Annabel Giles

Experience

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  Scattergoods Agency Ltd

  Feb 2011 - Jan 2015

  Waitress

  Provided a top quality waitressing service to patrons at a variety of formal and informal events and venues, including weddings and buffets at golf clubs, conference centres and hotels. Received Silver Service training.

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  Prudential Ride London

  Aug 2014 - Jan 2014

  Customer Service

  Responsible for organising and managing cyclists at the end of the Prudential Ride London Cycling event at the Blackfriars Millennium Pier. Utilised and developed my leadership, teamwork and communication skills as I coordinated riders into groups depending on their final destination and pre-booked time slot.

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  Royal Holloway, University of London

  Aug 2014 - Jan 2014

  Call Center Representative

  Part of the clearing campaign group at Royal Holloway UniversityWorked the phones for clearing; filtering out potential candidates that meet the university criteria, and transferring ideal candidates through to the relevant areas and final decision-making teams.

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  Royal Holloway, University of London

  Sept 2014 - Aug 2015

  Sports Centre Assistant

  Delivered a high quality of customer service by assisting customers who have queries, complaints or require information, and supervised them in their use of the centres facilities as well as ensuring their safety and wellbeing at all times. My responsibilities included administration tasks such as; organising bookings, answering phone calls and emails, and dealings with any queries during events, classes and peak hours. Demonstrated the ability to work well under pressure efficiently while dealing with customers and applying first aid training to deal with any accidents or emergencies that may occur. Show less

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  Trintech

  Feb 2015 - Jun 2015

  Research Assistant

  Freelance contractor at TrintechCarried out Account Research Development- verifying, updating and researching revenue statistics for the following targeted territories; France, UK and Ireland.Updated Excel spreadsheets and Trintech’s Salesforce.com database.

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  Care Management Group Ltd

  Jul 2015 - Nov 2015

  Accounts Assistant

  Accounts assistant in finance department. I carried out billing and payroll for 11 locations, dealt with queries, and calculated holiday entitlement and pay for all carers. Garnered some experience in credit control. I was responsible for ensuring all overdue debt for an account was collected and updated, recovering just under £500,000. I also helped with reconciliation for multiple accounts within the company. Volunteered to cover a colleague’s role while away, and booked holidays for clients in care homes during this period. Became proficient with Microsoft Excel. Show less

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  Bank of America Merrill Lynch

  Dec 2015 - Mar 2016

  Contractor

  Temporary Human Resources Assistant. The company was implementing a new software system and wanted extra cover for the change over period. I was responsible for dealing with and managing the employee and ex-employee references and visa inbox. I Sourced information from the system to produce reference letters and validate information that had been provided by the employee/ex-employee. I also dealt with queries regarding the visa letters when wording was queried. I produced the letters quickly, efficiently and met all turn around times. The job enhanced my detail-orientated skills, ensuring the letters held accurate information and time management skills, the importance of keeping a high level of accuracy in a rather repetitive role. Show less

