Personal Skills Management

Questions: Task 1a. Reflect on your own personal skills and competences against professional standards and that of Zedexs organizational objectives to determine whether you are up to date and confident enough to match their expectations using the Career Edge questionnaire.b. Evaluate your own development needs and the activities required to meet them to be in a position to contribute to Zedexs history of continuous innovation as well as the specific job requirements.c. Devise a personal and professional development plan based on your identified needs.d. Reflect on own developmental progress against the original aims and objectives set in the personal and professional development plan. Task 2a. Identify the Communications need within an organizational context and come up with the appropriate styles to adopt within 3 levels of the organisationb. Demonstrate in writing how effective time management strategies will help your small team of three become efficient and comply with the clear desk policyTask 3a. Describe how you select and maintain a team that is fit for purpose. b. Discuss alternative ways to complete tasks and achieve team goals.Task 4a. Review tools and methods for developing solutions to problemsb. Develop an appropriate strategy for Zedex that will help its IT helpdesk respond to its high volume of IT queries on time.c. Evaluate the potential impact the above strategy will have on the company in the long term. Answers: Task 1 a. Reflect own personal skills and competencies against professional standards and organizational objectives Eun, (2011) opined that employability is the desired set of skills and knowledge that can make an individual successful in acquiring the desired and suitable career option, which will benefit the individual, organization and the community. Wilkinson, Bristol and Ponte, (2013) argued that pursuing a vocational course would not ensure suitable employability opportunity for the individuals rather; the individual will have to develop the required job skills, attributes and techniques in order to secure employability. Pool and Sewell, (2007) proposed the CareerEdge model that designs the four main facets of a graduates employment development namely Experience (Work and Life), Degree and subject knowledge, Generic skills and Emotional Intelligence. As per Forbes, the number of graduates in UK and Europe has increased from 1 million to 1.5 million between 2001 and 2014. However, the UK unemployment rate has also increased from 5%to 7.8% and the UK youth unemployment has doubled by to 21%. T hus, in order to secure graduate job position market it is necessary for all individual graduates to conduct a CareerEdge survey which will make them aware of their personal skills. For the current job position in Zedex the following skills are required from the candidate: Experience in technical areas like Oracle database management systems Experience of Microsoft access, IT services, IT database market and trends, Windows, Linux and Unix Good time management skills and adaptive nature Reflect constructively on own work and able to improve efficiency and decision making ability Knowledge in IT core subjects The CareerEdge questionnaire of the individual shows the following scores: Career development learning = 29 out of 35 Experience (Work/Life) = 8 out of 14 Degree subject knowledge = 14 out of 14 Generic skills = 87 out of 112 Emotional Intelligence = 14 out of 21 Total score = 152 out of 196 The scores suggest that, the student needs to develop the experience level, which is very low. Depending upon the job profile of Zedex the major focus of the job profile is on the high experience in IT related functions and data processing systems. Thus, in order to be employable in this position, the individual needs to develop the key experiences. Moreover, the individual has scored low on team working skills, problem solving ability, independent working ability, and time management, degree of numeracy, formulation of new ideas, adaptability and degree of attention. Hence, it may be suitably suggested that as per the CareerEdge model, the candidate needs to focus on development of these personal skills in order to become suitably employable by Zedex. b.Evaluation of own development needs As per the Career Edge evaluation, the student needs to take developmental steps in the following skills areas. Team working: For developing effective team working skills, the students need to develop good listening and communication skills. Moreover, the individual should develop self-motivation and should be able to successfully motivate and inspire the other team members. According to Wermke, (2011) development of interpersonal skills such as good negotiation power, interpretation and advising capability are necessary for the individual student to become a good team member. Problem solving ability: Development of problem solving ability is possible if the individual student keeps an open and stable mindset. Evans, (2011) stated that come of the major emotional characteristics that needs to be developed are sense of empathy, situational thinking skills, analytical skills and good communication skills for developing problem solving ability. Adaptability: Adaptability and flexibility is the key skill that makes a particular student desirable for employability. Zedex being an innovation related company, flexibility is the key determinant for the employability issues in Zedex. The student needs to develop the ability of continuous learning of new IT tasks and programs that will help the student to stay ahead of the problems (Doe, 2013). Flexibility within the character is also essential since the student employed with Zedex needs to adapt to the companys innovative culture. Degree of attention: Attention and memory are the two mental skills that are directly required for an IT professional for effective functioning of the services. The current job position in Zedex requires the student to demonstrate Data administration along with technical management of oracle database management. Hence, the student requires high level of attention and concentration. The student can use puzzle games, crossword games, video games and meditation activities in order to increase the attention levels and improve memory conditions. Idea innovation: Activities of Zedex shows spirit of innovative ideas like issue of credit cards, cash point machines and setting up of carbon- neutral debit card. Thus, for maintaining their competitive position in the IT and banking industry, the company requires high level of innovation. Thus, the student should develop high thinking skills. For development of