Within any agreement, the following information is required to be included:
- Your name
- The name of your employer
- The date on which your employment commenced
- Your place of work
- Your job title
- Your pay and other benefits, e.g. unwell pay plus vacation pay.
- The major requisites and circumstances of your employment
These are the significant aspects which are required to be in any contract.
Additional information that can be given in a detached document is as follows:
- Details of your employer’s grievance and appeals procedures
- Details of any trade union agreements which relate to you
- In various cases. If the occupation temporary, the date on which the employment will expire
Further information to which you ought to have access is:
Types of information to look out for are given below:
Contract of employment is a written document containing the terms and conditions of employment relating to a particular individual and their employment also identify the legal relationship between employee and employer. When both have signed it, it is binding and both employer and employee have to comply and observe its terms unless they mutually agree to change these.
A compensation conditions: your contract will position your salary, how often you will be waged and the process of payment. Details of any gratuity or commission schemes will also be integrated in addition to information on sick pay.
Probation: numerous employees commence on a probationary period – from three months to a year. During this period they may perhaps be paid a lower salary and less notice will be required on either side to end the employment, the performance of the candidate is also monitored. So if you regularly had to present a month’s notice or more, this may be abridged to a week when you are on probation; and your employer may only need to give you a day or two. During this period your performance is continually assessed. If it is acceptable then you become a “full” employee when it is over. If there are minor problems the probationary period mat be extended for a short time. If there are serious issues the employee will either be demoted or dismissed.
Disciplinary procedures states what action the employer will take if there is a difficulty with an employee. They are used if the employee breaches the contract, fails to comply with disciplinary or organisational policies or does not fulfil his or her responsibilities.
Grievance procedures inform employees what actions to consider if a dispute cannot be resolved informally plus if the employee feels there is a legitimate criticism. Most grievances are individual but a collective grievance can be pursued by a group of employees.
Annual leave: all full-time employees contain the legal right to a minimum of 20 days’ paid holidays a year – often referred to as “annual leave”. Part-time and temporary employees must, by law, be treated in the same way as the full-time employees, so their holidays must be comparable on a pro rata basis (i.e. adjusted in relation to the number of hours worked). Thus, if all full-time employees receive 20 days’ paid holiday a year, then part-time employees or temporary employees working 50 per cent of hours must obtain 10 days’ paid holiday.
a quantity of employees may be more generous plus this would be assured in the contract, together with any restrictions on holidays. For instance, if your manager is extraordinarily busy at a certain period of the year, vacations may possibly not be authorized then except by special agreement with a senior manager.
Leave preparation contain the following:
Maternity leave: pregnant women automatically meet the criteria for maternity leave for a minimum of 26 weeks. Many have the right to obtain a minimum level of pay during this time and those who have worked longer with an employer can take additional unpaid leave. During this occasion the woman’s terms and conditions must remain the same and she must be authorized to return to her previous employment afterwards or appropriate alternative work if the job she did has ceased to exist. If she is sacked or made redundant then this would automatically be classed as unfair dismissal.
Notice and termination of contract: there is a minimum amount of notice that you, or your employer, have to provide if the contract is terminated. This is to allow you to find an alternative job, or for your employer to replace you. Some employers extend this, particularly for senior staff, which may be harder to replace.
Redundancy: redundancy is a situation where an individual is dismissed because there is no job for them to do. In law, redundancy must be reasonable – an employer cannot pick and prefer which employees to make redundant and must consult fully over the criteria for selection with the trade union and follow an agreed procedure. If there is a staff association, it must be consulted when more than 20 jobs will be affected employees who have worked for the employer for more than two years must receive redundancy pay at, or above, a minimum legal level based on their age, length of service and weekly pay up to a specified amount. They must also be offered free counselling or retraining and given time off to go for interviews for a new job.
this.
I am now going to relate the terms and conditions to a job. In school, every student in year 11 has to do work experience for a week. I did my work experience in said business school. Whilst I was on my work experience, I was requested to collect the following information. This information relates to my unit 5 portfolio.
- Prepare a letter of application and an updated CV
- Obtain a job description for 2 different jobs undertaken by your placement. (This can be the sheet Mrs Bryne gave you when you organised your work experience or use the work place intranet, if you have access to it).
- Obtain a copy of an application from for a job at your placement. Complete the application form as though you were applying for the job.
- Obtain a copy of a contract of employment
- Identify and explain the work practices that are established in your placement (e.g. team work, paired work, individual work etc).
- Create an organisational chart with the information that you have on your placement.
