Develop workplace policy and procedures for sustainability

Assessment Task 1 - Case Study

TASK 1

Bill Joseph is the General Manager of Brighton Hotel. He was reviewing the operations and found that the resources used are not at all aligned with sustainable work policy. For example, the ACs and lights are manually switched on and off. It is the responsibility of last staff member leaving to check and switch off all ACs and lights. However, this is being neglected and all ACs and light are almost running for all 24 hours.

General Manager insisted to use programmable AC and lights, which works only during room occupied hours and after than can be manually turned on and off. He also noticed that lot of resources is being wasted (like - Photocopy paper, toner, electricity, water and recycled waste). He asked the employees to check on water, electricity and paper usage along with better sorting of recyclable paper from general waste.

Bill released all the above mentioned information in the company news release. He also insisted on implementation of better sustainable practices by reviewing work practices in all the Hotel departments. This will also involve training and education of all staff through use of internal professional development opportunities and other similar approaches.

Bill also asked the hotel staff to inform and educate customers about sustainable practices being undertaken at the Hotel, leading to better environmental outcome.

Bill also indicated that additional staff can also be hired, should there be a need of investigating and solving the problems, in an extreme cases. This can be done by hiring specialists who have the capability of reviewing highly technical documents and consequently developing plain language internal memos and external publicity materials.

o Identify and brief relevant legislative and regulatory requirements for sustainability.

o From the above case study, identify sustainability initiatives.

o Identify the shortfalls in the information supplied.

o Give your recommendations on options based on its effectiveness, timeframes and budgets.

o Clearly define scope of new sustainability policy.

o Identify who you would consult in the policy development process.

o Include strategies like minimising resource use, reducing toner, electricity and water use and efficient usage of recycled paper.

o Combine all the above points to develop a sustainability policy.

o Identify methods of implementation, intended outcomes and key performance indicators.

Assessment Task 2 - Case Study

TASK 2

You have been given a sustainability policy of Melbourne City Council as attached in Appendix A. You are required to read the policy and communicate it to all stakeholders. Complete the following tasks:

- Prepare a presentation on the policy including expected outcome and key stakeholders, activities to be undertaken and assigned responsibilities to individuals.

- Present your policy as PowerPoint presentation. (Presentation Evaluation sheet must be filled in by assessor for each student).

- Detailed procedure to communicate and implement the policy.

- Strategies for continuous improvement in resource efficiency regarding any potential shortfalls.

- Develop individual and team responsibilities.

- Suggestions for assigning responsibility for tracking continuous improvements in the sustainability plan.

Assessment Task 3 - Project

TASK 3

In continuation with the same policy of Melbourne City Council as attached in Appendix A, complete the following tasks:

- Identify all possible outcomes and shortfalls.

- Provide feedback to relevant stakeholders (you can assume your assessor as stakeholder).

- Identify success or failure of the policy.

- Identify further action areas and as a part of continuous improvement, prepare a plan to address them.

- Modify policy or procedure to ensure improvements are made and implemented.

BUSINESS REPORT FORMAT

The report must be five pages long (NOT including the title and contents page) and follow the guidelines in the Style Guide provided to the students.

Students must provide their planning document as part of the assessment. This document is required to demonstrate that they have thought through their report and planned each part of it - this forms part of the overall assessment for this module.

If the student submits the report and not their planning document, they are not to be marked as satisfactory until the planning report is submitted and reviewed

Referencing - Students have used the Harvard Referencing Style

Structure
Report is structured in the following manner:
Title Page Contents Page
Executive Summary
Introduction
Main Body Summary Recommendations
References
Appendixes (as appropriate)

SCENARIO

You are working as the accountant for AKC Architectural Firm which is a mid size firm based in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. The majority of staff employed at AKC are married with young or teenage children, and after a human resources review it has been discovered that there is a high rate of staff absenteeism due to staff having to stay home to look after sick children or school related activities that staff need to attend.

The management of AKC know that they have excellent staff and a good culture/staff morale and based on this would like to investigate options for instigating a more flexible work culture.

They have asked you to undertake a report that examines whether the firm can support having staff work from home. This report will cover both the administration and architectural staff.

Some of the questions you will have to investigate may include:
- Does the firm have the appropriate software/access that will allow staff to work effectively from home?
- Will the firm have to purchase additional resources (such as laptops and software etc).
- What (if any) would be the cost savings to the firm?
- Do staff need to be educated on the benefits of using a home office in relation to taxation?
- Based on a standard 38 hour working week, how many hours would be acceptable for a staff member to work home from.
- What processes would need to be put in place to stop staff from "abusing" the flexible work system.
- What issues could occur if a flexible working system is put into place?
- How can the firm ensure that there are adequate staff numbers on site?
- What different arrangements may need to be in place for different staff? Can flexible work hours work for administration staff?

This is not an exhaustive list, and there may be other issues that as the accountant you need to take into account when completing the report.

1. Planning your Report
Ask yourself.
- What is that the reader wants to read?
- Is it an informative, analytical, direct or indirect?
- Have you collected enough information?
- What are your points in the report? Table of contents
- Do you need further information?

2. Writing your report

- Be logical and don't move away from the main purpose of the report
- Write an executive summary
- Write and introduction
- The body; present analyse and interpret the information you collected
- Write the conclusion
- Write recommendations
- Don't forget the references
- Add appendix
- Graphics

3. Proof reading your report

Attachment:- Appendix A.rar