By Agency Works 
Next up in our Meet the Team series, it's Implementation Consultant, DIY fanatic, and dance addict, Jenna Slater.
Tell us about your early career? What was your first job?
"My original plan was to be a primary school teacher but once I’d finished my A-levels and left school I realised that wasn’t actually what I wanted anymore. I decided I’d rather go straight into the world of work.
"I started in a junior admin role at my previous employer and worked my way up. They were a commercial kitchen franchisor – not very glamorous! I worked mainly in the finance department and gained my accountancy qualifications while I was there. By the time I left I was managing the finances for around 70 franchisees.
"I eventually got to the point where I was ready for a change, so I joined Agency Works to help agencies set up and use the finance functionality within Synergist. I'm now one of the senior onboarding consultants and I'm studying for my CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) qualification to help clients with strategic business analysis and planning."
What do you like most about agency life?
"I think it has to be the support and the amazing sense of community. I love how nurturing the agency world is. You’ve got ex-agency employees who are now consultants creating groups and collaborations with other agency leaders. There’s always someone to turn to for advice if you’re not sure about anything. I really enjoy that aspect."
What do you most enjoy about your role?
"I really enjoy the challenge of working with agencies in that initial transition phase, where they may be coming away from their trusty spreadsheets and moving on to Synergist.
"It’s great when they start to see their data come to life and realise what it can do for their business. I love having catch-up calls with them in the months after they’ve gone live. They’ll be showing me the different dashboards they’ve got and I’m like ‘yay!’. You build up a really close relationship with people during that initial period and it’s so nice to see them getting excited and seeing the benefits."
What value do clients get from working with you?
"I think the biggest thing is patience and understanding. Sometimes it is a really big change for people, and you need to support the teams as they go through that and make sure that they feel confident with the outputs that they're going to get."
A lot of the time they're coming off trusted Excel docs and they need to feel confident that everything they need to see is now within Synergist. It’s helping them work through that without feeling overwhelmed.
What would you be doing if you weren't in this job?
"If money was no object, I’d be doing up houses. I love it.
"My husband and I renovated our house last year. We put a big extension on and I’ve definitely got the DIY bug. I love doing creative things, although normally it's me that has the idea, and then my husband has to actually execute it. I can do some bits though. I can use an impact driver!"
Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions? Work or life-wise?
"I’m actually really determined to learn Spanish. Duolingo has become a real daily habit for me and I’m currently sporting a 47-day learning streak – which I think is pretty impressive!
"Life-wise, I’ve always wanted to do a tour across Europe, to hire a campervan and drive around. I really want to do Austria, Switzerland and up into Finland and Norway. I would love to do a road trip across Italy as well. Ooh – and go skiing! I'm going at Christmas so I suppose I can tick that off the list then. Whether I’ll be good or not is another matter!"
What do you like doing when you're not at work?
"I’m not sure if it can be classed as a hobby but in the office they'll always laugh because I literally will always be the first on the dance floor. I love 90s music and going out for a good dance with the girls!
"Aside from that, my son plays for a basketball team, so we’ve all got quite into basketball. We quite often go to watch games as a family. My daughter’s really into musical theatre so we try and get down to London and watch shows as often as we can too."
And finally, any interesting talents or claims to fame?
"I once served tea and coffee to Ant and Dec. When I was about 16 or 17 my friend and I did silver service waitressing for a summer, and we got taken to work at the Grand Prix in Silverstone where we served tea and coffee to Ant and Dec. Sir Trevor McDonald was also on the same table. I wasn't allowed to talk to them. No signatures or photos or anything, so you’ll just have to take my word for it, I'm afraid!"
