Learner R
BSBO
Manage business oper
Precision Group (Australia)
Level 13, 269 Wickham St, Fortitude Valley 4006 Email: [email protected]
Website: www.precisiongroup.com.au
© 2020 Precision Group (Australia)
BSBOPS502 – Mnage business operational plans (Release 1)
Learner Resource
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BSBOPS502 – Manage business operational plans
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BSBOPS502 – Manage business operational plans
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Version Control & Document History
Date
Summary of modifications
Version
28 August 2020
Version 1 final produced following assessment validation.
1.0
Table of Contents
ABOUT THE BUSINESS SERVICES TRAINING PACKAGE 6
ABOUT THIS UNIT OF COMPETENCY 8
CHAPTER 1: ESTABLISH OPERATIONAL PLAN 9
Research, Analyse and Document Resource Requirements 10
Develop Operational Plan in Consultation with, and with Approval from, Relevant Stakeholders 16
Develop Contingencies for Operational Plan 28
Activity 1 36
Key Points: Chapter 1 38
Chapter 1 – ‘True’ or ‘False’ Quiz 39
CHAPTER 2: MANAGE RESOURCE ACQUISITION 40
Confirm that Employees are Recruited and Inducted According to the Organisation’s Human Resources Management Policies, Practices and Procedures 41
Confirm that Physical Resources and Services are Acquired According to the Organisation’s Policies, Practices and Procedures 47
Identify and Incorporate Requirements for Intellectual Property Rights and Responsibilities in Related to Acquisition of Resources 55
Activity 2 59
Key Points: Chapter 2 61
Chapter 2 – ‘True’ or ‘False’ Quiz 62
CHAPTER 3: MONITOR AND REVIEW OPERATIONAL PERFORMANCE 63
Assess Progress of Operational Plan in Achieving Profit and Productivity Plans and Targets 64
Identify Areas of Under-Performance, Recommend Solutions and Take Prompt Action and Rectify the Situation 71
Plan and Implement Relevant Processes for Ongoing Monitoring and Confirm that Support is Provided for Individuals and Teams 78
Negotiate Recommendations for Variations to Operational Plans and Gain Approval from Designated Persons 81
Activity 3 82
Key Points: Chapter 3 84
Chapter 3 – ‘True’ or ‘False’ Quiz 85
SUMMARY 86
REFERENCES 87
About the Business Services Training Package
The BSB Business Services Training Package covers a diverse range of industries and occupations. Business Services covers a range of cross-industry functions and services supporting the commercial activities of all industries.
Defining Qualifications
When units of competency are grouped into combinations that meet workplace roles, they are called qualifications. These qualifications are aligned to the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). Each qualification will have ‘packaging rules’ which establish the number of core units, number and source of elective units and overall requirements for delivering the qualification.
Delivery and Assessment of Qualifications
RTOs must have the qualifications (or specific units of competency) on their scope to deliver nationally recognised training and assessment. RTOs are governed by and must comply with the requirements established by applicable national frameworks and standards. RTOs must ensure that training and assessment complies with the relevant standards.
Qualification Training Pathways
A pathway is the route or course of action taken to get to a destination. A training pathway is the learning required to attain the competencies to achieve career goals. Everyone has different needs and goals, and therefore requires a personalised and individual training pathway.
Foundation Skills
Foundation Skills are the non-technical skills that support the individual’s participation in the workplace, in the community and in education and training.
Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF)
This Assessment meets the five ACSF core skills as described in the Foundation Skills mapping.
About this Unit of Competency
BSBOPS502 - Manage business operational plans
This unit standard BSBOPS502 Manage Business Operational Plan covers the skills and knowledge required to develop and monitor the implementation of a business operational plan. Success in doing so would help foster efficient and effective workplace practices resulting from properly managed operational plans.
This unit applies to those who manage the work of others and operate within the parameters of a broader strategic and/or business plan.
This Learner Resource is broken up into three elements. These include:
1. Establish operational plan
2. Manage resource acquisition
3. Monitor and review operational performance
At the end of this training, you will be asked to complete an assessment pack for this unit of competency. You will need to access a supervisor, a manager, or your assessor who can observe you perform project or workplace tasks and verify your competency or performance.
