Ask the Expert: How to put forward a workplace proposal

Q. I am in my twenties and live in a medium-sized town working in a retail store, which is languishing in terms of sales. I'm not happy at work; we have absolutely no systems, no structure, no communication, no store or individual goals or aims and no manager.I was thinking of putting a proposal together and stepping up to the challenge of being manager and getting the store going again. I am great with people and have the confidence of the staff and customers. Can you please give me some advice of where to go and maybe what I might need to consider to put in such a proposal.

A.You are asking two things, really. One is to establish effective structures and policies, the other is to promote you to implement this plan.You'll want to keep any proposal crisp and to the point. First, try to establish what the problems are: low sales, lack of growth, poor scheduling, or whatever else is apparent. State the problems, its cost or other impact on the business, the causes and then your proposal to address the causes and resolve the problem.It sounds as if one of your potential solutions is to establish the position of manager, but that will only be compelling for the owner of the store if it resolves problems and makes the store work more effectively. You also need to think through why they should hire you, in particular, as the manager.Can you continue to do your current role, at least in part, reducing the total cost of the new position. Is your knowledge of the business and industry such that your co-workers turn to you for advice and support? You might look for job descriptions on-line for this type of position, preferably with person specifications that allows you to measure yourself against some objective requirements and which would form the basis of a discussion with the store owners.