Wednesday, 28 April 2010

Communication and Involvement

Different between employee participation and employee involvement
If employees feel motivated at work, it is better for the organisation because the employees will put more effort and thought to their work. This also means that they will take good care of the customers by providing a good customer service. Employee participation comes from the pluralist approach and pluralists believe that everyone within an organisation have different interests and needs and therefore will arise different opinions as well as concerns within the working environment. If employees are given the opportunity to actively participate within the organisation it will motivate them because they will have their own say which will be taken into account by the higher department such as the management department etc. As it tends to motivate the employees to participate more with the organisation by helping and suggesting ideas to improve the decision made, it is important for organisation to give their employees the opportunity to speak out and get involved in the decision making because they invest a lot of money on the employees by giving them training, and all the facilities needed in order to work in a health and safety environment (MartinWebster 2009). If all employees have been given the power to participate, it will be more stressful and more work overload for the manager and for this reason new schemes has been introduced by the government. Many organisation have representatives for the employees such as the union or the works council, and their job is to listen to all the different ideas that the employees have, and they have to pass them on to the management team. This is a good scheme because the employees can speak out in their own time and no matter what, the representative will listen to them which is beneficial for them. Employee participation does not only benefit the employees but also the organisation itself because the more ideas and views there are, the easier it will be to make the final decision (M.Farmer, W.Yellowley 2008).
Employee involvement is similar to employee participation, but employee involvement is when employees are used to create an environment where they have the rights to make decisions which affects their jobs and working conditions etc. So they have a say on how to improve the working environment which affects them in the long run. For example if an employee feels that the toilets within the organisation are not clean enough, they can raise their concern to the health and safety department so something can be done quickly rather than later. Employee involvement approaches the unitarist approach because they are committed to the organisation values and goals and therefore all the employees are working towards the same thing. In order to maintain and keep the organisation going perfectly, the management team try to involve the employees as much as possible and get their views and opinions on how to improve certain things further (humanresources.about 2010). In order for the employees to be able to get involved properly, the organisation must make sure to share out important information and keep the employees updated. If employees are regularly updated of the organisation's progress etc, they can get involved with decision making accordingly. It is important that the employees ideas and suggestions are discussed because their hard work and effort need to be worth their time. If employees are given opinion surveys, they can put down any of their thoughts on how to improve the working environment, and this will be easier for the management team to measure their involvement. Involving employee's ideas by consulting with them first and using different techniques to get them more involved at work, will make them feel valued and important to the organisation and therefore they will bring more for the company (M.Farmer, W.Yellowley 2008).

There are many ways for organisations to involve employees in decision making and one of them is for the management team to sit down and listen to all the ideas that the employees have in mind. Employees like to feel valued and appreciated and therefore it is important that the manager listens carefully to what they have got to say because it could improve the business performance. For example if the employer asks the employees to find out what the customers needs are by giving out surveys and asking individuals questions, the employees have to provide the feedback to the employer and maybe also suggestions of how to reach the customers needs. For this reason consultation is important as things will have to be discussed properly and if things are done according to the employees idea's, they would want to get involved in decision making in the future which could bring success for the organisation (redding.com 2009).
Sharing important information with the employees could also be a method to involve the employees in decision making. Employees would like to be updated with everything that is going on within the organisation because than they can come up with ideas and help making decisions according to the latest update. Another advantage of keeping them up to date is that if the organisation is taking their time to explain anything new to the system or any changes made, the employees will feel more part of the organisation and this will encourage them to get involved more within the organisation. Information can be shared to the employees during briefings and also by communication via social network sites, email and roadshows.
Employees tend to work better in teams as they can share different skills, knowledge and ideas of how to improve the working environment. If people work in teams, the employer will give them regular feedback on how to improve the team working skills etc, and the employees will pick up the feedback quickly and learn from their mistakes. Giving regular feedback is also important because the employees need to know how well they are doing, and these feedback can be given during appraisal meetings or as they go along. When employees work in teams, they have to take up some responsibility and make suitable decisions for the team so they all work towards the same goal and eventually bring success for the organisation. If the organisation has a good rewarding scheme going on where employees will be rewarded due to good involvement and creating good ideas for the organisation, the chances of them getting involved in the future and coming up with better ideas are very high.
How are social networking sites used to involve employees?
Communicating with employees is very important because it will create a strong relationship between the employer and the employee. The better the relationship is, the better of an understanding the pair will have, and the employee will put more effort and skill to their job which will then bring better value for the organisation. A lot of organisations use social networking sites to keep their employees updated as well as to advertise any job vacancies available. Bucks new University use Facebook as a way of communicating with the students and keep the updated with the latest news etc. On Facebook the students can ask any questions or if they have any doubts, they are free to ask the person responsible for the group. On the group page, students can view all the events taking place during the month with a time, place and date. This is useful for the students because they don't have to depend on people giving them information at university, they can just go on facebook and click on the group followed by events. As facebook is a common social networking site, a lot of people are familiar with the website and students who have joined the group can get to know one another and socialise on there (Facebook 2010).
MySpace is another famous social networking site and due to the fact that a lot of people are familiar with the site, some organisations use the website to communicate with current employees. Tesco use MySpace and on there employees can talk with each other and tell people how their day at work went etc. If they have any questions related to work, they can ask within the group, so the person in charge of the group will answer all the questions in much more detail. There is also another group for external users, so for people who are looking for a job within Tesco can find out information about any vacancies and also information on how to apply etc (Myspace 2010).
Deloitte use Twitter to keep employees updated and also more involved at work. On the deloitte twitter homepage, they have uploaded different videos which helps employees learn certain things within the work place and they also have a small space where they can make comments on what they thought about the video. As Deloitte tend to have different events going on, they are all mentioned on the twitter page so the employees are informed when each event takes place. This gives an equal opportunity for each employee to get involved in the event and they can learn and get to know how the organisation really operates (Twitter 2010).
Conclusion
Over all it is important to get the employees involved at work because they need to feel valued and if they are taken serious, they will take their job serious. There are many ways of getting the involved and make the active participants, but which ever method is used, the employer must make sure that any idea or suggestion which the employee arises, they are taken in to account and not ignored. If employers take their time to hear them out and put their ideas into action, they will bring better ideas in the future which is a good way of improving the organisation's performance.

