Best endeavours
Today, events-based billing (EBB) support manager, Zafri Benjamin, who is a member of our Youth & Friends network, describes his journey since joining Royal Mail in October 2017 as a Commercial graduate.
‘The Royal Mail graduate scheme really appealed to me because it’s spread across four different business areas and functions, allowing me to gain experience across four different teams – an invaluable experience,’ said Zafri. ‘I really like the structure of the rotations as it feels like a six-month project, which keeps my workload really varied and fast-paced – something I enjoy!
‘The scheme is a great place to start as most people are in the same boat; the graduates are usually in their first job, they’ve moved to a new city and people are generally friendly and keen to support each other. As part of the Commercial graduate scheme, Royal Mail gives us the opportunity to complete a marketing qualification via the Chartered Institute of Marketing, which is a bonus on top of everything else. I’m happy to say I’ve achieved a merit in my first module and will keep up the good work for the next two modules!
‘My daily responsibilities revolved around projects relating to the team I was in at the time. For example, I worked on creating a Christmas promotional offer to our larger customers when I was with the MarketReach team in Letters, allowing me to exercise my stakeholder management skills where I brought all the experts together to steer meetings and workloads in a calculated manner.
‘Another rotation presented the opportunity to upskill select Royal Mail teams on how to use social media effectively so we can present the business as a contemporary company rather than the older competition. My rotations allowed me to gain a wealth of experience and develop strong professional networks.
‘I believe Royal Mail is an inclusive company as I’ve always felt included in steering groups, and whenever I’ve joined a new team, I’m instantly welcomed by warm and friendly people who make themselves available to answer my ever-growing list of questions.
‘I’ve now offboarded from my graduate scheme as a support programme manager in the EBB programme. The EBB team are a great lot, I’m always welcomed to ask questions and there’s a strong sense of collaboration as we work towards our shared EBB goals. There are also new challenges and lessons being learned on a constant basis, which means my role is filled with variety, problems that need solving and a collaborative team working together to get the job done properly.
‘I’m really happy with the opportunities I have and will endeavour to make the most of them going forward.’
To join or find out more about the Youth & Friends steering group, share ideas and feedback or suggest ways we can better engage with younger colleagues, please email youthnetwork@royalmail.com.
Click here to find out what inclusion means to some of our younger colleagues. If you want to join the Youth & Friends Facebook group, please email with your name, location and employee number and they will send you an invite.
