August 31, 2018
We are pleased to introduce you to RevSpring’s Shiela Jones, director of IT project management, who is this month’s featured employee in our Get to Know a RevSpring Employee series.
Shiela’s project management career has spanned across multiple industries and includes a decade-long sprint in the banking industry, a graphics company called Fathead, and joining the ranks at RevSpring in 2017 to lead the IT Project Management Team.
What is Shiela’s unique approach on leading a team? She pulls from her personal world and uses humor to make projects more amusing. “I’ve used funny photos of my black cat, Isabelle, for product testing,” Shiela said. “It made testing a little more fun at Fathead.” In this position, her role covered a little bit of everything from the management of the development team and project management to overseeing the quality assurance team.
At RevSpring, Shiela and her team focus on initiatives that are infrastructure and corporate related. They handle high-level requests that are driven from a business prospective and touch multiple teams and departments. For example, Shiela’s team is responsible for system implementations, such as the recent move to Salesforce, which touched multiple groups and interactions between departments like sales and customer service.
“My position at RevSpring and getting started here was really interesting because of the merger between all the different subsidiary companies at the time. It was a great opportunity (and challenge), trying to bring together technologies, teams, and resources,” she said. “It was clear this was a big initiative, and I was excited to move forward on these projects.”
Her favorite part at of her role is establishing policies, processes, procedures, and standards. “It takes time to get them up and running and to get a buy in from everybody,” she said. “But, I know the things I’m doing are going to bring about change and consistency and really help the company at many levels.”
Helping is on the top of her list of priorities. Shiela prioritizes customer service in everything she does, sighting a quote from a former employer, “Every customer, every time. No exceptions, no excuses.”
“It basically means that you are going to take care of your customer,” she explained. “But, my customer is not only our external customer, it’s also all of our internal teams, departments, and everyone in the company. So, whatever we need to do make sure that our customers – including our employees – are satisfied, that’s what I want to do to the best of my ability. Not everything is in my control or realm, but if I can help I will. I am such a firm believer in good customer service.”
Service and a person-focused approach is also a huge driving force in Shiela’s personal life where she is a past president of The Junior League of Birmingham, Michigan, a training and educational volunteer organization for women.
“Our aim is to help women develop their potential and bring about improvement in our community through trained volunteers.” she said. “I credit a lot of my career success to t
he work I did in Junior League and I want to pay it forward and give others a boost in the opportunities I’ve had.”
Her home life is also one of community service — she volunteers as a licensed foster parent. “Currently I have two girls whose full-time foster mother travels once a month for work. We have a good arrangement where I am their permanent respite person, so they don’t have to go to multiple homes. I have these girls about once a month for a week. They’re super cute – and busy! After the week I’m usually exhausted but can’t wait for them to come back.”
Additionally, Shiela is always looking to pick up new skills – she has taken cooking classes and weaving workshops. Her guilty pleasure? Reality TV and all things Housewives.
“Work life balance is important because I can’t burn myself out, though I do sometimes… we all do,” she said. “My balance part is resetting and finding time to give back, but also finding time for myself.”
To learn more about RevSpring, our employees, and experience our focus on customer service, visit www.revspringinc.com.