1.4.1 Introduction to Managing People

Introduction to Managing People

Key Definitions

Managing People: The task every manager has, which involves overseeing how the people in the business are recruited, trained, and incentivised. 

Asset: Something that provides a benefit or gain to the business.

Outsourcing: The movement of a task or process out of the domestic area to somewhere that is cheaper.

Zero-Hours Contract: An employment contract in which duties and hourly pay rates are agreed, however there is no guarantee of work and income in any specific week.

Personnel: Also known as the human resource department, they are responsible for the management of people with a business. 

Labour Turnover: The number of staff that leave a company as a percentage of the number of people who join the company.

Redeployment: The process of retraining an existing staff member to give them the skills they need to take on a new position within the company. 

Staff Culture: The beliefs, opinions, assumptions, attitudes and values shared by staff within a business.

Motivation: The way a business is able to encourage productivity and efficiency, and an overall good approach to work within their staff.

Are staff a cost or an asset?

Few companies will readily admit that they view their staff as a cost more than an asset. These companies will also do anything to cut their costs, through processes such as outsourcing the tasks or offering zero-hour contracts. When there is high levels of unemployment within a country, it is easy to see that companies get away with such indifference towards their employee's job security and morale. Companies that are well-managed, with sights set on long-term success will do anything and everything to ensure the bond of trust between management and staff is maintained and not harmed in any way. 

Keys to Effective People Management

There are 2 fundamental goals when it comes to the management of people: ensuring the right number of staff have been employed with the needed skills and experience, and making sure those staff understand the business culture. 

It is important to realize that none of these goals can be met by a personnel department. In a small business it would often be to the responsibility of one director to see to the needs of their staff, and this could be just one of many of their duties. This means that the hiring and training of their staff would be done by someone who has no professional experience in the field.

Recruitment and other personnel tasks are also sometimes done by personnel departments. These departments can be central parts of an organisation, or they can end up being only semi-detached and regarded as a bureaucratic burden on the business. It is important that the personnel department is kept fresh, this can be done by regularly putting them in different departments in the business to see how the departments work. This can help the business gain an understanding into the different departments, and potentially to help them solve departments in the business.  

Department	Requirement/Problem	Personnel Solution
Marketing	Department needs to hire a new, young team of super-bright creative minds to run a new digital/social media department.	Personnel staff will run recruitment fairs at four key universities, inviting candidates to a ‘Mud Weekend’ of quad biking, paintballing and more.
Finance	All department staff need to be trained on new financial software to be introduced in 3 months’ time.	Personnel staff hire a software consultant to run training sessions every Thursday with finance staff attending on a rota basis.
Resource Management	New paintshop robots are to replace 100 skilled jobs next year.	Extra jobs should arise in other skilled functions, so a once-a-week retraining programme can start for all those who wish to stay with the company.

Planning Staffing Needs

Personnel planning involves thinking ahead so that staff have the right balance of the right skills in each year the business runs. There are different components involved in a good solid staffing plan, as listed below:

1. What does the business have already?
Take note of what staff there is and what their skills are, and also what their aspirations are. 

2. Analyze the business plan.
Look at the business plan and turn those plans into people. 

3. Consider the changes needed.
Find out how many staff will leave for their reasons, consider what about the business will change between now and the future. 

4. Calculate the gaps.
Calculate the gaps that need to be filled between now and the future. 

Instilling Staff Culture and Motivation

You cannot just have the right number of people in the right place to expect them to be happy. They need to have these people giving their best and working their hardest in a manner that fits with the overall company style and ethos. When new recruits have been appointed they should go through an introductory training programme that focuses on sharing the company traditions and culture with the new staff. 

Personnel departments love to get involved with incentivizing staff and creating rewards systems that encourage "good" behaviour from their staff. However incentives are not the most effective way to motivate staff, as they never get people to do their best - they only encourage people to do more of their most important job function, and there are always unintended consequences involved, such as staff becoming greedy.