Unit 23 Employability Skills Assignment Solution

Introduction

Getting appropriate employment based on the skill-set is one major achievement these days. However, many times a potential employee loses his opportunity due to understanding of the skills which are required to successfully perform in a work environment or an organisation. Often people misunderstand ‘skill’ with only that technical expertise which will enable one person to fulfill the task, however skill is much more beyond having a specific knowledge. In employment skill also includes interpersonal and transferable skills, and the ability to work with others in teams or groups (Horn et al, 2012). Skills such as leadership and communication are equally important. Purpose of this task is to understand various aspects related to the employability skills. In order to have a better understanding of various concepts and aspects related to the employability skills, it is important to understand it from an example of real life organisation. Thus, for this purpose example of British Airways (BA) has been taken. BA is United Kingdom’s leading airline and boasts of a top notch organisational culture. The company is highly popular as one of the dream organisation to work, especially among unemployed youths who are still searching for employment. Hence with example, of British Airways various related to employability skill will be discussed.

Task 1

Discuss how you would develop your own responsibilities and performance targets based on our experience of working in an organisation.

The major target is to attain highest and important position within the British Airways so that I also contribute into the organizational success. Another target is to build such reputation so that my importance would be high in the company’s decision making process. The set of responsibilities is immense while working in an organization. The major responsibility is to make coordination with the peers and team mates so that the pleasant working environment could be developed within the organization. The collaboration is another element of responsibility which must gain huge priority by the individuals. Further it is to acknowledge that team work is the major employability skills which include both collaboration and coordination. In order to develop these responsibilities there is need of working within the team and developing the sense of patience and respect towards each another. Aligning the organizational goals with the organizational goals could also help in fulfilling the responsibility of team work (Messumet al, 2011). Other than the set of responsibilities also include following the policies and rules and regulations of British Airways. Every employee need to focus on this responsibility that they are associated with the company so it is there responsibility work under the rules and regulations of cited organization. It helps not only in ensuring the customer satisfaction but also support the internal legal environment of the organization. Further the following the instructions of higher authorities along with the developing the self learning attitude etc. these are also certain set of responsibilities that can help immensely in achieving the job targets. In order to develop such responsibilities there is need of creating the disciplined approach. There is requirement of giving reverence to the internal policies of the company. Thus these are certain practices or efforts that can help immensely on the ground of fulfilling the above mentioned responsibilities and performance targets.

Using a specific situation you may have encountered, critically examine what you would have recommended for improvement or had taken any action to improve your performance.

Often it has been observed that in professional environment we encounter situations where the performance which gave could have easily improved further. Similarly in British Airways, being part of online sales and marketing team. I saw a gradual drop in my performance after initial 6 months of joining the team. Sales and marketing is an important team as to a large extent this team brings revenue for the organisation. Being part of such as critical and important team, my initial enthusiasm faded away within six months of working with this team. It is nothing to do with team environment, as sales and marketing team in British Airways if full of dynamic and enthusiastic people (McQuaidet al, 2013).  However, based on further self-analysis, I found following reasons for my drop in performance:

• Less focus on detail and getting overwhelmed quickly
• Inability to stretch beyond a time limit, especially considering the fact sales and marketing is one such job responsibility which requires lot of extra effort.
• Gradual decline in the interest towards the designated roles and responsibility

Thus above mentioned issues not only created problem for me but also impacted my own future performance. However, it is important to know that no problem related to the organisation is unsolvable. Every issue or the problem needs to carefully analyse so that there can be a better understanding on the problem and accordingly a feasible situation can be provided (Lowdenet al, 2011). Thus in above mentioned case, following are the ways through which I able to resolve these situations:
My entire focus is on to the development of the self learning attitude so that I can definitely develop the attitude of identifying my responsibilities and self learning attitude can help me for the same. The learning attitude can enable me to learn the concepts and new dimensions which could be helpful for my performance and job. Thus the significance of self learning attitude is immense. At the same juncture the role of training provided by the company could be another factor that helps immensely on the ground of improves my performance. I can achieve my targets and most importantly the working pattern of BA could become clear through on the job training method (Spence, S., &Hyams-Ssekasi , 2014). Further with respect to the development of motivation the application of motivational techniques could be helpful at very large scale. The major motivational technique or method is the Herzberg’s two factor theory. It is a theory where the job dissatisfactory and job satisfaction factors have been described by the author. As per the theory the supervision style and guidance from the higher authorities or from immediate supervisors must be proper so that the mistakes could be accepted by them. The guidance and effective supervision style can raise the confidence level of an individual and can definitely the motivation could be inherited among them. This motivational technique also includes the job security and providing the opportunity to the employees. If employees will get an opportunity internally then it will definitely encourage focusing on increasing their competency and it automatically lead towards the development of self learning attitude. Overall it could be stated that Herzberg’s two factor theory is directly associated with the performance improvement and motivation increment process. Thus it is recommended to foster the implementation of motivational techniques along with providing the training within the organization.

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Task 2

Analyse a work based situation of yours and discuss how you would identify and suggest solution or you had identified and suggested a solution.

We have often encountered issues at work place. However there are various types of people among which some are there who suggest a solution to a problem, whereas some are there who themselves try to find solution to a problem. One of the work based situation which I faced was related to poor conversion of potential customer to full time customer with the company. Being part of the sales and marketing every day there were number of leads which were generated, however after initial six months I realized that I was unable to convert the final conversion of the prospective lead to the customer (Rosenberg et al, 2012). That is why in order to eliminate this issue I trained hard on sales related topics and consulted with people who are experienced in this regard. Thus I followed a combined approach at BA. Firstly I focused on getting sufficient training, whereas in parallel I also focused on getting relevant experience from someone who had enough experience and was qualified in a managerial role with the team.

