Mrs.Atwell uses fax to confirm that interviews have been arranged by the organisation. There will be a copy of each fax sent. Faxes can be sent over long distances.
Advantages
- Has formal authority
- Can be copied for people
- Can be studies a leisure
- Cam include pictures
Disadvantages
- Paper could get jammed n the machine
- Ink could run out when important messages are coming through
- Sometimes the document may take time to produce
Roles and Responsibilities
Mrs.Atwell’s day-to-day reminders are kept in a yearly diary. In this diary all of the important dates are kept, such as meetings and holidays. Everyday things that have to be done are also kept in this diary. Day’s reminders are kept so that if today’s tasks are not complete they could be carried forward to the next day. Mrs.Atwell prioritises her jobs from most too least important. There is a yearly scheduled planner, which Mrs.Atwell records the starting of Work Experience and when she has to set and choose Work Experience for other year student such as year 10 and then 6th form.
The main role for Mrs.Atwell is to send all of her year 10 and upper college student’s out on Work Experience. Just before Work Experience starts all of the relevant pieces of documents are sent out to students and are filled in. This is done so that Mrs.Atwell knows what the student desires for Work Experience. If the placements (organisations) haven’t had a health and safety check they cannot be used for Work Experience. For this Mrs.Atwell needs to send out a health and safety officer out to the organisation so that the placements could be used.
Filing Systems
There are many types of filing systems that are used. These are different methods of classification.
- Alphabetical by Name
- Alphabetical by Subject
- Alphabetical by Geographical
- Numerical by Sequence
- Alpha-Numerical
- Chronological
From this list above Mrs.Atwell uses Alphabetical and Numerical.
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Documents are filed under the name of the organisation or the surname of the person. Mrs.Atwell uses this method to store the name of the placements or the organisations manager. This system of storing documents is most commonly used.
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Subject: This method is to group materials by topic. Yellow pages are a good example of classifying information by this method. Mrs.Atwell doesn’t use this method because it doesn’t relate to her sorting methods.
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Geographical Area: Files are sorted out by the place and location of the organisation. This system is used by mail order companies who export and import products and does not need to be used by Mrs.Atwell.
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Sequence: This is sorted out by grouping documents by number. This is used to group by customers number employee number or supplier number. Mrs.Atwell uses this method to group each student by the Roll Number. Each new student that joins Carlton Bolling College will get the next Roll Number.
Laws, Regulations and Legislation
Two main laws that affect administrators, they are Data Protection Act 1998 and Health and Safety.
Mrs.Atwell needs to be aware of laws and regulations that affect her job. The main law that Mrs.Atwell has to follow is the Data Protection Act 1998. This Act was introduced was introduced because sensitive and personal information on computer databases was being hacked into and that information was being stolen. This act was then replaced and had several improvements that had to be followed. The major sector was the protection against manual filing systems. Mrs.Atwell has to follow this in her own day-to-day basis as an administrator because she handles personal information about students in the whole of Carlton Bolling College.
Health and Safety Regulation plays an important role in an administrator’s day-to-day job. Minimum use of VDUs (Visual Display Unit), Mrs.Atwell uses these, so the employer (Mr.Willis) has to ensure: -
- Assess the workstation and display unit and reduce any risks.
- Make sure Mrs.Atwell has regular breaks. It is illegal for user of VDUs to stay on continuously.
- Provide health and safety training relating to the work.
Health and safety regulation also require: -
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Display Screens: Characters must be well defined. The display unit must be able to swivel easily and there must not be any glare on the screen.
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Keyboards: Must be separate from the screen, with space in front of it to provide rest.
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Work Surface: the area must be large enough and should have a low reflective surface. The equipment should be adjustable to suit Mrs.Atwell.
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Work Chairs: Should be comfortable and allow stability. The footrest must be provided. Mrs.Atwell uses one of these footrests.
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The Working Environment: Must provide satisfactory light with minimum glare. Windows should have blinds or the workstation should be positioned to avoid reflections.
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Software and Systems: Mrs.Atwell should know how to use the program and appropriate to the level of the knowledge.
The most important Act relating to Health and Safety is the Health and Safety at the Work Act 1974 (HASWA). This Act sets out the general duties for the employer to there employees.
Mrs.Atwell has to attend meetings which are organised by others, e.g. Bradford careers and the Work Experience Unit and those which are organised by herself with the form tutors and year heads. She produces agendas and memos to her meeting and has to be aware of Health and Safety regulations in connection with work organising meetings.
Day-to-Day Diary 2002
My Day-to-Day planning
To make sure my day-to-day responsibilities are done. I planned and prioritised them on the diary above which was kept with me everyday. Meetings that had to be done were also written down on my diary. All of my responsibilities that were planned for the group were also written down.
Prioritising my diary so l knew the main tasks that had to be done were fairly easy to place on but l had a tricky job off putting down which task was important. I realised this by picking out the main tasks that needed to be done when we were in a meeting and when a letter or an application form needed to be finished l had o remind my self about them so l didn’t forget. I had to put in the important tasks in first then the least important. I had to do this within the group because the tasks that urgently needed to be done were placed on and the rest that were least important were not placed because l knew that we were going to talk about it in the next meeting.
