Organisational Structures and Job Roles at Richer Sounds.

Distance selling regulations 2000

The law is about to increase consumer confidence where contract are made without any face to face contract between supplier and consumer. These new regulations apply where goods or services are sold to consumers either:

• On the internet or through digital television
• By mail order, including catalogue shopping
• By phone
• By fax.

The customer is protected by given the costumer clear information about the goods or services offered. After each purchase the consumer must be sent confirmation (by letter, fax or email)

the consumer has a cooling-off period of seven working days and the consumer must be given information on how to cancel, and for contracts with no specified end date (such as a mobile phone) the customer must be sent details as to when and how the contract can be terminated.

 

JOB ROLES AND WORKING ARRANGEMENTS AT RICHER SOUNDS

 Working arrangements include full and permanent; and are there to give staff the most job opportunity.

All staff/colleagues that is entitled to full legal rights. This means that they can’t just tell the person to work with out a contract which gives them the rights to work etc.

The vast majority of our colleagues are employed permanently. They are all issued with a written contract of employment.
At Christmas they employ greeters in their stores to greet and assist customers at busy times. Their greeters are temporary colleagues who work for a short time and their work ends after the sale period.

Many are students at college or university who work for them during their Christmas holidays. They do not issue written contracts to temporary colleagues; neither do we keep personnel records for them. However, they do receive a mini-welcome pack, which explains how we operate at Richer Sounds.

WORKING ARRANGEMENTS

• Work arrangements policy states that two members of staff doing the same job they can expect to receive the same conditions of employment. Most businesses employ staff on different contracts because of differences in the number of hours they work or the length of their contract with the business. These differences result to a change in the working arrangements of individuals or group of people.
• If you have all your staff employed or a large number of staff employed on permanent contract it safes the company and also it helps the company to be organised and you will know who is in the really going to be there for the company.
• Richer sounds overcome the financial cost which involved in employing people majority of its staff on permanent contract. The people that get paid permanently on the number of hours that they work. The employees work hard for the company to get more money and for the customers to come in the store again. But if that keep recruiting now members but not issued with written permanent contract. And even when they are on leave because of the contract they still get paid if the person went on maternity leave.
•  An employee at richer sounds needs to work at least 40.5 hours a week to get a written contract.
• The company policy on the following are

• The must attend the Saturday meeting which starts at 8.45 am. On Saturday anyone who arrives at 9 am is classified as late.
• In December and after Christmas the stores are opening longer hours. Work from Wednesday after Christmas from 10 am – 7 pm to weekends and on Sunday they work 12 – 4 pm. They also work on Boxing Day and they stay longer until the 7th January in which their sales end.
• They also need colleagues to work more hours on stock taking. They need extra help when very busy or there’s an event taking place.

• Basic rate which is extra hours during a normal day
• Time and half which is for stock taking
• Double time which is Sunday and bank holidays

• Staffs at richer sounds are compensated for extra hours work by taking some time off or get paid more for the hours that have been work extra.
• Two example that circumstances employees request can break other than sickness from work is:

• In richer sounds they have the maternity leave which offers female colleagues of their entitlement to maternity rights, which allows paid time even if they are not present at work.
• They also have parental leave which allows them to be taken by other colleagues according to the law.

• The main places at work at richer sounds are

• The office which include the richer house, Hankey place and in Stockport
• Their retail stores which is throughout the country
• Their service centre which deal with needs
• Their call centre this is the service which receive calls
• Their warehouse which store goods
• Their home-based workers this is the work you can help the organisation with doing at home. This the part of the organisation is lacking, they provide the necessary equipment needed.

