Why I'm feeling optimistic this International Women's Day...

When I joined this wonderful team of people all those years ago, before #Modulous even had a name, I’d never heard of ‘People Experience’ as a role, but I guess I was practising my own small version of it, being the glue that kept our small team of seven ticking over. As the only person in the business doing HR, finance, marketing, events, office refurbishment (I could go on), I was, by design, looking for the most effective solutions to problems and efficient processes to make everyone’s lives easier. Cue Tim Snell joining the business in 2019, bringing a wealth of skills and experience, and enabling us to start laying the foundations for the progressive workplace culture we have today.

All these years later, my role now focusses on creating an exceptional place to work, encompassing everything from optimising our digital and physical office spaces for best performance, to wellbeing and internal communications. We know that an engaged and informed team performs better, which is why my role has become such a wide reaching and interesting challenge. Our team has now grown to 60 people; we doubled our headcount through the pandemic and have team members across the UK and the world. Keeping all those people happy, connected, and engaged is a challenge I relish.

A business is only as good as its people, and our people are bloody brilliant. That’s why my job is worth doing. Josh Bersin considers a Positive Workplace to be one of the six pillars of people experience - providing inclusivity, diversity, a sense of belonging and community to your team members. For us at Modulous, that also means allowing everyone to have a voice, and challenging the norm is a key aspect of being courageous - one of our core values.

Whether it’s speaking out against gender inequality or transforming an industry as archaic as construction, we can’t succeed without questioning the norm and constantly pushing ourselves to find better solutions. That constant search for better was the catalyst for Donnathea Campbell & I to set up the Women at Modulous forum in recognition of the barriers that women can still face in the workplace. The forum provides a space for our women to come together and discuss their experience at Modulous and within the wider construction and technology industries.

I’m so pleased to be part of an organisation that, on top of its progressive culture and industry leading family-friendly benefits, is open to being challenged; recognises that it requires conscious effort to achieve equality; and encourages its women to have a voice. As a group we look forward to continuing to make recommendations back to the business on how Modulous can keep improving the sense of belonging and community it provides our team.

So Happy International Women's Day. I hope you too can find reason to feel optimistic about a more equitable future being within reach.