We speak with Hayfa Bukhari, 1 year after starting Aveni. She takes us through her journey of what it’s been like working for Aveni and what she enjoys most about her role. Let’s catch up with her and find what the past year has been like…
Hey Hayfa! How’s it going? Congratulations on reaching 1 year at Aveni. How does it feel?
Thank you, it feels great! I am settled and have a good routine now but at the same time I feel like I’ve only just started. It’s been an exciting journey so far and I look forward to seeing where Aveni goes from here.
How have your roles and responsibilities changed since you’ve joined?
A lot has changed since last year, for starters our marketing team has grown! We have an incredibly talented sales/marketing intern, James, who has made things easier as our drive for sales has increased. We also have Katie onboard, who manages the SEO and will help build our presence online across various platforms. It’s exciting to bring more like-minded people to the team. Because of this, my responsibilities have changed. I still continue to have a generalist role which entails social media planning, content creation, event management, campaign management, employee branding, sales enablement to name a few! But it’s what I love about my role that I can get involved in lots of different things which I wouldn’t have been able to do in a larger organisation.
In terms of the role, I started off as an intern but within a short period of time, my role changed to marketing executive. The demand for this role was demonstrated as we continued to build our client portfolio and began to finalise a product to take to market. This gave me the opportunity to push forward the marketing strategy as well as demonstrate the need for the team to expand. This has also allowed me to take on a leadership role and try something new. As well as this, the company has grown significantly in the last year which has meant that we have pushed forward recruitment and I have been able to get involved in employee branding and participate in careers fairs to find the best talent out there.
Tell us about a project that has been the most exciting to work on since coming onboard…
There have been many highlights since I have joined Aveni from the launch of the new website to establishing the social media channels to establishing the company culture. But I would say my work on the company culture is what I have been enjoying the most. I enjoy speaking to the team and understanding what motivates them and understanding how we can create a better experience for everyone. I’ve created a culture book, established Wellness Wednesdays, looked at the tone of voice for Aveni as well as worked on introducing perks that the team will enjoy.
How have you learnt to adapt to working from home? What do you like the most and least about working from home?
At the start, I struggled to adjust as I’m quite a social person so I missed face-to-face interaction. But as time went on, I slowly started to find my way and I was able to build relationships with my team members through e-coffees and our virtual socials. I have become more comfortable working from home and have somewhat of a routine. From getting up every morning for my daily walk to attending yoga classes during lunch, and being able to give more time to friends and family in the evening. What I love most about working from home is that I can get more done in a short amount of time. Whether it means saving some time on my commute to attending a gym class or having more time to make healthier meals, it means that I have a better routine and one that is more flexible than before.
Which marketing tools have you used in the last year that have been beneficial in changing the way you work?
I would say Photoshop has been a fun tool to get my hands on. I didn’t have much experience of using it prior to this role and it’s been interesting playing around with it and creating content for social media. I would also say Powtoons has also been helpful for video editing. Video content is certainly on the rise and has increased engagement across all of our channels so it will be interesting to see how this grows over the next few years.
Where do you see your role heading, and what skills do you think will be important to learn in order to grow within the company?
We’re heading into our next phase of lead generation, so we’ve been working on building sales content to reach out to new markets. As well as this, I will be attending more virtual events and hope that in the near future we can attend physical ones too.
I think in order to adapt to the fast-paced nature of the company it’s important to learn how to prioritize what is important in the given time. Also, continuously keeping up-to-date with the guidelines from various sources such as the FCA will ensure we are relevant in the market as well as help us to better understand what’s important to our customers and learn to support them as best as we can.
To learn more about Aveni and work with talented people like Hayfa, visit our Careers page for more information.
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