“[…]Your attitude and behavioural qualities are hugely important to succeeding in HR. You can have technical knowledge, and you can follow a process map, but having the ability to build relationships and develop your emotional intelligence is what really takes you to the next level…” – Zoe Parker, Head of HR at Everymind at Work, 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 Zoe Parker at Everymind at Work, who began her career as a Graduate Trainee at Tesco Stores Ltd before being appointed as HR Manager. In September 2000, Zoe joined Alliance & Leicester as an HR Business Partner for the Corporate Division, later ascending the ranks to become a Senior HR Business Partner. Zoe moved on to Banco Santander to act as Senior HR Manager for their Corporate division following the acquisition of Alliance and Leicester, later turning her managerial attentions to the Retail Multichannel in February 2012.
In October 2013, Zoe became an HR Consultant for Community Integrated Care, later becoming HR Business Partner for The Very Group ahead of taking on her current role in May 2020.
Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?
I studied Technology Management at university because I wanted to pursue a Management career, but at the time, I didn’t know that that was specifically going to be in HR. Once I’d graduated, I wanted to get onto a graduate programme to gain some general leadership experience, and I’d heard really good things about Tesco’s trainee management programme.
The idea of being able to work my way up a business and experience different departments was really attractive to me—I think that as a leader, if you can genuinely say you’ve been in the same situation as your team, you can create a bit more of a rapport and gain their respect. I took on roles from the bakery to the fish counter and everything in between before specialising in HR, so I had that wide-ranging experience.
I did the bulk of my training in Tesco’s Personnel and Training department, where I was given the opportunity to shadow the then-Personnel Manager, and eventually appointed as a store Personnel Manager myself. Working in a store was a very different experience to a traditional HR role in a Head Office. It’s a real leadership role, so it entailed store and duty management on top of HR accountabilities. It was quite different from roles I’ve had since, but a really good experience.
What really made HR stand out for me was the people and interaction side of things. I loved the building of relationships I saw happening through training and coaching, and I was more drawn towards a role where I could help others develop their careers than I was to the more operational and retail-focused roles, so I thought my relationship-building and management skillset would be better suited to the HR and Training side. That said, having a grounding in all the different departments helped considerably—I found that I could use my experience to better advise people and get to grips with how certain things might be affecting them. A lot of the time in HR, we’re working on launching initiatives, rolling things out, and communicating changes, so being able to tailor that using your knowledge of different departments to ensure that colleagues are as engaged as possible and feel part of a dialogue is hugely helpful, as is using that to anticipate how changes will land.
By September 2000, I’d worked in various Tesco stores, relocated across the country, and experienced a range of different working cultures, but I knew I really wanted to gain different sector experience in a Head Office environment for my own personal development.
When I took the Business Partner role at Alliance & Leicester, I found that it was considerably different from everything I’d been used to in terms of culture, timing, speed of execution, and bureaucracy. I was used to having the autonomy to roll things out quickly for my teams at Tesco, but moving into banking added in more regulatory requirements and guidance to follow. It was a great experience, though, and I’m glad I stayed with them to see the acquisition by Santander. From an HR perspective, we had to handle the integration and harmonisation of the two businesses very quickly, which was a very challenging project, but also a fantastic experience that brought up a lot of new skills I hadn’t been exposed to before.
Once everything was set up in terms of OD, I did move over to the retail arm of the company for a few years of experience on the more customer-focused side, but the majority of my time at Santander was spent within corporate banking and the specialist finance teams. They were vastly different populations with very different focuses, but I developed a broad skillset from experiencing them both.
My career has always had that element of diversity to it—I went from the corporate sector to consultancy, and then into the strategic Business Partner role at Very, which was more about building relationships with the Directors and supporting the execution of their People plans. My current role is very different once again—what I’m doing now is really about supporting a tech start-up.
Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector?
Although the current situation with COVID-19 has proved to be a hugely challenging time for everyone, I think that we as HR professionals have more of a seat at the leadership table than ever now. Our businesses are looking to us to help them navigate the current crisis and shape our organisational agendas, as well as directing what those may look like in some cases.
In a lot of respects, the current situation has seen us throwing the rule book away and thinking differently to implement new ways of working and new business models that have to be innovative and agile. It’s a huge challenge, but I think that HR will continue to play a pivotal role going forward. Although we’re all feeling exhausted at the moment, we are being listened to and valued more than ever before.
In doing that, we need to utilise the power of the employee voice. We need to revisit our policies to find out what flexibility looks like for individuals in light of COVID, even if that means reviewing our current model of situating our employees in big offices when they tell us they can’t—or don’t want to—return to that environment. It’s going to be a huge piece of work, but it needs to be done.
At Everymind, we’ve also just launched our mental health app to support employee wellbeing as part of our mission to normalize mental health conversations in the workplace, and part of the challenge of my role is to support not only the development of the business, but of our offering itself to give as much value as possible to the HR community. Such a small company has an equally small internal HR requirement for now, so I’m trying to be flexible in supporting our business development and in turn my role will develop as the business grows.
As a business, our biggest overarching challenge is trying to get the traction to have conversations about mental health. We want to spread the word, get our messages out there, and help as many people as possible. Within the HR sector specifically, everybody agrees that mental health is an important subject, but equally, they’re busy trying to deal with the aftermath of furlough and the important transition back to work, as well as things arising from that like redundancy programmes, restructuring, and rolling out new ways of working. These normal HR activities are in some cases preventing us from getting the app into companies because they’re so pressing.
We’re trying to add extra value by holding webinars and producing guides on our social media channels to create awareness and really demonstrate our value, but even after doing that and offering the app to companies for free for six months, we know everyone is really struggling for time at the moment. When it does reach HR professionals, the feedback we get about the value of the app is resoundingly positive, so it’s just about making sure they’re able to understand its full potential for helping people. Everyone on our team has felt the impact of mental health issues in some way, so we’re all passionate about driving mental health awareness in what we do.
What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career?
Coaching and mentoring—or even just listening to other people’s stories and advice—is absolutely invaluable. Either via a mentor or just simply asking people what advice they might be able to offer you. Even if someone doesn’t have the time to commit to lots of hours of coaching, those conversations are so important.
You should also play to your strengths. If there’s a certain area of HR that you have a talent for or certain experiences you need in order to progress, seek those out. In general, people are kind and they want to help, so building your network to get the opportunity for those experiences can be so beneficial.
On top of that, your attitude and behavioural qualities are hugely important to succeeding in HR. You can have technical knowledge, and you can follow a process map, but having the ability to build relationships and develop your emotional intelligence is what really takes you to the next level and establishes your position of trust. Having that trusted advisor relationship is so important, especially if you’re in a Business Partner role.
Although HR skills are highly transferable, we shouldn’t underestimate the power of really getting to know your business, your leaders, and what they’re trying to achieve. Learning about a business and how they generate profitability can differentiate you, as someone who can add real strategic value. You can bring your HR knowledge to the table, but having that business acumen is what will get you seen as a true part of the leadership team.
If you’re seeking that kind of formal leadership role, you need to fuse your HR knowledge and business acumen with genuine emotional intelligence. Empathy and an understanding of human behaviour will be needed more than ever after the past few months, and I would argue that the strongest leaders are emotionally intelligent ones.
Zoe has been working as Head of HR since May 2020, and oversees all aspects of Everymind at Work’s HR function, as well as providing valuable support and insight for the continuing evolution of their flagship employee mental health app.
For more information on the Everymind at Work app or to arrange your free six-month trial, visit www.everymindatwork.com.
If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.