Shaun Ward's website

Virtual Assistant // Account Manager // Software Trainer

(amongst other things)

A little about me

Throughout my working life I have held a number of varying positions from Window Blind installation to Kitchen Assistant on to Restaurant Supervisor and then, after a few steps and jumps, to a Technology Trainer. A lot changes over the years but one thing that hasn't changed in my willingness to grow and learn new things.

Although my work life is office-based I am an 'outdoorsy' person, be that going for walks or working in the garden - planting, building, repairing and sometimes playing or relaxing! I am also a keen stargazer and was gifted my first telescope not too long ago! This has led me to a less physical and more visual experience outside and now spend many evenings looking up, obviously to the irritation of my partner who likes earlier nights!

Now for the meaty stuff around who I am as an employee!

I have been complimented, and on occasions denigrated, around my motivation to do a task well. I have worked in a variety of roles and each of them have required a different approach to the work. My need, as an extrovert, is to talk things through and get to the bottom of what needs to be done. If that means I get my hands dirtier than others, so be it! The end result is the same and everyone got to say and do what they needed to accomplish the task at hand. This approach, as I know, doesn't work for everyone but it does mean that there has been engagement where they may not have normally been so not a complete waste!

With me being a 'talker' a training role was almost a given. Many moons ago I was planning on being a teacher and went to college and everything! The downside of that approach though was it was not the learning style for me, which allowed me to acknowledge and adapt to different ways of not only learning but also working. Since 2010 I have delivered training in one sense or another for many different roles. Using Opera for Windows, how to utilise the full functionality of MS Excel, what this button does, how to use a bespoke CRM system as well as how to prepare a meal within the set guideline of the restaurant! During all of this there have been 'attendees' from all knowledge backgrounds and some with their own barriers. Instead of just regurgitating the information in the hope it sticks I adjust my delivery style to accommodate who is in the room as everyone knows what they know and don't always know what they don't.

March 2022

July 2024

Service Trainer Specialist

Duties include

• Deliver in depth training to CloudCall's international customers remotely

• Deliver CloudCall product training internally to assist with improving staff knowledge

• Learn the integration parameters of the CloudCall Product with over 10 CRM’s

• Developed basic knowledge on useability of a number of ‘high traffic’ CRM’s

• Assist in the creation of training courses and engaging in developmental meetings to highlight improvements raised by customers

• To be proactive and enthusiastic with regards to own knowledge upskill and development

• To review and act on own customer feedback • Ensure knowledge transfer and upskill to other members of the team as required

• Work with other teams to ensure high quality of training content

• Experienced in delivering high quality training to a range of customers

October 2019

March 2022

Training Assistant

Duties include

· Deliver in depth training to Red Box customers, resellers and partners; onsite, remote and “regional”.

· Deliver Red Box product training to staff internally as required which may include new starters.

· Assist in the creation and continued development of training courses and supporting collateral.

· Assist in the creation and maintenance of training environments

· To be proactive and enthusiastic with regards to own knowledge upskill and development

· To review and act on own customer feedback.

· Ensure knowledge transfer and upskill to other members of the team as required

· Mentor other trainers as required

· Work with other teams to ensure high quality of training content.

· Be proactive in creating proposals for new training courses and the redevelopment of existing courses.

· Attend and contribute to team meetings

· Undertake any other duties commensurate with the status of the role as directed by the Training Operations Lead.

· Experienced in delivering high quality training to a range of customers including Tier 1

· Experience in producing engaging training materials using a range of mediums

April 2018

October 2019

Help Desk Analyst

Duties included

· Providing first line support to customers for the voice recording systems via telephone and email

· Interpreting issues raised using a range of questioning techniques to capture the entirety of the fault the customer is experiencing and enable you to escalate the problem to the relevant team for resolution

· Taking ownership of incidents ensuring they are recorded, monitored and reported to the relevant stakeholders and that they are recorded accurately on the CRM system

· Maintaining an agreed level of contact with the customer to deliver an exceptional level of service to what the customer expects

· Working towards individual and team SLA’s to ensure they are met or exceeded

· Communicating verbally and in writing to customers and other internal stakeholders

· Communicating at an appropriate level especially where technical information may need to be interpreted in a non-technical way

· Constructing and communicating customer incident and shift reports

November 2013

April 2018

Administrator / MI Assistant

Duties included

· Providing administrative support including minute taking at meetings, organising training sessions, diary management and planning assessor visits

· Acting as the first point of contact for the Contracts and Operations Team and dealing promptly with any enquiries face to face, via email and via telephone

· Monitoring of regional and local performance against contracts by maintaining accurate records for delivery, targets and contract particulars

· Using ICT and Cognisoft databases to gather, collate and generate a suite of reports showing targets against actual in different formats including pivot tables, pie charts and RAG ratings based on requirements to issue to a Government body

· Monitoring budgets by producing and reconciling purchases and supporting the maintenance of records of spend for contracts in excess of £1,000,000

· Supporting staff to ensure contractual requirements are met within agreed timescales in relation to the collation of Management Information (MI)

· Creating guidance documentation on how to use Cognisoft data collation systems

· Contributing to the quality management of the service through collecting and analysing customer feedback, including compliments and complaints, and producing reports to ensure the service responds appropriately to customer needs

· Suggesting systems for dealing with new work and to review and evaluate existing systems and recommend improvements
Download CV Contact Me

Outside of Work

I am in the process of building up a portfolio of photos following a little course I took on Udemy and will upload these to my Instagram account to show the progress. If you would like the link for the course it is: https://www.udemy.com/share/1013Bu/

I have also developed a few 'basic' Training Videos that are on my YouTube channel just to help me develop my editing and processing knowledge. These are pretty basic topics but hopefully over time they will become more in-depth.

Reviews

2020-02-21 Internal Work email

In people news: This week we recognised Shaun Ward as an Amazing Employee. Shaun’s colleagues said he has shown exceptional collaboration skills. In terms of leading our partner through training he went the extra mile. He was courageous in stepping up to deliver this training, taking great care over preparation, whilst balancing his existing day job. Shaun’s stakeholder skills were fantastic, he was always happy to help, although this has added to his workload, staying after shift to clear the desk. We think Shaun is a key collaborator and we let him know that this is noticed and very much appreciated with some goodies!