“Don’t underestimate your worth. Even though HR traditionally fought for a seat at the table, businesses are now looking to you to drive change in terms of working practices, workforce strategy, and culture. The HR space is changing, and we have a real opportunity to redefine our capabilities.”– Kelly Anderson, Owner, Director, and Consultant at Nspire People Ltd, 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 Kelly Anderson at Nspire People Ltd, who began her HR career as an HR Manager at Sainsbury’s. This was followed by a role as HR and Training Manager at WM Morrison Supermarkets PLC. In 2005, Kelly joined the team at Tarmac, taking on a number of roles that culminated in the position of Senior HR Manager for Operations. This was followed by a role with Hazlewoods as Head of Human Resources.
In October 2014, Kelly joined the team at L3 TRL Technology as HR and Security Director, later moving to the roles of Vice President of Human Resources for Sector at L3 Intelligence & Mission Systems, and HR Director at L3Harris Technologies respectively, ahead of assuming her current role in March 2020.
Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?
Once I left university, I went to join the graduate training programme at Sainsbury’s as a Department Manager, which provided great grounding and full exposure to all aspects of the retail operation. I ended covering maternity leave within the HR function and my career within HR began. I really enjoyed the fast pace, and the changing demographics of who we were trying to recruit. I found that my management skills transferred over to HR well.
I loved working in retail, but after three years, I was ready for a new challenge, so I went over to Morrisons and did a formal Personnel Training Scheme. After that, I got given my own store and was tasked with managing a number of other store openings. I loved that role and the ramp up of resourcing and development it offered, but I was finding that unless you were in a regional role, you didn’t really get to experience the strategic element. You did workforce planning, recruitment for roles you needed to fill at Christmas, and low-level investigations and disciplinaries, but the role had limited exposure to Organisational Development, talent management and other key strategic elements of HR. I knew that my next move was to get into more strategic and operational HR and experience a different industry, as well as focus upon studying for my MCIPD.
I was approached for a role as HR Advisor job at Tarmac who are a leader in their field of construction. I didn’t get that role based on not having my CIPD, but clearly made an impression, because they offered me an Assistant HR Advisor role instead! That was where I really fell in love with HR and learned my craft, and Tarmac supported me through my CIPD and to continue to progress my HR career.
They were a fantastic company, but once I had children I didn’t want to travel so much, so I transitioned to more local roles. I did a stint in an accountancy firm and then was approached for an amazing sounding role and went over to L3. I had the most diverse experiences of my career to date there, eventually going from Head of HR to Vice President of HR for an international sector of five businesses across Australia, the UK and Canada.
I decided at the start of this year that I wanted a new challenge that would enable me to apply all of my learnings and experience to give something back to the local community, and I’m doing that in a few different ways. I took on the role of Governor at the local school my kids are at, and I’m working to provide a full-scale People and Culture consultancy offering to businesses in the Gloucestershire region.
Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector?
Our biggest challenge is without a shadow of a doubt the COVID-19 pandemic. HR functions across the sector are being confronted with organisational change, reorganisation, and downsizing, as well as assisting their organisations with embedding remote working and working out how to lead teams when company cultures prior to this have largely been driven by spending time together both inside and outside the office. Along with that comes the challenge of managing people remotely—both on paper in terms of having a working from home policy and the proper risk assessments in place and in ensuring your teams are still performing at high levels while away from the office.
The other challenging area is Talent Acquisition. Whilst we’re seeing a downturn in recruitment in some traditional organisations, in the high-tech and cyber sectors, it’s getting busier. For HR professionals in those areas, the focus will be on ramping up and scaling up recruitment strategies during this time.
Smaller cyber and high-tech companies often have remote working embedded into their cultures and philosophies already, whereas larger organizations are now having to compete with that because of COVID. I think there’s beginning to be a realization that while it’s a good thing that we can get talent from everywhere in the world with remote working, that also means that everyone else can get talent from you as well. Retaining your staff necessitates working on your culture and employee brand to ensure that people are engaged and happy in the workplace.
What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career?
I think one of the most valuable things you can do for your career is to obtain your CIPD qualification. Whether that is through experience or formal learning, it really provides the grounding and framework to aid in applying this to the Commercial world., Don’t underestimate learning the basics either. Your managers are there to coach you on how to come up with the right answer in any situation, so don’t ever be scared to ask them for help, and don’t run before you can walk. As long as you have the willingness to learn, the CIPD route can come later.
For me, once I had children, my priorities understandably changed and I actively chose to not take up international opportunities. Take opportunities while you can, when you can, even if it’s only for a few months or not necessarily the route you see yourself going down. These experiences will really enrich you and your attractiveness to organisations.
What advice would you give to other HR Leaders or their organisations in terms of adapting to our new normal?
I think organisations just need to embrace it. Some industries have historically been quite resistant to the idea of remote working, but embracing it is the only way you can remain competitive. I also think that people will remember how they were treated and how they felt during and after lockdown, so managers will be looking to HR to help them learn how to manage, lead and engage remotely, which is great.
From an HR perspective, our People and Culture offering has never been more important than it is now. Don’t underestimate your worth. Even though HR traditionally fought for a seat at the table, businesses are now looking to you to drive change in terms of working practices, workforce strategy, and culture. The HR space is changing, and we have a real opportunity to redefine our capabilities. I think HR is becoming more about emotional intelligence and commercial acumen rather than technical skills, and that change is exciting.
Kelly has been working as Director and Consultant at Nspire People Ltd since March 2020, and provides People and Culture-centred consultancy services to a range of businesses in the Gloucestershire area.
To find out more about Nspire People, Kelly’s story, and their mission, visit nspirepeople.co.uk.
If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.