COURSE WORKBOOK FOR

Principles of Administration
LEVEL3 DIPLOMA IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

LEARNING OUTCOMES
1. Understand how to manage an office facility
2. Understand health and safety in a business environment
3. Understand how to take minutes of meetings
4. Understand how to chair, lead and manage meetings
5. Understand how to supervise an administration team
6. Understand how to organise events

©Results Consortium Ltd. All rights reserved

www.resultsco.org.uk
Page 2

HOW TO USE THIS WORKBOOK?

• Read each question carefully and highlight key words such as analyse, describe, discuss, explain, identify,
justify, and recommend with reasons and state. Please refer to the ‘Glossary of Key Words’ below
• There is not always a single correct answer for a question and marks will be awarded for all valid responses
• Penalties for contravention of the rules relating to plagiarism and collaboration - Please refer to college’s
plagiarism policy provided in the student handbook

GLOSSARY OF TERMS
Analyse: Find the relevant facts and examinecthese in depth. Examine the relationship between various
facts and make conclusions or recommendations.
Describe: Give an account in words of (someone or something) including all relevant, characteristics, quali-
ties or events.
Explain: To make something clear and easy to understand with reasoning and/or justification
Identify: Recognise and name
Justify: Support an argument or conclusion. Prove or show grounds for a decision. Recommend with
reasons: Provide reasons in favour.
State: Express main points in brief, clear form.

CONTENTS
Health & Safety ------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Page 3 - 5

Data Protection -------------------------------------------------------- ----------- Page 6

Equality -------------------------------------------------------------- --------------- Page 7 - 8

Systems & Procedures ----------------------------------------------------------- Page 9 - 10

Managing a Team ----------------------------------------------------------------- Page 11

Meetings ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 12 - 13

Meeting Minutes ------------------------------------------------------ ----------- Page 14 - 15

Organising Events ---------------------------------------------------------------- Page 16 - 18

LEARNER DECLARATION
FULL NAME
STUDENT ID BATCH

I declare that this assignment is my own work and that I have correctly acknowledged the work of others

SIGNATURE DATE
Page 3

HEALTH & SAFETY

Health and safety within the business environment is often ignored or not seen as important. Health and safety is
crucial within any business environment whether it be an office or an oil rig. What is important is to recognise the
hazards and risks within each environment and for employers to ensure they are dealt with accordingly.

Legislation is in place to ensure that all working environments are healthy and safe for all who work in them or visit
them. The main legislation in place is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and it applies to all workplaces and
details what the responsibilities are of all concerned; employers, management, staff, visitors and external contractors.

Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HASAWA)

Requires all employers to: Find out

• ensure the health and safety and welfare at work of
employees “so far as is reasonably practicable” To comply with HASAW, all
• provide safe systems of work and equipment business must display the main
• a safe working environment and adequate welfare facilities terms of the Act in a notice for
• safe means of entry and exit to and from work their employees to read, or
• have in place (and regularly update) a written statement on provide them with a leaflet
the health and safety policy of the organisation and this must summarising the law on health
be known to the employees of the organisation and safety. Can you locate yours?
• provide information and instruction on health and safety and
the safe use of equipment

Requires employees to:

• take reasonable care of their own health and safety
• take reasonable care of the health and safety of others
affected by what they do
• cooperate with their employer in carrying out the health and
safety requirements

Explain the legal obligations of the employer for health and safety in the workplace? 2.1

Explain an individual’s responsibilities for health and safety in the workplace? 1.1 2.2
Page 4

HEALTH & SAFETY

Health and Safety legislations

• Reporting of Injuries, Disease and Dangerous Occurrences

Regulations (RIDDOR) 1992 – this covers the reporting of
? Did you know?
accidents/incidents which cause injury or disease. It covers
what should be reported and how, and the investigation that The safety policy states the
should take place. arrangements for putting the
• The Management of Health and Safety at Work policy into practice. Procedures
Regulations 1999 – this covers risk assessment and the state what you must do in a certain
monitoring of health and safety. Risk assessments analyse the situation. These determine working
hazards that exist in the workplace and assess the likely risks practices in the workplace to
from them (low, medium or high) and details how the risks can ensure that the aims of the policy
be minimised or eradicated. and the firm’s legal responsibilities
• Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 are met.
– this covers the condition of the workplace you are expected
to work in, complementing the Health and Safety at Work Act
and offering more detail.
• The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment)
Regulations 1992 – this covers what is necessary to make the
use of computers (recognised as VDUs – visual display units)
and the workstation you work in safe and comfortable.
• The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations
1998 – these regulations cover equipment in use in your
organisation and require your employer to ensure that the
equipment you use is suitable, safe and properly maintained
and that you receive the required training on its use.

