Knowledge of the responsibilities covered by the human resources function with in the business, showing a thorough understanding of the importance of these resources to the business: This is demonstrated throughout

HUMAN RESOURCES

E1- Knowledge of the responsibilities covered by the human resources function with in the business, showing a thorough understanding of the importance of these resources to the business: This is demonstrated throughout

Introduction

Human Resource planning is how businesses recruit, retain and manage people (employees/workers). Businesses need make efficient use of people because they are one of the key resources businesses have. In order for a business to achieve it’s objectives they must plan their human resources in the manner of finding the right type of people with the specified qualifications and training to meet the specifications of the job, in other words “the right employee for the right job”. (Heinemann AVCE business)

H.R. planning also deals greatly with forecasting the workforce requirements of the business for future years. H.R. planning involves finding out how many employees a business will require in the future as well as the type of employee. In the context of Shipley College HR planning means understanding the local demographics and skills shortages. HR planning is important to Shipley College because in order to attract students, Shipley College must plan for what type of students will study here and what they will want to study. This links to R and S and involves what types of tutors are needed with different specialist skills.

In the context of Shipley College recruitment involves advertising vacancies, interviewing and recruiting new staff. Retaining and managing staff involves continuous professional development and organizing work hours. Shipley College doesn’t forecast its self but depends on the Learning Skills Council and the Association of Colleges. These two organisations in conjunction collect data and find out what skills each area is deficient in and set guidelines for Shipley College to increase skills in these areas. Shipley College then offers vocational qualifications and training that reflect the needs of the community. This in turn determines how many staff and the skills profile of those staff that the College requires, reflecting the needs of the community.

Recruitment and selection is a lengthy process that has many parts. Recruitment and selection is important to Shipley College because according to Heinemann’s Advanced Business, businesses need to recruit due to “growth of a business, changing job roles within the business, filing vacancies created by resignation, retirement or dismissal and internal promotion.” This is especially true for Shipley College because job roles constantly change in the education role. Sometimes there is more demand for a certain type of tutor then Shipley College will need to recruit that certain type.

The competitiveness of Shipley College depends on training and development. The demand for “knowledgeable” workers has increased over time with the development of information technology; this has caused the economy and learners to be “knowledge” based. The more knowledgeable Shipley Colleges tutors are the more value they add to learning at Shipley College. Therefore in order for Shipley College to gain the competitive edge against other learning institutions they need to train and develop their tutors so they are making the best use of them and are able to offer a wide variety of courses with impressionable tutors that leave a mark in the minds of those who study at Shipley College.

Shipley College needs to manage the performance of employees using precision in order to compete with other learning institutions. Training and development increases competitiveness but must be linked to performance management in order to monitor the effectiveness and increase performance.

Businesses have always relied on the performance of human resources this is especially true for Shipley College because the economy is built on intelligence and complex information and communications technology. Therefore students will want to study towards getting into these types of jobs.

The development of these advancements in technology has caused the need for Shipley College to manage employees efficiently in a self-motivated manner in order to meet the high level of demand for these types of courses. This need has caused Shipley College to develop systems to manage performance. In the context of Shipley College this doesn’t mean okay I want these many of this product made by such and such time. In Shipley College performance management has to do with training and development of staff appraisals etc. Shipley College has to continuously develop staff so they don’t become obsolete and their performance contributes to Shipley College and doesn’t hinder it in providing learning.

This is just an outline of the basics of human resource functions at Shipley College. This is an outline explaining how all these HR functions link together and of how they are the key to the survival of Shipley College. This is why the HR functions are important to Shipley College.

E2 - Interpretation and use of internal staffing information and external labour market information to plan human resources with the business.

C1 - Interpretation of relevant labour market information and that you can compare your interpretation with how the business has used labour market information.

According to Stephanie Shields (Vice President of Curriculum at Shipley College) what Shipley College base their internal staffing information on is the external labour skills evaluation of Bradford District. “At Shipley College we analyse the local labour market information to ascertain skills needs for the Bradford District. We are also addressing the needs of the Airedale Corridor, Shipley to Keighley and beyond.”

The internal staffing is based on the objectives of the Association of Colleges Briefing (in appendix Q). The Association of Colleges also work in conjunction with the Local Learning plus Skills Council. In this document the overall “vision for improvement” of national skills are based. In this briefing the local skills shortages are also assessed. According to Stephanie Shields this information sets how many staff will be needed the following year and how many need to be recruited and what skills staff should be trained in, in order to deliver the skills training required.

The different types of labour market that is researched to plan human resources are:

According to Stephanie Shields the current need of training in Bradford District and Airedale Corridor are in areas of Travel and Tourism, Leisure and Recreation and Information Technology. For the Airedale Corridor there is specific emphasis on rural regeneration, “Encouraging the up skilling of those involved in agriculture.” According to Stephanie Shields the College is planning to open a “farming shop” in Bingley to support local farming communities in their training needs. Based on this objective of College in conjunction with the Association of Colleges and Learning plus Skills Council in order to start this project staff will be needed and they will be either trained or recruited. This is an example of how internal staffing is based on external labour market needs and information.

