Hi Hannah, congratulations on your award win! Tell us a bit about your journey so far?
I joined Waldeck in 2015 just as I was completing my Masters in Marketing at the University of Lincoln, for which I received a distinction. (Previously working at a local Marketing Agency while I completed my course). I joined the Waldeck team as a Marketing & Business Development Assistant, later progressing to Marketing Manager and now Head of Marketing & Communications.
Waldeck was acquired by the Morson Group in 2018 and 6 months after the acquisition my skills were recognised internally and I was promoted to Head of Marketing for the three engineering businesses within the Group (Waldeck, Morson Projects and Ematics).
I am based between the Waldeck Head Office in Lincoln and the Morson Projects / Ematics Head Office in Manchester, but work closely with and often visit our other offices across the UK.
What does your role entail?
Typically, my role can be separated into two distinct roles:
- External marketing and business development
Working closely with Senior Management at a strategic level throughout the business to lead and execute a successful plan across the marketing, brand and communication functions.
A core element of my role is to lead and maintain all elements of the marketing mix across the three businesses to drive growth and build brand awareness, ensuring that the great work and talent of our team is show-cased to new and existing clients across our chosen markets.
Our omni-channel marketing mix includes social media, company website, SEO, corporate literature, news articles, newsletters, tailored campaigns, office branding, presentations, merchandise, capability documents, case studies, bid documents, templates, events and awards to name but a few.
2. Internal communications and culture
A core part of my role also involves the internal communications and culture within the business. Within this role I make it a priority to look under the skin of the business, understand its strengths and weaknesses and champion the businesses values to drive the business forward.
This role has taken many forms over the past few years and has included leading and contributing to:
- Successful induction and onboarding processes
- Demonstrating and ensuring we are a diverse, equal opportunities workplace
- Championing women within the engineering industry
- Delivering social value to the areas which we live and work in
- Supporting recruitment activities to bring in the best talent and ‘grow our own’
- Enhancing internal communication and culture – including a huge shift to digital ways of working pre-pandemic
- Creating open conversations about mental health and sharing the tools available to staff
- Organising company events, conferences, socials and charity events
- Opening and moving our offices across the UK
What do you enjoy most about your job?
Each day brings new challenges. Due to the nature of our business no two days are the same and whilst planning and pro-activity are key, being flexible and able to react to the needs of clients and the wider team at the drop of a hat are also crucial.
The thing I love most about my role is that I am quite creative but also very analytical and this role enables me to have a good balance between both! Day-to-day, my main priorities are:
- To deliver results for our business (financial, operational, and cultural)
- Make a positive difference to the people I work with (clients, suppliers and colleagues)
- Help the teams achieve success and be recognised for their expertise and hard work (which in turn drives points 1 and 2)
What does winning this award mean to you?
I’m constantly focussing on the great work, stories and accomplishments of the technical teams and it is often easy to get engrossed in showcasing their achievements and working ‘on’ the business, making it easy forget about my own successes, goals and ambitions. So, it has definitely been nice to be reminded of those!
Support teams within organisations such as marketing, HR, IT and finance are notorious for being ‘overheads’ in the construction industry, but people often forget that our companies wouldn’t be able to succeed without these core functions. These functions help the business operate but also add that softer side to a business that can add feelings of passion, pride and belonging which are important to everyone’s happiness at work. As an industry I feel this is something we are finally embracing.
Alongside my career, I also manage family life with my husband and two young step-children. Though not a conventional ‘family set-up’ it is a juggling act managing a complex family life with forging a career, running a home, studying and I want to show women (and especially my nine year old step daughter) that it is possible to do it all if you work hard… even in a male dominated industry!
What’s next?
I’m currently waiting for my new grading with the Chartered Institute of Marketing having previously been an Associate Member and would like to work towards becoming Chartered.
Most importantly for me, I am currently writing my proposal to begin a PhD at the University of Lincoln. It is something I have been drafting and researching ideas for the past 18 months however due to workload I haven’t been able to allocate the time necessary to dig deep into a topic area that I am truly passionate about.
Having completed my Masters in Lincoln, I hope to be able to carry out research in an area of the industry which can contribute significantly to the business school, wider industry and my role within the business. I would love to lecture one day and pass on my knowledge and experiences as I feel it’s really important for students to get a balance between academia and real-life practice – the two don’t always align 100%!