Hourly Log
Category: section 2
Goal Review
Weekly Brief
Evidence piece two
I have chosen this piece of evidence because it shows various skills I used and developed such as teamwork as the information had to be collected face to face with every department before being compiled. As well as a developed understanding of financial figures. This is our weekly brief distributed to all managers and departments. It contains relevant information for each department and information relevant for other departments to know, such as offers, VIP players, health and safety and company updates. Most importantly it provides the weekly financial information for each department and if they have reached target as well as a casino total. I was responsible for collecting and compiling the information and was given the appropriate financial reports.
Unfortunately, due to recent changes to GDPR certain financial info as well as anything containing privilege info or names had to be retracted in this template as it cannot be shown outside the casino.
DD ONE Meeting
Evidence piece three
This short PowerPoint was given at a meeting of DD one. DD One is a private sector-led partnership group whose agreed objective is to encourage representatives of both the private and public sectors to act together to develop the economic potential of Dundee City Centre. During my 3rd day we hosted a meeting of the DD one in which I attended. Here I was given the opportunity to develop my management persona as the event was attained by various Dundee businessmen/woman as well as a few city councilmen. We were given a presentation on the proposed addition of cycle/pedestrian routes to Dundee city in an effort to boost foot fall and cash in on the pedestrian pound. This was an interesting event which was great for me to practice networking and the opportunity to hear others prospective of Dundee business was fantastic opportunity.
Interview notes
Evidence piece one
I have chosen this as during my internship I was given the opportunity to assist in the interview of two potential employees. During which communication skills and managerial skills are essential in this process. Communication between the interviewee and the interviewer firstly is essential whether it be asking the correct questions or simple greeting the interviewee and creating the right atmosphere. Secondly, managerial skills themselves encompassing things like professionalism are also essential, you are there to asses this person potential to join your team after all. This document shows the company wide used standard questions adapted to each department, it consists of a how to guide from the interviewer as well as questions determined to assess each person’s ability in 3 sections.
Team member: To assess how well the potential employee will fit into a team.
Customer: To ensure the same customer values are shared
Shareholder: To assess their suitability for the position
Reflection
Section 2 Placement reflective
My placement consisted of an operational aspect of management. The day to day aspect of financial control, the recruitment process as well as stock management. Three fairly different areas however, similar arsenal of transferable traits and skills were utilised. Firstly, perhaps one of the most important skills to develop is adaptability, this was a skill I used and cultivated during my stock control day. One of the busiest days of the month and with the added pressure of a time constraint it was essential I adapted to this new experience quickly and hit the ground running. Additionally, communication is something people don’t associate with an important management skill but in fact I feel is one of the most important. Effect communication is essential whether it be between colleagues, employees or indeed prospective employees. I believe I showed effective use of this skill during my second day of my internship in which I assisted on the interview process for potential employees and join I discussion with my colleague where we shared our views on how it had gone. These two skill are core skills and will serve me well in my future career as they are adaptable into any industry. As a whole I truly enjoyed my internship at the casino, as I obtained a very real life prospective of day to day management which was varied as the casino combines different sectors under one roof. (Licence trade and Gambling industry)Looking back, I hope I have displayed willingness to learn and a hard work effort over my time there. The internship core aim I believe was to provide a snapshot into the world of work/business. Even though my age and work experience had already provided me with this, I feel like the experience in a new industry than I had previously work was eye opening. Working in a large management team was new experience to me and after acclimatising to the team was an enlightening one. I feel I performed as best as I could and achieved what I set out to achieve, this can be further irritated in my goals attachment. In retrospect I believe the main point I will take away from this placement is the functionality of working in a team and the fact I can be an effective member of a team without having to be in control, a position which is a natural go to for myself. Having previously association with Judith and the others on the management team I feel they have developed an understanding of what I’m capable of more than what they had previously in my role as a barman. Where my opportunities to display my management or business skills were few and far between. Therefore, I feel my placement review is a true and fair assessment of my time spent there. The discussion had on my final day of internship was enjoyable and confidence building I as was asked to assist in further activities such as stock days and admin cover when the manager in on holiday.