Identify and evaluate the various approaches and style that you would use to communicate a work based problem to your peers and supervisors using your own experience.

At times there are situations in work place where one has to involve other people as well. In order to involve other people or to communicate related to a work based problem one can use multiple ways of communication. Every approach of communication has its own set of pros and cons which one needs to analyse before using first. For example while working at BA, I had some issues in coordinating with my subordinate who was part of my team and was working under me. Often it used to happen that despite of setting up his tasks clearly and explicitly, he would still not complete the task and had some or the other issue. This problem gradually increased over a period of time, due to which even my own leading capabilities started getting questioned (Correctional Service Canada, 2013).Then I decided to user e-mail as an approach of communication where I sent an e-mail to my manager and HR manager of the company. This ensure that HR department was made aware of the inefficiency of the person, where manager was made aware of the fact that it’s not my but my subordinates poor performance which needs to be seen. Thus apart from e-mail following are the possible approaches of communication:
Face-to-Face discussion: This approach can be considered as relatively personal, and brings more clarity to the message which needs to be conveyed between two people interacting. However major disadvantage of this approach is that it might lessen down the gravity of a superior who has to interact with his sub-ordinates on every second tasks. Thus, this mode of communication should be used only in a high impact situation where some really strong message needs to be conveyed (Saunders &Zuzel, 2010).
Newsletter: Newsletter is another approach which can be used for communication. Newsletters are generally published at a fixed interval of time. It is much more detailed and consists of all the important information related to the communication. However, one major drawback with this mode of communication is its frequency. Often newsletters either come every 15 days or they come on monthly basis.
Informal communication: there is other approach of communication also such as informal mode of instant messaging chatting between two people. Today majority of the organisations have IM applications through which they can directly chat with each other. This mode of communication is informal as there is no record maintained, and can be done quickly.
Thus, among above mentioned approach to communication, I as an employee like e-mail, as it helps in expressing the details clearly, and can cover the entire detail, also sending information through email is quick and easy.

Examine the various time management strategies and analyse how you would manage your time and why

Time management is one such concept, which is equally useful in both personal and professional space of an individual. Time management is as an approach or concept through which an individual or an organisation can achieve efficient utilization of the available time.
Time management enables an individual to achieve his goals. And it also enables an organisation a time bound goal to be achieved. Without setting a timeline for achieving a business objective it is highly unlikely that an organisation or an individual can achieve one task. Even if it is achieved possibility is high that the achieved result will not on the expected lines. As part of time management, there are various activities such as arrangement, organisation and setting up a time limit etc. in order to ensure that time available as a resource is utilized in the most justified manner.Time management also includes identification of the tasks, prioritizing it, planning it, and then allocating the task to the suitable person based on the degrees of importance of the task and whether the person to who the task is assigned is capable of doing it or not.

Effective time management strategies

Some of the effective time management strategies are as follows:
Set-up a priority: For effective time management one of the most important strategies is to setup priority of the task which needs to be done. Without identifying the exact priority of the task, it is highly unlikely that the task will succeed, because the person executing the task will be simply unaware of the importance of task, and what needs to be done first and what needs to be given least priority.
Time scheduling: Good time management also involves focusing on maintenance of a tight time schedule of the tasks and activities which have been identified as important. Today we have various types of materials and tools such as calendar, daily planner or weekly planner which can assist an individual to stay on the task. One important attribute, which is needed to always stay on time, is the habit of self-discipline.
Habit of procrastination: One of the inefficient habits, which human beings have, is related to procrastination- intentional delaying of any activity or task. Often it has been observed that initially people start delaying a task occasionally, and then gradually it becomes a habit. However it is important to understand that if one has to effectively manage the time, then it is very important to avoid procrastination as much as possible.

References

Correctional Service Canada. Evaluation Branch, Didenko, E., Luong, D., &Carré, C. (2013). Evaluation Report: National Employability Skills Program.
Horn, R., Sue, M., & Elena, M. (2012). Inspiring global employability skills in a 1-week project1.
Lowden, K., Hall, S., Elliot, D., & Lewin, J. (2011). Employers’ perceptions of the employability skills of new graduates. Edge Foundation, University of Glasgow, SCRE Center. Retrieved from.
McQuaid, R. W., Green, A., & Danson, M. (2013). Introducing employability. Employability and Local Labour Markets, 1.
Messum, D., Wilkes, L., & Jackson, D. (2011). Employability skills: Essential requirements in health manager vacancy advertisements.
Mumby. D., (2012). Organizational Communication: A Critical Approach. SAGE Publications
Ordiz, M. and et,al., (2003). Organizational culture and human resources in the environmental issues: A review of the literature. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 14(4), pp.634-656.
Rosenberg, S., Heimler, R., &Morote, E. S. (2012). Basic employability skills: a triangular design approach. Education+ Training, 54(1), 7-20.
Saunders, V., &Zuzel, K. (2010). Evaluating employability skills: employer and student perceptions. Bioscience Education, (15).
Spence, S., &Hyams-Ssekasi, D. (2014). Developing business students' employability skills though working in partnership with a local business to deliver an undergraduate mentoring programme. Higher Education, Skills and Work Based Learning.
Tosi, L. S. and Pilati, M., (2011). Managing Organizational Behaviour: Individuals, Teams, Organization and Management. Edward Elgar Publishing.

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