Accountant in Jolly Woods Enterprise - Case Study Example

Human resource Analysis Name Institution Date Introduction Human resource planning is and important tool which entails proper employee recruitment and selection, proper training of employees, proper placement of employees as well as proper performance appraisal (Joseph, 2009). This paper will consider a job for a friend McJohn working as an account and analyse it. The paper will analyse job description, workforce analysis, recruitment and selection and performance appraisal among other aspects. Analysis I am undertaking an analysis of McJohn, an accountant in Jolly woods enterprise, a family business based in UK. McJohn has worked in the organization for a period of 7yrs since 2008. His duties include helping the Controller with the everyday, month to month and year-end operations of the Accounting/ Finance Department including preparation of the budget and undertaking variance analysis, Posting transactions into the system using quick books system of accounting and managing the petty cash float using the imp-rest system. Furthermore, he does Maintaining and updating the cash book, updating the debtors and creditors ledgers, undertaking bank reconciliations, advising the management on matters relating to variances in the budget, preparation of financial statements including the balance sheet and the statement of financial position, Examining and recording both the purchase and the sales invoices and Filling accounting records to mention but a few. He is a competent accountant and works under minimal description (Armstrong, 2006). He works in a cool and environmentally conducive environment. On a regular basis, the employees of the organization are apprised by an external evaluator that the organization hires to specifically undertake the performance appraisal (Armstrong, 2006). The organization does the appraisal of performance to ensure that employees act towards the objectives set for the organization and that they don’t lose focus in order to remain relevant in the competitive environment. This is also in line with the organizational policies. Workforce analysis The labor sector or market is a variable business sector; it gives methods by which bosses or employers discover the work they require, whilst a great many people offer their work administrations in various occupations. It deals with the capability of employers to accept people who are willing to work for them (Peichl & Siegloch, 2010). The labour supply and demand of accounting is affected by a number of factors. Demand for labor Wage or salary rate-Wage or salary as a form of remuneration is a factor in the demand and supply of labor. There exists an inverse relationship between labor demand and the wage or salary rate. Employees will tend to be attracted more to a job that pays more and less attracted to a job that pay less. The higher the pay rate, the more the people willing to do the job and the higher the cost associated (Armstrong, 2006). Technological changes-With technological changes, labor demand can be affected. For example, in the recent past, accounting has shifted from manual form of accounting to computerized accounting therefore increasing the demand of people who know how to work using accounting software. Economy-When the economy is stable and growing, it means that the level of production is high and therefore more people will be required to work to cope up with the numerous activities as a result of increased level of production (Peichl & Siegloch, 2010). Supply of labor Labor supply refers to the willingness of people available to perform a given task or job given a particular wage rate. The labor supply curve for any industry or occupation will be upward inclining. This is on account of, as wages rise, different laborers enter this industry pulled in by the motivation of higher prizes. They may have moved from different commercial ventures or they might not have beforehand held an occupation, for example, housewives or the unemployed (Peichl & Siegloch, 2010). Supply of labor is affected by a number of factors, including: Wage rate- Generally, the higher the pay in a given industry, the more the people willing to work in the industry. Availability of over times- Over times refers to instances where employees are paid to work for hours more than their normal working hours. This is an opportunity to boost or increase earnings and therefore industries or organizations which provide overtime opportunities attract more people (Anyim, Fcipm, & Ekwoaba, 2012). Barriers to entry- This refers to instances where people getting jobs in a certain industry is restricted or limited because of set requirements. Some jobs can have increased job requirements especially professional courses like medicine, accounting and where standards regarding requirements can be set (Anyim, Fcipm, & Ekwoaba, 2012). For instance, accounting may require that an individual undertakes a professional course like ACCA therefore providing a limitation in term of supply. Recruitments and selection Job recruitment is the procedure of analyzing job requirements, attracting people or potential employees to that job, selecting the applicants and hiring/integrating those selected or recruited to the organization within