“Don’t just stick where it’s safe.” Gemma Burns, UK HR Business Partner at Xodus Group speaks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership.
As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success.
This week, we had a great conversation with Gemma Burns from Xodus Group, who began her career as an HR Officer at Heli-One before moving on to become a Senior HR Administrator at Bristow Group. She then served as a HR Advisor at EMGS, and an HR Manager at Laings Bathrooms, Kitchens & Bedrooms before becoming a Freelance HR Consultant and Director of Resolution HR Consultancy and taking on her current role as UK HR Business Partner at Xodus.
Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?
I’ve been in HR for 15 years now, but I did start out quite late. I didn’t pursue it until I was 25. I had admin-based roles prior to that, working as an office junior at the age of 18, then progressed up to admin-based roles, including sales and personal secretary positions. It was only when I became friendly with an HR Manager at one of my places of work that the exposure to the variety of work involved sparked my interest in HR.
Fast forward two years, I was working at Heli-One and planning my next move. I enrolled myself into college to do the CIPD accredited Certificate in Personnel Practice after going back to work following maternity leave with my first daughter, which taught me the basics of HR. It was during my studies that I was offered the part-time HR Advisor role at Heli-One, and I then took a break to relocate to Libya for 18 months. Upon my return, whilst on maternity leave with my second daughter I completed some contract HR admin work for Aramark then took a part-time Senior HR Administrator role at Bristow Group when ready to return to work permanently – they were another helicopter operator, so I had the perfect experience after Heli-One.
I stayed there for two years, then progressed to an HR Advisor role with OHM Ltd, who were later acquired by Norwegian based EMGS. This required me to travel to Norway every three months to encourage integration with the rest of the HR team based at head office. During that time, I gained my Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management. I spent another year at EMGS after graduating but decided to move on as there was no future development opportunities. A management role came up at Laings, somewhere that had no HR in place previously; so I moved from oil and gas to retail which was a massive culture shift and transition that some warned me against doing but I saw it as a fantastic development opportunity.
The good thing with HR is that it’s transferable. Fundamentally, you’re dealing with people and HR process Although there are differences in culture, management style and organisational structure between companies, those elements are a constant. As long as you stay open to different cultures and structures, you can do HR anywhere.
During my time at Laings, I created their whole HR platform, which was challenging but I absolutely loved it. I had a great working relationship with management and could coach and partner with them, which is a key skill in any business you work with. You need to be able to develop relationships, deal with different personalities, and adapt your style to support them and needs of the business. In my time there we also won the Aberdeen Chamber of Commerce Northern Star Award for Commitment to People Development which was a great achievement in recognition of the work we had done.
Unfortunately, four years later I ended up being made redundant following the economic downturn in Aberdeen. Being unable to take on a full-time job at a time where any jobs were incredibly hard to come by, led to me setting up my own HR consultancy firm. The idea had been in my head since EMGS, and it just seemed like the right time. I felt as though I’d had broad enough exposure to be able to assist SMEs with a whole variety and scope of work. I’ve been lucky in that I’ve been exposed to a number of areas within HR in every position I have held, from talent management to organisational design and development to performance management and employee engagement. It’s been very generalist, so I’ve been able to develop my skills in every area throughout my career and adapt these into more strategic thinking as I have progressed.
To provide myself with a solid USP to tap into the market, I undertook GDPR training in April 2018 to enable me to provide an audit and consultancy service. After which, I gained a lot of additional requests for other HR services for a diverse range of businesses, which was great.
Within twelve months, I was approached to interview for a maternity cover role as Scotland HR Business Partner at Xodus. I got on so well with the directors that I ended up taking the role even though it was full-time and meant putting my consultancy business on hold. With it being fixed term, it was a risk not knowing what the market would be like at the end of it, as well as leaving my clients, but it seemed like an amazing place to work and could provide me with further development. It has not disappointed. The company is very focused on employee engagement, strategic thinking to ensure we are continually improving our service to the business and investing in its people – which I absolutely love and have a key role to play in it all. Seven months after joining, I took on the HR Business Partner responsibility for our London office and became the UK HR Business Partner managing a team of three within the HR function across the UK, and travelling to the London office every fortnight. I have since been offered a permanent role which I am thrilled about. It was without a doubt the right decision to take on the role as it has led to so much more than I ever imagined it would. I have been involved in raising the mental health awareness through wellbeing initiatives, leading a graduate recruitment drive to not only raise our profile but encourage younger generations into engineering, and of course, hopefully more women. I have also supported new system implementations to make our recruitment processes more efficient and I am now part of the IR35 project team. It’s been so busy, but so fulfilling and enjoyable at the same time.
Can you tell me about the prevalent themes or challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector?
There’s a lot of focus on women in business, diversity & inclusion, and wellbeing. Being an energy consultancy company, where people is our business and we engage with a lot of contractors, IR35 has been a massive challenge for us of late. The gender pay gap is also very much on our radar with our headcount being dominant in engineering disciplines, but we actively analyse our position and responsibilities.
What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career?
For anybody that’s starting in HR and unsure of what area they have an active interest in, I would say that the best path is to start in an admin-based generalist role to see what you enjoy doing – see if you can get into the HR department for half a day a week to get a bit of exposure. Get a variety of experiences, and then if you do enjoy a particular aspect, go down that route and progress it further. I don’t think you can know all areas of HR until you’ve experienced them, and doing so puts you in a really good position for business partnering or management. You also need to know your company in terms of its language, what the priorities are for HR and how that ties into the company culture, as well as keeping up to date with key topics and legislative changes.
In terms of advisory work, I’d say that gaining qualifications would be beneficial and actively keep up to date with legislation, but I do recommend having some background exposure to HR before you start studying. The theoretical side really clicks into place with your understanding of the sector when you have that practical experience and gives you something to apply it to. Again, exposure does make a massive difference.
There’s so much to HR that no two experiences are the same – when it comes to people, you can never second-guess them. Transparency and effective communication are key. You need a cross-network of cultures and people to be able to have a broad understanding of what works best for different individuals.
The other big thing for me has been being open to different opportunities. If I had not left oil and gas, I might never have had the chance to become exposed to a management role and set up an HR department myself. That was great for my career development and having ownership of something. Then, taking the risk with a fixed term role and stepping away from my successful consultancy business, even with 15 years’ experience, I recognised the opportunity for further development, as well as a potential pathway into other opportunities thereafter. It was the best thing that I could have done, my career has taken off this last year and there is still so much more I can learn. That is what I love about HR – there is always something you have not experienced yet. If you’re passionate about HR and you want that development, then take that leap and get the exposure, don’t just stick where it’s safe.
Gemma has been working at Xodus Group since February 2019, currently as UK HR Business Partner providing HR consultancy services across the business. Working closely with senior teams across the UK and globally, this role is responsible for the implementation and successful delivery of HR initiatives and practices whilst ensuring alignment between operations and the HR function to provide consistency and quality of HR services across the organisation.
If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.