Case Scenario:
As an Office Automation and Medical Assistant, I am trained to maintain records and files and confidentiality in regards to the families that seek my services in the medical and educational environment. I accurately maintain, prepare and update reports, and ensure that suspense dates or commitments are met by organizing the flow of work using a variety of automated tools and software.
I have experience in a full range of secretarial duties to include, but not limited to receiving calls on a multi-line console and greeting visitors and directing inquiries to the appropriate school staff member. I exercise discretion and knowledge of school policies and regulations in response to issues. I independently respond to letters or inquiries whenever possible and prepare correspondence of a non-technical or routine nature. I maintain the master calendar and schedule appointments based on personal knowledge of the administrator's workload priorities and appointments. I exercise discretion and maintain confidentiality when I receive, distribute, and prepare correspondence. I maintain school files and records, in addition to making travel arrangements. I am responsible for resolving problems, providing technical direction and support to school's clerical staff and office volunteers. I also serve as liaison between administrators and school staff, students, and parents.
I possess excellent customer service. I am experienced in addressing any questions, complaints and concerns and ensuring all issues are resolved in accordance with DOD and Navy policies.
I have the ability to learn and understand all the duties and procedures of this organization, I posses the initiative and perseverance that it takes to understand any new or revised policies, procedures, protocols and correspondence that are required of this position.
Take the following FICTIONAL situation and develop a one page plan on what you would do. It is perfectly acceptable to make assumptions, do research, and use your lifelines.
As a military base with no relationship to our host nation, Russia, we rely on foreign national employees as recreation aids, lifeguards, food service workers, accounting techs, etc. Currently, XYZ COMPANY hires predominantly from three foreign nations: Botswana, Kuwait, and Vietnam. As you can imagine, there are significant cultural, racial, and religious differences. These differences are not only between the US hires and the foreign nationals, but also between the employees of different national origins, and also within peoples of the same country.
During focus groups conducted a few months ago, many foreign nationals have reported feeling that they are treated as 'second class citizens'. Other anonymous comments include 'the accounting department is run by a dictator', - I feel this is modern day slavery but I dare not complain because this job helps me support my family back home, and 'my opinions clearly don't matter, I'm not allowed to express my mind at work'. As you can see, the situation is extremely poor. Many employees of every background feel that fraud, waste and abuse happens often, and was tolerated and even participated in by management. The employees seem to want improvements, but in some ways also seem to fear change. One purchasing technician places all orders by phone; he never uses the internet to make purchases.
The accounting department, staffed by foreign national employees, is hampered by old software, BLAS, which is used to do the monthly resale inventory. If and when BLAS crashes, XYZ COMPANY will have no back up. The manual process of entering this data is time consuming and inefficient. Also, mess requisitions and DARs are all done manually. Each month, approximately 75 hours of overtime is used to finish month end. This is a complex issue: the software is outdated and could crash at any time, the staff may need additional training, and the XYZ COMPANY managers who must turn in information to accounting at the end of the month do not always get it in on time. The new XYZ COMPANY Director has said that this use of overtime cannot continue, but that she is willing to help provide the tools, training and resources needed to get the accounting work done.
Discuss how you would handle your first 30 days on the job as a new Business Manager. Then what will you do in 60 days, and within your first year? How will you take the current employees and build them into a cohesive, effective team?