ANDNET BUSINESS &TECHNOLOGY

COLLEGE

BASIC CLERICAL WORK LEVEL-I

Organize and Complete Daily Work Activity

Lo-1Organize work schedule

Lo-2 complete work tasks within designated timelines
LO3 Review work performance

D/MARKOS, ETHIOPIA

December, 2021

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Lo-1Organize work schedule
1.1. Introduction to: WORK
What is WORK
• ‘Work’ is an activity which people do for a wage, salary or fee.It is any expenditure
of effort is seen as a form of ‘work’.
• Workis carrying out of tasks which enable people to make a living within the social and
economic context in which they are located.
• Work is to exert effort in order to make something, to achieve something, to produce a desired
effect.
ORGANIZE
It is the process of identifying and grouping tasks to performed,
assigning responsibility and delegating authority, and establishing relationships for the purpose
of enabling to work most effectively together in the accomplishment of objectives.
Put more specifically, the organizing function has the following three distinctive activities
It determines what work activities have to be done to accomplish organizational
objectives
It classifies the type of work needed and groups the work into manageable work units.
It assigns the work to individuals and delegates the appropriate authority
Scheduling work

Schedule / meaning
1. A list of times of going away and arrivals; a timetable:
2. A plan for performing work or achieving an objective, specifying the order and pre-arranged time
for each part: finished the workt on schedule.
3. A printed or written list of items in tabular form:
4. A program of events expected in a given time: e.g.A student's program of classes
Advantage
 It helps someone to know what has to do
 It helps to use time effectively
 Helps not to forget what to do
 It shows when a certain task has to be done
1.2. Organising your work schedule
1.2.1. Negotiating and agreeing upon workgoals and plans
A. Identifying your tasks
When you start a new job, your tasks are usually the first thing discussed. They shouldbe
listed in your position description. Everybody has tasks to complete at work. Therange of
tasks you have depends on your position. It also depends on the type of organization you
work for. For example, some basic office tasks include:
 Filing
 Answering the telephone

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  Processing mail
 Preparing simple documents; for example, letters, memos, minutes
 Photocopying
If you are not sure about your tasks and responsibilities, look at your position descriptionor
ask your supervisor to write them down. Most organizations have a formal
positiondescription attached to each job. It usually lists:
 The tasks and responsibilities of the job
 The skills you are expected to have in order to complete the tasks.
B. Knowing what’s involved
Your daily tasks may include a mixture of routine daily activities and other tasks thatyou are
asked to do occasionally. You must clearly understand what is involved in eachtask. This
means:
 Knowing what outcome you are expected to achieve
 Ensuring that you have a good knowledge of the steps involved in completing eachof
the tasks you have been assigned..
C. Set your goals
Goal is a desired future state that the organization attempts to realize.
A good way to organize your tasks and get things done is to set goals. Work
goalsprovide:
 A purpose for the work
 valuable feedback on your progress
 Further incentive to achieve – it feels great to reach a goal.
Your goals are the things you want to accomplish. They must be realistic. If you
wantyour plan to work, you need to take each goal and evaluate it. To be effective,
goalsneed to be SMART, as in the following formula.
THE SMART GOAL-SETTING FORMULA
1. S –Specific
2. M-Measurable
3. A-Attainable
4. R-Realistic–
5. T-Timely-
1. S -Specific-Be specific.
 Goals should be straightforward and emphasize what you want to happen.
 Stated in clear terms, e.g.
“I will graduate with a 3.5 GPA”
 Specifics help us to focus our efforts and clearly define what we are going to do.
2. M-Measurable- If you can’t measure it, you can’t do it.
 Each goal should have a definiteactivity that can be measured in some way.
 In the broadest sense, the whole goal statement is a measure for the project; if the goal is
accomplished, it is a success.
 Goal can be accomplished within a certain time or in a quantity that can be calculated

