Human Resource is the collective term used to refer to the labour which is a human input for the business. Human Resource management is the strategic approach to the development and maintenance of the workers in a business.
It involves all aspects of the human resource including recruitment, wages, motivation, disciplining and redundancy or dismissal.
We will first take a look at RECRUITMENT. A step by step approach will be more helpful in understanding the recruitment process that leads to the induction of more workers.
Vacancy arises job analysis Job description job specification
Selection Application process Job advertisement
Tjis shows how a job is filled again, Job description is the document that gives a brief outlook at the tasks in the job.
Job specification actually tells the potential employee how he should be e.g his age, traits etc.
Job advertisement is the advertising process in which the vacancy is made known to public and finally application when the person interested applies and is interviewed prior to being selected.
Training the employee is also a very important issue that has to be considered after selection. There are three types of training
- Induction training: this type of training involves introducing the new employee to the people and surroundings and giving him or her a general idea of the working in the business
- On-the-job traning: this type of training involves teching the new employee to do thing while he is doing the job. This ooption involvr=s a much experienced worker teavhing the trainee how to do a job. An advantage abot this is that it is really cheap as comparedto off-the-job training and gives first hand experience to the trainee. However it does reduce the efficiency as both the teacher and the student are workers who are not putting in their full time into production of goods.
- Off-the-job training: This type of training involves being trained away from the work place, usually by specialist trainers.It has the obvious advantage of not reducing business efficiency as thetraining takes place in off-hours however it is an expensive option.
Workforce planning is also very important as it involves foreseeing the future labour need by the business and planning accordingl.
DISMISSAL-REDUNDANCY
Lastly, we will be discussing Dismissal. It is the expulsion by employers of those employees who have shown misconduct and have had behavoioural and work problems. For a dismissal to be fair the employee must not be ill during their absence, nor must they be on a maternity leave.
Reundancy is a totally different aspect. It is the expulsion of an employee from a business, not because of any behavioural misconduct but rather because the post is no longer required by the business. E.g if a business has a person who puts caps on bottles in a factory and the business becomes automated, the person will be made redundant,not because of his misconduct but rather sue to his replacement by a musch efficient machine that does the same job.
What is a market?
A market, my friends, is a place you have all been to. It can be in the form of a luxurious shopping mall or it could as well be thrift shop nearby. Hearing the word market, the definition that may come into your mind could be this’ Market is a place where buyers and sellers meet to exchange goods and services with money”. However, there is only a slight mistake in this definition, because the internet has flourished and so has e- commerce. We now say that market is a situation rather than a place where buyers and sellers meet to exchange goods and services with money.
Markets are of different sizes, the size depends on the necessity, popularity or importance of the good. For instance in Pakistan, washing soaps have a mass market. This means that the demand for this product is very high among the public and as a result the competition between firms is also very high. However if we look at the diamond market in Pakistan we are left with just one or two firms that specialize in this trade, this is called Niche market. It is the minimal demand that defines the market.
We will now take a look at marketing itself. Marketing is a very comprehensive process that includes the research and development of a product, its price, the promotional methods employed, and the places where it will be made available for sale.The marketing department is itself subdivis=ded into R&D , sales department, promotion dept.
The objectives of marketing include:
- To increase sales revenue and profit.
- To achieve brand leadership.
- To show own brand as superior to the other one
- To improve brand image.
Markets are segmented by businesses prior to selling their products. Market segmentation is where the market has been divided up into different groups of consumers based on similar needs. For instance, a market could be segmented on the beasis of age, creating groups of teenagers, middle aged people, old people etc. Or it could be based on income, such as low income groups, middle income people and high-income people.
Marketing Mix
Markting mix is the term used to describe all those activities that go into developing, promoting, pricing and finally placing a product, in the market. Thefour P’s of Marketing are therefore.
- Product & Packaging-The good that is sold to the customer, its features, its life cycle etc.
- Pricing- The pricing strategies applied during different situations of market
- Promotion- The different promotional methods that communicate to the consumer about the product and persuade him/her to buy it.
- Placing-The different routes the product takes in reaching from producer to retailer and the types of retailer outlets a product must be sold in.
That’s it for now, we will talk more about the Marketing Mix in the next lecture.
FAQs
Q:1 What is Human resource management?
Ans: It is the strategic approach to the management of the human workforce in any business including recruitment, training, disciplining and redundancy/dismissal.
Q:2 Why is marketing mix so important to a business?
Ans. Marketing mix is the collective term that refers to all those activities that go into the production, pricing, promotion and placing of a product into the market.
Marketing mix is imperative to a business because it is the processs that helps sell a product. If there was no marketing mix, the business would not be able to sell of any of its products because of the failure to coordinate the price, promotional techniques and the placing. This would lead to huge losses for the business.
Marketing mix also allows for the right type of price to be set for the product which aids in its sale. If the price was set too highor too low consumers would either not afford it or doubt its quality and not buy it. This once again would mean that all the money the business put into development would go to waste.
Hence, Marketing mix is very necessary for a firm to be successful.