A day in the life of a Personal Adviser

By Selone Ajewole, Lone Parent Personal Adviser, Southwark Single Parent Team 

An average day in the life of a Personal Adviser is truly multi-faceted. It generally begins with a team Kick Off (a meeting which starts the day) at 8:30am sharp which entails us updating our target board (job starts, registrations, interviews and retentions) and making sure that we have pipeline business in hand. Our support staff such as the Recruitment Manager often discusses his current vacancies and we all take it in turns to describe our schedule for the day.

Throughout the day I have appointments booked in with members in which, depending on their current stage in terms of job readiness, I work with them in order to help them to be closer to suitable sustainable employment. This may involve for some members interview preparation sessions or cold calling lessons, or for others it may mean dealing with complex barriers such as Housing Benefit/Income Support issues as well as domestic problems. At each appointment with each member we conduct a job search session alongside the other tasks. My mission is to empower my members with the tools to search for work independently and always highlight the fruitfulness of the 50:50 relationship if both member and PA meet their obligations.

I also do JobCentre Plus visits in which I go to Kennington Job Centre and liaise with potential members about the benefits of joining Reed in Partnership in their quest to find work. Whilst I am not seeing members I am usually conducting my own personal Business Development, subbing members to jobs/The Journey (our pre-employability course), creating CVs, making retention calls, dealing with drop ins or telephone queries, admin or updating Constellation (our internal database). The day normally ends with Kick Down (a meeting which ends the day) in which we speak about the events of the day, again update the board if need be and voice any concerns or success stories we may have. 

The aforementioned points are an average day in my life as a PA but it is by no means limited to these tasks. The ideal PA needs to be able to multi-task, build up rapport with members and be empathetic to their needs all whilst achieving the targets set by our Operations Manager.

I am encouraged and satisfied by the fact that I am in a position to contribute to a given individual making positive changes to their life.

Selone Ajewole