Beating the deadline: An action research on setting time frames to improve time management and scheduling

• Main Author: Ching, Denise C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2014
• Subjects: Time management; Scheduling; Human Resources Management; Performance Management
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5027
• Institution: De La Salle University

In EON, Inc., a local public relations firm, we handle various clients and projects, which entail simultaneous tasks and deadlines. As a Senior Account Manager in the Client Servicing Unit (CSU), it is my role to ensure my team delivers output with good quality, and in a timely manner. However, an issue I observed is that the team is having difficulty completing tasks on time because there are no formal, set completion times for tasks imposed by the organization. This leads them to spend too much time on one task, creating a domino effect of untimely submissions. My action research focuses on how I can help my team improve their time management and scheduling skills to meet deadlines and improve efficiency at the workplace. These will allow us to improve our relationships with clients by providing them with quality and efficient services, and in turn maintain the business to contribute to the organization's goals. The change I implemented in this action research is a technical intervention, specifically by setting time frames to basic tasks. I identified the standard completion times of these basic tasks through a one-on-one interview with our Account Director, a focus group discussion with my team, and an email survey to other members of the CSU. I implemented the intervention by setting these time frames to help my team in scheduling tasks, which indeed helped my team meet deadlines. This intervention, however, was not fool proof since it did not yield one hundred percent efficiency. There were still minor delays in submissions due to unexpected events and other distractions that impeded them from consistently adhering to the schedule and time frames. Despite these hurdles, I believe the action research helped us solve a part of the problem. The learnings from this research paper would be helpful in possibly implementing future interventions to further improve my team's time management and scheduling skills, and later on, these could also be implemented at the organizational level.