Reference:

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Sunday, 18 April 2010

Reward

The reward system at M&S
M&S is a well known clothing as well as food store within the UK. They provide customers quality services as well as good products. M&S believe that if the employees are happy at work, it will automatically bring success to the company. Treating the members of staff equally and fairly will motivate them, but giving them rewards for good work performance will also keep them going and continue to work better. M&S has a good reward system within their organisation and the aim of this system is to attract good candidates to work for the company and also to keep the current employees motivated. A friend of mine who works at M&S told me that some people often apply for certain jobs due to the good reward system they have going on. During the selecting process, M&S makes sure that they explain how the reward system works and they also tell them who is eligible for the rewards. The reason why it is important to tell the new candidates how the system works is because once they start working at the store, they will expect to get rewarded for small things. If they know how they can get rewards, they will work accordingly which is good for the organisation. Full time employees at M&S get rewards for good performance which is a fair way of rewarding their employees. The reason for this is because everyone within the organisation will get monitored either by mystery shoppers, or the manager and if they feel that the employee has performed well, they will get rewarded. If the employees get rewards for good performance, they know that the organisation are recognising their achievements which means that they are not being ignored. If employees perform well during inspection etc, they will get monetary rewards such as bonuses or commission. As employees like the rewards that they get for good work performance, they tend to work to their best ability because they don't know who is monitoring and assessing them. If employees are part of the Sharesave scheme than they will receive rewards every time the company makes a high profit. For example in 2007 staff who were part of the Sharesave scheme were set to get a reward from the £56m bonus that the organisation received from the large amount of profit they made. Their share price went up from 282p to 734p which was a huge increase. Even though everyone who works for M&S will not benefit from this reward, it is still a fair and equally shared out to the one's who will benefit from it. The reason why it is fair is because everyone who work for M&S will be given the opportunity to be part of the Sharesave scheme, and the people who have signed up will get the rewards every time the organisation makes a huge profit. However joining this scheme could also have it's drawbacks because if M&S is making a loss then the employees will also loose out (Personneltoday 2007).
Employees who work in the head office or are the store managers, tend to get better rewards than the employees who work on the shop floor. This might seem unfair to the employees working on the shop floor because to them it might feel like they are doing more work than the employees working above them. However this doesn't mean that employees working on the shop floor can't work their way up. If they work long enough and continue to show good performance etc, they will eventually aim higher and get better rewards (Corporate.marksandspencer 2010). Employees who work for M&S also tend to get non-monetary rewards which some of them tend to prefer. Employees who work full time at M&S tend to rewarded more than the people who work part time. A friend of mine who currently works at M&S and is a full time employee, told me that if people perform well during their working hours or if customers give them good feedback, the trainer or the manager will let them go home early from work, but not only do they get sent home early, they also tend to get extended breaks.

Should chief executives receive large bonuses even if the organisation has underperformed?