• Pay and benefits offered to the staff

• They consider pay rate to be the top of the scale which can be comparable
• They offer their colleagues 20 days paid holiday a year and they are for the colleagues that work full time hours.
• In the sixth year of service all colleagues are entitled to an extra days holiday
• They also pay sick pay which is not legal entitlement

• The company would also help financially if the colleague have been absent from work for a long period of time which would grant from their helping hand fund.
• Richer sounds commits to offering flexible working arrangement to their staff because, firstly flexibility is a key part of their culture and also all the staffs are entitled to an expectations which they all have to do. The expectations of all colleagues are; they must attend all training events which is held every evenings all it’s for the interest of the companies and the interest for them.
• The senior team at richer sounds give freedom to their store mangers to make the necessary changes to meet the individual needs of the store because they never force a change of working arrangements on their colleagues; they enable colleagues who work until 7 pm to reduce their working hours by 20 %.
• Richer sounds uses the following methods to increase productivity and competiveness

• Colleagues are keen to be highly productive
• Colleagues also benefit financially be giving a high quality service
• They consider they are highly competitive
• They introduce new technology
• They promote team working

EMPLOYEE RECRUITMENT AND TRAINING

The colleague support department

The colleagues support department has different aspect that deals with the various aspect of the company. They have various responsibilities that have to be done for the company. Its helps support the directions and do what they are meant to do in there various department. In the various department they have

Prospective colleagues: advertises the company if they are a vacant space or they aren’t enough space (no vacant space available).they also interview people who are they for the job.
New colleagues: Colleague Support sends the Statement of Terms of Employment (similar to a Contract of Employment) to all prospective colleagues

Promotion opportunities: Colleague Support keeps a list of all colleagues who have completed the Management Development Course and are eligible for promotion.

Keeping colleague records: Colleague Support keeps colleague records and these are supplemented by Training records kept by the Training Department. All our personnel records are kept subject to the terms of the Data Protection Act.

Supporting colleagues: deal with the support that any would need in the company and also help and assist the customers and colleagues.

Arranging cover for stores: All stores have a set number of colleagues to work on a given day. This is called its Minimum Staffing Level (MSL). If a store falls below that level because of sickness or training then Colleague Support arranges for colleagues to be sent from another store that is over its MSL. The number of requests can vary – from about 4 requests in a week to over 20.

Contacting leavers: Colleague Support contacts anyone who is leaving the company to ask them why – normally by phone.

Dealing with grievances: Colleague Support investigate and record any colleague grievances, either informally or through the formal grievance system.

Dealing with disciplinary actions: Colleague Support is responsible for sending written warnings to colleagues who have been disciplined or letters confirming

Training and recruitment: they give better services to there customers which benefits their customers and colleagues.

The recruitment office:

• Are the ones in the office who look through peoples CV if there is any vacancy to the store or department
• They schedule interviews for the applicants.
• If the applicant has successfully interview, they are invited to spend a trial day working with richer sounds.
• If the interview and the trial were successful, the candidate is asked to complete an official application form.
• The next stage is for all prospective new colleagues to meet john Clayton or lee nelson, for the final approval.
• After they received one good reference, the candidate is formally offered the job. They write to the candidate of employment and gives the terms and conditions of employment. They also notify the new colleagues of his or her starting date for induction training.
• They also write to all applicants who had been unsuccessful, whether at the interview or at the trail day stage.

LEGAL AND ETHICAL RECRUITMENT - OUR POLICIES AND RULES ON RECRUITMENT 
they have several policies and rules to make sure that they don’t only operate within the law when they’re recruiting colleagues, but also operate ethically. These include the following.

• Their equal opportunities statement.
• Their equal opportunities procedures, which ensure that we hold fast to the statement. On recruitment and development this means that:

• they appoint, train, develop and promote colleagues solely on the basis of merit and ability
• only those qualifications and skills which are necessary for the job are used as criteria for selection
• all internal and external advertisements are placed through John Clayton, Operation and Training Director, to ensure that they comply with the requirements of the policy
• interviews are conducted by colleagues who ask questions which are strictly relevant to the job and non-discriminatory
• no colleague is allowed to interview a friend or a relative 
• If the company employs relatives of current colleagues it will not give them preferential treatment nor appoint them against other candidates who are more suitable for the position. This applies whether the relative is seeking permanent or temporary work
• The company would not appoint someone to a position where they would be directly responsible for a relative. Accordingly, it may be necessary for colleagues to be transferred internally. However, discussion with the colleagues concerned would always take place before the transfer occurs.

