Unit 8: Recruitment, Selection and Training for

Employees
Why do businesses recruit?

 To replace staff who have left or been promoted

 Bring in staff with new skills
 Recruit more staff as business expands

Job Analysis – Identifies and record the responsibilities and tasks relating to a job

Job Description – Outlines the responsibilities and duties to be carried out by an employee
to do a specific job

 Given to the applicants for the job so they know what the job entails
 Allow a job specification to be drawn up, so that people with the right skills will be
employed
 Can show whether they are doing the job effectively (once they are employed)

Job Specifications – A document which outlines the requirements, qualifications, expertise,
physical characteristics for a specific job

 Educational qualifications
 Amount & type of experience
 Personality

Difference between internal and external recruitment

Internal Recruitment – when a vacancy is filled by someone who is an existing employee of

the business

Advantages

 Saves time and money – Don’t need to spend money on advertising the job
vacancy
 The person is already known to the business (reliability, ability, potential)
 Motivates other workers (chance for them to get promoted -> work harder)

Disadvantages

 May not bring in new ideas

 Promoting an employee may make other employees jealous and demotivated
 Quality of internal candidates might be low
External Recruitment – when a vacancy is filled by someone who is not an existing
employee

Advantages

 New ideas & skills

 Worker with higher qualification

Disadvantages

 High training cost

 Takes longer time to recruit
 Expensive – need to advertise job

Recruiting channels 

Internal 

 Noticeboards
 Company Newspaper

External

 Local newspaper
 National newspaper
 Specialist magazines
 Online recruitment sites
 Recruitment agencies
 Job centres

Methods of applications

Application forms/letters and CVs – To see if applicant matches the job specification

Methods of selection

Interviews – Find out information about candidate’s abilities and personal qualities

Purpose of interview

1. Find out if applicant has the ability to do the job

2. Personal qualities about the applicant
3. To see if the candidate will ‘fit in’ with the culture of the business
Testing – Applicants may be required to undertake tests to check their ability to carry out
certain tasks.

Type of tests

1. Skill test – to observe the candidate’s skills

2. Aptitude test – to see how quickly candidate can learn new skills
3. Personality test – to see if their personality has the characteristic that the job may
require
4. Group situation test – to see how candidate(s) works as a team

Part-time- Between 1 and 30-35 hours a week

Advantages

 Easier to ask employees to just work at busy times

 Flexible working hours
 Less expensive than hiring full-time employees
 Easier to make part-time workers redundant

Disadvantages

 Workers are less likely to seek training (because their job is temporary)
 Less committed to the business (temporary job)
 More difficult to communicate with part-time workers when they are not at work
 Less likely to get promoted
 Takes longer to recruit 2 part time workers than 1 full time workers

The importance of training and the methods of training

Why train employees?

 Introduce new process/equipment

 Improve efficiency of workforce
 Train unskilled workers  more valuable to the company
 Decrease supervision
 Decrease accidents

Induction training – Introduction given to a new employee explaining the business’s

activities and procedures and introducing them to other employees.

Advantages

 Helps new employee settle in

 Health and safety training may be required
 Less likely to make mistakes
Disadvantages

 Time consuming (delays the start of employee’s work)

 Wages are paid but no work has been done by the employee

On the job training – Watching an experienced worker doing the job.

Advantages

 Training is cheap (travel cost expensive)

 Training is specific for their job
 Work can be done while training

Disadvantages

 Not be as productive as usual cos they are showing what to do

 Bad habits from the trainer may pass to trainee

Off the job training – Train at different place from work (usually by specialist trainer)

Advantages

 Broad range of skills taught by expert trainers

 Cheaper for the business cos employee still carry out normal duties (training is
after work)

Disadvantages

 High cost
 Wages are paid but no work is being done by the worker
 Additional qualifications  leave and find another job

Why reducing the size of the workforce might be necessary

Workforce planning – is where a business decides on the number and skills of employees
needed in the future

Why might a business need to reduce the number of employees?

 automation (machines replace humans)

 factory/shop closure
 business relocating
 demand for goods/services falling
 business merging
 falling demand for their goods & services
Dismissal – employment ended against employees will for not working in accordance with
employment contract

Redundancy – when an employee is no longer needed and so losses their job, but not due
the any aspect of their work being unsatisfactory.

How to decide who is made redundant?

