Business, Accounting and Finance

BSBWOR301 Organise personal work priorities and

development

Learner Materials and Assessment Tasks

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Table of Contents

About BSBWOR301 Organise personal work priorities and development

................................................ 4
Ensure that work goals, objectives or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are understood,
negotiated and agreed in accordance with organisational requirements
................................................. 8
Activity 1 ........................................................................................................................................................................
9
Assess and prioritise workload to ensure tasks are completed within identified timeframes
............ 17
Activity 2 .....................................................................................................................................................................
21
Identify factors affecting the achievement of work objectives and incorporate contingencies
into
work plans ..................................................................................................................................................................
23
Use business technology efficiently and effectively to manage and monitor scheduling and
completion of tasks .................................................................................................................................................
25 Activity 3
..................................................................................................................................................................... 26
Activity 4 .....................................................................................................................................................................
42
Accurately monitor and adjust personal work performance through self assessment to ensure
achievement of tasks and compliance with legislation and work processes or KPIs
............................ 43
Activity 5 .....................................................................................................................................................................
50
Ensure that feedback on performance is actively sought and evaluated from colleagues and
clients in the context of individual and group requirements
.................................................................................... 52
Activity 6 .....................................................................................................................................................................
59
Routinely identify and report on variations in the quality of and products and services
according to organisational requirements
................................................................................................................................. 61 Activity 7
..................................................................................................................................................................... 62
Identify signs of stress and effects on personal wellbeing
........................................................................... 65
Activity 8 .....................................................................................................................................................................
76

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Identify sources of stress and access appropriate supports and resolution strategies
........................ 78
Activity 9 .....................................................................................................................................................................
86
Identify personal learning and professional development needs and skill gaps using self
assessment and advice from colleagues and clients in relation to role and organisational
requirements .............................................................................................................................................................
88 Activity 10
.................................................................................................................................................................. 102
Identify, prioritise and plan opportunities for undertaking personal skill development
activities in
liaison with work groups and relevant personnel .........................................................................................
103
Activity 11 ..................................................................................................................................................................
105
Access, complete and record professional development opportunities to facilitate continuous
learning and career development .....................................................................................................................
107 Activity 12
.................................................................................................................................................................. 109
Incorporate formal and informal feedback into review of further learning needs ...............................
111

Activity 13 ...................................................................................................................................................................
116
ASSESSMENT............................................................................................................................................................
118
Assessment Outcome record .............................................................................................................................
156

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About BSBWOR301 Organise personal work priorities and
development
Application

This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to organise own work schedules, to
monitor and obtain feedback on work performance and to maintain required levels of
competence.

This unit applies to individuals who exercise discretion and judgement and apply a broad
range of competencies in various work contexts.

No licensing, legislative, regulatory or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time
of publication.

Unit Sector

Industry Capability – Workplace Effectiveness

Elements and Performance Criteria

ELEMENT PERFORMANCE CRITERIA
Elements describe the Performance criteria describe the performance needed to
essential outcomes. demonstrate achievement of the element.
1. Organise and complete 1.1 Ensure that work goals, objectives or Key Performance
own work schedule Indicators (KPIs) are understood, negotiated and agreed in
accordance with organisational requirements

1.2 Assess and prioritise workload to ensure tasks are completed

within identified timeframes

1.3 Identify factors affecting the achievement of work objectives

and incorporate contingencies into work plans

1.4 Use business technology efficiently and effectively to manage

and monitor scheduling and completion of tasks
2. Monitor own work 2.1 Accurately monitor and adjust personal work performance
performance through self assessment to ensure achievement of tasks and
compliance with legislation and work processes or KPIs

2.2 Ensure that feedback on performance is actively sought and

evaluated from colleagues and clients in the context of individual
and group requirements

2.3 Routinely identify and report on variations in the quality of

and

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 products and services according to organisational requirements

2.4 Identify signs of stress and effects on personal wellbeing

2.5 Identify sources of stress and access appropriate supports and

resolution strategies
3. Co-ordinate personal 3.1 Identify personal learning and professional development
skill development and needs and skill gaps using self assessment and advice from
learning colleagues and clients in relation to role and organisational
requirements

3.2 Identify, prioritise and plan opportunities for undertaking

personal skill development activities in liaison with work groups
and relevant personnel

3.3 Access, complete and record professional development

opportunities to facilitate continuous learning and career
development

3.4 Incorporate formal and informal feedback into review of

further learning needs
Foundation Skills

This section describes language, literacy, numeracy and employment skills incorporated in the
performance criteria that are required for competent performance.
Skill Performance Description

Criteria
Learning 3.1-3.4 • Employs a range of approaches and
investigative techniques to source the
knowledge necessary to arrange personal
learning experiences
Reading 1.1, 1.2, 2.1 • Interprets textual information to determine
organisation’s procedures, own work
performance and objectives

Writing 1.3, 1.4, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2, • Prepares written reports and workplace
3.3 documents that communicate information
clearly and effectively

Oral 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2 • Clearly gives and receives feedback using
Communication specific and relevant language
• Uses listening and questioning techniques to
confirm understanding

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Numeracy 1.1, 1.3 • Understands responsibilities and scope of role
and complies with organisational policies,
procedures and protocols

Interact with 1.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.1, 3.2 • Selects the appropriate form, channel and
others mode of communication for a specific purpose
relevant to own role
• Fosters and nurtures a culture of constructive
and respectful feedback
• Proactively collaborates with others to achieve
specific goals

Get the work 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.4, 2.5, • Plans and organises work commitments to
done 3.2 ensure deadlines and objectives are met
• Uses formal analytical thinking techniques to
recognise and respond to routine problems
• Uses digital systems and tools to enter, store
and monitor information

Unit Mapping Information

Code and title Code and title Comments Equivalence status
current version previous version

BSBWOR301 BSBWOR301B Updated to meet Equivalent unit

Organise personal Organise personal Standards for Training
work priorities and work priorities and Packages
development development
Assessment requirements

Modification History
Release Comments
Release 1 This version first released with BSB Business Services Training
Package Version 1.0.
Performance Evidence

Evidence of the ability to:

• prepare a work plan according to organisational requirements and work objectives

• use business technology to schedule, prioritise and monitor completion of tasks in a
work plan
• assess and prioritise own work load and deal with contingencies
• monitor and assess personal performance against job role requirements by seeking
feedback from colleagues and clients
• identify personal development needs and access, complete and record skill
development and learning.
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Note: if a specific volume or frequency is not stated, then evidence must be provided at least
once.

Knowledge Evidence

To complete the unit requirements safely and effectively, the individual must:

• outline key provisions of legislation that relate to own work role

• describe goals, objectives or key performance indicators of own work role
• explain ways to elicit, analyse and interpret feedback when communicating with other
people in the workplace
• explain the principles and techniques of goal setting, measuring performance, time
management and personal assessment of learning and development needs •
explain signs and sources of stress and strategies to deal with stress in the
workplace
• identify methods to identify and prioritise personal learning needs.

Ensure that work goals, objectives or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are
understood, negotiated and agreed in accordance with organisational
requirements
Business objectives are usually quite strategic and high-level and set out what the
organisation wants to do, today, tomorrow, next month, next year. They are broad ideas that
allow the business to respond to dynamic situations and continue to grow and prosper.
What has that got to do with you? In order for an individual in an organisation to
understand the objectives and help each person appreciate their individual part in achieving
them, they must be clearly set out and applied to each department. Each organisation will
have its own policies and procedures to allow the broad brushstrokes of decisions made by
the CEO and/or the Board passed on to managers, middle managers and supervisors. It is
their role to explain your part in achieving part of all of any objectives. The company who
sets D.U.M.B. objectives – Doable, Understandable, Manageable, and Beneficial should not
have any difficulty explaining the outcomes they desire to anyone in the business from staff
to Board member.

Work goals or outcomes are specific strategies to help you personally achieve targets (KPI’s)
or Key Performance Indicators in your role in the workplace and achieving them add to the
success of any business objectives. Goals typically provide you with instructions on how to
go about achieving them i.e. improve ‘x’, do ‘y’, reduce ‘z’. Goals are priorities. They are
actually things almost everyone in the company will understand as soon as you say them.
Negotiating and agreeing to an Enterprise Bargaining Agreement (EBA) is carried out by
consulting with management, employees, and unions (if they are on site or employees
request their involvement).

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These agreements are meant to increase productivity for the organisation through workplace
reform, benefiting employees and customers as well. The process works best in companies
with a good management-worker relationship and a high level of mutual trust. Employee
involvement in decision-making regularly leads to benefits such as increased productivity
and greater collaboration. For more information on EBA agreements in Australia Fair Work
Australia has a very useful website: http://www.fairwork.gov.au/resources/best-
practiceguides/pages/consultation-and-cooperation-in-the-workplace.aspx.

Understanding your KPI’s will help you to manage your time well. If the business objective is
to sell as much stock as possible, your KPI will very likely involve an expected number of sales
or transactions that must be met in a certain timeframe. Some are daily, weekly, monthly or
seasonal. There are 4 components to any KPI.

1. What is being measured?

2. Who is measuring it?
3. How often is it being measured?
4. How frequently is that information being transmitted to the relevant
supervisor/manager?

Position Descriptions (PD) are often a good place to start when trying to understand where
we fit into our organisation. The PD will identify your accountabilities and responsibilities to
help you plan your work and attain the goals set out in your KPIs. Whilst your KPI’s tell you
the level of performance required or state the amount of outcomes to be achieved, the PD
sets out the responsibilities, skills and attributes required to achieve the KPI’s.

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Activity 1

What are the benefits of involving employees in the decision making process?

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Activity 1

Understanding Goals1

1
Source: Invest Blue, as at https://www.investblue.com.au/knowledge-centre/fact-sheets/understandinggoals/,
as on 4th June, 2016.
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Goal setting is certainly not a new concept. We have all heard about the importance of
having goals. For example, we know that Olympic and professional athletes have goals and
constantly strive to achieve them. Amazingly though, less than 3% of the population has a
written set of goals. Furthermore, less than 1% review their goals on a regular basis.

Having a goal enables you to focus your energies on devising ways to achieve it. When
someone makes a decision and begins focusing on achieving a specific goal (and even better
in a specific period of time), the powerful subconscious mind goes to work and begins
playing with ideas and developing strategies of various ways to bring about the successful
completion of the goal.

Why Set Goals?

Purpose:

Goals give your daily and long term actions meaning and purpose. This helps you stay
motivated when you realise that you’re engaging in certain financial behaviours for a reason
and not just randomly acting.

Accountability:
Goals also make you accountable. If you find that you’re regularly falling short of your goals,
it could be that you’re not really committed to them.

Structure:

Goals provide a framework or structure from which you can operate and achieve your
objectives. Many of us need this structure to plug away at reaching our goals, especially long
range visions.

Discipline:

Goals spur you along to be consistent and disciplined in your actions since you know that a
lack of discipline on your part will cause you to deviate from your plans, thereby jeopardizing
your chances of hitting your goals How Do I Set Goals?

Goals should be written and it is also important to set the appropriate type of goals. SMART
is an acronym that describes goals that are:

Specific

Measurable

Action Based

Realistic

Time frame

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Power Of Written Goals

Survey of Harvard University students*

A compelling example of the power of written goal setting is represented in a 1979 survey of
Harvard University students which found that 84 percent of them did not set goals. Another
13 percent of them did set goals, but did not bother to write them down. And only 3 percent
of the graduating class had written goals and an action plan. Ten years later, researchers
resurveyed the group. The 13 percent with unwritten goals were earning double the income
of those with no goals. But the 3 per cent of the student population with written goals
earned ten times as much as the other 97 per cent.

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How Setting Goals Can Improve Your Work Performance2

The process of setting targets for accomplishment, also known as goal setting, is an
important step in both our work and personal lives. Often overlooked by many, goal setting
provides a number of benefits to the working professional. They can also be useful at an
organisational level in areas such as quotas, objectives, deadlines and budgets. Taking the
time to set goals can greatly improve your working performance – read below to find out
how.

Ability to focus on priorities

Setting clear and concise goals with your work gives you the ability to focus on your
priorities. Goals that are properly thought out which reflect your intentions and desires will
allow you to prioritise a lot easier. After writing your goals, you must go through and put
them in order of priority – this allows tasks to be completed in a logical order. Prioritising
your goals also encourages forward planning and a focus on thinking ahead in your work.
With this focus will also come less stress as you are better prepared and clear on what work
you need to complete and by when.

Guides decision making

By having concrete goals in place they serve as a guide in the decision making process. Being
aware of what you are trying to achieve allows you to evaluate each minor activity that you
perform by asking yourself ‘will this activity get me closer to achieving my goal?’ This can
also be applied at an organisational level whereby future direction is provided to your
business. This can help you guide both yourself and your employees in a whole range of
decision making processes. Goals are also useful in decision making when challenges are
faced throughout a project. They allow you to reflect on the outcomes that you want to
achieve and then refocus your decisions in order to achieve those outcomes.

Responsibility for own actions

Documented and defined goals mean that you are directly responsible for the success or
failure for that particular achievement. Being responsible for your actions is very important in
business because with responsibility comes self-efficacy. Positive experiences in goal
orientated environments allow you to learn more about yourself and the boundaries of your
abilities. If you succeed in achieving all of your goals, you can feel confident that your work
has contributed to larger organisational objectives. On the other hand, if you fail in achieving
your goals you are also responsible for that. It is important to remember that very few of us
reach our goals without some challenges along the way – failure is not necessarily a terrible
outcome. Failures should therefore not be ignored; they should be used as an opportunity to
learn.

Helps in using time effectively

2
Source: Australian Institute of Business, as at http://aib.edu.au/blog/how-setting-goals-can-improve-yourwork-
performance/, as on 4th July, 2016.
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If time is a precious resource of yours, goal setting is essential. It is often very difficult to
effectively manage your time without clear goals and objectives in place. By having goals,
you then prioritise them and work towards achieving the most important tasks first. Goals
also help to prevent you from working on tasks which are irrelevant to your project
outcomes. As Peter Drucker (http://www.the-happy-manager.com/tips/benefits-of-goal-
setting/)says ‘if you want to improve how you manage time – stop doing what doesn’t need
to be done’. In the fast-paced business environment that exists today, any time saving tool is
one which should not be overlooked. Plan out your goals and ensure that every minute
counts.

Ability to measure and evaluate

When goals are set, outcomes are expected to be achieved therefore at the end of a project
these outcomes can be evaluated. Measuring and evaluating your outcomes allows for
analysis on what was effective and what could be done better. Rarely does a project run
smoothly and successfully from start to finish, so by evaluating the results we can learn what
can be done better next time. Evaluation also allows for forward planning so that mistakes
can be avoided and goals can be adjusted accordingly.

Learn from the best

In a study conducted by Thomas C. Cortey on the habits of wealthy people versus poor
people, there were a number of findings which indicate that goal setting contributes greatly
to your success. The study found that 67% of wealthy people write down their goals in
comparison to only 17% of poor people. In addition, 80% of the wealthy focus on achieving a
specific goal compared to 12% of the poor. This pattern suggests that if you take the time to
write down your goals, you will be more prepared and organised to succeed in your career.

Key Performance Indicators3

Many organisations have a mission or vision statement, a strategic plan and identified goals
to achieve this plan. But how do you focus your organisation on achieving these goals? And
how do you measure its success?

What are Key Performance Indicators?

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are designed to focus organisations on meeting their
strategic goals. They are used as measures to determine the extent to which an organisation
has achieved those goals. KPIs will differ between organisations and teams within
organisations.

3
Source: Pitcher Partners, as at http://www.growth.pitcher.com.au/resources/articles/understanding-
keyperformance-indicators, as on 4th July, 2016.
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 • A charity may have a KPI of ‘total annual funds raised’

• A business development team may look at ‘value of new clients won’

• A call centre may look at ‘average call wait times’
• A high school may be focused on ‘number of students enrolled in tertiary studies’ or
‘number of students gaining employment’

KPIs should reflect what is important to the organisation

Once an organisation has determined its vision and strategic goals it can determine how it
will achieve these goals and therefore what is important to the organisation. It is these goals
that are documented as KPIs for the organisation, for teams and ultimately, for individuals.
The theory being that if all individuals meet their KPIs, the organisation will achieve its vision
and strategic goals

An organisation that has a strategic goal to ‘enter new markets’ may have KPIs surrounding
‘number of new markets entered’ or ‘dollar sales value in new markets’. While an
organisation looking to ‘grow through research based product development’ may have a KPI
on the ‘number of new research projects commenced and completed’.

What makes a good KPI?

KPIs should be clear so the team or individual knows exactly what they need to achieve and
when. ‘Increasing sales’ for example can be ambiguous. Is it sales units or sales dollars and
when must the target be achieved?

It is important that KPIs can be measured. KPIs such as ‘Customer satisfaction’ can be
difficult to measure whereas the ‘customer complaints per month’ can be captured readily.

KPIs should be achievable and actionable, that is the individual or team should have a degree
of control or influence over the achievement of the KPI. Giving someone a KPI they cannot
influence will not empower them and will not be reflective of their performance.

The time period over which you will measure performance is important and must also be
specified.

• It must allow a suitable period of time for the performance to occur, eg. if you
average one customer complaint per week, don’t set a KPI based on number of
complaints received per day as that number would be meaningless (0.2 complaints
per day).
• Your systems must also be capable of reporting on the KPI in the required timeframe,
that is, don’t set a daily sales target if your system only allows you to see sales on a
weekly basis.
• The KPI reporting must give people time to assess how well they are performing, and
change activities if required. For example, a KPI of annual sales is unhelpful if you
only look at results once a year. You must break the KPI into smaller increments, eg.
weekly sales, so corrective action can be taken if needed to meet the annual target.

