Engage in Workplace Communication Flashcards
What are sources used for gathering current and emerging information?
- Colleagues, manager, supervisor
- Industry bodies and professional associations
- Internet
- Mentor or coach
- Training course
- Unions
- Workplace manual
What are the general features of the business services industry, including its relationship to other industries?
- Provide support services
- recruitment, advertising, PR, real estate, logistics etc
What are the departments/functional areas with a business services workplace, and the tasks performed?
- Accounting and finance
- Administrative
- Customer service
- HR
- IT support
- Legal
- Marketing and promotion
- Sales
(INTERRELATIONSHIPS) - work together
What are the primary role and duties of key personnel in a business services industry?
- Office assistant
- Personal assistant
- Office manager
- Finance officer
- Payroll officer
What are the types of employment?
- Full time: 38+/h, annual, sick, long service leave, flexible work hours and conditions
- Part time: <38/h, entitled to same benefits as full time employees (pro rata basis)
- Temporary: work for set period of time –> permanent
- Casual: employed on daily basis when needed (no guarantee), contract employees work remotely from home
- Contract: works under contract for an employer, hired for specific job at a specific rate of pay
What is the difference between an award, registered agreement and contract, and how they apply to workers?
Award: Legally binding minimum wage and conditions for a particular industry (pay rates and employment conditions, leave etc)
Registered workplace agreement: Legally binding agreement negotiated between an employer and employee (FWC - NES)
Registered employment contract: Agreement between employer and employee that sets out terms and conditions of employment (written or verbal) - pay, hours of work and leave entitlements
What are the rights of an employee in relation to their employment and work?
- Safe workplace
- Join unions
- Same pay
- Sufficient work provided
- Discrimination free, sexual harassment and bullying
- Receive the benefits as set out in the applicable award, agreement or employment contract
What are the responsibilities of an employee in relation to employment and work
- Carry out work in a safe manner
- Not divulge confidential information
- Not to discriminate against, harass or bully
- Carry out lawful instructions with diligence and care
- Arrive on time, keep track of time taken for breaks and work until quitting time
What are the rights of an employer in relation to employment and work?
- Expect full day’s work for full day’s pay
- Workers behave in safe manner
- Workers comply with confidentiality and security principles
- Ability to hire and dismiss workers in accordance with proper procedures
- Expect reasonable performance from employees that they follow all reasonable and lawful instructions
What are the employer responsibilities in relation to employment and work?
- Provide a reasonable amount of work
- Protect WHS of workers by providing a safe workplace
Identify employees against liabilities and/or losses that result from following instructions - To fairly compensate employees according to the terms of the award, agreement or employment contract
What is involved in the investigation of the employment terms and conditions for a specific business services job role?
- Date of engagement
- Probationary period
- Employee’s obligations
- Salaries and wages
- Hours of work
- Public holidays
- Annual leave, long service leave, sick leave
- Expenses
- WHS, alcohol
- Termination of employment
- Confidentiality
What are the career pathways across the business services industry, and the knowledge and skills required for various job roles?
- Entry level job: experience or training
- Transition into management position etc
What are the legal and ethical obligations of the business services employee?
Employees have a legal obligation to comply with all reasonable requests made by their employer, perform duties with care and diligence, perform duties with care and diligence, account for money received, protect others from harm or injury, and not to misuse confidential information
What is the purpose and intent of legislations relevant to the business services industry?
- Copyright Act 1968
- Privacy Act 1988
- Fair Work System (Fair Work Act 2009)
What is the purpose of the Copyright Act 1968?
Moral rights of authors, limitations: copied /reproduced
What is the purpose of the Privacy Act 1988?
Regulates handling of personal information . They hold on individuals from misuse, interference, loss and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure
What is the purpose of the Fair Work Act 2009?
National minimum wage, protection from unfair dismissal, 10 minimum NES
What are the consequences for workplaces and workers for failure to comply with legislations?
Charged with criminal offence: common and statute law, fined, legal costs, compensation, terminated, loss of business reputation
How does personal values, opinions and ethics can affect daily work?
These factors affect how we prioritise work, behave, what decisions we make, happiness, effort, relationships with colleagues, what we notice, encourage and discourage, and what information we choose to give to other people. When these are aligned the workplace productivity will increase, stress levels will decrease
What is the purpose of code of conduct?
The expectations and guiding principles for appropriate workplace behaviour, clarifying the business’s mission, values and principles and standards of professional conduct
What is the importance of adhering to work and personal standards and industry workers?
- Personal attributes and work ethic valued by the business services industry
- Interpersonal skills beneficial to individuals
- Personal presentation and standards of personal hygiene
- Presentation standards
- Behaviour to support a safe and sustainable work environment
What is the Importance of developing and maintaining collegial work relationships?
- Higher morale
- Higher productivity and efficiency
- Improved communication
- Achieving business goals and objectives
- Developing a higher respect for others
Define team?
A group of people working together to achieve a common goal
Define teamwork?
The combined action of a group of people in order to achieve a goal
What are characteristics of effective teamwork?
- Clear direction
- Open and honest communication
- Supporting change and risks
- Mutual accountability
- Trust between the team
What are benefits of teamwork?
- Shared information
- Greater innovation and creativity
- Strengths and expertise are utilised
- Happier workplace, in turn a higher morale
- Tasks are completed efficiently
What are typical composition and examples of team or work groups and their area(s) of responsibility?
- Business Development Manager (BDM)
- Leasing consultant
- Senior Property Manager
- Property Manager
What is the relationship between individual worker and the team/work group?
Individual workers have the ability to bring in specialised skills and expertise that allow an effective contribution in the team working environment.
What is the importance of supporting others to achieve team/work group goals and tasks?
