snippets

This page allows you to access the free learning material covering a range of topics.

Take advantage of this opportunity to learn as much as you can.

» Setting Objectives
» Time Management
» Using email and email etiquette
» Calculations with MS Excel
» Giving Presentations
» Managing Yourself
» Report Writing
» Selection Interviewing
» Complaints Procedure
» Corporate Training

Setting Objectives

Objective setting is very important in an organisation to ensure that performance and results are achieved but often they are vague and lead to poor performance. . Setting good, clear objectives is difficult but they are essential to point you in the right direction, establish the aim, the direction of movement and set a measure of achievement.

Objectives need to be set at all levels in an organisation. Those set at lower levels should contribute towards achieving the overall organisational objectives. At senior levels, objectives are usually broad and long term. At a more junior level, objectives tend to be narrower in scope and more detailed.

There are four types of objectives:

• Intent Objectives - usually broad, general statements which detail what is to be achieved and set the overall context for more specific objectives
• Direction Objectives - state the direction of movement and suggest a change but do not state the extent of that change
• Result Objectives - state a precise result together with a date by which it is required. The results must always be measurable.
• Task Objectives - describe specific tasks or activities and a date for completion.

Result objectives are the most important and the most difficult type to set. They have the following characteristics:

• S pecific
• M easurable
• A chievable/Agreed
• R easonable
• T ime bounded

The term SMART is used to guide the writing of clear objectives.

Specific

Specific means that an observable action, behaviour or achievement is described which is also linked to a rate, number, percentage or frequency. For example, 'run 100 metres quickly' is describing the action but to make it specific it should be linked to a rate, number, percentage or frequency. It now becomes 'run 100 metres in under 20 seconds' and the action is now much more specific. . It is important that indicators are derived when the objective is concerned with quality such as customer service.

Measurable

A system, method or procedure has to exist which allows the tracking and recording of the behaviour or action upon which the objective is focussed. Setting an objective that requires somebody to run 100 metres in under 20 seconds would require a system being in place which measures whether this is actually being achieved. If such a system was not already in place, then it would need to be developed. In the work situation, the achievement may require monitoring from management or to get the person with whom the objectives are being set to measure their own progress. It is important that there is a reliable system in place to measure progress towards the achievement of the objective

Achievable

The objectives that are set must be achievable. If it seems impossible then the person will not try to achieve it and if it is too easy then they will not be challenged or motivated to achieve it. Unrealistically high or low objectives can result in poorer performance than no objective being set at all.

Objectives should also be clear and leave no room for doubt and they must be communicated to anyone who is expected to achieve them. It is important that the views and agreement of all concerned is sought as it will increase commitment for achievement - they should be agreed by you and your team..

Relevant

When setting objectives, it is important that the objective lies within a person's area of responsibility or influence and they have the ability to achieve it, that is they have the necessary knowledge, authority and skill.
It must also be relevant to what the organisation is trying to achieve and therefore it should sit within the Intent and Direction Objectives set by senior management.

Time Bounded

In the objective, there has to be a date (Day/Month/Year) for when the task has to be started (if it is ongoing) and/or completed (if it is short term or project related).

Objective Setting Action Plan

Objectives are viewed as a hierarchy with achievement at one level leading to achievement at the next level up.

Three approaches to objective setting can be used:

• Top down
• Bottom up
• Combination of top down or bottom up

• Identify the areas where objectives are required
• Set Direction and Intent Objectives
• Set Result Objectives
• Set Task Objectives

The objectives need to be organised into a clear and consistent layout. To ensure action occurs you must establish who is responsible for the objective, when it must be completed by and a priority for each.

Need to know more? You might find our short Time Management or Introduction to First Line Management courses invaluable. Also the Management Certificate or Diploma will develop your overall team building and management skills

Time Management

"I am rushed off my feet"

"I really do not have time to do that now"

Effective time management is essential to ensure that you can operate efficiently. The aim of time management is to give you more discretionary time - time which you can use to set clear objectives, plan, control and deal with the important but less urgent aspects of your job.

The first step in managing time effectively is to identify the problems - the sources of pressure on your time. Time based problems usually originate from someone which may be:

• yourself
• members of the team that works for you
• your boss or other individuals senior to you
• your peers inside the organisation
• your peers outside the organisation

If you identify the sources of pressure on your time you can develop strategies for dealing with these.

Yourself

You may put time pressure on yourself because of the way you work and a large amount of time can be consumed without achieving anything of real value.

