Implement Personal Work Schedule

After developing your personal work schedule, you need to communicate this to those involved. By letting other people know your schedule, they will be able to co-ordinate their schedules in case they have tasks related to your own. Communication of work schedules also holds you accountable for the timeframes and deadlines that you have set for yourself.

Relevant Personnel

Ideally, everyone in the workgroup should have a general idea of what you are working on, but not everyone needs to know it like the back of their hands. Relevant personnel in this case would refer to the stakeholders involved in your work tasks, particularly those who will be affected by your results. Some examples of these personnel could include the following:

• Co-workers
  Co-workers, or people in the same workgroup, should be involved in your communications because they likely have work tasks in their own schedules that are affected by the progress of your personal work schedule. It is important to keep them informed so that your workgroup can co-ordinate with each other’s work schedules to ensure the efficient and successful completion of your assigned work tasks.
• Supervisors and managers
  Supervisors and managers generally fall under the category of employees that rank above you. They are responsible for general management in the workplace, which includes making sure that you are abiding by your personal work plan. These people may also be involved in co-ordination and mediation of discussions involving work tasks and work schedules of all the people involved.
• Suppliers
  Suppliers should be involved in communication of your work schedule, particularly if some of your assigned work tasks involve their participation. For example, if the resources required to begin a particular work task would come from a supplier, it is important to let them know that you cannot perform your duties without their compliance.
• Customers
  Customers have an invisible hold on your work schedule, especially if the results that you will produce will require their input in some way. It is also possible for customers that the results of your work tasks would impact these customers because the results of your work are geared towards them.

Relevant Information

Every detail found in your personal work schedule does not need to be included when communicating them to relevant personnel. Typically, the following information should be included in the communications:

Methods of Communication

Communication can be done in any manner. There are two basic methods of communication when it comes to sharing information on your work tasks, priorities, and schedules, verbal and non-verbal.

Verbal

Verbal communication is a transmission of information through speaking. With recent technology, verbal communication is not limited to face-to-face interaction; there are opportunities to communicate verbally without the physical presence of the person you are communicating with. There are two types of verbal communication:

FORMAL

Formal verbal communication is usually done through predefined channels in your workplace. These channels can be accessed through organisational policies and procedures. This type of communication is preferred when information being communicated comes from a supervisory level to those who report under them. Some examples of formal verbal communication include presentations and board meetings.

INFORMAL

Informal verbal communication is a type of verbal communication wherein information is not shared using predefined channels that your organisation uses or strictly enforces. This type of communication is more casual and allows for a quick and easy dissemination of information. Some examples of informal verbal communication include casual discussions and phone conversations.

While informal verbal communication can be easy to use, it is not recommended to always use. Verbal information transmitted informally does not leave any formal document or record that can be used as a reference. For messages that include information on your work tasks, priorities, and work schedule, it is important to be able to keep track of the information you are sharing or receiving from peers in your workgroup.

Written

Written communication refers to transmission of information in writing. This type of communication requires you to be clear, concise, and specific in order to avoid misinterpretation of information.

Written communication is preferred when you need to keep a record of the information being conveyed. With information involving work tasks, priorities, and work schedules, it is best to have a document or file that you can look back and reference.

While multiple ways of communication have been referenced, it is preferred to have this done through written means. As mentioned, by having information written down, you and the person you are communicating with have for reference an exact record of what was communicated. In order to communicate these details, there are a few things that you have to keep in mind:

• Ensure that the person you are communicating with is relevant to the information you will be communicating.
• Check all information that will be communicated for completeness and accuracy.
• Allow the person to approach you for any concerns in your personal work schedule.

Your personal work schedule should be clear to everyone involved. Any clarification and adjustments can be done and accounted for before beginning any of your work tasks. Consider the following characteristics that your message must have to ensure efficient communication:

YOUR MESSAGE MUST BE CLEAR

Clear messages imply that information on your personal work schedule is specific. If the information does not involve or is not relevant to the person you are communicating with, it is best to leave that piece of information out to avoid confusion. Use exact, appropriate, and concrete words in your message.

