Richmond School of Business Assessment Tasks BSBSUS501 Develop workplace policy and procedures for sustainability
The assessment tasks for BSBSUS501 Develop workplace policy and procedures for sustainability are included in this Student Assessment Tasks booklet and outlined in the assessment plan below.
To be assessed as competent for this unit, you must complete all of the assessment tasks with satisfactory.
Assessment Task
Assessment Task Summary
1. Written questions
You are required to correctly answer all written questions.
2. Develop sustainability policy project
You are required to research and develop a briefing report prior to developing a sustainability policy for a case study organisation. You are also required to consult with stakeholders and develop a sustainability policy and procedure, as well as an action plan for implementation.
3. Sustainability policy and procedures presentation project
You are required to present the sustainability policy and procedure to staff, as well as implement continuous improvements and establish a system for recording continuous improvements.
4. Sustainability implementation project
You are required to implement sustainability initiatives for Grow Management Consultants including conducting a sustainability inspection and developing a memo to encourage sustainable practices based on the sustainability inspection.
You are required to analyse sustainability data, report on results, recommend improvements and update the sustainability policy and procedure.
You are required, in the role of Operations Manager of Grow Management Consultants, to conduct research and analysis and prepare a briefing report to guide the development of a workplace sustainability policy and procedure. You will then consult with stakeholders at a meeting, using your report as a basis for discussion. Following the meeting, you will develop a sustainability policy and procedures document, as well as an action plan for implementation of this policy and procedure.
This assessment is to be completed in the simulated work environment in RSB.
For your performance to be deemed satisfactory in this assessment task, you must satisfactorily address all of the assessment criteria. If part of this task is not satisfactorily completed, you will be asked to complete further assessment to demonstrate competence.
Carefully read the following:
Grow Consultants specialises in leadership consultancy and has been operational for the last five years.
It offers a range of services which support companies to:
Services are offered Australia-wide, with consultants flying in to conduct specific training with companies, as well as offering regular workshops at the company’s premises. To date, technology (for example, webinars) has not been employed in training.
The company also writes and produces books on a range of topics about leadership. Currently the company has ten publications, which are published through a publishing house in the USA (Hozit Publishers). One of the Principal Consultants is American and knew these publishers. The cost of publishing the books and shipping to Australia is about the same as it would be to use a publisher in Australia.
The books are produced using non-recycled paper and are transported via air to Grow Management Consultants office. They are then distributed by post to customers from the Grow Management Consultants’ office. As sales have been slow for the books, the company has also been exploring options for e-books.
The company was established by its Principal Consultants, Paul Burns and Sammy Martin, both of whom are Directors. The company also employs four Senior Consultants, an Operations Manager, an Office Manager, Administration Officer and a Receptionist.
The office building is owned by the company and is located in an outer lying metropolitan suburb. All staff drive to work in their own cars and there is on-site parking. The nearest railway station is 10 minutes’ walk from the office.
Paul Burns has recently attended a Sustainable Business workshop and is keen to implement sustainable practices throughout the business. The strategic plan has also been recently updated and has been influenced by Paul’s attendance at the workshop. It includes the following statement as part of the mission statement:
We are committed, as a business, to the well-being of both economic and ecological systems, of both humans and other living things.
However, there are no specific actions indicated in the Strategic Plan and so, at present, the statement appears to be paying lip service only.
Paul is keen to develop a sustainability policy and procedures that address all aspects of the business including, as a minimum: travel, purchasing, office energy use, office supplies, and cleaning. However, Paul also has specifically stated that he does not want to incur costs in developing policy and procedure and that all the work must be developed in-house, therefore consultants must not be used.
Current issues and practices within the organisation are as follows;
Current company procedures for developing policies and procedures are as follows:
Complete the following activities:
Review the case study information provided and conduct research using the Internet or any other source of information to identify the following:
Review the information on the following websites:
Using your research and analysis, develop a briefing report to present at a senior management meeting. The purpose of the briefing report will be to provide relevant information about sustainability, including legislation and to seek input into the development of the policy and procedure.
Use the Briefing Report Template to guide your work.
Your briefing report should address the following:
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and ask for the place, time and date of the meeting with stakeholders (your assessor and at least two other students).
The email text should also identify stakeholders who will need to be involved with the policy development as per the scenario information provided.
Your assessor will advise you of the date and time of the meeting.
You should also print enough copies of your briefing report to provide one to every participant at the meeting.
Attach your briefing report to the email.
Provide a copy of the briefing report to each person.
Discuss your briefing report with the meeting attendees, clearly explaining the information and your ideas.
At the meeting stakeholders will provide input into the development of the policy and procedures through their comments and ideas. Encourage their participation.
During the meeting, demonstrate effective communication skills including:
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should:
Develop the policy and procedures based on your research and proposed outline, as well as the input from the team as confirmed in your email.
