HR Magazine Article Summary Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

HR Magazine Article Summary - Essay Example There are a few reasons this could happen. First is the fact that many firms, especially in Europe, have retained many of their employees as part-time employees rather than retrenching them. As growth continues, these part-time employees will be brought back to full time status first. New jobs will not begin to be created until the economic growth outpaces the rising productivity caused by turning part-time employees back into full time employees. A second reason the recovery could be viewed as a â€Å"jobless† one is the historical precedent set by the recovery from the 1991 recession. What economists found is that the economic recovery was slowed because jobs lagged behind other sectors of the economy. For example, consumer spending will not increase at a rapid rate if unemployment remains high. This drag on the economy works as a negative feedback. Few new jobs mean less growth, which means new job growth, is stymied. As a HR professional, offering insight into the job market is a key part of your professional responsibilities. Feedback from HR professionals actually predicted this most recent downturn in the economy. HR professionals release a report called the Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE). In December of 2007, the LINE report indicated that the national employment indicators had turned into negative territory. A year later the National Bureau of Economic Statistics confirmed that December of 2007 was the start of the recession. One troubling labor market report being gathered by HR professionals deals with wage trends. Due to the high rate of unemployment, many HR professionals feel that wages will begin to trend lower, even as the broader economy recovers. This could lead to a lost generation of young employees being stuck in low wage jobs with little prospects for breaking out. Other possible ways firms or individuals may compensate for lower wages is by increasing the amount of telecommuting. This saves on

To investigate how iPhone maker Apple competes across the Smartphone Dissertation

To investigate how iPhone maker Apple competes across the Smartphone market - Dissertation Example The marketing of the iPhone was done in tandem with the branding that Apple had in place, providing a platform from which to launch the revolutionary product. This study will look at the ways in which the market has been cornered by the product and what ways the perception of the product affects its popularity. Through the use of the grounding theory, a primary study has been made with a participant group of fifty users of Smartphones. Through the information provided by the questionnaire, the popularity of the iPhone has been examined and the ways in which it was successfully marketed has been explored. Table of Contents Abstract Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 The Marketing and Demand for the iPhone 1.2 Challenges presented by the iPhone within the Market 1.3 Research Objectives 1.3.1 To evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing strategy used by Apple 1.3.2 To investigate the quality and usability of product by Apple 1.3.3 To determine the outcome of customer sati sfaction with the Apple iPhone 1.4 Research Questions 1.4 Overview of Chapters Chapter Two Literature Review 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Smartphone Technology 2.3 The iPhone Release 2.4 Marketing Strategy 2.5 Competition in the UK Market 2.6 Chapter Summary Chapter Three: Methodology 3.1 Overall Research Plan 3.2 Research Design 3.3 Population and Sampling Size 3.3.1 Population 3.3.2 Sampling 3.4 Data Collection 3.4.1 Primary Data 3.4.1.1 Data Collection Methods 3.4.1.2 Pilot Study 3.4.1.3 Data Collection Time Table 3.4.2 Secondary Data 3.5 Data Analysis 3.6 Research Limitations 3.7 Chapter Summary Chapter Four: Data and Analysis 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Profile of the Respondents 4.3 Findings 4.4 Analysis Chapter Five: Conclusion and Recommendations 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Theoretical Implications 5.3 Managerial Implications 5.4 Limitations of the Study 5.5 Future Direction of Research 5.6 Summary References Appendix 1 Appendix 2 The iPhone: A study on the marketing strategies and the perception s of consumers about the Apple iPhone Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 The Marketing and Demand for the iPhone In the last decade, the creation of Smartphone technology has revolutionized the communications business. One of the initial products that was brought out into the public was the Apple iPhone. This product created a sensation that has yet to be rivaled by any other communications product to date. It hit the market with such force that it was sold out quickly and was on backorder for months after its release. The deal that Steve Jobs made with AT&T meant that only one wireless provider would have the product, thus creating a demand for AT&T service, but creating a necessity for other manufacturers to rush to mimic the product so other providers could carry the same type of communication advantages. In the UK, the iPhone can be used with a number of providers. According to the Apple website, prepaid service with Vodafone and Orange is available, along with service on monthly pla ns from O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Three, and Vodaphone (Apple 2011). The iPhone is the most used form of Smartphone technology within the UK. Through this study, the iPhone will be researched in order to discover why this phone has this depth of popularity and how the marketing has contributed to its large market share. 1.2 Challenges presented by the iPhone within the Market The iPhone is a revolution in the communications industry, creating an elite consumer who has a product that is in high

