employment advisor

software engineer

customer relations representative

SEETEC

Having worked at SEETEC in their internal IT support team, I can safely say that in my years of working in IT I have not ever witnessed an IT department as disastrous and unprofessional as theirs.

I'll break down the key points here so as to make it easier to understand where I am coming from:

1) Communication - At the heart of every IT team is effective communication, by knowing what requests are going where and how urgent it is. An IT team can be extremely effective. At SEETEC however, communication was non-existent, this in turn lead to requests being left open and end users (that is you guys) not having your requests completed on time and I received the burdon of having to sort the issues out.

2) IT policies not followed - These are paramount for the protection of confidential data, in a well organised company that deals with confidential information, IT policies are applied and must be adhered too.
At SEETEC, this was not done and on several occasions incidents arised that directors and higher ups were using Windows 10 in a untested state with the basic built in Windows Defender software (which as any IT techie would tell you, only does so much), this had the potential for a major DPA breach and their anti virus was not compatible with Windows 10 at the time, no one in the IT department had the guts to stand up to the directors and say 'You cannot have Windows 10 on your machine in its current state' for fear of losing their job.

3) Equipment - The equipment used on sites that deal with external customers were shall we say, extremely inadequate. 
They were battered, broken, extremely dirty and really really slow. Not what you want to give to clients whom you're trying to make a good impression on. 

4) Process and procedures - Sorry, what are they again? Countless times I have asked for clarity on a process only to find it's changed an hour later and not communicated, not good.

5) Management - Management of both first line and second line IT teams was a disaster, there were numerous occasions where 1st line dabbled in 2nd Line territory and this frustrated me no end as it the boundaries got blurred and toes were stepped on. I'm still certain to this day that the manager I had when I was there, had no previous management experience in IT or any capacity. 
If I tried to raise a concern or point out a potential issue, I was told to 'be quiet' or the concern I was raising was somehow turned around on me and tried to blame the problem on me.

All in all, I left SEETEC due to the aforementioned above.
My professional reputation as a reliable and quick-2-resolve IT engineer was on the line with this company and I will be having a word with the agency who mis sold this company to me.

I would hold morning meetings every day to ascertain what we all needed to achieve that day and how far we were to achieving targets and what we all needed to do to achieve the targets. I would set out daily tasks to my team of 4 whilst I forecasted our monthly performance and wrote reports to senior management explaining how we managed to over achieve and why we did not hit a particular target for that month e.g. half term and some of our learners are single parents so could not attend. carry out monthly one to one reviews on each member of staff and placing them on any training courses they may require to improve their knowledge and keep motivation high and productivity running as smoothly as possible. I used to travel to other offices to share good practice, attend meetings at Job Centre Plus to promote our services and often I would teach Retail Level 1 as I hold a teaching qualification. If evidence in the way of wage slips needed to be gained I would often set up and time and place to meet the learner and I would collect them. Keeping the staff motivated when targets were not achieved was hard at times to do, but nothing a few treats from the local supermarket did not sort out. The most enjoyable part of my job was not only hitting targets but getting clients into sustainable work and training them on interview techniques and cv writing amongst other skills. I learned by having happy staff you will have productive staff and they were also flexible by way of working late and coming in early to work which I rewarded them by giving them "time of in lieu" I regularly attended management meeting with other Learning Managers to discuss best ways of "moving forward" to increase revenue. Checking off files for auditable purpose played a big part of my job role as I am aware we could be Ofsted inspected at any time, which we were. Running the office on a daily basis was enjoyable, fun but was stressful at times which I learned to cope with.

A typical Day in the BDC role would be:

8.30 – 9.30 – organising the day – looking at newspapers – looking at websites – doing research – getting phone numbers – with the intention of  generating leads and following up leads

9.30 – 11am – shutting myself away (if possible) and making the calls – don’t come out until the list has been completed

11.00 – 12.30pm – ad hoc session – on the office floor – dealing with client/EC enquiries – doing admin – putting jobs onto our internal database

1.30 – 3.00pm – meeting at 2pm – try and organise a meeting everyday or every other day – if no meetings (admin work)

3.00 – 4.00pm – ad hoc session – on office floor – as before

4.00 – 5.00pm – admin hour – not to be disturbed (unless urgent) – complete the days admin to begin again tomorrow

My co-workers were very helpful and I made sure from the start to establish a good relationship between us, as I was only person in my role at my branch. I needed them as much as they needed me to result in our branch reaching our targets.

My manager/management was good in the sense that they let me implement my own ideas as to how to produce the most effective results. I was given the freedom to action my ideas within reason.

The Hardest part of the job was motivating some of the candidates for interviews, as was sourcing jobs for candidates whom of which have been long term unemployed. I tried to correcting this by providing candidates with as much information and prep so that the would restore confidence in themselves.

The most enjoyable part of the job was knowing that I would be making a difference in an individual life, as once a candidate has been employed via one of my vacancies I brought to our centre his or her destiny would be in there hands to progress in life. I also enjoyed using my persuasion  and negotiation skills when talking to local businesses.

Working at Seetec continues to be an amazing experience. 

Our core activity is about helping people with finding jobs, accessing training and building job skills. Everything is around the support we can offer people, and Seetec have encouraged colleagues to develop mutually beneficial partnerships with external providers.

The company has the right values, encouraging a culture where 'no-one is left behind'.  In the West Midlands, we are given a healthy level of autonomy to do our jobs. 

Management is approachable and takes colleagues well-being seriously, appreciating how important family and work-life balance is. We have a 'Listening Ear' service, and our intranet makes it feel like the organisation is connected on the same page.

Seetec have a monthly 'GEM Award' (Going The Extra Mile) that all colleagues can refer to. This recognises and rewards the achievement of staff, and encourages all of us to support each other. 

