Meet the Team: Pauline Collins

Published on 18 January 2024

Meet the Team: Pauline Collins

Pauline Collins, originally from Ireland and currently residing in the UK, works as a Partner Relations Manager, overseeing Voerman’s partner network. With a fervent interest in connecting with people, she also holds a passion for fitness and traveling. Had she not ventured into the moving industry, she might have even pursued a career as a dancer!!

An unique hiring experience

Pauline started working for Voerman in June 2019, approximately 4.5 years ago. She describes Voerman as a unique company, and this uniqueness extends to the hiring process. “They identify talents that they believe would bring value to the company and this is what happened in my case”. Pauline already knew Robert Jan and Wiebe via conferences, but it was because of one of those “putting the Moving world to rights” late night conversations with a very close friend that led to meeting Wiebe in London for a conversation. This conversation, initially scheduled as a brief introduction, ended up as a 3-hour conversation which only ended because they both had to be somewhere else.

“It was evident from the moment I started a conversation with Voerman that the company was innovative and diverse, yet had managed to preserve that family feeling”. Pauline says she felt very welcome, comfortable and energized by the company from the start. She sensed that there would be many opportunities in her new job and that she would be encouraged to become the best version of herself, but most importantly the company gave her the feeling that work should be fun. “I knew I made the right decision by signing that contract and 4.5 years later I still feel the same”.

A role as diverse as she wants it to be

Pauline works as a Partner relations manager and is also involved in the implementation of new business and account management. “We cannot service our business correctly if we do not have the right partners and provide support to them to support us”.

In reality Pauline is not limited to a job title and the role is as diverse as she wants it to be. As an individual she feels encouraged to make a difference, and because of this she gets involved in many internal projects and supports our internal training program. The company culture is based on the Voerman Building Blocks which in addition to providing guidance on how to behave and what to strive for, is also to ensure that you understand that you are an indispensable part of the whole and if you are enthusiastic and energetic the company will perform optimally.

No two days are the same

When we asked Pauline about her work routine, it was a difficult question for her to answer, as no two days are the same for her. It all depends on the projects she is working on. A key focus for Voerman and the partner relations team is to introduce technology (digitalization of the paper inventory) into the move management process, the use of technology will bring efficiencies to the process, which will allow the move management teams to spend more time on customer service and talking to clients and partners.

Pauline mentioned that she does have to talk a lot in her role. For her it’s nice to have a role where she gets to interact with people on a daily basis. It’s also what she loves most about her job and the industry. “I love and am interested in people”.

The bossy big sister

While being born and raised in Ireland, Pauline moved to the UK and lived here for 35 years now. She is the eldest of 5 children and describes herself as the typical “bossy big sister”. Although all of her family still live back in Ireland, she still feels very connected to them and the Emerald Isle.

Pauline describes herself as an outgoing, proactive, process oriented and organized person. A fun fact about her: one of her most prized possessions is her label printer. “My husband Matt bought me a new more sophisticated printer for Christmas, so for the next few months I will be busy re-labeling everything in my house” she says. It seems like the moving industry is the perfect career for her as it allows her to talk to people, label and move boxes all over the world.

Travel experiences

If she had not found her career in the moving industry Pauline maybe could have been a key member of the Riverdance show. She loves to dance and was an Irish dancer from the age of 4 to teenage years. She has a love for exercise and was a very keen runner, but due to an injury this was limited for the last couple of years. Now she likes to take a walk everyday and even picked up a new hobby during Covid: Yoga, which she still practices everyday.

Another Hobby of Pauline is traveling. “I am grateful that my job allows me to see the world” she says. She often visits the headquarters in the Netherlands, which she describes as a great country. She also does a lot of personal traveling and talked about a couple of amazing experiences, such as snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, swimming with dolphins in New Zealand and an amazing balloon trip in Capaddocia, Turkey to name a few.

Opportunities this industry can offer

After finishing school at 18 and a 1 year secretarial course Pauline moved to the UK. Even though she has not studied herself, she is a great believer in education and would encourage everyone to take the opportunity if it is presented to you. Pauline supported her husband through an Engineering degree and a masters degree in business. She started in the industry at only 19 years of age and has participated in many industry learning opportunities. After being in the industry for only 10 months it was the FIDI EIM course that opened her eyes to the opportunities our industry could offer. Pauline joined the FIDI Academy training team in 2023, “as I feel it is important to volunteer to support the movers of the future”.