about - employment history

past and present

about me | employment | games industry

Company: Royal Mail Ltd Title: Work Group Coach
Dates: 2002 - Present (Full Time)

I currently work at Royal Mail's Manual Data Entry Centre (MDEC), where letters in mail centres across the country are scanned electronically and processed at the centre. The MDEC holds over 2,000 employees. My roles include:

Work Group Coach, (2005 – Ongoing): Providing training and coaching support within a team of 50, including the monitoring of team performance and identifying areas for improvement. I have also provided assistance to managers and other coaches across the MDEC, where I am looked upon as a senior coach.

  • Training Materials Project (Sept 2006, Nov 2007 & 2008): Assigned to prepare Xmas training test sets and materials for all four MDEC sites. Also updated the main MDEC training materials, manuals and training sets.
  • Utilisation Project (July 2005 - Ongoing): Developing a tool & supporting systems to accurately monitor utilisation daily within the workplace on a team and shift level.
  • Coaching Reference Manual (Feb 2006 – March 2007): Wrote a coaching manual containing guidelines, coaching strategies & techniques to help develop a 'best practice' approach to coaching.
  • Performance Calculator (Feb 2006): Developed a tool to display performance & daily bonus results. The calculator has been accredited with increasing individual performance levels.
  • Keyer Development Plan (KDP) & Accuracy analysis Projects (May 2005 – Sept 2005): I developed a KDP to aid both new & experienced employees. This together with a coaching worksheet I designed to analyse individuals’ accuracy data are standard coaching tools used across the MDEC.
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    Christmas Work Group Manager, (Nov - Dec 2005,06,07 & 08): Organised and managing teams of up to 42 agency staff. Designed A4 training guide prompt sheets to replace training manuals, resulting in reduce training times.

    Quality Assurance Manager, (2004 – 2005): I was responsible for supporting over 2,000 staff members covering 3 shifts. My role involved identifying and managing deployment of planning activities to support and increase the quality of service. This included the creation of daily test sets to assess Keyers accuracy and bonus payments.

  • Supported the deployment & monitoring of a new interim Accuracy Measurement system, including the creation of an automated spreadsheet to replace pen & paper recording of accuracy results.
  • Created an Information Portal to reduce time required to find information on the local network drive.
  • Created the Framework and interim list of roles & responsibilities for the Work Group Coach (WGC) role and supported the WGCs during their implementation.
  • Developed performance spreadsheets, which automatically highlighted areas for improvement by identifying low performers on a number of criteria.
  • Monitored to raise employee & shift quality levels.
  • Publication of a monthly Question and Answer newsletter & 24 daily Christmas News Letters.
  • Liased with an assistant & another QA Manager who covered Stockport and Stoke MDEC sites.
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    MDEC Keyer, (2002 – 2004):

  • Reserve Manager (Jan 2003-March 2004): Provided cover for managers on leave or sickness.
  • Coaching (July 2002-July 2004): Provided coaching for teams with Keyers with low performances.
  • Non-Culpable Inefficiency Project (March-July 2004): Assigned to develop a programme to support keyers who were failing the company’s standards. The programme is now a standard procedure.
  • Game Project (May 2004): Asked to create a board game based on a "diversity" theme with the aim of increasing the work force's awareness of diversity, whilst providing a fun team building exercise.
  • Employee of the month for February 2004.

    • Company: GAME PLC Title: Assistant Editor
    Dates: 2001 - 2002 (Full Time)

    GAME PLC is Europe’s largest games retailer. My role involved working on their games service website BarrysWorld and retail site www.game.uk.com. My responsibilities included:

  • Supervising & creation of content, including previews, reviews, news, articles & a personal column.
  • Guides writer: Creating & maintaining guides and running a network of guides.
  • Lead tester for new games added, software created & services introduced. I also oversaw updates to the BarrysWorld website, new projects, & services to ensure limited confusion by the public.
  • Along with my editorial role I was temporary head of support for a 4-month period until arrival of a new member of staff, providing support for 74,000+ members.
  • Community development: Working with, and ensuring build up of the members on the BarrysWorld website. Public facing role making me one of the first contacts for members and other organisations.
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    Company: BarrysWorld Ltd Title: Content Author & Guides Editor
    Dates: 1998 - 2000 (Voluntary), 2000 - 2001 (Full Time)

    BarrysWorld was Europe's largest GSP (Games Service Provider). It provided services for 52,000+ members, and the entire network served over 160 million pages per month. Due to a downturn in the technology and Internet sector, the investors lost confidence in early 2001, forcing the Directors to put the company into liquidation on the 5th Feb 2001.

    My role at BarrysWorld had been wide and varied. Listed below is what my job entailed:

  • Main Web Site: Content creation on the website. Overseeing & producing reviews. Writing a popular column containing up to date news within the gaming communities and discussing current affairs.
  • Guides Network: Creating easy to follow guides that appeal to both novice & experienced players.
  • Beta tester / Consultant: Play testing of games, providing detailed feedback and recommendations.
  • Community Liaison: First contact between members. Ensured build up of the gaming communities.
  • League Administrator: Providing assistance to teams & individual players within the leagues.
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    Company: A-Squared Computer Solutions Title: Web Designer / Technical Support
    Dates: 1998 - 1999 (Voluntary, Part-time)

    I worked as a part time web site designer, providing technical support to deal with peoples inquires from the www.onlinehelp-uk.com web site. The web site was an idea of mine and created in the wake of high charging technical support fees, by 'Free' ISPs. The aim of the web site is to provide free technical support. Responsibilities:

  • Content: For the online help web site. This included news updates and creation of guides to aid with support.
  • Technical Support: Replying to email inquires and provide solutions to problems in plain English so not to confuse people with technical jargon.
     
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