What do you understand by the term 'equality of treatment and opportunity'?

Apart from legal compliance, what are the main reasons for being an 'equal
opportunities employer'?

Equality of treatment is one of the indivisible principles of HRM and is, no doubt, one of
the most significant pieces of legislation. The phrase equality of treatment and
opportunity implies a commitment made by the employer to be just and fair in his ways
both pre-employment and post-employment contract. Equality means treating all people
in the same way: valuing everyone for their strengths, capabilities, experience and
potential. When an organization values its people in this way, people respond positively,
that is, with loyalty, commitment and enthusiasm. Good organizations regard diversity
and equality as huge opportunities to improve and develop organizational quality and
performance. Treating people fairly and valuing everyone promotes cohesion, unity and
loyalty in a workforce. It also enables the organization to benefit from everyone's
strengths, because people are more encouraged and likely to use them. The principles of
equality are consistent with running an ethical organization. An ethical organization
(amongst other things) does not discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on
grounds of gender, race, religion, disability, etc, and rightly now - age.

While this legislation was enacted to correct conditions of disadvantage in employment

for the disadvantaged groups in the society, it is been proven that equality and fairness
works to benefit the employer just as much as it benefits the employee, if not more. It is
in the best interest for the employer to be an equal opportunity employer because it has
been successively proven through the equity theory that individuals arrive at measure of
fairness - Equity - by comparing balance of effort and reward, and other factors of give
and take - the ratio of input and output - with the balance or ratio enjoyed by other
people, whom they deem to be relevant reference points or examples ('referent' others).
The Adams' Equity Theory model therefore extends beyond the individual self, and
incorporates influence and comparison of other people's situations - for example
colleagues and friends - in forming a comparative view and awareness of Equity, which
commonly manifests as a sense of what is fair. When people feel fairly or advantageously
treated they are more likely to be motivated; when they feel unfairly treated they are
highly prone to feelings of disaffection and demotivation. The way that people measure
this sense of fairness is at the heart of Equity Theory.

For example: Employee A and B are at a similar post doing similar kind of work. B gets
paid more. One day A finds out B is getting paid more than him. Will he just accept that?
No. There might be conflicts between A and B or A and management. A's productivity
will fall-repeated events and labor turnover increases along with absenteeism.
For example: Personal biases of an employee due to which he refuses to hire blacks into
the company-rejection of a pool of applicants that could have been stronger, smarter and
more motivated to perform and could have brought a whole new set of skill set into the
company=loss of the employer and not the employee.

Real Life Example: BBC employee sacked because she was not of the
‘right’ age to appeal to the audience. Proven through a demographic
study. Evidence was needed for a benchmark for comparison. BBC had
to publically apologize and reinstate her.

What are the main roles and functions of an Employment Tribunal?

Employment Tribunals are non-departmental public bodies in UK that has statuary

jurisdiction to hear any kinds of disputes between the employer and the employees. The
most common disputes are concerned with unfair dismissal, redundancy payments and
employment discrimination. The tribunals are part of the UK tribunal system,
administered by the tribunal service and regulated and supervised by the Advisory,
Conciliation and Arbitration Service. [ACAS was formed in 1974 to establish an
independent conciliation and arbitration service between the employers and the
employees. It works to improve employment relations by publishing good practices
codes, joint training with employer and employees, offering advice on employment
issues, arbitrating in individual cases and collective disputes.]
An Employment Tribunal is less formal that a court hearing but, nevertheless, any
decision made by an Employment Tribunal is legally binding. An Employment Tribunal
is, usually, made up of three impartial and independent individuals, one of whom will be
a legally qualified Employment Judge. The other two members of the Employment
Tribunal will usually be two lay members who have experience of employment related
issues and grievances. The Employment Tribunal will listen to the grievances and make
some sort of decision or resolution, which the employers and the employee in question
are legally bound to follow.
Employment Tribunals deal only with specific grievances, namely those relating to
Discipline, Grievances, Dismissal, Redundancy and Maternity.

