Tell us about your background and what led you to Hastings Direct?

I worked in the defence sector on various project, planning, programme and IT roles over last 30+ years, this took me to various places across the country and globe, on what was cutting edge technology at the time with early digital cameras and solid state recording (all now part of a standard phone). In the last couple of years, prior to joining Hastings, I had progressed from IT operations into IT strategy and solution architecture. Having worked on SharePoint, MS365 and Oracle migration projects I was looking for a new challenge so I applied for the Senior Project Manager role at Hastings Direct online and here I am!

Tell us more about joining Hastings Direct and working remotely during the Covid-19 lockdown… 

Imagine you get a call in for an interview, Covid-19 shuts the country down and you are sat wondering if that is the end of that… 
This is what happened to me, however, I then received a call asking if I am able to Skype? Wow what a positive message! A company that is going to continue to work through unprecedented times recruiting and on boarding new employees! It’s not been without its challenges I was used to working remotely from hotel rooms, out of hours but that was with people I knew, processes I was familiar with, but everyone has been really helpful pointing me in the right direction or advising on how to proceed, helping fix things when they didn’t work or I couldn’t make work.

Can you tell us a bit about the work you and your team do at Hastings Direct?

The IT project team deliver capabilities behind the scene that set out to improve our colleague’s ability to fulfil their role or the customer experience. Sometimes these are new tools and applications which help collaboration, communication and meeting commitments or projects that migrate off old out of date technology with supportability issues, risk of failure or increased cost of operation. As a Project Manager it’s our role to plan, cost, manage through execution, monitor and report on the projects progress to a successful conclusion.

Do you have any tips for new joiners starting their role at Hastings Direct virtually?

Don’t be afraid to ask, there are people willing to help within the project family and from the wider business, use Tapestry (the intranet page) it’s a great source of information and prepare to be patient, it can take time for calls to be answered or people to get back to you as this is a new experience for many.

Why should someone consider joining Hastings Direct?

This is a company that has grasped the need for digital transformation - they are forward thinking, invested and have a leadership team committed to delivering on its aim to be the best and biggest digital insurer. Not everything is perfect, so there is a healthy level of challenges to overcome and projects to be wrestled with.

 

If you would like to find out more about the opportunities in our Programmes & Change team, click here.

Date added: 24th June 2020.