thinking skills, the student practice solving practical IT cases and participate in virtual IT games that will require the student to use IT ideas and knowledge (Farr, 2011). c. Devise a personal and professional development plan What are my development Objectives? What activities do I need to achieve my objectives? What support/resources will I need? What are the successful criteria? Target date of achieving my objectives Developing time management skills Splitting of tasks into divisible parts Allocation of time to each task for prompt delivery Prepare a schedule for task delivery Practice wide range of activities within a given schedule Take the help of books Use a datasheet to review the performance against the timeline Within 1 to 2 months Develop team work skills Participate in classroom projects and develop team work skills Work as team members in community services Take help from friends in understanding how to effectively work in teams. Use the review of the co team workers to judge the effectiveness in the quality of team work Within 2 months Development of IT management and innovation skills Make extensive reading about the IT topics Use IT software like oracle and data base management systems in practical cases Take formal training from IT specialization classes Take help of reading materials and e-learning materials Take advice from professional experts and IT teachers Use examinations, assessment criteria and professional grading to understand the standard and value of knowledge input and output levels. Within 6 months d. Reflect own development against original aims and objectives As per the organizational objectives of Zedex, the candidates joining the company should be innovative in their working approach, experienced in the field of database management and software management, effective team working skills and time management skills for successful and quick delivery of the projects as per stringent deadline (Field, 2011). Thus, depending on the organizational goals, the individual will have to concentrate on the formulation of the developmental strategies. The individual student will work on the PDP-plan-target-completion dates so that the successful completion of the skill development process can be ensured. The current situation of the student shows that the student has achieved the time management skills within 1.5 month. However, it is seen that the student takes around 3 months to develop the team working skills. Although the developments of the team working skills are time consuming however, the assessment reports are also not in favor of the students progress. Further, the development processes of the IT skills are also lengthy and the student has taken around 9 months to effectively grasp the overall knowledge (Wilkinson, Bristol and Ponte, 2013). Task 2 a. Effective communication styles According to Dance, (2013) four different types of communication channels are generally present in an organization namely upward flow, downward flow, lateral movement and grapevine communication. The three major levels within Zedex includes the upper level management comprising of the senior managers and the CEO of the company, followed by the middle level management comprising of the project managers, marketing managers, finance managers and IT managers. The middle level managers provide directions to the lower level managers comprising of the junior employees, team leaders and Graduate trainees. In order to ensure timely delivery of the projects within the given deadline the employees at Zedex adopt the three formal communication channels namely the horizontal communication, vertical communication and diagonal communication styles. The lower level employees are however seen to engage in intervals grapevine communication channels among themselves. In Zedex, the vertical communication network includes upward and downward communication channels. The CEO and the senior level employees use the downward communication channels like memorandum, organization policies, board meetings and emails to communicate the details about project urgency to the middle level managers. These information are further communicate to the team leaders via portals and mails so that the project work can be started and completed within the given deadline. The vertical communication style also includes the upward communication channels which is used by the employees of Zedex to successfully provide feedback, post enquiries, make suggestions and report grievances to the upper and the middle level managers. The use of complaint box, peer reviews and annual meetings helps the employees in Zedex to communicate upward with the senior and the middle level employees (Frost, 2012). Horizontal communication takes place between the same level subordinates especially in the middle organizational level of Zedex. The project managers use the reporting channels along with oral conversation, telephonic interaction, mail chain message system and social media chats for coordinating with the marketing, finance and IT managers in order to ensure successful use of resources and completion of the project as pr the deadlines. In the lower levels of Zedex high range of grapevine communication is present. Carpenter, (2012) stated that the informal communication between the employees, project workers, team leaders and the graduate trainees enables them to successfully discuss their innovative thinking process, discuss the ways in which the project can be easily completed and helps in assembling of the desired project resources. Guillory, (2012) stated that grapevine communication is an informal communication channel and involves gossip and group discussions among the lower level employees. b. Effective time management strategies According to Hudson, (2013) clear desk policy is the corporate directive that requires all employees within an organization to clear their working burden on a daily basis of monthly basis within the office working hours. In Zedex, the clarity of the daily deadline projects is the most important part of the clear desk policy of the organization. Ters, (2014) suggested that adoption of this policy ensures high degree of professionalism on the part of the organization and helps the organization to avoid over burdening of the office works. The Clear desk policies reat present highly motivated by ISO 27001 and Data Protection act. In Zedex a small team of three project members should adopt the following time management strategies for ensuring the clear desk policy. Formulate a list of the priority functions as per the deadline and the importance of the completion of the functions Create a separate physical inbox for storage of