The labour market information that Shipley College uses is the Association of Colleges in conjunction with the Learning Skills Council research. This sets the programmes Shipley College initiates. The information researched to compare with Shipley College's use of labour market information was the Learning Schools Council briefing and Association of Colleges briefing for 2003.

There are different categories where research has been conducted in those areas. The market for which is most relevant to Shipley College is the Qualification framework. This document may be found in the Appendix (Q) page 2. The market research in this section indicated that “Modern apprenticeships will be strengthened and extended, s a top quality vocational route designed to meet the needs of employers. The current age cap will be lifted so that adults will e able to benefit.” This is based on the research in the labour market. In comparison to Shipley College, Shipley College has tuned its human resource functions toward this market research because as a second year student at Shipley College, these changes are quite noticeable. This is because as progression from As to A2 occurred a range of A levels that were available at Shipley College transformed into AVCE, NVQ and other vocational courses. This is evidence that Shipley College has been tuning its management of human resources to the labour market needs.

It is also evident that there is a change in training and development because more tutors are being trained in IT skills and vocational courses through their Continuous Professional Development schemes. (C1)

Employer feedback was also research and it showed that 22% of employers felt that their staff required IT training, word processing, spreadsheets and accounting. More shocking than that figures showed that 35% of employers asked in Bradford and district didn’t’ know if their was need for skill improvement involving ICT. These labour market figures support the CPD initiatives of Shipley College. This information was researched from Bradford and District in Depth 2003 (provided by the Learning + Skills Council). (C1)

Skills shortages were also researched in the labour market by sector. There was 29.8% shortage in computing skills, 16.2% agriculture shortage. This supports Shipley College's initiatives to support rural growth in these areas and these initiatives have been put into effect because vocational courses are now available at Shipley College. (C1)

Over all Shipley Colleges human resource function revolves around the labour market and educational needs of Bradford. The human resource function manages, recruits, and trains employees to provide teaching to the locality. The human resource function responds directly to the results of labour market research. (C1)

E3 - Identification of the features of key recruitment documents and ability to describe the factors to be considered in planning to fill a vacancy and carrying out interviews.

C2 Analysis of the key recruitment documents and ability to evaluate of the quality of information in relation to the purpose of each

Shipley College Source documents (information booklet on recruitment and selection may be found in appendix part (M).

Before interviewing candidates and advertising for vacant positions Shipley College assesses the different factors that need to be considered. These factors are: what type of person do we need? for example do we want someone who is exactly like the person who held the job before? Have their been any changes in the specification of the job? Will this new candidate need to have more skills then the previous one? These are the basic factors Shipley College considers when planning to fill a vacancy. Once these factors have been considered a new job specification, description and application form are created tailoring to the needs of this new vacancy. There are various other factors that are considered, they are described with the according recruitment and selection document described and analysed below.

According to Heinemann’s Advanced Business, businesses need to recruit due to “growth of a business, changing job roles within the business, filing vacancies created by resignation, retirement or dismissal and internal promotion.” Basically these are some of the possible reasons why businesses may be lacking staff, the primary goal of the recruitment and selection department is to ensure that the business never falls short of the available supply of human resources needed to fill positions for various reasons.

The selection part of the process is very important as well. According to Heinemann’s Advanced Business “poor performing” staff may be very “costly”. Hence the interview (selection process) must be done precisely.

In order to duly fill a vacancy there are key recruitment documents that must be completed:

Job analysis

According to the Heinemann Advanced Business the job analysis gives an idea of the type of job that has just become vacant. It is an outline for the job description.

Job description

The source document that was used was the job ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

In order to duly fill a vacancy there are key recruitment documents that must be completed:

Job analysis

According to the Heinemann Advanced Business the job analysis gives an idea of the type of job that has just become vacant. It is an outline for the job description.

Job description

The source document that was used was the job description for Full Time Assistant Computing Technician, it may be found in appendix part (O). The key information that was on the job description was:

Post title
Prime objectives of the Post

Supervision and guidance

Range of Decision making

Responsibility for Assets, materials, etc

Range of duties

Weekly Hours

Salary

Closing date for applications

The job description was not very dissimilar to the job advertisement. The major difference was the level of depth the range of duties went in to. This was very specific and described all the major duties of the job. The description was very sufficient in quality and detail in accordance to the purpose of the job description. The purpose of a job description is to describe the range of duties that a person will be performing. The job description should also specify the title, position and responsibilities that are involved in the job.

Personal specification

This needs to be written after the job analysis and job description has been completed. This will go beyond the job description it usually comprises of, the physical and mental attributes that a candidate should have or what attributes may be desirable. Some criteria may be essential for the success of the applicant, such as the level of intelligence, their character and their interests.

