Human Resources: Recruitment and Motivation
Finding the right people, keeping them, and arranging them so the work gets done. Recruitment inside and out, the two documents everyone mixes up, what actually motivates staff, and why the shape of an organisation changes how it behaves.
Use it, the way the marks are given
Free interactive practice at using the material, which is what the marks are for.
Start revising freeWhat you'll cover
The part of a business that is people
A business can have the right product, the right price and the wrong people, and it will still fail. **Human resources** is the work of getting that right. This topic has four parts: how a business **recruits and selects** staff, how it **motivates** them once they are there, how it **trains and develops** them, and how it is **structured** so that everyone knows who they answer to.
Promote or advertise?
A vacancy can be filled from inside the business or from outside it, and neither is simply better.
Which route, and why?
A bakery is opening a second shop and needs a manager for it quickly. Two current supervisors already run shifts well. What should it do, and why?
- Recruit internally, because it is faster and the supervisors' work is already known, which matters when the shop is opening soon
- Recruit externally, because outsiders always bring better ideas
- Advertise externally only, to be fair to everyone
- Leave the post unfilled and let the owner manage both shops
Four words to get right
Two of these are constantly swapped for each other in exam answers.
Match each stage to what it is for
- Writing the job description
- Shortlisting
- Interviewing
- Induction
- Setting out what the post actually involves before anyone applies
- Reducing a large number of applications to the few worth meeting
- Judging in person whether someone fits the role and the team
- Getting a new starter safe, oriented and productive quickly
What belongs in a person specification?
Select the TWO things you would expect to find in a person specification rather than a job description.
- The qualifications the successful applicant must hold
- The experience and personal qualities needed to do the work well
- A list of the daily duties the postholder will carry out
- Who the postholder reports to
Money is not the only lever
Ways to motivate staff split into two groups, and a good answer uses both. **Financial:** wages and salaries, piece rate (paid per item produced), commission, bonuses, profit sharing, and fringe benefits such as a staff discount or a pension. **Non-financial:** job rotation (moving between tasks), job enlargement (a wider set of tasks), job enrichment (more responsibility, not just more work), teamworking, delegation, and simple recognition of good work. Pay usually stops people being dissatisfied. It is the non-financial side that tends to make someone actually want to do the job well, which is why a business with no money to spend still has options.
No money, unhappy staff
A small garden centre has staff turnover it cannot afford and no room to raise pay this year. Work through what the owner can actually do.
- Staff say the work is repetitive: each person does one task all day. What is the cheapest change likely to help?
- One experienced member of staff is bored rather than overworked. What would help most?
- How should the owner judge whether any of it worked?
Fill in the HR gaps
Filling a post from inside the business is _____ recruitment, which is quicker but brings in no new ideas. The document describing the duties of the post is the _____, while the document describing the qualities the applicant needs is the _____. Once appointed, a new starter is given _____ training. Giving an experienced employee genuine extra responsibility rather than simply more tasks is called job _____.
Flatten this business
The owner wants a flatter structure, so that decisions travel between the top and the shop floor more quickly. Tap the level of this chart that flattening would remove.
What flattening actually costs
**"A business is considering moving to a flatter structure. Discuss. (8 marks)"** "Removing a layer shortens the chain of command, so instructions and problems travel between the owner and the shop floor faster, and fewer decisions get stuck waiting for approval. It also cuts the wage bill of a whole management level. However, it widens each remaining manager's span of control, so each one supervises more people and has less time for any of them, and it removes a promotion step that staff may have been working towards. For a small business the speed is usually worth it; for one with many junior staff, the loss of supervision may not be." Both sides, then a judgement that depends on the case. The judgement is where the last marks are.
Use the terms precisely
Build a sentence using the two structure terms correctly.
Match each kind of training to when it fits
- Induction training
- On-the-job training
- Off-the-job training
- Ongoing development
- A new employee's first days, covering the site, systems and safety
- Learning the actual job while doing it, alongside someone experienced
- A course away from the workplace, for a qualification the business cannot teach
- Preparing an existing employee for a role they do not hold yet
Why do some owners resist training?
Training raises productivity and motivation. What is the genuine risk that makes some owners reluctant, and what answers it?
- That trained staff become more employable and leave, though a business that trains and promotes people usually loses fewer of them than one that does not
- That training never actually improves how people work
- That businesses are not allowed to train staff themselves
- That being trained demotivates staff by suggesting they are not good enough
Your turn: advise on the vacancy
A growing cafe needs a supervisor and is losing staff faster than it can replace them. Advise the owner on filling the post and on keeping the people they already have.
- Recommend internal or external recruitment, and justify it against this situation
- Explain the difference between the job description and the person specification they will need
- Suggest two non-financial ways to motivate the existing staff, and say what each would change
- Explain one risk of the approach you have recommended