Profiles

• Katie Gronow
• Farida Iskandar
• Graham Oliver
• David Cope
• Rob Palmer

Katie Gronow

Reasons for joining GORS

Joining GORS was as much a function of serendipity as desire since it was simply the first interview that I passed and accepted. I had earlier passed a board for BNFL, but my university experience had left me a little disenchanted with physics and this, coupled with a craving for change and learning new things which is where I find much of my motivation, made OR in Government sound like a great opportunity.

Since it can provide the chance to improve the way Government works, and contribute positively to society, I feel my skills and knowledge can be put to better use than perhaps they would be in the private sector. Also, the possibility of engaging in a huge range of different subjects by moving around Government is an excellent motivator (although I still love physics!)

Career path and experience

I started out in DWP in one of the Fraud and Error teams. We produced a six-monthly report on Fraud and Error in Housing Benefit, based on a survey of claimants. Having not done any OR at university this was my first experience of this and as such it provided me with much of my early training. I was responsible for cleaning the data and running some of the processes to produce results. I also developed a couple of new methodologies to give us a better understanding of claimant behaviour, which was my first real experience of new research.

After just over a year I moved to HM Revenue and Customs, where I have done several very interesting projects. Early on, I was given a project to measure the tax gap relating to employees excluding people on Self Assessment. This particular gap had not really been measured before and so this was a fairly high-profile piece of research (my report is still being used two years later), and I received high praise from Treasury for it.

Another important project I did more recently involved developing a new process for analysing Self Assessment returns and selecting cases for investigation based on multiple types of risk. This has enabled risk profilers to better, and more efficiently, target individuals not paying the right amount of tax. My work has directly benefited the government's coffers by several million pounds per year.

Current role and responsibilities

Still at HMRC, I am now in the Project Group, which is a team that was formed in 2009 that acts a little like a consultancy, where we receive project requests which are then assigned to analysts.

This means an analyst can be working on multiple, unrelated projects at a time and furthermore gives the opportunity to learn project management skills.

One of my first projects was to develop a new model for estimating the amount of VAT that we don't get due to the zero-rating of goods and services. It's very satisfying to know that my figures were published in the recent Budget.

As a self-confessed 'green vigilante' I was also part of our 'Improving Corporate Social Responsibility' initiative. This involved promoting and expanding our Green Volunteer network, maintaining a volunteering register and generally sticking my oar in.

I have recently taken on the role of Quality Assurance Officer (one of several in different teams), in which I regularly conduct 'visits' to projects, which may include an interview, and assess how well the project has followed the proper QA guidance.

Life in GORS

Being a member of GORS provides the opportunity to do things that may not normally come up in general working life.

For example, I am on the Conference Committee which organises the annual GORS Conference. For this I produce the Conference brochure, flyer and timetable posters. In fact, a lot of things that are a bit arty now come to me which lets me contribute to GORS more widely in my own way.

The Conference is always a good learning experience, as well as being great fun!

There are also regular learning events throughout the year which allow us to demonstrate the work we've been involved in and learn what is happening in other Government Departments.

I feel there is a strong sense of community in GORS. In HMRC in particular, we have regular GORS community meetings which act as a forum for discussion around GORS-centric issues.