Change Support Assistant Review

I currently work within the South Wales Change Delivery team and my job title is Change Support Assistant. I am accountable for supporting the delivery of rectifications into Cardiff's head office liasing with the stakeholders of the Onboarding Team who will assess the rectification and provide feedback to the Donor business area before we will operationalise the rectification. I will be accountable for calling out operational risks and issues and ensure they are worked through with the relevant stakeholders. A great job to be involved with due to the amount of exposure to different business areas and the ability to display an array of skills.

Within my role, I have been able to pick up a host of new skills and been able to develop my current skillset massively over the 2 years having worked for the bank and within Change. I have been able to attend a number of internal training sessions from Stakeholder Management to an excellent internal 2 part training course around understanding your service and how you can benefit the customer which gave a really good spin on some projects to ensure we are doing the right thing for our customers. As I was new to bank when I joined the apprenticeship, I was able to learn a lot of softer skills and work on them which on reflection have been a massive help to understand why businesses work certain ways and being able to identify and understand how to handle certain stakeholders.

I love the programme, I enjoy working for Lloyds Banking Group. I am 21 years old so definitely a great company to get in with from an early age as there is plenty of opportunity for progression. The colleagues/leaders are all well mannered and treat you with respect which makes me enjoy work a lot more.

Incredibly valued. Lloyds Banking Group offer a number of different benefits that are available for colleagues within LBG. I enjoy the recognition provided for when a task is done well as I feel like this drives you to continue to deliver on your day to day tasks. I believe that going forward, I will always be a valued member of Lloyds Banking Group

In regards to work load whilst I was completing my apprenticeship, I would say the tasks and induction was set up very well. Our induction we were sat down and each task was broke down into the relevant sections which we were expected to complete. I was able to get involved pretty swiftly with members of the Change Team ensuring I was able to ask the relevant questions and attend meetings to get a better understanding of certain projects. I was allowed ample time to complete my apprenticeship work and my line manager was very keen to have updates of progress. Unfortunately we had a few hiccups in the middle due to our apprenticeship assessor having to go on maternity leave so we had a slight delay in getting a new assessor aligned but once Adele was brought on board. Progress continued sharply.

When I was completing my apprenticeship, I was able to email my assesor at any point and definitely received the information I would of expected. I would of liked to have seen a smoother handover from assessor to assessor to reduce that delay in completing our apprenticeship work but support when it was set up was great, open and honest communication from both sides.

As I said previously, I received great support from my employer, I was allowed ample time to complete my apprenticeship workbooks. I was also able to ask my line manager any questions I had about my apprenticeship work and it didn't seem like I wasn't doing my day to day tasks which I feel like worked best as it supported me. I was also able to discuss my apprenticeship within my 1-2-1 sessions with my line manager who was very keen to get updates of progress.

I feel like my salary is great for somebody my age, I feel like travel costs are expected in todays world of work so I manage to work it into my budget. I love working in the centre of Cardiff as it is easier for me to run a number of errands whilst on lunch. I feel like my salary is not as competitive to similar roles within the bank whereas I know they have a band difference (3-6k difference). All in all, I'm comfortable with my salary and benefits package I receive.

Lloyds Banking Group are involved in a huge variety of community based schemes. There are a number of programmes that you can volunteer for, the Schools Engagement Programme has been pushed massively over the last few weeks which I feel is great. I know as a school pupil, I valued having visitors from the bank to host talks as I feel like it is a vital part of learning from a young age. I was also able to volunteer to attend a photoshoot in Bristol's Canons House and these pictures have been used on Our Values page which was a great networking opportunity.

Yes

I enjoy the culture that Lloyds Banking Group has, I feel like everybody works together as part of one overall team which is definitely the best I've seen in the places I've worked previously. I feel like the leadership takes ownership of matters and deal with them effectively and I feel like you can express how you feel and offer ideas to whoever the stakeholder and they will be listened to.

Take your time, ensure that you read the questions carefully and understand them before answering. If you are successful with your application then do not hold back on asking "stupid" questions. Believe me, if you ask them, I'm sure you will not be the only person in the room wondering what the answer is. If you like to have focus on your own career development then you will love Lloyds Banking Group as your place to work.