Blog Fifteen - Feedback on module

Blog 15 – Feedback on module – people and organisations

An interpersonal skill which I feel I have developed within this module is working with other team members in a group on assignments through presentations and writing the essays. I have only worked on assignments individually therefore learning to combine others ideas to develop a fluent piece of work was a complex task. When writing an individual piece of work, ideas and key points can be developed individually and input from others is not needed. Writing with other people is difficult as the work must be worded similarly from start to finish however others contributions are included in the piece. When finding research to include in the assignments, there is a large amount of reliance set on others and this can hinder individual’s achievement therefore interpersonal skills such as team work should be used to ensure all team workers are making a fair contribution. Therefore developing the skill to delegate others and take control at times to ensure each team member contributed efficiently was a skill I developed. Overall, learning to work as a group to developing presentation and assignment pieces was a skill I developed this year within this module.

The most challenging blog to complete was the selection blog where we were asked to illustrate three different selection methods used within an organisation and explain the advantages and disadvantages of this. Also we were asked to describe an interview we had been involved in and whether the interview was effective or not. Finally, we were asked to give recommendations as to how an organisation could improve their selection process in the future followed by a conclusion. This blog was particularly hard to complete as it is difficult to know the exact selection processes in which companies undertake as businesses do not want to show their own techniques to other rivals as this may hinder their competitiveness. Therefore research the different selection processing techniques of an organisation was complex and many methods may be an advantage to their company due to their own operations which may not be suited to other companies. Also when describing my own interview process, it was difficult to explain the key points of how the interview process worked as I haven’t experienced a strict interview as I have only applied for part time work or through recommendations from others. Therefore I have not discovered the effectiveness a formal interview would have so comparing my own experience to a traditional formal approach to an interview was complex. When looking at recommendations for organisations, many ideas may have been tried already and therefore thinking of unique and new ideas to enhance an organisations selection process was difficult to approach.

If I was a module leader for ‘People and Organisations’ I would encourage weekly deadlines to be put in place for the blog section of work. This would ensure students would be more motivated to complete the blogs set after each lecture and therefore they would not incur a large amount of work towards the end of the year. Also by completing a blog on a different topic each week, students can revise the work which they have learnt each week by typing up a blog. Over the period of the year, students are more likely to retain information given in lectures increasing their overall knowledge of HR in business. 

Blog Fourteen - Reward

Blog 14 – Reward

Rewards are all forms of financial returns and tangible services and benefits that employees receive as part of the employment relationship (Bratton and Gold, 2007). Rewards can be attained in different forms within an organisation and rewards fall into two different types; financial and non-financial. Financial rewards are tangible and therefore can be measured; examples of financial rewards may be pay rates, incentives and bonuses. Whereas non- financial rewards are intangible, for example; flexible working time, recognition and career opportunities. All rewards are favoured by employees motivating them to develop within the organisation as individuals and eventually move up the career ladder.

By using a reward system, employers can retain a psychological contract with employees and motivate employees to improve their achievement levels. Also a company can retain skilled workers by offering those incentives adapting their workforce and improving productivity. Reward systems also support their corporate strategy as employees can work to improve their productivity and incentives are offered in return to show recognition to employees.

However reward systems can have a negative impact on the business and their public image. Employees may feel they might be treated unfairly if other employees are receiving more or better incentives than them. Also it is difficult for employees to measure the amount of reward entitled to each employee for the degree of work achieved. ‘The two key questions for pay strategy are ‘How should monetary payments be paid?’ and ‘how much should be paid?’ (Bratton and Gold, 2007). For example, employees may receive a company car as an incentive however other employees may only receive verbal recognition which may be seen as unfair. For the employer, reward systems are costly to the departments within an organisation and reward systems may lack control if organisations are using these incentives as a way of being competitive with rivals. Other issues to organisations may be dealing with reward systems when facing an economic downturn as money may be scarce and therefore financial rewards must be reduced decreasing employee motivation.

