Continuous Improvement And Performance Management Essay.

Implementing Continuous Improvement Systems

Evidence of the ability to:

? Implement continuous improvement systems and provide mentoring and coaching support to enable individuals and teams to participate in decisions, take responsibility, show initiative and implement improvement processes

? Implement processes to inform team members about savings and productivity/service improvements achievements

? Communicate effectively to support the continuous improvement system and implementation of improvements

? Apply continuous improvement to customer services including internal and external customers

? Implement, monitor and adjust improvement plans, processes and procedures to improve performance

? Document performance to identify further opportunities for improvement

? Manage records and reports within the organisation’s systems and procedures.

Knowledge Evidence

To complete the unit requirements safely and effectively, the individual must:

? Give examples of continuous improvement processes

? List typical areas of need for coaching and mentoring to support continuous improvement

? Explain how change management techniques can support continuous improvement and initiative

? Identify the organisation’s systems and data that can be used for benchmarking and monitoring performance for continuous improvement.

Assessment Conditions

Assessment must be conducted in a safe environment where evidence gathered demonstrates consistent performance of typical activities experienced in the management and leadership field of work and include access to:

? Relevant workplace documentation and resources

? Case studies and, where possible, real situations

? Interaction with others. Assessors must satisfy NVR/AQTF

Implement systems to ensure that individuals and teams are actively encouraged and supported to participate in decision making processes, assume responsibility and exercise initiative

Communicate the organisation's continuous improvement processes to individuals and teams, and obtain feedback

Ensure effective mentoring and coaching allows individuals and teams to implement the organisation's continuous improvement processes

Implement systems to ensure that individuals and teams are actively encouraged and supported to participate in decision making processes, assume responsibility and exercise initiative

There will always be a number of strategies that can be implemented in any organisational or business environment to provide a system of continuous improvement. Continuous improvement is known as the process by which a company or organisation improves their practices and processes to stay ahead of the market and competitors alike.

An effective continuous improvement process will allow everyone to get involved, thereby giving staff and managers a chance to take ownership and responsibility for the continual improvement within the organisation.

Delivery (customer valued) processes are constantly evaluated and improved in the light of their efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility.

Some successful implementations use the approach known as Kaizen (the translation of kai (“change”) zen (“good”) is “improvement”). This method became famous by the book of Masaaki Imai “Kaizen: The Key to Japan's Competitive Success.”

? The core principle of CIP is the (self) reflection of processes. (Feedback)

? The purpose of CIP is the identification, reduction, and elimination of suboptimal processes. (Efficiency)

? The emphasis of CIP is on incremental, continuous steps rather than giant leaps. (Evolution) Key features of Kaizen:

? Improvements are based on many, small changes rather than the radical changes that might arise from Research and Development

? As the ideas come from the workers themselves, they are less likely to be radically different, and therefore easier to implement

? Small improvements are less likely to require major capital investment than major process changes

? The ideas come from the talents of the existing workforce, as opposed to using R&D, consultants or equipment – any of which could be very expensive

? All employees should continually be seeking ways to improve their own performance

? It helps encourage workers to take ownership for their work, and can help reinforce team working, thereby improving worker motivation

Ask the participants to discuss the following questions;

What other factors can influence performance in a working environment? Why would these situation influence performance and how can they be best managed?

There are many factors like stress, heavy workload, inadequate resources, poor leadership from the management, outdated technology, harassment, discrimination in terms of gender and age and many more.

These situations can influence the performance of the employee in many ways. Modern work place demands greater output and effort that leads to unwanted pressure and stress. The work place with high stress level will prove detrimental to employee performance.  Inadequate resources and outdated technology can be a major problem in coping up with modern solution and demand of modern technologies. Poor management of the company can lead to conflict between the management and the employees affecting the output of the employees. Harassment and discrimination on the basis of gender and age are never desired in a workplace. This kind of discrimination can have a serious impact on the performance of the employees.

These situation can be managed with adequate communication and training of the employees in the workplace. Proper management and rules of the workplace can avert those instances.  Workload management and adequate allocation of resources to the employees can also improve the performance of the employees. Motivation can be a great way to enhance the performance of the employees. Motivation can include monetary benefits or appraisals or recognition in the work place.      

Brainstorm ideas and come up with suggestions for systems that your organisation can put into place to monitor and review the performance of its staff.

There can be many ways that the organization can implement for better monitor and review of the performance of its staff.

• Preparing of daily report by every employee and submitting it in every 5-7 days to the manager can highlight the performance of the employees.
• Revamping the rules and regulations of the company like mandatory shift timings and revising the daily and monthly targets can also affect the output of the employees.
• Communication can be major factor in creating a good and efficient work culture in the workplace. Communication between the employees and the management can help to clarify doubts, conflicts and also impose good environment.
• Every team should have a manager assigned with for closely monitoring the output of every individual of team and also clearing any doubts and difficulties faced by the employees.
• Appropriate appraisal and recognition is required to motivate the employees for better output in the workplace.

