Sarah Ticherou

Best Practice

I am just back from Athens following a successful Best Practice Management Board meeting at the Embassy. Great management speak – but what’s that you might ask? Well it’s all to do with the Consular Change Strategy 2007-10, where we are aiming provide a high level of service globally. Part of the vision is to maintain a worldwide “consular operation focussed on our customers, delivering support to British Nationals abroad to the highest possible standards of quality professionalism, consistency and efficiency”

How does this translate on the ground? Basically, we need to ensure we are all working to the same standard across Greece. Someone going into the Consulate in Corfu, for example, should get exactly the same response from the Consulate in Rhodes. So, how do we make this a reality? Well the Embassy regularly brings together consular colleagues from the 9 posts in the network to discuss how we work and make sure we’re giving the same level of service to all our customers. We look at the main areas of our roles and share ideas and thoughts. Personally I have found it interesting to discover the variety of issues each area face and how these can vary depending on location, differences in local politics, infrastructure, island geography or even just personalities in a particular resort. The board split up into small groups and look at a specific topic using research methods and come suggestions of how to improve things. For example, how we to help the family of someone who has passed away overseas. What is key though is how we follow-up on suggestions and ensure they are being implemented as agreed. Sounds like something for a future blog….

Posted at 07:15 07 November 2008 by Sarah Ticherou  |  Comments[0]

Training

When I started it was agreed that the best way to get a taste for the job would be to spend time shadowing in various Consulates. So my first week was spent in Athens, Crete and Rhodes with the vice-consuls and their teams. The benchmark was set and it was clear that I would have to work hard to reach their level. I also visited Majorca for a week and that gave an interesting insight into how many ways the Spanish and Greek networks are similar, but also how each area has its own quirks.

Then lots of on-the-job training and managing a busy post in Corfu gave me a solid foundation. But I knew it would still be necessary for me to attend a formal consular assistance-training course. The FCO place a huge amount of emphasis on ensuring that all staff have access to training and support in order to be able to do their job to the best of their ability. Not only do they train new recruits but they ensure that on-going training is available for all regardless of how long you have worked for them.

I have to admit that I was somewhat apprehensive about attending a course. My previous training courses in the travel industry had been somewhat varied in delivery style and content, and having actually trained staff before, I was wondering whether there would be any similarities. In addition, my pre-conceived ideas of the FCO did make me wonder whether the course would involve lots of being ‘talked to’ and little room for active participation.

Once the course dates were agreed, I was given an info pack that explained the overall course objectives and then the objective per session. As with most companies these days, we have a type of best practice, which gives us guidance on how to do our job. The majority of the course was ensuring that we had a full understanding of this guidance but I was also interested to see that there was a lot of the course dedicated to customer service skills. Dealing with the public, in often difficult and distressing situations, is a major part of the consular role and I was keen to see how they would address this.

So with bags packed, I set off for a 5-day intensive course in Warsaw.

Posted at 08:34 10 September 2008 by Sarah Ticherou  |  Comments[1]