I've been supported with my professional development and have achieved work-related qualifications during my time here.

In the Midlands offices, our teams provide our clients with food via our cost of living  shelves (Fare Share partnership), sim cards with free data, texts and calls (National Databank partnership) and interview clothing (provided by staff). This level of independence to innovate is one of the things most enjoyable about working at Seetec. 

Our team spirit at Seetec is generally excellent, we support each other to manage the workload and express ourselves when needed. I would say Seetec is an outstanding employer and I'm proud to work here.

I combine my work at Seetec with Associate Inspector assignments for Ofsted, inspecting post 16 provision in colleges and private providers about 3 times per year.

At Seetec I have operational management responsibility for large Welfare to Work and Skills contracts. I attend internal and external meetings, scrutinise data to plan and review service delivery, manage a large staff team that is dispersed in delivery centres nationally, implement and close contracts as these are won and expire and manage/train and support staff. I resolve HR matters, deal with excavated complaints and meet with stakeholders, subcontractors and statutory bodies. I ensure that contract tenders are met and that financial targets are achieved. I review monthly accounts and plan costs to maximise profit.

I report to the Board of Directors and sit on the executive board. I have 4 direct reports, all of whom are Operational Directors.

I also work closely with support functions, such as HR Director, Quality Manager and IT Director.

The most enjoyable part of the job is the variety of tasks and the way in which I can influence policy and future planning. I also enjoy developing others and 'hands on' evaluation of service standards and customer satisfaction.

Minimal respect or acknowledgement, old boys club with small minded mentality and outdated views, no training, no prospects.... Genuinely, I wouldn't work here... Well, I'm not...... I've recently  left!
This organisation are all about cutting corners and ticking whatever boxes they can and are extremely unethical, short sighted, unprofessional, and will ensure targets are met by any means.  They state that they deliver on government contracts but it's how they 'achieve' those results which concerned me the most.  Top/senior management are all about profit and not about treating staff with respect, dignity, or support.  Service users or clients were treated like just numbers that needed to be achieved as per contractual requirements.
Please take my personal and professional opinion to steer clear of working for this organisation.  You will not be treated with respect and the level of expectation to deliver what they demand will impact your personal life too.  This organisation went through 3 organisational restructures within 12 months because they were more about profit than quality of service delivery.  I would rather have my hands surgically removed than ever have this misfortune of working for this dispicible organisation ever again.

Almost 2 years ago I was referred by the jobcentre to attend this work program. Initially I was hopeful that they will support me to get back into employment. But then it felt like a detention center. All we did was sign documents and attendance books. Staff were very unprofessional and lacked basic skills to deal with unemployed people. They were not fair to people especially those who lacked English , single mums and people with mental issues. They stopped clients from attending English classes. I personally wanted to do a TA course to help me work in a school. But one of my previous advisors stopped. They just wanted to get rid of clients by forcing them into any jobs. Some ran away from seetec into jobs they hated to escape the advisors pressures. But unfortunately they came because they couldn't handle their jobs. People were forced to use computers. But some couldn't even switch it on. I know people who cried because they didn't how to use the computer. 
We witnessed fights all the time. I certainly lost all my confidence there because of the way the advisors treated me. I had more qualifications than most of them. But that didn't matter . I don't know a single person who found s good job through seetec.

Provide and co-ordinate a tailored service to address individual customer needs and help them to remove barriers.  Carrying an individual caseload of 290 people, meeting with them on a regular basis to review their progress to enable them to grow, develop and move them forward to find sustainable employment.  Achieve job and training outcome targets; conduct work focused interviews; continuously improve performance, quality and customer care.  Train and mentor customers throughout their journey on a 121 and group basis, including job search techniques, CV writing, interview skills.  Sign post them to 3rd party provision for help and support and ensure all paperwork is completed. 
Built up strong relationships with companies in and around the two centers in Chesterfield and Derby, in order to promote Seetec and the job matching and brokerage 	services we offer.  Managed four consultant’s calendars at a time dependent upon staff 	availability, worked very closely with district contracts managers within the ‘Prime’ providers of the Work Programme and Flexible New Deal Programme (A4e) in respect 	of Short and Sustained job claim outcomes and the respective financial payments.


As a Team Leader for MWA I am often faced with challenging situations where I often have to prioritise my workload and work to very tight deadlines. Where possible I pre-plan my day and focus immediately on high priority tasks making sure that the delivery of the contractual obligations are met with the highest standards, but at the same time providing support and guidance to MWA staff and keeping in constant communication with them. My duties often change during the day and I always remain calm and complete the all task within the time scale given.

In my previous experience as an Administrator I was the first point of contact for all clients and visitors, where I oversee the administrative function for the Work Programme. From taking all the referrals from Jobcentre Plus and managing advisors diaries to utilise available time while ensuring all data entered is correct and submitted to the appropriate department within the company or DWP timescale given and making sure that queries are dealt with and answered while offering excellent customer service.

I chose to leave Seetec as they did not provide enough flexibility for the role. They allow others to work from home but when me and my colleagues asked they said the company and contract does not allow for this. Management don’t chip in to help when cover is needed for appointments almost every single day. Everyday we are short staffed and overworked and absolutely exhausted from a days work. The admin work is heavy and you have to manually book appointments in and write notes for every single interaction with a participant. 
They offer no flexible contacts even part time and expect you to work in the office 5 days a week - they need to realise in this day and age, flexible working is very important.
Management don’t support with endless cover needed and all the employment advisors are overworked and unhappy. You barely get a break until lunch as you’re too busy covering everyone’s appointments as they don’t look after staff very well. 

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Employment advisor 4 salaries reported	£26,500 per year
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Customer relations representative 1 salary reported	£30,000 per year

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