Managing Resources and Information in Newcastle - Case Study Example

Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Job Advertisement 5 Interviewing the Shortlisted members 6 Signig the Contract 6-8 Financial and Physical Resource Costs 8 Resource and Procure Materials and Staff 8-10 Identify how the project could be evaluated 10-11 How principles of operational assurance can be applied. 11-12 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….12 Name Tutor Institution Date Introduction Many occurrences of risks of fire are caused by the activities of young children. This affects the activities of the entire community. Fire and rescue services are coming up to prevent or control the occurrence of these risks and working so hard on ways of improving the services that they offer. The National Risk Management plan set standards for every Fire and Rescue organization to attain, one of the most essential standards is the reduction of number of incidences in order to effectively maintain community safety. A project to improve fire safety awareness among young children especially those within the brackets of the school going age is a fundamental strategy of enhancing community safety. The project is intended cover management of the available resources and the utilization of human resource in order to prevent and control the number of incidences that occur in Newcastle. . Objectives 1. To educate primary school children on fire safety 2. To assess the potential causes of risks of fire and the possible ways of controlling their occurrences 3. Identify the locally available resources which can be used to manage risks 4. Updating of the goals and objectives of the organization to meet the targets of the National Risk Management plan and the recommendations of the fire and rescue services Act 2004. Resources and information management There are many issues that should be considered for an effective management of resources and information. These factors should be considered in any project which is meant control or manage risks. Like any other project to improve the performance of the entire organization or make the activities more effective to the most recent needs in the society, for example, there is need to inform the children on the fire safety measures to minimize the occurrence of these risks since according to the recent reports of the fire and rescue services in Newcastle, young children are responsible for most of domestic fire outbreaks in the society. This project should be strategized with a well formulated procedure including a thorough evaluation of the activities before implementing it all through to completion and after the implementation checking its effectiveness is essential. The set plans should be flexible to changes in case the resources chosen are not very effective to the intended reasons (Pynes, 23-32). Recruitment of new full time staff The project needs the recruitment of two permanent staffs to run the whole project including implementing it or reaching the young children. They should have competent skills and full information concerning the objectives of a fire and rescue service organization which will help them to guide the flexible or part time workers who may not be well skilled. The workers should be aware of all issues pertaining environmental management and ways of reducing the occurrence of risks such as fire. Good communication skill is a key qualification factor in order to effectively undertake the project, this is because much of the project activities revolves around communication. Apart from having the skills necessary for the effective process of environmental and risk management, they should be proficient child development practitioners so as to be able to handle children. Models of staffing There are many different models of staffing that are available, however utilizing them depends on the nature of the organization concerned and the type of duties to be allocated to the recruited staff. Certain positions are so sensitive hence requires the human resource department to be so keen on the method it prefers to recruit the staff to avoid making any mistake. The best method of recruiting the two practitioners is by having them as contractors and then up grades them as internal workers depending on the analysis of their capabilities; this is so as to have an assurance of hiring the most qualified workers and for the effectiveness of the services they offer. The candidates to be hired for the contracts should have all the skills necessary to work with school going children and interact well with the members of the society. The aim is to have a full time worker who can be a public representative of the entire organization hence should bear the best characters. In addition the selected candidates should pass the CRB check which indicates that they have no previous criminal record (Liao & Martocchio, 36-37). Job advertisement The positions will be advertised to all media mediums available in Newcastle city; both the print and the electronics with the intention of reaching as many candidates as possible. Although it will be done once in the local newspapers, it will be often repeated in the business magazines and journals as well as the electronic mediums like radios and televisions. The advert will also be on the Newcastle Fire Department website which will also enhance online application. The advertisement will bear full description of the person required including his age and academic qualifications and his role in the organization. Interviewing the shortlisted members After all the interested candidates have forwarded their applications through various processes; whether online or hard copies, all the copies will be gathered and sorted to come up with the list of the most qualified candidates for the positions. The process of short listing involves only checking those with all the set standards of qualifications. All the short listed candidates have to be sent a letter of reply inviting them to attend an interview, the date, venue and time. The interview process involves two stages: the presentation of