David James Reeves M3.

32 Communicating one-to-one at work

22/05/2012

1. For this assignment, one- to-one communication refers to communication between two individuals within the workplace carried out in private, away from day to day work activities. The two individuals refer to either a manager and subordinate or someone offering advice and a service user. There may or may not be a third person there to carry out some other function such as observing or taking minutes of the communication but they will not play an active role in the communication.

2. One to-one communication can be used as a tool informally to address issues within the workplace or an employee may wish to take the opportunity to inform their manager if a personal matter has arisen. One-to-one meetings can also be conducted as part of other mechanisms within work such as grievance, disciplinary or recruitment procedures.

3. Whilst volunteering at SOFA Re-use, I decided to use direct communication in the form of a one-to-one to help another volunteer compile her CV.

4. The handout Communicating one to one at work by Marta Simmons defines one-to-one communication by saying: When communication is direct, a person means exactly what they say. There is no implied meaning, insinuation, or mixed message.

5. Direct communication could have been conducted through: on the job feedback. a team meeting.

6. One-to-one communication was most appropriate for this instance because, if feedback was provided on the job, this would mean discussing sensitive matters regarding compiling a CV in front of other volunteers which would breach confidentiality. Providing feedback whilst compiling a CV on the job would mean there would be distractions such as customers and phones ringing. A team meeting would also have been inappropriate because designing a CV is very subjective. Anyone offering help with a CV will change it to their personal style. If many people offered help, her CV would have been ruined because so many people would have had an input and made changes, it would be impossible to accommodate them all AND produce a document that was fit for purpose.

7. The pi-chart in Figure 1 below shows the volume of communication as a percentage that takes place in the form of words used, how the words are used and lastly what we see.

Figure 1: How people Communicate

8. The chart shows that the majority of communication (55%) is non-verbal. Non-verbal behaviours consist of eye-contact, eye movement, proximity, body-language, touch and use of objects such as pens and staplers also have an impact.

9. When helping the volunteer with her CV, I communicated through: Eye-contact, demonstrating that I was focusing on her. Using open gestures, conveying that I was giving her full attention. Eye-movement, looking away and up to the right as I recalled something as this is memory side. Touch, when her CV was finished by using a firm handshake to convey a job well done.

10. Records could have been kept by having obtained prior consent, using a dictaphone to record the meeting and then making notes, having a third person in the room to minute the meeting or by filling out a review sheet entitled, Record of 1:1 Meetings (Please refer to Appendix 1.). This sheet includes the name of the person the one-to-one was conducted with, the reason for conducting the one-to-one is then selected from a list, these include: general update, training needs, concerns or issues, health and safety, equal opportunities or any advice. There is a box in which the matters arising and any points of action are written, there are also three sets of dotted lines, these are for the date and the signature of both parties, both the volunteer and the person conducting the review. Any records should include who was present, the date, why the meeting was conduced, any points that arose within the meeting and any proposed action. They should also include some mechanism to amend them if they are not accurate.

11. The second half of this assignment requires writing about steps for conducting a one-toone interview in a work context. For the purposes of this assignment, the process of a job interview will be explained.

12. The interviewer should have clear aims of what they hope to achieve by conducting the process. For the purpose of a job interview, these aims will normally consist of: to determine what level of competence the person has to perform the tasks required of the role. to determine if the person would fit in to the culture of the organisation.

13. Before the interview is conducted, the interviewee should be made aware of the date, time and venue of the interview. The interviewee should also be asked if they require any special arrangements to be made to allow them to participate fully in the interview process for instance, do they require an interpreter? Will they bring a guide-dog? Will they require material to be presented in any other form for instance brail or large print? The interviewee should be made aware of exactly where they are going within the organisation, this can in many cases just be the main reception desk within the organisation. They should also be aware of who to ask for.

