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Interview with Zoe Parker about developing a career in HR Leadership

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“[
]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

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Developing a career in HR Leadership: Interview with Laura Guttfield

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“Throw out any kind of HR rule book that you’ve ever been taught from or that you think is the right thing to follow. [
] [Y]ou need to be brave enough to adapt to what your business needs.” – Laura Guttfield, HR Director at Childs Farm 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 Laura Guttfield at Childs Farm Ltd, who began her career in HR as an HR Administrator and later an HR Advisor at Lexis PR before moving to Ketchum Public Relations to work as a Talent Manager. In January 2013, Laura took on a role as HR Business Partner for ITN Productions and Channel 4 News before moving to subsequent roles as Human Resources Business Partner for ITN Productions and ITN Technology, and Head of HR for ITN Productions and Technology, winning the title of HR Business Partner of the Year at the 2016 Personnel Today Awards for her efforts in her HRBP role. In August 2018, Laura became Head of HR for ITN Productions & Corporate ahead of taking on her current role in January 2019. Can you tell us how you got into HR and why? After doing my law degree, I knew I didn’t want to continue down that career path, and I took some time out to think about what it was that I wanted to do. I’d really enjoyed my company law and employment law modules, and I knew I wanted to be an expert in an integral function that was relied upon in an organisation, but at the same time wasn’t law. I happened upon HR, and found that it offered the perfect combination of being able to work with people, use my law degree, and allowing me to become a go-to expert. I was lucky enough to get an entry-level position in a PR agency in London the year after I left university, but getting there wasn’t without its challenges. I went for so many interviews to get into HR after I graduated, but everyone seemed to want admin experience or office experience I simply didn’t have, as I’d only ever worked in retail part-time. Thankfully, I was able to secure the role at Lexis with no experience, and it was a fantastic first role to have. I was an HR Administrator reporting straight to the HR Director, and that gave me an incredible grounding in both more generalist HR and the qualitative and cultural side.  Rather than just paper pushing, data processing, and treating people like numbers, we were really hands-on, and there was a huge focus on employee engagement, company culture, and reward. I was exposed to anything and everything at Lexis—I really got to understand the business, and I loved it.  From there, I moved to another PR agency, but the role was very Recruitment-focused, whereas in the long term I was really keen to work my way up and take on an HR Manager role. Shortly after that, I moved into broadcast media. The transition was incredible. That’s one of the things that sticks out about HR for me—you can go and do the job you’re passionate about anywhere, which opens up the possibility of also working in an industry you’re passionate about as well. It was a really exciting prospect for me. The Business Partner role at ITN terrified me, but in a good way. It was quite high-profile—working with Channel 4 News and the commercial arm of ITN, ITN Productions—but it was also the perfect step to tick off all the HR experiences that I hadn’t had the chance to fulfil in my previous roles. I found that I really enjoyed working within ITN Productions to grow the business. It was dynamic and exciting, whereas the newsroom side of ITN didn’t really face the same kind of commercial challenges and had less potential for me to be able to shape things. With that in mind, I sought opportunities to take on other divisions and climb the ladder that way. I made myself known and made sure that people were aware of my skills and achievements within the commercial side of the business, as well as what kinds of change I could enact in a role more suited to my skill-set.  As a result, I moved across to the technology and group functions, which was brilliant. Both groups of functions were quite traditional and legacy-run, so there was huge potential for me to make changes and encourage them to be more commercial in their thinking and do things more efficiently while also managing union relationships. Following that, I asked to transition to a Head of HR role. It was really important to me to show progression, but I was also leading some really significant projects and running crucial negotiations in my role as HRBP and wanted to be recognised for what I was bringing to the business, and the role enabled that. I was at ITN for six years in total, and it was an amazing time during which I achieved a lot and developed a lot personally. I loved the challenge and excitement of fast growth during my first years there, but it’s a large organisation with unions to account for and a complex change process.  I found myself wanting to turn my attention to a growing business with an agile approach to change, and the opportunity at Childs Farm ticked every single box that I was looking for—a founder-owned business with an incredible growth story, hugely successful products, and a strong affinity with my personal values. I was recruited to go in and set up an HR function, so I went from having Learning and Development and Benefits functions reporting to me to having no direct reports, but instead rolling my sleeves up and getting involved.

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Careers advice: “…cure the fear by doing it anyway.” – Kelly Jackson, Chief People Officer at Luno, speaks to us about a career in HR Leadership.