the original certificates together with an oral interview to evaluate the candidate’s social relations abilities and the communication skills. The second section is the written interview where the candidates will have to do a test on issues relating to the field of concern. The first section is the most sensitive and necessary because good communication skills is the key qualification of the candidate and determines those to move to the next stage (Zweig, 25). Signing of the contract The interview will determine those who are qualified for the employment. As soon as the process of interviewing is over the most qualified candidates will be required to show up for the briefing of the terms and conditions of the positions to be offered. This process will be concluded by signing up an acceptance form to indicate whether one agrees with the conditions of the job or is not. The candidates are expected to sign up a short term contract which is termed as a probation period in which they will have to work under supervision for an agreed period of time after which they will have to sign terms as internal workers depending on the observations made by the supervisor during the probation period. The process is basically important in order to maximize the certainty of the qualification of the staffs selected and the effectiveness of their services to the society. The terms of employment includes the numbers of hours that the workers are expected to work per day and the general objectives of the entire organization which should always guide them in the course of their duties and the skills they are expected to exhibit in various areas. The rate and terms of payment will also be discussed during this process; this is the average and the overtime or extra time. The candidates will be briefed on the government recommendations of any Fire and rescue Service organization in Newcastle city. The committee chosen to conduct this exercise should be as genuine a possible to be able to give all the candidates equal opportunities to prove their abilities and avoid discriminating them based on their races, gender or cultures. This means that the standards should be relevant to those set by the national committee of human resource management. For example, modernizations of the public services to ensure that all the services offered are relevant to the recent needs of the society or always act in support of the government general agenda of social inclusion and any other recommendation of the fire and rescue services Act 2004. The environmental agencies in Newcastle city are too keen on the activities of the any environmental management organization in Newcastle city, they agency recommends that the activities of environmental management organization should not be discriminatory (Heldman, 56-67). Financial and physical resource costs Expenses will be incurred during the process of recruiting the workers, for example, provision of interview materials and printing of invitation letters and other ways of sustaining the candidates. In order to fund the cost of the financial and physical resource we will use the annual budget funds, which are usually allocated to projects and new inventions. However it is essential to apply the principle of budget reduction as an ideal strategy of managing resources. As a result as we are aware that this project is meant to reduce the occurrence of risk of fire to the school going children in Newcastle city, the project will be embraced by almost all the residents since this risk is so common and bears severe effects to the activities of the entire community, hence asking for support from community members and donors would also an effective strategy of budget reduction. Resource and procure materials There are many resources required to facilitate the success of the activities of the project, these includes both material things and human resources. For example, office materials like stationeries and other equipments like computers; furniture, vehicles and teaching aids. These materials may require a lot of finances to purchase in addition the human resources requires adequate financial support to motivate them in performing their duties as required. Every organization should formulate an annual budget to plan on how to acquire these resources. The salary set to pay the recruited workers depends on the amount allocated on the budget for projects which will cater for the salaries of the newly recruited practitioners. It is necessary to have an Integrated Risk management plan which plans for all the activities of an organization and guides the management to acquire the necessary resources depending on the selection of the plan and the intended objectives of the organization. For example, the project which is intended to create awareness of fire safety to the young children of primary school age in Newcastle city should be reflected in the Integrated Risk management plan. This should include the materials needed to facilitate its success, for example, learning materials like charts, books and pens, vehicles for transportation across the city, finances to cater for the hostility of the kids, for instance foods and snacks or enticing materials like playing balls. All these are necessary for the achievement of the objectives of the project and should be planned for earlier (Stewart & Tittel, 56-58). The management committee of the project with the help of the recruited staff members will come up with a list of all the necessary materials required and submit them to the procurement office in order to have them ordered, this includes the casual workers who are expected to help the full time workers in various activities; others can be specialists in the field who will be recruited as project employees to share some skills with the other workers and their contracts will banned at the completion of the project. The process of hiring these workers will be planned by the organizing committee and the records forwarded to the top authority or the activity left with the FireBuy Ltd, a company whose work is to get the best resources for the fire and rescue