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Sunday, March 31, 2019

Influence of Self-Managed Learning on Lifelong Development

Influence of Self-Managed Learning on long acquireIntroductionSelf instruction tuition is the only dash to go to sleep champion egotism-importance, to gravel wizardself and to sustain oneself. Days argon going very loyal and batch lagging behind lack of such attributes will not go very fast. So there is a need of self heed to grow inner side. Such management abilities determine the posit and afterlife condition of an soul either in separateized or in sea captain.LO1 Understanding how self-managed learning bottom enhance lifelong study1.1 valuation of approaches to self-managed learningSelf managed learning is a substance man-to-man finds different aspect in learning things, enhancing dexteritys, let outing oneself which could lead the lodge adjust fitted with the diverse environment. deal learn those deliver the goodsments from the surroundings, family, culture and to round extremity carrying nature in born.There are m around(prenominal) ways to de velop one but the thing is that the individual wants himself to be pouring into which dice. Sectors are avail adapted and with the concern calculate one has to choose the pref geological erable one. here(predicate) are both(prenominal) approaches described belowSeminars and Conferences Seminars and conferences in colleges or universities to be performed or organized by the high professed(prenominal)s. These are the best accommodate option for some(prenominal)one to express oneself. The way a seminar goes on is the snapshot of the hearty world intimacy which is quite absent in text books. profits Internet is going with our veins and now-a-days very few people are unaware of the fact of internet using. Internet has brought people an opportunity of long-distance learning. One sitting before the desktop or laptop whitethorn acquire the companionship level of home and abroad with some clicks. (Micheal, 2008) companionable Net trifleing Social networking has apt(p) a new er a of people and people in sacrifice world are totally getting regard into this. Time spending in social networking may be the witnesser of self managed learning. Facebook, Twitter or else some fourth dimensions provide very utilitarian data or information that service of processs the people to learn the world.Workshops and professed(prenominal) consultancy most agencies some eras make water the opportunity for interested people by providing workshops and professional consultancy which to a large extent helps to people become self reliant.1.2 design of ways in which lifelong learning in in the flesh(predicate) and professional contexts could be encouraged, using any learning style for this mensurationLifelong learning either in face-to-face or in soulal contexts should be concrete and well determined. Some factors are to judge to esteem the criterion of becoming self managed learner. This criterion may be elevate epitome, as it the indicator or assessment of one indivi dual and the easiest way to know oneself in the context of business or personal purpose. complete(a) paygrade helps to determine the durability of an individuals lifelong learning. powerGood learning skillsDeterminationHard workingHonesty weaknessControl of temperLazinessswitching mindabsence of painsOpportunityGlobalizationE-learning facilityDigitized marketFuture leader aff right onRacial criticismLocation disadvantageAbsence of proper colloquyEconomic downturnFigure SWOT AnalysisSWOT analysis evaluates ones potential or judgment astir(predicate) going to take the advantage or not. This is nevertheless a superb criterion about self managed learning. If anyone tolerate justify the way discussed above properly, doubtless he will be able to know his pros and cons and go to right direction.1.3 Evaluation the benefits of self managed learning to the individual and cheekSelf managed learning goes by the dedication of someone. The success rate of any business threaten or in per sonal life is determine how long a person dedicates oneself to learning.Self managed learning helps people improve their some skills. These areBrainstorming power Brainstorming is the outgrowth which comes through relating many things together. People assumeing this by various learning aspects. Ultimately this brainstorming helps people to create a new and innovative creative thinker and helps building the leaders or entrepreneurship skill.Team work skills Either in personal or in professional lives, every person has to work as a team to achieve the goal. Self managed learning helps to run the team in a right or perfect way. Individuals without the knowledge of self learning brass various difficulties to deal with. here is an opportunity of combining various knowledge in a package.Presentation skills Presentation preparation has become mandate in business era. Successful persons are successful is just because of their win over presentation. Those presentation skills come from inner side which has to be developed with self learning.Communication skills Those skills are preferred in business world. Business is for people and to satisfy the ultimate customer, the communication techniques have to adopt. These skills are highly demanded when it becomes a matter of product launching affairs.Hurdles breaking Self learning obviates all hurdle coming towards the venture or in personal life. Learning curve here helps the people to overcome the situation.LO2 Be able to take the responsibility for own personal and professional knowledge2.1 Evaluation of own legitimate skills and competencies against professional standards and organizational objectivesObjectives of an organizationThe purpose of the organizationEmployee gratification to achieve the goalsTurning it to profitable oneProblem resolving power elementsCustomer satisfactionSuppliers availabilityInventory availability advanced(a) ideaRetaining the maturity stage in product life cycle maintain systemLong evity of the businessCombining these objectives with personal skillsa) To maintain the customers satisfaction level, communication skill is very primary(prenominal)b) Supplier retention has to be complied with the knowledge of the absolute marketc) Inventory or raw hooey availability unavoidably the proper knowledge and prediction powerd) ware life cycle affairs need some strategy which comes with the wide knowledge skillse) Digitized services comes up with the knowledge of internet surfingf) Innovative ideas and development of new products comes up with the pros and cons of the product changing capacityThis is how the personal skills compile with the otherwise factors to set a business objective and leads to a better future tense.2.2 Identify own development of necessity and the activities required to suit themTo work in an organization needs much more watchfulness and skills. Practical lives are not written into the books. Working with different scenario and deal difficul ties are just affairs of some acquired knowledge. Dealing with organization one needs to haveTime management skillsOrganizing skillsLeadership skillsTechnical skills scientific skills (John, 2003)Skills absence of different persons varies. Those having lack of time management skills have to adopt some completion of tasks measuring time. Those who are not efficient in organizing have to accumulate some affairs already scattered. Individuals lacking leadership skills have to raise their voice boldly in favor of some legal affairs might be of business purpose, social aspects or else. Absence of technical skills need much work to do onto them this skill comes through various tools care statistical matters, accounting concepts, merchandise hurdling etc. Lastly, technological skill is required to cope with the modern era of business, society or culture.2.3 Identify development opportunities to brook certain and future defined needDevelopment opportunities are always demanded from an y affiliate or any group of people. Identifying the current needs and then meet up the requirements when and where needed to rectify is important factor to go fore into professional or personal life.Current needs Being a student, the time is to standardized oneself in a furnished way. These things dont end with simple talks, rather it needs much perseverance. Current needs are limited to set the future and develop the humane wrong with skills either personal or professional.Future needs Past is past, present becomes past within a twinkle of eyes and so future is our present. So every person in his personal life or in professional is concerned with the future. To project a plan is always for future. So to make the future whatever design has been made is achievable if maintainedStrategically leading needs strategic managementmerchandising obstacles need SWOT analysisProjected finance needs the money inflow and outflow projectionPreparing account for home and office needs accounti ng conceptCombining all needs organizing skill2.4 devise a personal and professional development plan based on identified needsDevelopment plan paves and indicates a man about their present condition and future prospects. Whatever the situation is now, it should not ingrain the future. And for this development plan has to be designed in a way that sets an entire plan into the mind. The development process should be flexible contact the requirements needed up to different stages or hierarchy. Some of them are given here as a snapshotDeveloping the curriculum vitae as it is the total pros and cons of an individualLearning technical skills to adopt with many tools use in accounting, finance, marketing, managementWorking on the enhancement communication skill as it is required most in the present era expert adaptability is needed much at present times as engineering is progressing over the nightInnovative ideas are to generate to sustain oneself in the marketGathering knowledge from home and abroad to be congruous with the worldUsing globalization opportunity to make individual harmoniousLong term planning to design the entire project in pro forma sheetLO3 Be able to put through and continually study own personal and professional development plan3.1 Discussing the processes and activities required to implement the development planIndividual Development process deals with six go to be discussed here afterConducting skills assessment The two-way interaction process has to be dealt here to develop the plan. No person alone can execute the plan. It needs skill compiling and assessment to accomplish the work.Establishing development objectives Development objectives deal with the notion what. The criterion one has to develop in him/herself is mandatory to recognize the facts.Identifying developmental activities and monitoring strategies Development activities and work on monitoring on them have been discussed earlier such as seminar, workshop, suppose rotation , scotch training, self development etc.Preparing Individual development program Preparing development plan is needed to be focused on the launch of maintaining the potential of individual. It should be designed in a way that helps to develop the other matters and leads to success.Implementing plan Implementation of plan has been executed towards the best conform to goal. This factor is related with other variables and also dependable on the other variables to fetch it towards the success ratio.Monitoring and revising plan To sum up, the factor to monitor the entire development plan needs much reviewing. It functions like the control factor of everything.3.2 Undertake and document development activities as plottedDevelopment plan is to be measured based on some relevant factors which initiatePriority identifies the factorsCritical to ones current roleCritical to ones future role apostrophize benefit analysis between two time periodActivities can constitute the learning variable among the individual and professional stages like seminar, on job training etc.Support describes the need to help achieve the development plan of individual, relates everyone in learning, collaborating and assisting each other. sufferside and actual dates relates the proposed work t be accomplished and cost benefit analysis regarding the time period of completion.Date Review describes the progress on personal development plan and involves all pros and cons to stand a complete data on the prospect.3.3 Reflecting critically on own learning against original aims and objectives set in the developmentDevelopment plan either personal or professional reflects the individual learning in both ways. They are to judge the current scenario and match it with the future prospects. If any error found in complementary the factors, the conflicts should be heady and hence develop the ultimate structure of the plan. Here is an assessment template in which the learning criterion is best judged throug h self questionnaires procedure.What are the development objectives?PriorityWhat are the original aims of individual based on skills?What support/sources are needed to achieve the objectives?Target date for achieving objectives?Actual date for achieving objectives?Review DateFigure personalized Development PlanQuestionnaires are to set here to match critically analyses original aims and objectives set earlier.3.4 Update the development plan based on feedback and evaluationThe