On competent completion of the assessment, you must have demonstrated skills and knowledge required to manage business operational plans.
Chapter 1: Establish Operational Plan
The key to a successfully executed task is a properly established plan. Thus, the first element in managing your business operational plan is establishing this plan. Doing so would involve multiple steps as well as various people. Moreover, the development of your plan requires the consideration of several factors to ensure that your plan is as well-made as it can be.
This chapter delves into the details of this process, further dividing it into four sub-chapters that serve as the steps of this stage. First, you must research, analyse and document your resource requirements. After this, you will develop your operational plan. This will be done by consulting with and seeking approval from your relevant stakeholders.
Once you have accomplished these tasks, you will then develop contingencies for your operational plan. Finally, you will need to explain the plan you develop to the relevant work teams.
1.1 Research, Analyse and Document Resource Requirements
An Operational Plan (OP) is a detailed plan that provides a clear picture of how a team would contribute to the achievement of the organisation’s strategic goals. Before you look into the process of establishing this plan, you must first look into the different resource requirements involved in its creation and differentiate it from other types of plans.
1.1.1 Business Planning
Business planning attempts to bring a new idea to fruition within an organisation. Such a plan needs to be divided up into sections which would allow the business managers to understand what you are trying to accomplish and the direction that you will take to get there. You will find an example on the simulated business Bounce Fitness website under the Documents tab.
Two plans involved in business planning are the strategic plan and the operational plan. A strategic plan is responsible for setting the direction of an organisation. Through this plan, goals and objectives are devised, and the strategies in achieving these are identified. Likewise, this plan takes into account the goals and priorities of the stakeholders. By its very nature, this plan does not cover the day-to-day tasks and activities involved in running the organisation but merely serves as a general guide for management.
The objectives presented in the strategic plan – strategic objectives – are essentially the long- term organisational goals which help transform the organisation's mission statement from a broad vision to specific and feasible plans and projects. Strategic objectives set benchmarks for success. They are designed to be measurable and realistic manifestations of the organisation's mission statement. Usually, strategic objectives are developed as part of an organisation's two- to four-year plan. These objectives also guide management in decision- making.
On the other hand, an operational plan presents highly detailed information that directs employees in performing the day-to-day tasks and activities necessary in running the organisation. It presents information that both the management and staff can and should frequently refer to as they carry out their daily work. There are four key pieces of information that can be found in your operational plan. These are:
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Like strategic objectives, operational objectives set benchmarks for success. However, operational objects do so on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Operational objectives, which are also referred to as tactical objectives, are specifically designed to break down a strategic goal into workable tasks that organisational members can perform. For instance, a strategic goal of a 30 per cent increase in revenue would require the completion of several operational objectives, such as the development and execution of an effective advertising strategy.
Just like strategic objectives, operational objectives must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. The most significant difference between the two lies in the timeframe. While operational objectives are short-term goals that have a narrow focus, strategic objectives are long-term goals and are too broad to be used for daily operations. Despite this key difference, however, they are closely related and must be jointly used.
An organisation is unlikely to achieve a strategic objective if it fails to translate it into workable operational objectives effectively. Likewise, operational objectives will not be cohesive if they are not aligned with the strategic objectives. In other words, strategic objectives only become functional when they are translated into operational objectives, and operational objectives only become effective when they are designed to serve a strategic objective.
1.1.2 Operational Plan Models and Methods
Your operation plan concerns the specific procedures and processes that happen from the lowest level of the organisation. Given their detailed nature and broad usage, it is important to note the different operational plan models you can employ.
· Single-use Plans
As suggested by their name, these plans are intended to be used only once. Single-use plans involve activities that won't be repeated and have an expiration date.
Some examples of single-use plans include:
· Creating a monthly budget
· Developing an advertisement to boost product sales for the quarter
· Ongoing Plans
Plans that are designed for long-term use and built to withstand the test of time are called ongoing plans. Unlike single-use plans, these plans are intended to be used repeatedly. As such, ongoing plans are not fixed and would undergo changes when necessary.
