With its Postcode Lotteries in five European countries, more and more Novamedia colleagues are working on international projects and assignments abroad.

Picture above: colleagues working at People's Postcode Lottery in Edinburgh.

Novamedia/Postcode Lotteries is an international social enterprise, with more than 1400 employees, active in the Netherlands, Great Britain, Sweden, Germany and Norway. Most recently Rebecca, Adam and Malcolm started working internationally and they share their first experiences. How is it to work on these international projects?

Rebecca Bot: 'The drive and enthusiasm of Lottery colleagues is something I really admire'

Rebecca Bot from the Netherlands has recently started preparations for her assignment as International Programme Manager for the new Human Resources Information System (HRIS). “Together with Finance, Human Resources will also move to Oracle. Having one integrated and international system will simplify existing processes and administration. This is a fantastic opportunity to create a unified ‘employee experience’.”

“The new system will be more supportive of international exchanges and collaboration. Creating an easy-to-use and intuitive international employee portal will help us in our ambition to combine forces between our existing lotteries and will make us future proof for starting new lotteries. To ensure a successful implementation, beginning in the Netherlands and Germany in January 2022, there will be lots of collaboration between HR, Finance and IT, something I’m really looking forward to."

"The drive and enthusiasm of Lottery colleagues is something I really admire, and I’m looking forward to connecting with many more fantastic colleagues. I’m very excited to meet and learn from everyone. I think that’s the greatest benefit of working internationally: sharing experience and knowledge”

Adam Knauz: 'The best thing about international projects is that we have the opportunity to meet our colleagues in the other lotteries'

In August, Adam Knauz from Edinburgh started his assignment as International Programme Manager for Novamedia, to manage the delivery of the Finance Transformation to a cloud based solution (Oracle). “This move gives Finance Teams the opportunity to rethink their processes and align those across the group to be more efficient and be able continue to support the business in the coming years. Working with our implementation and other partners I will make sure that this initiative is planned in detail, successfully delivered and that the Finance Teams are supported during this journey.”

“This is not my first international project within Novamedia, but definitely the biggest one. The best thing about international projects is that we have the opportunity to meet our international colleagues in the other lotteries. This enables us to see the challenges from various angles and aspects, learn from each other and share experience between each other. So many fantastic people are working in all the other lotteries, getting to know them and experiencing other cultures is a privilege.”

“Everyone is so welcoming, I worked for a few companies during my career but it never ceases to amaze me how friendly everyone is across Novamedia. I just travelled to Amsterdam for the first time after the restrictions have been eased and met and reconnected with colleagues. I hope I will have the chance to meet other colleagues in the other lotteries too. The Finance programme will be a challenging one with lots of moving parts, but the dedication and enthusiasm of all involved will be a huge advantage for us.”

Malcolm Fleming: 'The country context is different, but there are clearly lots of learnings from my work in the UK'

Malcolm Fleming from Edinburgh is dividing his time as Head of Public Affairs between Edinburgh and Düsseldorf since September: “My role here at the Deutsche Postcode Lotterie is basically to set up a new Public Affairs department for the lottery, partly based on my experience of doing so in the UK, where we successfully worked with politicians across the different political parties to secure changes in charity lottery law last year. However I am not starting from scratch as Head of Legal at the Deutsche Postcode Lotterie, Tobias Kohl, has already laid strong foundations, and it is great to work together with him.”

“Although the country context is different there are clearly lots of learnings from our work in the UK which we can use to engage with the political audiences here in Germany – which will be increasingly important as we continue to grow.”

“It has been great to get to know the team at the Deutsche Postcode Lotterie, who are doing a great job and raising an ever-increasing amount of funding for charities. It has also been nice to explore Düsseldorf and get used to working in a new city and a new country. Like most people working in Public Affairs I have a keen interest in politics so it has also been very interesting being here during the recent German election campaign and to see the outcome of those elections. “

More about working for The Postcode Lottery Group.