Business · Year 12

Active learning ideas

Setting Human Resource Objectives

This topic explores the 'people' part of the business plan, showing how strategic goals for the workforce are essential for achieving overall success.

• National Curriculum Attainment Targets
• AQA AS-Level Business (7131): 3.6.1 Setting human resource objectives

• 25–45 min
• Pairs → Whole Class
• 3 activities

Activity 01

• Case Study Analysis
• 45 min · Small Groups

Case Study Analysis: A Major UK Supermarket

Students work in small groups to analyse a case study on a retailer like Tesco or Sainsbury's. They must identify the company's likely corporate objectives and then propose and justify a set of corresponding SMART human resource objectives.

Explain the value of setting human resource objectives for a large retailer.

Facilitation Tip

Provide recent news articles or annual reports to give students real-world context for the company's current strategic focus.

What to look for

Use mini-whiteboards for a quick-fire quiz where students must identify whether an influence on HR (e.g., a new law, a competitor's pay rise) is internal or external.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Activity 02

• Case Study Analysis
• 25 min · Pairs

Internal vs. External Influences Sort

In pairs, students are given a set of cards, each with an influence on HR objectives (e.g., 'new minimum wage law', 'a high staff turnover rate', 'a recession'). They must sort these into 'internal' and 'external' categories and then rank them by importance for a chosen industry.

Analyse the internal and external influences on a company's human resource objectives.

Facilitation Tip

Encourage pairs to justify their top-ranked influence to another pair, promoting discussion and deeper analysis.

What to look for

A structured essay question based on a short case study, requiring students to analyse the influences on a company's HR objectives and evaluate their likely effectiveness.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

Activity 03

• Case Study Analysis
• 30 min · Whole Class

HR Objective Debate

Divide the class into two sides to debate a motion such as: 'This house believes that employee well-being is a more important HR objective than maximising labour productivity'. This encourages students to consider the trade-offs and complexities involved.

Compare the human resource objectives of a start-up technology firm with those of an established manufacturing company.

Facilitation Tip

Assign specific roles like opening speaker, rebuttal, and summariser to ensure structured participation.

What to look for

Provide students with a checklist based on the SMART criteria. They can then write their own HR objective for a given scenario and use the checklist to peer- or self-assess their work.

• Analyze
• Evaluate
• Create
• Decision-Making
• Self-Management

A few notes on teaching this unit

Begin by connecting to students' prior knowledge of corporate objectives, asking how a company's goals for its people might help achieve its financial goals. Use a clear case study of a well-known UK company to make the concepts tangible. Scaffold the analysis of internal and external factors by providing frameworks like PESTLE or SWOT as a starting point.

By the end of this topic, students will be able to analyse how and why a business sets specific goals for its employees and evaluate how these goals contribute to the company's performance.

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Watch Out for These Misconceptions

• HR objectives are only about hiring people and are separate from the 'real' business goals like making a profit.

  HR objectives are strategic goals that are directly linked to overall business performance. For example, an objective to reduce staff turnover directly impacts profitability by lowering recruitment and training costs.

• Every business wants to achieve the same HR objectives, like low staff turnover.

  HR objectives are highly specific to a business's context. A seasonal business might plan for high turnover, while a technology firm might prioritise attracting and retaining highly skilled talent above all else.

• You cannot measure 'soft' HR objectives like employee engagement or morale.

  While more complex to measure than financial data, 'soft' objectives can be quantified using tools like staff surveys, absenteeism rates, staff retention data, and productivity figures.

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Methods used in this brief

• Case Study Analysis