Some examples of ongoing plans include:
· Outlining an employee's annual performance goals
· Setting your department’s annual sales goals
Likewise, there are key methods that you must remember to employ in the creation of your operational plan. These include:
· Project Evaluation Review Technique (PERT)
This method involves the use of charts and tools to visually represent the projected timeline of a project. PERT analyses the overall timeframe of a given project and goes into all its elements, identifying the time it would take to complete specific tasks. The main advantage of employing this method is that it allows for variations in planning.
· Critical Path Method (CPM)
This method considers the most crucial tasks in a given project that need to be performed for the project to be considered successful. It specifically considers the order in which tasks must be done and uses this information to determine the duration of the project. It focuses on the longest sequence of tasks in a given project – your critical path. This method enables you to plan sufficiently for the projected duration of your project and consider what you ought to do should there be delays.
1.1.3 Resource Requirements
There are three types of resources that should be considered when establishing an operational plan – human resources, physical resources, and services.
· Physical Resources
Physical resources are any resource that you can buy, feel and touch. To account for these, make a list of everything that you need and try to make a list of the costs of each. This can allow you to account for how much the production processes are likely to cost. The major types of resources, along with their associated costs, are as follows:
Major Types of Physical Resources
Resource
Description
Premises
Rent; rates; service costs (heating, lighting, cleaning, security) and structural alterations
Equipment
Costs of purchase, hire or lease; insurance, running costs (service, repair)
Vehicles
Costs of purchase, hire or lease; insurance, road tax; running costs (service, repair)
Raw Materials
Costs of purchase, cost of storage (any special requirements for refrigeration or hazardous substances)
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· Human Resources
Aside from the physical resources, you must also account for the cost of the people that exist within the organisation. You will be spending money on wages, salaries and other forms of remuneration – this may, in fact, be a huge part of your budgetary expenses. Even acquiring new employees can be a significant expense; you need to account for the costs of recruiting such as:
· Advertising in newspapers and other media
· The time and organisation associated with recruitment
· The cost of running interviews and associated testing
· Insurance
Each of these costs may be significant when you are introducing new processes, which may require new staff, into a business. Try to be as accurate as you can with any costing that you make. Look back on previous processes of recruitment and selection and attempt to determine how much they cost you.
· Services
Along with physical and human resources, services are the third type of resource requirement you must account for. This type of resources may be overlooked because most organisations source all their services internally (i.e. through in-house staff). However, outsourcing, which is the process of entrusting certain functions and processes to individuals from outside the company, is also a common practice that has proven to be effective and efficient. Some of the most commonly outsourced services include:
· Customer service and phone support
· Bookkeeping and accounting
· Tax filing and preparation
· Payroll processing
· Social media management
· Creative work (e.g. content writing, digital marketing campaigns)
· Computer programming, web design and optimisation
· Research and development
· Event management
· Human resources, hiring, training
· Engineering (e.g. architectural, electrical, structural or mechanical)
· Manufacturing and production
· Legal services
· Healthcare services
· Cleaning services
· Security
Your organisation may not require all these services listed above. However, these must be considered in your operational plan as necessary.
1.1.4 Other Considerations in Creating an Operational Plan
Along with your resource requirements, there are several other considerations you must make in creating your operational plan. Keeping these in mind will ensure the feasibility of your OP.
Capital
Now that you have an indication of the resources that you may need to make your plan a reality, it is time to determine exactly how much money you will need and how you might fund it. Financing the plan can be accomplished in several ways, so you need to look at the types of costs that make up your budget.
First, consider your fixed costs. This is the cost of actually acquiring the new equipment that you will need to make the plan happen. What land, buildings and machinery might you need? Then you need to consider those variable costs that allow you to actually put the plan into action on an ongoing basis. This might include wages, power, rent, telephone and any other working expense. These need to be covered by your initial financing until such a time that the organisation begins to pay its own way.
Your budget should be broken down into monthly or quarterly periods, which allow you to step back and look at how different times of the year may affect your expenses. Winter, for example, may require extra power for heating in the factory or shop. Training expenses are likely to be greatest during the first month or two, and after that, will reduce significantly.
