Human Resource Planning.

        Staff turnover

Techniques for forecasting internal employee supply:

Labour turnover

Boots measure the rate at which people are leaving or staying at Boots by using two simple methods:

        Employee wastage rate

        Labour stability rate

Employee wastage rate

It is possible to calculate the number of staff leaving Boots as a percentage of those who could have left:

                                     Number of staff leaving in time period       .

Wastage rate =           Average number of staff employed in time period    * 100

                

Such information is used to predict likely turnover in the future, to see if there is a need to examine in detail the reasons for the high turnover and to find out if there is need to recruit new staff to replace those leaving.

Labour stability rate        

This provides an indication of the tendency for employees with long service to remain with Boots, thus linking the leaving rate with the length of service.

                Number of staff leaving with

                More than 1 year’s service

Stability =                                                                  .     * 100

Index                Number employed 1 year ago

Knowing about the existing labour force enables Boots to make the most of the skills and potential already within the organisation.

The external labour market

The external labour market for Boots is made up of potential employees, locally, regionally and nationally, whom have the skills and experience required at a particular time. There are a range of factors that affect the size and nature of these labour markets.

The national labour market

There are number of factors to take into consideration when examining the supply of labour in the national market.

Trends in the size/characteristics of the working population

Changes in the age distribution of the UK population will affect the human resource planning of Boots. The UK has an ageing population, with fewer school leavers and young workers available for employment. This means that Boots may need to look to other sectors of the population to meet their requirements.

Competition for labour

Where the demand for people with specific skills is high, there will be competition between competitors to attract people with those skills. Boots employers are continually seeking to offer attractive work packages to ICT graduates in order to attract the best recruits away from rivals.

The effect of government policies

Government legislation can affect the labour market in a number of ways to Boots. The government provides incentives to organisations to employ and train people. Where such incentives are available, they will reduce the cost of labour and therefore have implications for human resource planning.

Local employment

For Boots the state of the local labour market is a significant as what is happening notionally or regionally. Boots find out about the supply of labour in the location they are operating. They also find out the current and future trends. These sorts of statistics are essential to Boots in understanding the local supply conditions. Further information is provided by the local employment offices and job centres, which hold details of unemployment figures for their particular areas.

Boots will also want know about local wage rates and income levels to attract the right sort of employees.

Local employment trends

Local unemployment levels give an indication of the general availability of labour and suggest whether it will be easy or difficult to recruit. It is also important to find out more about which organisations in that area who have been laying off workers.

A study of local employment trends will give an idea of whether demand for certain types of work is rising or falling. Where demand increases this will lead to shortages and also a rise in wages.

Availability of labour

The amount of labour in a particular area depends on the number of people available for work. The availability of labour will depend on such factors as the age distribution of the local population, attitudes to women working and the extent to which young people stay on at school, college or go onto higher education.

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Sickness and accident rates

Boots keep a record of the following:

        Notified absences. When employees are going to be absent from work.

        Absences due to sickness. Employees will need to produce a doctors note so that they are entitles to sickness benefits.

        Unauthorised absences. When employees simply do not turn up for work, without telling anyone.

Such detailed analysis enables Boots to keep an eye on where problems lie with an individual, with a particular section of workers or with the organisation as a whole.

Breaking down the statistics further highlights whether the problem lies with sickness or with unauthorised absences. And by keeping these records a number of years, it is possible to establish trends.

Accident rates are calculated by recording the number of accidents at work. Places of work have a health and safety committee with the responsibility to:

        Investigate the report on accidents or incidents.

        Examine national health and safety reports statistics.

        Review health and safety audit reports.

        Draw up work rules and instruction on safe working practices.

        Oversee health and safety training.

        Promote and advise on relevant publicity campaigns.

        Maintain links with external health ad safety bodies.

        Recommend updates to the company safety policy.

        Consider and advise on impending legislation.

Part of the health and safety committee’s responsibilities is to ensure accurate records are kept of accident at work.

Task 3 (E5, A3)

For this task, I will identify any possible areas of conflict between the human resources functions.

To achieve A3, I evaluate the potential conflicts between human resources management activities within the business.

The possible areas of conflict between the human resources department could be that some employees may feel that they are too over qualified for the position they are in and they are able to do a more qualified job. This may cause a conflict between the manager and the employee because the manager may fell that the employee is not up to or qualified enough for the position the employee fells they are able to do.

