information 1.1.2

1. ASSESS OWN WORK/OUTPUT
• Learning objective: After reading this information, you should be able to assess own
work/output.
• Knowing your personal strengths and weaknesses in the workplace allows you to apply your skills
to tasks that match your abilities, and to work to improve areas of deficiency. Two common
strategies for personal assessment include a SWOT analysis and a 360 degree survey.
• Begin by discussing your job description and what you believe are the employer’s expectations for
someone holding your position. Keep a conversational but professional tone. Be as brief and
factual as possible.
• After describing your understanding of your duties and the employer’s expectations, show what
you have done to go above and beyond those expectations. List two or three specific areas in which
you believe you excelled in your job performance.
• If you are not certain about how to describe your job performance, consider using the STAR
method. “Writing about yourselves,” talks about the STAR method. In the STAR method you
describe a situation (S) or task (T), the action (A) you took to complete it, and the results (R) of
those actions.

2. Identify relative Documentation on Quality
within the Company
• Businesses of all sizes face risks of fraud, theft and abuse of business
assets, small businesses with inadequate documentation procedures are
often more vulnerable. Documentation procedures contribute to, and
are part of, strong internal controls. While well-developed
documentation procedures strengthen both preventive and detective
internal controls, inadequate documentation procedures are a main
reason why some businesses do not find out that theft or fraud is
occurring until it’s too late, the “Journal of Accountancy” notes.
Formal documentation procedures provide guidance for implementing
controls, and they increase accountability, as your employees must
prove and verify, rather than simply state, that they followed or
performed an internal control.

3. Evidentiary Value
• Documentation procedures create traceable evidence, including who
was involved in a task or a financial transaction and when and how she
was involved. You can create procedures such as time and date
stamping that work behind the scenes as well as set documentation
rules for employees to follow. Both are equally important for
reconstructing actions when tracing transactions and creating audit
trails. For example, signed voucher slips, copies of petty cash
replenishment checks, an employee’s log-in ID and computer time and
date stamps all provide audit trails evidence.

4. More Secure Information Management
• Actual or scanned attachments, footnotes in a financial report and a
computer transactions change log are examples of documentation
procedures that contribute to and strengthen information management
controls. All are useful for documenting the reasons for correcting or
adjusting paper or electronic business records, which ultimately help
you prevent and detect fraud and employee theft. A corresponding
date-time stamp and evidence or prior approval, such as the
department manager’s initials, strengthens information management
controls even further.

5. Better Quality Control
• In addition to preventing both internal and external fraud, warehouse
and inventory-management documentation procedures can support
quality controls. These include requiring warehouse employees to
count, inspect and document damaged incoming and outgoing
merchandise. Fraud and theft prevention procedures that contribute to
good internal control include a documentation rule requiring
employees to fill out, sign and submit a pick sheet for every outgoing
customer order and tagging procedures that record and identify
inventory items, including descriptions, part numbers, units of
measure and quantities.

6. Completely Checking of Work against
Workplace standards
• Businesses have codes of conduct that are developed to outline expected,
and acceptable, standards of employee behaviors. Codes of conduct
function as resources for the regulations related to the inner working of an
organization. They are usually provided to employees at the start of
employment so that they are aware of what is expected of them from their
first day forward.
• While some people may view workplace standards of behaviors as ways for
organizations to micromanage their employees, these standards serve many
beneficial purposes. For one, codes of conduct protect employees from
issues such as harassment. In theory, by outlining what types of relational
behaviors are acceptable in the workplace, companies decrease the potential
for office harassment. Risky behavior in the office can have risky impacts.
Therefore, having established codes of conduct in the workplace reduces
company liability and creates a safer environment for employees.

7. Record Information Quality and other
Indicators of Performance
• Key performance indicators are methods by which a company can
measure the proficiency of its workers, management personnel and
determine the overall health of the business. Performance indicators
are often grouped together to create comprehensive reports that can be
used to develop better strategies for worker training, management
delegation strategies and modify the existing business plan for better
streamlining.

8. Productivity
• A key performance indicator is the level of production from employees
over the course accomplished or in what quantity products are being
created and shipped out to customers. In terms of this performance
indicator, the higher the level of productivity the better the workplace.

9. Quality of Work
• Quality as a performance indicatory measures the worker’s ability
meet and exceed the expectations of the company and its customers.
This key performance indicator can be used as a measuring tool for
multiple departments from manufacturing to customer service.
Employers are able to identify the employees or teams that produce
the least amount of defective products, and the sales people that return
with the highest customer grades for service. These employees can be
further utilized to teach effective techniques to other workers thereby
increasing the quality of work across the board.