Ensure that your policy and procedures make a statement about the organisation’s commitment to sustainability (as set out in the scenario information), as well as how sustainability initiatives will be incorporated into business planning and will also serve as business opportunities.
Use the Policy and Procedures Template to guide your work.
The final part of the assessment task requires you to develop an action plan to show the actions that will be completed over the upcoming 12 months.
The action plan should show the priorities of actions as well as timelines and responsibilities.
Use the Action Plan Template to guide your work.
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should summarise the contents of the attachments and seek their approval to move forward with the project.
Attach your policy and procedures and your action plan to the email.
In the role of Operations Manager, you are required to present the new sustainability policy and procedure and action plan to Grow Management Consultants staff to assist in the implementation of the policy.
You will be required to develop at least 8 PowerPoint slides to accompany your presentation that includes graphics such as tables, charts or images.
This assessment is to be completed in the simulated work environment in RSB.
For your performance to be deemed satisfactory in this assessment task, you must satisfactorily address all of the assessment criteria. If part of this task is not satisfactorily completed, you will be asked to complete further assessment to demonstrate competence.
Complete the following activities:
In order to present the new sustainability policy and procedures and action plan to staff, you are required to develop a PowerPoint (or another presentation program) presentation that addresses the following:
The slides should include:
Use the notes section of the presentation program to help you remember content when you are presenting.
Save this file as Sustainability Presentation.
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and ask for the place, date and time of your presentation.
Attach your Sustainability Presentation to the email.
At the outset of the presentation, indicate that the team will be able to ask questions during and at the end of the presentation and may offer suggestions for additional strategies.
Clearly deliver presentation content using the slides you have developed.
During and after the presentation, demonstrate effective communication skills including:
You will be assessed on the quality of your presentation skills as well as the presentation itself.
In the role of Operations Manager, the student is required to implement sustainability initiatives for Grow Management Consultants. This will include conducting a sustainability inspection and developing a memo to encourage sustainable practices based on the sustainability inspection.
This assessment is to be completed in the simulated work environment in RSB.
For your performance to be deemed satisfactory in this assessment task, you must satisfactorily address all of the assessment criteria. If part of this task is not satisfactorily completed, you will be asked to complete further assessment to demonstrate competence.
Complete the following activities:
Assume that, following acceptance of your sustainability policy and procedures, you have been asked to implement strategies identified in your action plan for the continuous improvement of resource efficiency. This is to include an inspection of the workplace to identify environmental sustainability and resource usage issues and to identify and report on possible solutions.
You will therefore undertake an inspection of RSB facility using the environmental sustainability and resource Usage Record Template.
Record at least 3 actual or potential environmental sustainability and resource usage issues that you found during activity one.
Your assessor will advise you of the date and time of the inspection and will observe you conducting the inspection.
Assume that you wish to commence implementing a further initiative from the action plan, which is to provide regular communications to staff about sustainability practices.
Based on one of the issues identified in your environmental sustainability and resource usage record, develop a short memo to send to staff about best practice sustainability procedures. For example, if you have identified that water usage is high, you could write about tips to reduce water usage. The memo you develop must be written in plain English and in user-friendly language and be designed to promote engagement in sustainability initiatives.
The memo should be no more than one page and include images such as photos or graphs to assist with understanding and engagement.
You are required to develop a register for recording and tracking all continuous improvements in resource efficiency.
The register should be able to include, as a minimum, the ability to record the reported opportunity, action to be taken, responsibility, timelines and outcome.
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style, summarising the contents of the attachments.
Attach the following to the email:
You are required to report on outcomes of implementation of the sustainability policy and procedure by analysing data provided about the implementation of the policy and procedures.
This assessment is to be completed in the simulated work environment in RSB.
For your performance to be deemed satisfactory in this assessment task, you must satisfactorily address all of the assessment criteria. If part of this task is not satisfactorily completed, you will be asked to complete further assessment to demonstrate competence.
Carefully read the following:
Assume that the sustainability policy and procedure you developed has been implemented, as well as findings from regular sustainability inspections. Sustainability initiatives implemented include:
Assume also the following sustainability targets:
A staff survey has been undertaken (results provided separately), as well as an energy audit.
The results of the energy audit are as follows:
Actions implemented:
Prior to energy audit:
Six months later:
One year later:
Note: Four new staff members employed may account for increase. Energy targets were not adjusted to account for the new staff.
Complete the following activities:
You are required to review the results of the staff survey and the energy statistics provided.
Based on your review, develop a short report that outlines:
Use the Sustainability Implementation Report Template to guide your work.
Update this document to reflect the information you have gathered since you wrote it.
Save this version as Revised Sustainability Policy and Procedures.
The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.
The email text should briefly explain the purpose and contents of the report and summarise the key changes you have made to the policy and procedures, ensuring that you clearly explain why changes were made.
Attach the following to the email:
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