Meet Jasleen, Communications Manager, working in our Channels team. She’s been with Tesco for 6 years and is involved in the Women’s Development Programme. Here, Jasleen shares her experience with her role, the programme and how it’s impacted her personal development.  

 

I joined Tesco in 2018 as a Communications Coordinator and have since become the Channels Communications Manager within Business Support.   

My team are responsible for any operational communications which land in our UK stores, distribution centres and CFCs. We work with teams across the business to advise on the best way to land their communications, ensuring they are simple and relevant for our colleagues in stores and centres. As a team we’re content experts who advise on communications channels, language and tone, so that every message we send represents the Tesco voice and brand.  

One thing I love about my role is the breadth of what we do – from sending reactive messages to landing long-term projects to introducing new digital communications tools. It’s highly likely that we’re going to come across a new challenge every day. Because of this, you’re never alone. In my role, I’m constantly working with stakeholders and interacting with others in my team and surrounding teams.

I hadn’t heard about the Women’s Development Programme until my manager nominated me, so it was a nice surprise to be put forward for it. I’d been having conversations with my line manager about my personal development and wanting to take the next steps in my career, so this came around at the perfect time.  

The amount of support I’ve been given to attend this programme is a massive commitment from Tesco. My line manager has been nothing but supportive in giving me the tools I need to prioritise my development whilst my team have helped me with picking up day-to-day tasks while I give this my full attention on certain days.    

The programme recognises the challenges that women come across when it comes to developing and excelling in their career and it’s there to help women see their full potential and understand how we can get the best from our career and from ourselves.

I’ve found the knowing yourself and forming a plan module helpful in understanding what my different career motivators are and how I can use these to drive my career. Networking is also a really important part of this programme and it’s been fantastic to meet so many inspiring women across the Group and see everyone being encouraged to recognise their brilliance and potential.  

As a line manager myself, I often see it within my own team where I have extremely talented female colleagues who are more introverted and reserved and don’t put themselves at the forefront of every interaction, despite being subject experts. It’s confidence barriers that make it more difficult for everyone to be heard. It’s important to understand how you overcome these barriers, get everyone comfortably involved and able to feel like they have an equal voice, because they do. 

So my question is "How can we support women to advocate for themselves?" I think this is a big barrier and it’s stopping women from putting themselves forward for opportunities or putting themselves at the forefront of discussions that they should be leading on. It’s important we work together as a business to break this barrier. The programme isn’t about giving women more help than others, it’s about pushing them to realise their full potential and give them the same starting line as everyone else.   

Working in communications, I think being your authentic self is key in creating strong connections with multiple colleagues. As women, fear of being labelled as too assertive or not assertive enough can hinder our ability be our authentic selves. However, throughout my journey at Tesco, I’ve learnt how to find my voice, build confidence and be comfortable with my own personal style, knowing that diversity and uniqueness adds value.   

Representation matters and I think it’s so important to have female and ethnically diverse role models in the workplace because ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’. In the most formative part of my career at Tesco I received this representation, and I can only hope to pay it forward one day myself.