I feel that from this module I have learnt many things, and
have learnt a new way of learning.
I feel that by completing class discussions and group work,
my interpersonal skills have improved and I have become more understanding of
other peoples opinions as well as thinking in a different way, The content of
the modal has also effected the way I interact with people, by focusing on how
people have different personalities and how people react to certain situation
has made me more aware of how to approach a situation where there may be stress
or anxiety.
By using the blog system it allows you to not only answer
the statement provided, but with no work limit teach blog allows you to explore
the bits if information which interest you the most, and for example let you
take your own organisational examples to fit into what organisations you like.
I feel the most challenging blog was blog 14, regarding rewards.
This was because there are so many topics that can be discussed within rewards
that are relevant it was hard to pin point the most relevant information. The
topic also does not have any well-defined theories that you can discuss while
it also is a challenging to know about organisations reward systems.
The blog I felt the most confident writing was blog 7 the
blog on personality, as this had very defined theories that I could discuss and
explore and so gave me a plan as to what was relevant and many points I could
compare and contrast; and I found it very interesting exploring my fellow
classmates personalities and finding out how they work well or not well
together.
If I was to improve the module as a whole I would have more assignments
but of less worth. This way people have
more opportunity to show their talents and drawbacks, and so as a whole
would be able to not be stuck if they don’t understand an item. Also, I think
it would be more beneficial to everyone if there was reading set during
lectures that needed to be completed by the next lecture, and questions asked
on the reading to make sure everyone has done it, this way people would have
more idea of answers and you wouldn’t get that silent unknown look from the
students. This way the lecture would be more of a further the details that you
have already looked at, rather than learning the basics and it being a bit of information
overload.
Overall I think the module is very good, and the Blog assignment
has been my favourite over any module assignment because it allows you to independently
express your academic thoughts as an individual, and doesn’t require you to
stick to a certain set of or word counts; and avoids just lines and lines of continuous
paraphrasing, you can express YOUR OWN thoughts. I look forward to continuing
this topic next year.
Reward An employee
reward system consists of an organisations integrated policy, processes and
practices for rewarding its employees in accordance with their contribution skill
and their market worth (Armstrong, 2002) Many
organisations use a reward system to their employees in order to keep up
motivation, and to show appreciations of their hard work. The most
basic style of reward is the idea of commission, for example a car sales
employee, may receive a percentage of the amount they sold in order to
encourage them to sell as much as they can, although when done in this style it
can cause tension and anxiety between employees and thus actually have a negative
rather than positive effect. One
organisation for which gives a good reward system to its managers is BT. The
firm BT rewards managers (Little, 2012)for behaviour that
drives key strategic objectives of the business. (McInally,
2008) The five key
features of the reward system are based on being available to 40,000 managerial
employees and include transparency, market alignment, role focus,
performance-orientation and choice. This therefore
is seen as a key element to BT, however, is only available to its top
managerial positions, and means that the other employees who do the day to day
workings of the organisation are left out, is this discrimination? Or a
positive incentive to work hard and become a more senior member within the
organisation? This idea
fits well into the idea of the bankers bonus scandals, and CEO bonus scandals,
with many employees and the general public getting very angry based on the high
amount of bonuses that some top end bankers received as a reward payment, while
the other workers were forgotten about; more so when there companies were
reporting poor profits. There are benefits
of organisations giving there CEOs bonuses, but also many negatives. (BBCnews, 2011)
Positives
Negatives
Gives happiness to that person, and
can make them want to work harder
Seen unfair to other people in the
organisation – decreases staff motivation
Could encourage people with more skill
and experience to take up the job
Already usual have very high starting salaries.
Motivation for improving the organisation-
they want to stay there
Annoys shareholders – lower profits
means less money for them
Reduces company reputation the lower
their profit is – they are reducing from that
One
organisation which is applauded for its involvement with all employees is John
Lewis. Who have a cap on how much any top manager can earn, and gives the same
finial benefits to all employees, based on a percentage given back from how
much they have been paid that year. A few
comments from the employees of John Lewis (JohnLewisPartnership, 1999)
“The John
Lewis final salary pension scheme is a fantastic benefit. And we don’t have to
contribute any money from our salaries towards it, which is very unusual these
days.”
