...the UK’s statutory minimum wage would reduce unemployment and “get Britain working”. Discuss the merits of this statement referring to appropriate academic research/evidence. The national minimum wage (NMW) introduced in 1999 is the minimum amount the government expects employers to pay their employees per hour at work. At the present time (2012) the UK’s NMW is £6.19 per hour for employees over the age of 21 years. It sets a price floor in order to balance out the fairness of the work carried out and to ensure there is pay equality between staff. Unemployment involves people who are not currently in a job but are actively looking for work. There has been a high amount of unemployment in the UK with % of people out of work. It has been suggested that there is a link between the NWM and unemployment levels. This is that lowering the NMW would lead to more employment and get people into work. This is on the basis that the NMW is fixed under the equilibrium wage which labour supply and labour demand meet. However with the NMW posed over this equilibrium this leads to a decrease in employment. The graph (Smith 2003) shows that if the NMW is above the equilibrium then there is a surplus of labour demand. This is because firms decrease employment and demand for labour increases. Therefore, lowering the NMW below the equilibrium would lead to an increase in demand for labour with firms hiring more employees and so decreasing unemployment levels. The link between wages and...
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...Environmental and Legal) Analysis is a tool which is widely used by business managers for analysis of these critical factors. It is very helpful for development of strategic decision making. The Premier Inn’s PESTLE Analysis below critically evaluates and identifies different strategic in a competitive and dynamic environment. Political Positive and pragmatic collaboration with UK Government has brought Hospitality Industry into key success area of economic development in UK. Hospitality is the UK’s fifth largest industry, directly employing more than 2.4 m people and contributing over £34bn in gross tax revenues. As the generator of eight per cent of total employment, the industry is ahead of the financial services, transport and communications, and constructions sectors. Prime Minister David Cameron has recognised that tourism is one of five ‘big-ticket’ industries of the future and one that the government ‘should get behind’ especially as for every 0.5% increase in the UK’s share of the global tourism can add £2.7b to the economy and create 50,000 jobs. He set down two objectives for UK tourism: to recapture a position within the top five tourism destinations in the world measured in terms of inbound revenue (we have slipped to seventh place in recent years); and secondly, to increase to 50 per cent (from 36 per cent currently) the proportion of UK residents’ domestic...
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...Topic 2 - Business Environment of UK PESTL Analysis of UK A PESTLE analysis provides and analysis of six of the key macro level factors which affect the country and the decision which it makes. Political There are a wide range of political factors which affects UK at present but also factors which may have an impact upon the country in the future. One key political decision which affects UK is the rate of tax levied by the government. At present, levels of corporation tax in the UK have been lowered in order to attempt to stimulate economic activity. However, given the continuing deficit, there is no guarantee that governments in the future will maintain the rate of corporation tax at its current level. Other key political decisions consider interest rates. At present, UK interest rates stand at an all-time low of 0.5%. This may be seen as a positive factor for firms such as Next who are effectively able to borrow large amounts of money for the purposes of capital expansion at much lower rates than have been previously seen. Such borrowing may take place in the form of long term borrowings from banks and financial institutions, alternatively the company may choose to issue corporate bonds. Other political issues relate to the governments relatively "arm's length" approach to Europe and remaining outside of the single currency area. For UK the international operations in the Euro Zone, this could be seen as negative with the prospect of foreign exchange rate risks being felt...
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...can support the business objectives. HR personnel need to ensure they’re capturing relevant and correct information and using the output as effectively as possible. Companies would collect data to * Ensure they comply with employment legislation * Use it as a tool to manage and meet business objectives A company will monitor a number of elements such as, but not limited to : * Equal pay * Absence management Why would a company need to store data such as Minimum wage A company would to need store information about salary and in particular minimum wage to ensure they can report to Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) that they are compliant with the legislation surrounding minimum wage. HMRC can request information at any time on how many people are employed, what their wages are and how they are paid, what they have been paid over a number of years and how many hours they have worked. The working time regulations and national minimum wage act each require specific records relating to hours of work and pay details. This data can also be used to monitor equality in terms of remuneration. Or Absence management Monitoring and recording...
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...Matalan is the UK’s leading out of town fashion and homeware retailer and operates through 216 stores in the UK with an e-commerce platform and 11 overseas franchise stores. The company also operates with a purely online direct store and after their recent success with bathroom furniture saw the 2015 launch of Matalan value bedroom furniture from children’s pieces as well as higher end options, Maker (2015, p.13). Matalan Retail Limited was taken private in December 2006 by the acquisition of its parent company, Matalan Plc (now delisted and known as Matalan Limited), by Missouri Bidco Limited, subsequently renamed Matalan Finance Limited. Matalan Finance Limited has subsequently become a public limited company and is ultimately controlled by the Hargreaves family. This strategic starting point ensures the company’s performance is aligned positively with the ever-changing influences that may affect business environment. The radical and on-going changes occurring in society creates an uncertain environment and have a very big impact on the function of the whole organisation. I will conduct a PESTLE analysis concentrating on possible issues that may affect Matalan PLC. Matalan PLC is sensitive to a number of political factors being a department store supplying clothing alongside footwear and housewares. One of these factors consist of changes to the UK governments national minimum wage, as of 1st April 2016 rates rose from £6.70 to £7.20 for employees of a certain age GOV UK,...
