What things need to be taken into consideration when allocating work and drawing up work plans? Consider:
1. Goals and objectives
When we have to allocate work and draw up work plans, first of all, we need to figure out the goals and the objectives of the organization to ensure that the outcome would be achieved to the goals when allocating work. It is make sense that we cannot allocate work without knowing our goals and objectives. Identify short or long term goals and make sure that they are realistic and achievable. After we are considering the goals and objectives, we may need identifying and choosing between options. There may be a range of different options for achieving an agreed objective. The best of these options has then to be chosen. Therefore we should consider the goals before identifying or generating possible options, and then exploring the options and evaluating them.
When allocating work, the competencies and availability of staff must be considered so that work is allocated to those who are best equipped to do it. You must consider employees’ experience, skills, knowledge, understandings and workloads. You must consider checking their understanding and give support and opportunities to ask questions. When allocating work, the goals and objectives must be clearly defined so that employees can put them into action plans and achieve these goals. Managers and leaders must take into consideration, the interests of the staff members, their availability and the likely outcomes of involving specific employees.
3. Operational need
The execution of any plan will require resources. The resources like people, accommodation, equipment, materials, time and money are identified as necessary to enable department to carry out normal activities. In some simple plans it will be relatively easy to see where resources will be needed to complete the work within the planned time scales. In more complex work plans, when it is difficult to see precisely what will be required, a disciplined and methodical approach should be used. The following steps will usually appropriate.
-Identify each separate resource (skills, item of equipment, etc.) and its costs. -Identify when each resource is required and for how long.
-Find out what is available and what you think can be made available when required. -Establish the shortfalls and the costs of obtaining the additional resources to meet them.
-Consider how the original plan could be changed so that resources usage could be smoothed and the shortfalls made less significant. -Choose between covering the resource shortfalls, or replanning or combination of the two.
For an organization to benefit from the work involved in developing an Action Plan, the plan must do more than merely meet the requirements. It must be effective in meeting the objects of the plan and the expectations of the organization.
An Action Plan should
eliminate discrimination in an active way
improve services to existing consumers or customers
enhance organizational image
reduce the likelihood of complaints being made
increase the likelihood of being able to successfully defend complaints increase the likelihood of avoiding costly legal action
allow for a planned and managed change in business or services open up new markets and attract new consumers.
demonstrates commitment to eliminating discrimination
shows clear evidence of effective consultation with stakeholders has priorities which are appropriate and relevant
provides continuing consultation, evaluation and review
has clear timelines and implementation strategies and
is in fact being implemented.
If your Action Plan cannot do that there is little point in investing resources in developing one. A poorly developed Action Plan will not result in the elimination of discrimination and will be of no use as part of a defence in the event of a complaint. The process of developing an effective Action Plan can be divided into five elements:
understanding your organizational environment
creating a favourable climate for implementation
undertaking effective consultation
developing an effective evaluation, monitoring and review strategy and structuring and writing your plan clearly and accessibly.
5. Cost effectiveness
The cost implications of different courses of action will need to be explored. A preliminary estimate of costs can be important in deciding whether a particular option is visable, some option maybe eliminated after a quick estimate of costs. Cost can be estimated at several different level of detail. While a rough and ready exercise may be sufficient to show that an idea is worth pursuing, fuller cost and reliable figures are likely to be needed later on before firm decisions are made. To produce detail costings you will probably need information from your staff and colleagues in other departments. When producing detail estimates, assess all relevant costs, even those which may not be directly apportioned to your budget such as photocopying or phone bills, etc. By showing you are aware of the costs your decision incur, you are more likely to get your plan approved. Monitor all spending. You will almost certainly need reports from those accountable to you at appropriate intervals. Record and learn from any differences between estimated and actual expenditure.
Only monitor employees output if this is essential. Regular meetings with staff could be arranged to see how things are going. At these meetings managers could provide advice and support where necessary and ensure that staff are coping. A supportive environment is crucial. Staff need to know that managers will support them, even if things go wrong or if they find that they are unable to cope with added pressures. Provide your staff with suitable and sufficient training to do their jobs. Take account that people’s skills and the way they approach the work will different.
Develop individual or unit training arrangements and refresher sessions to ensure training and competencies are up to date and appropriate for the core functions of their job. Offer training in basic counselling skills/access to counsellors. Ensure staff know how to prioritise, or how to seek help if they have conflicting priorities. Provide training on time management, prioritisation, assertiveness etc. Encourage your staff to recognise the individual contributions of other team members and the benefits of the whole team pulling together.Encourage good communication and provide appropriate training to aid skill development (eg listening skills, confidence building etc). Provide training to help staff deal with and defuse difficult situations. Discuss how individuals work together and how they can build positive relationships. Identify ways to celebrate success.
