, get references, deals with health and safety, fires people and decision making. Human resources play a key part for Pascall and Pascall cannot work without this area of the business.
Human Resources plays a huge part in the business because they spend a fair amount of time when recruiting new employees. They need to make sure it’s the right person for the job, right time for him or her to be employed and for the new employee to have the right skills for the job to help achieve goals that are set by Pascall.
When HR is recruiting an employee they look at not what only they can do in the present, but long term goals, so they need to find out if the employee is planning to stay for a long time, will he be committed to reaching goals set by the business, and will he or she work well within the functional area he or she is placed.
The Human resources department communicate to different functional areas of the business for many reasons, these are:
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Human resources Operations Department: The human resources department would contact operations to let them know that the employees need new training. This is normally done by phone or face to face so that they can both ask questions and get any information needed and it is fast.
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Human resources marketing: Human resources would contact marketing if they need them to advertise an available job. This is normally done by phone and email because they inform marketing through phone then send the details that need to be added to the advert through an email attachment.
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Human Resources Job centers or schools/colleges: if Pascall need new employees they would contact job centers and give them the job description so that the job centre would inform people that they think are suitable. When Pascall want to employ new young employees, they would contact colleges or schools with sixth form. This is normally done by email or post because they will send the job description attached to the letter, and it is a formal way of communication.
Sales:
Sales department is what deals with selling Pascalls products.
The Sales department in Pascall manages sales of the company's products and services. Establishes effective communications with employees and managers to ensure proper sensitivity to sales needs. Pascall have two Sales Managers. They require them to have nine to 12 years of product sales experience.
The main activities that are in the Sales Department are:
- Enquiries: the sales department deals with all enquiries, about price, time and other questions like opening hours. The sales department would some times nee to contact the production department before answering any questions if it is a type of equipment that they have not made before, this is because some parts of the product need to be purchased, and they need to calculate the price of the equipment and know how long it will take to make the product.
- Setting prices: the sales department also set the price on products, they do this buy calculating the cost of the products parts that are purchased from other companies (i.e. bolts) and then they find out how long it will take to make the product, after that they calculate a reasonable amount of profit to make out of it.
- Delivery Times: Pascall need to know how long there products will take to be delivered to there customers, this is because the customer would like to know when it will be received so they can plan ahead in there business, Pascall use there own private shipping service, so they can rely on there products to be delivered to there customers when they want them to.
- Contacting customers: Pascalls sales department also calls customers business to keep customer relations, and to find out if the business need any products to be produced.
- Contacting engineers when a new type of product is needed: when a new product is requested by a customer the sales department have to contact the engineers in the production department to ask if the product can be made.
- Negotiations: when a product is requested by a customer, there is usually a meeting which would be to know what the customer exactly wants, and so that both the customer and Pascall can negotiate a price for the product.
- Requirement, applications: When a new product is requested the Sales department need to communicate with the Production department to ask them to find out the requirements and software needed to make the product.
- Pays the running costs of the business: the sales department deals with paying the bills which the business use, for example electricity.
- Design cash flows: the sales department monitors the income and outcome of the business to see if the business is profiting or not, they also do this to see if the businesses sales and profit are increasing or decreasing each year.
Sales department in Pascall have different responsibilities, and they all are an important part to the business, these are:
30% - Manages an assigned sales or product line to maximize sales revenues and meet aims and objectives.
30% - Manages and develops sales
20% - Establishes and manages effective programs for example:
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New account sales.
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Sales of emerging products and multi-product sales.
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Competition with other businesses.
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Management of expenses of the business.
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Business/financial issues on contracts.
20% - Performs sales activities on important accounts and negotiates sales price and discounts.
The Sales department is very important, and the business cannot continue without it, it deals with all the outcome and income of the business and deals with the money to make the business make a profit from its sales.
The Sales department communicate to different functional areas of the business for many reasons, these are:
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Sales Operations: Sales would contact the operations department to ask them if they could produce a product that was requested by a customer. They would also contact them to ask how long it would take, and how much it would cost to make it. Sales may also contact the Operations department to let them know that there is an increase of sales and that they may need more employees. This is normally done by Phone or Email because it is fast and want a fast answer.
