Unit 5.1,5.2,5.4,2.1 (IB Business Management)

Drawbacks of net migration

"Brain drain" of highly qualified employees to other countries will reduce competitiveness; Immigrants may need more training (language and cultural)

Labor turnover formula

(# of staff leaving per year / average number of staff) (100)

Advantages of offshoring

(as with outsourcing) Using an offshore provider means the business can concentrate on its core activities and competitive strategy; labor laws may be more relaxed, making it easier to hire and fire staff; employee costs may be lower, resulting in lower prices for consumer and a boost in sales

Reasons for specific locations

Access; Convienience; Avoid trade barriers; Industrial inertia (location provides established relationships with suppliers and locally-based employees.); Clustering; bulk-reducing industries

How cell production might be organized in assembly plant

Bought-in components; machining of components and quality checks; major sub-assemblies and quality checks; final assembly, checking and packaging; finished goods

Advantages of internal recruitment

Cheaper than using external advertising; culture will be well understood by applicant

Benefits of aging population

Claimed that older employees are more loyal and reliable than younger employees; Older employees may have experience and "people" skills that younger employees may not have developed yet

Benefits of HR outsourcing

Cost savings (as HR salaries and administrative costs can be substantial overhead for business); Business can now focus its HR resources on strategic HR issues

Drawbacks of High labor turnover

Costs of recruiting, selecting and training new staff; Poor output levels and customer service due to staff vacancies before new recruits are recruited

Advantages of flow production

Costs per unit of production are lower due to economies of scale; Relatively easy and cheap to hire labor

Advantages of insourcing

Enables a business to have better control of what it would have otherwise been outsourced; using existing employees and resources can be cheaper than outsourcing

Types of Apprasials

Formative; Summative; 360-degree feedback; self-appraisal

Advantages of Multi-site locations

Greater convenience for consumers; Lower transport costs

How innovation interrelates with HR strategy

Harnessing the "complete person"; Lead to culture of innovation

Disadvantages of job production

High labor costs due to need for highly skilled and experienced workers; High production costs due to absence of economies of scale; Time consuming because specific requirements need to be catered for

Disadvantage of multi-site locations

If sites are too close to each other, danger of cannibalism where one store takes sales away from another

dismissal is only fair if

Incompetence gross misconduct in the workplace,

Drawbacks of natural population growth

Increased birth rates may take years before they impact the working population

Disadvantages of insourcing

Internal staff might not have the necessary skills or experience (external specialists may be more effective and productive); implementation costs are likely to be high, affecting profits at least in short term

Steps taken for dismissal

Issuing the staff member an initial verbal warning Followed by a formal written warning finally termination of contract if the employee fails to meet the agreed targets.

Steps in process of recruitment

Job description; Person specification; Job advertisement; shortlist of applicants; interviews

Benefits of high labor turnover

Low-skilled and less-productive staff might be leaving - they could be replaced with more carefully selected workers; A business that plans to reduce staff numbers anyway - due to rationalization - will find that high labour turnover will do this, as leaving staff will not be replaced

Advantages of batch production

Lower average unit costs of production (compared with job production) due to there being some economies of scale; Flexibility to meet.a variety of demands, thereby giving some choice to customer; useful for small business that cannot afford to operate continuous production lines

Benefits of natural population growth

May be easier to recruit effective employees as working population increases

Benefits of net migration

May be easier to recruit effective employees from other countries at lower rates of pay; Highly qualified employees might be recruited from other countries

Advantages of job production

Most flexible method as orders are made specifically for the customer; Due to its uniqueness, it is more likely to be of outstanding quality; high mark-up price can be charged because of product's exclusivity and high quality; skilled workers tend to be motivated by variety and challenge of the job

Demographic changes

Natural population growth; Net migration; Aging population; Unemployment; Education level of workers

Advantages of external recruitment

New ideas and practices to business (helps to keep the existing staff focused on the future rather than "the ways things has always been done"); Wide choice of potential applicants

Drawbacks of HR outsourcing

Not necessarily cheap; outsourcing key hr functions could mean that decisions are taken by an outside business that does not integrate its decisions with other departments of business

Drawbacks of aging population

Older employees may be less flexible and adaptable

Types of training

On the job; Off the job; Cognitive; Behavioral

Making the Choice of Production Methods

Size of Market (small market = job production); amount of capital employed; availability of other resources; if market demands for specific requirements

Economic sustainability

development of a country that meets the economic needs of the present generation, using existing available resources, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their economic needs

Occupational mobility

ease and flexibility of workers in moving from one job to another due to their ability and willingness to switch

Social sustainability

examines the ability of businesses and people to develop in such a way that they can meet the social well-being needs of current and future generations

Reasons for different patterns of work

focus on competitiveness, driven by competitive pressures from globalisation, need for greater labour flexibility with the rapid pace of technological change greater opportunities for outsourcing, especially in low-wage economies

Operations management's impact on marketing

goods or services are produced based on market research in order to meet the needs and wants of customers. The good or service needs to be promoted finished product also needs to be distributed using appropriate channels. A suitable pricing strategy is needed to ensure the products sell well on the market.

Disadvantages of cell production

high set-up costs; machinery Is not used as intensively as with flow or mass production

What job production produces

high-quality, unique goods and services

Harnessing the "complete person" (How innovation interrelates with HR strategy)

higher productivity higher labour retention attraction of high-quality employees

self-apprasial

involves employees evaluating themselves against a predetermined set of criteria

360-degree feedback

involves getting comments, opinions and information about an appraisee from the various groups of people who work with that person, e.g. peers, line managers and subordinates.

