There are ways of filling vacancies within the organisation these come with both advantages and disadvantages they could be things like other members of staff doing overtime to fill the position. Sometimes you can also reconstruct the work that is been done to suit the numbers of staff doing that job at any one time. A good way of filling a vacancy quick and sometimes for a short period of time is recruiting part time staff, and weekend staff this would be people like students who have the weekend spare from studying. In which they can work and is very common in the business trade and is becoming more increasingly common among teenagers.
There are two ways of finding people to fill a vacancy, which are recruiting internally and externally. Recruiting internally is when a member of staff within the organisation fills the position. External recruitment is when staff are recruited by placing adverts in newspapers and in shop windows and a member of the public applies for the position.
The main benefits of recruiting internally are that a business with a reputation for internal advancement will find it easier to motivate staff also it will attract better candidates for the job if they see a future career there. The business will not have not have to rely upon external references for applicants the accurate information will be available from heads of departments. Also internal candidates know the business and what is expected of them where as new starters wont and take a while to adjust.
Some disadvantages of recruiting internally are when filling a vacancy internally you then have another vacancy to fill. People that are promoted internally are expected to pick up the new job in an unreasonable short time. Successful candidates might suffer from role conflict where they are now senior to the people they used to work with as equals.
There are many different stages involved in the recruitment process these include job analysis, job description, person specification and job evaluation.
A job analysis is a study of what the job entails this is normally carried out by the human resource department. This will include what skill may be needed; the training involved and tasks that need to be carried out within this job.
A detailed analysis of the job may involve questioning the current jobholder using observational techniques.
There are a number of questions that can be asked like:
- Would there be any specialist technical skills required
- Does the jobholder have to work with others or control they way things are done.
- What is the limitation of the job holders work
A job description is something that follows a job analysis and is the summary of the job analysis. It contains the tasks of the job i.e. the principal duties and the main duties of the job. A job description would also include things like:
- Salary
- How many hours you will work
- Duties
- Who you are responsible to
Other things that might be included in this would be
- The title of the post applied for. This is one of the most important parts of a job description it gives a good indcation of what the job entails.
- Position within the organisational structure. A job description will more often than not state where in the organisation you are established and give a clear description of responsibilities.
- Sources of supervision and guidance.
- Responsibilities for assets etc. it is important to set out the range of physical assets and materials the person will be responsible for. This will give both employer and employee knowledge of what there is and how to use it.
- The roles and duties of the employee within the organisation. This is important because it helps the applicant get a clear picture of what is expected of them and help understand the priorities of there work.
A person specification is something that describes the characteristics and attributes, which a person needs to be able to do the job that is required of them. Some key points that is included in a person specification are:
- Personal attributes and achievements. This is how the right person for the job is chosen.
- Qualification. They show the employer what you are capable of and give them an insight as to what you ability is. Some organisations will want to consider the level of qualifications held by the applicant.
- Experience. This will state any previous employment and any other experiences you have had. People who have had experience in a particular job will be able to develop their skills further or train someone else.
A job evaluation is something that is used to compare different jobs. All jobs have a number of factors such as skills, responsibility, knowledge and tasks. Based on the value of the job and what is involved organisations can decide on a salary for that applicant. Job evaluations have become more popular within organisations and are related to performance pay. A job evaluation sets the pay bands within an organisation. Job evaluation is really about an organisation assessing the value of one job in relation to another this is without regard to the person’s ability or the personality of the individual currently holding the position. This results in a pay range for each job. An individuals personal worth is recognised by awarding increments within the fixed range for that job.
There are some points that a business must remember:
- Job evaluation is not just about the job
- It enables organisations to set a different reward scheme like pay for performance.
- Only the wages is determined not anything such as incentives.
Job evaluations can be costly for a business but are useful. But a number of jobs are still underpaid or in some cases overpaid.
Job adverts are used to fill vacancies within a business they are a very important part of the recruitment process. Businesses communicate with a wide variety of external sources in order to find the right applicant to fill a position. The nature of the advert will depend upon who the target audience is i.e. potential managing director, supervisor and operatives. Also where the advert is to be placed this is important in order to receive the right applicants for the job. You would advertise in things like in the local newspaper or on a notice board within the organisation or at the local job centre.
Things that would be included in a job advert are:
- Job title. This would form the main heading and show the person interested what the job is.
- Job description. This should highlight the major requirements of the job and what it would include.
- Organisational activities and marketplace. There is sometimes a brief description of the environment in which the organisation operates.
- Location. Applicants would need to know the location of the organisation and the location of the job incase they are different.
- Salary expectations. The figures are not always shown and necessary on a job advert. But an indication of a basic salary should be shown.