Forecast the amount of money you expect to bring in monthly and compare this to your expenses. If you are not expecting to make a profit, this is capital that will need to be funded in some way to get the operation off the ground.
When you are preparing a new plan, you may want to paint as rosy a picture as you possibly can. You want people to say, ‘that looks great, let’s do it!’ However, from a business planning point of view, this can be a recipe for disaster. If you overpromise and underdeliver, you are going to be left wanting or needing more resources to actually get the plan back on track.
This means that it is better to be realistic about where you expect costs to be rather than promise too much and find yourself short of essential resources during the crucial initial months. Use your resources wisely and ensure that you have enough, so you do not find yourself seeking more.
Budget
A budget is a statement that represents estimated income and expenditure during a specific time period in the future. In an organisation, budgets are used to forecast the revenues and expenses based on set business goals. Given that such goals may change, budgets are usually compiled and re-evaluated periodically, and they undergo adjustments as necessary.
Essentially, the budget serves as management’s quantitative expression of organisational plans for an upcoming time period. You will find that different levels of the organisation are involved in preparing budgets. However, it is the master budget that serves as the overall financial plan for a specific time period. Within the master budget, there are two budgets necessary in operational planning. These are:
· Operating budget – the planned sales and operating sales of an organisation
· Financial budget – financing plans (e.g. borrowing, leasing, cash management)
If properly formulated, your budget can serve as a planning and control system of your organisation. This is because the budget documents both the goals and performance objectives of your organisation in financial terms. Through the implementation of your budget, your plans would then be utilised and monitored accordingly. For instance, the implementation of your annual budget would set your yearly plans and goals. To determine your relative success in achieving your set goals, your monthly reports would compare the budgeted results with the actual results you have come up with.
Budgeting is concerned with two major functions of management, namely planning and controlling. Your budget is a document that formalises your plan. However, as seen above, its use does not end once it has been formulated. Your budget is implemented periodically and is an effective means of controlling operations. Relating to the example in the previous paragraph, if a monthly report finds that the actual results during a month are not at par with budgeted results, management is likely to further investigate the situation and take the corrective actions necessary in controlling operations.
Timeframes
In developing an operational plan, two timeframes must be considered – current and projected (i.e. what will be needed in the future for a given period).
When you are writing an operational plan, it is important to consider several factors regarding your business. You might look at financial performance, market environment, inventory, the product mix that you are offering, and more. The products and services being offered are of particular importance to most plans. Businesses exist to sell products or services, so it is critical that you outline the way that an operational plan will impact how products or services are offered. A plan may involve new products being introduced, old products being discontinued or even the mix of products on offer being altered. If any of these are present in your plan, you need to examine the impact that they will have on the plan’s introduction.
You also need to convey information on each major issue that you foresee within the plan. The users of your plan want to know that you have carefully considered the implications of the plan and how they may impact on how the market perceives your products and services. It is, therefore, extremely important that you can demonstrate that you have considered these. Think about things such as personnel needs, resourcing requirements, changes to machinery, the need to employ contractors, and more. The more that you can detail to your end-user about the performance of your organisation and the way that the plan will impact on this performance, the more favourable the plan as a whole will seem.
1.2 Develop Operational Plan in Consultation with, and with Approval from, Relevant Stakeholders
Every organisation exists to create value for its stakeholders. To effectively determine what value is necessary, an organisation’s management must understand the needs, wants, and expectations of their stakeholders. Consultation is a process that enables management to effectively do this. In the process of developing your plan, it is therefore important to have a fundamental grasp of not only the content of your plan but also the process of consulting with your stakeholders in developing these.
1.2.1 Drafting the Operational Plan
An operational plan should exist for the same length of time as the strategic plan but should be reviewed regularly to make sure progress is being made towards achieving the objectives. If necessary, priorities can be revised.
The actual design and order of your plan may vary significantly from this, depending on the actual work that needs to be undertaken. In fact, in some organisations, they can be called ‘action plans,’ ‘annual plans,’ ‘management plans,’ or, as mentioned previously, ‘tactical plans.’