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Sales Marketing: Sales may contact the marketing department to have them make a new advert or campaign if sales are down or if they think it would boost sales, also if there was an increase in sales then the sales department would contact the marketing department because it would mean more money can be spent on advertising This is normally done by a meeting because they can share ideas and discuss all matters face to face.
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Sales Human resources: Sales contact human resources if the number of sales is high and they think that having more employees would make production faster. This is normally done by a meeting This is normally done by a meeting because they can share ideas and discuss all matters face to face.
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Sales Banks: the sales department contact banks to request loans or to pay them back. This is normally done by phone then an organised meeting, it is done like this so Pascalls sales department can show proof that they can pay the bank back and so the bank can ask any questions and so that both the bank and Pascall can sign any legal documents.
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Sales Shareholders: the sales department contact share holders to let them know how well the business is doing and to inform them how much there share of the business is worth. (most of the time its share holders who contact Pascall. This is normally done by phone unless the shareholder requests a meeting. Pascalls sales department phone the shareholder because it is fast and easy, but if the shareholder requests a meeting then Pascall would discuss pass and future progress with the shareholder and answer any questions.
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Sales Customers: customers contact Pascall to request a product and to request information, when sales receives the information from operations department, they contact the customer to let them know how long it will take and if it could be made or not, and then a meeting is arranged in which the negotiate the product and its price. This is normally done by phone or Email, and then an organised meeting it is first done by phone or email so that Pascall can find out if the request can be done, if it can Pascalls sales department organises a meeting with the customer so that they can negotiate price and get any more information about the requested product from the customer.
Pascall have a few laws that they have to follow when dealing with employees, these are:
The Equal pay act requires Pascall to make sure employees with the same contract have to be paid the same salary, and get the same benefits as other employees from the opposite sex in the same job.
This means men and woman from any age have to have equal pay and benefits as each other, no matter what the age is.
The Equal Pay Act 1970 gives an individual a right to the same contractual pay and benefits as a person of the opposite sex in the same employment.
This act applies to women and men of any age, including children.
This applies to people who are employees in the sense required for some other employment rights, such as the right not to be unfairly dismissed, but also to other people who are engaged under a contract personally to execute work or labour.
- The Employment Rights act - 1996:
This law was set to stop employers from discriminating against an employee because of there sex.
Pascall cannot discriminate against a woman in any circumstances, therefore Pascall cannot:
- Treat a female employee less favorably than they would treat a male employee.
- Apply a requirement or a condition to a female employee that they would not apply to a male employee.
- Treat a male employee differently to a female employee because of his martial status.
Pascall cannot discriminate against a person according to there martial status, therefore Pascall cannot::
- Treat a married person less favourably than they would treat a person from the same sex that is single.
- Apply a requirement or condition to a married person that would not be required to a single person.
- The Sex Discrimination act – 1975 and 1986:
The Sex Discrimination act makes it unlawful for Pascall to discriminate or fail to prevent discrimination against an employee because of there sex or martial status.
The Sex Discrimination Act also makes it unlawful for Pascall, when choosing a candidate to give the job too, to discriminate because of there sex or because you're married. The law covers three areas:
- Pascall cannot allow gender or martial statuses to effect the decision of who should get the job that is being in Pascall when they are employing new employees.
- Pascall cannot apply different terms and conditions to a male that do not apply to a female, such as pay, holidays or working conditions.
- Pascall cannot deliberately not consider some bodies application form because of there gender or martial status.
Pascall cannot treat a worker less favorably than another worker in the same job because of there gender, this also means that Pascall cannot fire an employee from work because of there gender. Pascall also cannot give some body less opportunities than they would to some one from the opposite sex in the same job, this also includes employment and training or any other detriment.
The Race Relations Act 1976 makes in unlawful for Pascall to treat an employee less favorably because of their color, race, nationality or ethnic or national origins.
Pascall have to insure that no worker is treated less favorably than another in the same job on the grounds of his or her color, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins, this means that Pascall have to give the employee the same opportunities to all employees, and not dismiss them, deny there opportunities in training or promotion because of there race.
