Business Section 4 - People in Business 1

Firms should decide the job and the ideal candidate

Job description includes the formal title, main purposes, main duties and if the job is full or part time

• Full time staff are expensive to pay but are available all week
• Part time are less expensive, better rested and more motivated

Personal recommendations can be useful when recruiting

Job advertisements gets candidates to apply

• Internally - advantages - cheaper, post job quicker, candidates already know the firm
• Internally - disadvantages - no 'new blood' and ideas, promotion will leave a vacancy to fill
• Externally - wider range of candidates - local and national press, job centres, recruitment websites, employment agencies

Candidates say why they are right for the job

Interview is the traditional selection method

Tests can also help select who to employ:

• Skills tests - tests whether the candidate has the ability to do the job
• Aptitude tests - find out if the candidate has the potential to learn how to do the job
• Personality tests - hand writing analysis etc
• Group tests - find out if they can work as a group and if they have good leadership and decision making skills

Workers can be paid a wage or a salary:

• Wages - manual workers - change depending on amount of work done
• Salary - usually office staff - fixed amount paid every month

Employers can give staff extra payments:

• Commission paid to sales staff - earn money on every item sold
• Bonus is a lump sum of money added to salary if targets are met

Employers are paid what they are worth to the business

Temporary workers can help with short term tasks

Motivated staff are good for business:

• Perform better
• Produce more and better quality products
• Stay with the company for longer

Training can boost motivation:

• Make people better at their jobs and start on new tasks

Giving staff more responsibility can be motivating

• Job enlargement - giving a productive member of staff more tasks to do - increase size of their job description - make job more varied and interesting - workers feel more valued
• Job enrichment - giving a worker greater responsibility - for example supervising work of new staff - workers may need more training and become more motivated and work harder

Fringe benefits     - extra perks - anything that's not part of the workers main income - examples include company car, gym membership, food allowance

• All staff should be given a written contract within two months of being employed
• Staff should have the businesses discipline procedure
• European law limits working week to 48 hours
• Government sets minimum wage for workers

Anti-discrimination laws:

• Recruitment procedures must not discriminate against men or women, ethnic minorities or the disabled
• Illegal to discriminate against applicants because of their age, religion or sexual orientation
• A women doing the same job as a man should be paid the same

Health and safety legislation:

• All staff should  receive     health and safety training
• Health and safety equipment should be provided e.g. hard hats
• Minimum requirements for fire escapes, toilets, washing facilities
• Businesses that don't obey these can be prosecuted, fined or shut down

Leaving employment:

• Laws against unfair dismissal only can be dismissed if they are incapable of doing their job or they have shown misconduct
• Can only make staff redundant if their job no longer exists - they can not re advertise a redundant job
• Employees who think they have been dismissed unfairly can appeal to an employment tribunal - could gain compensation or be re instated.