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“Don’t let fear hold you back. Just because people are in positions right at the top of the company doesn’t mean that they’re superhuman, they’ve just decided to cure the fear by doing it anyway.” – Kelly Jackson, Chief People Officer at Luno, 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 Jackson at Luno, who began her HR career working as an HR Advisor for Experian QAS UK before moving on to Stemcor to ascend the ranks there, transitioning  from Head of Business Partnering to Director of HR in July 2013. In November 2014, Kelly joined the team at WorldFirst, now part of the Alibaba Group, adding responsibilities as Chief People Officer to her existing role as Group HR Director in September 2017. In August 2019, Kelly took on her current role at Luno. Can you tell us how you got into HR and why? I joined Experian QAS pretty much straight from university, having no real idea about what I wanted to do, but joined them because I liked how they described their culture and values, and track record of promoting people from within. I was originally a Sales Coordinator for the Telesales team, and I loved the banter of the team! Fortunately, I also had a very supportive boss, who after about six or seven months in the role encouraged me to look around the business, speak to people to find out about their careers, and see if anything interested me. When I did that, I found that the HR team were the most interesting to me, partly because I’m quite nosy! I like knowing what’s going on within the business, and the HR team is a good way to do that. I’d also done a psychology degree, and the blend of knowing everything that’s going on and having an influence on the people in the business while using my understanding of how people think and work from my degree meant that HR was my natural home. joined the HR team to set up their Recruitment function, which was quite a specialist role that I felt it was too early in my career to stick with for long. When an opportunity came up, I moved into more generalist HR, and I’ve continued in the People space because I enjoy knowing that the work I was doing was having an impact on the success of the business. I love being able to make a difference to how people experience work, and I’m still really passionate about that now. I think that if companies get it right, they can unlock an awful lot more passion and achieve more amazing things than they could by sticking to “the ways things have always been done”. Even at the start of my career I understood that People teams could have a level of influence on how people felt about their jobs and the company, as well as seeing the satisfaction that came from knowing people were having fun! I like people as well, but I’ve always known that you don’t go into HR if you want to be liked back—that’s the number one rule. Don’t go into HR for popularity, but if you like people and you’re curious about how they show up and behave and what you can do that might change that, then it’s a really interesting place to be, especially right now. Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector? Within the last two companies I’ve had roles with, my career has been about scaling businesses working with the founder CEO, which is a really interesting challenge. In terms of what Luno specifically is facing at the moment, our biggest opportunity relates to designing what our future ways of working will look like in a post pandemic world. COVID has of course presented most businesses with a unique and unexpected set of challenges, but also an acceleration of the flexibility that people have now become accustomed to and want. That’s a really big but exciting challenge, because at the moment remote working seems to be effective, but a lot of that is perhaps because everyone is forced into it. When people do want to go back into the office for those social connections or collaborative spaces, or just to get a change of scenery, that’s when you can quickly get yourself back into a position where the hybrid model doesn’t work so well because you haven’t deliberately designed it to. Another area we constantly look at is whether our employee experiences and systems are fit for scale—finding a way to take the our culture and practices that worked with 100 people and adapt them so that they will work with nearly 400 Lunauts and are scalable beyond that too. We’re also focusing heavily on leadership and leadership identity—establishing what a Luno leader looks like, how they show up for their teams, and what they need to do and understand in their role, especially now through the lens of a business that was always global but has the added complexity of being fully remote. We need to support them in navigating leadership in the way it is needed today and specifically find a way for them to build the same intensity and trust in remote relationships there as they have with someone who might be sat opposite them. Once we establish that, it’s about passing that knowledge and those skills onto managers in a very different way than just the normal classroom-based training, which can quickly be forgotten especially if it isn’t relevant to them at the time. So, we have introduced a ‘micro-learning’ approach. We do fortnightly learning sprints with smaller groups of managers where we focus on a particular area for one hour a week

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The Secret to Success: Interview with Gemma Shambler

