The purpose of guidelines and procedures is so that you know what has to be done and how it has to be done. Therefore there is less chance of making mistakes. For example at Shevington High School there are rules and guidelines for the daily and weekly banking. (See attached document)
The purpose of codes of practice is to establish clear and mutual expectations. This helps to minimise the risks and problems of personal difficulties, problems with supervision or bad performance.
Planning work can therefore be a vital part of your job. By making a plan you can consider all the tasks that need completing, make a rough estimate of how much time each of the tasks will take to complete, work out which tasks need completing before others, and what resources or help you will need to complete the task. By taking time to plan out your work may actually improve your productivity and efficiency levels, with this you can also …show more content…
monitor your own progress. For example when I arrive at work, I check my emails, get the money out of the safe and then Julia; the finance manager will delegate jobs for me to get on with. I would then make a to do list so that I do not forget what has been asked of me. I will make a list in order of importance. However have to ensure that I allow time for any unexpected tasks as the finance office can get very busy with staff coming in to ask questions, or parents phoning up to find out information.
Your job description will set out all of the things that you are responsible or accountable for. For example at Shevington High School I am responsible for the daily banking, processing invoices and orders and filing. I am directly accountable to the finance manager for making sure these tasks are completed on time and without errors.
1.3 Targets must be realistic so that the employee has a good chance of reaching them. This lets him feel good about himself and allows him to work without stress. If the targets are set too high, the employee will always be under pressure to do the impossible, will feel as though he has failed and has dissatisfied the boss. A realistic target is a target which you should be able to attain with the realistically expected effort on your part. It should not be set at a level, which it is impossible to attain, but set at a level, which requires some extension of your current level of effort. It is important because your employer doesn't want you slacking off, and you don't want to be overworked, talk with your employer compromise a set of work targets which is fair for you both
You need to make sure that deadline is fair and be honest about how much work you can handle. When speaking to a senior employee you will gain respect by being straight about how much you can do. If you set too easy a target for yourself you won't be pushed to improve yourself and it will be clear to your senior employee or your employer. If you make it impossible to reach they will be unimpressed by your inability to work out how long you need and missing the deadline. Setting targets is part of planning so the more accurately you can stick a plan usually the more likely you are to succeed.
Planning work to meet agreed deadlines is very important in the workplace. Firstly you should prioritise your work with the most important to be done first. To do this you should need to find out what is required and how many jobs there are to be done. Secondly a way of planning work could be to make an actual plan and give you a timescale of which tasks should be completed by.
It is important to keep other people informed about progress to avoid duplication of effort. It also motivates them and helps them develop targets. Informing each other about progress helps to know who to go in case one is stuck.
It is important to keep others informed about progress because they can understand information concerning their participation and how they should improve. It also helps to enhance effectiveness and decision making if more resources or different approaches are necessary. Lastly, information fosters openness in all levels at workplaces by creating teamwork leading to increased productivity. It is important to keep other people informed about progress because it will helps them know the targets already achieved and what they are to achieve. This will helps them set up their objectives in order to meet their targets. Furthermore, it avoids duplication of tasks and also promotes motivation among the team players.
It is important to let other people know if and when work plans need to be changed.
Firstly it respects people’s time and allows people to be better prepared for work, mentally, physically and tools-wise. It is respectful of the other person’s time to give them a clear idea of what you can them to do, how you want them to do it and when they need to start. If these plans change you should inform others involved of these changes as soon as possible. For example if you have planned a day out with friends, but before you leave your boss calls and asks you to do something very important and it has to be done that day. You go to do the job but mentally you are out with friends, knowing you were going to be relaxing and enjoying yourself. Therefore physically you are fine for a day out, but not for work. You may need certain items to do the work, now you have to quickly find these items. Letting people know in good time makes work more efficient and respects the other person's time and
effort.
Problems that may occur in work will differ from where you work and what job role you have. You may only be responsible for reporting these problems or you might be responsible for ensuring they are dealt with once someone has reported them to you. At Shevington High School, staff will fill in order forms and give them to me to process, many times the order form is missing details, for example they haven’t got the budget holder to authorise the order. I would deal with this by giving them the order form back to go and get the budget holders signature. Another problem could be that when I enter an order onto the system the cost centre may have a negative balance, therefore I must refer to my finance manager who may authorise that I can put the order on or she may then need to refer to the school business manager who will tell us what to do. My responsibility can sometimes limit what I can do for example in the problem above, as I cannot authorise anything. This is why it is important to refer some problems due to my role restricting the tasks that I am able to complete.
There are many ways of seeking assistance with getting help to resolve problems. For example a supplier could ring up asking why an overdue invoice hasn’t been paid. If you could not sort this out yourself you would ask one of your colleagues. Sometimes you can overload yourself with work, maybe you could be the type of person that cannot say no, or that you will do it later, overloading yourself with tasks can lead to you needing help and getting stressed. For example if there is a problem with my computer then I would contact the IT department for help.
