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PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT VBS107

Duration (approx) 100 hours
Qualification Statement of Attainment

 Learn to build an effective workforce - understand their motivations

Personnel Managers provide specialist guidance to line managers and upper management.
They are responsible for making sure that the biggest resource in any company - the human resource - is being used to full advantage, and is a happy one! The end goal of a Personnel Manager is to improve the value of an organisation and therefore it's profitability by hiring the right people for the job, developing the potential in each employer, and managing any problems along the way.
This 100 hour course is self-paced and can be studied from home. If you think you have a natural aptitude for people management, get the conceptual knowledge behind you to develop your own skill set in this area.

This revised and improved course will:

  • Develop the student’s ability to carry out the various tasks associated with managing personnel, such as recruitment, training and controlling.
  • Emphasis is placed on knowledge and methods that will improve workplace morale and productivity.

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Learn to Build a better Team in any Workplace.

 
Staff problems can have a huge impact upon everything in a workplace; from work efficiency, right through to job satisfaction.
 
A harmonious and highly motivated team can achieve so much more than a work team that is discontented and disconnected -simply unhappy in their jobs.
 
This course shows you how to build a workforce which is effective and happy; to create a new team or improve an old one; to identify problems before they overwhelm you, and to attend to those problems in an appropriate way.
 

 

 

With this newly revised and updated course:

  • Learn how to build a workforce which is effective and happy.
  • Learn how to create a new team or improve an old one.
  • Learn how to identify problems before they overwhelm you, and how to attend to those problems in an appropriate way.
  • Learn about effective communications in the workplace.
  • Examine business operations - from the supervision of staff to production and financial control.
  • Learn about interviewing and the recruitment of staff.
  • Understand the elements of monitoring staff performance and how this can be evaluated.

 
Personnel management skills are important in any workplace where there are two or more people working together. The management of personnel can be more complicated in a large organisation; where people may be employed to do nothing more than manage personnel. It is just as important still in a small workplace with only a few employees. The small business manager may need to multi task; and personnel management may only be part of what they do. This course can be just as valuable to the small business manager, or the career professional, working in human resource management. 

 

ACS courses offer flexibility - you can study in your own time, start the course when you need to and study at your own pace.
  • New or returning to study? Don't worry, our highly qualified and experienced tutors are there to support you every step of the way. 
  • Course duration: 100 hours of self paced study.
     


COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

The course comprises 10 lessons, as follows:


1. Human Behaviour

  • Individual and Group Behaviour
  • Perception
  • Gestalt Theory of Perception
  • Influences on Perception such as Behaviour, Appearance, Expectations, The Primary Effect, Attribution and Schemas
  • Perception and Reality
  • Selective Attention
  • Central Traits
  • Attribution
  • Kelley's Theory of Attribution: Consensus, Consistency, Distinctiveness, Attribution Errors, Protecting the Self, Prejudice 
  • Changing our Perceptions
  • Defence Mechanisms: Repression, Displacement, Rationalisation, Projection, Reaction-Formulation, Intellectualisation, Denial, Sublimation
  • Psychologically Healthy Individuals: Psychologically Healthy Strategies for Dealing with Unwanted or Difficult Emotions,  Relaxation or Meditation, Reasoning it Out,  Benign Appraisal
  • Influences on Human Behaviour (Anti-Social and Pro-Social Behaviour)
  • Socialisation
  • Family influence:  Effects of Parenting on Children’s Behaviour, Disciplinary Measures,  Siblings Influence
  • Influence of School
  • The Influence of Educational Structure
  • Influence of Peers:  Acceptance and Rejection,  Imitation and Reinforcement
  • Influence of society: Adjusting to Different Values 

 

2. Workplace Communications 
  • What is Communication?
  • Variables Affecting Communication:  The Context,  The Nature and Quality of the Transmitted Message,  The Nature and Quality of the Received Message
  • What is Effective Communication?
  • Listening Skills: Active Listening 
  • Giving clear instructions


3. Workplace Conditions

  • Unions
  • Workplace Bullying and Violence
  • Workplace Design:  Physical Factors,  Furniture Design,  Ergonomics, Form, Shape and Dimension of Space, Layout of Interiors, Psychological Factors
  • Colour
  • Office Landscaping
  • Health and Safety