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  UK Ministry of Defence

  May 2016 - now

  • Working across the Defence People departments, I provide strategic communication advice that aligns to the Ministry of Defence (MOD) People Strategy and wider Defence key messages. • I lead, develop and implement multichannel and multimedia campaigns to engage the whole defence audience of 250,000. Campaigns have included supporting management of Government, central MOD and respective internal and external stakeholders while delivering high-profile, high-quality campaigns within tight timelines. An example includes the LGBT Veteran Independent Review, driving impacted veterans to a dedicated page and guide, with an above average page conversion rate of 23%. • I have positive track record of working with multi-level stakeholders, including policy leads, senior officials, agencies, military, civilian colleagues, single Services and staff networks. This involves providing end-to-end support for sensitive, complex campaigns and policies. Notably, Unacceptable behaviour and Wraparound Childcare (WAC), for which there was a 22% increase in WAC registrations in four months during the comms campaign. • Successfully launched a central unacceptable behaviours information hub across Defence, with over 40k visits in the first year. Using insight, I identified the requirement and led the planning, design, and implementation of the hub and comms campaign to support Defence personnel. • Experienced manager, having managed a military officer (SOI) and junior to mid-tier civil servants (EO and HEO). I currently develop and support an EO on the planning and delivery of cross-defence projects. • Supported the Central Internal Communication for the Death and funeral of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II. Show less • Head D&I comms lead for Defence, coordinating comms proposals, risks and opportunities. Advised and supported multi-level stakeholders including senior leaders, policy teams, central Defence Communications, single Services and staff networks across ranks and grades. • Planned, shaped and delivered high profile and complex campaigns and strategies across Defence. This included:o Government priorities: The departmental response to the Women in the Armed Forces House of Commons Defence Committee Reporto Defence Secretary priority: Zero Tolerance to unacceptable behaviour policies launcho Defence, Chief of Staff’s Commitments.• Established and maintained D&I communication activities calendar; monitoring projects and D&I awareness events while aligning comms and messaging to compliment wider Defence activity.• Developed and streamlined D&I messaging, which included crafting a central narrative and lines to take for media queries, Freedom of Information requests, Parliamentary Questions, and ministerial correspondence. • I led on streamlined outputs, including the successful design, development and launch of:o A central D&I Hub; a one-stop-shop for updates, policies, toolkits, networks, training and resources for all Defence Personnel. Since its launch in 2022, it has reached over 70k visits. o A Network committee hub; improving connectivity for the 70+ Defence networks. The hubs help members to access policy, guidance, advice on network management and communications. • Coordinated and delivered key D&I events, increasing registrations, attendance and participation compared to previous years. This included National Inclusion Week, Black History Month and International Day for People with Disabilities. • Line management responsibility of a military officer (SO1). Supported their development, planning and delivery of cross-defence projects. Show less • Supported senior leaders, advising on communications, identifying and developing opportunities to improve visible leadership across top and middle management. Supported an increase in leadership visibility by 10%, (People Survey 2020). 8% increases in Leadership and Managing change categories (i.e. people felt informed, actions consistent with values, confidence in decisions, safe to challenge, change managed well, clear vision).• Led on end-to-end delivery of the quarterly all-staff event, which promoted strategic messages and provided opportunities for staff engagement. Introducing Slido, surged participation (950%) and engagement (200%) across Defence. • Formulated, managed and delivered communication and engagement plans for leaders (Permanent Secretary and Chief of Defence People). Filmed and produced high quality videos for leaders. • Maintained and developed the digital presence of the Chief of Defence People, including increasing his social media (X). New content (i.e., video, article and blog content) increased his followers to over 9,000.• Led on the design and delivery of the ‘Leadership in Action’ campaign and weekly Leadership bulletins.• Developed comms products, like the weekly ‘Covid-19, Your regular round-up' bulletin, with 76% satisfaction with information and 62% used it as main source of Covid guidance. Show less Worked in a Provisioning team, triaging Requests for Information (RFIs), engaging with customers and project managing RFIs through to completion. Completed over 125 RFIs in one year, over 33% of the work in a 4-person team. Key responsibilities included:• Interrogating and analysing large data holdings to identify suitable products to provision. • Building relationships with stakeholders and liaising effectively with other teams and departments to ensure procurement and delivery of the best data for military operations and exercises and public services.• Liaising with print, reproduction and distribution teams to ensure the correct products and/or data was delivered to the customers to tight timelines. • Team lead for testing and preparing for a new incoming system. Creating and advising on ways of working, system methods, new tools and agreeing work arounds with contractors.Worked in a production team developing, creating & quality assuring mapping projects and geospatial analysis. Key responsibilities included:• Leading MGCP provision and production and improving ways of working. Attention to detail and accuracy when researching, capturing, and editing features in ArcGIS. • Building relationships with stakeholders and liaising effectively with other teams and departments to produce accurate cartographic products end-to-end to deadline for military Operations and Exercises. • Quality Assured my own and colleagues work for consistency of feature capture, names accuracy and cartographic quality in line with previous editions, the Geographical Names Database and PCGN. Show less

  • Senior Communications Officer, Defence People

    Jun 2022 - now

  • Senior Communications Officer, Diversity and Inclusion Team

    Sept 2020 - Jun 2022

  • Communications Officer, Directorate for Defence Communications

    Apr 2019 - Sept 2020

  • Geospatial Analyst

    May 2016 - Apr 2019