The small increase in the youngest age group (16-24) was not a lot of help to Boots as most of the people will be in further education thus making them only available for working part time hours and not full time. Although this was a hindrance, these younger people could be employed over the holiday periods, especially the summer when all the mothers who are employed will want time off to spend with their children.
Destination of Year 11 Pupils
% Of age group
West Wales Swansea
Further Education 75 73
Trainees 7 6
Employment 7 9
Unemployed 7 8
Unrecorded 4 4
As you cam see from the table of results on the previous page, Swansea had a slightly small percentage of 16 year olds heading into further education but this was only a very small difference and the results were still very high. There are not many possible full time recruits from this age group for any company. However, there is a high possibility that there will be plenty of part time summer workers available in this age group.
The higher employment figures suggest that Swansea is a low wage area. Boots in Swansea pay form the Zone 1 wages, however, the Boots in the quadrant in Swansea pay the higher Zone 2 wages to their employees.
Average Gross Weekly Earnings
Full time employees
West Wales £357
Swansea £351
Wales £353
Great Britain £400
This table above states the average weekly earnings of full time employees in the stated areas. As you can see, Great Britain has the highest weekly earnings, which is almost £50 above the rest. This is because these areas pay form the higher Zone areas, as there is a higher demand for workers. Swansea has the lowest weekly earnings at £351, this is mainly because most of the employment areas are paying employees with the Zone 1 wages.
Boots has used labour market information to help them in their Manpower planning. It has helped them in the following ways:
They now realise that more women want part time jobs. In the Swansea area there has been a large amount of job losses in the manufacturing section and this has particularly affected male employment.
One interesting result that was found was that although men in the 40+ age group are not keen to work in the service sector in Boots, their wives are anxious to the supplement the family income. Therefore, Boots do not recruit form this group.
Boots have discovered that they are more likely to get part time flexible workers from the women with school age children. They can now recognise that there are a number of women who want part time shifts to fit around the hours of the school.
Boots solve the problem of the summer holidays, when these part time women do not want to work as their children are off school by recruiting more 16-18 year olds, who are looking for extra cash in the holidays.
Very few 16 year olds want full time jobs, but many of them want part time jobs, particularly after the exams! And in the summer holidays!
Boots are aware that other competitive firms are taking on workers and that an increasing percentage of workers are employed in the services.
SWANSEA
Employment sector % share 1997 actual 2003 predicted
Agriculture 4.7 4.9
Mining 0.5 0.5
Manufacturing 15.2 12.8
Utilities 0.3 0.2
Construction 7.4 6.9
Distribution and Hotels 22.4 23.3
Transport 4.9 5.2
Other Market Services 10.6 11.5
Non Market Services 34 34.8
This is why they try very hard to hard to keep their labour turnover low by giving their workforce good working conditions.
Boots will be especially interested in the following figures:
- Predicted that the demand for workers to work in retailing will grow in the next four years from 18% to 20%. This means there will be pressure on Boots to find workers and keep their workers.
- 29% of Swansea workers -female part time
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27% of Swansea workers -female full time
56% - the majority of workers are women
- 7% of Swansea workers - male part time
-37% of Swansea workers - male full time
Boots tend to plan to take on women, as they want part time (flexible) workers.
Pupils at 16
- 47% follow on from school and go to college
- 25% stay on at school to carry out A-Levels
72%
- 27% of the 16-year-olds left will go straight into work.
Boots realise they can recruit for young workers although they try to recruit females between the ages of 24-44 because they are more flexible and there are more women available to work flexible hours than men. Many of the part time women working at Boots during the week tend to be mothers who like to work around school hours.
Boots have focused on recruiting a more flexible workforce.
They do not need 9-5 workers, as much as they need people to do shifts such as 11-2 or 4-6. They want to have workers there when the customers are. This therefore encourages them to take on
- 16-18 year olds – Weekends/evenings/summer
- Women with small children who want to work around the school hours – 11-2.
Recruitment is going to be the area that I will look at in depth.
Nearly every Business/organisation in the world will have to recruit new employees at one time or another. There are many reasons for recruiting new staff including some of the ones I have listed below:
- Business growth – expansion in number of branches.
- Changes in structure – Downsizing management, giving workers on the shop floor more responsibility.
- Introduction of new products – E.G - Optician
- New technology – Introduction of touch screen computers, thus giving customers advice on products.
- Existing workers retiring or resigning or being dismissed
Recruitment is a very costly process for a business to carry out. The direct and indirect costs are very expensive. Each aspect of recruiting a new employee is expensive. If a worker leaves after just a few weeks, the process will start again, the business would have lost money and would have to carry out the whole process again. If a new employee has a poor performance and a low output this could effect the workforce morale and therefore downgrade the quality of customer service. If a new employee is not already trained, the company will have to spend considerable amounts of money on training and developing the new recruit. If a person is inflexible, it can put a strain on the business, as they may not be able to cover all the duties needed to be covered. Therefore getting the recruitment right first time is essential for Boots.
The stages of the recruitment process.
A business will need to carry out a number of duties in order to recruit a new employee, these include:
Write a job description – This is written after a thorough job analysis has been undertaken This will have to include information such as, the title of the job, a list of responsibilities and duties that will need to be fulfilled by the new recruit (these could be daily duties, monthly or even yearly duties). It helps the personnel officers to decide on the qualities that successful candidates will need. This is essentially important as it helps the business to decide how and where to recruit for workers e.g. – if a high level of skill is needed, they will look at their local labour market and decide whether to look there or on a wider scale. A job description also helps in performance management as they can look at what the employee is supposed to be doing, and can judge their performance on this. In flexible jobs such as those employed by McDonalds, employees are expected to know about every job role in the business and be able to stand in for any person at any time. The job descriptions for this type of job will be a lot different to others, they will need people who can pick up new skills quickly and easily and who can remember each separate job.
