Opportunities: what opportunities you have?
Time Scale: Define a time scale for each goal towards the accomplishment of your objective.
Success Criteria: Define criteria to evaluate your success.
Evidence: Did you accomplish your goal (towards your objective) or not.
My Personal Development Plan:
Introduction to Task 2:
As Personal Development Plan (PDP) indicate your strategy for development of a plan, and plan help individual in the improvement of his professional and personal life. But as a part of the PDP it is very important to have checkpoints and milestones which will help the person in reviewing plan time by time and to evaluate his performance, and give him idea that how much he has accomplished towards his goals and objectives.
Objectives of the Task 2:
Following are the objectives of this task
- Carry out self review of the objectives and goals set in PDP (Task 1)
- Identification of obstacles and barriers in achievements to those objectives and goals
- Description about the importance of reviewing a plan
- Why it is important to have “self –review”
- Reflective record of management examples in achieving my objectives
- Why it is sometime important to get support of others in achievement of goals and objectives.
- Provide a report which include relevant examples from PDP (Task 1)
Report on Personal Development Plan
From: Naeemullah (Manager Financial Accountancy)
To: Managing Director Finance 4 U
Subject: PDP Report
Date: 10 March 2010
Obstacles to Achieve Objectives
Following are the main obstacles in achieving my objectives as listed in PDP. Here the obstacles are listed in categories i.e. obstacles in achieving short term goals, obstacles in achieving midterm and long term goals.
Obstacles in Achieving Short term Goals:
- This is my first experience of work at any country other than my home country, so it’s hard to adjust in this multinational environment, and studying in this new area of studies as my past I have studied software engineering.
Obstacles in Achieving Midterm Goals:
- Will hard to find a right place for experience in HR department in a good organisation due to current job recession in job market.
Obstacles in Achieving Long-term Goals:
- I will need to complete M.phil within the defined time
- Getting admission in P.hd in good university will be hard, as it will be
- Before getting managerial position I need to get experience in HR department of a good organisation.
Steps to Overcome on these Obstacles:
Following steps are required to overcome on the obstacles in achieving my goals / objectives
- Improve my communication and presentation skills and ability to work in team
- Try to find out part time job to support my studies financially
- Developing awareness by studying different organizations HR departments.
- Manage my time will, and complete the degrees within the defined time
Need to Review and Monitor Plan:
If you plan well then there is maximum chances of getting better results from what you have planned. When a person plan something i.e. his career, education, journey etc, it is required to have a success criteria for the evaluation of his success towards achievements of his objectives, and how much it is needed and if he doesn’t achieve what was required then what was the reason behind this failure, indentify those and ways to overcome on those weaknesses.
Reviewing and monitoring your plan is also important because if you plan something initially you don’t have much idea of “what is best to plan” at that time as compared to that which you re-plan it when you attain some progress towards the accomplishment of task or you get failure at initially. So it is important to review and monitor your plan because it provide you insight into what you have achieved and what you want to achieve, in other words where are you now and where you want to go.
Importance of Self-Review:
An individual is best judge to review his / her as compared to others, because he / she knows his / her strengths and weaknesses which may be behind the curtain for others. There is no substitute for genuine self review, because you understand your values and have clear idea of your personality picture.
Self review is an important step towards personal development, with person taking responsibility for their own learning and for choosing the means to achieve this; it increases capacity of your thinking and willingness towards your judgment and taking responsibility for yourself.
Reflective Record of Management Experience in Achieving My Objectives:
Everyone in his life experience such scenarios in which he should take managerial decisions. I also have faced such situations so many times, where I was to lead a group of individuals some of them are stated below.
During my studies at engineering university I was assigned as project group leader of a group of five students. We were assigned a project relatively a bit tough than other groups, my group members were annoyed, but I as group leader take the responsibility, gather my group members, motivate them that we can do this, then I divide the whole project into different modules and assign one module to each member of the group. We sit together in a formal meeting way once in a week to discuss the progress on each module and the problems and then together we come up with solution. And at the end it was a pleasurable movement for me as team leader when our project was complete before the submission deadline.
The second managerial experience was a professional one within a very hard and difficult situation.
