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The Particularity of the Organization
Somerset Rural Youth Project is a charity organization based in rural regions of Somerset in the UK and it was established in 1997. The organization is located south of Bath and Bristol. Some of the areas it covers include Exmoor National Park, Mendip Hills, and Quanntock. The pioneers of the project established it with the objective of focusing at the needs of more than 3,000 youths in Somerset area.
In its operation, the project focuses on youths whose age falls between 11 and 25 years. The projects Chief Executive Director is Heather Black. When establishing the project, Heather’s objective was to use youth work in assisting the young people to contribute positively towards the rural development of Somerset. Since its inception, the project has undergone significant growth and attained numerous achievements.
In its operation, the project focuses on attaining a number of objectives, which include improvement in the health and well-being of the youth, engaging in green activities, provision of rural employment, and learning and development of a stronger community.
With regard to health and well-being, the project mainly focuses on youths aged between 13 and 19 years. Some of the health issues that the project addresses with specific reference to the youth relate to sexuality, drug addiction, and effect of bullying on the mental health of an individual. Through this program, the project has managed to promote health and well-being positively amongst the youth.
On the other hand, the objective of the green activities project is to help the youth to engage in various outdoor activities such as conservation of wildlife, environment, and environmental restoration. This aspect is an important considering the high rate at which climate change is occurring. Due to the implementation of the green activities program, the organization has been in a position to preserve the global climate.
Through the rural employment and learning team, Somerset Rural Youth Project has managed to offer practical support to youths aged between 16 and 25 years who are already in the job market. This program also incorporates provision of a nationally recognized qualification program known as the “Skills Towards Enabling Progression”.
This program has significantly contributed towards the improvement of the level of skills amongst the youth. In a bid to enhance development of a stronger community, Somerset Rural Youth Project also provides recreational facilities to the youth.
Some of the ways through which the entity has achieved this goal is by restoring a community center at a local church and by creating a BMX bike track. The project also provides loan facilities to the youth through the Moped Loan Scheme at a highly subsidized rate. The loans aim at enabling the youth to access economic means of transport.
Since its inception, Somerset Rural Youth Project has been committed to developing innovation amongst the youth, and o attain this objective, Somerset Rural Youth Project ensures that it has a well-trained staff who can encourage the youth to nurture and develop their skills and interests. In an effort to reach a large number of youths in the county, the project has established mobile working teams.
Additionally, the project has also developed substantial resource base with regard to tools and equipment. For example, specially manufactured trailers are used to transport the necessary equipment to the rural areas.
Additionally, the entity also has minibusses that can easily be converted to seminar and meeting rooms and coffee bars. Through this strategy, the project has been in a position to offer services to a large number of youths.
Quality Management of Organization
In an effort to survive in the long term, Somerset Rural has embarked on a journey of quality management. One of the issues that the firm is focusing on relates to quality assurance. Over the past few years, the firm has become very concerned with regard to the quality of services it delivers to its customers. In an effort to improve its service delivery, the firm has integrated a number of elements.
One of these elements relates to quality assurance. In a bid to achieve this objective, Somerset Rural has become very committed with regard to quality improvement through training. Training is an important aspect in a firm’s effort to incorporate total quality management concepts such as quality assurance. Employee training forms the basis upon which a firm can ensure that its products and services are of high quality.
This assertion emanates from the fact that training contributes towards the employees being effective and efficient in the course of executing their duties. Currently, Somerset Rural is considering employee training as an important investment in its quest to deliver quality products.
The firm has been committed to establishing a training drive for its employees. The objective of the training drive is to encourage youth workers to be more committed in the course of executing their duties. This move will play a critical role in the firm’s effort to develop a client-focused culture amongst its youth workers.
Through the training drive, Somerset Rural stands a chance to impart sufficient knowledge regarding quality concepts and techniques. Considering the dynamic nature of the charity industry, Somerset has formulated policy aimed at ensuring continuous learning in the organization. From the training, the firm will develop its human resource base. For example, it will be in a position to offer high-quality products and services.
Through the learning process, the firm will influence its employees to change the attitude on certain issues that might negatively influence the employees. Employee training is one of the most effective ways through which a particular organization can empower its human resources. Through training, an organization can empower its human resources through various ways.