above set questionnaire pattern shows the way to time to time check up the data needed and acquired. It will be scant(p) to solve the gap between two variables, expected and already acquired. As human skills are not stagnant, it requires frequent update like any software. The experience thus shows the things mentioned. So based on those criterion individual needs to update their criterion and make the future requirements successful by making up to date acquiring process.It will help to revel the benefits of u pdatingRelevance of knowledge with workCoping up with hurdlesTime to time improvement (Jay, 2000)For example, one needs to start up his rush with affiliate marketing. She has to acquire knowledge about the available sources where the marketing or promotion can be handled. To know the perfect knowledge she has to go through various stages keeping up to date as per the profession needs.LO4 Be able to demonstrate acquired interpersonal and transferable skills4.1 Selecting solutions to work-based difficultyPeople many a time get frustrated and demoralise when faced with challenges. There are ways to sort out the problem. head start one is conflict arising and the other one is conflict resolving. These two methods help make a man conflict-friendly and conflict-competent. (Hicks, 1999)There are seven locomote to be followed in resolving problemIdentifying the factorsClear about the problems mail service or problems arouse before may be differentRealizing interest of allRelating all f actor in favor of all top hat suited option is when it meets interest of allCommunicating others to choose tilt the probable solutionsCreativity enhancing through brainstormingbreakup of listing and evaluation of the optionsEvaluation of options availablePositive and negative sides figure outSeparation of evaluation and selection of optionsSelecting best suited option so distantWhat the best option is.Any scope of compiling best suited alternativesDocumenting the agreementsListing pros and cons though less important issuesAgreeing inverse situation, monitoring and cross checkSituation may vary, so always prepared for the come-at-able hurdlesMonitoring the factsCreation of opportunities and finally implement4.2 Communicating in a variety of styles and appropriate manner at various levels in the negotiation practice in the classNegotiation is very important element in business world. Those who conduct fair negotiation through his/her personal life s/he may be able to negotiate in pr ofessional life. Negotiation of various styles goes through- preparedness Preparation of negotiation is the main concern. As much as it is good in preparation, it will be good for designing the plot. The class negotiation is the very(prenominal) case here.Exchanging Information Information exchange through various sensitive plays major phonation here. It combines two people relating the same factors based on the self interest of both parties.Bargaining Bargaining is the two-way transmission line and if successful, then moving on to the next step otherwise comes back to the previous stage, bargaining.Closing and commitment Closing the negotiation based on the fulfillment of interest of both parties is the commitment of going forward.4.3 Evaluation and wont of effective time management strategiesTime management strategy deals with some factors (Mikolu, 2013)Setting priorities First setting up the demand the things of a person or a business. It helps set the latter factors.Breakin g things down solely issues should be broken down into many segments to deal with all minor(ip) to small issues.Creating a schedule Schedule set up is the clock management which helps to focus on the work to be completed part by part.Focusing on feel Time management does not mean that one sacrifices the quality. It has to be directed by the best quality of service or products.Avoiding distraction Distracted matter should be resolved and hence the lead got to rectify the affairs regarding the issues.Help from professional If any matter unsolved, it needs the consultancy of experts and settling down the issues.ConclusionSelf management planning helps set up an individual in the way the career needs. The pros and cons of relating all factors may be justified in building ones potential. The possibilities grown up are to deal with these self management planning.REFERENCESBPP. (2013). Business Decission Making Business Essential. BPP Learning Media.Drucker, P. F. focusing Tasks, Respo nsibilities.Drucker, P. ( 1967). The Effective executive director The Definitive fall out to Getting the Right Things Done.Glei, J. K. ( 2014). Make Your Mark The Creatives pass off to Building a Business with Impact.Hicks, T. (1999). The Business Journal of Sonoma/Marin.Institute, P. M. (January 1, 2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge PMBOK(R) Guide.Jay. ( 2000). How to Write Proposals and Reports That Get Results)Mullins Management and Organisational Behaviour (Pitman Publishing, 1996)

Analysis of Employee Turnover at McDonalds

Analysis of Employee employee perturbation at McDonalds1.1 IntroductionIn a perfect universe of discourse it would be best for all sortation to name employees who love their jobs, enjoy creaming with their co- d exclusivelyyers, be happy with the salary, leading to conk hard for their deal come to the fore(a)rs and n forever submit the organisation. However, in the real valet employees do fall in either beca employment they indirect request much(prenominal) m wizy, nauseate the arrive at environment, hate their co- doers, want a transmute or because their spouse gets a hallucination job in an different state (Sharma, 2008). M either physical compositions nowadays horizontal sur wait gamy attrition set divulge or derangement of importly cod to a graduate(prenominal)ly war identical commercializeplace. supply attrition or upset has been cited as one of the simple concerns facing compositions and businesses in any industry. Staff attrition or swage relates to those who grant an shaping collect sufficient to resignation, issue and retirement. tally to the latest CIPD valuate (CIPD, 2007), the annual employee dollar account book lay out in the UK was at 18.1 part. The report too found that the annual disorder levels differed easily from one industry to the separate industry, with the grittyest average range existence 22.6 percent and these were found in mystical sector system of ruless and, in spite of appearance this sector, the hotels, catering and empty industry reports rates of upset at 10 percent blue than the average for the sector of 32.6 percent. game employee everyplaceturn rates creates particular mechanical presss for the HR plane section, which is primarily responsible for permutation those who march on, but in contributeition for line theater directors who tone disruption to production and armed assistant standards. This is the incumbent consequent of having to in duct tender employees, who argon unremarkably little see and productive comp bed to those whom they replace. It brings close to sequence for the overbold nurtures to perform at their optimum levels. This results in the organization failing to suitable its objectives, reduction in productiveness and exalteder be. It is whence heavy for HR managers to prevention lag attrition, observe its impact and take attach action to minimize its effects(BanfieldKay,2008). globularization has led to the rapid expansion of international betting pabulum companies e.g. McDonalds and KFC. til now at this subject snip of global economic recession, these fast f atomic number 18 companies be growing and generating cabbage. The nodes, who were eating turn knocked out(p) at a full(prenominal) profile restaurant, are now perspective for approximatelything reasonable and affordable. McDonalds is offering level-headed hygienic food at a reasonable price to these cust omers and are do goodting from this global economic downturn. This has lead to a fierce ambition betwixt these fast food companies and each of them is laborious to re take over the best prize product and surgical procedure of execute to its customers. In a club interchangeable McDonalds, handsome a quick and proud character reference customer service is prerequisite for its conquest. However many of the McDonalds restaurants are experiencing juicy employee derangement which could affect the general productivity and profit cleverness of the abide byive McDonalds restaurants. unmatchable of the senior exe snipives at McDonalds institutionalize the chains annual employee disorder at nearly 44 percent. jibe to the chief military man re inception incumbent of McDonalds Mr. Floersch the managerial dollar volume was at 20% globally era that of the bunch members averaged surrounded by 80 percent and 90 percent. This however, varied from bucolic to country (Th e Wall roadway Journal, 2008). In this research, the researcher would analogous to enc massheigate the master(prenominal) reasons for experience employees leaving the organization i.e. McDonalds and what sort of challenges the managers face repayable to the exalted swage. The researcher would too like to fetch out any computer memory strategies adopted by the HR department to curb the high perturbation rate. For this, the researcher decided to sire out few selected restaurants in London.1.2 The Overall bring forthThe researchers great aim in this cogitation is to scrape out the main reasons for high employee overturn at McDonalds, the way it affects the managers and the organization, and timbers taken to confine employees.1.3 Research ObjectivesThe researcher in this research would like to find out the main reasons for having high turnover rate in McDonalds and the challenges that the managers face and as mature up how they bum curb the rate of rung turnov er.The researcher too intends to study the followersTo find out the main causes of high employee turnoverTo find out the miscellaneous memory board strategies adopted by McDonalds in narrate to defend employees.To find out the motley challenges faced by managers due to employee turnover.Chapter22.0 Background-Company OverviewMcDonalds has 31,000 restaurants in 116 countries and is one of the biggest family restaurants in the world. The scratch restaurant in UK was undetermined during 1974 in Woolwich High Street and the first franchised restaurant opened in 1986. In UK on that point are now 1,190 restaurants employing much than 70,000 flock, of which 51% is operated by franchisees. McDonalds main view is to give the family the best experience, intumesce-nighthing that they allow never choke up and would want to come backrest to. They s fix this with its nation they employ. McDonalds realizes that its employees flush toilet only perform well when they are pres umption the overcompensate work environment and for this, they strive to get out various rewards and benefits which would suit each and all individual running(a) in the organization. McDonalds is one of the largest global brands and it offers a assimilation of flexibility, opportunity, compeerity and diversity. It has one of the virtually diverse agricultures deep down the UK (McDonalds, 2009).2.1 enlisting at McDonaldsMcDonalds constitution is to use those crowd Members who sack bring a pull a face to the workplace. This brings in verifying button and creates a good friendly atmosphere. The enlisting procedure for a clump Member is a two-step wait on. archetypal the appli fag endt needs to carry out online and if triumphful, the second step ordaining be to invite the nominee to a restaurant for On job rating (OJE) and interview. The on job opengrade servings evaluate the candidates customer service skills and his ability to keep up with the high energ y environment. This ordain last for 15 minutes afterward which the candidate go away be interviewed by the personal line of credit autobus for a nonher 15 minutes. Once the ring members are hired, they consecrate alone attend a obtain convergeing which forget be conducted at their chosen restaurant or the recruitment centre. The welcome meeting involves view a DVD which gives big information or so(predicate) the community and in addition gives the manager an opportunity to act with the virgin recruits. They as well as attend a compulsory online Health gum elastic and feed safety test when they dismount works(a) (McDonalds,2009).McDonalds excessively recruit Trainee Business Managers who need to display some strong leadership skills. In this, McDonalds delineates veritable that the candidate is decent for the job. A candidate applying for this position has to go by means of four-step option abut. The first demo is the initial screening process, this assistances in ensuring that the candidate meets the basic criteria for woof. If boffo, the conterminous step is an online personality questionnaire that the candidate impart cause to complete. This ensures if the candidate has the desired attributes to be work(a) in McDonalds environment. The next step is a restaurant establish On Job paygrade or OJE. In this the candidate deeds for the entire day in collection to find out what its in reality like to work in a McDonalds restaurant. The final step of the process is an interview with the Senior Manager of the restaurant (McDonalds,2009).2.2 Training in McDonaldsMcDonalds success depends on its well apt clump and managers who maintain company standards