Week 26: Communication and Involvement

Week 26: Communication and Involvement

The is a difference between employee participation and employee involvement.  Employee participation has a pluralist background. Participation is  also supported and by legislation and also protect employees interests. Employee involvement takes participation further, employee involvement tries to get employees involved in making decisions and other ways to encourage employees to be committed and feel valued to the company. Employee involvement works in categories

·         Sharing information

Team Briefings, newsletters, intranet, emails, road shows

·         Consultation

Staff Suggestions schemes, opinion surveys, committees

·         Financial participation

Profit related pay, share schemes, bonuses

·         Quality improvements

Quality control, team meetings,  award schemes, project groups, quality circles

·         Individuals

Appraisals, training, opportunities, rewards,

·         Community

Charity schemes, CSR,

Examples of involving employees in decisions

An example on a small scale is taken from my part time job in a pub, the decision what was to be advertised on the boards around the bar. In order to get employees involved the landlord asks us what we thought and why. On a larger scale example is when working at BOC, to get employees involved in decisions the employees discuss and put the views to management through a rep. They also had suggestion letters and boxes for employees to make suggestions on decisions. Another example of getting employees involved in decisions in at universities. Universities often pass out surveys to staff ad students in order to help make decisions on the future.

Below is links to organisations that are using social networking sites for their staff.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001608226293&sk=wall

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bucks-New-University/114890651859473

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000276984814

Week 23: Reward

 Week: 23 Reward

Rewards are seen as key when looking to motivate there staff. When I previously worked for a organisation I experienced the rewards they offer. The previous organisation I worked for have may different ways of rewarding staff for their performance. The range of rewards varied depending on the action or performance that they were rewarding, this was done so it would be seen a fairer was of receiving rewards. Below is shot list of some of the rewards that were used.

Vouchers: Shop vouchers were giving to employees who highlighted a potential safety issue. How ever the reward was only given if the issued raised was sufficient enough for the company to act on it. This was done so that employees only raised the issues that needed addressing, this prevented employees using this reward to gain fee vouchers. The vouchers were always kept at the same value, even if it was a large safety issue or a small safety issue. This was because the company saw every safety issue as important as each other.

Team Bonus: A team bonus is given every quarter. The same amount is given to every member of the team, and is given as long as the team meet targets and also if there is no accidents which required external medical attention and time out of work. The organisation keep each amount the same for every team member in order to encourage team work rather than individuals working just for themselves and their bonus.

The organisation also changed the rewards they offered depending in the departments. This is because each department will have different targets and different work. The organisation offers the rewards for reaching goals and going further in the relevant work the team or individual does. This is done to keep it fair for each departments and each site across the whole company.

Chief Executives Bonuses

It is portrayed a lot in the media that even though companies are making losses and banks are in debt the bankers and Executives still receive a large bonuses. There is a split of people who agree and disagree with these bonuses.

My view is the grey area is what the term “under performed” is. If a company makes a loss does that mean its under performed? I personally believe that a company can still make a loss but over performed for example if company x is forecasted to make £50m profit but makes £25m profit and company y is due to make £50m loss but makes a £25m loss personally I think that company X and under performed and company Y as performed better than forecasted executives are entitled to bonuses. But however companies should look at what bonuses they are giving at the same time as if the company are making job cuts etc. Below is a list of for and against the bonuses

FOR                                                                                  AGAINST

Motivates executives                                               Causes bad press if people disagree

Encourages better Performance                              More cost to company

Subsidise salary for bonuses                                 Takes away from profit and potential investment

                                                                                          Can frustrate share holders 

Week 22: Performance Management

Week 22: Managing Performance

Appraisals

In previous work I have had my own appraisal. My appraisal was done after 3 months and then 6 months i.e. every quarter.  The first appraisal was based on the training that I had done and weather I had settled into the role. This was seen has a trial period. This appraisal was very short as due to the work I could not of worked by myself and the organisation could not give me a full detailed appraisal. In the 2^nd appraisal I had the organisation looked at the work I was currently doing from my tracking forms that I had to fill in each day when working. They also looked at the quality of my work and my understanding of the plant as a whole. From the appraisal they gave me more targets and also spoke about future opportunities. They backed up the reasoning for the high targets from my current levels of work which they monitored. This appraisal I think was not only really positive for me but also was extremely well pre pared for with evidence and future targets and also they had made it clear what my rewards would be if I reached the targets.

