I first joined the Foundever team almost 17 years ago, so picking a story to share within our Empowered Voices program was challenging – There are so many stories from my time with the company that I could have shared. In the end, I decided to focus on one area that is particularly close to my heart – The development of people. Personally, I have been very blessed in the development of my career at Foundever and for me, this is one of the areas that makes Foundever such a great place to work. So here is my story…
I started out as an Outbound Sales Agent for a global financial client in January 2002. Back then, fresh out of education after studying Art & Design, I didn’t yet have a clear vision as to where I wanted to take my career and simply needed a job to pay the bills and to allow me to live my life. Joining the Foundever family in a temporary position with an initial 6-month contract gave me what I needed right then, however I quickly discovered that there were many opportunities to grow and develop here, if I was ready to put in the effort.
Completing my initial 6 months, I was able to secure a permanent position within the company and had made many good friends that I am still in contact with today. I was part of a team that was delivering great results and I was being recognized for my contributions to this success. Having found a great place to work, in an organization that supported the growth of people, I knew that I wanted more – I wanted to progress and find ways to add more value to the business and our customers.
I have been extremely lucky to have been supported over the years by many great leaders and mentors at Foundever who together have helped me to forge my career path within Foundever. In those early days, I remember speaking to my manager and telling her that I wanted to do more. She told me that ‘If you are willing to put in the effort, making sure that you continue to deliver results in your role, we’ll work with you to help you get to the next step’ and she did – We looked at my skills together and explored ways in which I could leverage my strengths whilst developing in areas that were less natural or familiar to me. Within 9 months, I was working as a Coach, sharing my experience and supporting others to deliver results and wow customers through their interactions.
As I progressed, I quickly discovered my passions and found ways to play to my strengths in my day-to-day role here. I love to support the development of people and help them on their own personal journey and celebrate with them as they achieve their goals. I love the challenge of this industry and the ways in which we need to constantly be creative in developing new solutions and approaches to meet the increasing expectations of customers. I also love the opportunity to work with some of the world’s best-known brands and play a role in shaping the success of these brands via the conversations we have on their behalf.
From the early days, over the last 17 years, it is fair to say that my career path has taken a somewhat unorthodox route and this has ensured that each day was fresh and exciting (No chance of getting bored here!). Working in roles including training and leadership development, continuous improvement, bid management and, today, marketing, I know that my journey has been shaped by the leaders and mentors I have worked with. They have helped me to recognize when to diversify my skill-set or build upon my strengths. They have also challenged me to be bold in taking chances with new opportunities that often pushed me outside of my comfort zone, but also helped to take my career to the next level.
Earlier this year, I took another chance and lived our value of Be Bold once more as I moved to my latest role as leader of the Marketing and Communications team globally. This involved taking a leap of faith, moving my family halfway across the world to our global headquarters in Miami – Pretty scary, but I have felt supported throughout this process and I am very excited to be able to take this role in shaping our shared future together.
In my current role, my greatest pleasure is to be able to help tell the stories of our people and the differences that they make in their roles, to inspire and support others as they make their own journey here at Foundever. I’m lucky to have gained a great insight into how our business operates and how we can leverage the diversity and collective genius of the talent in our 75,000 strong team to be able to deliver great customer interactions. I also keep the perspective of my time working in the frontline teams in our business – I know how challenging the agent role can be and celebrate the great job our teams do in adding value to our clients each and every day.
My message for everyone at Foundever, or those thinking about embarking on a career in our industry, is that you can fulfill your career aspirations here. There are many opportunities that you may not immediately associate with the contact center industry and, with the way that our industry is evolving, many future roles that may not even exist yet. My advice? Put the effort in, find your passions and be willing to take a chance and you can make it – The support and the opportunity are here and ready for the taking.
And finally, to the managers and leaders in our business, recognize the important role that you all have in shaping the future of others. Take the time to share your experience, offer guidance, listen; you can make a difference in the journey of someone you interact with and may change their lives. This is a gift that we should celebrate and it is what makes Foundever great – Keep sharing your stories! I look forward to hearing more from you all as our Empowered Voices program gains momentum.
Thank you.
Martin Wilkinson-Brown
VP Global Marketing and Communications