A few weeks ago we gathered with family and friends, staff and clients to celebrate Al Jackson (aka young Al) and her years working with us at Hardman Communications. While we have been transitioning to life without Al for a few months now (she has been busy onboarding Bec to her new role and she is still doing some contract work with us), Al has some big business goals and dreams of her own to pursue and it was great to finally be out of lockdown and able to share the memories and good times all together.
Al’s 16-year career at HC took many different turns and it was a privilege to be able to offer a wide variety of roles that ebbed and flowed to the rhythms of what the business needed, what Al was great at (and there was a lot), sprinkled with enough challenge to help her grow in new directions. Her roles spanned admin support through to creative services including photography, design and layout and video creation, to operations management, copywriting, media planning & buying, social / digital community management, and eventually brand communications and client account management. We never were able to entice her into the lion’s den of pitching to media – but she was pretty much up for everything else.
As many of you know – or perhaps you don’t – Al Jackson is also my sister. I’m #7 and she’s #8 in a family of 10 kids. So, this also meant being up for our personal and professional lives being hugely intertwined across those years. We have come out the other end as great friends and loyal sisters, so that’s a win!
There were many funny highlights of Al’s career I shared in my speech – none for putting in writing to be shared on the internet for eternity though.
All jokes aside, Al exemplified all the great things you look for in an employee. Tenacious, committed, creative, loyal and hard working. Qualities I see in the rest of the HC team we have today and many of the ex-staff who it was wonderful to see come back and join us for the event.
In a world where jobs come and go and loyalty and tenure in service seems a lost art, I’m proud of the team culture that we’ve built here at HC. One that prides itself most of all on building strong relationships and always having a massive care factor.
You might enjoy this social post for pics from the night. Thanks again to all who joined us.
Sue Hardman