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 3. A-Attainable–
A goal needs to be a challenge, but still be within reach.
When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you
can make them come true.
You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them
4. R-Realistic–
A goal must be do-able.
Be realistic about what you can achieve.
YOU must believe that you can reach the goal
Be sure to set goals that you can attain with some effort! Too difficult and you set the stage
for failure, but too low sends the message that you aren't very capable. 
5. T-Timely-
A goal should have a time frame. This gives you a clear target to aim for.
Set a timeframe for the goal: for next week, in three months, by November.
Putting an end point on your goal gives you a clear target to work towards.
If you don't set a time, the commitment is too vague.
Without a time limit, there's no urgency to start taking action now.
D. Preparing your work plan
Once you have a list of goals, your next step is to work out how to accomplish them.
You need to prepare a schedule (plan) in which you list each task you must completeto
achieve each goal.
Work plans can be brief and simple or much more formal. They can cover short orlong
periods of time. You might have a daily work plan, a weekly one or a monthly one.
Some organizations even write annual work plans for individual workers.
In general, the longer the period of time covered by the plan, the less detail goes intoit. For
instance, an annual work schedule might list all your conditions of employmentand outline
your tasks and responsibilities. It won’t, however, list the finer details ofhow you will
actually ‘get the job done’. That is why it is still important to develop yourown work plans
for individual goals and tasks on a daily and weekly basis.
Successful planning is dependent on:
 organizing tasks–
 prioritizing tasks in order of importance to ensure the most important tasks are completed
first;
 timeframes are adhered to so each task is completed within appropriate times so other
people's work is not held up;
 Tasks are negotiated so the best person is allocated to each task to speed up completion
times;
 Everybody supports each other so all work is completed on time.
 Clarifying personal responsibilities-to enable each person to be fully aware of what they are
required to do so tasks are not replicated, therefore saving time and resources.
 Work ethics - values based on hard work and diligence with each employee being accountable
and responsible for the work they complete.

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  Seeking assistance where necessary from supervisors or colleagues to ensure work is completed
on time.
 Acknowledging if tasks are beyond current capacity - this enables work to be handed over to
someone with greater expertise.
 Planning and organizing work routines on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
1.3. Seek assistance to identify work goals and plans
Assess your work unit
• ask someone, either a peer or your team leader
• establish your goals
– short, medium or long term goals
Assess yourself
• Know your ‘energy cycle’. Are you:
– A morning person?
– A night owl?
Set your objectives
• Keep a written record of your schedules.
• Use electronic aids to keep a ‘to do’ list.
Plan and Prioritise Workload
• Planning your day helps you:
– review your progress
– set your daily agenda
– Prioritise your tasks of the day.
Planning and prioritizing
• Use and understand the 80/20 rule:
– 80% of your work comes from only 20% of your clients.
– 20% of your work comes from 80% of your clients.
• Plan to identify the top 20% clients and give them 80% of your time and effort.
Prioritizing
• To be effective, you need to decide what tasks are urgent and important and to focus on
these. This is called prioritizing. It's important to list the tasks you have and to sort these
in order of priority, and then to devote most time to the most important tasks.
Differentiate also between urgent and important tasks: an urgent task may not
necessarily be important!
• Setting Priorities

1.4. Establish Personal and Organizational Goals

Goals Terms & Definitions
 Goal
Purpose of any plan or action
 Short Term Goals
Series of accomplishments that add up to a specific achievement