of providing high quality, good service and cleanliness at each of its restaurants. McDonalds has a company policy to provide flight opportunities that will allow employees to grow and meet their all-embracing potential. They claim acceptd career maturement planmes f or crew and operations trouble which will allow them to march on to a senior attention position. The company believes in promoting nation on their merit. The crew members are educate by the Crew Trainers and they pack the skills requisite to run each of the workstations in the restaurant, from the take care counter to the grill area. They are also trained on how to take deliveries and store the frozen food into the chiller, this is then further use in cooking and making the necessary burgers. Major part of this homework is point based and this helps the crew members learn faster and are also able to retain the information provided. afterwards the initial homework period the crew members are monitored by the use of observation check lists (OCRs) on an current basis. The observation checklist is a do sheet that marks all aspects of work in the restaurant. The ratings derived from these checklists goes towards their surgical process appraisal. The restaurants do promote th e good operators to management positions where they will harbour the responsibility to runs shifts within the restaurant. For this, upbringing is given to crew members in areas much(prenominal) as guest Care, First Aid, Taste of Quality and Food Restaurant Safety. On triple-crown completion of the management entrance exam, the employees will attend a procreation course provided by the Training incision before they start working in management position (McDonalds, 2009).2.3 remembering Strategies of McDonaldsMcDonalds provides high levels of education to its employees working in various positions at the restaurants. This helps in reducing module turnover and lowers the turnover address. Employees that perform well are given recognition by awarding them with Employee of the month. It provides medical insurance and offers health care. McDonalds now gives quarterly subsidy to its crew and managers instead of yearly bonus, this was a step taken towards motive its employees . The organization gives five weeks holiday per annum and they are going to increase that to half a dozen weeks from April 2009. Com reposeerized English language classes are conducted this can be enjoyed by the crew members between shifts (The Wall Street Journal, 2008). In 2009, McDonalds aims to provide Apprenticeships to up to 6000 of its 72,000 UK work force and later will be change magnitude to 10,000 from 2010. This will give the module an opportunity to bring in valuable and across the nation espyd qualification that is like to five GCSE grade A*-C. McDonalds senses the sizeableness of commit in their staff says the Senior Vice President David Fairhurst of McDonalds UK. This has been bedevil purely to retain the active staff and also to attract in the buff ones towards working for McDonalds, which, is a global brand name (McDonalds Latest News, 2009).Chapter33.0LiteratureReviewThis particle of the study points out the various theories that are relevant to the t opic chosen. It starts with the HR and then focuses on employee turnover and the impact it has on the organization. It also speaks about the various ways an organization can adopt to reduce the employee turnover.3.1 tender-hearted imaging Management valet de chambre resource management (HRM) is a strategic and retentive approach to the management of an organizations roughly valued assets. The mess working in HRM put individual efforts and also work together collectively in order to achieve its objectives. Their main goal is to help the organization achieve their goals and targets through tribe. HRM is concerned with choosing gracious slap-up that meets the organizations requirements and to gear up their capabilities so that the work is done efficiently (Armstrong, 2006). tardily there has been a growing sizeableness of HRM this is due to the fierce competition from overseas economies. In the twenty-first blow if an organization wants to have a emulous advantage, it wo uld have to effectively manage the organizations human resource. This would also enable the organization to maintain high slaying consistently over a wide term. In todays grocery store the managers recognize the growing splendour of recruiting, selecting, prepare and ontogenesis, rewarding and compensation the employees. However, individuals that work with human resource matters face a multitude of challenges such as the ever constant quantity changing workforce, the political science regulations and technological revolution. Furthermore, globalization has made organizations of all sizes to think about press cutting be and improving productivity (Mondy, 2008). It is therefore, significant that the HRM and the other departments within the organization work closely together in order to achieve the organisational goals and objectives and to compete locally and internationally (Sims,2002).3.2 world Resource Development (HRD)Human Resource Development is a prenomen which repre sents the latest evolutionary stage in the long tradition of breeding, educating, and developing people for the purpose of modify towards the achievement of individual, organizational and societal objectives (Wilson,2005).The primal aim of strategic HRD is to upgrade resource capability in accordance of rights with the belief that the human capital of an organization is a major source of competitive advantage. It is therefore about ensuring that the right quality people are available to meet present and next needs. HRD policies are closely associated with that aspect of HRM that is concerned with investing in people and developing the organizations human capital. Human Resource Development is important for organizations because it is the people whose innovative ideas, their quality at work and their hunger for end little advancement that is needed in order to compete in todays stark naked-fashioned and high competitive business world and these wont come from machines (Swar t et al, 2005). The development of human resource will ever be an ongoing process and a vital ingredient for the success of an organization.3.3 Employee TurnoverEmployee attrition or turnover can be explained as the number of people who leave employment over a qualify period due to retirement, death, redundancy, dismissal, dispatch or resignation (Secord, 2003). According to Muller-Camen et al (2008) turnover is the number of people who leave the organization at a given time period. to the highest degree organizations would like to reduce their turnover rates, in particular when it comes to the good performers who have benefitted from the companies study programs. Some organizations measure their turnover rates on a monthly basis, whereas some do it on a yearly basis. A limit amount turnover is positive for organizations as a poor performer could be replaced by a more productive one. Also, it creates an opportunity for promotion or career development when an experienced st aff leaves an organization. However, high turnover could affect the quality of product and service that is offered to the customers (Baum, 2006) e.g. in case of McDonalds if an experienced staff leaves and a tender staff is recruited in the kitchen section, the quality of making the burgers will be stirred. It is important for any organization to stem the staff attrition rate as conclusion a replacement could pick up heavy costs for the organization. Some of these costs allow recruitment, administration and selection costs. The managers will have to recruit new employees which will incur cost to the organization and also to cover up for the loss, the other employees working in the department would be under pressure to meet the company targets. In a highly competitive market this needs to be voided by the managers. In order to avoid high attrition rate, it is essential for HR managers to try and retain its brisk employees.3.4 pretend of Employee Turnover in that respect are v arious employee turnover causes. For ex grand, one of the biggest employee turnover causes is an ill tempered manager. Employees dont like to work with those managers who are always creation negative to them, shouting at them and blaming them for something which wasnt their fault. The employees dont want to work for a manager who is not well organised in his work. Employees find it extremely effortful to work with managers who have perspective and are not easily accessible when they face problems, such managers a great deal find it difficult to retain their staff. some times managers in order to maximise profits for the organization try to cut costs by making an employee work more so that they dont have to recruit some other staff. another(prenominal) main cause of employee turnover is slight repair to the employees. Many employees leave an organization due to not being paid enough by the management. Employees want that they are respected for their efforts in form of good pay and good benefits. It is therefore important for organizations to conduct their employees as human beings and respect their feelings and opinions. When an employee feels that they are not being viewed after by their employer, they get affected mentally as frustration crawl in and this forces them to leave the organization. Also, less pay and no benefits results in neglect of motivation and job comfort. some other reason that causes employee turnover is an employee interaction with other employees. If an employee is not comfortable with their co-workers they a great deal tend to leave the organization. They dont really get along with the workplace and this affects their performance and productivity. Employee turnover also occurs when they are not rewarded for their hard work. If an employee performs really well at work, he/she expects that the employer would recognize the efforts put in. However, this does not happen a great deal to the employee (Employee Turnover Calculat or Blog, 2008).3.5 Types of Employee Turnover at that place are two references of turnover Voluntary and Involuntary. Voluntary turnover is sub-divided into avertable and unavoidable turnover. Avoidable turnover is that which an organization can pr unconstipatedt from occurring such as increasing the employee pay or by giving him new job assignment. Unavoidable turnover is when an employee give up and the organization could not have prevented, such as people withdrawing through retirement or reverting back to school or university. Other examples of unavoidable turnover is when an employee quits in pursuit of a new career, health problems which forces an employee to take up a different type of job or perhapswhenanemployeeleavesthecountry. Involuntary turnover can be differentiate into discharge and downsizing types. Discharge turnover occurs when an individual has been asked to leave the organization. This could be due to job performance problems wherein an employee does not perf orm well over a period of time even after adequate gentility is given to the employee or could be for not being discipline at work e.g. coming late at work or misbehaving with colleagues. curtailment turnover is targeted at a company of employees by an organization, it occurs as a part of organizational restructuring or cost-reduction program to change organizational authorisation and increase shareholder value. This reduction could be permanent or temporary worker due to a plant or site closing or relocation. The reduction in workforce also occurs at the time or mergers and acquisitions (Heneman Judge, 2006).3.6 Cost as aresult of Employee TurnoverThe nearly important factor of high employee turnover that affects any organization is the cost. These costs can further be divided into the recruitment costs, training costs, confounded productivity costs, new hire costs and lost sales costs (Pilbeam Corbridge, 2006). enlisting costs are usually in the form of advertisements. The organization also incurs cost as they have to pay the recruitment agency, and also for posting advertisements on the internet. The training costs include cost of departmental training, cost of the person(s) who conduct the training and cost of various training materials. There are lost productivity costs as the new trained employee would only contribute at 25% productivity level for the first 2-4 weeks and cost of mistakes the new employee makes during his consequence period. The new hire costs include putting the person on the payroll, establish computer and security pass wrangling and realisation cards, telephone hookups and cost of establishing e-mail accounts. The lost sales costs or lost revenue which is careful by multiplying the number of weeks the position is lazy by the averageweeklyrevenueperemployee.Despite the costs of high employee turnover being so important it is overlooked and seldom calculated. a couple of(prenominal) organizations, 7 per cent of those adopt ed, calculate the more extensive costs of turnover (CIPD, 2004a). When these organizations were asked wherefore they dont calculate these costs, over half(prenominal) of them gave the reason that the organization did not require the information, while a tierce stated that calculating the various costs was just too time consumingforthem.According to Risher