Understanding and Interpreting A Brief

When given a brief it is important that it is read through and carefully understood so that the employee can work to the best of their ability with the correct understanding of the brief. If an employee does not understand part of a brief or they want to clarify certain parts and even legal and ethical issues they are allowed to speak to managers and co-workers about the problem. Working to a brief is beneficial in most areas of work for many reasons. It helps to enumerate the key responsibilities for a job and helps the employee know its specific functions. It helps to let employees to understand what is expected and to know what skills and abilities they need to working at in order to be successful in the job and get all the work done. The brief helps to keep employees to stick to the correct job and to know the goals they are working towards. Having a brief set out in a job/work environment is very useful and valuable as it helps create and maintain a workforce structure.

There are many different types of briefs in the work industry which can be distributed from a client to the person working on that brief. The different types of briefs are;

Contractual which exists when a producers and commissioner have a contract between them and that contract should not be broken and if it is legal action could be taken forward.
Formal which  exists when the brief is written with a specific choice of words and written with strict legal guidelines.
Informal brief which consists when a managers have face to face meetings with each other normally based in a social environment. It allows notes to be passed in an informal manner so that the two can discuss notes face to face rather than sending emails forward and back and maybe lacking in communication and understanding over a computer so this allows a more relaxed atmosphere for discussion.
Negotiated brief allows producers to negotiate on certain parts of the production.
Tender brief is when the cost and budget of the production is based upon the clients. The manager will then choose the best offer from the particular client.
Competition brief gives employees details of what they have to do and when a certain task has to be completed by. There may even be prizes involved in this particular brief.
Co-operative briefs are shared by the producers of the project. There may be a different manager in charger of a different section and topic of the project.

When working to a brief it allows the employee to work with the manager to the best of their ability. Communication should be a crucial part of this to allow no mistakes to be made and the work therefore being done to the standard of which is expected. An employee should know and understand that whatever brief they are working with they must be working to the same conditions and standards so that it can be completed outstandingly. Certain briefs such as negotiated briefs allows employees to discuss things with the person who is in charge. So if they employee knows it will get the work done to an outstanding level but knows they may need a week longer to complete it, this type of brief allows the employee discuss extending the deadline of their project for whatever reasons they may have. This is where communication is key between the workers and managers. It will allow the employee to have a better understanding and the managers to get a better understanding of who they are working with.