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Quantitative Vs Qualitative

KPIs may be quantitative or qualitative. Quantitative measures tend to be financial in nature

but include non-financial measures such as ‘machine break-downs per month’ or ‘product
returns per month’. Qualitative KPIs can be hard to measure as they will often be captured
through surveys, eg. customer satisfaction.

Long term Vs Short Term

Organisations should consider both their short and long term objectives when developing
KPIs as they can often be conflicting. Take the example of a reduction in capital expenditure.
This may increase profitability in the short term. However, it could jeopardise growth due to
an ageing asset base, reduced research in new products or not penetrating new markets.

Where to start

KPIs are very empowering for an organisation. They start with your overall company goals
and vision – what is the business as a whole trying to achieve. You can then begin to break
these goals down into the contributing factors required of each team and, where required,
each individual.

Don’t forget that KPIs are not a ‘set and forget’ type initiative. To ensure you have
appropriate KPIs you must regularly review the KPIs you are setting: are they contributing to
the firm reaching its targets?

The value of KPIs is based on the saying that ‘What gets measured, gets done’. Keeping
people accountable for their contribution to the business’ performance is critical in both
achieving the company’s goals, and getting the best out of your team.

Assess and prioritise workload to ensure tasks are completed within

identified timeframes
Good time management results in tasks being completed on time. Tasks are inter-related
within projects, so your colleagues may not be able to start or complete their tasks until you
have completed yours. Your colleagues therefore rely on you to complete tasks on time or to
give them sufficient warning if a deadline is at risk of not being met. This will enable them to
plan their own workload accordingly. Tasks are negotiated so the best person is allocated to
each task to speed up completion times; everybody supports each other so all work is
completed on time.
In assessing and prioritising your workload, you increase your ability to reach KPI’s,
contribute to the smooth running of your part of the business and reduce stress on yourself
by not leaving everything to the last minute. If you are working with others it is important to
communicate clearly to enable each person to be fully aware of what they are required to do
so tasks are not replicated, therefore saving time and resources.

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At times you many need to seek assistance from supervisors or colleagues to ensure your
work is completed within timelines required. It is important to acknowledge when a task is
beyond your current capability as this enables work to be handed over to someone with
greater expertise. In a good team, they will be happy to show you what to do and may even
become a mentor to you, allowing you to learn in a positive and supportive environment
which will make you a more valuable member of the team.

Assessing the workflow depends on your ability to manage time effectively and understand
the various roles each team member plays. Good negotiation skills allow you to hold a
mutual discussion involving the completion of tasks, including who should be responsible for
what task and how the task should be completed. Good communication will ensure everyone
fully understands what is expected of them and gives employees the opportunity to ask
questions for clarification of tasks. Be prepared to continually monitor and re-estimate
timelines if need be.

When you have a range of competing demands on your time, you may find that you try to
complete more than one task at a time. However, this may result in all of the tasks being
done to a lower quality than you would have achieved otherwise. Prioritising is the ordering
of tasks from most important/urgent to least important/urgent. You can prioritise work
according to a number of different measures; however Stephen Covey (who wrote ‘The
Seven Habits of Highly Efficient People’) came up with the diagram on the left to help you
determine a task’s importance.
Planning your work schedule4

Everyday, you will have a number of tasks to perform. Planning your work schedule will help
you to complete all of your tasks on time.

4
Source: RMIT, as at
https://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/toolbox/legal/OFFICE/T07/T07_A/T7_LIB/T5_PWS.HTML, as on 4th July,
2016.

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Just as developing a task list ensures that you will remember every task, planning your work
schedule will help you to complete your work in the appropriate order.

In Legal Offices, like most other work places, staff work as part of a team. Teams can be
made up of groups of people performing the same role, for example the partnership team or
the support team, or people who perform different roles, for example a legal practitioner and
a Legal Administration Assistant working together.

You will need to understand what the team is trying to achieve in order to plan your work
schedule. You will also need to understand the needs and priorities of others.

Work schedule

There will be tasks Legal Administration Assistants complete daily, for example filing, as well
as tasks that are allocated by legal practitioners as the need arises, for example production of
letters. To determine your daily work schedule, you will need to list all your daily and
allocated tasks.

Some tasks should be completed before others. To determine the order in which you need to
complete the tasks, you need to prioritise them.

Prioritising tasks

To prioritise your tasks, you need to consider both urgency and importance of the task.

Urgency refers to how quickly the task needs to be completed. This may be due to court
deadlines, legislative limitations, meeting times, the volatility of a legal matter, the client or
the legal practitioner’s needs. External factors, such as public holidays or court opening
times, may also impact the urgency of a task.

To determine importance, you should take into account how essential it is to complete the
task and what the consequences are if it is not completed. If the work is integral to a matter
or the relationship with the client, it is very important. If the consequences of not completing
the task are severe, you should also consider the task important.

Some tasks are very important but not urgent, for example creating a court document that
must be filed within 28 days. If these documents are never filed, the consequence may be
serious. The client may lose their opportunity to have their case heard. If this task is not
completed for 27 days and now the document needs to be filed by tomorrow, it will become
urgent as well as important. You should avoid leaving any important tasks to the last day in
case unforeseen circumstances such as Computer problems prevent you from completing
the task.

Other tasks are more urgent, but less important, for example preparing minutes for an
internal meeting due to start in an hour. If the minutes are not prepared, the meeting can go
ahead without drastic consequences.

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To determine the urgency of a task, you will need to ask the person who allocated the task to
you for a deadline. Deadlines may be based on court appearances, settlement dates for
Conveyancing matters, or client or legal practitioner needs. If you work for more than one
person, the more senior person’s work usually takes priority.

One method of assigning priorities to tasks is to allocate a number to each task depending
on importance and a letter depending on urgency. Using this method, if 1 is most important
and 3 is least important, and A is most urgent and C is least urgent, tasks marked 1A have
the highest priority and should be completed first. If you think you can complete everything,
you should complete tasks by urgency.

Example of tasks:
Task Importance Urgency Priority

Filing 2 B 3

Distribute incoming mail 2 B 2

Apply for certificate to be 1 A 1

submitted next week (takes 3
days to arrive)
Type letter to be sent by the end 1 C 4
of next week
Send disbursement details to the 2 C 5
accountant for matter finalised
today
Update internal telephone list to 3 C 6
remove the name of a legal
practitioner who left the firm
Once you have determined the priority of each task, you can list them in your Task Planning
Sheet in that order.

If you think you may not complete all the tasks, you should

• Negotiate with the people who allocated the tasks to you, they can determine which
have greater priorities. If you are required to complete high priority tasks for more
than one person, you will need to negotiate with all parties.
• Seek support from the Legal Support Manager if others cannot agree. The Legal
Support Manager may be able to help share the workload around and help to
prioritise the work.
• Seek help from others.
• Obtain approval to work overtime.

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Reviewing priorities

There will be times when you have planned your day and you are allocated another task. You
will need to determine the priority of the new task compared with the rest of your
responsibilities and reorganise your work schedule. If there is a conflict and you think you
may not be able to fit in the new task, you will need to negotiate with the person who
allocated the task. If they insist that their task take priority over the other tasks, you should
discuss this with anyone whose task may be affected. If everyone insists that their task take
priority, you should seek assistance from the Legal Support Manager, or arrange a meeting
for all the people involved to discuss the priorities with each other.

Activity 2

Describe one way that we can ensure that our workload is completed within the required
timeframe?

Activity 2

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When you’re faced with an ever growing to-do list, learning to prioritise your tasks is vital,
not only for your productivity but for your own sanity and wellbeing. But with every task
appearing urgent, how do you prioritise so that you make the most out of every day?5

To help you I thought I would share how I prioritise my to-do list to ensure my time is
spent as productively and profitably as possible. 1. Plan and list your tasks

First thing Monday morning or Sunday evening if that works better for you, plan your week
ahead. List out all tasks, meetings and calls so you can get an accurate idea of what you need
to accomplish throughout the week and then rank them according to importance or urgency.

2. Review your workload regularly

Is there a task that you always put at the bottom? If you find you’re avoiding it, can someone
else do it? Consider delegating or if you can’t delegate set a time to complete it. Often the
hardest part is to start so take a lesson from Nike and just do it, you will feel so much better
once it’s completed.

3. Set realistic deadlines for your task

Once you have your task list in front of you, fill in the due dates and timeframes you need to
achieve tasks in. Be honest and realistic about what you can achieve in a working day or week
so that you don’t end up feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

4. Cater for interruptions

Interruptions are inevitable so build time into your schedule each day where you can deal
with them, though only allow yourself to deal with urgent queries during this time. Your first
priority should always be the work that will have consequences if you don’t finish it within the
set deadline.

5. Don’t let your inbox drive your schedule

With the amount of emails and urgent requests received daily, it can be easy to let your inbox
determine the priorities of your to-do list. Resist the urge and instead switch off alerts and
allocate set times to check your emails throughout the day. If you get 50 emails a day that’s
50 interruptions, don’t let other peoples priorities become yours.

5
Source: Kylie Denton Coaching and Consulting, as at http://www.kyliedenton.com.au/five-tips-to-help-
youprioritise-your-work/, as on 4th July, 2016.
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Identify factors affecting the achievement of work objectives and
incorporate contingencies into work plans
As much as we try to plan for every eventuality, there are always some events that arise
which are unexpected, unplanned and can, if not handled correctly, take up valuable time to
correct and put us behind schedule.

• Competing work demands which can be prioritised more easily when you are well
aware of your Position Description. This will allow you to decide what is
important and what is not. Learning to say “no” to tasks that are not part of your
job or which can be done later, with professionalism and good manners is a vital
skill in the workplace. Phone calls and emails can be a distraction and consume a
considerable period of time which can make you feel busy but achieves very little.
Some organisations have implemented a set time in the day to deal with emails
and have a policy that each email must have an outcome – that is – an action
must come from reading each one. A ‘to-do’ list is invaluable. List the projects in
order of importance. Remember that there are certain times of day when you
probably do your best work. Some people work best in the morning and others
late at night. Schedule your email check-in during your less-productive times –
and save your peak hours for doing creative, high-value work.
• Environmental factors such as workplace hazards and risks and knowing how to
deal with them are part of your job. They may contribute to slowing down or
stopping you from achieving a goal on time simply by you not taking the time
when you are free to find out how to removed jammed paper from a photocopier
or knowing where spare cartridges are. This basic knowledge may help you avoid
overshooting deadlines.
• Budget and resource restraints – this might involve unexpected cutbacks in
budget, colleagues being moved to other areas to work on other projects,
incomplete deliveries of supplies to allow you to complete a task. Being flexible
and open to other opinions, seeking the advice of colleagues who have been in
the organisation longer than you, and brainstorming all allow you to search for
the most efficient way of achieving your goal without exceeding your budget.
• Technology makes life in the workplace much easier but when it does not work
because of equipment breakdowns, paper jams, network issues, corrupted files, or
power outages it is important to have a back-up plan so that time is not wasted
waiting for IT technicians or tradespeople to arrive. Once the solution leaves your
area control of the timeframe is lessened so it is important to have plans to use
the waiting time constructively. Having files you are working on backed up to a
USB drive, using the time to do some research on the project you are working on,
bringing a meeting of your work group forward, all help to keep your focus on
the work targets and keep your and your team on track. If any equipment is
broken or needs to be moved, it is important to follow workplace WHS policies
and procedures regarding lifting or dealing with any potential hazardous
materials.
• Contingency Plans (sometimes referred to as Plan B) Unforseen events can and do
happen which may result in flustered staff as deadlines get pushed out and

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 resources promised are no longer available. In some companies a fire drill is a
scheduled event which can be planned for but in others the drill is unannounced
to staff to simulate
more closely what happens in a real emergency. This can take some time to
complete and will affect deadlines. Look for opportunities to reduce risk,
wherever possible. This may help you reduce, or even eliminate, the need for full
contingency plans in certain areas. Contingency planning is ignored in many
companies. Day-to-day operations are demanding, and the probability of a
significant business disruption is small, so it's hard to make time to prepare a
good plan. However, if you're proactive in the short term, you'll help ensure a
quicker and more effective recovery from an operational setback in the long term,
and you may save your organization from failure in the event that risks
materialize. Contingency planning requires an investment of time and resources,
but if you fail to do it – or if you do it poorly – the costs could be significant if a
breakdowns or delays happen.

Use business technology efficiently and effectively to manage and monitor

scheduling and completion of tasks
There are many work schedule templates available on the internet from personal To-do lists
to Rostering software and Project Management programs which can be shared by all
relevant staff members. In some cases it can also be accessed by third parties such as
contractors and vendors.

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For your personal day to day organisation including work tasks in a hard copy diary may be a
requirement in your workplace. Other organisations expect you to use Microsoft Calendar to
help you organise your work day and have a policy of sharing calendars in work groups to
monitor staff movements and allow training time to be scheduled. Electronic Calendars that
can be accessed by your colleagues will enable them to identify the gaps in your schedule in
which they can organise meetings or discussions. Such devices can also record how you’ve
spent your time, jog your memory, alert you to meetings and important tasks, and store
useful information such as to-do lists and contact details. They can also be accessed on
smart phones, tablets and laptops so that you can keep track of your daily meetings, tasks
and future planning even when you are not near a stand-alone computer or in your office.

Project management tools are used to monitor various projects or tasks at regular intervals
and there are a few which are commonly used in the workplace such as Gantt charts, Pert
charts, Excel spread sheets, MS Project (which can incorporate Gantt Charts), and written
reports. In the case of reports your workplace will most likely have templates or you may be
able to view one which has previously been used to determine the format to use for
reporting and the depth of information you need to provide.

Activity 3

Describe one item of information technology that can be used to increase the effectiveness of
an employee in the workplace.

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Activity 3

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Activity 3

Using Microsoft Outlook to manage your calendar6

What is an electronic calendar?

An electronic calendar works in a similar way to a paper calendar. You use it to organise and
arrange your schedule. However the electronic calendars have a few benefits over using a
paper calendar such as reminder notices, inviting others to meetings you schedule and
sharing of your calendar so people who you choose to view it are able to see your schedule.
This comes in very handy for an e-employee.

How to view, access and edit calendars

To view your Microsoft Outlook calendar open Microsoft Office and then Microsoft outlook
from your programs list. You will notice that the program opens to your email inbox.

6
Source: Forward IT, South Australain Government, as at
http://www.forwardit.sa.gov.au/home/employees/managing_your_calendar/manag_your_calendar_in_micro
soft_outlook?SQ_DESIGN_NAME=fprint, as on 4th July, 2016.

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On the left hand menu you will see a Calendar tab. Click on this tab and your calendar
opens.

How to Customise the calendar views

In Calendar, on the Home tab you can select your preferred view of calendar

Calendar views allow you to choose how much of your calendar you can see at one time.
Using the buttons across the top if the calendar you can elect to view your calendar by the
day/week/month.

Day to a Page shows only your events for the selected day

Week to a Page which shows all the appointments for the week.

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Month to a Page shows all the appointments for the month.

You can choose the day/week/month you wish to view by clicking on the date in the
calendar in the top right corner of the screen.

How to schedule an Event

An event is usually an activity that lasts more than 24 hours. Instead of appearing in the body
of your calendar an event will appear in the banner at the top of the calendar. This can be
useful for events such as birthdays, anniversaries, public holidays and full day meetings.

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In ‘Calendar’ click ‘New Item’ then click ‘All Day Event’

Complete the details of your event including the subject or title and the location. With an all
day event there is no need to specify the time. When you are finished click Save and Close

How to schedule an appointment

As opposed to an all day event, an appointment appears in your calendar at a specified time.

In the Home tab across the top of the screen, click New Appointment.

Keyboard shortcut - to create an appointment, press CTRL+SHIFT+A.

• Type a description or title of your appointment in the Subject Box.

• Type in the location of the appointment in the Location Box
• You then need to select the date, start and finish times of the appointment.

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You will notice that there ia a check box titled All Day Event. If you click this box it will
change the appointment to an all day event displaying across the top if the calendar day as
previously displayed.

You can then select how you wish this meeting to be displayed in your calendar, whether you
are out of the Office, busy or if it is a tentative meeting You can do this my clicking on the
drop down list of Show Time As in your meeting screen.

• Appointments can be set to recur regularly.

• Select the Recurrence option across the top of the appointment screen and complete
the details of the appointment including the length of time you would like the
appointment to recur for.

This can be a uselful tool for scheduling recurring meeting, reminders and appointments.
The recurrence schedule is available as a daily occurrence, a weekly occurrence, a monthly
occurrence or a yearly occurrence.

When complete click OK

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How to set a reminder for your appointments and customise the reminder

• In the appointment you can set a reminder for up to 2 weeks before the appointment
which will pop up automatically on your screen at the designated date and time to
remind you of your appointment.
• Click on the drop down arrow Reminder
• Click on the time you require.

How to delete an event or appointment

Open the event or appointment you want to delete, in any calendar view double click on the
event

• Click delete
• Your event will be deleted.

How to send appointment invitations

• Open a new appointment using the new appointment button across the top of the
screen.
• Once you have filled in your subject, location and time preferences click the Invite
Attendees button across the top of the meeting screen.

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You will notice your request now includes a To field above the Subject field. Here you enter
the email address of the person you would like to invite to your appointment or meeting.

Once you have included the people or person you wish to invite, click the Send button next
to the To field. The recipients will now receive an email invitation to your meeting which
they will either accept or decline and you will receive an email notification of this once they
do.

Sending meeting or appointment updates

• Once you have a meeting scheduled and someone has accepted this meeting it is
possible to edit the meeting and send an update to the person invited.
• Double click on the appointment to open it.
• You can now make changes to your appointment ie the time or location.
• Once you have made your desired changes click the Send Update button (in the
same location as the Send button when you made the original invitation).