When Pakistan army start military operation in northern areas of the country against the terrorist groups, army ordered local population to leave their homes and towns to make the operation more effective and make the damage minimum to civilians. Those people were kept in IDP (Internally Displace Persons) camps in different areas of Pakistan. International Community of Red Crescent also arrange a camp in which provided living facilities to about 30,000 people, I was selected as in the Red Crescent team and assigned the responsibilities of “Sector In charge” in that camp with a team of six volunteers, it was very hard to work with an inexperienced team because all of them were students from different colleges and universities, and the second thing was the hot weather in that area which was almost 48 C to 50 C. I always motivate my team members and remains always in front while doing any activity from registration of IDP’s to their return to their home towns. We divided the sector into blocks and nominate blocks representatives from local community in each block, this make our task very much easy instead of dealing with each individual we just meet the community elders, guide them and they do the remaining work satisfactorily.
How it is sometime necessary to gain support from others to achieve goal and objectives:
The accomplishment of a goal / objective is sometime very difficult or we can say that “Impossible” individually. That’s why the term “teamwork” developed in management studies. To gain the help of others in achieving a goal it depends on the nature of the goal / objective that is it an individual task or a group task?
For example if we look at a football team, they try to achieve only one task that is to goal on opponent team, but they can’t do it by having just one player in the team.
So if your objective is like which you can’t achieve individually, you need to gain support from others (physical, moral support)
Conclusion
Introduction to Task 3
In task 3 the management of Finance 4 U wants us as consultant to look into some issues which are often considered as “Less Important”, they want to know about the different personal and professional skills that different organizations use to improve their employees skills and competencies level. And then produce all the outcomes of this research in presentation format to deliver it to the managing director and staff of Finance 4 U. and at the end prepare a report containing recommendations to help the company in getting out of the problems they are facing in their employees personal and professional development.
Objectives of Task 3
Following are the objectives of Task 3
- Investigate a research in three organisations, that how they ensure their staff various personal and professional skills.
- Produce a presentation to managing director containing the outcomes of the research.
- Write a concise and accurate report to MD making recommendations to help Finance 4 U in current situation.
What are Personal and Professional Skills
Personal and professional skills are those skills which are owned by individuals, personal skills are commonly by nature, but can be developed through certain processes and activities, when an individual use his personal skills for his organisational or professional goals / objectives, then it is referred as professional skill. The most common personal and professional skills are communication skills, management skills, interpersonal relations, innovative skills, analytical problem solving, decision making, social skills, pro activity and much more.
Analysis of three organisations
I have chosen the following three organisations to do analysis that how they ensure their staff personal and professional skills development.
- Mc Donald’s
- Dell Australia
- Transport for London
Mc Donald’s
Mc Donald’s is one of the world’s most popular chains of restaurants; they have subsidiaries in all continents of the world. At Mc Donald’s the management is very ambitious towards their employee’s personal and professional skills development, and they use a very structured and systematic way, following are the ways through which the management of Mc Donald’s ensure their employees skill development.
- Crew Development Program
Mc Donald’s have a very structured program for its crew development and this program is so influential that 40 % of the top 50 managers at Mc Donald’s join this organisation as crew member.
- Award Wining and e-Learning Strategy
To have a healthy competitive environment among their employees Mc Donald’s have award winning scheme, employees producing better results are awarded benefits as financial, promotions etc. while to provide their employees an opportunity for distance learning they also have e-learning strategy and online resources.
- Classroom Courses / Hamburger University Training
Mc Donald’s also having certain courses for the personal and professional skills development of its employees. Mc Donald’s institution is now certificate awarding body, which issue certificates to their employees after successful completion of course. Mc Donald’s has an agreement with Hamburger University USA to provide training to its mid-level managers and executives.
- Scholarships / apprenticeship
Mc Donald’s have a very comprehensive project of scholarships for its employees; they provide up to $ 5,250 reimbursement in tuition fees to their employees in course which is directly related to company job responsibilities. They also provide financial assistant and reimbursement to its employees in course which are not directly related to their company job and responsibilities. In USA Mc Donald’s have national employee scholarship program which gives 52 fulltime scholarships per year in United States.
In United Kingdom Mc Donald's provide apprenticeship to 6000 persons in 2009, currently they have 800 persons and will provide apprenticeship to 10,000 people becoming the UK largest apprenticeship providing organisation in UK.
Dell Australia
Dell is world known company providing computers, laptops and other accessories to its customers worldwide.