Explain why it is necessary to :
1.Develop KRAs and KPIs that meet the organization needs.
Key result areas (KRAs) capture about 80% of the department’s work role. The remainder of the role is usually devoted to areas of shared responsibility (e.g., helping team members, participating in activities for the good of the organization) Identifying KRAs helps individuals: ·
– Clarify their roles
-· Align their roles to the organization’s business or strategic plan
-· Focus on results rather than activities
-· Communicate their role’s purposes to others
-· Set goals and objectives
-· Prioritize their activities,
– Therefore improve their time/work management
-· Make value-added decisions
A performance indicator or key performance indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement. An organization may use KPIs to evaluate its success, or to evaluate the success of a particular activity in which it is engaged. Sometimes success is defined in terms of making progress toward strategic goals, but often success is simply the repeated, periodic achievement of some level of operational goal (e.g. zero defects, 10/10 customer satisfaction, etc.). Accordingly, choosing the right KPIs relies upon a good understanding of what is important to the organization.
”What is important’ often depends on the department measuring the performance – e.g. the KPIs useful to finance will be quite different from the KPIs assigned to sales. Since there is a need to understand well what is important (to an organization), various techniques to assess the present state of the business, and its key activities, are associated with the selection of performance indicators. These assessments often lead to the identification of potential improvements, so performance indicators are routinely associated with ‘performance improvement’ initiatives. A very common way to choose KPIs is to apply a management framework such as the balanced scorecard.
2. Develop and implement effective performance management systems The basic tenet of performance management is that if employees know what is expected of them, they are more likely to perform effectively. This is also essential for employee engagement. Despite the common misconception, an engaged workforce is actually more accountable. This can be best achieved by robust performance management processes. This results in improved individual performance, increased employee engagement and ultimately better organizational performance. 3. Have a code of conduct (or a code of ethics or behavior) for the organization A code of conduct is intended to be a central guide and reference for users in support of day-to-day decision making. It is meant to clarify an organization’s mission, values and principles, linking them with standards of professional conduct. As a reference, it can be used to locate relevant documents, services and other resources related to ethics within the organization. A code is an open disclosure of the way an organization operates.
It provides visible guidelines for behavior. A well-written and thoughtful code also serves as an important communication vehicle that “reflects the covenant that an organization has made to uphold its most important values, dealing with such matters as its commitment to employees, its standards for doing business and its relationship with the community. A code is also a tool to encourage discussions of ethics and to improve how employees/members deal with the ethical dilemmas, prejudices and gray areas that are encountered in everyday work. A code is meant to complement relevant standards, policies and rules, not to substitute for them. Codes of conduct offer an invaluable opportunity for responsible organizations to create a positive public identity for themselves which can lead to a more supportive political and regulatory environment and an increased level of public confidence and trust among important constituencies and stakeholders.
4. Regularly monitor and evaluate the work of employees
A well thought out monitoring and evaluation framework can assist greatly with thinking through programmatic strategies, objectives and planned activities, and whether they are indeed the most appropriate ones to implement. Monitoring and evaluation frameworks:
Assist in understanding and analyzing a programme
Help to develop sound monitoring and evaluation plans and implementation of monitoring and evaluation activities Articulate programme goals and measurable short, medium and long-term objectives Define relationships among inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes and impacts Clarify the relationship between programme activities and external factors. Demonstrate how activities will lead to desired outcomes and impacts, especially when resources are not available to conduct rigorous impact evaluations. They often display relationships graphically. 5. Give effective feedback and reinforcement to employees and acknowledge good work Positive reinforcement is the process of recognizing and rewarding a desired behavior in an effort to encourage its continuance. Positive reinforcement can consist of praise, offering incentives to continue the behavior or showing appreciation for effort. In the workplace, supervisors can use positive reinforcement for purposes such as increasing productivity and improving the morale of an individual or department.
-Providing Sense of Worth
Providing positive reinforcement can give an employee a sense of self-worth by making her feel good about her work performance. This can be important in instances where areas that need improvement have been pointed out previously, such as during a performance appraisal. Positive reinforcement lets the employee know she is making progress and that management is recognizing her efforts. This can also help to alleviate any self-doubts she may be having about her ability to perform well.
-Encouraging Good Behavior
Positive reinforcement can increase the chances of a desired behavior reoccurring in the future. Workers receive repeated praise or encouragement for good performance, they may be more likely to continue it. For example, a habitually tardy employee who receives praise for arriving at work early may seek to continue the pattern if he continues to receive positive feedback from his supervisor.
