A Day in the Life of the Executive Compass Office

The Daily Routine

The first thing that happens in the Executive Compass office each morning (after a cup of coffee!) is the daily ‘pulse meeting’. The team discuss all the projects we are working on, and how they are progressing. When working in an environment heavily focused on deadlines and tight timescales, we need to ensure each bid is progressing and will meet its deadline. As soon as a project is completed by the writer, we have to schedule a quality assurance review and a proof read.

At the pulse meeting we also discuss any contract wins, feedback received from any submissions and anything else that might affect what we do. Today, Matthew has received news that a bid has been successful for a national care charity and we also discuss a forthcoming bid and writing plan for a project which three of our bid writers will be working on collaboratively.

Quality Assurance

After the morning meeting, our bid writers manage their own projects. Apart from the actual writing aspect of the job they also liaise with clients, research, and review other PQQ and tender submissions for colleagues. Our processes are central to our UKAS ISO 9001:2008 certified quality management system and are vital to ensuring that we can manage a number of bids at any given time whilst still maintaining a high quality.

Writing PQQs and Tenders

As you may have guessed, the key part of a bid writer’s job role is completing PQQs and tenders on behalf of clients to secure what are in some cases critically important contracts. We need to have a breadth of knowledge not only in different industry areas, but also in the public sector procurement process, relevant legislation, and professional certifications and memberships.

Some of the bids we are currently working on include:

Charlotte

• Police and Crime Commissioner training tender

• Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council social care ITT

Stephen

• Luton Borough Council asbestos PQQ

• Aberdeen pest control tender

• London dental care tender

Tom

• Viridian Housing PQQ

• Review of a NEPO construction submission

• Northamptonshire County Council electrical contractors ITT

There are plenty of other things we do alongside the day-to-day routine, such as delivering tender writing workshops (mainly carried out by MD, Neil) and internal training. All our writers are trained in-house to a tried and tested bid writing process, which is applied to each project, whether it is a contract for gas servicing or domiciliary care. Our bid writers are all currently undergoing IRCA certified ISO 9001:2015 Lead Auditor training, to assist with their industry knowledge and also help clients with their own quality management systems.

Extra-Curricular Activities

Even bid writers occasionally need to let their hair down. Our most recent team-building day out consisted of archery and clay pigeon shooting for the afternoon. Friendly rivalry saw the team compete at various challenges to determine who scored the most in both activities, with our General Manager, Matthew coming out on top in the archery and Bid Writer, Sam excelling in the shooting.

After a long day writing PQQs and tenders, it’s satisfying to go home knowing we’re helping various companies achieve their aims and objectives.