1.
Lateness can be a thorny disciplinary issue in any organization. Whichever way you look at it, it’s likely to have negative impact on the performance of any company. The lateness that has become the tendency of Frank for the last three weeks needs to be checked before it gets into the other members of staff. My next course of action as Frank’s employer would be informed by two issues. First of all, I would consider the nature of franks work, whether its satisfactory or not, secondly, I would consider whether it is told he first time that Frank has displayed this kind of behavior, or it has recurred again in the past. The general discipline level of Frank, as would be indicated in his personal staff file should also act as a guide to his behavior over the past period.
Armed with this information, the next step of action is to summon frank to my office and obtain an explanation as to why he has consistently been late for work in the last three weeks. From my experience with staff, I should be able to judge whether his answer is satisfactory or not. I would also try to gauge his behavior from his attitude and find out whether his excuse is genuine or he has just absconded his responsibility.
On finding out that Frank is guilty, I would inform him of the company’s rules and regulations, stressing on the need to abide by each and every one of them, I would also insist on spelling out the particular penalties that would apply to staff that consistently breaks a particular rule in the company’s policy.
This should be enough to make frank realize the seriousness of the issue. After I am satisfied that he has fully understood the gravity of the issue, then I would request the human resources department to issue him with a first warning letter highlighting that such behavior was unacceptable and needed to be changed, failure to which more serious repercussions would follow.
In case the behavior is repeated for a considerable length of time and after a few other warnings frank does not seem to obey the company’s rules, then I would be forced to lay him off. In the mean time, I would ensure that the human resources department issues memos to the general staff informing them of the issue of lateness and warning them that appropriate action would be taken to anyone who does not abide by the rules; this should deter anyone who has any future intentions of following in franks footsteps.
2.
Under the UK equality act of 2010, recruitment should be done without discrimination with regard to the protected characteristics that are covered in the Act. Their effect on the recruitment in our case study would be:
Age: a high end fashion retailer whose client base is majorly the rich young women would have to be very selective in the choice of someone for the job. Generally, the interest of the business owner is to, maximize profits through sales. This will be made possible if the clients are comfortable and happy with the staff in the store. As a general rule, the young women would be interested in being served by equally young people who would generally understand their fashion tastes. Protection of the age characteristics would therefore adversely affect the hiring of someone for this job since older people would not be desirable.
Disability- a disabled person would naturally not be fit for the job in question. While the owner would want to be sensitive to the needs of the disabled, employing them in the fashion store would spell disaster for the business. This is because the clientele base are people who want to take their time, want a great shopping experience and generally want to be treated well, a disabled parson therefore even when qualified would generally not be a good fit
Gender reassignment- gender may be an issue in that high end fashion store for women would be much better manned by other young women. This is majorly because there would be more understanding of what the clients want. A man, although quite qualified may not be a suitable candidate. In other cases, these clients want someone that they can confide in without getting embarrassed. The protection of this characteristic may therefore adversely affect the hiring of the right person for the job
Marriage and civil partnership- generally, singles would be better off employed for this particular job. This would mean that the married ones would be discriminated. Single people would not have a problem working at odd hours when some of these clients would be out shopping unlike their married counterparts who would probably prefer to attend to other activities at the time
Pregnancy and maternity- such an establishment would do better with someone who is not pregnant or attending maternity. The protection of this characteristic therefore does not augur very well with the recruitment for this particular job
Race- the protection of this characteristic may not be consequential in modern UK since there is an integration in the races. In some cases however, the race may be considered as a factor in hiring so as to ensure that the clients are comfortable to shop
religion or belief- while this is a protected characteristic, it may negatively impact on hiring since some religions restrict their members on a number of issues which may not be acceptable for this form of business.
Sexual orientation- while this is a protected characteristic and ones sexual orientation may not be a public affair, care should be taken to ensure that it does not interfere with the performance of the intended staff,
3. Advantages and disadvantages of a performance based reward system
Arguments for
Scholars note that there is a positive correlation between efforts and performance. This form of compensation is therefore likely to lead to staff loyalty since those who perform very well and get rewarded are likely to stay
Secondly, performance based reward system is likely to lead to improved performance since employees want to work harder and increase their rewards since hard work in this case translates to better rewards.
Performance based reward system is a very important tool in ensuring that the company identifies those staff that are not productive and to weed them out. This is because; people who cannot be performers even in the face of reward are not likely to be productive at all.