What systems can be implemented to assist with planning and improvements?

Planning and improvements can be assessed by the data collected by individual tracker maintained by each employee. Feedback form can also help to assess the areas needs to be improved in the workplace. Encouraging the employees to report any discomfort or conflicts can also help in the workplace.

Objective To give participants an opportunity to brainstorm who the customers are in their organisation.

Activity Ask the participants to brainstorm the following;

Who are the internal and external clients are in your organisation?

Internal clients or customers are the people in the organization like stake holder, employees and managers. External clients are the consumers or any other organization availing the services and the products of the parent organization.

Coaching and Mentoring Individuals and Teams

Internal:

• Stake holders- They are the main clients or backbone of any organization.
• Employees- Employees are like partners to any organization providing services to deliver services and products.
• Management- They are the connecting points or pillars between employees and the stakeholders for better services.   

External:

• Consumers are the external clients of any organization. They affect the total financial condition of any organization. Clients’ money is paid back to the employees and the management in the form of salaries and bonuses.
• Client can be an individual person or a group of people or any organization seeking the services and the products of the company

Objective To give participants an opportunity to brainstorm who the customers are in their organisation.

Activity Individually or in pairs, ask the participants to research the following;

Research CPD or CPE (Continuing Professional Education Points) for various industries, your own industry or an industry you are interested in working in.

Well organised and perfectly delivered continuing professional development is always important so that it can deliver benefits to the individual, their profession and the clients as well.

CPD evaluates every individual’s capabilities comparing with other employee’s current standard and pace. It ensures that every individual in the organization has the desired and adequate knowledge and skills that helps in delivering professional services and behaviour to the clients. CPD helps the employees to be interested in the current working conditions and work involved in. It also helps in the advancement of knowledge and technology in the professional field.

If your organisation is not required to be involved in this process, how can you implement something similar to make sure that your staff are constantly learning and maintaining their knowledge base?

There can be many ways to make the staffs engaged in constant learning and maintaining the knowledge by continuous evaluation of individual employee in terms of output and ability to handle crunch situation. Continuous engagement with the employees and effective communication can help in understanding of the  

What does Customer Service mean to you?

Proper customer service means having a thorough knowledge of different inventory, experience of different types of products and most importantly having the ability to select the best choice for the customers that suits them.  Good customer service will also involve treating the customers with a friendly attitude. This may include talking with the customers in a friendly and appropriate manner that will help them feel better and will enhance the reputation of the particular organization. It also means to stay positive and always in the mood to help the customers in every way possible. This applies for business of all types of nature be it large scale, medium scale or small scale in stature. Additionally a proper customer service enables the organization to provide a solid impression to the customers which can help them attract more and more people to their business. Last but not the least in any way it will also enhance the needs for the customer and help in the solving pf different problems quite easily.

Implementing Improvement Plans

Objective To give participants an opportunity to develop a questionnaire and plan of action for communication.

Activity Individually or in pairs, ask the participants to complete the following;

Use the space provided to develop a questionnaire or survey that you can put together for both internal and external customers to check for satisfaction in customer service.

Will you purchase again from here the next time?

Develop a system to communicate the findings to the relevant staff – are you going to communicate this via newsletter, regular meetings, company meetings, client visits etc. Detail the plan of action below also.

As and When needed Just an informal communication mechanism to determine whether the communication related activities are effective enough to get a detailed assessment of the understanding and the awareness of different types of commercial issues Directorate of HR & Corporate Services Director of Customer Care & Performance A certain percentage of people said that they understood the following and they believed the communication to be effective and important in nature

Half Yearly To identify and verify whether the needs and desires of the stakeholders of the company are being met or not Director of HR and Manager of Operations A certain percentage of people said that they understood the following and they believed the communication to be effective and important in nature

Every Month Solicit the feedback of the different kinds of effectiveness of the present set of communication mechanism All the different supervisors and Manager A certain percentage of people said that they understood the following and they believed the communication to be effective and important in nature

Daily To get an idea about the effectiveness and use of the communication models that are being practiced in the organization Directors and managers of HR and customer service and the employee relationship manager A certain percentage of people said that they understood the following and they believed the communication to be effective and important in nature

Objective To give participants an opportunity to brainstorm ideas for improvements in their organisations.

Activity Ask the participants to complete the following;

Brainstorm some ideas for implementing processes to inform staff of productivity and service improvements in your organisation.