• You can also use this method to invite additional people to your meeting.
• In the To field type the additional email addresses you wish to invite (ensure you
separate the addresses using a ; and a space).
• Once you have added your additional addresses click Send Update.
• You will notice a new screen pop up giving you the option of sending the meeting
request to all invited people or just the additional people you invited. If you have
made changes to the location etc click the option that sends an update to all
attendees. If you have made no changes other than including an additional invitee
click the option that sends an update only to the added attendees and click OK.

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Cancelling appointments with invitees.

• To cancel a meeting that other people are invited to click on the meeting to open it. •
Click on the cancel meeting button in the top right hand corner of the
appointment.

The meeting will then change to include a send cancellation button instead of a send update
button and will allow for a message to be typed in the text box for explanation of the
cancellation.

Once you have added your message you can click the Send Cancellation button and an email
will be sent to the people invited advising them of the cancelation.

Re-occurring meetings

• A recurring meeting with attendees can be set the same way that a recurring
appointment is set.
• Once you have opened a new appointment, included your location, time and invited
any attendees select the Recurrence option across the top of the appointment screen
and complete the details of the appointment including the length of time you would
like the appointment to recur for.

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When complete click OK

How to customise the calendar’s print options and print the calendar according to your
requirements

• To print your calendar.

• In the File tab

• Select Print
• You can select the view of the calendar that you prefer.

Weekly Calendar Style

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Monthly Style

Tri-Fold Style

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In the Printer Settings select the number of copies to be printed and the size of the paper to
be printed on.

What is the Quick Access Toolbar?

• The Quick Access Toolbar contains buttons that are shortcuts to frequent actions and
is located about the File Button
• How to customise Quick Access Toolbar, if necessary including buttons and/or
menus.

To add buttons to the Outlook Toolbar:

• Click on the drop down arrow

Select the buttons you want to add to the toolbar, for example ‘Print’

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The print button will be added.

To delete buttons from the Toolbar

Click on the drop down arrow and select the button you want to remove.

The button will be removed.

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Activity 4

How can using a calendar system, such as that in Outlook, help you schedule your work and
and complete tasks?

Activity 4

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Accurately monitor and adjust personal work performance through self
assessment to ensure achievement of tasks and compliance with
legislation and work processes or KPIs
Assuming that you have utilised a system to schedule your work, and you've identified work
objectives and priorities. You've scheduled your time and you have contingency plans to
deal with a range of potential problems. You have done everything that is reasonable to
achieve your KPI’s and contribute to your organisation’s success. While that is the
professional way to approach your job, the chances of change to schedules and work
practices, demands of clients – whether internal clients from other departments or external
clients – means that you need to constantly monitor your performance. Self-assessment can
give you information that will hopefully lead to:

• Performance improvement
• Identification of problems outside your control
• Greater job satisfaction
• Identification of training needs
• An improvement in salary/career prospects

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The benefits are two sided. Self-assessment benefits you and your employers because you
will be using your skills more fully. Your job satisfaction will increase and it may well improve
your salary and career prospects. Your employer benefits by taking on someone who is
willing to review their own work, their contribution to their immediate team and by having a
more satisfied person in the workplace.

The most common way to measure your achievement of KPI’s is to monitor your
performance by first considering a range of methods – so you can then choose the method
that’s easiest to apply and is the most effective in your workplace. Some organisations will
have set self-assessment tools for you to use. The easiest way to start assessing your
performance is to monitor performance against quantifiable objectives. Here are some
examples:

• Sales reports
• Deadlines met
• Error reports
• Accuracy reports
• Documents
• Proposals
• Plans
• Budget forecasts

These tend to be the monitoring methods most managers are comfortable with because
they’re about what the employee does. It’s easy to see if your employee is achieving a sales
target or submitting accurate work and these are great monitoring methods for the quantity,
quality and time elements of the job.

Being successful in the workplace does not entail achieving your goals and targets at any
cost. It is important to note that your organisation will not only have its own rules,
regulations, policies and procedures to abide by. State and Federal government legislation
also impacts on the workplace, most specifically in the area of Occupational Health and
Safety. Now known as Workplace Health and Safety or WHS, WorkSafe in Victoria have a
comprehensive website focussing on various industries, the potential risks inherent in
working in them and lots of information on how to eliminate or reduce hazards and control
41 | P a g e
risks. An example of the webpage explaining the risks in the Storage and Warehousing area
is below: http://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/safety-and-prevention/your-industry/storage-and-
warehousing

You have a general duty to take reasonable care for your own health and safety, and that of
others who may be affected by your work, and to cooperate with your employer’s efforts to
make the workplace safe. This may include:

• Following workplace policies and procedures

• Attending health and safety training
• Helping to identify hazards and risks

These should and probably will be included in your Position Description and you may find
that attending a prescribed amount of safety training and/or contributing to an accident free
workplace is part of your KPIs. There are many common solutions for controlling hazards
and risks in the workplace, which can be readily implemented.

There will be policies and procedures to guide you in the use of hazardous materials, using
equipment safely and keeping up to date with WHS knowledge via sites like WorkSafe will
provide you with a range of guidance material, including Codes of Practice, Guidance notes
and Alerts on specific hazards and OHS issues which provide solutions and advise on the
required processes and actions that duty-holders should take in order to meet their legal
obligations.

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In a broad sense, performance improvement must come through good management
practices and effective management of business plans.
With the monitoring of own work performance, the key is ‘own’ performance. Performance is
therefore what is actually completed by an individual for the progressing of their major
objectives for the achievement of business goals.

Monitor and adjust personal work performance

The monitoring process

A monitoring process is used to ensure tasks stay on course. Monitoring uses a subsequent
set of applicable controls to ‘watch over’ tasks being undertaken by individuals (regardless of
whether the tasks belong to simple objectives or objectives that are more complex). Some
tasks that ‘go off the rails’ need to be rectified and put back on track.
Monitoring is a process that involves the use of effective and efficient controls. There are
many different controls used within businesses including visual, automatic or computerised,
each having a specific application to perform.
For example, a visual control may just involve checking the store cupboard to see which
stocks need replacing (eg, disposable speculum). In manufacturing, it may be observing a
conveyor track to see what volume of jobbing is at a particular process, this is controlling
bottlenecks.
An example for inventory control is a sold item is automatically placed on the reorder slip. In
this example, the computer has played an important role. Computer technology today can
be harnessed to create controls on many pieces of equipment from cash registers to
generators using sensors and scanning bar-coded products.
As the examples above show, monitoring the progress of tasks is more achievable using
computers and electronic devices such as point of sale software, automatic generation of
reporting and documentation from production systems such as cash flow, reconciliation of
banking, workflow levels and intake and despatch of jobs. The sophistication of the
monitoring process will vary from practice to practice and between manufacturing facilities
depending on the sophistication of the business technologies available.
When it comes to the efficient use of the monitoring of own performance these technologies
will provide data from which information and reports can be generated relating to own
performance.

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Measuring performance

Own performance is measured and discussed through an appraisal process where an

individual takes their reports and documentation showing their valid evidence of
performance over an agreed period and the appraiser has their valid evidence.
The appraisal process is then designed to analyse any differences in performances of the
individual. Both parties then select an appropriate personal improvement program for the
areas needing improvement.
For an appraisal process to be effective the individual will need to gather their valid evidence
of performance and this is completed through the use of the monitoring process.
For example, an individual’s place of employment may automatically generate reports or
spreadsheets showing sales completed divided into areas such as:
• types of products

• units sold
• selling price.
By utilising their various types of business technologies and reports, staff can effectively and
very efficiently monitor their own individual performance. More importantly, they are able to
validate, as either good or poor, their performance through these business technologies.
The importance of monitoring tasks using valid means where you are able to analyse
immediately your status in relation to your targets cannot be overstated. Utilising these
controls allows individuals to achieve their tasks that will ultimately lead to the effective
completion of business goals.
There are simple goals that may not require elaborate monitoring as their time frames are
short and few other resources are being used. However, more complex objectives containing

44 | P a g e
more tasks may require more monitoring so they remain on track, so that all resources are
best utilised and costs are at a minimum.
What do we need to monitor? In order to monitor something, we need to fully understand
exactly what is needed from a task. In other words, what is its output or its outcome?
It is important to:
• clearly state the individual tasks and their outcomes

• make sure that each individual's tasks are recognised by all other individuals in the
organisation

• prioritise and schedule all tasks. This will reduce any conflicting deadlines. When tasks
are not prioritised, they may end up not being successfully completed.
Once the outcome is known, the next step is to derive a process or method where the data is
collated into information, and records and reporting is created so actions will allow any
adjustment to individual performances to be made.
You have learnt that monitoring involves looking at actual performance and comparing that
performance to the major objective or business goal with any unacceptable variation being
rectified. On the other hand, positive variation needs to be rewarded and/or recognised for
its contribution to the business.

Making adjustments in order to improve performance

Now that you have accurately monitored your performance and are capable of making
adjustments for individual work plan variances, you will be in a good position to maintain
quality jobs and customer services.

Systems approach
What approach do we take to monitor individual performance and to make adjustments for
improvement? We will need to take a particular approach, which is the ‘systems approach’.
Under this approach, we monitor:
• inputs

• processing of tasks
• output.

Inputs ‘Input’ is where adjustments may be made to resources whereby

quality jobs and quality services are maintained. Particular resources
may be available or not, but still an individual’s performance is
measured on achieving results.

Processing Adjustments may also be made during the ‘processing’ stage where
individual’s resources are manipulated to produce outputs such as
quality jobs and service. As learnt above, various controls are used by
individuals to assist with these adjustments so tasks are kept on track
to achieve business goals.

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Output ‘Output’ or what we have called the business goal; providing quality
jobs and services is a culmination of manipulated tasks (processing)
and effective and efficient resources (inputs), and at each stage,
adjustments may be made to remain on track.
Reverse engineer approach
The process of monitoring can be viewed in another way—in reverse. This is referred to as
the ‘reverse engineer’ approach. With this approach, we analyse the output first to actually
visualise the result, eg, provide quality jobs at affordable prices. We would then work
backwards analysing the ‘processing’ to identify whether the business has the processes,
pricing policies, supply chain of raw materials and/or the ability or facilities in place now or in
the future to achieve the output.
Once adjustments have been made to ensure processing is available, we then analyse
whether the needed resources are readily available. Adjustments are made to ensure such
items as costs of raw materials and/or frames will allow a saving to flow on to satisfy the
customer.
This approach allows us to make necessary adjustments during critical phases of completing
tasks. It is a positive and very successful method to review and, as already stated, to make
adjustments for success.
People employing this reverse process identify limitations very quickly through having sound
knowledge of what is actually needed as the output. This certainly makes the process of
monitoring very effective for the individual in achieving business goals.

Adjust personal work performance to ensure job quality and customer service
Adjustments are made because of feedback from the various controls at different phases of
the systems approach and for this discussion.
The output is providing quality jobs at affordable prices ensuring quality customer service.
There will be adjustments made at the input, processing and output stages.
Adjustments may be necessary at any one or all of the phases, as illustrated below.
Input phase Adjustments made at the input phase means efficient use of resources.
With sufficient resources made available it is probable that there will
be less pressures and little need for adjustments during the processing
phase.
If information is an input then making adjustments to provide timely
and accurate information ensures all those involved are informed of
what to
do, that is they are getting effective feedback.

Processing phase During this phase, manipulation of resources is made enabling the
achievement of the output.

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Output phase The basic control here could be simply just deciding when the output
should be available. Visualising this output, the individual will learn to
develop a planning approach to their tasks ensuring all resources,
mechanisms, processes and systems are available as inputs.
As suggested, if this is the first phase ‘reverse engineering’, then the
individual may also identify the various controls for the other two
phases of the systems approach.
The benefits gained for the individual from using this process is that they will accurately
identify appropriate levels of control needed at critical phases to achieve business goals.

Activity 5

What are the benefits of self-assessment and how can the self assessment inform you of your
own practices that may need to be adjusted?

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Activity 5

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Activity 5

Ensure that feedback on performance is actively sought and evaluated

from colleagues and clients in the context of individual and group
requirements
Many people dread performance review meetings thinking that their boss is going to tell you
what he really thinks of you, and we nearly always assume it’s not going to be praise! Others
see it as a thankless task that the HR department requires, before they'll sign-off on yearly
raises. Or could it be an exercise in cutting and pasting comments from a bunch of old
reviews to make some "new" ones.

How people perform is critical to an organization's success, yet we often fail to monitor their
progress on a regular basis. Imagine what would happen if you only occasionally looked at
your bank balance, and just assumed that funds would be there when you needed them; or if
you trusted that your machines would keep working, without any routine maintenance.

Seeking feedback from your colleagues and clients gives you a regular opportunity to find
out how you can perform better individually, eliminate problems that you might not
otherwise have been told about and further your own career goals by being able to improve
your performance and exceed expectations of your supervisors.

Managers and supervisors conduct regular performance appraisals to ensure you are
meeting your KPI’s, and sometimes teams are appraised as well. Using the same approach
you can invite constructive feedback from those around you as well as clients or customers
to monitor yourself and your team. Conducting regular performance appraisals helps you:

• Detect and eliminate barriers to effective performance

• Pick up dissatisfactions that would otherwise lead people to leave
• Focus people's efforts in the right direction
• Motivate people to work towards important goals
• Help them develop skills and competencies necessary to achieve future objectives
• Celebrate their successes

Adjust personal work performance to ensure job quality and customer service

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Adjustments are made because of feedback from the various controls at different phases of
the

systems approach and for this discussion.

The output is providing quality jobs at affordable prices ensuring quality customer service.
There will be adjustments made at the input, processing and output stages.
Adjustments may be necessary at any one or all of the phases, as illustrated below.

Input phase Adjustments made at the input phase means efficient use
of resources. With sufficient resources made available it is
probable that there will be less pressures and little need
for adjustments during the processing phase.
If information is an input then making adjustments to
provide timely and accurate information ensures all those
involved are informed of what to do, that is they are
getting effective feedback.

Processing During this phase, manipulation of resources is made

phase enabling the achievement of the output.

Output phase The basic control here could be simply just deciding when
the output should be available. Visualising this output,
the individual will learn to develop a planning approach
to their tasks ensuring all resources, mechanisms,
processes and systems are available as inputs.
As suggested, if this is the first phase ‘reverse
engineering’, then the individual may also identify the
various controls for the other two phases of the systems
approach.
The benefits gained for the individual from using this process is that they will accurately
identify appropriate levels of control needed at critical phases to achieve business goals.

Why is feedback important

It is important that your work performance is monitored and that you receive feedback which
is constructive and encourages you to strive for improvement.

Types of feedback can be:

• Positive feedback – indicates that tasks were carried out well. It acknowledges
personal efforts and the good cooperation among team members. It encourages all
members to continue to strive for excellence.
• Negative Feedback – Informs team members that tasks were not completed well. It
analyses the reason for the problems encountered and proposed ideas for
improvement.

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 • Constructive feedback – encourages and acknowledges good job performance. It
also suggests areas for improvement and strategies for achieving this improvement.

Hardly anyone likes asking for comments on their work, but the process is critical to career
development and good results.

It is important to accept feedback from others, so that you can learn and improve from your
mistakes, this way in the future you can do a much better job. Getting feedback from your
manager will also help see ourselves from the perspective of others, to see ourselves as other
see us. We can learn a great deal from feedback. You would encourage your manager to
give you feedback, so that you know what tasks you are doing really well and what task you
are not so great at doing.

Accepting Negative Feedback

What is negative feedback? It’s a little like letting the genie out of the bottle and then finding
you can’t put it back. However, accepting negative feedback gracefully and gratefully is a
skill of great leadership. Remember, though, other people may not know how to give
negative feedback diplomatically, like you have. So take a deep breath and swallow your
pride.

You may find these guidelines useful when receiving negative feedback.

• Listen without interruption – you may learn something of real value

• If you hear something you don’t agree with, simply say, “That’s interesting!” and
discuss it at the end
• Ask questions to clarify what exactly went wrong; what you did or didn’t do
• Acknowledge what is true, but don’t necessarily change your position – you may
have good reason for your action, ask for time to think and then get back to the
person

Can feedback really help to improve working relationships and productivity? Remember,
feedback doesn’t always have to be negative. Start by looking for occasions when you can
get positive feedback and remember to plan carefully for the occasions when you have to

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get negative feedback – and make the negative more constructive. Try some of the ideas
above and see what happens.

Who gives feedback?

There are many different people in your organisations that you can get feedback from, and
those feedback can be positive and negative, it is how you choose to except and learn from
them that is important.

Feedback may be given by:

• Your supervisor or manager

• Other management staff
• Team leader
• Team member
• Clients and/or customers
• YOU of course

Methods of feedback
Feedback on performance may be formal or informal.
• Formal performance appraisals generally occur on a regular basis. The first
appraisal usually takes place three months after an employee starts a job then
every six or twelve months thereafter. These appraisals allow for formal method
of feedback which can lead to modification of a job description, further training
and re-evaluation of performance.
• Feedback from supervisor and colleagues. This is mainly in the form of informal
comments on a job well done or suggestions of how to complete a task

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 • Feedback from customers giving positive comment and praise for good customer
service
• Personal reflection. This involves thinking about what you have done and how
you can improve on it next time
• Routine organisational methods for monitoring service. These include customer's
complaints or satisfaction form, and surveys that are completed at the end of a
task or a job for a customer

Feedback is value to value to a workplace as it can:

• Improve business relationships

• Identify and overcome existing problems
• Eliminate entrenched work practices
• Improve productivity
• Enhance output quality
• Contribute to the future development of the workplace

When feedback is given it is best to use the following acronym S.W.O,

• Strength – Praising on the good work completed

• Weakness – Letting them know where improvement is needed
• Options – Discussing the options on how to improve in the set areas

Seek feedback from colleagues and clients

You will see that controls at each of the phases provide feedback for the individual where
they will have the opportunity to make necessary adjustments to keep their tasks on track.
While this feedback is an important source of valid information for performance appraisals,
there are other sources just as important to the individual to keep tasks and performance on
track. These other sources are actively sought from colleagues and clients and then
evaluated in accordance with individual and group requirements.
An effective monitoring process will allow individuals to present, without prejudice,
information regarding the performance of work-related activities. And it is worth noting here
that the feedback is about work-related issues—not personal issues.
Having an open and trusted process of gaining feedback from others will ensure all
variations to work performances are recognised and reported. It is no use having
mechanisms in place to monitor performance and then having individuals unable to gain the
feedback or unable to contribute to the success of the business.
While monitoring is an essential function of management, it is also a responsibility of all staff
to provide feedback on performance when they see variations to the process occurring.
We have learnt a means to monitor individual performance within the business through a
systems approach. Another means of obtaining feedback is from the customers.
Unfortunately, the type of feedback from customers is ‘bad’ and usually in the form of
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complaints, but in saying this, the business needs to have these types of feedback rather
than the customer going elsewhere without saying anything, that is complaining with their
feet.