It is also unlawful for Pascall to separate workers or deliberately place them in particular groups based on there color, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins.
It is also unlawful under the act for Pascal to effect or allow unfavorable treatment of a worker because they have asserted their rights under race equality laws or have assisted some one else to do so.
Pascall also have to make sure none of there workers are racist to another employee that is from a different race or has different colored skin, this means that no employee in Pascall is allowed to racially harass, alarm, distress, abuse or insult another employee because of there race. This applies when such acts are racially motivated and can be grounds for a claim of constructive dismissal.
Pascall is responsible for unlawful acts of discrimination carried out by there employees in the business. However, Pascall may not be liable if they can prove that they took reasonable steps to prevent such actions.
Disability discrimination act 1995:
Pascall and all other businesses have to follow the same definition of a disabled person.
'he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities'.
Pascall need to ensure that they have full compliances with this legislation, in respect of:
- Recruitment: a candidate being disabled should not effect there chances of getting the job.
- Terms and conditions of employment: terms and conditions must be the same whether or not the person is disabled or not.
- Pensions: pensions must be equal if the employee is disabled or not.
- Dismissal: an employee is not allowed to be dismissed because they are disabled.
- Opportunities for promotion, transfer, training or receipt of other employment benefits; or refusal of them: an employee should not be refused to be promoted, transferred, not receive training or receipt of other employment benefits or refused of them because they are disabled.
- Long-term sickness: a disabled person must not be limited from long term sicknesses because of there case.
Pascall are obliged to make there business disabled friendly, meaning the business to have reasonable adjustments to allow disabled people to work. This is so that a disabled person can work in the same premises as a not disabled person with no disadvantages.
Examples of things Pascall do to make there business adjusted for disabled people to work in:
- Reallocating some of the disabled workers duties to some one else: some jobs for example like moving boxes or tools from one place to another are done by other employees if the disabled person cannot do so, this is because in the production department for example, some times the employee has to move an object from one place to another, if they are disabled and cannot do so, another employee is asked to do it for them.
- Altering a disabled persons hours of work: in some cases Pascall change the hours of work for some disabled people to give them time to leave the business, or arrive, for example if they cannot drive they give them time to get other ways of transport before starting hour and after the business closes for the day.
- Providing a reader or interpreter: sometimes if the disabled person cannot read for example, another employee is asked to read for him or her.
- Giving time off for therapy or rehabilitations: Pascall gives time of for disabled people to go for therapy or rehabilitation, this is because its not an option for the disabled person but its needed.
- Modifying instructions and reference manuals: Some manuals need editing, this is because they a disabled person could not do the steps for example, so Pascall would change the manual to suit a disabled person to, or make a new one for the disabled employees.
- Modifying procedures for testing or assessment: some tests or assessments cannot be carried out by disabled people if they are physical so they would be modified so the disabled person can take part in a different way or the disabled person does not have to join in.
- Assigning a disabled worker to a different place of work: sometimes Pascall change the area of were the disabled worker is meant to work, this is so its easier for the disabled worker to access, or escape if there a fire, for example if a worker is working at the top floor of the Pascall, then in some cases Pascall would move them to the ground floor so they could easily access there work space.
Recent court ruling have decided businesses like Pascall are not required to provide reasonable adjustments if the employer does not know and cannot reasonably be expected to know that the person concerned has a disability or finds that disability a ‘substantial disadvantage’. But if the employee has a high level of sickness, and informs Pascall of the disability, and help Pascall identify the appropriate adjustment to assist the employee in work.
National minimum wage act 1998:
All businesses including Pascall have to pay the minimum wage, which is set by the government, the wage is £5.05 per hour (will be increased to £5.35 in October this year) for people who are aged 22+. For employees that are aged 18-21 years, the minimum wage is £4.25 per hour (will be increased to £4.45 in October this year).
Pascall have to provide the following information to the employees of the business:
- General information on the national minimum wage rates and exemptions
- Information on the worker's right to access records if they suspect underpayment.
Additionally, non-hours workers are entitled to information regarding:
- The number of ascertained hours worked
- The amount of total payments toward the national minimum wage
Pascall also have to keep records sufficient to establish that there employees are receiving at least the National minimum wage.