Term and conditions
Employer:
Terms and Conditions of the University of Oxford
Reporting: The IT Site Manager reports to the head of IT
Location: The post holder will initially be based at the Egrove Park site but they will be required to work at and travel to other University sites. It is anticipated that time spent at the park End Street site will be equivalent to a maximum of two days per weeks.
Duration: Permanent position available immediately. The position is subject to a six month probationary period.
Hours: The working hours for full-time staff are 37.5 hours per week. Normally 7.5 hours per day Monday to Friday but this post does require some weekend and evening work and will include being part of the IT department’s out of hours support rota and site management cover.
Salary: Within the range £33,779 - £40,335 with a discretionary range to £44,074. Appointment salary will be dependent on qualifications and experience.
Holiday entitlement and pay: Full time staffs on OSBSL scales 1-5 are entitled to 8 normal English Bank Holidays and 3 additional closure days at Christmas in addition to 23 days paid holiday per year. For part time staff the entitlement is pro rata.
Full time staff on OSBSK scales 6 and upwards are entitled to 8 normal English Bank holidays and 3 additional closure days at Christmas in addition to 27 days paid holidays per year. Part time staffs the entitlement is pro rata.
This entitlement increases for long service as follows:
5-7 years 1 day
7- 12 years 2 days
12-20 years 3 days
20-25 years 4 days
25-30 years 5 days
Over 30 years 6 days
The holiday year runs from 1st January to 31st December. Holidays should be fixed in arrangement with your supervisor, subject to the requirements of your responsibilities and the operation of the college. Under normal circumstances holidays should be taken before the end of December. In exceptional circumstances a Manager may agree that holiday be carried forward to the following year. No payment will be made in lieu of holidays not taken during the continuance of the employment. If you leave after taking holiday in excess of earned entitlement you will have a deduction made from salary on the basis of an appropriate proportion of salary for each day taken in excess. Any holiday accrued but not taken will be paid in the last salary.
Sickness benefit: under the self-certification scheme, a certificate completed by you is required for spells of sickness or injury of 4 to 7 days, with a doctor’s certificate required after 1 week and thereafter as appropriate. You are required to notify your immediate supervisor as soon as is practicable in the event of absence due to sickness.
First three months of service 2 weeks full pay, 2 weeks half pay
Remaining 9 months of 1st year 2 months full pay, 2 months half pay
2nd and 3rd year 3 months full pay, 3 months half pay
4th and 5th year 5 months full pay, 5 months half pay
After 5th year 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay
Organisational structures and job rules
Each administration necessitates various category of composition to function productively. Even a minute firm will contain specific employment roles for the employees, so there may be a general manager, along with methodological specialists and others responsible designed for sales and financial records. In a car dealership, for example, there may be a manager who overseas four sales staff, there mechanics and an office administrator.
Flat organisation structures
An organisation which merely has two or three levels of employees is said to contain a flat configuration. This is the case for a lot of diminutive businesses, such as the car dealership above. Another example would be a local travel agent with a branch manager and several travel advisers. Flat structure is an organisation with only one or two levels of employees.
Flat organization structure is also known as a horizontal organisation. It is a level wherein there is no level between the staff and managers. In such an organisation the most trained employees are involved in the decision making process.
Eventually, the same difficulty is likely to recur, as even more staff is recruited. At this point, another level of managers may be introduced, and so on.
Hierarchical structure
If you looked at the construction of an immense car manufacturer then you would see a rather different picture to the small local dealership. You would see several levels of staff – from the managing director at the top, through a variety of levels of managers and supervisors, to the staff at the bottom. In this case, you would be looking at a hierarchical structure. The number of levels varies. Some large organisations may have as much as seven or eight levels.
The reason for taking the family structure into account in our analysis is because we believe that individuals from the same family are likely to be more similar than people from different families. This may be because of shared social characteristics (e.g. household income), environmental characteristics (e.g. housing conditions) or genetic predisposition.
Matrix structures
A matrix structure is a popular option amongst companies and consultancies that regularly “bid” for dissimilar contracts to do work for outside organisations. As each contract is won, a project group is placed in charge of this particular work. When this task is successfully completed, the team is disbanded and/or members are reassigned to a new task.
The advantages of a matrix include
- Individuals can be chosen according to the needs of the project.
- The use of a project team which is dynamic and able to view problems in a different way as specialists have been brought together in a new environment.
- Project managers are directly responsible for completing the project within a specific deadline and budget.
Whilst the disadvantages include
- A conflict of loyalty between line managers and project managers over the allocation of resources.
- If teams have a lot of independence can be difficult to monitor.
