• Time Management

• Your company has found that ineffective time management is one of the major problem areas throughout the workforce. You have been asked to put forward some suggestions for improving the situation.

• Discuss and decide together:

• Why poor time management can become a major problem in companies

• What procedures could be adopted to ensure that time is managed effectively

• A: Hi, you know, our company is sort of out of control these days. Don’t you think so?

• B: Yeah. Everything seems to be in disorder here in our company. And that obviously has a lot to do with poor time management.

• A: You mean poor time management has caused all these problems. Why?

• B: When time is not well planned within a company, staff usually do not allocate blocks of time to specified tasks. They do not have a definite idea of when they should complete a certain task. And…

• A: And I think they often neglect the ordering of priorities. I mean certain tasks need our prior attention. But in our company every task is treated on an equal basis, even if it is a very urgent task.

• B: That’s the point. So time should be planned according to the importance of the tasks we need to deal with.

• A: You are absolutely correct. Besides, poor time management has caused much production downtime and revenue loss. Haven’t you noticed that?

• B: Well, no doubt. We also have a problem of low morale in the company. I think it might also have to do with time management.

• A: That’s just how I see it. So what do you think we can do so that time is managed effectively here in our company?

• B: You mean what procedures we can adopt?

• A: Sure. That’s what our boss is asking us to do. Right?

• B: Right. I think we’ve got a lot to do. First, we should make all the staff members realize how important effective time management is to our company.

• A: Yes, in other words, we’ve got to get across the message. It’s still an awareness problem. I think we can give them instruction in time management, especially those in supervisory positions.

• B: Right, perhaps we can run a few training programs for them. If necessary, we may invite some experts from outside to help us.

• A: Another thing we can do is to make all the managers, or even every staff member, come up with a job description of their own. In this way, they can be pretty sure about what they are responsible for and what they are not.

• B: Yes, that’s a fabulous idea. And I think, the top managers of our company should come up with a set of rules as to what kind of jobs should be given priority to. In this way, we can make sure that important tasks are dealt with first.

• A: Good idea. So to sum up, our company should run a few training programs, and every staff member should write a job description of their own.

• B: And rules should be made as to what kind of job should be given priority to.