International Women’s Day
I caught up with founder of Reflect Digital, Becky Simms to talk about working in the digital industry and what International Women’s Day means to her.
What pushed you to found Reflect Digital?
Reflect Digital was founded for two reasons, firstly I felt there were many agencies out there not living up to the values I had and therefore I wanted to create my own. Secondly, I had a burning desire to start a business, I had had this want since I was a little girl watching my dad run his business.
What is your greatest achievement with the company?
We’ve had so many amazing achievements over the years, from our first proper office to our most recent amazing office, from winning Tottenham Hotspur as a client to becoming part of the LAB group, I could go on. But last year I think I’d have to say it was being awarded Employer of the Year at the Kent Invicta Chamber of Business Awards and winning Agency Leader at the Wirehive 100 Awards. Both these awards felt like proof I’d done what I set out to do. That I had achieved a place to work that people loved coming to and that it inspires them to do great work. As a people-based business we are nothing without our team, so ensuring they love what they do, feel appreciated and motivated is absolutely key to our success.
What does the future of Reflect Digital look like in your eyes?
It is so hard to predict our future, we’ve taken many unexpected amazing turns over the years that I know I could not have predicted. But right now, we have three themes we are focusing on for this year; innovation, customer service and our team.
Innovation – we really want to use our understanding of human behaviour and search marketing to help lead the way. We want to go into uncharted territory with this, testing ideas and leading the field.
Customer service – I truly want us to deliver world-class customer service. I personally have such high standards and expectations, I want to ensure we have the processes and procedures in place that this runs through everything we do as we continue to grow. We’re starting from a really good place on this one, but I want to make us even better.
Our team – with the addition of Priya, our HR Manager, I want to take our team focus to the next level. Priya is helping us put structures in place that we have lacked the time and knowledge to do. These new procedures are all there to help our team to grow to ensure they are all performing at their best.
That is the future we are working on right now, alongside this, winning more clients that inspire us, that allow us to do the best work possible for their businesses.
What does the International Women’s Day theme #EachforEqual mean to you?
Each for Equal really resonates with me as the theme for International Women’s day. Equality should run through everything we do, whether this is based on gender or on any of the boxes people get put into. For me, every role we ever recruit comes down to hunger, drive, passion, experience and fit for the role. The person’s gender, the colour of their skin or even their sexuality bares absolutely no relevance to whether they can do a job in our business. This should be the same across the industry.
Do you find that there a gender bias in the digital world?
There is definitely a gender disparity in the digital industry in that there are more men, especially in the senior roles. At many events I attend it tends to be just 20% of the room that are women. I personally have not ever been held back by being a woman, but have of course heard stories, but these are alongside stories of people being held back for many other reasons too.
My personal part in this is that I do everything I can to inspire other women and to help them see there is nothing that should hold them back in achieving their dreams.
Find out more about Reflect Digital here: https://www.reflectdigital.co.uk/
Reflect Digital is a Search Engine Optimisation agency, find out more here: https://www.reflectdigital.co.uk/seo