In richer sounds there is a department that help customer settling in the want all their colleagues to settle in quickly and learn how they work together. This benefits the new colleagues, the customers and the company. We achieve this in the following ways.

They want all the new colleagues to settle in quickly and learn how we work together.

• They allocate a ‘shadow’ to each new colleague for a period of one month. The shadow is the same as a ‘mentor’ – it is always another, more experienced colleague, who works in the same area and who can give informal advice and help at the outset.
• They giving all new colleagues a comprehensive Welcome Pack. This includes

• A comprehensive manual which provides information on everything from our company benefits and conditions of employment, to health advice and codes of conduct. We also include an A-Z of hifi and a customer service manual – both of which are discussed during the induction course (see below)
• a welcome company video
• holiday home leaflet
• the current Richer Sounds catalogue
• the current Richer Way colleague magazine
• Julian’s book on ‘The Richer Way’
• a suggestion pad
• a personal attack alarm
• an alarm clock
• Richer Way memory cards
• a policeman’s notebook (for jotting down notes)
• A pen.

• They arranging for our new colleague to attend our three-day induction course (which we call the Virgin Seminar) as soon as possible. You can read about this under Training and Development.

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES AT RICHER SOUNDS

Implied can be suggested but not actually shown in the term and condition but its meant to be done that way. Implied are easy conditions which are just being obeyed without the law being stated so

Like for example the employees at richer sounds are meant to be honest that’s a major thing that all the employers most know.

The term expressed means something lay down in a particular way or something put down or shown.

Richer sounds use both the contract of employment and their own terms and conditions of employment because it the same thing that all the employee’s can read and sign and agree too.

It has a lot of advantages to richer sounds because the law is just stated and needs to be abided too.

In the main features of the contract of employment including the entitlement for a holiday of a sales assistance is that they receive the normal rate for all the holiday which also includes statuary public/bank holidays. No payments are made in lieu o holiday entitlement except on termination of employment. Secondly for sick pay entitlement they are entitled to be paid for their absents due to sickness or injury under the company’s sick pay scheme on the following basis

• Up to 8 weeks’ service: Nil;
• After 8 Week’s service: Up to 2 weeks at full pay and 3 weeks at 50% pay in
  any 12 month period.
• You may also qualify for statutory sick pay.

Thirdly the get absence form work by getting and/ obtaining in advance for planned absence. In the case of an unexpected absence they must notify their supervisor by 10 am on the first day whenever possible. To get qualified for the statutory sick pay and payment for the company’s sick pay scheme, they must complete a self-certificate when their absence lasts from 0.5 to 7 days, which includes Saturday or Sunday. A doctor’s or hospital certificate must be produced for all absences exceeding 7 days.

Finally the hours of work approximately 40 hours each week over 5 days, Monday to Saturday with one day off during the week.

Richer Sounds has an ethical code of conduct for their colleagues and for themselves which they are they are well aware of and abide by. They have different responsibilities as an employer and also have expectations of their employees.

The rights and responsibilities listed in the contract of employment form the basis of the employees working conditions. They are however specific to the employees. All employees are expected to follow certain rules. Some of the rules are listed below.

• Time keeping, attendance and they have to work flexibly during their business times.
• They are not expected to work more than five days a week.
• They should avoid taking holidays between October and February because of the busiest times except from religious ones.
• They get agreement from the manager for any reasonable absents.
• They have to inform the company when they are sick before 9.30am.
• They would have to live within one hour’s travelling distance from their home.
• To use internet they should never divulging their personal password, never send a chain message, never down-loading programs without the prior agreement of the IT department, they should not send emails with attachments in excess of five megabytes and they should never visit sites that may offend other colleagues or breach company codes of conduct.
• The company monitors (the use of the internet and email) will take disciplinary action against colleagues in breach of the policy.
• They should never cash personal cheques or credit cards through the till.

