Business LO5

Audience (e.g. internal, external; specialist)

We present documents differently to an internal audience, we do not need the letter headings, we can be a little more informal. External ones comply with standard conventions, fully justified text for formal and left justified for informal.

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Audience (e.g. internal, external; specialist)

External ones comply with standard conventions, fully justified text for formal and left justified for informal. When it is a specialist document, we spend more time on it, the audience will feel it is more important and use it more often.

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Purpose (e.g. to inform, to persuade, to thank, to deal with a complaint)

Letters sent to inform are broken down into three stages, why we are sending this letter, what we need to do and how you need to respond. Documents designed to persuade tend to be more colorful, more psychological

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Business function

(e.g. Marketing, Human Resources)- Documents created by the Marketing Department tend to be more persuasive or intended to be informative such as advertising.

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Business function

Documents created by the Human resources department tend to be more specific, aimed at individuals or as a standard for a small group of staff to read.

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Content

(e.g. complexity, numerical, graphical)- The content of the documents need to take into consideration the message, does there need to be images and charts, tables, tabular information, what will the audience best understand from this.

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Quality of paper/card

This may not seem appropriate but the thickness of the card or paper says something about the value that is set on the document. Embossed paper sent to parents in a school might be over the top but may be expected at a big business board meeting.

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Quality of paper/card

Companies have to consider if the communication need printing on colored paper/card? Does it need to be thicker paper, or is it more permanent, does recycled paper send a message that is appropriate for the purpose.

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Colour/black and white

Parents expect letters to contain a colored logo but why does it matter. Internal communications may be black and white draft, external communications may necessitate glossy full color. Do all pages need to be in color?

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Colour/black and white

Brochures and prospectuses need to be because they are longer term but color costs and this has to be justified for the purpose.

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Hardcopy/electronic copy

Does it need printing at all? Why do we still use paper in a modern world. An email can be sent to 1000 parents at the press of a button but how many read it, or receive it. Cost is free but does electronic versions cheapen the purpose of a letter.

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Cost of cosumables

Consumables could include paper, ink, postage, typesetting, IT, reprographics, printing, waste, and environmental issues. Companies have to justify their printing budget, everything costs. Bigger prints run like prospectuses take time, a lot of money

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Ease/cost of distribution

This needs to be considered against deadlines and practical purposes, some methods are direct but impersonal, email with attachments means speed but compatibility can be an issue,letters take time to arrive so urgency can be an issue and they cost.

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Timescales

When time is more pressing then the medium changes, if a staff meeting needs an agenda now then print the copies rather than photocopy, if parents letter are urgent then students take them home.

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Timescales

If a company needs to see a report then there will be a link on the website to download it. These priorities include environmental changes according to urgency.

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Formal communication

Communicating directly to customers or staff in an official capacity, having things written down, stored and used later such as letters of complaint, end of year reports and invites. These vary in quality and paper.

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Letter

Formal means they are broken down, straight to the point, tend to be all that is needed to know with a method of asking or receiving more information through contact details. Aimed at a specific audience.

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Report

A summary of an event with a lot of detail, aimed at a limited audience of interested parties such as company report for shareholders. Tends to contain different methods of communicating, tables, charts etc. printed often in color on good paper.

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Report

The standard elements of a written report, i.e. title, introduction, body, conclusions, recommendations, appendix and references (if required).

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Notice

Short to the point, tends to be close to the time and direct in terms of content. Needs to appeal to a wide audience such as a meeting, warning or indication of something.

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Verbal communcation

Communication that involves talking, often one-to-one to in a discussion, sometimes through distant medium.

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Telephone

One to one but not face to face, can be through VOIP but limited in terms of body gestures. Can be instructive and can negotiate results, not formal as the conversation will not always be recorded. For example, telephone support, direct C2B sales.

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Message

Can be text, social media or a note, is formal in that it can be stored but not very formal as it involves follow up. Examples include reminders, or notes. Considerations include audience ability to see the message, message content and preciseness.

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Face to face

Communication that tends to be done in front of the customer such as shop sales, shop bookings like a Travel Agents, or direct communication between B2B or B2C. These tend to be informal as they are not recorded and need auctioning so it takes work.

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Face to face

It also involves transport and time which cost but they tend to be more negotiable, more direct and better for certain businesses like Restaurants, Clothing and Car sales and meetings.

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Marketing documentation

This included materials sent out for the public to see and can be either information (telling the audience of something specific) or persuasive (trying to convince the audience of something).

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Business card

Small, handed out or collected at point, contains a small amount of useful information such as name, title, email and phone number. Quality is important and design sets an impression.

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Press release

One way communication on something such as news event, release date, description of a product or recall. Tends to be specific, informative and brief. Can be done electronically or face to face.

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Promotional literature

Posters, leaflets, flyers, banners, either informative or persuasive, tends to have little detail and more style. Can also include newsletters that have more detail and less style.

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Promotional literature

These are set to promote a business by whatever means and contain a lot of visual imagery to encourage or entice. For a example a food flyer form a restaurant would have images of the food and some promotional pricing strategy.

