Skills and Knowledge Activity
Estimated Time 45 Minutes
Objective To provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of the
foundation skills, knowledge evidence and performance evidence.
Activity Complete the following individually and attach your completed work to your
workbook.
The answers to the following questions will enable you to demonstrate your
knowledge of:
Reading
Writing
Oral Communication
Numeracy
Navigate the world of work
Interact with others
Get the work done
Models and methods for operational plans
The role of an operational plan in achieving the organisation’s
objectives
Budgeting processes
Alternative approaches to developing key performance indicators to
meet business objectives
Legislative and regulatory context relevant to the operational plan of
the organisation
Organisation’s policies, practices and procedures that directly relate to
the operational plan
Answer each question in as much detail as possible, considering your
organisational requirements for each one.
All answers will vary depending on the learner and the organisation they work
for but the learner should be able to answer each question competently.
1. Identify an area/department/member(s) of staff in your organisation that
requires improvement for any reason, for example to increase
productivity, advances in technology have made it obsolete or colleague
under-performance is affecting output.
Write an organisational plan that details your proposal for the
improvement that you are going to submit to the relevant management
for consideration.
You will need to include:
The lifespan, sustainability and exit strategy of the plan
Financial resource requirements
Human resource and other capacity requirements
Risk assessment and mitigation strategy
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How you intend to implement it
How you intend to measure it (KPIs)
Major Activity
Estimated Time 2 Hours
Objective To provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of the
entire unit.
Activity This is a major activity – you should let the learners know whether they will
complete it during class or in their own time.
Completed answers should be attached to the workbook.
They must individually, answer the following questions in full to show their
competency of each element:
1. Develop operational plan
2. Plan and manage resource acquisition
3. Monitor and review operational performance
1. Complete the following and present it as a portfolio (attach it to the
workbook):
Project
You have been employed to develop a new department for the training
and development of the administrative and sales team for your employer
at a personnel recruitment company. Due to demand they have opened
two offices, one in Melbourne and one in Adelaide. This expansion has led
to a tight budget within the organisation for the fiscal year. You need to
keep the budget at a minimal amount.
The strategic goal that you have been asked to concentrate on is to
increase sales by 8% by the end of 2011.
Five staff in the administration department handle enquiries in regards to
sales to the organisations that they provide with personnel (both
permanent and temporary.
There are ten recruitment personnel who have the primary responsibility
to manage their case load and follow up leads for new opportunities.
As a well established organisation, Excel Personnel is a family owned
company that believes in gaining and retaining customers through
customer service excellence. Though the company has managed to retain
their long standing personnel, several of their newer clients have changed
recruitment companies in the last six months. Concerned with the loss of
clients and no trend in the customers’ move, the board of directors have
decided to train their team on the latest customer service skills.
For this project:
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All plans, goals and recommendations must flow together to
support the strategic plan
You may vary your plans, goals, strategies and recommendations
as you progress through each part of this project. Put a line
through the change and briefly outline why you made an update
on the operational plan. This is a normal part of the development
of a plan. As new information is introduced, you may decide to
change your operational plan
This is a preliminary operational plan that you are drawing up, so
use bullet points (unless advised by your trainer).
You have been asked to develop an operational plan. In the report you
must:
Clearly state the operational goals and how they are related to
strategic plan
List resources and funds to meet these goals
Identify the relevant personnel that you should consult with in
regards to the operational goals and the resultant action plans
required to meet the operational goals
Include what communication methods you should use to maintain
a record of the consultation process. Why?
Include what feedback processes you would recommend should
be put in place
Include what KPIs you would recommend to measure
organisational performance in regards to the training (Write at
least two)
Create at least two contingency plans if the employees in both
departments do not meet the KPIs.
Develop a business proposal (discuss this with your trainer and as
a class using what you have learnt to develop and prioritise your
strategies).
Draw a flow chart of the relevant parties who you should obtain
approval from for this business proposal
You need to also briefly outline how you would recommend that
staff have the plan communicated to them. Use at least one smart
goal to measure the team members demonstrating an
understanding of the proposal
The organisation has two external recruitment personnel who are
contracted as a supplier by referring potential customers to Excel
Personnel. They have both recently slowed down in referring
customers to Excel Personnel. Briefly outline in bullet points how
you would strengthen the supplier relationship with them
Based on your KPIs, smart goals, communication and feedback
processes and the organisation’s operational plans, recommend
what and how you will measure performance?
Develop one tool based on your recommendations. (This tool
must reflect the goals)
How will you monitor financial information? What do you need to
watch for when reviewing this information? Why?
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Based on information that you have already received when you
spoke to staff, there seems to be a mixture of performance and
lack of skills with staff. Some of these problems stem from the
department managers. How would you handle any under-
performance issues in regards to these skills and the level of
performance? In this answer, please refer to the factors that
affect output and quality to justify a lack of skills and performance
There is a lack of openness and trust between the departments
and this is having a negative impact on morale. Recommend ways
in which you can overcome this
Draw a flow chart on the processes that you believe should be put
in place for the approval of any variations to this plan (Include
who you should consult with in this flow chart)
Using the documents that you have recommended in this project
and developed, draw a flow chart on how the variation should be
implemented after it has been approved.
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