Christine Newman, Warehouse Manager, Nursling
Christine joined Import Services as a warehouse op at Shed 41 located in the original Southampton Docks facility. Moving through Nursling, Hedge End after a maternity break and back to Nursling – all through a 19-year career with the company.
Nursling’s success under Christine is built upon the team ethic and strong leadership, Christine’s team clearly respond and respect her and she puts this down to her 19 years’ experience at all levels of the operation, proving to be a valuable tool in growing a dedicated team.
Christine comments, “You have to stay hands-on, the team responds if they see you’re capable of doing the same work. If I have to go and stick labels on for an hour, I’ll lead by example and do it.”
Christine’s logical and analytical mindset help keep her calm under pressure, this allows her to think clearly in high pressure situations. It is this example that Christine believes filters down to her team, they see her draw on her experience to find solutions with no panic, taking decisive action. Christine has a very calm disposition, remaining stress free to ensure procedures are followed.
Like Paula, Import Services was Christine’s first full time job and significant changes in her time have been in the areas of security, health and safety and of course, technology. However, Christine believes that client requirements are the real driving force, often becoming more complex, they necessitate re-evaluation of processes to become quicker, whilst retaining accuracy.
Christine comments, “Delivering to retailers who want the products immediately for consumers to buy dictates our turnaround times are much shorter.” We adapt as necessary and that also is an area where strong leadership prevails.
Christine is currently undertaking an Apprenticeship for Level 3 Improvement Technician, which is about lean, continuous improvement, how processes are implemented, change to current processes and using the correct stakeholders to facilitate change. This will further broaden Christine’s experience as she continues on with her Import Services career.