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Gursharan Kaur on her Consultancy journey

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Oct 27, 2022

In February 2022, Gursharan Kaur applied for a Senior Consultant role at NECS.

“It was a side-ways move for me, but nevertheless, a completely new dimension as I was boldly venturing into the ‘Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) land’. After nearly a decade as a Commissioner and a Senior Commissioner, leading on various portfolios, my colleagues were quite surprised with my decision and so this added to my sense of trepidation.

“In 2013, I was part of the local Public Health directorate that transitioned into the Local Authority as per the national directive for Primary Care Trusts (PCT) to abolish. My experience at the Local Authority was short lived – just 2 months – before I swiftly decided to make a U-turn back to the NHS. Now with the CCGs being abolished at midnight on 30th June 2022, to truly experience System working in operation; it made sense to gain experience at an entirely different organisation, rather than transition into the Integrated Care Board (ICB).

“Interested in the vacancy, I decided to browse the NECS website to do some research on the organisation to decide whether I was really going to apply for this role or pass. I found myself lingering a little longer on the Values page. All the values were quite relatable to my personal values, but I was sold after discovering “happy and fulfilling” as a core value of NECS! This organisation really did fit the bill of where I wanted to work next. After all, who doesn’t want to be working at a happy and fulfilling place?

“Boy, was I glad I had applied for this role. I thoroughly enjoyed the interview process and enjoyed meeting other candidates at stage 1. I mean who in their right mind ever says I really enjoyed the interview process?  If this day was anything to go by, my post stage 1 reflection concluded with “would love to work with this great bunch”. The following week I was successful in stage 2 as well and to my delight, I was offered the role!

“I finally started with NECS on 4th July as a Senior Consultant in the Midlands Consultancy team. It was such a pleasant re-affirmation that every single colleague I had an introduction call with mentioned what a happy and fulfilling place this is, regardless of if they had only been with the organisation for a few months or a good few years.

“I joined the Data for R&D programme pretty much straight away and it has been phenomenal working with the client in this fast-paced programme. In addition to colleagues from the Midlands team, working on this programme has helped me to get to know colleagues from across the organisation, who are also part of the project delivery team.

“As I am new to the Consultancy world, I was grateful to see the Emerging Consultants group in the induction pack. I knew straight away this was a group I would join to gain informal learning from other emerging consultants. How amazing is it that the organisation offers mutual support to all new consultants in this way? I received a warm welcome from the team upon joining and have been getting to know other consultants based in other regions within the organisation.

“I joined the Women in Consultancy group recently and I am really looking forward to getting to know everyone in this group as well. As a Coach and having offered mindset, empowerment and work-life balance coaching to women last year, I was intrigued to learn the priorities of this group and how I may be able to contribute. I am really looking forward to getting involved in the various workstreams in this group such as; pregnancy, menopause, returning to work after maternity leave etc.

“Additionally, I joined the Organisation Excellence (OE) group. This group is developing a new offer to enable our clients to deliver excellence through people.  Joining the group at the outset I have been able to help set our objectives and agree deliverables, shaping this new and exciting offer. Earlier this month, alongside colleagues from the OE MFT, I also had the pleasure of utilising my coaching experience to contribute to an Executive Coaching bid and we look set to continue offering these services into the marketplace.

“I am truly amazed at how much has happened in my first three months at NECS. I can whole-heartedly say, I have thoroughly enjoyed the deep dive into consultancy and love all the dimensions I have experienced so far. Every day is different, as my fellow consultants in the organisation will agree, and I am really enjoying meeting new people on a regular basis.

“To summarise it in one word, it has been a whirlwind: not the turbulent type, but an energetic one. A heartfelt thank you to all my colleagues for such a warm welcome into the CSU, it is truly appreciated.”