services organizations. Evaluation of the activities of the project This is a process which starts when the idea of the implementation hits the minds of the project organizers. The process of evaluation the fire and safety awareness project for children should basically be aimed at meeting the outlined objectives as highlighted earlier. The evaluation process continues all through to the stage of implementation and the final assessment of the whole process, An assessment of the activities of the project will be carried out to identify whether the selected staff members are undertaking the project as required. Keen evaluation of the process has many advantages in the project running and its aftermath. The pre-evaluation helps the operators to determine the best resources to choose for the various activities hence it is easier to budget for them. For example, if the project will have the theory teaching sessions, it is easier to list the teaching aids needed like projectors or writing boards and other writing materials for the kids hence it is possible to make an advance budget. Pre- evaluation can also help in identify the potential challenges like lack of enough space to gather the children hence will be able to come up with prior arrangements of overcoming it. The evaluation process helps the operators to identify the most effective ways of organizing to teach the children since unlike the adults, teaching children requires some special and professional skills. The process can also help to identify the suitability of the selected resources to the intended use and also have a chance to identify other alternative resources for the achievement of the main goals of the entire project. The post- evaluation of the whole process is to identify whether the aims and objectives of the whole process are achieved. For example, checking the number of the children who are trained compared to the targeted number or checking the effectiveness of the projects, for instance, evaluating whether the children have changed their style of doing things and adapted those of preventing the occurrence of the risk of fire. Evaluation of the project can help other people who will be willing to carry on the same project to identify other areas of coverage or the resources to use. Application of the principles of operational assurance There are many different principles of auditing that enhance operational assurance or evaluate the overall performance of an organization; this can be done through examination of the records made for various activities or a careful observation of the activities and carefully interviewing the professionals carrying out the activities. All these should aim at evaluating the project. The auditors should have well formulated questions which can either be answered through face to face interviewing of the interviewee or print some questionnaires which the respondents can write down answers and presents them to the auditors at their convenient time. The questions should be relevant to the area of concern so as to give relevant information (Heldman, 112). The observation method, although time consuming, is the best applicable method because one is sure of getting the facts as they occur on the ground. The internal auditors can afford this method as they have all the time in the organization but the external ones have no option apart from relying on the records or interviewing the professionals or the children who were taught. The auditors can also do an evaluation of the society to check whether the project is effective on the environmental conditions in terms of the occurrence of risks or the severity of the effects on the victims. This can also be achieved by interviewing the residents especially the kids as the targeted group to identify the amount of information that they have concerning fire safety. The internal organizational auditors are expected to carry on an assessment process to evaluate the performance of the project compared to the expectation; this should also be compared with the national risk management plan and the recommendation of the fire and rescue services Act 2004 (Merkow, 23-27). Conclusion The risks of fire are so common in today’s society especially with increased technological advances. Children are the major causes of the occurrence of these risks, as a result in Newcastle, the project to inform young children of primary school going age is considered to be the best action towards reducing the occurrence of these risks. The fire department can not undertake the project without acquiring additional human and physical resources for the preparation for the implementation of the project. Two permanent officers have to be employed as managers of the whole process and act as community safety practitioners. This means that their expenses are to be increased due to the resources needed to run the process; both human and material resources. However as highlighted above the project has the basic aim of managing resources through budget reduction and effective utilization of resource management strategies. In conclusion it is essential for the project to meet its intended objective which is the reduction of incidences that are caused by children. Works Cited Pynes, Joan. Human resources management for public and nonprofit organizations. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2004. Liao, Hui & Martocchio, Joseph. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management. London: Emerald Group Publishing, 2010. Zweig, Mark. Human resources management: the complete guidebook for design firms. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2000. Heldman, Kim. Project management jumpstart. New York: Wiley and Sons, 2003. DIANE Publishing Company. Comprehensive Guideline for Procurement of Products Containing Recovered Materials. New York: DIANE Publishing, 2002. Stewart, James & Tittel, Ed. CISSP: Certified Information Systems Security Professional Study Guide. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2008. Merkow. Information Security: Principles and Practices. Salt Lake: Pearson Education, 2003. Read More