64.

Decision making and strategic thinking

Ability to access and use information and emergent technology
strategically to:
 access and analyse information to solve problems
 make decisions and exercise good judgment
 demonstrate problem solving skills.

(Specific to the Customs Department)

The focus of my current position in Security Planning for the (Government

Department) is to ensure uncompromised security protection for all events through
diligent organising and proactive management services. Working in this role, I
frequently interact with domestic and foreign high-level officials. On several
occasions, I have accessed, analysed, compiled, and disseminated crucial information
to solve particular security problems that arose when planning protection services
for specific high-profile attendees. Most recently, and as a result of this analysis, I
developed and introduced revised protective functions and security planning policies
and procedures to assist in streamlining operations for events where there will be a
large number of government officials in attendance. This planning required me to
make decisions and exercise good judgement, the results of my planning were visible
to the high-profile attendees.

Several of the security procedures were adopted for use by other departments to
enhance overall security levels. Unfortunately, due to the classified nature of these
security procedures I am not able to provide more detailed information.

In a different role as Regional Manager for a large retail company, I was tasked with
identifying ways of improving levels of customer service. Due to the closure of over
30 retail outlets, a service bottleneck had developed and over 35% abandoned calls
per year. Having thoroughly analysed call data through the in-house performance
management and statistics program, I worked closely with call centre staff to
measure capacity at peak and off-peak times in order to align employee resourcing
with actual call demand. After sharing findings with senior management, I was able
to secure 30 additional call operators for peak periods and recommended additional
customer service training for existing staff that was implemented. These solutions
helped to transform the level of customer service, eliminating unanswered calls and
enhancing overall productivity by 30%.
I believe these examples demonstrate my ability to access and use information and
emergent technology strategically to access and analyse information to solve
problems, exercise good judgement during decision making, and demonstrate
excellent problem solving skills.