“Every day should be a learning day, and you should always be comfortable with where you’re working. If you’re in a role where you consistently feel unhappy, it’s really important to reflect on, and understand what changes need to be made for you to be happy in your role and to continue with your progression.” – Samantha Lewis, HR/People and Culture Director at NMITE, speaks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership.
We are committed to supporting candidates in developing fulfilling careers. As part of that commitment, we’ve invited some of the HR Leaders who are making a real impact, right now, to share the secrets of their success.
This week, we spoke with Samantha Lewis, HR Director at the developing Higher Education Institution, NMITE. Samantha began her career in Fleet Management at the MOD, experiencing People Management for the first time within the organisation. In 2007, Samantha took on her first formal HR role as a Pensions and Personnel Officer—which later evolved into the role of Pensions and HR Business Partner—at a local manufacturing firm. It was in October 2018 that Samantha joined the team at NMITE as Head of HR, quickly ascending the ranks to take on her current role in June 2020.
Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?
“I initially started my career working for the MOD. I primarily looked after fleet management and the vehicles in the fleet. Due to my own personality traits, I quickly became a bit of a sheep herder; making sure people were in the right place, at the right time, and doing the right thing. It was around that time that I completed an online training module on Human Resources, and quickly found that it was area that interested me.
Two years later, a local manufacturing firm had an opening for a Pensions and Personnel Officer. They saw that I had excellent people skills and that I would certainly be a good fit for the role, and shortly after, they offered me the job. I was lucky in that the company then supported me through my HR qualifications and training, but admittedly, when I first arrived there, I didn’t know that HR was going to be my ultimate career path.
My plans when I first went to university were to join the Army – so that was all I’d ever worked towards. When that didn’t happen, I began to recognise the fact that I’d always worked with people and been able to read and support them – even looking back to when I’d mentored younger students whilst at school. I’d say it was that which led me to a career in HR.
My new role at the manufacturing company was a bit of a gamble in terms of knowing if it would be the right fit for me, however, within six months, it was clear that people and I worked. Making myself known to the 800 staff who worked there and understanding their needs, along with the business needs, and aligning both, became a huge strength of mine. Everything grew quite organically from there, and I was allowed to expand my responsibilities to two different UK sites to continue my development. Every day was completely different, but demanded a lot of organisation and planning, which is something I loved.
I was able to step up again when the HR Director moved on, which gave me a whole new catalogue of skills and experience from sitting on the senior management team, to developing an apprenticeship scheme and looking at organisational growth.
In October 2018, I was informed by a close contact that NMITE were recruiting for their HR department. With NMITE essentially being a start-up organisation, I knew that the role would provide a unique opportunity to build the organisation from the ground up – something which hadn’t been done in this particular sector for over 40 years. I knew I would have complete accountability and responsibility for building the HR function, growing the organisation, implementing organisational structures and processes, and bringing in the senior leadership team.
The opportunities for development were incredible, and I liked the fact I would be giving young people based in Hereford a chance to continue their education locally, as well as potentially revitalising Herefordshire’s aging population with lifelong learning opportunities.”
Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector?
“Over the next 12 months and beyond, we aim to recruit high-performing talent to the area to contribute to the overall success of NMITE. We want to deliver a hands-on learning approach, and that means we have to bring in the right people to effectively deliver that type of learning. We don’t typically have a ‘big city’ to sell to people, so we have to base the attraction on what we’re doing and what the project stands for. Bringing the right people in and supporting them properly is at the core of success for us.
To further achieve that, we also need to focus on developing a suitable culture. At the moment, we’re driven by our values and principles in terms of our belief in trust, honesty, transparency, and the idea that everyone has a voice and a right to be heard without any retribution. While we’re at 41 employees, everyone is working in collaboration and those values are working like a dream, but we need to find a way of maintaining our family feel, culture of trust and open communication, because we’re going to expand our teams dramatically over the next two to five years.
In line with that, we’re looking at setting up a scheme with representatives from the student body, staff cohort, employer partners, and our external stakeholders. This will ensure that everyone has an opportunity to contribute to decision-making. We’re focused on examining how we can best go about making the right decisions to make the overall experience more positive for our future learners.
Inclusivity is an important priority for NMITE. From learners through to staff, we’re keen to remove barriers to anybody working for us or learning from us. Our mission and goal are to have a 50/50 gender balance across students and staff. We want to attract more women into engineering and let them know that not having qualifications in Maths or Physics should not be seen as a barrier. You typically see men doing more of the delivery within the areas we educate in, but we’re focusing on attracting more female teaching staff to make the experience more diverse and break the mould.
Our inclusive approach also extends to removing physical barriers and making all possible reasonable adjustments for staff and students to work and learn at their full capability, and not be disadvantaged by disability or impairment.
We believe that everybody should have an equal opportunity to be part of our organisation, and it’s really important to us to attract talent that reflects that ethos and ensure they’re on a level playing field.”
What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career?
“Embrace any mentoring opportunities you can get from those who have been in more senior positions and remember; networking is key. You need a network of individuals to reach out to for support and advice, to act as a sounding board, or even just to help you join the dots between different organisations that might be able to contribute to your role in some way.
Don’t ever think that you have to stop learning. Every day should be a learning day, and you should always be comfortable with where you’re working. If you’re in a role where you consistently feel unhappy, it’s really important to reflect on and understand what changes need to be made for you to be happy in your role, and to continue with your progression.”
Samantha has been working as HR/People and Culture Director since June 2020 and is leading the operational and cultural development of NMITE in line with their ethos of diversity, inclusivity, and boosting the prevalence of women in engineering for staff and learners alike.
If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.