Business and Language Task 3 Project

TASK 3- Project

Task summary

This assessment requires you to implement the Human Resources Strategic Plan by researching and developing a short report about the range of potential work–life balance programs that could be implemented for King Edward VII College, as well as developing an action plan.

Resources and equipment required to complete this task

• Computer and Microsoft Office.
• Access to the Internet for research.
• King Edward VII College Health and Safety Policy and Procedure.

When and where should the task be completed?

• This task may be done in your own time as homework or you may be given time to do this task in class (where applicable).
• Your assessor will provide you with the due date for this assessment.

What needs to be submitted?

Completed briefing report and action plan

Updated Health and Safety Policy and Procedure

Revised Human Resources Strategic Plan

Instructions for students:

Instructions for Assessors

• What resources are required for this assessment?
• How to conduct the assessment?
• If this is a group assessment, how it must be organised?
• Which week of the unit duration is this assessment given to students?
• What needs to be submitted?
• How much time must be allowed for each task?

Sample answers

• This marking guide has sample answers for each and every task of the assessment. Where the task is a project, a list of requirements and necessary inclusions and criteria is offered for each section for assessors to use as a bench mark.
• All the answers must be according to the elements and performance criteria and according to this marking guide.

Assume King Edward VII College has adopted the Human Resources Strategic Plan with one of the strategic objectives included as follows:

• Support a safe, healthy and inclusive workplace culture

Also note that one of the actions identified to achieve this is: 

• Develop the King Edward VII College work from home Strategy

In addition, note the outcome of a recent survey is showing that staff identify with feeling increasingly stressed through travelling in peak hour traffic and not being able to find a carpark once arrived at work. The Health and Safety Officer has advised that there must be immediate action.   

Complete the following activities (2500+ words):

1. Develop a report and action plan based on a work from home program
2. Based on the feedback from staff and the Health and Safety Officer you are required to conduct research on a range of potential work from home strategies/programs that you could implement. In your research you must include current trends on working from home, the workplace health and safety requirements in working from home and the technology that would be required for staff to do so.
3. Develop a brief report to present to management on your research findings and your recommendations on how the College could implement the strategy.

Address the following topics in your report:

 A brief introduction to the purpose of the report

 A summary of the current working from home trends and strategies that other organisations have implemented

 An outline of the workplace health and safety requirements for staff workings at home

 The technological requirements for staff to work at home

 Evaluation of the potential benefits and downfalls of providing technology to staff for the purpose of working at home 

 A brief outline of the proposed procedure on deciding who can work at home and what they need to do to obtain approval to do so

 An action plan to achieve the implementation of the strategies. The action plan should detail the strategy, the action, the timeframe in which to achieve the actions and the performance indicators. Each action should be allocated to a person in the organisation.

Your report should be formatted in a professional manner, written clearly and concisely and be grammatically correct and free from errors.

3. When you have completed your report and action plan, send it via email to the management team (your assessor). Your email should include a brief statement as to the purpose of the report and approval to proceed with actions.

       ▪    Update the health and safety policy and procedure 

4. Assume that the CEO and the Health and Safety Officer support the proposed actions for work from home program. In the action plan you are responsible for updating the Health and Safety Policy and Procedure. The Health and Safety Officer has suggested that you should include a brief policy statement about the organisation’s commitment to flexible working arrangements, including working from home, for the health, safety and wellbeing for staff, and a brief outline of your OHS requirements for working at home.
5. Submit the inclusions to the Policy and Procedure in an email to the Health and Safety Officer (your assessor) for approval.

Monitor and review implementation of the Human Resources Strategic Plan

Assume it is 12 months later and the flexible working arrangements (working from home) policies and procedures have been implemented. 

Performance indicators relating to the implementation of working from home policies are indicated in the Human Resources Strategic Plan as follows:

• High staff satisfaction with working from home arrangements.
• Technology is in place to facilitate working from home arrangements.

Key lessons learnt from implementation of the initiative are:

• The implementation of the work-from-home team has been very positive. This can be attributed to the fact that the initiative was very well researched and project managed; and problems that could have become issues were identified and managed as part of the trial.
• Having the right operational technology is important. There are some technology limitations related to bandwidth. It has been decided that staff are required to have their own wifi that they can connect to on their work laptop.
• There is a need to establish a work schedule so that managers are aware of the times staff are working. Staff are still required to be available on the technology during agreed work times.
• Need for internal policy considerations to address issues such as when an employee moves into a position that is not suitable for the work from home program, and the employee does not meet performance requirements whilst working from home and the arrangements need to be revoked.

6. Based on the information above, develop a short report for the CEO summarising the impact of the working from home arrangements and performance against objectives from the plan. The report should be in your own words and no more than one page.
7. Include additional actions in your Human Resources Strategic Plan to account for the actions that need to be undertaken based on the scenario information.

• Email the report and updated Human Resources Strategic Plan to the CEO (your assessor). Your email should include a brief overview of the documents attached.