In the latest in our series of articles looking at how Cardiff Capital Region graduates and businesses are benefiting from the CCR Graduate Scheme, we look at Megan Gray at MagManager

Recent graduate Megan Gray started working as a client relationship manager for Monmouth-based CRM/publishing systems provider MagManager last October, so she’d had nearly six months to settle in to her new job before the lockdown sent everyone home.

The company’s clients are mostly independent magazine publishers, who use its software to plan out their titles and manage their business. Coronavirus meant a lot of them having to replan their titles, and also suffering from falls in advertising revenues and hence problems with cashflow.

The result has been a heavier workload for MagManager, as Megan explained:

“It’s got a lot busier since the coronavirus hit us. We are now having to do much more work for our clients and we understand many of their businesses are now suffering, so we try to go above and beyond for them now just to make things that little bit easier.”

Megan said that MagManager had organised the shift to home working very efficiently.

“As a client relationship manager I spend a lot of time on the phone, so I actually find working from home easy. We have Skype meetings every morning which sets out the plan for my day, and they trust in me to get on with things then which is great despite being relatively new to the company,” she said.

“The biggest struggle I sometimes have with the home working is knowing when to stop. There’s that temptation to keep on going, but if you do, it can be a very long working day. So I have to force myself to detach sometimes, but the management are brilliant at reinforcing this as well.”

“I do miss the office environment though, as I think it’s a much bigger support network when you are all together. So I am very much looking forward to the time when we can all be together again.”

MagManager founder and director Mandy Mardell said the company was doing all it can to keep in regular contact with staff and ensure they don’t feel isolated.

“We do miss the day to day interactions; we compensate as best we can with daily 1-2-1s to ensure everyone understands what to do and how to do it, and just generally to check in with each other and see how were all feeling,” she said.

“This just happens naturally when you’re sat next to each other all day, and it is harder over the phone, but it’s so essential for morale and engagement so we all commit to it and put effort into staying in touch.”

Mandy paid tribute to Megan and a fellow graduate who had also joined the company under the CCR Graduate Scheme.

“Both our graduate appointments Meg and Amber have been fabulous. They have taken the adjustments within their stride and are doing a great job of keeping things going. I am proud of the way they have adapted to the new routines and ways of working. They add real value to our business and have proved to be great appointments,” she said.

Megan said she really enjoys her job and hopes to stay in the industry.

She said:

“I love the publishing business, and the writing side of the job in particular is something I am passionate about. I enjoy creating content and then putting it out there for others to read.

“I also like the fact there’s a range of things to get involved in with this job. I’m currently doing some video content for the website which I find fun, I’ll also be doing content in the next few days so there’s plenty of variation and you never get bored.”

And she had praise for the CCR Graduate Scheme.

“I think the scheme is excellent and I would advocate it to anyone. I feel really fortunate to have been accepted onto it,” she said.

If you are evaluating your capacity and need any further resource to manage at this time, the Cardiff Capital Region Graduate Scheme may be able to help. The Scheme can provide a free and streamlined recruitment service that can match your immediate resourcing needs to high-skilled graduate talent in the region.

If you are interested in finding out more please get in touch with either [email protected] or [email protected].