The source personal specification that was used was for a lecturer in care. The personal specification was in the form of a grid with a column of attributes, essentials and desirables. It also identified to the applicant how this will be evaluated, either through interview or application. A copy of it can be found in appendix part (O). The purpose of the personal specification is to give a range of qualities physical and mental that a person should have in order to succeed with obtaining this position. The quality of the information is very good because the information available on the personal specification is exact and tells precisely what attributes candidates should have essentially, meaning they should have it. What would be desirable and how they are going to identify to Shipley College that they have these attributes. This information was very clear and the information was of good quality with sufficient depth to give the applicants a clear idea if they have what it takes to get this position and what to do to prepare for the vacancy.

Job advertisement

After completion of the previous documents the job must be advertised in various media sources to obtain appropriate enquiries for the position vacant. Usually jobs are advertised in places such as newspapers, job centres, job agencies, the Internet, radio. The may also be advertised internally as there are many benefits that may be attained from this. Some benefits are: shorter training and induction period necessary. The result is less time and money being spent on the whole process.

The source job advertisement that was used was an advertisement for a full time assistant Computing Technician. The source document may be found in appendix part (N). The key information on this advertisement is:

Job title: this information is essential because the job title gives the indication of the position that is vacant

Weekly Hours - this information necessary and is listed very clearly on the advertisement. The purpose of providing weekly hours is to acknowledge exactly what hours will the applicant will have to work.

Job description - a very brief description was given: “To provide a wide range of technical support, both in College and community based, to the College’s academic sectors and non-teaching services.”

Information for application - At the bottom it was written where to post your application form.

Salary - The salary is essential because it helps differentiate between working for Shipley College and somewhere else.

The purpose of a job advertisement is for the organisation to communicate to its target audience. The Inside the advertisement a brief job description must be placed in order to attract the right people. Any other relevant information must also be placed, for example, approximate salary, organisation name, any benefits, qualifications, location and contact details.

In relation to quality the job advertisement was sufficient and provided all the details to entice people seeking positions as Assistant Computing Technicians. However the daily hours weren’t listed whether they were in the morning or afternoon, a statement should have been included specifying what time of the day this job is available for.

Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of job applications, curricula vitae and letters of application and short-listing candidates.

The application usually will have a CV (curriculum vitae) attached with it. The CV should be tailored to the position applied for. This is essential because the business will the start the short listing process after identifying the strengths and weaknesses of each individual and what was asked for in relation to the job description and job/person specification.

Short listing involves analysing the CVs and the application forms and deciding which applicants appear to be most suitable for the position. Once this is done the Human Resource Department will contact the successful applicants and ask them to go to an interview.

The Interview

Interview planning - Many organisation plan their interview using a document set up to make the interview process easier. The information would be set up in a check and go kind of set up leaving room for brief comment. The purpose of this is to give the interview a beginning and end, a shape. This also eases some of the tension for the interviewer.

The interview is usually a lengthy process and there may be more than one interview per person, this is usually the case. Out of the first round if interviewees a few are chosen and are asked to attend a second interview and possibly even a third.

According to the Heinemann Avce Book on Business in order to get the “right person for the right job” a skilled interviewer will have studied the job description, the job specification, job advertisement, application forms, CVs and covering letters in order to know as much information as possible about the applicants before the interview commences.

In order for the interview to be successful it must be uninterrupted, friendly, well structured. Open-ended questions should be used in order to get to know the applicant in greater detail, as they will show their character traits and personality answering these questions.

At the interview the applicant should be allowed to enquire about the organisation. Once the right employee is selected than a contract of employment must be signed and internal training will usually begin.

In order to justly carry out this recruitment and selection process a business must adhere to certain laws and “ethical responsibilities”. (Heinemann’s Advanced Business). Laws such as:

Equal pay act 1975

Sex Discrimination Act 1975

Race Relations Act 1976

Disability Discrimination Act 1995

According the Heinemann’s Advanced Business businesses must create flexible work forces and create different contracts with different employees. Examples are:

Different modes of employment

Different terms and conditions

Core employees

Part-time, temporary and contract labour

Job application

A job application must identify suitable information to help the recruitment and selection team to differentiate between candidates and short lists people based on credentials in comparison to what is required. This enables R and S team to find the right employee for the right job.

The application at Shipley College that was given for a source document was for the position of an As part time teacher. This may be found in Appendix part (P).

The essential information for any job anywhere was asked for on the application: i.e. Name, Position applied for, d.0.b., age, NI number, and contact details. This information is always compulsory and insufficient detail of this information can be very detrimental as this is a teaching profession and students (underage) are involved. The quality of the depth of detail asked for was sufficient for the related position.

The quality of the rest of the information was also relevant to any standard application: i.e. background information, qualifications, references, work experience, and a declaration that all information is correct. This application was unsatisfactory because this is a teaching position and there was no mention of any criminal offences, criminal background check references or any similar identification asked for. This would have been a horrendous slip-up but the criminal background check is done using another sheet of paper that the College didn’t give me. This information was provided from my course coordinator Judy Roberts. The information on the background check asked about criminal history.