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  Long Term Goal
Has existed over an extended period of time
 Strategy
The decision of how to accomplish an objective
Why Set Goals?
 Life with a clear purpose and/or destination
 Turn dreams into desires
 Prioritize events in your life
 Plan of action to guide you into the future
Advantages of Short Term Goals
 Long term goal into manageable pieces
 Focus energy on specific steps to achieve long term goal
 Setting & achieving short term goals enables you to reach long term goals
 Better manage time
 Specific ways to evaluate progress
 If one short term goal does not work, another can be set without losing sight of
the long term goal
5 effective tips for organizing your work schedule
Organizing your work schedule can really help you to ease your burdens and make life a little easier. Not
only will you enjoy a smoother running day, but you will see that work will seem more like play once you
have organized your schedule properly.
Here are 5 effective tips for organizing your work schedule to help you get started:
1. Rearranging or repositioning any of your work items. It’s amazing how much time can be
added to your day just by moving a few things in more convenient and easily accessible areas.
Once you have everything set up for fast access, you will have more time to work with regarding
your work schedule.
2. To be sure you are setting yourself up for success and not failure. You can do this by making
a realistic list of the things you need to accomplish and list them in an order which allows you to
complete the simplest ones first. This way, you will get down your list faster and even if you
can’t finish the last thing on your list, at least all the others will be done.
3. Pay attention to the times of the day where everything slows down a bit. If you are able to,
you should try to schedule any breaks or your lunch period during the slow times. This will help
you to be more productive during your work day.
4. Makes your work tasks flow so you can move from one to the other with ease. Itmakes easier
for you to mentally stay focused and this means getting your tasks done easier and with less
effort.
5. If you are able to make your own work schedule you should make it so it fits easily into your
lifestyle. Also, you may want to leave yourself a weekday free so you can schedule all your non-
work related tasks on that day. This way, doctor’s appointments, banking, and other tasks won’t
take time away from your work and require you to miss any hours. By organizing your work
schedule correctly you will see you feel less stress and have more time for yourself.
6.

Lo-2 complete work tasks within designated timelines

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2.1. Organizational work requirements
It includes:
 Goals - targets which the organization aims for.
 Objectives - the steps which need to be achieved to reach the goals.
 Priorities - tasks which are ranked as most important.
 Specified targets or results - one particular target may be given priority.
 Time frames - the length of time for goals to be achieved.
 Coordination with other work processes - all processes work well together to ensure tasks are
completed on time and within budget.
 Roles - jobs/tasks.
 Application of particular procedures - all departments/employees use the same procedures.
 Organization of work materials - to ensure all materials required are available when needed.

Organize your time

• Identify areas of your life where you are wasting time and try to reduce these. A good
way to do this is to log everything you do for a week in meticulous detail and then
examine your record to see how you use (or misuse!) your time.
• Develop a regular work routine. Keep your work space tidy so that you can work
efficiently - it's hard to do this if things you need to find are buried under a pile of paper!
Work to schedule so that you meet deadlines in good time - don't leave everything until
the last minute.
Completing tasks
All organizations can have imposed deadlines, either set externally or internally:
• taxation returns
• corporate annual reports
• customer delivery requirements
• computer processing windows
• negotiated team goals
• Individual performance appraisals.
Effective listening and questioning
• Effective listening and questioning make more effective use of your time.
Acting on instructions within time limits:
• Identify and analyse the problem.
• Listen to what is said as in business communications:
– writing makes up 11% of the total
– reading makes up 15% of the total
– speaking makes up 32% of the total
– Listening makes up 42% of the total.
• Effective listening prevents misinformation and improves:
– morale, rapport and trust
– Teamwork.

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Effective questioning is used to solve questions
• Establish criteria for the solution of the problem.
• List and explore alternative solutions.
• Select the best alternative.
• Implement the decision.
• Evaluate the decision over time.
Factors affecting achievement
Work performance can be affected by:
• work culture
• changes to procedures
• interpersonal relationships
• office layout
• equipment
– tools available
– breakdown
• environment such as heat, cold or noise
• accidents
• budget constraints
• Insufficient time.
Use business technology
Work can be greatly improved with efficient use of software such as:
• word processing
• Microsoft Outlook
• Windows operating systems
• office suites such as Works, Lotus SmartSuite and Corel
• Anti-virus software.
2.2. Time Management
There are 168 hours in every week. How are you spending yours?

 Sleeping, Getting ready for class, going out with friends, Volunteering, Going to class,
Studying for tests, doing library research, playing an instrument, checking email…
The Truth!
 As college students, you are very busy people, and to make those 168 hours effective,
you have to do some planning.
What is time management?
Simply, making the most of your time and energy!
Ttime management refers to the development of processes and tools that increase efficiency
and productivity (for a student, for a business, for an organization).
You cannotmanage time; you managethe events in your life inrelation to time. You
mayoften wish for more timebut you only get 24 hours, 1,440 minutes or 86,400 seconds
each day.