The biggest
advantage of being a co-owner is that you get to share in the profits. Once a
year we get a bonus, which is a percentage of our salary – and it’s exactly the
same percentage for every Partner.
“John Spedan
Lewis was keen to make sure that the Partnership was not all about work, and
the social side of things is still very alive. The Partnership will support you
whatever your hobbies, from sailing to snooker, sewing to mountain bikes.”
“We love the
discounts! I get 25% discount in John Lewis stores and 15% at Waitrose. Believe
me, 15% off the weekly grocery bill is a huge benefit!”
These comments clearly show that not all bonus
need to be financial, it’s all about the day to day goings on of the
organisation and the stores people work in, by providing things such as staff
discount all contribute to whether people want to work for you or not. One aspect
they actively explore is the idea of team buildings activities, which as a
whole means people have a higher motivation and a strong team relationship
means they will work more effectively together.
Rewards apply to many diffrent aspects of interaction with people, but clearly it is an important factor when looking at motivation. Herzberg conceives the workplace as made up of two sets of factors; satisfiers and dissatisfiers. Satisfiers are those conditions that motivate the employee to work hard, while dissatisfiers are those conditions that demotivate the employee. (Armstrong, 2002)
Overall I
think it is clear that there are lots of great reward schemes that allowed employees
to feel appreciated and work more effectively and efficiently. But it is
important that these schemes are fair and and are used in a way not to bribe people into doing things but as what they are set out to de, be a reward; making sure they cause no hard feelings and thus counteract the Bibliography
Armstrong,
M. (2002) People and organisations - Employee Reward. 3rd ed. London:
Cromwell Press.
Little, A. (2012) Bank in £1M bonus scandal has
cost every family £500. ONLINE :
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/298522/Bank-in-1m-bonus-scandal-has-cost-every-family-500-Bank-in-1m-bonus-scandal-has-cost-every-family-500-Bank-in-1m-bonus-scandal-has-cost-every-family-500-Bank-in-1m-bonus-scandal-has-cost-every-family-500.
National Newspaper: UK news Daily Express.
McInally, J. (2008) EmployeeBanefits [online].
Dishing out reward for hitting strategic goals creates value. Available from:
http://www.employeebenefits.co.uk/item/3844 [Accessed: 27th April 2012].
Performance appraisals or performance and development reviews from a critical operational component of performance management systems are increasingly common in firms of all sizes. (Wilton, 2011)
Key elements of the performance appraisal (CIPD), 2008):
·Measurement – assessing performance against targets and objectives
·Feedback – providing information to the individual on their performance and progress
·Positive reinforcements – emphasising what has been done well and making only constructive criticism about what might be improved.
·Exchange of views – a frank exchange of views about what has happened, how appraisals can improve their performance, the support they need from their managers to achieve this and their aspirations for their future career.
·Agreement – jointly coming to an understanding by all parties about what needs to be done to improve performance generally and overcome any issues raised in the course of the discussion.
Many appraisals are short informal chats, but an increasingly more common form of appraisal practically for more senior managerial positions, is the 360 degree or mulit-rater appraisal which seeks to provide more rounded assessment of individual performance by collecting performance “data” from a sources. (360DegreeAppraisal, 2010)
Another way of supporting an appraisal is by using a self-assessment within the appraisal. This means that the individual gets the opportunity to critically review their own performance, and so have an idea of what matters they wish to discuss in the follow up. A self-assessment is also more likely to facilitate a two-way dialogue and encourage employees to take responsibility for their performance- the more aware an employee is of their goal and targets and their progress the more encouraged they are likely to feel to improve. (Mulins, 2002)
When you attend university, there are many expectations you have as to how your life will change. Moving out of home, going to a new place, meeting new people and having a different work load. A personal tutor is assigned to each student when they first go to university, and it is this personal tutor to is there to perform the university’s equivalent to an appraisal.