YOUR MESSAGE MUST BE CORRECT

Correct in this context refers to the information being accurate. It is important that the work tasks, priorities, and schedule that you will convey should reflect what is contained in your personal work schedule. Otherwise, there is no point in communicating.

YOUR MESSAGE MUST BE COMPLETE

Completeness of your communication should allow you to evaluate whether the information you will be sharing is enough for the person you are communicating with. Incomplete information is similar to inaccurate information and will reduce the efficiency of communication.

YOUR MESSAGE MUST BE CONCISE

Concise communication requires you to be straightforward in your messages. This characteristic is related to being clear; information that you convey should be relevant to the person you are conveying it to.

YOUR MESSAGE MUST BE CONCRETE

Concrete communication allows you to support the information with facts and figures. This would mean attaching work plans in your communication if needed. This is essential when timeframes are still under proposal and would need the review of supervisors, managers, or even your co-workers who are also involved in your work tasks.

YOUR MESSAGE MUST BE COHERENT

Coherent communication offers a logical flow and structure to the information that you are conveying. Similar to being current and complete, if the information that you are trying to convey is not coherent, then there is no point in the communications. Being coherent ensures that the person you are communicating with will understand the information you are sharing.

After communication of your personal work schedule, you may begin with the assigned work tasks that you set out to do. However, it is important to note that the implementation of a work schedule does not stop after communicating it to your workgroup. You must also strive to monitor your own performance if you are able to meet the timeframes indicated in your work schedule.

Monitoring

Monitoring should be done for at least two instances during the progression of your work tasks. It involves checking if your progress is aligned with what is indicated in the plans and schedules. It is important to closely monitor your progress to ensure that you are following the developed work schedule and make any changes if otherwise. You may also find that monitoring is also concerned with the quality of your performance and will allow you to check on your accountabilities in the work tasks assigned.

Some information that will be useful when monitoring your performance can be in the form of the following.

Workgroup targets

These are not just evident in the planning and preparation stage of a work plan, but they also prove useful to you when monitoring your performance. Workgroup targets generally contain information to aim for when specific tasks are successfully completed. They can provide an outline of what to look out for while you are in the process of completing work tasks related to certain workgroup targets.

Performance standards

Performance standards are important because they give you a good basis for monitoring and measuring your work performance. They are set by your organisation, and they give a formal indication of what your organisation expects of you – therefore you cannot go wrong by basing your personal monitoring on these standards.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

This refers to measuring your performance in a quantitative manner. They take into consideration your performance when compared to the standards set by the organisation. KPIs vary across organisations, roles, and responsibilities, but it is important to note that they evaluate performance with regard to a specific work task or activity.

Information on any expectations from the organisation should be in the context of your accountabilities in the work tasks assigned to you. This information can be checked with those you have identified during the planning and preparation phases.

In order to appropriately monitor your performance while executing your personal work schedule, take note of the following steps:

The development of a work schedule continues even during implementation. Revisions in the schedule may be necessary to ensure the success of a work task, despite any variation in performance.

As noted, revisions may be necessary during the implementation of a work schedule. Before planning out and applying any changes to the work schedule, it is important to have some basis for revision.

Variations between expected and actual performance can serve as strong evidence for changing an already-implemented work schedule. These variations show that there is something that is affecting the successful completion of a work task. Some examples of these variations include:

• Changes in required resources
• Changes in timeframes
• Movement of projected due dates

There are a number of methods to identify and document variations in performance and work schedule, such as:

• Work Measurement and Sampling
  Work measurement involves using various techniques to obtain direct measurement of the work. This is particularly useful for assessing the up or downtime of a system or looking at how accurate data obtained is. This direct measurement can be conducted in a number of ways, and the methods used should be stated within the review procedure. It is only useful for gaining objective information, such as whether a particular product is up to a required standard.
  Samples are the most common method of work measurement, as you are able to take the completed sample, and use this to evaluate against the specifications, to determine whether it is meeting quality standards and the like.
• Observation
  There may be times when you need to observe how a particular user performs a task. In these cases observation is a useful method to adopt and is particularly useful to measure compliance to set procedures. For example, you can ask a user to perform a given task, and then assess how well they perform that task against the set procedures.
• Surveys
  Surveys can be useful to gain an understanding of how people feel about the work plans or methods, or what they like and dislike about it. They are most useful because the results are generally structured, and this enables measurement and comparison.
• Feedback
  Feedback is a process that involves seeking the opinions of those involved in the work process. You may interview them, or simply ask them for feedback. This feedback should tell you how they feel about the operation of the work methods and processes. You should seek feedback from managers, supervisors and other workers to gain a broad understanding of how they feel about the process that you have implemented.