At Boots, the job description is used in the process of appraisals as a checklist to see how workers are getting on.
Write a person specification – once the duties and responsibilities for a particular job have been established in the job description, they will next have to create a personal specification. This shows the skills, qualifications, aptitudes and abilities that a person will have, to be successful in the job. It will list those essential features and may list additional qualities that may be useful in the job role.
A shop assistant a Boots requires:
- No formal qualifications.
- Must be able to communicate well with customers.
- Must be a good team member.
- Able to communicate using written English
Some of these qualities will be checked when Boots short list people for a job. They will look carefully at how the application form has been completed.
Appendix one is a copy of a generic job description, similar to the one used by Boots.
This job description is a similar to one used by Boots. It is a one-page description of what the employee will need to do and tasks they will need to carry out. The description states the number of hours the employee will be needed to work in a week and states the kind of shift patterns the person may be wanted to work.
The description is plain and short but effective. It gets the key points across and helps the applicant understand what will be required of them
It is helpful not only to the applicant but to the line manager, as he/she will use it to review the worker and to see if he/she is fulfilling the tasks that are needed to be done.
Job description and personal specifications often get mixed up but they are very different. A job description gives a firm description of the job that is needed to be filled, whereas, a personal specification is an Idea of the person that the employer is looking for e.g.- happy but hard working.
If a firm decides to recruit form inside the business (internally) it can save the business a large amount of money, there will also be many advantages of this, including the fact that you already know all the employees inside the business, so it will be easier to decide who can fill in the job role, it gives the employees inside the company a fair chance to further their career and this motivates them and makes them loyal, this can also decrease labour turnover. The internal employees will already know a lot about the company and its cultures and procedures.
However, the disadvantages could be that there may not be a suitable candidate for the job from inside the company. Also after promoting one employee, they will need someone to fill in their old job and at the end of this process, it could leave a gap which may need to be filled from outside. They would find it easier to find someone to fill a ‘basic’ job. The business will suffer from a lack of new ideas from outside the business, which could cause the business to fall in the market. Also there could be arguments between people from the inside who are all in competition with each other to gain the promotion. Generally though, firms like Boots prefer to promote from existing workers.
Decide where and how to look for candidates-a company must decide carefully where to place their advertisement and what sort of people they want to attract for the jobs. This depends on what sort of job is needed to be done. If there are a number of checkout operator jobs available, they may advertise it through a local newspaper or using the job centre. However, if the job requires someone with a higher level of skill, like a manager, the will look on a wider scale using processes such as the Internet and broad sheets so to cover a wider area market. This is a very costly process as just a small advert in a local newspaper can cost anything up to £100. Advertising on the Internet is more efficient and cost worthy than a newspaper as it gets to more people around the world. They will need to decide carefully where to put this as it will cost to keep the advertisement up or displayed. They will need to think of a specific place where many people can see it.
At Boots, their main recruitment periods are October and May.
In October they recruit for the Christmas period – in the Swansea store they have to recruit 80 temporary workers.
Boots advertise: -
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In store - using posters and flyers, hoping that word and mouth would get people to apply. (see page 15 and appendix)
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In national newspapers – The Mirror – a large advert indicating that all local Boots stores were taking on workers and stating that interested people should contact their local branch.
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Internet – Boots only use this form of advertising to recruit managers. But there is also an advert about the summer and winter vacancies and asks people to contact their local branch
There are many other ways of recruiting people externally including:
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Commercial employment agencies – These are not used by Boots but are used by many other large retail stores
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Job centres – This is free for a business to advertise and the job centre often do all the work for the business, by handing out application forms and preparing candidates for interviews. Boots use their own application form and make little use of Job Centres.
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Headhunting - The main advantage of this process is that a business can directly approach someone with a known specialism. This is especially useful for employers who are not already experienced in a specialist field. However, there is a large disadvantage that comes with headhunting, this is the cost.
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Careers service – As well as providing careers advice to young people and adults, the careers service also gather information on local job vacancies and inform their clients about these vacancies. This is a free service for businesses and is a great way of recruiting new employees.
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The milkround – this involves company spokespersons visiting universities around the country with the aim of trying to recruit new employees. The main advantage of this is that it provides easy access to candidates of graduate standard. This process is also fairly economical and doesn’t cost too much for companies to do this regularly. There are some drawbacks regarding milkrounds however, often the interviewees are only inquiring about the jobs available and the interview schedules can be very tiring and time consuming.
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National press – This involves placing adverts in the national press such as the “Daily Mail”, this process will cover a wider area of the national market and will attract more candidates. Although this is a great way of advertising, it is a very costly process and often can cost up to £2,000 for just a small advert in the centre of the paper. Boots advertise using The Mirror and The Express, but only when they are recruiting for the Christmas staff in October.
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Local press – If a business is only looking for employees from their local labour market, they will often advertise using the local newspapers. This is a great way to get a lot of recruits, local newspapers are often very popular and the job will soon be filled. However, even though it is only a local paper, this can also be very expensive, and a small advert on the front of a local newspaper can cost as much as £100. Boots do not use this type of advertising but the many stores like Wilkinson and Safeway use this form as they find it attracts many of the local people they are looking for.
