Today is International Women’s Day. The Suffragettes launched this day in 1911 and it has grown from its once humble beginnings to a day that is now recognised and celebrated on a global scale. It means different things to different people but the focus on equality has always been one of its guiding principles.
Our women within Portico account for 77% of our 800 people. Additionally, 90% of our leaders are women and in the last year we have internally promoted over 40 women into senior roles. We are exceptionally proud of these women who lead our business and who will continue to shape the future of Portico.
Having such a strong female presence within Portico and a culture that champions equality and diversity only serves to strengthen our business. The results from our November People Survey shared that 96% of our people feel strongly that we are dedicated to diversity & inclusion.
To celebrate this day, we have chosen four of our female leaders and share below their stories and Portico journey:
Hannah
Hannah spent her early career within the events sector. In 2014 she moved to Portico as Reception Supervisor for one of our legal client accounts. Here she spent 18 months evolving our guest services. Hannah has a natural approach to leading teams. Her talents were spotted, and she was promoted to Client Services Manager within another, larger law firm. Here she worked extremely hard to win the hearts and minds of the TUPE team and create our now seamless guest experience. Her next move saw her embrace an even larger team with a global media firm and take on additional responsibilities. In 2018, Hannah was the natural choice for our new role of Guest Services Manager at one of our new fashion clients. Our client is transforming their office environment and amenities and Hannah was responsible for launching their new chapter of service and implementing a guest experience.
Jo
Jo joined Portico in 2014 from a career in private hospitals. She started her Portico journey at one of our small but exceptionally busy law firm contracts. 12 months later she championed the mobilisation and migration for a large insurer and took the lead on launching their front of house operations within three locations. In 2017, she was hand-picked to lead our newest contract with a global bank. Here she is accountable for over 70 team members across five locations. This last project saw a complex TUPE programme followed by a comprehensive restructure and service development programme. Now in it’s second year with Jo at the helm, the client service our team offer is unrecognisable thanks to her hard work.
Amy
Prior to joining Portico in 2015, Amy worked within the retail sector and was keen to migrate into the corporate sector. Her first role was on our Team Support as a mobile Receptionist covering absence for various Portico clients. She honed her exceptional service skills and settled into one of our insurance operations. Her flair for service excellence, people management and innovation were in abundance. Her Operations Manager spotted her talents and in December 2017, she was promoted to Portfolio Manager. Here she launched, and transformed, our new group contract with one of our global property clients. Late last year, Amy shared the news that she was moving home to Ireland. The timing of her departure was perfectly timed with our growth in Ireland. Amy was further promoted to Operations Manager and now leads our client services in Ireland.
Faisa
Faisa spent her early career with Virgin Atlantic and held many client service positions for the airline. She joined Portico in January 2016 as our Reception Supervisor at one of our large global banks. 12 months later, Faisa was internally promoted to Assistant Client Services Manager. Here she worked closely with her line manager to embed and evolve our client experience following their relocation to a brand-new office environment. In December, her line manager was internal promoted to lead a new account. Faisa was the natural choice to lead this account and continues to flourish in taking care of our team and guest services.