Reference no: EM132330814 , Length: word count : 3000

Assessment Task 1 Instructions

Provide answers to all of the questions below:

1. Explain three ways operational plans and strategic plans relate to one another.

2. Describe the steps in the performance monitoring process.

3. What is the difference between performance monitoring systems and performance evaluation systems?

4. Define the term Key Performance Indicator (KPI)

5. Give two qualitative performance indicators

6. Give two quantitative performance indicators

7.Describe the steps in the problem-solving process.

8. Describe three methods of finding solutions to problems.

Assessment Task 2: Operational Plan Project

Task summary

This assessment task requires you, in the role of Team Leader of Boutique Build Australia to modify and implement an operational plan. This will involve communicating with the company’s CEO and conducting a short meeting with several colleagues.

Instructions

Carefully read the following:

Boutique Build Australia was established in 2013 and is a boutique building company based in Sydney that specialises in the design and build of high quality designer homes for the Sydney metropolitan and surrounding areas.

The company has been operational for three years and employs approximately 50 staff including the CEO, Operations Manager, Human Resources Manager, Team Leader, Marketing and Sales Manager, Customer Service Team Leaders (2), Customer Service Officers (6), Site Managers (3) and a large team of tradespersons some of whom are employed and some of who are contractors.

The personnel are generally managed as three overlapping teams: administration, sales, and on-site.

The company is in a period of expansion and has opened an office in Brisbanewith the goal of expanding into Brisbane and the surrounding area, as well as the environmentally friendly build market.

The company’s CEO has sent you the following email:

Dear Team Leader

At a recent executive meeting it was decided that Boutique Build Australia should participate in the upcoming Australian Home Show in Brisbane on (Date). It will run for three days, from 9am to 17pm, and be widely publicised in the media. We will be building our own stand on the site, within the 4m x 4m area we have rented for $35,000.

We will be working closely with the Exhibition Centre’s staff to ensure that everything runs smoothly. I would like you, as Team Leader, to take on the responsibility for co-ordinating our side of the organisational process.

Boutique Build took part in a similar show five years ago in Sydney, and I have attached the operational plan from that project to this email. Please use this to guide your work on this project.

Boutique Build, and prices, have changed a lot over the last five years, so it would be good if you met with some managers from the other teams to go through the operational plan together and make any necessary alterations.

I will organise a short meeting of around 15 minutes with the sales and marketing manager, one of the Site Managers, and yourself. Do some brainstorming and work through the goals for each team and how they will achieve them. When you have updated the operational plan, send it back to me for input before going further with the project.

Remember to refer to the company’s strategic plan when modifying the operational plan. In fact, the operational planshould explain how it relates to the Boutique Build Strategic Plan.

Use our Project Management Policy and Procedures to guide your work on this project, and don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Regards, CEO

Complete the following activities:

1. Prepare for a meeting with the team

Review the case study information, the company’s Strategic Plan, their Project Management Policy and Procedures, and the Operational Plan.

The meeting will provide an opportunity for different managers to have an input into the stand. You will be collecting ideas about how the team can fulfil the association’s objectives. You are expected to encourage all team members to be innovative and constructive in their participation.

The meeting will be your opportunity to determine what parts of the operational plan are still relevant, and which need to be varied. That includes the teams’ responsibilities and approximate costs. Assume that the budget will remain the same until more accurate cost estimates are obtained in the case study for activity 3.

As well as leading the meeting, you will be taking notes, and modifying the operational plan afterwards. Take a hard copy of the operational plan to the meeting with you to take notes on.

When you are ready to conduct the meeting, write an email to the CEO (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce the subject, then outline your plans for the meeting and the congress stand.

The email should not be longer than three paragraphs.

Your assessor will respond to your email with the time, date, and place of the meeting.

2. Conduct the meeting

During the meeting, you are required to demonstrate effective interpersonal and communication skills including:

• Speaking clearly and concisely

• Using effective non-verbal communication skills to encourage audience interest

• Responding to questions

• Asking questions to seek feedback

• Use of active listening techniques to confirm and clarify understanding.