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...operates all year round by supplementing its tourism trade during the off-season by offering discounted conferencing facilities for local businesses and as a cheap base for corporate events and activities, such as teambuilding weekends. Tourism is, however, vitally important for the region and its businesses and provides a significant proportion of all jobs in the South West. Cornwall can, however, be a difficult place in which to work. For instance, Newquay - Cornwall’s most popular holiday destination - is one of the UK’s unemployment black spots due to the seasonality of jobs with an unemployment rate several times higher than the national average, albeit falling considerably during the summer. Maintaining a relatively large permanently-employed workforce of 70 employees is a problem for the Seaside Hotel, given that demand during the off-season is highly unpredictable and when occupancy rates are low can place a significant burden on the hotel to pay their wages. Conversely, when demand is unexpectedly high during this time considerable pressure is placed on this ‘skeleton’ workforce to service the needs of customers. In order to cope with this variability of demand, the hotel has trained most of its ‘core’...
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...P1- Describe the internal and external factors to consider when planning the human resource requirements of an organisation M1 explain why human resource planning is important to an organisation Internal planning factors: The internal planning factors are what influences the organisation in what is already happening inside the organisation which include the skill requirements, organisational needs and workforce planning. Organisational needs: This is having all the correct roles filled within the tall structure with the suitable people in the business that can do the job right. All businesses will need change their organisational needs once in a while in the business this is due to the demand can influence the number of people needed in certain roles. Oxford spires Academy will need to consider the following the work force plan this is to make sure that they have a good support of staff with the correct skills in order to cater for OSA needs and students. Therefore they may need new staff for a particular subject to make the subject grow and to provide students with the right learning of that particular subject. This can be essential in OSA as without the right amount of staff it can mean they will lack the ability to provide all the students with the right teaching and it can take time to work with everyone. If they were to have a big group due to less teachers for the business lessons it can meet not every students needs will be met and this have an effect on their overall...
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...Grading tips Pass p4 To gain a pass you will need to describe the functional activities and their interdependencies (how they fit together) in two organisations. Use the same two organisations that you have been looking at for your assignment work so far on this unit, and draw charts and diagrams which show their functional activities. Explain in detail what each of the functions involves. Show how the functions fit together, e.g. the relationship between marketing and customer service, or how the call centre fits into the overall structure of the organisation. Draw a clear and well-labelled diagram of your organisation. Use lines and arrows to join up the various positions in the company. Then describe clearly what each of the functions involves and how they fit together. Merit m 2 To gain a merit you will need to compare the factors which influenced the development of the internal structures and functional activities of these organisations. Why do they have different structures? How does the structure relate to the particular sector (private/public/voluntary or charity) that the organisation is in? You may want to evaluate how effective the organisational structure is (does it work well or could it be improved?). If the organisations do not already provide organisational charts themselves you could construct one of your own from research about the organisation on its website and in documents. Perhaps you could write to the organisation...
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...Assignment 6 There are different factors which effect Morrison’s and Tesco. Even though they are both supermarkets, Morrison’s is a national business and Tesco is International, which means that they have different ways in which there business will work as the different laws and government. Morrison’s political factors that will affect their business activity is the tax rate in the UK, the UK tax rate changes all the time, and as the tax increases it means that the income will decrease, even though when tax increases, Morrison’s could raise the prices of their products that would mean that customers would not want to pay for the products, especially considering if the tax rate increased. The government policies in the UK will have to be considered, and Morrison’s would have to run so that the policies apply to their business, for example they follow the procedures for safe food. As Morrison’s are national, and are only based in the UK it means that there is only 1 government that they have to follow to, so the number of policies will be much less and this means that it will much a lot easier to be able to follow the legal policies. However as the tax increases, the income then decreases, this will affect the business by Morrison’s wouldn’t be able to raise their prices by much because customers will be affected by their own taxes so won’t want to pay more for products they originally thought they could afford, so the number of customers will decrease if taxes increase and the...
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...John James Sainsbury, and grew rapidly during the Victorian era. Sainsbury’s grew to become the largest grocery retailer in 1922, pioneered self-service retailing in the UK, and had its peak of success during the 1980s. However in 1995 Tesco overtook Sainsbury’s to become the market leader, and Asda became the second largest in 2003, putting Sainsbury’s into third place. (Museum of London. Unknown. The Sainsbury’s archive [Online] 22.03.2012) Sainsbury’s launched its TU fashion range in 2004, and is now housed in over 300 stores nationwide. Over the past six years, the retailer has seen its share of the £9.9bn value fashion market more than treble. The TU clothing range remains the UK’s seventh largest clothing brand by volume, TU kidswear however has gone from seventh place in 2011 to the UK’s sixth largest in 2012. (Drappers online, 2012, Sainsbury’s expected to reveal further gains in clothing market share. [Online] 22.03.2012) The Sainsbury’s TU clothing distribution centres are located in, Coventry, Warwickshire and Bedford, Bedfordshire. Sainsbury’s also have a deport in Buntingford Hertfordshire. This deport however isn’t usually in operation, but the site is still owned by Sainsbury’s and is often used at busy times, particularly at Christmas. Originally Sainsbury’s ran its own distribution network. However after an industrial dispute...