- Qualifications. Certain jobs require a minimum entrance qualification, which should be clearly stated on the job advert.
- Experience. This should be quantified, as this will have a bearing on the expected salary level for the job.
- Fringe benefits. Sometimes the organisation may wish to mention a company car or a health insurance scheme.
- Organisational identity. This may be in the form of a logo or something that represents the company. Or simply just the name of the organisation.
A good job advert provides candidates with helpful information while it discourages the other applicants from people who do not have the qualifications.
The job advertisement for the city of Sunderland College has many features for willing applicants such as:
Name of the organisation – City Of Sunderland College
Job title/position – Administrative assistant
Salary – Scale 2 £12,381 -£12,981
Workable hours – Permanent position 37 hours per week.
Qualifications – this includes a minimum of a NVQ level 2 in administration or equivalent to.
Experience – would need previous administrative experience, highly motivated and have a high level of word processing and data input skills. Would also need knowledge of spreadsheets. Applicants have to be accurate and organised also with a flexible and positive attitude.
Closing date – Thursday 13 November 2004
Address and contact – Telephone (0191) 551 6046 (24 hour answer phone), email quoting job title and reference number.
The City of Sunderland College includes all of these things in their job description this is because they want the applicants to know what the job is all about.
Strengths
It is a short advert but has most information included. It provides the applicants with full knowledge of the position and what the job will entail and how to contact them. Provides the applicants with information and job requirements. It is set out clearly with the company logo and headed points.
Weaknesses
The advert does lack some information and although the information is highlighted the information on the experience needed and qualifications could have a heading. Not very eye-catching for future applicants.
There can be a few things added to make this advert stand out from others adverts on the page this is placed. Things like more colour and sub headed better to make the information more clear to applicants. It could have the address of the organisation and a location of the job or on what department.
The success of the business depends upon getting the right person for the job. It is important that expertise should be deployed to achieve this goal. Businesses with an effective recruitment process gather information with a variety of means, from application forms to testing and weighing the evidence very carefully against the person specification before giving a decision as to which applicant will be appointed for the job.
Recruitment and selection are a costly and time consuming practice and it is essential that an organisation implement a way of evaluating its effectiveness and success. Recruitment success should be determined by every stage of the process.
The Labour turnover rate can be used to indicate strengths and weaknesses in the recruitment process. Getting the recruitment policy right can lead to significant improvements in the organisations performance.
Effective selection is very important because without employees the organisation would not be able to function properly. Using effective selection would mean that customers and staff are happy and good customer care is used and better service is given. It is better to find the right person for the job the first time around because it also costs money to recruit staff. Most organisations will also find achieving the objectives easier if they had the right staff for the job.
As with my chosen business the City of Sunderland College if they did not recruit the right staff the first time it would be very costly not only to the business because of the money but also because it will take longer to find someone to fill the position. They might also have to spend quite some time on advertising and maybe changing the adverts to attract certain people that might fit the job.
Application forms
This is very important when recruiting staff that you try and find out as much as you can about that individual and what they could bring to your business. Businesses spend a lot of time and effort in recreating application forms so that they can get as much relevant information as possible.
The City Of Sunderland College spend a lot of time creating and changing application forms so that it is understandable and you can get the best answers and some people shine when you read application forms sometimes just because of the layout and how analytical they are.
Testing
Testing is becoming increasingly popular with businesses they are not as personal as application forms in the way that they do not as you personal questions it could be a test of your knowledge or how well you know a product that you might be selling. This could be a good way of recruiting new staff because you can find out how much they know about the business and about the job that they could be doing.
The City Of Sunderland College also sometimes uses this method to give presentations or lectures to students to see how well they do under pressure. This would also be a good idea to see how well the person gets on with the students and if they use a professional manner.
Rogers 7-point plan
This plan is one of the most commonly used and a way of producing a person specification. The “7 point plan” by Alec Rogers is used by picking out seven of the more specific characteristics, which are or could be:
1.General intelligence
2. Attainments – like GCSE’s or a-levels
3. Special attributes
4. Interests/hobbies
5. Circumstances e.g. married have any children or age etc
6. Do they have any disabilities of any kind
7.Health and appearance there physique
Munro-frasers 5-point plan
This is another common way of developing a person specification using the munro-fraser 5-point plan.
- Adjustment such as emotional stability, ability to stand up to stress and ability to get on with people.
- Innate abilities such as natural quickness of comprehension and attitude to learning and work
- Motivation meaning the kinds of goals set by the individual, his or her consistency or determination in following them up and success in achieving them.
- Impact on others meaning their appearance, speech and manner.
