We sat down with a few women from around The Bristan Group to find out their stories and journey to where they are now. In this article, we chat with Head of Customer Service and Support, Jade Devine, who has been at the Bristan Group for 17 years. 

Jade is the Head of the award-winning Customer Service team at the Bristan Group looking after the Bristan and Heritage Bathrooms brands.  She has been with the Bristan Group for 17 years and had two children during her career progression and has welcomed the flexibility of the business that has enabled her to study and take on new roles during her time with the Group.

Jade spent three years in the Army cadets from the age of 13 and loved the physical aspects of the cadets which complimented her love of competitive swimming.  At 16 however she went to college doing a public service course and was the only female in a class of 15.  She found this a positive experience and felt accepted and supported by her male counterparts and this fostered a love of being part of a team and a healthy dose of competitiveness!

She joined the Bristan Group as she knew of the reputation as a good local employer.  She comments “To be honest I didn’t really give the industry much thought at that stage, and I certainly wasn’t perturbed.”

Jade was a Returns Administrator within the Credit Control team for 11 years and credits a strong and nurturing Manager for spotting her potential and encouraging her to do more. “April was my manager and has been at the Bristan Group for 30 years.  She was a great role model.  When I returned from my first maternity leave there was a chance to do a NVQ in Business Improvement Techniques and the course started the day I returned from maternity leave.  At the time I felt overwhelmed having just returned and with a 9-month old baby.  April encouraged me to just go for it and I think she knew I was capable and that I wanted more out of my career, so she encouraged me strongly to give it a go. I completed Level 2 and Level 3 and I think that gave me more confidence and skills.

I had my second child when I had just finished my Level 3 course, so I was pregnant whilst studying. I then came back to work full time and took on a new role as specification support coordinator, which was tough. I had to convince the Manager of that team that I was right for the job and prove myself which was hard with a baby and a five-year-old at home.

I went on to set up and manage the desk-based sales team where I had 3 direct reports with some great success within the team growing one account from £3K to £12K per month by understanding the customer requirements.

Around eight months later, I was asked if I would consider my current role as Head of Customer Service.  It took me several weeks to decide if the position was for me due to my own self-confidence. It meant going from managing 3 people to being responsible for a department of 50, after some thought and encouragement I realised that I wouldn’t have been asked if the business and senior team didn’t think I was capable, coupled with having a female mentor and role model in the business who was successful, who gave me the confidence to push myself.

We had lots of challenges initially; the culture was not good when I joined, and I spent some time with the team to discover what needed to change to make things better and do the best for our customers.

I have never really felt like a woman in a male dominated industry, at the Bristan Group this is not something we have an issue with. However, I know my female colleagues within customer service feel this from time to time when speaking to Installers. They expect our technical team to be made up of male agents and have received comments such as “Can I not speak to a man “.  

I’m not comfortable being the loudest voice in the room at big meetings, but I feel the Bristan Group is fair and I am given the opportunity to speak up and be heard and listened to. We have a lot of successful, strong women in the Bristan Group, and I think that helps to give confidence to new people joining the business or the industry.

I think the trust that the senior team have in me, and the team, has allowed us the freedom to learn and grow.

If I could give one piece of advice to myself starting out it would be, don’t sit in your comfort zone for too long, accept challenges as a way to grow. My moto in life is regret what you have done rather than what you haven’t – don’t leave anything on the table. “