Celebrating our 2023 All Stars: Issy Foot

At Three, we know the importance of recognising our people. Our 3Celebrates programme is our way of celebrating our people for living our values.

Throughout the year, employees send each other ‘thank you’ cards to show their appreciation of the work they have done. Anyone who receives a thanks can be selected as a Monthly Star, Annual Star or All Star and can receive special recognition along with financial awards.

At the end of last year, we announced our 2023 All Stars. Our All Stars are the individuals, stores and teams who truly excelled in living our Values.

All Stars were nominated by the Leadership teams and all their Thanks were reviewed by a judging panel of people from across the business.

Becoming an All Star is an amazing achievement, and we want to celebrate and learn more about the winners. Over the coming year, we’ll be interviewing our 2023 All Stars and the next in our series is Isabelle Foot.

Isabelle was on the graduate programme  in Business and has recently joined Three as a Channel Development Specialist. Her cards called out  hard work, drive and organisation and how she works as one team. Her support and positive and pro active attitude are really appreciated

Tell us about your role and your career to date at Three.

I started out on Three’s 2021 Graduate Scheme, in the Business Department. Here, I moved round various teams learning as much as I could until I landed in the Channel Management team, looking after and supporting our direct channels. Last year,  just under two years on the graduate scheme, I was lucky enough to be given a permanent position in the team and haven’t looked back since. I’m currently focusing on growing our eCommerce and Affiliate channels and loving the challenge.

How did being awarded an All Star make you feel and what does it mean to you?

It was an absolute honour to be awarded an All Star. I’d made it to the shortlist the year before so I was very much expecting it to stop there, but winning one of the trophies was a great ending to a busy year. On top of recognition for showcasing our values, the award felt like a true representation of the support I’ve had here at Three since starting my career.

What are your favourite things about working at Three?

Number one without a doubt would be my team. Working with people who push you to do your best, consistently support you and brighten up a bad day is something I’m extremely grateful for. The salad bar down at Source cafe is a close second.

What do our values mean to you and which one do you most connect with?

Going above and beyond is probably the value I try and align to most but with the way our values are set-up I feel doing one often enables me to do others. I think if you keep the values central to everything you do, you can’t go wrong.

What is the best career advice you ever received?

The best advice I’ve ever been given is that you have 2 ears & 1 mouth, so you should use them in that ratio. I’ve learnt so much from just listening to those around me and this has 100% been a driver in any success I’ve had. It’s a sure way to get everything you can out of every situation and guarantee your contribution is valuable. The good old ‘hard work pays off’ is also something I live by and has never done me any harm.

How do you unwind/switch off from work

Switching off from work is definitely a skill I’ve had to practice since starting out my career but there are a few things that always work. Being around my family & friends is definitely an important one. Just spending time with them and chatting about anything other than work reminds me of all the things that exist outside of it. When it’s harder to see them during the week, getting out to the gym for yoga, going on a walk and reading are always my go-to (very textbook answer, sorry).

Have you any plans for spending your All Star award?

I’m trying to do 50 countries under 30 so the money will be going towards some of those destinations. After watching COVID shut everything down whilst I was at university, I’m determined to travel as much as I can. It also meant my loved ones got some extra nice presents at Christmas.

How does receiving a 3celebrates make you feel and what do you like about the platform?

Receiving a 3Celebrates is always a lovely surprise and I think it’s a really unique way of making people feel appreciated at Three. Understanding the positive impact you’ve had on someone else is definitely a driver to replicate.

How do you ensure you use 3Celebrates to give back to your colleagues often?

I’ll always use the 3Celebrates platform to say thank you to colleagues after a big project or collaboration, but I do ensure not to use it as a replacement for stopping and saying thank you in person. I’ve only ever worked in a hybrid set-up but I can still see the importance of face to face interactions especially when showing appreciation.