Student Instruction Guide
Each student must read and adhere to each instruction listed below. If you are unsure of any of the items listed, contact your trainer, assessor or student services for assistance.
1.Each student must complete the Learner Declaration in this Learner Workbook. This section requires each student to acknowledge that the work submitted is their own and has not been copied. Failure to do so will result in the Learner Workbook being returned for completion thus delaying the assessment.
2.Make sure you have read the Learner Guide and accessed the required text (hard copy or via e-text) prior to commencing and completing any of the questions and activities in this Learner Workbook.
3.If you are unsure of the requirements of a question, activity or project – please contact your trainer for clarification. Reasonable adjustment options are available however this must be arranged with the Training Department prior to assessment.
4.You must ensure that you have attempted and completed all assessment tasks; written questions, case studies, activities and projects in the Learner Workbook prior to submitting this for marking.
5.Use the Student Checklist to ensure you have completed all relevant sections and attached the required evidence files.
6.If a Third Party Report is being submitted, you must also submit a certified copy of the third party’s management OR business qualification which must be witnessed by a Justice of the Peace (JP).
7.You must email your completed assessment to the Training Department. Assessment submissions will only be accepted by upload via the eChoice student portal. Please see the User Guide – How to submit my assessments online for further instructions.
8.You must follow your study plan which contains important information about your expected start and completion dates for each unit of competency.
9.All of the above items must be adhered to. Failure to do so will result in your work being returned to you, delaying the marking of your assessment.
The following assessment instructions must be adhered to;
10.Written responses
Written questions require in-depth responses and one line answers may not be sufficient to be deemed satisfactory. There is no specific word count required for any assessment and the size of the answer boxes in the Learner Workbook are not indicative of the required length of your answers.
A general rule of thumb is to use as many words as you need in order to demonstrate your full understanding of the knowledge and/or skill component. This may differ greatly between candidates in line with varying individual language and literacy skills.
You must always provide the website link/s when sourcing information from online sources such as academic journals, industry websites and resource centers.
Ensure your work is referenced to prevent plagiarism. For more information on plagiarism and referencing, refer to the Student Handbook.
13.File naming protocol
Prior to submission, your Learner Workbook must comply with the file name protocol below.
Use the ‘save as’ function to save your workbook and replace ‘your full name’ with your first and last name and the date of submission in the file name.
14.You must not delete or alter any sections or wording in the learner workbook.
Understanding the assessment grading system
Assessments for qualifications are competency based, which means students are assessed against the unit of competency (unit) requirements. Assessment results are recorded as follows:
Once a student receives a satisfactory result for all required assessment tasks a competent (C) outcome will be awarded for the entire unit. The student must demonstrate their understanding of all competency standards in each unit before receiving a competent outcome.
Important note: Each student has three (3) attempts to achieve a competent outcome. If the student is deemed Not Yet Competent (NYC) on the third attempt, the student may need to re-enrol into the unit as per First Choice Training’s Assessment Policy.
In keeping with a paperless system, the Learner Workbook is assessed with comments and this document will be returned to you as a PDF document. For each re-submission, you will need to update your existing Learner Workbook by deleting the incorrect answers and replacing them with your new responses. Remember to update theLearner Details and Declarations section with the new submission date each time.
Mandatory reading chapters from the textbook
Management Strategies and Skills 2nd Edition by Judith Dwyer and Nicole Hopwood, McGraw Hill Education 2013
Please complete the following assessment activities and submit to your trainer and assessor for marking.
No submitted work will be assessed unless the appropriate declaration has been signed (below) and submitted.
I declare that no part of this assessment has been copied from another person’s work with the exception of where I have referenced external sources. I declare that no part of this assessment has been written for me by another person.I understand that by typing my full name in the student signature field this is equivalent to a hand-written signature.
Assessor Signature: Date:
Q1. What type of resource requirements do you need to consider for an operational plan? Your response must be approximately 100 words in length.
An operational plan is constructed when there is a need to attain a vision. The vision could be both short-term and long-term. This is required at the different stages to either acquire a competitive advantage or to enhance the business profitability. In every identified purpose, some resources are required. Those resources are as follows:
Physical resources-
This include but are not limited to such as the required machineries to use, the locations to relocate and the lands to facilitate the needed construction (Fuerst 2013).
