I love working for Sainsbury’s and the primary reason has to be the Inspire network.

I really enjoy my role managing the general merchandise email programmes at Sainsbury’s and a wonderful team of passionate individuals, but I count myself extremely lucky to work for a company where I am actively encouraged to pursue my passions outside of my role too. For me, this means spending time on events and communications for our gender balance network and being an inclusion representative for the Marketing department, empowering colleagues to bring their whole selves to work.

This year, we relaunched as Inspire – a gender balance network across the Sainsbury’s business. We hosted a fantastic launch event on International Men’s Day with guest speaker Will Young. I was privileged to take the lead on the events and communications for International Men’s Day, working alongside our fantastic network team. We created some amazing podcasts with inspirational men around business, recorded and edited by one of my incredibly talented colleagues, had activity through our internal comms and held listening groups with men across the business to discuss issues from mental health in the workplace through to work life balance as a parent.

I have worked for Sainsbury’s for nearly 2 ½ years now, originally within CRM on the Argos side of the business. Since I first started, I was heavily involved in the Argos gender balance network, working on some incredible events with guest speakers including Jonny Wilkinson, Mary Portas and Suki Thompson. This became an integral part of my experience at Sainsbury’s and our wonderful Diversity and Inclusion networks are one of the many reasons I think they are such a fantastic business to work for. Prior to joining Sainsbury’s, I worked within marketing and fundraising at World Vision UK – a fantastic international children’s charity which will always have a special place in my heart.

Moving into my current role coincided with the beginning of the rise of Coronavirus in the UK, so supporting colleagues with the transition to remote working has been an important part of my role over the last year. I’m so proud of all of my team’s achievements in 2020, including overhauling our Black Friday email contact strategy which resulted in sending 17% fewer emails whilst driving 11% more visits to site, compared to last year. However, I am equally proud of the resilience everyone has shown in such an ambiguous year and the team morale we have managed to maintain through virtual events organised by myself and others in our ‘getting to know each other’ workstream. I am also so proud of everything the Inspire network has achieved, and continues to achieve, since it’s relaunch in November.

I can’t wait to see what 2021 holds; for the Inspire network, for Digital Marketing at Sainsbury’s and for myself and my team members on a personal level.