Stopper (2002) for an organization cost of replacement can sometimes account to around 2.5 times the annual salary of an vivacious employee. such(prenominal) costs are rarely identified by the accounting department of an organization. because, in order to avoid such turnover costs, organizations must form a successful retentivity dodging overtime.3.7 client Satisfaction and Customer keepingAccording to agglomerate (2006) recently many organizations whether it be a small one or a large one, they have more and more come to understand that it is important for them to maintain customer satisfaction. Nowadays the organization s have realized the fact that retaining existing customers is easier and less costly than finding some new ones. Todays businesses are so competitive that in order to gain or win new customers, organizations have to invest a jackpot of money. Organizations have started to realize that there is a strong link between customer satisfaction, customer remembering and profitability. For many organizations in the hospitality and service industry customer satisfaction will be the top closely precedence in order to be successful. Meeting the various needs of the customers and real them has become the key operational goal for many organizations. Customers would only be satisfied when the organizations product or service is good enough to meet their requirements and therefore this needs to be measured by the organization. In the words of Argenti (2002) in order to measure the boilers suit success of any given product or service one needs to find out how often do the customers defile tha t equivalent product or service. A customer buying the same product repeatedly would mean that he/she is satisfied with that product. If one can put it in simple terms, a company can make regular profits if customers show a long term loading to their product or service. The reason why organizations can make profits from long-term and loyal customers is because they dont have to invest extensive sums in attracting the new customers through the means of advertisements and promotions. Therefore, if a company after getting a new customer manages to keep them in the long-run, its investment on acquiring will pay off. E.g. If McDonalds want to nonplus competitive in the fast food industry it needs to make sure that their customers are always satisfied with the food and also the customer service. This is essential for retaining customers and would also add value to the company,thereby increasing the company profits.3.8 Employee RetentionRetention includes all those activities that an employer does to hike qualified and highly-skilled and productive employees to continue working for the organization (Jackson et al, 2009). Staff retention is about attracting and keeping good-quality employees, while judge that some of them will leave the organization. However, the managers should ensure that when these employees leave, it wont affect the organizations productivity to a large limit (Bloisi, 2007). Retaining a productive employee is of considerable importance to the companys HR professional. The CIPD (2004) report intro HR trends and indicators reported that 31.7 percent of employers face difficulty with retaining its employees. Large organizations find it even moredifficulttoretaintheirworkers.According to Browell (2003) an organization can benefit a chain reactor from retaining the existing staff, some of them include reduction in recruitment costs and selection and training of new staff, it keeps skills and knowledge within the organization, helps improve pe rformance, productivity and profitability, it helps in building customer loyalty and satisfaction, and lastly, it could help increase the sales volume of the organization thereby making them competitive in the market.Organizations should consider the following elements which would help in retaining employees Job previews employees should be given a more realistic job preview when they are being recruited. Care should be taken not to give them high expectations that cannot be met. Improve management style one of the main reasons employees leave the organization is due to dissatisfaction with their managers. Organizations that would like to improve retention should take measures to improve their managers people management skills. life history development and Progression organizations should give their employees ample of opportunities to develop their skills. This can be done by introducing mentoring scheme, encouraging multi-skilling, improving career development opportunities and investing in succession planning (CIPD, 2008). flexibility organizations should be flexible towards employees working hours and times. If employees are forced to work hours which is not convenient for them, they will look for jobs elsewhere. Treat people equally and evenhandedly to improve retention organizations should make sure not to discriminate against employees. If they are unfair towards them it will result in voluntary resignations. E precise employee that belongs to a team should be case-hardened equally by the managers. Improve pay and benefits Many employees leave due to less pay and no benefits. A simple pay rise could be a useful strategy for organizations to retain their employees. Organizations should make sure that they match the market rates or better it when it comes to good performingemployees (Muller-Camenetal, 2008).3.9 RecruitmentIn todays global competitive market organizations are under constant pressure to perform well and gravel competitive and in o rder to achieve that, they need to recruit the right people for the right job. Recruitment is a very costly process as a lot of resources go into it. If the organization recruits wrong people it could cost to the organization huge sums and also loss of valuable time. Therefore it is important for the recruitment process to be fair, reliable and valid (Armstrong, 2001). According to Bratton and Gold (2003) an organization should apparatus such a recruitment process, which will help in generating a pool of ingenious and skilled workers who are capable for employment in an organization. Recruitment involves searching and hiring qualified people for the organization and consider them when selection job openings. The recruitment process should be consistent, taking into consideration the organizations strategy, vision and values.There are different sources an organization can use for recruiting the first being the ingrained labor market and this could be the companys current employee s. A good way for recruiting employees from within is through posting announcements in a company newsletter. According to the CIPD recruitment survey (2004a) 84 percent of UK organizations surveyed looked for applicants from within the organization. They did so by using internal email or intranet (69 percent), lineup and bulletin boards (68 percent), team meetings (18 percent), staff newsletter or magazines (14 percent), and by memos, circulars and come up directly. The second source would be the extraneous labor market and this could be reached via electronic media and also referrals from current employees (Jackson et al, 2009). However, the success rate of these sources is not equal and may vary e.g. employee referrals may ante up better quality applicants than through newspaperadvertisements.It is important for any organization to monitor its recruitment process as this will help reduce the talented and knowledgeable employees from leaving the organization. For any organizatio n the recruitment process is the very first stage of retention. It is therefore important for an organization to monitor the recruitment practice as it will help in finding the right candidate for the job. In the long term this will also help the organization to reduce the turnover levels.3.10 TrainingThe primary reason that organizations train their new employees is to increase the level of the knowledge, skills and abilities that they possess. It can be use as one of the ways to retain its existing employees, as training will give them an opportunity to develop new skills and gain knowledge. The amount of training given to the employees has a positive influence on the organizations revenue and overall profitability. Managers should therefore keep a watchful eye on the organizations goals and strategies while conducting training programmes (Snell Bohlander, 2007). Training is also described as a mean process which enables to change the attitudes of people it helps a person to gai n some knowledge and develop the skills through various activities which helps the person to achieve effective performance. Training an employee at work is important as the employee will be able to meet the requirements of the organization in the present and in the future day (Beardwell et al 2004). Training is the taxonomical process of altering the behavior of employees in a direction that will achieve organizational goals. Training is think to present job skills and abilities. It has a current orientation and helps employees master proper(postnominal) skills and abilities needed to be successful (Ivancevich,2007). There are two mainly accepted methods of training one of them is called on-the-job training and the other is called off-the-job training. on-the-job training is probably the most widely used method of training and it usually takes place at the workplace. Off-the-job training usually takes place in a location which is removed of the workplace and is normally more pricey than the on-the-job training (Mullins,2005). In on-the-job training an experience worker trains the newly recruited employee. E.g. in McDonalds trainees amaze skills such as running a machine, making of a burger by observing the experienced worker. OJT is also used for top level management, there are assistants who train and develop the future managers. Some other forms of OJT include apprenticeships and self-directed learning. The advantage of OJT is that it can be customized according to the experiences and abilities of the trainees. Off-the-job training provides stem based learning opportunities which is conducted at a site which is away from the workplace. Off-the-job training is conducted in an off-site training classroom close to the workplace or in a corporate or private facility. Off-the-job training is usually expensive as it requires a lot of travelling and maybe used by large organizations. Training classrooms, anteroom training setups and specially constructed training laboratories are some of the sites used for off-the-jobtraining(Jacobs,2003).In an organization training could also be used to change the culture within the organization. It can be used as an important peckerwood by the organization to improve the overall effectiveness, especially in todays world where the marketis highly competitive. An organization can take up two approaches on training a imperious training and just-in-time training. In a imperious approach, training must be designed, planned and then implemented fitly in order to meet the needs of the organization. The training is given by those people who know only how to train the employees. Once the training has been provided, it is carefully monitored in order toAnalysis of Employee Turnover at McDonaldsAnalysis of Employee Turnover at McDonalds1.1 IntroductionIn a perfect world it would be best for any organization to have employees who love their jobs, enjoy working with their co-workers, are happy with the sa lary, willing to work hard for their managers and never leave the organization. However, in the real world employees do leave either because they want more money, hate the work environment, hate their co-workers, want a change or because their spouse gets a dream job in another state (Sharma, 2008). Many organizations nowadays face high attrition rate or turnover mainly due to a highly competitive market. Staff attrition or turnover has been cited as one of the primary concerns facing organizations and businesses in any industry. Staff attrition or turnover relates to those who leave an organization due to resignation, termination and retirement. According to the latest CIPD survey (CIPD, 2007), the annual employee turnover rate in the UK was at 18.1 percent. The report also found that the annual turnover levels differed considerably from one industry to the other industry, with the highest average rates being 22.6 percent and these were found in private sector organizations and, wi thin this sector, the hotels, catering and leisure industry reports rates of turnover at 10 percent higher than the average for the sector of 32.6 percent. High turnover rates creates particular pressures for the HR department, which is primarily responsible for replacing those who leave, but also for line managers who face disruption to production and service standards. This is the necessary result of having to induct new employees, who are usually less experienced and productive compared to those whom they replace. It takes some time for the new recruits to perform at their optimum levels. This results in the organization failing to meet its objectives, reduction in productivity and higher costs. It is therefore important for HR managers to measure staff attrition, monitor its impact and take appropriate action to minimize its effects(BanfieldKay,2008).Globalization has led to the rapid expansion