Why job production is flexible

it can be adapted (changed) to satisfy customer requirements.

Advantages of job description

it should attract the right type of people to apply for the job, as potential recruits will have an idea of whether they are suited to the position or not.

What job description includes

job title details of the tasks to be performed responsibilities involved place in the hierarchical structure working conditions how the job will be assessed and performance measured.

Disadvantages of batch production

less flexibility as customers have to select from a range of standardized output; the greater need for stocks (inventories); Downtime between batches as the machine might need cleaning and/or changing prior to manufacturing of next batch

Advantages of cell production

less wastage and a lower rejection rate as cells are responsible for quality assurance; enables workers to operate in teams with greater autonomy, thus boosting morale, motivation and productivity; workers are involved in the production process from beginning to end so this creates a sense of ownership and achievement

Dismissal

loss of job due to something the employee has done. (This may legally require three written warnings so that the employee may correct whatever is wrong. Immediate dismissal is allowed for illegal activity, such as theft.)

Disadvantages of flow production

lower profit margins are earned due to low prices and standardized output; limited, if any, flexibility as large quantities of identical products created

Human resource planning

management process of anticipating and meeting an organization's current and future staffing needs

What operations management focuses on

management process of creating goods and services using the available resources of the organization

Lead to culture of innovation (How innovation interrelates with HR strategy)

matrix organisational structure that allows for project teams to work through major developments delegation to junior managers to give them the authority to show initiative and take important decisions extensive and continuous training programmes regular appraisals to identify training needs and career plans

Labor turnover

measures the rate of change of human resources within an organization, per period of time

Workforce planning

nvolves analysing and forecasting the numbers of workers and the skills of those workers that will be needed by the organization

'optimal' location decision

one that selects the best site for expansion of the business or for its relocation, given current information

Operations management's impact on finance

osts of different production methods are needed to gain economies of scale although this could also require high set-up costs. Funding is needed for all aspects of operations management, Production managers must be held accountable for their expenditure and budgets

Different patterns of work

part-time and temporary employment contracts teleworking from home flexible hours contracts portfolio working

Most commonly outsourced HR functions

payroll administration employee recruitment (either for more junior employees or for all employees including executives) training and development (some or all) human resources information systems (e.g. employee records) pension administration

offshoring

practice of relocating part of or all of a firm's business functions and processes overseas. These functions can remain within the business (operating in overseas markets) or outsourced to an overseas organization

Outsourcing

practice of subcontracting non-core activities of an organization to a third-party provider (an external organization) in order to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs.

Why flow production is called flow production

products move continuously along a production line.

How new communication technologies makes it easier for large businesses

recruit globally through their websites and videoconferencing flexitime, homeworking and teleworking become accessible to workers. online training courses or webinars. reduce the costs of business meetings and seminars

Workforce planning functions

recruitment, Induction (of new staff), retention, dismissal, redundancies, training and performance appraisals. monitoring and maintaining professional relations between employees and employers

Characteristics of location decisions

strategic in nature - as they are long term and have an impact on the whole business. difficult to reverse if an error of judgement is made - due to the costs of relocation. taken at the highest management levels and are not delegated to subordinates.

summative appraisal

take place periodically, such as quarterly or annually, conducted by the line manager who summarizes the personal performance and achievements of the appraisee.

Formative appraisal

takes place on an on-going basis to enable employees to improve their job performance

Operations management

the business function of combining inputs to produce outputs (goods and services) that are valued by consumers.

Geographical mobility

the extent to which workers are able and willing to relocate to another area for employment purposes

Behavioral training

training designed to improve an individual's ability to communicate and interact with others both inside and external to the organisation

insourcing

use of a firm's own resources to fulfil a certain role, function or task which would otherwise have been outsourced

Redundancy

when a business can no longer afford to hire or because the job ceases to exist, perhaps due to seasonal or technological factors.

Disadvantages of offshoring

Associated with unethical practices; Cultural issues and concerns about transferring functions to external provider

Causes of high labor turnover

Better pay and working conditions offered by rival firms. An unhappy and discontented workforce. Staff being poorly trained so feel incompetent and unmotivated.

Disadvantages of outsourcing

Potential conflict with external parties can arise; costs of monitoring and maintaining relationships with subcontractor

Operations management's impact on hr

Production workers need to be hired and trained to work productively. Supervisors and quality controllers may also need to be hired. A crisis management team might need to be formed

Off the job training

Training conducted by specialists away from the workplace.

On the job training

Training conducted within the workplace whilst the employee is working.

Cognitive training

Training designed to improve a person's ability to understand and learn information.

advantages of outsourcing

Using an outsourced provider means the business can concentrate on its core activities and competitive strategy; Helps the firm to streamline business operations, thereby cutting costs and improving profitability

Person specification

a document that gives the profile of the ideal candidate for a job, (The person specification is like a 'person profile' helps in the selection process by eliminating applicants who do not match the required talents.)

How labor mobility can be improved

business offering training and development programmes to its employees.

environmental sustainability

capacity of the natural environment to meet the needs of the current generation without risking the ability of future generations to meet their own needs

factors that could affect the number of staff needed when a business is undertaking workforce planning for the future

change in demand for product staff productivity business objectives economic and business outlook changes in employment law technological change historical trends changes in available skills natural wastage rates changing fashions

Most commonly insourced HR functions

change management strategic HR planning development and maintenance of HR policies remuneration and benefits strategy (as distinct from administration) termination of employment/ redundancies cultural change programmes recruitment and selection for key jobs (e.g. senior management) succession planning specialised training (e.g. where the organisation has unique technology and skills requirements) .