If you do not work to clear priorities then time will be wasted. This often means you will spend too much time on trivial tasks with them taking up more time than they deserve. Do you leave important tasks too late to be dealt with as urgent tasks overtake proper scheduling? If you are not working to clear priorities then you will not know if you are putting your effort where it should go and you may not be dealing with those high priority tasks when you are at your best.

There are a lot of other bad working habits that consume time. These include:

• Not working to specific objectives. This means that you will not be clear about what you are required to achieve and therefore cannot allocate time properly to that task.
• Jumping to the telephone. If you always answer the telephone and then stop doing what you are doing to immediately do what the caller wants, then your planning and priorities will be disrupted
• Being a victim of upward delegation. Members of your team will need help but it should be planned to ensure it is a training session so that they can do the task effectively on their own next time.
• Being ill-prepared for meetings. This will lead to longer and ineffective meetings which is not only wasting your time but that of others too
• Not planning tasks. If you do not have a 'to do' list then instead of doing important tasks first or even at all, more interesting or easier tasks are completed which may not have been needed within the same timescales as the important tasks.

Priorities and Strategic Time Management

To manage time effectively, you must have clear, explicit objectives and these must be prioritised. If you set priorities then it will help with time management - most of your time should be spent on high priority areas as these have the highest impact on your performance and effectiveness within your job.

Importance and urgency are both needed for effective time management. The importance of an issue is the impact that resolving it will have on your overall performance and the urgency is the time by which action needs to be started so it can be resolved. It is not always the case that something is both important and urgent.

It is you who decides what is important and urgent taking into account the demands from your manager, and the needs of team members, colleagues, customers, suppliers and organisational needs and strategies.

A Priority Setting Grid is a tool to help you classify objectives according to their importance and urgency.

Low Importance/Low Urgency -can be safely left with little or no impact on your performance. These are tasks to be delegated or have little time spent on them.

High Importance/High Urgency - start work on them as soon as time is available and allocate sufficient time to deal with them properly.

Low Importance/High Urgency - many managers spend most of their time working on such issues. This is the biggest waste of discretionary time. Urgent does not mean important but these issues should be dispatched efficiently and quickly - do not give them time they do not deserve.

High Importance/Low Urgency - these can be put off and can stay on a 'to do' list for some time. The purpose of time management is to deal with these issues properly and therefore you should plan in advance in your diary to tackle them and protect this time to ensure the task is indeed done when scheduled.

Objective setting and working to clear priorities gives you a powerful basis for managing your time.

Need to know more? You might find our short courses - Time Management or Essential Management Skills- invaluable. Also the Management Certificate or Diploma will develop your management skills overall.

Using email and email etiquette

The turnaround time for email can be fast and therefore it offers communication that is different from when using paper-based methods. Using paper-based communication requires that everything should be made completely clear and unambiguous as the recipient may not have a chance to ask for clarification. However, with emails, questions can be asked immediately and it becomes much more like conversational speech.

Email communication can therefore be, in some instances, more relaxed in its style. However, the recipient of the message will not have any status cues such as dress, diction, or dialect, so may make assumptions based on name, address, and facility with language alone. It is important that care is taken to use the right style with correct grammar, spelling and eloquence in the right circumstance.

Email also does not convey emotions as in a face-to-face situation or when conversing on the telephone. It may be difficult therefore to communicate an emotion. Do not use sarcasm - it is particularly dangerous to use this in email. Do not use all capital letters as not only is it difficult to read but infers shouting. Smileys (emoticons) are acceptable in personal messages but not usually in the business environment. If better understanding of the emotions is required, then email is probably not the communication method to be used.

Remember also that the software and hardware that is used for composing, sending, storing, downloading, and reading messages may be completely different between the sender and the recipient. Using visual attributes to convey some aspect of a message may be lost or displayed completely differently upon receipt.

Sending and Replying to Mail
In general, it is a good practice to keep messages short and concise as this will often facilitate quicker response and resolution of issues. Long messages are difficult to read and are often not dealt with as quickly as short messages. Clearly summarise the content of a message in the subject line to help recipients organise and prioritise mail.

Carbon Copies
Messages should only be sent to the appropriate recipients and indiscriminate use of the Cc box can lead to long queues of mail and responses from those who are on the periphery of a subject or issue.

Use Bcc as the preferred method of sending a message to multiple recipients. Any email addresses specified in the "Bcc:" field are not shown up in the message or the message header and therefore give privacy and are not available to spammers and viruses.