Another are of conflict could be that the managers think that the employees are not working hard enough to the company standards. The employees may think that they have not been trained to the same standard as the company’s requirements.

There may also be conflict with staff and managers because of disagreement of ideas they may have. One may have an idea and the other one thinks that it will not work and has a better idea. This will cause a conflict of ideas because they cannot agree on the best idea.

Task 4 (E3, C2)

Recruitment Documents

For this task, I will show identification of the features of key recruitment documents and the ability to describe the factors to be considered in planning to fill a vacancy and carrying out interviews.

To achieve C3, I will identify and analyse the relationship between the business training and development programme and its management of performance. I will also explain these two functions may be influenced by different motivational theories.

Businesses recruit staff for a variety of reasons. The decision to recruit staff is made might be because of the following;

        The growth of the business

        Changing job roles within the business

        Filling vacancies created by resignation, retirement or dismissal

        Internal promotion

The recruitment process can be a costly in terms of resources devoted to the process and cost associated with recruiting poor-performing staff. Therefore, it is important to select people accurately for interview. Businesses need to be very clear about the requirements of the job and about the kind of person they are looking for. The ways they do this through:

        Preparing job description and person specifications

        Carefully planning how and when to advertise

        Identify the strengths and weaknesses of the job applications. Curricula vitae and letters of application

        Short-listing candidates.

Decisions to recruit staff

Boots recruit staff for a number of reasons:

The growth of the business

When Boots grows in size it will need more people to carry out:

        Existing jobs

        New jobs

When existing jobs are being expanded, human resources specialists simply copy existing practice on a larger scale. In creating new jobs more detailed thought is required, particularly if the jobs are quite different from those that already exist within Boots.

Changing job roles within the business

Boots have changed their job structure in recent years. In particular, there has been a decline of many routine, standardised jobs. Increasingly the employers have sought to develop new jobs involving information communication technology, and which involve ground level employees taking more responsibility for decision making through empowerment. Developing new jobs requires considerable research, often by examining best practice in an industry or by looking at the development of new jobs in other countries.

Filling vacancies created by resignation, retirement or dismissal

Like all organisation Boots employees move on. They get older, they hand in their notice or they are dismissed. In most cases it is necessary to replace the employee. However, the manager responsible for recruitment has to decide whether Boots needs a carbon copy of the previous jobholder or whether the job has moved on, requiring new skills and competences.

Internal promotion

In Boots there are opportunities foe internal promotion. Internal promotion gives an employee something to aim for in Boots, rather than looking elsewhere. When one person is promoted, it is often necessary to replace him or her.

Getting the recruitment process right

The recruitment process can be very costly. It takes a great deal of time to set up an effective recruitment process involving deciding on what the jobs that are to be recruited for will entail, advertising, shifting through applications, checking which applications best meet the criteria set down for the post, interviewing candidates and, finally, selecting the best candidate for the post.

Procedures for attracting and recruiting applicants

Boots most valuable resource is its workforce, the people who work for it. Therefore managers give careful thought to the needs of employees. An organisation can have the latest technology and the best physical resources but, unless it looks after its people, it will never thrive and achieve the best results.

Recruiting individuals to fill particular posts within Boots can be done:

        Internally, by recruiting within Boots

        Externally, by recruiting people from outside.

The advantages of recruiting from within are as follows:

        Considerable savings is made. Individuals with inside knowledge of how Boots operates will need shorter periods of training and time for fitting in.

        The organisations are unlikely to be disrupted by someone who is not used to working with other in Boots.

        Internal promotion acts as an incentive to all of the staff to work harder for Boots.

        From Boots point of view, the personnel staff should already have been able to asses the strengths and weaknesses of an insider.

The disadvantages of recruiting form within are as follows:

        HR will have to replace the person who has been promoted.

        An insider may be less likely to make the essential criticisms required to get boots working more effectively.

        Promotion of one person in Boots may upset another.

Preparing job descriptions and person specifications

Job description

From the human resource management department’s point of view, the purpose of recruitment is to buy in and retain the best available human resources to meet Boots needs. Therefore the first requirements are to define and set out what is involved in particular jobs.

Job title

One of the most important parts of a job description is the job title. The job title should give a good indication of what the job entails.

When looking through job advertisement the first thing job applicants will look for apart from the salary will be the job title.

Position within organisational structure

A job description will often establish where an individual stands in a particular organisational structure. This will mean that it can be clearly set out who the post holder is accountable to him or her. This position within Boots will give a clear idea of responsibility.

