Continuing from her first Blog, Kelly (our new apprentice) continues to talk about her experiences working with us at Principal. In this entry she talks about getting paid, settling in and why if you receive an email about automatic enrolment….you should really open it for her sake!

Just last month (3rd November to be precise) I celebrated my one month “Jobiversary” as an apprentice.

My first ever month at work with plenty more months to go, and what comes at the end of each month? Pay day! So of course I went out to celebrate and done a bit of shopping, nothing has ever felt better than being able to hop on the bus and go shopping, spending my own money that I earned myself. Not having to rely on anyone for money was the best feeling ever, although it would have been nice to make it last a little longer…

It’s been busy at work with one thing in particular, any guesses? Yes that’s right more work around helping our clients with auto enrolment (I’m pretty sure I don’t have to explain what “Auto Enrolment” means….especially if you’ve read any of Chris’s blogs).

So, I’ve spent a decent amount of time working on these projects for Chris.

Imagine this….a spreadsheet containing the details of 1000 people (for one particular employer). Under each name it showed who had opened their email, who hadn’t opened it, who hadn’t received it and who didn’t give an email address.

My role was to ensure that we we’re aware of everyone who hadn’t opened the email (or hadn’t provided an email address) and ensure they were aware of auto enrolment!

I think overall there were 90 something separate documents and over 400 names to sort through This isn’t as simple as it sounds.

I sent them over only to have them ring me and tell me the date was wrong on every single document and therefore I had to go through each document and change the date.

Please (to help make my life and the lives of the people doing this type of work easier) if you ever receive an email titled auto enrolment PLEASE open it and read it!

So typically what do office assistants usually do?

They answer the phone and make calls, to everyone this isn’t a big deal, and I wish it wasn’t to me either.

However everyone that knows me, knows that I can’t speak to save my life, I mean I can speak but I’m just probably the quietest person you’ve ever met.

So when it comes to making phone calls I’ve previously done whatever I can to avoid it…However I’m working hard to ensure that I’m getting better.

Give me a couple of months and I’ll be a pro!

As I write this my third month as an apprentice is nearly over and I think I’m finally settling into my job role, although of course, Chris still continues to throw me into the deep end every now and then, but like I’ve said before it means that I’m getting loads of different experiences. Also can’t wait to go out and celebrate the rest of my ‘jobiversaries!’

I’m sure next month will be just as varied as the past two months.

However for now there’s only one thing left to say…

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!