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Internet – This is a very convenient way of advertising. Not only does the Internet advertise regionally and nationally, but also the Internet is a world-wide process, and anyone around the world can access a company’s advertisement if it has been produced correctly. Producing a website doesn’t cost a business huge amounts of money and once the advert is there, it will be free for the company to change and update it as they please. The advantages of having advertisements and electronic application forms is that a company will know that the person who filled in the application form is IT literate and this is always a useful skill in any form of business. Also once the company has been sent these application forms by electronic mail (e-mail) they will be able to save the forms on a database and can access them quickly and easily, thus saving storage space as there will be no need for cabinets full of hand-written forms. The disadvantages of this process are that the company is limiting itself to those people who can actually use computers and know how to access the Internet. A lot of the older generations are unaware of the Internet process. Boots only use this sort of advertising when they are recruiting for managers and are aiming their adverts at graduates. They do have a recruitment page but it only refers people to their local Boots store.
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Posters and Leaflets – Boots also advertise for new recruits in store, using posters and leaflets. Many posters are put up in staff areas telling the staff that there will be new job openings and encouraging them to tell their friends and families. Boots will rely on the word and mouth of their current employees to bring forth applicants.
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In store posters - Posters that are put up around the store are to catch the customer’s eye. The posters are bright and welcoming and state that there are temporary job opportunities at Boots. The text on these posters is written in three caption bubbles, the first one being the largest and in the larger font. This first caption bubble reads – ‘Earn Extra cash for Christmas’ this was a great caption for Boots to use as nearly everyone would like to earn a little more money for Christmas and this phrase alone catches the readers eye. The next Bubble reads ‘Temporary job opportunities at Boots’- this caption will make the reader think about the possibilities of having a temporary job at Boots and will tempt him/her to ask about the opportunities. The last bubble reads exactly what the reader will be thinking of doing – ‘Ask in store for details’ this will give the reader a final push and will tempt them to ask and find out more about the openings. These three bubbles work in such a way that they really attract and invite the reader to ask about the jobs. The whole poster is bright and eye-catching and makes it seem like a great idea to work at Boots.
I think these posters work really well to recruit and attract potential employees and they are definitely an easier and cheaper way to advertise the new openings. The poster is friendly and welcoming to the reader and makes them want to find out more. It is a cheap way of advertising and really focuses on the target group.
Appendix two is a copy of the in-store poster used by Boots.
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Leaflets - Boots have also produced a leaflet that will be given to potential applicants after enquiring about the openings, along with an application form. This leaflet alone will attract many new applicants. On the front page there is a picture of a middle-aged woman who looks happy and content with working at Boots. The text again is written in caption bubbles and this time states ‘ Take a fresh look at job opportunities’ ‘with Boots’. These two captions will make the reader want to read on and find out more about working with Boots.
In side the leaflet, the first thing that catches the readers eye is another picture of a happy woman working at Boots, and a caption bubble just above her picture saying ‘Now there’s a good idea’. This picture and caption will definitely attract the reader as he/she will think it is a great idea and will maybe imagine themselves being as happy working at Boots as the woman in the picture is. The next piece of writing in the leaflet tells the reader why Boots will be recruiting new staff and states a few qualities that they would like the new recruit to have – ‘we need warm, personable people to provide an intimate level of service’. This gives the reader an insight into what type of person Boots are looking to recruit.
The next page has three bold headings:
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What it’s like to work here – under this heading is a brief overview of what it is like to work at Boots. It tells the reader how they can develop many skills and maybe even further their own career. Also under this heading, in big bold writing are the words ‘What’s more, you’ll discover that your efforts will be recognised and valued’. This is a great point for Boots to make stand out, as all people like to be recognised for their efforts and like to get some sort of praise. If Boots state that all efforts will be acknowledged, then more people are likely to apply as they will believe it is a friendly work force and they will know that their efforts will not be discarded and they will achieve a sense of personal satisfaction.
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What we can offer you – This section tells the reader about the advantages of working at Boots. It states that Boots offer competitive rates of pay, which will attract the reader, as he/she will want a reasonable wage package. It also tells about the discounts available for Boots employees, which are very attractive and will encourage the reader even more. The last sentence under this heading states that because of the broad trading hours, Boots are likely to have shift patterns to suit any one. This could attract any one, including single mothers, who want to work around school hours or even school pupils, who just want to work on the weekend.
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What you’ll need to join us – This section basically states the few skills that an applicant may need to join the Boots team. Boots are looking for people who are committed to providing the best service and people who can be trusted and are honest to customers. They also want people with energy, sincerity and enthusiasm to inspire customers to make Boots their first choice. Many people have these skills and they are not hard to pick up. This section does not state any other qualifications which means that any one can try for a job, which will make any reader think that he/she will have a fair chance.
On the back page of the leaflet is the heading ‘The Boots selection process’. This section provides the reader with an insight into how the selection process is carried out. It states that each application form is ‘individually reviewed’ and if it is successful then the applicant will be invited to join a selection event. It also states in this section that if the application is not successful, then the applicant will not be contacted as Boots will only contact the candidates who have made it through to the next stage of selection. This is a good piece of information as the reader will know that if there has been no contact then they can try for other jobs and not wait to hear from Boots. The rest of the information under this section explains the rest of the selection process so that person can prepare themselves for the practical exercises that they might be asked to perform in the second part of selection.
The final section on this form is under the heading ‘ What to do next’. It states here that if the reader thinks they are the right person that Boots are looking for, then they should fill out an application form and sent it to their local Boots store as soon as possible. This section will give the reader the final boost to fill in the application form and after reading the leaflet, they may feel more knowledgeable about Boots and their recruitment process.
