Like – I’m sure – many of you, I’ve had to stop myself short a number of times over the past months and realise that I’m thinking back to a time that was before COVID-19. Before working from home five days each week; before having all my meetings as video calls; before knowing what the inside of my colleagues’ homes looks like; before relying on my knowledge built up over the past few years of my role and the organisation I work for to get things done.
But that last one, of course, isn’t the same for everyone. There are many people who had just started a new role as we all headed into this pandemic. There are others who have changed their role or the organisation they work for while we’ve been grappling with lockdowns and restrictions. How have things been for them?
My own experience of this as group treasurer of National Grid turns out to be a positive one. We had planned a series of moves for colleagues within treasury and other corporate-centre-based finance teams in advance of the pandemic.
Our initial response as we headed into lockdown was to put these on hold, on the assumption that remote working would be over in a few short months and it would be much easier to delay these moves until everything was back to normal. Looking back, I am pleased to say that we didn’t delay for more than a few weeks.
It was perhaps never going to be the case and actually seems naïve now to have thought that we could stall change – particularly when it comes to individuals and their development and progression within the organisation. We made the moves in the summer – and all of those involved have worked out how to move into new roles, take up the reins and get to grips with different responsibilities, and lead their new teams in what is now the ‘new normal’.
Team reorganisation, recruitment, promotion, people returning to work after maternity leave – these are a big deal both for the business and its plans, and for individuals’ hopes and aspirations. And at the end of the day, people are our most valuable resource – so, trusting them to be able to succeed and enabling them to continue to progress while in this period of huge change and uncertainty has to be the right thing to do.
I know that this is a pattern that has played out across the treasury community. Perhaps at the start plans were put on hold, but they were then picked up again once it became obvious that we might be sheltering in place for some time.
In fact, looking back over the past year, what we’ve found is that, not only have we managed business as usual while home working, we’ve actually delivered above and beyond what we’ve done in the past. As a treasury community, we have arranged financing on a scale never before seen. We have seamlessly continued to manage day-to-day activity with all our controls being operated remotely. We have navigated year-end close and the audit successfully. We have driven new systems implementations… and all of this has been done from our kitchen tables. All of these examples – and myriad others – are experiences that form part of the careers of ourselves and our colleagues, and have helped us develop our ways of thinking as well as our ways of working.
As we usher in the new year, now is a good time to explore what you’re looking for in the grander scheme of things; to reflect on specific work experiences or projects you’d like to be involved with in 2021 and to think through how you might tackle the next stage of your career. How and in what direction do you want to develop? What experience is missing from your CV and hindering you getting the next role, or the next promotion? And can you consider something now that wouldn’t have been achievable in the pre-COVID-19 working model?
One thing I’ve learnt over the past year is that deferring plans to an end point that we can’t pinpoint turns out to be a bad idea. It’s better to keep up than to catch up, after all. Good career experience is still within reach – and interesting moves are still achievable. We are doing things differently, but across the board we are still delivering treasury services within our organisations on a grand scale.
Alexandra Lewis is group treasurer at National Grid. In over 20 years at the UK utility, she has held a multitude of roles, including head of risk and insurance and head of reward, before becoming group treasurer three years ago. Since the COVID-19 lockdowns took effect, the National Grid team has been active in the debt markets, issuing over £4bn in long-term bonds, as well as executing the first-ever multi-export credit agency covered green loan worth around $750m; the team is also in the midst of implementing a new treasury management system.