Date: 2012 Presenter: Robyn Hayes

 Develop operational plan  Plan and manage resource acquisition  Monitor and review operational performance

 Organisations need plans to operate smoothly and people need plans to feel settled and comfortable  From holiday rosters through to training time tables, we need to look ahead  Plan forecast our future success, we determined that by asking:  Can you explain the benefits of planning and what happens next?  Can you explain the context in which operational plans are made and the types there are?  Can you prepare and present operational plans and estimate and secure the resources for your plans ?  Are you able to give your plans the best possible chance for success?  Do you know how to monitor your plans easily and effectively?

‘Fail to plan, plan to fail’  Planning provides the ground work for the future and gives you a way to track your progress and performance  Good plans help you identify and concentrate on important issues  When your team members know the vision they are able to assist you with the goal

 Organisational values, mission statements and strategy guides the organisation, as a whole team’s purpose, goals and measures of success guide the team.  Goals are your glimpse of the future  They identify where you want to be  Give your team a plan, purpose and a guide  Break the goals into shorter terms and a specific objective, time framed and measurable so they provide measures of progress

 We have several areas within the company to assist us with our operational plan:  Employees at the same level or more senior managers  OHS department  People with specialist responsibilities  IT  Supervisors  Unions or employee representatives  House of Learning

Examples  Goal: to encourage and reward employee contributions and participation  Objective: To nominate at least one person from my department for biannual Customer service award and to win this award at least once every two years.  Mission: To build the most reliable and environmentally sound housing in Australia  Objective: To have a pass rate at final stage of, or better than 99.5% by June 2013  Strategy: To be the largest home builder in Australia  Objective: To have 25% market share as measured by our total sales and to have 3% more show rooms than our nearest competitor by Feb 2014

 How does a vision becomes a goal?  Recruit the right people  Be the best in the industry  World class OH&S systems  Goals that flow onto all departments in enterprise for adapting into departmental goals  The HR department setting goals to become the employer of choice  Design leadership development and mentoring  Develop and launch internal health and safety and welfare campaigns  Develop, test and begin to publicise a strong employer brand  Analyses accidents and near misses in the work place  Reduce reportable incidents

 The operational plans middle and frontline managers develop are shorter term than the strategic and business plans they support, generally looking ahead one week to a year.  What is to be done? – Objectives and Targets  Why is it to be done?- Strategic Goal  When is it to be done? – today, tomorrow next week?  How is it to be done? – steps to be taken  Who will do it? – list people by name

 Consult with relevant personnel, colleagues and specialist resource managers  Detail KPI’s (key performance indicators)  Develop contingency plans  Ensure the development and presentation of proposals for resource requirements  Obtain approval of plan from relevant parties and ensure understanding among work teams involved

 Ensure you have the personnel and the human resources you require to get the job done  Be attractive to potential new employees  Offer support in the workplace for teams  Have professional development for individuals  Have organisational policies and practices  Have appropriate inductions for new procedures

 Six steps to planning; 1. Establish realistic goals, objectives and targets 2. List all activities that need to take place 3. Sequence the activities in the order they should occur 4. Communicate your plan to those it involves and affects 5. Implement your plan – put it into action 6. Check your progress – make sure it satisfies your targets and goals

 Be Positive  Be Precise  Be flexible  Aim at precise, concise and flexible plans that others can easily understand  Flexibility allows you to revise and fine tune your plans if something goes wrong and to adjust the changes in the operating environment  The more specific you are the easier it is to deal with unexpected events 

 Does your plan make it necessary or possible to upgrade equipment or facilities?  How can you allocate available resources most effectively and efficiently?  How does your plan affect the resources you and your team have at hand?  What support for your plan have you from management and key stakeholders?  When you need to draw in resources carefully refine your policies and procedures

 What could go wrong?  Brainstorm the people, problems and events that could have a negative impact  What would indicate it’s about to happen?  For each potential problem and adverse event you are working on, work out what would alert you that’s it’s about to happen?  What could prevent it happening?  Now think about how you could prevent each possible problem form occurring.  What should be done if it does happen?  If you can’t prevent a problem or an adverse event have a contingency plan ready to implement.

Four steps to monitoring:  Establish areas where monitoring is needed. Concentrate on what is important to your plan’s success, deliver on time, improve quality, increase sales, lower employee turnover, output, reduce costs, reduce stock levels or increase customer service

 Establish specific measures to monitor What counts the most? – what ever your customer cares about the most. Measure what supports your organisations vision and mission.

 Compare what is happening with what should be happening. Once you know what to measure, monitoring becomes a simple matter of comparing what is happening with what should be happening.

 Take action as necessary When you find that actual performance is not meeting the desired performance, implement your contingency plans as discussed or carry out a gap analysis to determined the best course of action

 Gap Where are we now? Current situation How will we get there? The Gap Where do we need to be? Desired situation

 Do not bother measuring the results that: Are difficult or expensive to measure Are measured elsewhere Are not allowed by an individual or a team Do not illustrate progress towards achievement Would cause individuals to act differently Would be difficult to understand Would not identify problem areas

 Budgets are financial planning and control devices that forecasts income and expenses over a specific period, most commonly a quarter (3 months)  Advertising budgets, purchasing budgets, salaries, sales and training budgets are common types of budgets.  Budgets establish the goal and at the end of the period show whether you have reached it.

Forms of monitoring finances:  Balance sheets: describe the financial position of a company on a specific date. Shows assets, reserves and liabilities.  Cash flow sheets: Indicates the liquidity of an organisation by showing how much working capital is available. It summarises money it had received and the money paid out in it’s operating, investing and financing activities.  Income Statement: Commonly called profit and loss, describes the financial performance of the company comparing the income from all sources with the expenses incurred to determined the net profit, or loss made in that period.

 Do not over monitor!  Plan systems to ensure mentoring and coaching are provided to support individuals  Negotiate recommendations for variations  Develop and implement systems to ensure procedures and records associated with documenting performance are managed in accordance with organisational requirements.