To start with I looked at the companies in my local area that did graphic design as that is my specalisiam, I found 4 companies that were close enough by that I would be able to walk to them: AK Creation, Splat Webworks, The Creation Lab and RICOH.
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services are Website Design, Graphic design and marketing.
According to their linkedin page they have 10 employees
They have worked with many large companies and have a very professional website
Services are website design, Graphic design, Marketing and SEO
Seems they changed their name
Can't find much information on the company other than what they provide.
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Services are website design, video production, SEO, Social Media, Apps, and Great Creative Subscriptions.
According to their website they have 12+ people on their team (no linkedin profile)
They have worked with Bluewater (the shopping center) and the NHS.
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Printing and scanning service
Japanese company
Not the headquarters that are nearby
Lots of large companies work with them including the NHS and production companies too.
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After I found out about the companies I went to send them an email, however most of the companies I looked into didnt have email addresses listed on their company websites the only one that did was AK Creations, This is the email I put together to send them to enquire about work experience.
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I however got no reply. I did try to contact them via phone as well, the only one of which answered that method was RICOH.
They told me I had to come in for a tester day before starting
So I decided to do my work experience with RICOH - on the tester day, they informed me that I needed to look up about the following things:
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Confidentiality: Confidentiality is the all about making sure you do not tell people about what you are working on as it is private information. When working in a place like medical records confidentiality would be not to disclose people's information without their consent.
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GDPR: GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is all about fair and proper use of information about people. Personal data means information on a particular living individual. This might be anyone, including a customer, client, employee, partner, member, supporter, business contact, public official or member of the public. It doesn't have to "private data" it can be public knowledge about that individual.
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Health and Safety: Health and safety is a big part of working in any job, if you work in an office health and safety includes the length of time one can go without a break from looking at a computer screen, to how the chairs are picked and how high the screens are. They also include if wires are trip hazards or anything else that can be considered dangerous. The most common piece of health and safety is making sure people know what to do in case of a fire.
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Moving and Handling: When working with large amounts of paperwork or heavy boxes, you have to keep in mind the way you move things as they could cause injuries. It the rules for moving and handling also include how many boxes high of things you can stack things.
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EDR: (Endpoint Detection and Response) This is a type of software that monitors company computers to make sure there isn't a threat. they do this by continuously monitoring the computer and then analysing what comes back. They do this to identify, detect, and prevent advanced threats.
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Punctuality: Being on time is very important when doing a job, If you are late, you should work overtime to make up the time you lost by being late however, some times that won't be doable as the office needs to close before you can make up the time you need to make up from being late, that's one of the reason why being on time is important. Another reason you need to be punctual is because your boss / employer / other employees you work with may need you around to do something and they won't be able to get the work done if your not there. You are liable to be fired if you are late often.
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Uniform: Uniform may be required for a job otherwise the clothing you wear to work must be appropriate. if your working in an office, its normally suits on a construction site however hard hats and fluorescent jackets are required. If you was to get injured because your clothing wasn't suited for the environment you was working in, it would be your fault rather then the companies.
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BSI: The BSI is the British Standards Institution. The company pays the BSI to hold accreditation, the BSI does inspections every year to make sure they are up to scratch, and if they pass the inspection they are given BSI certificate. This certificate allows them to destroy paperwork after an agreed retention period, it also allows the digital image to hold up in a court of law.
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Position – Production Operative
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I was working within a scanning team that carry out a set process
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1. Prepare - Remove all staples from paper work to make them able to be scanned into the computer, Page by page.
2. Scan - Scan each page in, one at a time making sure that they are the correct way up and some pages are double sided and could cause problems if put them in the wrong way round.
3. Assess scanned images (QA) - Make sure the scanned image is up to scratch and clear enough to read all text on the image, making sure that there are no places where the scan has missed an area and that all the information is present, the image is straight and the colours are correct if scanned in colour.
4. Name the document (Index) - Indexing is making sure the file name is correct for the file and make sure it fits with the other images that were scanned with it, Due to confidentiality I can't say the exact type of file name however I can say that they had to be correctly numbered and in order within the folder.
