Who We Are – Adele

After more than 25 years working for Royal Mail, Adele Allen, head of international network development, is currently working closely with GLS to prepare for the challenges of Brexit.

Our Who We Are campaign celebrates our key workers - connecting communities, before and during the Covid-19 pandemic – and beyond as well. We’re recognising people at the heart of our business, across the pipeline, as they describe who they are in their own words.

We want to receive nominations from around the Group for deserving colleagues to be recognised in this way. Send yours to communications@royalmail.com.

Like so many people, Adele joined Royal Mail on a temporary basis and hasn’t looked back.

‘I joined Royal Mail for five weeks as a casual and so I had no expectations,’ she said. ‘But after more than 25 years, I can seriously say that it has provided me with a very varied and interesting career.

‘I am responsible for developing and deploying a system that has allowed Royal Mail to negotiate better delivery rates with our postal counterparts across Europe with the potential to apply the logic worldwide. The approach is to create a competitive environment where Royal Mail switches international traffic between our postal counterparts and third-party delivery partners including GLS - dependent upon who provides the best value service.

‘Day-to-day, I am in regular contact with an extensive virtual team from across many business functions including Operations, IT and Finance as well as with our GLS partners.

‘I’m responsible for ensuring we can add GLS routing labels to Royal Mail parcels so that they can be injected into their network and delivered with all the necessary scans, ensuring our customers can see all their tracks on royalmail.com. More recently, I have been involved in planning for Brexit and ensuring we can still send parcels to GLS once the new customs regulations are applied to our traffic.

‘Working from home has been a new experience as I enjoy the face-to-face contact with other colleagues. The fact that everyone is in the same situation means the changes haven’t been so challenging - and everyone has embraced technology to the point that at times, it feels like we’re all working in a call centre. Sharing videos and pictures via WhatsApp has had to replace my night shift visits to Heathrow Worldwide Distribution Centre.

‘Royal Mail has played a huge part in my life and my career has never been boring. I have worked in numerous business units and functions, where I’ve met so many interesting people and a few lifelong friends.

‘Additionally, Royal Mail has given me the opportunity to gain some amazing qualifications and skills, as I am now a Fellow Chartered Management Accountant (FCMA), Six Sigma greenbelt, and a qualified chef, having trained for three years with Post Office catering services. Various management courses have also exposed me to some more unusual skills - including raft making, abseiling, potholing and even juggling.’