My personal mentor

When it comes to having a personal mentor, I will talk to different people depending on what subject I am looking for advice on. For example when looking career advice I will go to my dad or my older brother for advice. This has affected my decision on where I went to university and also what course I chose.

What makes a good mentor?

Below is a link to a article I have read about mentoring

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article3778514.ece

Below is a bullet pointed lists of what skills I think makes a good mentor

·         Good listening and communication skills

·         Open and outgoing personality

·         Patience

·         Trustworthy

·         Honest

·         Experience and knowledge

·         Good team working skills

Evaluation

In order for mentors to be effective they have to be wanted by both parties i.e. the mentor and mentee. If a person does not want a mentor then the method wont work as the person will hold back and will not be able to open up and use their mentor effectively. I also believe that performance management is key at keeping a business successful. Monitoring performance can also be used to motivate staff and also show companies direction which can help to make change if needed also help create aims and objectives. 

Week 20: Selection

Week 20: Selection

3 Selection Methods

Interviewing

Interviewing is the most common selection method used and is used in all role selections. The main factor for this is because the organisation will be able to interact with the candidate face to face. The organisation can then also use role play, general discussing or phone interviews to find out key information on the candidates personality attitude and skills. The Issues with interviewing is that it can take along time if there a lot of candidates. This will also cost the organisation a lot in manager’s time. This means in order to keep the costs down the recruitment process must be effective in order to cut down the amount of interviews needed.  Another draw back is that people in interviews will often be answering what they think the organisation wants to here. This means that the organisation must prepare for interviews in order to ask the right questions and filter the information into what they are looking for.

Assessment Centre

Assessment Centres I believe are the most effective way of recruiting people. The reason for this is that a organisation can bring all candidates together and often put them through a range of methods such has test, role plays, interviews etc. The min drawback with assessment centres are they cost a lot In money and also take time to organise and carry out. Because of the high cost assessment centres are only used when necessary to fill a role, this is often when recruiting for specialist roles, roles which require high level of skills/ knowledge. A example of this is a friend who had to attend a assessment centre in order to get into a flying college.

References

References are another very common use of selection method. They are also sometime placed on a C.V or “Available upon request”.  I think references are wasted time as the candidate can choose who they want to use as a reference unless company asked for specific past employers. Also a lot of companies now will not give references because of fear of being sued. References I think there for don’t hold much value as they are open to be bias or will be very restricted as to what information they give.

Personal Interview

In a particular interview I took part in the interviewee’s first question he asked me was “What football team I support?” This instantly made me think that we had a common interest and also broke the ice between us. However it also made me wonder how seriously they were taking the interview and weather my response would affect the outcome. After discussing the job I was applying for and what my role would be we then went for a walk around the site. Whilst talking to me the interviewee was very laid back about the language used and was keen to show me around the site. This suggested to me that they didn’t have a lot of experience in interviewing people or that they had a laid back casual personality, through out my time in t role I found it out to be both of those reasons. I also do not think they had really pre pared well for the interview as they did not ask many questions about my skills, qualifications. They were also referring to notes quite a lot in the interview to prompt them on what was to be discussed. I don’t believe the interview was effective looking at it from a companies view as the interview wasn’t very well pre pared and they did not look into what I could bring to the company and why I fitted the role. This could of lead to some one who was not adequate getting the role.  It was effective for me because I felt that the interview had already made his mind who he wanted to get the job and I also felt that I could talk to him and I could control what was being discussed in the interview because they were too laid back and ill pre pared.

The recommendations I would make to improve the selection process would be to have a wider range of people interviewing and also pre pare for the interview. I would do this so there will be more than one persons view on how the interview went and also if two people are taking the interview there will be two views on the applicant.

Conclusion

From my experiences and findings in order to have a effective selection the recruitment process must be done effectively in order to filter the best candidate through.  I also believe that the most effective selection method depends on the role needed to fill and a lot of organisations just follow what is most common i.e. interview and reference rather than planning the selection methods around the role and person they are looking for. If the recruitment and selection process is planned and carried out correctly it will also save organisations money and time in the long term due to selecting the correct person first time rather than having a high turn over of staff until correct person is found. 