Complaints are valuable feedback

From reliable research, it is found that only one out of every 20 people actually take the
trouble to complain. When people complain they’re actually doing you a favour! You should
encourage all sorts of feedback including complaints. This allows you the opportunity to fix
the problem that led to the complaint. The people complaining are letting you know about
something that 19 other people disliked but didn’t bother to bring to your attention.
Poor service is a large cost to your business. This loss can be expressed in terms of lost
clients, customers, lost revenue, loss of credibility and, of course, the loss of potential new
clients. Not having this type of feedback is very costly to the business.
As the customer is the most valuable asset for the business, we will focus a little on getting
feedback from them.

Customer service feedback

You have just seen how much attention to detail is required to provide to your customer the
level of service that is expected from your organisation. The question raised is how do you
know if you are meeting the needs of your customers? We need customer feedback to
identify variations to products and services.
The easiest way to find out is to ask the customers themselves. In this way, you can obtain
direct feedback on your efforts. We have listed below some of many ways that information
may be collected. The first three are the most common methods.

Questions Use questions as part of the service to collect valuable information.

This is done by simply asking your customers questions regarding
your performance and you get immediate, first-hand feedback
from them. By incorporating feedback questions into your service
process, you ensure that there is less error or misinterpretation of
your questions as you can rephrase them if needed. This can be
achieved face-to-face and via the telephone.

Follow-up phone call For the practice, a thank-you or follow-up phone call is a quick and
inexpensive way of gathering feedback on your service. Some large
organisations (eg retail chains) operate call centres to handle this
type of feedback.

Questionnaires Questionnaires or surveys are another form of gathering feedback.

These can be in the form of a simple checklist or short answers or
a combination of both. To encourage participation, include a
stamped self-addressed envelope to make it easier for your
customer to send in their response.

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Suggestion box For a practice, a conveniently placed suggestion box may be
another method of gathering feedback from customers. Return
correspondence, either written or by phone, to those who offered
suggestions is vital to its success and anonymous suggestions
should be avoided, as you need to identify and, in some cases,
reward the participant for their feedback.

Informal discussion In some large organisations, informal discussions are held between
a group of customers and members of the organisation. This is
where informal comments and feedback is discussed, usually on a
variety of topics regarding the business.

Focus group A more formal approach may be considered to discuss issues with
your customer service. This is a focus group and usually consists of
employees and customers brought together by management. They
meet and the group leader asks prepared questions on various
aspects of the business. The group can then reconvene at a later
stage to see what improvements have been implemented. If the
feedback is quick, this system works well.
You may already know that feedback may be verbal, written, graphical or by the completion
of actions by someone. No matter who is involved, feedback should be timely and presented
in an appropriate manner. Reliable, timely and accurate feedback was also suggested above
as an important ingredient for making the monitoring process more effective.
Apart from the above customer feedback, feedback on own performance may also include:
• formal/informal performance appraisals

• feedback from supervisors and colleagues

• personal, reflective behaviour strategies

• routine organisational methods for monitoring service delivery.

Effective feedback

Obtaining feedback will depend, in a sense, on your organisation. In other words, what are
the technologies currently used within the organisation for feedback? Advanced electronic
feedback through computerisation may not be a source in your workplace. For a one-person
practice, feedback would be somewhat simple to get, while for a larger practice there may be
more feedback methods.
A last point to make about feedback for own work performance is that it must lead to some
decisions on something, for example, feedback could lead to more coaching. Feedback
needs to provide direction to the recipient. An example of a direction might be to direct the
employee to concentrate more on teamwork when working with others.
It may sound a little odd to mention this but all too often feedback is given to individuals
with no direction or course of action to take. For example, feedback on performance might
be ‘too many screenings are delayed’. The recipient would say thanks for the feedback, but

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that’s all. The feedback is vague, and does little to solve a problem, and this assumes there is
a problem.
This form of feedback has not provided the recipient with an action to follow that would
prevent it from happening again. The feedback may have also included the reason for the
delays, for example: ‘...as the children have not been screened early enough’. This provides
that little more information so that it makes a follow-up easier.
In addition, giving feedback just for the sake of it is time wasting and sometimes taken as
sarcasm disguised as positive comments. In addition, negative feedback is just that—
negative. Feedback needs to be positive and very constructive for all parties concerned in the
feedback process.
For feedback to be effective, it must be inherent in a non-threatening working environment
where an open and constructive feedback process works, enabling individuals to feel
comfortable in submitting feedback. By having this environment, variations to the quality of
service and products or other work processes will be brought sooner to the attention of
those responsible. It allows the parties concerned to report on these variances effectively and
efficiently for the business and in accordance with their requirements.
A definition of process variation can be explained as something that is not foreseen or an
interruption to the process. Not all variations are negative; in fact, some may even enhance
the tasks by providing a resource that was not first thought available.
Feedback on own work performance is received along with the identification of any
variations from the operational or work plans. For example, a variation may stem from a task
you are currently working on, and that task seems to be taking too long to complete. The
feedback from the monitoring process identifies that a ‘resource input’ was not completed at
the commencement of the task and this has now delayed the scheduled time of completion.

Activity 6

What are the benefits to a business in collecting feedback from their staff?

Activity 6

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Activity 6

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Routinely identify and report on variations in the quality of and products
and services according to organisational requirements
Quality control and quality assurance are critical factors in many workplaces. Quality can
focus on the goods being handled and the state they must be stored in, refrigerated goods
for example must be stored at certain temperatures. Paper must be stored in a humidity free
area so that it doesn’t absorb any moisture in the air and thereby cause paper jams. Other
items must be kept dust free – computers and associated accessories for example.

Some workplaces employ a quality control officer who is responsible for recording on a
monitoring sheet/software program. They will decide what action is to be taken (e.g. stock
disposed of) and what further action may follow to eliminate stock spoilage or equipment
damage in the future. Actions may include:

• Investigating the contamination/damage source

• Possible counselling or re-training if poor work practices are a contributing factor
• Possible penalties (e.g. Loss of weekly bonus) or even dismissal for persistent or
serious failure to do the job correctly

The monitoring sheets are usually kept in the quality assurance manager's office. If part of
your role is to check the quality of your team’s work, it very likely will feature in your KPI’s to
reflect the importance of this facet of your job.

Depending on what is produced and/or stored in your workplace, all these procedures will be
carried out according to very specific company or government rules.

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Activity 7

How could a business benefit from engaging one of their staff in the role of Quality Control
Officer?

Activity 7

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There are often good reasons cited by individuals for variations to their work tasks. Some of
these are valid while others tend to border on the 'don’t blame me …. it was …..'. Taking a
more positive approach there are many factors that could affect work performances.
Some of these are listed below:
• inadequate ability or experience

• inadequate resources

• inadequate motivation, reward and recognition

• inappropriate or inadequate resources and equipment

• family or emotional issues and problems

• unsuitability for the position (square peg in round hole)

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 • poor management

• poor relationships—within a group, between groups or between workers

• inadequate organisational and interpersonal communication

• change in work habits

• performance decline in individual or other team members

• mood swings

• an individual creating interpersonal conflicts, eg, by behaviour that is abrasive

• increased absenteeism, illness or accidents

• poor timekeeping, eg, long lunches or late arrival.

There might be just one reason or a combination of reasons.
As can be seen, there are many possible reasons but many of them involve situations that
remain in control of the individual whose responsibility it is to complete their tasks as
agreed.
As discussed earlier, good monitoring, along with an effective feedback process, will enable
you to identify if any of the reasons for variations are encroaching on your performance and
you can take corrective action sooner to avoid further unwanted variations from occurring.

Report variations in accordance with organisational requirements

The reporting of the variations back to management will depend partly on the needs of the
individuals within the organisation and, of course, the needs of the organisation itself. If
individuals need to ‘report’ their work performance variances via a monthly performance
report, for example, then this could make good business sense. If the individual’s
performance was such that any variation was critical for the organisation, for example
engaging a supplier for a long-term supply deal worth several thousand dollars, then the
organisation may require more frequent reporting than monthly on work performance for
securing the deal.
Like feedback, reporting of variations to management or to the business can be completed
just for the sake of it. Reporting on every little variation to own performance may take up
more time than what was allocated to complete the task itself.
The organisation would need to identify what reports they would like to review, scope of the
report and frequency of the reporting. Once identified and communicated to individuals they
would be able to complete their reporting on own performance in good time and provide
relevant information to the organisation for any actions to be taken or directions given.

Identify signs of stress and effects on personal wellbeing

There are 4 stages of stress that you may go through:

• In the first stage, you may find yourself overworked and reluctant to take time off
work to recharge and reenergise

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 • In the second stage, you may find yourself unduly tired, irritable and feeling like you
are under achieving. You may also be skipping meals and generally not taking the
best care of yourself or your relationships
• In the third stage, you may feel resentful or guilty, you do not get as much enjoyment
out of spending time with family and friends and you may not be enjoying work at all
• Finally, you may withdraw completely, succumb to illness, feel like you have failed in
some way and you may even break down both emotionally and physically

If you don’t address the causes, stress can lead to mental health problems, including family
and work problems, and the presence of physical illness or health concerns. In turn, these
health problems can lead to medical complications; especially of concern is the possibility of
suffering heart disease, which is a leading cause of death and disability in Australia.

If you work with a colleague who is displaying any of these symptoms, be willing to offer
genuine support and concern. Try to listen to them without jumping in with a solution.
Sometimes, the stressed individual needs to get concerns off their chest and once achieved,
can often see the solutions firsthand. It is important to keep the person focusing on today,
to live one day at a time and emphasise that a better day today will make tomorrow easier to
handle. Take life in bite-sized chunks and keep the positives ahead of the negatives.

Work-related Mental Stress7

Work-related mental stress has been described as the adverse reaction experienced by
workers when workplace demands and responsibilities are greater than the worker can
comfortably manage or are beyond the workers’ capabilities (Leka et al. 2003). It can affect
each worker differently and originate from different sources. The Job Demands-Resources
model which was introduced as a model of worker well-being highlights that we need to
balance both demands and resources in the workplace to manage work related mental stress.
High levels of Job demand and low levels of job resources increase the risk of mental stress,
and may include:

7
Source: Australian Government, Comcare, as at
https://www.comcare.gov.au/preventing/hazards/psychosocial_hazards/work-related_mental_stress, as on
4th July, 2016.

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 Job Demands Job Resources

Role overload Job control

Role ambiguity Supervisor support
Role conflict Co-worker support
Cognitive demand Praise and recognition
Emotional demand Procedural justice
Group task conflict Change consultation
Group relationship conflict

Risk

Mental stress causes the body to move into a fight or flight reaction which releases
adrenaline and cortisol, raises the heart rate, boosts glucose levels in the bloodstream and
diverts energy from the immune system to other areas of the body. This reaction helps
people remove themselves from danger at which time the body usually returns to normal.
When mental stress is prolonged, the body will not return to normal as easily as it previously
did and many key body systems can start to breakdown causing major health problems. In
the workplace the symptoms can be very costly:

• poor worker health, both physical and psychological

• breakdown of individual and team relationships
• poor morale and erosion of worker loyalty and commitment
• reduced efficiency, productivity, and profitability
• poor public image and reputation
• increased costs associated with counseling, worker assistance, mediation
• increased absenteeism and staff turnover
• increased costs with recruitment and training of new workers
• increased workers’ compensation claims and legal costs

Remedy

A person conducting a business or undertaking has the primary duty of care under the Work
Health and Safety Act 2011 (WHS Act) to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the
health and safety of workers and that other persons at the workplace are not put at risk
from the work that is carried out. ‘Health’ is defined in the WHS Act as both physical and
psychological health. Like any other work health and safety risk a system should be in place
to:

• identify the areas within the workplace that are likely to cause stress
• assess the risks to determine which require controls
• control the risks by eliminating or minimizing where possible
• review the controls and their effectiveness

On the ground, preventing and managing stress in the workplace before it becomes a risk to

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health and safety may be achieved by:

• Having senior management commitment to a reduction in workplace stress

• Consulting with workers to create and promote a mentally healthy workplace culture
• Use validated risk assessment processes
• Ensuring the organisation has appropriate policies and procedures in place and
workers are aware of these
• Managing workplace psychosocial risk factors and stressors
• Providing regular and respectful performance feedback
• Having a Harassment Contact Officer (HCO) in place for workers to speak to
• Provide training around managing workplace and individual stress levels

An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a free and confidential counselling service offered
by employers to their employees to support their well-being in the workplace and in their
personal lives. Depending on the employer’s arrangement, EAP may also extend to
immediate family members. Most services offer initial support and assistance to individuals
and groups of employees who have personal and/or work related issues that may impact on
their well-being, work performance, safety, individual and workplace morale and
psychological health.

EAP counselling is aimed at assisting employees to:

• Understand and clarify issues that are directly concerning them, including any
underlying issues
• Identify and explore options to address those issues
• Develop plans to approach the issues and find constructive solutions

Events and issues which may give rise to requests for EAP services include (but are not
limited to) work issues such as:

• Problems with performance

• Relationships between co-workers
• Bullying and harassment
• Managing conflict and anger management
• Adjusting to change in the workplace
• Career change
• Managing work related stress

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Looking at those dot points in more detail - a simple definition of unsatisfactory job
performance is the gap between the employee's actual performance and the level of
performance required by the organisation. This can be caused by several things:

1. Unsatisfactory work content — in terms of quantity or quality for example

2. Breaches of work practices, procedures and rules — such as breaching occupational
health and safety requirements, excessive absenteeism, theft, harassment of other
employees, etc. And
3. Employees' personal problems — usually 'off-the-job' issues that affect their
performance at work

The performance management process should be able to identify these problems. The
performance management review and feedback processes can provide a forum to discuss
the problems, to diagnose the causes and explore possible remedies, such as job redesign,
training or counselling. During the performance review managers would consider the
following standard questions:

• What actually is the performance 'gap'?

• How large is the gap?
• Is it increasing?
• What are the consequences of that gap?
• How serious are they?
• Has the employee's performance been acceptable in the past?
• Does the employee have the skills required to perform the job?
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 • If not, is he/she capable of obtaining and using the skills?
• In general, is the employee capable of performing the job?
• How important to the employee is performing the job well?
• Does the employee benefit in some way from unsatisfactory performance (eg trying
to prove a point, having a hidden agenda, undermining someone else, trying to
orchestrate a payout or redundancy, etc.)?
• Are there any barriers to performance within the employee's control?
• Are there barriers within the organisation's control (such as resources issues,
communication problems, recruitment, training, job descriptions, etc.)?
• What is required to remove these barriers?
• Is it feasible to do it?

It is important to distinguish between factors that are 'employee issues' and those that are
'organisation issues'. Many situations have elements of both, with one causing or
contributing to the other. There may be a tendency for both parties to allocate blame either
to each other or to third parties, but if the true causes are not diagnosed and treated, the
problems will be repeated.

If the issue lies in the area of relationships with co-workers it is vital that the manager
discusses any problems such as personality clashes, 'groupthink' – which is a psychological
phenomenon that occurs within a group of people, in which the desire for harmony or
conformity in the group results in an incorrect or deviant decision-making outcomes,
harassment, conflict between job requirements and cultural values, work hoarding (for
example to exert control over others or to 'look busy' because there is a fear of
redundancies), poor management of the work group. There is a wide variety of potential
problems and causes, both individual and group-related.

Strategies to assist you if you are having personal issues in the workplace with your peers
are: arranging transfers (to remove clashes), redesigning jobs (to eliminate parts that conflict
with cultural values), counselling, teambuilding strategies, and performance management of
the manager/supervisor/group leader. If the issue(s) are not resolved it may lead to our
second point, bullying or harassment.

Sometimes the work environment can cause stress – inadequate resources and equipment,
poor working conditions, occupational health and safety issues. Feedback from employees
should alert management to fix the problems, as should data from job analysis, OHS audits
and inspections, etc. That is why it is important that you report faults to your OHS Rep, your
supervisor and participate in safety drills, and contribute in team meetings. Often you might
think you are the only person feeling a certain way or noticing something wrong, but it
might simply be a case of no one wanting to be the first person to speak up.
By bringing issues to the attention of the correct person in the chain of command, you
contribute to a safer workplace and reduce stress levels not only for yourself but for your
team and perhaps your department.

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Don’t assume that existing procedures which cause workflow issues such as bottlenecks,
shortcuts, breaches of rules and regulations, management and supervision issues, or errors
that are not corrected cannot be changed. Feedback from those who are ‘at the coal-face’
and working with equipment and procedures every day have much to contribute to safety
meetings, and team meetings where suggestions to improve processes can be suggested.

Other stresses in the workplace can be due to insufficient remuneration, whether real or
perceived, excessive workloads/working hours and work/life balance issues.

Again, feedback from employees will identify these problems. Reviews of remuneration and
work/life balance policies and practices should occur during the performance review. If
sufficient feedback from employees on the same topic is received it may prompt a review of
business performance and activities which may show that business is expanding, and justify
increasing staffing levels.
Strategies to assist you could involve job redesign, work study/training, reviewing and
enforcing existing rules/procedures, and performance management of
managers/supervisors.

