Background Information

To assess and enhance individual employability is of key importance for his/her career and professional development. Enhancing employability is required for the future growth and asset a person in systematic identification of relevant workplace competencies which are required to be developed and getting career ready. The present assignment is written with this purpose only. Under this industrial placement reviews is presented over working in two different roles in BIG W Company. Future position and skills required by office managers are explained. Also,  S.M.A.R.T  goals and  G.R.O.W models are explained and personal goals are developed.

Industry placement position, role and tasks

The industry of placement is Big W, in which two I have worked at two different positions, Service desk associate and Cash office associate. Under the both different task have been performed and roles are carried out.

Service desk associate:

The primary task of a service desk associate is to answer the consumer request through email, chat, over phone or in person (Iqbal et.al 2016). The duties and task varies from organisation to organisation. In the BIG W company the position of service desk associate the task performed were receiving and receiving information, providing consumer services and setting a point of contact between company and consumers. The task required service desk associate to set point of contact where information related with store, product or services can be received, complaint can be registered, and suggestion can be given. This service is an effective link between Big W and its customers.

Cash office associate:

Another position served in Big W was cash office associate, which required performing the task of handling cash which included reciting money from cash sales, reimbursements, maintain cash registers, baking and payrolls. The cash office associate is basically responsible for cash transaction, being cash deposits in bank, delivering report to mangers, development of effective methods of cash handling and accounting for business and recording of each cash transaction in the cash log on daily basis.

BIG W organisation is an Australian discount departmental store, founded in 1964 in New South Wales (BIG W, 2019). The company has 182 stores till date, with around 22000 employees working in Australia and across Asia. BIG W is a division of Woolworths Group. The organisation belongs to retail sector where large number of commodities is offered to sale under one roof.

 The retail industry in Australia is vast and there are 140000 retail businesses in Australia.  This sector contributes 4.1% in the GDP of Australia and employment of 10.7% (RETAIL TRADE, 2019).  Retail trade in the nation is the second largest in providing employment. The employment growth rate in its sector is projected to grow by 3.7% till 2023, with one third of workers are between age of 15-24. This sector provides ample opportunity of employment to youth.

Industry Placement Review in BIG W Company

Skills and Behaviours required in role and position of office manager 

Office manager:

 The office manager is responsible for all the areas on the office management.  This job includes diversity and active job roles to ensure hurdle free running of operational, system, financial and administrative functions. The office manager is also required to support senior level officers that are CEO, COO and others. Skills and behaviours required by office managers are as follows:

Reliability and discretion: as office manager is responsible for handling whole offices management he/she will learn confidential information, so the person must be reliable with whom such information can be shared.

Communication: the officer mangers manage work of whole office is in contact of every person and possess almost every information (Block, 2016). So he/she must communicate information to relevant person in office and establish an open commination with seniors as well as juniors in office.

Organisational skills: requires office angers to stay focused on different task. He/ she must use the energy, time, strength and mental capacity in effective manner to give 100% output.

IT skills: requires office manager to have knowledge of basic software such as Microsoft word, excel, power point presentation, project management etc and specific organisation software (Seek.com. 2019).

Problem solving skills:  is crucial as in contingency as well as in routine decisions are to taken over different issues and problems. This requires him/her to possess critical and analytical thinking for reaching best decision over positional solutions of problems.

Leadership: this is basic skill and behaviour that office  manager must have, as  he/she is in charge of office and  responsible for getting work done, so effective leadership only can lead getting effective work done.

Budgeting: he /she must have budgeting skills in order to know where money is going and where to cut short the expenses and from where income can be generated.

Initiative: office manager must know and take initiative in the office (Hollis-Turner, 2017). This requires him/her to do more than what is required, speak up and share ideas and tell other to share their ideas to complete a work to solve a problem.

Attention to details: office manager must give attention to every detail in the office. This includes paying attention to work done by employee, time schedule, and lag in work and improvement in the working condition, work environment or employee relation (Wow careers. 2019).

S.M.A.R.T goals

S.M.A.R.T. goal model stands for a goal that should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. SMART goals are:

Future Position Skills and Behaviours

Specific: this means goals must be clear, well defined and unambiguous (Explaining How To Set SMART Goals by Curriculum Wadhwani, 2019).