that position. Selection then comprises of the procedures included in looking for a candidate with a reasonable possibility to fill a post (Anyim, Fcipm, & Ekwoaba, 2012). Jolly wood uses both internal and external methods of employee recruitment for all its employees in accordance with the objective theory of recruitment and selection Internal recruitment source This is a form of recruitment where employees required to feel a certain vacancy are selected from within the organization. This form of recruitment has a number of advantages; Firstly, Promotion as an internal source of recruitment acts as a source of motivation which makes employees work harder, hence improving productivity and the success of the business in the long run. Secondly, it is less costly as the person who is recruited internally from within the organization doesn’t need any form of training and orientation (Joseph, 2009). Thirdly, there is no dilution of organization culture that could have been brought about by employing somebody from outside since the recruited individual is from within the organization. Lastly, from the perspective of the firm, an insider’s strengths and weaknesses will be assessed with ease (Joseph, 2009). However, this form of recruitment has its own forms of limitations; Firstly, Promotion of one of the employees could upset another employee. Secondly, whenever an individual is promoted, a vacancy is created which in turn forces the organization to hire. Similarly, an individual recruited internally may not be in a position to offer the required form of criticism required for the general success of the business (Owais, 2012).  External source of recruitment This is a form of recruitment technique where an organization seeks for candidates to fill its vacancies, not from within the organization, but from outside. A number of advantages are associated with this method; Firstly, it provides an opportunity to the business to bring new ideas into the business. Further, it offers a wide span within which the best can be selected. However, the method is costly to the organization and the company may end up recruiting an individual who turns out to be less effective when it comes to practical work but appeared to be effective on paper (Owais, 2012).  Performance appraisal Performance appraisal refers to the procedure by which a supervisor or specialist inspects and assesses a worker's work conduct by contrasting it to preset standards, records the aftereffects of the examination, and utilizes the outcomes to give criticism to the representative to show where upgrades are required and why (Joseph, 2009). Worker performance appraisal and dynamic order go as an inseparable unit as devices administrators and supervisors can effectively use to correct conduct, motivate employees or representatives, and set worker goals. (Lunenburg, 2012). Performance appraisal techniques Several methods of performance appraisal techniques have been advanced by various researchers. However, performance appraisal techniques vary from organization to organization depending on the job being appraised. The following two methods could be used to appraise McJohn as an accountant A. Graphic Rating scale method This method consists of a number of predetermined scales which are a representation of criterions such level of dependability, effectiveness, level of output, transparency, punctuality and attendance and total employee attitude (Lunenburg, 2012). Accounting job requires that the candidate be dependable, extremely effective, be transparent and exercise integrity. Because of the capability of the method to measure all the above attributes regarding the employees, Jolly wood finds it appropriate to use to rate accounting performance (Joseph, 2009). This method of performance appraisal is associated with a number of advantages. Firstly, it is easy to use as the evaluator checks on some specific attributes. Consequently, with this method, any form of job can be evaluated making it extremely cheaper. Similarly, it is cheap because large number of employees can evaluated within a short time and is easily adopted. However, it is prone to evaluator’s biasness hence there is a possibility of obtaining wrong results for the candidate being evaluated. Besides, this method is commonly tied to employee bonus or pay (Lunenburg, 2012). Using this method of performance appraisal, a number of dimensions should be defined clearly. Firstly, scales ought to be behaviorally based so that a rater can bolster all appraisals with target, discernible confirmation (Lunenburg, 2012). Secondly, dynamic attribute names, for example, "devotion," "trustworthiness," and "respectability" ought to be maintained a strategic distance from unless they can be characterized as far as recognizable practices. Fourthly, Focuses, or stays, on each scaled measurement ought to be brief, unambiguous, and applicable to the measurement being evaluated. For instance, in rating a man's stream of words, it is desirable over to use stays, for example, "familiar," "simple," "unhampered," "reluctant," and "toiled," as opposed to "brilliant," "great," "normal," "beneath normal," and "poor." (Lunenburg, 2012). B. Critical incidents method This method places focus on certain attributes of the employee which