- Acquired qualifications if any meaning education, vocational training, work experience.
The City Of Sunderland College have developed there own person specification depending on the jobs they advertise for and what qualifications they might be looking for in a person. The can do this by looking at the existing person specifications and implementing a few of there own points to fit the different types of job roles on offer.
Training and development is very important to the business and employees alike. This is because if employees want the chance to do well and get promotion they have to be trained in the job and develop to fill a higher position within the organisation.
The City Of Sunderland College uses training and development to keep staff happy and up to date on the knowledge they need to teach with. Staff at the college are given 6 days off for training and development and are very much encouraged to attend every course, which relates to the job that they do and the way they do this.
The purpose of induction is to help new staff within an organisation settle in or feel more welcome. They also get to know the staff they will be working with. An induction programme is not about the specific job a new member of staff will be doing but showing new staff how the business works and any other information they might need to know. Like fire procedures where to go, who to contact and where the fire exits are.
Some points, which might be covered in induction, are:
- The organisations history, development, management and activities.
- Personnel policies
- Terms of employment including disciplinary rules and union arrangements.
- Employee benefits and services
- Physical facilities
- General nature of the work to be done.
- The role of the work supervisor
- Departmental rules and safety measures.
- The relationship of new jobs to others.
Some induction’s may differ slightly from others and may also contain
- A detailed description of employees jobs
- Introduction to fellow workers
- Explanations of the values that the business feels are important, such as good attendance.
Even with all these point’s indication takes a lot of time and planning. If an induction is planned properly the time in which it takes to deliver the induction can be halved and this can reduce the costs to the organisation by up to two-thirds. Although to do this, the programme must focus on the anxieties of the new employees, instead of on what it is thought they should be told.
The benefits of induction to my business are it can cut the cost of recruitment if there is a good induction, a good induction can be a motivational factor for new staff. Induction can be used as an introduction to the benefits of training and development. Also another benefit is that induction’s can have a beneficial effect on existing staff particularly on the team in which the new member of staff will be working. Induction’s can also make contributions to quality initiatives such as “investors in people”.
The purpose of induction within my business The City Of Sunderland College is to introduce newly appointed staff, as cost effectively as possible to the college and their role by explaining:
- The college strategic plan
- What standards the college expects of its staff
- Colleges relationships with the students and the external community.
- How to carry out their job roles as defined in the job description.
Within my business there are three different parts to the induction programme to my chosen business. They are welcomed into the business, get shown the particular department they will be working on then they will get different talks from people around the college. Things that are most likely to be talked about are the different rules and regulations in and around the college. Also in induction it is to be emphasised that staff appraisal is a positive and developmental process but separate from the issues of promotion and competence, which are delt with in separate ways. Also this process will operate on a yearly basis. The staff appraisal process within City Of Sunderland College will extend to staff at all levels in the organisation.
There are also two different forms to be filled in when on induction this is stage one and two of the induction it is almost like a check list to make sure everything has been covered in the induction and that all details are correct.
Training includes all forms of planned learning experiences and activities designed to make positive changes to performances and behaviour. These could be things like acquisition of new knowledge; skills, beliefs, values and attitudes learning can be defined as “a relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of practice or experience.
Training can be broken down into a number of different elements:
Traditional training – This training promotes learning of specific facts and content. This enables improvement in the job performance, such as technical skills training.
Education – This is the process of acquiring knowledge, skills and understanding, this is usually is schools, colleges or university’s.
Vocational education – This is somewhere between educational and traditional training. This can be something like apprenticeship training.
Management training – These are activities designed to improve managerial competence.
Organisational training – This is concerned with activities designed to change the way in which individuals operate within an organisation. E.g. to help staff work better with the changing culture of the organisation, this could be through teamwork and development.
The aims of training are to help staff develop the skills needed to take the job one step further. This gives the employee a chance to develop and have a chance at promotion. This also affects the organisation because the more highly trained the staff are the better customer service will be and staff will have a better knowledge of products and their work.
There are a number of different benefits from organisations using training for staff both new and old:
- With effectiveness training this should improve the competitiveness of the organisation, as well as improving on productivity and customer service
- Training costs less in the long run than recruiting fully trained workers from outside the organisation.
- Training programmes create the “right attitude” in employees, and the attitude you take is just as important as knowledge and skills.
- The long-term benefits of training courses outweigh the short-run costs for all sorts of reasons, such as higher morale, higher skill and knowledge levels, lower labour turnover and reduce recruitment costs.
- Many of the organisations employees are keen to engage in training because they see it as adding to their own motivation and enjoyment of work.
