Reflective Diary and Report on the Work in Southend Borough Council - Paper Example

Southend Borough Council is the county council authority of Southend in England. The council serves over 175000 residents of Southend and is an employer to over 1700 employees. The council has 17 wards with 51 representative councilors. Southend serves its community with an array of services to meet the societys needs.

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I managed to earn a job placement for ten days at Southend Borough Council in the customer service department. Due to my education experience, my work mainly revolved around the reception desk and the call center department. Job placement at Southend Borough Council was quite a reflective experience that enabled me to gain practical skills in the customer service department. I worked for three days a week, whereby, I was placed at the receptionist desk for the first two weeks and later proceeded to the call center. I got to work with different personalities and teams which enabled me to interact with them and work together to achieve effectiveness and efficiency in the Southend Borough Council Offices.

On the first day of the placement, I worked at the receptionist desk. I was oriented to the customer service department and shown on all activities that took place in the department. I learned of the filing system of the company, the office store as well as how to interact with customers to create a good rapport. I was also shown on the procedures to follow in case there were complaints filed by customers on issues affecting the Council. This would help to address the challenges that the Southend Borough Council was facing and streamline them.

On the second day at the receptionist desk, I attended to different calls and inquiries about procuring of supplies and contracts that had been previously advertised in the county magazine by the council. The different suppliers wanted to know whether they could pick application forms for procurement tenders and supply of stationary to the council. Regarding these inquiries, I was able to forward the calls to the procurement officer who directed them on the procedures to follow

On the third day of the placement at the receptionist desk, I filed reports that had been previously submitted by premises owners on licensing, trade standards, and environmental health. The licenses were first paid for and later filed in the computers databases for references purposes. Approved license documents served as an official permit for the business to operate in Southend. Food joints owners also submitted the environmental health permits. This served as a formal indication that cafe owners had a permit from the health centers to help the locals in the town of Southend. These documents had to be filed and stored to enable the council commissioners whenever they were making site visits, which is always done on end months.

On the fourth day at the receptionist desk, I participated in the electoral registration of the Southend population. There was to be a scheduled election for the members of the councils later in the year, and registration had to be done before the end of the month for efficient data placement. This was done with the help of the electronic gadgets that were supplied by the council marketing offices. The exercise was conducted for two consecutive days at the Southend Borough Council offices.

On the sixth day, being the final day at the receptionist desk, we were required to file a report of on the registration process that had taken place on the two previous days. We also filled in demographic data and did tallying exercise to get the final figures of those who participated in the exercise. Beside this, I was also able to attend to different customers who had come to seek on business support and advice. Business support mainly entailed customers to fill out reports in cases where they needed funding to start or support their ongoing business. These forms would then be then forwarded to the finance committee who would follow upon approval exercise.

On the seventh day of the placement, I was taken to the call center department for orientation. I was taken through the Directorate on the appropriate numbers to dial in case of emergencies among other inquiries. I was also tutored on the response target and performance when attending to customers. This was important since some emergency calls could involve patients who were in panic due to abrupt incidences and it was the duty for the staff to attend to them and get maximum information before help is reached out.

On the eighth day at the call center, I worked on the phone lines that mainly dealt with housing benefits and tax benefits special team. Working at this desk was quite productive, and it required one to be efficient while attending to customers for maximum satisfaction. Also, due to the voluminous number of calls that one would attend to, I was advised to take a maximum of three minutes to a specific call. In cases where there was a need for adult social services specialist, these calls would be forwarded to the specialist team to attend to the customers.

On a ninth day at the call center department, I was stationed at the switchboard inquiry desk. While in this position, one was required to attend to all formal calls, whether from outsiders or other departments within the council. Amongst all another call-center station desk, I would say that this was the most tasteful but interesting place to work. This is because; one would be able to interact with all people among them being head of departments. This tested us on our verbal skills, ability to handle pressure and listening skills.