Begin the meeting with an introduction of the project.

In the course of the meeting, you are to:

• Define what changes have to be made to the operational plan for this project

• Determine who will do what

• Determine an approximate budget for each task

• Define the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to monitor performance systems and processes.

Close the meeting by thanking the participants and telling them when they will receive a copy of the project’s operational plan when you have sent it to the CEO for their feedback.
 
Shortly after the meeting the Marketing Manager and the Building Manager send you the following:

Design of stand: There are several builders and contractors who have built show stands before, and they have found some old plans for the last stand that can be modified to meet their requirements.

Building stand: The estimate of the cost of building the stand in Sydney, then taking it to Brisbane and bringing it back is:

Timber    $2,000
Cladding    $2,000
Fixtures    $500
Paint    $800
Transport    $2,000
Total    $5,300

About half of the timber for the stand can be sourced from the building leftovers from worksites around Sydney. However, due to insurance issues, Boutique Build’s operational planning processes stipulate that this must be approved by the company’s CEO. A short proposal should be sent to the CEO requesting this. The proposal should state why offcut timber is being used, and for what purpose. It should be a few paragraphs long, and can be included in the text of an email.

Staff trades people will be able to do the work in between on-site jobs, so there will be no further labour costs.

Company brochures: These will be designed in-house by one of the company’s architects. 1,000 copies will be printed for $80.

Catering: a barista with a professional coffee machine will be at the stand for the duration of the congress. The barista and machine will cost $1,000, and the coffee and milk is estimated to cost $300.

You have met with your Manager, and have come up with the following:

You and will fly to Brisbane and stay there for three nights in a hotel near the exhibition centre. The flights will cost a total of $400, and the hotel room will cost a total of $360.

Paying the staff who will be attending the stand over the week end will cost $3,800 in wages.

Stand staffs’ induction will be done this on the morning that the Show opens. All of the staff are familiar with its products, and are proud to work for Boutique Build.

3. Vary the operational plan

Review your notes from the meeting, and write an updated operational plan.

The operational plan should include:

• The goals of the project and how they will be realised.

• The project’s relationship to the company’s strategic plan

• The ways in which the project’s progress will be monitored

• The resources required

• Contingency management

• The teams’ responsibilities

• Project Budget

This version of your operational plan is a draft version until it approved by the CEO. Make sure that the document’s name reflects this.
 
4. Write an email to the CEO (your assessor).

The email text should:

• Begin with a brief summary of the project and the meeting.

• Introduce and summarise the attachment,

• Describe the chosen performance monitoring systems and processes

• asking the CEO for their feedback,and seekingtheir approval to move forward with the project.

The text of the email should point out that CEO approval is necessary for building site timber offcuts can be used to build the stand.

5. Write an email to the CEO (your assessor).

Your assessor should have responded to your email with some changes to be made to your operational plan.

Update your Operational Plan, and make sure that you have given this document a different name to the draft version that you sent to the CEO last time.

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style. It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment, and seektheir approval to move forward with the project.

6. Write an email to Brisbane Boutique Build staff (your assessor).

Review the company’s Recruitment, Selection and Induction Policy and Procedures

This email should inform staff members who live in Brisbane that Boutique Build will have a stand at the Australian Home Show and ask if they are prepared to work on the stand during the congress days.
 
Carefully read the following:

On the day before the show begins, two hours before you leave for the airport, you receive the following information:

• One of the contractors who were to work on the stand is in hospital with acute appendicitis. They are operating this afternoon.

• The Site Manager has already arrived in Brisbane, but forgot to bring the brochures from the office.

• Instead of giving you hard copies of the Customer and Team Member data collection documents, the Marketing Manager sent them to you as an email attachment late last night.

7. Write an email to your CEO (your assessor).

Consider the contingencies listed above, and decide what to do to compensate for each.

The email should inform the CEO of the above changes to the plan, and what you propose to do.