History of Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

History of Design - Essay Example Countries like Russia, USA and France, attended the exhibit. The palace was regarded as the first theme park offering education and entertainment. Ruskin questioned the paying of an artist on the basis of hours worked. Artistic work takes basis on very many perspectives. He stated that an artist should be paid in relation to their economically immeasurable quality of work. Artists have no power to determine their financial value but rather this depends primarily on the buyer. He postulated close monitoring of the worker through close supervision for better results. Charlie was born in Glasgow Scotland in the year 1868. He later joined Glasgow school of art in the year 1884. Having completed his studies in the year 1889, he became an architectural assistant. In the year 1890, Charlie won a scholarship in Italy which acted as a gateway to his success in the field of art. Charlie is highly regarded as a leading factor for the development of various designs. An excellent example is the textile designs and interior designs. He also brought the idea of modernism. Charlie was greatly influenced by the Japanese style due to its simplicity, style and use of natural materials. Some of these designs are’ Argyle Chair, High black chair, Hill House chair and Ingram chair. In conclusion, Charlie undertook great projects in Europe like; Hill house, Windy Hill, Former Daily Record Offices Glasgow, and Lighthouse Glasgow. Queens Cross church project was rated as one his

The Blossoming Garden Centre Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The Blossoming Garden Centre - Essay Example According to Mr. Gordon Rose, there should be a positive attitude always towards the customers, as they bring business to the concern. Thus, there should be no failure in the skills used for effective customer service. Customer satisfaction is the main area of interest for this concern. Blossoming Garden Centre case study deals mainly with the training of the staffs which could meet the requirements of the employee legislation, product knowledge as well as sufficient acquaintance to meet the instant needs of the customers which would improve the business and assist in attaining competitive advantages. Â  Considering these facts, the paper intends to summarise the system of providing training to the employees in Blossoming Garden Centre with the assistance of Learning and Development approach. Through the discussion, the paper will also focus on suggesting a systematic process in order to implement the approach with due significance to the Kolb’s Learning Cycle model. Â  Blossoming Garden Centre is located on the borderline of Lily Rose town where the populace is mostly employed. The booming industries in that region are tourism and entertainment is focussed on recreational services. The organization uses the approach of Learning and Development as an activity, to enhance the skills and behavioral changes of employees. The Learning and Development process involves three most important phases which are, developing the skills of the individual employees, refining the staffs of the organization and to offer expert training which will facilitate both organization and individual improvement. Â  

Discussion- Ch11 Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Discussion- Ch11 - Coursework Example The product life cycle and development strategies are checked so as to meet the consumer’s satisfaction needs. Price is a term used to refer to a value that is placed on an object to allow exchange between a seller and a buyer. When the buyer is satisfied with the product’s utility, they exchange their purchasing power. This, therefore, implies that any adjustments to the price has an impact on marketing and hence will influence the demand and sales of the product. Price is usually important as it determines the profits of the company. Promotion is a method used to persuade consumers to accept goods, services and even ideas. This is done through advertisements, public relations, publicity and sales promotion. Since digital advertisement is rapidly growing, it is the most applied forms of communication through social media and websites. Lastly, distribution is the provision of the product to the consumers in the right place and in desired quantities. Liang brings out the fact that marketing is a paramount tool for any business in the sense the company gets the publicity of its products and understands the needs of its consumers. He believes it is a systematic process whereby the company does a consumer based research and obtains information on an efficient way to reach out and sell their products and services. Liang covers the role of marketing for a business

