Question

Below you will find part of a job description for a part-time position in a campus bookstore. Read each task in the job description and identify those tasks for which training (rather than employee selection techniques) would be appropriate. In the next exercise, you will be asked to determine how to train the employees for each of the tasks you identify.

Textbook Clerk

Job Summary

The Textbook Clerk is a university work-study position. The student hired for this job is responsible for assisting the Textbook Supervisor with book inventories, shelving duties, and customer requests. Additionally, the Textbook Clerk performs general clerical and messenger duties and operates the cash register when additional assistance is needed. Work Activities

Inventory Duties - Inventories books by section and course number - Informs supervisor of number of books to be returned - Writes ISBN-13 on inventory sheet - Verifies all information as typed on each textbook requisition - Records price information

Shelving Duties - Shelves returned books - Straightens shelves - Removes previous semester's textbooks from store shelves at the end of each semester - Shelves used books in the stockroom by title - Shelves new books in the stockroom by publisher - Places shelf cards on appropriate shelf - Dusts shelves - Dusts books

Customer Relations Duties - Phones professors regarding new textbook editions - Mails book arrival notices to professors

Clerical Duties - Creates and prints shelf cards - Creates and prints book arrival notices - Types PU-6 Forms - Photocopies book orders and notices about book arrivals

Messenger Duties - Delivers materials or messages to other employees - Delivers materials to university departments 100

Cash Register Duties

- Writes name on register tab at beginning and end of shift - Watches customers entering store to make sure they do not take books and backpacks into store - Tabulates price of purchases using cash register - Counts appropriate change and gives it to customers - Pages employee on register list to assist with checkout when lines are long - Approves student's’ checks by validating university ID or by certifying driver's license - Approves out-of-town checks by verifying name, address, and phone number with driver's license - Pages supervisor to fill out void slips - Completes in-slip forms for returns - Sells laundry tickets, computer disks, and dissection coupons to students - Verifies textbook tags for price and author codes to ensure that the correct tag is still on the textbook - Pages supervisor if tag and code are incorrect

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Answer 1

The tasks for which training would be appropriate are as follows:

• Customer Relation Duties- These duties would require the employee to speak to professors over the phone and to mail notices to professors. Training on Communication skills would be apt for carrying out these duties effectively as Professors are very senior fellows and the employee communicating with them should have the required communication skills and etiquette.
• Clerical Duties- These duties would require creating and printing shelf cards, book arrival notices, etc. To carry out the activities under these duties, the employee should be good at using computers and some related applications like Microsoft Powerpoint, Word, Paint, etc.  An employee who is not good at using computers may find it difficult to carry out these duties. So, Computer related training would be appropriate in this case.

The other duties like Inventory duties, Shelving duties, Messenger duties, Cash register duties generally involve routine work that can be learned on-the-job. Separate training shall not be required for these duties.

Workshop on Communication skills and Computer-related skills would be very useful for imparting the required training for the employee