Managing conflict and anger management: Workplace conflict can broadly be considered to
fit into two categories, the first being "when people's ideas, decisions or actions relating
directly to the job are in opposition," and the second being a situation "when two people just
don't get along." which is often referred to as a "clash" of personalities. This last point can
be the most difficult to address, because strong emotions get mobilised based on negative
perceptions about another person.

Clashes in the workplace can occur over who does what, demarcation issues, employees not
being clear about what to do in their role. These problems become more apparent after
organisation restructures and after managers are replaced. Some of the ways to clarify these
issues include updating job descriptions, job redesign and teambuilding training.

When a personalised conflict is identified it is important to redirect attention and energy into
specific issues relevant to the job that can be worked through, and to set clear expectations
on acceptable behaviours and consequences for inappropriate behaviours. The earlier this is
done the more likely that a positive outcome will be achieved, as personalised conflicts tend
to get worse over time as each person looks for problems in the other and finds reasons to
back up their negative perceptions.

Alliances can develop in teams in support of one or other of the people in conflict which can
lead to significant disruption in the workplace. There are always emotions involved in
conflict and these build in intensity and complexity the longer a conflict remains unresolved.
People have different styles in how they respond to conflict, and their styles can vary
depending on their level of emotional investment in the issue at hand or their power
relationship with the other party to the conflict. The different conflict styles are commonly
defined as incorporating concern for self and concern for others in varying degrees:

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Each of these styles has advantages and disadvantages for the individual, depending on the
context in which they are used. However, it is self-evident that the collaborating style of
responding to workplace conflicts has the higher likelihood of producing outcomes for the
benefit of all involved. People using this style assume a problem-solving approach, and
actively aim to defuse negative emotions and find a mutually satisfying solution to problems.

People with avoiding or dominant styles often antagonise others and produce further
conflict by the way they communicate. People with an accommodating style can frustrate
others and develop feelings of resentment over the neglect of their own needs, which again
can feed future conflict.

It is important to understand which style you have and how you interact with your team
members, supervisors and managers. You will get the best out of people when you
understand where they are coming from and not expecting everyone to operate the same
way that you do.

In a healthy workplace not all conflict is bad and by encouraging people to openly talk about
their different views and disagreements in a calm and structured way a culture of positive
conflict awareness can be created, new ideas received and become a benefit for the team
and the organisation as a whole.

A useful checklist is provided below to help you work through any workplace issues with
peers or a supervisor/manager.

Facilitating discussions between parties involved in conflict

Behaviour Yes No
Do I listen carefully without interrupting?
Do I show concern and encourage the parties to resolve the conflict?
Do I express empathy?
Do I ask open-ended questions
Have I acknowledged and validated each person's position/feelings?
Behaviour Yes No
Have I allowed sufficient time for each person to have their say?

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Do I make sure I have heard the entire message before reacting?
Have I summarised each party's position?
Am I displaying impatience or defensiveness?
Have I dismissed the importance of the issue?
Am I judging the parties involved?
Do I deny the feelings of those involved in the conflict?
Do I argue or disagree with the feelings expressed by the parties
involved?
Have I tried to solve the problem too quickly?
Have I assumed responsibility for fixing the problem rather than
empowering those involved to generate their own solutions?
Have I approached the concerns objectively by looking at the problem
not the person?
Do I show a genuine desire to understand the other person's point of
view?
If the conversation gets heated, do I reschedule another time to talk?
Have I sought advice and assistance in dealing with the conflict?

It is important to note that if you have identified that the conflict is the result of a clear
breach of policy (e.g. allegations of unlawful discrimination, harassment, bullying, racial or
religious vilification or victimisation, conflict of interest) or that you don't have the necessary
skills to manage it locally, seek additional assistance from your supervisor or manager or
refer the issue to your Human Resources department as soon as possible.

In many workplaces the following types of policies and procedures are available on the
intranet or in the supervisor/manager’s office:

• Conduct and Compliance Policy, including any Conflict of Interest issues

• Discrimination and Sexual Harassment Grievance Procedures
• Dispute Settlement and Grievance Procedures
• A link to www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/
• Employment related grievance advisors e.g. a Union Rep, the EAP
• WHS Policies and related documentation such as material safety data sheets (MSDS)
to clarify safe work practices
• Placement of EAP information to assist employees seeking confidential counselling

Often the EAP will be utilised by employees who have anger management issues, or
colleagues who have been on the receiving end of such behaviour. They may attend
because they have been asked to do so through a performance management directive or
self-refer.

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According to a recent workplace report up to 42 per cent of workers reported incidences of
yelling and other kinds of verbal abuse in their workplace. Of workers surveyed up to 30
percent admitted to having yelled at a co-worker themselves. Employees may attend one-
on-one counselling sessions or take part in group therapy. It is important to note that those
who are on the receiving end of such anger may also require counselling.

How an Employer responds to a critical incident at their workplace is critical as it affects the
psychological, emotional, behavioural and physical aspects of an employee. EAP counsellors
can provide Critical Incident Stress Debriefing services to all parties involved in an incident. If
such situations in the workplace are not dealt with it can have a devastating effect not only
on your fellow employees but the whole community.

Critical Incident Stress Debriefing has been shown to reduce clinical depression as well as
posttraumatic stress disorder both of which require long term support. By accessing
debriefing for staff, management will be minimising psychological distress and in the long
term be saving money by improving staff retention and minimising a loss of skilled workers.

Anger management mind map evaluation example:

Adjusting to change in the workplace can cause stress. When you change staff duties, you
need to be conscious of what may be considered a reasonable change within the scope of
their position and what may constitute a redundancy or termination if challenged.

Change is a reality in the current business environment and, if done well, can help grow your
whole organisation and therefore increase your job safety. Some employees may also see
change as an opportunity rather than a threat. Reasonable changes are generally those that
do not alter the essential position. Implementing significant changes to an employee's
duties can have risks, primarily occurring when an employee claims:

• Their position is redundant

• They have been effectively (and unfairly) dismissed
• They have been treated unfavourably because of a protected attribute (i.e. race,
gender, union affiliation or age to name just a few)

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Claims of unfavourable treatment are mostly pursued under Fair Work Act 2009 and the
Victorian Equal Opportunity Act 2010. A key risk for employers arises when there are other
employees who do not have their position changed. If the changes are not managed well
there is the risk of staff feeling disenfranchised or fearing reduced job security, which can
result in possible staff turnover or low morale.

In any situation of change, the manager or supervisor should be prepared to outline exactly
what the issues are; and the changes that are proposed to rectify these.

Important questions employers should consider include:

• What is the issue (examples include lack of coverage during lunch hours, upcoming
holidays or sick leave)
• How many employees may be affected – more than one may require broad
consultation, including union involvement
• Does this impact on current entitlements or hours
• Will this impact on the job classification and pay rates - are the changes of a nature
that may result in a higher or lower classification
• How to approach and implement this change
• Personal issues may also impact on employee performance and these issues can also
be dealt with in counselling and help them to cope with work and the issue(s)
affecting their physical and mental health

Changes can be introduced in a positive way resulting in a win-win situation for you and your
employer. Successful communication and consultation between management and
employees is also critical to your business' success. If you understand what the business is
trying to achieve and the effect your contribution has on it, you will be more productive.

Poor communications can result in misunderstandings and mistrust. Not having feedback
can lead to low morale and substandard employee performance. Employees whose
instructions are inadequate or unclear can act in breach of regulations without meaning to.

Whilst changes to hours, rosters or work areas and teams may feel disruptive at first, it may
actually result in a better work-life balance and put you more in control of your working life,
which reduces stress while increasing productivity and reducing unscheduled days off.
Feeling a sense of ownership over the new changes and being a part of implementing them
successfully may also reduce staff turnover. Recruitment is costly and not just in a financial
sense. Staff retention improves morale, staff loyalty and commitment.
Another area of work related stress is when an employee is promoted beyond his/her ability,
promoted too soon, or promoted into an unwanted or unsuitable role (e.g. a technical expert
or successful salesperson who becomes a manager, but lacks people management skills or
misses the intellectual content or 'buzz' of the previous job). You may be seen as ready by
your supervisor or manager but not have all the skills required to confidently managing your
new role. This is when one-on-one discussions with your mentor or coach may assist you to

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seek more support and resources such as training both in the workplace and via a third
party.

It may also be that the organisation’s Development and Promotion policies require review.
The opposite situation is also a great cause of stress in the workplace - Redundancies and
demotions. This means the offer by an employer and the acceptance by an employee of a
lower graded position with the same employer, with the common (but not obligatory)
consequence of a reduced wage or salary. Demotion is sometimes the result of disciplinary
action by an employer (instead of dismissal) or for reasons unrelated to the employee such
as a change in the financial circumstances of the business.

If you are offered a demotion you must decide if you wish to accept it to stay on in the
organisation or to look for an alternative position. It may be that vacancies for your type of
role are not plentiful and you may need to take that into consideration whilst searching for
something else. On the other hand it may be a relief to some staff to step down from a
position of responsibility which is only increasing and causing them great stress. A demotion
should not be confused with a legitimate direction to take up other duties which fall within
the parameters of an existing position.

In the same way, redundancies are not perceived by all employees as a bad thing though
much media attention focuses on that negative aspect. If viewed positively, redundancies
can provide the impetus for a career change.
According to research from the Department of Education, Science and Training, most
Australians will change career seven times in their life. In looking to move to another
organisation, perhaps using existing skills or employing underutilised skills from your existing
position you need to arm yourself with some background information on the workplace as it
is today. Many people have a fixed view on what is available ‘out there’ but have not
conducted any research into the real possibilities. New jobs are being invented all the time.

Websites such as http://www.reinventyourcareer.com.au provide excellent background

information to assist you in making well considered changes to your career. Australia has a
population of 22.4 million people. 11.1 million of these people are currently working, with
55% of the labour market being situated in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

37% of workers are in regional areas. With the median age of a working Australian at 37.2
years old the largest 15 year sector of our workforce is aged 30 to 44 years old. However,

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did you know that 38 % of the workforce is now over the age of 45 years old? Yet, workers
younger than 25 years old only account for 17% of the workforce?

By the year 2016, people aged 45 and over will account for more than 80% of work force
growth in Australia. With this demographic backdrop demonstrating a creeping crisis
approaching, your career reinvention could be the best way forward. Organisations are
asking, “Who is going to fill the ‘Workforce Age Gap Crisis’ as older workers seek self-
fulfilment or scale back their work commitments or exit the workforce all together?”

Activity 8

What would you do if you discovered that one of your work colleagues was suffering from
stress?

Activity 8

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Activity 8

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Identify sources of stress and access appropriate supports and resolution
strategies
In a survey carried out by the Australian Psychological Society in 2012 the found that that
almost one in three working Australians (32%) identified issues in the workplace as a source
of stress.

Working Australians who reported that their employer valued their work contribution and
cared about their wellbeing at work had significantly lower levels of stress and distress. These
working Australians also had significantly lower levels of anxiety and depression symptoms
and significantly higher levels of the overall wellbeing.
Financial issues remain the leading cause of stress amongst Australians, with close to 50% of
Australians identifying personal financial issues as a cause of stress.

(Stress and wellbeing in Australia in 2012: A state-of-the-nation survey (Oct 2012))

There are very many proven skills that we can use to manage stress. These help us to remain
calm and effective in high pressure situations, and help us avoid the problems of long term
stress.

Modern life is full of hassles, deadlines, frustrations, and demands. For many people, stress is
so commonplace that it has become a way of life. Stress isn’t always bad. In small doses, it
can help you perform under pressure and motivate you to do your best. But when you’re
constantly running in emergency mode, your mind and body pay the price. You can protect
yourself by recognizing the signs and symptoms of stress and taking steps to reduce its
harmful effects.

What is stress?

The Body’s Stress Response

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When you perceive a threat, your nervous system responds by releasing a flood of stress
hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones rouse the body for emergency
action.

Your heart pounds faster, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, breath quickens, and your
senses become sharper. These physical changes increase your strength and stamina, speed
your reaction time, and enhance your focus—preparing you to either fight or flee from the
danger at hand.

Stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened or upset your
balance in some way. When you sense danger—whether it’s real or imagined—the body's
defences kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight”
reaction, or the stress response.

The stress response is the body’s way of protecting you. When working properly, it helps you
stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save your life—giving
you extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to
avoid an accident.

The stress response also helps you rise to meet challenges. Stress is what keeps you on your
toes during a presentation at work, sharpens your concentration when you’re attempting the
gamewinning free throw, or drives you to study for an exam when you'd rather be watching
TV.

But beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to
your health, your mood, your productivity, your relationships, and your quality of life.
How do you respond to stress?
It’s important to learn how to recognize when your stress levels are out of control. The most
dangerous thing about stress is how easily it can creep up on you. You get used to it. It starts
to feels familiar even normal. You don’t notice how much it’s affecting you, even as it takes a
heavy toll. The signs and symptoms of stress overload can be almost anything. Stress affects
the mind, body, and behaviour in many ways, and everyone experiences stress differently.

Stress doesn’t always look stressful

Psychologist Connie Lillas uses a driving analogy to describe the three most common ways
people respond when they’re overwhelmed by stress:

• Foot on the gas – An angry or agitated stress response. You’re heated, keyed up,
overly emotional, and unable to sit still.
• Foot on the brake – A withdrawn or depressed stress response. You shut down, space
out, and show very little energy or emotion.
• Foot on both – A tense and frozen stress response. You “freeze” under pressure and
can’t do anything. You look paralysed, but under the surface you’re extremely
agitated.

Signs and symptoms of stress overload

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The following table lists some of the common warning signs and symptoms of stress. The
more signs and symptoms you notice in yourself, the closer you may be to stress overload.

Stress Warning Signs and Symptoms

Cognitive Symptoms
• Memory problems
• Inability to concentrate
• Poor judgment
• Seeing only the negative
• Anxious or racing thoughts
• Constant worrying

Emotional Symptoms
• Moodiness
• Irritability or short temper
• Agitation, inability to relax
• Feeling overwhelmed
• Sense of loneliness and isolation
• Depression or general unhappiness

Physical Symptoms
• Aches and pains
• Diarrhoea or constipation
• Nausea, dizziness
• Chest pain, rapid heartbeat
• Loss of sex drive
• Frequent colds

Behavioural Symptoms
• Eating more or less
• Sleeping too much or too little
• Isolating yourself from others
• Procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities
• Using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax
• Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing)

Keep in mind that the signs and symptoms of stress can also be caused by other
psychological and medical problems. If you’re experiencing any of the warning signs of
stress, it’s important to see a doctor for a full evaluation. Your doctor can help you determine
whether or not your symptoms are stress-related.

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How much stress is too much?
Because of the widespread damage stress can cause, it’s important to know your own limit.
But just how much stress is “too much” differs from person to person. Some people roll with
the punches, while others crumble at the slightest obstacle or frustration. Some people even
seem to thrive on the excitement and challenge of a high-stress lifestyle.

Your ability to tolerate stress depends on many factors, including the quality of your
relationships, your general outlook on life, your emotional intelligence, and genetics.

Things that influence your stress tolerance level:

• Your support network – A strong network of supportive friends and family members
is an enormous buffer against life’s stressors. On the flip side, the more lonely and
isolated you are, the greater your vulnerability to stress.
• Your sense of control – If you have confidence in yourself and your ability to
influence events and persevere through challenges, it’s easier to take stress in stride.
People who are vulnerable to stress tend to feel like things are out of their control.
• Your attitude and outlook – Stress-hardy people have an optimistic attitude. They
tend to embrace challenges, have a strong sense of humor, accept that change is a
part of life, and believe in a higher power or purpose.
• Your ability to deal with your emotions – You’re extremely vulnerable to stress if you
don’t know how to calm and soothe yourself when you’re feeling sad, angry, or
afraid. The ability to bring your emotions into balance helps you bounce back from
adversity.
• Your knowledge and preparation – The more you know about a stressful situation,
including how long it will last and what to expect, the easier it is to cope. For
example, if you go into surgery with a realistic picture of what to expect post-op, a
painful recovery will be less traumatic than if you were expecting to bounce back
immediately.

Here are some questions you could ask yourself:

• Am I in control of stress, or is stress controlling me?

• When I feel agitated, do I know how to quickly calm and soothe myself?
• Can I easily let go of my anger?
• Can I turn to others at work to help me calm down and feel better?
• When I come home at night, do I walk in the door feeling alert and relaxed?
• Am I seldom distracted or moody?
• Am I able to recognize upsets that others seem to be experiencing?
• Do I easily turn to friends or family members for a calming influence?
• When my energy is low, do I know how to boost it?

Causes of stress

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The situations and pressures that cause stress are known as stressors. We usually think of
stressors as being negative, such as an exhausting work schedule or a rocky relationship.
However, anything that puts high demands on you or forces you to adjust can be stressful.
This includes positive events such as getting married, buying a house, going to college, or
receiving a promotion.

What causes stress depends, at least in part, on your perception of it. Something that's
stressful to you may not faze someone else; they may even enjoy it. For example, your
morning commute may make you anxious and tense because you worry that traffic will make
you late. Others, however, may find the trip relaxing because they allow more than enough
time and enjoy listening to music while they drive.

What's stressful for you?

What's stressful for you may be quite different from what's stressful to someone else. For
example:

• Karen is terrified of getting up in front of people to perform or speak, while her best
friend lives for the spotlight
• Phil thrives under pressure and performs best when he has a tight deadline, while his
coworker, Matt, shuts down when work demands escalate
• Anita enjoys helping her elderly parents. Her sister, Constance, helps out as well but
finds the demands of caretaking very stressful
• Richard doesn’t hesitate to send food back or complain about bad service when
eating out, while his wife, Miranda, finds it much too stressful to complain

Effects of chronic stress

The body doesn’t distinguish between physical and psychological threats. When you’re
stressed over a busy schedule, an argument with a friend, a traffic jam, or a mountain of bills,
your body reacts just as strongly as if you were facing a life-or-death situation. If you have a
lot of responsibilities and worries, your emergency stress response may be “on” most of the
time. The more your body’s stress system is activated, the harder it is to shut off.

