My name is Manreet Kaur Nehal and I am an Executive Intern at the City of Saskatoon. My mentor is Greta Kort, Quality Superintendent, Construction & Design (C&D) division. I work with the Quality Management Systems (QMS) team to develop and improve essential business policies and procedures for C&D. The focus of our work is to enable C&D to better manage its resources and delivery of services to citizens, as part of the City of Saskatoon’s continuous improvement culture.
My mentor brought me on board to join C&D as a co-op student in May 2019, three months before the internship started. These three months were very useful as I learned the operations and business of C&D, and provided me a good opportunity to research and identify the projects that I wanted to focus on during my internship.
Data collection, statistical analysis and interpretation, a clear understanding of policies and procedures, and an ability to write clear, concise reports, have been an integral part of all the projects that I have worked on. My projects have ranged from documentation and preparation of audit reports, statistical analysis for developing a criteria to evaluate supplier’s performances, and framing suitable procedures for the Employee Retention Improvement Project.
Apart from attending weekly team meetings and monthly divisional meetings, I have also been invited to participate in senior management meetings. My mentor has been instrumental in ensuring that I utilize the training opportunities provided by the City, including attending learning sessions for FUSION (ERP Project), Cause Mapping Root Cause Analysis, and an online course in Flushing and Bacteriological Testing (AWWA).
A good piece of advice I received during my internship was to participate in extra-curricular (including social activities) at the City. Through social activities’ interaction, I have been able to develop good relationships with colleagues. In addition to social events such as board games sessions, barbecues, I have been a member of the planning committee for Contractor Forecast 2020, and of the Support Squad team for Customer Service Week. I’ve made some good memories!
My previous professional background in construction and experience in project management, has been instrumental in understanding the projects and work delivered by C&D. It has been an enriching experience to work with the QMS team within a complex organization such as the City of Saskatoon. I highly recommend students apply for the Executive Internship program—it is the perfect platform to apply knowledge gained at JSGS to real-world issues.