Chief executives have important roles within an organisation. The bigger the organisation they are working for, the less responsibilities they have within. But if they work for small organisation, they will need to be capable of making business decisions etc, however if they work in large organisation they will only be in charge of things happening higher up the business. Chief executives have important responsibilities which they have to make sure are done carefully and properly. They do important decision making for the over all organisation and during the process they have to make sure that they have all the information and research so they won't regret the decision they have made in the future long run. They also manage a few departments such as the Human resource department and the financial as well as physical resources (Managementhelp.org 2010). If a certain company has been under performing but the company has no control over the situation, I think that chief executives should still be paid large bonuses. For example if the economy is in recession, the organisation will have no control over customers spending etc and therefore it is not down the company for doing so bad. However if it is the other way round and it was all down to the organisation that they have not performed well due to the careless decision made by the chief executive or even if they haven't carried out their responsibilities properly, than they shouldn't be paid large bonuses. The reason why I think it's a good idea that the chief executives get paid large bonuses even if the organisation has underperformed is because getting rewards will make them motivated and if they work to their best ability, it is better for the organisation. They are responsible for quiet a lot of important things within an organisation and therefore the manager would like them to perform well and bring the success of the business higher. If they get large bonuses from the organisation they will continue to work hard etc. However there is also a down side to giving the chief executives large bonuses even though the company isn't performing well and that is if the organisation is under performing, the income they get will be really low and therefore it will be hard for them to pay their employees as well as giving large bonuses to the chief executives. In those kind of situations it is not important for the executives to get bonuses because they are already getting a good salary. The money which is being used on the large bonuses can be used on the organisation instead and bring up the performance to a level until they are stable.

How to reward a primary teacher

A primary school will have a quiet a lot of responsibilities as they have to be able to teach a wide range of different subjects. If there was a year 6 primary teacher, he/she will have a lot to take in to account because they have to teach and get the children ready to do their 11+ as well as stats. As they have a lot of work to get on with, they would want something in return to keep them motivated and so they can help the students get good grades which will bring the school a good image and name. If the head teacher wants the teacher to perform well, they can set targets for them which they have to achieve in order to get their rewards. For example the head teacher could say to the teacher that she wants 60% of the students to pass the 11+ and if they reach their target, they will get a reward accordingly. This is a fair deal because both sides are getting something from the rewards. In this case performance pay should be awarded to the teacher because the better they perform, the better their pay will be. This would encourage the teachers to perform better and they will also concentrate more on the students so the outcome of the results are good. Another financial reward could be to give them large bonuses. If bonuses are given to them, there will be a higher possibility that they will stick to their job which is good for the school because they don't have to go through the recruiting and training process. Fringe benefit could be a financial reward that could be awarded to a primary school teacher. They could get free lunch meals which will save them from bringing their own lunch from home or even spend their money to buy their own lunch. Having free meals could benefit teachers because when they are hard at work looking after all the students and teaching them certain subjects, it will be hard work for them, and therefore they need to eat something nutritious and healthy food to keep them going for the rest of the day. As the syllabus changes now and then, the teachers need to keep up so they can teach their students according to the education board, so if they go on training courses which are paid by the school, the teacher will benefit from it. Not only will they learn things, they will also meet new people and socialise more. If teacher are put on training courses, they can learn new methods to teach students and the more they pick up during the course, the more they can bring back to their students (Tutor2u.net 2010). There are also some non financial rewards that could be awarded to a teacher and this is beneficial for both the teacher and the provider which is the head teacher or the local government. Teachers would like to know how well they are doing at work meaning getting to know what they have managed to achieve etc. Therefore a good non-financial reward that could be awarded to them could be having a one on one meeting with the head teacher. During this meeting the head teacher can tell the teacher all the good achievements they have achieved during the term and also how certain things can be improved in the future. This is a useful reward for the teacher because they need to know where they stand and what they have to work harder at in order to reach and aim higher. Having staff meetings in the morning before the school day starts will also be useful for teacher. Everyone will come together as a team and share out their thoughts and opinions on things that are being discussed within briefing. Staff meetings makes the teachers feel more involved with the school as well as with one another because the head teacher will ask for different ideas from the teachers which can be put into use if necessary. Being able to go on unpaid career breaks would will be a thing for a teacher in particular because if they are working full time teaching younger students, they might want to get away from it all and go on a break just to relax their minds. But when they come back they know that they have a secured place waiting for them when they come back. If they are allowed to take such breaks, when they return they will be more switched on and maybe during their break they might have gained more experience to teach students etc.

Out of all these rewards, the one that will motivate me the most is getting regular feedback from my manager because the more feedback I get, the better I will work in the future. If someone works within getting any feedback, even if your not doing the work correctly, you will not know how to work correctly and this will just bring the reputation down for the organisation. When managers provide you with feedback, they will not only give us information on what we are doing right and wrong, but also key pointers on how to aim higher etc.

Conclusion


Over all providing rewards for employees is important because it will keep them motivated. If they are not motivated, they will not work to their best ability as they know that they are just stuck with a basic salary or wage. If the reward system is good within an organisation, more people would want to work for the company and once they get the job, they will try and work their way up until they benefit from the rewards available.