Understanding Organisations and the role of HR Essay Example for Free

Understanding Organisations and the role of HR Essay Good afternoon guys. Before I have my speech begun, please let me introduce myself to you guys. Sculpture is what I major in. I feel a little bit nervous upon my first speech in front of you now, but I am going to try my best. Since 21st century, we have seen a lot of creativity on every field. Every one emphasizes the creative power. As we see that Apple, which always stresses innovation and creativity, is a one of the biggest companies around the world, creativity is a key to success these days. To me, Creativity is an abstract idea. Maybe it is to you people as well. Anyway, everyone probably has different thoughts of what is creative. But I think creativity comes from how it looks in a way, I mean artistic fgures. Lets compare ones we use with ones we used to use. Take cell phones for example, when cell phone was firstly shown up to the public they were literally a sensation. Who could think they would take a call outside with a wireless phone, even though they looked like a tank or something at that time. As we know, those cell phones at the beginning were technically amazingly convenient at the very moment. However, as time goes by, people have tended to find ore creative ones than ones that are even much better in hardware. Actually, I have heard a lot that many people like iPhones instead of others because iPhones look more beautiful than others so it seems to be more creative. As a result, their beautiful-looking makes themselves more creative to people. What if iPhone or other Apples products had the same function and hardware with an ugly shape, people would still think they are creative? I dont think so. Nowadays, not only the industrial products but also cultural industrial like movies or books also need creativity to succeed. Actually, according to some statistics a creative book cover helps its sales whether the contents of the book is good or bad. When we see those books in a bookstore, what we see first is the book cover and we get the first impression of it from the cover. So people annually make a new version of old ones which have old cover that we would feel corny now. The most important thing of a good movie is definitely its plot, and l, personally, think the secondly important thing of it is creative visual aspects. The way of shooting every scene and brand-new visual effects, they all ake a movie as a good movie. All in all, now we live in a creative life. Everything has evolved day by day. We can find and enjoy creativity everywhere. There are thousands of same thing, but what makes one of them standing-out is creativity. For me, what make one of them looking creative are artistic figures. It is, for sure, much better to buy something looking better and looking more creative than others, even if they are a little bit more expensive than others. So I think we need to pay more attention to these creative idea and artistic fgures to geta success. Thank you for your listening. Understanding Organisations and the role of By cdonaldson TASK 1 Santander UK plc is one of the leading personal financial services companies in the United Kingdom with more than 15 million customers serviced by a network of 1200 branches and with approximately 24,000 employees. It is the third largest bank in the I-JK with reference to the value of deposits and the 2nd largest in terms of mortgage accounts held. Santander boast an award-winning, innovative range of products and services for both personal and business customers. Personal banking customers can choose from a range of Current Accounts, Savings Accounts, Credit Cards, Un-secured Personal Loans, Mortgages and Insurance products. To enable customers to access their accounts whenever they need and manage them more effectively, Santander offer internet and mobile banking as well as telephone banking for the majority of accounts not forgetting any of the 1200 high street branches! Business and Corporate customers have access to a similar product range current and savings accounts, loans (secured and un-secured) and insurance products.

