ORGANISE WORKPLACE INFORMATION CANDIDATE RESOURCE & ASSESSMENT BSBINM301A

ORGANISE WORKPLACE INFORMATION CANDIDATE RESOURCE & ASSESSMENT BSBINM301A

Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd 9 Koppen Tce, Cairns, QLD, 4870 Email: info@precisiongroup.com.au Website: www.precisiongroup.com.au BSBINM301A Organise Workplace Information ISBN: 978-1-74238- Copyright Notice No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information retrieval system without written permission from Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd. Legal action may be taken against any person who infringes their copyright through unauthorised copying. These terms are subject to the conditions prescribed under the Australian Copyright Act 1968. Copying for Educational Purposes The Australian Copyright Act 1968 allows 10% of this book to be copied by any educational institute for educational purposes, provided that the institute (or the body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) under the Act. For more information, email info@copyright. com.au or visit www.copyright.com.au for other contact details. Disclaimer Precision Group has made a great effort to ensure that this material is free from error or omissions. However, you should conduct your own enquiries and seek professional advice before relying on any fact, statement or matter contained in this book. Precision Group (Australia) Pty Ltd is not responsible for any injury, loss or damage as a result of material included or omitted from this material. Information in this module is current at the time of publication.

Table of Contents 2 Legend 3 Qualification Pathways 4 Qualification Rules 5 Introduction 7 BSBINM301A/01 Collect and Assess Information Key Points Access product and service information in accordance with organisational requirements Ensure methods of collecting information are reliable and make efficient use of available time and resources Assess information for clarity, accuracy, currency and relevance to intended tasks Use interpersonal skills to access relevant information from teams and individuals 17 True or False Quiz 19 BSBINM301A/02 Organise Information Key Points Organise information in a format suitable for analysis, interpretation and dissemination in accordance with organisational requirements Use appropriate technology / systems to maintain information in accordance with organisational requirements Collate information and materials, and communicate to relevant designated persons Identify difficulties organising and accessing information and solve collaboratively with individuals and team members Update and store information in accordance with organisational requirements and systems 29 True or False Quiz 31 BSBINM301A/03 Review Information Needs Key Points Actively seek feedback on clarity, accuracy and sufficiency of information to ensure relevance of information and system Review the contribution of information to decision making and implement appropriate modifications to collection processes Identify future information needs and incorporate in modifications to collection processes Document future information needs and incorporate in modifications to reporting processes 39 True or False Quiz 40 Summary 41 Bibliography 43 Assessment Pack 1

Use considered risk taking in your grey area...and others will follow you! Legend This symbol indicates the beginning of new content. The bold title matches the content of the competency and they will help you to find the section to reference for your assessment activities. Activity: Whenever you see this symbol, there is an activity to carry out which has been designed to help reinforce the learning about the topic and take some action. This symbol is used at the end of a section to indicate the summary key points of the previous section. This symbol is used to indicate an answer to the Candidate s questions or notes to assist the Facilitator. 2

Qualification Pathways There are always two choices. Two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it s easy. Source Unknown This unit of competency is provided to meet the requirements of BSB07 Business Services Training Package although it can be used in a range of different qualifications. The BSB07 Business Services Training Package does not state how a qualification is to be achieved. Rather, Registered Training Organisations are required to use the qualification rules to ensure the needs of the learner and business customer are met. This is to be achieved through the development of effective learning programs delivered in an order that meets the stated needs of nominated Candidates and business customers. 3

Qualification Rules You re either part of the solution or part of the problem. Eldridge Cleaver Qualification requirements include core and elective units. The unit mix is determined by specific unit of competency requirements which are stated in the qualification description. Registered Training Organisations then work with learners and business customers to select elective units relevant to the work outcome, local industry requirements and the qualification level. All vocational education qualifications must lead to a work outcome. BSB07 Business Services Training Package qualifications allow for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) to vary programs to meet: Specific needs of a business or group of businesses. Skill needs of a locality or a particular industry application of business skills. Maximum employability of a group of students or an individual. When packaging a qualification elective units are to be selected from an equivalent level qualification unless otherwise stated. 4