In my opinion, the Boots leaflet is a great way to attract potential employees and is working really well. All the information that is needed by a potential applicant is stated in the leaflet and it is written in a friendly and welcoming manner. The leaflet is a great idea as it is not too costly and can really attract people to working at Boots. The pictures of the women are attractive and make the reader want to be in her shoes. The whole layout of the leaflet is effective and is written in such a way to attract all ages of people. The leaflet gives the reader and insight as to what is offered when working with Boots and really gives them the push to fill in their application form.
Appendix three is a photocopy of the leaflet used by Boots to attract applicants.
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Documentation (The application form) – The Human Resources department will have to prepare the application forms for the applicants. They will have to think carefully about the question asked on the form so that they can collect relevant information for the job. The form will also have to include any qualifications (GCSE’s, A Levels etc.) this will make it easier to narrow down the list of applicants. It will also have questions like, date of birth, place of birth, gender and ethnicity. These questions are to help the business with an equal rights program. They will employ an equal number of coloured people as white people as they seek to have a balance of ethnic groups that reflect the balance in the community.
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Interview – companies will use different interview methods for different jobs. There are a number of different methods including: group interviews, one on one, problem solving activities, practical tasks, aptitude tests and also psychometric testing. A company will have to decide which method of interviewing they will use for each interview they carryout.
Boots advertise and recruit for new employees in many different ways. When advertising for a shop floor worker, they will advertise at local job fairs, which are organised by local careers companies. They will also advertise on their Internet site, which is designed specifically to invite people to contact their local branch manager to see if they are recruiting. The Internet site has an electronic application form, which can be filled in and then sent to the appropriate store managers, this type of application form is only applicable for graduates and pharmacists. This way of advertising is a cheaper method for Boots to use, but they prefer to use hand written application forms so they can check the applicants handwriting, spelling and personal touches.
When advertising for temporary workers (e.g. summer workers), Boots advertise nationally, taking out advertisements in the Daily Mirror and Daily Express. The advert will be designed by and advertising agency and maintained the corporate identity. With this advertising, Boots hope to receive a sufficient number of responses, but if not, they will then advertise through local newspapers, which is extremely expensive (£1,200) and is only used as a last resort.
Also Boots will advertise in store in specific staff areas, hopefully encouraging them to tell their friends and family about the job availability. Boots hope that the word and mouth of people will attract potential interviewees.
When recruiting for a permanent post, the recruitment procedure is a much longer and costly process. First of all the management who are recruiting will look through the application forms received which could be anything between 100-1000 forms. They will be looking for basic skills such as, the completion of all sections, the eligibility to work and the good use of English on the form. These are looked at as very important factors, if one section of the application form has been missed out, the form will immediately go in the bin.
The next step is for Boots to write up a short list of applicants, out of 24 applications, they may invite only 12 to interview and select 1 for the post.
The interview process has changed recently as interviewees are now entitled to feedback on their performance. A simple one on one interview is no longer sufficient so Boots now show a video to candidates and then record their reactions on an observation sheet. There are three aspects: Customer focus, Attention to detail and Desire to succeed. Each response allocates a point score.
Another step that is taken is to take the interviewee on a shop floor walk, where he/she is asked to consider displays, till arrangements and then are questioned about their reactions. Also a role-play is carried out, where a trained member of staff plays the part of a harassed customer. The customer has three items in his/her basket and the interviewee is asked to establish a rapport with the customer and is then assessed on the basis of four criteria:
- Customer focus
- Self confidence
- Information seeking
- Initiative
The point score form the processes above is calculated and the interviewee with the highest score will get the job.
This whole process is overall very costly. The interviewee will be on a one on one basis with a member of staff for at least an hour. This will take supervisory staff away form the shop floor and may even involve senior managers, which will cost the business money as they will not be carrying out their more important jobs. Subsequently, this method is regarded as value for money because it is cheaper than appointing the wrong staff and facing a bill for retraining/disciplining poor workers.
On the next page is a photocopy of the application form used by Boots, when recruiting for a one full time post, the store may sometimes receive up to 1000 of these application forms.
Boots have produced a tailor-made application form to suit the needs of their company, it is friendly looking and easy to fill in.
The form includes these main sections:
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About you – This first section is mainly contact details for the use of Boots. Also, in this section it states the position the applicant is applying for and whether it is a temporary or permanent. It also covers part or full time vacancies.
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At the bottom of this section there is a grid for the applicant to fill in which states which hours he/she will be available to work. Boots mainly look for part time (flexible) workers to keep a flexible workforce, therefore, if an applicant can only work a small number of hours a week, they may discard this applicant.
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Education – This part of the form requires the applicant to include their education. This may include, GCSE’s, A-Levels and university qualifications. This will give Boots an insight into the person’s education and they may be able to decipher who will be better for the job. For example Boots may prefer a person with GCSE’s and A Levels to a person with no qualifications. Although they will not necessarily discard the person with no qualifications, they will look at the other sections of the application form to see if they have much work experience and skills rather than educational qualifications.
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Work experience – This is an important part of the application form as it will tell Boots about the applicant’s previous jobs and work experiences. They will look carefully at the list of previous employment and will analyse the applicants work experience as a whole. They will look to see if the applicant has previous experience in working with people and customer service, also they might look for people who have operated tills and have had to work from their own initiative or as part of a team.
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Individual details – This is to help Boots with their equal rights programme. They will want to know what gender, ethnic origin, age and if the applicant has a disability or not. This will help Boots decide who to interview, as they will have to employ a certain number of disabled people and have an equal amount of employees from different ethnic minorities. This will also tell Boots about the labour market and what type of people are available for work, whether it be single mothers or unemployed Indian over 60’s.
