A word from IT...

This morning the associate director of employee relations, my supervisor, and I had a meeting at the other subsidiary headquarters office located in Warren, NJ. Since the Warren office is mostly made up of IT we traveled there to meet with a Senior Representative of the Applications Staff to discuss our project goals. Upon arriving, I noticed the building was much smaller than the Basking Ridge HQ in which we work in.

The meeting started with a discussion of both departments who will be using the system and what their current process is as of now. This included me demonstrating a screenshot of the current Access database system in place now. Also explained were some of the problems associated with the current process. This included they way information is being sent to the ER team in form of an email Checklist. Also brought up was the lack of communications between departments about an issue. Finally we overviewed the time consumption allocated to entering employee information into the Access form.

After distributing our ideas to the IT representative she then went over some solutions we can work with. VZW recently made an immense upgrade from Peoplesoft 8.4 to Peoplesoft 8.9. The discussion made was if we can utilize the information that is stored in the Peoplesoft tool, we can then eliminate more than half the information needed to be manually entered into the tracking system. Also, by providing a baseline to work from, we can improve new features to be implemented later on as the product becomes more and more customized.

I feel this meeting was a great start and now we finally have some input from IT on what is currently feasible. By starting with a base system the project will be much more efficient rather than starting from scratch developing a completely new tool. As the Application Staff Rep analyzes how we can start to develop the features we need she will stay in contact with me. Currently I am still trying to work on creating the Requirements Document so there is a formal plan including a project overview, expected benefits, and some business objectives that will be accomplished with the further development of the Issues Tracking System.

DiSC training and other events of the week...

I forgot to mention this past Monday all of the interns were invited to participate in a DiSC Training Course. The course was focused on developing your personality style both at work and at home. It also provided an understanding on how to communicate with co-workers with different personality structures to accomplish a common working relationship. The training was good and really separated the different groups. Then each group we placed into made a short presentation on why they feel they are part of that group. I was initiated as an I, if you have ever taken a DiSC training course you know what I am talking about.

This morning I had a meeting with the director of the Employee Relations department and my supervisor to go over the work I have done with his team. The meeting went very smooth and he was surprised by all of the information I have gathered. I was told I was doing great work and a spectacular job of auditing the current process in place. The project plan is looking good so far and I will be working on a Requirements Document all next week to try and get a first draft going for the system.

Today I joined a monthly meeting via Cisco Netmeeting which discussed some common HR issues that are in place today such as paying overtime in certain situations and what is the correct and incorrect form of action for an employee. At 3pm we meet in the Town Hall for a Mid-Year review HR meeting. The meeting was for all HR employees located in Basking Ridge as well as hundreds of employees who dialed in via Cisco Netmeeting from around the country. Mostly everything was confidential in the meeting so I can't go into details. But for the most part they discussed new products and services as well as a brief overview of the new iPhone from Apple launching June 29th and what Verizon is doing about it. Well thats all for today tomorrows Friday and I'll be looking forward to the weekend!

Meet the Interns

This morning I set up a meeting for later in the week with my supervisor and the direct supervisor of the Employee Relations department. He has been interested in the ideas of developing such a system and would like to see if he can provide any input. We will discuss what the project plan is and how the development will progress in the upcoming weeks.

This afternoon there was a “Meet the Interns” luncheon at Bamboo Grill right down the street in Basking Ridge which is part of the country club. Some employees from the Benefits department came through to eat with both me and the other intern whom is also a Rider University student. The food was excellent and everyone had a great time getting to know us a little better. Even better Verizon Wireless picked up the tab for the meal which we gave a huge thanks to our department’s director for setting that up.

In the afternoon I met with my supervisor to briefly discuss some deadlines and goals in the development process. I asked her of two tasks she could get done for me by the end of the week. The first was to set up a meeting time with an IT project coordinator to discuss our future applications back end capabilities and other development issues. Second, was to get me a sample Requirements Document from a previous project to use as a guide to start working towards the development of a Requirements Document for this project.