Human resources-
This includes the recruitment of required staffs. The requirement may vary from industry to industry and from one vision to another. For example, if the operation plan is related with the improvement of marketing plan then this will require having expert professionals who could effectively conduct the process. Additionally, there will also be the requirement to give training to those that are experienced and have had invested a significant time in the specific company (Fuerst 2013).
Financial resources-
This will be required on the activities that have been highlighted such as purchasing of machineries, investments on land purchasing, expenditures on interview process and also on the training process (Fuerst 2013).
Q2. Who do you consider to be essential to the consultation process when preparing an operational plan? Your response must be approximately 50 words in length.
It varies from one organization to another. In general, it is better to include the entire stakeholders to consult the operational plan. The consultation is required with the board of directors as they will approve the same. It is also required from the human resource department. They will plan the required resources for the plan. Moreover, consultation with employees especially to those who are tenured. They may also help with necessary suggestions (Fuerst 2013) .
Q3. Explain how you will acquire physical resources. Your response must be approximately 100 words in length.
Acquisition of physical resources goes through a systematic process. To get the required physical resources for the planned operational plan, an approval from the managing directors will be needed. This will help the process to reach to the next level. In the next level, the human resource management will discuss with the admin department for getting the approximate figure of the entire expenses. Once the estimation is received, the admin department will get in contact with the company’s finance department to check the available funds. The finance department will make the budget for the project and accordingly will release the required expenditures for the acquisition of identified physical resources (Fuerst 2013).
Q4. Apart from the SMARTTA method, list three (3) alternate approaches to developing key performance indicators for a business.
Q5. Based on your company or an organisation you are familiar with, outline and explain the steps involved in the induction process. Your response must be approximately 200 words in length.
Following are the different steps that are generally involved in an induction process (Daskalaki 2012):
Q6. List and explain three (3) strategies that could be used to acquire physical resources and services for a company.
This will include the documentation of every required resource such as the physical resources. The documents will be submitted to the managing directors. They on the basis of agreed views will arrive on a conclusion. The agreed views will include the managing directors and the entire stakeholders (Fuerst 2013).
This will include a follow up process for the escalated requirements. Moreover, an approval from the board of directors is waited (Fuerst 2013).
This will be done to get the further instructions from the HRM on how to approach with the plan. Moreover, the financial department will then be approached once the documentation is approved (Fuerst 2013).
Q7. It is important to understand the intellectual property rights and responsibilities when acquiring resources and services for an organisation. Research and provide an explanation of your understanding of the following:
Your response must be approximately 500 words in length.
Copyright Act 1968-
The act came into existence in the year 1968 in Australia. It was brought in existence to protect the intellectual property and its rights. The intellectual property for a company can be anything such as the different physical resources. Ensuring the intellectuality of physical resources at the time of its acquisition is necessary to ensure the followings (Gleeson, Tienhaara and Faunce 2012):
Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012-
The policy is a modified version of Australian Privacy Principles, which encourages the assurance of privacy protection. The acquisition of physical resources required to implement an operational plan will need to meet the following criterions (Gleeson, Tienhaara and Faunce 2012):
This amendment is to bring a much simplified IP system in Australia. One of the biggest benefits of the amendment will be that the innovators and the inventors will find things lot easier now to patent the same through just a single examination and the single application process. This policy will help to set up a single economic market in between the two specific countries. This policy will also enable filing the intellectual properties equally in the two different centers Australia and New Zealand. The filed application will be accessible from the two different offices at the two different places. The policy will also encourage the generic medicines manufacturers to produce patent medicines for life killing diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. Such medicines will be sent to developing countries where people have no access to such medicines. This reflects a significant role of Australia as an international citizen (Gleeson, Tienhaara and Faunce 2012).
Q8. Describe three (3) systems or processes that you can use to monitor the achievement of profit and productivity targets. Your response must be approximately 200 words in length.
Q9. Complete the table by identifying three (3) causes of staff under-performance and recommend a solution for each cause.
