Underpinning Knowledge Questions

Q1.
An operational plan is a subset of a strategic work plan. It describes short-
term ways of achieving milestones. It also explains how, or what portion of, a
strategic plan will be put into operation during a given operational period. An
operational plan is the basis for, and justification of an annual operating
budget request.
Operational plans should establish the activities and budgets for each part of
the organisation. They link the strategic plan with the activities the
organisation will deliver and the resources required to deliver them.
An operational plan addresses four questions:
▪ Where are we now?
▪ Where do we want to be?
▪ How do we get there?
▪ How do we measure our progress?

The people who will be involved in implementation should prepare operational

plans. There is often a need for significant cross-departmental communication
as plans created by one part of the organisation inevitably have implications
for other parts.
Operational plans should contain:
▪ clear objectives
▪ activities to be delivered
▪ quality standards
▪ desired outcomes
▪ staffing and resource requirements
▪ implementation timetables
▪ a process for monitoring progress

See appendix 1.
Q2.

Recruitment Criteria
- Skills
- Knowledge
- Background/experience
- Qualifications
- Accreditations (licenses)
- Motivation/attitude

When recruiting a new employer there is a process that I would follow. For the
position, you must review the needs and consider equality and diversity
issues. From this, a selection criteria is developed and there is an option to
involve external consultants if you would like to have a third party opinion
about the position. Once you have organised the recruitment process you
then begin to search for suitable candidates and process their applications.

eg. IT Programmer:

Criteria:
 
▪ Qualifications in a relevant IT discipline
▪ Demonstrated ability to program in a procedural language
▪ Working knowledge of VBA, C.Net programming languages
▪ Ability to communicate effectively with co-workers, customers and
suppliers
▪ Ability to interact as a member of a team
▪ Demonstrate good problem solving skills
▪ Good technical communication skills
▪ Good time management skills
▪ A commitment to professional customer services standards for both
internal and external customers
▪ Ethical and professional behaviour

If the programmer did not have the required knowledge and skills as per the
criteria above the following may occur and thus be detrimental to the
operational goals. Due to this lack of knowledge they took 3 times longer to
achieve set task and the end program did not achieve required parameters.

Q3.

Give an example of why changes in the operation plan may occur and what
input you may have into either suggesting these changes or having input into
the actions required.
Changes may occur in the operational plan due to a number of reasons.
Changes in operational plan can be fairly simple or they can be more complex
which may need to involve a contingency plan. Some examples are:

- Working overtime due to other employee’s absence.

- If an employee does not meet standards during their probation period,
review of employee recruitment must be made. This also relates to
performance management.
- If a company has a new IT system upgrade there is a need to retrain
staff and there could be a possible change to financial forecasts due to
outlaying costs. This highlights the need to monitor expenditure and
review budgets.
- Compliance issues: for example insurance policy pricing rising. This
offsets finances and expenditure may need to be reduced in other
areas of the company.
- Fire in the workplace. Machinery and equipment lost. You must work
out a budget for new equipment.
- Change of government: which may result in a change in legislation with
could possibly affect the operational plan.

Q4.

Business objective plans

To be a viable business ensure the following:

- Profit
-