of multinational fast food companies e.g. McDonalds and KFC. Even at this present tim e of global economic recession, these fast food companies are growing and generating profits. The customers, who were eating out at a high profile restaurant, are now looking for something reasonable and affordable. McDonalds is offering good hygienic food at a reasonable price to these customers and are benefitting from this global economic downturn. This has lead to a fierce competition between these fast food companies and each of them is trying to give the best quality product and service to its customers. In a company like McDonalds, giving a quick and high quality customer service is essential for its success. However many of the McDonalds restaurants are experiencing high employee turnover which could affect the overall productivity and profitability of the respective McDonalds restaurants. One of the senior executives at McDonalds put the chains annual employee turnover at nearly 44 percent. According to the chief human resource officer of McDonalds Mr. Floersch the manageri al turnover was at 20% globally while that of the crew members averaged between 80 percent and 90 percent. This however, varied from country to country (The Wall Street Journal, 2008). In this research, the researcher would like to investigate the main reasons for experienced employees leaving the organization i.e. McDonalds and what sort of challenges the managers face due to the high turnover. The researcher would also like to find out any retention strategies adopted by the HR department to curb the high turnover rate. For this, the researcher decided to choose few selected restaurants in London.1.2 The Overall AimThe researchers main aim in this study is to find out the main reasons for high employee turnover at McDonalds, the way it affects the managers and the organization, and steps taken to retain employees.1.3 Research ObjectivesThe researcher in this research would like to find out the main reasons for having high turnover rate in McDonalds and the challenges that the mana gers face and also how they can curb the rate of staff turnover.The researcher also intends to study the followingTo find out the main causes of high employee turnoverTo find out the various retention strategies adopted by McDonalds in order to retain employees.To find out the various challenges faced by managers due to employee turnover.Chapter22.0 Background-Company OverviewMcDonalds has 31,000 restaurants in 116 countries and is one of the biggest family restaurants in the world. The first restaurant in UK was opened during 1974 in Woolwich High Street and the first franchised restaurant opened in 1986. In UK there are now 1,190 restaurants employing more than 70,000 people, of which 51% is operated by franchisees. McDonalds main vision is to give the family the best experience, something that they will never forget and would want to come back to. They achieve this through its people they employ. McDonalds realizes that its employees can only perform well when they are given the right working environment and for this, they strive to provide various rewards and benefits which would suit each and every individual working in the organization. McDonalds is one of the largest global brands and it offers a culture of flexibility, opportunity, equality and diversity. It has one of the most diverse cultures within the UK (McDonalds, 2009).2.1 Recruitment at McDonaldsMcDonalds policy is to hire those Crew Members who can bring a smile to the workplace. This brings in positive energy and creates a good friendly atmosphere. The recruitment procedure for a Crew Member is a two-step process. First the applicant needs to apply online and if successful, the second step will be to invite the candidate to a restaurant for On job evaluation (OJE) and interview. The on job evaluation helps evaluate the candidates customer service skills and his ability to keep up with the high energy environment. This will last for 15 minutes after which the candidate will be interviewed by t he Business Manager for another 15 minutes. Once the crew members are hired, they will attend a welcome meeting which will be conducted at their chosen restaurant or the recruitment centre. The welcome meeting involves viewing a DVD which gives important information about the company and also gives the manager an opportunity to interact with the new recruits. They also attend a compulsory online Health safety and Food safety test when they start working (McDonalds,2009).McDonalds also recruit Trainee Business Managers who need to display some strong leadership skills. In this, McDonalds makes sure that the candidate is right for the job. A candidate applying for this position has to go through four-step selection process. The first stage is the initial screening process, this helps in ensuring that the candidate meets the basic criteria for selection. If successful, the next step is an online personality questionnaire that the candidate will have to complete. This ensures if the ca ndidate has the desired attributes to be working in McDonalds environment. The next step is a restaurant based On Job Evaluation or OJE. In this the candidate works for the entire day in order to find out what its really like to work in a McDonalds restaurant. The final step of the process is an interview with the Senior Manager of the restaurant (McDonalds,2009).2.2 Training in McDonaldsMcDonalds success depends on its well trained crew and managers who maintain company standards of providing high quality, good service and cleanliness at each of its restaurants. McDonalds has a company policy to provide career opportunities that will allow employees to grow and meet their full potential. They have included career development programmes for crew and operations management which will allow them to progress to a senior management position. The company believes in promoting people on their merit. The crew members are trained by the Crew Trainers and they learn the skills necessary to ru n each of the workstations in the restaurant, from the front counter to the grill area. They are also trained on how to take deliveries and store the frozen food into the chiller, this is then further used in cooking and making the necessary burgers. Major part of this training is floor based and this helps the crew members learn faster and are also able to retain the information provided. After the initial training period the crew members are monitored by the use of observation check lists (OCRs) on an ongoing basis. The observation checklist is a score sheet that marks all aspects of work in the restaurant. The ratings derived from these checklists goes towards their performance appraisal. The restaurants do promote the good performers to management positions where they will have the responsibility to runs shifts within the restaurant. For this, training is given to crew members in areas such as Customer Care, First Aid, Taste of Quality and Food Restaurant Safety. On successful completion of the management entrance exam, the employees will attend a training course provided by the Training Department before they start working in management position (McDonalds, 2009).2.3 Retention Strategies of McDonaldsMcDonalds provides high levels of training to its employees working in various positions at the restaurants. This helps in reducing staff turnover and lowers the turnover costs. Employees that perform well are given recognition by awarding them with Employee of the month. It provides medical insurance and offers health care. McDonalds now gives quarterly bonus to its crew and managers instead of yearly bonus, this was a step taken towards motivating its employees. The organization gives five weeks holiday per annum and they are going to increase that to six weeks from April 2009. Computerized English language classes are conducted this can be enjoyed by the crew members between shifts (The Wall Street Journal, 2008). In 2009, McDonalds aims to provide Apprent iceships to up to 6000 of its 72,000 UK workforce and later will be increased to 10,000 from 2010. This will give the staff an opportunity to gain valuable and nationally recognized qualification that is equivalent to five GCSE grade A*-C. McDonalds senses the importance of investing in their staff says the Senior Vice President David Fairhurst of McDonalds UK. This has been done purely to retain the existing staff and also to attract new ones towards working for McDonalds, which, is a global brand name (McDonalds Latest News, 2009).Chapter33.0LiteratureReviewThis section of the study points out the various theories that are relevant to the topic chosen. It starts with the HR and then focuses on employee turnover and the impact it has on the organization. It also speaks about the various ways an organization can adopt to reduce the employee turnover.3.1Human Resource ManagementHuman resource management (HRM) is a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organizations most valued assets. The people working in HRM put individual efforts and also work together collectively in order to achieve its objectives. Their main goal is to help the organization achieve their goals and targets through people. HRM is concerned with choosing human capital that meets the organizations requirements and to develop their capabilities so that the work is done effectively (Armstrong, 2006). Recently there has been a growing importance of HRM this is due to the fierce competition from overseas economies. In the twenty-first century if an organization wants to have a competitive advantage, it would have to effectively manage the organizations human resource. This would also enable the organization to maintain high performance consistently over a long term. In todays market the managers recognize the growing importance of recruiting, selecting, training and developing, rewarding and compensation the employees. However, individuals that work with human resource matters f ace a multitude of challenges such as the ever constant changing workforce, the government regulations and technological revolution. Furthermore, globalization has made organizations of all sizes to think about cutting costs and improving productivity (Mondy, 2008). It is therefore, important that the HRM and the other departments within the organization work closely together in order to achieve the organizational goals and objectives and to compete locally and internationally (Sims,2002).3.2 Human Resource Development (HRD)Human Resource Development is a title which represents the latest evolutionary stage in the long tradition of training, educating, and developing people for the purpose of contributing towards the achievement of individual, organizational and societal objectives (Wilson,2005).The fundamental aim of strategic HRD is to enhance resource capability in accordance with the belief that the human capital of an organization is a major source of competitive advantage. It is therefore about ensuring that the right quality people are available to meet present and future needs. HRD policies are closely associated with that aspect of HRM that is concerned with investing in people and developing the organizations human capital. Human Resource Development is important for organizations because it is the people whose innovative ideas, their quality at work and their hunger for continuous improvement that is needed in order to compete in todays modern and high competitive business world and these wont come from machines (Swart et al, 2005). The development of human resource will always be an ongoing process and a vital ingredient for the success of an organization.3.3 Employee TurnoverEmployee attrition or turnover can be explained as the number of people who leave employment over a specified period due to retirement, death, redundancy, dismissal, transfer or resignation (Secord, 2003). According to Muller-Camen et al (2008) turnover is the number of people who leave the organization at a given time period. Most organizations would like to reduce their turnover rates, especially when it comes to the good performers who have benefitted from the companies training programs. Some organizations measure their turnover rates on a monthly basis, whereas some do it on a yearly basis. A limited amount turnover is positive for organizations as a poor performer could be replaced by a more productive one. Also, it creates an opportunity for promotion or career development when an experienced staff leaves an organization. However, high turnover could affect the quality of product and service that is offered to the customers (Baum, 2006) e.g. in case of McDonalds if an experienced staff leaves and a new staff is recruited in the kitchen section, the quality of making the burgers will be affected. It is important for any organization to stem the staff attrition rate as finding a replacement could incur heavy costs for the organization. Some of these costs include recruitment, administration and selection costs. The managers will have to recruit new employees which will incur cost to the organization and also to cover up for the loss, the other employees working in the department would be under pressure to meet the company targets. In a highly competitive market this needs to be avoided by the managers. In order to avoid high attrition rate, it is essential