It also has a knock on effect to the organisation because staff morale will be boosted and there will be more productivity and staff will have better knowledge of products. The organisation can also benefit from there staff being trained because this will speed up the work that is being done if the staff have been trained to that certain job.
On the job training is where staff are trained while they are in their new working environment. Many people enjoy the direct link that is made with on the job training. Staff can see more clearly hoe relevant the training or development is to the performance of that particular job.
Of the job training is where staff are trained by attending courses and events. These can be held at a college or a training centre but are away from the workplace. Sometimes training facilities can be in and around the workplace but in this case staff will be trained out of work hours. This kind of training is important to an employee’s career and development as well as being an integral part of a training programme.
It is important for organisations to evaluate training because if training is not done to a certain standard then the staff of the organisation won’t benefit fully from this training. It is also important because managers need to know what staff have learnt from the experience and how they can put things they have learnt into practice.
In most organisations they expect their staff to take an active role in their own training and staff development. This makes up a key part of the appraisal scheme. Each employee within an organisation will have a confidential interview with his or her managers this usually happens every six month. The things that will be included in this would be the work the employee has done well during the year also areas where the employee feels less confident and identifies where future training may be useful. These are all included within the appraisal scheme. This can be a chance for the employee to make a positive contribution to his or her own self-development and there future prospects. A positive manager should listen carefully to the employee and help address any problems they might have. In most cases the employees future ambitions will be linked to the aims and objectives of the organisation.
This is how the organisation will benefit from highly trained staff and an employee will benefit from being highly trained and be able to do a wider range of jobs within the organisation. They will also be able to apply for better-paid jobs; this would make more staff interested in there own self-development. Self-development is more than being “expected” to be trained; it makes the employee want to continually improve their skills. These activities are often called “CV enhancing activities” these can include:
- Keeping up to date with IT development and learning new software packages.
- Developing teamwork and skills and learning how to be a productive member of a team.
- Continually improve presentations and communicating skills.
- Learning a new language
- Developing numeracy skills and analytical skills.
Performance management is the efficient process of monitoring the results of activities, collecting and analysing performance information to track progress toward planning and training. Performance management also involves assisting managers and supervisors in establishing, maintaining and monitoring effective performance management programmes. This is to plan, monitor, develop, rate and reward employee performance and services. The services support formal and informal award programmes to provide employee incentives and recognition. You have to perform at a consistently higher level than others. That’s the mark of a true professional.
It also includes activities to ensure that goals are consistently being met in an effective manner. Performance management can focus on performance of the organisation, a department, process to build a product or service, employees etc. To set goals then achieve and surpass them is the key to every forward thinking company. Performance management can significantly improve the probability of reaching corporate objectives by qualifying and measuring the impact made by individuals and teams, and responding to the results gained. Successful performance management solutions combine every fact of this important process including the development of the most appropriate communication platform for recipients and the training of key staff to deliver constructive feedback systems.
Appraisal systems
An appraisal system is when a member of staff meets with there manager to talk about there progress and there strengths and weaknesses within the line of work they are doing.
Businesses can use appraisals to:
- Improve on performance.
- Increase motivation.
- Provide feedback.
- Identify training needs.
- Set out job objectives.
- Award salary increase.
- Identify potential for promotion.
- Assess the effectiveness of the selection process.
Appraisals normally take place when the employee has worked for the business for a certain length of time. The problem with having all these aims is that the person who is carrying out the appraisal might have conflicting roles. In some appraisals they are designed to help performance and act as a basis for salary awards, this would mean that the appraiser would have to both judge and helper at the same time. This may make the worker feel cautious about what they say incase they jeopardise any possible pay rises. One way to solve this is to work the system around the performance of the employee only.
Many of the appraisal systems have been linked to performance appraisals. This would normally involve observing, measuring and developing the performance of employees. The performance of the employee can be measured against criteria’s such as output, quality and speed. Organisations like City of Sunderland College use appraisal systems because they help to give managers an idea of how their employee is doing and what their performance is like. Appraisals are very useful because you can tell if employees are putting an effort in and helping the business to meet its objectives or not. It is also useful for the employee because they can keep a record of their progress and see what they can improve on and what they have been doing well. Staff at the college the will receive an appraisal preparation form to fill in this would help the appraisee prepare for his or her appraisal.
Motivation theories
Abraham maslows hierarchy of needs theory
Abraham Maslow said that all motivation comes from meeting unsatisfied needs. He stated that there was a ranking of needs, which must be achieved in order from bottom to top like a pyramid see diagram below.
