“You may not start your career doing what you exactly wanted to do. But if it is in an environment where you could potentially move up or more opportunities open, take those chances and make the most out of them.” – Florence Carter, Fuse Universal’s VP of People & Culture highlights one’s adaptability as a key to a successful HR career.
As part of our commitment to support candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited HR Leaders from a wide variety of organisations to share their insights on building a career, the challenges they face and what advice they would share with those hoping to follow their footsteps.
This week, we had a great conversation with Florence Carter, the VP for People & Culture of the learning and knowledge platform, Fuse Universal. Florence has 17 years of generalist Human Resources experience, having led the People agenda globally across EMEA, APAC, the US and UAE regions. She mostly gained her expertise through start-ups and scale-ups within EdTech, SAAS, digital technology, marketing and professional industries.
Can you share with us what made you decide to pursue a career in HR?
After doing my A levels, I was really interested in psychology. I was fascinated with how the human mind works and what motivates people to do what they do. I initially wanted to earn a psych degree, but my parents ‘persuaded’ me to study law because it is a strong foundation and ‘serious’ degree. To be fair, it was the right decision. It is indeed a good foundation for most careers, especially a People/ HR-related role.
When I gained my law degree, one of my options was to become a lawyer, which wasn’t really my calling. I really wanted to do something that fulfilled my deep interest in psychology. A family member who had a successful career in HR at the time recommended that I look into HR, since it might suit my passion for psychology. So I completed a Master’s Degree in HR and actually fell in love with it! There are a lot of fields in HR. You learn what makes people tick, what motivates people and how you can support them to grow in their careers and look after their well-being. It was like a light bulb moment for me.
After I gained my HR Management Master’s Degree, I have worked in HR or People functions for SMEs within start-ups and scale-ups. I enjoy the challenge of being able to think on my feet and just love being around people.
Learning the ins and out of HR theoretically, I discovered that a lot of it is related to psychology. I found it very significant and rewarding that you can contribute to the success of a company by helping people to flourish. It just clicked for me that in the business space, I can empower and support people in their career journey. It was just so rewarding for me.
What challenges are you currently facing?
The focus now has shifted for most businesses. Fuse has adapted well since dealing with lockdowns due to COVID. We listened to our people and went from an office-first to a remote-first company. Our people really valued the time being at home and the flexibility that comes with it.
When things started to ease up with lockdown, businesses realised that things changed because people’s priorities and wants had shifted. There was also a bigger focus on well-being. We are navigating through that and making sure we are putting people’s well-being at the forefront. It’s about ensuring that with every business decision, we have our people’s well-being in mind.
Things are very competitive now in the labour market and the war for talent is real. So we are really honing in on our EVP and employer brand to ensure we are attracting the best people.
Thankfully, we haven’t struggled too much with attracting great people to Fuse because of our remote-first, flexible and inclusive culture. It means that we can hire from pretty much anywhere across the globe, which increases our talent pool to find the best talent. That’s been a real positive for Fuse.
When building out our employer branding strategy, we spoke to our people at Fuse who had been in the business for quite a while. We have a good handful of people with long tenure of 10 years+. They were the key people to understand what our value proposition is. Likewise, we asked people who joined recently and understood from their point of view what attracted them to Fuse and what they were looking for when they applied to work with us. It was a combination of the seasoned Fusers and the recent joiners to understand what the company is really about and what we can offer. It has been an insightful project.
Developing and motivating people is an ongoing focus for many businesses and particularly for us at Fuse. We are proud to have created an environment at Fuse where our people can learn a tremendous amount. We are big on internal mobility, so there’s an opportunity to progress through the ranks and move across different functions. We are small enough that you can have an impact and instantly feel rewarded for the work you’re doing, compared to being a small cog in a larger company.
Ultimately, we put our people first and their well-being is very important to us. It is a way to ensure our people are at their best and are able to bring their ‘whole’ selves to work. Inclusion and belonging plays a big part in our People strategy and it’s something we are looking to continue with and learn more about.
What advice would you give to those planning to pursue an HR career?
When I finished my studies, I did not fall straight into an HR role. It was very competitive 17 years ago and I know even more so now. My first role straight out of uni was as a recruitment resourcer to get my foot in the door and from there, opportunities presented themselves.
You may not start your career doing exactly what you want to do; but if it is in an environment where you could potentially move up or other opportunities are likely to open up, take those chances and make the most out of them.
Quite early on in my career, in one of my roles, my manager left and was not going to be replaced. Obviously, that was a daunting prospect. But I used it as an opportunity to increase my skill set, step up and ultimately earn a promotion.
I would recommend to show your value, be indispensable, and jump on every opportunity. Honestly, the doors will open, and that is how I thankfully progressed throughout my career.
I would also recommend anyone who is early in their HR career, in a standalone role or who has recently stepped up to do as much networking with other HR professionals as possible, whether through the CIPD networking events or other HR industry events, where you can learn more about the best practice and how other people do HR in different companies. Nowadays there’s also the option of specialist People/ HR slack and whatsapp groups to extend your network even further.
Finally, be open to learning new things. There’s been a couple of times when I didn’t have a strength in a particular area within HR. But rather than be scared and focus on what I didn’t know, I did everything I could to expand my knowledge in that area or reach out to my network for mentoring. Jump out of your comfort zone and you’ll learn. There’ll be some trial and error, but you’ll eventually get there. You are constantly learning. You never finish learning, no matter your age or seniority to the role or company. It’s about having that hunger to learn and maximising opportunities as they present themselves.
Florence joined Fuse Universal as its VP for People and Culture in September of 2021. Prior to Fuse, she held several top people function roles, including HR & People Director and Head of People, earning her the expertise and insights in ensuring the success of a company, through the help and passion of its people.