Reference

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Friday, 16 April 2010

Training and Development

One week induction programme plan for new graduate entrants
It is important that the one week induction plan is set out properly because it gives the candidates a good opportunity to learn about the organisation. Training the new graduates also participates towards their motivation within the store and if they are put on a one week training course, the will learn new things and also have a real feel on how it is going to be like to work for the store. When a one week training program should be planned, the Human resource manager must make sure that they sort out the timing of each event and also set out a location for the training to take place. Another important thing is that during the one week training program the new graduates must be monitored so their performance can be judged. If there is no one to monitor their performance, the candidates will not know what is right from wrong and therefore they will not pick up any learning as they go on the training program and it will be a waste of time for the candidates as well a waste of money for the organisation.

One week training schedule for Tesco's new graduate entrants
Monday 4th April 2010
Location: High Wycombe, New Land Street
Time: 11am-4pm
Brief Interview: During this first day of training the candidates will have a brief interview with the current store manager. The reason why this interview would be effective for the organisation is because the store manager needs to know what these candidates are like so during this brief interview he/she will have a friendly chat with all the candidates together to see what they are like when they are around each other. It is important that the candidates are sociable as well as professional at the same time, so this interview will figure out if they have both. The person who will monitor this interview will be the Human Resource department as well as the store manager.

Tuesday 5th April 2010
Location: Crowne Plaza, London
Time: 10am- 2pm
Conference Meeting: This meeting is also part of the candidates training program because during this event they are going to get some useful information about the organisation that they are going to work for. The head manager of Tesco will be running this conference and they will provide a brief history of the organisation. As there will be candidates all over the UK who will be attending this conference, most of the store managers will also be at the conference so they can talk more about the job role and all the different responsibilities they have to be charge of. This meeting is effective for the organisation as well as the candidates because everyone needs to know what they have applied for and what they are getting trained for in the long run. It is important that this event is planned out properly as a lot of money will have been put in to arrange the event and book the location etc. This event gives an opportunity for the different candidates to meet each other and also socialise as a group.

Wednesday 6th April 2010
Location: Holiday Inn, Handycross, High Wycombe
Time: 4pm- 6pm
Health and Safety meeting: This meeting is one of the important training events out of the one week induction training program. This event will be held by my department which is the Human Resource department and during this training session, the team will do a presentation on health and safety that needs to be carried out within the store. As these new graduate entrants are applying to become a store manager, it is important that they are well aware of all the health and safety issues because they will be in charge of all the employees working within and they need to make sure that everyone are working in a safe environment.

Thursday 7th April 2010
Location: High Wycombe, New Land street.
Time : 2pm - 6pm
Team working activity: During this day of training, the candidates will get into teams of 3 and they have to carry out some activities related to the job role they have applied for. The activity will identify the current team working skills the candidates have and also how they get along with their team members. It is an effective activity as it allows us to see where they are lacking and in the future run, the candidates can be provided with more training to bring up their skills. The store manager will be in charge of this event because he/she needs to monitor how well the employees are capable of working together in a team. Becoming a store manager is an important role as they have to be able to work in teams with the other department managers etc. If their team working skills are not good, it will be difficult for them to run the store and conflict will arise between the store manager and the senior managers.

Friday 8th April 2010
Location: High Wycombe, New Land Street
Time: 9am-6pm
Working on the shop floor: During this event, all the graduates will be assigned with a trainer as they will be working on the shop floor and making sure that everything is going in order. The trainer will monitor the graduates performance and if they need any help and guidance, the trainer will be their assistant. The trainer will go through each department on the shop floor and tell them how things are operated around here. Not only will the trainee experience how it is like to work externally, but also internally within the organisation. The trainer will show them how products are supplied to the company and where we get our supplies from. This sort of training is very effective for the new graduates because they need to know how to work on the shop floor and how everything is operated. If a customer has an enquiry or wants to make a complaint about something, they will first go to a member of staff, but if the matter is much more serious, the store manager will have to handle the situation. Therefore they need to know everything about the shop floor and how employees work there.

Saturday 9th April 2010
Location: High Wycome, New Land Street
Time: 9am- 6pm
Working with the customers: The new graduates will also be assigned with a trainer during this event as they will be working on the tills and serving customers. This even is effective for the trainees because they will experience how it will feel like to serve lots of customers in a day. During this training period the trainee will deal with different mood's of customers and they will learn how to deal with each type. Once again the trainer will be monitoring their performance and he/she will continue to give them the help and support the trainee needs.

