Plan and Organize Work

Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development Lo 4

AXUM POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE

Ethiopian TVET-System

Hardware and Network Servicing Level IV

LEARNING GUIDE # 4

Unit of Competence: Plan and Organize Work

Module Title: Planning and Organize Work

LG Code: ICT HNS4 M01 1110

TTLM Code: ICT HNS4 TTLM 0511

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Training, Teaching and Learning Materials Development Lo 4

LO 4: Monitor work activities

INTRODUCTIO
Learning Guide # 1
N
This learning guide is developed to provide you the necessary information regarding the following
content coverage and topics –

 Selecting monitoring and evaluation

 Monitoring Work activities
 Determining feedback mechanism
This guide will also assist you to attain the learning outcome stated in the cover page.
Specifically, upon completion of this Learning Guide, you will be able to –

 Identify and confirm Monitoring Work activities

 Verify Selecting monitoring and evaluation
 Determining feedback mechanism

Learning Activities

1. Read the specific objectives of this Learning Guide.

2. Read the information written in the “Information Sheets 1” in pages 3-8.
3. Accomplish the “Self-check” in page 8.
4. If you earned a satisfactory evaluation proceed to “formative exam”. However, if your rating is
unsatisfactory, see your teacher for further instructions or go back to Learning Activity #4. But if
satisfactory you can proceed to Learning Guide 5.

 Your teacher will evaluate your output either satisfactory or unsatisfactory. If unsatisfactory,
your teacher shall advice you on additional work. But if satisfactory you can proceed to the
next topic.

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Information Sheet 1 Selecting monitoring and evaluation

LO 4: Monitor work activities

1.1 SELECTING MONITORING AND EVALUATION

SELECT APPROPRIATE WORK ACTIVITIES

When examining and assisting clients to select work activities the following areas should be explored
with the client, and their significant others as appropriate, to enable realistic and appropriate choices
to be made.
 What is the meaning and perceived worth of work and chosen work activity to the person?
 What work activities was the person undertaking, and are these still realistic and achievable?
 What effects might changes have on the person’s abilities or capabilities to perform previous
or other work activities in both the short and long term?
 Does the individual want and/or need to continue to work?
 Has their occupation any direct bearing on their current health status?
 What is the physical condition of the individual? Are their wants/needs realistic and
achievable options given the individual’s short- and long-term capabilities?
 Can adjustments be made to their work environment to enable them to fulfil their desire?
 Can any other adaptations or aids help in the achievement of work-related activities and are
these available?
 What knowledge and skills does the person have?
 Do they have any previously untapped skills?
 Will further education and training be required and, if so, is help and support available
(practical and/or financial) to access this?
 Are they aware of their employment rights?
 Are there any other financial aspects to be considered?

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 Plan and Organize Work
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MONITORING WORK ACTIVITIES

What is workplace monitoring
Employers have the right to monitor your activities in many situations at work. Monitoring in the
workplace includes:-
 recording on CCTV cameras
 opening mail or e-mail
 use of automated software to check e-mail
 checking phone logs or recording of phone calls
 checking logs of websites visited
 videoing outside the workplace
 getting information from credit reference agencies
 Collecting information through 'point of sale' terminals, such as supermarket checkouts, to
check the performance of individual operators.
All of these forms of monitoring are covered by data protection law. Data protection law doesn't
prevent monitoring in the workplace. However, it does set down rules about the circumstances and
the way in which monitoring should be carried out.
Before deciding whether to introduce monitoring, your employer should:
 be clear about the reasons for monitoring staff and the benefits that this will bring
 Identify any negative effects the monitoring may have on staff. This is called an impact
assessment
 consider whether there are any, less intrusive, alternatives to monitoring
 Work out whether the monitoring is justified, taking into account all of the above.
Except in extremely limited circumstances, employers must take reasonable steps to let staff know
that monitoring is happening, what is being monitored and why it is necessary.

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Employers who can justify monitoring once they have carried out a proper impact assessment will
usually not need the consent of individual members of staff.