• They have to wear the company uniform if they work in their stores and wear their name badge at all time.
• They are not allowed to smoke, to eat onions, garlic or drink alcohol.
• They have to attend training courses and seminars at least twice a year.
• They can only work for Richer Sounds during their period of employment.
• They should never have deals with any direct competitor of the company during their period of employment.

The employees can hope to receive a set of conditions regardless of what their position.

Resolving Disagreements

Sometimes employees and employers fall out and problems occur – when this happens there are procedures that need to be followed. The procedures vary depending on the circumstances.

Firstly, in the event of a member of staff not doing their job as prescribed in the contract of employment richer sounds can use their disciplinary. Finally the event that richer sounds do not train members of staff correctly the employees can use the grievance procedure.

They’ve got different disciplinary procedures which state the following

• The company’s disciplinary procedure provides for warnings to be given for failure to meet the company’s standards of job performance, conduct (whether during working hours or not), attendance and for breach of any of the terms and conditions of their employment. The procedure is not contractual.
• The company reserves the right to enter its disciplinary procedure at any stage depending upon the severity of the offence.
  The potential measures are:

• formal verbal warning
• written warning
• final written warning
• suspension with pay
• demotion
• Dismissal with or without notice.

• Disciplinary action may be taken after the case has been fully investigated; if the need arises colleagues may be suspended with pay, whilst the case is investigated, for as short a period as possible.
• If a disciplinary hearing takes place colleagues have the right to be accompanied by a colleague, currently employed by the company. A disciplinary hearing is an internal matter and no external person will be allowed to attend on either the company’s or the colleagues’ behalf.
• All written warnings and other documents relating to disciplinary action will be recorded on colleagues’ personnel files and will remain on files for up to 12 months.
• If the company is satisfied that a colleague has committed gross misconduct the company may dismiss that colleague without notice or pay in lieu of notice.
• The following is a guide to the reasons which may be judged to be valid reasons for dismissal due to gross misconduct: 

• willful disregard of management instructions
• unauthorized possession of company property
• falsification of accounting systems relating to the movement of goods
• incapability through excess of alcohol or drugs
• smoking whilst on company premises
• possession of illegal substances whilst on company premises
• use of violence towards other persons or property or use of obscene language or insulting behavior
• accepting commission, incentives, gifts of any kind from a third party relating to work at Richer Sounds
• contravention of the company’s Health and Safety or Equal Opportunities policies
• persistent failure to notify the company in accordance with the sickness absence procedure
• abuse of the company’s computer system
• involvement in another business selling hi-fi equipment during the period of employment with Richer Sounds
• conduct outside of work that may be prejudicial to the good name of the company
• Any other substantial reason.

• If a colleague is suspected of a serious offence they carry out a full investigation, which involves at least one of our Directors. They will not tolerate any actions of dishonesty or theft because this not only threatens the company itself but also the earnings of other colleagues.

They grievance procedure states that if a colleague have a complaint or a problem relating to the employment the matter should be dealt by

• Approaching the immediate Head of Department/Manager and discuss the matter.
• But if the matter is not resolved to their satisfaction, they should go on and seek the advice of a Director or colleague Representative. But if the matter is involving suspected dishonesty amongst colleagues, they should speak to a director directly.

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Richer sounds want to put health and safety into practice by having an active enthusiastic participation of all their employees and to make sure that no work done harmfully affects the health and safety of other colleagues. The directors of every store are always ready for discussion or consultation relating to health and safety matters or any problems and opinions are deliberated regularly at their weekly or monthly department or store meeting.