This appraisal happens annually, but can happen more if you require discussing a specific matter. The tutor looks at things such as attendance, assignment grades, and personal development of character. This gives both participants opportunity to express their views. The tutor can express any concerns they have with the student’s development within their university experience, such as not interacting with fellow students or not attending the lectures, this also however gives an opportunity to praise, if an individual is doing very well, and participating and developing well. This praise will help to ensure that they keep up there good work.
As within the work place, an appraisal is a two way process for which allows the employee or student to express their views as well, they can discuss whether they are enjoying or struggling with the work load or if they have any issues that they require extra assistance with; and in some ways say what they like about their lecture/tutor/manager, and then this creates a two way system of improvement for both sides.
There are many skills that are required to become a good mentor.
Experience is essential, it does not have to be specifically related, but connected in some way, this allows the knowledge of one individual to be able to be passed down onto their mentee, and as a result increase the bond between them; allowing the same mistakes and same successes to be experienced to continue throughout their professional relationship.
Time, is also another essential to building a good relationship between mentor and mentee. The physical process of an appraisal or a chat could take minutes or hours, but it’s the work in-between these meetings that make the effort worthwhile. If after a topic has been discussed both people go away and don’t follow any steps and forget the advice not following instructions, it means that it has been a complete waste of time. You get back out what you put in.
Ambition, is required from both the mentor and mentee. An ambition for moving forward and increasing efficiency of both their job roles. Being a good listener, understanding, vocal, cheerful, and being optimistic are all other character traits which are needed to be a mentor.
My main mentors and insperation have been my parents.
the day your born your parents look after your every need, and help you develop into the person you are. From manners to time keeping, to being able to have a conversation. They encourage you to do well in things, and help you out with tasks such as homework to teaching you the value of money...
They help inspire your skills by taking you to for fill hobbies such as swimming or dancing; and they are there to discipline you and guide you down a better path if you are doing something wrong.
Over all I think it is clear that in every stage of your life, from birth, through education to your work life you have a mentor who will continually evaluate your performance in order for you and them to be able to develop as a person. But it takes time, understanding and commitment to build a healthy worthwhile relationship between the two individuals.
Bibliography
360DegreeAppraisal (2010) £60 degree appraisal:how it can turn around employee performance [online]. 360 degree appraisal. Available from: http://www.360degreeappraisal.net/ [Accessed: 20th Apr 2012].
Selection is the process whereby not only does the employer choose between two or more interested applicants, but applicants also select, deciding how much further they wish to pursue their original enquiry. The end of the recruitment and selection process is a legally binding agreement. (Torrington et al., 2011)
Selection methods take a variety of forms:
·Short listing from information on CV’s and applicant forms
·Interviews
·Tests
·Assessment centres
·References
·Work simulations
·Telephone Screaming
·Graphology
·Role play demonstrations
The first process usually is looking through peoples CV’s and this then allows the employer to select the ideal people that they want to know more about, this has both positives and negatives, by allowing the employer to discard people which don’t suit the educational or experience whilst keeping the best fitted, however, education doesn’t always show the true personality of the individual, and could leave less educated people with a lower level of English grammar being discarded when they may be very good at a more hand on skill. (J.Mullins, 2007)
Tests and telephone screening are often the second aspect that is explored. This allows the employer and potential employee to get an idea more of the personality of the individual and the organisation and thus if liked taken onto the interview stage. Phone interviews are a great way to give a non-biased opinion regarding someone’s content rather than looks and takes away the opportunity for anyone to make judgements over race or ethnicity. However, appearance is important, and having clean, smart employees is essential in keeping customers returning. Therefore this has some limitations. (Mulins, 2002)
With regards to tests, it is clear that it can has positives as to looking at how a person’s character will fit into the current work force and by seeing how someone would react in a certain situation, however, people may answer with what they think you want to hear rather than what they would actually do, or ambiguity within the questions could also cause confusion.
Interviews are usually used after other processes have taken place, and are often the last process within the recruitment chain before a decision is made. These is where people can experience what someone is like as a person, and see how they deal with interacting with people they don’t know under a stressful situation. This in my opinion is the most efficient way of dealing with the selection process.