Introduction Whether as an individual, or as part of a group, real progress depends on entering whole-heartedly into the process and being motivated to make you a more deeply satisfied human being. Source Unknown This unit of competency specifies the outcomes required to gather, organise and apply workplace information in the context of an organisation s work processes and knowledge management systems. This is one of the units that make up the Certificates in Business. This manual is broken up into three distinct sections. They are: 1. Collect and assess information: To produce useful information, it is important that the right information for the assigned work is collected and from the right people. We will discover how best to do this here. 2. Organise information: Once collected, information must be organised so the reader can readily acquire what they need. Options to achieve this are in this section. 3. Review information needs: Finally, checks are necessary to ensure that what you are providing meets the requirements of the person who needs it. Checks and balances are the topics of section three. At the conclusion of this training you will be asked to complete an Assessment Pack for this unit of competency. The information contained in this resource will assist you to complete this task. On completion you will have demonstrated your ability to gather, organise and review information about your organisation s work processes. 5

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PART 1: Collect and Assess Information Key Points Section 1 Organising workplace information requires first finding the best useable information about a multitude of work fields. To be useful data collected must be accurate, current, relevant, specific, understandable, comprehensive, unbiased and comparable. To gain the information, you must consistently exercise excellent interpersonal communication skills. It is important that members of a group communicate freely with each other. Information is received through hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting, and smelling. 7

Key Points Section 1 continued The more ways we use to gather information, the better the information is received, understood and put to use. Retrieving or recalling information is important. Giving information involves the same five senses used to receive it. Interpreting information is vital. Clear communication is essential. 8

What is Good Information? Organising workplace information requires first finding the best useable information about a multitude of work fields. As individuals we need to be continually searching for facts about the organisation that will in turn give value to the function of the business, keep it operating in a legitimate fashion and enhance the organisation as a whole. We then assess that information related to our particular areas of expertise or responsibility, continually trying to determine the value to each of those fields. The good news is, there is a great quantity of information available. The bad news is that a lot of that information is of limited value to us. We are bombarded daily with data and information in every conceivable form and we just try to navigate our way through a bewildering array of suggestions, warnings, pictures, numbers, and maybe even sound bites. At some point all of this is supposed to lead to some rational conclusion about what is right for us to organise and keep. As individuals, it is very difficult to know what information to absorb and what to screen out. What is the wheat and what is the chaff? Basic guidelines to assist you in your quest could include: Accurate: Information provided must be truthful the data that you provide must accurately reflect the situation under investigation by yourself and others. Current: The information that you gather must be useful in terms of the current timeframe. Make sure that you get rid of any information that is not applicable to the current timeframe and replace it with something that is new. You will find that there are occasions when the information that you are producing perishes or becomes out of date very quickly. In these cases, you need to ensure that there are procedures in place for adding new data quickly. Relevant: Relevant information refers to information that is useful for the task that it is being generated. In order for the information to be useful for you, you need to ensure that you have the skills to determine when information is useful and when it is not. If you do not have this skill, you will end up being overwhelmed with the amount of information that is available to you in a modern workplace. Specific: Specific information needs to be highly factual. It needs to contain information that has hard facts that you can refer back to as required to back up any points that you are making. Understandable: Good information needs to be able to be understood before it can be seen as being useful in a workplace. If information is not easily understood, it is difficult to actually use the data for the purposes that it was gathered for. Comprehensive: The information that you have gathered must contain all of the information that you require from it. Unbiased: We want the data that we collect to be as unbiased as possible. This means that we want information believed in a way that makes it as useful as possible without any interests in the data becoming obvious. Comparable: The information over the long term must be gathered in a consistent manner, must be analysed in the same way over time and so on. This is to enable the information to be able to be used and compared over time. 9

