In honor of International Women’s Day, we interviewed our Director of Operations, Natalie Francis. Get to know Natalie as we discuss small business life and diversity and inclusion.
What is your role at Full Visibility?
As our Director of Operations, I oversee day-to-day activities including monitoring and maintaining organizational systems, processes, and policies to maintain efficiency and support growth. In particular, I focus on objectives and programs that build a supportive infrastructure that fully engages and develops our employees – while further strengthening and building mission-support capabilities with our industry partners.
What were some of the challenges you faced while FV navigated the pandemic as a small business and federal contractor?
We’re a company that prides itself on establishing a positive and welcoming work environment and are always actively looking for ways to maintain that. So the inability to connect with our team for our regular social and team-building events was a serious challenge. We also had to navigate additional requirements from our clients and contract partners as we sought to provide them with critical mission support - while remaining vigilant and responsive to our employees’ needs in the midst of rapidly changing info on safety protocols and guidelines from the leading health organizations.
I must say that we were able to leverage great partnerships built through years of business, mutual esteem and trust – from our vendor to industry partners – we were able to creatively respond to our employees and their families’ unique needs while staying true to the mission.
What is your favorite part about working for a small business?
It’s definitely the transparency and agility in being able to respond to our team and clients. We have a solid foundation but are not so complex or inflexible that we can’t adapt to the emerging needs of our employees and customers we serve. It’s extremely rewarding when you see the transformative power of a solution on what was previously a challenge or seemingly impossible situation.
What vision or goals do you have for continuing to improve diversity and inclusion in the company?
I think it’s an important goal that’s much more than checking boxes and tracking headcounts. Besides, this is an era where people are increasingly socially-aware and able to discern surface-level change…as opposed to more meaningful, impactful change - however imperfect. Championing diversity, inclusion and equity is literally the key to a more innovative, diverse, and future-ready organization that accurately represents and can therefore respond to the challenges of tomorrow.
We are always looking at ways to increase and diversify our talent pool, and have more recently integrated new analytical tools and procedures to audit our recruiting and onboarding practices to support that goal. We’ve also committed to additional leadership training intended to increase awareness and develop strategies to support DEI initiatives. Part of the entrepreneurial story is embracing change, even when we don't hold all the answers; accepting it may be less than perfect, but remaining committed nonetheless.
If you’d like to learn more about our company, please email info@fullvisibility.com for more information.