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Skills and experience – The interviewers will look closely at this as the applicant may have certain skills or hobbies, which will help them in the job role. For example, the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme is regarded very highly as it involves many different skills including teamwork and first aid and outdoor techniques. The skills picked up from this award will help any person in a job, which requires teamwork, working with people
.
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References – With references from two previous jobs, the Boots interviewers will be able to see how the applicant worked in other jobs. References usually state whether or not the applicant was punctual, hard working and reliable and makes it easier for Boots to make a final decision on the applicant.
Also stated on the application form is a section about where the applicant found out about the job openings in Boots. There is a list of places and names and the applicant will have to tick which one applied to him or her. This gives Boots an insight into which of their advertising schemes is working most effectively. Once they have gathered all this information, they will be able to focus most of their advertising on the form, which was ticked the most and produced the highest number of suitable applicants.
All of these sections on the Boots application form will help the interviewers decide whom to interview and give them a clear understanding of each applicant. The application form works well for Boots and people find it easy and quick to fill in. It gives the applicant a chance to tell Boots about themselves, their hobbies, their lifestyle, their reason for wanting to work and their strongest abilities. It is really a chance for the applicants to sell themselves to the company and tell them all their best qualities.
Boots evaluate the recruitment process form time to time – They judge whether it is ‘Working’ or ‘Effective’ by looking at ‘retention’ and turnover of workers.
It is important for any Human Resources manager to understand what motivates their workers. Consequently, it is important to have a good understanding of motivational theories.
There are many motivational theories; here I am going to consider three theorists, Abraham Maslow, Douglas McGregor and Frederick Herzberg. These were mainly psychologists who were interested in what motivated people in general. Business has adopted these theories and tried to apply them to get the most out of their workers.
Abraham Maslow, was an American, writing in the 1940’s and he recognised that people have five levels of needs that need to be satisfied in a job role. He called this the Hierarchy of needs. The most basic need on this hierarchy was for food, shelter and warmth, he called these basic or physiological needs. So a job ought to provide, clean warm working conditions and reasonable pay. Once that need was met, workers would look to satisfy the next need, the safety need. This meant that the people wanted to know they were safe in their job role, they had a contract and their health and safety had been considered. The next level of need is the need for affection, the social need. People like to have a friendly atmosphere. A job which encouraged people to think and work as part of a team would satisfy social needs. These are fairly basic needs. Level four and level five are higher order needs, people want their job to give them self esteem, in other words their job should give them a sense of well-being and a feeling of success. The highest order need is called self-actualisation, this is the need to realise your full potential.
Boots cover all the needs stated by Abraham Maslow and employees at Boots are happy with their jobs and feel secure. We can tell this by looking at the labour turnover which is very low (2% per quarter).
Boots provide all employees with training opportunities. They have schemes to encourage workers to become supervisors, this will help people to develop their need for self-esteem. Having these sort of training schemes suggests that Boots is influenced by the methods of Abraham Maslow.
Frederick Herzberg completed his research in the 1950’s. His theory was called the two factor theory. He recognised that when a business was designing a job they had to understand that there were some hygiene factors, such as:
- Working conditions
- Salary/Wage
- Job Security
- Status
- Relationship With Peers
The above factors had to be right, if they were not, the worker would feel de-motivated and unsatisfied.
When a business designs a job, they must make sure that they have thought about each of these points. If they do not apply them to a satisfactory standard, the workers will be demotivated. However, if these points are sucessfully applied, Fredrick Herzberg believes that workers will be motivated.
He also taught about the motivators which he thought were just as important as the hygiene factors, these were:
- Achievement
- Nature Of Work
- Recognition
- levels Of Responsibility
Herzberg believed that if a person is recognised by their managers, to have achieved something, the workers will be motivated to work even harder to achieve higher targets. Boots carry out performance reviews for all supervisory workers as part of Performance Management, encouraging them to ake on more responsibility. This could be see as an example of Herzberg’s methods being applied.
If the nauture of work is poor, dark and lonely then workers will be demotivated. However, if the workplace is tidy, well aired and has friendly staff, the workers will be satisfied, but is not enough to motivate them.
On the other hand, the motivator factors will inspire workers to seek higher standards. If a person is given a certain responsibility, they will feel more trusted and like they belong to a company, which will add to their motivation. It will make the worker happy and they will want to fulfil their task to the best of their ability, They will feel like the, manager has recognised their ability and will want to work harder for more recognition.
Boots state in their leaflet that ‘efforts will be recognised and valued’. This is important to Boots as it is a way of keeping their workers motivated and happy in their jobs.
Douglas McGregor was a psychologist from the 1960’s. His theory teamed together that of Abraham Maslow’s and Fredrick Herzberg’s and created a two factor theory.
Theory X and Theory Y. He believed that all managers would follow either theory X or Y.
Theory X
People are:
- Mainly motivated by money
- Lazy and dislike work
- Selfish and avoid responsibility
- In need of control and direction
I noticed that theory x is fairly similar to the view of Fredrick Taylor
Theory Y
People are:
- Responsible
- Creative and able to apply their own knowladge
- Enjoy work
- Committed to work
I also noticed that theory Y is very similar to the top levels of Abraham Maslow’s heirarchy.
Performance management
This is to ensure that employees are performing to the company standards. It is setting targets for employees and measuring employees performance against these. It may include - finding room for emprovement in each employee so they can reach their full potential. Finding areas where employees need to be trained and developed in and encouraging and rewarding performance and achievements.
