1.Develop supply chains

Improve communications with clients

Match employee skills to the strategic decisions of the business

Monitor customer behaviour

2.Which of the following is NOT a measure normally used to measure HRM performance? *

Reduced labour turnover

Increased labour productivity

Reduced absenteeism

The delivery time of goods to customers

3.Why would an HR manager monitor probable labour requirements of rivals? *

To allow for voluntary redundancies

To let government have details on labour turnover

To note what labour requirements might be needed by competitors and therefore affect the labour pool available to us

To note natural wastage

4.Which of the following would NOT be a possible way of overcoming a problem of not finding the correct numbers of people we need for our business? *

Adopting more mechanisation

Retraining current employees

Reducing overtime payments

Outsourcing some of our output to sub-contractors

5.Which of the following is a good definition of internal training? *

The use of manuals to assist staff

It features regular visits to a staff training college

It takes place in a local college of education

The training of individuals by current staff

6.explain the benefits of successful workforce planning *

7.Analyse policies to reduce a high labour turnover *

8.Explain why absenteeism is a problem for business *

9.Define workforce audit

Green Clean (GC)

Green Clean (GC) is a private limited company controlled by the Hitta family. Its unique selling point (USP) is offering high-quality, reliable cleaning services by teams of professional cleaners who clean offices and houses. GC has strong ethical objectives. They only use eco-friendly cleaning products and pay their employees fair wages. Labour turnover is low and many cleaners have worked for the company for over two decades. However, the cleaning market has become very competitive. GC has been slow to react. Other cleaning companies are beginning to offer a wider range of services. GCs management has decided to introduce a gardening service to maximize profit. GC will recruit professionally trained gardeners. As it is very difficult to find professional gardeners in the market, GC will pay them 20 % more than its cleaners. GC prefers to use external recruitment. GCs management will also offer cleaners the opportunity to become gardeners even though off-the-job training costs are very high. If most of GCs cleaners choose training, the company could fall short of workers to meet the demand for cleaning services. The cleaners are becoming demotivated because they are unhappy about the difference in pay between cleaners and future gardeners. They believe that gardeners are not more skilled than cleaners but just have a different skill set. Human resource managers are concerned about the potential impact of demotivated cleaners and are looking for ways to improve morale. One option they are considering is to offer cleaners an employee-share ownership scheme. Shareholders, however, are opposed to this proposal.

10.explain one advantage and one disadvantage to GC of having low labour turnover. *

11.Explain two possible steps in the recruitment process of gardeners for GC. *

Patel and Yule Construction

Patel and Yule Construction is a medium size engineering contracting company specialising in earthquake strengthening of commercial buildings and apartment complexes in New Zealand, where they have focused on the Christchurch and Wellington markets. In recent years it has seen very strong growth with the sales revenues generated from its commercial activities in line with strategic objectives. This strong growth is anticipated to continue well into the medium term if suitable sources of finance can be found and recruitment needs fulfilled. On the human resources side of the business, two issues need to be addressed. Firstly, to take advantage of the anticipated growth opportunities, highly skilled engineers need to be recruited in a very tight labour market where experienced engineers are difficult to find and command very large salaries. This shortage of skilled engineers is not anticipated to ease in the foreseeable future. Olivia Chrisp, who heads the workforce planning team in the human resources department at Patel and Yule construction, believes that by offering more flexible employment conditions and contracts, including the option of portfolio working, the company may find a competitive advantage in attracting engineers the firm requires. In addition, either an additional two construction crews will need to be employed directly by the company or a reliable construction firm will need to be found who have the ability to take on board some technically challenging outsourced (subcontracted) projects. Miss Chrisp has outlined to senior management the advantages and disadvantages to both of these options, and a careful analysis of the companys strategic objectives is necessary to determine which option the firm should ultimately pursue.

12.(P&Y)Explain the following terms from the case study: a. human resource management b. recruitment c. portfolio working *

13.(P&Y) Explain what is meant by more flexible employment conditions and contracts. *

14.(P&Y) Analyse the arguments against for and against the possible outsourcing (subcontracting) of construction work to another firm. *

15.(P&Y) Evaluate how workforce planning may help businesses meet their strategic objectives. *