Communications and Employabillity
U1 - Assignment 1 - Josh Story
Task 1 - Personal attributes valued by employers
Specific Skills
Technical Knowledge
When in any workplace you need to have technical knowledge about that specific profession, this is to ensure that you understand everything to do with that profession and to make sure you perform your job in a satisfactory manor with the knowledge you have. Without technical knowledge in your field of work you would not be able to complete the goal of your job as you wouldn't know what to do and how to do it. This is why technical knowledge is necessary in your line of work and is rendered important by your employer.
Health and Safety
Health and safety is another specific skill that is highly valued by employers. Within a workplace the health of the people inside it is of the utmost importance, so if you can abide by the rules of health and safety well you should not endanger yourself or anyone around you. When people are injured in a workplace it can be very bad for the company's reputation, and it also bad for the injured person. Without health and safety regulations there would be a lot more accidents in the workplace so it is valued as a good trait to have.
Working Attitudes
A working attitude is your general opinion and mood of the workplace that you are in, an employer will be very pleased with any employees that have a positive working attitude. There are multiple benefits that come with the good working attitude. One of them is that you will be generally pleased to work on and complete your work if your attitude towards it is positive. Another one is that your work quality will be a lot higher if you make the effort with a good attitude. The final benefit is you will get the work done faster if you have a better attitude towards it. Because of these three points the working attitude is very important to employers for getting the work done and it helps lift up the mood of the general workplace.
General Attributes
General attributes are the general good traits for a person to have within employment, they really help with getting work done on time and with a high quality. These attributes are things such as planning skills, organisational and time management skills, and team work.
Planning SkillsPlanning skills is a good attribute because of many things. The first one being that if you plan your work correctly it will ensure that you always know what you are doing because you planned what things you were going to do before. Another benefit is that it ensures that you don't waste time, if you have planned your work out thoroughly you will always have something to do to contribute to the work until it is finished. A third benefit would be that planning allows you to estimate a time frame of the project and what resources you need to compete it, this is helpful information as you can give yourself a deadline for the work and know what you will need to complete it. Because of these three points this attribute is highly valued by employers.
Organisational Skills & Time Management
These two skills are very good to have when in a workplace, there are two main reasons for this. The first reason is that when you are organised it will ensure that you will always have work to do and that you know how and when to do it. This is very important. Time management is also imperative, this is because you need to manage your time efficiently so you can get work done with high quality on time and on deadline. Meeting expectations within work at your job is very important, so working to a deadline is also very important, these two skills are good to have and it will benefit your wok greatly.
Team Working
Team working is also a great attribute to have, especially when your work mainly involves working a team or group. Team working is good for a few reasons. One reason is that individual people have different strengths and weaknesses so when you are working in a group people can complement each other weaknesses. This makes the group better overall. Another benefit is that when more people are working on a project it gets it done quicker. Team working is greatly valued by employers.
Attitudes
Attitudes within the work place are very important, your attitude towards work will determine to quality of it and how fast it gets done. They include attitudes such as problem solver, motivator, and determined.
Problem-solvingProblem solving is a great skill to have when employed. When your work involves a lot of problems that need to be fixed, problem solving is valued greatly. The reason for this is that when you can solve problems faster within your job with more efficiency, it will ensure higher quality work and work done faster. Problem solving is valued by the employer because if the work involves problems the worker will need to know how to fix them so they can fulfil their jobs role within the workplace.
Motivator
Motivation within the work place is very important to the workers and to the employer. When an employee is motivated to do their work it makes them work faster and with a higher quality standard. It also makes the person doing the work feel like they accomplished something when they were motivated about it. It is also good because when you have a positive motivational attitude towards the work, it will also increase the motivation of people around you, thus making everyone work with more efficiency and quality. Employers love motivated workers.
Determined
A determined attitude is also valued by employers. This is for a few reasons, the first one being that when you are determined is makes sure you get the work done to a good quality standard. It also shows that you care about the work you do, this means you will care if there is something wrong with it which means you will try your very best to do the work with high quality. A second reason is that it when you are determined you get the work done faster, this is also good for when you're working towards a deadline. A final reason is that when you are determined you always get the work done and complete. Employers like it when you have this skill because of these reasons.