It is where a company like Boots, will use performance management to try and achieve uppermost efficiency and high worker productivity.
A well developed performance management system should include:
- Organisations Values
- Orgainsations objectives and goals
- Individual objectives
- Regular Reviews throughout the year
- Performance related pay
- Training and counselling
Boots use perfomance related pay to motivate their workers of each quarter there is a 5% bonus on salaries if the store hits 85% + on good service, as recorded by a mystery shopper.
Boots train their workers in customer care, and put the workers on courses to develop their supervisory skills. This is part of their personal development.
Performance reviews
This is where managers and supervisors evaluate their employees performance in the work place. It will incude looking at their present performance and analysining it and alos looking towards their future performance and how their performance will change.
There are four different ways of carrying out performance reviews, these include:
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Top-Down Apprisal – this is where a manager evaluates an employee. This is the most coomon form used in performance reviews and is one of the most effective
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Upward Apprisal – where an employee evaluatedthe manager. This is not an effecive form of performance reviews as employees often don’t like to criticise their own manager, in fear of losing their jobs and therefor may lie about the managers performance. Boots actually use this form of reviewing and find it very rewarding.
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Peer Apprisal – employee appraised by another employee on the same level. This technique often doesn’ t work as it causes conflict between workers and they an often fall out permanently which will create an uncomfortable work force.
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Self Apprisal – this is where an employee evaluates their own performance and reviews how they think they are doing in an annual review meeting with their managers. This is one of the easiest ways to review performance as there is no conflict and often this is the most honest way as the employees will ofen point out their own weaknesses as well as their strengths.
Self Evaluation
This is an improtant stage for employees, this is where employees set their own. It may be setting their own targets of the position they would like to be in e.g.-promotion.
Benefits Of Self Evaluation
- Employees take responsibility for their own work and performance. This is motivating for employees as they can decide how they want to work and it will give the employees reponsibility of their own and can work off their own back.
- It gives the employees a greater understanding of their own work are and job role.
- This is a cost effective form of evaluation as there are no external evaluators.
- This helps develop a clear picture of what they are doing.
Peer evaluation (Apprisals)
Makes it possible to check on a team member, their work and contribution.
- Working in team to meet target dates in production,
- Working in a group to complete an assignment by a deadline date.
This is only successful if employees have:
- Respect for each other
- Are honest
- Feel free to challenge the evaluator
- Both parties listen and give full attention
Measuring Performance
Boots measure their performance by customer satisfaction and profitability.
A company can measure its performance by comparing the profits from the year before.
Through productivity in the organisation.
All the above are related to performance related pay (Pay which staff earn through better performance/production)
Employers must be aware of the legislations affecting employees.
These include:
- The working time regulations 1998, no more than 48 hours per week.
- National minimum wage. 18-21=£3.60, over 21=£4.20.
- Maternity/paternity leave – 13 weeks per year, until the child is five years old.
Every business deals with performance management in different ways. The Boots company, for example, operate under a strict performance management system.
Every employee at Boots is involved with Performance Management, regardless of which level of skill they are currently at. This is known as their development plan. Employees are expected to have identified at least three competences associated with their job role, that they need to work on.
The team leader will also help them to identify weaker points in their performance and will review their teams performace every quarter (3 months), informally and formally every six months.
The failure to meet the targets and to progress will result in the cancellation of pay increases for individual employees who have not progressed.
A system called the store card system concludes that if a manager or store, fail to meet short term targets, there will be no bonus (e.g. – christmas bonus for selling extra stock)
Boots stores are regularly assesed by what is known as a “mystery shopper”, this is where an evaluator will pose as a normal shopper and will put challenges to the staff to see how they cope (e.g.- asking a till worker about a beauty product. Points will be added if the worker is polite to the shopper, if they know about the product, or if they don’t know,to point out a worker who will know. Points will be deducted for not helping a customer in need and being rude to the customers etc)
A company like Boots must score 85% or over satisfaction rating to receive a bonus and recognition awards. Every four months, each store with 85% rating will receive a 5% bonus for all staff.
The linking of pay to performane could be a sign that Boots do feel that money is a major motivator, which therefore suggests that they believe that some workers fall under the category of worker X outlined in Dougolas McGregor’s theory.
All types of training are important to a business if it wants to achieve its full potential as an overall organisation. If each member of staff is trained up to their full ability then they will be efficient in their job role and will continue to help the business reach uppermost efficiency.
Training and development programmes are an important element of performance management. A business like Boots finds it essential to train and develop a multi-skilled work force, which will have its benefits in difficult times.
MULTI-SKILLED WORK FORCE
- This can help a business like Boots to achieve maximum efficiency and ability and will help them to become a ‘top class’ business.
- With every member of staff being multi-skilled and knowing how to carry out each individual job role, this will increase the productivity of Boots as each task will be able to be carried out with the minimum amount of staff involved which will therefore mean that Boots will not be overmanning their workforce with employees who have nothing to do. This way Boots can lower the amount they pay out in wages and will therefore eventually increase profit.
- Will increase the overall performance of Boots by having less workers, lower costs and higher profits.
- Multiskilling can motivate workers by increasing their self-esteem.
There are many different training techniques accessible to an organisation nowadays some of which include:
Induction training – introducing new employees to a the company
Coaching – expert helping employees to develop skills.
Apprenticeships – training that is done whilst working and learning the skill.
