Case Study On The Annual Christmas Party: Incident Report And Evaluation

Incident report based on the case study: The Annual Christmas Party

Discuss about theCase Study On The Annual Christmas Party.

The purpose of the incident report is to incorporate the professional skills based on self-experiences. The evaluation will be based on the various theories, strategies and concepts of the professional skills. Below is the description of the incident on the basis of three step analysis:

The Smith Family is engaged in providing teaching and educational services to the young children as well as their parents. In one of the Christmas parties, it is a common observation that apart from the invited guests like children and their parents, there were other people as well who were not specifically invited. Father Christmas was expected to arrive by a prime mover that was being parked outside the playground area. This car park usually created a threat for the children and might attract any kind of risk or accident. There was lack of any kind of safety measures for the volunteers as well. It is important to provide adequate health and safety measures for the volunteers who are responsible for taking care of the prime mover. According to the Workplace Health and Safety or WHS laws, it is equally important to ensure that the volunteers are given adequate safety as well as mental health in the workplace.

As the volunteers were responsible for driving the prime mover from the parking area to inside it is important that the volunteers are given the proper safety and precaution in the work place. In order to ensure the safety and precaution of the volunteers the practitioners should have certain skills in order to ensure that the workers can work under proper care. Few important skill sets required for taking acre of the volunteers include investigating the incident and identifying the typical reasons for the reason of the accident. It depends on the skills of the person to identify the hazards that are associated with the particular incident and determine various ways of dealing with the same. For the particular incident the most important skill required is to train the volunteers in order to ensure that the volunteers are well aware of the duties that they have to perform.

It is important that each and every person in a particular event should be safe and secured in terms of their health and security. It is the volunteers who are responsible for maintaining the safety and security of the guests or the people who arrive at the event. At the same time, it is equally important to ensure that the volunteers are also given the right protection that their health and safety is maintained and they feel secured at the workplace (Queenslandshows.org.au 2016). In order to ensure that the work and practices have been done appropriately, it is important that each volunteer is given adequate training on the incidents in order to ensure that they are well aware of the job that they would do and that they would be able to overcome any accidental injury. It is important that the volunteers understand the use of the equipment and the way those are used. For instance, “All staff should be motivated and empowered to work safely and to protect their long-term health, not simply to avoid accidents.” is the statement that has been taken from the Australian guide of health and safety that actually shows the importance of training and guiding the volunteers for the sake of dealing with the situation rightly and to avoid any kind of accident (Safeworkaustralia.gov.au 2018).

What?

The strategies that can be used for developing the skills are by improving my knowledge by reading more books and journal articles on the health and safety manuals. For any particular organisation, it would be useful if a workplace health and safety plan is created and the same is followed for the organisation. This plan has to be followed considering the need of the health and safety of the employees and other stakeholders in the organisation. For doing so, the workplace safety need has to be identified and then the necessary plan of action is made to create a safer environment for the people. Training the employees also fall under this strategy (McLinton et al. 2018). It is important to develop the leadership skills as well in order to guide and direct the employees or the volunteers. In order to do so, it is expected that the strategies like involving in seminars to understand the perspective of the lecturer and by the increased application of the knowledge in the practical filed is the foremost important factor that can be used as the strategies to develop the skills. Coming up with a personal development plan and planning each and every step accordingly so as to meet the expectation or the outcome of the entire situation will prove to be relevant as a health and safety practitioner (Bailey et al. 2015). More likely, reading incidental stories and understanding the action made by the leaders at the particular moment can also help in understanding the situation and how the leaders react in those situations. It is expected that if these processes are followed thoroughly, the outcome would be better and I will be able to develop my skills as well.  

I wish to work for a non-profit organisation in future in order to understand the importance of the volunteers in the lives of the people. So, I interviewed an HR of a small NGO in Australia near my locality. His name was Mr. Paul (changed name). On asking the most important skills required in this field, it has been noted that the HR manager is responsible for the role of a leader and thus his or her position in the organisation becomes very critical when it comes of the leadership approach. For this, the most important skills required are good communication abilities, high level of negotiation with the employees and the other stakeholders of the organisation. Decision making ability is another important skill that is important for the leadership in NGOs as the organisation might come across any kind of issue or difficulties at any point of time that requires immediate action and the correct decision making ability and thus, it is the most important skill required. Apart from this, the NGOs have to deal with many clients for various purposes and so influencing skills is equally required at some point of time.