Some of the main ideas that can be of real help includes the likes of;

a.Provide both fresh training as well as on the job training to improve productivity

b.Practice the decision making techniques on a regular basis

Documentation for Identifying Further Opportunities for Improvement

c.Provide adequate training to the employees and enhance their skills of public speaking to make the most of speaking clearly in a public speaking area

d.Provide training in specialized communication skills

e.Providing regular updates on the development of the different types of productivity skills to motivate them and help them perform in a much better way

Answer the following questions;

Has your company or a company you have ever worked for managed change management in a positive way? What made it positive?

I have earlier worked in an IT company in the post of senior Human Resource Manager. The company management has introduced changes or has implement development in the organization when I was a new joiner. The initial process of the change management saw a number of hurdles including a strict opposition from the union.

However I experienced an able leadership in the form of the Operational and communication manager who sat with the opposition parties against the following developmental process and came out with a positive solution to the business. The following steps helped the organization to be the best in the business. The change was accepted in a proper and effective way which made the employees happy.

Has your company or a company you have worked for managed change in a negative way? What do you think the company did wrong? What could they have done to improve the way in which change was managed?

The company which currently employs me had once tried to implement a change process in the management which was a total failure.

The management of the company could have taken a positive step by implementing a proper strategy after consultation from some leading experts in the same field.

Objective To give you an opportunity to discuss the PMP (or similar) process at your workplace.

Activity Discuss whether your organisation has a PMP or similar process in place. If so, is it beneficial to staff? If not, do you think it would be beneficial to have one in place? Why or why not?

Yes my organization has a PMP process in place.

Yes it is beneficial for the staff. The PMP process is beneficial for the company because;

a.Ensures a higher pay for the employees

b.Provides great networking potential

c.Helps the seniors to train others

d.Provides better and greater job opportunities

e.Helps in the effective evaluation of the potential employees and the team members i the Company

Managing Records and Reports within the Organization's Systems and Procedures

Objective To give you an opportunity to discuss record keeping processes (or similar) process at your workplace.

Activity In pairs or small groups, discuss the following;

Does your organisation have a record keeping procedure in place? If so, do you feel it is working well?

Good Record keeping is an essential part of the running a successful business. Different types of accurate and organized records make it easier and quicker to prepare the different accounts at the yearend or daily and monthly. These types of information contain data about the salary and the dividends received by the employees are present in this particular form of data.

Yes my present organization is maintaining a proper and effective record keeping procedure in the business which has been the pillars for the success of the business. Some of the steps are;

a.Knowing exactly when and what to record

b.Receipts

c.Installing the latest and perfect applications

d.Separation of the business and financial services

What records are you required maintaining for your organisation?

There are different records that must be kept by the organization to ensure proper entry of the records. The recordkeeping art can be said to as a normal statement. The presence of different types of the records includes License to carry the business, funding, selection and spending of funds. Apart from this other small and large records including the likes of financial requirement and has to abide by the Corporation Provide Act of 2001.

Can you think of a better way to keep accurate records?

A better way to keep accurate rewards includes the likes of digitalizing the records which will see the proper and effective way to keep accurate records and also to ensure the safety of the data.  

Is your organisation using version control in managing records, reports and documents? If so, is it an efficient system?

Yes the organization has been using version control to maintain and keep records. The impact by which it accepts the program of the business helps in the performance of the most anticipated forms of the business.

If not, do you see the benefit in using such a system?

There are lots of benefits using different systems. This includes the different programs and the proper and effective performance from the employees and the improvement in the operational efficiency of the organization.

Estimated Time 60 Minutes

Objective To provide you with an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge of the required skills, knowledge and critical aspects of assessment.

Knowledge Evidence

Activity Complete the following individually and attach your completed work to your workbook.

The answers to the following questions will enable you to demonstrate your knowledge of:

?Reading

?Writing

?Oral Communication

?Navigate the world of work

?Interact the work of others

?Continuous improvement processes

?Typical areas of need for coaching and mentoring to support continuous improvement

?Change management techniques and how they can support continuous improvement and initiative

?Organisation’s systems and data that can be used for benchmarking and monitoring performance for continuous improvement.

Think of an existing problem in your workplace which can be streamlined and / or improved upon, in terms of fluidity and ease, in order to secure and maintain the smooth flowing of the business. Create a report detailing the issue you have selected and your proposition for a solution. Write a paragraph explaining an effective and enjoyable method of introducing your solution to your colleagues.

For the last few months there has been a problem existing in the workplace which has changed the performance of the management in my company. The HR management has been short of staffs for the last few days and the management has not yet taken any recruitment drive to provide employment opportunities to new people. The absence of HR department has crippled the company as staffs were facing lots of different problems. The following issue was streamlined by the management in just a few days by changing the whole pattern of recruitment and ensuring the change process in the business. The following change was made by the organization by arranging regular meetings with the staff and the people involved in the change. The management provided all the different types of the training needed for the employees to help them cope better with the new system of change.

