Hi, I'm Kally. Working at PA has been great so far because I’m glad to be back in an office environment.
Being in the office helps with collaborative working, you get to meet people and have a chat and a coffee on breaks.
These things don’t happen when you’re just online like I was in my previous job. Although I’ve been in the housing sector for 5 years, it’s nice to see that PA are leading in a lot of ways. I’d be astonished if there was another housing association (HA) using Microsoft Teams as effectively as PA.
I’ve been in IT for 15 years now
Starting in places like Halfords and Comet – getting exposed to a lot of areas in IT. My previous employer, which I joined in July 2017, was a similarly sized HA called Stonewater. There, I led an IT transformation programme, working on a replacement service, management tools, and video conferences. I was tasked with making sure all our systems delivered a useful service.
That was my first housing role, but I had other roles in IT, mostly in the higher education sector. I did IT support at the University of Oxford. Sometimes, we had celebs coming to us for IT support when they were giving talks at the university. Two notable examples – on the opposite ends of the scale – were Piers Morgan and Rio Ferdinand. I tried to strike up a conversation with Piers, because I know he’s into football, but he didn’t want to know. On the other hand, the task for Rio only took 15 minutes, but he stayed on to chat for another 45 minutes. My experience working there taught me a lot – no day was ever the same and there were lots of challenges in providing customer service.
Before that, I was on a Service Desk at Coventry Uni, which is also where I studied. We worked to turn customer satisfaction around and improve the student experience. For students who had trouble with viruses and repairs issues, we offered a free repairs service on laptops. We also gave 20% discounts to students if they showed their NUS cards. It’s about finding these creative ways of making things easier and stress free for customers and colleagues.
Despite working in IT, I’d say I’m not really a ‘technical’ person
I’ve always been about improving services for people, avoiding jargon, and making things easier. In a nutshell, Service Delivery is about bridging the gap between IT and the rest of the business, enabling services, and supporting colleagues. This involves inspiring confidence in the IT service, making the business needs a reality by changing policies and procedures, writing strategy, and ensuring that we have the right tech available to get things done. While I do have a lot of experience, even in IT at a different HA, I understand that every HA has its own way of doing things and its own ‘pain’. So, the main thing I’d like to learn about PA is all its different teams to find out where its pain is. I’d like to see what I can do from my position in the ICT Team to make things as painless as possible for colleagues and residents.
My favourite thing about PA so far has been the attitude of everybody I’ve met and how approachable everyone has been. In my previous role, we didn’t have a hybrid way of working and we were exclusively at home, so seeing people and getting to know them has been refreshing. My team is very knowledgeable, so I’m looking forward to working with them in person more.
Outside of work, I like to play football, but I’ve picked up an old injury which I think has ended my ‘football career’. I’m sorry Gareth Southgate mate, I won’t be available for the England squad! I’d say that football is a big part of my life. I support a small, weird team called Ipswich Town who – many moons ago – were more successful than they are today. I like buying and selling trainers too – my wife tells me off because I have so many! I’d also say I’m a big foodie, but to be honest, I just really enjoy quite a small range of food. That mostly involves chicken and anything that is extra hot and spicy, so Nando’s is ideal.
If I were to consider what makes me unique, I’d say my accent. You won’t ever find another Ipswich fan with my accent. I live in Coventry, which is where I went to university and settled, but my family are in Wolverhampton so that has had an influence on my accent too.
DJ by night
Another thing that I haven’t mentioned is music. I used to do some deejaying. I actually won a DMC Championship, which is a big deejaying competition. Over the years, I’ve got to meet a lot of hip-hop musicians too and I’ve done shows with artists from Snoop Dogg to Skepta. I’m still in contact with some of the artists now! When I got married, we had our first dance to a song called ‘Differences’ by Ginuwine, an R&B artist we both like. On the tables, we left R&B mixtapes for guests to take with them and Ginuwine kindly recorded a personalised introduction to it for us. So, that’s a bit unique too: IT guy by day, DJ by night.
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