Induction training is used at Boots to welcome their new recruits and familiarise them with the job role, the company’s rules and regulations and the other employees of the company. A usual induction training session consists of the new recruit watching a video that is relevant to the company. For example, the new employees at boots watch a video of different people and are asked questions at the end such as-where do you think that person came from? What do you think he/she does for a living? This type of induction training is used so the trainer can see if the recruit is polite and respectful to others. Boots only want to employ people who respect others for what and who they are and people who do not judge people.
Some other training programmes may take form in group discussions and question and answer sessions. The aim is to enable the employee to settle in quickly and to work effectively and confidently from the start of their job. An induction session will vary with the organisation and the nature of the job, therefore it may be just a short talk on the first day, or it may be more extensive and last over a period of weeks.
Coaching is more commonly associated with the pursuit of excellence in sports events or examination results. However, the term is increasingly used in association with training in business. It involves an experienced person helping employees to develop specific skills and talents through explanation, practice and encouragement. Coaching is becoming a highly popular as a means of developing the skills of senior managers. Boots believe that coaching involves encouragement and listening to the employees, rather than telling them what o do. For an example – if a manager saw an untidy display, instead of saying to the employee it concerns ‘tidy these shelves up’, the manager should ask the employee how the display can be improved and will then listen to the employees thoughts and opinions. If the employees ideas are well thought of, then he/she will be encouraged to perform them and put them into action.
Therefore giving the employee a sense of independence and responsibility, which will lead to a better performance from the employee, this is also liked in with the theory of Abraham Maslow as it is satisfying the workers self esteem need.
Apprenticeships traditionally involved a trainee working for a period of time with a craftsman in order to learn a trade. E.g. carpentry
In the 1990s a government-funded training scheme was introduced, known as modern apprenticeships. This provides young people with broad-based training in particular occupations combined with essential skills. The aim is to develop a labour force to help British business compete in the modern world. The award is at NVQ level 3 and allows successful trainees to move on to gain further skills. The main trades that are involved with modern apprenticeships are:
- Carpentry
- Hairdressers
- Accountant firms
- Builders
- Plumbers
Boots have rejected the idea of apprenticeships as it does not apply the their sort of work.
IN HOUSE TRAINING
This type of training is designed and built up by the company. It will be tailor made to suit the companies needs exactly. This type of training involves the higher members of staff being taught how to train the shop floor workers, till operator’s etc. The main training tutor at the Swansea Boots in Mrs Sue Williams and her main role is to teach the supervisory members of staff to train others. This will be carried out in meeting rooms and will involve discussions and ideas so as to not de-motivate workers.
Every manager and every supervisor at all Boots stores are expected to attend a two day leadership course which is designed to enhance their leadership skills and methods.
Many organisations also have an alternative opportunity to train their staff through external specialist training agencies. This could be where employees who need training will be sent on one or two day courses and will be taught specific techniques that are essential for their job roles. This could include learning about IT packages, Sage Accounting or Microsoft Access or maybe even to learn new management techniques.
Boots managers, supervisors and team leaders are often sent on external courses to develop their skills in working as a team, motivating their employees and practical activities. They are sent on these courses for the external trainer to examine them as a workforce, and how effectively they are motivated and work as a team.
Some jobs such as post delivery require no past experience. A new employee may have shown that they have the primary key skills needed to carry out the job, but not the exact knowledge required for the job. In this case the job will need to be clarified and illustrated in the workplace (On-The-Job Training). For example, a new cashier will need to know how to work the till and to understand basic procedures for the acceptance of cheques, credit cards, vouchers and discount cards. A new clerical assistant will need to understand the filing system, how to use the company computer software and the various forms and documents connected with the job.
Nowadays, Boots offer a range of in-house training packages, one of which is the distant learning programme, such as Foundation Management Skills programme, which is especially designed for supervisors.
This programme is self-taught so the employee on the course must be self-motivated. One problem with this was that the employee could be tested at any time, which could cause disruption, and constantly nervous staff, another problem with this training method is that there is no time limit and therefore, people tend to begin the course but fail to complete it. Sue Williams (Boots area personnel manager) aims to have a minimum of seven people involved in the scheme at any one time. Boots were originally one of the first retailers to introduce NVQ level 3 qualifications in supervision management. Unfortunately, they have now abandoned the NVQ regarding it is too bureaucratic and too much paperwork.
Off-the-job training is the exact opposite to on the job. Boots mainly use this form of training as they find it more beneficial to them. Boots employ specialists to train the staff about customer service and other people procedures, which are essential for working in any retail unit.
As well as using an induction programme, Boots also use ‘work shadowing’, which is where a new employee observes the job that they hope to be performing in the future which will be currently held by another member of staff. This way they will learn by watching and taking in instructions from a fellow employee. Boots find this a more friendly and less demanding than other types of training. The main advantage of work shadowing is that it is not a costly process and Boots will not have to pay and external trainer.
One problem with this training is that the recruit may pick up bad habits from the person they are shadowing. It would be very hard for Boots to find a ‘perfect’ worker for the new recruit to shadow. Also, although this is a great way of training new recruits, it can be distracting for the employee being shadowed and he/she will have to keep stopping and starting work to explain techniques to the on-looking recruit. This may cause productivity levels to fall, leading to higher costs and a small decrease in profits.
Another training programme used at Boots is designed for the managers and is to train them how to run a professional meeting effectively and efficiently. Boots carry out this training to inject a form of structure into their meetings held. They are trying to cut down on the time spent in unorganised meetings. Boots has a strict rule that no meeting is allowed to go ahead without a planned agenda, this way cutting down on time and getting straight to important points from the start of the meetings.
In each meeting held at Boots, every member will have a ‘feedback buddy’ who will discuss behaviours and attitudes that occur during the meeting.
