Anglian Water - Jodi's Transition Success

From the RAF to Change Manager!

 

An interview with Jodi who served in the RAF before finding success at Anglian Water. 

I joined the Royal Air Force when I was 18yrs old and served for 13yrs 6months. I was an Intelligence Analyst throughout my career but with each promotion I moved to more of a management position – people and equipment.

I am right at the beginning of my Anglian Water career having only joined in July 2022. 

I applied to leave earlier than my termination date from the RAF when I got offered a job with Anglian Water. I had researched the company thoroughly and their values and working culture is what drew me in. It is quite daunting at first when looking for a new career as I had only known the military and that particular lifestyle, but when reading AW’s values: Build Trust, Are Always Exploring and Do The Right Thing, they match my own and are very similar to that of the RAF. From then, I visited the team I’d be working with and the welcoming and helpful culture from absolutely everyone I met was refreshing! That was definitely what ‘sealed the deal’ for me. The people you work with are so important!

The role of Change Manager was a perfect match for me when reading the job spec as my strengths are connecting with people and wanting to guide them on whatever change journey they are about to go through. I also became a PRINCE2 Practitioner and APMG Change Practitioner on my resettlement journey using my ELC funding.

The Change Manager role involves focussing on the people side of the change and working alongside a Project Manager who focusses on the technical side. I create/update engagement plans throughout the project journey ensuring all stakeholders are involved to the level that they need/want to be. I ensure communication works both ways and make sure the people involved have the correct support and training to make the change happen. And finally, I make sure the change sticks!

The element of my role that I enjoy the most is definitely being within a customer focussed team, making a difference to people’s experiences of the business rather than solely focussing on outputs or cost-saving projects.

The main thing I enjoy most about working for Anglian Water are the people and their innovative mindset. But also the extra benefits you get from being an employee. The military provide the serviceperson with a great package; medical, dental, pension, healthy leave allowance, to name a few, so it can be hard to find somewhere else which matches that level and gives you that security, mentally and physically. Anglian Water provides private healthcare, a great pension scheme, a decent salary and leave balance and a number of salary sacrifice schemes which you can choose to opt in to. Aside from the overall package though, working for a business who truly advocate flexible working and positive mental wellbeing is definitely another thing I enjoy most about working here.

I would definitely recommend Anglian Water to other Serving members who are in their resettlement period or who are looking to leave. I definitely feel like my transition to ‘civilian life’ has been a positive one and I feel supported and valued in my new role.

To attract people from the forces, I would say strive to match what the military can offer with regards to support and benefits. Ensure there is healthy progression within Anglian Water (which I think there already is!) and value the key skills, mindset and adaptability that a service-person offers (which I’m sure AW already does).

The most important thing within work for me has got to be having a supportive team to work with. A close second would be flexible working arrangements and getting that work/life balance.

 

Please tell us in your own words about your experience of Anglian Water employment:

To date, my experience of Anglian Water employment has been truly positive. From the moment I was offered an interview, the recruitment team were great and let me know the details about the interview process and who my interviewers were going to be. The interviewers on the day were amazing, they made me feel comfortable and put me at ease. I had an offer given to me the same day and once I accepted it, the Prehires team were in touch taking me through the onboarding process. Every person I have spoken to within the business has been hugely helpful and I am proud to now be an Anglian Water employee.

One point to raise for Serving members who leave to join Anglian Water though is this. It seems like a rarity to recruit anyone within the team who are ‘external’ and not already an AW employee from elsewhere. Obviously this may be different depending on what team you join. This just means that it is assumed within the business that you know all of the terminology so you have to remind people you’re completely new! It’s not a bad thing as it also gets the longer-term employees to think about how they communicate and everyone is very approachable and answer any questions you have.

You also have to think to yourself…there must be a reason why Anglian Water have so many long-term employees. They must be doing something right!

 

To discover what Anglian Water can do for your resettlement journey, follow this link...