Are you thinking, is it good enough?

The first week is complete. I am experiencing very surprising emotions; relief and excitement simultaneously. Admittedly when I spoke to my supervisor before I entered Workpower Incorporated, she seemed amazing, lovely and stimulating all at the same time. I just hoped these characteristics were going to hold when I met her face to face. To my dismay...and relief, they did! Julia is great, she has helped me every step of the way; with her positive nature and creative flare I feel this will be smooth sailing, fingers crossed!

I think the one thing that an intern worried about is – ‘is it good enough?’

That was my major concern.

Julia has been very encouraging telling me I am doing really well and my first week she seemed surprised in how it is all going. I came back today with a positive spirit and ready to work on my next project. Ok I have got all wrapped up in how my emotions are doing; let’s talk business.

To really understand how Workpower works was to go into the workshop and see what happens. For a quick overview: Workpower is one of Western Australia's leading community benefits organisations, providing a range of support services and programs for people with disability and people with mental illness. I firstly spent a day reading their policies, procedures and communications to understand what is going on and where they were at. That was slightly overwhelming but I knew it would all come together eventually.

I walked down the corridor where the workers were delighted to see me – some of the workers who are disabled rarely get to see new faces so it’s exciting. I had a quick look around and one of the ladies, Sue, told me not to be nervous because they sense it and will jump on you even harder, I thought this was funny. She just told me not to treat them any different as I would her. Which is fair enough but it is hard when you are never around people with disabilities, they were lovely though. I understood by the way Sue spoke to me how much she cared and loved her job.

I was then set to analyse their internal communications survey which had been completed this month. No doubt in every work place there are glitches, problems, people who complain and most of all, there are always things to improve on. There are many divisions inside Workpower that include various sites across Perth. So we analysed these according to site, as there would obviously changing perspectives and opinions according to the site. As expected, ideas and values differed immensely; I read through each response and provided a summary for each person in each division. I then provided a rundown of the whole company and recommendations I felt could improve some problems that existed. This was a little time consuming but I did not want to do it half heartedly, I wanted to go through each opinions thoroughly as it wouldn’t be fair to bypass one person’s problem and not another’s.

As Workpower is a non for profit organisation we have also been thinking of doing some free advertising and or marketing on some community radio stations. So we touched on that Friday, sending a few emails out to gauge the response; Curtin FM seems to be the most expensive by a long shot! Does anyone know if I get discount because I go there?

Anyway, we got a few positive responses - including a RTR FM representative emailing me asking if she could come into our office later in the week! Perfect.

Until Next time....

J. Shea

Jessica Shea

Curtin Bentley