?
‘Six Pack’ Regulations relating to HASAWA
Did you know?
HASAW is an ‘umbrella’ Act under
which other regulations are passed. Health and Safety
These are introduced and/or at Work Act 1974 (HASAWA)
revised regularly top ensure that
health and safety ;laws are always
up to date. Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992

Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992

Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998

Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992

Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992

Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992

Page 5

HEALTH & SAFETY POLICIES & PROCEDURES

Area covered by policies Examples

Accidents and emergencies • The procedures to follow in the case of a fire or other types of emergency
evacuation (e.g. gas leak)
• What to do if an accident occurs and accident reporting
• First aid training, facilities and equipments

Employee health and welfare
Employee security
Working practices
Legal compliance with
specific Health and Safety
Regulations
• Smoking, alcohol and drugs in the workplace
• Workplace bullying, harassment and victimisation
• Maximum working hours, break and rest periods
• Cash handling and banking procedures
• What to do if you feel threatened by a customer
• Security and protection for late night working
• The sitting, use and maintenance of machinery and equipment
• General housekeeping and cleaning
• Use of computers and other IT related equipments
• Risk assessments
• Maintenance and checking of electrical equipment
• First-aid training, regular assessments of facilities and equipment
• Storage and handling of hazardous substances
• Use and storage of personal protective equipments
• Manual handling (includes lifting, moving and stacking of materials and
equipments

Find out Describe accident and emergency procedures? 2.3

Your employer’s safety policy

should state the aims in relation
to the health and safety of
employees, the names of key
members of stadd and
arrangements for carrying out the
policy. This is likely to include
• training and instruction
• company rules
• emergency arrangements
• the systems for accident
reporting
• the identification of risk areas

Unless there are fewer than five

employees, this is a legal
requirement. Find a copy of the
policy that is in operation in your
firm and examples of the
procedures that you have to
follow in an emergency.
Page 6

MAINTAIN SECURITY & CONFIDENTIALITY

One of the responsibilities of all employees is with regard to maintaining security and confidentiality in terms of
• physical property
• information

Physical property comprises the building and the equipment and property (including personal) within it. Personal
information, such as contact details, date of birth or financial details, about customers, clients, employees may all be
held on file and should be considered confidential. Apart from contravening data protection law, disclosing informa-
tion about individual people to others may result in, at worst criminal actions such as ID or financial fraud, or even just
unsolicited contact or nuisance calls.

The Data Protection Act 1998

The act has been written to protect any living, identifiable

individual from the misuse or unauthorised disclosure of
? Did you know?
personal data. The term personal data also covers any The Copyright Designs and
expression of opinion about the individual. The Act covers Patents Act 1988 limits what you
both paper and computer files, and states the amount of can copy or distribute to others. An
information that may be held, how long it can be held and author owns the copyright to any
what it may be used for. material/book they write. You can
only use extracts from the material
The principles of the Act or book if you acknowledge the
source of the material ie the author,
• All data must be obtained and processed fairly and lawfully the title, the date it was published
ie that the individual has given consent and has not been and the publisher’s name.
misled
Photocopying also is not
• Personal data will be obtained and used for only one or more
permissible unless the document
specified and lawful purpose and should not be processed
or book states otherwise. Using
for any other purpose
newspaper or magazine cuttings
• Personal data should be adequate, relevant and not
also requires that you obtain the
excessive
permission of the newspaper or
• Personal data should be accurate and where necessary kept
magazine the article appeared in.
up to date
Copyright also covers music, films
• Personal data should be kept no longer than the purpose(s)
and TV broadcasts.
requires

The rights of individuals

• Data should be processed in accordance with the data

subject’s (individual’s) rights, these being eg the right to Find out
access held about them
• the right to prevent processing which would cause damage Find out the security procedures
or distress that are in force in your
• the right to prevent processing for direct marketing organisation - including who
purposes locks up, who sets the alarm, who
• the right to compensation if damage is suffered as a result the nominated keyholders are for
of the Act not being followed responding if the alarm sounds
out-of-hours, and what protection
there is for anyone who work
during a weekend.
Page 7

EQUALITY
Equality means everyone having the same chances to do what they can. Some people may need extra help to get the
same chances.
• In the 1960s new laws said people of different races must be treated fairly
• In the 1970s new laws said men and women must be treated equally and get the same pay for the same job
• In the 1990s new laws said disabled people must be treated fairly
• In 2004 new laws gave lesbian, gay and bisexual people the right to become partners, like married people

In 2010, all the previous discrimination laws were combined and replaced with ‘Equality Act’ or ‘the Act’. The Equality
Act brings together 9 big equality laws and about 100 smaller laws.