Additionally, your organisation may have a format of its own that they require you to use. If this is the case, you must comply. The business world can be a tremendously complex environment. When you consider that this environment is further complicated by continuous legislative change, the challenges of constructing, implementing and appropriately managing a plan over time cannot be understated. Seeking the advice of specialists can provide the knowledge and expertise that will assist you on the path to achievement.
Most organisations require that approval is gained before plans can be implemented. This approval may come from management teams, the board of directors or council. Organisations would also need to report to external authorities such as various regulatory or government agencies; for example, such as the Australian Taxation Office.
Policies, Practices, and Procedures
Developing an operational plan begins with understanding the organisation’s policies, practices and procedures that directly relate to the OP. These could include purchasing policies, policies relating to preferred suppliers, quality policies and many others. You will find many business policies and procedures on the simulated business website of Bounce Fitness by clicking on either the Policies or Procedures tabs.
Parts of an Operational Plan
Usually, a standard operational plan would include:
Strategies
How will the objectives in the strategic plan be achieved?
Actions
What are the key actions that need to be undertaken (in detail) to achieve each strategy? These should be prioritised to give an indication of which actions need to be completed at which stage of the plan.
Timeframes
What are the due dates for each action?Resources
What are the financial, material and human resource implications for the organisation?
Responsibility
Who is responsible for completing the actions?Performance indicators
How will you know if you have successfully completed each action?
Risk management
What is the possibility that elements of the plan will be unsuccessful? How can you manage this?Communication plan
How will the plan be communicated to ensure maximum benefit?Review of plan
How do you ensure that the plan remains current and will be monitored for progress?
Key Performance Indicators
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are an important element in your operational plan. KPIs are tools that are used to provide a quantitative measure of performance against predefined targets. They represent the critical factors that must be met for a project to be considered successful. The actual measures that you use may vary significantly from organisation to organisation, but there are some key measures which are commonly used, such as:
· Achievement of a certain level of sales
· Achievement of a certain level of customer satisfaction
· Achievement of a specific rate of return
Your KPIs need to be an accurate reflection of your organisation’s mission and vision. Without this alignment, you may find that you are unable to conclusively show that your plan is actually working in the interests of the organisation as a whole. In terms of timeframe, KPIs are not one-shot or short-term; they are generally medium to long term in nature. They need to align with organisational goals, be measurable and consistent, and have an element of being time-based. Let’s look at each of these statements in a little more detail:
· Align with Organisational Goals
Think about the overall organisational goals carefully. If your organisation has an overall goal of becoming a socially equitable organisation, you may have measures that examine charitable contributions reaching 5% of profit or environmental performance measures. An organisation whose principal focus is on being highly profitable will need measures of after-tax profit and shareholder equity. A non-profit will have different goals and indicators than a for-profit organisation. The KPIs must be relevant to the work the organisation is undertaking.
· Are Measurable
The value in any KPI is its ability to show you where you are working well and where problems exist. This can only be done by ensuring that each measure selected is quantifiable and can actually be measured in some way.
Saying that you want to be the most popular organisation in Australia is a lofty goal, but one which is not able to be easily quantified. Adding an actual measure such as ‘To have 95% of people in Australia recognise our logo’ is a goal that can be measured through survey methods.
· Are Consistent
KPIs must also be consistent. You cannot change the way you define profit from ‘before-tax profit’ to ‘after-tax profit’ on a whim as this will make a huge difference when it comes to comparing your results from year to year. KPIs should change as little as possible from one period to the next. Any change should be minor; if you are continually moving the bar, the organisation will have difficulty in actually reaching it, as all the plans behind the KPI will have to change to meet the new goals.
· Are Time-Based
Your KPIs must integrate the significant timeframes into their formation. These would include the long-term ones which concern overall goals and the short-term ones which are more project-based. There is no point in coming up with KPIs if these are not bound by time. If you do not have set deadlines for meeting your targets, you cannot effectively measure them. Therefore, you must give great consideration to time and factor it in as you write your KPIs.