Duties and responsibilities

A further aspect of job description will be that which sets out the duties and responsibilities of jobholders. Before setting out a job description Boots will carry out an analysis of tasks that need to be performed by a jobholder, and of the skills and qualities required.

Responsibilities for assets and materials

It is important to set out the range of physical assets and materials the jobholder will be responsible for. He or she will then be sure, and Boots will be sure, about the accountability of the jobholder for the efficient maintenance of these resources.

Person specification

A job specification often goes beyond a simple description of the job by highlighting the mental and physical attributes required of the jobholder. The personnel department may therefore set out, for its own use, a person specification. This person specification can be used to:

        Make sure a job advertisement conveys the qualities prospective candidates should have.

        Check candidates for the job have the right qualities.

Personal attributes and achievements

A person specification is concerned with identifying those people who have the right qualities to fit the jobs offered. Personal achievement gives a good indication of an individuals existing abilities. Personal achievements can be good indicators of qualities such as the ability to work in a team, help others, to preserve, etc.

Qualifications

Qualifications are another important ingredient in person specifications. Qualifications are a good measure of prior learning. This has been simplified in recent years by the development of NVQs, GNVQs and AVCEs, which are nationally recognised qualification.

The idea of a qualification is that it prepares a person to do a job or activity. In creating job specification, Boots will therefore consider the level of qualification required by a jobholder.

Experience

Someone with experience in carrying out a particular post or who has had a particular responsibility should be able to draw on that experience in a situation. The implication is that the good learner will learn at a progressively faster rate as he or she draws on his or her experiences. A person specification therefore set out the required experience for the jobholder.

Competence

Competence implies that a person has sufficient knowledge or skill to carry out particular tasks or activities. Person specifications should set out levels of competence required by a particular jobholder. Modern qualification such as GNVQs, AVCEs and NVQs, are based on a competence model.

Planning when and how to advertise

Job advertisements form an important part of Boots recruitment process. Boots is able to communicate job vacancies to a selected audience by this means. Most job advertisements are written or at least checked by the personnel department, a task involving the same skill as marketing a product. Advertisements reach those people who have the qualities to fill the vacancy.

The nature of the advert will depend on the following:

        Who the target audience is – potential managing director, supervisor, operatives, etc.

        Where the advert will be placed – on the window of the shop, newspapers, at the local job centre, etc.

Job adverts therefore take many forms, according to current requirements. Good advertisements contain at least the following:

        Job title. This should form the main heading, possibly in bold print.

        Job description. This should highlight the major requirements of the job in a concise format.

        Organisational activities and marketplace. There should be a brief description of the environment in which the organisation operates.

        Location. Applicants need to know the location of the organisation and the location of the job.

        Salary expectations. Figures are not always necessary, but an indication of the salary level should always be given.

        Address and contact. This should appear, with a telephone number of appropriate.

        Qualifications. Certain jobs require a minimum entrance qualification, which should be clearly stated.

        Experience. This should be considered, as it will have a bearing on the expected salary level for the job.

        Fringe benefits. The advertiser may wish to mention a company car, a health insurance scheme and so on.

        Organisational identity. This may be in the form of a logo or simply the name of the organisation.

The presentation of the advertisement is very important as it gives prospective employees a first impression of the organisation.

The strengths and weaknesses of job applications: letter of application and curricula vitae

Letters of application

A letter of application should have a clear structure, with a beginning, middle and an ending. It should state:

        Your reasons for applying for the job

        The contribution you can make to the organisation

        How you have developed your capabilities through training and education

        The skills and knowledge you have acquired that would help you to do the job well.

The letter needs to be interesting, you are writing about yourself. It should contain just enough information to support your application form and CV, highlighting the most relevant evidence.

Curriculum vitae

A curriculum vitae is a summery of your career to date. There are three stages that should be followed when writing out a CV:

        Assemble all facts about yourself

        Draft the CV

        Edit the document several times

A CV should be divided onto suitable headings and subheadings. For example:

1. Name
2. Date of birth
3.  Address
4. Telephone and email if appropriate
5. Education and training
6. Qualifications
7. Other relevant achievements
8. Interests
9. References.

Shortlisting

Sortlisting is for example, Boots has advertised for a new human resources manager.

It has advertised this post in:

        The local newspaper

        The educational section of two national newspapers

        A specialist magazine for HR managers

Boots wants to secure the best person for the post and is pleased when there are over 50 applicants for the job.