The Equality Act 2010

The Equality Act protects people from discrimination in relation

to following characteristics:
• age
• disability
• gender reassignment

?
• pregnancy and maternity (which includes breastfeeding)
• race
• religion and belief How this might work?
• sex
• sexual orientation For older people, a local council
might put extra seats in a park so
An individual or organisation that provides services to the older people can enjoy the park as
public must not treat someone worse just because of one or well as younger people.
more protected characteristics (this is called direct
discrimination). For lesbian, gay and bisexual
Examples people, a school might do more to
• A shop will not serve someone because of their ethnic origin make sure lesbian, gay and bisexual
• A nightclub charges a higher price for entry to a man because children are not bullied.
of their sex where the service provided to a woman is exactly
the same For people with a religion or belief,
a local council’s meals on wheels
An organisation must not do something to someone in a way service might cook different meals
that has a worse impact on them and other people who share a for people who need to eat special
particular protected characteristic than it has on people who food because of their religion. For
do not share that characteristic. Unless the organisation can example, they might make special
show that what they have done is objectively justified, this will meals for Jewish people and
be what is called indirect discrimination. ‘ special meals for Muslim people.
Example
A shop decides to apply a ‘no hats or other headgear’ rule to
customers. If this rule is applied in exactly the same way to
every customer, Sikhs, Jews Muslims and others who may cover
their heads as part of their religion will not be able to use the
shop. Unless the shop can objectively justify using the rule, this
will be indirect discrimination.
Page 8

EMPLOYMENT LEGISLATIONS

Describe the type of discrimination Identify which current

Scenario 1.1 legislation would cover this
you think is being shown
type of discrimination
Jenny is hearing impaired. At a recent
in-house training course, she found it
very difficult to understand what was
going on. Another training course is
coming up and although she has
communicated her concerns to her
supervisor, no action has been taken
and the supervisor has said that there
are no facilities at the venue to
accommodate her disability.

Given below are the various employment related keywords. You are required identify the relevant
legislation each keyword is related to. 1.1

Working Time Data

HSAWA 1974 Equality
Regulations Protection
Act 2010
1998 Act 1998

1. Holiday Pay Entitlement

2. Risk Assessment

3. Use and storage of confidential

information

4. Health & Safety Policy Statement

5. Protected Characteristics

6. Direct & Indirect Discrimination

7. Working Conditions
Page 9

THE ROLE OF SYSTEMS & PROCEDURES

Links between aims, objectives, values and policies

What the business How is it going

want to do to do it

Mission Statement Values

= Purpose = beliefs and ethics of business

Policies
Aims of business
= state how values are put
= Long-term
into practice

Systems
Organisational objective = a formal way of carrying out
= Short-term targets complex tasks to achieve
objectives

Procedures
Team objective = step-by-step information on
= Targets for specific group what staff must do for system
to work

Your role
Your role = to put your organisations
= to help achieve your values into practice by applying
team objective policies and following
procedures

What are systems and procedures?

A system is a formalised method of doing something. It is devised so that a large number of people
will do the same thing in the same way.

For example, organisations have a system to respeond to the customer enquiries in order to achieve
the best customer satisfaction.

A procedure support a system because they tell users what to do.

For example, all customer service executives are instructed specific procedures when responding to
customer enquiries such as; answer the call after the second ring, then greet the customer, say your
name and the name of the organisation and end the sentence with ‘how may i help you’.
Page 10

THE ROLE OF SYSTEMS & PROCEDURES

Find out Explain the step by step procedure to answer telephone in

1.3
your organisation?
Identify the systems and
procedures that relate to your
role. The easiest way to start is is
to think about the main
procedures that relate to the tasks
you do - and which system thay
support. As an example, every
office has a filing system. When
you add or remove documents
from a file you should follow the
same procedure as everyone else.

Check the office handbook and

manuals you refer to. These will
contain procedures that you
probably carry out every day
without thinking. For example,
there will be a particular
procedure to follow to send a fax,
clear paper jam in the printer or to
take double sided copies.

Explain various procedures with which your manager

and yourself monitor if the correct procedures have
been followed ?
1.5 ? Did you know?
There are various techniques to
monitor workflows within
organisations. At departmental
level, your manager set targets,
schedule the work activities and
prioritise the work as part of
managing workflows.