Aside from setting KPIs that are SMART, you may also like to note alternative approaches for writing effective KPIs. These include:
After having developed an effective set of KPIs for your organisation – ones that align with organisational goals and are measurable, consistent and time-based – you can begin the process of measuring and evaluating your overall performance. The KPIs give both the employees and management within your organisation clear guidance regarding where you are headed and what you ought to do to be successful. They should be displayed prominently so that all staff are kept abreast of what they need to do to achieve the organisational objectives. This allows you to ensure that everything your team does is focused on meeting or exceeding those KPIs.
1.2.2 Recruitment and Induction Strategies
Two processes central to human resource management, recruitment and induction, ought to be outlined in your operational plan. It is vital that your plan has set guidelines on how you intend to recruit and induct employees, and you use these to check if your current processes are indeed at par with the standards you have set.
Employee Recruitment
Much has changed in terms of the methods of recruiting and hiring employees. Likewise, the strategies you must employ to ensure that you hire the best and most fit people have evolved. Of these, here are a number that you ought to consider:
· Your employer brand
One of the most fundamental methods of ensuring that you attract excellent applicants is ensuring that you have a compelling and attractive brand. Before you even begin to recruit new employees, ensure that you know what your company stands for and what makes it stand out. Highlight and bank on these. Among all the recruitment strategies, this is the most difficult and expensive one. It costs a great deal of money to improve and maintain excellent company branding. However, there is a great return on investment for this.
· Insights and data
The technological advancements of today have empowered people to be more data- driven, and this is something you can use to your advantage during your recruitment process. Use application tracking systems to track metrics such as application completion rate, candidate response rate, qualified candidate rate, cost and time per hire to understand and analyse your potential candidates. Moreover, focus on the insights you find and use these to improve your processes.
· Innovation
In relation to the last strategy, it is important to be open to innovation in all aspects, including recruitment. For instance, some organisations have replaced the commonplace full recruitment process with simplified versions by skipping the CVs and proceeding with tests. This skill-based approach saves time and resources while still remaining relevant and at par with set policies and regulations.
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· Job postings
There are many ways to strategically improve your job postings. For one, ensure that you are maximising your available platforms. Look into niche job boards where you can more specifically target the kind of candidates you want to attract. You should also ensure that the postings themselves are well-written, concise, and compelling. Make it easy to read, in line with your brand, and interesting for your potential candidates. Provide just the right amount of information to pique their interest without overburdening them.
· Passive candidates
Passive candidates are those people who may not be presently seeking jobs but have the skills and experiences that you seek. Instead of keeping them at bay, make it a point to engage with them. They may not apply for your company right now, but they may eventually reach out to you and seek work. Likewise, you may never know if they would want to leave their current jobs for your company and are just looking for the right opportunity to do so.
· Employee referral
Seeking new employees through your present employees may prove to be an effective recruitment strategy. This banks on the fact that your employees themselves are living, breathing brand ambassadors who know and understand your company from the inside out. Moreover, your employees would know their peers well enough to acknowledge if they would be a good fit for your company. Setting up an employee referral policy that includes bonuses for your employees may be a great way to encourage your employees to make referrals.
· Interviews
Interviews are a central aspect of your recruitment process that must constantly be improved. Too often, candidates who liked both the role and organisation that they applied for would not continue with their application if they did not particularly enjoy their interview experience. To avoid this, train your interviewers to speak with confidence and engage potential applicants. Likewise, ensure that the questions involved in your interview are all meaningful and avoid cookie-cutter ones.
· Past applicants and employees
Reaching out to past applicants and employees may be a strategy not often considered. However, there may be times when your most ideal candidate failed to make the cut for circumstances that neither of you could’ve controlled. Instead of closing your doors completely, open yourself up to the idea of reaching out to past applicants who fit the criteria but simply didn’t make the cut before or had other reasons for declining an offer in your company as well as past employees who left the company in good terms and has likely enhanced their professional experience since they left. Among your potential applicants, these are most likely to pass your standards. Moreover, their background with your company will enable easier hiring and induction.
Induction Programs
When a new employee starts in an organisation, they must be allowed to take part in an effective induction process. This would have several benefits for both the employee and the organisation.