The current HR manager team shift through the applicants. They will discard any applicants that do not meet certain criteria they are looking for. In this case they want someone who has:

        Experience of working in industry in human resource management

        A business qualification, a minimum of three years

When they have carried out this process they are left with only 12 candidates. They then decide to reduce this number to a shotlist of eight by looking at relative strengths of the candidates. Next, they take a more detailed look to reduce the number to five, whom they will call for interviews. The five candidates who make it to the final cut will be notified well in advance so they have plenty of time to prepare themselves for an interview.

Different modes of employment & different terms & conditions

Employees can work full time or part time and on permanent or short term contracts. Until recently, full time core employees had much better terms and conditions than part timers and temporary workers. They still do. But European social legislation that has been applied in Britain has given much better rights to part time and temporary workers in relation to sickness and pension rights, and to maternity and holiday pay, etc.

Core employees, part time, temporary and contract labour

        Core employees are ones who are multi skilled, who work full time and who receive good pay, conditions and benefits.

        Peripheral employees are short term, temporary and part time workers, who receive less favourable pay, conditions and benefits.

        External workers are not employees of the organisation but are, for example, agency temps, workers in contracted out services and self-employed.

Full time employment

The average full time working week lies between 35 and 40 hours spread over 5 days.

A dictionary definition of full time work is ‘ for the entire time appropriate to an activity’. For example, a teacher would work to the full contractual time established by the school, perhaps from 8.30 am until 4.00 pm each day for 180 days of a year.

Part time employment

Part time employees are people who do not work for the entire time appropriate to an activity. Traditionally jobs that did not require more than a few hours a day to complete such work as cleaning.

The reasons why employees may be chosen to work part time at Boots are as follows:

        They have greater flexibility in their working hours

        They can use part time employment as a supplement to other incomes

        It enables them to enjoy more leisure time

        They can regard it as a hobby job, rather than doing nothing during the day

        Full time work is not available.

The reasons why Boots want part time employees are as follows:

        It provides them with a more flexible arrangement. It is easier to recruit part time staff to work evenings and weekends.

        Part time employees are generally lower paid

        Part time employees do not have the same legal rights as full time ones, although the implementation of European Union labour regulations has done much to improve the position of such employees in recent times.

Permanent employment

Permanent employees are those who have a contractual commitment from their employers to continue their employment, irrespective of whether they work full time or part time. A simpler definition is that employees have an open ended rather than a fixed term contract.

This open-ended contract can be ended only when either party gives notice of termination. The length of the notice period will depend on the length of time the employee has worked there and the period of notice specified in the contract of employment.

Temporary employment

A temporary employee will have a work contract for a limited period only. They can be employed on a full time or part time basis.

The reasons why Boots may employ temporary employees are to:

        Cover staff sickness or holidays

        Assist with exceptionally large orders

        Cope with seasonal changes in demand

        Work on special projects with limited time span

        Clear backlogs of work.

Contract and non - contract employees

Employers are finding greater flexibility in giving short-term contracts for one or two years to new employees. This gives them the option to renew or not to renew at the end of the period.

A subcontractor is hired to do work that someone else has been contracted to do. Subcontractors are very common in the construction industry where builders will contract other companies or individuals to do electrical, plumbing and other work.

A fixed term contract could be one off or renews on a periodic basis. Professional footballers usually work on a fixed term contracts.

This is information on Boots recruitment and selection from their website.

What type of people do you recruit/what do you look for in employees/what is the selection process?

The Boots Company offers recruitment programmes for general entrance, and schemes focused on school leavers and graduates. The company looks for various qualities in potential Boots employees. In addition to academic ability, we look for people with extra-curricular competencies such as interpersonal ability and team-working skills.

In addition to the requirements of individual positions, our graduate scheme also requires applicants to fulfill three key criteria:

• Leading the thinking
  See the big picture no matter how complex; offer and stimulate new ideas and turn complex issues into clear strategies.

• When have you looked for and found solutions beyond the obvious?
• How radical have you been?
• In what ways have you challenged received wisdom?
• When have you identified clear solutions to complex problems?
• How do you manage ambiguity?
• How logical are you in your approach?

• Leading the pace
  Understand and focus on the important, drive to deliver better performance and be decisive in a crisis.

• Can you prioritise, focusing on the important issues and dispensing with others?