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Questionnaire

These are designed to be purely informative, gathering information, a series of questions either read out (does not matter what they look like) or filled in (quality matters).

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Data collection sheet

Designed for the target audience on mind, easy to fill in, easy to count. For example a data collection sheet for customer purchases will have areas for ticking and a count box for tallying.

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Electronic communication-i.e. Email

An instant communication that can be sent to one or multiple people, can include attachments and as much detail as necessary. Should be written in a similar way to a letter, and contain privacy setting and Confirm Read settings to make it more formal

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Electronic communication-i.e. Email

Examples of business use include delivery or purchase confirmation, direct contact with purchases and purchaser, sending marketing materials and reminders.

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Electronic communication- i.e. Text messages/short message service (SMS)

Short and can be confirmed on delivery so they are formal, tend to be used as reminders or as support such as login codes, limited in style due to their short number of character.s

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Electronic communication- i.e. Picture message/multimedia messaging device (MMS)

Sending images and documents via the internet such as images of houses for an estate agent. Used as formal communication, contains little details on the content but a lot on the attachment.

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Electronic communication- i.e. Social media

Used to communicate a lot of information to a wide audience of connected and interested parties, such as company media profile showing updates and areas on interest to customers as part of their feed. Can contain images, text and media content.

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Electronic communication- i.e. Web page

Like social media with less live updates, contain almost unlimited information and media content, can entertain as well as demonstrate and can be used in conjunction with media such as Forums and Wikis to keep costumers up to date and supported.

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Electronic communication- i.e. Presentation slides

Have rules, can contain a small amount of information and media content but is formal. Tends to require more practical demonstration like lessons but can be consistently improved upon and reused.

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Additional information

When an employee leaves a job, when a new business is starting up or when a business is successful and wants to expand, the process of recruitment and selection starts. The business will first have to decide if the employee leaving the job needs repl

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Continued

The business will first have to decide if the employee leaving the job needs to be replace. The recruitment process also gives the business an opportunity to reassess the nature of people's jobs and consider the future requirements.

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Additional information

In a large business, the process of recruitment and selecting staff is usually undertaken by the Human Resources department. Small businesses do not recruit enough people to make it worthwhile having separate Human resources department.

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Continued

The more important the job is to the business (the more technical and senior the position), the more careful and time-consuming the recruitment and selection process will be.

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Job analysis and description

The first stage of the recruitment process is to carry out a job analysis to study the tasks and activities to be carried out by the new employee.

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Job analysis and description

For example, for someone has left or been dismissed, an outline of the duties for the new employee will be relatively easy to draw up, and an outline of the duties for the new employee will be relatively easy to draw up, and may even already exist.

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Job analysis and description

If the new employee is needed due to the business expanding or because the business has identified skills that it needs but no one in the business has these skills, more though will have to go into the analysis of the job.

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Job analysis and description

Once all these details about the job have been gathered, a job description will be produced. A job description has several functions.

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A job descriptions functions

It is given to the candidates for the job so they know exactly what the job entails.

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A job description functions

It will allow a job description to be drawn up, to see if the candidates 'match up to the job,' so that people with the right skills will be employed.

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A job description functions

Once someone has been appointed, it will show whether they are carrying out the job effectively. If any disputes occur about what the employee is asked to do, it is something both the employee and the employer can refer to in order to settle any Q's.

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What job descriptions sometimes contain

The conditions of employment- salary, hours of work, pension scheme and staff welfare, training that will be offered and opportunities for promotion.

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Job specification

Once a job description has been drawn up, the qualifications and qualities necessary to undertake the job can be specified, this list of desirable and essential requirements for the job is called a job, or person, specification.

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The listed requirements include

The level of educational qualifications, the amount of experience and type of experience and special skills, knowledge or particular aptitude

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Person specification

A description of the qualifications, skills, experience, knowledge and other attributes which a candidate must possess to perform the job duties. The specification should be derived from the job description and forms the foundation for the profcess.

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Person specification

Companies will use it as a basis for you selection decisions at shortlisting, presentation/test and interview stages. Interview questions and selection tests should also derive from the person specification and be designed to elicit evidence on candi

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Person specification

How this document is written depends on the job is specific for each job.

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Rules include

The technical, organisational, communicative, and creative skills and abilities you expect from an ideal candidate.

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Rules include

Any specific qualifications or education required for the role.

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Rules include

The level of experience needed in either similar organisations or equivalent roles.

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Rules include

The kind of personality that would fit in with your team, and with your organisation's ethos.

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Rules include

Character traits that are likely to help them to do the job effectively.

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Rules include

Any preferred achievements, e.g. volunteering.

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Additional information

Once documents are produced, they need to be reviewed to make sure they are fit for purpose in terms of spelling, grammar and acceptability. This reviewing process can take from one minute to hours in terms of preparation and company acceptability.

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Areas to look for; Appropriate type of communication for audience

This is a choice made by the company on the most appropriate medium for the message, whether it is emailed or sent, online or offline etc.

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Areas to look for; Tone

Decided by the company but the tone of message is important, specifically for the business reputation. Professionally but so is the need to get the job done.

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