Rosa Celentano
Operations Team Leader

I am really enjoying managing my team and being responsible for their growth and development as well as my own. It is a new level of responsibility which brings with it its own set of challenges, but I am also enjoying finding solutions to any problems we face. I was lucky to have a long handover period to transition into this role & it is so rewarding having the opportunity to step up into a leadership role.

The main responsibility for the Operations Team is credit control. We are responsible for issuing statements to our Brokers at the beginning of the month and at the end of the month, we must reconcile all the accounts. We maintain good relationships with our Brokers and their different account departments. We also monitor all the direct debits for all the clients that pay direct to ICCI. We also provide support for other departments. We set up all the daily priority payments for the claims team to support our customers in a timely manner. For the underwriting team, we process any lapses or cancellations and print all the daily renewals. It is a real variety of tasks that our team get involved with.

My uncle has lived in Guernsey for over 20 years. I went to university in Italy to study finance and then moved with my brother to live in Guernsey which is where I got my first job. I initially worked in a shop for nearly 3 years. I gained so much experience in dealing with customers and English became my second language. Having done accounting at university, I knew I wanted to progress my career in this direction and then a role came up at ICCI in the Operations Team, formerly known as Customer Services, so I jumped at the chance.

The Operations Team are based on the underwriting floor so I find the collaboration with the other teams really interesting. I studied for the Certificate in Insurance which I really enjoyed because it helped give me a basic understanding of insurance in general and an appreciation of what the other teams do. The variety in the role also makes every day interesting.

Screen breaks – if you are doing an intensive task it is really important to take a quick break to breathe, get some fresh air, give your eyes a rest and then come back to the task.

Take a lunch break – I find you are more productive if you have taken a lunch break to get some fresh air and go for a walk.

Leave work at work – mentally try to separate work and home and not worry about things at home. During lockdown this was more of a challenge but I tried to find ways to accomplish this.

Friendly – ICCI is a very warm, welcoming and friendly environment to work in. New starters find it easy to adapt and become very comfortable straight away. All the staff here have a nice attitude.

Collaboration – there is great collaboration between our teams and if anyone has a problem or a new project that they need support with, you can always call for help from any department.

Personal – people think that larger organisations provide more opportunities but that is not always the case. Working for a small company enables you the opportunity for faster career progression. It is also a more personal working environment with a chance for you to be more involved.

Customers appreciate quick, helpful responses. With every call or email query we receive, our team try to understand what the customer wants or needs help with; assist them in a timely manner or transfer them to the right person within the company who can help. We then obtain feedback from the customer to ensure we answered their query or learn how we can improve our service for the future.

We always ensure claims payments are processed daily to ensure our customers can receive payments in a timely manner. This involves all the teams in the business working together to enable this to happen.

The fact that we are local is really important because customers can speak to someone directly, rather than having to deal with a query online.

I enjoy going for walks around the island and I like to set myself new challenges and goals at the gym each week. I also make as much time as possible to catch up with my family and friends in Italy to ensure I stay connected with them.

I am actually doing what I have always wanted to do so this was quite a hard question but when I was younger I wanted to be a ballerina!

Get married! For a while my personal goals have been my career and I am so happy that I have achieved my goal to lead a team. My goal now, if Covid doesn’t ruin it again, is to get married in September in my hometown of Sorrento in Italy. Another item on my bucket list is, I would love to hike up Machu Picchu mountain in Peru.

To do better everyday or try to do my best all the time.

I used to be a ballet dancer when I was little hence why that was what I wanted to do for a career when I was younger.

My ambition was to be in the role I am in now which I have achieved. This doesn’t mean I haven’t got future goals to grow and develop in my role but for the time being I am happy.

My mama. She is the one person who motivates and drives me to do better and has always supported my brother and I to achieve what we want to achieve. It is hard to be away from her but she is always positive and encourages us to do what we want to do.

Stay positive, work hard, make it happen!