Celebrating our 2023 All Stars: Rachel Lawson
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 first in our series is Rachel Lawson.
Rachel received 37 cards in 2023 which showed she is one of those people that does a consistently excellent job. Rachel is reliable, always produces work of a very high quality and her colleagues really enjoy working with her. Her cards show a real gratitude from across the business for her support and a recognition of how she displays all our values.
Tell us about your role and your career to date at Three.
I joined Three in August 2015, joining what was then the internal communications team.
I’d studied journalism at university then went straight into comms working for a trade association for small shops, a dyslexia charity and then a water company. Moving to a fast moving corporate was a shock to the system but it was the best career decision I have ever made.
I now work in the Corporate Comms team as a Specialist, our team look after the corporate reputation of the business. I work across internal comms, external comms and a bit of CSR. There is never a dull day and there is always something new to work on, which suits my style of working.
How did being awarded an All Star make you feel and what does it mean to you?
I was actually sat in the front row as I was going to take some close ups of the ELT for our LinkedIn content… when I saw my name on the screen, I was in shock. I was completely honoured to win and it means so much. I came back from my second maternity leave mid- 2022, and threw myself back into my career, taking as many work opportunities as possible. So this felt like the cherry on the cake.
What are your favourite things about working at Three?
The people, of course! I work in the best team in the business, I am bias of course, but I love working with such a brilliant bunch of people and feel very lucky. We also have an amazing female Director, Juliet Callaghan, who leads the team with passion, honesty and a sense of fun.
What do our values mean to you and which one do you most connect with?
I am very much a team player, so ‘working as one team’ is the obvious one that I connect with the most. I feel that they are really good reminders on where to focus our efforts.
What is the best career advice you ever received?
My lovely line manager, Chris Gasnier, regularly challenges me to get out of my comfort zone and push myself, as this is where progression happens and he is right. Trying something new is not always comfortable but if you never try, you’ll never learn. You also look back afterwards you’ve finished and you can see how much you have grown as a person.
Additionally, it never hurts to be nice, we’re all human and it goes a long way.
How do you unwind/switch off from work?
I am pretty on-brand and tend to dead scroll on my phone while watching tv 😉
But seriously, last year I also took up running after working on the comms for the Green Park Running Club (this is a plug!). I actually found that I enjoyed the peace it brought, it really helps clear any noise or frustrations and I return a better wife/mum/colleague (for a short while at least!).
Through the support of the running club, I completed couch to 5K last spring, did the Samarathon last July and I’m running a 10K in London with some others from our running club at the end of this month. I was very much a non-runner a year ago, so big thanks to Jake Lowe and the running club for making me like I can do it.
Have you any plans for spending your All Star award?
It’s already been spent! It was never going to last long in my pocket I’m afraid. I booked for myself, my husband and our two boys to go to Valencia at Easter. I thought they deserved to enjoy it as much as I did.
How does receiving a 3celebrates ‘thank you’ make you feel and what do you like about the platform?
3Celebrates is such a great way of recognising a colleague at work. Whenever I receive a thanks, it warms my heart, and it feels nice to be appreciated.
How do you ensure you use the 3Celebrates platform to give back to your colleagues often?
When I finish a project I always send my thank yous and if someone has gone out of their way to help, it goes a long way! In my job, we are always requesting information from areas of the business, so it helps to acknowledge when someone has gone the extra mile to help you.