For many of Pascalls employees there pay would be much higher than the National Minimum Wage, but for those that are near the national minimum wage, the following details should be recorded:
- The identity of the worker: name, date of birth, location…etc
- The amount of any deductions or reductions: amount of cash taken off or paid extra to there salary.
- Payments not part of the national minimum wage calculations: payments that are not included in the national minimum wage.
- Total amount of national minimum wage pay: the total amount of money paid to the employee which is the national minimum wage.
- Total amount of hours worked or ascertained hours or absences: total hours that the employee worked including the amount of time they missed.
- National minimum wage rate the worker is entitled to: the amount of money that the employee is meant to receive.
- Copy of agreements on training or ascertained hours: copy of any agreements made by the employer and employee for training or ascertained hours.
- Any benefits received by the worker: any extra benefits that the worker received.
- Any absences e.g. Rest breaks, sick leave, holidays: all absences.
- Travel during working hours: time it takes for the employee to travel to Pascall.
- Proof of payment e.g. Bank statements: a document that proves payment to the employee.
The employee has a right to view these records and to view how many hours that they worked in the pass 14 days if they believe that they were not paid for the correct amount of hours.
Pascall must make the records easy to collate and must be kept for at least 3 years. These are normally kept on a computer database at Pascall.
Date Protection act 1998:
Pascall must handle data with 8 principles, these are:
- Pascall must process data Fairly and lawfully.
- Pascall may only keep the data for limited purposes and not in any manner incompatible with those purposes.
- The data Pascall handle must be adequate, relevant and not excessive.
- All data Pascall handle must be accurate.
- Pascall may not keep data for longer than is necessary.
- Pascall must make sure all data is in line with the data subject's rights.
- Pascall must make sure all there data that is stored is secure.
- Pascall must not transfer data to another country without adequate protection.
Pascall must not handle any employees data unless one of these conditions are met:
- The employee has given his or her consent.
- The data is necessary for the performance of a contract with the employee.
- The data is required under a legal obligation;
- The processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the individual;
- The processing is necessary to carry out public functions;
- The processing is necessary in order to pursue the legitimate interests of the data controller or third parties (unless it could prejudice the interests of the individual).
I have inserted above two organizational charts, first is from McDonalds in Newport, the second is from the business I am investigating, Pascall.
The first thing that I noticed that is different between them is that there are many more chains of command in Pascalls organizational chart, this is because there are more Functional areas in Pascall that there is in McDonalds, and Pascall also have many more employees.
Both Pascalls organizational chart and McDonalds have the same type of organizational chart, hierarchical structure, this means that when for example the RF Divisional manager in Pascall (top right in the chart) wants to communicate with the RF Sales manager, the message will have to go through RF Engineering, then to the RF production supervisor & Team leader, then onto the RF Test/Repair supervisor & Team leader then finally gets to the RF Sales Manager. This process can be slow and can breakdown easily, if any of the people between the RF Division manager and the RF Sales manager have a technical difficulty the message would not be received until the problem is fixed.
McDonalds have the same problem but because they do not have as many chains of command, therefore a message would be received faster and there would be less chance of it not being successful.
The employees in Pascall also have a larger span of controller than the employees in McDonalds, because as you can see for example the production manager has span of control of 8 employees, but the manager in McDonalds has only the span of control over 7 employees.
I used a lot of evidence in this peace of coursework, the ways I got the evidence I needed from:
1- our class had a tour round Pascall and the whole class received 12 pages which included an overview of Pascalls business, information on the products Pascall made, the company profile, a chart of Pascalls products, accreditations that Pascall received, the vision statement, business information on the number of employees, location, turnover for 2002-2003 and last and not least the leaflet included an organizational chart.
2- I also browsed the site at the start of this unit to find out what Pascall actually did.
3- I phoned up the business a couple of times to get information on the aims and objectives, and how they protected there employees.
4- I also went on trading standards website to get information to help me on my equal opportunities task.
5- I emailed McDonalds to request an organizational chart so I could compare it with Pascalls.
6- browsed Pascalls website again to find out what types of customer service they offer there customers.