Tri-Synergy. NCWE Awards 2009: Winner - New placement schemes (within last 2 years) 05/10/2009

Category:

Work experience

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Tri-Synergy is a marketing and business development company based in Hampshire. It specialises in marketing, internet marketing and PR.

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Total number of employees
Operational countries
Challenge
Project name
Project manager
Steps to implementation
Benefits
Results
Lessons learnt
Future plans
Key tips

NCWE

Total number of employees

8 employees.

Operational countries

UK.

Challenge

Managing director Tina Webb explains: "The qualities and skills of the people working for us are absolutely fundamental to the success of the company."

"We implemented a work experience scheme to combine the practical experience of the workforce in the company with fresh innovative ideas bought in by the placement student. The benefit is threefold; we want our students to enjoy their placement and to learn both job skills and life skills therefore we endeavor to add real ‘value’ for the student.

The existing workforce learn the latest techniques within the internet marketing discipline and lastly, the combination of both of these ensure that we have satisfied clients, each time, every time.

Project name

University of Portsmouth Student Placement Scheme. One year in length, full-time.

Project manager

Tina Webb, managing director

Steps to implementation

Our emphasis during induction is on enabling the student to feel settled and to belong rather than meeting performance targets. We believe that if a student is happy and settled in our organisation then this will help them thrive, be confident, self-motivated and therefore effective.

A summary of our process is shown below:

Month 1: The student

• Checking of paperwork, structure of organisation and operation, Human Resources and Health and Safety issues.

• Assign them a ‘Buddy’ to help them settle in and answer questions.

• Asking the student how they feel they have settled into the organisation and answering any questions they may have.

Month 2: The student’s role in context with the organisation

• Progress update of how the student is settling in and asking if there are any concerns/suggestions that either the student/or manager may have.

• Ensuring that the student understands of their job role in context with the organisation as a whole, and the importance their contribution makes to both clients and Tri-Synergy.

Month 3: Student’s performance progress and identifying training gaps

• Two way discussion of overall progress within student’s job role and their performance/settling in as a whole.

• Evaluation of the three month probationary period (for further years) and decisions on further training and development.

Benefits

• New ideas into the organisation.

• The regular shake up of the dynamics of our small business when a new person joins.

• Cost effective method of bringing the latest knowledge and technology to the business.

Results

Our student placements have bought real value to the organisation with innovative and fresh ideas, techniques and skills. Examples of tangible business benefits described below, include:

• Increased Tri-Synergy’s product/service offering.
• Developed a new training manual used with all employees.
• Significantly increased clients’ businesses and hence secured the client on an on-going basis for the company.

Lessons

• In addition to meeting with the university workplace supervisor, we would also liaise with the student’s tutor to obtain a fuller understanding of the student’s final year objectives to fully enhance the opportunities within the workplace.

Future plans

We feel our student placements have been extremely successful. We will continue to offer students an opportunity for a unique work experience placement. An accolade to our culture of ‘we can do it’ is the fact last year’s student wants to start up their own business in the future. They feel prepared and have the confidence to do this. Nothing could please us more.

Key tips

We operate a ‘buddy’ scheme whereby the student is allocated a ‘buddy’ throughout the whole placement. The provision of this scheme is vital to introducing the student to the full-time workplace environment and ensuring that they settle in well and feel comfortable with both job tasks and with other members of staff.
We allocate the student a ‘Workplace Supervisor’ whose job it is to oversee the progress of the student throughout the placement and meet with the student once a month on a formal basis (but is always available at any time to discuss any concerns).
We encourage students in decision-making and getting actively involved with client work. The managing director has regular meetings with a student to foster this development, and she is also responsible for the 3, 6, 9- month reviews and final appraisal/exit interview. We also find out early on what the student will be studying in their final year. We then focus on making sure the student experiences /learns relevant work related to their last year, and in particular their dissertation.