When looking at organisations and reward systems which have been put in place, a lettings agent in which offers rewards follows a performance related pay system. This illustrates that employees are paid financial rewards according to the amount of work completed and to what standard. Therefore all employees within the organisation working on the same job status for example property manager attain the same basic pay salary per annum. However bonuses can be received each month and at the end of the year an annual review is given where an employee may receive a bonus according to their yearly performance. The end of year bonus varies between 1-3% of their yearly salary depending on their performance quality. For example this may be according to the amount of contribution given within the team and taking on training and coaching courses to enhance performance. Equity is being ensured within the organisation as all employees with the same job title receive the same basis pay and therefore reward is based on an individual’s strengths, performance and effort in which they choose to put into the work that will incur themselves a reward based on this. Therefore all employees are treated fairly and with equal opportunity and it is their choice as to how much effort they wish to give to improve their productivity at work and gain the rewards accordingly.

There has been recent controversy as to how much a chief executive and other employees taking a high status in the hierarchy should be paid within an organisation. This includes banker’s bonuses and other financial rewards given to employees through reward systems. Cable became the first cabinet minister to urge other bankers to show the same restraint as Hester, who bowed to pressure from the Labour party and public opinion by waiving his £1m bonus (Wintour, 2012). These rewards should not be given to a chief executive of a company which has underperformed throughout the year of operation as workers should not be rewarded for underachieving. Job analysis will be carried out within an organisation which is a systematic process of collecting and evaluating information about the tasks, responsibilities and the context of a specific job (Bratton and Gold, 2007).Therefore it is evident that a chief executive will receive a higher paid salary due to increased job responsibilities further up the hierarchy however in terms of bonus payments, chief executives of companies should not receive these extra rewards if organisations are underperforming as they are not achieving their aim of being highly profitable within the market sector. Some may argue that due to the high responsibility and high risk level of taking on a high status job such as a chief executive position that they should receive a high bonus as recognition of this responsibility. Also some may also feel this job title entails a highly stressful work load and coping with both risky and strategic decision making should incur large bonuses. However some may argue against this, explaining that many of the chief executives subordinates undertake high amounts of pressured work which itself takes large amounts of responsibility and that it may be perceived as unfair for a chief executive to take all the reward for work which incurs a team effort. When comparing this with Adam’s Equity theory (1963) the theory states that an increased perception of equality and fairness in an organisation between employees will in turn improve motivation levels (Anon., 2012). Therefore if employees believe they are receiving the same reward as other staff including bonuses, they will be more motivated to perform well. Vroom’s Expectancy theory (1964) can illustrate how employees higher up the hierarchy should be rewarded as this theory states that if employees carry out certain tasks given to a high standard then they will expect to be rewarded for this (Anon., 2012) .Therefore if an organisation underperforms, the chief executive and all employees within the company should not expect to receive any reward for their work performance. Overall, only work which is carried out to a high standard should be rewarded otherwise little reward should be given to employees within an organisation.

To conclude, there are many different rewards available within an organisation for employers to offer their staff according to performance. A reward system is also put in place to benefit staff equally and effectively offering incentives to ensure a strong workforce through the work life of a business. Rewards are beneficial to both the business and employee and should be given as recognition of productive and effective work. However rewards should not be overused as staff may expect more reward in time for less work completed. Overall if used correctly, reward systems can make a positive impact on staff performance and create better task performance in future. If employees become more motivated by rewards, rewards will have a positive impact on the productivity of a business and its individual employees in the long run.

References

Anon. (2012) Equity theory of motivation [online]. Management study guide. Available from: http://www.managementstudyguide.com/equity-theory-motivation.htm [Accessed: 6 May 2012].

Anon. (2012) Expectancy theory of motivation [online]. Management study guide. Available from: http://www.managementstudyguide.com/expectancy-theory-motivation.htm [Accessed: 6 May 2012].

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2007) Human resource management. 4th ed. China: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wintour, P. (2012) Business [online]. The Guardian. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jan/30/rbs-bonus-row-vince-cable-stephen-hester [Accessed: 6 May 2012].

Blog Thirteen - Managing Performance

Blog 13- Managing Performance

Performance management refers to the set of interconnected practices which are designed to ensure that a person’s overall capabilities and potential are appraised, so that relevant goals can be set for work and development and, through assessment, data on work behaviour and performance can be collected and reviewed (Gold and Bratton, 2007).

