Reflection
Having the opportunity to do this project for this company has been a fulfilling experience. This opportunity allowed me to research the American with Disabilities Act, how it protects those with disabilities and affords them the opportunities that others have, that they may not. This project will add to my Human Resource skills and my future career in the Human Resource field.
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During this project I was able to apply course concepts that I had learned in class, such as the importance of attention to detail in my work, organizing a project from start to finish, communication techniques with others, and to be a self-starter.
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Though the project took longer than I had expected it was all about the detail; documents such as these must be accurate and cover all the bases. These are questions that need to be legal in order to protect the company and ensure employees are treated fairly in the accommodation process.
During this time of social distancing, or physical as some say, I was not able to come to the workplace each day as I would have preferred. The communication was through emails and video conferences in order to go through my progress on the project. Communicating through email can be difficult, your thoughts need to be organized and clear. My technology skills advanced as did my communication style.
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I needed to be a self-starter on this project. I didn’t have someone getting me started each day or on each item, this was an area of improvement for me. It forced me to step out of my comfort zone and become more efficient throughout my day. In class, we discuss that being a great leader is willing to take initiative and to become a self-starter. I was able to apply this course concept when I started this project.
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I was able to improve my personal leadership skills by applying my leadership philosophy values with the people I worked with. In class, we discuss how our leadership philosophy best suits yourself and what we personally value in the workplace. My leadership philosophy values are honesty, curiosity, kindness, humor, and appreciation of beauty and excellence. I think it is very important to be honest with your coworkers while being able to still create a great relationship with them with kindness and humor. I was able to apply curiosity a lot within this project by learning and expanding my knowledge everyday. Appreciation of beauty and excellence comes into the picture when you admire the little things that go on around you and not take things for granted. I have noticed that a lot of leaders lack this concept considering we all get busy within our everyday lives and sometimes taking the time to appreciate all the little things around you can be overlooked. I enjoyed working for this company because they were able to fulfill all of my leadership values; which made this quarter a great learning experience. My leadership philosophy is people can expect me to be an authoritative leader, as discussed in class, by physically taking the time to help others out and showing them how to perform tasks (“come with me”). This way, not only will I show a strong positive impact, I am an example that I am willing to take the time to help my team members out and build that relationship to gain trust. I was not able to apply my leadership philosophy towards a group of people, but I was able to see other leaders' philosophies in action. This helped me with my leadership research and allowed me to see course concepts be applied outside of class.
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The final result of working on this project was fulfilling for me. I improved on my personal leadership skills, but I was also able to get a better understanding of the organization. They are a functional organization, utilizing the chain of command. They divide into smaller groups based on their specialized functional areas. This is the most common form of structure for an organization; it was interesting to see how this process worked.
As this company or any other expands it is important to have clear policies and processes in place. Which was the main reason for the Accommodation Process project that I completed. Cooperation on both sides is important in the process; ensuring there is communication between both parties allows for smooth communication and functionality of the project. This part of the process is crucial, the employer and the employee need to work together.
ADA laws can be difficult to manipulate, resulting in lawsuits for the employer and delayed accommodations for the employee. Employee satisfaction is a key role in retaining that employee, losing key employees in a company can have adverse effects, such as becoming stagnate, loss of revenue, etc. The result of a happy employee will increase stewardship, collaboration, and commitment to the company.