Documentation of these variations should be made to serve as a reference while conducting review and planning of any proposed revisions. For clear identification of variation, you need to have a comparison between the expected and the actual performance. One useful means of doing this is to create a table. In column 1, list the performance measures and criteria that you have established for your work process. There may be many of these depending on the complexity of the objectives you set. In the next column, list the actual results from monitoring using the aforementioned methods. In the final column, evaluate required and actual performances against each other to determine whether or not you have met the required standards. Record whether or not it was met, and any degree of variance from actual results.

The table below can serve as a template for documenting variations of your expected and actual work performance. For this template, the number of rows will depend on the number of criteria you have established in order to evaluate your performance in the indicated work task.

Case Study

Suppose that you, as a general manager of the human resource department of Bounce Fitness were scheduled to complete the allocation of roles today. However, you were tasked by the board to complete another, more urgent, task related to a complaint raised by an employee. Due to the level of priority of the recently assigned task, you were not able to accomplish the allocation of roles on time.

This is considered as a variation of your work performance as the projected due date was not met. Documentation of this should be made in order to proceed with the necessary revisions in your work schedule.

Now that you have established and verified the existence of possible variations in your work performance, it is best to inform relevant personnel about your findings. By communicating these variations, you are able to elicit their help when it comes to identifying other aspects of your work performance that need to be observed. This may also present an opportunity for you to seek feedback on your work performance, which will be the focus of the next section.

Similarly to when you were initially communicating your personal work schedule, you may also use the same methods to communicate variations that you have recorded. The communications that will occur during this stage of implementation will allow you, people in your workgroup, and all others related to your work tasks to prepare for any changes in your work schedules that may arise. It should be emphasised that personnel that you will be communicating with should be relevant to the specific work tasks wherein you have documentation of variations in work performance. Those who are not involved need not be informed to avoid any confusion and panic within the workgroup.

When communicating these variations, consider including the following information:

• Work task affected
  The work task where the variations were observed should be at the forefront of your communication. This helps the person you are communicating with understand the context of the variation being shared to them.
• Expected performance
  Provide the personnel with a list of expectations that you were made aware of during the planning and preparation of your work schedule. However, you should limit these in such a way that you can support the degree of variation in your work performance that you will mention later on in your communications.
• Actual performance
  Sharing your actual performance during the course of implementation will give the relevant personnel more insight into the variation that you are communicating. This will also present an opportunity for the personnel to view other aspects of your performance they may have missed out.
• Degree of variation
  The degree of variation in your work performance will serve as an overview of all the information that precedes it. It summarises and compares your expected and actual work performance to offer a streamlined understanding to the person you are communicating with.

The communication that you offer at this stage of implementation should be enough to provide an overview of your work performance. By communicating these immediately, you and the people in your workgroup will be able to provide, evaluate, and analyse feedback and action items in a more efficient way.

• The implementation of a personal work schedule includes three phases: communication of personal work schedule to relevant personnel, monitoring of own performance according to personal work schedule, and documentation of variations between expected and actual work performance.
• A personal work schedule must be communicated to relevant personnel to ensure that those involved with the work tasks are aware of their progression.
• Communication of work schedules allow people to be held accountable for the successful and timely completion of work tasks assigned to them.
• Monitoring of performance should be done in at least two instances during the progression of the work schedule.
• Workgroup targets, performance standards, and KPIs are considered during monitoring as benchmarks of performance.
• Documentation of variations is crucial in determining any adjustments to the personal work schedule while still ensuring the timely completion of work tasks.
• Methods of documenting performance can be done through work measurement and sampling, observation, surveys, and feedback.

You’ve come to the end of this topic, well done! Before moving on to the next section let’s review what you have learned from this topic.