Strategic Human Resource Management And Assessment Centre Management Essay

Strategic Human Resource Management And Assessment Centre Management Essay Answer: Strategic Human Resource Management is the efficient way of organising the workforce by the implementation of a particular strategy, where employees performance can help to accomplish the planned organisational targets, such as increasing revenue or improving the profit margin. Strategic Human Resource management helps to recognise the business strategy that you can adopt. For example, you implement an effective training and performance improvement plan to improve customer service. More satisfactory customer service will bring in more revenue. It gives clear direction for a business, without strategic human resource management managers will be unaware about business goals, targets and competitors and it can give rise to uncertain environment. Strategic human resource management is also about considering the companys internal strengths and weaknesses. This is very important as the strengths and weaknesses of a companys human resources have a direct effect on the how a company will do in the future. 2.   Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using an assessment centre to select employees Answer: Assessment Centre is a process whereby a group of participants undertakes a series of job-related exercises under observation, so that skills and character persona can be assessed. Various methods of assessment may be used, including interviews, group discussions and group problem solving exercise. Assessment centres are used in selection for recruitment and promotion and in training and development, and aim to provide an organization with an assessment process that is consistent, free of prejudice, and fair. Assessment Centre brings about many advantages. It provides organisations with the opportunity to see how an individual performs in a work situation. It provides more in depth profile of a worker which can help an organisation to gain more knowledge about an individual. Assessment centres not only help the organization in placing the right candidate for the right job but also helps in developing the participants. When participants see others handling the same exercise di fferently, it gives them an insight into their own performance thereby raises the credibility of the selection procedure. Stimulations can also help to assess leadership skills. However some anticipated disadvantages of assessment centre could be: Assessment Centre requires highly skilled observers as the observers may bring in their own perceptions and biases while evaluating. Those who receive poor assessment might become de motivated and might lose confidence in their abilities. Assessment Centre is very costly and time consuming 3.   Explore the reasons why recruitment, selection and training costs are ‘one and a half to three times a persons salary Answer: Recruitment is best described as the way in which an organisation tries to source or attract the people from whom it will ultimately make selections. Recruitment strategies include efforts to reach better pools of candidates and to sell the organisation as an employer of choice. Selection is about choosing between job candidates. It is about how to make a fair and accurate assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of applicants and how to identify the candidate who is most likely to perform well in the job. Employment recruitment is composed of several stages: verifying that a vacancy exists; drawing up a job specification; finding candidates; selecting them by interviewing and other means such as conducting a psychometric test; and making a job offer. Effective recruitment is important in achieving high organisational performance and minimizing labour turnover. Employees may be recruited either externally or internally. Selection is a two way process and should be just as m uch about employees as the other way round. Employee needs to decide the company is a place they can work in. The company needs to decide the employees will fit within organisation, job and team itself or not.   The search of a perfect selection method continues. More attention is paid to the cost of the poor selection. It should be noted that in recruitment agencies are often used as they provide expert advice on how advertisements should be worded and where placed which tend to be very much expensive. There are direct costs of working with external agencies. Direct advertising cost, as local press, corporate website, specialist journals the costly as well. These are very real costs to the employers Administration costs that are sending out job information, letters, arranging selection events, etc. Managers time that is short listing, interviewing, selection, taking up references Training cost in order to ensure everyone has the necessary skills to recruit. Administration costs of new employee that is payroll, pensions, etc Recruiting from overseas that is employers looking for overseas staff and then by giving selected employees work visa and arrangements for their travel. After that their accommodation cost can be very much expensive. 