Every one at Richer Sounds is responsible for health and safety; they are responsible for making sure that the environment the work in is safe and conducive for working.

Max Oxer is the group property director; he supervises and gives advice of health and safety as his main responsibility. He liaises with John Clayton the operating and Training Director, Lee Nelson the deputy field sales directors and individual managers of stores over health and safety issues and first aid treatment in stores.

There are two health and safety laws which cover different headings and all organizations should abide by them.

 

THE HEALTH AND SAFETY AT WORK ACT 1974- is very important to the parliament and is usually refer to as HASWA, this law highlight general duties and responsibilities which employers have to their employees and to every member of public that visit their shop, organisation, company etc. this law have different regulations which can be reviewed to make sure that the act is up to date.

WORK PLACE (HEALTH, SAFETY AND WELFARE) REGULATIONS 1992- this law covers various areas of health, safety and welfare issues.

Below are examples of this laws which Richer Sounds perform to keep their business safe, they might be doing some because it is a legal requirement and that they are bond to do it, or do more to keep their business safe, bright and to make their business more competitive.

Richer Sounds carry out risk assessment on existing work locations; this is a legal requirement and is stated in the Health and Safety at Work act 1974. Hazards report are dealt with promptly- is also part of the Health and Safety act 1974 and it state that safety representatives must be allowed to investigate accident or potential hazards, this is to make sure that such incident will not occur again. All electrical equipment is safe- equipment needs to be tested before it is used because this is a legal requirement for every organisation as it is found in the Health and Safety at Work act 1974. Circulation of health and safety information to all staff- to enable employees to know what to do in case a hazard occurs. This is also a legal requirement as it is stated in the Health and Safety act 1974. All premises are kept in a safe and clean condition- this law can be found in both the health and safety at work 1974 and health, safety and welfare 1992. This makes colleagues feel confident at work as they are aware that they are working in a clean and well secured environment. The law makes it pivotal that fire fighting equipment is highly posted and maintained to a high standard and Richer Sounds also makes this a priority.  

First aid facilities are available- and that equipment and stock of first-aid materials are maintained to legal requirements. This also means that signs should be clearly put up and name/names of first aider should be put up so that staff will know who to refer to at the time of emergency. The Health and Safety at Work act 1974 also state that their should be a safe entrance and exit route and Richer Sounds make sure that entrances are clear, safe and free from obstructions. Finally Richer Sounds provide sufficient seating/ rest areas for all their colleagues as it is a legal requirement for businesses and is stated in the Work Place Regulation 1992.

Richer Sounds improve health and safety by teaching their employees the right ways of doing things so that their health will not be affected. All colleagues are trained never to lift a load which is too heavy; they are advice to call someone for help but they should never try to rake a risk. They also train their colleagues to check each day after work for basic fire risks before leaving the department or store at night. Their employees are also trained to have respect for electricity and to examine items like wire and plugs before being used. Colleagues who have no ideas about repairs should not take risk alternatively, they are told to disconnect the equipment and immediately place a warning notice on them.

Richer Sounds always take action quickly whenever a hazard is pointed out. There are changes which are made to improve health and safety at Richer Sounds some of which are: Their colleagues report to the health and safety authority that there was asbestos (a dangerous material) in the basement of one of their stores. An immediate investigation was followed up and it was discovered that it was superlux , it was a substitute for asbestos but can still cause health and safety problems, this was quickly removed to prevent hazards and to keep their company safe.

The heater in one of their stores stops working. The store manager decided to install a hot gas fire in the shop as to protect it customers from feeling cold. Sadly a customer wearing shell suit stood too near to the heater and the suit stated to melt. Luckily the customer wasn’t hurt and his/ her suit was replaced, but they were very much aware that the heater was very hazard to customers and might cause problem. They instantly sent a multi-fax to all their stores rejecting the use of heat has heaters and all heaters that were installed were removed as they are dangerous. Changes were made to Stores checklist to include these instructions.