People in business 1

Before a firm even advertises a job they need to consider the skills, characteristics, and qualities that the job requires. 

Jobs can either be full time or part time:

Full-time - These staff are available for the whole working week, and are more expensive to pay.

Part-time - These workers are less expensive to pay as they don't work as many hours per week as full-time staff.

Businesses can release a person specification when advertising jobs, and this outlines the qualifications, experience, and characteristics that the potential employee should have. 

Jobs can be advertises internally or externally:

Internally:

• Candidates already know the firm well
• No "new blood"
• Employing an existing member of staff will mean that their old job will need a replacement
• Few candidates to choose from

Externally:

• Advert seen by a wider range of applicants
• E.g. Local press, job centres, recruitment websites
• New skills added to the business
• Can be expensive

When enough suitable people have applied for a job the business will ask them to send a written application.

The candidates will need to send their CV's (curriculum vitae), which give an overview if the candidates skills and qualifications.

Most firms will ask applicants to fill in an application form, which gives the business the basic information they need and nothing else.

Many businesses have started to use online application forms, which allow them to compare the skills and qualities of the applicants using computer software.

The firm will then shortlist the candidates, and ask for references from them.

Once the best applicants have been shortlisted, a business will invite them for an interview with someone from the business. 

Interviewers should ask all of the applicants the same questions to make everything fair, and shouldn't as questions that are irrelevant to the job. Interviews are useful as the business to judge the applicants confidence and their social and verbal skills.

Some businesses use tests to determine which candidates have the best skills needed for the job. The types of test include:

• Skills tests
• Aptitude tests
• Personality tests
• Group tests

Workers can be paid wages or a salary.

• Wages are paid to manual workers and change depending on the amount of work that's done.
• A salary is a fixed amount that someone is paid per month.

Some employees have performance-related pay. This means that the amount they earn is dependent on how well they work. Examples of PRP are commission and bonuses.

In most businesses different staff will be paid different amounts of money. Jobs that need fewer skills and qualifications will be paid less than jobs that do. Its all about who's worth more to the business.

These rewards can motivate staff, and motivated workers perform better, so they'll help improve the quality of service/product provided by the business.

• Training can improve motivation and help to improve the skills of employees.
• Job enlargement is when staff are given more jobs to do. This can help to make the employees work more interesting, and make the worker feel more valued.
• Job enrichment is when the employee is given more responsibility. This can motivate employees to work harder.
• Fringe benefits are rewards that aren't part of the workers main income. Examples include: company cars, gym memberships, and health insurance. 

• There's a national minimum wage for workers, and so it's illegal for businesses to pay workers less than it.
• The European Union law limits the working week to 48 hours for most employees.
• There are anti-discrimination laws that forbid employees from discriminating against employees.
• The Health and Safety Legislation is there to minimise the risks that people at work are exposed to.
• There are laws about the unfair dismissal of employees.