-Improving Workplace Morale
Positive reinforcement can help improve morale in the workplace. A supervisor who lets workers know she appreciates their efforts can foster a more positive work atmosphere. Employees may not only be happier and more productive in their own position, but they also may be more willing to help others who may be overworked or struggling. This is especially import in work environments where teamwork is essential to getting the job done or when employees work in close proximity to each other.
New employees may have concerns about fitting in with the culture of the workplace and whether they are demonstrating the ability to perform as desired. Positive reinforcement early on in the training or orientation process can alleviate these concerns and help the employee relax and feel more confident about his ability to be successful. It can also encourage him to feel more comfortable about asking questions or expressing concerns as his training progresses. 6.Have systems in place to manage poor performance
Performance management makes up a significant part of every manager’s job description, and this means managers are required to deal with poor performance. Managers often view this as one of the less desirable responsibilities that come with their job because too often our perception of managing poor performance is clouded by thoughts of tense, uncomfortable situations that may result in finger pointing, anger and denial. Therefore we need a system in place to manage poor performance. 7. Understand the organization’s termination policy and the legislation to which it relates Most employers find dismissal of an employee to be a difficult process regardless of the reasons for the dismissal. However, when a dismissal is necessary, it is important for the employer to: Be informed about and comply with legislation
Treat the employee fairly and act in good faith
Handle the termination process in a professional way that preserves the employee’s dignity Be careful about how much information is communicated to others about the facts and reasons for the termination Termination, as discussed in this section, is an action taken by the employer to end the employer/employee relationship. Employers have a basic right to terminate the employment of an employee, but along with that right comes responsibilities. Employers must comply with the employment/ labour standards and human rights legislation for their jurisdiction and beyond that, employers must treat employees fairly and in good faith as defined by common law or civil law.
Project 2- case study
Organization X has been expressed dissatisfaction with the service provided by my team, and actually they has expressed their dissatisfaction on a number of previous occasions. Therefore Organization X is considering that the contract with our company may not be extended. Thus, we are going to consider how to address the problem.
The organization should have explicit and well communicated performance standards There may some communication problem occurs. Since when representatives from organization X have contacted the team member to confirm orders and delivery times, they have received vague assurances, but the goods ordered have either not arrived on time, or the orders have not been fully made up. Therefore I will draw up a timetable of the delivery times and the list of details of the goods order, to ensure that there is a clear work plan to follow. I will also ask my team member to sign the time schedule and record the time when every time they deliver the goods. I may also make a check list and ask my team member to record the quality and the quantity of the goods before they deliver the goods. Moreover, to ask them to follow up customers’ feedback, call them and ask whether they satisfy with the service and the quality of the goods.
At last, in order to improve my team members job performance, I will draw up an Employee performance improvement plan terms of agreement to clearly define and document the duties or behaviors requiring improvement.
Employee should receive appropriate training
The team member should receive a clear step-by-step instruction of the order to ensure that they know how to carry out the job, they understand the goals or requirement of the customers need, and encourage them to ask when they have any problems.
Employees should be given suitable support so they can do their jobs well I will hold on a meeting with my team members to discuss all about his case. As the organization X has been expressed their dissatisfaction on a number of previous occasions, so I may consider about my team members’ work load and make sure that they have ability to finish their works. I suggest that we should transfer the case to another team member to carry out or assign one more team member to help them out. Therefore they can look after each other in this project and reduce their work load. What action might you take if, after you have implemented your problem solution, the situation does not improve?
When performance counseling, or methods of accommodating the needs of the employee are unsuccessful, it may lead to the written warning letters. In this warning letter, it build in information, responses, and commitments made in any performance evaluations and counseling processes. Include a statement about the past, reviewing the employee’s history with respect to the problems; a statement about the present, describing who, what, when etc. of the current situation, including the employees’ explanation; and a statement of the future, describing the organization’s expectations and the consequences of continued failure. Timeframes attributed to the improvement result should be included, along with the measurement criteria.
http://labspace.open.ac.uk/file.php/5401/B600_1%20Blk%206.2.pdf http://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/disability-rights/standards/action-plans/developing-effective-action-plan#5 http://www.drivingforce.com.au/hr-implementing-performance-management.php http://www.ethics.org/resource/why-have-code-conduct
http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/335-monitoring-and-evaluation-frameworks-3-parts.html http://smallbusiness.chron.com/positive-reinforcement-important-workplace-11566.html http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/keeping-people-termination.cfm