Joshua Brown

In my most recent role as a client care co-ordinator at Whiskers Veterinary Practice, I excelled as part of the front of house team at a fast paced, high-standard independent veterinary practice. I also got to fulfill a dream of working with animals daily.

Like any front of house role, I was required to be the face of the business. As the first interaction any client will have with the service, it was essential that I was pleasant, an excellent communicator and efficient with information. For new clients, I needed to show them the merits of joining the practice and working with our team, ensure that leads were followed through on and be very welcoming. For existing and long term clients, building rapport and going above and beyond was essential. I built trust and familiarity, and even at times closeness, with many clients at the practice. This level of trust and putting their needs and experience first allowed me to deliver the highest standard of service and resulted in great client and job satisfaction.

I also built valuable connections within the team, making real friendships and supporting colleagues in a way that benefited the business greatly as well as my own and others' well-being. It was often commented by clients how much they liked to visit the practice because it seemed like the team genuinely liked being there and each other; and that's because we genuinely did. I feel proud to have participated in building such a healthy and effective culture.

Some unique but welcome challenges posed by the particular environment include a need for delicacy and compassion. Clients were trusting us with the health and well-being of their pets, which I (and they) would consider to be family members. It was imperative that I handled these matters with the utmost care, clarity and respect. Clients, understandably, would often be visiting with heightened anxiety and fear. This required me to be highly skilled in helping to manage this and still ensure client satisfaction. And, on a human level, to help them feel comfortable and at ease whilst in difficult situations. This was particularly important when it came to end of life care, where all of the above was extra challenging and important; but also meaningful and valuable work.

Finally, I also performed tasks on top of the front of house duties. Including but not limited to: Running the social media pages of the practice. Putting in insurance claims for clients and resolving any complications and issues arising. Marketing for client acquisition and also putting systems in place for client retention.

I absolutely loved my time at Whiskers and all of the people there. I have made friends I hope to keep for life and been part of something I can be really proud of.

At H.B. Carpentry and Plastering, I undertook the role of sole company administrator at a local carpentry company.

The business was previously run by only the owner, who was trying to juggle both the labour and administrative sides of the business; thus recruited me to help ease his workload.

In my short time there, I developed a number of systems including a programme of works, pay schedule and balancing.

As it was a work from home position, I had to be very self-motivated and driven in order to ensure work is complete.

I've also had to be completely self-sufficient, as solely responsible for not only completing, but establishing administrative duties.

In this role I proved that I'm able to take all of my experience and apply it proactively.

Through proving myself in my time at South Devon Dental, and an interview and presentation process, I earned the secondment role of Front of House Supervisor at their sister practice in Torquay.

Here I had to develop new skills in terms of leadership. Although at the time of starting I had only one receptionist working under me, there were still many challenges. I had to learn to balance being diligent, ensuring work was completed in a timely and sufficient manner, whilst also not being overbearing and having trust in my staff.

There were multiple times I had to step out of my comfort zone, for example when delivering disciplinary meetings. This was very difficult for me as my usual focus is pleasing my colleagues and staff and keeping everybody happy. However, there were occasions where I instead had to enforce high standards, which although at first was a challenge, I became comfortable with and overcame.

This role ultimately taught me a lot about how to lead, and bolstered my ability to optimize and create systems for the benefit of the business and my colleagues under my own proactivity.

In my role at South Devon Dental, I proved myself to be a huge asset to a growing team in a changing environment. I delivered excellent service to our patients and clinicians.

With patients, I had a superb manner and built genuine rapport and relationships with many of them. I am often asked for and referenced directly by name in reviews due to these bonds and my service.

I was always available to and enthusiastic about assisting my colleagues in matters menial and grand. The same could be said for management, where I never turned down the opportunity to help the practice in any and all areas.

I was also hugely reliable to our clinicians, who are always confident in coming to me when they need a task completed. I always did so promptly and with accuracy.

I also proved myself able to lead, both directly and by example. I feel my other colleagues can rely on me for advice, support and levity.

My I.T. ability was proven invaluable to the practice, as I was always the go to for computer and internet issues, as well as the creation of spreadsheets and displays.

I made lifelong friendships in a fantastic team and participated in a growning business.