Q10. Operational plans allow managers to track performance, achieve objectives, minimise disruptions and improve business operations. Researchand explaintwo (2) models or methods that are used to shape operational plans.
Q11. Complete the table by identifying one (1) policy, one (1) practice and one (1) procedure that must be considered when developing an operational plan. Provide an explanation for each example.
Policy There are ample of policies that are associated to an operational plan. It is even more difficult to select only one policy; however, to satisfy the needs of the question, one of such policies will be to reduce the workplace hazards (Sachdeva and Malhotra 2015). Explanation Workplace hazards can be anything that has potentials in it to cause an unwanted accident at the workplace. For example, the surface in the lab is very slippery. This may be fatalistic to those who will go inside the lab. They may fell down and get an unwanted injury like broken legs or hands. This is one of the kinds of workplace hazards.
Practice Ample number of practices should be implemented at the workplace. One of such practices includes but are not limited to such as the practice to identify the workplace hazards (Sachdeva and Malhotra 2015). Explanation The practice to identify the workplace hazard will help in taking significant steps, which could be helpful in mitigating the possible hazards. Nevertheless, an action is only viable when a requirement for it has been felt.
Procedure In case of slippery surface, cleaners need to be approached to get it clean properly. There is also a need to ensure that cleaning process is done on a regular basis (Sachdeva and Malhotra 2015). Explanation Cleaners will help to get the surface clean. They are the right person for the identified hazard. Moreover, ensuring a regular cleaning of surface will ensure a reduced or possibly no hazards in the lab.
Q12. In your own words, explain how an operational plan assists with the achievement of the organisation’s objectives. Your response must be approximately 150 words in length.
Operational plan helps to attain the set objectives. This can well be understood from a simple example. Suppose that a company has planned to enhance its marketing capabilities so as to reach a wider customer base and hence, drive more profitability. For the identified purpose, there is a need of putting added emphasis on the marketing activities. This may include but is not limited to such as introducing a new marketing strategy that has never been adopted before. The adoption of a new marketing strategy like the online marketing will definitely need consultation from expert marketing professionals. Additionally, there will also be the need of some additional human resource. Financial resources will also be required. This is indeed a significant change in the operation. Moreover, there will be the need to guide such a big process without any failure. This is where an operational plan becomes a viable fact. Operation plan will indeed help through the entire process of bringing the change.
Q13. Research and explain the relevance of two (2) pieces of legislation in the context of developing an operational plan. You must provide the website link/s as evidence of your research.
Legislation Website link/s Explanation
It is a national body that deals with the improvement of system needed to provide a safe and healthy workplace to employees. it can be termed as governing policies, which is continually working on improving the working standards at the workplace. Such standards can be attained by achieving a maximum level of safety at the workplace.
The policy is designed to guide the preparation of an operational plan that will have essentials ingredients in it. Such necessary ingredients are output activity, responsibility and outcomes. The required output activity will be identified from the “Councils Corporate Plan”. The council will decide the different output activities that are required. In the responsibility section, a manager will be identified who will bear direct accountability to achieve the targets. In the outcomes section, the relevant outcome will be reported. Outcomes can be identified separately for every activity derived from the Councils Corporate Plan.
You have been asked by the owner to prepare and review the budgetary figures for the AAA Car Insurance company for the financial year 2015/2016. Complete all tasks below and enter your calculations into the Budget Worksheet provided
Complete the budget calculations for this individual based on the information supplied.
Based on the figures provided, has this person met their budget expectations?
No, the persona has failed in meeting the budget expectations.
What is the ‘net worth’ of this person (net worth = income after tax minus expenses) based on:
Budgeted figures $50,000
Actual figures $60,000
The person has not budgeted correctly as the figures explain that they have been financially better off as they have additional money. There is an excess of $3000 found in the personal budget.
