I am pleased to present to you the report on the time management of the employee process at Canunited Corporation that was discussed present to you at the Boarding Room meeting last November. This report reviews the low quality of the work and the time management issue in place, along with available industry reports and studies, in an effort to pinpoint where improvements can be made based on the process.
I wish to thank all employees who participated in this study; they provided information about gaps in the current quality process. Furthermore, I must acknowledge the support of Case Manager Peter Cheng, who provided his invaluable insight into this report of the corporate plan to improve the quality and time management of the work.
I like to hear any thoughts, or questions you may have about my report. Please kindly advise me if there is an issue. I hope to have provided some much-needed focus on an issue that has company-wide implications. If you have any questions, I may be reached at (647) 205-1526, and by email at wyi@cconestep.com. I look forward to meeting with you to discuss the report further and review the recommendations.
Executive Summary
This report is to analyze the current negative time management issue, help the employees develop a sense of time management for those employees, and the way to solve the issue. The main reason employees work overtime is that they don’t know how to manage their time and make the time more useful and higher quality.
The employees should know and understand that complaints were not the solution for the issue, and this report could help them to understand that they are the main issue for the overtime, in addition, the report also can help them solve the issue.
The results of the study show the negative effects of low work quality and work without time management. In order for employees to increase their work quality and time management skills, a number of tips are recommended:
- Create a Daily Work Plan and Summary. This will help employees to plan and keep track of the work they finish and will finish.
- Completer the most important and demanding tasks at first. This helps employees to keep their effort and attention on the most difficult tasks, finish them first, and then work on other easier tasks afterward.
- Block out distractions. The employees should focus on their tasks, distractions will increase the error rate of the work.
- Never Multitask. Employees should not do many things at once because it will maintain their quality standards.
- Always proofread the work when finished. Employees should always proofread their work, do not rely on others, they should develop a positive work attitude.
Introduction
The Canunited Corporation is a mid-size immigration service firm located in North York, Ontario. The company has been in operation for more than fifteen years, the company has grown from a two-person company, into one with five divisions, three locations, and over thirty-five employees. However, the work quality done by the employees did not grow along with the company. This report seeks to address this gap and help Canunited continue to expand.
Background
The Canunited Corporation is a company focusing on providing Immigration Services to the public, such as Student Visa, Visitor Visa, Province Nominee Programs, etc. This means the company will hire a lot of immigration consultants to service the clients. As common sense, immigration consultants have their own licenses, they can work from home. This causes those immigration consultants who work from home not to accept the way the company works because what the company pays attention to is teamwork, which those immigration consultants have never experienced before. This issue causes a series of consequences.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this report is to analyze the current low-quality issue, develop a sense of time management for those employees, and the way to solve the issue. The main reason employees work overtime is that they don’t know how to manage their time, make the time more useful, and increase the quality.
Scope of the Study
The study examines the current quality and time management of employees, identifying problem areas and their effects. The report discusses the difference between people with different levels of time management skills. And the completion of work can be done by those people. Finally, this report will provide the solutions for the issues.
Sources and Methods
The findings presented in this report included:
- An analysis of data for work quality and time management from all the employee surveys and evaluations at the Canunited Corporation
- A review of the literature related to the quality and time management for employees in professional publications and website sources
Low-Quality and Low Time Management issues at the Canunited Corporation
The findings of this study will be presented in four categories: (1) current daily work quality, (2) current time management issues, (3) issues brought by the low work quality and low time management, and (4) solutions.
Current Daily Work Quality
By the time passed, Canunited Corporation had grown from only a two-person company to a company that owns thirty-five employees in North York. This relied on the high quality of the work the company had done and the effective time use. However, as time went by, the company got bigger, and the work quality got lower. Although the President and the Managers keep their control of the company, however, the employees have often spent time on not work-related things, such as browsing the news, online shopping, etc. The issues mentioned above did not only reduce the work quality, they also reduced the time spent on work.
Current Time Management Issue
Employees are the backbone of success when properly trained to perform their roles according to industry standards. Time is the great equalizer; everybody gets the same eight hours of work each workday. Making productive use of that time can mean the difference between getting things done and scrambling to keep up.
The cause of the low-quality issue is that employees had wasted their time on non-work-related things, all the work they did was on the deadline, which made the low-quality issue. On the other hand, there will be someone to proofread their work before they submit it, this makes the employees over-rely on others. Root causes for those issues include the following:
- Lack of time management.
- Lack of ability to work independently.
- Negative work attitude.
Implications for Employees
The discussion in the November 2015 Town Hall meeting revealed that virtually all new hires experience low morale due to their lack of training. Training increases employee efficiency and productivity by keeping employees up to date with the latest technology and most up-to-date practices. Most employees take pride in their work. Without access to proper tools to learn the skills needed to perform a job to the best of their ability, many employees may feel frustrated at not being afforded an opportunity to excel and advance to higher positions. Frustration often leads to high staff turnover (Othman & Suleiman, 2013; Truitt, 2011). This correlation is quite evident at Mandrake.
