Work, Uni, 1v1

Discuss the types of task you perform? How are you using content knowledge learned at uni in the workplace? What have you found surprising about the tasks performed in the workplace?

As part of OE within the Financial Management Group, my team works to utilise opportunities to improve efficiency, quality and reduce risk for all work produced within FMG. We put in place a variety of tools including Visual Management Boards (VMB), SIPOCs, Visual Stream Maps (VSM) and the Benefits Tracker to pinpoint where improvements can and have been made to either BAU or ad-hoc tasks.

VMB: Used to track Key Performance Indicators for teams across FMG, I work with teams to develop their workload management and continuous improvement strategies. My team members attend daily huddles to assess how different teams utilise their VMB and how it can be altered to bring more efficient and effective ways of completing tasks. Often I will help teams set up this tool or aid the smooth transition of its implementation into the everyday rhythm of work. For example, I might collate and analyse the data collected for a specific KPI and discuss solutions to any issues blocking the realisation of the target goal. 

SIPOC: With the purpose of developing a high level understanding of what teams do and what is produced, I often work with my supervisor to create SIPOCs (similar to a flowchart) of a variety of processes across all FMG teams. These SIPOCs help to narrow down the specific inputs and outputs of a process and are used to determine which steps are painful and where opportunities for improvement can be taken advantage of. Being able to work with other functions and learn about the tasks that they perform has been an all-round rewarding opportunity as I have been able to pool knowledge about a range of operations within the organisation. 

VSM: The mapping is used to gather quite a comprehensive set of information for every step in a process, to explicitly find pain points and opportunities for improvement for every aspect of a task. I work with teams to apply this tool and again search for ways to enhance process fluidity and reduce the effort required to produce deliverables of equal or higher standard. 

Headcount and Benefits Tracker: My work on the FMG headcount document and benefits tracker is more cyclical than my other responsibilities. I have been assigned the monthly task of formatting and consolidating these two documents which form the basis of a number of presentations (which can also be my responsibility to create), for senior Macquarie members (including the CFO!) to review the progress of Operational Excellence. 

Ad-hoc: I will often be allocated other ad-hoc tasks mainly to compile and analyse improvements ideas from different teams. These outputs are used as information to bring back to teams, who are consulted to formulate the best strategies to continue the roll out of OE.
My work at Macquarie has been very relevant to the concepts and content knowledge explored in ACCT2522. The definition of Management Accounting states that it is the processes and techniques that focus on the effective and efficient use of organisational resources, to support managers in their tasks of enhancing both customer value and shareholder value. This very idea encapsulates the work the OE team works to implement across all FMG teams as I have explained above. Very similar ideologies are used to aid the progression of the organisation.

In the FMG Town Hall, while not specific to my own workload, it was announced that there was a tentative need to understand Basel IV, if it comes to be. The governance standards (Basel II) looked at in FINS1612 have clear practical implications in the workplace. This broadened my awareness of the very real applications and relevance of the theoretical work we study at university. While employees often speak of the heavy on-the-job training and relatively low level of correlation between university theory and workplace knowledge, I find it comforting to know that university does play a significant part to building up of business knowledge and understanding. 

The most surprising aspect of my work at Macquarie is the vast reach of the work I produce. While this increases the level of accountability I have for my work, I feel a level of excitement that there is a visible impact to the work my team completes. Being a newly formed and widely publicised team, there has been patches of cynicism with the payoff of the work completed. However, my team has been well-received by the functions and has been able to demonstrate results that have surpassed initial expectations.