Week 18: Recruitment

Week 18: Recruitment

Review of Recruitment Site www.fish4jobs.co.uk

The homepage is a common layout for recruitment sites. This is common because it is effective. The reason why it is effective because it is simple and makes it quick for people to search for jobs they are interested in due to list of sectors available. The main factor people will be looking for jobs is within a certain sector. The other factor will be due to a jobs location. The homepage also has this option.

If people are looking for a specific job in a specific location they can avoid looking through all the jobs on the website by using the search option at the job of the homepage. People will also use fish4jobs to upload there CV in order for companies to be able to see it with out having to apply for jobs etc. This means that companies can search for certain people for specific jobs i.e a simple head hunt. This is often done in order to put a group of people who fit the person specification together in order to go for interview and the recruitment process. The homepage also offers this on the homepage.

I think that the layout of the website is all designed around people being able to use the website quickly and to have everything “at the click of a button”. When using the site and using the searches everything is broken down by clicking i.e when you breakdown a search you do it buy click on salary, industry, location. This is all done to make the search quick and simple. This will also prevent a person having to search through jobs they are not interested in.  

Recruitment Campaign

One recruitment campaign which really interested me was the RAF recruitment campaign. This campaign was done through TV and online adverts. Below is a link to TV advert.

The reason why I was interested in this campaign firstly,  was the advert instantly gets your attention. The advert also seems like a interesting and the commentary to go with it grabs your attention. The TV campaign got my attention and then their online campaign and the careers website is really quick and easy to see how many different jobs they offer. It also makes it easy to show what jobs you’re a currently available for and also if you want to apply in the future i.e after doing a degree what jobs then you will be available for. The TV advert I believe is targeted towards younger people by it being a action clip rather than giving specific details of jobs etc. the action clip is also used to grab your attention and further information is online. Another reason why I was interested in this campaign is that it offers a secure life and jobs are available when in the current economic climate there isn’t many jobs around which the level of training and career opportunities for you young people compared to the RAF.

5 Advantages of Online recruitment and 5 Disadvantages

Advantages

·         Available to people 24/7

·         Accessible to everyone

·         As everyone can access it there is no discrimination

·         Cheap and easy to search and apply for a range of jobs at once

·         Companies can see your CV as well as you seeing their advert

Disadvantages

·         Lots of jobs on there so can make fining right one difficult

·         Often you will receive a lot of “junk” email form the site

·         Some jobs are out of date

·         As such a large number of people use them it makes it difficult to stand out

·         Only get a small advert with very little information on the job

Week 17: Equal Opportunities and Diversity

Week 17: Equal Opportunities and Diversity

Organisations have to by law offer equal opportunities and also manager diversity. Equal opportunities and diversity are similar but are often mistaken to be the same thing. How ever there are differences between them. Equal opportunities revolves around the legislations. The latest legislation to come in is the Equality Act 2010. This equality act is a simple version of previous discrimination legislations:

·         The Equal Pay Act 1970 (EPA) (amended 1983)

·         The Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) 1975 (amended 1986)

·         The Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999

·         The Gender Recognition Act 2004

·         The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003

·         Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 

·         The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations 2003

·         The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Pensions) Regulations 2003

·         Disability Discrimination Act 2005

·         The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001)

·         Race Relations Act 1976 and Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000

·         Race Regulations 2003

·         The Employment equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003

·         Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006

·         Human Rights Act 1998

The Equality Act 2010 brings all the discrimination and previous equality acts into one legislation which makes it easier for organisations to understand and follow but it also makes it easier for people and employees to understand and gain protection from. This means that equal opportunities stems from the legislation in place to stop discrimination. Equal opportunities is now effecting the way companies recruit for example previously the police stated you had to be 6ft to work in some parts in London, know there is no height restriction. link to the equality act 2010 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/pdfs/ukpga_20100015_en.pdf

Diversity

The government are pushing organisations to have a diverse work force. Diversity in a organisation does involve treating everyone equally and following the equality act and all discrimination acts, it takes it further and shows the advantages to both the organisation and the employees. This is done through gaining a wider range of values and opinions from a wider range of individuals rather than having similar people in the work force narrowing the teams ideas and talents.

The difference between equal opportunities and diversity.

Equal opportunities are revolved around legislations and providing people protection from discrimination where as diversity is taking it further and is putting into practice and showing the practical side to following equal opportunities and looking into the details of having a wider range of people in a work force and what it can bring to the people working and the organisation.