Measurable: means that there must be specific criteria to measure the progress toward accomplishment of the set goal.

Achievable: goals should be attainable which means goals must not be impossible to achieve (Bjerke & Renger, 2017).

Realistic: the goal should be realistic, within reach and in context with the purpose of profession or life.

Timely: There must be clear deadline to the goal including starting and target date. The goal must have a date by which it must be achieved.

Grow model is yet another techniques of goal setting. This model, assist in setting up achievable plan of action for desired objectives (The Importance of Setting Goals by Laura Wilkinson, 2019). There are four phase of this model:

Phase 1- G: here goals are identified, thought upon, imagined and certainty is created.

Phase 2- R: identification of gaps between current goals and reality, potential resources, capabilities, achievements setting up of personal liability for actions and challenges,

Phase 3- O: in this phase three critical factors are considered regarding possible challenges, problem and setbacks. This includes taking feedbacks, answering question of what if and section of best option.

Phase 4- W: is related with paving the path towards attainment of goal. A plan of action is developed with realistic time frame for goal achievement (Tait, 2015).

SMART goal:

Specific: to get a job in Retail sector of Australia  in any one of these organisation, BIG W, IKEA, ALDI, Woolworths and David jones and become office manager.

Measurable: growth can be measured with promotions and change in designations on regular basis.

Achievable: the goal can be achieved as capabilities, key skills and qualification to be office managers are possessed.

Realistic: with gaining experiences and expertise this goal can be achieved.

Timely: after getting job, to become office manager in 3 years in organisation.

GROW goal:

G: to get a job in any of these organisations that is BIG W, IKEA, ALDI, Woolworths and David jones. To become office manager in 3 year in same organisation.

R: currently I am a student and have an experience of doing working at BIG W at two positions, that is service desk and cash office associate.  The challenge is related to get a desired position in retail sector to become office manager in the future.

O: the obstacle is related with, lack of experiences and skills to become office manager. For this option available is to take learning’s from each experience in the job and take seminar to grow in job.
W: to prove efficient in the job and show 100% dedication towards job and workplace without any lag. This can lead to promotion in job regularly and achievement of goal (Flannery, 2011).

Conclusion

From the above report it can be concluded that under the section industrial placement review, work has been done in BIG W Company. The roles performed there includes cash office associate and service desk associate .the organisation belong to retail sector present ample of employment opportunities for youth. The skills and behaviours of office manager have been identified as reliability, leadership, attentiveness, budgeting and others. SMART goal and GROW models assist in formulation of effective goal which can be achieved in set time and available capabilities and resources.

References

BIG W.  (2019). [Online]. Available through < https://www.bigw.com.au/ >.

Bjerke, M. B., & Renger, R. (2017). Being smart about writing SMART objectives. Evaluation and program planning, 61, 125-127.

Block, P. (2016). The empowered manager: Positive political skills at work. John Wiley & Sons.

Explaining How To Set SMART Goals by Curriculum Wadhwani. (2019). [Online]. Available through <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6o5PyJM3bY>.

Flannery, P. (2011). Create your own reality. Cork NuBooks.

Hollis-Turner, S. (2017). Attributes for the field of practice of the administrator and office manager. Journal of Education (University of KwaZulu-Natal), (70), 88-107.

Iqbal, J., Islam, R. U., Abbas, S. Z., Khan, A. A., & Ajwad, S. A. (2016). Automating industrial tasks through mechatronic systems–A review of robotics in industrial perspective. Tehni?ki vjesnik, 23(3), 917-924.

RETAIL TRADE. 2019. [Online]. Available through <https://australianjobs.employment.gov.au/jobs-industry/retail-trade>.

Seek.com. (2019). [Online]. Available through: <https://www.seek.com.au/office-manager-jobs>.

Tait, K. (2015). Grow Model. [Online]. Available through: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LmjV2R9qSo>.

The Importance of Setting Goals by Laura Wilkinson. (2019). [Online]. Available through <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQsDxPox008>.

Wow careers. (2019). [Online]. Available through: <https://www.wowcareers.com.au/page/Careers/Supermarkets/>.