BSBMGT608

MANAGE INNOVATION AND

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

ASSESSMENT TASK 1

Q1. Outline two methods for conducting cost-benefit analysis.

Answer: Two methods for conducting a cost benefit analysis is mentioned below:

 Calculating the Net present value

 Incremental Benefit – cost ratio
 Sensitive analysis

Calculating the net present value – While conducting the cost benefit analysis, the excess of total
benefit over total cost is represented by Net present value of the proposal. The quantification of
cost and benefits for the project duration needs to be determined before evaluating the net present
value, with the quantified cost and benefits; Net Social Benefit can be calculated

NSB = B – C

Incremental Benefit-cost ratio: This method is used to determine the margin by which the project is
more beneficial or costly compared to other project, it is used to compare alternative option to help
to determine which is more feasible over other projects.

Sensitive analysis – refers to calculated benefits and cost of a project may vary depending on
differing assumption about the input data and methodology applied in the cost benefit analysis. A
sensible analyze is also useful to determine the potential where the net benefits if the projects will
not be positive.

Q2. Describe two creativity theories and their application to workplace innovation.

Answer: Two creativity theories that can be used at workplace for innovation purposes are

1. Brainstorming: This is one of the oldest and most efficient creative tools. Its application is based on
four core rules, which are listed below:
 Preparing the group for brainstorming.
 Defining problem to them
 Generating ideas relevant to the topic
 Reducing/eliminating the least viable option.

After these steps are followed, we will be left with multiple refined solutions for the required
situation.

2. S.C.A.M.P.E.R: This tool is basically used for project’s innovation and expansion purpose. The
methodology is to advance the idea by questioning and testing them from multiple angles. This tool
comprises of following elements:
 S – Substitute
 C – Combine
 A – Adapt
 M – Modify
  P – Put to another use: what application others uses for similar kind of projects
 E – Eliminate
 R - Reverse

Q3. Describe the diffusion of innovation theory and why a manager implementing an innovation may
find this theory useful.

Answer: Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Theory, developed by E.M. Rogers in 1962, is one of the oldest
social science theories. It originated in communication to explain how, over time, an idea or product
gains momentum and diffuses (or spreads) through a specific population or social system. The end result
of this diffusion is that people, as part of a social system, adopt a new idea, behaviour, or product.

This is because this theory helps manager to explain the stages of innovation. The stages by which a
person adopts an innovation, and whereby diffusion is accomplished, include awareness of the need for
an innovation, decision to adopt (or reject) the innovation, initial use of the innovation to test it,
and continued use of the innovation. There are five main factors that influence adoption of an
innovation, and each of these factors is at play to a different extent in the five adopter categories.

1. Relative Advantage - The degree to which an innovation is seen as better than the idea,
program, or product it replaces.

2. Compatibility - How consistent the innovation is with the values, experiences, and needs of the
potential adopters.

3. Complexity - How difficult the innovation is to understand and/or use.

4. Tri-ability - The extent to which the innovation can be tested or experimented with before a
commitment to adopt is made.

5. Observability - The extent to which the innovation provides tangible results.

Q4. Outline the concept of a learning organisation.

Answer: Peter Senge has defined the learning organization as the organization “in which you cannot not
learn because learning is so insinuated into the fabric of life.” According to him the learning
organizations are “ …organizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results
they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective
aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together”. An
organization needs to learn to survive and prosper in changing and uncertain environment. It needs its
managers to make right decisions through skill and sound judgment. Successful decision-making
requires the organization to improve its capability of learning new behaviours over a period of time. This
learning in the organization is a fighting process in the face of swift pace of change. In this battle
managers are responsible for increasing the awareness and the ability of the organizational employees
to comprehend and manage the organization and its environment. In this way they can make decisions
that continuously secure the organization to reach its goals. However, most managers know how to
ensure the organizational learning, but fail to understand how to make their organization a learning
organization. Individuals and groups learn, and when conditions and systems are well designed. In a
learning organization, their learning can be shared across the organization and incorporated into its
practices, beliefs, policies, structure, and culture.

Q5. Explain the concept of shared vision as an important organizational learning principle.