Surplus/Shortage (Spendable income minus expenses & investments) Excess $3,000
N.B.:- (+) indicates surplus amount
(-) indicates the shortage amount
There is a lack of information about employee inductions at the CoffeeVille Store. Your task is to develop an induction program that provide information on the following:
1.Orientation to the organisation
oOrganisation’s vision, structure and products/services
oWorking environment
oPolicies on alcohol, drugs, smoking and misconduct
oDetails of employment arrangements
2.Orientation to the team
oWork space and layout
oInformation about hours of work, breaks and reporting lines
oEmergency procedures and systems
3.Induction training plan
oJob training such as interpersonal skills
oMandatory training relating to health and safety
oProfessional development options
oTraining evaluation and feedback system
According to CoffeeVille’s Policies and Procedures and Employee Handbook, there appears to be limited information about how physical resources are acquired within the business. Your task is to develop a procurement policy that covers the following:
Relevant legislation including intellectual property rights
You must submit the procurement policy in a separate document.
Please read the following information carefully before commencing this project. You must select either OPTION A or OPTION B by ticking the relevant box – see details below. Once you have made a decision please proceed to the Assessment Instruction section.
OPTION A You are to video record your delivery session and send this in for marking by a First Choice Training trainer/assessor. You must have access to four (4) participants who will need to partake in the practical component of this project.
The time duration for the video session is 30 minutes. The video evidence is subject to the conditions outlined in Table 1.
Your delivery session will be assessed according to the Observation Checklist (Internal).
If you select OPTION A, you must not complete OPTION B.
OPTION B If you are currently working, you may find it more beneficial to complete the Third Party Report which is the alternative option to video recording your delivery session as stated in PART 3 of the Assessment Instructions. This option is subject to the conditions outlined in Table 2.
Your delivery session will be assessed according to the Third Party Report.
Please note that you are still required to follow the assessment instructions and complete the other remaining parts of this project.
If you select OPTION B, you must not complete OPTION A.
Table 1: Conditions for Acceptable Evidence vs. Unacceptable Evidence (linked to OPTION A)
Acceptable Evidence Unacceptable Evidence
Video footage must clearly show you (the student) and all the participants for the entirety of the session.
Use a video camera or laptop webcam to record the session/s.
Only shows you with possible students behind the scenes.
Video that scans the participants at the start but then solely focuses on you (the student) for the remainder of the session.
The audio levels must be clear throughout the video recording. Very low or inaudible voices of you (the student) and the participants.
Note: the video file needs to be in a common format to be viewed in Windows Media Player. You may use ‘Dropbox’ to send us your video file or the video file can be saved to a USB or CD and posted to First Choice Training.
Table 2: Conditions for Acceptable Evidence vs. Unacceptable Evidence (linked to OPTION B)
A completed Third Party Report with detailed comments, signatures, dates and clarity on how checklist items were addressed throughout the session/s. An incomplete Third Party report without comments, only ticked, lacking signatures or dates and clarity.
Statements by the observer that clearly identifies a ‘hands on’ approach with comments about the type of activities and interactions carried out during the presentation to encourage skill based learning as well as knowledge. That shows ticks and does not clarify how items were addressed within the training session/s.
That shows no evidence of skill based knowledge.
Note: The observer cannot be a student in the session at the time they are acting as the observer. The observer must sit back and complete the Third Party Report as they are observing the presentation.
The Third Party Report cannot be completed by an individual that was not attending the session on the day as the observer.
Note: The observer must be able to produce a JP certified copy of their management OR business certificate which must be at a Diploma level or higher. You must submit this document with your assessment submission.
Due to the economic downturn, the owner of AAA Insurance Company has realised that the operational plan in place is no longer relevant or effective. The owner has asked you (the QLD State Manager) to develop a new operational plan which focuses on the following key result areas:
1.Increasing revenue through marking campaigns
2.Acquire more bookings through the introduction of an online booking system
3.Delivering superior service to customers
4.Training and motivating employees
The owner has also asked you to deliver a presentation on the new operational plan to the local branch managers at the next management meeting. The meeting duration will be approximately 30 minutes in length.
For this project, you must address PART 1 – 5 and submit all evidence for each section.
PART 1: Develop the operational plan
When developing the operational plan, you must ensure that:
PART 2: Contingency planning
Based on the operational plan in Part 1, identify three (3) anomalies and suggest appropriate contingency plans for each situation.