The following change was effective and enjoyable in nature as the employees were much responsive after the initial round of problems. The change project was successful because of the positive involvement of the employees and their positive response.

Objective To provide you with an opportunity to revise the unit.

Activity This is a major activity – your instructor will let you know whether you will complete it during class or in your own time.

Attach your completed answers to the workbook.

You must individually, answer the following questions in full to show your competency of each element:

1.Implement continuous improvement systems and processes

Assessment Conditions

2.Monitor and review performance

3.Provide opportunities for further improvement

Use your workplace to assist in this or a work place that you are familiar with to answer the following questions and generate a report from your answers.

1)In order to ensure successful continuous improvement, all departments within an organisation should be involved. Why does the involvement of all departments contribute to successful improvement and what is a possible issue of a failure to achieve this?

The involvement of all the departments of the organization is necessary for the business as because proper integration and adaption of all the departments can result into a combined workforce. The sharing of the different types of necessary information among the departments will help the Company to be one of the best in the organization.

The possible issues of failure includes;

a.Problems with the employees

b.Employee disengagement

c.Union problems

d.Lack of coordination can also lead to the failure of the problems in the organization.

2)What are three ways of obtaining feedback from staff, regarding a recent change or improvement?

The senior managers of the organization can implement a number of different types of strategies to gain the feedback from the employees. This includes the likes of;

a.Face to face communication

b.Online Communication

c.Meetings and Conferences

d.Telephonic conversations

3)Note the beneficial effects of workplace coaches / mentors who are:

?Trustworthy

?Familiar with principles

?Experienced within their own role

The beneficial roles of the workplace leaders or coaches matches with all the three characteristics provided above. The leaders are trustworthy and adapted to different roles in the organization. The employees can trust them in any different tasks including that of super complex tasks. Apart from that the ability of the mentors to get an idea of all the different rules and regulations makes them more special. All the junior employees can turn to him to inspire themselves from the hard work done by them. They are also quite experienced about their own role in the organization. Their own role in the organization helps them in their personal career and also helps the organization to be the very best in terms of productivity in the market.

4)How could you use the organisation’s own existing systems and technology to ensure that all staff have received their required training?

The passage of time is ensuring the growth of new technologies and the acceptance of new methods to strengthen the productivity of the organizations. More and more organizations have been vying for a proper and effective training for the employees. The successful training program can be ensured by;

Factors Affecting Performance in a Working Environment

a.Training courses must be matched with specific roles of individual teams

b.Encouragement of corporate based culture

c.Getting regular feedback

d.Aligning training with the different type of corporate goals

e.Measurement of the different results of training

5)How can the company ensure that they are providing the best possible customer service?

There are different ways to ensure the providence of the best customer service in the organization. This includes the likes of;

1.Respond as quickly as possible

2.Having a thorough and proper knowledge of the different customers

3.The management must fix the different issues present in the business

4.Thinking long term or ensuring the sustainability of the business

6)What possible negative effects could be caused by communicating recommendations to a particular individual or department within your organisation and how could you avoid this?

The negative effects to change in the management process may cause from ;

a.Job Loss

b.Poor communication and engagement

c.Absence of trust

d.Absence of proper timing

7)Why could not handling change in a good way, damage a business?

   The handling of the change management in a good and effective manner can help the business to avoid any damage from both internal as well as external organizations. The change can be managed properly by means of;

1.Overcoming stiff opposition from the employees in a proper manner

2.Making the employees aware of the positives that their work would generate from the following change

3.Engaging the employees in the change management process

4.Communicating the changes each and every time which helps to avoid any form of disputes and misunderstanding

8)Suggest a method of documenting work performance among staff and describe how it may be implemented.

The work performance of an employee can be maintained in a work performance appraisal. Different types of appraisal represent summary of an ongoing, year round dialogue.

The effective workplace performance management can be maintained by;

a.The alignment of the individual employees day to day actions

b.Documenting the progress of tasks of an employee

c.Documenting the skill level improvement of the organization

d.Creation of documentation for legal purposes to support decisions and reduce disputes

9)Why is it important to keep a record of who has accessed files and when? How could you implement this?

It is utmost important to keep records of everything because the files and documents that will be assessed in the organization will be needed every time as and when needed. The record maintenance of these files will be helpful for the organization to identify the different needs of the organization whenever needed.

Monitoring and Reviewing Staff Performance

The following plan can be implemented by means of maintaining a proper computer record. Thus all such documents have to be digitalised and different backups for such files must be maintained both in a hard copy as well as a soft copy.

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