Usually, the new employee is inducted into the business first of all. This training involves going over the basics of the position and an overview of how the organisation was founded and how it functions. Training is then likely to continue throughout the employee’s time at the business, at different stages of their career.

Extended training is important because it:

– Improves employability
– Means that employees are multi-skilled and flexible within different roles
– Increases job satisfaction and motivation within the workforce
– Increases an employee’s chance of being promoted to a higher position

Training is either on-the-job or off-the-job. On-the-job takes place at the employee’s workplace while off-the-job training courses that occur elsewhere, for example at a conference centre or local college.

Once employees have attended a training course it’s important that they assess it and provide feedback to the HRM department. This is beneficial to the employees, as it shows if they found it worthwhile therefore indicating if they require further training or not, and to the business, because if the feedback is mostly negative they should spend their finances on another course instead.

As well as recruiting staff, the HRM department is responsible for terminating contracts of employment. There are a number of reasons why a contract of employment is terminated:

– Redundancy: this is used to downsize a workforce at certain times, for instance during a recession or when the industry is in decline. Redundancy can be voluntary (the worker opts for a redundancy package), compulsory (they have no choice but to accept), last-in-first-out (employees recruited leave first), or retention by merit (the employees who are least effective have to leave).
– Retirement: when an employee reaches the end of their working life they may choose to retire. As well as their state and private pensions, they’ll often get a lump-sum payout from the company.
– Transfers and resignation: this is when an employee decides to leave a company and start a job elsewhere.
– Dismissal: this is when a business terminates a contract because the employee has broken the terms of it. Reasons include racial or sexual harassment, destroying business property, and bad timekeeping.

The reasons above are known as fair dismissal. If an employee feels they were dismissed unfairly, for example because of their race or sexual orientation, then they can apply to have their case heard at an industrial tribunal.

This court deals specifically with unfair dismissal and discrimination in the workplace. If successful at proving that the dismissal was unfair the employee is given the opportunity to return to their previous role. They also receive a financial award to cover any loss of earning as well as pain and suffering caused.