On the final day, I partly worked at the call center and later presented my work to the customer service head on what I had learned while working at Southend. I did a PowerPoint presentation on my 10-day work placement at the reception desk and call center department. I must admit that the experience was quite challenging but also a good learning platform. I managed to apply most of the skills that I had gained in school. Besides, learning to work in a team and interacting with people of different characters was a life changing experience in my career.

Report

Employability in the Public Services

Introduction

The placement period at Southend Borough Council has helped me gain knowledge and an insightful expertise in the real work environment. I had the opportunity to work under a diverse department and a number of different personnel that helped me put into practice my learning experience among other personal skills that I have gained throughout my learning period. The consistency and efficiency of the staff in the county council offices are a clear indication of the proper planning of the councils administration. Some of the key aspects that I gained during my placement period were integrity, accountability, hard work, and persistence.

This report provides a clear insight into the general activities that were undertaken during the placement period. Besides this, it also acts as a means of internal communication to the audience in giving a detailed information and feedback on the experience during the placement period, the challenges and the benefits of having practical learning in the school curriculum (Altemeier et al. 2006, p.170).

Executive Summary

Some of the general activities undertaken during the placement period were ensuring office neatness while working at the frontal desk. This mainly involved ensuring that the working desk is well arranged since working as a receptionist means that one would have to host some visitors which in turn how one communicates with them reflects and affects the overall performance of the organization. Customers satisfaction is a fundamental factor that should not be compromised in any situation. The Southend council being a public service office deals with some clients from all backgrounds. This implies that, for one to interact with the customers, they have to be neat, patient, and approachable. According to Haper (2015, p.88), to provide the best customer care, as a receptionist, one should take time and understand the customer expectations as well as reconsider their feedback, whether good or bad. It helps ensure that, in case any services offered are inefficient, the management will be able to improve on them and continuously seek ways to which they would enhance their service delivery.

The filing was also a significant activity undertaken at this position. This involved filling of licenses documents reports on business finding submitted by business aspirants and documents compiled during the weekly departmental meetings. The filing is an office culture that ensures that there is neatness and ease of retrieval of documents whenever the administration needs them. This is done either manually or through the computerized system whereby, documents are edited and saved in the companys databases (Tsichritzis, 2012, p.76). Filing of documents manually is quite tedious due to the voluminous amount of work submitted at the county offices. Besides this, documents can be easily misplaced during the filing process leading to confrontations and business hiccups. Therefore, for efficient filing process, it is recommended that the process should be done electronically due to efficiency and confidentiality purposes (Tsichritzis, 2012, p.88). During the registration of birth certificates, marriage or even death, Southend compiles these data electronically in the county databases since it becomes easy to retrieve them during customer inquiries.

Also, working at the receptionist desk also entailed classification and handling important information in the office set up. Information about procurement contracts, tender documents, electoral registration, licensing and business permits has to be handled with at most care and high levels of confidentiality. Therefore, to ensure that all confidential information is kept safe, it would be advisable to ensure that all information entered into the companys databases have passwords and firewalls security to restrict unauthorized users from accessing them (Tsichritzis, 2012, p. 104)

While working at the call center department, it is important to ensure that one is efficient in office typing and able to attend to calls when required. This comes along with calls verification process to ensure that, any complaints filed by the public concerning poor services, lost documents, or social services, that they are attended to promptly. Besides, documentation verification exercise is also conducted in this department. This mainly involved cases whereby, someone would file a complaint and would have to present documents to support their claims. At this point, information given over the phone calls and documents presented should marry each other to act as evidence to the claims presented.

Despite the few negative implication that the council has been facing over the past few years due to its financial constraints, the council ensures that they can meet the needs of its public and provide corrupt free services to its residents. It is to this effect that the administration at the council places weekly meetings with its staff to find out the challenges the public and the administration is facing at large. The council should always work with the interests of its customers at hand (Altemeier, 2009, p.165). Cases of pollution, children services, and culture and tourism services are taken with utmost concern by the council administration.

Application of Skills for the Benefit of the Organization

Working at the receptionists and call center desk required one to have problem-solving ability since most of the issues raised required personal experience to handle them. Fountain (2001, p.57-60) states that 75% of the problems raised in working platforms are new...