The information asked for on the application was suitable as a general application, but it was not specified for the teaching profession. The application in general lacked specific criteria to meet a professional quality. The application felt too standardised and not specific to each position.

E4 - Identification of the key aspects of the business’s training and development programme and ability to explain the importance of these to the performance of the business.

E7 - exploration of one human resources function in depth giving 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.

The key aspects of Training and Development

Similar to the text book definition of a training and development plan called the PDP, (personal development plan), the employees at Shipley College are have a CPD programme, (continuous professional development). Up until now this has been an informal development process where individuals are monitored and aided in developing their own skills. The assistant principle Curriculum, Stephanie Shields commented that in 2003 this process shall be formalised and individual employees shall be given folders to keep record of their development.

Continuous professional is important to the performance of Shipley College because as time goes by there are intellectual, technological and socio cultural changes that take place. Training and development is important to Shipley College because it helps Shipley College stay up to date with demand and helps utilize existing staff moulding their staff to meet the changes in the educational environment.

The key aspects of training and development for Shipley College (CPD) are to improve IT skills, give regular appraisals, support tutors in personal development, and to widen the training of tutors.

Improving these skills is important to Shipley College because it is very expensive to recruit staff. Take for example that if every time Shipley College wanted to introduce a new qualification, if they had to recruit an entourage of new staff. This would be very costly. This is one of the most important reasons why training and development is key to the success of business because it allows business and Shipley College to use existing staff and use their staff for a multitude of situations.

Finally in the context of Shipley College the performance of institution depends on training and development because the more efficient the tutors become as they continuously develop over time, the more efficient Shipley College will become over time. Shipley College will not just be efficient in manner of resources and time, but will also be efficient in filling in the gaps of unaccounted for subjects and will be able to provide a much wider range of qualifications because their staff will be more developed and trained. They will be able to offer bigger and better courses. This will definitely improve the performance of Shipley College.

Training and development objectives for Shipley College in Depth:

Inside the Interim Report written by Stephanie Shields the objectives for CPD were listed:

“To improve skills for pastoral care and student support”

In order to achieve this first objective tutors will be given Basic counselling skills provision and an additional 2 sessions during the year of July 2003. Also Careers at Bradford (external trainer) will teach a session as well.

“To develop and support a raft of initiatives to support the disengaged and to improve retention and achievement”

The types of training used for this objective will be coaching and in house training.

“To continue to support initiatives designed to improve the quality of teachings and learning and learning support for individual learners”

Internal and external training shall be used. During the in house training sessions quality circles and mentorship shall be used. The external training has been arranged with John Tidball of Quiet Associates.

“To ensure consistent standard delivery of Key Skills”

In house and external training will be used.

“To support the introduction of the Connexions Service”

A personal Advisor will give training

“To extend the Basic Skills Initiative”

Extra support will be given to get tutors to attend external training.

“To continue to support the teacher training initiative”

Initial teacher training is given to new tutors and other tutors are given training at their level to develop. Other staffs are being supported in undertaking their Meds and one staff member has started on a doctorate.

“To support additional external updating”

Staffs is supported through the development budget and development in technology is being awaited to aid in monitoring and sharing who is attended which training sessions.

“To support further academic qualifications”

Seven staff members are being supported with master’s level and higher this helps meet organisational objectives because after these members are qualified Shipley College may offer HE (higher education) and FE courses.

10) “To support a raft of ILT developments”

This category has the highest spending for staff development and emphasises IT development and training is held at flexible times through out the year.

11) “To support training in the accurate maintenance and effective use of the ISR/ILR by both teaching and support staff”

External people such as “Lily Rose” and Fretwell Downings will hold these training sessions.

“To harmonize the LSC/Yeti systems with the integrated ILR

This is a technological development that will aid in recording individual development programmes and will generate funding.

In the conclusion of her Interim report Stephanie Shields commented that a clear objective was set to improve the quality of training and development. Also she commented on holding work-based learning at College and also flexibility will be encouraged

The training and development plan at Shipley College is excellent and is always seeking development. The exercises are planned, executed, monitored and reformed. There are several documents printed throughout the year to keep staff informed of company objectives for training and development. Shipley College uses a variety of training methods from external to internal, from work-based-learning to learning-sessions, virtual learning sessions and blackboard work. 3.3% of funding is allocated to staff development, which is a significant figure when talking about the whole of funding. To add more status to the brilliant development schemes Shipley College is also recognized by Investors in People and also use Careers Bradford or training.

Shipley College acknowledges the shortage of skills and the need for development. Linking its own objective to individual objectives Shipley College is formalising its training and development department and is one the highest spenders on development according to Stephanie Shields. Giving questionnaires to students helps monitor the developments along with other methods such as giving tutors appraisals, peer evaluation and observation. This section of training and development links with Performance management and will be discussed in the Performance management section.