Dell Australia has a big number of customers providing services all in almost all cities of Australia. To achieve its organisational goals and objectives Dell focuses on their employee’s personal and professional development using various approaches, some of them are stated below.
- Training & Development
To provide the basic skills to its employees initially Dell uses the approach of pre job and on job trainings. While to enhance its employees competencies and skills, Dell have a very good structured development program. They also provide their employees job security, in order that they show their full loyalty to the organisation.
- Leadership Development Program
To develop their employees leadership skills that they may work better on their current positions and are ready for future improvements in the management hierarchy of the company. Dell has an agreement with TAFE and Australian Institute of Management, and with collaboration of these two Dell organise leadership development courses for their employees.
- Arranging Social Events
To enhance their employees social skills, Dell arrange different social events for its employees where their families are also invited, through this program Dell try to enhance their employees skills through social gatherings and provide them opportunity to attend those events alongside with their families that they may recognise that for their company they value the most.
Transport for London (TFL)
Transport for London is the official company look after the public transport facilities around the Greater London, from a taxi cab to Buses and Trains to underground tubes, TFL is working hard to provide the best public transport facilities in the most historical city of the world “London”. To achieve the goal of providing best public transport facilities TFL has a very comprehensive program for the personal and professional skills development of their employees.
- Training and Development
Transport for London provide extensive training both pre job and on job trainings to their employees to make their personal and professional skill improved. TFL have signed ten years training program with London City & Guilds, Barnet College and four counties to help TFL in delivering courses to employee and work on their skill development.
- National Vocational Qualification (NVQ)
TFL arrange different courses during vocations for its underground frontline employees, in these courses the main focus is on development of their professional skills and update them with latest tools that may TFL going to deploy in near future.
- College Placements
TFL help its employees in getting up with updated knowledge and skills by college placements. Every year TFL help a big number of its employees to get admit in colleges for courses, like technical courses.
TFL also provide apprenticeships opportunities to graduates and other technical workers to work with TFL and enhance their skills in their relevant field. They also provide trainings to its employees (taxi cab drivers) on how to read maps and make route selections, training n topography is also provided.
Report
From: Naeem Khan
To: Managing Director Finance 4 U
Subject: Investigation of 3 organisations Skill development methods
Date: 05 Apr. 10
Currently Finance 4 U employees are not focusing on their skills and professional development, the management of the company is keenly interested in getting out of this situation and producing a solution to the problem. This report includes recommendations for company management. These recommendations are based on research which I have done in three organisations Mc Donald’s, Dell Australia and Transport for London. Following is list of valid recommendations for management of Finance 4 U
- Create awareness among company’s employees through seminars and general discussions, and let them know the importance of personal and professional skills development.
- Motivate employees to participate in the activities arranged by company for employee development.
- Prepare a structured and comprehensive program for development of employees skills
- Provide employees pre job and on job trainings
- Design courses and curriculum for employees development
- Finance 4 U must design scholarships program for their employees who want to qualify certain courses that may support their job role.
Conclusion
Introduction to Task 4
In this task the management of Finance 4 U wants to achieve their goal of employee personal and professional skills development through applying the available methods for skill development. Its required to look into the skills development methods which the three (discussed in task 3) organisation use for their employees personal and professional skill development and provide the management of Finance 4 U examples of Continues Professional Development (CPD) and describe how CPD helps in the personal and professional skills development.
Objectives of Task 4
Following are the main objectives of task 4
- Describe the various methods of available for personal and professional skills development.
- Analysis of the skills development methods currently using by the three organisations selected in task 3
- Examples of CPD
- And the contribution of CPD in skills development
What is skills development method
Skills development methods and techniques are the activities or actions taken by an individual or an organisation to explore the hidden potential of their employees and make their capacity more for performing certain task and activities to achieve the organisational goals and objectives.
Various Skill Development Methods
Following are the three organisations I have selected in task 3 of APD
- Mc Donald’s
- Dell Australia
- Transport for London
These three organisations use a variety of personal and professional skills development in their organisation to ensure their employees skills development and make them able to achieve the organisation goals and objectives. Following is the list of skills development methods currently in use by the management in the above three organisations.
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Crew Development Program is use by the management of the Mc Donald’s, this is a very structured program in which they train their crew member for future leadership and management of the company, and is also a very successful one because 40 % of the top 50 mangers of Mc Donald’s worldwide join this organisation as crew member.
