Who We Are – Vicky

Solving complex problems in the run up to our Peak period is all in a day’s work for our latest Who We Are nominee, senior service manager, Vicky France.

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.

‘My role is so varied that there’s no such thing as a ‘typical day,’ said Vicky. ‘I’m responsible for operational delivery of all technology services in the Customer Experience, Channels and Data Portfolio, with the aim to ensure that services are working as efficiently as possible for our stakeholders and customers.

‘As a small team of three, we’re responsible for over 100 applications. Day-to-day activities include running major incidents and associated remedial actions, progressing service improvement plans, holding service and supplier review meetings, managing escalations, change approvals and supporting the introduction of new services through transition and early life support.

‘It’s a complex role and involves a lot of stakeholder management. At this time of year, a lot of our focus is preparing for Peak. Service management can be a challenging area to work in as often I’m engaged when there’s a problem or if something has gone wrong. Therefore, my favourite part of the role is when the team and I are able to be more proactive and deliver improvements to service.

‘I have a strong team working with me and we have delivered some fantastic improvements this year, including improving the number of successful payment transactions on the Royal Mail websites, reducing the number of reporting errors in Enterprise Reporting and Future Data Platform (FDP) due to source data issues and improvements to the shipping channels to improve stability. It’s not always possible to get it right 100 per cent of the time, but these small improvements create a sense of achievement.’

Like most people in the business, Vicky’s working life has changed significantly during the pandemic.

‘It has been a very challenging time and like many people, I have been based at home since March,’ she said. ‘There have been unprecedented increases in traffic volumes across many of our technology services, driven by the pandemic with volumes above tested limits.

‘This means we have been extremely busy to ensure the services remain stable. Significant investment has been required in some cases. I think that people who don’t work in service management would be surprised to learn about how much work has been completed behind the scenes.

‘Outside of work, I enjoy running and play netball for a league in Sheffield. This is something I love doing and have really missed during lockdown. It’s a complete release from the stresses of work (and kids!).

‘The qualities I think are most important to work for Royal Mail are resilience, tenacity and an optimistic outlook. I feel really proud to work here. I think we can maybe be a bit sheltered in Technology - if there was any other job I could do at Royal Mail for a week, I believe a role in Operations would give me a real insight into the business.’