Success stories

Emma Turner - Marketing Communications Executive

Emma Turner I started my career at Kensington in January 2005 as a Pre-Offer New Business Assistant. In March 2005 I heard about the Potential Team Leader Development Programme and decided to apply. Luckily my application was successful and I was soon part of a project team working on Kensington’s Customer Service Charter, with the Director of HR as my mentor. I completed the course in July 2005 and immediately applied for a Post Offer Team Leader role - I was successful in my application and took up my new role in August 2005.

In the 20 months that followed I faced many challenges but was surrounded by a supportive and enthusiastic team who ensured I quickly found my feet. The favourite aspect to my job was staff development - helping my team see their potential and find their way within Kensington was extremely rewarding. In my time as Team Leader I saw several members of my team move on to new careers such as Senior NBA’s, Team Leaders or move into completely different departments.

In January 2007, I decided I was ready for a new challenge and was keen to learn about a new area of the business. I applied for a role as a Marketing Communications Executive, and the position was offered to me in February 2007. I have been working in the Marketing team for over 2 years now and am thoroughly enjoying all the new challenges and the creative aspects of my role. I'm currently working towards a number of professional qualifications with the Chartered Institute of Marketing to help me advance further in my new career.

Edward Lunn - Head of New Business Operations - Reading

Edward Lunn I’ve been in Financial Services most of my career, working in Mortgage, Savings and Investment related roles.

I joined Kensington in December 2001 as a self employed interim consultant / contractor - initially for a 6 week period providing Christmas cover. This contract grew to 6 months, and ended some 2½ years later when I applied to lead the new Operations Centre in Reading. I realised that this as a great opportunity. How often in your career do you get the chance to build something brand new, from the ground up, pulling together all of your experiences into one initiative? Plus, how often do you get the chance to ‘interview’ an organisation for 2½ years before becoming permanent. I had that chance, and over the years I became attached to the organisation and its people. I learnt during that time what made Kensington a success and why it was such a rewarding place to work.

For me this organisation allows you and encourages you to contribute and make a difference. There are a lot of driven, bright and passionate people who genuinely care for the organisation, its objectives, their colleagues, and 99% of the time we all work collaboratively to achieve - the odd bit of constructive conflict is always healthy!. This organisation is demanding, expects individual’s to work hard, and thanks to the size of the organisation everyone is ‘accountable’, so you’ll find that all the team; from our CEO to our Admin team; will all roll up their sleeves and deliver.

All this makes Kensington a challenging but rewarding organisation, and when you factor in we have fun whilst doing it that must be the perfect recipe for any potential employee!