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Class room Courses / Certificates this method is also widely used now days at almost all good organisations, to provide their employees the opportunity to enhance their skills and learn the latest knowledge through formal class room courses and they are awarded certificate which may help them in getting better positions in future.
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Scholarships and Apprenticeship all the above three stated companies provide their employees opportunity to get further qualification in their respective fields, these organisation provide them scholarships for the expenses of their studies and also provide the facility of apprenticeship to newly graduates to became ready for the acquiring good job placements.
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Training and Development is a key method to improve skills of employees, to improve the employees basic skills initially the pre job training is provided and to enhance the capabilities of employees on job training is provided also a series of skill development activities is carried out.
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Leadership Development Program is an important program in practice in good and well structured organisations. In this program they select the potential employees for taking over the future management positions and then provide them training, and educate them on how to carry out management activities.
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Social Gatherings is also an important activity through which these companies try to socialise their employees, and provide them opportunity to attend these gatherings alongside with their families to give them insight on how to socialise with different people and for their company they value the most.
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College / University Placement is the method of skills development in which different organisation arrange different courses for their employees in collaboration with good universities or other degree awarding institutes to cope them with latest knowledge and skills of their field.
Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
'Continuing Professional Development is the systematic maintenance, improvement and broadening of knowledge and skill, and the development of personal qualities necessary for the execution of professional and technical duties throughout one's working life’. [1]
The process of CPD is a combination of approaches, ideas and techniques that will help you manage your own learning and growth. The focus of CPD is firmly on results – the benefits that professional development can bring you in the real world. Perhaps the most important message is that one size doesn’t fit all. Wherever you are in your career now, and whatever you want to achieve, your CPD should be exactly that: yours.
The process of CPD
CPD is not a fixed process. Fundamentally, it's a question of setting yourself objectives for development and then charting your progress towards achieving them. It's about where you want to be, and how you plan to get there. Our approach is based on reflection that focuses on outcomes and results, rather than 'time spent' or 'things done'.
CPD is about capturing useful experiences and assessing the practical benefits of what you have learned. There is one decisive question that you should ask yourself to evaluate every piece of learning: what can you do now that you couldn’t do before? Similarly, when you record your CPD, it’s the value of the activity that counts. It’s not what you did, but how you can use what you learned. By using CPD it is recommend reviewing your learning over the previous 12 months, and setting your development objectives for the coming year. Reflecting on the past and planning for the future in this way makes your development more methodical and easier to measure. This is a particularly useful exercise prior to your annual appraisal.
The key features of the CPD process are following
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CPD needs to be a documented process
- Be self-directed: driven by you, not your employer
- Focus on learning from experience, reflective learning and review
- Help you set development goals and objectives
- Include both formal and informal learning.
How CPD contributes in Skill Development
The CPD helps in skills development in various ways, it provides an individual an overview of your professional development to date and reminds you of your achievements and how far you've progressed, it helps in directing your career and helps you keep your eye on your goals, it uncovers gaps in your skills and capabilities and opens up further development needs, it demonstrates your professional standing towards the achievements towards his career goals and objectives and helps you with your career development or a possible career change.
Conclusion
- There are different methods available for skills development and different organizations use these methods for their employees skill development
- Finance 4 U can benefit from the skills development methods the three companies are currently using.
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Continuous Professional Development helps in making improvement personal and professional skill.
Introduction to task 5
Skills audit is one of the most important activity in personal and professional development, skills audit helps individuals in identification of skills they possess, what are their strengths and weaknesses, it simply give them insight into their skills and competencies. To perform skill audit different methods are used, one of which is the skill audit form, through this form information is collected about a person and then different tools like tables and charts are used to perform skills audit and provide a clear picture of the skills that individual posses.
Objectives of Task 5
Following are the main objectives of the Task 5
- Identification of seven individuals paying attention to their background and area of work
- Develop a skill audit form to gather information from those individuals
- Use appropriate tool to perform skill audit
- Write a report on the findings of the activity and make relevant conclusion and recommendations.
What is Skill Audit?
Skills audit is a process that can be used to identify the skill gaps for an individual. The outcome is a training and development needs analysis that identifies where training and development programs are needed. Skills audit results in
- An understanding of the skills required and the gaps the organization currently has.