 Some workers may volunteer because they might have planned to leave anyways.
 Length of time employed (employees who have worked there for a long time can
stay)
 Workers with essential/transferrable skills remain
 Worker’s employment history (e.g., attendance, punctuality, appraisal record)

Legal controls over employment issues and their impact on

employers and employees
Most countries have laws to ensure that employees are treated equally

 Business must be careful when advertising job and while selecting applicants to
make sure they are all treated fairly/equally (e.g., Gender / race)

Employment issues affected by legal controls:

 Discrimination
 Legal minimum wage
 Health and safety
 Unfair dismissal
 Employment contracts

The contract of employment – legal agreement between an employer and

employee, listing the rights and responsibilities of workers.

Impact of employment contracts on employer and employee

 Both employee and employer know what is expected of them
 Provides security of employment
 Legal dismissal allowed
 Can seek legally binding compensation

Unfair Dismissal
Industrial tribunal – a type of law court that makes judgement on disagreements between
companies and their employees.
Impact of unfair dismissal on employer and employee
 Must keep very accurate records of a worker’s performance (if want to dismiss them)
 Security of employment
 Can take their employer to an industrial tribunal if they feel unfairly treated & get
compensation
Protection against discrimination
When the employer makes decisions that are based on unfair reasons.
1. Different race or colour
2. Different region
3. Opposite sex
4. Considered too old/young
5. Disabled in some way

Health and safety at work

1. Protect workers from dangerous machinery
2. Provide safety equipment and clothing
3. Maintain reasonable workplace temperatures
4. Provide hygienic conditions and washing facilities
5. Don’t insist excessively long shifts and provide breaks

Impact of unfair dismissal on employer and employee

 Cost to employer of meeting the health and safety regulations
 Time to train workers in precautions
 Workers feel safer & more motivated
 Reduces accidents rate
Ethical decision – A decision taken by a manager or a company because of the moral code
observed by the firm

Legal minimum wage

There should be a contract of employment which contain details of:
 The wage rate to be paid
 How frequently wages will be paid
 What deductions will be made from wages

Impact of legal minimum wage on employer and employee

 Prevent strong employers from exploiting unskilled workers
 Encourage employers to train them
 Encourage more people to seek work (fewer shortage of workers)
 Low paid workers will have higher living standards
 Increase business cost  increase prices
 Unemployment rise (cannot afford wage rates)
Unit 9: Internal and external communication
Communication – Transferring of a message from the sender to the receiver, who
understands the message.

Internal communication
Internal communication is between members of the same organisation

e.g., Employees talking to each other, Director sending an email to employees, Noticeboard
in office.

Poor internal communication leads to –

 Workers don’t understand what they have to do

 Poor motivation
 Wastage (e.g., 2 employees do the wrong task because of wrong instructions)

 External communication is between the organisation and other organisation or individuals

e.g., Employees talking to customers, Ordering goods from suppliers, Advertisements

Poor external communication leads to –

 Unhappy customers (leads to fewer sales)

 Bad business reputation (lower sales)
 Problems with suppliers/customers due to incorrect information (e.g., wrong
supplies being delivered)

The process of effective communication

 A transmitter or a sender of the message is the person starting of the process by
sending the message
 A medium of communication is the method used to send a message e.g., letter 
written communication, meeting  verbal communication
 A receiver is the person who receives the message
 Feedback is the reply from the receiver (arrived/understood/acted upon)

One-way & two-way communication

One way communication – message which does not allow/require a response

Two-way communication – is when the receiver responds to the message (may have a
discussion)
Advantages of two-way communications

 Receiver can tell the sender that they have understood the information/instruction
 Chance to ask for more information
 Allows the receiver to contribute ideas (motivate)

Communication methods
 Verbal
 Visual
 Written
Verbal (oral) communication

 Discussions
 Telephone calls
 Meetings

Advantages of verbal comm

 Fast
 Opportunity for receiver to reply (2-way comm)
 Body language

Disadvantages of verbal comm

 Feedback from receiver slows process down

 No permanent record of the discussion

Written communication 
 Emails
 Reports
 Newsletters
 Notices

Advantages of written comm

 permanent record of message (reduce disagreements)

 May be required by law (e.g., legal information or safety notices)
 Can be easily sent to many people (e.g., emails to all employees)

Disadvantages of written comm

 Readers may find long letters boring and hard to read

 No feedback from receiver unless they reply
 No body language
Visual communication 

 Posters
 Images
 Videos
 Graphs / Charts / Diagrams

Advantages of visual communication 

 Interesting (Readers may pay more attention to posters / videos than boring
letters)
 Information can be clearer than other methods (e.g., Video instructions can be
clearer than letter instructions)

Disadvantages of visual communication

 No feedback
 Some people may find charts / graphs difficult to read

Formal communication – when messages are sent through established channels using
professional language

Informal language – when info is sent and received casually using everyday language