One of these ways entails formulating an employee training program and undertaking the training itself. Secondly, an organization can undertake employee training by outsourcing the services of an external employee-training agency. Irrespective of the method used, the training should contribute towards attainment of the desired results.
However, to be effective in its training process, it is paramount for an organization to undertake the process throughout the various organizational levels. Additionally, the training should be undertaken systematically.
This objective is realizable by beginning with top-level managers, then middle level managers, and then the non-managers., which means that the training process should start small and should incorporate all the employees.
If all employees are involved at once in the training program, it might result in the entire training program failing. Additionally, it is important for a firm’s management team to ensure that the employees are aware of the quality improvement areas prior to its commencement.
Decision to integrate employee training in its quest to delivery high-quality services arose from the recognition of the importance of developing a strong human resource base in delivering quality products and services to its customers. The firm’s management team is committed at transforming the charity organization into a more business-like entity through innovation.
This move will enable the firm to deal with the challenges within the industry. The success with which a firm undertakes employee training is dependent on a number of elements. One of these elements entails developing a comprehensive understanding of the employees. This aspect is only attainable through need identification. In a bid to be effective in its employee training, the firm undertakes a comprehensive annual self-assessment.
The assessment enables the firms to identify areas that it should improve through employee training. Consequently, the firm is in a position to transform the training process from being need-based to being on-the-job results. The training is also beneficial because the firm can increase the probability of accessing external funds from non-governmental organizations.
In line with its commitment to establish itself as a business-like entity, Somerset Rural has incorporated the concept of business planning in its operation, and to achieve this goal, the firm has integrated a number of points. A firm must develop a comprehensive understanding of its target customers to be successful in business planning. This aspect forms the basis on which a firm designs its products or services.
Consequently, Somerset Rural is committed at undertaking a comprehensive study on youth aspirations. The firm intends to achieve this goal by undertaking a study through the University of Exeter. The study will enable the firm to develop a better understanding of youths’ needs. In its quality journey, Somerset Rural also expects to receive accreditation from external quality management bodies such as C2E.
This element will contribute towards the firm attaining an optimal market position as a quality-conscious entity. Moreover, the firm intends to outsource the services of business development managers in an attempt to ensure effectiveness in its marketing process, which will contribute towards the firm attaining a higher competitive advantage in its service delivery.
Challenges Ahead
The external business environment is characterized by numerous challenges. The challenges emanate from different sources such as the political, economic, technological, and social environments. Currently, the global social environment has become very unstable, which stands out clearly in the wake of the high rate of unemployment and crime.
In its operation, Somerset Rural is committed at delivering social services such as health, transportation, and employment creation. One of the ways through which the firm creates employment is by funding the youth to engage in some profitable projects. However, the number of youths who require these social services is increasing by the day, which poses a major challenge to the firm because it does not have sufficient funding.
Additionally, rural areas do not offer sufficient employment opportunities compared to urban areas. Consequently, the entity has to ensure that it engages the youth in alternative economic activities, and this aspect is a major challenge for the firm because it has to implement various programs, which might be costly to formulate and implement.
With regard to the economic environment, one of the major challenges that Somerset Rural Youth Project is facing relates to decline in funding. Through its operations, Somerset Rural Youth Project plays an important role in stimulating the country’s economic growth. Normally, the average budget for the project is £850. By investing this money in capital projects, the firm has been in a position to improve the UK’s economy.
The entity contributes to the country’s economic growth by providing employment to more than 5000 youths. Currently, the project has more than 30 highly trained support staff. It has also established 60 youth clubs whose role entails the provision of mobile services using the club vans. Through the National Citizen Service, the government forms one of the main customers for the project.
Despite the project’s contribution, its future prospects face a major challenge with regard to funding. Due to the 2008 global economic recession, most governmental and non-governmental organizations were affected. For example, they were unable to access credit finance from various financial institutions, and thus to deal with this challenge, most governmental organizations cut their spending.
As a result, their ability to offer grants to charity organizations such as Somerset Rural Youth Project was adversely affected. In its operation, Somerset Rural Youth Project receives funds from the youth budget of Somerset County Council. However, the council is increasingly cutting the youth budget.
