Celebrating our 2023 All Stars: Matthew Harris

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 Matthew Harris.

Matthew was a Commercial graduate. He came off the programme in 2023 after securing a role as a Loyalty Engagement Specialist. He was called out for his work at SMARTY; as being a champion for self-development and in how he displays all of our values. He is always recognising others for the work they do, demonstrating an excellent understanding of our customers needs, always goes beyond the expected and is very well thought of by his team.

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

I joined Three in 2021 as part of the first Commercial Graduate intake. My first rotation was in the Retail Experience team, where I supported a rework of the Great Conversations framework and the introduction of the Customer Care Score. I then moved into the CVM Loyalty team, supporting efforts to bring more customers into the app and taking responsibility for setting up a lot of the presales and prize draws going live in Three+. My last graduate rotation was in SMARTY’s Marketing team, where I looked to grow SMARTY’s presence organically through search engines and social media. After completing the grad scheme, I returned to the Loyalty team as a Loyalty Engagement Specialist, in a role placing more strategic focus on driving registrations and repeat usage for Three+.

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

I saw in Rachel’s article that she was in the front row when she found out she’d got her award – my experience was just a tad different. I was already on leave for Christmas, just sitting around the flat when both my personal and work phones went crazy with congratulations from colleagues all over the company!

I was lost for words, I had no idea that it was coming but felt very thankful to receive the award and kind messages from so many people. Getting messages from colleagues I’d been lucky to have worked with across each of my grad scheme rotations was a reminder of one of the things I liked most about the scheme and receiving the award was the perfect way to cap off the two years.

What are your favourite things about working at Three?

I alluded to it in my last answer and won’t be the only one to say it, but the people and culture at Three are fantastic. There are a lot of people at Three who’ve been here a long time and/or have progressed from starting out in retail, which I think speaks volumes to this.

The grad scheme allowed me to meet, work with and learn from so many brilliant people who each have something unique to bring to the table. They’ve been a huge part in making my time at Three as enjoyable as it has been and I have no doubt that the support and encouragement they’ve given me along the way has played a huge part in helping me to receive this award.

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

I’ve found Three’s company culture to be a true reflection of its values, no matter which team I’ve worked in. In terms of which I connect with the most, I’m quite goal-driven and am keen to keep trying and achieving new things, so going beyond the expected is a value that particularly resonates with me.

What is the best career advice you ever received?

A couple come to mind. One that my current manager Samantha Nowell and former member of our team Amy Hansford have placed huge emphasis on is to always make sure to keep track of and recognise the work you’ve done – this is a huge help for things like performance reviews and can also act as a strong reminder to yourself of what you’re capable of.

Another that Eyup Celik (my manager at SMARTY) was quick to encourage was to take time at the start of each day to keep informed about your area of work, be it through news, industry blogs or any other means. Doing so during my time in SMARTY really helped me to quickly learn a lot that I could apply to my role and also made me much more mindful of factors that could have a big influence in the area moving forwards.

How do you unwind/switch off from work?

Admittedly, my interests and hobbies outside of work are pretty unoriginal for a twenty-something-year-old man! My girlfriend Polly and I enjoy watching a lot of TV and films together, while I’m also keen to play all sorts of games on my PlayStation or PC. I also follow football and look to exercise regularly.

Have you any plans for spending your All Star award?

Polly and I have done a few holidays around Europe over the last few years and we’d love to take the opportunity to go somewhere a little further afield that we wouldn’t normally consider within our budget – although we’re not entirely sure where that would be just yet. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

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

It always feels good to receive a 3Celebrates and to know that what you’ve been doing is appreciated, especially when it’s for something you’ve put considerable effort into. The Wall of Fame is a really nice way of amplifying the praise too, as you can see people being recognised for great things all over the company.

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

I like to make sure that I give a thank you when I feel someone’s really gone above and beyond. As I mentioned previously, one of the best things about the Wall of Fame is the way it showcases the brilliant things people are doing across the business that you otherwise might never have known about, so it’s always a good feeling to help highlight others’ actions this way.