STARR
TEAMWORK
- You worked on a project as part of a team
Day one of my internship was the monthly stock take, it consisted of the food and beverage manager and the head chef and myself. This is a very busy day the physical count itself of all stock from the bar, stores, kitchen fridges, and freezers are very time consuming and is made even more stressful with the added timescale. As a nationwide company all clubs are required to do a stock take and send the reports to head office every four weeks by 5 pm, therefore it is essential to work as an efficient team.
My previous employment has been in management roles, largely in the independent retail sector. My previous roles were very much solo based, as it was an independent retail store it was purely myself as the manager and the owner but not what you would class as a management team. The task of working as an interdependent team is a concept I found difficult to understand and almost alien to myself during my internship. Even in team-based work in education I always find myself in a solo leading role and delegate task out to the team.
The only way to have the task done in time was to split individually and come back as input the figures into systems, then the count will flag any shortages which are where the most time-consuming task takes place, the investigations. Firstly, the f & b manager took me to the Bar area to give me an example on how to record the count of stock, more importantly, the recording of measurements left in a spirit bottle. This was surprisingly more an educated guess rather than an exact science, which she then explained was allowed by head office as they provided an acceptable variance in stock levels per month for this. After being showing on a few bottles I was given a print out of all bar stock and left to my own as she took to the cellar to repeat the process there. Once I had completed the bar count, a longer process by myself a novice than I’m sure it usually takes, we all met back in the admin office with our individual figures to combine and place onto the system. The system in an in-house system used company-wide named symphony. This system record incoming invoices and sales through the tills, therefore when we input the count figures it will match them with last stock count plus deliveries received and subtract sales which should ideally produce a figure that matches our stock count. (within an acceptable margin anyway) Lucky, and according to the manager a rarity the count did not flag up any large shortages which made me feel a little bit of accomplishment for the team and myself.
Knowing we were under a rough timescale for the day and the fact I was to learn as we went made me feel somewhat like a liability for the task. Fortunately, both my teammates for the day were well versed in delivering clear instructions on what to do. Still the fact I was left on my own to accomplish my individual part mate me concerned that when it was time to input the figures, my figures would throw the entire day off. Numeracy has always been a shortcoming of mine, right down to basic arithmetic. However, I would not let my own self-doubt get in the way of the team. The ease of communication, relaxed atmosphere and the feeling of shared need to complete the task was an almost perfect storm of teamwork, I did not feel like an inconvenience or hindrance once we got into the swing of it in fact I have been asked to assist in future stock counts and to cover the admin side of the manager’s job when she is on holidays, which is a real confidence boost in my abilities.
Communication
- Your verbal and/or non-verbal communication skills allowed you to make a meaningful difference to a situation
How did you approach this and what was the outcome?
Management in practice is largely creating a to-do list then spending most of your day putting out fires. (figuratively) This is what happened during my second day with the food and beverage manager, situations called her away for and a short period of time such as the count, which is the physical count of cash from previous day which as you can imagine is a very secure situation. This did not make me feel neglected as I was aware some situations may arise in which I could not be involved in.
Luckily, the casino has a strong team of managers and the senior operations manager offered me to accompany her on interviews for new members of staff for the cashier position. It would consist of her, myself and the potential employee. Usually this would be done by two managers, or the very least a manager and head of department for which the person is interviewing.
The manager gave me a set of company standard questions for the position and asked me to take notes of the answers and to feel free to ask any additional questions myself. This statement filled me with a little dread as at that exact moment my mind had gone blank, almost like all questions that could be considered relevant had disappeared from my mind which annoyed me slightly. The interview started pleasantly enough with ice breaker questions, almost a group discussion, I believe having myself there as an employee for the company offered a more relaxed situation and a different point of view. Fiona, the manager took the lead in the interview periodically involving myself to confirm various statements related to the company training programs and employee moral etc.
After the interview Fiona asked me to sit and discuss the interviews and asked my opinion on the interviewees, this made me feel more like a peer rather than an employee which was a strange but pleasant feeling. After much discussion, it was decided the lack of experience in cash handling, unfortunately, wouldn’t make the interviewee a successful applicant. However, during the interview, I noted the answers given were very much customer service based and he would be ideal in a position for club receptionist, which I had previously noted had a position to fill. Although this was not Fiona direct department she agreed and would pass on the C.V to the correct manager and suggest an additional interview be set up.
Marc McCabe Internship Portfolio 