Above shows the annual earnings of four major cities’ employees compared with Cumbria’s. It is highlighted how much an Office supervisor got paid in the year 1999. An Office supervisor in Cumbria was almost just as well paid as another Office supervisor in any of the other major cities except for London. However, in London the standard of living was and still is much higher than the standard in Cumbria. Implications of Human Resource planning within Boots Human resource planning will affect both the business and the employees that work in it.
There are likely to be some benefits to workers but also some problems. Motivation, training and support Employers of Marks and Spencer will attempt to motivate workers and make sure they are satisfied in the workplace. This may be in the form of rewards such as bonuses or other incentives or non-monetary incentives, such as job design. Employers may also benefit from training and support. For example, ‘Marks ; Spencer’ employ counsellors for employees, giving advise on areas such as how single parent families cope.
Perhaps a learning curve for Marks and Spencer to help increase competitive advantage? Flexible work practices Boots have always wanted workers to be flexible as possible. In the past this has meant paying overtime for extra hours worked, or higher rates ‘shift’ work. Faced with competition, Marks and Spencer are trying to use their existing employees more effectively. Sometimes this can benefit the employee. A single woman with a child may be able to work between the hours of 9am to 3pm each day while her child is at school.
Working flexible hours could mean an employee may take time off for personal reasons and still work their required number of hours a week. Training may also be given to workers so they become multi-skilled – able to switch from one job to another if needed. This example of job rotation may lead to the employee being more motivated. From Marks and Spencer’ point of view, an employee that can change jobs may prevent the need to have temporary staff to cover for illnesses etc. and so to reduce labour costs. A flexible workforce
Increasingly Marks and Spencer are looking to make plans that allow the business to respond to changes. For example, if a large unexpected order arrives, will need workers that can ‘get it out on time’. Using a flexible workforce will enable Marks and Spencer to react effectively to changes that take place outside the business. Examples of workers that Boots may use are as follows: – Part-time employees, such as cleaners, who only work a few hours a day – Temporary employees, to deal with increases in demand – Office temporary workers to cover for illness etc
– Self-employed workers, such as management consultants etc – Job sharing, where two workers are employed to do a full-time job that may have been carried out by one person in the past There are both benefits and disadvantages to these types of employee. On the one hand, a single mother may be able to find work at a convenient time and job sharing could mean employment for two people instead of unemployment for one of them. However, part time workers may be paid less and may be entitled to fewer employment rights than full-time workers.
The position of flexible staff is often a source of industrial relations problems for Marks and Spencer and other businesses and may lead to conflict with trade unions. Recruitment, redundancy and redeployment If Marks ; Spencer is aiming to expand production it may employ extra workers. However, when a plan calls for reduction in staff then redundancies often follow. Cuts in staff can be achieved in a number of ways. * It may be possible to lose some workers through natural wastage. This simply means that employees that leave the business are not replaced.
Marks and Spencer may ask for voluntary redundancies where workers agree to leave the company and are compensated for their actions. The company could offer early retirement to workers close to the compulsory age (65 for men and 60 for women). * Compulsory redundancies may take place, if there is no longer enough work for employees. Workers may also be re-deployed within Marks and Spencer. Although the worker will have to adjust to a new work environment, this should not be too difficult with induction and training.
Redeployment to another part of the country, however, is more of a problem for employees. 3. 0 Recruitment and selection The recruitment process can be very costly. It takes a great deal of time to set up an effective recruitment process involving deciding on what the jobs that are to be recruited for will entail, advertising, sifting through applications best meet the criteria set down for the post, interviewing candidate and, finally, selecting the best candidates for the job. There can be over 100 applicants there is opportunity for waste when you reduce the original 100 down to 6 candidates.
If you get your procedures wrong you may eliminate some of the best candidate’s right from start and end up with 6 who are barley satisfactory. If you end up choosing an unsuitable candidate for Marks and Spencer, then they will suffer from having a poorly motivated person, who may make mistakes within the organisation before walking out on the job and leaving the company to go through the expense of replacing him or her yet again. Successful organisations such as Marks and Spencer pay attention to accurate methods of selection and this helps to avoid them being swamped by unsuitable applicants each time a job is advertised.
The whole process can be very time consuming and expensive unless it is carried out in a systematic way. The main steps in the process can be identified as: Need for vacancy Recruitment a process to attract suitably qualified candidates for vacant positions Attraction Reduction Selection a process which uses the appropriate method to select, appoint induct effective employees Selection Induction Transition Each year people will voluntarily leave a firm and this number cannot be accurately Predicted.