Long-term exposure to stress can lead to serious health problems. Chronic stress disrupts
nearly every system in your body. It can raise blood pressure, suppress the immune system,
increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, contribute to infertility, and speed up the aging
process. Long-term stress can even rewire the brain, leaving you more vulnerable to anxiety
and depression.

Dealing with stress and its symptoms

While unchecked stress is undeniably damaging, there are many things you can do to reduce
its impact and cope with symptoms.

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Learn how to manage stress
You may feel like the stress in your life is out of your control, but you can always control the
way you respond. Managing stress is all about taking charge: taking charge of your thoughts,
your emotions, your schedule, your environment, and the way you deal with problems. Stress
management involves changing the stressful situation when you can, changing your reaction
when you can’t, taking care of yourself, and making time for rest and relaxation.

Learn how to relax

You can’t completely eliminate stress from your life, but you can control how much it affects
you. Relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, and deep breathing activate the body’s
relaxation response, a state of restfulness that is the opposite of the stress response. When
practiced regularly, these activities lead to a reduction in your everyday stress levels and a
boost in your feelings of joy and serenity. They also increase your ability to stay calm and
collected under pressure.

Everybody has the power to reduce the impact of stress as it’s happening in that moment.
With practice, you can learn to spot stressors and stay in control when the pressure builds.
Sensory stress-busting techniques give you a powerful tool for staying clear-headed and in
control in the middle of stressful situations. They give you the confidence to face challenges,
knowing that you have the ability to rapidly bring yourself back into balance.

One of the first ways we can start to identify and monitor stress is by using a Stress Diary.
Stress Diaries are important for understanding the causes of short-term stress in your life.
They also give you an important insight into how you react to stress, and they help you to
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identify the levels of pressure at which you prefer to operate. (After all, a little bit of pressure
can be a good thing!) One of the best ways to identify sources of stress is to keep a stress
diary for a two to three week period. When you begin to feel stressed, you could look at
what you are doing and what you were doing before feeling stressed, and then makes a
mental note of these.

As well as helping you capture and analyse the most common sources of stress in your life,
Stress Diaries help you to understand:

• The causes of stress in more detail

• The levels of pressure at which you operate most effectively
• How you may be able to improve the way you manage stress

Every time you make an entry, record the following information:

• The date and time of the entry

• The most recent stressful event you experienced
• How happy you feel now, using a scale of -10 (the most unhappy you've ever been)
to +10
(the happiest you've been). As well as this, write down the mood you're feeling
• How effectively you're working now on a scale of 0 to 10. A 0 here would show
complete ineffectiveness, while a 10 would show the greatest effectiveness you have
ever achieved
• The basic cause of the stress (being as honest and objective as possible)

You may also want to note:

• The symptoms you felt (for example, "butterflies in the stomach," anger, headache,
raised pulse rate, sweaty palms, etc.).
• How well you handled the event: Did your reaction help solve the problem, or did it
actually make things worse?
• First, look at the different stresses you experienced during the time you kept your
diary. Highlight the most frequent stresses, and also the ones that were most
unpleasant.

Analysing your Stress Diary

• Working through the stresses you've highlighted, look at your assessments of their
underlying causes, and well you handled the stressful event. Do these highlight
problems that need to be fixed? If so, list these areas
• Next, look through your diary at the situations that cause you stress. List ways in
which you can change these situations for the better
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 • Finally, look at how you felt when you were under pressure, and note how it affected
your happiness and your effectiveness. Was there a middle level of pressure at which
you were happiest and performed best?

Having analysed your diary, you should fully understand what the most important and
frequent sources of stress are in your life, and you should better understand the levels of
pressure at which you are happiest. You should also know the sort of situations that cause
stress, so that you can prepare for them and manage them well.

You will see the real benefits of having a Stress Diary in the first few weeks that you use it.
After this, you may find that you have better uses for your time. If your lifestyle changes or
you begin to suffer from stress again, then it may be worth using the diary approach one
more time. You'll probably find that the stresses you face have changed.

One way of removing stress from your life – both at work and at home – is learning how to
say NO. For example, a more senior member of staff asks you to do a task or join a new
project group:

• “I promised (insert name of your supervisor here) I wouldn’t take on any more
projects without discussing them with her first. (This not only makes it someone else’s
decision but also postpones it and allows you to decide if you really want to say no.)”

Or your own supervisor asks you to do an extra task:

• “I’d be happy to do this for you but realistically I cannot do it without leaving some
other things I’m working on unfinished. Which would you like me to do first? Which
can I put aside until later on?”

Activity 9

Describe 2 activities you can undertake to reduce stress.

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Activity 9

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Activity 9

Identify personal learning and professional development needs and skill

gaps using self assessment and advice from colleagues and clients in
relation to role and organisational requirements
Good learning and information skills are essential for successful professionals in the
workplace. Early in your career you must study a huge volume of information, simply to
become effective. As you become increasingly successful, you'll need to process large
volumes of documents, data and reports, just to keep up-to-date in your field.

The main reason for all training is to learn something new or improve a skill. But what
determines how much you learn and how successful the training is? Often it's the effort you
put into it. We attend training programs for all sorts of reasons. Think about what you want
to gain from the program. Certainly you'll learn skills you need to do your job better, but
what other benefits are there? We might want to upgrade our skills, learn new things, or
take longer-term training to change careers.

You know how important it is to ensure that you and your team members are given plenty of
training and development opportunities. However, it's just as important to focus on your
own personal learning and development. To do this, it's essential to set aside enough time
which can be difficult as it is competing with family and social obligations. However, when
you make learning a priority, you increase your value to your organisation. You become
more marketable as a professional, and you're in a better position when you apply for a
challenging project, seek a promotion or apply for another job.

Depending on your level of previous experience you may be assigned a mentor in the first
few weeks in the job. Feedback on how well you understand the job will be gained in part in
this mentoring process. Most organisations have regular staff appraisals where you'll be
given feedback in relation to how well you perform your tasks. This feedback will come to
you directly from external sources e.g. customers and internally from your supervisors and
colleagues and perhaps other departments within your organisation. The precise methods
employed to evaluate your performance and the recording of that information are likely to
be detailed in your organisation's policies and procedures along with timeframes for these
sessions. Most commonly they are yearly, however in some areas, where KPI’s carry crucial
safety factors they may occur more often, quarterly or half yearly.

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How you perform your tasks and the way you conduct yourself is in itself a means of
promoting your organisation. The impression you leave people with is the impression they
will take away with them about your organisation. Reviews help you to understand your role
in the organisation and how you fit into the bigger corporate picture. Generally feedback for
all staff is gained and given to allow you to make informed choices about your career, now
and in the future.

What skills should I be choosing for my personal development?

Once you have researched all the training providers and have your questions answered you
can begin to sort through the list and decide on a couple that suits your requirements.

There are several simple steps to this activity.

• Start with the training that does not suit your requirements or family/personal
commitments. Put these aside as for now they will not be included.
• Then choose the ones that fully meet your requirements for training and for your
personal/family commitments. Hopefully you have a couple of these or at least some
that meet most of your criteria.
• Then sort out the rest. Some will be 50/50 on meeting your requirements now but
they may meet them at a later date

Don't dispose of any of your research as what does not suit you now may work well for you
in the future. For example: You may need public transport to get you there now but you may
be able to drive at a later date when you have a car or a license. You also may need to be
home for children now but in the future you may have someone who can do some child
minding for you or the children may start school. Never give up because of obstacles.

Why should you create a personal development plan?

Personal development planning means creating opportunities to think through, in a
structured way, questions such as:

• What do I really want to achieve from life?

• What kind of person do I want to be?
• Am I clear about my personal goals and ambitions?
• Am I making the right decisions to get me where I really want to be?
• Am I in charge of my life and my studies - or am I just hoping it all will work out
somehow?

What are the benefits of a Personal development plan to your working life?

• It gives you clearer ideas about the kind of life and work you want

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 • It gives you greater confidence in the choices you make
• It gives you greater confidence in the skills, qualities and attributes you bring to the
career of your choice
• It will place you in a better position to compete for jobs
• You will be better able to discuss your skills, personal qualities and competences with
employers
• You will be better at problem-solving and planning skills
• It will help you develop the positive attitudes and approaches associated with a
successful professional life

Many employers now expect employees to understand their own performance - and to know
how to adapt to meet times of increased workload, stressful situations or conditions of
change.

Employees are often expected to show personal commitment to their own professional
development, actively seeking out information, training and events that will keep their skills
and knowledge up-to-date. Knowing how to learn, and how you learn best, will be invaluable
in the work place.

Why should I record my strengths and weaknesses?

Most of us would like to recognise our strengths but how many like identifying our
weaknesses? If we can recognise our weaknesses we are able to do something about turning
that weakness into strength.

Although you may find this a little confronting and/or challenging to begin with it is actually
a really important step in the process.

Look at the table below and in the space below and begin to identify some of your strengths
and weaknesses. Be honest about it, because if you are not you may make the wrong choice
for yourself.

What is my current state?

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 What are my strengths? Strengths

1. Communicate well with others

2. Positive thinking

Weaknesses
What are my weaknesses?
1. Lack confidence. Always stuck in
comfort zone
2. Lose temper easily

Feedback

What are the common feedbacks (positive 1. Not assertive enough

& negative) that I received from others? 2. Lack initiative. Too much planning
but no action

Focus area priorities

1. Develop more self-confidence &

Conclusion courage
2. Learn to be assertive
3. Control my temper & not get
worked up so easily

Strengths?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Weaknesses?

What is my current state?

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 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Once you have completed your own strengths and weaknesses table you will be in the
position to then list the current skills you already have. The strengths you have listed will be
some of the current skills you have however; as far as skills are concerned for this step you
will be able to add many more. Some of the skills you could write down could be:

• Good with money

• Excellent communication skills
• Love working with people
• Good at working in a team environment
• Good at working independently
• Excellent personal presentation
• Punctual
• And the list goes on …

Then you can do the same for knowledge. You may have been working in the tuck shop in
your child’s school. This is all experience for your career. You would have probably
completed a food handler’s certificate, handled money and many other duties that have
given you knowledge and skills in an area without you even realising it. There are many ways
we gather knowledge in our lives, both formal and informal and you need to consider these
when completing this task.

How do I know what the required skills are?

The next step is to record all the skills and knowledge required to do the job you would like
to do.

Previously you have gathered information about the jobs you would like to do and the
training required to do it. You have also recorded your current skills and knowledge. Now is
the time to record all this in a plan for your career. From the information you gathered
previously outline all the skills and knowledge you need for the job role you have chosen.
Then work your way across the table completing each section as you go for each required
skill.

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Required Skills and
knowledge

Skill required Current level Required level Meets

Skill Update
criteria
possessed required
required

Yes Excellent Excellent No Yes

Communication

Yes Good Excellent Yes No

Product
knowledge

As you can see, documenting the required skills and knowledge will allow you to look clearly
at whether you actually meet the requirements or whether you will need to update or up-skill
in the near future.

Planning for Learning and Development

Identifying learning and development needs and priorities

Discussing learning and development needs and priorities and how these needs will be
addressed is an important element of the ACTPS Performance Framework.
Consider the capabilities, skills and knowledge needed to do a good job
(i.e. to achieve what is in your performance plan). Refer to:
• What your role and responsibilities are and what you are expected
to achieve.
• Capability or competency frameworks (if there are any that apply
to your role).
See below for examples of capabilities, skills and knowledge.

Reflect on existing capabilities, skills and knowledge.

• Take into account the broad range of capabilities, skills and
knowledge developed in your current job as well as previous roles
in and outside of work

Identify the gaps

• What capabilities, skills and knowledge do you need to develop or
be even better at?
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 Consider learning and development needs related to career goals,
where these have been discussed.
• Note that the development needs required for the current job are
given priority.

Prioritise learning and development needs, taking into account what is most
important and being realistic about what can be achieved.

Examples of capabilities, skills and knowledge

When we talk about capabilities, skills and knowledge in the public service we are talking
about:
• Knowledge – what we know or understand
• Skills – what we can do
• Capabilities – how we can apply our knowledge and skills

Knowledge Skills Capabilities

Knowing or understanding Being able to: Applying knowledge and

• the steps in a process • do a task skills to:
• who to involve and when • complete a process • solve problems
• how to undertake a task • involve and • make decisions
• legislation, policies or communicate with • exercise judgment
rules of a subject/issue others • build relationships
• how something works • use a system • work out what needs to
• how to use a system • interpret and analyse be done
information

Know your own Style: How do you learn best?

Learning styles

There are a number of theories and models that describe different learning styles. One
simple model describes three different learning styles – Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic or
‘VAK’.
The VAK learning style theory says that most people have one dominant or preferred learning
style. While they may have a dominant or preferred style they can still learn using the other
styles, but this learning may not be as efficient or effective. The VAK model also recognises
that some people may have a mix of learning styles.

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Learning style self-assessment

It is likely that you already know what your preferred learning style is. The following
selfassessment is a simple way of exploring and confirming how you prefer to learn. Remember
that while we usually have a dominant or preferred style we will also use the other styles.
Consider the statements in the left hand column in the table below and circle the response
that is most like you.

When I... I prefer to...

1. attend a training Read the notes/ Listen and talk with Do activities
course PowerPoint’s or the trainer and
watching the trainer other participants

2. prepare for exam or Write and read Say key points or Practice answering
an interview notes or create a phrases in my head questions
visual of key points or talk answers
in my head through with others

3. am using a new Turn it on and work it

piece of Read the manual or Ask the salesperson out as I go
technology for the watch a or someone else
first time (e.g. a demonstration how to use it
camera, TV)
4. am remembering I recall what we were
I recall their face or I recall what they
someone I have doing or what was
what they looked said or what we
met happening at the
like talked about
time
5. am delegating a task Put the instructions Talk to the other Ask them to have a
in writing (e.g. in an person about what go
email) needs to be done

6. am going Look at a map or Ask someone for Head off in the

somewhere new directions directions direction I think I
should be going

7. attend a seminar See lots of Listen to what the Participate in

handouts, diagrams presenter has to say handson
and visual demonstrations or
aids practical sessions
8. receive feedback Receive it in writing To be given it To be given it as I am
or as annotations verbally doing a task
on a piece of work

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9. choose a book or Select on the basis Ask others what Read parts of it
magazine to read of what the cover they recommend before making a
looks like or the decision
written reviews

When I... I prefer to...

10. am making a major Read the brochure Ask others for their Try it (e.g. go for a
purchase (e.g. a and/or see what it views or take into test drive)
car, laptop) looks like account what others
have told me

Total circled in each

column

Learning Style Visual Auditory Kineasthetic

The number of responses that you circled in each column indicates how you prefer to learn.
You may have a clear preference or you may like to learn in way that is consistent with two or
all three of the learning styles.

Visual learning style

Visual people think in terms of images such as graphics and text on a page. People with a
visual learning style learn through observation. They prefer information to be conveyed
through the use of diagrams, pictures or handouts. Examples of learning activities include:
• watching or observing others
• reading or writing instructions, maps, timelines and graphs
• making notes or ‘brain-storm’ diagrams • developing a document, model or diagram
• viewing a video.

Auditory learning style

Auditory people prefer sound and the spoken voice. People with an auditory learning style
learn through listening to or talking with others. They prefer information to be conveyed
through the spoken word or sounds. Examples of learning experiences include:
• being briefed verbally - listening to ‘what has happened’
• talking an idea or issue through with other people
• listening to audio.

Kinaesthetic learning style

Kinaesthetic people think in terms of touch and feel. People with a kinaesthetic style learn
through practical experience. Examples of learning experiences include:

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 • ‘having a go’
• completing a practical or hands-on task
• thinking about how an idea or proposal will look ‘in real life’ in order to understand it
better.

• trying, testing, ‘fiddling’ with a system or process until they have explored it enough to
learn how to use it.

Use the knowledge of your own learning preference to:

• Gather or ‘take in’ new information and instructions

• Reflect on your learning experiences and think about how you can learn differently in
future (ie: ask someone to explain something differently).

Use the knowledge of other people’s learning preference to:

• Give them information in a way that they will understand more easily ie: draw a
diagram, talk them through it, send an email with a list, let them ‘do’ a new task with
your supervision.

Identifying and agreeing appropriate learning and development options

1. Remember that learning and development isn’t limited to attendance at training

courses.
There are a range of effective approaches that can be considered.
2. Identify which learning styles which are most effective for you.
3. Identify learning and development options that may be most effective taking into
account the 70:20:10 model of learning and development. More information on this
model and a range of learning and development options is provided below.
4. If you and your supervisor agree that a training course would be useful, research what
is available in a suitable timeframe. The following are good starting points: o the
ACTPS or Directorate training calendars o colleagues and managers o relevant
professional associations.
5. Once an appropriate learning activity has been identified discuss:
o how the learning will be applied on the job (what activities can be
undertaken to implement new capabilities, skills and knowledge)
o how new skills and knowledge can be shared with others o how you will

monitor and review the impact of the learning and development.

The 70:20:10 model of learning and development

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Many organisations are adopting the 70:20:10 model of learning and development. The
model is based on research by Michael M Lombardo and Robert W Eichinger which found
that learning and development is most effective when it is a combination of learning
approaches, and when about:

70% is structured on-the-job learning or learning from

experience;
20% is relationship-based learning or learning through
other colleagues; and
10% is formal learning or learning through structured
courses and programs.

A combination of learning approaches is often called blended learning.

