Meet Hema, Lead Technical Program Manager in the Technology Team. Here, she tells us about her experience of the Women’s Development program and the support it’s given her within her career.  

I’ve been at Tesco coming up to 17 years now and have been in my current role for about 2 years.  

Working within the Finance Technology Team, as a project manager. My role is working closely with the product managers and engineering teams to help deliver tech solutions which meets the business needs. 

My understanding of why the Women’s Development program has been launched is to help women focus on their career and help them to understand how they can progress within Tesco. Also, to shed light on some of the barriers that women face in the work environment and to bring them onto an equal footing as they develop their career. It’s to provide support to help them along their development journey within Tesco. 

It’s nice to have the support of the program, being able to carve our time to focus on my career. The aspect of the program I value the most is having the support of a sponsor and a coach. I have previously shied away from them because I haven't really known what to discuss and felt self-conscience as it is like shining a torch on my vulnerabilities with a stranger.   

Having spoken to the women on the program and hearing how coaches and sponsors have helped them shape their careers, I made a promise to myself that if there is one take away from the development program, it is to overcome my insecurities and to embrace having a coach. 

I've had a few coaching sessions now, and they have been amazing. I have been able to share my learnings from each module, to talk about my career progression, what’s important to me and my PDP. As well as hearing about their career stories and getting their feedback on how they lead from a director or a senior leadership perspective. 

I genuinely haven't experienced a lot of those barriers that you read about, especially in the work environment. I think I'm my own worst barrier in terms of feeling like I can’t do something, but I've been fortunate enough to have line managers throughout my career that have given me that nudge and push. 

My current line manager has been extremely supportive in everything that I do and giving me that boost, especially in those low moments. With her help I have been able to work flexible hours, supporting me to strike the right work/life balance.  

The Women’s Development program is helping me to see my potential and providing me with a toolkit, I feel extremely valued and grateful to be working for an organisation like Tesco who is continuing to support me in career journey. Through the support of the program, I have been able to widen my network with the women on the program, as well as, with my own leadership team. My department is one of the few which has an all-woman leadership team (WL4s and WL5s), regular 1-2-1s with my director, has helped me to talk about my internal barriers and to have her support and sponsorship to transition into my next role.