Many people learn from recognising their mistakes. People need to make mistakes so that they can learn what they have done wrong and correct it so that next time they do it right first time. Or sometimes people don’t make a mistake and do a task completely wrong, they may just find a better way of doing it next time. What we do wrong and how it happened is something that you can take away with you. You take the knowledge learned from failure and let it affect what you do next time. Some people may see it as a step forward, and that they have not failed, they have just found another way that doesn’t work. For example when I first started this course, I put my work in my file as I completed it in no particular order. This was a mistake as I found it difficult to find things when I needed them. Therefore I sorted my file into sections and used labelled dividers to make it easier for me to find what I needed.
The purpose of agreeing and setting high standards for work assures that each person tries their hardest and always reaches for new heights. By setting a high bar there is no room for excuses and the atmosphere in the workplace may become excellent leading to more efficient work completion. Everyone benefits from setting high expectations for themselves. Everything can be done faster, and more efficiently. There should never be a ‘cant’ attitude, as striving got the best is a great true meaning of excellence. Also it is important for me to meet the standards and deadlines set by my employer so that they are aware that I am reliable and am completing my in the way that they expect and within the timescales. If I am able to do this then they may be more confident for me to work under my own initiative knowing that I will always give the expected result.
You can set high standards for work by putting 100% into every task at hand. By putting forth the best effort, only the best results can be produced. By challenging yourself in areas of weakness, self-improvement could most likely follow. At Shevington High School the finance manager will share, set goals and expectations for myself and the finance officer. She will explain what tasks need completing today and others during the rest of the week, this will include what needs to be done, when it needs to be done and how she wants it to be done. This way it ensures that everyone is working at the same standards and goals. This also makes it easier for me ask for help when I need it rather than me struggling on my own, will also ensure that expectations are met. Following guidelines, procedures and instruction is also important as this will ensure that we are aware of what is expected and how a task should be completed.
The purpose of taking on new challenges as they arise can be vital to success. By not challenging yourself, the same pattern of low effort work or self-defeating attitude can persists. You may not grow without moving onto bigger, better, and more challenging ordeals. Therefore the benefits are that you may have self-growing opportunities and you may gain a new set of skills and improve confidence. At Shevington High School, if I use my initiative well and take on new challenges, it frees up the finance officers time which lets the finance manager delegate more of her tasks onto the finance officer. This then gives the finance manager more time to concentrate of the most important of tasks that need to be completed and also to help myself and the finance officer with tasks that we may be struggling with.
There is hardly ever a moment in work where circumstances and situations do not change. For example at Shevington high school, even though there are guidelines and procedures to follow for the pupils who take music lessons, there is almost always a different query each week. Some queries have been that a pupil has not paid but has still had a lesson, or that the music teacher may have claimed more hours on his/her timesheet than what he was in school for. There are many benefits of adapting to change, new situations can increase opportunities, and you can also see new ways to improve old ways. Systems and policies are constantly being updated to work best for each department. All staff must be willing to embrace this change or it could have serious consequences. Due to me working in a school it is essential to be as up to date on policies as possible.
There are many benefits to treating others with honesty respect and consideration. One main benefit is that you could build an excellent working relationship with your colleagues which would lead to more efficient work. Another benefit could be for your own personal wellbeing, as dishonesty, disrespect and lack of consideration for others can be stressful and could lead to sickness in the workplace. Reasons why people should treat each other with honesty, respect and consideration at the workplace:
• At Shevington High School employees as a team work closely together and with their line manager. So being honest and respecting each other is very important for the smooth functioning of the team
• Even if I do not like the nature or characteristics of a person or few people the finance team, I still respect them and am honest with them for the efficient functioning of the team and the school.
• Every person can have different problems which we may or may not know. Therefore I always treat people with respect and honesty even people who frustrate me.
I see that honesty is rewarding, most people will appreciate this. The school office is made up from different backgrounds, characteristics, and ages. Some people may disrespect you but in situations like that it is very important to stay calm, honest and respectful. An example of this behaviour is when someone has accused you of doing something that you have not done. Instead of reacting to this straight away I would try to stay calm and not argue, I always think that you don’t know if the person accusing you is going through any trouble in their life and might be overwhelmed themselves. I would not show any signs of disrespect, but calmly explain my own side of the story when they are calm too.
At work you may feel under pressure to complete a task set by your line manager, therefore when asked if you have completed it you may not be honest and say yes even if you haven’t, just to look better to your manager in the short term. Another reason could be that if you are struggling with a task when your manager asks if you need any help, you don’t want to look bad so you say that everything is fine and struggle on. This could then lead to your manager and colleagues not trusting you to be honest with them, also if your task relates to one that your colleague is doing it could negatively affect their completion of their task.
A high standard of behaviour in the workplace is very important. Without these high standards, we may not achieve our best and it could then cause some employees to be noticed in the wrong way. Personally I try to set myself high targets to push myself to get the work done more efficiently.
Being honest and polite to others and yourself, helping people with a smile on my face and respecting other people that way I feel they should respect me are the qualities that demonstrate honesty, respect and consideration. Also being on time, saying exactly what you are going to do, honour your word, generally being decent and considerate of others.
Being rude, trying to hide my mistakes, not owning up my mistakes and errors, not being helpful, and not valuing the feelings of other people, interrupting someone when they are speaking to you are qualities that do not demonstrate the above behaviour.