Answer: The development of a shared vision is important in motivating the employees to learn, as it
creates a common identity that provides focus and energy for learning. The most successful visions
normally build on the individual visions of the employees at all levels of the organization. The creation of
a shared vision can be hindered by traditional structures where the organizational vision is imposed
from above. Therefore, a learning organization tends to have flat, decentralized organizational structure.
The shared vision is often to succeed against a competitor for which there can be transitory goals.
However, there should also be long term goals that are intrinsic within the organization.

When there is a genuine vision (as opposed to the familiar ‘vision statement’), employees excel and
learn, not because they are told to, but because they want to. But many leaders have personal visions
that never get translated into shared visions that galvanize the organization. What has been lacking is a
discipline for translating vision into shared vision – not a ‘cookbook’ but a set of principles and guiding
practices.

The practice of shared vision involves the skills of unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster
genuine commitment and enrolment rather than compliance. In mastering this discipline, management
is to learn the counter-productiveness of trying to dictate a vision, no matter how heartfelt it is.

Visions spread because of a reinforcing process. Increased clarity, enthusiasm and commitment rub off
on others in the organization. ‘As people talk, the vision grows clearer. As it gets clearer, enthusiasm for
its benefits grow. There are ‘limits to growth’ in this respect but developing the sorts of mental models
can significantly improve matters. Where the organizations can transcend linear and grasp system
thinking, there is the possibility of bringing vision to fruition.

Q6. Explain the concept of team learning as an important organizational learning principle.

Answer: The accumulation of individual learning constitutes team learning. The benefit of team or
shared learning is that the employees grow more quickly, and the problem-solving capacity of the
organization is improved through better access to knowledge and expertise. A learning organization has
structures that facilitate team learning with features such as boundary crossing and openness. Team
learning requires individuals to engage in dialogue and discussion. Therefore, team members must
develop open communication, shared meaning, and shared understanding. A learning organization
typically has excellent knowledge management structures, allowing creation, acquisition, dissemination,
and implementation of this knowledge in the organization.

Team learning is viewed as ‘the process of aligning and developing the capacities of a team to create the
results its members truly desire. It builds on personal mastery and shared vision – but these are not
enough. Employees need to be able to act together. When teams learn together then not only there are
good results for the organization, but the team members also grow more rapidly which could not have
happened otherwise.

The discipline of team learning starts with ‘dialogue’, the capacity of members of a team to suspend
assumptions and enter a genuine ‘thinking together’.

The notion of dialogue amongst team members helps them to become open to the flow of a larger
intelligence. When the dialogue is joined with systems thinking, there is the possibility of creating a
language more suited for dealing with complexity, and of focusing on deep-seated structural issues and
forces rather than being diverted by questions of personality and leadership style

Q7. Identify and discuss in detail five quality management and continuous improvement theories.

Answer: Five quality management and continuous improvement theories are listed below:

1. Communications: During times of organizational change, as well as part of day-to-day operation,

effective communications plays a large part in maintaining morale and in motivating employees at all
levels. Communications involve strategies, method, and timeliness. These elements are considered so
essential to TQM (Total Quality Management) that many organizations define them, in some format, as
a set of core values and principles on which the organization is to operate

2. Customer-focused: The customer ultimately determines the level of quality. No matter what an
organization does to foster quality improvement—training employees, integrating quality into the
design process, upgrading computers or software, or buying new measuring tools—the customer
determines whether the efforts were worthwhile.

3. Team Involvement: TQM systems rely on the people working in an organization to improve quality
and processes. Every individual from top-level managers to the lowest level employee is involved in the
continuous improvement process in organizations using this system. Companies provide training in the
tools, concepts, and techniques of the quality management system to all employees. TQM companies
create an atmosphere of teamwork and empower workers to take the initiative to improve processes
and quality. These systems cannot function without the involvement and encouragement of upper
management.

4. Data Driven: TQM organizations use measurable data to make decisions for the company’s
improvement efforts. Tools such as statistical process control, process mapping and bar graphs help
employees and management identify quality issues and provide a method to measure the success of a
quality initiative. Flow charts help quality improvement teams understand a process and identify
weaknesses such as duplications of steps in the workflow. Businesses use data to track quality defects
and find areas that need improvement.

5. Continuous Improvement: Organizations using a TQM system engage in incremental improvements

continuously to affect the quality of the business’s processes and products. A continuous improvement
approach requires employees to strive for zero defects and efficiency in all processes. Continuous-
improvement activities seek areas requiring improvement in a proactive manner.

