BSBIND201 Work effectively in
a business environment
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Slide 1
Learning Outcomes
• Work within organisational requirements
• Work in a team
• Develop effective work habits
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Slide 2
• Identify and read organisation’s requirements and responsibilities
• Seek advice from appropriate persons, where necessary
• Outline the organisational documents that are relevant to working
effectively
• Knowledge and understanding of employee and employer rights and
responsibilities
Work within
organisational
requirements
• Comply with relevant duty of care, legal responsibilities and
organisational goals and objectives
• Identify the legislation that applies to working effectively in a
business environment
• Identify roles and responsibilities of colleagues and immediate
supervisors
• Identify standards and values considered detrimental to the
organisation and communicate this through appropriate channels
• Identify, recognise and follow behaviour contributing to a safe work
environment
• Outline terms and conditions of employment.
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Slide 3
Identify and read organisation’s requirements
and responsibilities
Organisational requirements can be broken up into legislative
requirements, codes of practice and systems and procedures.
Legislative
requirements
 EEO legislation
 Anti-discrimination legislation
 WHS legislation
 Privacy Act
Code of
practice
• Ethical Standards
• Industry defined parameters
• Quality Assurance
• Behaviour at Work
Systems and
procedures
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• Confidentiality
• Security
• Business Planning
• Policies and Procedures
Slide 4
Organisational documents that are
relevant to working effectively
Procedure
Process
Work
Instruction
Policy
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Slide 5
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The steps
to follow
Work Instruction
The
overarching
statement
of intent
Procedure
Policy
What is the difference between these?
The
detailed
tasks
Slide 6
Example:
Policy
• What do I need to know –
guidelines and standards
• Annual leave Policy is four
weeks annual leave paid
after one year of service
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Procedures
• How do I do something –
tasks and actions to be
taken
• How do I request annual
leave?
• Is there a form I fill in?
• How do I track the annual
leave taken and accrued
for each employee?
Slide 7
Business operations are affected by
internal factors and external factors
Internal Factors include:


the business plan
(includes goals,
objectives, systems and
processes)
policies and procedures
(e.g. WHS, equal
opportunity)

ethical standards

management structures

duty of care
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External Factors include:



Legislation (government
laws)
Awards and enterprise
agreements (includes
unions)
Industry Codes of
Practice