Task 2 - Principles of effective communication
General Communication Skills
General communication skills are the skills that a person possess in order to communicate effectively with others. They include skills such as voice and terminology, cultural differences, and engaging an audience with effective communication.
Voice and terminologyYour voice and terminology are both very important while communicating. Your voice in communication is basically how you sound when you talk. For example when you talk in an interesting manner, the people listening will be more into it because you sound more interesting. When talking it is also important to talk in a loud and clear manner to ensure that the people listening can also hear you, but the volume of your voice should be determined by the situation you are in, such as being quiet in a library. When you don't do either of these things you could sound disinterested and boring, this in turn will then make the listeners less engaged with what you're saying.
Terminology is important because it can be a barrier to your communication, this is because the listeners might not understand your terminology, so it is important to adapt your terminology in order to communicate effectively. For example if you were talking to someone who was new to computers and you used all of the technical terms for them, they would be completely lost and would just give up on trying to listen to what you're saying because they cannot understand it, this is bad when communicating. So when talking to one another it is good to adapt terminology to ensure everyone can understand each other.
Cultural differences
When communicating with people that have a different culture to yours it is good to take that into consideration. There are a few reasons for this, the first being that when you are communicating with someone of a different culture you need to be careful with what you're saying and how you're acting, this is to ensure that you do not offend them or their culture with the words you are saying or the actions you are doing. A second reason is that when two people of different cultures do communicate, it is good that they understand each other cultures effectively so they are still able to communicate effectively without culture being a barrier towards their communication.
Engaging an audience
When communicating with an audience it is always very important to engage the audience and ensure that they stay engaged. The reason for this is to make sure the audience actually understands what is going on, and that they feel like a part of what is going on. One way of engaging an audience is by using question and answer, this makes sure that the audience are always thinking of questions and asking them, it also makes the audience feel like they are involved because their thoughts are being taken into account.
Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal skills are life skills we use almost every day to interact and communicate with others. This can include one to one communication and group communication. People with good interpersonal skills are usually more successful in life in terms of their personal and professional lives. These skills include body language, positive and negative language, and active engagement.
Body language
Your body language is important in almost any situation when communicating with other people. This is because your body language can say a lot about how you're feeling. For example if you were being given a work brief by your boss and you were slouched back and looking around aimlessly, to the boss it looks like you aren't listening and don't care about the quality of your work, this is bad because the employer thinks you do not care about your work. Whereas if you were sat up straight and showing that you understand the information the boss is giving you it shows that you care about the work and the quality you complete it at, it also shows that you are motivated to the work, the boss will like this so it's good to positive body language. Having good body language is important whilst communicating because of these reasons.
Positive and negative language
When communicating you will always have a positive or negative language. Positive language is where you say things in an effective way in order to encourage other around you to complete the task at hand. Negative language is just the opposite of positive language, this type of attitude is bad for getting work done. You can either be optimistic or pessimistic. For example, say if you had a really hard group task to do and you were nearly at the deadline and still not finished, the person would positive language could encourage the group to try harder and get the work done on time, whereas the person with negative language would just make people lose all hope by saying things such as "there is no change we'll get this done on time", or "this is pointless." You do not want people with this type of attitude working for or around you, they slow down the process and create a bad working atmosphere.
Active engagement
When communicating active engagement is where you show that you are engaged with the conversation to show that you are listening and understanding what the person has to say. For example one of the ways to do this is by nodding as the other person speaks, nodding shows that you are understanding the information that you are taking in and that you are listening to it thoroughly, if you sat there with a blank face it would look to the other person that you were completely lost. Another way to be engaged in a conversation is by being able to summarize the information you have been told, this shows that you understood and listened to the information and you know what is expected with a summary of that information.
Communication in writing
Letters
When communicating using a letter it is usually some form of business or money related matter, things that are just important to the general person and information that they need to know. Such as a letter telling you about how much spent on electric and gas that month. Because letters are related to these type of formal subjects, it is very important to use formal language when writing a letter. This formal language and spelling and grammar are very important when writing a letter because you want to convey an image of professionalism, to show that you are knowledgeable and know what you're talking about. Formal language in a letter can also show that it is a serious matter concerning you, this is another reason as to why it is important. Letters should also include things such as the contact details of both the recipient, and the sender.
