CAREERS CENTRE

RICHMOND
E-TRAY EXERCISE

Marking Guidelines

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MARKING GUIDELINES

In ‘real life’ assessments, in-tray exercises are very time-consuming to mark and assess.
Where the exercise has been completed electronically, there are usually some elements
of automatic scoring which can reduce the amount of manual scoring involved (for
example, prioritisation). However, there may be elements which will need to be manually
assessed, for example, assessing the rationale behind decisions and looking at the style,
structure and tone of written communication.

When considering your own in-tray, it is important that you don’t get too caught up in what
is the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer – sometimes, the actual answer is not important but rather
the way in which you reached the decision and whether you can logically justify it.
Therefore, try to think about the competences you have demonstrated through the
exercise, for example:

ƒ Time Management:
Did you complete all the tasks within the timescale given?
Did you plan your time sufficiently in order to spend enough time on each task?
Did you spend too much time on one particular aspect to the detriment of other
tasks?
Were you able to delegate any tasks, for example, to an administrator or
secretary? Was this delegation appropriate?

ƒ Communication Skills:
How clear are your action plans?
Is the response letter appropriately structured to reflect a business letter?
Is the language/tone of your letter suitable, and tailored to your audience?
Have you provided a clear justification for your decision?
Is it professional?

ƒ Problem Solving:
Did you identify the links between items?
Did you make appropriate use of the information provided to come up with logical
decisions/actions?
Did you identify and manage conflicts?
Did you come up with any creative or innovative solutions?

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IN-TRAY Task 1 – Task 2 – SUGGESTED ACTION POINTS

ITEM SUGGESTED
PRIORITY
Item 1 – A Suggested action points may include:
Conference This item is ƒ Call the conference organisers and ensure that a
Confusion important and place has been booked for you – it is clear George
urgent, as the wants you to attend, but not clear whether it has
conference is in been booked
one week’s time ƒ Book the conference into your diary to ensure no
other appointments can be made for that day
ƒ Check with Karen Millward (Sales Director –
Pharmaceuticals) if there is any specific information
she would like you to find out from the conference
ƒ Send a quick e-mail to George confirming your
attendance, check if he would like you to attend the
meeting the week after the conference in order to
brief him and Karen

Item 2 – It’s C Suggested action points may include:

big news This item is ƒ E-mail a summary of the article to Janet Clifton - this
useful market is simple but useful market intelligence
intelligence, but ƒ Take a copy of the article and put on a circulation list
not urgent to colleagues
ƒ File the article with your notes for the next
Committee Meeting, and advise colleagues at that
time

Item 3 – A Suggested action points may include:

Legal Action This item is very ƒ Telephone Susan Yu to find out more about the
important and situation – does Kwono have grounds for legal
must be dealt action, what can we do to prevent it, what advice
with urgently would they give?
ƒ Make Janet and George aware of the situation –
along with your suggestions for resolving the
problem based on the legal advice you have been
given from the advisers
ƒ Research how the product name was established –
why was this not picked up at the time?
ƒ Confirm to Susan Yu that senior staff have been
made aware of the situation
Item 4 – B Suggested action points may include:
Company This item is not ƒ Contact R Patel and ask him to arrange for the car to
Car as important as be delivered (and the old one collected) on another
some others, but day – the conference George Wilkes has asked you
needs to be to attend on the same day should take priority
dealt with as ƒ Check of any of your colleagues would be willing to
arrangements collect the car for you – remember to check if this is
have been made possible, they may need your signature to release it
which impact on
others

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Item 5 – An B Suggested action points may include:

invitation Your partner ƒ Phone your partner in your lunch break to confirm
has asked for a you can make it
response asap, ƒ Check with your partner if they would like to go for
but it is less drinks first with your colleagues – Fred has invited
important than you out on the same evening
some other
items

Item 6 – A Suggested action points may include:

Business This is an ƒ Contact Southport Advertiser to book the 2-page
Development important issue spread (Agenda item 3) – although there is plenty of
and needs to time before the opening, you need to make sure that
be dealt with newspaper space is available and that you get the
reasonably best ‘placing’ in the paper.
quickly ƒ Conduct final check of the design work for the
advertisement, check Janet Clifton has seen it
ƒ Send/e-mail design work to the newspaper
ƒ Check with Janet if she wants you to arrange
customer research re: ready meals (Agenda item 1)

Item 7 – C Suggested action points may include:

Synchronised The letter ƒ Find out what the company policy is on sponsorship,
Sponsorship needs a and what has been done in the past with
response, but it this type of request
is not an ƒ Draft a letter of response – it may not be an urgent
urgent issue issue, but it is good business practice to respond, no
matter how far fetched the request!
ƒ Include in your letter the reasons why you will/will
not be providing sponsorship on this occasion

Item 8 – C Suggested action points may include:

Drinks do It’s nice to get ƒ Check with your partner if they want to come for
the invite, but drinks beforehand
other issues ƒ Phone Fred, or go and have a chat with him, to
are more explain that you would love to come for a drink but
important, and that you can’t make the meal as you have a prior
Fred doesn’t engagement
require an
immediate
response
Item 9 – A Suggested action points may include:
Revenue This ƒ Review the financial information in light of Janet’s e-
Analysis information is mail and identify the weakest region
required as ƒ Arrange a meeting with Janet to discuss prior to the
soon as Directors’ meeting
possible ƒ If this is not possible, e-mail the information to Janet
remembering to mark it as ‘confidential’
If you have included a region for targeting, this should be the
‘South East’. Having underperformed against budget on
revenue and overspent on costs, it is also the only region to
have made a loss in this financial period

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Task 3 – Written Response

With regards to your letter to the Synchronised Swimming Society, you should consider the following
points:

Structure:

ƒ Your letter should be structured as business correspondence

ƒ Addresses (of sender and recipient) should be included
ƒ Date should be included
ƒ Appropriate greeting and close should be used (e.g. Dear Ms Worth, Yours sincerely…)

Layout/format:

ƒ Your letter should contain clear paragraphs, including an introduction, main body of letter and
close
ƒ Your decision (positive or negative), and the reasons for it, should be clear to the reader

Language/tone:

ƒ The language used in the letter should be professional

ƒ Whether you have accepted or declined the sponsorship, the tone should be polite and
business-like

Grammar/spelling:

ƒ Ensure that sentences are correctly constructed

ƒ Take care over spelling – avoid using ‘text’ spellings at all costs!

Other considerations:

ƒ Any sponsorship must have a clear business benefit – what are the business benefits to
Richmond in this case?
ƒ Who would the message actually reach – we have not been advised that Richmond have any
branches in Europe
ƒ What is the ethical stance on this – would it be wrong to attribute weight loss to Richmond
products if this was not actually the case?
ƒ How would the money actually be spent, is further information required?
ƒ Is the request reasonable?

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