Information Gathering and Divide Between Interns and Salaried Employees

One of the main differences I have noticed between what we work on at school and what we work on in a work environment is that nothing is handed to you the way things are at school. There are not always clear deadlines, processes, or material for a certain project, and while this provides employees with the ability to create their own directions with their work, it also creates a series of inefficiencies when solving issues or developing projects. There is a huge emphasis on collaboration at Altria, as evident by the open workspace and busy meeting schedules. This is hugely beneficial for sharing ideas, but it also reveals some difficulties in gathering information. Without clear guidelines and provided information, getting the right data for informed decision making proves to be an inefficient and time-consuming process. Often, I have found that I have to through multiple channels and people in order to get the information I need to do my job. While there are many sources and databases of information that are used company-wide, it would make more sense to allow all employees in Brand Management to have access to all of them on their own. Instead of having to ask another employee or strategic partner for data, offering training on how to pull data on their own I believe could significantly improve the speed at which work is done and the amount of depth employees are able to go into with the extra time.

Gathering information as an intern also has its own inefficiencies. There is a clear divide between the willingness of partner companies (like Leo Burnett) to cooperate in a timely manner with interns and with salaried employees. At times, I have had to wait weeks for simple information, even after multiple attempts at communication. I have had to rely on, at times, on my manager to gather information for me because people in more formal positions don’t always see the benefits of the work interns can do. My mentor at Altria has voiced that she went through the same issues as an intern, but once she was hired full-time, she never had those issues again. Not always, but occasionally, there is a divide between lower level and higher level employees. Again, this could be an easy solution if all Brand Management employees had access to all information so that they could get it on their own, but I do realize that there are also some problems that can arise with cross-company data gathering.