There are many different theories behind managing employee performance which have been put forward. Firstly, Bratton and Gold (2007) developed a performance management cycle as a system to explain the processes which occur when managing an employees’ work performance. There are development centres where employees can go to illustrate their strengths and limitations within the work place however they do not hold a large emphasis on diagnosing the needs of the employee for improvement therefore Bratton and Gold proposed a performance and development plan (PDP) (Gold and Bratton, 2007). The cycle outlines that within a development centre, firstly a performance development plan is created for an employee and following this there are several reviews over the set time period that they are there. At the end of the programme after on-going support through coaching and training is given and various reviews have been carried out, the employee receives a final review including a multisource appraisal on their development. This ensures employees have time to develop their skill sets used at work and engage in coaching and training and receive reviews to enable them to identify their own development.

Locke developed a goal setting theory which can be linked to the processes of managing staff performance within an organisation. This theory follows the idea that motivation is a key aspect for employees to develop their own performance. ‘Locke explained that working toward a goal provided a major source of motivation to actually reach the goal which, in turn, improved performance’ (Anon., 2012).This statement shows that by creating specific goals for employees to complete and targets of how to complete these goals with a following reward, employees are more likely be motivated and encouraged to achieve this. Therefore Locke’s goal theory can coincide with strategies which can enhance a staff’s performance and by encouraging goal achievement; employees can be more motivated to develop their own performance.

I have had an appraisal at work, measuring my performance within my job role which occurred around six months after starting the job. Feedback given from my employer was beneficial to my improvement within the job however due to only working there once a week, my input was not significant in making a great change to their productivity. The meeting entailed a conversation with my employer to assess my performance throughout the months I had been working at the company and feedback was given on the employers opinions on this. Although I was able to give feedback as to how I felt I was performing, there was not much emphasis on my development as I was following basis guidelines of work and generally completing tasks to an acceptable standard. Overall the appraisal was beneficial as I had a one to one conversation with my employer and could explain any concerns which arose throughout the time I was working their however due to only working part time, the appraisal did not make a significant difference to my working time within the organisation.

Mentoring has a large benefit when managing an individual’s performance and is useful in succeeding and developing in which ever trade they are currently working in. There are many skills in being an effective mentor which is largely different to coaching “Coaching typically takes place over a time frame of weeks or months, mentoring can last for years”. This statement shows that coaching looks at developing skills that are already set at basis level and being taught processes of carrying out tasks whereas mentoring values the idea that skills are already obtained by the individual and a mentor is a guideline to help make use of these skills. ‘He recognised a need for commercial guidance’. Mentors must have the correct interpersonal skills to adapt and talk clearly with an individual. It is also beneficial to mentor an individual who you can speak openly as a 3^rd party who is not involved in the same industry or business sector in which the individual is in. ‘Expect a mentor to tell you what you need to hear, not like a friend who may tell you what you want to hear’ (Zwilling, 2012). This will benefit both parties as the mentor can give open honest decisions with no bias and can create ideas which may not have been thought of by the individual. Mentoring takes time in which effort is vital, therefore having skills of consistency for a longer time period is a necessity. ‘The very best mentors are the most interested in helping someone who is willing to learn and grow quickly’ (Zwilling, 2012). Mentors must also be able to find specific strengths and weaknesses within an individual to be able to find positives but also negatives for improvement and overall help an individual to develop and perform more effectively than before.

Previously, I received mentoring within my footballing time at Birmingham city ladies football club which helped to develop and improve my skills as a footballer. Through coaches within the club from starting at a younger age, I was able to find strengths and weaknesses within my game and improve through the years of playing football for the club. Having a mentor helped my performance as another person observed my skills and helped me to acknowledge for myself as an individual player the ways in which to improve. Although football is a team sport, individual skill improvement is vital when wishing to move up the ladder of performance quality. Mentoring helped to adapt my basis skill set and develop these skills to suit my preferred position in match play and within training sessions. Therefore mentoring was effective in improving my individual skills as well as team playing performance developing me as an all-round player.

