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Interview

Rohit Choudhary interviewed a worker from VisAbility, an organization providing services to disabled people, to explore their structure, services, barriers to transitioning to professional practice, and onboarding process. VisAbility has various departments that provide independent living support, guide dogs, and accessible information. New employees receive informal or formal training depending on experience and must complete diversity training. The main barriers to transitioning are lack of experience, heavy workload, and issues with diversity. VisAbility provides counseling, mentorship, and an anonymous process to address employee stress and concerns during transitioning.

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Farhan Khalid
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73 views

Interview

Rohit Choudhary interviewed a worker from VisAbility, an organization providing services to disabled people, to explore their structure, services, barriers to transitioning to professional practice, and onboarding process. VisAbility has various departments that provide independent living support, guide dogs, and accessible information. New employees receive informal or formal training depending on experience and must complete diversity training. The main barriers to transitioning are lack of experience, heavy workload, and issues with diversity. VisAbility provides counseling, mentorship, and an anonymous process to address employee stress and concerns during transitioning.

Uploaded by

Farhan Khalid
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ASSESSMENT COVER SHEET

Family Name: Given Name(s):

CHOUDHARY ROHIT

Student ID: Course:

1042406 Bachelors of Community Services.

Unit Code: Unit Name:

FLD303 Transition to Professional Practice

Lecturer: Assessment Number/Title:

Dr Grace Brown

Semester/Trimester and Year: Word Count:


Introduction

The community service organisation chosen for this assignment was VisAbility. An

interview was conducted with a worker currently working there. The interview was

conducted via phone, owing to the fact that it is recommended to keep social interactions at

minimum because of the covid-19 pandemic. The interview was designed to explore the

structure and service provision, barriers to transition into professional practice, and the

process of incorporating a new employee into the organisation. In order to protect the privacy

of the interviewee, the identity of the interviewee would be kept confidential, as was

promised to them before. This paper outlines the main findings of the interview related to the

transition into workplace for new employees.

Context of the Agency

VisAbility is a community service organisation that provides a range of services to the

disabled people. These services include independent living services, children and youth

services, guide dog services, and accessible information services. Independent living services

provided by the organisation include low vision assessment, mobility, employment support,

social work, etc. They also provide guide dogs, therapy dogs, and companion dogs to those in

need. The organisation also works on making information more accessible to people with

disabilities such as braille production, audio production, and library services.

As for the organisation’s structure, it can be divided into the following parts:

governance, corporate services, operations, and engagement and development. The Chief

Executive Officer of the organisation is Dr Clare Allen. Board of Directors choose the CEO.

Other than that, the top governance is done by executive management and Board, Audit, and

Risk Committee. The corporate services sector of the organisation includes Financial

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Services Department, IT department, Human Resources, Property Management Department,

Business Excellence Department, and Quality Audit and Compliance Department. Operations

includes Gateway Services, Grants Government Relations, Dr. Geoff Gallop Resource

Centre, Guide Dog Services, and Therapy & Professional Services. Lastly, Engagement and

Development includes Marketing, Social Enterprise, Guide Dog Products, Telemarketing,

Philanthropy, and Fundraising. The interviewee sent the following figure to explain the

organisation’s structure and services:

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Barriers to Transition to Professional Practice

The interviewee explained some of the most important barriers to transition to

professional practice in VisAbility. Since the organisation employees a range of community

workers and therapists for provision of a wide array of services, the barriers can sometimes

be unique to some workers and not the others. Overall, it was found out that the lack of

community workers’ experience in the field, challenging workload, and issues related to

diversity pose significant challenges during the transition to professional practice in

VisAbility. Many community workers are not equipped to deal the challenges and workload

during the transition into professional practice. This proves to be the most challenging issue.

Other than that, the lack of exposure to different cultures can be a point of barrier for some

because community work requires to be culturally sensitive and aware about different range

of cultures of the employees and clients both. This is why diversity training is an important

part of practice in VisAbility.

Professional Processes for Transition

The interview also shed light on how VisAbility handles the transition of new

employees. The new employees go through informal training in their grace period. Those

who are starting out their career right out of college have a formal training program. They

also get mentorship from senior employees who guide them about their professional work.

This is in addition to the certification that might be required for their job. Other than that,

diversity training happens repeatedly as well.

In order to manage stress in the employees, VisAbility provides counselling to the

employees and allows them to voice their concerns that may be causing them stress through.

This can be an anonymous or non-anonymous process. Furthermore, mentorship programs

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and supervisors of caseworkers are also designed to help employees channel their stress

triggers and talk about them in a conducive environment.

Performance Appraisal System in VisAbility

The performance appraisal system in VisAbility that documents and evaluates the

performance of employees. Under the system, each employee is given a clear and achievable

set of goals or expectations, an ongoing feedback that helps them meet those expectation, and

measures through which their performance against those goals will be evaluates. Supervisors

and mentors are all obligated to submit their evaluation criteria at the start of each cycle and a

report of the performance of the employee towards the end. Importance is given towards

making those goals relevant, achievable, measurable, and specific so that it is easier for both

the workers and the supervisors to follow these goals.

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