I have been involved in a number of educational and job selection processes. For which the most effective process I believe was the application I made to my 6th form. The application to my 6th form took many stages of which you had to pass each stage to progress onto the next.
To begin with you had to write a written application to the headmaster requesting to be considered to be accepted into the school, and this had to include things such as your current predicted grades and what you could bring to the school.
Once this was looked at and the successful applications sorted through, a telephone style informal chat took place, this was where they questioned anything you had written in your application and got you to expand on what beinifit it would bring to the school if you were to go there.
Then you were asked to an interview, for which you met with the head of 6th form to discuss your application. This application was then accepted or not accepted via a letter written to you, on condition that you received the necessary grades.
I was thankfully accepted into studying English Language and Literature, History, Sociology, Business Studies and General studies for my A-Levels at Spalding Grammar School.I believe by having a mix of selection processes it increases the effectiveness, and ability to judge a person’s character. Analysing each aspect of character and skill means that the best person can be chosen to perform the role.
Selection process can take place on a larger scale also, as many job or education roles are looked upon by a few select individuals. When applying for a position for the people, such as in parliament, it is a selection from a mass of people, and so the way of selection is very different, and is usually seen in the way of anonymous voting. I experienced this at my 6th Form, in the application and campaign I was involved in to become Deputy Captain for my House Gamylin; a selection process by campaigns, for example public speaking in assemblies and by advertising your skills and abilities. I was very happy to be voted in to have the opportunity to take over being the leader of the Gamylin team in my second year at 6th form. This process is clearly also a very effective way of gaining the opinions of many people, and by taking a majority vote it means that you can look at many people’s feelings.
The application for university I feel could be done in a very different way; and the selection of who is accepted onto a course could be looked at in a better way. There are many people who do not have the commitment or the ambition to complete a degree course, and apply as to just use up time. I feel that if the selection of university students becomes harder, for example all included an interview or personality test there would be a decrease in absenteeism and lack of effort during the university course. Creating a higher efficiently within the lecture room, and creating a higher standard of person for people getting degrees.
To conclude I think the selection part of the recruitment process is clearly a complex one, and by using and developing the correct stages of selection, the best person for the role can be selected, however all processes clearly have positives and negatives and so over all a combination of many different selection process will allow applicants to show off their talents, and for the selector to see and analyse many different aspects of the skill and character of the individual.
Bibliography
J.Mullins, L. (2007) Management and organsational behaviour. 9th ed. Harlow: Pitman inprint.
Mulins, L.J. (2002) Management and Organisational Behaviour. Sixth Edition ed. Essex: Financial Times Pitman Publishing Imprint.
Torrington, D., Hall, L., Taylor, S. and Atkinson, C. (2011) Human Resource Mangement. 8th ed. Harlow: Pearsons Education Limited.
Wilton, N. (2011) an introduction to human resource managment. 1st ed. London: SAGE publications.
Recruitment “includes those practices ad activates carried out by the organisation with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting potential employees” (Torrington et al., 2011, p.158)
There are over a million people who are recruited by an employer in the UK each year, so the process is clearly a very well-practiced one. But this still doesn’t mean it can be done wrong.
There are several stages of recruitment, and several different paths that can be taken to create a different recruitment process. However, firstly in any stage of process is the process of determining the vacancy. Without knowing what type of service you want to be done, finding someone who can do this service well will become even more challenging.
Not all tasks that need to be completed however require a new staff member to be recruited, and often it is cheaper and more efficient to adapt your current workers or alternate options to perform the task. Such as, reorganising the workload, use of overtime, mechanise the work, stagger the hours, make the job part time, subcontract the work, or use an agency.
If it is seen appropriate to employ another member of staff, then it is important that the next stages are done correctly in order to get the best person to fill the position. A job description is a great way to set out the main aspect of what is needed to be done, and can be used as a form of advertising the job, making sure you only get the correct people applying for the job.
A job description can be a long detailed piece or short and to the point. Including subheadings including context, job summary’s, job content and even performance standards. BY having this document, the employer can determine the type of person they need to employ to full fill the job role, and can advertise the job in the relevant ways; Whether this be in a hop window, in a newspaper, or online.
