Unit 23 Employability Skills Assignment Sample

Introduction

Employment is one very critical stage of an individual’s life. Often people miss the opportunity to grab a good position or job, just because they are not prepared for being employed. Even though it is agreed that job specific skill set is important to have, but there are other interpersonal skills as well which are crucial in getting a desired job and then sustaining it in future. Skills such as team management, communication, leadership etc. are often given less preference when compared to core set of skills which are mandatory for the job. Purpose of this assignment is to understand various employability skills, with focus on real life scenario as an administrator in National Health Services (NHS). NHS is set of publicly funded health care system of United Kingdom (Adalsteinsson & Runolfsdottir, 2014).Thus, as part of this health services framework there are four systems namely:

• National Health Services (NHS)
• Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland
• NHS Scotland
• NHS Wales

Focus of this assignment will be based on my experience as an administrative staff in NHS office.

Task 3

A) Explain the role that you and your colleagues may have played as a team worker in your work based situation and analyse the group dynamics

No organisation can function without contribution of just an individual. In an organisation such as NHS, irrespective of various modes of communications, if there is no group dynamics or effort then possibility of teamwork succeeding becomes doubtful. Often positive or negative group dynamics can impact the outcome of a particular task. Group dynamics can also be defined as the degree to which group members coordinate with each other, whether they have any friction among themselves or not. Such kind of situation ultimately guides the process of completing a task. In this regard, I would like to cite an example of NHS where along with one of my colleague who is a nurse I was able to timely admit one patient in the health centre. Basically, there was one patient who was suffering from cancer, however, during an internal audit of all the records related to terminally ill patients. My friend who is a nurse was also part of the group, immediately informed me to relay the communication to the patient, as his last check-up was done long time back.
This ensured that patient got the information in a timely manner, and was able to visit the health centre to get ore check-ups and medicines. However in this situation if there would have been no group dynamics in the situation, there would have been no coordination among each other that is why during the start of the job itself, employees should clearly understand the meaning of their roles and responsibility based on which further making decisions are taken by the organisation. Regarding the team effort and the complexity involved in the defect. In such situation for example, the one faced by the employees of the NHS was that due to high advancement in the technology it wanted to upgrade variety of its existing system. However due to poor employee acceptance, organisation had to drop the idea of technology based transformation. Some important characteristics of the group dynamics are as follows:

• Method of communication among two people
• Decision making process
• Kind of leadership,
• Positive group dynamics attract more people.
• The various roles and responsibilities within the team,
• The interlink between individual and business goals, and
• Change management process for the group.

B) Identify and discuss alternative ways to complete a task as team and achieve the goals.

In order to complete a task as a team and achieve the goal, there can be multiple alternative ways. In this regard, I would like to highlight process of appointment registration for NHS services. Initially manual appointment was a big overhead on the operations of the organisation, as it required involvement of at least 2-3 people in handling the manual appointment process. Especially since manual appointment record was also to be maintained. However, another alternative was found, and an online appointment system was established .This ensured that the appointment request for doctor visit was centralized through  an online system, and only one person was required to handle it. This not only helped the administration team to find an alternative way to reduce the complexities involved in the management of the appointment system. Alternative ways for achieving a task is important to identify as it helps in improving the organisational efficiency as well. 

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Task 4

There are numerous alternative ways through which a team can complete its pending tasks and achieve the goal. It is important to understand that in any organisation, problem solving skill set is highly appreciated.  Thus, once I joined NHS, and proved my credentials as a problem solver, then my reputation increased manifold. However before identifying that what might be, and its alternative solution, it is first important to get its core process. This process basically encapsulates various stages such as (Harris et al, 2010).