• Do you regularly achieve standards that you set and which are beyond those expected by others?
• When do other rely upon you to make things happen?

• Leading the team
  Act as a catalyst driving for results and restlessly seeking to win.

• Do people enjoy working with you, do you create a buzz?
• How do you influence others even when the cause looks lost?
• Have you been able to get good results from difficult people? How did you manage it?

The selection process relies on application forms, interviews and selection centres. The company now operates competency based interviews. This is the process whereby applicants are asked to back up statements in interview with examples of personal experience, thus providing real evidence of their capabilities.

Task 5 (E4, C3)

Key Aspects of Training & Development

For this task, I will show identification of the key aspects of the business training and development programme and ability to explain the importance of these to the performance of the business.

To achieve C3, I will show identification and analysis of the relationship between the business training and development programme and its management of performance. An explanation of how these two functions may be influences by different motivational theories.

Training includes all forms of planned learning experiences and activities designed to make positive changes to performance and other behaviour.

Training can be broken down into a number of elements:

        Traditional training. Training to promote learning of specific facts and content, which enable improvements in job performance, such as technical skills training.

        Education. The act or process of gaining knowledge, skills and understanding, usually in a school, college or university.

        Vocational education. Somewhere between education and traditional training (e.g. apprenticeship training)

        Management training. Activities designed to improve managerial capability.

        Organisational development. Activities designed to change the way in which individuals operate within an organisation.  

The important contributions made by the training and development to the competitiveness of the business, and the need for business to invest resources in training and development programmes.

These are examples of training methods and activities used by Boots:

        Induction training

        Mentoring

        Coaching

        Apprenticeships

        In - house training

        External training.

Induction training

Induction training is the process of introducing new employees to their place of work, job, new surroundings and the people they will be working with. Induction also provides information to help new employees start work and generally ‘fit in’.

An induction in Boots will involve a talk from a senior member, getting to know other recruits, a corporate video and often some activities to break the ice for the new recruit. An important part of induction will involve an introduction to company regulations and health and safety requirements, etc. The new recruit will usually be given an induction pack that introduces him or her to the organisation.

Mentoring

Mentoring involves a trainee paired with a more experienced employee. The trainee carries out the job but uses the mentor to discuss problems that may occur and how best to solve them.

Coaching

Coaching involves providing individuals with personal coaches in the workplace. The person who is going to take on the coaching role will need, first to develop coaching skills and will also need to have the time slots for the coaching to take place. The coach and the individual being coached will need to identify development opportunities they can work on together, ways of improving performance, etc. the coach will provide continuous feedback on performance and how this is progressing.

Apprenticeships

With apprenticeships schemes the apprentice learns by working for a more skilled person. They learn on the job by learning from the master. The apprentices have to work for a number of years to master their trade.

In- house training and external training

In -house training is where an organisation has its own training department. External training is where employees are sent on external courses, or are trained in other ways, away from the organisation. In -house training can take place on the job or off the job within the company, but external training always takes place off the job.

On-the-job

On-the-job training (OTJ) takes place when employees are trained while they are carrying out an activity, often at their place of work.

Off-the-job training

Off-the-job training takes place away from the job. This can be either internally within the company or externally using outside trainers.

NVQs, GNVQs and AVCEs

National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) and Advanced Vocational Certificates in Education (AVCEs) or Vocational A Levels, have played an important part in training and development.

Performance management

A business needs to manage the performance of its employees effectively if it is to remain competitive.

These are examples of methods businesses use to manage the performance of their employees:

        Performance reviews, including appraisals

        Self-evaluation

        Peer evaluation

        Target-setting for individuals and groups

        Measuring individual and group output/production.

The following motivational theories/ideas on the way in which business manage their employees:

        Frederick Taylor’s principles of Scientific Management

        Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

        Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

        Frederick Herzberg’s Two-factor Theory.

Performance reviews (including appraisals)

In an organisation you want everyone to be pulling in the same direction. Effectively organisations will therefore set out a mission statement identifying the overarching aims of the organisation.

Given the mission aims values, the organisation can create objectives at every level within the organisation right down to personal objectives for individual member of the organisation.  It through these objectives that the success of the organisation can be monitored and evaluated, as well as measuring the performance of individual members of the organisation.

A well-developed performance management system will include the following:

        A statement outlining the organisations values

        A statement of the organisations objectives

        Individual’s objectives, which are linked to the organisations objectives

        Regular performance reviews throughout the year

        Performance related pay

        Training and counselling

Performance appraisal is a process of evaluating performance systematically and of providing feedback on which performance adjustments can be made.

