Human resource management (HRM)

Business AS · Human resource management. The idea in plain words, the rules to remember, the mistake to avoid and a worked example, written and checked by Mega Lecture.

Test this topic freeAll Business AS topics

The idea

Human resource management means getting the right number of people, with the right skills, in the right jobs, and keeping them working well, so that the business can meet its objectives. It starts with a workforce plan, which compares the staff the business will need with the staff it has now.

HRM then covers recruitment and selection, contracts, training, morale and welfare, and ending employment through redundancy or dismissal.

A useful measure of how well people are managed is labour turnover, the percentage of the workforce that leaves in a year. Good HRM also builds cooperation with employees and with trade unions, which bargain collectively for their members.

Rules to remember

Common mistake

In the labour turnover formula students divide by the number of employees at the start or by the number recruited. Divide the number who left by the average number employed, then multiply by 100.

Worked example

A hotel employed an average of 150 staff during the year and 18 of them left. Last year its labour turnover was 9%. What has happened to labour turnover?

  1. Labour turnover = 18 ÷ 150 × 100.
  2. 18 ÷ 150 = 0.12, so turnover = 12%.
  3. 12% − 9% = 3 percentage points higher.

Answer: Labour turnover is 12%, up by 3 percentage points, so recruitment and training costs are likely to rise.

Ask about this

Type what you are stuck on. The helper finds the explanation, worked examples and the notes to read, free and instant.

Read the full notes

Keep going

← Stakeholders in a businessMotivation →Take a Business AS test