5. Place paper back into files (Reconstruct) - Put back any staples removed from documents so they can be shipped back to the company they came from,
In regards to recording the work carried out this cannot be delivered as the area is secure and data cannot be supplied externally from the site.
The daily duties included, removing staples to prepare paper to be placed into an industrial scanner. This required a lot of concentration, the task is very repetitive and it is important that the staples are removed cleanly from the paper as a staple could damage the lenses on the scanner. It was important that the paper order was maintained. We had set instructions given on how the customer wanted the file prepared
I was taught how to use a Fujitsu 6800 scanner which is a bulk scanner that can scan about 7,000 images a day. The scanner is smart it knows when there is colour on the paper and can then decide to give a colour image. Once it has scanned the paper the image is automatically rotated and straightened.
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Key skills for each task:
1. Prepare: Skills given (Accuracy, organisation, self motivation, Problem solving)
2. Scan: (Time management, working in a team, Diagnostics, Troubleshooting, KOFAX )
3. Assess scanned images (QA) (Eye for detail, concentration, Data mining, data analysis, Prioritising, Multitasking, KOFAX)
4. Name the document (Index) (Data input, Documentation, Record keeping, Maintaining targets, KOFAX )
5. Place paper back into files (Reconstruct) (Accuracy, organisation, self motivation, Problem solving, Team work)
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DAY 1
Today was my first day, I started by making an introduction to my "co-workers". My manager then talked me thru the work for today after checking that I had an understanding of the topics I was told to research on the tester day. She then showed me the process and explaining to me why we had to do it in such a way. The reason we have to remove the staples is because they could damage the lenses on the scanners. Keeping the papers in order was also important. By having my manager show me exactly what to do meant I was less likely to mess up the method they used to remove the staples.
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I didn't exactly enjoy the job as it was tedious and super repetitive. I did however understand why it was important for this step to be done so it didn't feel like a waste of time.
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Day 2
Today my manager showed me how to use the scanner, at first I found it super complicated as the scanner is a very diffrent piece of tech to my usual tech. The scanner scanned the pages super quickly and made a lot of noise, especially since there were multiple of them running at once, however once that document was scanned, that was all I had to do for that document and it was up to someone else to QC (quality check) it.
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I did have a few problems with the scanner as it was a little confusing at first due to the fact there are a lot of buttons on it. I pressed the wrong one a few times while i was trying to get used to it, so i ended up having to redo a few documents to fix the problems scanning it in wrong created
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Later in the day my manager called me in to talk about how I was finding it and if I had any problems, I informed her of what happened and she commended me for figuring it out and asking for assistance with my problem from another member of the team.
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Day 3
Each day they seem to be teaching me another step of the process, it's interesting but its very quick paced in here, Since the job they are giving me experience in covers all these different processes it makes sense to me. The QA was difficult checking each document against what was on the screen in a quick manner was difficult, trying to make sure the copy was exactly as was shown on the document isn't the easiest thing after all. Making sure the image was perfectly clear, straight and in colour if needed.
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I couldn't work as fast as the other employees who had more experience then me working on this kind of thing however I did give it a good effort tho It did make me feel a little slow, which I did didn't like.
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Day 4
Today I was making sure the file names were correct, Since i'm not used to the system I had to ask for a lot of help with this step, Because the names had to make sense yet my common sense for file names may not be common sense for someone else. In the morning I watched as one of the other employees did this step of the process and they explained to me why the file names were written the way they were written and then showed me where the digital file would be stored, then they asked me to try one while they supervised.
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We had another meeting this afternoon talking about how I was finding it, While I found the work tedious I could see the work was broken down into the steps to make it easier.
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Day 5
Final day and today I did the opposite of what I did on the first day, Today I am putting the staples back into to the paperwork, so it can be sent back to the company it came from. It was very boring, Suffice to say by the end of today, I did not want to see another staple.
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This work experience isn't really creative it is a way into the company and could help me get a job in another company and help them get to know me in the future. Which could lead to doing a more creative job.
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