Featured as one of Paul Davis’ “20 Women of 2020”, Rachel Wilkinson is the Executive Assistant and Municipal Coordinator at Paul Davis Kitchener-Waterloo in Ontario, Canada.
When did you start working for Paul Davis?
In high-school part-time (2011). I started full time in 2016.
What were you doing before that?
School – I went to Conestoga College for the 3- year Business Administration Management program.
How did you get the job—or what interested you in going for it?
While working part-time throughout school, I was working more with our accounting department. Someone was leaving the company around the time I was finishing college and they offered me a position in the operations department. I was more interested in working on the operations side of things than accounting at the time.
Give us 2-3 paragraphs of your duties and what a day of doing each one of those would look like.
I am currently the assistant for our project managers and general manager so I help with a lot of their admin duties, such as monitoring estimate upload times, contacting homeowners, sending authorization forms, keeping vehicles up to date in, Fuel cards, Webpunch (online reputation management software), Running reports out of RMS (software used to enter our jobs in the system), etc.
Family info and how it relates to your job and daily life (if you want).
My parents are part-owners of our franchise and my brother is a project manager. I work closely with my dad and brother on a regular basis. My dad is the General Manager. My mom is our Accounting Administrator so I don’t work as much with her. I have recently moved out of my parent’s house and am living about an hour away from our office. I am able to work from home a few days a week as well.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
I’m excited to keep learning about the restoration industry. Being knowledgeable in the processes and management tools we use to organize our jobs is another goal of mine. I think having the knowledge in these fields can lead to more of a managerial position or be used to transfer into the insurance industry eventually. I’m not really sure where I will be in 5 years but I know that the skills I am learning in this position will help me in the future.
We are now suddenly in crisis mode and applying disinfectants is a service Paul Davis provides. How has the onslaught of the Coronavirus affected you? How are you handling it with family? Co-workers and customers?
Since COVID-19 I have been working remotely. Most of our staff are working remotely if it is possible for them. It hasn’t really affected my productivity, it just gets a little lonely not seeing people every day. For new emergencies, we have been screening everyone with questions to make sure it is safe for our staff to enter their home. Questions include if they have left the country in the past 14 days, if they have any symptoms of COVID-19, if they had been on a cruise, etc.