the incoming important papers that are required to be cleared Make division of work between the three members The first team member should be given the responsibility to check and clear the papers within the physical inbox on a daily basis The second team member will be responsible for acceptance and allocation of deadline projects and preparation of the chart including the priority activities The third team member will be responsible for the monitoring of the project resources and the checking of the project progress in order to ensure project completion within the allocated timeline (Graal, 2012) These time management strategies will help the team of three members to successfully control the burden of work pressure and maintain an effective clear desk policy within Zedex. Task 3 a. Selection and maintenance of teams When a team is assembled for achievement of an organizational objective, the best, innovative, educated and brightest individuals are generally selected for the purpose (Carpenter and Krutka, 2014). Zedex, which is primarily a project-oriented organization, generates teams for fulfilling the strategies and completion of the projects. Collin, Van der Heijden and Lewis, (2012), state that a project team in Zedex generally comprises of five members including a team leader and at least one new graduate trainee. The inclusion of the graduate trainee ensures that on-the job training will be sufficiently provided to the new trainee. For the synergy effect and ensure high innovation levels, the teams generally formed within Zedex are cross-functional teams. Jamieson, (2012) stated that depending on the project complexity and the personnel job-role requirement, the team members are selected within the project team of Zedex. The process of team selection should thus involve the following steps : Listing of the job requirements for the project Short-listing of the skills required from the cross-functional team members select the new trainees based on their strengths and job skills select one personnel from each department namely the finance, marketing, IT and the general project department while forming the team Allocate jobs according to job skills to the team members Before addition of the new member, the opinion about the team members should also be taken about the skills of the new team member (Institute of Leadership Mana, 2012) The effective team management is possible on availing of the following strategies by the team within Zedex. Maintain effective communication channels like open communication between all team members and the team leaders. The communication channels should include daily briefings, feedback and suggestions between the team members so that any problem can be avoided between the team members (Huang, 2012). The training and developmental strategies should be adopted within the teams for ensuring innovation among the team members. moreover the cross-functional team will also include a new trainee and hence daily training along with the project completion will help the trainee together sufficient knowledge about the IT projects at Zedex (Wilkinson, Bristol and Ponte, 2013) The team leaders are required to deliver good situational leadership skills, which will enable the team members to be effective in taking situational decisions. The innovation and the changing business scenarios within Zedex will require situational leadership from the team leaders so that the tasks can be completed within the given deadline (Burns, 2012). The team members should also develop listening and observation skills so that the team may seem approachable by the other management levels of the organization. In this respect, the team members should adopt flexibility and engage in continuous improvement for the purpose of effective team maintenance. The use of the relevant motivational techniques will help the team leader to manage the team members effectively. The motivational techniques should include both monetary and non-monetary strategies like motivational speeches, incentive payments, performance appraisals, promotions, rewards and appreciation from the team leaders and the team performers equally. b. Alternative ways of completing tasks and goals achievement In general, cross-functional teams usually the team leader is responsible for the guidance and the direction of the goals and tasks that are required to be completed. However, Jones and OBrien, (2011) argued that depending on the nature of the tasks, the team can also include distributed leadership strategy. In these types of team, the alternative methods of shared leadership, shared responsibility, shared communication and commitment to team plan are followed for achievement of the team goals. Lange and Meaney, (2013) commented that these teams are less common compared to the nominated leadership team; however, these strategies enable the team in achieving of the goals in a combined manner. The collaborative approach in these types of teams goes beyond the traditional process of job allocation. O'Clair, (2013) stated that these processes are more sensitive to the process of team development and knowledge sharing. The team members in absence of any particular leadership strategy will adopt the participative or shared leadership. In case of creative projects like those engaged in by Zedex, these types of team formations are ideal because formation of creative teams without any leaders will help the team members to make open flow of ideas, suggestions and strategies that will help in achievement of the innovative project result. Ravet, (2012) further opined that this alternative leadership strategy would ensure shared decision-making, combined monitoring of the progress and quality of the project, shared responsibility for resolving conflict, managing, and meeting deadlines with the help of combined effort. This strategy not only helps in successful completion of the project but also helps in increasing the information level and responsiveness of the team members. The absence of any particular team leader will ensure that the team members will handle the project work efficiently and will deliver the project without failure since the team members are accountable to each other if the project is not completed within the allocated timeline. Task 4 a. Review of tools and methods for development of solutions to problems Wilkinson, Bristol and Ponte, (2013) problem solving is a major part for the success of any organization. An organization may face various problems in respect to customer management, employee management, product and supply chain management, project management and query management within the organization. McGee, (2012) stated