Monday 11th April 2010
Location High Wycombe, New Land Street
Time: 10am- 1pm
Evaluation: The human resource department will provide detailed feedback to the candidates and let them know how they did during the one week training program. During this time, the candidates has the opportunity to ask any questions about the job role over all. It is very important that the HR department has monitored everything during the one week induction training program because when it comes to giving the candidates all their performance feedback, they have to be accurate and also provide the information in great detail rather than just talking about it briefly. If the organisation has planned out the one week training program properly, the whole event should be a success to all the candidates as well as to the organisation. This event is very effective because when feedback is provided to the employees, they know how well they have done, and if the feedback is good, than they are more likely to be motivated. However if the feedback is negative, the manager can tell them how they can improve and aim higher which will also keep them motivated because they know what they have to work at in order to get to the next level up.

Conclusion
Over all training and development is important for an organisation as well as the employees. If the training programs has been planned out carefully meaning that a location and time has been selected as well as finding out who will be monitoring the employees performance, it will be a success for the organisation and the amount of money that has been spent on the training program will not go to waste. Giving employees the opportunity to develop further and giving them the right training for it will benefit a lot of people within the organisation. It will keep the employees motivated because they know that the organisation are letting them aim higher as well as earn more money. If the training program is a success to the employee, they can bring more for the organisation and maintain the good reputation the company has.







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Tuesday, 13 April 2010

Performance Management

Performance management in Bucks university
The university as a whole measure students performance by making them do coursework as well as end of term exams. The exams which are set for the students can measure how well they have performed during the year by seeing how their results. If the lecturers have done their job properly by teaching the students everything according to the education board and the students have paid attention during class as well as doing their own research, they will get a decent grade. The teachers at the university can predict which students will do well in the course by seeing how well they take part during each lesson as well as measuring their attendance.
At Bucks university all the lecturers have different methods and ways to manage their students performances during the lesson and also over the year. Mary Simpson is our lecturer for the "People and Organisation" module and she has her ways of measuring our performances. We have one lecture every week with Mary and during that 3 hours lesson we go through a topic which is presented by her on PowerPoint. In order to make sure that we have taken everything in, she gives us a set of activities to complete which relates to the topic that she covered during class. As part of our course work we have to do blogs on all the topics that we have covered during the lecture and these blogs are worth 60% of our final grade. Doing these blogs is a good method of measuring our performance because as this is part of our coursework, most of the students will pay attention during the lecture and also revisit the PowerPoint slides as it will help us do the blogs. The way Mary measures our performance is reading our blogs every week and then she provides us some feedback which is given as a comment underneath the blogs. The feedback includes comments on how to improve the blog further and the way she measure our performance is by re visiting the blogs to see if we have taken in her information and used it within the blog. We also did another coursework which was done in teams of three or four students. The way she measured our performance during that piece of coursework is by having a small interview with each team and we had to present all the work that we have done so far. She gave us some useful feedback on what to include and also how to improve the work that we have already done. When we hand a piece of coursework to Mary, she marks the pieces and then she hands it back to us with a feedback sheet on it. On the feedback sheet she writes what she thought was good about the piece as well as comments on how we could have done it better and she will also write how we can improve future coursework.
My personal tutor contributes by having one to one interviews with the students and during these interviews she gives us advice on how to improve our future coursework. Even though we don't see one personal tutor as much, the students can feel free to visit her office any time they want and get advice or help from her.

Skills required to be an effective mentor
A mentor is someone who encourages and inspires different individuals in certain areas where they might need help in. If a person has a personal mentor, they can ask any questions if they have any doubts about anything and they can also seek professional advice. Students and people who have their own business tend to be the most common people who have mentors and the reason for this is because they might need special help to get some where in life and they might want to aim higher (ibm.mentorplace 2010)
A lot of entrepreneurs have their own mentors to tune up their business skills and due to the help of their professional mentors, they have found success within their business. If the business people have set some specific goals which they would like to achieve in the future, the mentors can help achieve them by giving them good guidance and support during their journey to success. In order to become a good mentor there are some key skills required and the main one is to be able to communicate properly using encouraging and inspiring words. Mentors must be patient whilst working with people because not everyone will get everything straight away. Another reason why they must be patient as well as being good problem solvers is because mentors will face straight forward as well as difficult challenges everyday. Having good listening skills is also an important skills required from the mentor as they will have to listen to all the problems that the person being mentors has. If they listen carefully to every detail that is provided from the mentored, the mentor can respond more better which means that he/she will come up with good solutions to the problem. It will take some time in order for the students or business people to be able to accomplish certain things because it might be all new to them. In order for the mentors to be able to teach and guide the people they are helping, they have to interact with them as well as getting their full trust so people can open up to them and learn things more quicker. Mentors need to be quick at thinking because if they use one method to help out people, but it doesn't seem to work, the mentors have to be able to come up with another idea or method that people will find more easier to understand and follow. If they get stuck and are out of ideas, it is more likely that they will be fired due to the fact that they have failed to deliver good guidance and support. Mentors must not do all the work such as coming up with ideas of how to achieve certain goals etc. If they do all the thinking, than the person who is getting mentored will not use their brain and knowledge but will depend everything on the mentor. For this reason the mentor must give the mentored the opportunity to think for them selves and come up with brief ideas which can be developed further by the mentor. In order to be a good mentor, it is important that they receive full training by professionals because when people search for a new mentor, they will expect to find experienced and qualified mentors (business.timeonline 2008)