Q8. Discuss the implications for businesses of Kotter’s 8-Step change model for transformational
change. Provide a response of approximately a paragraph.

Answer: The 8 steps in the process of change include: creating a sense of urgency, forming powerful
guiding coalitions, developing a vision and a strategy, communicating the vision, removing obstacles and
empowering employees for action, creating short-term wins, consolidating gains and strengthening
change by anchoring change in the culture. It is an easy step by step model which provides a clear
description and guidance on the entire process of change and is relatively easy for being implemented.
The emphasis is on the involvement and acceptability of the employees for the success in the overall
process.

Q9. Explain the diffusion of innovation theory and why a manager implementing an innovation may
find this theory useful.
Answer- Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Theory, developed by E.M. Rogers in 1962, is one of the oldest
social science theories. It originated in communication to explain how, over time, an idea or product
gains momentum and diffuses (or spreads) through a specific population or social system. The end result
of this diffusion is that people, as part of a social system, adopt a new idea, behaviour, or product.

This is because this theory helps manager to explain the stages of innovation. The stages by which a
person adopts an innovation, and whereby diffusion is accomplished, include awareness of the need for
an innovation, decision to adopt (or reject) the innovation, initial use of the innovation to test it,
and continued use of the innovation. There are five main factors that influence adoption of an
innovation, and each of these factors is at play to a different extent in the five adopter categories.

Relative Advantage - The degree to which an innovation is seen as better than the idea, program, or
product it replaces.

Compatibility - How consistent the innovation is with the values, experiences, and needs of the potential
adopters.

Complexity - How difficult the innovation is to understand and/or use.

Tri-ability - The extent to which the innovation can be tested or experimented with before a
commitment to adopt is made.

Observability - The extent to which the innovation provides tangible results.

Q10. Explain the purpose of the ISO 9000 Standards for Quality Management and the standards that
are included.
Answer: ISO 9000 is a quality management standard that presents guidelines intended to increase
business efficiency and customer satisfaction. The goal of ISO 9000 is to embed a quality management
system within an organization, increasing productivity, reducing unnecessary costs, and ensuring quality
of processes and products. The ISO 9000 family contains these standards:

 ISO 9001:2015: Quality management systems - Requirements

 ISO 9000:2015: Quality management systems - Fundamentals and vocabulary (definitions)
 ISO 9004:2009: Quality management systems – Managing for the sustained success of an
organization (continuous improvement)
 ISO 19011:2011: Guidelines for auditing management systems

Q11. Describe the concept of risk as identified in the Australia/New Zealand Standard for Risk
Management (AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009).

Answer: The definition of risk has changed from ‘the chance of something happening that will have an
impact on objectives’ to ‘the effect of uncertainty on objectives. While risk managers will continue to
consider the possibility of risks occurring, they should now apply risk treatment options to ensure that
the uncertainty of their agency meeting its objectives will be avoided, reduced, removed, or modified
and/or retained.

Q12. Describe the concept of risk management and outline the factors that make a risk management
system successful and the factors that may inhibit effective risk management.

Answer: Risk management is the process to manage the potential risks by identifying, analyzing and
addressing them. The process can help to reduce the negative impact and emerging opportunities. The
outcome may help to mitigate the likelihood of risk occurring and the negative impact when it happens.
The factors that make a risk management system successful are commitment and support from top
management, communication, culture, organisational structure, and training. Factors which inhibit
effective risk management are too great a degree of tolerance of poor standards and of risk, inadequate
communications within and between teams, departments and organizations, and assumptions that
monitoring, performance management and corrective action were someone else’s responsibility.

Q13. In your own words, describe the seven steps in the risk management process as outlined in
AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009.