Mandrake already has a process of semi-annually surveying recently hired employees—those hired within the last 6-12 months— to gain feedback about their orientation and training experience. Employees are polled again after one year of employment. As shown in Figure 1, a compilation of five years of survey data suggests that, in terms of time and resources at Mandrake, the absence of a distinct, formal training program has had the following negative effects:
- A lack of corporately approved, standardized training material or model was considered to be problematic by 95% of respondents.
- A lack of staff, or other outsourced resources tasked to facilitate training, was detrimental to performance for 75% of respondents.
- After one year of employment, 90% of respondents felt that it had taken them a longer time to achieve the proper skill level required for optimal job performance as a result of a lack of training.
- The percentage of staff members who are considering looking for new employment is exceedingly high, at 60%.
Solutions
According to relevant studies on low work quality and low time management issues, the report provides different solutions based on different studies and reports:
- Learn to control their time. When employees learn to take control of their time, they will improve their ability to focus. And with increased focus comes enhanced efficiency, because they don’t lose momentum. They will start to breeze through tasks more quickly. (AppointmentPlus, 2018)
- Improved decision-making ability. A nice side benefit of good time management skills is the ability to make better decisions. When employees feel pressed for time and have to make a decision, they are more likely to jump to conclusions without fully considering every option. That leads to poor decision-making. Through effective time management, they can eliminate the pressure that comes from feeling like they don’t have enough time. (AppointmentPlus, 2018)
- Organize, Plan, and Prioritize the work. The employees should organize, prioritize, and plan their daily schedule is essential for improving work performance. Break down big projects into small tasks, establishing a due date and priority status for each one. (Salemme, 2019)
- Communicate Effectively. Whenever the employees are feeling uncertain about anything, they should ask someone. Find new and improved ways to achieve better results. Make sure all the employees know their opinion matters. (Salemme, 2019)
- Time Limit on Tasks. By setting time constraints for the work, employees will focus more and work more efficiently. If the employees still find they are going beyond these time limits, they should check their workflow and eliminate little time-wasters. (Management Tips)
Figure 2 illustrates the different percentages of the completion of work for people with different levels of time management skills. The persons who have high-level time management skills will complete 64% of the work in the company or in the croup. By comparison with high-level time management skills, persons with middle-level time management skills can finish 25% of the work, and Low-level time management skills can only cover 11% of the work.
Conclusion
Employees who work overtime in a company are not based on whether the employee can finish the job on time or not. The main issue for employees working overtime was not fully relying on the quality of their work or the attitude of the employer, it was more related to time management for the employee and employer.
Recommendations
Blind supervision can only make employees rebellious and should be fundamentally cultivated. The recommendations listed below are the key points that can be taught to the employees by the employers. Employees should:
- Create a work list every day before they start working, the first thing to do when they sit at their desk is to sharpen the list, adding any last-minute items.
- Start with the worst things because the worst things are the things that will take the most time and effort. By beating the worst things, the employees can be encouraged, and keep their work effort up.
- The employees should know how to batch their work and cluster their emailing sessions and their phone call sessions. Short for 3-4 batches a day. This will help keep short emails and phone calls from distracting them.
- Focus on one single task at a time. Distractions and multitasking will waste time. Consistently completing and crossing off tasks is encouraging and satisfying.
Conclusion
Employees who work overtime in a company are not based on whether the employee can finish the job on time or not. The main issue for employees working overtime was not fully relying on the quality of their work or the attitude of the employer, it was more related to time management for the employee and employer.
Recommendations
Blind supervision can only make employees rebellious and should be fundamentally cultivated. The recommendations listed below are the key points that can be taught to the employees by the employers. Employees should:
- Create a work list every day before they start working, the first thing to do when they sit at their desk is to sharpen the list, adding any last-minute items.
- Start with the worst things because the worst things are the things that will take the most time and effort. By beating the worst things, the employees can be encouraged, and keep their work effort up.
- The employees should know how to batch their work and cluster their emailing sessions and their phone call sessions. Short for 3-4 batches a day. This will help keep short emails and phone calls from distracting them.
- Focus on one single task at a time. Distractions and multitasking will waste time. Consistently completing and crossing off tasks is encouraging and satisfying.
References
- AppointmentPlus, W. by: (2018, February 11). Why Time Management Is Important. Retrieved from https://www.appointmentplus.com/blog/why-time-management-is-important/
- Salemme, I., & Salemme, I. (2019, August 7). 10 tips to improve work performance: Productivity. Retrieved from https://www.pipefy.com/blog/productivity/10-tips-improve-work-performance/.
- 27 Time Management Tips to Work Less and Play More. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://toggl.com/time-management-tips/.