1. Explain the purpose and benefits of planning work and being accountable to others for your own work.
With a plan we can get a rough estimate of at least how much time the course of action would take.
The advantages of planning:
· Planning gives a rough estimate of the time required for completion of the actions and defines the actions that one will be performing.
· It helps plan the budget.
· It helps to be ready to face emergencies.
· It helps you to be organised on a day to day, weekly and monthly basis.
· Planning helps avoid duplication of labour.
While planning you have to obtain as many details about the piece of work you are doing to enable you to produce your work as efficiently as possible.
You can write your plans down on a to-do list – Writing down everything has two purposes.
Firstly, you are planning your job and the tools you need.
Secondly, you are making a written account of your job for others to see. In this way, if you are asked what you have done at any time, you can show it to them and be accountable for your work.
2. Explain the purpose and benefits of negotiating realistic targets for work and the ways that you do this
It is important to negotiate realistic targets to get the jobs done on time, other wise it will have a bad remark on your work ethics. It is always good to plan for extra times, rather than tight timeframes, because quality in work is very important. The ways to negotiate are,
Planning and preparation: Have clear cut objectives and stay by them. Collect all the information needed to complete the task even before starting the task. Discussion: It is worth having a discussion with experiences staff or seniors to get advice on whether your plan or assumption about a plan is good enough to complete the task perfectly. Review and propose: Explain realistically your suggestions and wait for a response. Speak to the team, and take in advice and suggestions. Bargain and settle: Look for deals that best suit the company’s budget and also do not fail to check quality. Negotiate with the dealers and settle in the best affordable deal. 3. How do you prioritise targets and set timescales for your own work?
Every job or task whether important or not, whether urgent or not has a deadline, and has to be completed within the agreed timescale. Work and tasks have to be prioritised depending on the nature of work, length of work, urgency and the deadline on it.
The most urgent tasks should be on high priority list, so is the job that will require most time but less urgent, because you will have to work through on it for a few days or maybe even weeks. So look through the different stages of the task or project and estimate the time it will take to complete each step. This way you will be able to set a timescale for the entire task, and decide on a date, and then start working towards completion on that day. This will help motivate yourself and spend the required time working on it, to complete it at the right time.
To achieve your target, make sure you
· Decide how much time you will need to spend each week to achieve your task on time.
· Keep the date on your diary, so it helps you to be focussed.
· Have a record of all steps that are completed towards achievement, this will help to motivate yourself.
· Check each week to see if you are spending the right amount of time as planned, and most importantly check to see if you have achieved what you have set out each week.
· When you get used to this plan, you will see that it becomes your routine, and will help you achieve with not much difficulty.
4. What types of problems might occur during work and how do you deal with them?
Problems can occur at anytime at work and one has to be prepared to face them and resolve them without it affecting the normal functioning of the team and organisation. If there are situations where a task can not be completed on the required date, make sure to contact the concerned people and arrange for a different date. That way you keep people informed, not leaving them wondering what has gone wrong.
If there are tasks that are left incomplete by someone in the team, but nearing a deadline, make sure you give them a call and ask them why it is not complete yet, and request for a time it’s going to be completed. Tell them the importance for completion.
Sometimes, you come across IT issues which will hinder you from doing your work, or even prevent you from finishing off your work on time, especially those that have a very tight deadline. During these circumstances, report it to the IT desk at once and explain to them that it is very urgent and that you have a deadline.
5. Explain the purpose and benefits of keeping other people informed about progress
It is important to keep people informed about progress because it helps them
to know what targets they need to achieve and whether they have achieved them. Also it helps to outline and set out objectives and targets for achievements. It also helps with motivation
6. Explain the purpose and benefits of letting other people know in good time if work plans need to be changed
People need to be informed if work plans need to be changed so that they are aware they need to change what they are doing. It also makes them feel involved in what’s going on and get feedback as to whether the plans are feasible.
7. Explain the purpose and benefits of recognising and learning from mistakes
Purpose and benefits of learning from mistakes is that you don’t make the mistakes again.
Learning from mistakes is taking full responsibility for our actions, being humble enough to recognise our faults and not blaming the mistakes on other people. It is important that we recognise our part in the problem. Learning from mistakes is recognising what you did wrong, contemplating the situation until you realise what you should have done, apologising and having self discipline to make sure the mistake never happens again.
The best way of learning from mistakes is to learn from others mistakes. Be attentive about what others are doing, ask questions, follow those who are successful and analyse what actions they made to become successful and understand their mistakes and setbacks so to try to avoid them.
8. Explain the purpose of guidelines, procedures and codes of practice that are relevant to your own work
The purpose of guidelines and procedures is that, you know what has to be done and how it has to be done. There is no chance for you to go wrong, and commit mistakes.