The human resource manager will look at an historical analysis of the last three years and estimate that similar numbers will leave again this year. To some extent this will give a reasonable assessment of the number of resignations likely to take place but it will not indicate the specific jobs that will be left vacant. In addition, the economic climate also affects these numbers. * In times of affluence, people move around the job market freely, attracted by a new challenge or different benefits. * In times of recession, people stay in jobs in order to maintain their lifestyle and level of income.
In either case, the wrong calibre of candidate may be attracted if the advertisement is not worded effectively and application documents are not prepared that sort out the most suitable candidates. The starting point of the process will be “Does this vacancy need to be filled? ” and the answer to the question more times than not is “Yes”. If the answer is “Yes”, then the process can be precede. Sometimes an analysis of current requirements will produce a ‘No’ response and the job will be lost from the departmental allocation. Why recruit staff? Boots will recruit staff for a number of reasons, which include: The growth of the business
Changing roles within the business Filling vacancies created by resignation, retirement or dismissal * Internal promotion The growth of the business When Marks and Spencer grows in size it will probably need more people to carry out existing jobs and new jobs. When existing jobs are being expanded, human resource specialists simply need to copy existing practice on a larger scale. In creating new jobs more detailed thought is required, particularly if the jobs are quite different from those that already exist within the company. Changing job roles within the business In recent years Marks and Spencer have changed their job structure.
In particular, the country has seen the decline of many routine, standardised jobs. Increasingly, employers have sought to develop new jobs involving information and communications technology, and which involve ground-level employees taking more responsibility for decision-making through empowerment. Developing new jobs requires considerable research, often by examining best practice in an industry or by looking at the development of new jobs in other countries, particularly the USA. Filling vacancies created by resignation, retirement or dismissal In many organisations people move on, and this is no exception with Marks and Spencer.
People get older, they hand in their notice or they are dismissed. In most cases it is necessary to replace the employee. However, the manager responsible for recruitment has to decide whether the firm wants a carbon copy of the previous job holder or whether the job has moved on, requiring new skills and competence’s. Internal promotion In Marks ; Spencer there will be opportunities for internal promotion. Internal promotion gives an employee something to aim for in the organisation, rather than looking elsewhere. When one person is promoted, it is often necessary to replace him or her.
Attracting potential employees External changes in the environment can play a big part in the recruitment process for Marks and Spencer. The recruitment and maintenance of a flexible workforce is vital for Marks and Spencer if it wants to stay competitive. In recent years, the general composition of the workforce has altered to create a demand for more flexible working practices, such as flexitime, multi-skilling (that is employees trained in a variety of tasks) and job sharing. (As discussed earlier). A flexible workforce can be organised with core workers and periphery workers.
The diagram above shows that a business can be split up into 3 sections of a circle. The outer rim of the circle represents the “external employees”. These workers are not employees of Marks and Spencer but are, for example, agency temps, workers in contracted-out services and the self-employed. The inner rim represents the “periphery workers”. These are the employees that are short-term temporary and part-time, who receive less favourable pay, conditions and benefits. The centre circle represents the “core workers”.
Core employees are ones who are multi-skilled (i. e.educated and trained to do a variety of job tasks), who work full time and who receive good pay, conditions and benefits. Getting the recruitment process right The recruitment process can be very costly. It takes a great deal of time to set up an effective recruitment process. This involves deciding on what the jobs that are to be recruited for will entail, advertising, sifting through applications, checking which applications best meet the criteria set down for the post, interviewing candidates and, finally, selecting the best candidate for the post. Waste and inefficiency can be very costly to any organisation.
If Marks and Spencer were to advertise a job for a retail assistant and managed to get 100 applicants, by sifting through the application forms they may be in danger of choosing the wrong employee. The personnel of Marks and Spencer would probably cut the 100 applicant forms down to 10 by eliminating, from their point of view, the most unsuitable employees for the job. But by doing this Marks and Spencer could eliminate the best applicant, therefore, it is possible that the personnel may have to do the whole process all over again if that the applicant they do choose for the job is unsuitable.
Reasons for Marks and Spencer to recruit more workers The business may be expanding and more branches could be on the agenda in a new location. One part of the business may be in need of new workers – employees may be leaving because of retirement, dismissal or resignation making way for more jobs. Marks and Spencer may need to be restructured or reorganised which will create many more jobs for people in the business. The Marks and Spencer company strategy in recruiting employees The Marks and Spencer company offers recruitment programmes for general entrance, and schemes focussed on school leavers and graduates.
The company looks for various qualities in potential Marks and Spencer employees. In addition to academic ability, it looks for people with extra-curricular abilities such as interpersonal ability and team-making skills. In addition to the requirements of individual positions, the Marks and Spencer’ graduate scheme also requires applicants to fulfil three key criteria: Leading the thinking – See the big picture no matter how complex; offer and stimulate new ideas and turn complex issues into clear strategies.