Additionally, the County Council is transforming its budget into being more urban-centric. Therefore, the probability of Somerset Rural Youth Project attaining its goal of providing employment opportunities to the youth will be affected.
The funding challenge for the entity is not yet over given that the European region is facing a sovereign debt crisis. Therefore, there is a high probability of the Youth Project continuing to experience a funding challenge. If this phenomenon is not adequately addressed, the firm’s future success is doomed because it will not be in a position to achieve its mission. Another challenge that the project is facing relates to increased competition.
Currently, the entity is facing an increment in the intensity of competition within the charity industry. The competition mainly emanates from the government. In an effort to improve service delivery to the youth, the government has increasingly become committed at establishing the Big Vision society. Increment in the intensity of competition is also expected to emanate from other bigger national entities such as Barnados.
This entity has established an effective national network. Consequently, it has managed to achieve economies of scale in its operation as evidenced by a decline in the volume of its overhead.
The entity also faces a major challenge in its quest to minimize isolation amongst the youth especially in the rural areas. This problem emanates from the fact that it has become difficult to minimize cases of bullying amongst the rural youth. Small communities characterize the rural areas in the UK whereby the residents know each other.
In such a society, the probability of youths developing mental health cases is relatively high as compared to larger societies. This aspect arises from the fact that occurrence of bullying is likely to be high in such societies. In extreme cases, such occurrences can degenerate to serious isolation amongst the youth. Consequently, the existence of such societies poses a threat to the Somerset’s effort to nurture youths’ well-being and health.
Excellence Journey
Considering the changes in the external environment, for example, increment in the intensity of competition, it paramount for the firm to implement effective strategies that will improve is survival. One of the aspects that the firm should focus on is quality assurance. In a bid to be effective, the firm should take into account a number of quality improvement approaches.
The approaches should assist the firm to identify areas that it should improve in its quality assurance. Some of these approaches include use of fishbone diagrams, conducting Pareto analysis, benchmarking, and use of flow charts. Additionally, the firm should also consider implementing the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle.
By following the PDSA cycle, the firm will manage to undertake a comprehensive continuous improvement in its operation. This observation arises from the fact that the firm’s employees will be required to conduct a continuous review of its current performance, which will increase the probability of identifying gaps that should be addressed, hence improving the planning process.
It is paramount for the firm’s management team to conduct a comprehensive market research in a bid to be effective in its quest to attain a high level of quality assurance. The research will play an important role in timely identification of the prevailing market needs. Consequently, the firm will be in a position to address these challenges, and thus the firm will develop a strong positive publicity.
After identifying the market needs, the firm should undertake a comprehensive planning and evaluation. The evaluation will aid in identification of whether the implemented strategies are in line with the firm’s goals. Findings of the market research should be communicated to employees with the objective of enabling them to understand the market needs hence appreciate the need to address the needs thereafter.
Another strategy that the Somerset Rural should consider in its quest to attain its quality objective is benchmarking. This strategy entails the process of comparing a firm’s performance against that of the competitor. Currently, Somerset Rural is experiencing an increment in the intensity of competition.
In a bid to deal with this challenge, the firm should ensure that it develops a comprehensive understanding of its competitors. The firm should continuously evaluate whether the quality of its services is higher or lower as compared to those of its competitors.
Offering low-quality products and services can result in a decline in the firm’s reputation. This assertion arises from the fact that customers are increasingly becoming quality conscious in their consumption process. Therefore, it is paramount for the firm to ensure that it is in line with the market trends.
In the quest to ensure effectiveness in its benchmarking process, it is paramount for Somerset to not only bench mark itself against its major competitors such as Barnados, but also take into account smaller firms within the industry. Through benchmarking, the firm will be in a position to identify various organizational processes that contribute towards delivery of high quality products and services.
Somerset should also consider to the possibility of integrating various benchmarking strategies such as competitive benchmarking, internal benchmarking, and generic benchmarking.
In addition to external benchmarking, the firm should also undertake internal benchmarking with regard to quality. One of the ways through which the firm should achieve this objective is by setting a quality target to be attained within a stipulated timeframe.
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