Manage a Small Team Assessment Tasks

Part A - Create a staffing plan for your business

Give an example of what the business is, what it will do and how many staff will he required. Explain why you will need these numbers of staff and detail the positions to he held (roles) and the competencies these employees will need to demonstrate.

Will you employ permanent, casual or contract staff? Explain and give reasons for your choices, taking into consideration contingency plans in the case where you have (or could have) staffing problems.

Explain how you will:

• Recruit and select staff
• induct new staff
• provide for initial and ongoing training
• monitor and evaluate performance
• conduct performance reviews
• encourage feedback from staff

Answers should draw on the information in this unit and on the participant's experience.

The business and its organisational structure should be described. This description can take the form of words or an organisational chart.

Recruitment and selection procedures must comply with and demonstrate awareness of legal requirements.

Induction of new staff should he detailed and must contain elements of OHS training,- information, The participant should demonstrate awareness of their obligation to provide as complete induction and to provide suitable training for new employees, plus ongoing personal and professional development opportunities. These will be dependent on the nature and size of the business and on employment terms.

They should outline effective policies and procedures for monitoring and evaluating work performance and consider the best review procedures for their particular business.

Part B -

You own a small retail clothing sales outlet. Two fill-time employees, Peter and Andrew, work with you. Both have been up until now, hard working, reliable and sufficiently skilled to provide good customer service. They often, however, disagree on the ways that the business should be promoted. Sometimes the discussion becomes quite heated and you are thinking that these disagreements will affect the performance of both employees. They seem to be more preoccupied with the disagreements than with getting their work done.

You decide that both would benefit from some counselling.

Outline what you would do, how you would do it and why you chose your actions to be the most appropriate.

You will need to explain:

• How you would notify each employee of the proposed meeting
• How you would make the employees feel at ease in the meeting
• How you would explain the problem and your concerns regarding performance
• The negotiation procedures you would follow to develop resolution strategies
• Whether you think an objective mediator should be present and why you think this
• What should be documented and recorded
• How plans might be put into action
• How plans might be monitored and followed up

The counselling session should involve:

• setting up a meeting
• notiffing the other party of the time and subjects that will be discussed
• having a mediator and note-taker present
• asking the employee how you can help and what you can do together to solve the problem
• explaining the problem in terms of performance and the effect it is having on production
• agreeing on improvement terms
• documenting all proposed actions
• making followup plans

Each of the dot points should be addressed and participants should describe, step-by, step, the counselling procedures that should be followed.

Employees might be notified of the meeting in writing, or verbally. Employees should be notified of the date, time, who is to be present and why the meeting is being called. Employees could be made to feel at ease by holding the meeting in a neutral room, which is comfortable, private and where no interruptions would occur. A relaxed, friendly atmosphere will encourage free and honest discussion.

Explain the problem clearly, focusing only on performance issues, not personalities or disagreement issues.

Ask for the employee's point of view and listen carefully to responses,

Ask a range of questions to probe further.

Explain the performance standards that must be achieved.

Ask how you can help resolve the problem/s.

It might be necessary to bring the 2 employees together and to mediate a discussion between the 2 of them -- to help them agree on a solution.

Conduct sessions calmly and without malice.

Document the discussion and the outcomes of the discussion, any agreements and problem solutions, at the time. If you leave it until later you might forget some things or remember them in a different way.

Make plans for resolution and performance improvement. Agree on the plan and decide on monitoring and follow-up actions.

Part C -

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organisational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.' Andrew Carnegie.

Do you agree or disagree with this idea? Write a response that discusses your justification.

Discussion should cover concepts such as the importance of establishing a shared vision and communicating it to team members, structuring organisational support systems so that teams and teamwork can be effective and should demonstrate understanding of the fact that just putting a group of people together and calling them a team does not make them a team. A team has structure, leadership, specific roles for its members and is characterised by the, fact that team members cooperate with each other and with other teams. Members need time to get to know each other, to learn about the competencies and interests of other members and to learn how to work together. Once they have established trust-based relationships, teams are capable of very high performance levels and high achievements. Effective teams will be allowed to set goals and performance standards, to self-monitor and self -evaluate so that performance constantly improves.

Regular reviews of team and individual performance will help identify, team strengths and weaknesses, plus the strengths and weaknesses of individual members, so these can be, respectively, exploited or addressed.