How communication barriers arise and how to reduce or remove

them
Communication barriers – factors that stop effective communication of messages

Solutions:
The sender 
 Ensure message is understandable/ avoid technical terms
 Ask for feedback
 Make sure the right person is receiving the right message
 As brief as possible to allow main points to be understood

The medium
 Ask for feedback (no feedback = message was lost)
 Use shortest channel
 Other form of communication should be made possible

The receiver
 Ask for feedback
 Use a sender who is trusted by the receiver
Unit 10: Marketing, competition and the customer
The Marketing department
Marketing – identifying customer wants and satisfying them profitably
Customer – a person, business or other organisation which buys goods or services from a
business

 The Sales team

 The Market Research section: can help to make decision about development of new
products, pricing levels, sales & promotion strategies
 The Promotion section: organising the advertising for products, decides on the types of
promotion
 Distribution: Transports the products

The role of marketing

 Identify and satisfy consumer needs
 Keep customers loyal 
 Gather information about customers 
 Anticipate changes in customer needs

Customer loyalty – when existing customers keep buying products from the same business
Customer relationships – communicating with customers to encourage them to become
loyal

If marketing department is successful, the business can:

 Develop new/improve existing products

 Increase/maintain market share
 Increase revenue
 Improve/maintain the image of products or a business
 Target a new market/market segment
 Raise customer awareness

Market share – the percentage of total market sales held by one brand or a business

Understanding market changes

Why do consumer spending patterns change

 Consumer taste and fashion change

 New technology being developed
 Changes in incomes
 Ageing population

 Fail to respond to customer needs = Business fail

Why have some markets become more competitive? 

 Globalisation – Businesses can sell their products worldwide

 Better transportation allows products to be distributed all over the world
 Internet e-commerce (online shopping) allows customers to purchase goods from
around the world 

How can businesses respond to increased competition?

1. Maintain good customer relationships
2. Keep improving existing product(s)
3. Keep costs low to maintain competitiveness
4. Bring out new products to keep customers’ interest

Mass marketing
Mass market – where there is a very large number of sales

Advantages of mass marketing

 High sales and demands (higher number of consumers) which may lead to high profits
o Opportunities for growth
 Benefit from economies of scale
 Risk can be spread (if one variety of product fails, the other may still sell well)

Disadvantages of mass marketing

 Higher competition
 Product is aimed at the whole market so specific customer needs are not met
 High advertising cost

Niche Marketing
Niche Marketing – a small specialised segment of a larger market

Advantages of niche marketing

 Small businesses can avoid competition from larger businesses

 Needs of consumers are can me more targeted  good loyalty & relations

Disadvantages of niche marketing

 Smaller number of consumer so growth is difficult

 Risks are not spread so if demand for the specialised product falls, the business will
likely fail unless they develop more products
Market segments

Market segment – identifiable sub-group of a whole market in which consumers have

similar characteristics or preferences

Segmenting a market can help a business to:

 Make marketing expenditure cost effective

 Enjoy higher sales and profits
 Identify a segment which is not having their needs fully met

Ways that businesses can segment a market:

 Gender
 Age
 Income
 Location
 Lifestyle
 Use of the product (e.g., for personal use, business use)

Which method of segmentation should be used?

 Detailed analysis of the market and the size of each potential segment
 Company and brand image
 Cost of entering each market segment
Unit 11: Market Research
Market research – process of gathering, analysing and interpreting information about a
market

The role of market research

The role of market research is to answer these questions:

 Willing to buy my product?

 Price prepared to pay?
 Where do they be most likely to buy?
 What features do they like/dislike
 What type of customer?
 What type of promotion would be effective?
 Who & how strong are the main competing business?

Product-orientated and market-orientated businesses

Product-orientated business – one whose main focus of activity is on the product itself

 Basic necessities for living (e.g., agricultural tools or fresh foods)

 No brand names
 General products that consumers need to buy
 Mainly concerned with price & quality

Market orientated business – one which carries out market research to find out consumer
wants before a product is developed and produced

 Better able to survive because more adaptable to changes in customers tastes

 Able to take advantage of new market opportunities

Marketing budget – a financial plan for the marketing of a product or product range for
some specified period of time

Market research methods

 Quantitative info (quantity of something)
 Qualitative info (opinion/judgement)

Both type of info can be gathered as a result of:

 Primary research
Primary research – Collection of original data by directly contacting with potential or
existing customers
  Up to date and relevant
 It is first-hand
 Most effective to gather info to help with a specific problem
 Not available to other businesses
Expensive
Not available immediately

Methods of primary research

 Questionnaires – a set of questions to be answered

 Detailed qualitative information can be gathered

Take a lot of time and money.

