Module 4: Factors influencing workforce management, motivation and performance and change management

Techniques to meet skills requirements

Businesses need to make sure they get people with the right skills in the right places. This can be done in a variety of ways.

Recruitment

Recruitment means getting people into jobs. But it is not just about advertising a job and conducting interviews. To ensure that recruitment is successful, businesses will usually take the following steps:

Job analysis: analysis of what exactly the job entails – the tasks and activities that go into it and the skills that are needed.

They will then be able to write a job description and a person specification for that job. Only then will they advertise the role.

Pause for thought

Follow the link to the Swyddle job site.

Click on a post and have a look at what is included in a job description and person specification.

Swyddle job site

Job advertising

Businesses can advertise internally or externally. Advertising in-house is cheaper and faster but the pool of people available is smaller and there will be no new talent or skills coming into the business.

On the other hand, external recruitment is more expensive but there is a greater choice of people who could bring new skills and ideas.

Follow the link to see more from Business Wales about recruitment:

Key stages of the recruitment process

Skills/reskilling/training

When recruiting, a business can try to ensure that they recruit people who already have the necessary skills or they can train them on the job. We will look at training later in the unit.

Outsourcing

If a business does not have the skills necessary for a particular job, then it is possible to look for a person or company outside the business to fulfil the role. For example, a business might look for a freelance worker i.e. people who work on a short-term contract, or they could hire a contractor to do the work, e.g. businesses often turn to specialist companies to create and look after their website.

Pause for thought

Follow the link to the Gweddnewid company website.

Gweddnewid

What services do they offer to businesses?

Why would a business want to use a company like this instead of employing someone to do the job?

Changing job roles

Another way to make sure you have the right skills in the right places is to change job roles. You can make a role suit a person rather than trying to change a person to suit a role.

Restructuring

Sometimes businesses need to make changes that affect the workforce as a whole. This can happen because the workforce structure has become ineffective over time. During restructuring, senior managers will decide on the roles needed and then recruit people for the positions. Internal recruitment usually happens first, before a business actively recruits new people.