My mentor at primary school

I moved from Denmark when I was in year five and during that time I found it very difficult to learn and pick up the language as well as making friends. Due to the fact that I couldn't really speak to anyone as I only knew how to speak danish, it was difficult for me to approach people. To help me learn the language more quicker my form tutor assigned me with a mentor who also knew how to speak danish. My mentor was a very good listener and she helped me with any problems that I faced at school which included help with my homework and also translating the language. She has mentored plenty of students over the years and therefore had plenty of experience, but I was her first foreign student that she had ever mentored which made things a lot challenging for her. In year five all the students were preparing for their year six exams, so my teacher set me some targets that she wanted me to achieve by the end of year six. My mentor went through the targets and we kept on revisiting them until they all stuck in my head and so I knew what I was working towards. She faced some tough challenges during her time mentoring me as she found it difficult to teach the whole syllabus to me. She came up with alternatives by creating pictures and reading plenty of books with me. As I reached to year six, my mentor went through lots of exam papers and as my English gradually got better, I made more friends. It turned out that my mentor has made my life a lot easier when I started school in the UK and we both had a really good relationship which meant that I could talk about anything with her. I managed to achieve my targets all thanks to my mentor and therefore she has made an impact in my life. I don't think that I would have gone really far without her assistance and therefore I am very great full to her.

Conclusion

Managing performance is important in all aspects because if the performance is not properly monitored or managed, students, employees, or employers will not know how well they are doing and therefore it will be harder for them to continue working. If their performance isn't good and no one is letting them know about it or giving them feedback on how to improve their performance, they will just continue to perform the way they do which is not good for them as well as the outcome they produce. There are many ways of monitoring performance, but it is important to select the right one depending on the type of performance people are trying to manage.
References


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Wednesday, 7 April 2010

Equal opportunities

Equality and Diversity
Even though equality and diversity are approaching the same thing, there is still a difference between the two. These two issues tend to effect everyone within the working environment and the reason for this is because as employees don't want to get discriminated at work, they would want to know all the laws and action they can take against the people who are discriminating them. In today's world everyone should be treated equally and that also includes in the working environment and that is what equality and diversity is about. In simple terms, the difference between equality and diversity is that equality of employees is managed by all the legal legislation's and laws, however diversity looks at the differences between people amongst the work place. For example it does not only look at people's religion, sex and age etc, but also people's interest and many more and the reason why it needs to be taken into consideration is because everyone is not the same and therefore have different personalities and characteristics which needs to be protected in the working environment (M.Farmer, W.Yellowley 2008).
Equality is also known as equal opportunities that employees can consider if they feel that they are being discriminates. The main equal opportunity laws are the following:
Sex discrimination act makes sure that employees don't get discriminated due to their sex, or even status. There is a good example of sex discrimination on the bbc website which states that a women was on her maternity leave and as soon as she gave birth to her daughter she was asked to come back to work even though she was still on her leave. When she told the manager that her husband was aboard and that her children were very ill, the women became redundant and that was when she complained of sex discrimination and was paid £10,000 by the company as she won the court case (news.bbc 2001).
In some occasions employers don't like to employ young married women because they know that when they want to start a new family they will have to go on maternity leave and the company will loose out during the 9 months as they will have to train a new member for temporary until the employee is back at work. If sex discrimination takes place in any organisation, they will have to pay up the compensation which will not only cost them a lot of money, but it will also bring them a bad image for the company.
Race relations act protects employees from being discriminated against their race, colour or nationality. In some organisations there is a lot of racism going on especially towards the coloured people. If employees feel that they are being discriminated by their colour or race etc, they can take immediate action and also gain compensation from the company. There isn't a lot of race discrimination going on today due to the fact that most people believe that everyone should be treated equally and not according to what colour you are.

