Planning and Dispatch analyst Review

I have been working with the team of Planners and Dispatchers, interacting on a daily basis with agents and team leaders to understand what employees feel about the engagement and the way they are talked about performance. I analysed existing data from previous surveys to draw conclusions about the lacks and drawbacks and did external research to understand what should be done to make things better. I have built frameworks such as: Engagement Action Plan, Employee of the Month, launched challenges meant to drive performance and populated all the frameworks to the wider team. Attended meetings to understand the department metrics and proposed suggestions on deploying a culture of reward and recognition while leading these meetings.

By holding the pen on the communication plan, I’ve learned what it takes to deliver a project workbook, including the additional components, such as action log, risk assessment, stakeholders, Gantt Chart, learnings, and decisions. I grasped the fact that communicating to employees about the oncoming changes on the right tone, using the appropriate notes would ensure a smoother deployment and would help overcoming the employees’ resistance within an organisation. Being involved in the early stages of an embryonic project, improved my commercial awareness skills, by diving deeper into Centrica’s strategy where new tools are developed for ensuring that customers and colleagues are placed at the heart of everything the organisation does. I’ve improved time-management skills in delivering the ppt deck by the set deadline I’ve improved presentation skills by confidently delivering the presentation during a mock presentation. I have learned project management skills by correctly filling the Project Workbook.

The internship gave me the full ownership of running three projects within the Electrical Services department. The major focus of the first 2 objectives was on driving employees’ engagement and performance. By fully engaging with this topic, I’ve learned about employees’ motivations in being loyal to a company and bringing their best self at work. In this regard, I’ve delivered a complex Comms&Engagement Action plan with concrete actions for the Team Leaders to complete. To keep a track of the registered progress I’ve learned about the importance of allocating owners to tasks, set deadlines and outlining the measures of success that would indicate that the team is on the right track.

I have received a full pack of project outlines, like major objectives, with smaller objectives that would help me achieve success. I have received support from my line manager, wider team and Early Careers Team in getting started. At the beginning of the internship, I took part in a lot of trainings and webinars to help me improve my professional skills and knowledge. I did have regular weekly catch ups with my line manager to discuss my progress, analyse challenges and brainstorm ways of mitigating them. The wider team was always happy to offer an answer and give an insight about a topic that concerned me, although working in a department where targets and metrics are very important, it was quite challenging grasping every bit of information in under 7 weeks of my internship.

The company culture lays under Centrica's major values: courage, agility, collaboration, care and delivery. Everyone is very friendly to me and I was welcomed properly. The office atmosphere was quite noisy, especially during the two days when everyone is working from the office which can be disturbing for someone looking for a quieter environment, but its a great occasion for the team to bond together and recuperate from the time spent remotely during the other 3 days of working week. The culture of reward and recognition is at high standards and every employee is appreciated for what they do. Managers and supportive and try to help their teams to grow, using tools such 1-1s and coaching documents.

Overall, I really enjoyed the time spent at Centrica and the three projects I worked on outlined that I can be both, a responsible, efficient independent worker, and a proficient team player, able to contribute to the team’s needs. It also taught me about the accountability when developing tools for a department. I’ve put myself in their position, I considered their views to make sure the proposed actions synergised with the peoples’ needs. In conclusion, I’ve learned how to act as an external consultant for a department by very quickly understanding its needs and developing digital solutions for driving employee’s engagement, performance and I’ve developed my project management skills though qualitative recording of all the actions agreed during the project management meetings.

Yes

Benefit from the learning opportunities Centrica offers, get involved in different projects and seek for personal development. Show up your qualities, work hard and enjoy the career growth benefits. Get involved within one of Centrica Networks which can be related to different sustainable goals, which wold give you the opportunity to do meaningful work and develop yourself. Be fascinated about their values when showing up at the interview, as all their question are seeking to identify that qualities in the employees they are tacking on board.