To conclude, managing performance of employees can be carried out in many different ways and it is important to carry out performance assessments to ensure employees are following the correct working strategies. Through work appraisals and reward, employees can find their strengths and weaknesses and improve on them individually to ensure a better working life. It is important to show to employees they are being treated fairly and are given every opportunity to manage their performance with the acknowledgement of other subordinates to ensure a positive future working career.

References

Anon. (2012) Locke's goal setting theory [online]. Mind Tools. Available from: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newHTE_87.htm [Accessed: 6 May 2012].

Gold, J. and Bratton, J. (2007) Human resource management. 4th ed. China.

Zwilling, M. (2012) How to Make a Business Mentoring Relationship Work [online]. Forbes. Available from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2012/03/20/effective-business-mentoring-is-a-relationship/ [Accessed: 6 May 2012].

Blog Twelve - Selection

Blog 12 – Selection

Selection is the process by which businesses choose applicants in which they wish to recruit. There are many different selection processes used by businesses to ensure they select applicants who best suit their open job roles.

Waitrose have many different selection processes in which they use to choose employees from a pool of applicants. Waitrose have an online selection tool which is specific to choosing graduates to take on a career with the company. This tool is known as ‘online situational judgement test’ and lasting 30 minutes, this test requires applicants to give rating scores to various responses to common situations that arise in the workplace (Anon., 2009). The test is designed to recognise applicants decision making skills and locate the best applicants to take through to the final selection process for the graduate job allocations. Waitrose also carry out online application processes for all age groups of applicants to apply for job placements at Waitrose. Here, applicants can fill out an application form and these applications are looked over by recruitment staff. Applicants who proceed to following stages are required to attend a group interview with other potential candidates holding a discussion about the job role and the workforce of Waitrose and following this, jobs are allocated. Waitrose also select temporary staff to cover high demands during seasonal periods including Christmas time. However this selection process is shorter than others as employees are recruited for a shorter length of time however training is provided after applicants are selected. Selection would occur after applicants contact the store with their interest and the relevant application forms are filled out (Anon., 2011).

There are both positive and negative aspects of the selection processes carried out by Waitrose. The benefit of carrying out a selection process online using the online platform for graduates and other applicants of different ages is that time consumption is reduced allowing Waitrose to focus on other important aspects of the business. On the other hand, potential applicants who may suit the job roles perfectly may be dismissed according to their test results and therefore affecting both the applicant and the company. Although these selection processes may be beneficial in reducing down the vast amount of applicants who apply to gain the select few in which Waitrose believe to be the most advantageous applicants for their company, a similar negative of dismissing potentially beneficial applicants may occur.

I have taken part in an interview for a job placement in which I had applied for however the interview was particularly brief and vague. The interview lasted a short period of time and consisted mainly of a discussion of the job in hand, little questions were asked and only a small amount of preparation was needed.  Therefore the interview was not extremely effective although it did give me opportunity to ask any questions about the job role in hand. Also helpful information was given for example training requirements, health and safety measures put in place and uniform requirements whilst at work however there was no real test in which showed I needed to illustrate my skills in which would benefit the company’s operations.

When making recommendations for Waitrose selection processes, it may be beneficial to create different selection processes according to age. For example applicants of the younger age group who may be students away at university however returning for summer applications may benefit from an online interviewing process where the group interview with other potential employees are held online enabling the applicants to remain in their current area of residence. This would make accessibility easier for certain applicants when applying for jobs and time consumption would not be taken up travelling to the store in which the job placement is held. Also Waitrose could introduce a door to door selection process for the applicants that are chosen to enter the final stage of selection. This would benefit the interviewer coming face to face with applicants and improving accessibility for the applicant themselves. Also they could employee staff to have a specific job role of carrying out the door to door interviews therefore time would not be taken up from other staff within the store. This would also improve Waitrose USP and give them a competitive advantage over other companies who may not have such selection process ideas put in place within their company.