Age legislation

In 2006 a new legislation came in protecting people from discrimination because of their age. This had a huge impact on both employees and employers. It gave people the right to keep their age to themselves so organisations didn’t recruit them due to being seen as to young or too old. It also helped people who wanted to work past the retirement age able to this. Below is a brainstorm on how it affected employers.

The main cause of age discrimination is organisations and peoples stereotypes of age. Stereotypes of both old and young effect people and organisations every day. Below is a table of some of the work related stereotypes of older and younger people

Older	Younger
-          Not familiar with modern methods and technology -          Unable to do hard work or manual work as too old -          Education is out of date -          Easily confused and need looking after -          Don’t know what is going on in todays world.	-          No experience -          Don’t like hard work and lazy -          “Hoodies” and trouble makers -          Only pass exams because they are getting easier -          Have to be told what to do and don’t take initiative -          No interest in future or news

One of the main reasons for this cause is the media. The media will publish stories that get attention and this is often negative stories. Another stereotype of young is that teenage pregnancy is a growing problem but a national statistic show first time mother’s age is rising.  The media is a powerful source at moulding people’s views of both the old and young. I don’t believe that the media realise just how much of an impact they have on people’s minds and views.

Evaluation 

I think that organisations have to open their eyes to younger and the older generations and bring them into the workforce. A way of doing this is to educate organisations on what both the old and young have to offer. This can be done through getting organisations familiar with school curriculum’s and also get them involved with young people not only through schools but through other routes such as sports, local communities. How ever I don’t think it should just be down to organisations to change I also think that young people need to get in contact with organisations and ask for opportunities to prove themselves. This method can also be used to reach out to older people through forming connections between organisations and older communities. Another suggestion I would make to organisations is to look to over come the problems with recruiting young and old people by offering them training in areas they don’t have experience or making work viable for them in order to have a wider and more diverse workforce.

British Airways

 British airways are in the process of building a more diverse workforce. This can be seen straight away on the website through there careers section. Below is a print screen on the opening page of the BA Careers section

A major way of BA creating a diverse workforce and targeting younger people is through the graduate training scheme. Another way is they state they do not ask for personal information that does not relate to the job in hand. This is very easy for BA to state on their website but there has to be evidence to back this up.

Conclusion

From my findings I think that the legislations on Equality and the starting to give a fair opportunity to everyone. These opportunities give a foundation for organisations to build a divers workforce but however I still think that it is to easy fro companies just that they are building a diverse workforce and giving wider range of opportunities with out it being managed. Therefore I think that more needs to be done to measure if organisations are living up to what they say, and really see deeper into the opportunities being offered.

Refrences

gov.[n.d],equal opportunities legislation, Government office network, http://www.gos.gov.uk/497296/docs/347293/347303/356449/WEB_LEGISLATION_1.pdf

government equalities office,[n.d],Equality act 2010, gov, 

http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_act_2010.aspx

Mullins, 2010, Management and organisational behaviour, ninth edition, London, Pearson Education

Week 13: Teamworking

Week 13: Teamwork

There have been many occasions when I have been involved on a team which works well. For example my current football team are working well as a team and are consistently performing well and in line for promotion this season. There are many reasons to why we are performing better than previously, the main factor is we are working as a team rather than individuals. This has occurred by having a range of players which all bring different skills to the team. Some players bring the technical and tactical play where as others bring hard work and a will to succeed. We also have been playing together now for a few seasons and now we understand how each other play and we know each others strengths weaknesses. This can be related to Tuckmans theory (1973) where is says teams go through a forming, storming, norming and performing. This can relate as you can say the teams past was the forming to storming stages where as know we are performing as we now know more about each other. Another key factor to the teams success if previously we were a very young side and over time we have know began to grow up as sports players. Eric Berne said that people’s behaviour in a team are that of a child, adult or parent. I believe that the players in our football team have moved from children to adults and the senior players and management play the part of parents to the rest of team, this is another reason I believe why the team is performing better and being more successful.

Tuckman (1973)

Tuckmans theory says team go through stages of forming, storming, norming and performing. These stages include:-

• Forming is where people are testing each other and people are trying to figure peoples personalities out. At this stage people will be polite to each others and will not show their true personality until they are familiar with each other.