- A targeted analysis of development needs.
- A listing of skills which need development.
- Information that can be used for dynamic succession planning.
Identification of seven individual
To perform the skill audit of team members I have identified the following seven member who are focused about their personal and professional skills development and paying attention to their background and area of work.
- Chaudry Asif Hussain
- Jhoyen Lee
- Rehana
- Vishali
- Rizwana Khan
- Salma Ismail
- Monalisha
Skills Audit Form
I have developed the following skills audit form and have completed it from all the above stated individuals, following are samples of the completed form by the seven individuals.
Skills Audit Form
Name: Date:
Skills Audit for all seven individuals
After filling the above skill audit form from all seven individual listed above, following is the result of skill audit for each team member
Chaudry Asif Hussain
Asif Hussain is a good team player because he has the ability to work with team, interact with others well and cooperate with other team members. Have good understanding of the team goals and objectives and express his self effectively in a group and in one-to-one situations.
He also posses good quality of problem solving, help others in identification of problems and coming up with solution to the situation. Have good presentational skills both verbal and non verbal communication and also fluent in the use of information and communication technologies. He has not a clear picture of his career or an idea of where he wants to see himself in future. But he is focused on this issue now on the importance of actively reviewing and maintaining his own development plan in order to set appropriate career targets. He is also able to work autonomously and focus on results and performance indicators and use different strategies to achieve targets, and have good identification of the resources available for the completion of task. He also posses good management skills and able to manage his time and prioritize hi activities.
Jhooyen Lee
This individual is not experience one and new into the professional life, but have well and sound understating of the of the issues related to his job from his educational background. Lee is a good team worker but his team working skill need to be furnished more, as he has good understanding of team roles. He has good problem solving abilities but lack in discussing problems with others, means that he has some weaknesses in communication skills and that need to be improved. He has good understanding of using information and communication technologies, and also very much focused towards his career development in this sector, he need to learn managerial skills from the environment of the organization and his managers, he is very good in setting his individual goals and accomplishment of those goals.
Rehana
She is also at the initial step of her professional career, need to be much focused on her communication skills development, have good understanding and knowledge of educational background, good team player and sound knowledge of understanding team roles, good problem solving abilities, she need to improve the skill of using information and communication technologies. Have good abilities of setting individual goal and utilizations of resources to achieve those goals.
Vishali Thakhar
She is a good team player, good knowledge and understanding of team roles and goal achievement strategy of team. Excellent hand of use on communication and information technologies, she is paying attention to her personal and professional skills development, and very much conscious about her career development. She possesses a fair knowledge of organizational skills, she makes use of effective planning and preparation in order to anticipate and overcome problems.
Rizwana Khan
An experience individual in the team, have good of all the organizational activities, good team worker and very excellent communicator, also posses good quality of problem solving, help others in identification of problems and coming up with solution to the situation. Have good presentational skills both verbal and non verbal communication and also fluent in the use of information and communication technologies. Very much focused about her personal and professional skill development and try to learn something new. She has very good problem solving abilities and understand the importance of actively reviewing and maintaining her own development plan in order to set appropriate learning targets and maintain positive attitudes to work and understand when a task has not been completed well and identify changes for the future.
Salma Ismail
She is the most experience member of the team, very experienced, good educational background, and very much competitive. She understands how to contribute effectively and co-operatively with others even if they do not share the same ideas and ways of working. She has excellent problem solving abilities and use an appropriate approach to questioning in order to gain information from which to draw conclusions. Understand the differences in presenting types of documents, e.g. reports, essays, dissertations, summaries and good knowledge of information and communication technologies to support her work, good individual role player and excellent team leader.
Monalisha
New member of the team, sound good educational background and understanding of the job related issues. Good understanding of team work and role playing as team member. Recognize and develop skills and competencies required for learning and future employment, understand the importance of actively reviewing and maintaining her own development plan in order to set appropriate learning targets, apply suitable approaches and put in extra effort if required in order to meet tight deadlines, make use of effective planning and preparation in order to anticipate and overcome problems. She is very good in keeping track of work schedules and deadlines by applying multi-tasking abilities
References:
- Bertman, Get yourself Ptomoted, Revised Edition, 9,
- “Honey, Peter , Improve your People Skills, Second Edition, 17”
- www.imperial .ac.uk