Senior Product Governance Manager Review

I'm in Product Management, looking after governance which involves managing the product lifecycle and resolving risks and issues for the product team as well as getting involved in projects, improving customer journeys, assisting with customer complaints and product queries from frontline colleagues. I prepare and progress monthly governance meetings, deal with many stakeholders, and line manage and coach various individuals.

The coaching apprenticeship helped me consolidate and build on my existing coaching skills whilst learning new techniques and methods, increasing the amount of tools for my coaching toolkit. This has increased both my confidence and delivery enabling me to coach others more effectively by being curious and non-judgemental, as well as it helping with various aspects of my work life.

I really enjoyed the programme, it was difficult to start with due to lots of learning about so many different models mainly through online learning. It was only when we did the classroom sessions that everything started to slot together and more so when we began doing coaching circles where we were then able to put what we'd learnt into practice and these sessions really added value, whilst being interesting and fun.

The programme wasn't structured in the best way to start with but after providing feedback, they took that on board and improved the sessions, even changing the instructor and everything was so much better after that. My skills coach also changed during the process and I found that also helped as I ended up with a more experienced coach able to challenge and encourage me to progress throughout the apprenticeship.

My employer and particularly my line manager were super supportive, from actively encouraging participation in the apprenticeship to freeing up my time from business as usual activities so that I could adhere to the 20% off job hours and undertake the learning and activities needed to complete the apprenticeship. They checked in with me regularly to see how I was progressing and what support and help I needed to balance everything.

The support provided from the new classroom trainer we had was excellent, he provided lots of support during the sessions and made everything very relatable. He also provided informal sessions that we could join so as to undertake further coaching circles practice and supported sessions that our group of apprentices set up to share knowledge whilst doing the online learning together as a group. He also provided insights into what we needed for our End Point Assessments constantly throughout. In addition, I was assigned a Skills Coach to act as a mentor and coach during the apprenticeship undertaking frequent reviews of my progress and providing help and support as needed. The Skills Coach I had for doing my end point assessment was truly amazing and really helped me to finish the apprenticeship during a particularly stressful timeframe.

It increased my confidence and belief in myself as a person and in my abilities. It made me realise how much I love coaching others and seeing them work out or discover things for themselves when they have a 'lightbulb' moment by challenging them to think differently. It's also helped improve my life and work balance as I stay in the coaching role and don't take on additional workloads outside of my remit. This improves my time management as I don't do their work for them and I focus on the priority items I need to be working on.

HSBC has many community groups and employee resource groups that anyone can be involved in so there is something for everyone and these provide a range of support and networking opportunities. There are plenty of opportunities for volunteering locally or nationally, on your own or as part of a group and you get up to 2 days in work time you can use for volunteering. They also provide matching donations through the £ for £ scheme. On a social side, there are sports teams and plenty of social activities you can choose to join in with from a team, department or area perspective.

Yes

HSBC is a great place to work with so many opportunities available as you would expect from a global organisation. They are very supportive to staff with a wide range of benefits available from benefit packages you can opt into, flexible working arrangements, training and apprenticeship options, as well as lunch and learn sessions where they provide information on issues, money worries, tax changes, retirement planning and more to help staff increase awareness and take action. HSBC has a great culture, it empowers and builds trust and the varied people and teams you interact with on a daily basis make this such a great place to work.

Be yourself and demonstrate how your values align to HSBC values and the strong people focused culture. Show that you have a customer, colleague, community, change, conduct and commercial driven attitude in order to deliver the best outcomes, being risk aware and taking responsibility for your own development so that you continue to grow and develop.