The advertising of a job online is becoming an increasingly more popular way of finding an employee. Many organisations have their own websites, with recruitment sections within them, so all job opportunities within the organisation can be seen. Since this increase in online use by the UK population and even the global population specific website have been created to only contain job adverts that people can use to find employment.
Some webpages look specifically at certain types of jobs, for example the website prospects focuses on graduate jobs (PROSPECTS, 2012). Therefore is an organisation is looking for an long time employee to work their way up an organisation or an employee to fill a graduate scheme place, then this would be the ideal place to advertise for it.
Within the website of prospect not only is there the search option for jobs, but also option to help with CV’s , and interview techniques, down to student lifestyle tips. This therefore will increase the success rate of the applicant it they take on this advice, making it a positive web page to use.
One thing within the site which makes it stand out over others such as fish4jobs, is the ability to search for work experience, and to be able to contact organisations. This allows students to know the requirements that organisations have for when they come to the stage of graduation, and by gaining work experience before they graduate, increase their ability to be employed, as experience in their chosen fields is as important as the education standard.
Another option that the site provides is looking at employment outside the UK, and the world is becoming increasingly globalised, having experience within different countries and cultures is becoming increasingly important as we are becoming increasingly interconnected. By having this search option the website is showing there increasing ability to show a wide range of opportunities within the world and by doing this makes the webpage very useful.
The option of having a username and password allows the user to customise their service to receive alerts when new opportunities become available in the sector they are looking at, and so making the information received more relevant.
To advertising a job opportunity the increased use of technology have allowed the process of using e-recruitment campaigns to come into practice. “ E-requirement is the use of information communication technology to conduct aspect of employee recruitment and selection including advertising jobs facilitating application, online testing and shortlisting” (Wilton, 2011)
This way, people can keep in contact with each other, and it increases the waiting time for both employer and applicant. The use of online tests during the application process is another newer aspect to the way people employ. By doing either character or scenario tests a company can see how someone will work within there current team and as to how people would react to situations.
A campaign which many people took notice of was McDonalds (Mcdonalds, 2012). McDonalds use of Tv advertising about its staff members set a higher standard of employee, and the job or crew member went from being a last bid attempt at gaining some money to a sought after employment opportunity. Especially with the introduction of the McDonalds qualifications and their introduction to increasing progression through the company to becoming restaurant managers made people more interested in the organisation.
The recruitment process is all based around an online application. All the McDonalds jobs are advertised online, and are subject to their location in the country. They also have a process of having job alerts sent to your e-mail, so you can see when a position becomes available in a certain area that you select.
The application process allows you to create a profile, and so you don’t have to re-fill in your details each time you apply for a job, and as a result save time. Each time you apply however you have to fill in a scenario test, and select out of a multiple choice options what you would do in the proposed scenario. For example, if it was busy and people were complaining what would you do? Followed by four answers to pick from.
This allows both the employer to see what people are like and whether they fit the characteristics required for the job title, but also to give the applicant the opportunity to see the sort of scenarios they will have to deal with, and allow them to see whether or not that their skills and character traits will suit the role.
The applications are then looked over, and the top applicants are chosen to have an interview. The interviews are arranged via E-mail, showing the vast range of technology used during the recruitment process.
Tests that are used in order to gain information about peoples characteristics have both positive and negative aspects to them. By having a test to gain personality, you can gain an idea as to what someone is like, and as a result see whether they would suite the job role. On the other hand tests could give incorrect or inaccurate results about a person’s personality type. For example if gaging what someone would do in a certain scenario, people could try to pick what they think is right, rather than what they would actually do. Making them seem more suited to the job role than they are. Or a test could make someone out to having a poor unfavourable personality, but this could be due to the test inaccurately analysing the answers given.
SHL Direct (SHLdirect, 2012) is a web based company which give advice on these types of recruitments tests, and give you the opportunity to do practice tests, for which I completed a couple of. I completed a full long verbal test and a numeracy one. For which I found results to vary. Both tests were very lengthy and caused me to become slightly board when completing them, and so this is one aspect to the amount of time I spent one each question. Also some of the questions were hard to understand, and as a result of being just online, was more difficult to clarify than if you were talking to a real human being. The assessments can take up to half an hour to complete and took between 5-10 minutes to load; this may put people off applying.
