Communication and Employability
By Sam Moore
P1: Explain the personal attributes valued by employers
Specific Skills
Its important that you are aware of health and safety risks. If you have a virus then you should stay of work. If you go into work with the virus and it spreads to other people in the company then that will mean more down time for the company than if you had just stayed off to deal with the virus.
Having a good attitude towards your work is key to becoming a valued employee. If you are interested in your work then the quality of your work will increase because you enjoy it and want to put more effort into it. Its also important to meet deadlines and not get behind on work this is where having good time management and planning abilities are important.
General Attributes
Having good time management is key to being a good employee. Wasting time will lead to projects being rushed as you aren't going to meet a deadline unless you rush the project. This leads to a lower quality of work thus making a client annoyed and unhappy with the company. This means they will be more likely to not use your company again and tell people about the bad experience they had with your company.
Planning
If you have a good plan in place and follow that plan then the project will run a lot smoother. Planning things is good especially if its for a group of people as it gives everyone a direction they need to work towards in order to achieve a shared objective.
Organisational
Like having a good plan being organised will also lead to the project running smoother. It will make your work more efficient if you have things that you use more often in an easily accessible place and organise your files. This will not only make it easier for you to work on a project but also anybody that's working on the project with you because, it will be easier for them to follow your organised structure of files rather than a massive folder with everything to do with the project inside it.
Team Work
Working in well in a team is important as it can be a factor that increases motivation this can increase productivity and lead to increased product quality.
Verbal Skills
Having good verbal skills is key to having a successful project. Good verbal skills will lower the chance that something goes wrong because somebody misinterpreted something someone else said. Its also key for the flow of information in a company.
Written Communication Skills
Like verbal skills its important to have good written communication skills because it lowers the risk of something going wrong and makes it easier for information to flow around the group.
Numeracy
Its important to have good numeracy skills because every job requires a certain degree of mathematical knowledge and calculations. It's important that these calculations can be carried out quickly and accurately.
Creativity
Creativity is important as it means that you can come up with imaginative solutions to problems that nobody in the group has ever encountered before. It may also help you to come up with better solutions than the ones that are already in place.
Attitudes
Its also important to show that you are competent at problem solving as this is one way to show your boss that you can be in independent. Having the ability to keep a cool head and step back and look at the wider picture when dealing with a problem will normally allow you to solve the said problem a lot easier.
P2: Explain the principles of effective communication
General Communication Skills
It's also important to realise that if you are speaking to a large group of people you want to use a louder voice so it's projected to everyone that's listening to you. Likewise if you are only talking to a small group of people you want to use a quieter voice. Unless you want to portray an emotion like anger then you would talk with a harsher tone and possibly shout however if you have to shout then it shows that you are struggling to keep control on a situation.
When speaking to a group of people who aren't comfortable with using technology then you shouldn't use technical language as it will alienate your audience because they can't understand the words you are using. However if you were talking to people that you work with then you would be fine to use technical language to seem more professional.
Interpersonal Skills
Positive language is used to show that you are interested in the topic and shows a willingness to cooperate with other people involved with the conversation. Negative language shows that you aren't interested and aren't willing to cooperate in the project. Perhaps the best example of negative language is by doing nothing at all. It shows that you don't have anything to bring to the exchange or aren't willing to bring anything to the exchange.
Communicate in Writing
When writing in more formal styles like email and fax its important to use the correct spelling and grammar. It shows that you are unprofessional if you send an email that is littered with spelling and grammar mistakes. Its also good to structure your emails right by starting a new paragraph for each new topic.
P3/M1: Discuss potential barriers to effective communication, Explain mechanisms that can reduce the impact of communication barriers
Barriers to effective communication
Language Barriers
People using language that is too technical and normal people can’t understand it. So use more common language or if you can’t avoid using specialist terms explain them. If you have to then get equipment that can do real-time translations as this is becoming more widely available with the advancements in smart phones.
Physical Barriers
You may not be in the same place as the person you want to talk to. This means that you’ll need to use technology like Skype to communicate with the other person.
Attitudinal Barriers
Peoples attitudes can affect communications. This may mean differences in the way you work or differences in the hierarchy or it could just mean that you can't concentrate on the subject. It can lead to miscommunications. A mechanism that can be put in place to tackle this problem is to concentrate on the problem by trying to make it more exciting for yourself. You should also try and focus on improving your verbal exchange skills.Background Noise
Background noise can cause a distraction and make it difficult for people to hear you if you are addressing a large group. If the background noise can be stopped like an air conditioning unit then you should stop it. However if there is no way the noise can be stopped then it may be better to find another location to address your audience.