[Unfair Dismissal-when there is no valid reason for dismissal that is you’ve been sacked
on unfair grounds
Constructive Dismissal-where the employee resigns because the employer made their
lives miserable: harder to prove
Discrimination claims (the alleged discrimination could, for example, be on the grounds
of sex, race, religion or disability)
Non-consultation during a period of redundancy
Breach of your employment contract
Argument and issues relating to equal pay.]
To what extent is employee development the responsibility of the employing
organization; and to what extent is employee development the responsibility of
individuals?

Employee development is a joint, on-going effort on the part of an employee and the
organization for which he or she works to upgrade the employee's knowledge, skills, and
abilities. Successful employee development requires a balance between an individual's
career needs and goals and the organization's need to get work done. Employee
development programs make positive contributions to organizational performance. A
more highly skilled workforce can accomplish more and a supervisor's group can
accomplish more as employees gain in experience and knowledge.
The supervisor has several roles to play, but providing information and support to
facilitate the employee's development is what is most important. There are a few basic
roles for a supervisor in developing employees. They include:
Coaching employees to help them determine what they need for development
Providing both positive and corrective feedback
Offering organizational insight, information, and advice
Guiding the planning through goal setting and checking back over time
Allotting time and money for development experiences
Ensuring opportunities for applications of new learning
It is very helpful for an employee to get an honest assessment of their work, as well as
access to others who may be able to provide information or coach the employee. The
successful supervisor will also respect every employee's learning curve. It takes time for
anyone to learn new skills and be able to apply them well; this does not happen
overnight. Building this development time into the application of a new skill set will
make the employee more successful. The organization may also provide development
opportunities by: trusting employees, delegating tasks, avoiding close supervision, allow
initiative on part of employees, avoid autocratic leadership to allow pooling in of ideas,
giving responsibilities, setting deadlines, management by objectives, management by
exceptions.
Some things that the employee should consider in their own development include seeking
a variety of assignments, tackling tough problems and asking for feedback. Coaching is
another helpful activity, both in looking for opportunities to coach others and finding
good coaches for him or herself. It can help to ask for feedback when working with a
variety of people and in a variety of situations. Employees should be looking for
developmental relationships that can provide a variety of learning. They can also identify
goals for new skills and abilities and then look for ways to meet those goals. It can also
be helpful to attend classes and workshops to fill in conceptual needs.
While employee development is critical to the success of an organization, both the
employee and the organization must recognize that most of the responsibility for
development falls to the employee. Some things the employee should have and consider
when beginning work towards development:
Specific goals; identify goals for new skills and look for ways to meet those goals
Energy to make the development possible
A variety of work assignments
Asking for feedback
Opportunities to coach others and finding good coaches for him or herself
Developmental relationships that provide a variety of learning

Ultimately it is the responsibility of the employee since the skills remain with hi m even
when he leaves the org but because the employer stands to benefit so much from the
increased skill set it is also in his interest to provide guidance and training to their
employees
What difficulties are there for an organization that has attracted 1200
applications for 60 graduate training places?

An organization that has attracted 1200 applicants for 60 training places clearly lacks a
very specific job description and in doing so, has managed to attract a lot more applicants
than the average number.
The process of writing job descriptions is actually quite easy and straightforward. Many
people tend to start off with a list of 20-30 tasks, which is okay as a start, but this needs
refining to far fewer points, around 8-12 is the ideal.

Smaller organizations commonly require staff and managers to cover a wider or more
mixed range of responsibilities than in larger organizations (for example, the 'office
manager' role can comprise financial, HR, stock-control, scheduling and other duties).
Therefore in smaller organizations, job descriptions might necessarily contain a greater
number of listed responsibilities, perhaps 15-16. However, whatever the circumstances,
the number of responsibilities should not exceed this, or the job description becomes
unwieldy and ineffective.

Any job description containing 20-30 tasks is actually more like a part of an operational
manual, which serves a different purpose. Job descriptions should refer to the operational
manual, or to 'agreed procedures', rather than include the detail of the tasks in the job
description. If you include task detail in a job description you will need to change it when
the task detail changes, as it will often do. What would you rather change, 100 job
descriptions or one operational manual?
The process of writing job descriptions is actually quite easy and straightforward. Many
people tend to start off with a list of 20-30 tasks, which is okay as a start, but this needs
refining to far fewer points, around 8-12 is the ideal.