  How to Evaluate a Job

Does it meet Your Criteria?
When you accept a job offer and start in a new role, it’s too late, then, to turn back! The best approach
is to decide whether you want the job before an offer is extended. In other words, you need to set
some criteria for your new role. This allows you to clarify whether a particular job suits your needs.
Unless you’re motivated solely by money, it’s doubtful a few extra dollars will turn a bad job into a
good one. The time to start any serious evaluation of a potential new job is after you have been to the
first job interview. The full details of the job often do not become clear until then.
 After the interview, you need to decide whether the new position is right for you. Ask yourself
the following:
 Does the new job meet the criteria you set out when you first began your search?
 Will the new job improve your level of personal and professional satisfaction?
 Or will it simply offer you a rehash of what you already have?
One tool to help you in comparing one job with another is the "Position Comparison Guide" (separate
document).

If, however, you now know that the job is, indeed, one you would enjoy, the next step is to look at the
specifics of the offer.
The Economic Factor
Compensation, of course, will be a key factor in your decision whether to accept a new position.
If you’re looking at an opportunity that’s in a different geographic location, for instance, you might
want to do some investigating before you even interview. For example, if you live in a nice suburban
community in Adelaide, what would it cost you to maintain your current lifestyle in an area like
Sydney? Your answer (and your willingness to make the necessary trade-offs) will help determine
your level of interest when considering the new position.
Figuring the Bottom Line
If the job interests you, then determine the conditions under which you’ll accept. These fall into two
categories: the “Bottom-Line” and “Porcupine”.

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The term “bottom-line” refers to the amount of compensation you feel is absolutely necessary in
order to accept the job offer. If, for example, you really want $56,000 but would think about $55,000
or settle for $54,000, then you haven’t established your bottom line. The bottom-line is the figure,
below which, you would positively walk away from. Setting a bottom line clarifies your sense of
worth and helps avoid an unpredictable bargaining session.
Lay Your Cards on the Table
It’s much better to lay your cards on the table in the beginning than to barter to get what you want.
An employer can get very irritable when a candidate says, “I’ll think it over,” or if they keep coming
back with new demands again and again. Even if you get what you want, you’ve created a negative
impression with the company that will carry over after you’ve been hired. In effect, you may win the
battle, but lose the war.
The Porcupine Category
Of course, there are considerations aside from money that usually need to be satisfied before an offer
can be accepted. Factors such as your new position title, review periods, work schedule and
promotion opportunities are important. These, too, should be looked at carefully.
The “porcupine approach” is used to quantify each consideration or “point” that you feel is important
as a condition for acceptance. Professional recruiters will use this approach to understand each point.
They can then work with the company to put the deal together, without having to go back to you later
to get “one more thing.”
Once you know you’re bottom-line and each condition, or point on the porcupine, you’re in a better
position to get what you want, since you’ve established quantifiable goals to shoot for.
How an Offer Is Staged
Every company makes hiring decisions differently. Some will encourage shoot-from-the-hip
managers to make job offers on the spot. Other companies will limit the decision maker’s ability to
act quickly and unilaterally, and require a drawn-out series of staff meetings, subsequent interviews,
corporate signatures, and so on.
 Offers can be extended by either a letter, or verbally from a hiring manager. They can also be
made through a third party, such as a recruiter. In either case, be careful.

 An offer needs to include the following components before it can be considered official:
1. Your position title.

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2. You’re starting date.