The purpose of this Code 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.
2.1 What is the purpose of setting high standards for your own work?
It is important to set high standards for my work because it will help me to do the best I can. When I do my best, I get recognised at work in a positive way. High standards create a challenge in me and makes me want to achieve. It helps me get better and improve with time. I would set these standards by talking to my line manager and asking what I could do to improve the work I do. Because my manager would then tell me what I am already doing good and what needs to be completed to a higher standard.
2.2 How do you set high standards for your work?
Setting high standards makes me look forward to each day and month as I progress. It helps me to do my best and helps me get recognised.
I set SMART goals, that means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timed.
But whichever kind of work it is, I approach it with a sense of self-worth.
2.3 How do you deal with pressure arising from work tasks? Give examples
Pressure in the work place is ok for some people and they just cope with it. For others it can be haunting and causes them lack of sleep, problems at home, at work and finally leads to health problems.
If you cannot cope with high levels of pressure, then you need to take steps to ensure that the pressure does not overcome you.
I try my best to be very disciplined in what I do and to plan very well. I
also try to be not responsible for other people. I also feedback constantly to my manager about how things are going. That way I keep them informed all the time about what is happening and they will know what is going on and there won’t be any surprises to worry about if anything gets delayed.
2.4 Why should you accept setbacks and how do you deal with them?
When a setback occurs, I accept that this is a part of life, and do what I need to do to solve the problem so I can move on.
I deal with setbacks by stepping back and reflecting, staying positive, focussing on the future more than the past, learning from the experience, finding a way to benefit, remembering that failure isn’t final
2.5/6 Why should you be assertive and what does that mean in your work tasks? Give examples
Assertiveness means standing up for my rights while respecting the rights of others. Being assertive helps me to communicate my needs in a clear way and also helps to ensure that I am not being used or taken advantage of.
I value myself and my rights and ask for my needs to be satisfied. I think that people have to be responsible for their own behaviour. All negative thoughts or feelings have to be expressed in a positive manner and criticism has to be taken positively too. I also try to say “No” wherever needed.
2.7 Why should you be ready to take on new challenges at work and adapt to change?
It is important to take on new challenges and adapt to changes because nothing ever stays the same, things are always changing which means unless I can adapt and change too I will be stuck doing the same things which could then make my life a lot harder than it needs to be. Changes could be due to an advance in technology, new environment or anything that will have an impact on me and my day to day life.
If I am ready to take on new challenges and adapt to change, it means I am ready to learn new things in a new environment. Work procedures do not remain the same all the time and policies and procedures might change with time, and this means employees will be expected to adapt to new changes and circumstances.
2.8 Why should you treat others at work with honesty, respect and consideration?
Reasons why one should treat others with honesty, respect and consideration at the workplace:
Employees as a team work closely together and with their manager. So being honest and respecting each other is very important for the smooth functioning of the team Even if you do not like the nature or characteristics of a person or few people in the team, you still have to respect them and be honest with them for the proper functioning of the team and the organisation. The quote ‘do unto others as you would expect them to do unto you’ should be burned in my memory. Every person has different problems which we may or may not know. So always treat even people who annoy or frustrate us with respect and be honest with them. Honesty is always rewarding. It will be recognised one day. Every team is made up of people from different backgrounds and different characters. There are people who backstab you, disrespect you and hurt you. But in all these situations, it is very important to stay honest and respect people.
A typical example of what happened recently is, my manager accused me of something which I have not done, and it was a day when I was going through a lot of emotional problems in my personal life, which broke me down to pieces. I still took control of the situation, stayed calm without arguing, and thought to myself, maybe my manager has too much work herself and might be overwhelmed. I did not show any signs of disrespect to her the next day when I saw her in the office. I will take some time for this to calm down and explain to her what actually happened when she is calm.
2.9 What types of behaviour at work demonstrate the above qualities and what types do not?
Being honest and true to others and yourself, helping people with a smile on my face, and respecting other people the way I feel thy should respect me are the qualities that demonstrate the above qualities.
Trying to hide my mistakes, not owning my mistakes and errors, not being helpful, and not valuing the feelings of other individuals are qualities that do not demonstrate the above behaviour.
2.10 Why should you help and support others at work?
Helping other people makes one feel better both physically and mentally, It also gives both parties a better understanding of each other’s society and gives one an opportunity to use their talents, skills and resources to assist someone who is in need. I always try my best to help others. Because at workplace, cooperation reflects team spirit and this will improve the efficiency of the work
This is important because if I ever needed the help people will treat me the way I taught them
