Moving Fast During Tax Season

It's been a while since I had a chance to post anything on this blog, but I've been very busy with new projects in the Leadership Rotation. The months leading up to tax day (April 15) are very fast-paced at Equity Trust and my projects can change at any given time. Fortunately, this gives me the opportunity to learn new things and gain experience handling multiple projects.

Lately, I’ve been working with the Human Resources Recruiting Team to review resumes, phone screen job candidates, and assist in the interviewing and hiring processes. Equity Trust hosted a career fair in February and I had the opportunity to interview several great candidates. Some of the hiring decisions have been made now, so I’m developing a training plan for the Client Services Supervisors to bring some new employees on board. It’s exciting to see our company grow!

Another project I’ve been focusing on is a plan to bring in a large group of new clients to our company. Of course, a big influx of new clients will require additional staff to handle the increased volume, so I’m creating training plans for these new hires. These new employees will be part of a new team at Equity Trust, so it’s great to learn how to build a team from the ground up!

Overall, the Leadership Rotation is full of new experiences and challenges. I’m learning a lot in this fast-paced environment. Over the next four weeks, I’ll be conducting two training classes and then serving as the team lead for the new team that will be bringing in the large group of new clients. I can’t wait to see how these projects turn out! Best of all, by the time the projects are done, tax day will be behind us!

The Leadership Rotation Begins!

I was surprised and excited to learn last Friday that my Client Services Rotation was over and I would be starting the Leadership Rotation immediately. Service Excellence was previously planned as my next rotation, but Equity Trust's needs have required a change in plans. As a result, I have begun planning for a six-month leadership position in the Client Services Department.

One of the benefits of remaining in the Client Services Department is the opportunity to help with the implementation of the call volume project that Rachel and I completed over the last few months. Our proposals are awaiting approval and they will likely be implemented just in time for tax season. Another benefit of staying in CST is the chance to continue working with the team leads, supervisors, and manager whom I've gotten to know well over the last seven months.

I don't know all of the specifics of my new role in the Leadership Rotation, but I'm sure I will be learning very soon. Right now, I am job shadowing the CST Team Leads to learn about their daily responsibilities. I've also been reviewing Equity Trust's employee handbook, which I will have to know well in a leadership position. I am really looking forward to the challenges and learning experiences that this new rotation will bring. As I learn more about my specific role, I'll follow up with details about tasks to be completed and project plans.

Recruiting!

As my last post indicated, I am now involved in the Human Resources Department assisting as a recruiter for both Equity Trust Company and Sterling Trust Company (which is located in Waco, Texas). For the past month I have had the opportunity to work closely with the Corporate Recruiter, Amanda Thompson, to learn the procedures and skills necessary to be a successful recruiter. Throughout the past month I have been interviewing candidates for a variety of positions for both Equity Trust and Sterling Trust. I conduct phone interviews with candidates for different positions on a daily basis. I also have been scheduling in person interviews and sitting in on those as well. I am learning a ton about the questions to ask, answers to look for and how to determine if a candidate possess the core competencies necessary to fulfill the open positions. As both Equity Trust and Sterling Trust continue to grow, there are many open positions that we have been looking to fill. Every day is exciting and fast paced. As Colin mentioned in his last post, I too remember job hunting and sitting in on interviews not too long ago. It has been a fun experience to get the opportunity to be on the reverse side of an interview.

I also have been finishing up on my strategic mapping project that was dealing with fee awareness and our competitor's fees. I have created a spreadsheet which provides an at a glance reference comparing our annual fees and service fees with those of our main industry competitors. I also made a coinciding PowerPoint to possibly be referenced or used for continued education training or new hire training. Fees are something that our prospects and clients seem to have many questions about and knowing how our company compares to others out there can help strengthen our competitive advantage.

Meeting Deadlines

After Rachel’s recent departure from the Client Services Department, I have been focusing heavily on the call volume project to help prepare CST for tax season. Rachel and I had nearly completed the project by the end of November, so I have been working hard to tie up any loose ends associated with it. Earlier today, I sent the final versions of two Excel files with all of the call volume and staffing data requested by the CST Supervisors and Manager. I am confident that our recommendations will be approved and implemented. After three months of analyzing call volume data and staffing models, the work that Rachel and I did will finally pay off!

In addition to the call volume project, Rachel and I have also been delegating our tasks as Equity Trust Company’s Facebook Administrators. We met with the CST Management Team to choose two great Client Service Representatives who can assume the responsibilities of this project. Like Rachel, I will also be moving on to the next rotation of the Leadership Program in the near future, so training two new Facebook Administrators is imperative before I leave the Client Services Department. So far, the transition is going smoothly.