Answer: Seven steps involved in the risk management process are listed below:

 Communicate and consult - Communication and consultation aim to identify who should be involved
in the assessment of risk including identification, analysis and evaluation and who will be involved in
 the treatment, monitoring and reviewing of risk. Those people should understand the basis of
decision-making and the reason why particular actions are required.
 Establishing the Context - By establishing the context, the organization defines the parameters to be
considered when managing risk and sets the scope and risk criteria for the remaining process. This
process needs to be considered in greater detail and particularly how it relates to the scope of the
particular risk management process.
 Risk identification – Risk identification is the basic step of risk management. This step reveals and
determines the potential risks which are highly occurring and other events which occur very
frequently. Risk is investigated by looking at the activity of organizations in all directions and
attempting to introduce the new exposure which will arise in the future from changing the internal
and external environment. Correct risk identification ensures risk management effectiveness.
 Risk analysis - Risk analysis is concerned with assessing the potential impact of exposure and
likelihood of the particular outcome occurring. The impact of exposure should be considered under
the elements of time, quality, benefit and resource. This step determines the probability and
consequences of a negative impact and then estimates the level of risk by combining the probability
and consequences.
 Risk evaluation - Before determining the probability, it is essential to consider risk tolerance. The
organizations will consider “risk appetite” (the amount of risk they are willing to take) and decide
upon acceptable or unacceptable risk. The acceptable level of risk depends upon the degree of
voluntaries. Risk evaluation is important for making sense in specific situations and provides
adequate material for decision making. This step is about deciding whether risks are acceptable or
need treatment.
 Risk treatment – Risk treatment involves selecting and implementing one or more options for
treating risks. Standards Australia and Standards New Zealand (2004) offer the following options for
risk treatment: avoid risk, change the likelihood of occurrence, change the consequences, share risk
and retain risk (residual risk may be retained if it is at an acceptable level).
 Monitoring and review - Monitoring and review is an essential and integral step in the risk
management process. Risk needs to be monitored to ensure the changing environment does not
alter risk priorities and to ensure the risk management process is effective both in design and in
operation. The organization should review at least on an annual basis.

Q14. Identify and outline three different sustainability practices common in Australian workplaces.

Answer: Three different sustainability practices that are common in Australian workplaces are as
follows:

1. Green Office: Green Office is a management system that promotes environmental efficiency in an
administrative-type office. It includes such aspects as:
 office equipment selection and use;
 paper selection and use;
 Energy usage; and • general purchasing.
2. Energy efficiency: Energy efficiency initiatives can save your business large amounts of money, and
some, particularly if they reduce electricity consumption, have a relatively short timeframe for a
positive return-on-investment. Simple measures include:
 Turning off lights and equipment when not in use.
 Minimising the use of air conditioning.
 Switching off computers (and the screen) when not in use, such as overnight, and enabling the
energy saving mode (note that some screen saver packages disable the energy saving mode so
that the computer does not hibernate after a period of time).
 selecting energy (efficient) equipment such as copiers and computer screens

3. Water efficiency: Sustainable water usage has two main principles:

 Using less water (water efficiency).

 Reusing or recycling water (water reuse).

In an office situation, this could be by installing dual flush toilets, tap aerators, and spring loaded taps
and selecting water efficient dishwashers (all water using appliances now have water saving star system,
similar to the energy efficiency star system on electrical appliances). If your amenities have hand
washing sensors, they can be checked to ensure they do not stay on for too long.

ASSESSMENT TASK 2

Prepare a report to your manager (your assessor) that outlines the following for both topics:

1. Your topics or areas for improvement that you will plan a continuous improvement and innovative
processes for, one being a sustainability program

Answer:

 Services Standards: The service standards of the company have not been appropriately defined
anywhere which can facilitate the candidates to associate with the recruitment agency.
 Key performance indicators: For measuring the performance there are no specific and accurate
key performance indicators. Thus the number of candidates who passed the trail cannot be
measured.
 Social Media: No social media strategy for approaching the candidates.
 Staff professional development: Absence of any performance appraisal system in the company
as well as all consultants lack professional knowledge. No activities related to professional
development in the agency.
 Sustainability: Woodhouse Recruitment does not have any kind of sustainability initiative which
can help the agency in future sustainability.
2. Identify and discuss a range of strategies that you can implement to monitor and evaluate the
current performance and sustainability of your topics/areas for improvement.

Answer: There are few recommendations which can help the agency in achieving a much sustained
future and developing business such as:

 Increase the use of digital media

 Changing working process by implementing more technical features
 Recruiting consultants who possess much higher and professional knowledge and effective
communication skills
 Implementing programs for professionals development of the consultants and the candidates
 Promote the green environment initiative.

3. Analyse and provide a detailed account of the current supply chain and the (operational, product
or service) systems the business is using to deliver their service. What is working well and what
could be improved?