Learning and development options

• Working on a new project (individually or with other
colleagues).
• Completing different tasks and being given feedback on
the completion of those tasks.
• Following a procedure manual or online tutorial while
On-the-job learning completing a task.
• Taking on a new role.
• Working with a new process or system.
• Completing tasks which usefully challenge or ‘stretch’
someone so they learn something new (known as stretch
assignments).
• Participating in a corporate activity or committee.
• Shadowing or pairing with another team/staff member or
more senior staff member.
• Completing research.
• Job rotation or secondment.
• Self-evaluation and reflection.

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 • Talking with, or receiving a brief from an expert or more
experienced person.
• Sharing knowledge/insights with other colleagues.
• Presenting to the team following training.
• Observing colleagues under the direction of the
supervisor or manager “why not ask X if you can go with
them so you can see…”
• Participating in online forums.
• Peer supervision “how do you think I did there? What
would you have done”
Learning through other
colleagues • Discussing and seeking feedback.
• Being coached or mentored (some workplaces have
‘buddy’ systems” which provide mentors to new staff)
• Mentoring, coaching or teaching other colleagues (often
the best way to learn)
• Networking (meeting and talking with others who share
your professional interest or role in a different team or
part of the service)
• Attending courses.

Courses and Training • Team training.

• Reading books, journals or articles.
• Completing online learning modules or computer
training.
• Further study.
• Internet research.
Being proactive about your professional and career development
Many people don’t have career goals, but even without specific goals you can still take an
active (rather than passive or go with the flow) approach to your development by following
the steps below:
Think about what you would like to achieve in the working part of your life in the future.
Think about the next 12 months or longer.
Imagine you are 1 year down the track – what would you like to be able to say about what
you have achieved at work?
• Have you taken on leadership responsibilities? Do you now feel confident in your
job? What outcomes have you been successful in achieving?
• What job are you doing or what type of work are you doing?
• What skills and knowledge do you have?

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 • In what ways do you find the work fulfilling and enjoyable?

Now think about the same questions for 5 and 10 years down the track.

How will you make this happen?

Do you need to know about:
• Whether this is possible/realistic?
• What you need to do – what are the steps to getting there?
• Do you need some qualifications? More experience? Both?
• Who can help you?
• How have others achieved this?
• What initiatives or resources may be available to help you?
Where can you find this information?

How will you get the knowledge, skills and experience to achieve your career goals?
Think about:
• How you can develop in your current role? Is your current role giving you the
experience you need to develop your skills and knowledge so that you can reach your
career goals?
• Reflecting or ‘thinking back over’ everything you do at work turns work into one big
learning opportunity.
• What learning and development activities can help you build the knowledge, skills
and experience (keeping in mind the 70:20:10 model)?
• What other activities outside of your team you can get involved in? Can you suggest
swapping your job for a day with someone in another department to find out more
about what they do? Could you ‘shadow’ a colleague from another section to learn a
particular skill that they have?
• What activities can you/are you prepared to undertake outside of work (e.g. volunteer
roles, involvement in professional associations)?

What relationships do you have that can help you achieve your career goals?
Think about:
• How your supervisor/manager can help or support you. o Can they sign off on the 1
hour per week ‘shadowing’ exercise that you have organised?
o Can they put you in touch with a professional association that you could

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 join? o Can they recommend and nominate a network that you
could join?
o Might you ask them to agree some flexible working arrangements so that
you can undertake a longer –term formal course?
• Which colleagues or friends can you learn from? Who do you admire professionally and
what is it they do that you wish you could do more or better?
o Consider setting up a coaching or mentoring relationship (a coach helps
you to decide what you want or need to do and a mentor helps you to
do it in a practical sense). These relationships can be as formal or
informal as you want and with anyone who you trust or admire
professionally.
o What about joining an ACTPS network? Or how about setting one up
with people from different teams who do similar work to you?
Golden rule: Talk to others and let them know what you are trying to achieve and how
they can help.

Talk about your professional and career development as part of your performance
discussions.

Tips for discussing learning and development needs and priorities

Employees Supervisors/managers
• Reflect on:
• Reflect on: o what the employee is
o what you are comfortable doing – comfortable doing – their strengths
your strengths
o what they could do better - areas for
o what you could do better – areas for
further development
development
o development that would support
o areas you would like to support your their career development
career development
• Be realistic about learning and
• Be prepared to talk about your development options – reflect on what
performance challenges is available and possible and be careful
• Think about ways you would like to be not to create expectations that cannot
stretched in your job be met
• Bring your thoughts on any • What support you can provide o on-
development opportunities you want the-job learning opportunities o
to pursue to the meeting
mentoring or coaching o sharing your
• Be realistic about what can be achieved
knowledge
taking into account time and resources
available. Take into account: • How the impact of learning and
development will be implemented and
o Current and future workloads
monitored
and priorities

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 o Staffing issues (e.g. timing of
leave)
o Whether any direct costs can
be met within the budget
• How you will implement what you have
learned and developed in the
workplace

Activity 10

Provide an example of when workplace training could be beneficial.

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Activity 10

Identify, prioritise and plan opportunities for undertaking personal skill

development activities in liaison with work groups and relevant personnel
Developing your skills and knowledge for the area you work in is not only valuable to the
organisation you are working for it’s also a great way of improving your job satisfaction.
When you really confident about your job and your abilities you will enjoy your work a lot
more.

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Knowing your job well also means that you can make some decisions about where you want
to be in the future. Once you’ve reached the highest level in your area you might like to
advance to a higher position or expand your skills and knowledge in a different direction.
Listening to feedback at performance reviews helps you to discover your strengths and
weaknesses and enables you to make those clear decisions. Concentrating on what you are
good at and being able to enhance skills which are needed but not your strength means that
increase your value to the company and make yourself more employable in other
organisations as well.

It is one thing to think about improving your skills and knowledge, but to make these
thoughts a reality means that you need to take responsibility for your own learning and
personal skill development. This is not as hard as you might think. Many organisations offer
training and professional development workshops which create opportunities for staff to
develop and expand their skills. No matter what is offered to you or is available privately if
you choose to study for your own interests or future career, it’s up to you to take advantage
of them so that you can achieve the career goals you set for yourself.

Your supervisor, manager or HR (Human Resources) department will have information

available regarding traineeships, further study, professional development workshops,
product information days, First Aid training, Fire Warden training and Union Representative
training to name just a few of the opportunities to gain knowledge for you and allow you to
contribute to your area and ultimately to the organisation’s success.

You may have been assigned a ‘buddy’ or a ‘coach’ in your induction phase with the
company to observe you working and provide feedback and facilitate problem solving to
enhance your performance or correct any lack of knowledge. Coaching supports an
employee as he/she learns new tasks either through on-the-job training or when introducing
new procedures or technologies.
Once you are familiar with your role you may be able to access a mentor in the workplace to
help you move forward in your career. Mentoring can be a formal or informal relationship
between senior and junior employees for the purpose of supporting learning and
development. The mentor provides ongoing support, advice, and career direction to an
employee. A mentor holds a higher position and is usually outside the employee’s chain of
supervision. Mentoring is used to continue the development of talented and skilled staff
members and often to groom or prepare individuals who show high potential for
management or leadership responsibilities. They may also be available to assist you to
retrain and prepare you for a new job or function.

An individual training plan may be draw up at your performance review and in addition, you
may be asked to take part in special projects or be co-opted to work in another area of the
organisation to broaden your skills and allow a greater appreciation of your part in it.
Special projects or assignments are often used to:

• Enhance an employee’s knowledge or skills in a particular area

• Complete tasks or assignments when a mix of people with expertise in different areas
is needed
• Prepare an employee for career advancement or develop specific knowledge or skills

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 • Broaden an employee’s knowledge of other functions and departments in the
organization
• Motivate and challenge an employee who has been on a job for a long time.
• Two of the most common types of special assignments are shadowing and rotational
assignments
• A shadowing assignment is an assignment during which you observe another person
in his/her daily routine for a period of time. These assignments give you a sense of
the duties and responsibilities of the job and how the person handles the work and
situations that arise.
• A rotational assignment is a detail or transfer to another position or work unit to
broaden your knowledge of different operations and working environments.

Most importantly, taking advantage of any training and mentoring adds skills and experience
to your resume, hopefully safeguarding your tenure with the organisation and assuring
advancement of your career.

Activity 11

Describe how you could benefit from personal skills development? What are the benefits to
your

Activity 11

employer?

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Activity 11

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Access, complete and record professional development opportunities to
facilitate continuous learning and career development
Continuing professional development or PD as it is commonly referred to, keeps you up-to-
date with knowledge and the skills to succeed in your career. To ensure your knowledge
remains relevant, organisations and Unions often offer training at various levels to show their
commitment to an informed, trained, safe workforce.

Some unions focus solely on educating their members about being a delegate for that union
and occupational health and safety – now known as Workplace Health and Safety.
Organisations may work with unions to educate and train their staff and have specific
requirements for PD.

You may be required to complete a set amount of PD hours each year and keep an up-to-
date record of your activities using a form which will be provided in your work area. It may
be a hard copy or you may need to log on to a staff intranet which allows you to enter (and
perhaps even book) a course of training. You may be required to provide this record and
evidence when you attend your performance review.
It is very likely you will also be asked to evaluate the training you have undertaken. Staff
members who attend courses and workshops are usually expected to complete an evaluation
form and forward copies to their supervisor and the training provider, who use the
evaluation process and records as part of an ongoing quality assurance process. It also
allows your organisation to implement in-depth evaluation procedures for major staff
development programs to ensure that the skills and knowledge are applied competently. To
put it simply, they want to make sure they are getting value for money when you attend
training of any kind.
Personal Development Plan Worksheet
Name Current Position Date Started

Career Mission Statement (what you intend to accomplish and why)

Major Career Goals (what you need to accomplish in the medium term to further your mission)

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Goal Target Date Goal Target Date

Goal Target Date Goal Target Date

Goal Target Date Goal Target Date

Skills Audit C: I need to improve this skill/competency

A: I have accomplished this skill/I demonstrate D: I need to put in considerable work to develop
high competence this skill/competency
B: I have this skill/competency but some E: I need to acquire this skill/develop this
improvements could be made competency
Skill/Competency Skill/Competency
Now 6m 1yr 3yr Now 6m 1yr 3yr

Action Plan for the next 6/9/12 months (circle the appropriate timescale)
Development Goal Action Steps Complete Obstacles/Solutions Evaluation
by

I am committing to these goals and will review this Personal Development Plan on a regular
basis and update it as necessary.

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Signature: Date:

Activity 12

Once an evaluation form is completed and returned to the management team, what is done
with it? How would the collected data be used?

Activity 12

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Activity 12

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Incorporate formal and informal feedback into review of further learning
needs
Feedback is essential for people to know how they are progressing, and also, evaluation is
crucial to the worker's confidence too. A successful conclusion to your annual performance
review should help you and your supervisor or manager understand the following:

• What has been done?

• What is left to do?
• What is the quality of my team’s objectives?
• How well aligned are the people in my team?
• How are they progressing on achieving their goals/objectives?
• Where do I need to focus to drive better outcomes?

Once these questions have been answered, and taking on board any comments which may
have been conveyed informally as well, you and your supervisor should have all the
information you both need to come up with any training or mentoring you need to enhance
your skills before the next review period. This timeframe is called a ratings period – covering
the time between one performance review and the next.

It is important to understand the difference between formal and informal feedback. Both are
valuable and relevant. Firstly, the easiest to take on board and which usually doesn’t present
to staff as threatening in any way is the informal approach.

Informal feedback is concrete, practical suggestions given either immediately, during

(particularly if safety is a concern) or immediately following, an action or customer
interaction. For example, brief feedback might be given while you are practicing the
appropriate use of a platform ladder. They come in various sizes and can look deceptively
similar to a domestic ladder, however in the workplace you may be using it on a slippery or
uneven surface and reaching for material which is heavier than you would attempt to handle
at home. The feedback may be preceded with "Let me show you an easier way to lock those
casters” or "Let me give you some feedback on your lifting technique".

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Formal feedback can be given outside of performance reviews and can happen in cases
where an informal approach is not appropriate or suffice. When a set period of time, usually
five to 20 minutes or longer, is set aside for reflection and providing practical suggestions
following a particular workplace experience. For example, formal feedback might be
scheduled immediately after your team has participated in a safety drill in order to assess
whether the team performed efficiently and discuss any areas of the exercise that may need
improvement. At other times, it may be given after a particularly difficult client encounter or
when inappropriate behaviours or actions have been observed in the workplace. Respect for
privacy and appropriate timing of this form of feedback is important as all aspects of the
situation need to be determined before the appropriate action is taken. Formal feedback is
also the feedback that is provided during weekly scheduled supervision sessions in which
case, the period of time may be from 30 minutes to one hour. These can simply take the
form of a team meeting, or a one-on-one with your supervisor to touch base with any issues
arising that you may not have had the opportunity to discuss with them. It is also an
opportunity to bring up any sensitive issues that require intervention or solution from a
higher level employee.

This form of feedback advocates the encouragement of staff self-evaluation, and should
therefore be interactive. Generally, you know that the feedback will be given, and so will have
had opportunity to reflect on performance. For example your supervisor could open the
session with a question such as "How did that training session go for you?" and then "What
went well, and what might you have done differently/better?" Points you make during self-
evaluation can then be reinforced and solutions and strategies for improvement explored.

The final and most well-known type of feedback is the official Performance Review, also
known as an Appraisal. Traditionally the purpose of this formal process, sometimes but not
always held with a senior staff member who you may not know very well, is to gain the kind
of information management need to make decisions regarding their workforce:

1. Promotion, separation, and transfer decisions

2. Feedback to the employee regarding how the organisation viewed the employee's
performance
3. Evaluations of relative contributions made by individuals and entire departments in
achieving higher level organisation goals
4. Criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of selection and placement decisions,
including the relevance of the information used in the decisions within the
organisation
5. Reward decisions, including merit increases, promotions, and other rewards
6. Ascertaining and diagnosing training and development decisions
7. Criteria for evaluating the success of training and development decisions
8. Information upon which work scheduling plans, budgeting, and human resources
planning can be used

Two major flaws in the traditional approach to performance appraisal exist. The flaws are:

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 • Organisational performance appraisal is typically primarily concerned with the past
rather than being forward looking through the use of setting objectives or goals.
• Performance appraisal is usually tied to the employees' salary review. Dealing with
salary generally overwhelms and blocks creative, meaningful, or comprehensive
consideration of performance goals.

Developmental performance appraisals focus instead on relating to employees as individuals.

This uses the performance appraisal as a contributor to employee motivation, development,
and human resources planning. The development approach contains all of the traditional
overall organisational performance appraisal purposes and the following additional
purposes:

1. Provides employees the opportunity to formally indicate the direction and level of the
employee's ambition
2. Shows organisational interest in employee development, which helps the enterprise
retain ambitious, capable employees instead of losing the employees to competitors
3. Provides a structure for communications between employees and management to
help clarify expectations of the employee by management and the employee
4. Provides satisfaction and encouragement to the employee who has been trying to
perform well.

The manager has the unenviable job of:

1. Translating organisational goals into your job objective.

2. Communicating management's expectations regarding your performance.
3. Providing feedback to you about job performance in light of management's
objectives.
4. Coaching you on how to achieve job objectives/requirement or arranging for this to
take place via the training department or through a third party.
5. Diagnosing your strengths and weaknesses.

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 6. Determining what kind of development activities might help you better utilise your
skills to improve performance on the current job.

This needs to be done for every staff member the manager is responsible for and requires
time, effort and tact to do it well. Hopefully your organisation has previously conducted a
skills audit (which can be incorporated into your PD review), reviewed your resume and
consulted you about your work and personal goals. Once you and your supervisor clearly
understand the difference between what you need to know and what you know right now
you will discover the skills gaps and be able to determine how to gain the knowledge or
abilities that are required.

The typically consists of four inter-related steps as follows:

1. Establish a common understanding between the manager (the person doing the
evaluating) and you (the person being evaluated) regarding work expectations;
mainly, the work to be accomplished and how that work is to be evaluated
2. Ongoing assessment of performance and the progress against work expectation.
Provisions should be made for the regular feedback of information to clarify and
modify the goals and expectations, to correct unacceptable performance before it is
too late, (via informal feedback and more formal one-on-one meetings) and to
reward superior performance with proper praise and recognition
3. Formal documentation of performance through the completion of a performance and
development appraisal form appropriate to your organisation
4. The formal performance and development appraisal discussion, based on the
completed appraisal form and ending in the construction of a Personal Development
Plan for you (also known as a Professional Development Plan)

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Some organisations also conduct what is called 360 Degree Feedback, sometimes referred to
as multi-rater appraisals or multi-source feedback is a tool designed to address the problem
of being judged by only one person and trying to remove any personal prejudices that may
exist between the reviewer and you. By gaining feedback from peers, reports, managers and
even internal and external customers a person gets a valuable insight into how others see
them.in which your peers, that is people whom you work with at the same employee level,
reports, meaning anyone you supervise and customers are all exposed to you in different
ways. Feedback is no longer one dimensional. This multi-dimensional approach often
provides great insights into how different groups see you. For example leaders really need to
understand how their reports see them, just as much as they need to understand how their
own boss sees them.

Now that you have completed your skills audit, had your performance review, given 360
degree feedback to your team and your supervisor and come up with a Personal
Development Plan for the next rating period - you are now ready to put everything you’ve
done so far into a format that is measurable and actionable to help you keep on track as you
progress along the work and training path you have both decided on for the next ratings
period.

Activity 13

Is informal feedback as valuable as formal feedback? Why/Why not?

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Activity 13

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ASSESSMENT
BSBWOR301 Organise personal work priorities and development

Student Name
Student ID
Unit commenced (Date)
Unit Completed (Date)
I hereby certify that I have undertaken these
assessment tasks utilising my own work without
assistance from any other parties. I have not
knowingly plagiarised any work in completing
these assessment activities.