To conclude, selection processes are important when recruiting staff for a business’s work force and it is vital to ensure that these processes tend to the needs of staff and applicants to ensure the most suitable employees are selected. ‘Organisations have become increasingly aware of making good selection decisions, since selection involves a number of costs including costs of the selection process itself, future costs of inducting and training new staff and the cost of labour turnover if the selected staff are not retained’ (Bratton and Gold, 2007). This shows organisations must ensure selection processes are at the best possible standard to ensure suitable applicants are recruited effectively and quickly however ensuring the correct decisions are made to benefit the businesses productivity in the future.

References

Anon. (2009) Graduate Job News [online]. Employment 4 Students. Available from: http://www.e4s.co.uk/news/articles/view/1178/job-news-and-information/graduate/Waitrose-Online-Recruitment-Test-To-Fill-Graduate-Jobs [Accessed: 4 May 2012].

Anon. (2011) Temporary christmas staff [online]. John Lewis Partnership. Available from: http://www.jlpjobs.com/jobs/john-lewis-christmas-temps.htm [Accessed: 4 May 2012].

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2007) Human resource management. 4th ed. China: Palgrave Macmillan.

Blog Eleven - Recruitment

Blog 11 – Recruitment

Recruitment occurs in all businesses when looking for potential employees through a selection process to work for an organisation. Recruitment can also be referred to as generating a pool of capable people to apply to an organisation for employment. Selection is the process by which managers and others use specific instruments to choose a person from a pool of applicants who is most likely to succeed in the job (Gold and Bratton, 2003).

When commenting on the layout on the recruitment site fish4jobs.co.uk, the webpage displays vibrant colours attracting people to join the site and encourage their job search. The page also shows a breakdown of job sectors to search in making it more accessible to find what you are looking for. There are many adverts displayed on the page displaying different images and the page is helpful by giving contact details and areas in which to click on to log on to the site making it more accessible. The site also displays a breakdown of job titles of interest and different places in the country offering help and advice about job applications to benefit the searcher.

There are many companies which create e-recruitment campaigns to inform applicants of potential available job roles within their organisation. Mcdonald’s launched ‘My McJob Campaign’ as a recruitment drive to show customers the benefits and opportunities which can be gained from working at Mcdonald’s. This occurred after Mcdonald’s were seen to be offering low paid work with little skill requirements. Mcdonald’s took on board these attitudes and made a clever campaign as the meaning of ‘McJob’ is ‘an un stimulating, low-wage job with few benefits, especially in a service industry’ (Anon., 2012) . Therefore by using this phrase in their campaign, they showed that Mcdonald’s jobs differ from the meaning of the phrase and can offering a rewarding work life with option to adapt to a new career which diversifies from the original attitudes that many people have of the company encouraging more people to apply for jobs with Mcdonald’s and in the long run can alter the public image of the company.

When looking at examining an employees’ natural ability, tests are carried out such as verbal fluency and numerical ability. However businesses measure potential employees’ specific abilities using aptitude testing. These tests include examining verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and inductive reasoning. ‘For many years, there has been a great deal of interest in the extent to which general mental ability and cognitive abilities can be shown to be valid in terms of prediction of performance and can be generalized across a range of occupations’(Bratton and Gold, 2007). Therefore aptitude tests can be important for businesses to find out if potential employees hold specific abilities which will best suit specific job roles within the company. Verbal reasoning tests include questions based mainly on statements which are to be answered according to whether the candidate believes the statement to be true or false. Numerical reason tests require candidates to answer questions based on statistical and numerical information given therefore examining a candidates numerical skills. These tests may benefit companies looking for employees to fill numerically based job roles such as accountants. Inductive reasoning tests examine a candidate’s problem solving skills.’ People who perform well on these tests tend to have a greater capacity to think conceptually as well as analytically’ (Anon., 2011).

Overall, there is a significant disadvantage to completing these tests before obtaining an interview as employees would have little opportunity to interact with the interviewer if they were dismissed according to their aptitude test results. Therefore specific skills and qualities of the applicant may have been missed through completion of the tests and therefore they would have been unfairly dismissed. This would have a negative effect on the applicant as they would be unable to take the job applied for and the interviewer would lose a potentially highly skilled employee which would have a negative effect on their long term productivity.