Reply All versus Reply
Do not use Reply All instead of Reply if the reply needs to go to the sender of a message only, not all recipients. Particular care should be taken when a message had been sent to a distribution list.

Forwarding
Always consider the confidentiality and security aspects of the information in a message that has been received before forwarding it to others, especially large distribution lists. A message too hastily forwarded can quickly travel around a large number of people and therefore an email containing information that is not to be shared should be communicated in a way other than email.

Flame Mail
"Flame mail" is a message that directs anger, frustration, or condescension at the recipient. It is not advisable to deal with differences or points of contention by email even if the detachment of the email might seem to make saying something difficult easier. One safe practice is to save a message without sending it and reread it later and decide if it is appropriate for the recipient or a broader audience.

Do's and Don't when Sending Attachments
Most email applications support attachments so that another file in most formats can be sent with the email. However, if the recipient's email software does not understand attachments and a non-text file is sent (like a Word document, a binary, a picture, or even compressed text), it will appear as pages of nonsense. Even if the recipient has email software that understands what attachments are, software is still required that can read that particular file format.

Attaching large files (greater than 1MB) should be avoided. Large files can be compressed (with something like WinZip) before attaching them to an email which means they will be transmitted and downloaded more quickly. It is almost always better to mail large documents or post them on the web and email the URL instead of the file. If this is not an option, then email the recipient first and ask them if they can handle a large attachment of that format.

Need to know more? You might find the European Computer Driving Licence will help you develop your IT skills.

Calculations with MS Excel

Performing calculations with Excel is easy as long as you follow the rules. A formula is a written expression of a calculation to be performed by Excel. When you enter a formula into a cell, the formula is stored internally and the result of the calculation is displayed in the cell.

To allow Excel to distinguish a formula from data entry, it must begin with an equal sign (=).

Calculations are performed in Excel by operator priority, as defined by the rules of mathematics as shown above. For example:

However, parentheses can be used to change the order of operations as operations that are contained within parentheses are completed before those outside parentheses. For example:

Cell addresses are used when entering formulae in Excel. For Example, in the following spreadsheet:

Using SUM function and AutoSum
It is very common to have to add a column or range of cells.

To calculate the total of all screws and washers, possible formulae are:

The AutoSum feature offers a shortcut for entering SUM functions to total a range of cells. If you click on the AutoSum button on the Standard toolbar, Excel will total cells directly above or to the left of the cell containing the function

?

IF Statements
IF statements are used to conduct conditional tests on values and formulae. They will return one value if a condition you specify evaluates to TRUE and another value if it evaluates to FALSE.

This formula will return the word 'awake'. Changing the content of cell B2 to 'night' will return the word 'asleep'.

Need to know more? You might find the European Computer Driving Licence will help you develop your overall IT skills or you could concentrate on using MS Excel with the Microsoft Office Specialist or Advanced ECDL Spreadsheets courses.

Giving Presentations

You may be required to give presentations for a variety of reasons e.g. to provide information to your team, senior managers or clients. Presentations may be formal or informal. Whatever type of presentation you are giving, you need to be concise, clear and emphatic and get your points across in a structured and interesting manner in order to be successful.

What sort of presenter are you?

It is important that you recognise what type of speaker you are so that you can improve by concentrating on the key development needs associated with each.

Avoider - avoids speaking in public
Resister - does not like doing presentations as feels very nervous
Accepter - prepared to do presentations and quite enjoys them once started
Seeker - enjoys the challenge of giving presentations

Preparing for the Presentation

You should be clear about the purpose of your presentation and make sure you have clear objectives about what you want to achieve and a clear analysis of your audience's needs.

Need to know more? You might find our short Persuasive Presentations or Train the Trainer courses invaluable.

Managing Yourself

Managing yourself is an important aspect of improving your performance at work. Only you can make it work.

The starting point to better management of yourself is to put things into perspective. Firstly, look at your current work situation as this will form the basis of you understanding which techniques of managing yourself will work for you. You need to look at your own behaviour, attitudes and skills and see if you need to make any changes. Also look at what your job role actually is, what your main priorities are and what needs to be changed to provide the support required to allow you to succeed. Honest self-assessment is an important step.

Most importantly, if you do not have a plan then you will deal with anything that comes your way whether it is urgent, important, not needed at all or not your job. You must carve up you job into distinct activities or tasks, set priorities for these and work according to your priorities to ensure that you are effective.

To set priorities, for each task or activity decide whether:

• it is important but not urgent
• it is urgent but not important.