So, what?

On asking how Mr Paul rated himself in these skills, the HR responded that he has very good communication skills that have helped him in various ways in dealing with internal and external stakeholders. As his work is mainly concerned with understanding the current issues and then working on the same in order to resolve the issue, it is important to understand the perspective of others and so a good communication skill is the foremost important skill needed. He also exclaimed that he had good decision making abilities as well and can promptly take actions in every situation. However, he ranked himself lower when it came to the negotiation and influencing skills as he exclaimed that in order to influence a person, it is very important to understand the psychology of the person and then act accordingly and at times he failed to do so as it is difficult to understand the thinking process or the psychology of a person.

On asking how he developed these skills within himself and what advice he wanted to give to the graduating students entering his field, he answered that the communication skills are actually learnt in childhood and decision making abilities develop from time to time with gradual experiences. However, these skills can be easily improved by other means as well. For instance, communication skills require a person to be humble and polite and to be attentive enough to understand the perspective of the other person and then communicate accordingly. Likewise, decision making abilities also require certain values and norms to be followed. While making any decision, it is important to understand the present and the future consequences of those decisions and then make the valid reasons for making those decisions. Keeping these instances into consideration, the future students can be advised that they should develop their communication, decision making and even the negotiation techniques by facing various situations. As a student, it is advisable to read various books or journals and understand the incident and the decision made by the leader at the particular situation. The stories that have unsuccessful outcome with a correct lesson can be of very helpful in order to deal with the major decisions in life and career.

Any candidate who wished to join this module will be given certain advices. The first and foremost important factor that the candidates should understand is the importance of risk management. The health and safety learning always creates a situation where the ability of a person to deal at the situation of risk matters the most. The decision making ability of the person must be so strong that the person will be able to judge a situation properly and can act with the right decision. In order to make sure that the situation is under control, it is equally important to develop the communication skills of the person. The newly joined candidates must be smart and courageous enough to understand the need of the hour and then make the right decision so that the situation can be handled properly. For further advices, it might be said to the student that they should be very attentive in class and should try to grasp as much learning as possible. Since there is a limitation of the application of the theoretical knowledge into practical life during this course, it is important that they keep trying to involve themselves in certain practices where they can easily use their learning skills and abilities.

In addition to this, understanding the need of the hour and then making the right decision that would save the life of a person because health and safety is the prime concern for the employees of any organisation, is the important skills that they would develop by the completion of the course. It will also be advised that they should be very active in their surrounding and that they should view each and every incident that happens in and around their surround as a part of their curriculum. They should keep themselves in the situation and come up with the idea or decision that they would have made if they were in charge or the leader or manager to handle the situation.

References:

Ackermann, B.J., Kenny, D.T., O'Brien, I. and Driscoll, T.R., 2014. Sound Practice—improving occupational health and safety for professional orchestral musicians in Australia. Frontiers in psychology, 5, p.973.

Australia, V., 2003. Running the risk. Risk Management Tool for Volunteer Involving Organizations.

Bailey, T., Woolley, J. and Raftery, S., 2015. Compliance and enforcement in road safety and work health and safety: a comparison of approaches.

Mastal, M.F., Joshi, M. and Schulke, K., 2007. Nursing leadership: championing quality and patient safety in the boardroom. Nursing Economics, 25(6), p.323.

McLinton, S.S., Loh, M.M.Y., Dollard, M.F., Tuckey, M.M., Idris, M.A. and Morton, S., 2018. Benchmarking working conditions for health and safety in the frontline healthcare industry: Perspectives from Australia and Malaysia. Journal of advanced nursing.

Queenslandshows.org.au 2016 Volunteer Management Toolkit  Available at: www.queenslandshows.org.au [Accessed on: 16-5-2018]

Safeworkaustralia.gov.au 2018 The Essential Guide to Work Health and Safety for Organisations that Engage Volunteers Available at: https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/book/essential-guide-work-health-and-safety-organisations-engage-volunteers [Accessed on: 15-5-2018]

White, M.D., 2016. Volunteer Management: Understanding Volunteer Motivation and Recognizing Critical Tactics for Managing the Volunteer Workforce (Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland University College).