Whilst 6 December was far from a typical ‘day in the life’, I chose to write about this day as it was the culmination of months’ worth of ‘days in the life’. From the moment I started my placement with Internal Communications at Principality, there was talk of our much-anticipated annual colleague conference, organised by my team, and spearheaded by my line manager. How would it look? Would it be virtual or in-person? Who would host it? How could we make it inspirational? What would be the key themes and messages?
The next few months were spent answering these questions. Piecing the conference together involved meetings with the production company and tech crew; writing and proof-reading scripts; filming colleague video contributions; liaising with Principality Stadium; checking timings and logistics; concocting competitions, and ordering prize hampers…safe to say, the speed with which 6 December came around was astounding!
My colleague and I had been at the Stadium the Friday before with the tech crew rigging up; it was impressive to see how a spaghetti-like entanglement of wires morphed into a real-life TV studio, ready to welcome the presenters on Monday morning.
The day started bright and early. I say bright, it was pitch dark, vaguely evoking the excitement of arriving at the airport in the early hours before going on holiday. Everyone arrived promptly, raring to go, and before we knew it, it was time to go live.
The first day of the conference was launched by our CEO, Julie-Ann Haines, alongside Chair, Sally Jones-Evans, and Head of Strategy, Ben Joakim. Donned in festive attire which highlighted their brilliantly personable sides, they introduced the business’s evolving strategy, and how this would be brought to life over the coming months. Everything ran smoothly, was perfectly timed, and impeccably delivered; there was an undeniable sense of contented satisfaction in the room upon wrapping up.
The colleague conference has given me the opportunity to reflect from a very privileged behind-the-scenes perspective. Something that stood out during the organising of the conference was how dedicated and passionate colleagues are about the business they work for, and how willing they are to contribute, to ensure success in any given endeavour. The values we have as an organisation really are played out by colleagues across the business day-in-day-out and, personally, being on placement at Principality has confirmed how important it is to me to work for a value-focused and purposeful company.
Another takeaway of note from working on the conference is the array of diverse roles that exists within the financial services industry. What’s more, not all roles necessarily involve finance per se; there’s a role to suit everyone. As someone not from a finance background, I started my placement not fully knowing what to expect, and have been more than pleasantly surprised. My day-to-day role is interesting, varied, and the fact that I am constantly learning and developing thanks to my brilliant team is priceless. Helping to organise the conference and being at the live stream from the Stadium showcased that working in financial services is enjoyable, challenging, and ultimately rewarding.
In a nutshell, my ‘day in the life’ demonstrates that hard work does indeed pay off, especially when that hard work is carried out by a close-knit team who are always there to support and motivate each other to achieve the best results possible, not only for each other, but also for Principality Building Society.
Written by Angharad May, on placement with the Internal Communications team at Principality Building Society.