Focus on important work that needs your attention, work out what to do now, what to leave and what to delegate and decide how long you or somebody else should spend on each task.

'To Do' lists

'To do' lists can be an effective way to help plan and ensure you carry out your activities and do not forget anything, even though it takes some of your time every day to keep it valid. You must be disciplined about your 'to do' lists otherwise they will cease to be useful. Some 'to do' list tips are:

• start a new list every day, carrying over activities not completed the day before
• do your list as your first task in the morning
• a 'to do' list should consist of activities that should be completed in a day
• break large tasks down into activities that can be done in a day
• amend your list throughout the day as necessary - activities might need to be added or deleted

If you are constantly carrying activities over day after day then you need to assess why you are not dealing with them and formulate a technique to overcome your resistance to completing them. This could be making it the first thing you do in the day (after your 'to do' list!!), breaking it down into more manageable chunks and tackle it a bit at a time taking a break in between time with other activities.

Examine how you work in a day and try to recognise your working pattern such as when you work most efficiently and can concentrate more. It might be a certain day of the week is a high, a certain period in the day or only short period at any time of the day. Once you know your working pattern you can schedule your activities accordingly.

Handling information

No doubt will you need to deal with large quantities of information every day in your job. Unless you manage it effectively it will interfere with your self-management. It is important that you take action on the information in an organised way to reduce time spent reading, filing, finding, rescuing, re-reading and once more around the cycle if not dealt with properly.

The rules should be:

• establish a routine for dealing with information
• act on the information immediately. This could be that:
• you deal with it yourself
• it needs no action but will be useful later so it is filed
• it requires action but by somebody else so you pass it on
• if you do not require it for future reference, then throw it out
• cut down the information coming in to you
• set up filters to remove junk mail
• take your name off mailing lists
• unsubscribe from suppliers if the information from them is not needed any more
• make a telephone call and quickly resolve an issue without more correspondence
• create an easy filing system
• keep a clean desk and put things you are not working on away (this applies to your PC desktop too).

There are many techniques and tools that you can use for effective self-management and improve your productivity and be effective in your job. You need to try them to know what will work for you and help you get things done.

Need to know more? You might find our short courses - Time Management or Essential Management Skills- invaluable. Also the Management Certificate or Diploma will develop your management skills overall.

Report Writing

Writing reports is one of the most important ways of communicating and writing effective reports should be a key skill. The purpose of a report is to communicate information and/or analysis based on factual evidence.

You may write a report to communicate your own ideas or research but more often you will be asked to write a report. In this case it is important that you should be very clear about who ordered the report, why it is required, what it should include and when it is needed before you start writing.

It is essential that you understand clearly why the report is required - the report objectives - as this forms the basis of how the report should be written. The report objectives will determine the type of report required, its structure and the language used.

The type of report can be:

• Historical/Material - presents factual account of events/facts usually in chronological order and allows the audience to analyse the information and draw their own conclusions
• Analytical - presents the information, compares, contrasts, draws conclusions and makes recommendations to the audience
• Persuasive - presents a case so that the audience will draw the same conclusions as the writer.

The type of report will influence the structure and is very important to the success of the report. A good structure will guide the reader through the report, be easy to follow and allow for easy access and reference to specific points or sections. Although the type of report will differ, it will generally consist of three basic sections - a beginning, a middle and an end.

The introduction is key as it must gain the audience's attention and make them want to read further. It will inform the audience of why they should read the report, what the report contains and how it is structured. The introduction should be short and relevant.

The main body of the report in its structure and content will depend on the objectives, report type and audience. It must have a clear logical structure and flow with clear consistent headings. The headline style is important and should allow for the main points to be clearly identified with sub headings providing further levels of detail. The content and flow of a report should be clear from the headings alone.

The end of a report is crucial and will depend on the type of report and a clear distinction should be made between a summary, conclusion and recommendations. A summary should go over the content of the main body of the report, they review the evidence of a historical or persuasive report and the analysis of an analytical report. Conclusions are what can be logically reasoned from the content of the report and recommendations are suggested actions which are based on the conclusions. They should not be a personal opinion which cannot be founded on the content of the report.

Getting started

Once you have decided on your framework, it is easier to start in the middle of the report and with an easy section to get the feel of the report, set the style of writing to ensure that the audience can clearly understand it. The meaning of a report can be unclear if long or complex words are used. The sentences should not be overly long or complex and as a general rule do not use sentences consisting of more than 30 words. A paragraph should express a single point or idea. Economy of words is a factor that must be considered - too many and redundant words or repetition will detract from the meaning but too few and the style will be too terse.