Data Collection

The first few weeks have been going very well. Last week I set up meetings and talked to all of the people that will be using the new tracking system. After recording the conversations I then took the time to analyze each user’s routines and thoughts. I tried to determine similarities and difference between each of the customer’s data collections sheets. It was easier for me to retype my information into word documents then classify each person into an excel sheet after that with their comments.

Wednesday I had a meeting with my supervisor to discuss how the project was progressing so far. I opened with my data that I gathered from all the customers and how the current system is an issue. I noted individual problems with each person as well as uniform troubles that applied to everyone currently. Each one of our users receives an email from a local HR Rep about a specific employee issue in their area. The email is sent with an attached document called the Checklist. The following is my introduction no the removal of the checklist:

"Verizon Wireless (VZW) is currently losing valuable company resources through the current process of information being transferred via the Checklist. The Checklist is mostly used by HR – Employee Relations as of right now to standardize information arriving about a current employee issue. Information on the Checklist includes: Name of the employee, VZID, address, work location, contact and attendance information, and all other health information that can be used in solving the issue. To see how much the current Checklist effects VZW lets take a look at how information from an issue flows through the current system.

First, a local HR Rep receives information about an issue and enters it into the Checklist. The Checklist is then either emailed or faxed to the HR Employee Relations Rep in VZW Headquarters, Basking Ridge. The information is received and usually printed out for a hard copy. This copy then has notes or other information that is necessary about the issue added to the folder with other related documents. Next, depending on how much time is available the data will then be entered into a local Access Database. Finally, in some situations the data will again be re-entered into a personal database or Excel sheet to keep track of which issues are currently open or closed because the current database cannot do so now.

Some data can go through an entry process anywhere up to 4 times before the issue is completed and closed out. Or some data may never make it to the current database at all. These multiple entries are a waste of valuable time for each representative involved in the resolution of the issue. The most abundant problem when trying to organize and store information is the value of the time it takes for users to input the data. Providing a consolidated, easy to use, web based system will efficiently improve workflow not only for HR but also improve turnaround time for employee in getting a prompt response about their issue at hand."

After discussing many of the issues our current users have now we came up with some solutions. The best turnout of this project will be having a web based secure site to for the HR Reps to log into. They would then be able to submit information directly to the database and have our Headquarters Employee Relations be able to view that information quickly and securely. But, as all other projects and ideas I was told to compile a backup plan in case this idea is not feasible from the start. So if IT’s parameters are to start the project on a smaller scale only within Basking Ridge HQ, then I must think of another way to distribute the data to our HQ area.

You Make the Call...

Yesterday we had an all day training session for Civil Treatment of Employees. The program introduced all the new interns to Verizon Wireless. The session also presented some current figures about Verizon Wireless and its competitors on where they stand as the top wireless provider on the market right now. This training session also provided a clear understanding on what to do in multiple situations in a corporate environment. We interacted with the given situations at hand to determine what was the right and wrong way of taking action.

Today was our official welcome into the Verizon Wireless Internship Program which was entitled “You Make the Call…” The morning session consisted of an introduction and welcoming into the program. Then, followed several speakers who explained how they built their careers and goals up while working for Verizon Wireless. The speakers were inspirational in their words and gave a positive attitude towards being part of a team here at Verizon Wireless. That was the one promising thing that I noted throughout this entire morning.

Being that we are only interns does not mean we are just getting coffee for others or making copies. We are treated as part of the team. The next 3 months will be a challenge not only individually, but as a team working towards a common goal. Our contributions will add value to Verizon Wireless as a business to prosper and grow. Our actions will be recognized and we will experience real life situations that will make a difference.

The closing statements were then made to sum everything up. The woman who spoke, which recruited most of us in that conference room, made a final remark. She said that everyone in the room was put her for a reason. We were placed here because we attended great schools and excelled in our achievements. But more importantly we were all joined in that room today because we had something special about us that put us above the rest. They knew that we would be the ones to focus and contribute our knowledge to Verizon Wireless. We would be presenting our innovative ideas not only for next 12 weeks, but to come back and continue to bring fresh new inspiration for years to come.