However, as individuals each team

member can manage and monitor
workflows by understanding the
aim and objectives of the tasks,
setting individual action plans and
having an awareness of own
responsibilities.
Page 11

MANAGING A TEAM

Scenario Explain how to set targets for the sales team? 1.4 5.1 5.2

Maria works at Audi Dealership as a

sales manager. Her yearly target is £1
million. There are five sales executives
in Maria’s team.

Three of them are experienced and

one of them is the best sales person in
the previous year.

Two of the sales executives are new

employees who just completed their
internal sales training.

Explain various methods with which Maria can

manage the performance of her team?
5.3 5.4 ? Did you know?
Formal methods of progress
reporting are:
• Regular progress/target reports –
these may be produced on an
individual or team basis with
contributions requested from all
team members
• One-to-one update meetings – it
is common to have a regular ‘slot’
for a short meeting with a
supervisor or manager to find out
about progress and notify any
problems
• Progress/team meetings – these
allow for discussion and
reallocation of work where there is
a problem. Team meetings keep
the whole team motivated and
focussed on the overall team
target.
• Shared project planners – these
are useful for large projects that
take place over a period of time.
Progress on individual tasks can be
viewed at a glance.
Page 12

MEETINGS
Meetings are a particularly useful method of face-to-face communication between a group of people who may meet
to:

• share, discuss and exchange information

• benefit from each other’s views and opinions
• decide upon the best action to take
• analyse and solve problems
• talk about planned new developments and exchange ideas and suggestions for action
• discuss issues of mutual concern

Types of meetings What types of meeting do you attend?

How freequent are they and what 4.1
Meetings may be formal or informal. Formal meetings follow a
types of documentation is included?
strict set of procedures and a complete written record must be
made. Even informal meetings are likely to incur some
paperwork, for example a list of things to be discussed or
information to circulated at the meeting.

Informal meetings are usually groups of people meeting to

discuss their work, for example departmental or team
meetings. They may occur regularly, eg team or progress
meetings, or as one-off occasions. While notes of what happens
in the meeting may be taken, they are likely to be briefer and
not subject to the same regulations as a formal meeting.

Formal meetings will follow set procedures in terms of

documentation and processes involved. There will be an
appointed Chairman to run the meeting and a secretary to take
notes of what is discussed and agreed at the meeting.
Depending on what the meeting is about, there may also be a
Treasurer to put forward any financial points. Examples of
formal meetings may be a Health and Safety meeting, an
Annual General Meeting or a committee meeting.

Annual General Meeting (AGM) – This is a meeting held once

a year by all public limited companies (and many other limited
companies) to declare the profit/loss of the company and the
share dividend and to elect the board of directors and the
auditors. All the shareholders must be invited with at least 21
days’ notice of when the meeting will be.

Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) – This formal meeting

? Did you know?
occurs, as the name suggests, when there is urgent company There are various documents
business to discuss with shareholders that cannot wait until the involved in the meeting. Notice
next AGM. For example, a director may suddenly retire from the gives date and time of meeting and
board or there may be financial problems or the possibility of a agenda lists items for discussion in
company takeover. the meeting. Minutes documents
things discussed and agreed in a
meeting.
Page 13

CONDUCTING MEETINGS

Scenario Explain Jack’s roles and responsibilities in the meeting? 4.2

Jack is the supervisor at

Carphonewarehouse.
Apple has recently
launched a new
smartphone which is highly
rated by the consumers.

Company has announced a

double bonus for sales
team who sells the most Explain team member’s role in the meeting? 4.3
apple phone in the release
month.

Jack called in his team for a

meeting to inform all team
members about the bonus
scheme and discuss
strategies to become the
top sales team.

You work in Jack’s team. Jack approched you to get some help in organising the meeting. How 4.4 4.5
will you organise this and what infomation would you require before, during and after meeting?
Page 14

MEETING MINUTES
Following is a verbatim extract from the meeting of Jack and his team. Please read the extract and
convert this into a minutes of the meeting.
Jack: Good morning everyone. The purpose of todays meeting is to inform you all about the new
bonus scheme the company has announced on the new apple phone. Company has declared a double
bonus for the team which sells the highest number of phones in the release month.
As you all know, we have outperformed most of the other sales teams in the past six months and we
stand a good chance to grab the bonus if we all put our minds togather coming up with an innovative
sales strategy.

Melisa: I think the new apple phone has some excellent reviews and most consumers do not require to
be told about the quality of the product. They are all concerned about the price and we have to come
up with a new strategy to overcome this barrier.