An effective induction process helps ensure that new employees:
· Become productive more quickly
· Comprehend the policies and procedures of the organisation
· Understand the performance standards of their job
· Stay with the organisation (reduced turnover)
· Recognise the health and safety issues relevant to their workplace
· Understand the organisational culture.
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Induction programs must be structured in such a way that they allow employees to receive the information they require when they start working. Some organisations have a documented induction process, and this includes the provision of induction manuals and copies of relevant policies and procedures.
Each induction program must specifically be designed to suit the needs of both the organisation and the new employee. However, the following matters are usually covered in an induction program:
· Introduction by team leader or direct manager, to team members and other employees
· Organisational chart
· Organisational culture
· Team roles and responsibilities
· Standard operating procedures (SOPs), performance standards and expectations of new employee
· Organisational guidelines which govern and prescribe operational functions such as the acquisition and management of human and physical resources
· Undocumented practices in line with organisational practices
· Work times
· Business layout
· Security issues and access
· WHS procedures
It is vital to ensure that you are aware of your organisation’s induction process before new employees start. By inducting your employees properly, you will find that they contribute more effectively to your team.
On the website of the simulated business of Bounce Fitness, you will find a wide range of recruitment and induction documents under the tabs Policies, Procedures and Documents.
Further Reading
The Fair Work Commission is an independent body that regulates employment conditions and focuses its efforts on work-related concerns of employees. You may visit their site to learn more about the FWC and ensure that your recruitment and induction processes are aligned with their standards.
Fair Work Ombudsman
1.2.3 Purpose of Consultation
Anyone who is developing a plan ought to consult with everyone that would be affected by it. This is because consultation plays a three-fold purpose. This is:
· To invite stakeholders to inform management what value they want (i.e. their needs, wants and expectations) so the organisation can determine how to provide this value;
· To invite stakeholders to comment on management plans which provide the value stakeholders are seeking; and
· To address any concerns that stakeholders may still have and that management has not taken into account when developing its strategic and operational plans.
It is widely acknowledged that a plan made without proper consultation with stakeholders is likely to fail. If you formulate an operational plan without consultation, you are putting your organisation at a disadvantage for two reasons. First, bypassing the consultation process is essentially failing to take advantage of all the knowledge and expertise available and relevant to you. Second, failing to consult with your stakeholders would make them feel left out. This would create negativity toward the emerging plan. Moreover, it could ultimately endanger the relationships you have with your stakeholders.
For instance, formulating a budget for a department without consulting with the employees within that department may be pointless. How would you know that you are not allocating too much or too little funds? Likewise, you should not construct a plan for a new program without consulting with the people who would be the users of this program. If you do, you are in danger of wasting your time, energy and resources for a plan that might not be executed or received well.
1.2.4 Determining Your Relevant Stakeholders
In the process of consulting with your stakeholders, you must first determine who you must reach out to. Consultation should include all relevant personnel, namely:
· Colleagues
· Specialist resource managers
· Employees at the same level
· More senior managers and other managers
· Work health and safety committee/s
· Other people with specialist responsibilities
· Supervisors
· Union or employee representatives
Among these stakeholders, the first two merit further discussion. Your colleagues consist of your workmates. Of all the people listed above, these are likely to be most relevant to you because they will be the ones who would be most affected by your operational plan. The plan you develop would likely affect their daily work life. On the other hand, specialist resource managers are trained specialists with knowledge and expertise in seeking resources. They will be the ones you reach out to as you acquire resource requirements for your operational plan.
1.2.5 Determining Communication Channels
Consultation is an active process in which management engages with its stakeholders through various communication channels. These channels include:
· Focus groups – selected stakeholders would be invited to attend a meeting or a series of meetings to discuss relevant matters.
· Invitation to send a written response – stakeholders would be invited to submit their comments and suggestions in writing.
· Informal meetings – during social gatherings, management would mingle with stakeholders and seek out their insights.
· Open meetings – stakeholders would be invited to attend an open meeting (i.e. a meeting that is open to all) to discuss relevant matters.
