Meet Elaine, a Strategy Programme Manager at Tesco.

 

After 10 years of working in One Stop, she pivoted to her new role as part of an 18-month secondment and also joined the Women’s Development Programme, which helps to drive more representation across the company and in leadership.

 

As a Strategy Programme Manager, I’m responsible for overseeing the projects that feed into the strategic pillars that are going to drive the business forwards in our 1-3 year plan. It’s a stretch role, as part of the One Stop brand growth initiative, so I work alongside colleagues in the leadership team to help land the key projects that feed into our wider strategy.

I’ve never had any formal project management experience. I started in a People team, before working as an Area Manager, and then I worked in the Online team.  I’ve already started engaging with key members of the Leadership Team who I wouldn’t have prior to this opportunity.

In every other role I’ve started, I already had the experience in that field. For example, when I joined the Online team, I’d been an Area Manager and I understood the general online operations, the reporting, many of the challenges... I felt like I had a great footing before I started. Right now, I’m in a role when I don’t know where to start – it's quite exciting to not know everything. There are so many elements of the business that you think you know about, and it isn’t until you start the role and think: ‘Actually, I didn’t know that.’ I’ve got tonnes to learn, so it’s exciting but scary.

Tesco are supporting me with the PRINCE2 project management course that I’m taking. It’s not something I knew about before, but it’ll open up even more career opportunities for me. I’m also excited to be part of the Women’s Development Programme, which is a really exciting network. The programme brings together women who are identified as talent from across the Tesco Group. [It] has helped me build relationships with other women across the business.

 For women to feel empowered to go for senior roles and feel that it’s an open playing field? That’s how it should be. There should be fair, equal opportunities, and the Women’s Development Programme allows women to forward their careers, even those who have already started their development journey, or who have worked on themselves and their career. It helps bring women together and fill any of those little gaps that they perhaps need a little more support with.

Even after just a few sessions, the Women’s Development Programme has been so helpful. We had a global kick-off that helped me to understand that other women across Tesco experience similar challenges to me. It's helping me understand what I need to do and how I can get there. But the biggest thing is being able to connect with other women that are in exactly the same position.

The Women’s Development Programme has helped me to connect with other women and more people across the Tesco Group. I wanted to understand the broader picture when starting my current role, and the programme has been a great opportunity to do that. I also want to be able to succeed and to be able to develop personally and professionally, to be highlighted for roles when they come up. The programme has been great for expanding your profile in the business and making sure people know who are, have people that can sponsor you, and talk about you in a room. Being on somebody’s mind is an element that comes into play when a secondment opportunity comes up.

One of my personal highlights has been connecting with a Store Director in the North West of England, where I live, who has become my sponsor. It was the leads of our Women’s Development Programme that encouraged me to find a director-level sponsor from the wider Tesco Group who’d sponsor and champion me. We’ve had great conversations about his support for women in the workplace, as well as potential roles and career paths. It was massively out of my comfort zone because I thought: ‘This is someone that’s a couple of levels above me, I wouldn’t dream of taking up any of their time.’ This mindset is still a barrier that I need to work through!

The Women’s Development Programme also hosted a ‘Knowing Yourself’ session. It felt like a lightbulb moment, realising that, actually, I already know what I want from my career. I’ve always thought that I didn’t know what job I want next. I don’t know what my next role is, and I still don’t. I’m still working it out. If there's one of about five roles that came up, I'd probably be interested, but I'm not pigeonholing myself. I'm trying to gain as much experience as I can from the business so I can open up opportunities as and when they come up. The session helped me realise that it’s not about what I want to do, it’s more about what I want to achieve from my career. And that’s focusing on my values around making people feel welcome and that they have a voice, empathy, and putting people at the heart of what I do.

Just having the opportunity to join the Women’s Development Programme is recognition that Tesco is there for women, backing us and saying: “You’re leading the way, you’re in control of your development. We’re just here if you need us.” I feel like I work in a culture where it doesn't matter whether you're male or female. If you're the right person for the job, then you are the right person for the job. It's not about women taking roles that they shouldn't have.

I definitely feel that opportunities are open to us. It is down to me to push my own career, to build that sponsorship relationship, to build a wider network, to push myself out of my comfort zone, build my own PDP, identify the areas that I need to work on. Whether that's putting me through a project management course because I've never done it before, or that's my line manager putting time in to help me with my PDP, Tesco have helped me with my own career plans and development.

I wouldn’t even think twice about recommending Tesco to other women that might be considering joining. The company is huge, but women are represented really well. Even within One Stop, our Managing Director is a woman, , our Head of Retail, Head of People... There’s tonnes of opportunity and everyone is welcome!

 

Everyone’s welcome at Tesco. We’re there for our people, whatever life brings. So we’ll do everything we can to support you. To help make sure you always feel comfortable being yourself at work, and that you’ve got what you need to develop and grow with us.