• Definition of the strategy which includes the defining the overall plan and strategy of tackling the problem.
• Methods through which the problem will be solved.
• Implementation of people management skills.
• Use of personal management skills such as effective time management etc.
• Ultimately applying creativity to resolve a problem
  • In order to resolve some problem at work place, it is not necessary to resolve it through ad-hoc approach. There are various appropriate tools and techniques which can be used to resolve a problem. One such approach to resolve a problem is use of OPAL framework. This, framework has following stages which should be used to resolve a problem.
• Orientation: For example, at NHS as an administrator, I was expected to launch an IT training initiative in order to impart IT training on basic computer system to the staff of NHS. Hence before starting this training, I ensured that a proper orientation was done of the staff being trained, so that there is clear understanding in terms of what is expected from the training.
• Planning: Once the orientation part was completed, then training plan was published, so that every employee who was part of that training was aware of the training schedule. This helped in streamlining the training process.
• Action: after the orientation was done and plan was set, then the plan was implemented as actionable items. This meant initiating the actual training process. Hence under this stage, training related to subjects like understanding of Microsoft Office software etc. was imparted.
• Learning: After the training is over, I focused on collating the learning from the training process. This stage is often ignored, however it is a critical stage, as it helps in collecting the feedback and other learning related to the training process, so that this learning etc. can be utilized in next activity.

Thus, problem which I identified in NHS was related to increasing number of people who used to visit Accident and Emergency department even for minor injuries. It is important to understand that A&E department has a limited capability, in such case, only those cases should be referred to A&E department which actually deserve that level of importance. In this regard, it was important as an employee to address few issues before the core problem could be solved.
I observed that in NHS, many patients who were referred to A&E department could have been easily treated in casualty department itself. Main reason behind this was, that at times many doctors on duty without analysing the proper reason behind the ailment used to refer the patient to A&E department, many times this used to happen even due to insistence from patient as well who wanted to be given highest priority.
Hence after identification of problem, I communicated the problem and its root cause to my fellow employees, and held a small session with them. I requested them to ensure that every time a case comes, they need to first apply their experience in order to segregate from being an emergency case or a normal case. This aspect was communicated in clear and concise manner to the staff who attended the incoming patients. As a result I saw a gradual change in the approach, now there is focus on identification of the health and safety  issue, that whether it is an emergency case or can be treated through normal route, due to this resources are less stressed and efficiency improved over a period of time.
Overall it can be said that by following a proper well-structured approach to resolve a problem is always beneficial at workplace rather than following an ad-hoc approach. This is main reason behind focusing on framework such as OPLA mentioned above. 

Conclusion

Based on above discussion, it can be said that employability skills are essential to develop, else sustaining a job just on the basis of the core skill set only. Team work, communication skills, problem solving approach etc. are some of the key elements of interpersonal skills which an employee is expected to have. Based on example of NHS, and my role in administration, I can conclude that these skills mentioned above are essential to have, as they help in better performance and improve the overall productivity as well. Problem solving strategy used in majority of the cases impacts the organisation as well. It helps in improving the organisational culture, and builds a strong team culture within organisation. If a proper strategy is used in problem resolution, then in long run learning derived from the problem solving methods can be effective for the organisation. Over a period of time, it can be said that having strong interpersonal skills is one of the necessary skillset to improve the overall employability factor.

References

Adalsteinsson, G. D., & Runolfsdottir, H. R. 2014. EMPLOYABILITY IN TURBULENT TIMES. European Journal of Management, 14(1).
Brooks, R., Waters, J., & Pimlott?Wilson, H. 2012. International education and the employability of UK students. British Educational Research Journal, 38(2), 281-298.
HARGREAVES, C., & WALSH, E. 2012. Entrepreneurship and Employability: a Comparison of Doctoral Students’ Perceptions in China and the UK. 10th, 199.
Harris, L., Harrigan, P., & Naudin, A. 2010. Integrating" employability" into the HE curriculum: case studies of online portfolio implementation in the UK.
Houston, D., & Lindsay, C. 2010. Fit for work? Health, employability and challenges for the UK welfare reform agenda. Policy studies, 31(2), 133-142.
Warren, J., Garthwaite, K., & Bambra, C. 2013. A health problem? Health and employability in the UK labour market. Disability Benefits, Welfare Reform and Employment Policy, 94.
Xiao-qian, Y. E. 2011. Developing graduate employability: the experiences of UK and its implications [J]. Education Science, 2, 018.

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