David, supporting ESG performance 

What is your role and what do you do day-to-day? 

My role is to support the Group’s drive to ESG performance, working with people all across the business to gather data, make sense of the information and use it to tell a story that people can relate to. This could be for audits, reports and social media articles. Some of these are critical to the business, so it’s a lot of responsibility to make sure I help us tell the best story I can and give a good account of ourselves.

How did you get to where you are today in your career?

First thing to say is I feel incredibly lucky to be doing this job. I’m paid to think and I feel like I’m making a difference. For somebody who left school without qualifications, I feel fortunate that various people along the way have spotted some potential in me and given me an opportunity to achieve more than I expected.

I’m also confident that I’ve added value to everything I’ve done. I happen to enjoy working with people and I also enjoy reading and writing. It’s natural that I ended up in a job that needs me to do a lot of all three. I always feel a need to apply creativity and a bit of “spark” to what I do, so I tend to gravitate towards roles that give me a potential to add something extra. 

What skills do you need to be able to do your role? 

My role involves a combination of people skills, attention to detail and creativity.  A lot of my job takes collaboration and teamwork, but it also needs me to chase people for information and support when they are already busy and have their own priorities. Thankfully I have great relationships with a lot of brilliant people across the Group.  

What do you love or enjoy most about working at M Group? 

Obviously, I’m going to say “the people”, but that’s what everyone says, I think.  For me, the thing that makes M Group different is the sense of optimism that I think runs through what we do. It feels to me that everyone is pulling in the same direction and that there’s a certain atmosphere of confidence in what we do.  I’ve worked for some companies that had an “us against them” mentality to the rest of the world. I don’t get that at M Group. I think we genuinely appreciate our clients and are confident about our position as the service provider of first choice. 

Tell us the top three reasons why a career in the infrastructure services is rewarding?

I always come back to that old line about keeping the taps flowing and the lights on. For me, I’m proud to work for M Group but I’m also proud to be a full time ESG professional.  If people ask, I explain that it’s all about corporate governance – keeping business honest and making sure we live up to our ideals and aspirations.

What I feel rewarding is when I see the business being recognised and appreciated for the thought and care it puts in. Whether that’s through a contract win, an extension of a client relationship or an award from an industry thought leader, it always feels like the good guys are winning.

Tell us what is the highlight of your career and what impact it’s had to your life and/or others?

I love the feeling of walking out of a “must win” bid workshop or a meeting that I’ve added something useful to. It’s that feeling of being in the right place at the right time.  

I’ve had big highlights in my career that have included winning awards for innovation, finishing top of my year group at military college or hosting the Beyond Expectations Awards last year. I’ve also won the equivalent of that award at my previous business.  All these moments (and many like them) have helped me to gain confidence and feel like I’m a valued member of the team. I do my best work when I feel confident about what I can do, so these little moments help to build a momentum that keeps me going when it gets difficult. 

I have a small role in the Group Support ENABLE network, although the largest portion of my extra curricular time goes into supporting various apprenticeship and graduate training programmes across the business.