My Journey at Covéa: Embracing Opportunities and Overcoming Challenges

When I reflect on my career at Covéa, I see a journey filled with growth, challenges, and continuous learning. Like many others here, my connection to Covéa started early on – my mum had worked here for over 30 years, so I grew up familiar with the company. After finishing university in 2018, I began my own career path at Covéa, starting in the contact centre servicing our Provident customers.

From the Contact Centre to Leadership

From Provident, I quickly transitioned to the new John Lewis team when we partnered with them, allowing me to soon progress to a senior role where I had the chance to take on some team leader responsibilities. I managed my own team with support from the existing leaders, which was both exciting and nerve-wracking.

In 2020 I took the leadership skills I had worked on and was successful in my team leader application, moving to pet claims. Moving from policy operations to pet claims was daunting, but I knew that to advance my career, I needed to explore opportunities outside of my comfort zone. I learned that you don’t need to be a technical expert to succeed in a leadership role; your primary responsibility is to support your team and ensure they have the tools and resources they need to excel.

Transitioning to Credit Control

After a year in pet claims, I returned to policy operations as a team manager for the John Lewis team. This role further enhanced my ability to implement positive changes, fix problems, and take ownership of projects.

Towards the end of 2022, I took on a new challenge by applying for a team manager position in Credit Control. At the time, Credit Control were facing significant challenges. The transition was difficult; I was stepping into a role where both the team and I were new. Leading a new team having no experience myself was intimidating and I was pushed out of my comfort zone. This challenge allowed me to start from the very bottom and mould the team and ways of working to be more efficient, challenging every process to understand the ‘why’.

Perseverance paid off. Over the course of a year and a half, my team and I managed to reach huge milestones which I’m incredibly proud of. We’ve built strong relationships with other departments, introduced new processes, and built a team culture focused on continuous improvement.

The hard work led to my recent promotion to a Grade 13 role, which I’m excited to dive into. This new role will allow me to further expand my impact within policy operations while continuing the success we’ve achieved in credit control.

What I value most about my team is the shared understanding of our goals and the dedication to achieving them. We’ve created a close-knit group where everyone is on the same page, and this alignment has been key to our success. Our team knows that their daily work contributes

to our overall strategy, and this sense of purpose drives us forward. I am extremely proud of the relationships we’ve built with our brokers, underwriters, business partners, development managers and so many more teams who have all been instrumental in our success.

Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone

Throughout my time at Covéa, I’ve learned the importance of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. Each new challenge has helped me grow both personally and professionally. I firmly believe in the value of investing in yourself and taking those sideways steps to move up. It’s natural to feel scared or anxious about new opportunities, but these feelings are often a sign that you’re on the right path. The more you face these challenges, the easier they become.

At Covéa, we’re extremely fortunate to have a supportive network of peers and managers. In 2023 I applied to use the internal coaching service within Covéa and found so much benefit from it, it allowed me to really focus on my development areas and held me accountable for actions I'd set myself. I saw a huge change in the way I managed my time, my leadership skills and confidence in my role. If you’re ever feeling unsure, reach out for help. Whether it’s preparing for an interview or navigating a challenging project, there’s always someone willing to support you, so just go for it!