Smaller organizations commonly require staff and managers to cover a wider or more
mixed range of responsibilities than in larger organizations (for example, the 'office
manager' role can comprise financial, HR, stock-control, scheduling and other duties).
Therefore in smaller organizations, job descriptions might necessarily contain a greater
number of listed responsibilities, perhaps 15-16. However, whatever the circumstances,
the number of responsibilities should not exceed this, or the job description becomes
unwieldy and ineffective.

Any job description containing 20-30 tasks is actually more like a part of an operational
manual, which serves a different purpose. Job descriptions should refer to the operational
manual, or to 'agreed procedures', rather than include the detail of the tasks in the job
description. If you include task detail in a job description you will need to change it when
the task detail changes, as it will often do. What would you rather change, 100 job
descriptions or one operational manual?
Advantages and Disadvantages of Online Recruitment
Online recruitment, e-recruitment, or web based recruitment is the use of online
technology or the internet to attract candidates and aid the recruitment process. For most
recruiters this usually means using one's own company website, a third-party job site or
job board, a CV database or search engine marketing as part of the recruitment process.
The advantages of online recruitment:
Cost effective: Putting a job vacancy on your own company website costs you nothing
while putting one on a job board usually only costs a couple of hundred pounds or Euros.
When you consider that a recruitment consultant fee for a candidate could be anything up
to 20% of the first year's salary, and that advertising in a national newspaper can cost
thousands, you can immediately see the cost savings possible with online recruitment.
Online recruitment is quick:A job vacancy can be put on a job site in the morning, the
first applications arrive by lunchtime, and a candidate interviewed by the end of the day.
Of course, it isn't always like this. It isn't even often like this. But the fact that such things
do happen so quickly gives an indication of just how quick recruiting online can be.
Online recruitment gives you a better chance of success: Traditional print advertising
be it national, local or trade press, faces limitations: the success of a vacancy
advertisement depends on people happening upon the ad on a particular page in a
particular issue. Online recruitment is different. A job vacancy advertisement on a job
board or website is there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for as long as you desire.
Candidates can come back to it again and again. From office administrator to Financial
Director: they are all online.
Online recruitment gives you a bigger audience: Many people new to online
recruitment think that using job sites is only effective if you are looking for young net-
savvy Face book-type people. This simply isn't the case. Research consistently shows that
the average age of candidates using job sites is around 35 years old. And the trend is up.
Online recruitment is now a standard part of most people's job-hunting no matter what
level or age.
Online recruitment is easy: It really is. Posting a job on your own site is straight
forward enough. Most job sites and CV databases are very user-friendly and you don't
need to have an in-depth knowledge of IT to post a vacancy advertisement. Usually, all
you need is your job description, a bit of time and a credit card. And, if you have any
problems the job board sales team to help you.
The disadvantages of online recruitment:
Too many candidates: While you may wonder how too many candidates applying for
your job could ever count as a disadvantage, it is a fact that dealing with inappropriate,
irrelevant and bad candidates is the bugbear of many a HR manager. Candidate spam can
waste a lot of time. However, with a bit of thought about what job site you use, how you
write your job description and using candidate screening and filtering tools on job boards,
it is possible to reduce the number irrelevant applicants.
It won't always work: That's right. Online recruitment won't always work. Not every job
vacancy you post can or will be filled online. There will always be difficult-to-fill jobs
that can only be filled by recruitment consultants, headhunters or in other ways.
However, most companies tend to hire for pretty standard job roles so this is seldom an
issue. And with more and more job seekers choosing the Internet to look for jobs, and
more and more job sites and job boards specializing in ever more diverse areas, those
difficult-to-fill jobs are becoming fewer and fewer

State briefly how you might prepare staff for their next promotion, in advance of
that promotion becoming available.

Outline the advantages and disadvantages of psychometric testing as an integral

part of the process of recruitment and selection.

To what extent is organizational health and safety a company responsibility; and

to what extent is organizational health and safety the responsibility of all
employees?

What elements must a disciplinary procedure have in order to comply with the
law and with statutory obligations?

What difficulties are there for an organization that has attracted 1200 applications
for 60 graduate training places?

What benefits are job enrichment, job enlargement and job rotation schemes
supposed to deliver?