Purpose of Business Meetings
The purpose of a business meeting is to inform the colleagues of new developments. All businesses hold a meeting; it could be twice a week or everyday depending on the size of the business. For out assignment we had to hold 4 meetings, each of as an administrator, a chairman and a committee person. Each meeting the job titles was changed. When the first meeting was held Suleman was the chairman. The second meeting Abdul was he chairman and so on. Each meeting our title changed.
Each meeting we had to discus what has happened during each period of time between the meetings. We would discus if the: -
- Application forms had been completed
- If the Health and Safety inspection had been set out
- Matters that had to be discussed
- Any other business, meaning any thing else to talk about
As an administrator l had to set out a few things before and after the meetings l had to prepare. To do this l had to first find out the following: -
Before
- Check if the participant (group) are available
- Book and make arrange for the meeting to be held
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Make sure the group knows about the meeting, this is when memos are handed out
During
- Make arrivals welcome
- Make sure some ne is taking brief notes while the meeting is going on
After
- Nominate a person to take brief note while the meeting is going on
- Give information out and documents of use
- Apologise on behalf of the people who couldn’t attend the meeting
Filing Systems and Index
When l had produced my application forms, letters to company and Memos, l then had to pan and sort them out into a filing system. I used numerical and alphabetical filing systems.
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Numerical: The filing system is consisting of using and placing the document by number. As you can see below l have used numerical filing systems in my student application forms and memos. I had to use the role number as my sorting orders i.e. 098593 and then follows 098594 and so on.
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Alphabetical: There are 2 different method of sorting by alphabetical, subject and geographical. I didn’t have to use geographical because l didn’t sort the company names by area code. I sorted my letters to companies by subject.
Index
My index has been sorted out and now I can retrieve the documents that l need.
Company Letters
As you will notice that there is a number at the top, this is because numbers come before a letter when you’re using the filing system by subject.
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1st Stop Car Hire
552a Leeds Road
Bradford BD3 9SB
- Chapel Grange School
Rhodes Way
Bradford
BD3 1RB
- Donald and Atchison
1 Darley Street
Bradford
BD3 10JH
- Hudsen Sports
820 Manchester Road
BD4 HR0
- Kitchen by Design
82 Holroyd Hill
Wibsey
Bradford
BD6 1NP
Student Application Forms:
These documents have been sorted out by using the numerical filing systems. The memos have been attached as well with the student’s application forms. The names are placed in this order because of the second name is alphabetically sorted. It will be easier me to retrieve information in this way.
Evaluation
From time to time during this assignment it getting difficult because documents that had to be done was being completed by Razwan and ME (Qashif). Being in the group was hard to cope and the pressure was mounting up. Some days Abdul was not attending the meeting, meaning he was absent from school, so the responsibilities that he had to do was put on us (the group).
When l was an administrator, the job was harder than l expected it to be, but most of the responsibilities were done by me and Razwan, but the work was being spread out between the 4 of us. The company letters were completed by Razwan and the Memos and application forms for students were completed by me.
Suleman had filled out application forms and also looked up company names. For this Suleman had to go thorough the college directory which was borrowed from the reception. Abdul had looked up the company names and addresses for the students. He looked up in the Yellow Pages which had been borrowed from Mrs.Irving’s room.
Communication in the group flowed fairly easily. The group coped very well under the circumstances, because sometimes there was a lot of tension but apart from that we coped well. The tension was that some people in the group wouldn’t do the work properly and arguments were set alight, but were sorted out quickly.
External and internal methods of communication were used: -
- Face to face- this method was the most reliable and effective because we could talk to each other properly and information was passed on quickly.
- Telephone:- we did use this at one point in our assignment. We had the application forms to be completed ready to be handed in but Abdul had not been in, so we had used a mobile phone and rang him up to make him come into school to give them to us.
I didn’t use my diary as much as l could have. As time went by and documents had to be completed, we couldn’t waste valuable time so documents that to be produced as soon as possible. Some times documents would be delayed and we would fall back on work that ad to be done.
Relying on people in the group was a difficult task for some. This is because disagreements were raised and the group didn’t produce quality work as it should do, but the disagreements were solved and work was completed. I couldn’t really rely on the group because when work had been given out equally, the work was produced wrong when instructions had been given what to do. On meetings Abdul Basit wouldn’t arrive on the day so all the pressure would mount on the rest of the group to finish his work off in time.
The Need to Communicate
For a business to operate successfully it needs to have a good communication flow in the organisation. If the communication were not effective then the organisation would collapse. Communication is vital for the business. There are 6 different functional ares that an organisation has to run efficiently.
- Administrative
- Sales and Marketing
- Production
- Human Resources
- Finance
- Customer service
Mrs.Atwell’s functional area is administration. Mrs.Atwell needs to be able to promptly give information that is of need. She is Carlton Bolling College to perform a wide range of support activities. Mrs.Atwell needs to be able to communicate with students and form tutors. This is because when work experience placements have been arranged, the form tutors and students need to be notified.
Communication is face-to-face with students and form tutors. Good administrative skills have to be obtained for Mrs.Atwell so that it strengthens the communication within the functional area. Confronting someone with information can be done by different methods. Face-to-Face: Mrs.Atwell uses this to face students about work experience placements, and also form tutors.