Performance Management at Shipley College (C3 + E7)

The performance management system at Shipley College is linked with its training and development. One example of this may be Shipley College’s objective to aid tutors in completing their key skills exams and portfolio work. In order to maximise the productivity and to increase the teaching ability of the tutors they must complete more qualifications. This is performance management linking with training and development. The tutors are aided in completing their key skills portfolio work and exams and this increases their transferable skills and increases the competitiveness of Shipley College.

The qualifications that the tutors of Shipley College contribute to making Shipley College a more competitive College because students/parents and especially the government will invest in any school, College or sixth form based on the results the students receive and how well the students give feedback on that particular place. This makes it necessary to train tutors more and more to increase their performance, this will inevitably give tutors more skills to teach their students producing higher results and more student satisfaction with their courses leading to competitiveness in the teaching business. Not only will students see the results that a particular school or College attains but parents and the government will recognize this and parents will send their children and the government will recognize the benefit of granting more money to this learning centre has on the society which ultimately benefits the government and the whole of the country as more new comers contribute to the growing economy.

Performance appraisal

Performance appraisals “systematically” evaluate the performance and provide feedback using the basic equation:

“Desired performance - Actual performance = Need for action”

(Heinemann Advanced Business by Needham, Dave and Dransfield, Rob page 441)

Many organisations today have some form of appraisal whether it may be formal or informal. This is usually in the following steps:

“The line manager meets with the jobholder to discuss what is expected. The agreed expectations may be expressed in terms of targets, performance standards, or required job behaviours - attributes, skills and attitudes.”

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

“The job-holder performs the job for a period of six months or a year.”

“At the end of the period, the job-holder 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.”

Performance appraisals are needed because they provide an expected result to which performance may be measured against. They also provide a method of establishing fair rewards for completion of desired outcome. Finally performance appraisals help develop employees by reforming development needs and setting new objected and expected results by assessing what training is needed. There may be different types of appraisals that are given they might be formal with the company or individual self evaluations, here are some of the common methods:

Self-evaluation - is a method of evaluating performing based on employees being autonomous. In this intelligence based economy employees must be self-motivated and self-sufficient in order for businesses maximise performance. This involves employees taking responsibility for their own learning, evaluating their development needs and measuring their performance.

There are obvious benefits of this type of approach to performance management such as employees being motivated because taking responsibility cause individuals to be more indulgent in completing desired tasks, etc. The employee may criticize his own performance at his/her job because unlike an external appraiser the employee knows all the key facts about their own job and the performance level they should be at. Another great benefit for the company is self-evaluation is cost effective.

Peer evaluation - is where employees on the same level of employment evaluate each other; this may be done using questionnaires, reviews or various other methods. This helps keep equality in the work force and helps assure that the work is evenly spread throughout employees on the same level of responsibility. However there are some downfalls such as the peers may evaluate each others judging on their links that grow between them as they work side by side of each other. More importantly employees also build up defence against higher levels of management where they evaluate each other in such a way that they seem to always justify their position as being correct and upper management being wrong.

In order to have a continuous appraisal system targets must be set in order to compare the results against, this may be done using the following methods:

Target setting for individuals and groups - is usually done using appraisals. Many organisations base their appraisals on three different aspects; personal attributes, skills and performance. Many organisations use these methods to set target for example a company may set targets that employees must develop certain personal attributes such as reliability and adaptability, however this method is criticised because who will judge performance management accurately based on employees personal attributes. Appraisals also view employee skills for example a technician may be monitored by his/her superiors for their communications skills. Skills are usually appraised by observation at the job. The performance of the individual is measured differentiating betweens the goals/objectives set and how the employee’s work compares in contrast, i.e. is there more or less productivity then forecasted?

Once the targets are set the results must be measured using a fair method, businesses using measure productivity using the following methods:

Measuring individual and group output/productivity

Comparing and contrasting how productive employees are and how much they should be paid/rewarded may be done using different methods. The most common are behaviour scales, Job evaluation and merit ratings. What behaviour scales assess is the personality of the individual and the competency; therefore the pay also takes into consideration the personality and how competent the individual is at work. Giving the job an evaluation or better known as a job evaluation compares and contrasts different jobs at work and the pay for each job is determined. Once the job evaluation sets the jobs in bands in comparison to each other then the employee is given regular appraisals and given a merit to assess if he is promoted to the higher band or stays in the same. This is known as merit rating. There are many other factors that assess an individual’s performance such as attitude, morale, personality, attendance, etc.

Giving employees appraisals and targets and comparing the results is not enough to create an efficient, competitive work environment. In order to maximise efficiency and increase competitiveness and productivity businesses must using motivation methods and theories such as the following:

Performance Related Pay (PRP)

Performance related pay is a simple method to motivate employees but may un-unify employees at work. Performance related pay is usually given based on the competency or the productivity that employee has at work. Basing pay on this the pay increases in increments as the performance/productivity increases.

There are other methods of motivating employees using motivational theories such as the “reinforcement theory”. The reinforcement theory simply states that positive experiences lead to motivation. Other relevant motivation theories are Frederick Taylor’s principles of scientific management, Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Douglas McGregor’s X and Y theory, Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory, Adams Equity Theory and Lawler (linking rewards to performance.