10. Work Efficiency
• Measuring workforce efficiency shows an employer how effectively
streamlined his production facilities are in terms of the steps workers
need to perform in order to accomplish a task. Efficiency can also be a
key performance indicator of management personnel to determine
which supervisors or executives are able to get the most accomplished
with the fewest workers or in the smallest amount of steps. Improving
efficiency can be a key factor in increasing profits and lowering
operational costs.

11. Cost, Profit and Growth
• Measuring operational costs versus the profits a company is bringing
in can be a key performance indicator of how fast a company is
growing or how quickly it is contracting. From these figures a
company can re-direct its resources to arrest business practices that are
a strain on profits. Growth can also be measured by determining a
company’s share of the market, account retention rate and length of
relationships with clients.

12. Objections/disagreements, and Reasons
Expressed thru Written Documentation
• From CEOs to project leaders, anyone who is required to make
decisions in the workplace is bound to encounter objections
eventually. Whether you are changing to a new brand of coffee in the
break room, or moving the entire company to a new city, taking a
project based approach to any decision will help you to organize your
team and open up discussion before a decision is made. The best way
to overcome objections is to create clear channels of dialogue,
allowing anyone with a stake in a decision to express himself early in
the process.

13. Identify the Roles of Stakeholders
• The dynamics in a workplace can be complex. The larger your
assembled team is, the more complicated communication can become,
especially if you have not identified the roles of each person on the
team. Stakeholders are the people on your team and those who will
have a stake in the project’s success. Everyone’s role should be
identified and communicated at the beginning of the project. Some
stakeholders, like a manager or client, may have veto power over
every decision. While input is important at the beginning of a project,
once a decision has been made, objections from team members should
be limited to their part of the project.

14. Communicate Often and Openly
• Allowing everyone on the team to recommend suggestions and voice
concerns before a decision is made helps to prevent objections before
they begin. Depending on how vocal some of your team members may
be, you may need to limit discussion to those areas that pertain to each
stakeholder. After someone has expressed a concern to you, assure the
team member that you have listened by repeating the concern back to
her. Giving everyone additional opportunities to express themselves by
email or in private discussions can also eliminate objections later on.

15. Identify the Goals
• Objections often come from personal motives that lie outside of a
specific project. Clearly identifying the project’s goals can eliminate
concerns that fall outside of its scope. For example, suppose you have
identified the goal of a website project as “to update the graphics and
change the color scheme of our existing website.” If someone wants
new pages added or new features installed, you can simply ask him
how these objections relate to the specified goal. If your goal had not
been so clearly defined and the project was to generally “update the
website,” then these objections would have been reasonable and may
have consumed considerable time and discussion.

16. Delegation and Consensus
• Delegating authority for portions of a project can eliminate objections
that may be raised after the discussion period is over. Often, all you
need to say is “We discussed that. The decision was Mary’s to make
and we have to move forward now.” If the objection continues to
linger, or if it is voiced by someone with veto power over the project,
you may need to build a consensus with the other team members. Even
a manager or a client may withdraw an objection if all other team
members are solidified in a position.

17. Sought Workplace Issues or Financial
Settlement Policy
• A workplace settlement policy is a formal policy which is instituted by the
management or owners of a business. By convention, workplace policies are
clearly written up in employee handbooks or notices, and employees may be
required to sign slips indicating that they have received the policy and they
understand it. Establishing workplace policies is important for a business of
any size, as it sets clear boundaries, protecting both employees and
employers.
• A variety of topics can be covered by a workplace settlement policy, and
such policies are often collected in a handbook for the convenience of
employees. Things like rate of pay, required dress or uniform, and
workplace demeanor are often addressed in workplace policies, along with
discrimination, sexual harassment, drug use, and abuse in the workplace. A
well written policy will clearly indicates the stance of the business on a
particular issue, and it will include the consequences of a policy violation.

18. Figure a Settlement for Discrimination
• If you feel you have been discriminated against in the workplace
because of an improper reason, such as gender or race, you can file a
lawsuit against your employer for damages resulting from the
discrimination. Discrimination lawsuit settlement proceeds depend
upon the extent of the damages you sustained. The purpose of
discrimination damages is to make the victim “whole,” or to be put
basically back in the same place that you would have been had the
discriminatory act not occurred.
• Calculate monetary damages
• Take into account emotional pain and suffering
• Ask for punitive damages
• Request attorney’s fees