Planning Review

My Duties Involved. • Planning and repairing the Openreach copper network • Dealing with high level escalations promptly • Training and coaching the team to improve overall quality and performance • Identifying areas of support for each member of the team, and arranging coaching and support. • Improving & Implementing systems into the role such as My Work (SI) • Writing and updating process for the whole planning community to use • Supporting team leader • Supporting manager • Arranging Comms for senior managers to send out to the organisation • Hot Sites & MOD Trained

As a result of my NS training, I have picked up knowledge on how other departments work. i.e. for 4 years I have been in planning, I have mastered that side of the business, and getting to see how our work estimates get allocated to engineers, in what priority they do, and also building a report and relationship with the actual guys that carry out the work, has given me a better understanding of the full A – Z process along with the a greater insight to the fault or order journey. The future leaders BTEC qualification also gave me skills on how to manage various types of individuals, especially from the managing people module. This has allowed me to position myself better when dealing with the team and stakeholders, along with finding a common ground with every single member of the team or individual that I am dealing with on a day to day biases. This has also helped in dealing with conflict and understanding everyone’s needs. These skills came to use when I was defusing a situation. I have a witness statement from my manager on how I handled this situation.

The learning styles that I had adopted worked for me and my lifestyle, as I was able to do this during my work, my social life with wife and kids, and also outside work. The management and the business has also been supportive to me during this. My future goals is to secure a first line management post and eventually move into second line management, where I can really assist and bring a change to the individuals working for myself and the business.

The program was initially not structured correctly as we were the first group. As the program went on, it got better. For example the first course we were given it was briefed out that we need to complete 3000 words, but it was a miss communication which resulted in many apprentices writing pages and pages of text.

My employee and line of management were fully supportive of me doing the program. I was given the time to carry out my duties along with doing any course work that was needed for the course. My manager also provided me with the coaching and advise needed to challenge tasks.

My coach and the tool available were easy to access and always at hand. there was times I had called my coach at odd hours to discuss certain modules, and she was more then happy to take the time out to explain what was needed for me to fully understand.

The learning has allowed me to be efficient, by giving me the ability and skills to - Manage my time and day in an effective manner - Deal and coordinate with various departments - It has allowed me not to be shy and be more confident - Prioritisation: being a leader or a subject matter expert your inbox, IM are constantly full and colleagues constantly ask you for questions on issues and advise. Learning how to manage these and not getting overwhelmed by the influx of enquires is a skill that I have got better over time with. Along with dealing with the most prioritised enquiry. This way I was able to action everyone’s enquiry in an affective and approachable way. - Time management – I have always been good with timing and ensuring that tasks are delivered on time along with also making sure sufficient time is taken to recipe and energise away from desk such as DSE and Lunch on time. - Motivate – this is an area that I have struggled with, I am able to motivate myself, but motivating a team and individuals has been by development area. Over the year due to perseverance and practice, I can see that I am able to motivate individuals though my speech, by first understanding the individual, getting to know them see what motivates them, finding a common ground, and linking it back to business and organisational values. - Communication skills and being able to chair a meeting. From my child hood I have been a shy person, and holding a meeting would have been and has been daunting to me always. The Future leaders program has pushed me out of my shell and I am able to confidently chair a meeting, speak to stake holders and meet objectives within a meeting. This again has come though practice and the urgency of meeting business deadlines. - Feedback and empathy – we and myself would - Delegate – one can only have resource to do a certain amount within a certain period, due to the factors of time, energy, and skills. By tapping into teams and other departments skills I was able to leverage from their skills to meet project solutions and also assist in my development. - Problem solving.

openrach offers a wide range of extra activities staffs can get involved, along with also charity work. I have also volunteered with a few local charities to help out in my free time. Besides this the company and the site has events regular where we can network with other members of the business.

Yes

the company itself offers a great place and environment work. the package that you get is great in terms of pension, shares and the support it provides. Openreach also has a vast training module in place which is great for anyone looking enhance their carrier and progress further within their role.

Before applying I would suggest to do some research about the company as normal. Our public website is a great place to start, aim to understand how our network works, what products we offers and our business model. I.e. who our customers are and how we deal with our customers.