Answer: The supply chain of the company consists of a receptionist who handles the enquiries and calls
of the candidates and the companies. Secondly there is an administration manager who is responsible
for the entire administration and functioning of the agency. Third there are 5 recruitment consultants
who are involved in the selection, screening and sourcing of the candidates and there are 30 fixed
clients of the company which avail the services of the agency on regular basis. The supply chain is small
but effective in nature. The things which are working well in the agency are the effectiveness of the
consultants in screening the candidates and the fixed clients i.e. the companies which take those
candidates from the agency.There are number of things which need improvement such as there is a
need to have more professional consultants, there is a need to have other strategies to attract the
potential candidates and to increase the customer base like companies. To enhance the business
the agency should also have its significant online presence agent, so Woodhouse become more
reachable by the clients.

4. Identify how the topics/areas for improvement performance could be measured, including an
outline of the assessment tools or techniques that could be used. Evaluate the effectiveness of
each tool/technique.

Answer: The areas of improvement could be measured by doing these things:

 Planning activities for professional development

 Providing training and implementing programs which can enhance the professional knowledge
 Incorporating social media strategies for enhancing the reach for candidates
 Developing the performance standards/KPI
5. Identify at least two specialists that could help Woodhouse Recruitment. This may be to identify
technology and electronic commerce opportunities or to implement your ideas. Provide their
contact details, the services they offer and your rationale as to why it may be beneficial to use
their services.

Answer: Two specialists that could be help Woodhouse Recruitment in identifying commerce
opportunities or implementing ideas are:

1) Recruitment software developer, because it can help Woodhouse creating recruitment software
that suits their needs and specifications.
2) Recruitment website, because there’s a chance of partnering with the recruitment website or
job seeker website to post the vacancy from the clients

6. Conduct research and analyse and report on trends and opportunities relevant to Woodhouse
Recruitment in relation to your topics/areas for improvement. Use the resources provided by the
assessor plus other external resources for this research.

Answer: There are several trends and opportunities which can be facilitate for effective working of the
Woodhouse Recruitment Agency such as:
1. The agency can take use of the various social mediastrategies for approaching the potential
candidates.
2. Contacting the college or universities’ students directly who are seeking for any job.
3. Online interview and selection
4. Online screening, email interview through various online tests etc.

These opportunities and trends can help the agency in growing and developing further.

7. Compare Woodhouse Recruitment's business performance statistics to industry benchmarks and

speculate as to why they may not have met their targets.

Answer:

 The target sales revenue was not achieve for financial year 2014-2015. The target was 12% while
the achievement only 10%. This condition also affecting the profit which also can’t achieve the 10%
target. Woodhouse only achieved 9%.
 The repeat client also just hit 60% from the 70% target. This condition indicates that not all the
client was satisfied with Woodhouse performance. Woodhouse should try to get customer
feedback in order to know the client impression with Woodhouse recruitment procedures and
results. Repeat client is a good indicator of business performance because it shows the client’s
loyalty and trust with the company. Woodhouse should also improve their customer services in
order to get more clients.
8 At the end of your report, introduce and briefly discuss three examples of other innovative
business ideas that Woodhouse Recruitment could adapt and implement.

Answer:

 Testimonials – word by happy clients, testimonials are an endorsement of what you’ve done.
The best way to get a client to say something positive about the results you have achieved for
them is to ask them – either in person, in an individual e-mail or as part of a survey.
 Utilize social media such as Facebook, Instagram to promote the agency
 Build mobile application for recruitment, since people nowadays are really depending on their
mobile phone, they do everything from the mobile phone rather than computer.

ASSESSMENT TASK 3

Continuous Improvement and Innovation Action Plan

Chart Notes

Phase Title Schedule (Days) Resources Required Communication KPI

Internet, Microsoft Among the technical

Creating Website Increased publicity
5 Office team members

Increased publicity
Writing blogs Internet, Microsoft Among the content and up surge the
2
Office writers number of
candidates

Getting associated Increased publicity

with the social Internet, Microsoft Among the PR team and up surge the
media Office members number of
10
candidates

Increased publicity
Searching for Internet, Microsoft Among the HR team and up surge the
30
candidates Office members number of
candidates
Screening of Among the
Profiles Internet, Microsoft
recruitment
10 Office NA
consultants