4.  Controlling Operations

  • Supervising Staff:  Listening,  Informing,  Leading
  • Managing a Project:  Applying Standards,  Monitoring Performance,  Evaluating Performance,  Regulating Progress
  • Giving Directives and Introducing Change:  Consultation Conference,  Participative Decision Making,  Formal Consultation Schemes
  • Giving Orders:  Oral,  Written,  Procedure for Giving Detailed Orders,  Procedure for Dealing with Orders Not Correctly Carried Out
  • Dealing with Contingencies:  Impacts,  Wet Weather,  Cold Weather,  Hot Weather,  Other Weather Conditions,  Equipment Shutdowns,  Industrial Disputes,  Tools Breaking,  Accidents/Injuries,  Illness,  Changed Production Schedules,  Holidays or Resignations
  • Developing Contingency Plans:  Establishing Rules or Regulations,  Obtaining Back-Up Equipment or Tools
  • Problem Solving Methodology
  • Stock Control
  • Quality Control, Quality Assurance
  • Production Control
  • Labour Utilisation Control
  • Financial Control


5. Recruitment and Induction

  • Recruitment
  • Advertising a Position
  • Interviewing:  Interview Guidelines,  Interview Questions,  Types of Questions


6. Staff Training

  • Responsibilities of a Trainer
  • Qualities of a Good Trainer
  • Factors Affecting Learning:  Attention – Level of Attention, Vigilance, Selective Attention,  Intelligence
  • How We Learn
  • Self-Esteem:  Signs of Low Self-Esteem,  Ways to Improve Self-Esteem
  • Interest and Motivation
  • Assessing Training Needs
  • Sources of Information for a Needs Assessment
  • How to Assess Training Needs
  • Communications for Trainers:  Communication Skills,  Body Language - Clusters, Context, Culture,  Classification of Non-Verbal Communication
  • Communication barriers:  Too Fast,  Too Slow,  Too Talkative,  Not Talkative Enough,  Thinking They Know it All Already,  Argumentative,  Lack of Focus,  Personality Clashes,  Other Communication Barriers
  • Developing Conversation
  • Principles of Effective Questioning:  Distribution of Questions,  Increasing Focus of Questions,  Increasing Difficulty of Questions,  Pausing After and Between Questions,  Phrasing Questions,  Redirection of Questions,  Responding Positively
  • Motivating Learners:  Factors Affecting Motivation,  Expectations and Experiences of Success,  Knowledge of Results,  Interest,  Feeling Tone,  Intrinsic/Extrinsic Motivation
  • Reinforcement
    Learning Principles:  Recency Effect,  Primacy Effect,  2 Way Communication,  Feedback,  Active Learning,  Multiple Sense Learning,  Exercise
  • Student Needs
  • Learning: Factors that Affect Learning
  • Adult Learners


7. Work Teams

  • Conformity – Heider’s Balance Theory
  • Different Styles of Handling Conflict
  • Delegation:  Importance of Delegation,  Examples of Delegation
  • Delegation Situations:  High Experience/Low Motivation,  High Experience/High Motivation,  Low Experience/Low Motivation,  Low Experience/High Motivation
    Conflict
  • Conflict Handling Techniques:  Competing,  Soothing,  Avoiding,  Compromising,  Joint Problem Solving 
  • Anger:  Dealing With Anger in Others,  Dealing With Your Own Anger,  Anger Energy Dissipation
  • Negotiation:  The Joint Problem Solving Approach,  Mediation,  Mediation Procedure,  Problems with Negotiation,  Re-Entry,  Power Imbalance


8. Positive Discipline

  • Static and Dynamic Discipline
  • Giving Praise
  • Enforcing Rules
  • The Disciplinary Interview
  • Changing Behaviour:  Classical Conditioning,  Operant Conditioning
  • Reinforcement
  • Punishment


9. Grievances and Complaints

  • Detecting a Problem
  • Guidelines To Dealing With Grievances
  • Reducing Grievances
  • Revision: The Formal Problem Solving Technique


10. Monitoring and Reporting

  • Monitoring Performance
  • Observation
  • Regular Review
  • Scheduled Evaluations
  • Report Writing
  • Work study
  • Techniques of Work Study:  Method Study,  Work Measurement,  Direct Time Study,  Synthetic Data,  Analytical Estimation

