Advanced Diploma of Leadership Management for Employment Law

Question: Discuss about theAdvanced Diploma of Leadership Management for Employment Law. Answer: 1. The legislative areas that the companys development may need to address are; Employment law Consumer protection Fair competition law. It is imperative that the company observe regulatory and legislative context in its development plan to avoid running into legal battles in court and administrative actions that may be taken by the concerned authorities as a result of unlawful actions emanating from the developed plan. Q.2 There is a need to incorporate culture into the companys development plan because the company needs to forge a united front in executing its services to the customers. There has to be uniformity in terms of services received by customers across the stores and platforms of the company. To do this the company can consider offering trainings to all employees and also reward those who implement company culture while serving clients Q3. To create sense of urgency into the development plan the company should incorporate timelines and key milestones that should be met within certain reasonable period of time. The plan can also contain a provision where the staffs of the company receive constant communication regarding what has been able to be achieved to encourage employees to continue implementing the plan. Q.4 The Company can develop a real time chart displayed across all its stores and online platforms indicating where the company is at in terms of the plan implementation and whats being done at that moment. The Company can also provide suggestion boxes where staff can drop their feedback regarding the progress being made in terms of the implementation of the development plan. Q5. Participation and support from managers can be enhanced through allocating each one of them a duty in the implementation of the companys development plan. This is very important as it will determine the success of the plan. Q6. To manage conflict within the companys development team, I can use brainstorming method from all the team members. This will shade more light on the issue being discussed and eliciting different opinions. The more the issue becomes clearer the lesser the divergence of opinions amongst the development team. I can also use try to strike a balance in the issue being discussed so that everyone can feel accommodated in one way or another. I may also ask those with conflicting ideas to make a presentation to the whole team and answer any questions that may arise from the team then ask the whole team to vote for the best idea based presentation made and their own understanding. Q.7 To evaluate effectiveness of my development plan, I will observe its outcome compared to the expectations of the company. The final outcome of the implementation of the plan should be same as the expected or bear close resemblance to show that the plan is effective. Q8. Sensitivity training can be used to sensitize members of the development team to be respectful of other people ideas and accommodate every member in the best way possible such that everyone in the team has voice and can be heard. This way the dynamics of the group can be enhanced and increase chances of success. Task 2 Development plan 1.0Introduction Australian hardware is a company that deals with a wide range of quality hardware materials in Australia. The company has 150 strategically located physical stores across the country as well as an online platform where customers can search for the products they want online then purchase them through the internet. There has been a problem regarding sales being made through online platforms and those done through the physical store channels across company entire network branch. There is variation in terms of prices of the same commodities in physical stores and online platform. This has brought up a number of issues among the staff members ranging from demoralization to poor customer service especially to those clients who purchase items online then visit the store for after sale support. Although there is a hotline where those clients who purchase through online platform can access after sale services, many of them prefer to be assisted by someone they can see at one of the physical s tores, but end up receiving poor customer service or outrightly denied the same by the staff at the physical outlets. In view of the aforementioned, the management has decided to come up with a development plan to integrate all the company business operations, that is the physical outlets and the online platform business operation into one platform with uniform prices among other desired attributes. This paper will therefore attempt to come up with the intended developed plan as envisaged by the management of the Australian hardware. 2.0Goals and objective The company aims to achieve an annual sales growth of 15% over the next five years as well as invest in business strategies that will support the companys growth in long term period. In so doing the company aims to integrate its online and physical stores business operation such that it achieves the following attributes; Uniform pricing for all items in both physical stores and online platform. Integration of customer sales records between online system and physical stores such that an authorized retail sales staff can be able to access this information regardless of where they were made as well as recording them for the purposes of evaluating his or her score on key performance indicators. Integration of retail outlet staff into online sales system by including them in online support hotline roster. Allocating online sales budget to the nearest store such that any online sale made is attributed to one branch that is closest to it. 3.0Measure of success The key measure of success is attaining uniformity in the prices of items both online and at the stores. Another key measure of success is attainment of level customer service for both clients who purchase products online and that there are no apparent competing interests between the companys online business operation and through the stores. 