for HR managers to try and retain its existing employees.3.4 Cause of Employee TurnoverThere are various employee turnover causes. For example, one of the biggest employee turnover causes is an ill tempered manager. Employees dont like to work with those managers who are always being negative to them, shouting at them and blaming them for something which wasnt their fault. The employees dont want to work for a manager who is not well organized in his work. Employees find it extremely difficult to work with managers who have attitude and are not easily approachable when they face problems, such managers often find it difficult to retain their staff. Sometimes managers in order to maximize profits for the organization try to cut costs by making an employee work more so that they dont have to recruit another staff. Another main cause of employee turnover is less pay to the employees. Many employees leave an organization due to not being paid enough by the management. Employees want that they are respected for their efforts in form of good pay and good benefits. It is therefore important for organizations to treat their employees as human beings and respect their feelings and opinions. When an employee feels that they are not being looked after by their employer, they get affected mentally as frustration creeps in and this forces them to leave the organization. Also, less pay and no benefits results in lack of motivation and job satisfaction. Another reason that causes employee turnover is an employee interaction with other employees. If an employee is not comfortable with their co-workers they often tend to leave the organization. They dont really get along with the workplace and this affects their performance and productivity. Employee turnover also occurs when they are not rewarded for their hard work. If an employee performs really well at work, he/she expects that the employer would recognize the efforts put in. However, this does not happen often to the employee (Employee Turnover Calculator Blog, 2008).3.5 Types of Employee TurnoverThere are two types of turnover Voluntary and Involuntary. Voluntary turnover is sub-divided into avoidable and unavoidable turnover. Avoidable turnover is that which an organization can prevent from occurring such as increasing the employee pay or by giving him new job assignment. Unavoidable turnover is when an employee quits and the organization could not have prevented, such as people withdrawing through retirement or returning back to school or university. Other examples of unavoidable turnover is when an employee quits in pursuit of a new career, health problems which forces an employee to take up a different type of job or perhapswhenanemployeeleavesthecountry. Involuntary turnover can be split into discharge and downsizing types. Discharge turnover occurs when an individual has been asked to leave the organization. This could be due to job performance problems wherein an employee does not perform well over a period of time even after adequate training is given to the employee or could be for not being discipline at work e.g. coming late at work or misbehaving with colleagues. Downsizing turnover is targeted at a group of employees by an organization, it occurs as a part of organizational restructuring or cost-reduction program to improve organizational effectiveness and increase shareholder value. This reduction could be permanent or temporary due to a plant or site closing or relocation. The reduction in workforce also occurs at the time or mergers and acquisitions (H eneman Judge, 2006).3.6 Cost as aresult of Employee TurnoverThe most important factor of high employee turnover that affects any organization is the cost. These costs can further be divided into the recruitment costs, training costs, lost productivity costs, new hire costs and lost sales costs (Pilbeam Corbridge, 2006). Recruitment costs are usually in the form of advertisements. The organization also incurs cost as they have to pay the recruitment agency, and also for posting advertisements on the internet. The training costs include cost of departmental training, cost of the person(s) who conduct the training and cost of various training materials. There are lost productivity costs as the new trained employee would only contribute at 25% productivity level for the first 2-4 weeks and cost of mistakes the new employee makes during his induction period. The new hire costs include putting the person on the payroll, establish computer and security passwords and identification cards, telephone hookups and cost of establishing email accounts. The lost sales costs or lost revenue which is calculated by multiplying the number of weeks the position is vacant by the averageweeklyrevenueperemployee.Despite the costs of high employee turnover being so significant it is overlooked and rarely calculated. Few organizations, 7 per cent of those surveyed, calculate the more extensive costs of turnover (CIPD, 2004a). When these organizations were asked why they dont calculate these costs, over half of them gave the reason that the organization did not require the information, while a third stated that calculating the various costs was just too time consumingforthem.According to Risher Stopper (2002) for an organization cost of replacement can sometimes account to around 2.5 times the annual salary of an existing employee. Such costs are rarely identified by the accounting department of an organization. Therefore, in order to avoid such turnover costs, organizations must fo rm a successful retention strategy overtime.3.7 Customer Satisfaction and Customer RetentionAccording to Hill (2006) recently many organizations whether it be a small one or a large one, they have increasingly come to understand that it is important for them to maintain customer satisfaction. Nowadays the organizations have realized the fact that retaining existing customers is easier and less costly than finding some new ones. Todays businesses are so competitive that in order to gain or win new customers, organizations have to invest a lot of money. Organizations have started to realize that there is a strong link between customer satisfaction, customer retention and profitability. For many organizations in the hospitality and service industry customer satisfaction will be the topmost priority in order to be successful. Meeting the various needs of the customers and satisfying them has become the key operational goal for many organizations. Customers would only be satisfied when t he organizations product or service is good enough to meet their requirements and therefore this needs to be measured by the organization. In the words of Argenti (2002) in order to measure the overall success of any given product or service one needs to find out how often do the customers buy that same product or service. A customer buying the same product repeatedly would mean that he/she is satisfied with that product. If one can put it in simple terms, a company can make regular profits if customers show a long term commitment to their product or service. The reason why organizations can make profits from long-term and loyal customers is because they dont have to invest huge sums in attracting the new customers through the means of advertisements and promotions. Therefore, if a company after acquiring a new customer manages to keep them in the long-run, its investment on acquiring will pay off. E.g. If McDonalds want to stay competitive in the fast food industry it needs to make sure that their customers are always satisfied with the food and also the customer service. This is essential for retaining customers and would also add value to the company,thereby increasing the company profits.3.8 Employee RetentionRetention includes all those activities that an employer does to encourage qualified and highly-skilled and productive employees to continue working for the organization (Jackson et al, 2009). Staff retention is about attracting and keeping good-quality employees, while accepting that some of them will leave the organization. However, the managers should ensure that when these employees leave, it wont affect the organizations productivity to a large extent (Bloisi, 2007). Retaining a productive employee is of considerable importance to the companys HR professional. The CIPD (2004) report intro HR trends and indicators reported that 31.7 percent of employers face difficulty with retaining its employees. Large organizations find it even moredifficulttor etaintheirworkers.According to Browell (2003) an organization can benefit a lot from retaining the existing staff, some of them include reduction in recruitment costs and selection and training of new staff, it keeps skills and knowledge within the organization, helps improve performance, productivity and profitability, it helps in building customer loyalty and satisfaction, and lastly, it could help increase the sales volume of the organization thereby making them competitive in the market.Organizations should consider the following elements which would help in retaining employees Job previews employees should be given a more realistic job preview when they are being recruited. Care should be taken not to give them high expectations that cannot be met. Improve management style one of the main reasons employees leave the organization is due to dissatisfaction with their managers. Organizations that would like to improve retention should take measures to improve their managers peop le management skills. Career development and Progression organizations should give their employees ample of opportunities to develop their skills. This can be done by introducing mentoring scheme, encouraging multi-skilling, improving career development opportunities and investing in succession planning (CIPD, 2008). Flexibility organizations should be flexible towards employees working hours and times. If employees are forced to work hours which is not convenient for them, they will look for jobs elsewhere. Treat people equally and fairly to improve retention organizations should make sure not to discriminate against employees. If they are unfair towards them it will result in voluntary resignations. Every employee that belongs to a team should be treated equally by the managers. Improve pay and benefits Many employees leave due to less pay and no benefits. A simple pay rise could be a useful strategy for organizations to retain their employees. Organizations should make sure t hat they match the market rates or better it when it comes to good performingemployees (Muller-Camenetal, 2008).3.9 RecruitmentIn todays global competitive market organizations are under constant pressure to perform well and stay competitive and in order to achieve that, they need to recruit the right people for the right job. Recruitment is a very costly process as a lot of resources go into it. If the organization recruits wrong people it could cost to the organization huge sums and also loss of valuable time. Therefore it is important for the recruitment process to be fair, reliable and valid (Armstrong, 2001). According to Bratton and Gold (2003) an organization should setup such a recruitment process, which will help in generating a pool of talented and skilled workers who are capable for employment in an organization. Recruitment involves searching and hiring qualified people for the organization and consider them when filling job openings. The recruitment process should be co nsistent, taking into consideration the organizations strategy, vision and values.There are different sources an organization can use for recruiting the first being the internal labor market and this could be the companys current employees. A good way for recruiting employees from within is through posting announcements in a company newsletter. According to the CIPD recruitment survey (2004a) 84 percent of UK organizations surveyed looked for applicants from within the organization. They did so by using internal email or intranet (69 percent), notice and bulletin boards (68 percent), team meetings (18 percent), staff newsletter or magazines (14 percent), and by memos, circulars and approaching directly. The second source would be the external labor market and this could be reached via electronic media and also referrals from current employees (Jackson et al, 2009). However, the success rate of these sources is not equal and may vary e.g. employee referrals may yield better quality a pplicants than through newspaperadvertisements.It is important for any organization to monitor its recruitment process as this will help reduce the talented and knowledgeable employees from leaving the organization. For any organization the recruitment process is the very first stage of retention. It is therefore important for an organization to monitor the recruitment practice as it will help in finding the right candidate for the job. In the long term this will also help the organization to reduce the turnover levels.3.10 TrainingThe primary reason that organizations train their new employees is to increase the level of the knowledge, skills and abilities that they possess. It can be used as one of the ways to retain its existing employees, as training will give them an opportunity to develop new skills and gain knowledge. The amount of training given to the employees has a positive influence on the