Last but not least to manage the performance of an organisation businesses must be aware of legislations that will affect how they use their human resources. The following legislations affect human resources:

Maximum hours legislation

The working time Regulations 1998 and Young Workers directive 1998 states that employees may not work over 48 hours per week including overtime over 17 weeks. Night working must not exceed 8 hours in each 24 hours in 17 weeks and young workers are given 12 consecutive hours.

Leave arrangements (including maternity and paternity leave)

All parents are entitled Parental leave for 13 weeks per child born after December 15th 1999 if they have been working for at least 1 year’s service. They may take their leave anytime until the child’s 5th birthday and/or if the child is disable till the 18th birthday.

Minimum wage legislation

Minimum wage was introduced into England in 1998. The minimum wage was set at £3.60 for adults and £3.00 for young workers aged 18-21. The minimum wage changes with objectives of the political party, especially the labour party who intends on slowly increasing minimum wage annually.

Where does Shipley College market its job vacancies?

According to Dianne Binnes, a tutor at Shipley College, many of the staff at Shipley College come seeking training in the world of education. Many started as student tutors and ended up being recruited as part time staff. From there it is an uphill process increasing hours and earning skills. Shipley College help internally train staff in various areas such as key skills and teacher training.

How ever a large College institution such as Shipley College does not rely only on past students returning and student tutors simply being added on, they advertise their vacancies in the open market. Places such as The Telegraph and Argus, The times Education section and various newspapers. One of the best sources to search for a job at Shipley College is on their own website. However, at first glance of the website there was no link for jobs. After searching the website for a little while the following link was found under the sub heading of “what’s new”

After finding the relevant link there was much useful information there, from the website you can download: an application form, a full job description and a job advert.

An appraisal at Shipley College

To start off with Shipley College has created an appraisal scheme that has 5 parts to it. This scheme may be viewed in the appendix part D. The 5 parts to the appraisal are:

The procedure of the appraisal

The appraisal and review

The Line management

Evaluation

The possible outcomes

This document is available in the College computer network and helps clarify the purpose of the appraisal scheme. This helps link the organisation objectives down to the individual objectives and informs staff about appraisals: “The Shipley College scheme of appraisal includes all staff and aims to recognise the contribution that staff make to the College and to facilitate the process of identification of staff development needs. The scheme will be based up on a line management model but on which maintains the principle of self-assessment.”

(Staff Appraisal document; appendix part D)

The actual appraisal documents have numerous parts to it. The first part is section 1 assessment of the previous year, section 1 asks the following questions:

What changes occurred:

In your job

In your area of work

Reviews of objectives

What recommended actions were agreed at your last appraisal for you to pursue and what progress has been made?

What recommended actions were agreed on at your last appraisal of the College to pursue and what progress has been made?

What do you feel you accomplished over the last year e.g. particular work achievements, suggestions?

Did you experience any difficulties during the year?

Similar types of questions are assessed for sections 2 and 3 regarding the skills and knowledge for present work and future work. There are three different approaches used at this appraisal the first part is a self-assessment the second part is providing evidence for this and the third part is the appraiser’s comments. This helps identify that Shipley College use the textbook type of staff appraisal scheme based on self-evaluation, line manager evaluation and performance reviews.

The appraisal scheme is set up in such a way that first the appraisal takes place then actions that are going to be taken upon by the staff and the College are identified and agreed upon in a review document and action plan. This can be found in appendix part (E) on page 5. The last bit of this document identifies any area of development needs to be considered for the personal development plan. Then throughout the year the steps taken toward development and meeting the set of actions intended on are documented and signed by staff and the appraiser.

The appraisal also monitors the performance of the tutors within the classroom; these are called “classroom observations”. This document may be viewed in the appendix part (E) page 6 and page 8. These appraisals are usually done by observation where another tutor, usually the head of department/sector sits in and watches the tutor teach the class and observes how he/she handles the class and any situations that may arise.

After completion of all the appraisals (self-assessment, observation, etc.) are completed they are documented throughout the year. All the tutors have individual portfolios where all these situations are document and have relevant evidences as well such as performance appraisals linked with training and development actions taken after the performance appraisals and a list of all the events and training and development activities attended. Development needs are identified from the appraisal documentation and then staff development and training is programmed to meet those needs. This completes the training cycle that meets the standards.

E5 - Correct identification of any possible areas of conflict between the human resources functions

In Shipley College there were a few conflicts between the human resource functions. There were two main problems that staff helped identify. One problem was that the College is in need of tutors with IT skills because there is high demand for IT skills.

The second problems is that tutors are very enthusiastic about continuous professional development and receiving training, however they wish to develop in their own profession not in IT skills. This is a dilemma because Shipley College does not have many IT tutors.

