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After spending her whole working career with a single company, Mandy Marsden made the leap to move to Vaultex, where she is Business Systems Support Manager. We spoke about team engagement and building trust, attracting more women, and work supporting your life.
Flexibility and Engagement
Mandy said she, “did make Vaultex sweat for a bit before I made my final decision. But since then there’s been no looking back. I absolutely love it.”
After being headhunted by someone who knew her as a person who could get things done, she now has 14 people reporting to her and says it’s a decision that makes her think, ‘why didn’t I do this sooner?’
When she was deciding whether to join Vaultex she wrote a pros and cons list, including work and personal factors like career development, flexibility, and what it might mean for her family.
Vaultex support flexible work options with many people working from home, and Mandy tells us,
They’re very flexible around start and finish times, I choose what time I come in and go home.
As a manager, Mandy supports her own team working flexibly and as a WORK180 endorsed employer, candidates can discuss flexibility at interview stage without fear of impacting the hiring process.
In her new role Mandy has been responsible for bringing the Help Desk back in-house (it was previously outsourced), hiring staff to run the function, automating systems and creating an “efficient, much improved service to our customers.”
Vaultex encourages team building activities such as pizza lunches and go karting. A recent employee survey across Mandy’s teams showed 90% positive engagement – one of the highest ratings in the organization.
Mandy says Vaultex really invest in their people, have a social team and provide strong benefits, all of which contribute to a highly engaged workforce.
Women on the Support Desk
Mandy has found that many fewer women apply for her team than men, so we discussed the transferrable skills that can be emphasised to help women feel qualified for the work.
She highlighted the number one trait she’s interested in for her team members as interpersonal skills, which translate into customer service and how you treat people.
Organisational skills are also critical, and she told us,
If you’ve done any kind of administrative work that help. I interviewed a woman last week, and she was absolutely ideal for her soft skills.
Mandy also looks for team fit and how their background and experience fill gaps in the team’s skill set. In established teams technical skills can be trained on the job if you have the foundation of soft skills.
Work Supporting Family
Mandy has a daughter in high school and it’s important her work supports her family and personal life.
Joining Vaultex made me a happier person. When I look back at my previous role, it was very stressful but it was also quite thankless at times. Here, the senior management team go out of their way to make sure that you know that you’ve done a good job. They take the time to say that was a fab job, and that gets passed down.
Vaultex give out spot prizes for people who step up and take on responsibilities outside their role. The camaraderie and support from management make Mandy enjoy being at work, which transfers to her personal life as she’s happy, fulfilled, and not arriving home from work grumpy.
A focus on staff wellbeing has a knock on effect on retention and productivity, creating a positive feedback loop.
Building Trust and Loyalty
When Mandy joined Vaultex she took on starting up the new in-house Help Desk, and also inherited a second line support team with a history of being unsupported. She wanted to build trust with that team as quickly as possible so looked for opportunities to elicit concerns and requests, to then deliver and show them she will follow through on promises.
Now she is happy to tell us, “they’re a very supportive, loyal team who will go the extra mile.” The team support each other and have “a really good team ethic.”
Mandy also focused on strong delivery, so the leadership team felt confident in their decision to hire her and the team’s ability to deliver under her management. Because of the support and interaction across all levels, Mandy says,
There is massive opportunity here for career development; you can work your way up the ranks. If you work hard and want to aspire to be something, you can do it here. Most definitely.