- Costs can be increased if more managers (I.E project managers) are created through the use of project teams.
Other variations
There are an immense proportion of organisations that contain structured into functional areas. These are the major areas of occupation (or functions) of a business, e.g. finance, production, distribution, marketing and sales. However, there are some variations.
Functional areas possibly will comprise different names – and roles – because of the type of work carried out by the organisation.
- hospitals have departments such as Radiography, physiotherapy along with pathology
- huge legal firms segregate their operations into dissimilar areas of law such as employment, property and probate;
- Your local council will name its departments after the services it offers, e.g. Education, preparation and Social Services
- A charitable administration may have a Supporter Relations department and a Campaigns department rather than a Customer Service or Sales department.
The types of organisational structure must be appropriate for the size of the organisation and type of work carried out. For this reason, the structure may change as an organisation develops or expands.
The production may be prearranged into separate divisions which reflect either the type of customers or the geographical area.
- Banks have separate divisions for confidential accounts and business (corporate) customers. They may separate these even further, into small businesses and large corporate customers.
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An international corporation, such as Ford Motors, which has its centre of operations in the USA also, has a European division. Most large banks, too, have international divisions.
Roles within departmental structures
In a minute firm, the career roles of employees may be tremendously varied with numerous individuals expected to assist in a diversity of ways, predominantly at busy times. A quantity of specialist jobs may be contracted out – such as market research, advertising and the preparation of end-of-year accounts. An immense administration will employ more specialists so these tasks are more likely to be undertaken within the organisation.
Job roles vary on two ways - by level and by area of work.
Various agencies and marketing departments employ account managers who do not administer other stuff. As an alternative, they look after significant customer accounts by keeping in touch with them and trying to generate new industry.
By stage in a hierarchical configuration there is an assortment of levels of personnel. Each has dissimilar types of responsibilities.
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Senior managers are accountable for the entire enterprise. Their main role is deciding the major purpose and expectations aims of the organisation and defining its objectives. They also correspond to the business to the outside world and are apprehensive in the entire complex or imperative negotiations. Examples of job titles include the chairman, the managing director and individual directors, e.g. the sales director or a regional director.
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Middle managers support the top mangers by converting the objectives into tasks that can be carried out by their staff. They are obliged to be able to communicate well with their own managers and with their personnel. Examples of career titles include the sales manager or a branch manager.
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First line management is so called because it is the “first rung” of the management ladder. This staffs need high-quality technical skills to resolve difficulties instantaneously and tremendous people skills to motivate their own workers. Job titles contain team leader and supervisor.
Contributing of the individual to achieving business purposes
At the start of your career, it could be complex to observe how your job fits into the scheme of things. If you are a professional footballer, or a sales representative, it is fairly noticeable. If a football team does not perform well there are apparent consequences. If a sales representative secures an enormous order it is likely that company profits will be higher next year.
However, in other jobs, what you are doing and why may be less understandable. Generally, however, everything you are requested to do as part of your job role will contribute towards the main purposes of the business - even if no one has time to clarify it there and then. This is because there is a direct link between the specific tasks carried out by individuals and the aims of the business. This is shown in the diagram below.
Team working
If you associate teams more with sporting activities than business, subsequently you are not unaccompanied. Originally, this was true, but today the benefits of teamwork are so great that many organisations group their staff into teams, as you will see by reading many job advertisements. Sometimes the aptitude to be a “good team player” is considered more important than high-level qualifications.
Teamwork also benefits the members themselves because each individual experiences a key part of a small group, rather than one individual working alone or lost in an enormous department. A definition of a team is a group of people who possess complementary skills and who work together to achieve a common goal.
The importance of team working
If you watch a good team in action – from the flight crew in a cockpit to a sport team – you should be able to note various aspects about the way it functions. Each person knows his or her own role and how it fits in with others. The teams have complementary skills and work in harmony. They do not get in each other’s way or hold each other up. They work to accomplish a common objective as quickly and professionally as possible.
A well-known writer about teams, Dr Meredith Belbin, disputed that a major advantage of teams is that the members, cooperatively, acquire more strengths than one individual. This strength are not just as job skills but other skills, such as problem solving, communications and an eye for detail. If you are excellent at setting up spreadsheets but poor at proofreading, and your colleague is the opposite, then “sharing” your skills brings you both mutual benefits. A team simply does this on a larger scale.
Interdependence of group members
Teams are interdependent because they rely on each other to get a good result. This is why teams typically become more effective if they work together regularly because the members know and understand each other’s strength and weaknesses. This enables them to depend upon each other with more confidence. Team members must recognize their own role and how it “fits” with the roles of other team members.