Implementing
change
management Among the HR and Understanding the
program 2 staff members staff
NA

Appointing trainer Fees of trainer, Among the HR and Improving

for PDP 1 professional trainer the Directors knowledge

Initiating the Improving

training and Room for training,
Among the HR and knowledge and
programs presentation tools
7 staff members personal
and equipment
development

Among the HR team

Evaluating the Evaluating tools, Candidate
members, technical
result of using Internet, Microsoft associated with the
7 team and the
social media Office agency
directors

Evaluating the Evaluating tools, Among the HR team

Gaining professional
result of Internet, Microsoft members and the
consultants
implementing PDP 7 Office directors

Email
TO: Management Team

FROM:  Directors, Woodhouse Recruitment

RE: To have continuous improvement and innovation in the business and processes of Woodhouse
Recruitment

I am obliged to show the concern regarding the way the company handles the few issues related to the
processes and business of the agency. I am highly concerned regarding the inefficiency of few processes
and strategies related to the recruitment, selection, application of the candidates. There is a need to
have continuous improvement so that the agency can have competitive benefits and can attain future
sustainability. There are various initiatives which the agency can adopt such as implementing a new
social media strategy, increasing the online presence through website, blogs and online contents and
introducing various programs and activities for the professional development of the consultants. There
are several risks associated with these initiatives such as there can be discrimination on the basis of
selection through the social site pages of the candidates as actual briefing cannot be attained by those
profiles, number of the profiles are faked and does not have any reliability, there is no such assurance
that people will read the blogs or visit the websites, the existing consultants may think that maybe they
are less professional or may not ready to adapt and get trained through these programs and may left the
agency.

To manage these risks the agency can first have a change management program, through which the
consultants can have an association with these changes, there must be another strategies also which
can support these initiatives such as proper screening and interview of the candidates after sourcing
them from the social media sites. There are various costs and benefits associated with every initiative.
The social media strategies have relatively less expenditure and costs associated in comparison with the
development programs initiated in the agency as there are several costs associated such as the trainer
or the mentor cost etc. all the initiatives have several benefits such as increased number of candidates,
association with the companies and many more.

After evaluation of these initiatives it is found that all these initiatives have a positive impact as well as
some consequences for the staff of the Woodhouse Recruitment such as it will increase the efficiency
and output of the consultants, have increased work for the staff to handle, expand the processes of the
business which will directly increase the involvement of the employees. For proceeding with the
initiatives the management team is required to give their viewpoint on the best initiatives which can be
implemented for increasing the number of candidates and for achieving future sustainability.

Kind regards,
XYZ

ASSESSMENT TASK 4

Q1. Read the article below and develop an analysis based on your review of this article as to why the
survey sent out by Woodhouse Recruitment might have not been effective.
Answer: Per the information provided in the article, it can be seen clearly that out of 100 surveys that
were sent out to gather information about Woodhouse Recruitment’s continuous improvement and
innovation process’s feedback, only 12 of them were returned. Few major reasons why the
aforementioned survey might not have been effective could be:

 Channel used in distribution of surveys – Woodhouse Recruitment chose to send out the survey
through the means of Post, which required candidates to go out of their daily life schedule and
post the questionnaire back, just to participate in the survey process. Only if it would have been
more convenient for the candidates to participate, the number of feedback returned would be a
lot more. For example; using emails, social media platforms etc, could have resulted in a greater
% of returned feedback.
 Effective Survey writing – If the survey questionnaire was articulated in such a way that it made
respondent feel inclusive and equally important, more people would have participated. Reason
behind this is, the survey said “Woodhouse Recruitment Survey”, seeing that, why would
anyone be caring about the company; unless it included the words ‘you’ or ‘Your’, that would
have pulled the attention of many candidates.
 No incentive provided – This is one of the most important aspects to be looked upon. Only
question everyone asks, what’s in it for them if they provide company the information they are
looking for? In order to grab maximum attention from candidates, company might have used
some sort of reward or incentive for participants, as the information they will be providing will
be used improve the company’s growth and more feedback means more accurate report.

Q2. Discuss the successes from this type of continuous improvement initiative. Discuss what
Woodhouse Recruitment could take from this experience into future efforts to improve performance.

