Colleague spotlight: Meet Emma Barker, Business Process Analyst

This week’s Colleague Spotlight is on Emma Barker, one of the longest serving members of the AdviserPlus team, having joined the business almost 15 years ago.

Why did you join AdviserPlus and what does your job entail?

I knew from the first interview that I really wanted the job. The people were really nice, the offices were professional and, having done some research and after finding out more about the company, it really sounded as though it was going places.

As a Business Process Analyst, I’m responsible for understanding and documenting clients’ HR policies and processes, recommending improvements and establishing ways of working to  ensure that operations are set up and systems are configured to provide an efficient and intuitive service for all users. So, there’s no such thing as a typical day – every day brings something different. Predominantly though, I work on client implementations which could be for any one of our service offerings: managed service, licensed technology, or an extension to an existing service.

For any of these, my day could be spent:

• In meetings with clients or stakeholders, gathering requirements or workshopping processes;
• Reviewing client policies, procedures and documents and creating process maps of the ‘as is’ and ‘to be’ business processes;
• Producing configurations to set up our case management system, or build of empower®.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

The thing I enjoy most about my role is the variety. No two client implementations are ever the same, and even when I’m involved with some of the smaller internal projects or client extensions, this is usually something outside of our core offering. I also like the fact that I go on the entire journey with a client – from kick off, to launch of the service.

I’ve made some true friends during the time I’ve been here and regularly refer to them as my ‘work family’.

What would you say is your biggest professional achievement?

I was a hairdressing receptionist for 10 years before I became a PA – the career I had prior to joining AdviserPlus. One of the clients in the salon needed a new PA and she approached me because she thought I was so good in the salon. Without that move, I probably would have stayed as a salon receptionist for many more years to come.

If you weren’t working at AdviserPlus, what do you think you would be doing?

If I wasn’t working here, I’d have a nice, relaxed beachside restaurant somewhere. I spent six months in Portugal in 2005 and was a waitress in a lovely restaurant for the duration of my stay – I loved it!

And actually, while working in the restaurant, I happened to serve the former CEO of AdviserPlus and his family, before I joined in 2006. I didn’t know that at the time, but our paths crossed a whole year before I had even heard of AdviserPlus! It was a favourite restaurant of his, and I had worked every shift that the restaurant was open that summer. I remember a guy coming in and saying they had offices on the Wirral when he asked where I was from. When I got the job, we got chatting about what I did before joining AdviserPlus and we pieced it all together!