Performance based reward system is also preferred since it’s known to motivate employees, can you imagine a situation where you work so hard alongside your lazy colleagues and you get paid the same salary, this is very demotivating
Disadvantages
Arguments against performance based performance in this team would border in a number of issues as explained herein under.
First of all, performance based reward system would lead to internal wrangles and competition as staff struggle to outshine one another. This is not beneficial since looking at the nature of the assignment; the staff should cooperate, consult and generally assist one another instead of competition and infighting.
Weeding out the weak people in the team is not a good practice in human resources management as the department is supposed to identify the needs of each staff and train and motivate them to become better employees instead of laying them off.
A reward based system would endear employees to be interested only in the rewards and miss on very important experience that would be very helpful in future assignments.
Rewards sometimes are not motivators as has been found in recent studies in the field of human resources management. Recognition and respect for ones work is likely to be a better motivator than financial rewards. A reward based performance system therefore may not always be the best option in this fast changing world.
4. Job rotation- in a situation where staff are expected to be multi skilled such as in a baking institution or even a media house, job rotation would be important in ensuring that the staff get the best skills as opposed to job enrichment, coaching or even distance learning.
Distance learning- in cases where the staff involved or even the job involved is mobile, and requires someone to travel widely, then distance learning may be the way to go. In other cases, the course could be offered in a place where geographical limitations do not allow the concerned staffs to be able to work and at the same time attend the physical classes, and then distance learning may be the best portion.
Lastly, distance learning is always cheaper than the in class learning. In case the company would like to cut on costs, then distance learning may present the best options.
Coaching- in tasks that are quite specialized, coaching may be the best method of staff development as the mentors are able to observe the development of the staff. In other cases, the training of new staff, especially those fresh from college would benefit significantly from coaching since the company is able to be in control of the staff development at all times and is able to fully assess the staff growth.
Job enrichment- in situations where the management would want a particular staff to be able to do more tasks or even to assume management responsibilities in the near future, then additional duties would help the staff to understand the managerial roles and would be ready for promotion at the right time.
This is because job enrichment ensures that the staff assumes more challenging duties and responsibilities and this makes such staff to be more knowledgeable in such areas.
5.
Corporate culture is increasingly becoming important especially in the last two decades. Despite the fact that it’s not tangible, it’s important and affects employees and organizations operations. While it’s not only the only factor that determines success, positive organizational culture offers quite significant competitive advantage over rivals.
Organizations hire people from diverse social, cultural and ethnic backgrounds, with differing personalities and also experiences but over time, these are dissolved into a dominant set of norms which guide operations and the way work is accomplished in organizations.
Some of the significantly strong organizational cultures include
Wall matt, the founder Sam Watsons’ concern and respect for staff from the onset of the company has created over the years, an environment of trust and respect that has persisted even today. The policy always is ‘’ think about how Sam would have done it’’
Southwest airlines has a relaxed culture that can be traced to the unconventional CEO Herb Keller who encouraged informality and wanted staff to have fun with their job. The CEO acknowledges births, marriages and deaths by cards and notes. Staffs are encouraged to help out, especially at check in and this has assisted the airline to grow in leaps and bounds.
Hewlett Packard encourages its employees to formulate three personal and three professional goals and applauds staff that attain their goals. Staff is encouraged to go home early; apparently, this has not reduced the productivity of the company despite the shorter working hours
6.
Star sign
Give the interviewer the star sign that depicts the day when you were born
Plan on having children?
Inform the interviewer that you plan on having children in future, however, your major concern and goal at the present is to grow your career, obtain the required skills in your area of specialization and generally make a lasting impact on the company before you settle down
Why do you want this job?
While it’s true that you are interested in the money, be careful not to appear as too much money centered as this sounds selfish. Instead, inform your interviewer that your major goal at the present is to work with the company as it presents a great opportunity for your growth. That you believe that by working with the company, you will learn and work with the experts and this will have a lasting impact on your future career endeavors.
Filling in an application form
An application form is a standardized document that is meant to extract only the relevant information from you that the company may need. Different people do their Cvs differently. Some may include crucial information while others may not. Its therefore not prudent for the company to rely on the Cvs alone as the necessary information may not be included, therefore the need for a standardized form, the application form.
Lastly, the application form is also used to audit the accuracy and consistency of the information presented in your Cv
Personality tests reliability
YES, they are reliable, but it all depends on how they are administered and the purpose for which they are administered. They are usually effective in determining the personality and behavior in a given hypothetical situation.
