Finance colleague
“The Finance team feels like a family, where everyone helps out and looks after each other. You get a sense of people who really care about each other: they’re honestly lovely people to work with. It’s hard to really emphasise that enough. Customer Service is an important theme, and for us to be successful we need to build relationships with people across the business too.
I think one of the big differences for me is the need to communicate here. We can’t just operate in isolation, in the corner of the room on emails and spreadsheets.
The organisation is made of a number of moving parts, so you need to understand and take an interest in how people’s roles fit together.
Customer Service is an important theme, and for us to be successful we need to build relationships with people across the business.
That’s one of the reasons I joined; that interesting dynamic, and the access you have to all kinds of soft skills training. Technical expertise is important, but commercial acumen and real people skills are what’s really needed to make a difference.
What’s also interesting about our learning and development is the ability to learn in the ways that suit us best. We use all sorts of methods to nurture all kinds of learning styles, because different things work for different people.
I think being part of the Civil Service means you attract values-driven people who come here for a wider purpose. That definitely comes through in our culture. It gives you a sense of community you don’t always get in other organisations, from my experience.
We use all sorts of methods to nurture all kinds of learning styles, because different things work for different people.
Plus, everyone’s encouraged to have an opinion about whatever’s happening, because we believe everyone is part of making improvements and finding solutions. It's not just top-down – our senior colleagues sit in the same open plan floor as everyone else, and everyone’s voice matters.”