Therefore overall to conclude it is clear that there are many benefits to having the developed use of technology in order to enhance the recruitment process. However, on the other hand, some tests can give a poor judge of character, or analyse parts of the character that are not job specific, making the applicant process harder and allowing the employer to miss out on potential employees. As a result it is important that both technology and human contact are used in order to recruited a new employee, as people could give answers that are seen to be “right” when they may not actually follow this in real life, or the challenge of the technological use may be out of reach for some users, who could not be technologically advance but could be great at another skill.
Bibliography
Handy, C. (1995) Gods of Management. The Changing work of organisaitons ed. Oxford : Oxford university Press.
Mcdonalds (2012) Mcdonalds Recruitment [online]. Mcdonalds. Available from: http://www.mcdonaldsrecruitment.co.uk [Accessed: 21st March 2012].
Mulins, L.J. (2002) Management and Organisational Behaviour. Sixth Edition ed. Essex: Financial Times Pitman Publishing Imprint.
Mullins, L.J. (2007) Management and organisational behaviour. 9th ed. Harlow: Prentice Hall FT.
PROSPECTS (2012) Prospects Home [online]. Prospects. Available from: http://www.prospects.ac.uk [Accessed: 21st March 2012].
SHLdirect (2012) Shldirect [online]. SHLdirect assesment page. Available from: http://www.shldirect.com/practice_tests.html [Accessed: 21st march 2012].
Torrington, D., Hall, L., Taylor, S. and Atkinson, C. (2011) Human Resource Mangement. 8th ed. Harlow: Pearsons Education Limited.
Wilton, N. (2011) an introduction to human resource managment. 1st ed. London: SAGE publications.
The idea of Equal opportunity is an approach to addressing the labour markets inequality. Implemented by the belief that all employees and prospective employees should be treated the same regardless or social group characteristics, enacted by the removal of formal and informal barriers to employment opportunities and to create a level playing felid. (Wilton, 2011)
While providing equal opportunities to their current or potential staff an organisation has to accommodate for and not discriminate against diversity. Diversity represents the categories that a person falls into, for example gender, age, race, sexual orientation, and political and religious views. (Torrington et al., 2011)
Equality is the way in which people are treated in comparison to others; this therefore is a way of measuring whether or not people are being treated with equal opportunities based on their diversity or needs. (Mulins, 2002)
Demographic changes, legislation and labour shortages have led to increase recognition’s of the need for equality and respect for age. With the Uk having an ageing population since the millennium there has been an increase in the labour market in participation from older workers. However, although with the implementation of the 2006 age legislations, 59 % of respondents still claim they have been disadvantaged due to their age. (Torrington et al., 2011)
There are many ways in which people suggest you can decrees discrimination within the work place, and the most popular of these is the idea of legislation. However, as seen when looking at age, this does not always have an effect, and people’s opinions are often hard to change. Therefore a fundamental change to the attitudes and preconceptions about these groups of people is required. This needs to be done through workshops and education the existing staff members.
People tend to stereotype people and try to put them into categories so they can judge them, the idea of equal opportunities is that you do not stereotype and judge. Below are some sterio types that are based on age.
Older generations: Are slow drivers and cant see well.
Younger generations: Lazy and “chav, Goth, Emo, gangster”
But clearly these stereotypes are not the same for everyone, many elderly people get speeding tickets and many young people have ambitions and goals. So its these stereotypes 4that equality and diversity aims to reduce.