contribute to a difference in their performance. Supervisors therefore record the incidences when they occur. The main focus of this method is to analyze an incident before it occurs, when it actually occurs and after it occurs. The advantages of this method are that job evaluation is based on actual job behaviour and that the employee forms of rating are strongly backed by descriptions. Similarly, biasness is reduced and employees are offered an opportunity to improve (Lunenburg, 2012). However, since the method is based on observation of incidences, negative to bad incidences may be given a priority be the assessor. Further, There is close over supervision of the employee which lowers on morale hence reducing o productivity and that the appraisal feedback or results may be much and may therefore seem to appear as punishment (Lunenburg, 2012). Inorder to effectively use this technique, information should be revolved around genuine basic occurrences that happen amid an assignment execution. Similarly, Undertakings should be performed by genuine clients and that clients should be situated in their ordinary workplace. Further, information should be caught in ordinary undertaking circumstances, not created research facility settings. Besides, there should be no immediate cooperation that happens in the middle of client and evaluator amid the portrayal of the incident (Owais, 2012). Who to perform the appraisal The organization believes that it is good when its performance appraisal is done by a specialist hired by the organization for specifically that purpose. This is further because the errors related to performance appraisal are minimized and the true picture of the employees is known. Besides, it is important to undertake the appraisal by a specialist inorder to eliminate errors of biasness, strictness and leniency and central tendency error where some raters fear to rate employees highly or lowly, among other common errors (Owais, 2012). The organization discourages rating of employees by fellow employees as this creates enemity, encourages biasness and critically lowers morale of the employees hence affecting on their performance and consequently reducing productivity. The organization also discourages the use of self-appraisal and the use of teams. This is because most of these techniques are subject to biasness ay may not have a true reflection of the employee. Jolly hoods therefore prefer using a specialist or the use of supervisors of the respective employees in the respective departments (Owais, 2012). The use of supervisors by the organization is preferred because the results will be a true reflection of the employee himself. The supervisor knows the employee better and therefore and therefore the results will be true. However, the results might not be true especially in instances where there is some form of rivalry between the employee and the supervisor (Owais, 2012). Performance appraisal rating errors In conducting performance appraisals, raters should be careful to eliminate making performance appraisal errors (Lunenburg, 2012). These errors include: Strictness and leniency-Some raters tend to be either lenient or strict on the subordinates. The lenient ones tend to give more ratings than deserved by the subordinate; whereas the strict ones underrate the subordinates (Owais, 2012). Central tendency error-This is where Raters fear to rate subordinates either high or low. This is common in instances where there exists a relationship between the subordinate and the rater. It is also common in instances where there is rivalry between the subordinate and the rater (Owais, 2012). Hallow effect- This is where either a positive or negative trait of the employee performance affects the rater’s conclusion on other aspects relating to the employee. Conclusion With a specific end goal to deal with the human resource, it is essential that right quality also, amount of human resource are looked into according to business needs. To guarantee that the association gets right individuals at the correct time and perfect spot, Human resource frameworks like Human resource planning, recruitment and selection and determination are executed. Compelling usage of these frameworks guarantees that association gets the required people to work with the organization. Reference Anyim, F. C., Anthony, D. & Ekwoaba, J. (2012). The role of human resource planning in recruitment and selection process. British Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 6(2), 68-78. Armstrong, M. (2006). A handbook of human resource management practice, 10th edition. New York: Kogan Page Limited. Joseph, M. (2009). People & strategy: Building Agility, Resilience and Performance in Turbulent Environments. The Journal of human resource planning society. 32(3), 45-50. Lunenburg, F. C. (2012). Performance appraisal: Methods and rating errors. International journal of scholarly academic intellectual diversity, 14(1), 1-9. Owais, S. (2012). Recruitment in the 21st Century. Interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business. 4(2), 887-899. Peichl, A. & Siegloch, S. (2010). Accounting for labor demand effects in structural labor supply models. Discussion Paper No. 5350. Retrieved 22nd April 2016 from http://ftp.iza.org/dp5350.pdf Read More