Role of the unions

Exchange rates

Trade cycles

Inflation

Slide
8
Recessions
Work within organisational
requirements
• Must comply with a duty of care
• Must comply with and meet the company’s goals
and objectives
• Must comply with legal responsibilities
• Must seek advice when necessary
• Must understand workers' rights and
responsibilities
• Must understand employers' rights and
responsibilities
• Must achieve a work/life balance
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Slide 9
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Slide 10
Duty of Care
• Legal responsibility of a person or organization to avoid any behaviour
or omission that could reasonably be foreseen to cause harm to
others.
• Called the 'neighbour principle' because it's based on the idea that
we have the responsibility not to harm those around us.
• You can sue for injury or damage if someone breached a duty of care
they owed to you if injured IF it was foreseeable; and
• the risk of injury occurring was not an insignificant risk
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Slide 11
Where did this principle
come from?
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562
On the evening of Sunday 26 August 1928 Mrs May Donoghue took a thirty
minute tram ride from Glasgow to Paisley. She met a friend at the
Wellmeadow Café, who purchased her an iced drink made from ice-cream
and ginger beer.
The bottle bore the name of its manufacturer, 'D. Stevenson, Glen Lane,
Paisley' and was a dark, opaque colour. Mrs Donoghue claimed after she had
consumed most of the ginger beer she saw the remains of a badly
decomposed snail float out of the bottle that was being poured into her glass.
In the following days Mrs Donoghue became ill and upon seeking treatment
was diagnosed with severe gastroenteritis and shock.
She won the case and thus was set in motion an important legal principle of
Duty of Care.
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Slide 12
Meeting company goals
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Slide 13
An example:
• S – The company will achieve 20% reduction in costs
• M – Measured by a reduction in overall creditors balances in one
year by end of Dec
• A – Each department will reduce costs by 5% each (across 4
departments)
• R – Is the goal realistic? Yes
• T – Is there a time allocated? Yes- end of the year 31 Dec
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Slide 14
Seek advice from appropriate persons,
where necessary
Why?
Because both parties’ benefit. When you seek advice or help to solve
a problem or perform a task you will develop better solutions and
perform better with that assistance.
How?
Actively listen to the advice you are receiving
Do not assume that your own opinion is correct
Know when and how to ask for guidance and draw useful insights
from the right people
What does it require?
Emotional intelligence, self-awareness, restraint, diplomacy, and
patience on both sides.
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Slide 15
Employee and Employer Rights and
Responsibilities
The areas you need to know about include:
• Safety and Health
• Discrimination and equal opportunity
• Fair Work Practices
• Privacy of your information
• Workers Compensation
• Achieving a work life balance
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Slide 16
Safety and Healthemployees must:
• Wear all personal protective equipment provided
• Follow safe work procedures
• Not interfere with or misuse anything provided by the
employer (equipment, signs, etc.) that is used to keep the
workplace safe
• Not remove or change machine guards
• Not behave in a way that puts themselves or others at risk
• Respond to a reasonable request to provide assistance or
first aid to an injured person at work
• Report any workplace hazards
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Slide 17
Safety and Health- employers
must:
• Induct, train and supervise staff to ensure safe
work practices are followed
• Consult with employees about decisions that
will affect safety in the workplace
• Provide PPE to make sure workers can do their
job safely
• Train workers how to use PPE correctly
• Monitor and evaluate WHS systems to ensure
that workers are protected from workplace
hazards
• Provide adequate facilities for the welfare of
employees
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Slide 18
Discrimination
and equal
opportunity
In Australia, it is unlawful to
discriminate on the basis of:
• Age
• Disability
• Race
• Sex
• Intersex status
• Gender identity
• Sexual orientation
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Resources
Slide 19
• Age Discrimination Act 2004
• Disability Discrimination Act
1992
• Racial Discrimination Act 1975
• Sex Discrimination Act 1984.
Australia's federal antidiscrimination laws
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Slide 20
Complying with legal responsibilities
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Slide 21
Federal:
https://www.legislation.gov.au/
State:
https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/
legislation/statutes.nsf/actsif.html
Local government:
https://www.dlgsc.wa.gov.au/depa
rtment/legislation
Australia’s three tier system
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Slide 22
• a workplace that is free from
unlawful discrimination and
harassment
• fair practices and behaviour in your
workplace
• competitive merit-based selection
processes for recruitment or
promotion
• training and development that
enables you to be productive in your
work and to pursue your chosen
career path
• equal access to benefits and
conditions including flexible working
arrangements
Employee rights
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• fair allocation of workloads, and
• fair processes to deal with workrelated complaints and grievances
Slide 23
• work to the best of your ability
and provide quality service to
customers and colleagues
• recognise and respect the skills
and talents of other staff
members
• act to prevent harassment,
discrimination and bullying
against others in your
workplace
• respect cultural and social
differences among your
colleagues and customers, and
Employee responsibilities
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• treat people fairly (don't
discriminate against, harass or
bully them)
Slide 24
• You have the same rights and
responsibilities as staff members
• You also have the responsibility to:
• take steps to ensure that all work
practices and behaviours are fair in
your workplace, including fair
allocation of workloads
• ensure the work environment is free
from bullying and from all forms of
unlawful discrimination and
harassment
• provide employees with information
and resources to enable them to
carry out their work
Employer rights and
responsibilities
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• consult employees about decisions
that affect them
Slide 25
• provide all employees with equal
opportunity to apply for available jobs,
higher duties, job rotation schemes and
flexible working arrangements
• ensure selection processes are
transparent and the methods used are
consistent
• provide all employees with equal
access to fair, prompt and confidential
processes to deal with complaints and
grievances
• give your employees equal access to
relevant training and development
opportunities
Employer responsibilities
(continued)
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• identify special training and
development needs of EEO group
members in your team and help them
gain access to training and
development opportunities, and
• participate in learning opportunities
and seek feedback to help you manage
staff effectively
Slide 26
• To provide mentoring and
assistance when you are new to
the job.
• They will offer you general
support, advice and training.
• Before you can benefit from
what they have to offer, you
must consider what it is that
you need from them and let
them know.
• Take opportunities to work with
colleagues which will enable
you to learn from them.
Role of your colleagues
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• Each person in an organisation
has description of their job or a
task list they have to complete
each day.
Slide 27
Within a business we all have
certain roles and responsibilities.
Your immediate superior is your
supervisor who has a critical role
in the management of your
performance as well as managing
operational costs, providing you
with training and assistance,
allocating tasks to you, checking
the quality of your work as well
as measuring the performance of
your company.
Role of your supervisor
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Slide 28
Standards and valuescodes of practice
• They set out industry standards of conduct
• They are guidelines for fair dealing between you
and your customers
• Lets your customers know what your business
agrees to do when dealing with them
• They can relate to a single business or represent a
whole industry.
• They are established through consultation with
industry representatives and the community
• They can be mandatory or voluntary
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Slide 29
Ethical Behaviour
Honesty
Social
Responsibility
Integrity
Commitment
Reliability
Core Values
Customer
Service
Responsibility
Teamwork
Morality
Behaviour
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Trust
Slide 30
Detrimental behaviour
• Breaching ethical standards in any organisation is
detrimental behaviour
• Usually the result is termination of employment
• Most companies ask their employees to sign an
agreement to abide by the standards
• Most standards and values include areas like honesty,
integrity, keeping promises, respect and trust and not
undermining supervisors or management.
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Slide 31
• Misusing company time
• Abusive behaviour
• Employee theft
• Lying to employees
• Violating company internet
policies
• Gossiping, rumor mongering
and undermining management
Examples of unethical
behaviour
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Slide 32
Terms and conditions of
employment – NES standards
• Maximum weekly hours
• Requests for flexible working arrangements
• Parental leave and related entitlements
• Annual leave
• Personal/carer's leave, compassionate leave and unpaid family
and domestic violence leave
• Community service leave
• Long service leave
• Public holidays
• Notice of termination and redundancy pay
• Fair Work Information Statement
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Slide 33
• Display courteous and helpful manners at all times
• Complete allocated tasks
• Seek assistance when difficulties arise
Work in a Team
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• Use questioning techniques to clarify instructions or
responsibilities and apply communication principles
• Identify and display a non-discriminatory attitude in all
engagements with staff, management or clients by
applying appropriate legislation
Slide 34
How to be courteous and helpful
Be pleasant
Don't gossip
and be
respectful
Great
Team
member
Be willing to
learn new
things
Complement
people
when they
deserve it
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Be cheerful
Help others
when they
are
struggling
Accept
constructive
criticism
gratefully
Slide 35
Complete allocated tasks
Chunk your tasks - complete
important ones
Set a schedule
Have a next step list
Be organised with
information, resources and
time
Prioritise important tasks
Only check emails and phone
calls once a day
Block out your calendar
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Communicate clearly to
ensure messages are
understood
Slide 36
Difficulties that could arise
•
•
•
•
•
Equipment breakdowns
Shortage of resources to finish your task
Overloaded with additional tasks
You lost or mislaid something
You can’t get in contact with somebody you need to so
you can complete your task
• Lack of time to complete the task before the deadline
• A need to change your plans
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Slide 37
Seek assistance to solve the problem
Describe the problem
Explore possible causes
identify root causes
Identify possible solutions
Decide which solution is best
Implement the solution
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Test the solution works
Slide 38
Questioning techniques to clarify
The purpose of clarifying information is to ensure that you understand what
your supervisor has said and to reduce misunderstandings.
The best clarification questions are open-ended as they give the speaker
choice in how to respond, whereas closed questions allow only very limited
responses.
Open ended questions start with 'when', 'where', 'how' or 'why’.
Other types of questions are non-directive clarification seeking question such
as:
“I'm not quite sure I understand what you are saying.”
