Valuable Experience to Continue On

Over the past twenty days I have been completing my internship at Main Roads WA. This experience has been extremely rewarding being able to apply my knowledge as a PR student into various areas of communication. I have worked with Public Relations, Innovation and Development, Strategy and Executive and Corporate Communications, these all fall under the Strategy and Communications Directorate at Main Roads.

Working in-house as opposed to consulting has been very rewarding. With a new strategic direction in place I have been able to go on a communication journey along with the rest of the Communications Directorate. I have been to various workshops all with the purpose of engaging MRWA employees about the new strategy.

I have worked with some great industry professional who have given me great guidance and direction on what to do. It’s such a comfortable environment that I’m not afraid to ask a question whether it’s that of my supervisor or just the people in my office. This is definitely an organisation I would be grateful to work at in the near future.

Now although my 20 days are done my time at MRWA will continue on until the end of June. I feel that the more experience the better. It enhances my relationships with the staff and gives me more valuable contacts that are so crucial when looking for a job in the not too distant future. I’ve loved my time here so far and look forward to seeing out this internship at MRWA.

Well done to everyone completing this unit I’ve enjoyed reading your blogs and good luck for all of your future careers.

Insightful and Innovative Landgate Visit

After a few weeks at Main Roads WA I got the chance to shift to a different area of communication which was Innovation and Development. Innovation and development at Main Roads is about allowing all employees to be able to express their ideas, and are encouraged to share their ideas on an online forum. This forum creates 2-way communication during the initial idea stage.

On my first day with the innovation and development team I got to visit the Innovation team at Landgate and have a meeting with them about the initiatives they had in place. Landgate is a statutory authority known as Western Australian Land Information Authority that operates under the business name of Landgate. Their offices are located in Midland and getting to visit another office and meet with their innovation team was a privilege and a great opportunity. 

The three of us that went out to meet them were enthused by the spirit and creative ideas that their innovation team had. Their love for their workplace and colleagues was infectious and showed why they had so many great innovative initiatives.

From the meeting it was understood that the most crucial thing for innovation is employee engagement and how well delivered internal communication is in the business. From Main Roads point of view we learnt so much and took away a lot of great ideas. The Landgate team were extremely welcoming and showed a great relationship between the two public sector agencies.

Being a part of this visit and learning from another agency was very beneficial to my internship and gave me a different perspective on the role of communication in business. I look forward to expressing my ideas and helping to promote innovation at Main Roads.

All comments of similar experiences are welcome as well as any tips to help improve innovation.

Here is a link to Landgate’s innovation web page if anyone is interested.

http://innovation.landgate.wa.gov.au/

Getting Busy At Main Roads

After a week of research and finding my feet in the workplace. I was asked to formulate a communication plan template for Main Roads WA. This template would be clear and easy to understand and is something that the strategy and communications directorate is leading.

After consultations with my supervisor I was given understanding as to what needed to be achieved. I was told to look at different Main Roads projects, what they involve and how the communication plan could be used. This was no easy task as there are many different projects going on all of different proportions.

Through some research and having a look at some previous communication plan examples I was able to start creating my template. What to include and deciding on the formatting was difficult as Main Roads has strict branding guidelines on how to present documents and the writing style used.

Luckily there are plenty of staff willing to give advice and offer suggestions. I even organised a meeting with the director who went through my draft and made some changes that greatly benefited. She was extremely helpful and I was grateful for her allowing some time away from her busy schedule.

Overall task has been challenging but it applies everything I have learnt through my studies a Curtin University. Similar to case studies at uni but this template was being created to be used as a corporate document. It's a busy task and is one I'm continuing to work on along with other things. So far I'm fairly happy with the content but over coming weeks refining the formatting will be the main job.

New Strategic Direction: A lot to Learn

Main Roads Western Australia where I’m completing my internship, are responsible for Western Australia’s highways and main roads which represent almost 30% of the State’s total assets (About Us, 2014). They’re a government agency within the transport portfolio, which includes the Public Transport Authority (PTA) and the Department of Transport (DoT).

On my first day at Main Roads working in the strategy and communications directorate, I have been asked to attend a collaborative workshop about the company’s new strategic direction. This workshop involved the whole directorate with the focus on understanding the effect of this new strategy.

For me the workshop was a great way to meet everyone in the directorate and understand the different roles of the people I will be working with over the next few weeks. I got to contribute my thoughts in some of the group discussion as well, by using my external views as a Curtin PR student. It definitely gave me a greater understanding of what Main Roads hopes to achieve as well as why things are changing for the better at Main Roads.

These workshops were to be carried out across the whole of Main Roads which involves all directorates and all the regions. It was a great example of internal communication and showed just how important it is for Main Roads to ensure all employees are engaged and aware of the new strategic direction.

It was a great experience but I definitely still have a lot to learn, as there are some exciting times ahead at Main Roads.

References:

About Us. 2014. https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/AboutMainRoads/AboutUs/Pages/AboutUsHome.aspx