The layout of the pages is very important. Although paragraphs break up the text and make the report easier to read, the addition of simple headings or bullet points can help this further.

The style of a report may be imposed by that of the organisation for which you work or by the audience you are targeting. It is generally accepted that reports are serious, impersonal and without bias. As a consequence, reports are written in the passive language although active language can be more direct and clearer. The image conveyed to the audience is important and is the task of the writer to get it right.

Reports often contain visuals. These can give information more clearly than text alone especially when precise information is needed to be conveyed. Visuals should support and enhance the report. They must be chosen with care and be well positioned within the report. Why a visual is needed must be considered to ensure the right type of visual is used e.g. a pie chart will clarify a point and a table can give precise data.

Checklist

Are the objectives clear?
Does the structure work?
Is the language appropriate and clear?
Is it too wordy?
Are the facts and figures correct?
Are the visuals appropriate and clear?
Is the spelling/grammar correct?
Is the page layout and numbering correct?

Need to know more? You might find our short Report Writing or Effective Business Writing courses invaluable.

Selection Interviewing

Your team is a valuable asset and therefore it is important that you select the best person for a job when interviewing applicants for a particular post. Every organisation will have its own specific procedures and policies for selecting staff but you need to improve your own skills in the selection interview situation.

Good preparation is key to an effective interview. It will ensure that you can conduct the interview confidently and efficiently, focusing on the important issues.

You need to prepare yourself or others on the interview panel to introduce the interview itself. You need to be able to:

• give a brief description of how the selection process operates
• describe the actual interview process and why the interview is carried out in that way
• encourage questions
• clarify the process following the interview

The administrative aspects of an interview might not be your responsibility but it is worth you making sure that you have made adequate time in your diary and instructed that you are not to be disturbed unless. You might want to involve yourself in the seating arrangements as these can affect the success of the interview. A table between you and an interviewee can create a barrier but may nevertheless be the best option.

You should try to make the interviewee welcome - make eye contact, smile, thank them for coming and introduce yourself and others on the interview panel. Your questions should be structured to include some potential icebreakers that create a rapport and put the interviewee at ease. A question about their journey might be suitable for instance. You can then introduce the purpose of the interview as you have already prepared.

The questions you ask in the interview should be prepared in advance and should encompass the aspects contained within the essential and desirable criteria that are needed for the job to be performed successfully.

A successful interview means you need to be skilled at three techniques:

• questioning
• listening
• observing

Questioning

Questioning is a key skill for the successful selection interviewer. There are different types of questions and each one is used to achieve a different outcome. Some examples are listed here:

• closed questions invite one-word answers, typically a single fact or 'yes' or 'no'. Closed questions are useful for confirming facts but will not help you explore an issue in depth or learn much about the interviewee e.g. Do you like coffee?

• open questions are questions that have no definite answer and force the interviewee to think. It encourages them to reply at length, revealing more about themselves and often providing the interviewer with some other points to follow up. They start with the words:
  
  • how
  • why
  • when
  • where
  • what
    
• probe questions are designed to draw out more and probe significant remarks. A probe question is used to get more information following up on a previous question and it can be an open or closed question. Probe questions should not be used extensively as it then could start to feel like interrogating the interviewee although it might be very appropriate for particular job roles.

A good interviewing process should include interaction with the interviewee. Summarising adds control to the interview and confirms you have understood what has been said, gives you time to think and shows that you are going to move on.

You should take notes in an interview. They will allow you to refer back if required, constitute a clear record of the interview and aid a final decision.

If you get your selection interview right then you should have people who are right for the job, contribute positively to your team and ensure that you meet your objectives.

Need to know more? You might find our short courses - Interview and Selection, The Accomplished Listener or Understanding Body Language - invaluable. Also the Management Certificate or Diploma will develop your management skills overall.

Corporate Training Programme

The T&D Team are delighted to announce the new Corporate Training Programme for 2008/09. This Snippet will give staff an opportunity to hear how we prioritise the training programme, which courses are on offer and when and also how we can work together to ensure that staff get the most out of the programme

Complaints Procedure

The Scottish Parliament complaints procedures go live on Monday 31 March. This Snippet session will include information on the purpose and scope of the procedures, and on how they will be administered. There will also be a chance to ask any questions you may have about the new complaints procedures and what they will mean for you