The Glass Celling
The term glass ceiling refers to the unseen barrier that keeps minorities, mainly women from rising and progressing up the corporate ladder, regardless of their qualifications or achievements. The guardian Survey found 73% of female managers believe barriers to advancement still exist, compared with only 38% of men. Anna Bird, acting chief executive of the Fawcett Society, said: "The report highlights just how far the UK has got to go on workplace equality particularly between women and men. A lot of things come together to keep women out of leadership roles. (Snowdon, 2011)
B&Q – Equality and diversity standards (B&Q, 2012)
"Respecting our people and their diversity is central to our success, our reputation and our profitability. It's not an optional extra or a nice to have; it is the mark of our humanity and is crucial to our B&Q culture". Liz Bell, HR Director
Clearly every organisation has to follow the legal guidelines when it comes down to employment, but many such as B&Q take it one step further, by doing this they make their organisation more appealing to potential workers and by keeping their current work force happy, increase their efficiency and reduce their labour loss.
Some of B&Q policies include:
·
Workforce spans a huge age range from 16-96
·Approximately a quarter of our workforce is over 50
·Our workforce reflects a 55/45 gender split
·More than 1,200 of our employees speak over 60 different languages, with many being multilingual
·The business has a diverse recruitment policy, which aims to reflect the communities which it serves
·We were well ahead of the 2004 Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), eg we changed our store layouts, introduced induction loops and Braille signage in customer toilets
·Removed our retirement age more than 15 years ago
·E-Learning in place for all employees on 'Respect for People'
·All employment policy is written around our Equal Opportunities and Diversity policy
·Award winning flexible working policy
C Conclusion: To conclude it is clear that equal opportunities within the workplace are becoming more and more desirable not only for the employee but for the employer, as increased motivation, and more opportunities to employ people with different skills is continuing to develop many workforces. Although some organisations implement the legal side of equality and diversity it will always take a few people going the extra mile to insure that people continue to receive the treatment they desire and deserve.
Bibliography
B&Q (2012) B&Q our staff [online]. B&Q CSR. Available from: http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/corporate/content/environment_ethics/ethics/respect.jsp [Accessed: 29th March 2012].
Mulins, L.J. (2002) Management and Organisational Behaviour. Sixth Edition ed. Essex: Financial Times Pitman Publishing Imprint.
Snowdon, G. (2011) Women still face a glass ceiling. Online Newspaper. URL:http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/feb/21/women-glass-ceiling-still-exists-top-jobs: The Guardian.
Torrington, D., Hall, L., Taylor, S. and Atkinson, C. (2011) Human Resource Mangement. 8th ed. Harlow: Pearsons Education Limited.
Wilton, N. (2011) an introduction to human resource managment. 1st ed. London: SAGE publications.
Flexible working arrangements are a range of options designed to help employees balance work and home life, and can describe the place of work or the contact of employment (J.Mullins 2007. Pg 606)
Flexible working can take many forms, for example:
Shift Swapping
Career breaks from
Part time working work
Job sharing
And working from homehttp
The expansion of telecommunication and the development of globalisation has also lead to many more opportunities for flexible working. Telecommunication allows people can work from many different places around the world successfully, without losing communication.
Flexible working has significantly been linked also with increased motivation within the work force as a whole. From managers, to weekend workers, the ability to manage your shifts and schedules seems to have the ability to ensure and help the staff to have the right balance between work and home life, especially when looking at busy managerial positions.
One aspect of flexible working can include the use on contractors. Many organisations including government organisations such as the NHS use contractors to sib-contract into their organisation to perform specific tasks, or to fill people while they are away, such as cleaners. One job sector which clearly benefits from the increased use of flexible working is teaching, although many teachers do work full time, the sue of “supply teachers” to fill positions when the full time teachers are away has been a good development and has clearly allowed the service that the children are being provided with to be increased.
However not everyone sees flexible working as a positive aspect to the workforce. (E.Lucas 2006 - P. 22-4) It is seen that the addition of flexible working to the workforce can cause additional stress and anxiety to the people involved with sorting out the hours schedules etc.
Although the option of flexible hours can help motivation, on the other hand, at some point everyone will need to help an organisation by completing specific hours or set shifts that may require them to adapt their home life to fit into it. Flexible hours leaves the issue that people could as a result of being given the power, feel as if they can pick and choose their hours, and thus may not be that technical flexible in favour of the organisation.