Contributes largely to job satisfaction. A good support environment is an effective support system for employees; team members can rely on each other and build a trust network. Assigning individuals specific tasks allows maximum efficiency and high quality output. In turn when an individual finishes their task they should offer assistance to others to ensure the deadline is met.
What is the importance of delivering quality work outcomes through teamwork and work groups?
Good teamwork is essential for delivering quality work outcomes as all team members are working towards a common goal and share their skills in an effective complementary manner. Good teamwork should enable synergy in the workplace.
What are the components of a work task? (collaboration)
- Priority of task
- Skills set of workers
- Availability of workers
- Development of opportunities and level of interest
When collaborating - communication should be:
- Credible
- Clear
- Accessible
- Consistent
- Simple
- Visual
- Written
What are some misunderstandings and conflicts?
- Poor communication
- Difference in personality and values
- Competition
- Stress and overwork
- Lack of planning
What are some ways to resolve conflicts and disputes in the workplace?
- Conflict resolution
- Unilateral decision making (Two parties independently solve the dispute)
- Joint decision making - Co-operative approach where compromises are made to accommodate both parties without a mediator (independent)
- Third party
- Conflict Management Approaches (Resilience, persistence, observational skills etc)
- 6 steps for negotiation
What are the 6 steps for negotiation?
Preparation, discussion, clarify goals, negotiate towards win-win agreement, agreement, implementation
What are organisational requirements for workplace communication?
- access and equity
- copyright
- industry and workplace policy and standards
- templates and style guides
- privacy and confidentiality
What is the communication process/cycle?
- sender (idea)
- message (encoding)
- transmission
- receiver (decodes message and interprets meaning)
- decoding
- response
- feedback
What are types of communication?
Verbal, non-verbal and written
What is the difference verbal, non-verbal and written communication?
Verbal: using words and sounds to express yourself or to share information, taking care that the words chosen, the enunciation and the tone of voice are appropriate to the audience (meetings, presentations, conversations)
Non-verbal: behaviour and elements of speech aside from the words themselves
Written: any type of message that makes use of written words e.g. letters, emails, agreements
What are the different effective questionings?
Open, closed and probing questions
What is the difference between open, closed and probing techniques?
Open: to gain more information, often start with ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’
Closed: these generally require a one-word answer
Probing: to gain more detail about a certain aspect
What are some effective listening techniques?
Active listening and paraphrasing
What is active listening?
Listening carefully and acknowledging the other person so they have feedback that you are listening and value what they are saying
What are some ways you can show active listening
- paying full attention: face the customer and give them undivided attention
- show that you are listening: display appropriate body language
- provide feedback: ask relevant questions for clarification
- respond appropriately
- defer judgement
What is paraphrasing?
Rendering the message using your own words, phrases and sentences structure by showing that you have fully understood the message
What are methods and tools used to communicate effectively, including those to collaborate with others remotely?
- landline or mobile phone
- video conference
- other digital tools or software
What are barriers to effective communication?
Lack of communication
Passive listening
Lack of mutual respect
Cultural differences
Language barriers
Lack of feedback
Email overload
Physical, psychological, systematic barriers
What are the strategies to overcome communication barriers?
- checking whether it is a good time and place to communicate with the person.
- being clear and using language that the person understands.
- communicating one thing at a time.
- respecting a person’s desire to not communicate.
- checking that the person has understood you correctly
What are appropriate methods of communication for different audiences and purposes?
- Age, gender, ethnicity, interest, experience
- Purpose and type of communication
- Immediate response or not
- Record of communication
What is the purpose of communication and its benefits?
Initiate change, promote feedback, improve workplace safety, make working remotely more efficient, share knowledge, drive innovation, improve interdepartmental collaboration, keep all workers up to date with policies and procedures
When adjusting communication, what should you be aware of?
- People from diverse backgrounds:
Be aware and respectful of cultural differences (greetings, body language, eye contact)
Use clear language and avoid jargon
Individuals with special needs or disability:
Be calm and patient
Tend to their needs and provide assistance
Difficult and abusive customers and colleagues:
Remain calm and professional
Acknowledge their perspective
What are some causes of communication misunderstandings and challenges?
- Lack of communication
- Poorly written communication
- Passive listening (listening without trying to understand the message or show empathy, often due to lack of interest)
- Lack of feedback and email overload
- Lack of mutual respect
- Language barriers and cultural differences
- Psychological barriers (stress may cause the recipient to be preoccupied)
- Physiological barriers (someone with hearing difficulties may not fully understand what is being said)
- Physical barriers (distances, technology)
- Systematic barriers (exist in businesses with inefficient or inappropriate information systems or communication channels due to budgets)
What are strategies to overcome communication misunderstandings and challenges?
- Talk in person rather than through emails or texts
- Proofread written communication
- Give constructive feedback
- Avoid jargon
- Have an open-door policy
- Get to know the person communicating with
What is the importance reporting to appropriate person(s) (such as supervisor, team leader or HR officer)?
Report to the appropriate person for specific needs
What is feedback? What are the types of feedback?
Receiving information regarding one’s performance of a task or reactions to a product or service which can be used as a basis for future improvements
- Formal or informal
- Direct or indirect
What is the importance of feedback?
- always there (we give and receive feedback)
- motivational
- improved performances
- tool for continued learning
When dealing with negative feedback, what should you do?
- Understand what the person’s concerns are
- Assess if the feedback is true
- Reply kindly
- Recognise
- Learn for the feedback
When contributing ideas and information to workplace discussions and supporting others to communicate during workplace discussions
- Contributing ideas and information (be prepared, convey simple ideas, stay on topic, highlight issues, ask q)
- Supporting others to communicate (ensure professional behaviour, scheduled meetings, speak clearly, respectfully disagree)
