 | |
| |
 | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
THE NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE AND TRAINING Research report commissioned by the Low Pay Commission >>Back to main index Appendix 2: Case Studies (b) County Town The Day Care Centre The boundaries between the private sector, the voluntary sector and the non-profit-making sector can be difficult to distinguish in the care sector. This organisation is a registered charity providing a day care service, encompassing social, health and cultural services to older people of 55 and over. Key issues The Centre must obtain external funding to maintain the service. This involves making grant applications and fund-raising activities. As funding agencies tend to provide about half of the planned expenditure it is necessary to raise money for training through fundraising activities. This makes the planning of the service and staffing for the medium term difficult. Staff The Day Care Centre employs 6 full-time employees working for over 35 hours per week and 4 part-time employees working 18 hours or more per week. All the staff are aged over 22 years. Though in one case a clerk/carer had worked there for nearly 10 years the Centre Manager did point out that the reality of charity fundraising tends to constrain long-term career prospects. In fact scarce funds significantly impact the ability to provide staff training and it is not possible for the organisation to provide retraining for staff wishing to pursue a long term career in care. The management strategy of the centre is to retain employees by providing an attractive pay rate which varies from £5.50, at the lowest, to £8.80 per hour. Training As is appropriate for the care sector the organisation has a policy on training that dictates that all staff receive training on aspects of care. The Centre does not operate a separate training budget but has to fund the training from normal expenditure funds. In reality the organisation is too small to undertake in-house training so the training is provided by networking with other voluntary care organisations which are large enough to operate budgeted training programmes. Additionally the free courses that are provided by the Social Services Department are used, together with the facilities of County Town College. The management team determine the training needs of individual employees by appraising employee performance regularly. Training decisions are made by the Centre Manager who also provides the training. The objective of the training is to improve employees’ performance and to meet statutory standards in the sector which require staff to obtain NVQ qualifications. All full-time staff at the Centre are trained to at least NVQ level 2 in relevant care subjects such as first aid, food hygiene and manual handling. A relatively junior part-time worker who was interviewed confirmed that she was working towards her NVQ qualification, which includes off-the-job training. The Centre manager paid tribute to County Town College which represents ‘a great resource to us’, providing an advisory service for training and development in general. The impact of the NMW There have been no significant effects from the introduction of the NMW because the wage rates in use throughout this sector in County Town are set at a higher level. It has not affected staff retention of staff and nor caused the organisation to introduce additional job improvement strategies. The Day Care Centre does not use the Development Rate for adults and young people and does not use the Modern Apprenticeship scheme. It does not employ young people and concentrates training on established workers. The Town Hotel This independently owned hotel has traded for over 16 years. In addition to the normal provision of hotel rooms it caters for conferences, weddings and other functions. The hotel is audited by the AA, the English Tourist Board and Best Western and this has been a major driver in the management’s approach to training and development. The hotel owner had a very positive attitude to staff training and believed it was contributing to the quality standards that his business needs to attain. He was enthusiastic about the role that Government support for small businesses had had on the formation of his business. He argued that ‘the whole success of this business (if you take out the fact that we kill ourselves running it) was due to the advice we received 18 years ago from a business councillor, a hotelier himself, which was arranged and paid for by the Government Small Firm Service. It was a totally and utterly remarkable experience, having had a private successful business person coach and guide us through, looking for and assessing our needs and abilities, to the point where the operation was used as an example of how successful this scheme could be when Tim Eggar, the Minister, spoke in Parliament’. Staff The hotel operates with a high staff complement for a hotel of this size and is able to offer training and rapid advancement for staff who demonstrate commitment and aptitude. The approach that is taken by the management is to carefully select young staff who must demonstrate appropriate educational level, dress and appearance, conventional behaviour traits and social skills. The business has two employees who are under 18 years of age, three in the age range of 18-21 years and 18 employees of 22 years and above. Of these employees 7 work full-time and the rest part-time hours. The hotel owner cites the recruitment, retention and development of suitable staff as a major challenge for his business. Training The hotel is prepared to invest in people to reach a range of appropriate qualifications in order to meet the service targets which are required. The hotel is audited by a range of external organisations and the staff need the professional skills that are expected of these organisations to maintain and improve attractive service endorsements. Staff training depends on the educational background of the individual employee together with their aspirations and the skill needs of the business. Overall the hotel has sufficient staff to provide cover for a number of employees to attend college courses. The hotel also has the financial resources to provide them with paid time off work to attend these courses. For example the senior manager is paid to attend coursework towards his HCIMA (Hotel Catering International Management Association) award. The owner is considering the wishes of another manager to undertake a degree in Business Management on the same basis. Further down the organisation there are numerous examples of NVQ qualifications being supported in this way, often towards catering qualifications. Decisions on training are made by the hotel owner and his business partner. They operate no particular training budget but support training through the business cash-flow. The hotel gets training advice from County Town College. It fosters a culture of self-advancement amongst the staff by funding training that they express interest in that is relevant to the business. There were several examples of staff who had undertaken courses on this basis. A member of the kitchen staff who had started working as a cleaner had studied a year long college course in food preparation on a day release basis. She had subsequently been promoted to her present position as a breakfast chef. A woman, who is a junior chef was being trained for NVQ level 3 in kitchen larder. The impact of the NMW The NMW had not affected the hotel because it paid above the NMW when it was introduced. Since the recruitment of ‘committed young people’ is perceived as a major problem, the owner can see no benefits to offering a reduced rate to young people and was neither aware of nor interested in the Youth Development Rate. For the same reason, the Adult Development Rate is of no interest. The Leather Goods Shop This well-established business, which has been trading since 1979, specialises in selling luggage and handbags. When asked about the future development of his business the owner’s comment was: ‘I’d like to know about how to retain staff and the issue is not just about money!’ Staff The business employs three people, all aged over 22 years of age. Of these employees there is one full-time employee working over 40 hours per week and two part-timers who work between 16 and 24 hours per week. The shop-owner believes that staff recruitment and retention is the biggest difficulty that is faced by the business. He described how the labour market of retail workers in County Town is highly competitive and the going market rate is £5.00 per hour. He felt he could not pay above this as there was relatively little work to do in the shop, which mainly involved waiting for customers to come in. Training The owner of the shop provides all the training that is required and this is mainly on-the-job coaching. A new recruit would be provided with induction and would then receive product training. All staff are provided with training when the shop takes on new products. The shop is not required to meet any externally certified training standards and therefore training is provided entirely at the discretion of the owner. The shop does not have a training budget and does not really receive advice on training although the owner did say that he could obtain training and development advice from the County Town Chamber of Commerce. Although the owner stressed that the skills required for the job were mainly product knowledge and customer service skills, the member of staff interviewed had considerable experience of the industry. She had received sales, marketing and customer service training in a previous job in the luggage industry before being recruited to her present job. The impact of the NMW The business had not been affected by the introduction of the NMW because the business already paid above it. The owner was neither aware of nor interested in the existence of the Development Rate and exemptions to the NMW, nor in government training programmes for young people. | |
| |
