Different job roles and responsibilities (directors, senior managers, supervisors/team leaders, operational and support staff); and how businesses recruit people, including documents (person specification, job description, application form, CV) and recruitment methods (internal and external).

What this dot point is asking

Edexcel wants you to explain the main job roles and responsibilities in a business and how businesses recruit people, including the documents used and the difference between internal and external recruitment.

Job roles and responsibilities

A business is made up of different roles at different levels of responsibility. Directors sit at the top, setting strategy and answering to the owners. Senior managers run big areas (such as marketing or operations) within that strategy. Supervisors and team leaders manage staff on the ground, organising daily work. Operational staff do the core job, and support staff keep the business running behind the scenes. Understanding these roles helps explain the chain of command and how decisions and responsibilities flow through a business.

The documents used in recruitment

Recruitment starts with the business defining the role. The job description says what the job involves; the person specification says what kind of person can do it. Candidates then apply using an application form (which makes comparison easy because everyone answers the same questions) or by sending a CV (their own summary). The business uses these documents to shortlist the best candidates to interview, judging applicants against the person specification.

Internal and external recruitment

A business chooses internal or external recruitment depending on the role and its needs. Internal recruitment (promoting or moving an existing employee) is cheaper, quicker and motivating, and the person is already known and familiar with the business, but it only shuffles the gap elsewhere and brings in no new ideas. External recruitment (advertising to outsiders) gives a much wider choice of candidates and injects fresh skills and ideas, which is valuable when the business needs something its current staff lack, but it costs more, takes longer, and the new hire is a risk until proven. Often a business advertises internally and externally at once.

Try this

Q1. State one responsibility of a director in a business. [1 mark]

• Cue. Setting the overall aims, objectives or strategy of the business.

Q2. Explain one advantage to a business of recruiting internally. [3 marks]

• Cue. It is cheaper and faster and the candidate already knows the business, plus promotion motivates existing staff.