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 Much like money, time is both valuable and limited: it must be protected, used wisely, and
budgeted.

The Benefits of Time Management;

 You are more productive.

 You reduce your stress.
 You improve your self-esteem.
 You achieve balance in your life.
 able to do the things they want,
 You feel more confident in your ability to get things done.
 You reach your goals. (Dodd and Sundheim, 2005).

Poor time management can result in tasks not being completed on time. Sometimes the output of one
person is the input for another. If the first person is delayed in completing their work, the second person
cannot start their work. This can result in the client not receiving their order(s) on time which reflects
badly on the reputation of the business.
Steps to Managing Your Time

1. Set goals
 Make your goals specific and concrete. Don’t be vague.
 Set both long-term goals and short-term ones to support them.
 Set a deadline for your goals.
 Integrate your goals: school, personal and career.
 Realize that goals change, but know which goals to stick to!

2. Make a schedule

Set Up Your Weekly Plan

Spend 30 minutes or so mapping out the week.
Ask yourself these questions about the week:
 What do I expect to accomplish?
 What will I have to do to reach these goals?
 What tasks are more important than others?
 How much time will each activity take?
 When will I do each activity?
 How flexible do I have to be to allow for unexpected things?

1. Revisit and revise your plan

Are you making progress?

 Now that you’ve been paying attention to your schedule, how are you actually using
your time?
 Which tasks were you able to do? What didn’t get done?

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  Was your energy level appropriate? Your stress level?
 What changes need to be made to your weekly schedule?
 What are persistent time wasters?
 Could better communication have helped you stick to your plan?

The Typical Student Week

Things I Must Do +

Things I Want to Do +

Wasted Time =

168 hours

LO3 Review work performance

• Annual appraisals are a means of providing staff with meaningful feedback.
• Monitor your own work performance by reviewing the processes you employed and
outcomes achieved.
• Shortfalls in performance can be seen as training opportunities for improvement in
employee skills and an opportunity to address system glitches
• Performance management:
• Dynamic, continuous process.
• Improves organizational effectiveness.
• Strategic goals.
• Performance appraisal:
• Periodic (usually annual) event.
• Formal review.
• Last step in performance management process.
Objectives Performance Appraisal Systems
• Opportunity to Regularly Discuss Results
• Supervisor Identifies Strengths and Weaknesses
• Basis for Salary/Promotion Recommendations
Reasons for Appraisals
• Compensation "Pay for Performance"
• Job Performance Improvements
• Feedback to Subordinates
• Goal Setting - Later Evaluation
• Promotion Decisions
• Identify Training Needs
• HR Planning
Who Performs the Appraisal?
Immediate Supervisor

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  Performance appraisal done by an employee’s manager and often reviewed by a
manager one level higher.
Subordinate Appraisal

 Performance appraisal of a superior by an employee, which is more appropriate for

developmental than for administrative purposes.

Self-Appraisals
 Performance appraisal done by the employee being evaluated, generally on an
appraisal form completed by the employee prior to the performance review.

Peers (Co-Workers)
 Performance appraisal done by one’s fellow employees, generally on forms that are
complied into a single profile for use in the performance interview conducted by the
employee’s manager

Evaluation Teams
 Performance appraisal, based on TQM concepts, that recognizes team
accomplishment rather than individual performance
Customers

• Good source of feedback

• Negativity bias
• Customer ratings on the web (usage/role, accuracy, verification issues)

“360° Appraisals”
Why evaluate the performance of employees?
 Compensation (raises, merit pay, bonuses)
 Personnel Decisions (e.g., promotion, transfer, dismissal)
 Training (Identify specific requirements)
 Research (e.g., assessing the worth/validity of election tests
Performance Appraisal Problems
• Appraiser discomfort.
• Strictness/leniencyError-Performance-rating error in which the appraiser tends to give
employees either unusually high or unusually low ratings.

• Bias and lack of objectivity.

• Manipulating the evaluation.
• Halo/horns effect.
• Central tendency error-Reluctant to Give High/Low

-Performance-rating error in which all employees are rated about average.

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 • Recency Error-Last Action Halo.