These are some of the most important qualities that make information useful for planning and decision-making. However, your organisation is not the only source of information available nor should it be the only source someone uses. Information obtained from lots of sources creates a better picture and is more likely to result in successful decisions and sound plans. Though it can sometimes be confusing and even conflicting, each source has its own unique strengths and limitations. Information is most useful when the people who use it have some basis for evaluation. Collecting Information There are many ways of gathering information. Some of the more common approaches are detailed here: Questionnaires are a set of questions designed to gather information. They are useful when your audience is able to read and write, it is culturally appropriate, you have an engaged audience (i.e. workgroup or team), you personally know the people you want to collect the information on or for. Using a questionnaire without names on it might help to make sure information is kept private. If you want to get information from others who are remote to you, and it s not easy to get them in one place at one time, consider using a mail questionnaire. Choosing and interpreting a standardised questionnaire is something you might want to get an expert to help you with. It is a good idea only to use a standardised questionnaire if you are sure that you ll be able to use the information, because the evaluator doesn t know who has answered the questionnaire. This means you can ask more sensitive questions. However, people answering the questionnaire may not understand some sections or may have questions and you won t be there to clarify, or it might be difficult to read what people have written. Some people might be more likely to complete and return your questionnaire than others, e.g. people who have difficulties reading and writing are less likely to participate and return completed questionnaires. Let s now look at some of the common methods used to gather opinion data in an organisation. Comment Cards While a very simple method of establishing opinions, comment cards are a useful way of getting complaints in. It is well known that most people who have a complaint simply do not complain They let it fester and simply never go back into a particular organisation again. Unfortunately, without having a complaint you are not aware of why your customers are not coming back. By using a good comment card, you can gather both good and bad feedback that you might otherwise have never received. This feedback is continual and allows you to track on a day-today basis exactly what complaints are coming and where issues are occurring most. This may vary from week to week, so knowing this information is vital. 10

Comment cards should be available throughout an organisation, so that whether the individual just pops in or if they are a regular customer, they are able to provide your staff with comments on their performance and their overall satisfaction with your organisational performance. Competition Take a look at what your competition is doing and compare it to what you are offering. If they are performing significantly better, try to find out why this is the case. Focus Groups The focus group is a specific market research method that is used to try and get the opinions of your customers. Generally, they involve bringing together four (4) to eight (8) people and Information is the seed for an idea, and only grows when it s watered. Heinz V. Bergen 11

asking them for their opinions of your organisation and what your organisation is offering to them in the way of product offerings and services. This method of customer satisfaction research is very useful in that it allows you to gain solid opinions on what you are doing and any changes that you feel need to be made. Your customers also gain a favourable impression of the organisation, because by holding the focus group you can provide them with immediate feedback and it shows that your organisation is taking the issues raised seriously. It is also very useful to include some of your staff members in the focus group. By including these staff members into the focus group process it will allow them to get valuable insights into the way that the customers are feeling and may assist them with gaining more knowledge about customer needs. It is however important not to include too many staff as this may make the customers less willing to be open about their opinions. So, how does a focus group operate? Begin by making your customers feel comfortable offer them tea or coffee and allow them to get to know each other. Open the group by introducing yourself, and provide a brief overview about why the focus group is being run and what you hope to achieve. Begin the group proper by asking your customers what they like about the organisation keeping things light and positive before you move into those areas which could be heavier. People will open up by providing you with this information first before you ask about where any problems may exist. Next, ask about areas where products or service could be improved. Remember that you are looking for this information, so never be defensive or argue with those in the focus group. They are there to provide you with their honest opinion, so allow them to give it. Once you have spent time in discussion, end the group on a positive note. Thank everyone that attended, and let them know that you value their contributions. Offer them an opportunity to discuss anything in more detail with you and be sure to let them know that you will provide them with information on the outcome of the focus group. Make them feel like they made a difference, because they certainly will have. Surveys by Mail Surveys by mail are often regarded as something that people hate to do. But many people are very happy to provide feedback using this method, especially if you give some form of incentive if they do. However, consider that: Mail surveys take time to design, administer and analyse You must have an appropriate coding system in place for the data collected Response rates can be low It is impossible to probe further. 12

Telephone Surveys Cheaper than a mail survey you may be able to get your staff to conduct the telephone survey on your behalf every few months to check how things are going. Case Studies are a detailed description of a single event, person or place that illustrates your project. They are good when presenting the results of your evaluation, or your project is focussing on particular groups, as it helps people to identify with the particular groups within the project. You must be certain that the person in your case study can not be identified and has a good example that illustrates or showcases your project. Usually case studies have a minimal cost, and are a good way to present your project in a way that your organisation will understand. But you need to be very careful to make sure that your case is not identified. Capture a range of people so that you can make representative generalisations and conclusions. Storytelling is when a person or group tells a story on a topic. This is useful when you are certain that your subject case can not be identified. It can show results effectively and showcase your project in a way that your community will understand. When you are using story telling as a data gathering exercise, it is important that you find ways to make sure that the data that you have gathered is not identifiable to the individuals that you are gathering data from. It is also important to gather data from a wide range of individuals, rather than just keeping to a specific type of people so that you get a wide range of opinions. Story telling and data gathering can also involve the analysis of: Photos Pictures Paintings Videos. Whenever you use these methods, be sure to gain the express permission of those that you are taking images of in order for it to be used. Other Data Sources is information collected outside your project (e.g. public records, industry records). It is useful when you want to check the accuracy of some information that you collected or you are conducting a project where routine data may support your objectives. It has already been collected so you don t have to do all the work to collect the information, but you need to check if you need ethical approval and permission to access this information and that the information has been collected reliably. Finally ensure that you really know what the data means and who it has been collected from. Process Mapping is a method of determining how something is done within an organisation and generally is conducted using a flow-chart. The process map will outline the actual workflow within the organisational processes and will allow you to determine what is done, when and by whom. 13

