Hear from our colleagues
Real journey. Real voices. All from inside our company. Discover how our colleagues are growing their careers here
Real journey. Real voices. All from inside our company. Discover how our colleagues are growing their careers here
Jess Rhodes-Martin
Head of Portfolio
I joined Openwork in July 2010 on a temporary contract on the IT
Service Desk following a recommendation from a friend as to how invested Openwork was in the growth of its colleagues. I really honed my craft of customer obsession and quickly joined permanently. The cross department working allowed me to network and make connections with other colleagues, and I was offered the opportunity in 2011 to support the Change function with a large scale programme to bolster their resources in making some back end system changes. This spiked my interest in translating customer demands into requirements all the way through to implementation, and after some further project work honing controls in Training and Competence, and amalgamating our helpdesks (in the customer support model you see today!) | landed my current role.
I've really leveraged my experience and relationships within the Openwork family to get me where I am today, and have genuinely built some friends for life. Openwork encourages me to discuss my development, and with my ambition and the support from the Business School, I feel the sky is the limit. I would say I've been lucky and privileged enough to grow in my career at Openwork but I feel its just part of Openwork's employee proposition.
Polina Hloba
Junior Data Innovation Analyst
Since joining Openwork as a Data Apprentice in the Data Office in 2022, I have had the fulfilling experience of contributing to the implementation of the Data Governance Programme, ensuring the adoption of good data management practices across the organisation.
Collaborating closely with the Data Operations and Data Innovation teams on various projects has broadened my understanding and skills in data analytics. This journey has been incredibly rewarding and has significantly contributed to my professional growth.
Paul Laggett
Head of Commercial Finance
I joined Openwork in May 2013 as a recently qualified ACA Accountant.
I started my finance career as a Financial Accountant in the Financial Reporting team.
Following a couple of years in the role, I was made Owl Finance Business Partner in the newly formed business partnering function. This role involved me working closely with the Owl management team to track financial performance, provide financial insight, forecasting, and analysis to help guide decision making and set strategy.
After a successful period of being a business partner I was promoted to Head of Commercial finance where I have now been in the role for 6 years. In this role I am responsible for leading the commercial finance team where we support the tactical and strategic decision making of the business. We provide financial performance reporting to ExCo and boards, revenue and cost business partnering, creating strategic and commercial financial modelling to support key activities, and preparing the annual financial plan and quarterly financial forecasting.