• Storming is the stage where people begin to show themselves and begin to challenge each others ideas and roles. This stage is where leaders can begin to be seen and some people can become demotivated and drop out.

• Norming is where the team is formed and starts to be task orientated and becomes organised. In large teams systems start to be put into place and skills are developed. At this point where there are issues to over come it can be done without people opting out or feeling demotivated.

• Performing is where the team is close and is working effectively. The team has reached a mature stage where they can be open and supportive with each other. The strong tam spirit allows for them to be flexible and sharing the work and being resourceful.

Our Team work

For our first assignment I believe our team reached the norming stage, I believe we potentially showed signs of moving into performing but we never reached it. The reason why I believe we reached norming is because we quickly got through forming as we already knew each other and had a idea of what our personalities were like. All 3 of use wanted to work together and we were motivated to work but in order to reach the norming stage we set up a private group on a social networking site where we regularly updated each other with how our work was coming on and we also spoke through issue and organised meetings, reading through each others work. The communication between the team revolved around the task at hand. This is why I believe we were defiantly in the norming stage.  By setting up a group out side of the university we were being resourceful which is in performing but I don’t believe we showed enough of the other qualities needed to fall into the performing stage. Our mark reflects this as we got a high mark because we reached the norming stage but we didn’t reach our full potential and there was room for improvement, and the only way to reach our potential would be to move onto the performing stage.

Week 11: Personality

Week 11: Personality

When we think about personality there are main factors that makes up personality, these are nature and nurture. Nature suggest that our personality and traits are hereditary and handed down to us by parents, grandparents etc. Nurture suggests that our personalities are moulded by the environment they are brought up in and the situations they are involved in as they grow up.  I do believe that some personality traits are passed down from our parents, this is shown when people have a similar personality to parents or siblings, a example of this is my personality is very similar to a older brother in which we did not grow up at the same time he is 18 years older and had moved away when I grew up. This is a counter argument to the nature factors with people saying that the personality is not passed down through genes etc but it because you grow up around your parents and in their environment so that is why children have the same traits and personality. Anther argument for nurture is that peoples personality changes through out their life after being in different environments and gaining more life experiences .I personally believe that there is a mixture of both nature and nurture that makes up a personality and for me, my core traits and personality to my farther but because I am a very social person and like spending time with friends I believe that nurture is the more dominant factor that makes up my personality.

Nomothetic-  (Nature)	Idiographic -  (Nurture)
Fixed Statistical study of groups Objective questionnaires Personality types Prediction Link to hereditary, biology, genetics Traits/ Trait clusters	Individuals Unique Can change Environment, social, cultural influences Self-concept.

My personality test

Ø On the BBC website I took their personality test, http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/whatamilike/index.shtml

Below are the results and findings from the test

Results Video

http://www.bbc.co.uk/labuk/experiments/personality/feedback/big-five-video/

Openness

My results suggest I have broad range of interests which is correct. It also suggests that I like arts. I am not into art as painting etc but I have a big interest in music which can be classed as an art. It also suggests I am able to come up with solutions and original ideas easily.

Conscientiousness

 The results suggest I like to have a good work-life balance. It also suggest I like to plan my life rather be spontaneous. I would agree with this mostly has the major decisions and aspects in my life I have planed such as Uni. However is every day life I can be spontaneous.

Neuroticism

These results say I am calm and even tempered, and I am able to cope under stress full situations. It also says I have the drive to succeed and a good work ethic, I agree with this mostly although its hard to tell as I haven’t started my career yet. Bur so far in education this is correct.

Agreeableness

I think the results of this are pretty much spot on as it says I like to help and have concern for others and find it easy to get along with people but I will easily speak my mind.

Extroversion

My high score in extroversion suggests I am gracious, expressive and have a lot of energy. It also suggests I am a natural leader and a risk taker, these I believe to be correct however it also says I am likely to smoke which I don’t.

Evaluation

The personality test results I believe do give fair representation of me but I would not like it if some one took only them results into consideration when making assumptions on my personality. This is because I also think it takes time before you really being to find a person true personality. As on first meeting and test etc the person will naturally and normally sub consciously only put forward and show what they think you want to know. I can understand why companies with a large amount of applicants applying for work will use personality test as I give a little insight into people s personality but I don’t think companies should rule one person solely on the results. 

Below is my results table