“I don't feel clear about the main issue here.”
“When you said ........ what did you mean?”
“Could you repeat ...?”
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Slide 39
Guidelines for Clarifying
• Admit if you are unsure about what the speaker means.
• Ask for repetition.
• State what the speaker has said as you understand it and
check whether this is what they really said.
• Ask for specific examples.
• Use open, non-directive questions - if appropriate.
• Ask if you have got it right and be prepared to be
corrected.
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Slide 40
Non-discriminatory
attitudes
• Against the law to discriminate against people or
treat them unfairly.
• We are a country that allows everyone to get "a fair
go". Penalties are very severe.
• Treat everyone equally and just as you would want
to be treated.
• Don't judge people on their race, gender, sexuality,
or religion.
• This kind of discrimination will get you in trouble.
• Don’t make jokes about race, gender, sexuality, or
religion are not acceptable and could cause
offence.
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Slide 41
Features and characteristics of
successful teamwork
• All members are committed to the goals of the team and
prepares a plan to achieve these
• communication between team members is effective so
that each person understands what is expected of them
• Each member co-operates with everyone and assists
others when they need help
• Everyone is flexible with respect to the tasks they
complete – the more multiskilled a team, the more work
will be completed within the designated time frames
• Everyone shares ideas and contributes to brainstorming
activities, especially to solve a problem
• Everyone adopts a positive attitude
• Everyone prioritise the tasks
• Everyone complete tasks within the stated timeframes
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Slide 42
Develop
effective work
habits
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• Identify work and personal priorities
and achieve a work/life balance
• Apply time management strategies to
work duties
• Observe appropriate dress and
behaviour as required by job role
Slide 43
Work and personal priorities
Use Stephen Covey's Time Management Grid
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Slide 44
Eisenhower Matrix
Urgent
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DO
2
PLAN
3
DELEGATE
4
ELIMINATE
Important
1
Not Important
The quadrants
are the same as
Covey Grid but
provides you
with an action
for each
quadrant
Not Urgent
Slide 45
Pareto Principle
• It’s also called the 80/20 rule.
• This means 80% of your results is
produced by 20% effort.
• So, start with your task list (this is
the results you want to achieve)
and how you will achieve these –
what effort you will put in.
• Look for time wasters and time
burglars (people who waste your
time with trivial things or things
important to them and not you).
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Slide 46
Apply time
management
strategies to
work duties
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Slide 47
Tips to achieve work-life balance
• Know your values
• Time management
• Boundaries
• Enjoy your work
• Consider your finances
• Relationships
• Health
• Down time
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Slide 48
Observe appropriate
dress for Men
• Business Casual for Men
• Dress slacks along with a button-down shirt
or sweater. Khakis or corduroy pants may be
substitute for dress slacks if the setting is
especially informal.
• A sport coat or blazer may be worn with
business casual attire and is most common
in professional settings such as a law firm.
• Neckties are completely optional and are
typically not worn.
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Slide 49
Observe appropriate
dress for Men
• Business Formal for Men
• Highly professional, and consists of a matching suit
in black, navy blue, gray, or brown
• Worn with a traditional dress shirt in white or cream
• Dress socks and shoes that match the color of the
suit
• Ties are a must and should be a solid color or
contain only a minimal pattern design
• Shirts should always be tucked in and must present
a neatly-ironed appearance when taking a jacket off.
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Slide 50
Observe appropriate
dress for Women
• Business Casual for Women
• You may choose patterned outfits with features
such as ruffles or lace, provided they are not
excessive
• A good rule of thumb is that clothing should not be
too tight or revealing and should also not be made
of “casual” fabrics such as cotton.
• Knee-high and ankle boots, along with flats, sandals,
and higher-heeled shoes are also acceptable
• When wearing skirts or dresses, women may choose
to wear pantyhose or forego stockings altogether
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Slide 51
Examples of business
casual dress for women
•
A dress that extends to below the knees
•
Spaghetti strap dresses are fine, so long as the straps are covered with a jacket
or shrug (see left)
•
A knee-length skirt combined with a sweater or button-down blouse
•
Dress slacks or khakis along with a sweater, polo shirt, tunic, or button-down
blouse
•
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Slide 52
Business Formal for
Women
• Like men, women should wear a matching suit consisting of a
blazer and skirt or pants, along with a button-down dress shirt in
a solid color
• The suit should not be tight fitting, although a suit tailored to a
woman’s natural curves is completely acceptable
• Skirts should fall at or below the top of the knee and should
contain relatively straight lines (although some pleating is also
okay.)
• Shoes should be closed-toe with a short or no heel and match
the color of the suit
• Pantyhose are a must when wearing skirts
• Knee-high stockings or dress socks should be worn with trousers
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Slide 53
Observe appropriate behaviour
Punctuality
Borrowing Equipment
Language
Follow the Leave Process
Work Clothing
Being Open and Honest
Do not over-socialising
Solving Problems
Watch out for personal space
Accepting Direction
A Tidy Work Space
Workplace Hazards
Using Email
Do not Gossip
Do not eating another’s food
Meeting people
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Slide 54
The End
Any questions:
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Slide 55