14. Measures should be taken to put the candidate at ease such as smiling, being nice and generally being aware of the shadow you project and ensuring you are projecting a positive one. The interview should, if possible not be conducted from behind a desk as this will make the interviewee feel more at ease. This is important because in any climate, the best

candidates can still choose where they work. The interviewer should also remember that at times they have been an interviewee.

15. The interviewer should familiarise themselves with the candidates CV and covering letter or job application and plan questions to ask if unsure of anything contained within it such as dates of employment. The interviewer should also ask questions from a general core to determine levels of competence for the role. These should be open-ended And can be behavioural for instance, Can you tell me a time when you worked successfully as part of a team? Or hypothetical and problem-solving, Can you tell me, what would you do if? The should also be a mechanism for recording each of the interviewees answers and scoring them. The interviewer should be familiar with material they are taking in to an interview.

16. The venue should be considered and amenities such as heating lighting should be considered. Practical things should be considered such as providing tissues and a jug of water and cups so interviewees can have a drink.

17. The interviewer should also be made aware of mechanisms in place for signing in so there is a record of who is in the building in the event of a fire.

18. This section outlines how an interview can be conducted effectively, lawfully and ethically.

19. The interviewer should identify their own prejudices and then try to minimise the effect these have on the interview process. People have evolved mechanisms such as the Halo Effect which would form an initial opinion of someone based on how they look. They also form an opinion of someone in three minutes of who they could be friends with. Naturally, if unchecked, an interviewer would gravitate toward interviewees they thought looked good or they felt they could be friends with, favouring them throughout an interview process. This effect should be minimised by coming up with a fair system of how they weight an interviewees answers and other things such as dress and punctuality and regarding the interview as a whole process rather than how they felt toward the interviewee after a certain period.

20. Questions based on the interviewees initial application should be asked to address any points the interviewer is unsure of. The same open-ended questions should then be asked to all interviewees to determine their level of competence in relation to the role. The interview should be conducted legally by avoiding questions about nationality, race, religious practices, marital and family status, caring responsibilities, gender, age, health issues and physical ability.

21. Record keeping is important for the process of interview so that the best candidate can be determined. Also, any choice of preferred candidate can be substantiated. If the chosen

candidate is unsuitable or refuses the job then accurate records allow for other candidates to be considered. Records can also be incorporated into control mechanisms such as equality and diversity, so keeping records would help to substantiate that an organisations recruitment methods complied with equality and diversity. Records can also be referred to if at a later stage if an employee cannot do what they said they could do during interview. Keeping records also allows for feedback in the event that, if they are unsuccessful, an interviewee requests it.

22. The job market is fiercely competitive. If candidates for jobs are unsuccessful at the interview stage, they may ask for feedback because this allows for funneling because the interviewee can identify and take steps to address any weak areas in their performance and move closer to a desired outcome.

23. Due to the fiercely competitive nature of the job market, in order to provide feedback the interviewer would have to not only provide feedback for areas within the interviewees performance but also substantiate why another candidate was preferred so records for the decision making process would need to be referred to as well as records for the candidates own performance during interview.

24. The interviewee will be disappointed as a result of not getting the job and feedback, if presented in a negative way would diminish their self-esteem further. One method that would be appropriate to administer feedback could be the feedback sandwich or the happy

sandwich. When a negative point needs to be conveyed, the person giving feedback always opens with a positive comment, passes the negative comment and ends with a positive comment. Although for this example, the negative comment may not relate to how the individual performed, it may simply be that other candidates were stronger. The model for giving feedback is shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: The Happy Sandwich

25. As an example, after a candidate has been rejected, the person giving feedback as a result of an interview might say, We liked how you answered the question on budgeting and we liked the examples of the work you showed us. Unfortunately we had a candidate with more experience in the field of.and thats what we were looking for Im afraid. We thought you did well to answer that question and thought you presented will. Well keep you on our records and let you know if something else turns up!

In order to convey; Somebody else got the job because they had more experience in that field.

1,775 Words

Appendix 1