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...celebrating chefs, cooking styles, cuisine styles, eating local social media (trip advisor), and healthy eating. * Economical influences – income, unemployment, season variations, and special offers/deals. * Political influences – tax on food, Food Mountains, fair trade productions, import/export restrictions, health initiatives. * Technological influences - transportation, shelf life, quality of food, nutrition and packaging. The function of professional associations Associations Functions * British hospitality association The BHA, incorporating the restaurant association, is the UK’s national trade association for the hotel, food service and leisure industry. It has been representing the hotel, restaurant and catering industry for 90 years. The BHA’s main role is to unite the industry and make its views known to governments across the UK and in Europe. It also aims to lead the industry towards better practices, e.g. best practice forum. * Craft guild of chefs This is the leading chefs’ association in the UK, representing members worldwide. Activities include training and demonstrations. * Springboard UK * Springboard UK works with, and for, the industry to improve perceptions, promote the industry as a great place to work and help attract fresh talent. In doing so, Springboard works...
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...Economic report Economic data Economic environment | Inflation rate | Consumer Price Index (CPI) | GDP growth rate | Gross Domestic Product (GDP) | Interest rate | Unemployment rate | UK | 2.1% | 126.97 | 0.8% | 2.435 trillion USD | 0.5% | 7.6% | France | 0.7% | 127.46 | -0.1% | 2.613 trillion USD | 0.25% | 10.5% | Inflation Inflation is the overall rise in prices in the economy. For example, a 5 per cent inflation rate over the past 12 months means that the average increase in prices across the economy throughout the previous year was 5 per cent. In the UK, Inflation is measured by the variation in the Consumer price index (CPI). It’s a measure used to estimate the price change in a basket of goods/services consumed. Each month, around 12,000 prices of more than 600 goods/services are taken around the UK and from all different types of business (including online businesses) which sell the products to consumers. An average price for that month is worked out and then converted. The month’s statistics can then be compared to last month’s average price to calculate the percentage rise in prices over the period. Inflation can impact on businesses in the UK, because if inflation is high, businesses won’t be aware of what the prices will be in a couple of months’ time, let alone a couple of years. However, decisions have to be made which will affect the business in the long-term as it is creating uncertainty. Also if prices rise, consumers will be less willing to borrow money...
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...parenting styles, and sometimes the lack of rest (George, 2009). Around 43% of children live within a single parent home that is at or below the national poverty level (George, 2009). Due to not being financially stable, some single parents are forced to live in low-income neighborhoods which result into poor schooling systems. More children are likely to drop out of school and to be raised in poverty. Consequently there are more like to be teen pregnancies. Around 60% of are raised by young single parents who are less likely to get married (Feldman, 2011). In addition to teenagers are more likely to raised their child without the help and support of the father, as a result most teenagers abandon their education and have to rely on minimum wage jobs for a source of income (Feldman, 2011). According to Feldman, “ The consequences of living in a single parent families depends on the financial condition of the family and, if there had been two- parents, the level of hostility that existed between them” (Feldman 2011). the majority of people think the cause is whether there were two parents at first and situation changed leaving one parent to raise the child. Additionally the economic status is a very important aspect on determining what types of consequences the child will grow up with. Consistent with Bramlett &...
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...unequal income distribution. But for the United States, it has examining percentile distributions. The US is using five groups to show the percentage of income received. As we can see from the table U.S. Census Bureau, the proportion received by the poorest Americans has remained virtually unchanged. Most of the observed changes occurred between 1929-1970, probably reflecting the impact of the great depression and new government programs in the 1930s, as well as World War II from 1950-1980, so there was a little change in the overall distribution (from textbook). Therefore, many things can influence the income distribution, such as wage payment systems change, tax laws change, transfer payment systems change, property rights change, economic systems change and general economic conditions change. b) As we know, the income for workers, it might be wages or salaries for a month. The dividend is the income for stock owners. Interest is the income for holders of savings accounts. Individuals will have several sources of income, but labor income is the main source of income for many individuals and families. The labor income could affect by age, skill and human capital, worker preferences, and job preferences. Younger people with few skills tend to make little income when...
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...apply cost cutting measures and cut down the numbers of non-core staff to maintain a profitable situation. Based on the economic forecast -optimum but fragile- the company could operate on a profitable level which indicates the company wants to maintain a level of production which it used to, but is worried about the future in this fragile economy. So the company decided to hire temporary / limited term staff. The headquarters of the North American branch of Schukra Inc. could not be properly operated without the support of the technical and engineering expertise of top management. So they trying to accommodate them their best in order to maintain the core function of the company. This decision is implied by two commitments: maintaining the wage rate and health and welfare benefits, and job security. To coordinate the decisions which benefit the core workers, the company decided to increase the production level by hiring temporary workers who are introduced by an outside agency. Most of the temporary...
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