1 Customer service The manager will be given the responsibilities to monitor the employees and take necessary initiatives if there is any escalations against the customer service both at the physical venue or on the online platform
Online booking responses by customers The online marketing manager will be responsible for this work. The manager will monitor the customer’s responses on a daily basis. Moreover, the manager will ask the online marketing professionals to take necessary identify the possible issue and prepare a counter back plan for it
Whether employees are skilled The human resource department will be responsible for this. They will look for employees who are incompetent to the newly implemented operational plan. Moreover, those employees will be put for training program to help them become competent with the requirements.
PART 3: Deliver the presentation
Please refer back to the option that you selected at the beginning of this Project (i.e. OPTION A or OPTION B) and proceed to read the relevant information below (i.e. OPTION A or OPTION B).
If you selected OPTION A;
If you selected OPTION B;
IMPORTANT NOTE: Your observer is not your assessor! The observer is simply reporting what they hear and see in your session. The information provided in the Third Party Report will be used by a First Choice Training trainer/assessor to make a professional judgement about your competency level.
PART 4: Review performance
Six months after the management meeting and implementation of the operational plan, you conduct a review of the company’s performance. The findings are as follows:
You are surprised that the customer satisfaction levels have dropped. After speaking with all of the local managers you discover that they were unsure of how to navigate the new online booking system and therefore unable to train their employees properly. This explained why there were few online bookings and why overall customer satisfaction levels dropped by 10%.
To address these issues, the local managers will need some coaching and mentoring from you. Use Appendix 2 to develop a training plan.
PART 5: Monitor, review and document performance
In your own words, explain how you will continue to monitor and review the company’s performance over the next 6 months.
As mentioned, training is required for the local managers to make them able to help their team members efficiently. However, it is also necessary to monitor how the training has worked. This could be done through measuring the implementation of training modules in the live projects. Setting a key performance indicator will help to monitor the impact of training. The most appropriate KPI will be the increment in the customer satisfaction level.
The review could be done by getting the results of monitoring done on the impact of training process. The results will help to compare the data with the previous records. Moreover, a change will be observed that will educate whether it is positive.
The documentation of performance can be done through training process whenever it is required. This can be done after getting the results of the review that has been made over the performance.
Develop a record keeping system that will allow management personnel to easily access and update information about the company’s performance. Your proposed system must include at least four key steps.
Following are the various steps that can help in keeping the records by easily accessing and updating the information:
1.Capture the information as this will help to get an idea of the business performance
2.Recheck again to ensure whether records have been entered correctly
3.Information should be recorded to save it
4.Print out all the necessary information and compare all that with the previous month’s records. This will help to identify the change in performance.
References:-
Fuerst, B.A., 2013. Kodiak commercial fisheries salmon management field camp and weir operational plan, 2013. Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish, Research and Technical Services.
Pitiyanuwat, S., 2015. The Standards and Key Performance Indicators of External Quality Assurance of Higher Education in Thailand. ?????? ???? ???????? ????? (Journal of Research Methodology: JRM), 18(2), pp.167-180.
Daskalaki, M., 2012. Recontextualizing new employee induction: Organizational entry as a change space. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 48(1), pp.93-114.
Gleeson, D., Tienhaara, K. and Faunce, T., 2012. Challenges to Australia’s national health policy from trade and investment agreements.
Jamaludin, N., Ahmad, H. and Ramayah, T., 2012, July. Profitability vs Sustainability: Preliminary Findings on Green Innovation Adoption in Information Technology Usage. In Proceedings of The 3rd International Conference on Technology and Operations Management: Sustaining Competitiveness through Green Technology Management (pp. 4-6).
Sibanda, P., Mavenga, E., Maunganidze, L. and Ncube, F., 2014. Employees’ reactance and survival strategies in an underperforming Zimbabwean parastatal. African Journal of Business Management, 8(22), p.1043.
Belekoukias, I., Garza-Reyes, J.A. and Kumar, V., 2014. The impact of lean methods and tools on the operational performance of manufacturing organisations. International Journal of Production Research, 52(18), pp.5346-5366.
Sachdeva, S. and Malhotra, K., 2015. Motivating Students–Essentials of Mentoring, Coaching & Counseling: Operational Strategy.
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