Once one need is satisfied it ceases to motivate and the next higher need “up the pyramid” comes into play. This will mean that higher level needs will have more value than the ones at the bottom. Abraham’s theory is that ahance to be everything they wanted to be e.g. the employee might of dreamt that they would be the boss of the company they are working for.
Maslow described this as a pyramid of needs, which motivated employees throughout their working lives.
Douglas McGregor
Theory X and Y
McGregor’s theory is that managers made sweeping generalisations about the people who worked within the business. They would either put all their employees into a theory X category or a theory Y category these are two management styles.
Theory X
This is a theory that states that all employees are lazy, unambitious and dislike extra responsibilities. They will always resist change of any kind and are totally uninterested in the future success or otherwise their employer. They are not interested in how the organisation works and just prefer to be told what to do.
Theory Y
This is just the opposite. Employees are interested in their work and want to be asked for their opinions on how to improve things. They want to be given more responsibility and will naturally work hard without having to be told what to do all the time. They also prepared to accept change because they understand it is in everyone’s best interests to move with the times.
McGregor said that all workplaces fell under one or two other headings – theory X and theory Y. Theory X meaning that employees are lazy and must be forced to work hard. Theory Y being more positive and meaning that employees want to work and assumes that employees will naturally work hard and are highly motivated.
Frederick Taylor
Scientific management
Taylor worked in the USA as a factory superintendent. He studied that people received employment because they had family or friends working in the business and not because they were any good at the job. Employees did not work hard because they thought it would throw some of their friends out of work.
Taylor said that the following ideas would improve matters:
Only money would motivate employees to work harder
Properly trained managers should run organisations and supervise employees
Employees should be properly trained
Employees should be selected properly
Many organisations still operate Taylorism, even in the richer countries but there has been long recognition that employees want more from their jobs than job security and good pay. Other writers have developed more complex theories about what motivates people at work.
Taylor’s definition for the accurate measurement of the main elements of a job so that the employee can then be trained to do it efficiently.
Frederick Herzberg
Two factor theory
Herzberg devised his “motivation-hygiene” theory, which stated that two groups of factors affect employee motivation. He said that certain elements in a job motivate people to work harder. Herzberg called these elements satisfiers.
They include:
Achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement and personal growth and the actual work itself. Other elements, which do not motivate people to work harder, are called hygiene factors. They include:
Pay conditions, status in the organisation, job security, benefits (pensions, company cars etc), relationships with fellow employees, the quality of the organisations managers.
Herzberg’s key point was that hygiene factors do not motivate but if they are not very good then the satisfier will not motivate them either.
Herzberg argued that certain factors called “satisfiers” motivate people to work hard whereas others called “hygiene” factors create the basic environment in which they work.
The City of Sunderland College is influenced by theories of motivation throughout the training programme. Abraham Maslow’s theory relates more to the college, by using the pyramid (hierarchical) structure. This is because they are following Maslow’s guidelines to help with the training and development of staff to run smoothly. The employee will have already met the first elements at the bottom of the scale this will make it easier for the employer to fill.
Recruitment and selection and performance management may come into some conflict because both of the departments may have found that they have decided on different expectations in terms of the employees. This could mean that it takes time coming to any agreements and advertisements.
There can be many different potential areas of conflict within a business as with all businesses conflict can arise in all aspects of the business. The recruitment and selection teams choosing the right people to fill a vacancy could avoid this conflict. People with the right skills and qualifications for that particular job also someone who is keen to do the job and enthusiastic. There could be some conflict between recruitment and selection and training and development this would be because people could be recruited with the wrong skills needed so training and development would have to use up there resources to correct this problem and re train staff.
Staff that work in performance management will be in conflict with recruitment and selection because staff that are not trained in the right way or do not fit the job will not be performing to the best of there ability in the work place. If new staff are not trained correctly for the job that they are doing this could have a knock on affect with recruitment and selection, because if staff are not trained correctly they will not be able to perform and new staff will have to be recruited and the process will start again. Training and recruiting staff cost a lot of money and can cost the business more and more each time. All the departments coming together and helping each other can avoid this.
Other departments that may cause conflict between each other human resource planning and recruitment and selection this could be because the human resource planning could calculate a number of people needed to fill vacancies. Recruitment and selection in turn will arrange interviews with hopeful recruits. Human resource planning might have calculated wrong and need more or staff to fill vacancies meaning this would cost more money and conflict between both departments.
Also they may be conflict between performance management and training and development departments. This may be because the training and development departments are not training new staff properly in relation to the way performance management would like them to. If staff feels that they are not receiving the training that they need to full fill the job they are doing this could cause conflict between training and development and recruitment and selection. This would mean that time and money will have to be spent on recruiting more staff.
