My journey with BGL began around seven years ago when I joined as a temp in the Claims team. At this point, I had no idea where I was going to take my career path but after 10 years with my previous company, I knew I wanted somewhere that aligned with my values.
After just a few months, I was successful in moving over to Compare the Market where I joined the Customer Operations team – and here, dealing with customer queries felt like a natural home for me after a previous career in retail customer service. I was even more delighted when a promotion to Training and Quality Executive came quickly, where I took responsibility for building and delivering training for all new members of the team, as well as ensuring we achieved first-class service through our customer interactions. But I don’t like to stand still, so when the opportunity came to join the Data team I snapped it up – first as their Team Assistant and then as Personal Assistant to the Data Director and Associate Directors.
Having now spent several years with Compare the Market, one of the things that I love is the way they spot your skills, work with them and develop them. They then help you to make either an upwards or a lateral move to a role that suits you and helps you to achieve your career development goals.
I’ve seen this across the business and it’s so good to know that my career with Compare the Market isn’t just about linear career progression – it’s personal to me.
And it’s safe to say that, as part of this, you never stop learning. Since moving into my latest role, no two days have been the same and even though most of my time is taken up with diary management, the days are so varied. From making sure that our Director and Associate Director are in the right meetings with the right people at the right time to helping new starters get settled in the business and organising team training and social events, I never seem to stop and it’s great!
One of the highlights in my calendar is that every quarter we try to get together as a wider Data team to catch up on what everyone has been working on and what they’ve got planned, before having some fun team building thrown in too! To give you a flavour, we’ve recently enjoyed axe throwing, a cocktail-making class and shuffleboard – and for our next event, we’re planning to do an active treasure hunt! It’s just one of the things that makes being in the Data team lots of fun!
I’m also proud to be part of our BEAT team, which isn’t as brutal as it sounds! Every six months we have a company-wide engagement survey, where we ask colleagues what’s going well for them as well as what could be done better. Once the results are out, the BEAT team works alongside the leadership team to both highlight our strengths as a business and create an action plan for our development areas. And the best part is that the survey is anonymous so people can really tell you (and they do!) what they’re thinking. It’s a great way for us to really understand how our colleagues are feeling and what we need to do about it.
For me, it feels very empowering to know that I can be honest about what’s going well for me (or what isn’t!) and knowing that the company will take what I say seriously. Being part of the BEAT team means that I can take an active part in making our team and the business a great place to work for everyone!
I’m also part of the BGL award-winning Data4Good team! This is where we use our expert knowledge and skills in data to support charities with resource and training to help them get the most out of their data, and so far, we’ve worked with seven charities and are starting to plan for our next event. This concept was so well received that it evolved into CtM4Good, where various teams across the business come together to support charities with specialist knowledge and skills around marketing, commercial, risk and compliance, which is amazing. It really is so rewarding to be part of a team who give back to the community, using all our skills to truly make an impact for the charities we work with.
Whatever your specialist area, wherever you are in your journey, we’d love to hear from you.