References

Anon. (2011) Inductive reasoning examples [online]. SHL Direct. Available from: http://www.shldirect.com/inductive_reasoning.html [Accessed: 4 May 2012].

Anon. (2012) Dictionary [online]. Dictionary.com. Available from: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mcjob?s=t [Accessed: 4 May 2012].

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2007) Human resource management - Theory and Practice. 4th ed. China: Palgrace Macmillan.

Gold, J. and Bratton, J. (2003) Human resource management. 3rd ed. Bath: Palgrave Macmillan.

Blog Ten - Equality and Diversity

Blog 10 – Equality and Diversity

Equality occurs when people treat others as equal and with fairness. Employers treating staff with a level of respect in which they would like to receive equally. Their are legislation acts which have been put in place for employers to follow to ensure that staff are treated fairly, for example the Equal pay act 1970. Diversity looks at people with differing values, beliefs and backgrounds within a business. This includes bringing different skills to contribute to a business such as communication skills, team working techniques and integration (Anon., 2012). ‘The basic contrast with equal opportunities is an acceptance that there are differences between people, that such differences can be valued and that they are the source of productive potential within an organisation’. (Bratton and Gold, 2007)

Age legislation act came into force in 2006 to ensure no discrimination towards people according to age. This includes all ages including young and old and all areas of work including private and public sector employment (Nielsen, 2006). As an employer this may affect their balance of staff as they will be encouraged to employ staff of all ages and failure to do so may have certain effects. If there are a significant number of workers employed within a specific age group, other applicants may feel they have been treated unfairly as it may be evident that the employer may only wish to employ workers of a specific age. This may be due to the type of work tasks in which will be carried out, for example employers of a building company may only wish to accept young workers with a specific strong physique enabling them to benefit most from increased productivity from work carried out. However in the long term this may have an effect on their image in the public eye as workers may feel they are being treated unfairly due to age discrimination and therefore refrain from applying for jobs with the company in the future.

People can hold many stereotypes about the younger and older generation of workers. People may have a generalised belief that younger workers are unwilling to find jobs due to little motivation and employers may also carry this similar belief therefore being less inclined to employ such workers. This may be due to a reduction in overall productivity and possible reoccurring absenteeism. ’A benefit to businesses of spending more time with young people is that they might also come to recognise the vast reservoir of talent that exists, rather than perpetuating negative stereotypes of an army of unskilled, unmannered hoodies’ (Rayment, 2011).Older workers may be perceived as having insufficient skills to be able to carry out everyday working practices. ‘2.8 million people over the age of 45 are without paid work in the UK’ (Knight, 2006). Due to age concerns, employers may be hesitant to employ older workers due to the lack of academic qualifications, however this may be argued with the amount of relevant experience gained from older workers.  Therefore employers must ensure they balance the diversity of employees that fill their job roles to ensure equality is met.

When looking at how organisations can attempt to change these attitudes and stereotypes people have on age of workers, they could start a scheme to ensure they take on a certain number of each age group of workers each year and adapt job roles to suit the employees. This would ensure that all applicants had equal chance of employment and can engage in a job role which suits their personality, skill set and work life balance. Secondly, businesses can employ workers on a voluntary basis to begin with to see how well different age groups of people work in the specific sector of the organisation. This ensures young and old members of the community that may need financial government support in the format of claiming beneficial allowance to demonstrate their skills to potential employers encouraging younger and older workers to find work for themselves. ‘The Work Programme is part of the Employment Skills and Enterprise Scheme. It aims to get people claiming certain benefits into sustained work’ (Anon., 2012) . The work programme described is a similar idea which would benefit potential workers of certain age groups to help them back into paid work and therefore benefiting their lifestyle and the community in the long run.

Sainsbury’s shows that they take into account equality and diversity when employing their workforce and show the importance of equal opportunities to their organisation. ‘Our aim is to create an environment where everyone is welcome and where everyone can be the best they can be’ (Anon., 2012) .This statement shows that all members of the public who apply for jobs at Sainsbury’s are eligible to work regardless of factors such as background or social class. By incorporating diversity into their business ethics, they have a ‘Diversity champion programme’ involving 140 of their managers. Through this programme, they can gather feedback on diversity within their organisation and find ways of improving how the programme will improve diversity within their employees. They have also developed a ‘Disability confidence programme’ in collaboration with sponsoring the London 2012 Paralympic games. Through the programme, managers are trained on how best to serve and treat customers and colleagues with disabilities. This programme ensures equality is delivered to all members of staff to ensure equality and diversity is met by the organisation.