A fun and exciting part of my job over the last three weeks has been interviewing candidates for open positions in CST. After spending time as a job applicant during college internship searches and job searches after graduation, it was interesting to be on the other side of the desk as an interviewer. Rachel and I were recently trained on Equity Trust Company’s Topgrading methodologies, so the recent interviews have been excellent opportunities to learn how Topgrading practices can be applied. Not only were the interviews great learning experiences, but they served as reminders that I work for a growing, successful organization. I hope to learn the results of our hiring process before I move on to the next rotation in the Service Excellence Department.

Goodbye CST...

This past week, my rotation in Client Services came to an end. I am now starting a new rotation in the Human Resources Department assisting with the recruiting process. My four months in CST were very helpful and I learned so much from our clients. I will take the suggestions that our clients presented with me throughout my future rotations so that Equity Trust Company can continue to enhance our clients' satisfaction with our services. I thought this would be an appropriate time to recap on my experience in client services.

Throughout the first couple of months on the phone, I balanced taking incoming calls from our clients and working on projects. I would say that I spent about 70-80% of my time on the phones and the remaining time was spent working on various projects. In months three and four, I was probably on the phones about 50% of the time and worked on projects the other half of my time.

A typical call from our clients would usually be about a pending investment, how to proceed forward with an investment, questions about their account or questions about paperwork regarding an investment. Most of the answers to their questions could be found within in one of our information systems. Having this type of interaction with our clients helped me to gain information about what our company does, the types of investments our clients are pursuing and the company's internal processing of investments.

Some of the ongoing projects that Colin and I both worked on while in client services included monitoring our Facebook and Twitter pages, a process improvement project and our call volume project. I was also given numerous smaller projects from my supervisors to complete on an as needed basis.

I will miss the client services department but look forward to my new rotation. I will update this blog with my new experiences and projects as my time in Human Resources continues!

Holiday Spirit

As Rachel mentioned, Equity Trust has several core values that we adhere to every day in our work. One core value that has been especially important lately is "Welcome Home", which means that Equity Trust is more than a business...we are also a family. We are here for each other in times of need and celebration, and this includes helping those in need in our communities as well.

Over the past several weeks, Equity Trust has been collecting canned food and monetary donations for a Thanksgiving food drive. Our Elyria and Berea offices have been challenging each other to see which office can collect the most food. It's been great to see how everyone here responds to the challenge to help our local communities.

Equity Trust has also started to collect toy donations for a holiday toy drive. Just like the food drive, I expect the competition between the two offices to be fun. Although my office (Berea) seems to have lost the food drive competition, I'm hoping for a better outcome in the toy drive.

Overall, these charity competitions and fundraisers make Equity Trust a fun place to work. We are committed to hard work and success, but we also have an understanding about what's important in the communities where we live. I've enjoyed participating in our charity events and I'd like to become more involved in the future. As a former Peace Corps volunteer, it's inspiring for me to work with people who care about community service and are driven by more than just a paycheck.

We Have Fun at What We Do!

Equity Trust Company has a list of core values which all employees strive to adhere to. One of my favorite core values of the company is “we have fun at what we do”. Spending 40 hours a week at a job could prove to be stressful. However, working in an environment which promotes a fun atmosphere helps to reduce the amount of stress a full time job can usually cause.

A perfect example of “we have fun at what we do” took place last Friday for Halloween. Everyone had the opportunity to dress up if they would like. Individuals and departments won prizes for their costumes. In the Client Service department, we all coordinated our costumes to be hippies. Decorations were put up and many members of our team donned their best “hippie inspired” outfits. When it was all said and done, in the Berea office, the Client Service Team won for best department theme. Our prize was a department lunch. It was definitely a fun day!

As Colin mentioned, we have been working on a call volume project. We have met with our manager as well as supervisors and team leads to determine the best course of action to make sure we are prepared for the ‘busy season’ in client services. It’s been a fun project because nothing like this has been done in the past for the Client Services department. Therefore, we have the opportunity to be creative with our ideas and implement new programs to help the department better handle an increase in call volume.

Recently, I have been spending most of my days taking incoming client calls. We also recently welcomed a new group of CST representatives to our department. I have had the opportunity to work with some of these individuals to assist in their acclimation to their CST roles.

Now it’s back to the phones!