Administrative systems - The place where I worked for 'work experience' was in Tesco plc in Covent Garden.

Administrative: relating to the arrangements and work, which is needed to control the operation of a plan or organization.

System: a way of doing things.

‘Administration system’ is a procedure/process to help the business run smoothly.

Why are administrative systems important to a business in general?

It is important for a business to have ‘administrative systems’ in place to:

• Save money
• Help the business run smoothly
• Make it easy for supervisors to manage their staff.
• Save resources
• Save time

The main systems at my work placement are:

• Answering the telephone. Answering the telephone wasn’t that good because when there was a big queue hardly anyone thought of answering the phone, which don’t make a quite good ‘customer service’.
• Security. There was a surveillance system. I think the place was secure but there was only two security guards and while I was working one of them called in sick so it made it really difficult for one person to look at the cameras and control the shop floor.
• Clock-in and clock out. All employees as well as employers clock-in and clock-out. The system was quite good because the results went straight to the department (finance) where they deal with wages and pay the staff for the times they have clocked-in and clocked-out. There was one disadvantage until a manager discovered. For example, when staff worked until 5pm they used to go and have a coffee or go shopping then come back in about one hour and clock-out so they could get paid an hour extra.

• Up-to-date products. Everyday in Tesco there were two special employees who were responsible to check the whole store’s product to keep up to date. For example, if products were going to run out of date today they used to put special offers on those products so they can be sold and not thrown away. This is important for a company because their main objective is profit and they are going to need any bit of it.
• Filling shelves with products. There were few employees who worked in a shop floor but in a busy day they couldn’t keep up so other employees from different sections of the store used to help the shop-floor staff. The system for filling shelves depends on the managers because when a shop-floor manager thinks that the shop needs fillings he gives orders to go and get boxes. This happens constantly every 2-3 hours. In the meantime the shop-floor employees help customers on what they need and where to find it, they also tidy out the shelves.