Robert: I agree with Melisa. I think we must focus on providing customers with appropriate plans
which suite their needs which at the same time fit within their budget.

Joe: I think we must focus on acquiring new customers as the upgrade options and plans do not seems
to be applealing. Also, the upfront cost is higher compared to other phones which makes it difficult to
sell. However, we could send mail shots to all the existing customers, perhaps, with some discount
codes. We could also look into options of offering gifts for this model.

Jack: I think thats a brilliant idea. We will make attempts to send the mailshots within 2 days. Melisa,
could you please work out the mailing list and submit it to me by tomorrow evening. In the meantime,
Joe could finalise on the gift options by end of the day. It is important we finalise the gifts today
because gift options can be included in the mail shots. Thank you all for your valuable inputs.

Meeting Title
Meeting Date Meeting called by

Facilitator

Attendees

Topic of discussion

Discussion

Conclusion

Action
Page 15

MEETING MINUTES
Now you have completed the meeting minutes for Jack, based on your experience complete the
following questions.

? Did you know? Explain the legal implications of meeting minutes? 3.2

Under the Freedom of Information

Act 2000, some minutes are legally
required due to the nature of the
meeting; this is so information can
be accessed by the public. This
applies to governmental bodies
(both local and central), police
authorities, health and education
departments etc. Explain the importance of accuracy in the meeting minutes? 3.3

Companies Act 2006 which states

“Every company must cause
minutes of all proceedings at
meetings of its directors to be
recorded”

Explain what to include and what not to include in meeting minutes? 3.4 3.5
Page 16

ORGANISING BUSINESS EVENTS

Depending on your job role and your organisation, you may be required to help in organising a business event.
Businesses arrange a variety of events, which include:
• conferences
• seminars
• promotional events
• product launches
• training courses
• formal meetings
• forums and advice sessions

Supporting events
Explain the characteristics,
There is a range of support activities that may be required
requirements and purposes of 6.1
when organising a business event. You may have to carry out
different types of events?
agreed tasks, and work to an agreed budget in assisting in, for
example:
• researching suitable venues
• arranging hire of venue
• ensuring health, safety and security requirements are met
• promoting the event
• organising resources such as delegate packs
• arranging catering
• accommodating special requirements
• making travel arrangements
• coordinating the activities and required resources
• sending out invitations
• logging replies
• solving problems before and during the event.

The support you provide will be required before, during and

after the event being organised, and may incorporate all or
some of the following:

• Before: you may need to research the venue and book if

required; liaise with the venue to confirm event requirements;
send out invitations and follow up any unanswered ones;
organise catering, speakers and equipment required; arrange
any travel/accommodation; reconfirm arrangements and check
contracts; prepare delegate packs and send out joining
instructions; rehearse arrangements to make sure the event
runs smoothly.

• During: arrive early if attending, check all arrangements have

been met, check delegate packs have been delivered, meet
and greet the delegates if required and respond to their
needs/answer questions; be on hand to resolve problems as
they occur.

• After: clear and vacate venue, return any hired goods, collect
and collate event evaluations, send out certificates of
attendance if appropriate, settle accounts.
Page 17

ORGANISING
Planning events BUSINESS EVENTS

Scenario

You are in charge of organising a two-day conference to take place in London at the end of next month.

Delegates are to be invited from sister companies in Manchester and Brussels, and there are likely to be between 30 and 50
attendees.

Draw up a list of items for consideration in relation to planning the conference, and key
factors within each item. 6.2 6.3 6.4

Item Key factors for consideration

E.g. Must be large enough to accomodate atleast 60 - 65 people. The venue

E.g. Venue must be hired from a preferred supplier in accordance with the compnay
policy.
Page 18

ORGANISING BUSINESS EVENTS

Draw up a list of as many resources you can think of that may be required at the event
and state why? 6.3 6.4

Describe the likely types of information needed by delegates before, during and after an
event 6.5

Before During After

Page 19

PROFESSIONAL DISCUSSION

STUDENT NAME
ASSESSOR NAME

STUDENT SIGNATURE DATE

ASSESSOR SIGNATURE DATE

Page 20

ASSESSMENT

STUDENT NAME
ASSESSOR NAME
FEEDBACK & JUDGEMENT

STUDENT SIGNATURE DATE

ASSESSOR SIGNATURE DATE

Suite 20C, Thamesgate House
33-41 Victoria Avenue
Southend on Sea SS2 6BU

t. +44 1702 831170