· Surveys – stakeholders would be asked to complete a survey (i.e. in writing or online).
· Email/intranet communications, newsletters, or other processes and devices that would provide employees with the opportunity to contribute to both team and individual operational plans
· Mechanisms that could be used to give feedback to the work team in relation to outcomes of the consultation
· Interviews, brainstorming sessions
1.2.6 Escalation Points
In any undertaking, there will always be problems and issues that would arise. When these occur in the process of developing your operational plan, the necessity for escalation may emerge. By definition, escalation is the process of bringing up an issue to a higher authority. It is a proactive risk communication technique that seeks quick resolution by reaching out to the necessary persons atop the hierarchy.
For the most part, escalation is perceived negatively, and this is mostly because of the potential backlash it can have on the person who escalates an issue. However, it may be necessary, especially when an issue is taking too long to be resolved and the delay this causes ends up affecting other activities in the project. Some scenarios when it is most necessary to escalate an issue include:
· Unclear decision-making
At times, the decision-making process may not be clear. This would especially be apparent when there is an overlap in the decisions that need to be made. During these moments, it is best to escalate your concern to your supervisors or higher-ups.
· Unbreakable silos
The silo mentality refers to the unwillingness to cooperate with other teams outside one's own. This can be a barrier to achieving results when you need to collaborate with people outside your team, but they refuse to. When this happens, it is best to reach out to these people's direct supervisor or line management.
· Uncontrollable changes
There would be times when a stakeholder would demand changes that are too difficult or too many to handle. When this happens, you may be not only overwhelmed but also unable to keep up, realistically speaking. As such, it is best to escalate this concern to your bosses so they themselves can speak to your stakeholders.
· Unrealistic expectations
Similar to the situation above, sometimes your stakeholders may be expecting more than you can ever hope to deliver. If you are unable to manage their expectations yourself, it may be time to escalate this problem to your bosses so they can do so themselves.
· Unmanageable politics
Politics is inevitable in every project and organisation. When you are fortunate, this won't impact you negatively and would work to your advantage. However, at times, the power play may directly impede the progress of your project. Escalating this kind of issue may be tricky because you might end up surrounded by people who are on the same side. In such situations, you must tread carefully. Reach out to your supervisor and ensure that in your escalation, you present and stick to the facts.
1.2.7 Presenting Your Plan
To enable your stakeholders to understand key issues and how these should impact on the organisation, a presentation of your plan is necessary. This provides an opportunity for feedback and adjustments before final submission. During your presentation, verbal agreement or ‘agreement in principle’ can often be reached; this would then be subject to adjustments. It is important to remember that both style and substance are important in gaining approval. As such, the way in which you present your plan may greatly affect its likelihood to be approved.
Operational plans must be formally signed off by people with the delegated authority. Signed copies should then be kept on file as formal records and be provided to the parties responsible for implementing the plan.
1.2.8 Information Sources
Throughout the development and presentation of your plan, you will need to make use of key information sources. These will enable you to come up with an operational plan that is relevant to your organisation. Some of the sources you must take note of include:
· Resource requirement specialist
This kind of specialist will help you with the process of determining the resources you would need for your operational plan. Their expertise would ensure that you are able to effectively and efficiently acquire your resources.
· Business records
It is important to always look back at your existing records to find key figures and trends. Such data would help you come up with a feasible plan that is grounded on the right information.
· Marketing data
Along with internal records, it is vital that you do your research on current trends and developments in the industry and the market relevant to your business. This will ensure that the operational plan you develop is up-to-date and significant in the bigger picture.
· Other specialists
Finally, it pays to consider the help of other subject experts who can give advice on specific aspects of your plan. These would include the likes of your financial and business analysts.
1.3 Develop Contingencies for Operational Plan
No matter how foolproof you think your plan is, there will always be circumstances you cannot completely avoid or prepare for. To address these, it is important to develop contingency plans.
Planning is all about looking at what you want to happen and making sure that it does. No matter how well you make your plan, there will always be issues that crop up that will take you off track and things that you need to work on to make sure that you achieve all your goals. Since a plan involves matters that have not happened yet, they also include areas where you have...