LESSON AIMS 

  • Explain how perception, learning and prior experience influence human behaviour.
  • Identify and practice communication skills that will improve your ability to effectively receive and transmit messages in the workplace.
  • Explain factors that contribute to overall workplace conditions and can affect workplace culture.
  • Explain basic supervising practices for controlling business or department operations.
  • Identify essential processes in the recruitment and induction of employees.
  • Describe the key elements of planning and conducting effective staff training.
  • Describe how team processes can be used to improve performance and productivity.
  • Identify methods to establish and maintain discipline through positive means, such as reinforcement and increasing motivation.
  • Describe strategies for reducing dissatisfaction and handling dissatisfaction when it arises.
  • Explain the importance of monitoring workplace processes and performance, and how to report your observations.
 

Why Do Personnel Need Managing?

Within any organisation, a key function of those in managerial roles is to help motivate staff members to improve productivity so as to complete the work as efficiently and effectively as possible whilst also gaining and maintaining job satisfaction. Clearly, money can serve as a prime motivator of employees and is perhaps the most obvious factor in job satisfaction, but it's not the only one. There are a number of different approaches to motivating staff and keeping them happy as we shall see.
 
 
Staff Morale
One of the most important aspects of any organisation is the morale of its staff. An organisation in which the employees are unhappy is likely to be less efficient and productive. Conversely, an organisation in which the employees are happy and highly motivated will be a more enjoyable environment in which to work.
 
A key finding to emerge out of research into worker alienation in the 1960s and 1970s was that the more control employees perceived themselves to have at work, the higher their morale was.
 
Morale in organisations is largely considered to be a product of workplace motivation and job satisfaction. Maintaining good levels of employee morale can be critical in attracting and retaining a high calibre of employee.
 
What is Motivation?
Motivation is often described in terms of needs, motives, drives, and goals or incentives.
 
Needs – can refer to different types of needs (e.g. need for achievement, need for affiliation, or need for cognition). Our needs can be physical, related to our survival and security, social, and ego or esteem needs. Maslow (1954) outlines these in his theory of the hierarchy of needs discussed later, where he suggested that we are motivated first by survival needs and once these are fulfilled we become motivated to fulfil higher needs. Needs may or may not be responsible for creating a particular behaviour to fulfil the need. For instance, a need may be defined as something which if it were present would assist the wellbeing of a person and therefore a person may be focused on fulfilling that need. More usually, actions are associated with drives.
 
Motives – refers to inner states that guide the behaviour of someone as they attempt to fulfil a goal or incentive. For ex ample, if the motive is to earn enough money to pay for rent, it may result in a person accepting the first job that is offered them. However, if the motive is to find a job that a person is passionate about they may take a little longer looking for that dream job.
 
Drives – drive refers to the action – the behaviour – that a person assumes to fulfil a goal or incentive. When the person has satisfied the goal or incentive, the drive subsides. For example, if someone is hungry (they have a physiological need), they behave in such a way as to fulfil their goal of eating.
 
Goals or Incentives – these are the desired outcomes that will fulfil the need. In a work setting, this might be a promotion. Achieving a promotion may fulfil a need for esteem, and may result in someone working hard until the goal has been met. In a workplace, incentives such as bonuses are sometimes used to inspire employees to work productively.

So ... Why should I take this course?  
  • You want to improve the motivation and productivity of your workforce.
  • You want to advance into a management position - with this course you will learn more about the ways to manage and supervise staff and understand their needs.
  • You want to be able to contribute more to your business - understanding how people work will help you get your ideas successfully across.
  • You run your own business and want to learn more about the management of staff so you can expand your team succesfully.
     

 ... What next?

 

 

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Meet some of our academics

John MasonMr Mason has worked 45+ years in Writing, Education, Horticulture and Recreation. His experience in both public & private sectors is extensive; particularly across Australia and England.
David CrothersChartered Accountant with 20 years experience in corporate and financial roles. David has a FCA, GAICD, B.Sc.Econ (Hons), Cert IV TAA. Extensive international experience in business and finance.
Kate Gibson B.Soc.Sc.15+ years experience in HR, marketing, education & project management. Kate has traveled and worked in a variety of locations including London, New Zealand and Australia.


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