Disability discrimination act makes sure that people who have a disability of any sort are treated equally to the rest. Some employers think that it is too costly to employ disabled people because they will have to get disabled equipment installed such as an elevator etc. The reason why some companies think twice about hiring a disabled person is because they might think that disabled people will take too many days off work which is costly for the organisation. In some cases employers automatically think that people with some sort of a disability is not capable of doing the same amount of work that other employees are doing daily. This legislation came to action to put a stop to all of this and to give the disabled people the same rights as everyone else (Directgov 2009).
Equal pay act makes sure that both men and women get paid the same amount of money if they are doing the same job. Before this law took place, it was believed that even though men and women have the same job or carry out the same task, men should always be paid more that women. This was unfair for the women because even if they worked twice as hard as the men, they would still get paid less. But now that this law has taken place, women are now more aware of what their human rights are and how they should be treated at work and elsewhere.
As discussed previously, diversity manages and finds out the differences in people and if this is managed properly it could bring success to the organisation. If equality is met properly within the organisation where all the laws and legislation's are followed, it automatically leads to a diverse work force. When employers make good commitments to a diverse work force, it will bring the company a good name as well as an respectable image from the public. A lot of organisations try to make all their employees feel motivated at work so they put in more effort in their job. As everyone is different with various of personalities etc, it is important that the organisation treat everyone the same and value people's differences so they would want to come to work. There are many benefits of committing to a diverse work force because if there are foreign employees working for the organisation, they will know a second language which will be helpful for the customer service. For example if there is a lady who visits the store but doesn't know any English, the employee can help out by talking through all the services and products they provide in a language which the customer might understand. If the customer has a better understanding of what the organisation provides for the customers, the better it is for the organisation because more foreign customers will come to them. Another benefit is that different people will have a various amount of knowledge and skills which can be put into practise and make the working environment better. If the employees are treated equally with the others and are happy at work, they could share ideas with the manager to make the working environment a better place for the employees as well as the customers. If there is an individual who is different to the rest, it is important that the individual is valued and not discriminated and the happier they feel at work, the more they will bring to the organisation (M.Farmer, W.Yellowley 2008)

Margaret Mountford
Mountford is a well known lady who worked for Sir Allan Sugar as an advisor. On the business times online there is an article where Mountford stated that women should only be appointed to senior positions on merit. In my point of view Margaret is right and more women should be appointed to senior positions. As part of nature, at some point women would want to make a family and have kids, but that shouldn't stop them from applying to more higher job roles within the organisation they work for. Women and men have the equal rights to apply for any job position as long as they have the right knowledge, experience and skill to do the job. I believe that women will take the job more serious and will also have to ability to keep everything under control. If women have brought up their own children, they will have gained experience from there and will know how it will feel like to be put under pressure etc. How ever men will not know that feeling unless they have worked for another company where they have carried out that job role. Like Mountford suggested in the article, more women would work better in teams rather than being told what to do constantly by someone above them. From experience I think that when women work in a team, they will open up more and share better ideas with the team members which is more beneficial for the company or person that is in charge of them. If there is a woman with the right skill, knowledge and training who has just come back to work after her maternity leave and is applying for a higher role within the organisation, there is no reason why the employer shouldn't employ that candidate. If there is male who is also applying for the same job role but has no skills or experience etc, the woman will still have a less chance of getting the role in case of going on another maternity leave. This is discrimination against that woman because even though she has better knowledge and skills compared to the man, she will still not be selected. An employer should not select a candidate by looking at their gender because that will not get the company anywhere, and the public will assume that the organisation is only hiring males which is sexist. If more organisations make working hours for women who are parents to younger children more flexible, it will be more beneficial for them as it will give them the opportunity to work higher up the organisation. This means that there will be more female role models in the business world and more people will get influenced to aim higher.

However on the other hand there are also some women who don't want to aim higher and just stick to the job role they currently have doe to the fact that they prefer it more. Another reason why they might not want to apply to the next level is because it will contain more work and responsibility and if they are parents to young children, they will have too much work on their hands which could really de-motivate them. If organisations make the working hours more flexible for women, it would be unfair for the men and they might start to feel de-motivated unless men can also work flexible hours. From an employer's point of view I can see why they have second thought when they promote women who are likely to start a family in the future. If they promote women and then they go on a maternity leave, the organisation will loose out because they have to pay for the maternity leave as well as for the temporary employee who will also need a lot of training. It is more fair for men and women to be promoted not just women. Even though women tend to bring more to the table rather than the men, they also tend to go on more leaves due to their children or being pregnant. But in the same situation if a man is promoted instead of a woman, the organisation will not loose out that much because the man will just work continually and if the right training is provided for them, they can gain more knowledge and develop new skills (business.timesonline 2009)


Age legislation
The age legislation came into force in 2006 because employers started to miss use people who were below the age of 16 and above the age of 60. This law protects people from being discriminated against their age whilst working for a particular organisation. It apply to employers, employees, trainees, and also candidates who are trying to apply for the job. Before this law came around in 2006, a lot of the older people above the age of 60 felt that they were being discriminated because some of their employers told them to retire as they thought they were not capable of working for the organisation any more. According to the BBC website, before the age legislation came to force, people at the age of 50 were made redundant and a lot of the elderly people thought it was unfair because they were not ready to go part time yet and they still wanted to earn their money in a full time job (news.bbc 2002). The age legislation act has an impact on all employers because it's another law that they have to be aware of and make sure that they follow it properly. If the employer brakes the law by discriminating their employees by age, the company will have to pay compensation depending on how deep they have discriminated the employee. Not only will they have to pay up money, but the company will automatically receive a bad image from the public who take the legislation serious. As it is the older people who tend to get discriminated more within the work place, it is important that the employer gives them some sort of notice of when they retire people or make them redundant, and this should be provided during the recruitment process so the candidate will know how the organisation operate things around there. If employees want to hire young people without discriminating anyone they have to make sure that the recruit people in the correct manner. In the job advert they can't write who they are aiming for in particular as it could discriminate others and therefore they have to write it indirectly. If they are aiming for new graduates, then they can place the advert in university's, sport centres and many other places where young people might hang out.