The major purpose of performance appraisal is to:

        Define the specific job criteria against which performance will be measured

        Measure past job performance accurately

        Justify the rewards given to individuals or groups, thereby discriminating between high and low performance

        Define the experiences that an individual employee will need for his or her ongoing development. These development experiences should improve job performance and prepare the employee for future responsibilities.

These are the common stages of staff of staff appraisal at Boots:

        The line manager meets with the jobholder to discuss what is expected. The agreed expectations may be expressed in terms of targets; performance standards are required job behaviours, attributed, skills and attitudes.

        The outcome of the meeting is recorded and usually signed by both parties.

        The jobholder performs the job for a period of six months or a year.

        At the end of the period, the jobholder and line manager or team leader meet again to review and discuss progress made. They draw up new action plans to deal with identified problems and agree targets and standards for the next period.

Self-evaluation

Self-evaluation is an important part of performance management.

Employees who are given work assignments to do are often encouraged to evaluate their own performance in carrying out these assignments to the required standard. The benefits of using this approach are as follows:

        The employees take more responsibilities of their own work area and for monitoring their own performance in this area. This is clearly motivational.

        The employees may have greater understanding of their work area and their job then an external appraiser may have. This is increasingly the case where employees are working in highly creative, individual situations, developing interpersonal relations that are not always easy to scrutinise and measure.

        Self-evaluation is cost effective. It avoids the wasteful expense and time of having external evaluators.

        Self-evaluation enables individuals to develop a much clearer picture of exactly what it is they are doing which makes work definition much better.

Target setting for individuals and groups

Performance management is a term that is used to describe the process in which employees participate with their superiors in setting their own performance targets. These targets are directly aligned with the stated goals of the teams, units or departments they work for.

Motivational theories

A number of motivational theories have been put forward that are of interest to us in outlining the sorts of approaches that can be used to motivate people in the workplace. Motivation is the level of commitment individuals have to what they are doing. Workplace motivation is concerned with commitments to an organisation, its objectives and targets.

Frederick Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management

F.W. Taylor was associated with an approach entitled scientific management. Scientific management assumed that people were alike and that their motivations were relatively simple.

They believed that workers actions could be programmed by their managers. Scientific management is associated with developing scientific methods of organising work.

Taylor also believed monetary reward was an important motivation factor that would drive the system. Higher rates of pay could be offered as an inducement for increased rates of output. He used workers who were prepared to work hard to set a standard for others.

He then tried to tempt employees to work hard to do these jobs by paying them higher rates than they could obtain in alternative work.

   

Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs’

Maslow’s theories of motivation are based on meeting people’s needs in the workplace. The theory suggests that unsatisfied needs can lead to dissatisfaction.

Maslow identified a range of needs that were largely hierarchical in nature:

        Basic needs are for reasonable standards of food, shelter and clothing in order to survive. This level of need will typically be met in workplaces by the receipt of money in exchange for work done.

        Security needs are also concerned with physical survival. In the workplace these security needs could include physical safety, security of employment, adequate rest periods, pension and sick schemes.

        Group needs are concerned with an individuals needs for affection and love. Most people want to belong to a group. As organisations grow, individuals can lose their identity, becoming just another number or a face in the crowed. Organisations therefore need to find ways of building individuals into groups and teams.

        Self-esteem needs are based on an individuals desire for self-respect and the respect of others. Employees have a need to be recognised as individuals and to fell important. This is where giving status to individual and recognising their achievements are important.

        Self-actualisation needs are concerned with personal development and individual creativity to achieve ones full potentials. In order to meet these needs at work, individuals need to be provided with the opportunity to use their creativity talents and abilities to the full.

Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and theory Y

Based on detailed research into mangers in action, Douglas McGregor divided managers into two main types. Theory X managers tend to have the view that:

        The average person has an inherent dislike of work and so will avoid it if at all possible. Hence management needs to emphasise productivity, incentives schemes and a fair days work and to denounce restrictions on output.

        Because people naturally dislike work, most people must be coerced, controlled, directed and/or threatened with punishment to get them to work towards business objectives.

        The average person likes to be directed, wishes or avoids responsibility, has little ambition and, above all, seeks security.

