A Day in the Life at Talis by Emma Dodd, Support Consultant

Emma Dodd, Support Consultant

What does your typical day look like?

I start the day with a hello to my immediate team on an informal coffee chat thread. I then have a check of the support portal to see if anything urgent needs my attention and a look at email. At Talis we work across different time zones so I ensure that I catch up with any communication from universities and colleagues from our APAC and North America and Canada regions.

Each day usually involves some training and university calls so I build time into my day to prepare any notes, slides or questions I need. I really enjoy the interaction with the practitioners we work with at universities and learn what is important to them, how we can help to support and ensure that they are up to date with everything with the system and how it can help them. Follow ups are a key part of this to ensure that post any training sessions or meetings I have given the attendees the information they need. For example, this could be sharing the recordings, preparing a summary of the call, highlighting useful support articles, reaching out to other contacts at universities to share best practice and updating any support tickets which have been discussed.

The support portal is checked regularly throughout the day, looking at new tickets which come in and also ones where answers have come back from universities or customers. These can be for a variety of tasks such as a straightforward setting update or more complex technical or workflow questions. We have processes in place to liaise with other teams for support with more technical questions.

Every day is varied and it may be that there is a plan for the day and that changes due to different priorities and circumstances. This makes things exciting and interesting.

How do you make the flexible working hours work for you?

I generally work 9am – 5pm with some early mornings to allow for crossover with our other time zones for meetings. This working pattern enables me to take my daughter to school in the morning before I start work. Talis is flexible in terms of taking my time back when I have started early which I tend to use for myself to relax, go to the gym and pick up my daughter at the end of school.

What excites you the most about your job at Talis?

I am excited by building relationships with our universities and working with them to make a real difference to workflows and supporting end-users of Talis Aspire. Talis is a really forward-thinking company to work for and the new products we have to support students can make a real difference to their work and study.

Explain what sort of a company Talis is to work for?

Talis genuinely cares about their employees and wellbeing, since moving to a remote company there are some great things in place to ensure colleagues feel connected. Examples of this include chat channels on being active, tips on wellbeing and even a Talis Pets channel!.

Talis has a transparent culture so feedback is honest and open which I really appreciate and feel I have grown and developed hugely in my personal professional development in the time I have been here.

I personally enjoy our interactive monthly company meeting where we receive updates on the company and have the chance to ask any questions. We have a ‘Talis Triumphs’ section of the meeting where achievements both in and outside of work are shared.

What team(s) are you directly involved with and how do you ensure you all connect as a fully distributed team?

Being part of the Services team means my role is involved with every team in the business. We meet regularly with the Product and Technical Consulting teams to support on the day to day technical side of Talis Aspire and to share feedback from our universities. This is important as the wider business is aware of what our community wants to see in the Product and as the ‘eyes and ears’ of the business we share that information through regular meetings and updates.

When you are not at work, how do you take time-out?

I enjoy being active and enjoy going to the gym, walking and exploring the great outdoors with my family. We are National Trust members and enjoy going out visiting on a weekend. During lockdown, I have enjoyed project-managing renovating our garden.

I am also an active member of our local community, helping to fundraise for the local school and being a parent governor.