Hey guys! Time for an update. We don’t have long left but my days at work are as busy as ever, if not more so!
I have finished compiling the online courses for the OPAL® learning tool and these will be published within the next week. It is great to leave something concrete behind to show that I was here at Jabil and that I have made an impact. Diana has now started me on a new project which involves resolving leadership issues within our Asian sites. The key principles taught in the leadership courses do not seem to be translating well with these leaders and there is a clear need for reinforcement. Managers appear to be having particular issues with teamwork, motivating employees and maintaining job satisfaction. It has been useful to look into cultural differences in the workplace as these certainly play a role in the difficulties faced by these leaders. We will need to try a new approach to training these leaders and I have been working on Excel spreadsheets to enroll these leaders into the OPAL® system.
The benchmarking project that I have been collaborating on with Phil has unfortunately slowed down due to a lack of communication from the companies we wish to collaborate with. It has been useful, however, to witness the reality of benchmarking in a business environment. Phil explained that benchmarking often has to take a back seat due to prioritization of tasks. Today I will phone one of our companies to set up communications as we have yet to speak offline. Hopefully, this will continue to be a valuable contact for Jabil after I have left. I will also keep in touch with Phil when I return to Scotland to see how the project develops.
My e-learning trends project has been my main focus this week. I was asked if I felt comfortable presenting my findings to the Jabil University staff, both in the St Petersburg branch and also in Guadalajara (Mexico) and Penang. I was extremely nervous about this as I am not a natural presenter, however, I am proud that I challenged myself to do it! Big shout out to Mom for her words of reassurance too! J The relaxed Jabil culture was an easier environment to present in than I am used to in Scotland, though unfortunately we ran out of time and I will present the rest of my findings in about half an hour!! Today, I will use the Symposium tool to present to the group (we had a few technical difficulties yesterday with the conference call as the folks tuning in from other sites had problems receiving audio etc). I will be glad once it is done, but pleased that I managed to do a good job (hopefully). The team seems to be very enthusiastic about my findings, which include contemporary ideas to incorporate into the e-learning courses for Jabil employees. It has been great to think and research outside the box and make suggestions that are quite “out there” in comparison to standard learning tools (take artificial intelligence, serious gaming and virtual learning environments to name but a few!)
In the HR team I have been working on job descriptions, personnel filing and the new HR intranet. I have been assigned the task of creating the HR Contacts page, the Area Guide page, and the Training and Corporate Calendar page for the new HR intranet. The confidential filing project that I was assigned is now complete – all of the personnel and medical files are in the correct format and are in the correct building. This involved wheeling files from one Jabil building to another on a very temperamental “cart” – the wheels came off five times! Not the highlight of my internship! The team is very pleased that this project is complete as they have been wanting to tackle it for months but have not had the time. I will spend these last few days frantically tying up loose ends.
Last Friday, we began our weekend activities straight after work and the girls went to Hooters! We felt it was a must-see and that it was necessary to invest in some Hooters tops! We were joined by Diana from my department and her boyfriend, Jet! They suggested various activities for us to do at the weekend. We decided to take their advice and on the Saturday, we drove to Sarasota, crossing the incredible Sunshine Skyway bridge en-route. St Armand’s Key at Sarasota was fantastic – we had fantastic weather which made a nice change from the previous week and an awesome lunch at a local restaurant. On Sunday we decided to go kayaking which was great fun. I dread to think what was in the water – we were told that there were gators – but it was brilliant nonetheless! Not long to go now guys – enjoy the last few days!!
Tanya xx