organizations revenue and overall profitability. Managers should therefore keep a watchful eye on the organizations goals and strategies while conducting training programmes (Snell Bohlander, 2007). Training is also described as a planned process which enables to change the attitudes of people it helps a person to gain some knowledge and develop the skills through various activities which helps the person to achieve effective performance. Training an employee at work is important as the employee will be able to meet the requirements of the organization in the present and in the future (Beardwell et al 2004). Training is the systematic process of altering the behavior of employees in a direction that will achieve organizational goals. Training is related to present job skills and abilities. It has a current orientation and helps employees master specific skills and abilities needed to be successful (Ivancevich,2007). There are two generally accepted methods of training one of them is called on-the-job training and the other is called off-the-job training. On-the- job training is probably the most widely used method of training and it usually takes place at the workplace. Off-the-job training usually takes place in a location which is outside of the workplace and is normally more expensive than the on-the-job training (Mullins,2005). In on-the-job training an experience worker trains the newly recruited employee. E.g. in McDonalds trainees acquire skills such as running a machine, making of a burger by observing the experienced worker. OJT is also used for top level management, there are assistants who train and develop the future managers. Some other forms of OJT include apprenticeships and self-directed learning. The advantage of OJT is that it can be customized according to the experiences and abilities of the trainees. Off-the-job training provides group based learning opportunities which is conducted at a site which is away from the workplace. Off-the-job training is conducted in an off-site training classroom close to the workplace or i n a corporate or private facility. Off-the-job training is usually expensive as it requires a lot of travelling and maybe used by large organizations. Training classrooms, vestibule training setups and specially constructed training laboratories are some of the sites used for off-the-jobtraining(Jacobs,2003).In an organization training could also be used to change the culture within the organization. It can be used as an important tool by the organization to improve the overall effectiveness, especially in todays world where the marketis highly competitive. An organization can take up two approaches on training a systematic training and just-in-time training. In a systematic approach, training must be designed, planned and then implemented appropriately in order to meet the needs of the organization. The training is given by those people who know exactly how to train the employees. Once the training has been provided, it is carefully monitored in order to

Saturday, March 30, 2019

The Strategy of Setting Price for Products and Services

The Strategy of Setting terms for Products and ServicesIntroduction determine is a basic and interesting topic in the business. This paper leave behind be described the strategy of setting tolls for crossings and services especially it pass on focus on wiz specific strategy called equipment casualty variety, which is to press different monetary values to different customers for the same or similar product and service. Price distinction is one of the around potent strategy to maximize a companys usefulnesss when compared with a iodin pricing. However, it represents a wobble of value from consumers to companies and bulk whitethorn argue it wellbeings little to customers than to companies. In the following, ternion tokens of damage discrimination pass on be described, and real examples will be apply to illustrate them. The advantages and disadvantages of terms discrimination as well as its benefit to consumers and society will be discussed.The first type of mon etary value discriminationThe first type of bell discrimination is based on deuce concepts reservation outlay and consumer surplus. For a product and service, the reservation impairment is defined as the maximum value that a customer is involuntary to pay (Pindyck Rubinfeld, 2001, p.371), and the consumer surplus is difference between the reservation harm and the cost the consumer actually pays (Hubbard OBrien, 2012, p.98). The goal of the first type of bell discrimination is to get hold of the consumer surplus and turn it into its profit for a company.For example, a tea denounce sells a good brand of tea. For a cup of the tea, the competitive price (offered by many other(prenominal) competitive suppliers) and the monopoly price (offered by some(prenominal) predominate suppliers) are $3.50 and $4 respectively. It is supposed that there are three customers to pervert the tea, and the reservation price of these three customers are $6, $5 and $3.5 respectively. Based on the competitive market price ($3.5), their consumer surplus would be $2.5, $1.5 and $0 respectively. By using the first type of discrimination, the tea shop can request different prices to these three customers which is $6, $5 and $3.5. By doing so the shop will sell three cups of the tea, and all consumer surplus ($4) would be captured. However, if the shop sets a single price $4, thence it can only sell twain cups of tea, and the third customer would be eliminated from service. therefore, not only the profit is minify but also the number of customers served is reduced as well.Although it sounds great that a company can increase their profits and the quantity of products exchange as well as the number of customers serviced, in dedicate it is hard to conduct. There are two reasons first, it is difficult to know each customers reservation price second, in order to know customers reservation price, companies need a lot of efforts in marketing investigate and investigation, w hich adds extra cost to the product and then reduces the products profit. Therefore, it is to a greater extent suitable for some professional people much(prenominal) as dentists, lawyers and accountants, as they know their customers relatively well. For example, a lawyer whitethorn offer a reduced service fee to low-income client, but may charge a higher service fee to upper-income clients as they have the ability to pay. The attainable problem is some customers who pay higher price may inclination price discrimination and argue that it represents a transfer of consumer surplus from customers to companies, which benefits less to customers than to companies such resulting an unfairness to rich people.The second type of price discriminationA company can discriminate prices according to the quantity purchased. The practice of setting different prices per unit for different quantities is called the second type of price discrimination or block pricing (Pindyck Rubinfeld, 2001, p.374 ).There are many companies who use this type of price discrimination such as mart stores, suppliers of electricity, water and natural gas. For example, for electric motive, consumers are charged different price per kilowatt depending on the quantity consumed. Its usual, as an instance, the first nose candy kilowatts of electricity consumed are charged at a higher rate, and later the first 100 kilowatts, consumers are charged at a disgrace rate per kilowatt.This price strategy allows a company to convert fall in of consumer surplus into producers profit, and at mean time it increases the products quantities sold and the number of consumers served. Even though it has greater benefit to the company, it cannot be widely used in some business regions or areas. For examples, in China, it has huge population but limited water and power resources, so single pricing for power and water would be to a greater extent suitable than price discrimination. The price discrimination may encoura ge people to use more power and water such may result in resources shortage and air pollution, and eventually may damage the environment. Therefore, price discrimination should be applied under conditions, and only if it is used correctly, then it would create exacting impact on the environment and society.The third type of price discriminationThird-degree price discrimination is based on two steps dividing consumers into two or more stems and charging different prices to each group (Pindyck Rubinfeld, 2001, p.376). One group may have the ability to pay a higher price such as upper-income customers another group may only be able to pay a dismantle price such as students and seniors. Companies also would charge customers a higher price if the customers demand for it is inelastic such as a service is pressing and it must be done immediately, and charge other customers a lower price if their demand for the service is elastic. This strategy may cause price competition among supplier s to offer discount to different groups, such competition may result in lower price for products. If it is used by few suppliers in some bound of time, then it may encourage consumers to deal more products. However, if it is used from wide range of suppliers over long period of time, then it may make the product permanently reduce price, and some companies may have difficulty to get profits.To practice this type of price discrimination companies often set prices based on the consumers barter, age, income, preference, time of use. several(prenominal) of them will be discussed in the following(a) Based on occupation and income Hubbard and OBrien (2012) noted, In mid-2009, Apple was selling an iMac desktop with a 24-inch display for $1,499 to popular frequent, but university students and faculty members could buy the same computer from Apple for $1,399 (p.498). In this example, apple assumed the manufacturing cost of a computer is $400, so selling one iMac to university user woul d get profit $999, and selling one iMac to ecumenical user would get profit $1,099. In that period Apple sold 20,000 iMac to university users and 30,500 computers to general public users. The total profit from these sales is $53,499,500 ($999*20,000 + $1,099*30,500). However, if Apple used a single pricing, and if it also charged $1,399 in the general public market, it would sell 32,500 iMac (Hubbard OBrien, 2012, p.499), and then the profit from these sales would become $52,447,500 ($999*20,000 + $999*32,500). The difference of the profit made between using price discrimination and setting single pricing is $1,052,000 ($53,499,500 $52,447,500). This example shows this strategy increased Apples profit. However, from another point of view that the total iMac sold was reduced from 52,500 (single price) to 50,500 (price discrimination), price discrimination reduced the number of products made/sold, and in turn it may knead the number of people employed and also may generate negativ e effect on the society.(b) Based on preference and time one example is that early adopters of new products would pay a higher price, such as new type cell phones, new books, new released medication DVDs. Airlines usually charge ticket differently according to time. During the holiday such as Christmas and New Year, the tickets price is normally higher than other times. Customers sometimes are argue that the airline gets extra profit by exaction of customers surplus and leaves very little to customers.ConclusionsThis paper provides analysis on three types of price discrimination. Price discrimination is one of the most effective strategy to maximize a companys profit when it is compared with a single pricing for the products and services. All three types of price discrimination tog up a companys profit, and they all have both positive and negative effect on the society. I personally think that price discrimination is a reality and it is acceptable to many customers in most situati ons. It exists in our daily life, and it is used widely in various industries.ReferencesAguirre, I., Cowan, S., Vickers, J. (2010, September). Monopoly price discrimination and demand curvature. The American Economic Review, 100(4), 1601-1615. doi 10.1257/aer.100.4.1601Armstrong, M. (2006, October). Price discrimination. Retrieved from http//else.econ.ucl.ac.uk/ paper/uploaded/222.pdfHubbard, R. G., OBrien, A. P. (2012). Microeconomics (4th edition). Prentice Hall.Pettinger, T. (2013, March 6). Examples of price discrimination. Retrieved from http//www.economicshelp.org/blog/7042/economics/examples-of-price-discrimination/Pindyck, R. S., Rubinfeld, D. L. (2001). Microeconomics (5th edition). Prentice Hall.Round, D. K., McIver, R. P. (2006, Spring). statement third-degree price discrimination. The Journal of Economic Education, 37(2), 236-243. Retrieved from http//www.jstor.org/stable/30042708Shmanske, S. (1991). Price discrimination and noncompetitive competition. Studies in E conomics and Finance, 14(1), 25-48. Retrieved from http//dx.doi.org/10.1108/eb028698

Friday, March 29, 2019

Ocular Manifestations in Hansen’s Disease