4.0Roles and responsibilities The following are the key personalities that will be responsible for the successful implementation of the project. Human resource manager Answering directly to the senior management team, HR manager will be in-charge of identifying knowledge and skills gap within the organization and developing training materials and course for imparting the identified missing skills and competencies needed for full implementation of the development plan. ICT Manager- Reporting directly to senior management team, the ICT manager is responsible for actual upgrading of the system such that the pricing is constant for all items either in stores or as displayed online. The ICT manger should work closely with the Finance manager to get details on the pricing of the commodities. The incumbent will also be responsible for developing user friendly shopping interfaces such that customers can easily view and purchase products online. Retail store managers Answering directly to the Managing Director: Business operation, retail store managers will be responsible the overall implementation of the plan at their respective stores. They will be in-charge of assigning duties to different staffs according to competencies and skills possessed by respective members of staff. The incumbent will also be responsible for ensuring culture change at their respective store such that customers will receive standard treatment depending on whether they are returning clients who purchase through online platform. Store sales clerk Reporting directly to the Retail store managers, the clerks will be responsible for actual implementation of the plan by serving all clients as indicated in the companys service level agreement (SLA). Managing Director: Business operations- Reporting directly to the senior management team, the incumbent will be responsible for the overall implementation of the plan. (Lewis, 2011) 5.0Stakeholders Key stakeholders that need to be consulted; Sales clerks at the store- They deem the online platform a threat to their jobs so they need to be persuaded otherwise by assuring them of their job security. Clients They want to buy items online as they know its cheap but wants after sale service to be done in person by the stores sales clerk. They need to be informed on the essence of streamlining the business for growth and development purposes as well as improving the customer service level. Investors They want more profit but reluctant on expenditure as they view this as eating into their profit. They need to be persuaded on the need of the capital outlay in integrating business operation for long term growth and development of the company. 6.0Communication strategy The company will communicate to its clerks at the store through their Retail store manager. The retail store manager will be convening weekly meetings amongst his or her staff at the branch to communicate how the plan is going to be implemented at the branch level. The manager will also list the importance of all the business operation strategies and how they are going to benefit the branch or the outlet as whole and to take away their jobs. The company will also communicate to clients through press releases and outlining their plan through its website for clients to read at their own pleasure. This information will also contain reasons why the prices at the physical shops ad those of the online platforms are now same and the benefits clients will get as a result of this change. (Burke, 2013) The senior management will communicate with the investors and shareholders on the need to spend company resources to integrate the business operation through conducting a meeting with them. 7.0Feedback collecting method The feedback on the progress of the implementation project can be obtained through a number of ways; For clerks at various stores the will be suggestion boxes where they can drop any form of feedback anonymously whether negative or positive without fear of reprisal. The clerks can also provide their feedback during the weekly meeting with their respective Retail store manager. On the other hand clients can leave a comment at the bottom of every item they are concerned about or contact the company through provided phone call numbers or email address. Shareholders can write directly to the senior management team raising any issue of concern to them or complimenting the company on the good progress of the implementation project. They can also request a meeting if they feel their issues can be handled well when the senior management convenes a meeting. (Lewis, 2011) Milestones Below is the Gantt diagram to show key milestone. Month / Milestone Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sept Oct Nov Dec Development of online software to accommodate changes Development and implementation of training needs and content Installation of the software and actual implementation of the plan Feedback and continued assessment and improvement Required resources To implement this project the company will need skilled human resources who can interact with the new system well and be able to help customers where necessary. The company will also need funds to purchase the required software to integrate both the online and physical stores business operation. Funds will also be needed for conducting training to all the employees on the new system and ensuring there is culture change at the organization. Risk assessment The company may run into a risk of not being able to fully persuade her sales clerks at the stores that integrating online business with the store business does not mean enhancing online business which will eventually phase them out of their work. The customers may also become apprehensive of the new prices especially if the online platform prices are increased to match the store prices. This may lead to reading in sales revenues. (Burke, 2013) Evaluation Evaluating the development plan in terms of costs, benefits and potential risks, it is evident that the company will benefit more as a result of the integration of the business operation since it is a long term project that will continually help the company streamline its business for long period of time. The potential risks identified are manageable and can be brought under control as soon as they arise by devising ways that mitigate on them. References Burke, R. (2013).Project management. Chichester: Wiley. Lewis, J. (2011).Project planning scheduling control. New York: McGraw-Hill.