A squiggly career-path which has brought endless opportunities!
I love new opportunities; from business & marketing studies I went into the luxury hospitality industry for many years. I then took an opportunity to organise the Marketing, PR & Events at an International Publishing & Research company which subsequently led into a global IT/MIS Role. A work/life balance move to the South West of England led to a career in International Exhibitions and Events, and in a quest to reduce down the time spent travelling I moved into Business Analysis in the Trade & Retail sectors. A wide, diverse range of experiences where I've been able to hone my skills, take advantage of promotions and new opportunities in each company, and keep learning and enjoying my work life. Not a traditional career path by any means, but one that has been really enjoyable.
I manage the Business Analysis capability for Group Technology
I started with Kingfisher in 2018 as a Business Analyst in Digital/E-Commerce, which led to a Lead Business Analyst role 6 months later, managing a team of 18 Business Analysts and working on the Screwfix portfolio of works (IT). I now have the privilege of leading the Business Analysis capability for Group Technology, which is a team of 37 talented, experienced and accomplished BA's working on a variety of IT initiatives across the PLC. My role is varied, challenging, interesting and very fulfilling. I get to work with a wide range of professionals from across all of the business, IT and Group Functions. I come to work each day to learn, lead, coach, mentor, inspire and laugh. For me, enjoying my role and the company I work at is the key factor.
No two days are the same!
At Kingfisher, we're very fortunate that the company prioritise investment in IT Systems & Infrastructure. Which means for me and my team, the variety of work is vast and there's always something new to learn. As an organisation, we're constantly innovating and embracing change which can impact our ways of working, content and people. To manage a team through this can be challenging but change can be vital, especially with our current economic landscape. My role enables me to try and really understand how the team are feeling, to represent them and to help through the change management process. To know what is happening in the organisation, what budgets we're working with and to be able to scale the team size to be able to competently deal with the demand. At Kingfisher, we also have many opportunities to be part of a variety of different networks. I'm part of the Group Functions People's Forum, representing Group Technology, and I love being able to escalate questions and concerns to senior leadership and represent my peers.
Be yourself and go for each opportunity.
Sometimes the best opportunities are the ones you don't see coming. Be your own authentic self and if you see an opportunity which catches your eye - go for it! You have nothing to lose, and you could just end up in a great new environment where you're able to keep learning, inspiring and loving what you do.
Managing a happy, engaged, productive and pro-active team
I've worked on some brilliant projects where the benefits realisation has been considerable and achieved all the goals. I've also been able to speak up, be heard and effect positive change in the organisation which has benefited colleagues salaries and benchmarks. But I think I'm most proud of the really high engagement scores my team consistently feedback in our company engagement survey, which tells me how happy they are, how much they enjoy working for Kingfisher, and that they'd recommend working here. The past few years have been a really challenging, and difficult, time for many companies and colleagues; to be able to successfully navigate our way through all those challenges including onboarding new colleagues remotely where they feel part of the team from day 1 is something I will always be really proud of.
