Projects

As I've mentioned before, a central part of the Client Services rotation in the Leadership Program is completing projects to make improvements within the department and enhance our services for clients. I'm currently working with Rachel to review call volume data from early 2009 to create accurate forecasts for the call volumes that the Client Services Team (CST) can expect during tax season in early 2010. We're also analyzing different options to create the best scheduling and staffing plans for the department to handle the high number of calls during that time period. Since tax season is very important for Equity Trust and its clients, Rachel and I have been focused on this project for about a month. We've been making good progress and I'm confident that we'll have our final plans ready within a few weeks.

In my opinion, working on such projects is the best part of my job because I get to apply the knowledge and skills I acquired during my college and internship experiences. In addition, the projects I've been working on have the potential to bring financial benefits to the company, make work processes more efficient, and increase customer satisfaction.

Although my projects are primarily focused on the Client Services Department, certain project components can often impact other departments. That has given me the opportunity to discuss the projects with people throughout the company, which has been a great way for me to understand how different departments work together. Everyone in the company seems open to new ideas and eager to help me. Next month, I hope to see new promotions of some of Equity Trust's services on the company website. This is the result of several months of work on a project that was assigned to me in June. Along the way, the project has been improved by employees who work in Marketing, CST, Sales, Service Excellence, and Operations. The implementation of one my projects is a great confidence-builder and it shows how quickly a Leadership Trainee can make an impact at a great company that's moving forward at a fast pace.

Sometimes, I work on one or more projects for most of the day. On other days, I help the rest of CST take incoming calls for our clients, which helps me get a great understanding of Equity Trust clients' experiences. My schedule can vary from day to day and week to week, but I generally try to make sure that I'm spending half of my working hours taking clients' calls, while the other half of work hours are devoted to project work. Since there are project deadlines, required meetings, and company events on a regular basis, my supervisors and manager are always understanding with my schedule. Speaking of my schedule, it's Thursday afternoon and I'm off work tomorrow...I should go finish some things before the three-day weekend!