Human Resources
How a business finds, keeps and develops its people: recruiting and selecting staff, training them, motivating them, and organising who does what and who reports to whom.
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Looking after the people
Human resources is the part of a business that finds, keeps and develops the people who do the work. A good product still needs the right people, well trained and willing, to deliver it. Human resources covers four main jobs: - Recruitment and selection means finding new staff and choosing the best person for each role. - Training and development means giving staff the skills they need now and helping them grow for the future. - Motivation means giving people reasons to work hard, through pay and through things money cannot buy. - Organising the workforce means setting out the levels of a business, so everyone knows who they answer to. Running through all of them is communication, so that instructions, ideas and feedback pass clearly between people. This module works through each.
Human resources words
Five terms you need before you use them. Learn what each one means.
Match each people method to what it means
- internal recruitment
- external recruitment
- on-the-job training
- off-the-job training
- delegation
- filling a job with someone who already works for the business
- filling a job with someone from outside the business
- learning new skills while doing the actual job at work
- learning new skills away from the normal workplace
- passing authority down to a more junior worker to do a task
Financial against non-financial motivation
There are two broad ways to motivate people, and a good business uses both. Knowing the difference is a common exam point.
Which way to fill the job?
A small firm needs a supervisor who already understands how the business runs and can start almost at once. Which approach is likely best?
- internal recruitment
- external recruitment
- no need to fill the role
- making a worker redundant
Tap the two off-the-job training examples
Tap the TWO examples that are off-the-job training.
- Attending a college course one day a week
- A weekend first-aid workshop at a training centre
- Learning the till from a colleague during a shift
- Being shown the machine while working the line
Tall structures against flat ones
How a business is organised shapes how it feels to work there and how fast decisions travel. A tall structure has many levels between the top and the bottom. Each manager oversees only a few people, so control is close, but a message can be slow to pass up and down all those levels. A flat structure has few levels. Each manager oversees many people, so staff often feel trusted and communication is quick, but managers can be stretched thin. Neither is simply better. A large, careful organisation may need more levels, while a small, fast one may thrive with fewer. Judge the structure against what the business is trying to do.
Pick the true motivation facts
Select the TWO statements that are true.
- Praise and responsibility can motivate without extra pay
- Training can raise both a worker skills and their motivation
- A one-off bonus motivates every worker strongly forever
- Motivation has no effect on how hard people work
Order the steps of recruitment
Put the stages of recruiting for a vacancy in the order a business would follow them.
- Decide the job is needed and write down what it involves
- Advertise the vacancy to attract applicants
- Shortlist the strongest applications
- Interview the shortlisted candidates
- Offer the job to the best candidate
Growing a new team member
Here is how one cafe took on and kept a new barista, to show how the parts of human resources fit together. Bringing them in: the cafe needed another pair of hands, wrote down what the job involved, advertised it, and chose the friendliest and most capable applicant. Settling them in: in the first days the new starter was shown around, taught the coffee machine and the till, and paired with an experienced colleague so nothing felt overwhelming. Helping them grow: over the months that followed the cafe paid for a short course, gave genuine praise for good service, and in time trusted the barista to open up alone. Take away any one of those, a rushed start or no chance to develop, and even a promising new hire can quietly drift away.
Complete the human resources facts
Finding and taking on new staff is _____. Filling a job with someone who already works for the business is _____ recruitment. The help given to a new employee to settle into a job is their _____. The levels of authority in a business, from the top down, form its _____.
Build a human resources point
Choose the words that complete this statement about motivation.
The human resources run
Five questions on human resources. Three lives.
Advise the manager
Read each case and choose the best advice, then think about why.
- A growing firm needs skills that none of its current staff have. How should it fill the new roles?
- Staff are leaving because the work feels dull and their effort goes unnoticed. What would help most?
- New starters keep making the same early mistakes in their first weeks. What tackles the cause?
Explain how a business manages its people
A student in the year below does not understand what human resources does in a business. Explain it using what this module has covered.
- Explain the difference between internal and external recruitment
- Explain the difference between on-the-job and off-the-job training
- Explain how financial and non-financial rewards can each motivate staff
- Explain what an organisational structure shows
- Finish by explaining why good communication matters in a business