A Day in the Life of… an Employee Experience Manager

So last week, we were lucky enough to read about a day in the life of OD Professional, Reanna Browne. Congratulations to Reanna because she has also just been nominated for the Dave Ulrich HR Rising Star of the Year Award!

And here’s Megan’s story:

Every day at RedBalloon is an experience, like no other workplace I have ever experienced (excuse the pun). People often ask what an ‘Employee Experience Manager’ is and why I’m not the ‘Human Resources Manager’. Well, I have a simple explanation for that. I am a firm believer in the evolution of traditional HR to the Employee Experience. It’s about how people experience organisations (their roles, their days, their peers and their leaders) and not how they are managed as resources as a means to an end. Plus, I’m an employee too and I love the feeling that when I come to work (my 2nd family) our values are lived and experienced every day.

This is a snapshot of a recent day:

6.30am Alarm goes off, however this is followed by a 30 minute snooze fight with my iPhone and 30 minutes of being walked over by my cat – she gets hungry early… then out the door by 7.30am.
7.45am Email check, although I am now fully equipped with an iPad (a recent gift to everyone in the company!) so I may have already checked my emails the night before so I know what I am expecting when I get in.
8.15am Communicate to all RedBallooners about our very exciting 10th Birthday Party.
8.30am Time for some office construction – with a few new IT contractors joining us we need to build some new desks (who said working in Employee Experience was a desk bound role? Not me!) Thanks to Ally my wonderful Employee Experience Assistant – they are built in a flash. Then the much anticipated new fridge arrives.
9.15am Now back at my desk, time to source a new external training course for our Finance Manager – getting an understanding of the what, when and who she needs.
10.00am Then a conversation with our Customer Excellence Manager, Aliessa, about rolling out a key part of her Customer Love Strategy – involving the whole company in ‘A day in the life of a Customer Experience Consultant’ (everyone will sit in on the phones for a day between now and Christmas) and discuss a few new initiatives to be rolled out to the team.
12.15pm A quick lunch break – fresh air and a walk around Pyrmont is a must!
1.00pm Now heading out and about with our Corporate Engagement Consultant, James, to an external client meeting.
3.30pm Back in the office and spend 30 minutes reviewing our soon to be rolled out new performance management system ‘Small Improvements’. Create a few more test users and provide feedback on final changes.
4.30pm Last thing for the day (I sometimes like to save the best for last!) is completing reference checks for our new Online Contract Designer – Nicole. All goes well, so an exciting phone call to offer her the role. She is really excited about starting with us, and even more excited by the invitation to our 10 year birthday party (happening the Friday night before she starts). Then our Marketing Manager Jean and current Senior Designer Alex follow-up my call with a congratulations call – by now Nicole is over the moon! Prepare her contract and send it on its way. Very excited about our newest RedBallooner joining the team.

So a full day complete. A newbie coming on board, progressing on a few new projects and a bit of construction – I promise no 2 days as ever the same! Heading home involves waiting for my husband (I am forever grateful for my pick up service) & after 3.5 years in my role I can truly say I am really excited about coming back tomorrow.