3. Full details of salary or wages, including overtime, call-out fees, etc.
4. Full details of car expenses/fuel cards etc.
5. Specific agreements regarding compensation increases based on future reviews.
Before you resign from your present job, make sure you nail down each of these components in
writing, in the form of an offer letter.
As an example, it has happened that a candidate accepted an offer, assuming he was on a wage,
including overtime and call-out fees. When he started the job, he found he was on a salary, not a
wage, so no overtime or additional fees were involved.
There was also the case of a Technician who was told there was a company car and fuel card. He
asked if he could have a Car Allowance instead, and they agreed. The only trouble was that when he
started, he found that a Car Allowance did not come with a fuel card!
All of these details need to be explicit in the letter of offer. If it’s not written, you have no recourse.
Accepting the Offer
It often happens that you may be applying for several positions at the same time. Be careful here not
to fall into the trap of playing one off against the other. As you go through the initial interviews,
gaining a fuller understanding of each offer, line them up and give each of them a rating. Remember
to rule out the ones that do not meet your base criteria. Rate the rest according to which job you
would most like to win.
New Angles and Unusual Deals
Money can present a problem for employers when your salary requirements exceed the published
range for the position, or create an inequity within their department. In fact, internal equity issues (in
which your expected salary might be greater than someone on the staff who has more professional or
company seniority) are the cause of most deals that fail to close for financial reasons.
To satisfy money matters, look for ways to increase your overall yearly compensation, rather than
your base salary. Here are a couple of goodies you can shoot for to boost your earnings without
ruffling too many feathers:
 A performance bonus to be paid after thirty, sixty, or ninety days, assuming your clearly
defined goals are met.
 An accelerated review which would occur after three or six months, rather than on your first
anniversary of employment, in which your salary would be increased.

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When required, companies will sometimes serve up these tasty morsels to hungry candidates who
recognize that overall compensation consists of more than salary alone.
Careful evaluation mixed with a little bit of creativity will help you get the deal you want.

1.2 DETERMINING FEEDBACK MECHANISM

Feedback mechanisms provide organizations with data and perceptions from primary stakeholders
about the quality and effectiveness of their efforts. An ideal feedback process involves the gathering
of feedback and the communication of a response, which forms a ‘feedback loop.’ However, the
language and terminology used to describe feedback systems in international assistance organizations
varies, and few organizational reports and websites explicitly refer to feedback mechanisms or
feedback loops. Likewise, in e-mail correspondence and phone conversations, many staff of aid
organizations did not necessarily use this term. Instead, most reported on and described various
processes and mechanisms that they utilize to solicit opinions and feedback from recipients of aid
about their work, including: participatory methods and processes for assessments, program design,
monitoring and evaluation; real-time evaluations; accountability frameworks and mechanisms;
complaints and response mechanisms; listening exercises; perceptions studies; social audits; social
performance management systems; community score cards; citizen report cards; constituency
feedback, story-telling, and others.

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Self-Check 1 Written Test

Name:____________________ Date:_________________
Instruction: Answer all the questions listed below, if you have some clarifications- feel free to ask
your teacher.

1. What is workplace monitoring? (2 point)

2. Write at list 2 Before deciding whether to introduce monitoring, your

employer
3. What are the 7 employee rights to monitor your activities? .(2 point)

Note: Satisfactory rating – 6 points above /un satisfactory 4below 3 points

You can ask you teacher for the copy of the correct answers

Formative exam lo4

Name_________________________________________ Id No.________ Date ____________
Part I Choose the best answer
_____1. When you are managing a project you have to compare _____________.
A. Are incorrectly expanding or reducing the scope of an activity?
B. Are more or less qualified than you anticipated?
C. Are encountering unexpected difficulties performing the work? D. All
_____ 2. Monitoring in the workplace excludes.
A. Recording on CCTV cameras
B. Opening mail
C. Use of automated software to check e-mail
D. None
_____ 3. Before deciding whether to introduce monitoring, your employer should:
A. Be clear about the reasons for monitoring staff. C. A &B

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B. Identify any negative effects the monitoring may have on staff. D. None
______ 4. Which one is the advantage of monitoring?
A. Phone
B. The monitoring relates to the business
C. To establish facts which are relevant to the business
D. A&C
_____ 5. If a code or policy has been agreed, it will usually form part of your contract of
employment.
A. True B. False
_____ 6. Data protection law does prevent monitoring in the workplace.
A. True B. False
Part II Short answer
1. Write the advantages of monitoring?
2. Define secret monitoring?

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