Monday 3 December 2012

No quarter given…. (or, where did those 3 months go?)

My name is Dan Ferrett (“go on, I dare you! It’s not like I haven’t heard them all before…) and in August I joined Idealogy as their new Office Manager.

Well, that was what the job description said but can I just say that my first 3 (and a bit) months have literally flown by. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would be involved with and in so much, so quickly. Having said that, I wouldn’t change it for the world!














In a new job, most people try to ease themselves in gently and take things on a little bit at a time - but let’s be honest, where’s the fun in that?

So, what does the role of Office Manager actually involve? Well, alongside office admin, finance support and keeping the office up to scratch and in order, I also have an active role to play in staff welfare, creating and posting social content for our various social media accounts and providing vital account and management support for many different projects.

Within just two days of starting I was tasked with putting together and establishing a new travel policy with a view to lowering our CO2 emissions and helping us in our quest to becoming a ‘greener’ company. This is now fully in place (albeit for only a select few members of staff, whilst we trial it) and so far it’s all going very well. The high point of this project has to be the first time that Mr. D used one of the pool cars and declared ‘It was so easy, I felt like I was stealing the car!’ But please be assured, we are not stealing cars, just borrowing them!

Then, the next big thing (and possibly the most fun to date) was to propose, agree and book the Idealogy Christmas celebrations – including our Christmas card. But you can read about that separately! So, not that big a task I hear you say, and most of the time I would agree. However, although we are a small company, we have a (brilliant) mix of people who, understandably, like to do different things. After many ideas being batted around the office we decided to put it out to everyone to vote for their favourite. Amazingly, it was almost a 100% unanimous vote (it was actually 99%!) so beware if you are in Winchester on Friday December 14th as we are descending on the Christmas market and ice-rink for some festive fun & frivolity!

One of the biggest changes for the staff since my arrival has been the rollout of a new performance review format that Simon D and I worked closely together on. I’m sure I’m not alone in identifying the feeling I get when review/appraisal time comes around (you know the one; cold sweats, panic and paranoia that everything you do is wrong…) but this new process aims to stop that feeling and focus on each and every member of the Idealogy family - what can the business do to help them progress, grow, and in turn develop our offering as a company and do more for our clients.

And last, but by no means least, we now have an Idealogy Facebook page. But I’ll leave you to pop along to Facebook and discover that for yourself (facebook.com/idealogylimited).

There’s lots more changes to come in the New Year and I’m sure that if I haven’t already, I’ll meet most of you in person soon. Until then, I’ve got work to do…busy, busy!

Merry Christmas!
Posted by Idealogy













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