Profile: Peter Church, Vodafone Tasmania

Peter Church
State Manager
Vodafone Tasmania

What do you do?
Manage the Vodafone Contact Centre and Tasmanian Sales Connections.

Describe a typical workday.
Check in with the team. Check calendar for appointments. Talk to as many people as possible during the day, even just to say hello. Action e-mails and attend strategy meetings. Coach and develop individuals where appropriate throughout the day.

What results are expected from you in your position?
Delivery against business KPIs, including customer satisfaction, budget, performance of contact centre, sales targets for connections in Tasmania.   Also to grow the values based culture within Vodafone.

What has been your career path?
I worked for Telstra for 13 years, working in call centres and retail areas. Then I moved to Vodafone and have been here for the last 6 years. 

What has been a career highlight?
Moving from being a call centre manager to now managing the state of Tasmania overall.

What is the most unusual thing that has happened to you at work?
Being involved in many fun/theme days in the contact centre. In particular dressing up as a “rock” star for a communication presentation that was delivered to the 600 strong contact centre people.

What is the best and worst thing about your job?
The absolute best thing is seeing what can be achieved when the team all pulls together to get results and where each individual achieves their personal best.
The worst thing is not having enough time to dedicate to some projects.

How important is it to plan your career?  Have you planned yours?
I think it is important to have a vision of where you want to go and what you want to do. It is fantastic when you get paid for what you enjoy doing. Each individual needs to identify what they want to do so this can happen.

I have been fortunate in my career. As I have set my goals, opportunities have aligned with them and I have taken up great positions.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to work as a Police officer.   

Describe your dream job.
I am very fortunate to be working in a role that I love.  I love leading people and helping people achieve their goals.  If I wasn’t doing this then I would still be in the people business, perhaps running a B & B on the coast in Tasmania.

What is the most important factor in a successful career?
Doing something that you love.

Any tips on how to get and stay ahead.
Give your all, be passionate and approachable and always do your personal best.  Be positive and remain focussed.

How do you maintain balance between your work and personal life?
I ensure I plan activities outside work. This way I can look forward to weekends away or dinners out to restaurants.

How do you encourage staff and client loyalty?
At Vodafone we look after our people by providing excellent working conditions and benefits that are second to none. For example, we have fresh fruit every Tuesday delivered to the contact centre. We have Coffee days where we get real coffee made, and end of year gifts just to name a few.

What makes a good manager?
A person who cares for others and respects individual differences. A person who can lead a team to achieve the desired goals.  A person who leads by example in all that they do.

What is the key issue facing your industry and what should be done about it?
The telecommunications industry is a very competitive one. We at Vodafoneprovide an excellent service to our customers where they can choose how they want to join and use our services.  They can “do it their way”.

Some new and exciting services are coming around 3G technology, which will provide even more mobility and choices for our customers.

If you could invite five people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be?
I love dinner parties with family and friends.

Who has been the biggest influence on your career and whom do you admire the most?
No one person has influenced my career. I always try and learn from my managers and I have had many of them over the last 20 years. Each person has different talents and some of these I have adopted and others I have left behind.

I admire people who are determined to succeed and demonstrate love, passion and drive to get there, without treading on people in the process.

What or who are you incapable of working without?
My Blackberry for my appointments.

What do you think employees want from their employers?  What does your company do for staff that is different from what other companies provide?
Our people want us to be true to our company values and act in accordance with them. They are:

• Together with heart we’re SUPPORTIVE of each other and our customers.
• We are BRAVE.  We step-up and go the distance.
• We are STRAIGHT-UP.  We listen and act with care and integrity.
• SIMPLICITY.
• We are FRESH THINKING, energetic and fun.
• We take RESPONSIBILITY to get it right.
• We are PASSIONATE about everything we do.

People want to be valued and rewarded for going the extra mile. They also like security in the place they work.

We provide on site shoulder and arm massages to all our people every month.
We provide incentives for our people to participate in.
Rewards range from tickets to the Grand Prix to local Tasmanian Cricket Association luncheons.
We have fancy dress days and many fund raising days for local charities within Tasmania. These include quiz nights, busking days at the contact centre, bowls days and cake stalls.  
An End of Year Party, which is the envy of many employees from other businesses in Hobart Town.