Steppa is a shoe manufacturer in the private sector. Steppa has 200 employees who all receive a high hourly wage rate. The Human Resources Director said: 'We use a democratic leadership style. Employees are an important stakeholder group. Happy workers are good for business. Revenue increased by 10% last year.' The director cannot understand why a high number of workers leave the business each year. She is looking at other non-financial methods to motivate employees.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (May/June 2017). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [2] any person or people with a (direct) interest in the (performance) and activities of a business
2. [2] An individual or group which has an interest in a business because they are affected by its activities (and decisions)
3. [1] someone affected by a business
4. [1] Anybody inside or outside the business who cares about its operations
5. [2] when business activities are owned by individuals OR groups of individuals
6. [1] not government controlled or run by individuals/owned by shareholders
7. [1] Additional training costs [k]
8. [1] as new workers need to learn how to make shoes [app]
9. [1] Additional recruitment costs [k]
10. [1] to maintain its 200 employees [app]
11. [1] Time taken to recruit new employees [k]
12. [1] Damage to reputation OR harder to recruit [k]
13. [1] Reduction in output OR efficiency [k]
14. [1] Impact on motivation of other workers OR increased workload for remaining workers [k]
15. [1] so not be able to maintain happy workers [app]
16. [1] New employees can provide new ideas [k]
17. [1] Hard to maintain quality [k]
18. [1] so revenue does not increase by 10% [app]
19. [1] Improves motivation OR sense of belonging [k]
20. [1] leading to increased output OR productivity [an]
21. [1] as they are happy workers [app]
22. [1] Help keep worker loyalty [k]
23. [1] could help reduce high number of workers leaving [app]
24. [1] leading to lower recruitment costs [an]
25. [1] Creates time to do other jobs [k]
26. [1] leading to fewer mistakes [an]
27. [1] Better decision making possible [k]
28. [1] More ideas [k]
29. [1] Better communication OR better feedback [k]
30. [1] Positive work environment OR better relations between managers and workers [k]
31. [1] Workers have better understanding of business' objectives [k]
32. [1] Offer fringe benefits e.g. holidays or discounts [k]
33. [1] on shoes [app]
34. [1] Job rotation [k]
35. [1] would be more interesting OR not as boring as doing the same thing [an]
36. [1] Team working [k]
37. [1] could lead to increased output OR increased efficiency [an]
38. [1] Training [k]
39. [1] so workers feel more valued as they gain more skills [an]
40. [1] Praise [k]
41. [1] as feel their work has been recognised [an]
42. [1] Opportunities for promotion [k]
43. [1] Increased responsibility [k]
44. [1] Award schemes such as employee of the month [k]
45. [1] Job enrichment [k]
46. [1] Job enlargement [k]