Back to School

This month colleagues from across the Technology business have gone into schools as ‘floorwalkers’, an extra pair of hands to help our engineers at the start of term. It’s an opportunity to get insight from the front line about how we design our products and services in the first place. Some of our volunteer’s share their stories.

Frances Forgan, Head of Product for Software, told us “First impression of arriving at the school was that it’s a lot nicer than he one I went to! It’s a new school with nice new facilities and a very open and airy feel. I spent the day in the IT office with the engineers speaking to teachers and students as they came in with their queries, noting down their issues and passing them to the engineer. I also got a tour of the school and got to see some of the technology they use, from large touch screens in the classroom to recording and drama studios with specialist sound and lighting.”

Ann White, Internal Comms and Engagement was impressed by the variety the engineers had to deal with “The thing that made the biggest impact on me was just how different issues our engineers have to deal with. The team that I was working with had to deal with everything from connectivity problems to printers not working to projectors projecting upside down images to no one being able to access voicemail.  Despite the pressure they were under they took everything in their stride, managed work across the team, and (most impressively of all in my opinion!) were patient, polite and helpful to every student they spoke to. My contribution was to help with their internal comms and to programme a box of new projector remote controls – a time consuming but essential job!”

Every day our engineers are out in schools, helping teachers and students across the country to get their IT working for teaching and learning. The day can start with a teacher knocking on the IT office door because they can’t access their class register and throughout the say they ‘ll be dealing with problems with laptops, desktops, phones printers and projectors. If it’s the start of term, there are plenty of password resets as well.

Our engineers have to be flexible and responsive and the services they deliver has a major impact on how customers perceive RM. So, when we need to, we invite colleagues from across RM to be floorwalkers – a reassuring and visible presence on site to support staff and students.