The final training programme that Boots offer is dealing with harassment and bullying within the workforce. Recent test cases have displayed that employers can be sued by employees for not protecting workers form being bullied, therefore Boots find it essential to train their employees to handle themselves if difficult circumstances occur, with failure to do this, a business could gain a bad reputation and publicity. This could also increase the friendliness of the workforce and therefore satisfying the social need outlined by Abraham Maslow.
Training and development is essential to be effective at Boots as employees must learn to deal with new systems, rules, regulations and formats to become part of a multi-skilled work force.
If Boots has a highly skilled workforce it will help also increases quality of their service.
Boots believe that the training and development of employees will motivate them and they will enjoy their jobs more (job satisfaction).
We can tell whether or not the employees at Boots are motivated and happy in their jobs by looking at the labour turnover (2% per quarter) which is a really good result. This indicates that for every 100 employees in Boots, 2 of them leave every quarter to pursue other jobs.
Low labour turnover like that of Boots, shows that the employees at Boots are happy with their jobs and placement, as they do not want to leave.
There are many more advantages about having a well-trained and developed work force. The workers can become more flexible and can therefore cover other jobs as-well-as their own.
They will be able to help other employees in difficult times, as they would have been trained in each sector of the business and to deal with a variety of situations and tasks. In the long run, this will benefit Boots as if there were employees off sick, other employees would be able to cover for them in the short term.
There are many disadvantages that could face Boots if they decided against the training and development of their staff.
These disadvantages could include, de-motivated staff, higher labour turnover, poor productivity levels, increased number of staff taking days off, low market share and dissatisfied customers.
This therefore means it is essentially important for Boots to continue with their training methods, as it will effect the development and progress of the organisation.
Effective Human Resources Management and Competitiveness
For a business to triumph in any market, it is essential that they have employees who are dedicated to meeting the aims and objectives of the company. For this, the business will need sufficient training to be available, teamed with substantial levels of motivation from supervisors and managers. This is a huge responsibility put onto the Human Resources department.
Effective Human Resource Management can improve the competitive position of a business by:
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Motivating Workers – this can be carried out in many different ways. It is important for a business to keep their staff motivated so they do not get bored and look elsewhere for jobs. One way of keeping workers motivated is by using job rotation. This is when staff are moved around and asked to perform many different tasks within their shift. This is to prevent boredom and make their jobs more fun. Another motivator that is used by many companies is job enlargement, this is when an employee is given more responsibility in their job role which will make them feel wanted and motivated. Boots mainly use pay as a motivator, giving pay rises when specific targets are met.
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Training – Training also plays an important part in making a business successful. If a business has a well-trained (multi-skilled) workforce then it could help raise a number of factors. Having a multi-skilled workforce will help the business reach maximum efficiency and objectives. Worker productivity will increase as each employee will be multi-skilled and know the basic roles of each job. This could mean that the business costs might fall, as they will not be paying for extra staff as every job can be done with a smaller number of staff. This could increases profits in the long run. Also with staff being multi-skilled, they will be able to help customers with any enquiries that occur and this will increase customer loyalty.
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Labour Turnover – All businesses like to have a low labour turnover. This helps the business, as they will not have to spend money on recruiting and training new staff and redundancy pay will not be needed. A business with a low labour turnover usually has staff who are happy in their job role. Boots have a very low labour turnover (2% per quarter) which means that all the staff employed at Boots are happy with their jobs and are motivated to stay part of the Boots team. Low labour turnover may increases profits for companies such as Boots in the long run, which is a motivator for the managers.
Potential conflicts that can exist in Human Resource Management
In a Business like Boots, there are many conflicts between the Human Resource function, which need to be confronted.
Below, I have listed a few examples:
- Staff rules and regulations state that no member of staff is allowed to carry any amount of their own money on them during their working hours. It is a sackable offence to be caught with any money on oneself.
This could cause considerable amounts of conflict between management and employees as if one person was caught with only a small amount of money on them (e.g-50p), the Human Resources department would have to consider sacking the employee. But it would cost far more to recruit and train another member so the management would have to consider whether or not it is really worth the bother. Also the employee could say that it was nearly his or her lunch break and that they had the money on them to buy some food. If the person was let off, this could create further conflicts as other employees may think it was all right to keep their lunch money on them. If they got caught, they could just say that it wasn’t fair to sack them as they let the other person off the hook.
Making adjustments for one employee could cause substantial conflicts between the management and all other employees.
- Taking supervisory staff off the shop floor to help in training new recruits.
Conflict may occur, as money could be lost due to workers helping out with training. Also the workers who are covering the job of the person may complain that they do not know how the job is supposed to be performed. The worker may become de-motivated and may refuse to work as they might feel they need training as well. Effects of this may mean a loss in profit as the company will be paying an employee to stand around and do nothing, as they do not know what to do.
- Absent employees, due to ill health or holidays.
This could cause many conflicts as a worker will have to cover the absent employees job. The worker may not know how to perform this job as effectively as the absent worker. This could decrease worker productivity and may damage customer loyalty. Also in the long run this could decrease profits as costs may increase.
- Changing delivery days (Boots, Swansea have decided to reduce daily deliveries to only three times a week)
This could really cause problems for the Boots store as people who are employed for shelf filling may lose work and lose money. These people may complain and eventually leave the job for one that is more consistent. This may increase costs for Boots, as they may need to pay for the recruitment and training of new shelf fillers. Also it may be difficult for Boots to find new workers who are available to work three times a week, often in the early morning or evening.
