Reflecting on 20 years of service this International Women’s Day with Claire, Head of Compliance and Service Excellence

By Claire Beasley, Head of Compliance and Service Excellence

​My career started off by registering for temporary work.
On Friday 19th November 1999, I turned up for an appointment with Guidant Global’s sister company, Tate, to register for temp work in London. Part way through the registration process, I was asked if I wanted to work in recruitment. Without really knowing what I was getting into, I said yes and started on Monday.

I didn’t have a plan for my career.
Prior to working at Tate, I had travelled for two years after leaving university, with no idea as to what I wanted to do after. All I knew was that I wanted to live and work in London, and that I’d figure it out at some point.

Back then, Tate was largely made up of women, many of whom are still good friends of mine.
A handful I had met when I first started are still in the business today. There was a great atmosphere in the office and while my colleagues were great to work with, there were so many other reasons to stay: the business had an impressive portfolio of clients, we were growing and I started to realise that recruitment was something I could have a see myself having a career in.

My first foray into recruitment was as a Junior Consultant.
I spent my working time split between the City office and the New Bond Street office in the West End. I was mostly involved with interviewing candidates and conducting sales calls.

On Fridays, timesheets would start coming through on the fax machines from our temp workers ready for us to manually enter onto the payroll system. While it might sound ancient (I feel about a hundred years old writing this), it was uncomplicated – I miss how simple those days were!

One blast from the past memory is…
Smoking in the office! All the smokers in the West End office would light up at their desks every Friday afternoon without fail. It seems almost unbelievable now.

When I had hit my 5th work anniversary, I took up a three-month sabbatical. Whilst I was out of the business, I travelled around Asia, got engaged, interviewed for another role within the business in a telephone kiosk in Laos…. And got it!

At some point, I wanted to learn something new and leave my consultant role behind.
At the same time, Guidant was also establishing its first Implementations Team. I was lucky to be able to join the team, gain my Project Management qualification and went on to implement a number of client accounts that are still under our portfolio today.

When I had my children, I was given the flexibility to work part time.
So, for a few years, I did whatever role needed doing. I was a Supply Chain Manager, an Internal Recruiter and a Project Manager, before I finally moved into Quality and Compliance.

Funnily enough, I don’t exactly remember how I had moved into Compliance.
Somewhere along the line, more and more people started asking me compliance-related questions. I’m naturally interested in legislation – I love rules and processes, so it was kind of an obvious next step. I never ended up applying for a compliance role – my role just evolved as I naturally became the go-to person for compliance.

Today, I head up a team of five across Compliance and Service Excellence, and my interest in legislation is still very much there.
The legislative landscape is constantly changing and finding best practices to apply to the business is very fulfilling. Getting to support and collaborate with other functions in the business and directly support our customers is interesting and keeps things fresh.

Like any other job, there are aspects that are incredible challenging, but I still love what I do. It also helps that I have very lovely colleagues around me.

There have been a very small number of times where I’ve faced female discrimination in my career.
Fortunately, within Guidant, I personally feel that female discrimination is a rare thing (just under 70% of our workforce is female). I also like to think that any displays of gender-biasness would not be tolerated by anyone within the business either. I’d be confident to call it out if I were to witness or experience it myself – I’d probably enjoy educating them.

I’m lucky that my husband works locally to where we live and has his own business.
This means he can be flexible and be around for our children if need be. What this also means is that I can leave for work early or arrive home later without having to worry about childcare – I’m very thankful for that, because I can continue to pursue a job I enjoy.

Sometimes, I’ll miss a school event, or fail to notice that their homework hasn’t been done.
On the other hand, I might have to cancel a client meeting because one of my children is poorly and I need to be at home for them instead.

As a parent and a working mother, things rarely, if ever, work out “perfectly.” Sometimes I’ll beat myself up about it, sometimes I’ll pour myself a large glass of wine and cut myself some slack. I think most people can relate to that.

As a woman in the world of work…
Be yourself and find something you really like doing. Push yourself to do things out of your comfort zone in order to progress. Whether you are a woman or a man, your gender should be irrelevant to what you can influence and achieve, so challenge anyone who might want to limit that.

​Congratulations again on your 20th work anniversary, Claire! What a milestone to celebrate! From all of us at Guidant Global, a massive thank you for all the hard work you’ve done for us over the years to help shape us into what we are today.
- Charlotte Woodward, People Services Director

​

Guidant Global would like to wish everyone a happy International Women’s Day. Champion gender equality with us by joining a team committed to doing things #ABetterWay in the world of work >