There was one case in which, an already existing 2 year course in its second year lost their IT tutor because a new IT course was initiated and this tutor was the only person with the qualifications at Shipley College to do the job. So Shipley College increased this tutors salary and changed his job. This is a major conflict between the training, recruitment and managing function at Shipley College.

Shipley College employ a large amount of part time tutors in comparison to full time. This crates insecurity and also causes higher than necessary labour turnover. This can result in skills shortages as the problem indicated above. Tutors also request secondment in order to update their skills this is rarely granted, as the cost would be too great, as replacement tutors would need to be found. Training and development for part time tutors is a waste of money because these tutors can be lost to full time employment elsewhere.

Performance Management

E6 - Knowledge of the purpose of performance management and ability to describe how the business’s approach may be influenced by motivational theory:

C3 Identification and analysis of the relationship between the business’s training and development programme and its management of performance and explain how these two functions may be influenced by different motivational theories.

The purpose of businesses using performance management is to compete with competitors. Training and development increases competitiveness but must be linked to performance management in order to monitor the effectiveness and increase performance. In order to have efficient performance management businesses must be aware of any relevant legislation regarding the business environment. Management and development is also linked with motivational theories. For example if tutors stay at one level and never get the chance to develop and widen their skill they will feel as if their jobs are repetitive and will not fully try using the entirety of their capability to perform their job. They will simply go through day-to-day reading out of their “teaching manual”. Like Maslow’s hierarchy, tutors should be given the chance to develop their skill and this will not only motivate the tutors but also increase the performance of Shipley College.

Businesses have always relied on the performance of human resources “in the twenty-first century this is more true than ever before because the economy is built on intelligence and complex information and communications technology. Systems” (Heinemann Advanced Business by Needham, Dave and Dransfield, Rob page 440)

The development of these advancements in technology has caused the need for businesses to have employees working efficiently in a self-motivated manner in order to compete in this hi tech world. This need has caused businesses to develop systems to manage performance:

In order to have something to monitor performance against businesses need to start off with creating a mission statement and a value statement. The mission statement states the relevant objectives of the business and where it aims to be and how it aims to develop. The values statement sets the standard and quality that the organisation aims perform at. Linking this down to individual employee objectives the performance management system may start. The system should also include performance related, training and counselling. To complete the cycle of performance management system the organisation must have several reviews throughout the year.

Businesses have developed several key aspects of Performance Management they are performance appraisal, self-evaluation, peer evaluation and target setting for individuals and groups.

Which motivational theory seems closest to match with Shipley College’s performance management?

Due to the natural high intellect of the tutors Adams Equity theory certainly affects motivation at Shipley College. Highly educated individuals such as the tutors at Shipley College are not always concerned with money as the only motivator, but look for alternative methods to gain satisfaction from their jobs. This is especially true for being treated equally in comparison with other tutors who are at the same level. Adams Equity deals with how people perceive how they are treated in comparison to others. This theory has 2 types of equality, distributing and procedural equity. Distributing equity deals with fairness and how people feel about their rewards compared to others. Procedural equity deals with the perception of employees in relation to procedures such as recruitment and selection and development. Shipley College follows distributive equity because if they did not surely the staff would be de-motivated, as they are self-sufficient individuals who have a strong foundation (education) in believing in things such as fairness. And again because of the high intellect of tutors if Shipley College did not follow procedural equity in all matters such as recruitment and selection or training and development and differentiated between individuals based on relation or favours then staff would also be de-motivated. This can be proven by the fact that Shipley College have a staff handbook, and details of policies, procedures that meet “equal opportunities” in the areas of training and development and recruitment, selection and promotion.

Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory is also demonstrated at Shipley College. The two-factor theory states that at work there are to types of motivators: satisfiers and dissatisfiers. Herzberg’s stated that having dissatisfiers will keep absenteeism down and negative attitudes but will not motivate staff to work harder. In order to motivate employees the satisfiers must be met. Shipley College recognized this theory and demonstrates it by keeping resources at Shipley College plentiful, staff parking, coffee, etc, these are the dissatisfiers. The whole of policies are probably created in light of this theory, this is because Herzberg’s two factor theory states the following things as “dissatisfiers”; “Impossibility of growth and development, unfair treatment of employees, feeling s of inadequacy, unfair management and supervisory practices, unfriendly relations with the hierarchy, autocratic or arbitrary company policy and administration, low pay, poor working conditions, antagonistic relations between different levels of employees.” In contrast tutors will stay motivated if Shipley College recognizes that tutors jobs are difficult and constantly remind tutors of this, and occasionally give tutors a “pat on the back” or a good job note. Other methods to keep tutors motivated is to reward hard work such as working extra hours, covering lectures etc. with rewards such as giving tutors bonus pay, and the possibility of obtaining special promotions.