that the organizations thus have to adopt different strategies for solving different types of problems. The employee problems may include interpersonal or communication problems, which can be solved using the open communication tools. Bender, (2012) defined a managerial problem as a gap between the current state of company affairs and the desired state of company affairs. In such a context to resolve the gap the effective use of total quality management is necessary within the organizations. The managers adopt the problem-solving framework for solving the problems effectively. The major steps of the framework include: Problem identification Problem verification Problem definition Root-cause analysis Alternative generation Evaluation of alternatives Implementation of the alternatives Review of the implemented solutions Institutionalization and control over the implemented solutions (Wilkinson, Bristol and Ponte, 2013) These steps within an organization help the manager to identify and verify the importance of the problem. The root cause analysis shows the manager the major cause behind the generation of the problem. The alternative generation involves finding of more than one solution to the problem. The generation of the alternatives will help the manager to evaluate among the chosen alternatives and select the best out of all the alternatives. Finally, the most suitable solution is implemented and reviewed in order to judge the effectiveness of the problem-solving tool. The final step is highly necessary for the managers because only implementation of the problem solving tools will not give any benefit to the organization. Hence the last stage includes control and monitoring of the implemented solutions for avoiding any further problem within the organization. b. Appropriate strategy for IT helpdesk Zedex is a primary dealer of IT services. The introduction of the credit card, net banking, cash point machines and websites offering carbon neutral debit card, the companys IT department and the IT help desk will have to cater to the needs to the customers 247. Some of the major challenges faced by the IT help desk of Zedex are timely response to the customer queries, managing the customer transactions online, lack of effective guidance for online transactions on the website and over the customer service phone calls and increment in the level of customer wait time making the company incur huge monetary loss. OBrien, (2011) stated that an effective IT help desk not only delivers effective operations but also ensures that the workload flowing through the process is value added and improving the productivity that will add more than the costs incurred by the company. Thus, Zedex in order to effectively manage the Help desk volume should manage three major operations namely Manage the transaction volume Manage the transaction pattern Manage the transaction time The management of the transaction volume will include reduction of the number of transactions presented to the department reduces the total workload of the IT help desk of Zedex. The management of the volume during the peak load is a challenging concept for the help desk. In this regard the company during the peak seasons should employ contractual IT customer care representatives for a contract of 6 months that will enable the IT staffs to manage the peak load. The employment of additional help desk staffs will ensure prefect division of the work load and Zedex can renew or dissolve the contract after 6 months when the peak season is over as per the convenience of the organizational needs. However, Wilkinson, Bristol and Ponte, (2013) if workload cannot be managed then, management of transaction patter is possible. This strategy can be adopted in two major ways namely by diverting the customer calls from the peak to non-peak seasons or by engagement of additional shits. The diversion of the customer calls from the peak to the non-peak season will involve leveraging the IVR on the website and online transaction portals to enable the customer to choose a call back option at non-peak times. Moreover, OBrien and Jones, (2014) the IT help desks can also smooth or shift calls stating reasons like upgrading and system changes. These strategies will tend to reduce some of the calls from the non-frequent customers. Apart from this inclusion of additional shifts will also ensure that the peak load of the customer calls can be reduced. The last strategy includes management of transaction time. This strategy involves two major steps. Firstly, increasing the productivity of the employees and secondly, increasing the resources required to reduce the customer waiting time. Bates, (2012) stated that user training is a major part of this strategy. Zedex should include training strategies like software training on shrink-wrapped PC, computer literacy, increment of speed so that the workload can be managed. The help-desk support staff should also increase the resources for the IT help desk staffs. This will help the company to manage the work-load. c. Impact of the strategy in long term policies of company This strategy will help the company to become productive and will further help the company to increase the value of the products and the goodwill of the company. The major focus of the strategy is to derive cost benefit for the company. The cost of the company incurred for using the additional resources and employing of the additional employees on a contractual basis will be high. Hence, the productivity of the employees in terms of handling the queries and keeping the customers satisfied will help Zedex to derive high levels of profit. The development of the IT help desk will help the company to strengthen their relationship with the customers. If the IT customer care is able to effectively solve the queries and the problems of the customers then the customer base of Zedex will also increase and this will contribute the organizational growth and profit of the company. The major focus of the strategy is on the long term benefit of the company and thus the adoption of these strategies will contribute significantly to the fulfillment of the same. Alexandrou and Swaffield, (2012) stated that since Zedex is a banking company dealing in financial aservices hence it is necessary for the company to maintain cordial relationship with the existing and the potential customers in order to effectively cater to the profit levels. The management of the workload during the peak seasons will also reduce the work pressure over the operational agents of the IT help desk making it convenient for them work in a cordial environment. 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