Reference no: EM133157196

Topic: Facilitating the achievement of work priorities

In the modern-day workplace, employees are expected to perform at a high level of productivity and to a high standard. Because competition in any industry is fierce, businesses must protect and develop their workforce in order to prevent them from being overworked and overwhelmed.
Personal, team and organisational demands
Prioritising personal, team and organisational demands is an important skill.
Time management refers to the way a person organises and plans how long they will spend on specific activities.
Effective time management can result in a number of benefits such as greater productivity and efficiency and less stress. The consequences of managing time poorly can include missing deadlines, a poor reputation and higher stress levels.
Time management can be a challenging task for a busy manager. Like prioritising tasks, however, it is very important to ensure that all tasks are achieved.
Poor time management skills can result in:
• missed deadlines
• poor work quality
• unwanted stress
• poor professional reputation
• work and life imbalance.
There are many advantages with proper management of time. In your working life, time management can benefit you in the following ways:
• Deliver work on time
• Better quality of work - more time spent on important tasks
• Improved productivity and efficiency
• Less stress and anxiety
• Improved quality of life
• More opportunities for career growth.
Steps for better time management:
• Plan: make smarter decisions about the right time to do a task and use a planner or planning software.
• Prioritise: figure out the most important tasks and the ones that are urgent. Schedule time blocks to attends to these tasks.
• Break big tasks up into smaller chunks.
• Don't multitask, rather do one thing at a time.
• Cut off distractions such as mobile phones and chatty co-workers.
• Take planned breaks when working.
• Find your most productive times.
Resource management is the organisation of staff, equipment and other resources that are needed to complete a project.
Like time management, decisions need to be made on how to prioritise resources to ensure that projects are completed. The prioritised tasks will be the ones that are most important in achieving the organisation's goals.
Employees can assist managers in identifying tasks that need to be funded or resourced in order to achieve goals.
‘Activity scheduling' is about allocating time for team members to complete the tasks they have been assigned. It is about the amount of time in total that is allocated, and when that time is made available.
Keys in this process are:
• Work with the individual where possible to identify the time needed to complete the task that has been assigned.
• Be realistic, factor in time for ‘thinking' as well as time for ‘doing'.
• Include time for people to challenge the ideas of others and to collaborate with them on tasks they are working on - remember it's a team, not just a set of individuals so time together doing what a team does is vital
• Identify and block out significant chunks of time - not odd minutes here and there.
• Schedule activity time when it suits the team member - there is often a need to accommodate other work that also has to be done.
• The allocated time must be during paid working hours - team members cannot be expected to work for free but it may be more effective for this time to be work that is done ‘at home' and not in the office.
• Integrate the scheduling of this task with other co-dependent tasks.

Activity: Research and discuss
Consider a work position you may have held in the past or research a position on the Internet.
Think about just one day and list down all of the tasks and activities that you have to undertake in a typical day.
• How do you prioritise your tasks and manage your resources and time?
• Do you have any personal demands placed on you during the course of the day?
• Could you allocate resources and time better?
Review your list and identify any tasks or activities that you could possibly delegate.
List some advantages and disadvantages of delegating work tasks.

Activity: Brainstorm
Brainstorm the following:
• What technologies could you use (or do you use) to manage work priorities?
• Research three different scheduling tools and weigh up their pros and cons.
• How could barriers to use of technology be overcome for employees who might feel overwhelmed when switching to a new technology?

• What sort of activities aimed at improving health, would you be willing or happy to participate in?
• What are some areas of concern relating to health, that you would you like the organisation to give attention to? Some examples can be stress management, work-life balance, etc.
• What are some reasons why you would not be willing to participate in a health program or some related activities in your workplace?
• When would you be most likely to participate in these programs or activities? Will lunchbreaks, before or after work suit you best?

Activity: Research and discuss
Research the Internet for how a large organisation (for example Google or Apple) take care of their staff. List down the types of measures in place and if possible, source a short video demonstrating these measures. Complete this work in pairs.

Activity: Develop
You will now practice developing a performance plan for at least two individuals.
Assume you are the manager of an organisation of your choice. Select two roles that would report to you (e.g. administration assistant and customer service representative).
Develop a personal development plan for these people making the assumption that they have limited experience in their roles.
• List thegoals and objectives of the organisation as it relates to each person's job.
• Create a list of threegoals for each person's role.
• Create performance standards and indicators for each task. Ensure that these are linked to organisation goals and objectives.