The email should ask the CEO’s approval for your proposed changes to the operational plan

Assessment Task 3: Personnel roleplays

Task summary

The assessment tasks in this unit required you to with two staffing issues that have arisen at the Australian Home Show in Brisbane. The first is the induction and training of staff to work on the stand. The second will be to deal with employee underperformance.

Instructions

Carefully read the following:

It is Saturday morning on the first day of the Australian Home Show in Brisbane. The team that will be attending the stand are in attendance, and you are to induct them into the work that they will be doing at the stand.

Complete the following activities:

1. Prepare for staff induction and training.

Review the Recruitment, Selection and Induction Policy and Procedures.

Ensure that you have hard copies of Customer Data Collection and Team Member Data Collection documents, as these will form the basis of your training.

Spend some time thinking about how the stand would look, and any health and safety issues that you think that the staff member should know about.

The induction and training session should only have to last ten to fifteen minutes, as the staff are already familiar with Boutique Build’s products and services.

2. Meet with the stand team.

The stand team will be represented by, at least, your assessor. Other students may be in attendance, too.

During the meeting, you should:

• Look at the data collection documents and how they are to be filled out.

• Ensure that they know why the data is being collected, and how this fits with Boutique Build’s strategic plan.

• Give a tour of the stand, indicating where their coat can be stored and any potential hazards.

• Make sure that Alex understands how to use the resources at the stand effectively, economically and safely.

• Ask if they have any questions

At the end of the meeting, tell them that you are there to support them. Say that you will be present at the stand on the Sunday, and will mentor them until they are confident.
 
Carefully read the following:

On Sunday morning Alex arrived at the stand ten minutes late.

During the morning Alex was seen talking with friends, sharing photos on their mobile phones.

Several times you pointed out attendees who were looking at the stand and the brochures, but hadn’t been approached by a staff member for their details.

Alex then returned from lunch break ten minutes late.

3. Meet with Alex again.

At the meeting:

• Point out the unacceptable behaviour

• Describe clearly what the expected behaviour is.

• Reinforce how important the data collection for Boutique Build’s expansion plans.

• Point out that working at the stand is considered to be normal working time, and a negative assessment will carry over to their work conditions in the office.

At the end of the meeting, tell Alex that you will stay at the stand close to them for the next hour or so, modelling the behaviour that you expect of them. You will be able to mentor them because you spent the previous day at the stand, and are familiar with the work that has to be carried out.

4. Write an email to the Human Resources Manager (your assessor).

The text of the email should include a short report on Alex’s behaviour at the show, what you discussed with them at the meeting, and how their subsequent behaviour was.

The report should be about two paragraphs long.

The email text should ask the Human Resources Manager to include the report in Alex’s file.

Assessment Task 4 Instructions

Carefully Read the following:

It is almost one month since the Home Show, and the Boutique Build stand was very successful. Staff at the stand received many compliments on the simplicity and balance of the stand. Attendee numbers were much larger than expected due to a reduction in banks’ mortgage rates in the week prior to the show.

The details of 550 customers were taken during the show. Many tradespeople attended the show, too, interested in what the current trends were. The details of 160 tradespeople were taken during the show

When the last of the receipts had been collected, the costs of attending the show were as follows:

No additional costs were incurred at the venue.

• The personnel travel hadn’t included the taxi trips to and from the airport, and that cost a total of $160.

• Providing meals for the staff cost a total of $850, and this wasn’t included in the budget either.

• All of the timber necessary to construct the stand could be found on building sites, so none had to be purchased.

• The stand nearly ran out of brochures so more were printed near the exhibition centre at a cost of $200 for 1,000 brochures.

Complete the following activities:

1. Write a project report on Boutique Build’s participation at the Australian Home Show.

As set out in the Project Management Policy and Procedures, you are to write a report on the completed project.

The report should include:

• An evaluation of Boutique Build’s participation at the show in terms of whether Key Performance Indicators were reached.

• A comparison of the budgeted and the actual costs

• An evaluation of the operational plan, including any improvements that could be made to it.

• Any conclusions you could draw about the project’s performance

The report should be about a page long.

2. Send an email to the CEO (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

Attachment:- Project Plan Details.rar