(Heinemann Advanced Business by Needham, Dave and Dransfield, Rob PG 455)

These two functions training and development and performance management are linked to motivation theory because the basics of these function starts with getting the employee to be motivated in order to improve performance. The only way tutors will happily and effectively teach at Shipley College is if performance management fulfils all the basic job satisfaction needs of the tutors at College. For example tutors should expect things such as, access to copying machines, and computer resources. These are satisfiers and not having them will dissatisfy the teachers. These are all management level things for tutors to be provided with these. Training and development is especially linked to motivating staff because offering workers a chance to develop is one of the basic motivational theories that is present in many different theories such as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Macgregor’s x and y theory, the Herzberg’s two factor theory and so on. Macgregor’s X and Y theory is a good demonstration of the types of tutors at Shipley College. The theory states that there are two types of employees. The X employee is only motivated by money and slacks off if not constantly monitored. On the other hand the Y employee will work hard and be more motivated with the more responsibility that they are given and wants to continuously develop through out their career. This is demonstrated at Shipley College because X tutors are key skills tutors who are not concerned with developing their careers further but are only motivated by the chance to make more money. Key subject lecturers are Y types of employees because they constantly take responsibility for their students in their own hands and are motivated to put in the extra effort to help students and perform better when left alone. This demonstrates why Shipley College try and employ Y type tutors and give them some key skills training to try and avoid recruit X type tutors who will only want to teach key skills. Another reason that performance management is linked to motivational theory is Lawler: linking rewards to performance. These are all motivational theories that form the foundation of training and development and performance management. This is because in order for business to effectively manage performance and train and develop their staff they will use some sort of motivating techniques to get their employees perform their job better.

A1 Analysis of how relevant labour market trends relate to the ongoing human resources planning of the business

The training and development methods described in E4+E7 were all part of initiatives that the government took and is taking to improve the supply of skills in the workforce. The department for Education and Employment’s Business plan for 1998 to 1999 was to:

“Objective 1. Ensuring all young people reach 16 with the skills, attributes and personal qualities that will give them a secure foundation for lifelong learning, work and citizenship in a rapidly changing world.

Objective 2. Developing in everyone a commitment to lifelong learning so as to enhance their lives, improve their employability in a changing labour market and to crate the skills our economy and employers need.

Objective 3. To help people without a job into work”

(Heinemann Advanced Business by Needham, Dave and Dransfield, Rob PG 437)

There were numerous other initiatives launched such as the Lifelong learning Partnerships and Individual Learning Accounts in order to supply skills needed for the economy. Over all the need for training and development is linked 3 ways individual objectives, company objectives and government objectives.

These relevant market trends and government objectives relate to the ongoing human resource planning of Shipley College. Future objectives and labour market trends will also dictate the type of training and development that will be carried out in Shipley College’s CPD programme. This is because the changed in the market reflects the type of qualifications that Shipley College will supply.

A2 A critical understanding of the contribution that effective human resources management can make to improving the competitiveness of the business and illustrate you points effectively

The competitiveness of a business depends on training and development. The demand for “knowledgeable” workers has increased over time with the development of information technology; this has caused the economy to be “knowledge” based. For example the conflict between human resource functions at Shipley College illustrates how dear tutors are with IT skills and teaching qualifications. The more knowledgeable a company’s workers are the more value they add to the company’s products. This is true for Shipley College because the more IT tutors they have the more courses they can run and the more students they can attract from the locality. This will also enable them to meet the learning school council goals to improve skills of locality in certain areas. Therefore in order for companies to gain the competitive edge against competitors they need to train and develop their employees.

The majority of jobs in Britain now lie in the service sector, this has caused an increase in demand for knowledgeable individuals from various sources, e.g. pinching trained workers from other companies, or alternatively companies are seeking in house training and development programmes. This is exactly what happened to the second year class at Shipley College when their IT tutor was take from them in order to initiate a new IT course. Companies must find a way to take on trained workers because companies now rely on the “intellectual” capital of rather than physical labour because majority of economy is in the service sector.

There are also added benefits that companies receive when training their own employees. Along with increasing competitiveness the business will improve efficiency arriving from more skilled working having less wastage and improved performance leading to higher standards of quality and production. Training your own employees costs less for businesses in the long run because of various factors such as trained workers usually cost more and they tend to leave sooner where as training in house usually causes employees to stay with the company longer and motivates them and gives them higher morale. Overall the efficiency and quality of the work force increase whilst reducing costs.

The qualifications that the tutor’s gain from continuous training and development improve the competitiveness of Shipley College because students/parents and especially the government will invest in any learning institution based on the results the students receive and how well the students give feedback on that particular place. This makes it necessary to train tutors more and more to increase their performance, this will inevitably give tutors more skills to teach their students producing higher results and more student satisfaction with their courses leading to competitiveness in the teaching business. Not only will students see the results that a particular school or College attains but parents and the government will recognize this and parents will send their children and the government will recognize the benefit of granting more money to this learning centre has on the society which ultimately benefits the government and the whole of the country as more new comers contribute to the growing economy.

In order for Shipley College to have a smooth running environment they must coincide with all these factors, and they certainly do; they have an excellent performance appraisal systems that continuously links with training and development throughout the year documenting all skills needed, objectives attempted, skills gained and objectives for the College met as well.