Answer: Sending out surveys is one of the oldest and so far the best proven methodology used by
companies to assure continuous improvement. These kinds of initiatives help organizations to figure out
and spot issues with regular processes at various segments and helps in keeping up with daily up
gradation of external environment. Continuous improvement also helps in changing the policies and
procedures as per the changing needs and requirements of the industry. From the survey Woodhouse
Recruitment might have been able to identify as to which areas of their functionality needs attention to
improve their overall performance. Although the feedback % was not up to the mark to draw any
conclusions, it could still be used for future betterment. The main areas per the feedback which really
needs improvement were:

 Keeping transparency for the recruitment process

 Provide candidates with ample information to keep them clear about the recruitment process
 Providing better communication between consultants and candidates
 Making sure that jobs sent out to candidates were apt according to their skills and areas of
interest
Q3. Review and analyse the results of the 12 surveys received outlining the results of the customer
survey, as well as potential reasons for the low return.

Answer: From the 12 surveys received their findings could be analysed with following information:

 70% of the total responders were satisfied with overall process of Woodhouse recruitment.
 Approximately 40 % of responders felt that doing business with the agency was convenient
 Few were satisfied with recruitment process and appreciated consultants for their friendly help,
others complaint of complexity of reaching out to consultants and transparency of the process
 Again approximately 40 % of customers said they would recommend Woodhouse Recruitment
to others; nearly 10 to 15% disagreed to do so.
 Feedback from customers included largely of comments like there was lack of information
provided to them, which made the whole process complicated for them, it also included that
they were being sent the jobs which were not apt for them.

Totally Dissatisfied
Easy of doing business Dissatisfied
Somewhat Satisfied
Satisfied
Overall Satisfaction

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Potential reasons for low return of feedbacks could be:

 Method chose for the survey was not very convenient

 Nothing was there for the candidate to gain from this survey to grab their interest.
 Lack of communication and feedback response from Woodhouse Recruitment.

Q4. Make recommendations for future customer surveys, including the frequency

Answer: For Woodhouse Recruitment agency, following are the recommendation for more effective
survey results:

 Instead of using Post, using Social media platforms for approaching candidates, this strategy is
far more efficient, less time consuming and very convenient for the candidates to participate.
Unlike via Post, candidates do not need to step out of their daily schedule just to respond to the
survey.
 Increasing the online presence through website, blogs and online contents, this will cover a vast
area and will make more and more candidates approachable.
  Some of the comments from the feedback received included statements about lack of
information provided through-out the process, implementation of more transparent process will
help in eliminating all kind of doubts within customers.
 Professional development of consultants is very much needed, as through time consultants also
need to be taught of new and improved ways of helping out to candidates, this will also make
consultants more accessible to customers.
 Implementing such analogies by which candidates can be separated according to their skills and
job requirements, also helpful in proper job allocation for the right candidates.

Q5. Submit your report to your assessor as an attachment. The text of the email should be in correct,
polite English. It should give a short summary of the attachment.

Answer: Email to CEO about reporting customer service terms

Date:

To: Management Team

Regarding: To Report on customer service terms of Woodhouse Recruitment.

I am obliged to show the concern regarding the way the agency satisfies its candidates. There was a
survey conducted by sending the questionnaire to 100 candidates but out of which only 12 responded.

The below mentioned chart shows the analysis of the survey performed. The survey basically questions
three aspects of the business i.e. candidate satisfaction, ease of doing business with Woodhouse
Recruitment and would the candidates will recommend Woodhouse further to other individuals. The
result is mentioned in the percentage form.

From this survey it can be analysed that how is the agency performing in terms of providing services to
the candidates.

Regards

XYZ

References used:

1. https://www.finance.gov.au/sites
2. https://www.finance.gov.au/sites/default/files/Intro_to_CB_analysis.pdf
3. https://aspire-solidus-production.s3-ap-southeast-
2.amazonaws.com/assets/BXMGT608/samples/BXMGT608.pdf
4. http://creatingminds.org/tools/brainstorming.htm
5. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/creative-exercises-better-than-brainstorming
6. http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB
7. https://aboutthree.com/blog/five-important-factors-in-total-quality-management/
8. https://asq.org/quality-resources/iso-9000
9. https://www.continuitycentral.com/index.php/news/erm-news/1402-four-key-concepts-for-
effective-risk-management
10. http://www.peoplepulse.com/resources/useful-articles/recruitment-process-feedback/