4. Analyse the strategies a business can use to retain its staff Answer: Employee motivation and performance management depend on good systems that offer both financial and non-financial rewards (non-monetary rewards). In reality, despite the views of Herzberg that monetary methods of motivation have little value, firms still use money as a major incentive. There are a variety of payment systems that a business could use to motivate its employees. Some of the Financial rewards are: Share ownership: This is a common incentive for senior managers who are given shares in the company rather than a straight forward bonus or membership of a profit sharing scheme. It means that some staff is also shareholders. Because of share ownership the employees will work harder as they have a stake in the company, just like a shareholder has. Workers are less likely to leave the firm. Performance-related pay: This is paid to those employees who meet certain targets. The targets are often evaluated and reviewed in regular appraisals with managers. It is system that is being increasingly used in businesses in the UK. It is easier for managers to monitor and control their staff. It reduces the amount of time spent on industrial relations (negotiations with trade unions). Fringe Benefits: These are often known as ‘perks and are items an employee receives in addition to their normal wage or salary e.g. company car, private health insurance, free meals. It encourages loyalty to a company so employees may stay for longer and also it helps meet workers human and social needs. Piece-rate is paying a worker per item they produce in a certain period of time. It was recommended by the motivation theorist Taylor and had close links with working on production lines. It tends to increases speed of work and therefore productivity. Some of the Non financial rewards are: Job enrichment means giving workers more interesting, challenging and complex tasks. Workers should also be given the opportunity to complete a whole unit of work rather than individual separate tasks. This is motivating for several reasons as it gives workers the chance to test themselves and use their full range of ability it is more motivating as it increases the complexity or challenge involved in the task, rather than just simply providing more variety to the work. Workers should be able to obtain a greater sense of achievement and possibly more praise or recognition of their work when they have successfully completed a tougher task. Job enlargement means simply giving workers more tasks to do of a similar nature or complexity. This will reduce the monotony or repetition involved in a persons work but over time this will not increase a persons satisfaction or sense of achievement. Team working is where employees work in groups or teams. Thi s can meet a workers social needs as a person can more easily build friendships and feel a sense of belonging to a unit or group and hopefully to the business as a whole. This applies in much the same way as being a member of a sports team or any other team representing a school or college. A business can create a number of different types of team; examples include production teams (often known as cells), quality circles and management teams. Team working has other advantages to a firm over and above improving motivation. It can lead to greater flexibility of production, as employees are likely to be multi-skilled (able to do more than one persons job) as they have learnt from other team members or undertaken formal job rotation. This means they can cover any absences and can quickly adapt to a new production technique. Empowerment is like delegation. It is when power or authority is given to employees so they can make their own decisions regarding their working life. For instance w orkers have control over how to use their time and deciding the priority of tasks that need to be done. They are encouraged to consider problems they face and come up with some solutions. For empowerment to be successful, workers must have adequate training and/or good skill levels in order to be trusted to make the correct decisions. If they do not, then expensive mistakes can be made that could affect the whole business. It is the managers job to judge whether a subordinate can cope with more authority and decision-making power. It should be noted however, that even if managers pass down authority to their subordinates, they are still responsible for the work that is done by them. Essay:   5.   ‘Modern Organisations operate in increasingly dynamic and uncertain business  Ã‚   environments Does this reduce or increase the need for human resource planning?   Justify. (Word limit 1000 1500 words) Answer:   Modern Organisations operate in increasingly dynamic and uncertain business  Ã‚   environments this increases the need for human resource planning. Human resource planning has traditionally been used by organisations to ensure that the right person is in the right job at the right time. Due to Increase in environmental instability the need for Human resource planning in leading organisations has increased. It is the process by which management determines how the organisation should move from its current manpower position to its desired position. Through planning, management strives to have the right number and the right kinds of people, at the right places, at the right time, doing things which result in both the organisation and the individual receiving maximum long-run benefits. Currently human resource planning occurs within the broad perspective of organisational and strategic business planning. It involves forecasting the organisations future human needs and planni ng for how those needs will be met. It includes establishing objectives and then developing and implementing programmes to ensure that people are available with appropriate characteristics and skills when and where the organisation needs them. It may also involve developing and implementing programmes to improve employee performance or to increase employee satisfaction and involvement in order to boost organisational productivity, quality, or innovation (Mills, 1 985b). Finally, human resource planning includes gathering data that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of ongoing programs and inform planners when revisions in their forecasts and programmes are needed. In other words, Human resource planning is directly and closely associated with the development and success of an organisation. If an organisation is desperate to be dominant in its industry, compared with other rivals, it should pay more attention to the function of Human resource planning and apply it scientifical ly. Virgin Atlantic is the second largest long haul airline in the UK and the third largest European carrier over the North Atlantic. Since Virgin Atlantic Airways was founded in 