Against this pessimistic view of human motivation and its implications for the management of an organisation. McGregor proposed an alternative Theory Y. The underlying emphasis here is on integration to replace direction and control. The assumption about human motivation in Theory Y is as follows:

        Physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest. The ordinary person does not dislike work it all depends on the conditions under which work takes place, these may be enjoyable of not.

        External control is not the only way to get people to work. If they are committed to objectives, they will be motivated to work towards achieving them.

        The most significant reward that will motivate people to work is the satisfaction of an individuals self-actualisation needs. This can be the result of working towards an organisations objective.

        The average human being learns, when given the opportunity, to accept and more importantly to seek responsibility.

        Many people can contribute to a business’s objectives when given the chance.

        The average person’s potentialities are currently not being full used.

This is information on Boots training and development.

What is your policy on career development and nuturing staff?

Boots is committed to making people feel they have a stake in the success of the business. Running a more integrated business can mean that very different sets of skills are required. For example, the manager of a Boots store that now offers Dentalcare and Hearingcare needs to understand as much about delivering professional services as about maximising sales intensity. Training in new skills is being built into development programmes throughout the organisation. Increased investment in customer service training, which's been successfully trialled in our new core format stores, will be extended to all stores this year. A change in store management structure has given greater opportunity for our people to influence what happens at local level

As we increase our pace and drive, it's vital to have good, motivated people at every level. Our ambitious and innovative plans need people who are enthused by what we can do, and are determined to win.

Our training and development programmes ensure that our store staff can make shopping at Boots a noticeably more satisfying experience – and ensure that our managers work together effectively, seeing the bigger picture.

Task 6 (E6)

For this task, I will show knowledge of the purpose of performance and the ability to describe how the business approach may be influenced by motivational theory.

This is what I found out about Boots and how their employees are motivated.

Can you outline the ways in which employees are motivated?

Boots offers pay and working conditions which are both highly competitive and above average.

We are committed to an open and honest management system, which enables all employees to be well informed and to understand issues affecting the business. We have progressive and competitive policies on performance and reward, designed to recruit, motivate, develop and retail high quality people.

Employees are also encouraged to make best possible use of opportunities for learning and development, which may arise at work, in training activities and in further education. We encourage movement across business and functional boundaries within the company, to develop breadth and depth of experience, and offer opportunities for career development.

A company-wide Profits Related Bonus Scheme operates, to reward individuals for the business performance of the company. All permanent members of staff in the UK, both full and part-time, are eligible.

Boots operates various schemes to motivate workers in stores.

• Various incentive and reward schemes - Store managers recognise and reward excellent performance from their staff, be it in sales, customer service or housekeeping. Staff 'rewards' vary from being awarded staff scratch cards to extra advantage card points and entrance to various competitions
• Managers bonus - Store managers have the opportunity to earn substantial cash bonuses based on various aspects of stores performance, net sales, store housekeeping and customer service records.

In addition to company wide schemes, Boots stores commonly operate local motivational practices which are delivered at each store's discretion.

What arrangements does the company have for employee participation?

Each business unit and Group Headquarters Logistics have similar Staff Councils, which meet regularly during the year. A company-wide, Combined Central Staff Council, comprising representatives from each Staff Council, meets twice yearly, in June and November.

The new Boots Staff Council aims to enable two-way communication between all Boots staff and the Company's most senior managers more effectively. There are currently three 2-day Staff Council meetings a year in Nottingham, and Steve Russell (Boots Managing Director) is the official Chairperson for each Council day.

The new Boots Staff Council will be an amalgamation of all Staff Councils across the company (the Boots Division Central Staff Council, Office Council and Warehousing and Distribution Council). It will also be developed with the European Works Council Directive in mind.

The new Boots Staff Council's mission statement is:-

"To act as a two-way communication tool to support and listen to all staff and develop ownership and pride in the business."

A network of 33 Staff Councillors liaise with a number of local representatives to help achieve the Council's following objectives. Once the new Councillors and representatives are in place, the new Boots Staff Council will:

• Have more involvement in the long-term strategy of the business, rather than as a forum to discuss specific local issues
• Utilise a greater breadth of knowledge in the Company to provide feedback, generate ideas to improve the efficiency and effectiveness, and help to solve problems
• Use Staff Councillors as a sounding board to influence Company initiatives at the planning stage
• Ensure every single member of staff can have their say via their staff Councillor

Task 7 (E7)

For this task, I will explore one human resource function in depth. I will give effective examples of how the work is carried out and how it is evaluated in terms of its contribution to the activities of the business.