Emma joined us in 2022. Hear about her career experiences...
Where did your career journey start, and were there any moments that really shaped your career along the way?
When I joined the business, I took over the Greene King account and the first thing I did was put a new action plan in place. As of December 2023, Bellrock was named the top contractor out of the 46 that Greene King has. Off the back of that success, I was given the JD Wetherspoons account. Profit has increased by approximately 20%.
In January 2024, and I was invited to the Bellrock Beacon awards and won the customer focus award for the work that I’d done in the last two years. I felt really shy when it was announced, but receiving that recognition was genuinely heart-warming. They read out paragraphs that other people had written about the nominees, and it was really great to hear how people view you and value your contributions.
What inspired you to pursue a career in this field?
The company I previously worked for specialised in maintenance. I was with them for 10 years in total, but it ultimately lacked the avenues for progression that I was looking for. After I was promoted to office manager, the opportunities available had run their course. COVID hit, and I took the opportunity to explore what else was available, at which point I came across the Bellrock position, which was centred around dealing with engineers and looking after clients directly. It really appealed to me, and the rest is history.
Do you feel there are strong career opportunities for women within the sector?
Progression is massively important in my view. To attract and retain talent of all kinds, there needs to be clear avenues through which you can develop professionally. From my experience, I think the opportunities available in FM are both relatively equal and amazing for both men and women. From purchasers, schedulers, and CSAs up to team leaders, managers, senior managers, and directors, I’ve typically found very mixed groups working well together.
Tell me about the best boss you ever had – and why were they so great in your eyes?
I’d really like to take the opportunity to thank my current boss, Paul Johnson. From the day I started at Bellrock, he’s been so helpful. I could ask him 49 questions in a day and he’d still be happy to answer the 50th. He’s patient and accommodating, and those are exactly the traits that good leaders need to have to allow others to develop. We’ve also built up a great relationship both inside and outside of work, and I really feel that’s more important than ever. The normalisation of remote working can make it difficult to establish strong bonds within a team, so I’m grateful that myself, Paul, and our other colleagues have been able to build that. And it’s not just internally, but with our clients too – the importance of strong, transparent client relationships really can’t be understated. I want to get out there and go and meet them in person. It adds a personal touch.
If you had an unlimited budget to spend on improving the workplace or the employee experience for your team and/or colleagues, what would you spend that money on?
Honestly, I don’t believe there’s one right answer. There are so many different areas that you could channel funding into, but selecting those on behalf of a workforce as diverse as Bellrock’s isn’t easy. There are so many different teams with different needs, and different people with different requirements. It’s a really mixed workforce in terms of skill sets, gender, age – you name it.
There are plenty of areas where improvements could be made. There always will be. But without properly consulting different teams, you can’t uncover exactly where those improvements should be made. So, if I’m being honest, the change I’d make is regularly polling everyone in the organisation on their experiences and focusing on addressing that feedback before anything else.