1984, it has become Britains second largest carrier serving the worlds major cities. Now based at both Londons Gatwick and Heathrow airports, it operates long haul services to thirty destinations world-wide as far apart as Las Vegas and Shanghai. Its route network has grown rapidly to include destinations in the US, Caribbean, Far East, India and Africa, and they have won virtually every award the travel industry has to offer. Virgin Atlantic has enjoyed huge popularity, winning top business, consumer and trade awards from around the world. The airline has pioneered a range of innovations setting new standards of service, which its competitors have subsequently sought to follow. Despite Virgin Atlantics growth the service still remains customer driven with an emphasis on value for money, quality, fun and innovat ion. Virgin Atlantic has carried around 53m passengers since it began operations and now employs almost 9000 people worldwide. Human Resource planning plays an important role in Virgin Atlantic Airways. The future in any country is uncertain i.e. there are political, cultural, technological changes taking place every day. This effects the employment situation. Accordingly Virgin Atlantic Airways may have to appoint or remove people. Therefore Human Resource Planning can only be a guiding factor. If Virgin Atlantic Airways does not plan for the future they have less opportunity to survive the competition ahead with a lot of competitors like British Airways, Bmi, British midland, American Airlines, Continental and Delta. Without the process of human resource planning if Virgin Atlantic Airlines will not be able to find out how many people will be required in future they will have expansion problems. In case of recession if Virgin Atlantic Airlines wants to undergo retrenchment, withou t human resource planning it will be difficult for the business to decide which departments cost should be cut down, which departments workers should be fired and how many people should be laid off. Therefore major issues of a business such as expansion, diversification, technological change, should be backed up by the availability of human resources. As it suggest modification in the plan when the expected manpower is not available. Virgin Atlantic Airlines will not be able to take further actions. The company will not be able to identify the number of jobs which will become vacant in the near future. Without Human resource planning Virgin Atlantic Airlines will not be able to offset uncertainty and change. Sometime the organisationmay have machines and money but not men and consequently the production cannot be started. The individual needs of the employees for the promotions transfers, salary enhancement, better benefits will not be provided if business is unaware of human resource planning, therefore employees will suffer from financial and non financial rewards and will lose the interest in the business resulting in absence and risk for business in long term. Without human resource planning business will be unable to anticipate the cost of salary, benefits and all the cost of human resources facilitating the formulation of budgets in a society. Virgin Atlantic Airlines will not be able to provide required working conditions in a business. As according to Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, also referred to as HASAW or HSW, is the primary piece of legislation covering occup ational health and safety in the United Kingdom. The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for enforcing the Act and a number of other Acts and Statutory Instruments relevant to the working environment. Workplace health and safety is an important issue for every business. Every employee needs to be aware of the importance of these issues in the workplace and the best way to improve staff awareness of these issues is by providing access to a health and safety course. Without human resource planning Virgin Atlantic Airlines will not be able to closely know what important safety measures should be taken into an account as well how staff awareness of importance of these issues can be improved. Resulting in a lot of unhealthy activities as well harmful incidents for workers. To summarise an effective HR planning helps the company to prepare ahead of time for these vacancies rather than acting in a reactionary manner when an employee resigns unexpectedly. Another benefit of having a recruiting plan in place is that the recruiters know where to target theirjob searchto find the best candidates. Successful recruiters plan ahead and know what skill sets are essential for the right candidates, and they know how to interview effectively. Companies that include HR planning are prepared for future open positions that result frombusinessgrowth and expansion. Another benefit of HR planning is having career-development procedures, which consist of identifying future company leaders and helping them grow. This means that when an executive or manager leaves or retires, there is already someone ready to promote into the position.Successful HR planning includes training models and procedures. This training includes new-hire training to teach new employees about the com pany culture, internaldatabases, software, and the skill sets necessary for specific positions. The benefit of this type of training is that all employees are taught the same thing in the same manner, which creates consistency and accuracy in daily work. Effective HR planning incorporates aspects of employee management, such asperformancereviews and disciplinary procedures. Companies benefit from having these systems in place because they help managers do their jobs and prevent potential lawsuits. Standardized performance reviews help managers look for key items when reviewing and ranking subordinates and ensure that everyone is reviewed on the same scale. Therefore without Human resource planning business will not be able to survive in short term. As Human resource planning is a backbone of a business survival.