Group responsibility
The critical point about a team is that its members must be enthusiastic to put the team’s aims above their personal ambitions. This is often means readjusting the way you work to fit in with other people, using other people’s strengths efficiently and supporting them if there are any weaknesses.
Collective responsibility means that the entire group is at fault if something goes wrong. Blaming one or two members is not the answer, because the team should have acknowledged the problem earlier and sorted it out. Key aspects that influence team effectiveness are summarised below.
All team members:
- Fully comprehend the target and are committed to achieving it;
- Are eager to put the team’s aims above personal aims;
- Understand their own role in the team and how this “fits with those of other members;
- Take collective responsibility for the work produced or undertaken;
- Feel they have equivalent status with other team members;
- Respect the views of other team members, even though they may not agree with them;
- Are reliable and dependable;
- Feel own contribution to the team is useful and valued.
Personal attributes
Employees at all levels contribute to the work of an organisation through effective team work and positive personal attributes. Many of the implied terms involve the personal attributes of an employee – such as honesty, behaving responsibly and observing confidentiality. These are imperative that many organisations also include them in express clauses too, to make sure there are no misunderstandings.
The main attributes that a business will expect its employees to have are shown in the diagram below.
Personal presentation relates to the appearance of each employee as well as his or her personal hygiene. This is significant whether or not there is a related policy or dress code.
Verbal communication skills are essential because every employee needs to communicate with other people – from senior manager to their own colleagues within the organisation, as well as external customers and contacts.
Written communication skills must be excellent so that messages can be clearly understood, emails are not full of spelling or grammatical errors and all communications sent externally give a good overall impression of the organisation.
Following instructions is an implied term of your contract, so long as the instructions are reasonable and no one asks you to do anything illegal.
Punctuality and time planning means arriving on time each day; it also means being competent to schedule your time appropriately by thinking ahead. This way you use your time efficiently and constantly do the most important and urgent tasks first.
Courtesy to other people, both your colleagues and external contacts is essential. This is often a stated condition of a code of conduct.
Honesty does not just mean not stealing money. It also means not saying one thing to someone’s face and another behind their back, taking a box of CD’s from the stationery cupboard or stealing time from your employer by coming back late from breaks or taking a “sickie” whenever you feel like an extra day off.
Observing confidentiality is an implied term of your contract and is often included as an express term as well as being part of a code of conduct.
It is pointless for an organisation to offer a wide variety of services for customers if staff are scruffy, ill-mannered or cannot respond to routine questions. Often the attitude of staff is remembered by customers long after they have forgotten what they wanted to purchase at the time.
There are three main skills that individuals require and need to develop in order to deal with customers effectively: your presentation skills, interpersonal skills and communication skills. People must be able to apply these in a range of situations.
Presentation skills
These skills relate to you as a person. What do other people see as you approach? Do you attract them or alarm them? Nevertheless, this has nothing to do with good looks but everything to do with a welcoming smile, appropriate clothes and a smart appearance.
Many organisations have uniforms, a dress code or guidelines to ensure staff projects a consistent image to customers. At all time personal freshness, clean clothes and a professional appearance are essential.
Personal presentation
Many businesses – such as airlines and supermarkets – issue uniforms to their “front line” staff. There are many advantages - employees do not have to worry about what they wear, customers can easily spot the staff and the organisation projects a consistent image. Other businesses provide a dress code or guidelines which tell staff what they can and cannot wear at work. The guidelines should not discriminate against any particular groups of people, such as forbidding women to wear trousers.
Body language
Body language is the term given to the messages we transmit by our gestures, facial expressions and posture – and where we position ourselves in relation to other people.
Gestures are used to converse with someone who is a distance away (and are usually better than shouting) and to emphasise what you are saying. Gesture often reveals your feelings – you may touch your hair or smooth down your clothes if you are nervous or want to make an impression. Shrugging your shoulders means you don’t care, looking around says you are uninterested, putting your hands on your hips looks pugnacious. You clench your fists or demonstrate the whites of your knuckles if you are apprehensive or in pain. And if your customers start tapping a foot or drumming their fingers, it’s a sign they are getting impatient.
Your posture portrays your confidence and attitude. Positive people sit, stand and walk tall. They do not slouch or sit in a hunched up position. Folding your arms or crossing your legs is a defensive position and you will lower your head if you feel negative or are under attack. Leaning forward means you are interested whereas you lean back when you are relaxed or confident. Sitting upright means you are observant and interested.