It can be particularly helpful when gathering information because a good process map should outline the types of information that are gathered over the timeframe of a given process and what this information is actually used for by the organisation. This information can be helpful in identifying areas for improvement because it can provide accurate and detailed process information. Observations may, however, be influenced by how you feel about a certain event. You need to make sure you just record the facts. There is a risk that the mapping may not be completed on a regular basis or accurately. Always think carefully about which method is most appropriate to achieving the information you need to organise and keep and which can be ignored. Keep the following four criteria in mind as you make your selections and apply them again when making your final choices as to suitability of material. 1. Who the users will be. 2. What their information needs are. 3. What materials are available. 4. How information can be disseminated. It is important to collect only essential information. Too much information can be confusing. Encouraging Personal Sharing of Information Finally, let s take some time looking at how you can get individuals within your organisation and outside it to share their views and opinions with you. This can be very difficult to achieve, as you are asking for personal thoughts in some cases. The key is having exceptional communication skills and using this to try and achieve a number of tasks: Gathering information Analysing information Storing information Giving information. When you are communicating with others in order to gain relevant information, you will find that a basic process takes place: 1. The sender sends information 2. It travels via a given media to the receiver 3. The receiver receives the information and interprets it. 14

You need to understand the effect that each of these processes have on the end result. Let s take a look at some further considerations: Information can be verbal, written, or through a range of other mediums some are even difficult to interpret (such as non-verbal communication), so you need to understand the effect that each of these has on the message that you are actually receiving from those communicating it. Memories are important. You will need to ensure that you are able to remember everything that is said to you during these processes. Giving information can involve any sense that you may have, so you need to appreciate the messages that you are giving out using the various senses your body is able to interpret. In order to interpret information in a clear and effective manner, you need to be sure of what needs to be said, what needs to be gathered and you need to find an effective way to make sure that you provide a manner for the information to be provided as quickly and efficiently as possible. Remember that only a small amount of information is gained through listening. You can gain much information also by looking at the client and observing their mannerisms and such. Be as clear as possible with your communications. Avoid difficult terms, jargon, acronyms and the like which will only serve to confuse people. Be clear about your expectations state what you hope to find out and what sort of information that you are trying to gather from the exercise. 15

Activity One Breaking into groups of three, one will be the interviewer, one the interviewee and the third will be the observer and time-keeper. The interviewer will spend five minutes asking questions about the value of this training. The interviewee will answer. At the end of the five minutes the observer will give positive reinforcement (what went well) and constructive feedback (what could be improved). The groups then change roles and repeat the exercise twice more so that each has a turn in each role. It is important that the observer in each case provide both positive and constructive feedback or there will be little learning. Notes:....................................................................................................... 16

Section 1 - True or False Quiz Always think carefully about which method is most appropriate to achieving the information you need to organise and keep, and which can be ignored. Please tick True False Most people learn approximately 11 percent of what they know by seeing, but 83 percent of what they know by listening. The memory can be supported with notes, sketches, written references, and similar techniques. Usually case studies have a great cost, and are a good way to present your project in a way that your organisation will understand. Choosing and interpreting a standardised questionnaire is something you might want to get an expert to help you with. Focus groups are inexpensive, participants don t need to be able to read or write and are good for exploring more complex issues where people can openly talk about their experiences. The more ways we use to gather information, the better the information is received, understood and put to use. We are bombarded with data and information in every conceivable form and we just try to navigate our way through it. Information is least useful when the people who use it have some basis for evaluation. It may be easier for an interviewer to ask personal or sensitive questions and people will tell the truth if they know the interviewer or the interviewer knows them. 17