Emails
Emails are essentially the electronic version of letter, but they can be used for all types of communicate but still mainly for companies and business sending you useful information that you may need to know. When emails are used by a company they will also want to be written in a formal manner to convey a sense of professionalism, and the company will usually have a standard to what the email needs as well. Emails are sometimes considered better than letter for a few reasons. For one an email sends faster that a letter. A second reason would be that it is easier to keep the email confidential with encryption. A third reason would be that it is cheaper and easier to use than letters, especially for automated emails. Once again an email will require things such as the senders contact information and the recipients information.
Grammar and spelling
Grammar and spelling are very important when communicating through written text, they make sure that your text is easily understandable, readable, and organised is a good fashion. Without good grammar and spelling all of these things would not be true within your written text. Spelling is very important because you would not be able to read anyone's text if they couldn't spell the words correctly. Grammar and spelling can also affect your professional and personal life, it can affect peoples' opinions of you if you do not use proper grammar and spelling. This is bad if the person reading it was an employer as their opinion of you would be lowered, decreasing your change of getting/keeping the job.
Task 3 - Barriers to effective communication
Examples of barriers to effective communication
Background noise
Background noise can be a barrier to communication if it is present. The reason for this is that when there is a lot of background noise it can distract to communicators, making them lose concentration which means its harder for them to take in and understand information. This is a communication barrier because it makes taking in information and understanding it harder for the two or more people. You can reduce this barrier by going to a quiet place where you can't be distracted.
Distractions
Distractions can be all sorts of things, basically anything that takes you away from the conversation. For example it could be someone's phone going off, or a fly buzzing around you. These distractions can take you away from the conversation and make you lose concentration, which can mean you miss out on some important information, this is why it is a barrier to communication. You can reduce this barrier by going also to a quiet place with nothing that could distract you around.
Physical barriers
Physical barriers are when you are communicating with someone without using face to face, for example: texting on the phone. These are classed as physical barriers because when you use things such as texting or emailing you lose a lot of the context of the message. For example if you said something sarcastically in real life it is made obvious by your tone of voice and other things, whereas on the text message that isn't present and the message could be taken the wrong way by the receiver. This is a barrier to communication because sometimes people can receive the message in a different way to what the sender intended it to mean. Another thing is that you can't see body language. You can reduce this barrier by only talking face to face.
Location
The location of where the communicating is taking place can have a great effect on any communication. For example if you were in a formal setting, you would speak and act formally, whereas in an informal setting like on the street, you would act and talk differently. These factors can change the course of the conversation and affect it greatly, making it a barrier to effective communication. You can reduce this barrier by picking a suitable location to communicate in.
Lack of concentration
A lack of concentration is a bad thing when communicating, if your concentration is lacking you won't put in the effort to listen correctly, which means you won't understand it either. This is a barrier to communication because it stops you from taking in information and understanding it. You can reduce this barrier by focusing yourself and making sure you stay focused.
Over use of technical terms
If you over use technical terms within the subject you are talking about, the other person can get completely lost and not have a clue with what you're talking about, this is a barrier to communication because the other person can understand the information when you use technical terms unknown to them. You can reduce this barrier by not using technical terms with other people which will not understand them.
Different opinions and viewpoints
When people have different opinions on things, its harder for them to agree on anything. This means that its harder for them to move along faster in conversation because they will always think there opinion is right until proven wrong, and the same goes for the other. This is a barrier to communication because it slows down conversation when people don't agree on things, it can also means that they don't get work done because they have different ideas on how it should be done. You can reduce this barrier by having an open mind and being open to new ideas and methods.
Emotional Interference
Emotional interference can have a big impact on communication, basically it is where a person's previous emotional state has an effect on the conversation. For example if something bad happened to someone that made them sad they would not be able to focus on the conversation. This can be a barrier when people are not in a good emotional state to take in new information. You can reduce this barrier by making sure nothing is affecting your mood prior to the communication.