Therefore it is clear that the idea of flexible working can leave both positive and negative effects on an organisation. The type of organisation clearly effects the dependency on whether or not flexible working will work within the organisation, If you are looking at a specialist trade, or activity such as being a chef, then it is more likely that an organisation will benefit from having less staff members but more stable people, as they can learn and develop their skills increasing the productivity and satisfaction of the customers, where as if you work in a call centre, selling double glazing windows then there is less of an requirement for a more stable experienced worker.
Some employees fall into a category which allows them to request flexible working hours within an organisation which may not already offer it. Government legislations have also lead to an increase in the increase in flexible working. (DirectGov 2012)The government website state that :
“Anyone can ask their employer for flexible work arrangements, but the law provides some employees with the statutory right to request a flexible working pattern.
You must:
be an employee, but not an agency worker or in the armed forces
have worked for your employer for 26 weeks' continuously before applying
not have made another application to work flexibly under the right during the past 12 months
You will then have the statutory right to ask if you:
have or expect to have parental responsibility of a child aged under 17
have or expect to have parental responsibility of a disabled child under 18 who receives Disability Living Allowance (DLA)
are the parent/guardian/special guardian/foster parent/private foster carer or as the holder of a residence order or the spouse, partner or civil partner of one of these and are applying to care for the child
are a carer who cares, or expects to be caring, for an adult who is a spouse, partner, civil partner or relative; or who although not related to you, lives at the same address as you
Under the law your employer must seriously consider an application you make, and only reject it if there are good business reasons for doing so. You have the right to ask for flexible working - not the right to have it. Employers can reasonably decline your application where there is a legitimate business ground.
Employees who do not have the legal right to request flexible working are, of course, free to ask their employer if they can work flexibly. Many employers are willing to consider such requests.”
Examples of flexible working
(OutSourcerey -2012)Microsoft is one example of an organisation which is using technology to increase the development of its flexible working abilities. It uses its own cloud software to increase the efficiency of communication between its staff members and their main Amsterdam office.Microsoft's Klaus Holse told a news provider: "You've got to be thoughtful about what you're doing, because not all positions in a company are created equal."
By doing this they claim that there job satisfaction levels have increased by 75% and they actively promote their contracts and working styles when looking for new employees.
(chanel4News 2012)A second example of an organisation that actively uses the idea of flexible working within its workforce is 02 the mobile phone provider. They introduced flexible working to all its employees as a trial, in aid of the London 2012 Olympics. They were asked and convinced by the government to make their 2.500 employees to all become flexible workers and work from home, as this would free up the underground train station, to give way to their tourists and visitors.
This 02 have said has increased their employees motivation and job satisfaction, as it allows them less stressful travels into the office, and they get to spend more time with their family.
(register 2012) Virgin media is another example of an technology company using it’s up to date appliances such as video chat and e-mail to allow its workers to stay at home. Virgin media use their technology to allow long distance employment and working from home- this allows them to employ the best people, no matter how far away from the office they live, and thus as a whole increase the success of their organisation. Around 5,000 staff have already been signed up to the flexible working plan, and virgin media wishes to enlarge that over the coming years, with having nearly 70% of its
workers on flexitime contracts by 2020.
This therefore is an example of how many organisations are introducing some aspect of flexible working into their employment force, and the ones that already use this concept are expanding and increasing its influence.
Bibliography
DirectGov. Direct Gov - puplic serivices in one place. 2012. 1st Feb 2012 <http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/Employees/Flexibleworking/DG_10029491>.
E.Lucas. Riding the flexibility wave. Professional manager : p-22-4, 2006 .
J.Mullins, Laurie. Management and organisationl behaviour. 9th ed.: Prentice Hall - Finacal times , 2007.
OutSourcerey. Microsoft advocates flexible working. 21 Feb 2012. 2011 feb 25th <http://www.outsourcery.co.uk/news/?story=microsoft-advocates-flexible-working&id=3019>.
register, Team. "5,000 Virgin Media workers unchained to slog away remotely." The a Register (2012): URL:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/14/cisco_virgin_media_employees/.
why flexible working is good for people and good for businesse. Dir. Chanel4News. Perf. chanel4News. 2012.
