Alex Sisley works as an analyst for the IET’s Performance and Planning Team, which sits within the organisation’s Finance directorate. This department reports back the performance of the business to senior managers, in order to help them make the right decisions to move their departments, or the organisation overall, forward.
“If they have a clearer idea of their business area’s performance and their income and expenditure, then they can use this information to better guide their next steps,” Alex says.
A fair bit of Alex’s time is spent in meetings with different customers throughout the business, but Alex and his manager primarily support the Knowledge Services and Solutions (KSS) directorate, which involves creating and analysing their core financial reports.
“The IET is also supporting me with relevant professional qualifications – I’m currently studying for the Chartered Institute of Management’s (CIMA) accounting qualification. The support and opportunities within the organisation are vast.”
“Things like monthly accounts and budgets, from which we create a forecast that allows them to see how close they are to staying within their budgets and the predicted amount of income and expenditure they have throughout the year,” he explains.
Beyond this, Alex is also there to provide any additional analysis work that will help the KSS teams to “reach their full potential”.
“This could be looking at the occupancy of different venues and helping the venues team to target specific customers, or digging into the Communities team’s volunteer expenditure to get a better sense of where their resources are going and if these are the best possible places, for example.”
As well as the “bread and butter reporting”, as he calls it, Alex takes these very complex reports and range of data and contextualises them in a way that makes it easy for his colleagues to understand the key information.
“One of the things I enjoy the most about my role is having these conversations with internal customers and senior team members. I get so much satisfaction out of first doing the hard work with the data sets and then finding ways to effectively communicate this information to the staff. Communication is a crucial part of my role.”
Working with a wide range of colleagues
Alex also loves that he gets to speak to different people from all across the business, and at all different levels. He often gets to work closely with the IET’s Agresso and IT teams, looking into new ways to report information, as well as a huge variety of staff from across the different directorates.
“You’re building relationships, making sure people know they can come to you for support and that you can provide useful information,” he says.
This variety also means Alex is always learning, as he’s responsible for such a wide variety of tasks across so many different business areas.
Always learning
“The IET provides such a broad range of activities, which is great for me because it allows me to learn a huge amount about what the IET does, and also helps me to develop a very large range of skills,” he points out.
“There’s a wide breadth of skills and knowledge across all the directorates, which I’m about to learn and develop from. And it’s such a nice place to come and work, as everyone wants each other to succeed. I really feel like the IET offers a network of skills and development opportunities.”
This is highlighted through Alex’s own career at the IET so far. When he first joined the organisation he worked as an assistant editor within the Publishing department, but a chance opportunity to work on a fundraising project led Alex to where he is today.
“As part of this piece of work I tracked the finances, helped organise meetings, worked will colleagues in marketing and also presented to senior members of staff including the Board of Trustees, IET President and the Chief Executive and Secretary,” he says.
“This gave me an opportunity to learn a lot about the organisation and develop my skills, and enabled me to go in a new direction that interested me, which led to the role I’m doing now.
“The IET is also supporting me with relevant professional qualifications – I’m currently studying for the Chartered Institute of Management’s (CIMA) accounting qualification. The support and opportunities within the organisation are vast,” he concludes.