I started at Idverde (formerly KJT Group) as a part time general administrator. My role was primarily menial office work including filing, scanning and taking phone calls. During my short time in this role I quickly proved my value with the quality of my work and excellent manner with received calls. I received more responsibilities including getting all of our employee HR files updated and digitised, monitoring and investigating fuel card usage (or misuse as was often the case) and having total responsibility over numerous administrative processes. I believe this shows my attentiveness and organisation skills as well as my ability to juggle multiple tasks.

After proving myself an asset, I was offered the role of receptionist. I maintained my previous responsibilities however I was now being asked to take charge of ordering office supplies, personal protective equipment for our operatives and answering the phone line alone.

Incoming calls could often be complaints, sensitive information or important messages, showing my ability to navigate difficult circumstances. I was able to efficiently and accurately fulfill a role previously occupied by 2 employees, proving my ability to work well under pressure and organize systems efficiently. I also proved my excellent people skills through building good relationships with suppliers and others.

Whilst in this role I was frequently asked to complete tasks for various departments outside of my usual purview; such as creating spreadsheets to better organise systems, taking responsibility for various necessary paperwork and vehicle tracking and timesheets. This required me to be adaptive and engaged as I'd be constantly learning about other aspects of the company and learning as I worked.

Due to my speed and accuracy whilst assisting with timesheets, I was given the role of payroll assistant. This added the responsibility of obtaining and tracking up to 70 timesheets per week, calculating the hours, getting them approved by managers, resolving any difficulties as well as keeping an accurate record of any outstanding. I also monitor and draw data from our programme of works to ensure accuracy. This data is then input by myself into payroll in order to calculate payment for our many employees.

This requires a great deal of patience and concentration, as any mistake would result in an unacceptable error in pay. Tracking upwards of 70 timesheets a week can be mentally draining, thus keeping concentration is key, as well as excellent timekeeping in order to ensure that all of my other duties are carried out with the same high degree of quality.

Finally, after proving myself once again, I was offered the role (on top of my previous) of contract administrator. This added billing for work to my list of responsibilities. Each week, I sent a billing sheet with prices for all works that we'd completed in the previous week to head office, from which they created invoices to send to our clients. I used quotes, our programme of works and client communication to build the sheets. This often involved chasing for required information. Of course, absolute accuracy was required. Any incorrect billing resulted in difficulties not just in administrative workload but in client relations. Timeliness was also paramount as late payments would have a similar effect as incorrect ones. I also had to maintain and build monthly applications that are sent directly to clients, requiring all of the aforementioned traits over a period of multiple weeks.

Finally, I became the sole Payroll administrator of our depot as of my manager leaving the company. I handled the process of paying upwards of 70 employees from start to finish and even implemented new systems to increase productivity and accuracy. In taking this role I had to gain an even higher degree of accuracy, competence and adaptability. I absolutely met this challenge and overcame all obstacles, ultimately proving my ability now in no uncertain terms.

My primary role at the surgeries was the scanning of documents sent from hospitals and other agencies (both internal and external to the NHS) onto the electronic system; this further entailed allocating them to doctors for them to deal with as appropriate. Due to the nature of the role, I had to scan a large amount of documents (between 200 and ­300 a day) whilst ensuring that each one went onto the correct patient's records (of which we have over 10,000). This was done in order to be seen by the appropriate doctor to ensure apt and appropriate care. As a result, a very high degree of speed, efficiency and accuracy was required of me. Failure to meet these standards could lead to a patient not receiving the care that they needed in an appropriate amount of time or indeed at all, thus my meeting them was essential.

Additionally, I helped to improve some of the systems in place at the surgeries in order to ensure an appropriate division of workload and that timely action is taken in response to communications.

I also carried out reception duties when covering for other staff members in case of absences or annual leave. This required an ability to cope in high-pressure situations, as the flow of calls is often continuous. Due to the nature of the NHS, the patients can be very demanding, meaning that a high degree of communication skills and adaptability, when presented with a query I hadn't previously encountered, was necessary. On top of that, we were asked to do peripheral tasks when on reception such as calling patients at home and inviting them into the surgery, which allowed me to develop my communication skills. As a result of dealing with high demand and low supply in terms of doctors appointments, patients were often very irritable and part of my role was providing an appropriate reaction to that, whether it be directing them to the correct service or finding an alternate solution to their demand or dealing with aggression.

Finally, I had to perform multiple more menial roles around both surgeries, including making hot drinks for other members of staff, the transport of necessary items between surgeries and much more. An excellent relationship with all of my co-workers and superiors was built and I thoroughly enjoy my interactions with them.