 Online surveys – require the target sample to answer questions over the internet

 Quick, easy, and cheap

Some people will take advantage to gain any incentives (not honest/careless)

 Focus group - a group of people who a representative of the market

 Provide detailed information about consumers’ tastes and preferences.

Discussion could be biased (influenced by others)

 Interviews – asking individuals a series of questions face-to-face or over the

phone

 The interviewer is able to explain any questions that the interviewee does
not understand.
Expensive and time-consuming

Sample – group of people selected to respond to market research questions such as

questionnaire

Random sample – when people are selected at random as a source of info

Quota sample – People are selected based on certain characteristics (e.g., age, income)

 Secondary research
Secondary research – uses info that has already been collected and is available for
use by others

Advantages

 Cheaper and quicker than primary research

 can be used to help assess the total size of a market by finding out the size of
the population and its age structure
  Newspapers may carry vital economic forecasts

Disadvantages

 Data may be out of date

 Data is available to all businesses
 Data may not be completely relevant (not with one business in mind)

Internal sources  Trade and employer

associations
 Existing pricing data  Internet
 Finance department  Research reports
 Customer records  Newspapers
 Sales records  Media reports
 Sales employees  Market research agencies’
reports
 Government reports and
External sources statistics

Factors influencing the accuracy of market research data

 Sample selected (quota sample is more accurate than random sample)
 Size of samples
 Secondary research information can be outdated
 Bias
 Wording of the questions

Presentation of data from market research

Market research results can be presented in ways such as

 Tables or tally chart

 Line graphs
 Diagram
 Pie & bar chart
Unit 12: The marketing mix: product
The marketing mixes
Marketing mix - a term which is used to describe all the activities which go into marketing
products

Four Ps of the marketing mix:

 Product: main features, design, packaging

 Price: high/low, competitors’ price
 Place: how and where will the product be sold to customers
 Promotion: how will potential customers know about it

Types of products 

1. Consumer goods – goods bought by consumers for their own use (e.g., food, cleaning
materials, furniture, computers)
2. Consumer services – services bought by consumers for their own use (e.g., repairing,
hairdressing, education)
3. Producer goods – goods produced for other businesses to use (e.g., machines, raw
materials)
4. Producer services – services produced for other businesses (e.g., accounting,
insurance)

What makes a product successful?

 Satisfies consumer needs and wants

 Low production cost to make profit
 Performance, reliability, quality of the product that is kept consistent with the
product image
 First business to produce new products/introduce new changes
 Unique

Product development

1. Generate ideas
2. Select best ideas for further research
3. Decide if the company can sell enough
4. Develop prototype
5. Launch in one area to test the market
6. Full launch
The costs and benefits of developing new products

 Unique selling point – the special feature of a product that differentiates if from the
products of competitors
 Diversification, giving a broader range of products to sell
 It allows the business to expand into new/existing markets
Costs of carrying out market research
Costs of producing trial products also costs of wasted materials
Lack of sales if the target market is wrong
The loss of company image if failed

Brand image

Brand name – Unique name of a product that makes it different from other brands

Advertising makes consumer aware of the quality of the product and persuades them into
buying the product

Brand loyalty – When customers continue buying from the same brand instead of the
competitors

Brand image – an image or identity given to a product and makes it different from other
brands

Roles of packaging 

Protection

 Protects the product

 Easy for transportation
 Allows the product to be used easily
 Suitable for the product

Promotes the product

 Attractive and appealing to customers

 Promotes the brand image e.g., expensive - luxurious looking, gold colour / low cost –
basic simple, plain colours)
The product life cycle

1. Development – Prototype is tested and market research carried out. There are no
sales at this time.

2. Introduction – Product is launched onto the market. Sales grow slowly. Informative
advertising is used until the product becomes known. No profit as development cost
haven’t been covered

3. Growth – Sales are growing rapidly. Persuasive advertising is used. Prices are

reduced as competitors introduce their product to the market. Profits made.

4. Maturity – Sales of the product increases slowly, there is intense competition. Pricing
strategies such as competitive or promotional pricing are being used to compete with
competitors. Profits at highest.

5. Saturation – Sales have reached its highest point. Growth has stopped. Prices are
reduced to be competitive. High and stable advertising.

6. Decline – Sales of the product has started to fall, Eventually, the product will be
taken out of the market.

Extending the product life cycle

 Introduce new variations of the original product/improved versions of the old

product
 Sell the product into new markets (e.g., distribute to other countries)
 Use new advertising campaigns
 Sell through additional, different retail outlets
 Make changes to the product’s design, colour or packaging