Student Signature

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Knowledge Assessment (Written Tasks)

1. Locate and briefly describe the legislation that covers the following areas relating to
business: • Anti-discrimination legislation –

• Ethical principles –

• Codes of practice –

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 • Privacy laws –

• Occupational health and safety (OHS) -

2. What are the 4 stages of stress?

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3. What are the signs of stress?

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4. You identified and have reported issues with quality of products and/or services. What are
some of the consequences for the non-compliant person?

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5. What steps should you take when you organise your own work schedule?

6. How should you go about monitoring your oen work performance? List the steps.

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7. Briefly outline the process you would use to coordinate personal skill development and
learning.

8.What are Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)? How are these related to objectives?

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9. Is the following statement true or false? Self assessment is unnecessary and leads only to
increased stress levels.

10. Is the following statement true or false? Actual performance can be measured against
your work objectives.

11. Is the following statement true or false? Customer satisfaction can be measured easily.

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12. Is the following statement true or false? Feedback in the workplace is not an essential
part of the process of ‘monitoring your own workplace performance’.

13. Is the following statement true or false? Discussions are only one of the tools that may be
used to gain feedback.

14. Is the following statement true or false? Feedback on performance is only useful for
development of the individual.

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15. Is the following statement true or false? Once evaluation is seen to be linked to reward or
punishment, feedback may be less genuine.

16. Is the following statement true or false? Quality assurance is a critical factor in most
workplaces.

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17. Is the following statement true or false? Never rely on your impressions of what
colleagues think of your work performance.

18. Is the following statement true or false? Work objectives must be measured.

19. Is the following statement true or false? A freelance writer aims to ensure that they
have a continuous flow of work. This is a long-term work objective.

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20. Is the following statement true or false? Budgetary targets are applied only to an
individual.

21. Is the following statement true or false? A personal career plan is a form of work
objective.

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22. Is the following statement true or false? Setting high sales targets always motivates
staff.

23. Is the following statement true or false? Occupational health and safety (OH&S)
needs to be considered only in matters of emergency management.

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24. Is the following statement true or false? Unforeseen factors are part of any work and
should not be viewed seriously.

25. Is the following statement true or false? Short-term work objectives are the only
planning tool required.

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26. Is the following statement true or false? Technology is essential when it comes to any
planning activity.

27. Is the following statement true or false? Efficient and effective mean the same thing.

28. Is the following statement true or false? Face to face contact is the best way to pass
on information in all work situations.

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29. Is the following statement true or false? Training and development needs of your
staff should only be dealt with in the short-term.

30. Is the following statement true or false? Always assess personal knowledge and skills
against required competency standards when determining personal development
needs.

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31. Is the following statement true or false? Competency standards only measure how
well a person fulfils their job.

32. Is the following statement true or false? Competency standards based on Enterprise
Bargaining Agreements relate only to personal work objectives.

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33. Is the following statement true or false? There are two main categories of sources of
learning.

34. Is the following statement true or false? All training for staff can be provided from
within an organisation.

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35. Is the following statement true or false? In arranging training times, you need to
consider staff members’ personal priorities.

36. Is the following statement true or false? It is a waste of time keeping copies of all
assessments.

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Assessment Outcome
Question Correct ( )
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

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31
32
33
34
35
36

Assessed by _________________________ Assessor Signature_______________ Date _________

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Skills Assessment (Practical Tasks)

ASSESSOR NOTE
These instructions must be followed when assessing the student in this unit. The checklist
on the following page is to be completed for each student. Please refer to separate
mapping
document for specific details relating to alignment of this task to the unit requirements.

This competency is to be assessed using standard and authorised work practices, safety
requirements and environmental constraints.
Assessment of essential underpinning knowledge will usually be conducted in an off-site
context. Assessment is to comply with relevant regulatory or Australian standards'
requirements.
Resource implications for assessment include:
• an induction procedure and requirement
• realistic tasks or simulated tasks covering the mandatory task requirements
• relevant specifications and work instructions
• tools and equipment appropriate to applying safe work practices
• support materials appropriate to activity
• workplace instructions relating to safe work practices and addressing hazards and
emergencies
• material safety data sheets
• research resources, including industry related systems information.

Reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities must be made to assessment processes
where required. This could include access to modified equipment and other physical
resources, and the provision of appropriate assessment support.

What happens if your result is ‘Not Yet Competent’ for one or more assessment tasks?

The assessment process is designed to answer the question “has the participant satisfactorily
demonstrated competence yet?” If the answer is “Not yet”, then we work with you to see
how we can get there.

In the case that one or more of your assessments has been marked ‘NYC’, your Trainer
will provide you with the necessary feedback and guidance, in order for you to
resubmit/redo your assessment task(s).

What if you disagree on the assessment outcome?

You can appeal against a decision made in regards to an assessment of your competency.
An appeal should only be made if you have been assessed as ‘Not Yet Competent’ against
specific competency standards and you feel you have sufficient grounds to believe that you
are entitled to be assessed as competent.
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You must be able to adequately demonstrate that you have the skills and experience to be
able to meet the requirements of the unit you are appealing against the assessment of.

You can request a form to make an appeal and submit it to your Trainer, the Course
Coordinator, or an Administration Officer. The RTO will examine the appeal and you will be
advised of the outcome within 14 days. Any additional information you wish to provide may
be attached to the form.

What if I believe I am already competent before training?

If you believe you already have the knowledge and skills to be able to demonstrate
competence in this unit, speak with your Trainer, as you may be able to apply for
Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).

Credit Transfer
Credit transfer is recognition for study you have already completed. To receive Credit
Transfer, you must be enrolled in the relevant program. Credit Transfer can be granted if you
provide the RTO with certified copies of your qualifications, a Statement of Attainment or a
Statement of
Results along with Credit Transfer Application Form. (For further information please visit
Credit Transfer Policy)

Task 1 – Develop and communicate personal and work priorities

1. You have been asked by your supervisor to organise a staff conference for Friday,
September 20 from 9.00am to 3.00pm. You have only two weeks to make the
preparations. You will need to inform both the internal office staff and regional
representatives, and request confirmation of attendance. You will also need to
ensure the large conference room is available and organise morning tea and lunch.
All staff will require a folder, stationery and pens. The conference room has a
whiteboard but you will need to make certain an overhead projector and PowerPoint
are available.

• Complete an action plan

Goal
Objectives and anticipated Activity/Step Key Result
time of completion

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 Develop project quality
Need to be complete next In progrees
measures
week

Desing a operation strategy

From supervisor
plan Completed

Engage in social In progress

Marketing team
media marketing

2. You have been newly appointed as a sales manager for a printing firm. Your duties
involve monitoring the overall sales, supervising both the internal sales staff and
regional sales team and also making yourself available to handle difficult sales
enquiries. You find you are continually being interrupted.

• Describe the strategies you would use to manage your time effectively.

• Explain how setting goals would help you to achieve your desired
outcomes.

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• Describe some of the time savers you would use.

• List the steps you would take to ensure effective delegation.

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Observation Checklist
Observation Criteria S NS
Ensured that work goals, objectives or Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs) are understood, negotiated and agreed in accordance with
organisational requirements
Assessed and prioritised workload to ensure tasks are completed
within identified timeframes
Identified factors affecting the achievement of work objectives and
incorporate contingencies into work plans
Used business technology efficiently and effectively to manage and
monitor scheduling and completion of tasks

Outcome
 Satisfactory  Unsatisfactory

Comments:

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Date ______________________

Signed _____________________________ (Assessor)

Signed ______________________________(Student)

Task 2 – Identify work goals and objectives, manage and monitor work,
Feedback on work performance
For this assessment task you are required to:

• Identify at least five work goals and objectives.

• Discuss and agree these goals and objectives with your supervisor.

• Answer some questions relating to this assessment task.

Part A – Identifying work objectives

a. Make a list of at least five of your most important work goals / objectives. Each one
should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-framed).

b. Prioritise the goals and objectives you have identified.

c. Briefly describe how achievement of your work goals / objectives links to broader
organisational goals and objectives (e.g., for your team, section or department).

d. List some of the key factors / considerations that you expect to influence the
achievement of each goal / objective.

e. Review your list with your supervisor and make adjustments as required. Please arrange
for your supervisor to sign the completed list.
You may wish to use the attached template to assist you in presenting the information
for this Assessment Task. Please add additional rows to the tables if required.

Part B – Questions

Please answer the following questions in relation to this activity:

1. Did you adjust any of your work goals / objectives based on your discussion with your
supervisor? If so, explain what you modified and why.

2. How do you normally confirm that your understanding and prioritisation of your work
goals and objectives matches the expectations of your supervisor?

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3. What were the benefits of documenting your key work objectives and reviewing them
with your supervisor?

Personal Work Goals / Objectives

Goal / Objective Priority Links to broader Factors affecting

organisational goals and achievement of
Please make sure each goal objective
objectives
/ objective is Specific,
Measurable, Achievable, (e.g., team / section /
Relevant and Time-framed department goals)

Complete leadership
training course before the Yes Myselfe Time
end of the year.

Learn more about the

new o f fi c e
communication tool Yes office team this week
before implementing it
next quarter
Improve presentation skills
by enlisting help, in order
to make things more Yes/No Myselfe None
engaging for the team

Attend training session on

how to give and receive
Yes Team members
effective feedback to team Time
members

Gain a more in-depth

perspective of how
Yes Managers Weekly
departments within the
company are run

I have reviewed and agree with the above goals / objectives.

Signature of Date:

supervisor:

Manage and monitor work

For this assessment task you are required to:

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• Provide documentation showing how you have used a to-do list and calendar to
assess and prioritise your workload, and to manage scheduling and monitor
completion of tasks

• Answer some questions relating to your time and task management.

Part C – To-do list

Develop a to-do list for your work. Your list must include at least ten different tasks and
must cover at least one week. Alternatively, you may prepare separate to-do lists for each day
for a week. Each to-do list should contain at least five tasks.

Prioritise the tasks on your to-do list and estimate the time required to complete each
one.

You are encouraged to use the ‘Tasks’ feature in Microsoft Outlook (or a similar program
such as Lotus Notes) to do this, but as an alternative, you may wish to use the attached
template.

Part D – Calendar / diary / planner

Schedule the tasks from your to-do list using the ‘Calendar’ feature in Microsoft Outlook (or
you may use a similar feature from another program such as Lotus Notes).

Print and provide a copy of your completed schedule.

Part E – Questions

Please answer the following questions:

1. How effective were the to-do list and calendar in helping you to plan and manage your
workload? Will you continue to use these tools in the future? Why / why not?

2. Did you successfully complete all of the tasks / activities you had planned? If not, why
not?

3. Consider how you prioritised your work. Did you always address important, urgent tasks
ahead of less important and less urgent tasks? If not, why not?

4. Overall how satisfied were you with how you managed your time and work activities?
Please justify your response.

5. Provide some suggestions for what you could do to improve your time and task
management?

To-do List

Complete
Activity Priority Time required
( )

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Feedback on work performance

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For this assessment task you are required to:

• Identify the different approaches you use to obtain feedback from others on your
work performance.

• Provide evidence of feedback you have received from others on your work
performance.

Part G – Approaches for obtaining feedback on work performance

What approaches (formal or informal) do you use to seek feedback from others (e.g.,
clients, peers, supervisors and staff) regarding your work performance? List the
approaches you use in the table below. You must identify at least three.
Formal / Who do you use this approach to
Approach
Informal? seek feedback from?

I felt you really supported me

I’ve noticed that you have come in to
when the project missed the
Informal work at 9:30 AM three times this week
deadline on Friday

Because you came into work

Yo u u n d e r s t o o d a n d t o l d later it meant that someone
everyone that it wasn’t my fault Formal else had to answer both your
phone and theirs and open the
mail
It was extremely busy and
So I’d like to say thanks, I feel being ‘one person down’
much better about things Formal put a lot of unnecessary
pressure on the rest of the
team”.

Part H – Evidence of feedback on work performance

Provide evidence of feedback you have actively sought from at least two different people,
preferably from different sources (e.g., client, peer, supervisor or team member), and relating
to different work activities. It is recommended that you use one or more of the approaches
identified in Part A of this assessment task.
For each of your two examples, please document the following:

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• What you were seeking feedback about

• The actual feedback provided to you

• Your evaluation of the feedback provided, including:

o Whether you agree or disagree with the

feedback o Whether you found the feedback

useful o How you plan to use the feedback

If you received the feedback in writing, please attach a copy.

You may wish to use the attached template to assist you in presenting the information
for this Assessment Task.

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FEEDBACK TEMPLATE #1

Use the following template to provide evidence feedback you have sought from others
regarding your work performance. If you have obtained written feedback, please attach a
copy to this form.

Name of person providing

feedback:

Work relationship with the person:

e.g., subordinate, peer, supervisor, client, etc

What did you seek feedback about?

How did you seek the feedback?

Briefly summarise the feedback that was provided

Comment on whether you agree with the feedback

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Comment on whether you found the feedback useful (and why / why not)

Comment on how you plan to use the feedback

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FEEDBACK TEMPLATE #2

Use the following template to provide evidence feedback you have sought from others
regarding your work performance. If you have obtained written feedback, please attach a
copy to this form.

Name of person providing

feedback:

Work relationship with the person:

e.g., subordinate, peer, supervisor, client, etc

What did you seek feedback about?

How did you seek the feedback?

Briefly summarise the feedback that was provided

Comment on whether you agree with the feedback

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Comment on whether you found the feedback useful (and why / why not)

Comment on how you plan to use the feedback

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Part I - Identify and report variations in quality of service and performance
In an ideal world we would consistently achieve all of our work objectives and meet all of
the commitments we have made to others (e.g., managers, colleagues, clients, team
members, suppliers, etc). Unfortunately, in the real world there are factors which prevent
us from always achieving our objectives and meeting our commitments. These include
competing work demands, unforseen incidents, resource constraints, etc.

Because others are often depending on us to achieve their own work objectives and
commitments, it is important (as well as courteous) to advise them as soon as we realise that
we will be unable to deliver what we promised or what they are expecting from us. This also
provides us with the opportunity to renegotiate what is required (e.g., target date, cost,
product quality, etc).

For this task you are required to provide two examples of situations where you were unable
to achieve a work objective that you had previously committed to / agreed upon with
someone (e.g., manager, team member, colleague, customer, supplier, etc). For each
example detail the information shown in the following template.
Information required Example 1 Example 2

What was the objective?

Who had you made the

commitment to?

Why were you unable to

meet the commitment?

How did you advise the

person / people
affected that you would
be unable to meet the
commitment?

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When did you advise
the person / people
affected that you would
be unable to meet the
commitment (i.e., was it
early enough for them
to adjust their own
plans)?

How did they respond?

What would you do

differently next time
and why?

Observation Checklist
Observation Criteria S NS
Ensured that work goals, objectives or Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs) are understood, negotiated and agreed in accordance with
organisational requirements
Assessed and prioritised workload to ensure tasks are completed
within identified timeframes
Identified factors affecting the achievement of work objectives and
incorporate contingencies into work plans
Used business technology efficiently and effectively to manage and
monitor scheduling and completion of tasks
Accurately monitored and adjusted personal work performance
through self assessment to ensure achievement of tasks and
compliance with legislation and work processes or KPIs

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Ensured that feedback on performance was actively sought and
evaluated from colleagues and clients in the context of individual and
group requirements
Routinely identified and reported on variations in the quality of and
products and services according to organisational requirements
Identified signs of stress and effects on personal wellbeing
Identified sources of stress and access appropriate supports and
resolution strategies
Identified personal learning and professional development needs and
skill gaps using self assessment and advice from colleagues and
clients in relation to role and organisational requirements
Identified, prioritised and planned opportunities for undertaking
personal skill development activities in liaison with work groups and
relevant personnel
Accessed, completed and recorded professional development
opportunities to facilitate continuous learning and career
development
Incorporated formal and informal feedback into review of further
learning needs

Outcome
 Satisfactory  Unsatisfactory

Comments:

Date ______________________

Signed _____________________________ (Assessor)

Signed ______________________________(Student)

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BSBWOR301 Organise personal work priorities and development

Assessment Outcome Record

In order to be deemed competent in this unit, the candidate must answer all written
questions correctly and satisfactorily complete all practical tasks. In order to complete all
practical tasks, all Observation Criteria need to be satisfied, i.e. demonstrated and marked as
an 'S'. The task summary outcome must be noted as satisfactory to note the demonstration
of a satisfactory outcome for each practical task requirement.

Student Name

 Not Yet  Competent

Competent

Comments

Assessor (Name)

Assessor Signature

Date

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 Student Feedback Form
Unit BSBWOR301 Organise personal work priorities and development
Student Name: Date
Assessor Name:
Please provide us some feedback on your assessment process. Information provided on this
form is used for evaluation of our assessment systems and processes.
This information is confidential and is not released to any external parties without your
written consent. There is no need to sign your name as your feedback is confidential.
Strongly Strongly
Agree
Disagree Agree

I received information about the assessment

1 2 3 4 5
requirements prior to undertaking the tasks

The assessment instructions were clear and easy to

1 2 3 4 5
understand

I understood the purpose of the assessment 1 2 3 4 5

The assessment meet your expectation 1 2 3 4 5

My Assessor was organised and well prepared 1 2 3 4 5

The assessment was Fair, Valid, Flexible and Reliable 1 2 3 4 5

My Assessor's conduct was professional 1 2 3 4 5

The assessment was an accurate reflection of the

1 2 3 4 5
unit requirements
I was comfortable with the outcome of the
1 2 3 4 5
assessment

I received feedback about assessments I completed 1 2 3 4 5

Too Great Too

The pace of this unit was:
Slow Pace Fast
Comments:

Please return this completed form to Reception once you have completed this unit of
competency.

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