In the latest instalment of our ‘Shieldyourself Interview’ series, we chatted to one of the team behind the Compliance Centre.
Hello, could you introduce yourself and your role within the Compliance Centre team?
My name’s Jamie and I’m a Junior Software Developer. My role is to generally improve efficiency and make everyone’s lives easier internally, by finding alternative ways to complete repetitive and laborious tasks and looking at how to automate them.
This means that I work closely with the Applications Support Team and assist them with larger tasks, as well as the requirement gathering for these solutions.
I also do a lot of work in our various databases and build custom reports for data analysis.
What are your main responsibilities as a Junior Software Developer for the Compliance Centre?
I’d say that my main responsibility is to maximise the efficiency of our internal systems, so that my colleagues can spend their time utilizing their skills, expertise and knowledge (free from grisly admin!). It’s also up to me to learn as many skills as possible, so that I bring as much to the table as needed.
What separates the Compliance Centre team from other software development teams?
Definitely the mind-set. It’s great to work somewhere that wants to nurture analytical thought as well as creativity. Everyone’s geared towards finding the best solution and we all collaborate really well.
I think the managers have done a great job of cultivating an environment where everyone’s really committed but also highly skilled. When you throw in all the events that are held for the staff, the funky décor in the offices and the rec space (including a pool table and games consoles!), it’s the best place for me to be honing my skills.
How closely do you work with client companies?
Just at the moment, I don’t have much direct client contact beyond assisting the helpdesk, which I actually used to be a part of. Working my way up from 1st line customer support, has given me a great foundation for software development. It’s easy to become too detached and overcomplicate things. The best tech companies are the ones which understand that the user experience should be what drives the technology; not vice versa.
What is the biggest challenge of developing custom software solutions for risk and safety management?
Making all of that complicated data easy to use – I shudder to think how health and safety/risk managers manage without software. In the end, I find the best approach to this particular problem is to make sure that the people developing a system like this use the system they’re working on (or a similar system, if the one being built doesn’t exist yet!).
And what do you enjoy the most about working within this industry?
The puzzles. I’ve always had a yearning to grasp complex problems – that’s why I studied philosophy. The nature and complexity of the world we live in and how it all fits together: that’s what interests me. Working with software means that I get wildly varying abstract problems thrown at me each day. The constant logicising about and unravelling of these problems is a hobby to me.
What is the most commonly asked client question you have faced?
Mostly, clients want to know if we can accommodate even more of their workflows on our systems. We’re specialists in streamlining complicated procedures, so Regional Managers and Directors are always eager to approach us so that they can digitise as many things as possible.
We also get a lot of requests around reporting. We understand that each business is unique and therefore require unique metrics and KPIs for analysis, so we put a lot of energy into fulfilling these requirements.
What is next for the Compliance Centre?
More of the same. As our client base keeps growing, we’re able to keep on expanding our team and strengthening our talent pool. It’s definitely an exciting time…
We are always on the look out for new talent to join the team. If you’d like to find out more, visit our homepage or call 0203 740 3744 to speak to one of our recruitment team.
The information contained in this blog article has been created for marketing purposes and is not official guidance and should not be used as a substitute for official food safety, health and safety or fire safety advice. Shieldyourself take no responsibility if the information in the blog article is used to form part of a safety management system or used to form part of any legal or regulatory compliance for your business. For official guidance and to engage with Shieldyourself services please do call our team on 020 3740 3744 or email sales@shieldsafety.co.uk.