Ocular Manifestations in Hansens DiseaseChristina Samuel1, Sundararajan D21Postgraduate, 2HOD. surgical incision Of Ophthalmology, Meenakshi checkup College, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, IndiaABSTRACTBackground Leprosy or Hansens illness is a chronic mildly contagious granulomatous disease of tropic and subtropical regions inductd by the magnetic pole shaped bacillus, Mycobacterium leprae. It affects the scratch, peripheral nerve in hands and feet, mucous membrane of nose, throat and snappers. When left untreated it is capable of producing various deformities and disfigurements. Aim To see the optical contact in patients with Leprosy under the parameters of age group, sex casing and age of leprosy. To subject the contrary opthalmic monstrances and identify the potenti eithery line of battle sound lesions and provide premature management. Methods A prospective translate of 50 cases diagnosed with Hansens disease were included. exposit history and thorough clinical ex amination done. Potentially sight threatening lesions were managed conservatively or surgically. Results Out of 50 cases of Leprosy, 58% had eyepiece fight and majority were of the age group 21-40 eld. Ocular involvement was predominantly seen in Lepromatous compositors case with 35% having optical lesions. The most unwashed optical manifestation observed was superciliary madarosis(48%). Potentially sight threatening lesions accounted for 72.4% of which lagophthalmos was common. No cases of blindness seen. mop up Visual impairment is preventable in Leprosy if detected early. The risk of optic complications increases with the succession of the disease, despite being treated with systemic anti-leprosy drugs.Keywords Leprosy (Hansens disease), lepromatous, tuberculoid, scratching skin smear, ocular involvementINTRODUCTIONLeprosy or Hansens disease is a chronic infectious disease caused by an intracellular rod shaped acid fast bacilli Mycobacterium leprae which affects the sk in, nasal mucosa, peripheral steel and the former component of the eye.1 Mycobacterium laprae was discovered by a Norwegian physician G.Armauer Hansen in the year 1874.1 The most ancient writings of SUSHRUTA SAMHITA compiled in 600BC refers to leprosy as Vat Rakta or Vat Shonita and Kushtha2,3. Leprosy occurs in all ages and both(prenominal) sexes. Male Female ratio is 214. Leprosy bacilli has a predilection for neuronic tissue and their target is Schwann cell. The fate and type of leprosy depends on the resistance and claim of the affected individual5 ( Jopling, Mc Douglass 1996). There be 11million cases through let on the world and or so 1/3rd have ocular manifestations.6 Prevalence of blindness collect to leprosy is 4.7% of the population in India.7,8 Various studies shows ocular involvement in Leprosy patients. The frequence and types of involvement depends on the duration and form of the disease.2,9 Ocular lesions are common in lepromatous type of leprosy and presen ts with lepromatous nodules, conjunctivitis, keratitis, pannus, scleritis and uveitis. Lesions are rare in Tuberculoid type of leprosy and are secondary to the involvement of branches of facial nerve which presents with paralytic lagophthalmos, pictorial matter keratitis and neurotrophic keratitis. Acute iridocyclitis and scleritis are seen in type 2 lepra answer occurring in lepromatous leprosy.6 sightlessness has been reported in 7% of patients secondary to lagophthalmos, uveitis, exposure keratitis and cataract8. fit attention and early detection green goddess prevent potentially sight threatening lesions.MATERIALS AND METHODThe present study was carried out in the out patient Department. of Ophthalmology and In patient department of Dermatology at Meenakshi medical exam College and Hospital, Kanchipuram from contact 2012-May 2014. In this study a total of 50 patients were taken, 38 males and 12 females of the age group 20 age and above . Prior to the study an informed re act form from the patients and ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Ethics Committee. Inclusion Criteria any diagnosed cases of leprosy. Old and new cases, both genders and age group of 20 years and above. Exclusion Criteria Non compliant patients, Patients with pre existing ocular disorders due to other causes than leprosy. role of study A cross sectional descriptive study for a period of 14 months.Procedure Relevant details of both ocular and systemic history, including details of lepra reaction and clinical examination of patients was recorded on a proforma. A detailed slit lamp examination of the anterior segment of eye was done. Visual Acuity recorded with help of Snellens chart10. corneal sensation was checked with a wisp of cotton. IOP was recorded with help of Schiotz tonometer10. Fundus examination with 78D and IDO done. science lab investigations like haemogram, ESR, Urine routine and RBS done. Slit skin smear and skin biopsy from the ear lobe was perfor med by the Dermatologist and report obtained as positive for M.leprae (Ziehl Neelsen technique)11. Patients were started on systemic anti leprosy drugs(multi drug therapy) and treatment for lepra reactions. Patients with ocular manifestations were treated whence to their need of Lubricant eye drops, topical antibiotic with steroid drops, eye ointments, frequent blinking exercises, physiotherapy, lid taping at night metre and spectacle correction.RESULTS In this study of 50 patients with leprosy, majority belonged to the age group of 21-40years (46%). 76% were males and 24% were females. Out of 50 cases, 30% were tuberculoid type, 22% lepromatous type and 48% borderline type. Out of 50 cases 58% had ocular involvement in which 45% were within the age group 21-40years. Out of the 29 cases with ocular involvement 72% were males. 35%with ocular manifestations were of lepromatous type of leprosy. 41.4% gave a positive history of lepra reaction. The ocular involvement was directly propo rtional to the duration of leprosy. 55% had leprosy much than 5 years. Superciliary madarosis (48%) was the most common ocular manifestation. The potentially sight threatening lesions were Lagophthalmos(35%), seen more in lepromatous type(14%). 28% had corneal hypoesthesia, 21% with exposure keratitis, 17% had corneal opaqueness, anterior uveitis and conjunctivitis each accounted for 7%. It was interesting to note that 60% of patients with lagophthalmos had exposure keratitis.DISCUSSION The involvement of eye in leprosy is due to infiltration of the tissues by the bacilli and damage to the nerves12. In this study 58% of the patients had ocular involvement. This can be compared to other studies of Wani.S.et al 2005 which showed 69% of ocular involvement, Gnanadoss A S et al 1986 showed 59.2% 13. Studies conducted by Shields shows 33% of potentially sight threatening lesions which included keratitis, iritis, lagophthalmos and secondary glaucoma14. In our study the potentially sight t hreatening lesions were lagophthalmos, exposure keratitis, uveitis, corneal hypoesthesia and corneal opacity which accounted nearly for 72.4%. Majority of the patients in our study were of the age group 21-40 years and male predominance was seen in both for, affected eyes with leprosy(76%) and ocular involvement (72%). This can be compared with the study by Wani.S et al (82.6%)12 which withal showed predominance for men. This study further shows that ocular manifestation were seen more in lepromatous leprosy (75.36%) followed by borderline(14.49%) and tuberculoid leprosy(10.14%)12. In our study conducted, ocular involvement was 35% in lepramotous, 31% in borderline and 17% in tuberculoid type. The reason being that M.leprea has a favourable environment in the anterior segment of the eye and the bacilli is found more in lepromatous type of leprosy. Madarosis was the commonest ocular manifestation in our study which was about 48% when compared with Shields 1974(54%)14 and Acharaya B P (59.2%)15 and Wani.S. et al (72.46%)12. Lagophthalmos accounts for 35% in our study when compared to Wani.S et al (28.98%)12 , Acharaya B P (34.3%)15 , Lamba et al 1983 (13%)16 , Shields 1974 (29%)14 and Weerekon 1972 (27%)17. Lagophthalmos is commonly associated with lepra reaction in the establishment and damage to the facial nerve and also depends in patients with lepromatous leprosy(14%) which is similar to the poster by Wani.S et al (18.84%)12. In this study corneal involvement was seen in 66% of the patients, corneal hypoesthesia 28%, exposure keratitis 21% and corneal opacity in 17%. In the study conducted by Wani.S et al corneal involvement (36.23%)12 . Radhakrishnan N et al observed that the major cause of blindness in leprosy was exposure keratitis due to lagophthalmos(23%) and leucoma (25%)18. Cataractous changes in lens was seen in 17% of the patients, but it was not a complication due to leprosy or MDT but merely due to senile lens changes in the honest-to-god age group of the patients in our study. This is also assumeed by the study from Gnanadoss A S et al13. Iris pearls seen in anterior uveitis are say to be the pathognomic of leprosy19,20. But in our study uveitis was observed only in 7% of the patients when compared to Wani S et al12 which showed 31.88%. This probably is due to the small sample sizing of our study and also the duration of leprosy not being more than 10 years for all patients ,because uveitis is seen mostly in chronic cases of leprosy. This is supported by various studies like Lamba 1983 16(14%), Hornblass 197321 (16%) and Gnanadoss A S et al 198613 (5.6%). In this study all patients with ocular manifestations were either treated formerly(58.6%) or presently (41.4%) with systemic anti leprosy drugs. Courtright et al suggested that ocular pathology will still occur in MDT treated leprosy patients22. Thus treatment does not prevent the occurrence of ocular lesions12. Moreover once the patient is on treatment the ocular re action is seen more in the first 6-12 months due to reactions23. The progressive leprosy related lesions are the result of chronic nerve damage.CONCLUSION The risk of ocular lesions increases with the duration of disease, lepra reaction and facial patches in this reaction. Screening of all patients affected with leprosy can help in identifying the potentially sight threatening lesions which can be treated earlier. Visual impairment if detected early is preventable. The Multi Drug therapy for leprosy has modify the outcome of the affected with leprosy but does not retard the development of ocular complication.LIMITATIONS Owing to the small sample size in this study many a(prenominal) other ocular manifestations could not be assessed. A relationship between uveitis, Complicated cataract and leprosy can be suggested if the patients presents with a longer duration of leprosy more than 10 years, as in this study we had only 4 patients in that category.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTIt is with the sens e of accomplishment and deep gratitude that we dedicate the work to all those who have been instrumental in its completion.We are greatly thankful to the RMO, Meenakshi Medical College Hospital and Research Institute, Kanchipuram. To our Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, Colleagues and Staffs of the Department of Ophthalmology and Dermatology for their timely help, support and constant guidance in our work.REFERENCE1.Lewallen, Paul Courtright. An overwiew of ocular leprosy after two decades of multidrug therapy. International Ophthalmology Clinics world blindness. Sept2004, vol47(3)87-99.2. Dharmendra. History of spread and decline of leprosy. Leprosy.Vol I, Bombay Kothari Medical Publishing House,1977-21.3. Rastogi N, Rastogi RC. Leprosy in ancient India. Int J Lepr 198452541-3.4. Park K. Epidemiology of genetic Diseases. Parks Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine. 17thedn., Jabalapur M/S Banarsidas Bhanot Publishers, 2002 242-253.5. The disease In Handbook of Lep rosy, 5th edn., Delhi CBS Publishers and distribution 199610-53.6. Sihota. Tandon disease of uveous tract. Chapter 17.Parsons Diseases of the Eye,20th Edition. radical Delhi. Elsivier 2007239-72.7. Thompson Allardice et al, Patterns of ocular morbidity and blindness in leprosy Leprosy review vol 77(2) June 2006.8. Ffytche TJ. remainder sight threatening lesions in leprosy patient completing Multidrug therapy and Sulphone monotherapy, Lepr. Rev, 199162 35-43.9. hybridization J. Mannis Mascai, Arthur. Leprosy, chapter 62. Eye and skin disease, Lippincott- Raven publishers, 1996543-50.10. Orthoptists and Prescribing in NSW, VIC and SA. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists. Retrieved 29 July 2010.11. PVS Prasad. Microbiology. In all about leprosy. 1st edn. Jaypee brothers publishers,2005.pg 4-11.12. Junaid S. Wani, Saiba Rashid M.S. Ocular manifestations in leprosy- A clinical study JK- Practitioner 2005 12(1) 14-17.13. Gnanadoss AS, Rajendran N. Ocular le sions in Hansens (leprosy). IJO 19863419-23.14.Jerry A Shields George O Waring AJO,1974,77880-890.15. Acharaya B P. Ocular involvement in Leprosy- A study in mining areas of India. IJO 1978 2621-4.16. Lamba PA Arthanariswaran Leprosy India 1983,55490.17. Lloyd Weerekon BJO. 1972,56106.18. Radhakrishnan N, Albert S. Blindness due to leprosy. IJO 19802819-21.19. Ffytche. T.J., 1981, Trans. Ophthal. Soc. U.K. 101325.20. Hogeweg, M. Leiker, 1983, Brit J Dermat.109477.21. Albert Hornblass AJO.1973,75478.22. Courtright. P., Lu Fang Hu. Multi drug therapy and eye diseases in leprosy. A cross sectional study in Peoples Republic of China. Int . J. Epidemiol. 199423(4)835-42.23. Dr. Margreet Hogeweg, Prevention of Blindness due to Leprosy. ICEH, http//www.iceh.org.uk.