To conclude, equality and diversity is evidently becoming more important to all organisations. This may be due to continuing introduction and development of legislation in which businesses must abide by. Also it is beneficial for businesses to take into account such factors to ensure they follow a competitive strategy with rival companies but also to engage with the public to ensure they are aware of the policies the organisations uphold. Overall this will not only benefit an organisations public image but also will develop social relationships with consumers encouraging loyalty and therefore improving profitability in the long run.

References

Anon. (2012) Equality and Diversity (E&D) [online]. London South Bank University. Available from: http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/diversity/resources/definitions.htm [Accessed: 2 May 2012].

Anon. (2012) Equality, Diversity and Inclusion [online]. Sainsburys.Jobs. Available from: http://sainsburys.jobs/information/diversity [Accessed: 2 May 2012].

Anon. (2012) Government Employment Schemes [online]. Citizens Advice Bureau. Available from: http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/work_e/work_self-employed_or_looking_for_work_e/government_employment_schemes.htm [Accessed: 2 May 2012].

Bratton, J. and Gold, J. (2007) Human resource management - Theory and Practice. 4th ed. China: Palgrave Macmillan.

Knight, J. (2006) How UK 'turned its back' on older workers [online]. BBC News. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5324146.stm [Accessed: 2 May 2012].

Nielsen, C. (2006) Age regulations 2006 [online]. University and college union. Available from: http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/9/t/ageregs_guidance_1.pdf [Accessed: 2 May 2012].

Rayment, N. (2011) Guardian Careers [online]. The Guardian. Available from: http://careers.guardian.co.uk/careers-blog/career-perceptions-sector-stereotypes [Accessed: 2 May 2012].

Blog Nine - Flexible working

Flexible Working

Flexible working occurs when a business’s working practices allow employees a certain degree of freedom in deciding how the work will be done and how they'll coordinate their schedules with those of other employees (Anon., 2012). Therefore flexible working relates to when, where, how and what work is done (Anon., 2012). There are different forms of flexible working including part time work, job sharing and taking on a zero hour’s contract. Flexible working has occurred more regularly in the present day due to different factors such as changes in technology. ‘Rapid advances in ICT have a significant effect on work patterns, work location and work times’. (Gold and Bratton, 2007). Other impacting factors of flexible working on businesses are a reduction in operating costs and motivating the new generation Y workers. ‘FTSE 100 companies are much more likely to offer flexible working arrangements than SMEs’ (Woods, 2010).This statement suggests that larger companies have more funding available to offer flexible working within their contracts to employees. However an increased amount of companies lately are offering this incentive within their working contracts to potential applicants.

John Lewis offers a wide variety of flexible working contracts for employees. One programme of flexible working follows a ‘working mum’s partnership’ where parents of children working at John Lewis can arrange their hours around their lifestyle. Therefore enabling parents to be able to work for the supermarket chain however being entitled to choose a plan of when these hours will be worked.  This secured John Lewis an award in the employee engagement category of the ‘working mums awards 2010’ which was due to ‘the way we constantly consult one another regarding the business, and for everything we do to make working parents' lives easier’ (Garner, 2012). However flexible working is not solely offered to working parents but to all partners as Jo Faragher explains that employees are entitled to request flexible working arrangements regardless of their family or carer commitments (Faragher, 2007). This also benefits employees’ future careers at John Lewis as they can change departments within the supermarket and choose which career path would favour them.

Secondly, BT offer a range of flexible working contracts to employees including home working, mobile employees and office based employees as part of their ‘Work anywhere portfolio’ (Anon., 2012). This strategy has benefited BT by optimising property usage, reducing costs and increasing employee productivity. The offered home working contracts have shown to increase home workers productivity by 20% compared to office-based colleagues and absenteeism has reduced by 60%.

