Jo Walsh joined Tester & Jones in September 2015. She was initially employed as the firm’s bookkeeper/payroll clerk/management accountant. Her role involves keeping the company’s accounts up-to-date, producing monthly management reports for the directors, running the month-end payroll for all the staff and ensuring all suppliers are paid and invoicing has been done.
“Since joining Tester & Jones, I have completed and passed the Health & Safety for Funeral Staff course run by the Independent Funeral Directors’ College (IFD) and am awaiting the results for the Foundation Funeral Practitioner course,” says Jo. “This has enabled me to help families with all of the funeral arrangements of their loved one and support them at their time of grieving.”
Jo also assists Stephen with the memorial side of the business, which involves helping families choose the right memorial for their loved one, providing them with proofs of the memorial and applying to the relevant church or council to have the memorial placed.
“During the week, and some weekends, I assist with the out-of-hours on-call service, which involves talking to families and arranging bringing their loved one into our care,” says Jo. “I advise families of the process of registering of the death and answering any queries that they might have.”
When Jo joined Tester & Jones, she hadn’t worked at a funeral directors’ before and ‘wasn’t sure what to expect’ but she says Tester & Jones is a very friendly place to work.
“Everyone here is so warm, kind, sympathetic and friendly,” Jo says. “Families come to us at a very upsetting and vulnerable time and they leave with the reassurance that their lost loved one will be well looked after and any wishes that they want for the funeral service will be fulfilled in the best way possible.”
When she’s not at work, Jo enjoys working on her allotment growing a variety of fruit and vegetables, which she brings into the office to share with her colleagues. She also loves spending time with her ‘very large’ German Shepherd called Maska, particularly enjoying walks on the Ashdown Forest.