There are some stereotypes that a lot of people as well as employers hold against younger and older people and that is the whole reason why there is a lot of age discrimination going on in many work places. The main one is that people believe that younger people will work better and faster and older people will be more slow at things and slows everything down for the customers. Another thing that employers think is that as younger people tend to have more energy, they can be pushed around more and the employer can demand them to do more work. Where as for the old people its the opposite because they are not full of energy and they tend to take their time to get things done. Even though they want to work until they can't work anymore, it might not be helpful for the organisation because everyone would want fast workers who can keep up within everything. Some employers automatically think that young candidates are less experienced and therefore they will need more training which is costly for the organisation. For this reason some employers don't like hiring young applicants which is discrimination. Some people think that people at the age of 55 and above only work part time or are redundant and this is also due to their health problems or depending on how the old people's body's are functioning. One way for organisation to change their attitudes towards these stereotypes is that the government body can bring more laws to reduce age discrimination and once more laws has been introduced, organisation will start to take the matter more important and they will change their attitudes towards older and younger people. Another idea is to bring more strict policies within the organisation and point out clearly when the employees should retire or even work. If the organisation follow the policies properly, the employees can't claim that they are being discriminated because they took the job knowing what the rules where within the organisation. The organisation will start changing their attitudes because they don't have a choice but to follow all the polices properly (wes.sagepub 1994).

Equal opportunities within tesco and B&Q

According to the tesco website, tesco have carried out some research within the organisation and they have realised that people between the ages of 16-24 are the highest age group that works there. For this reason they have come up with a campaign to mainly attract the elderly people to come and work in Tesco. The reason why they have tried to attract older people is because they tend to be more generous, loyal and also attend to work more than the other age groups. The reason why their attendance is so good is because they don't have small children to care for and also they don't socialise as much as they younger employees might do. Tesco is one of the first organisations to encourage older people to apply for the job and also recruit them as they believe that it will benefit the company. Even though they might not work as fast as the other, customers tend to like them more due to their friendly personalities. Not only does Tesco support the older age group but also the younger age group. They provide as much training as possible so they can learn and pick up things quickly, which would lead for them to work for Tesco in the long run even as a part time job. Due to the organisations positive thinking and the amount of support they have given all the age groups, they have won the Personnel Today 2004 Age positive Award. The organisation don't hesitate to employ young mother or even pregnant women because they believe that everyone should have an equal opportunity to get selected and avoid any discrimination. Tesco has many young mothers working for them and they continue to make their lives easier whilst working there. What they have done is come up with a scheme to offer family-friendly shift patterns, paid maternity leave and when the employee comes back to work they won't get redundant. The organisation are trying to be as practical as possible by allowing the employees to work flexible hours, change shift, work from home or even work part time. One of the reasons why employees at Tesco enjoy working there is because all the schemes there are very good and are also friendly. Due to the fact that employees are motivated there, they bring the reputation up so they can gain a good image from the public (Tesco 2005).

B&Q is another organisation which target practice in relations to equal opportunities. They have received a lot of awards because they are well known for recruiting older people and giving them the opportunity to work and earn their money. B&Q don't think that hiring older people will bring the business down like most businesses tend to think. Instead this organisation believe that if they hire older people they will bring more to the company as they have more experience and knowledge of how to handle customers. A lot of organisation also think twice before hiring women because they tend to go on maternity leave etc, however at one point B&Q managed to make it on the Timeonline top 50 places where women want to work. The reason for this is because they treat everyone equally within the work place and when women go on their maternity leave, they get paid as well as other benefits to support them and their family. B&S want both women and men to work for them because they are both needed in every section. For example according to research, it is proven that in a family house hold women tend to make the decisions on how to decorate the house etc and therefore if women work at B&Q they can give good advice to the customers. B&Q have taken into account the diversity policy because it will be better for the company and also if they hire people from different backgrounds, different skills and knowledge will be available within the organisation (Mccarthy 2005).

Conclusion

Over all it is important that equal opportunities are provided for the employees in all organisations as that is the main thing that will keep them motivated. If organisation maintain everything such as following all the regulations properly and comminting to a diversity work force, it will bring them a good name and they could also gain many different awards which will boost their reputation.

References


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