Virgin media offer many jobs to employees around the UK however they have outsourced a lot of their work within the call centre and technological department. It was announced in May 2011 that Virgin media had plans to move its technological operations after shutting a call centre in Wiltshire. This caused Virgin Media to outsource work to the multinational outsourcing company ‘Accenture’. This can have a negative effect on the morale of employees due to altering the company’s operations however Virgin Media ensured all employees affected by the closing of the centre will be redeployed or relocated to others roles within the UK.(Anon., 2011)

Other part time working contracts

Part time working occurs when an employee works less than 35 hours a week however is still entitled to sick pay and holidays accrued. Employees can benefit from more time available within their lifestyle to work around their job hours and employers can more part time staff willing to work different shifts within a week which will vary. For example students would take up part time jobs to fit around their university course and employers can call these workers in if needed on certain shifts.

Home working entitles employees to work from home therefore not having to be connected to the work location during business hours. However a certain amount of work hours must be completed by the employee according to their contract. This may benefit an employee that may not work well in teams as working from home is individual to the employee and employees can live far away from the location of the business and travel is not needed. Employers can offer work to people at home reducing location costs and the need for meetings in person which may be time consuming.

Annualized hours occurs when employees working time is organised according to the number of hours to be worked over a year rather a week (Gold and Bratton, 2007). This benefits employers who are in charge of a workforce in a company with altering peaks of business between seasons. For example in the summer, tourist businesses such as theme parks may incur more customers therefore demand for workers during the summer period will be higher than other times during the year. This type of flexible working is similar to term-time working where employees can take unpaid leave during the school holidays which follow a similar pattern each year and particular benefits parents who have child care commitments. Both annualised hours and term time working follow numerical flexibility within an organisation as the amount of staff on the work force changes according to peaks in work during different times of the year.

Compressed hours allow employees to work their total number of agreed hours with their employer over a shorter period of time i.e. working three days instead of working the agreed hours in four days. This allows employees to work their full hours during a week however have more days off and therefore a longer break from work which could improve motivation and morale.

Zero hours occurs when employees are not offered a contract with a specific amount of hours available to work, hours of work may alter from week to week. Employers therefore have the opportunity to ask employees on a zero hours contract to work any time during the week dependant on availability however this will help with peak times of work. However the line manager may be uncoordinated as to which employees are called in to work on certain days and therefore some employees may be called in more than others giving a disadvantage to some members of staff on this contract.

Job sharing involves two employees working on a part-time basis however covering a full time post. An employer can benefit from two employees with different skills and ideas working on the same task increasing productivity.

Flexi-time allows workers to choose the amount of hours they wish to work over a period of time allowing maximum flexibility for employees on this contract and benefit employers during busy periods of work. However if many employees are contracted to flexi-time work, the line manager may lose the span of control in their department losing the structure of communication and work focus.

‘9 day fortnight’ is another flexible working contract where an employee is contracted to work 9 days within a fortnight and incurs 5 days off work within the two weeks. This benefits full time workers who wish to work during the week and have weekends off and benefits the employer as they have insurance of full time workers.

Lastly, employees can take career breaks during their working contracts to finish work for a fixed period of time and returning to work after the break. This may benefit mothers who wish to take longer time periods off work to raise children and then wish to return to work after this time period.

Although employees can benefit from the flexibility of these working contracts, it may however affect motivation as businesses may see these employees as less important to the company and employees may feel demotivated by this. Research into workers views in a variety of different settings found that people on fixed-term contracts generally had a positive psychological contract. A reason of this finding was that employees on fixed contracts had more focused work to complete (Gold and Bratton, 2007).

Overall, offering flexible working contracts can benefit a company due to retaining and attracting staff, saving costs and offering a better work-life balance for employees. Also it can help to reduce the businesses environmental impact due to offering home working contracts. Furthermore some companies may offer flexible working contracts which other businesses do not offer therefore gaining a competitive advantage over other companies. One of the main benefits is that employees on flexible contracts are adaptable to change benefiting the companies’ productivity. Flexible employees have the potential continuously to learn new skills and to broaden the range of skills possessed. (Gold and Bratton, 1994)

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