-Performance-ratingerror in which the appraisal is based largely on the employee’s most

recent behavior rather than on behavior throughout the appraisal period

• Supervisor unable to observe behavior.

• Stereotypes
Let’s Practice Your Performance Appraisal Skills
PERFORMANCE LEVELS

 TOP

 Exceeds expectations in most aspects of the job frequently.

 Goes above and beyond what is asked.

 Thinks ahead. Is proactive. Seeks improvement.

 Solves problems independently.

 VALUED

 Meets expectations in all major aspects of the position and exceeds some.
 Sometimes goes beyond what is asked.
 Takes initiative to solve problems.
 Seeks learning and improvement.

 DEVELOPING

 New to the position or some duties are new.

 More training/learning is needed to be fully performing all aspects of the job at
the desired level.
 Performance does not meet expectations for fully experienced person.
 REQUIRES IMPROVEMENT
 Regularly fails to meet established standards/goals.
 Lacks required skills, knowledge, willingness or capability to perform.
 Fails to recognize effect on others and or does not make necessary
 Changes when advised of the need. Not consistent with Core values.
 Immediate and sustained improvement required.
1.2. Feedback on work performance
Feedback on your work performance is important for improvements to be achieved
Feedback is information about individual or collective performance
Feedback is an important part of workplace communication.
Feedback lets you know how well you have done a particular task, or whether there are things you
should change about the way you do your job.

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 In the workplace, there will be times when you need to give feedback and times when you will
receive it.
Feedback should always relate to actions, behaviors and outcomes, not to people themselves.
If you give someone feedback, think about their feelings and emotions, and avoid saying things that
might make them feel inadequate or upset.
Two Functions of Feedback

Instructional
 clarifies roles or teaches new behaviors
Motivational
 serves as a reward or promise of a reward
Feedback enhances the effect of specific, difficult goals
Feedback is an essential component of a performance culture
Most beneficial if on-going
Intended to support staff performance and development
Applies to both positive and constructive situations
Constructive Feedback
Constructive Feedback is:
• descriptive of behavior and impact
• specific not general
• directed at behavior that can be changed
• interactive to ensure clear communication
• stated in the first person to assign responsibility
• based on observed behavior
• balanced
I. Giving Constructive Feedback

If you need to give someone in your work team feedback about an area they need to improve, try
to find something positive to say at the same time. This will make them feel better about the
changes they need to make. They will be less likely to be upset by the feedback you give them.

II. Receiving Feedback

In a workplace you need to receive constructive feedback about how you do your job. If somebody
gives you feedback on your work, it may:

 Let you know how you could do something better next time
 Clarify the organization’s preferred way of doing something
 Show that you haven’t quite finished your task
 Let you know that you are on the right track
Feedback helps you to look critically (but not negatively) at yourself. It is valuable for improving the
way you do things. Feedback is especially useful when you are new to an organization or learning new
skills.

Types of feedback:

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 i. Knowledge of results feedback.
 This only tells a person about the end result of their actions.
 Results (the outcomes of behaviors)
ii. Knowledge of performance feedback.
 This is a more detailed form of feedback telling a person about the nature of their actual
performance, and relates specifically to their actions and behavior.
 Behaviors (what an employee does)

The most effective feedback is a combination of the two

To be constructive and helpful, feedback should always be aimed at improving the performance of the
work team, rather than being negative and critical. Feedback is all about helping people understand what
they have done well and what they need to change to do their work better next time.

Sources of feedback

The aim of feedback is to improve the organization’s performance as well as the performance of the
workers. Some sources of feedback in an organization may include:

1. Formal feedback in a performance appraisal – This is where your job performance is

evaluated in line with the expectations of your job description and is normally part of
career development.
2. Informal feedback on performance – This is where you have an informal chat with your
team leader or another more experienced colleague.
3. Customer and client feedback – A feedback form or questionnaire may be used.Some
organizations deal with many customers or clients and multiple pieces of information each
day. Managing lots of information is a complex task, requiring careful planning and
effective systems.
4. Personal feedback and reflection – While feedback from others is important, it is also a
good idea to consider how you would rate your own performance.

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