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 “Be sure to find a mentor. Their insight is invaluable and they can act as great coaches to help you progress.” – Gemma Shambler, Head of People at The Happiness Index, 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 Shambler at The Happiness Index, who began her HR career by taking on the role of Office Manager at 4Ps Marketing before ascending the ranks to become an HR Manager in April 2015. In January 2019, Gemma took on her current role as Head of People at The Happiness Index. Can you tell us how you got into HR and why? I got into HR whilst working at 4Ps Marketing. Initially, I joined them in more of a Facilities role working as an Office Manager. It was a fast-growing company so even at that stage there was always an element of HR to my role. It started small and grew with the company. I loved it! I’d not worked in a company that was so people-focused and invested so much in growing their people before. That philosophy really resonated with me, so I moved away from the office side of things and focussed on HR. I enlisted the help of some experienced—but not formally trained—mentors within the business to learn the HR skills I needed. I completed some courses to facilitate that as well but I never undertook the CIPD qualification or went to university. I definitely didn’t take a conventional route to where I am now. You could say my grounding in HR was a mixture of self-taught skills, mentorship and some more formal training. What made HR stick for me was undoubtedly the people element. The knowledge I was gaining played a role but mostly I loved being able to help people grow and progress. I wanted to help people get the best out of their careers. After five and a half years at 4Ps, I moved to take on the Head of People role at The Happiness Index – where they are even more people-centric and offer everyone the freedom and trust to work in a way that suits them best. There’s no prescriptive, process-driven side to what I do at all, which I love! That side of HR doesn’t appeal to me in any way. Being Head of People means that I can be fully in control of our people strategy and the direction that we take.  At The Happiness Index, we’re very passionate about our vision of giving employees the freedom to be human. We’re constantly trying to achieve that by ensuring our values are underpinned in all our working practices. We really want to be the beacon for what the happiest place to work for looks like, and my role plays a huge part in that. Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector? Given the current COVID-19 situation, businesses are principally focused on ensuring their survival. Many have had to go into survival mode in light of the pandemic. At The Happiness Index, we’re getting used to working remotely. In a business sense, we’re starting to come out of survival mode and into thrive mode again. In a People sense, we want to make sure that we can provide clarity and complete transparency on what to expect over the coming months and years. Our main priority is ensuring our people are secure in their roles and they know what they’re doing. We have had to pivot some roles already, but the team has taken to that really well. Our next focus is internally kicking off our plan to make The Happiness Index the happiest place to work! That will include many different focuses and projects. The idea of having the freedom to be human is all about making sure that people have a voice, they can be true to their values and they are listened to. We are really big on the belonging piece and making sure that everyone feels like they have a place with us. With the recent developments in the Black Lives Matter movement, we also want to ensure we’re doing everything we can to promote and demonstrate equal opportunities diversity and inclusion. Obviously, they are always on the agenda but COVID has reset a lot of things in our minds, and we’ve been able to focus on what our priorities should be. We’re also currently engaging a lot with neuroscience. It can be really useful in terms of understanding how feelings can affect performance in a work environment. We’ve found that the insight can be hugely beneficial when you’re trying to work out how to approach tasks, set up teams and communicate with them. Not only in times of uncertainty but also more generally.  In terms of HR more broadly, I think engagement needs to be a bigger key theme across the sector. People are working in ways they’ve never worked before. Now, more than ever, it’s vital that companies are listening to their employees, giving them a voice and acting on their feedback. An open dialogue with employees is 100% key industry-wide. When you take that approach, it will create a better working environment, make everyone feel valued and inform business tactics. What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career? Find a mentor. We all need support and it’s so important to have someone to bounce ideas off and discuss what’s going on in your working life and how they might approach things. Their insight is invaluable and they can act as great coaches. Gemma has been working as Head of People since January 2019 and provides support and leadership for all aspects of The Happiness Index’s strategic

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If Not Me, Then Who?

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Last week I invited 5 HR Leaders to share their thoughts on D&I and how to start the hard conversations which become the catalyst for change.  You can find the webinar here. We have also pulled together a document filled with resources and articles about anti-racism, allyship and what steps organisations and their HR leaders can do to make positive changes. If you want to download the pdf, click here.

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Connecting you with Global Opportunities and Global Talent

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We’ve always believed collaboration is key to success. Now more than ever we need to deliver as much value to our clients and candidates as we can – that’s why we’ve joined NPAWorldwide.  NPA connects you to premier recruiting firms located throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Americas. Human now has a global network of trusted business partners who can help meet all of our clients’ and candidates needs, whether local, national or international. Watch this video to learn more about NPA!

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An Inspirational Interview with Jen Surtees, People Experience Director at Xero

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“Believe in yourself and be brave.” – Jen Surtees, People Experience Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Xero, 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 Jen Surtees at Xero, who began her career following an undergraduate BSc in Psychology at the University of Birmingham by undertaking a Research Internship within the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Aston University. Upon embarking on an MSc in Human Resource Management and Business at Aston University in 2010, Jen took on a role as a Lecturing/Teaching Assistant, alongside which she pursued  a secondment at the NHS Technology Adoption Centre and positions as an Administrative Assistant at Aston Business School and an Assessor for Aston Business Assessments. Jen also undertook PhD research in Interorganisational Innovation in the Medical Device Sector from 2010-2015, taking on a role as a Client Development Consultant at Thomas International towards the latter part of this research. In June 2015, Jen ascended within the ranks at Thomas international as a Solutions Consultant for the Enterprise Team, later becoming People, Teams and Culture Talent Manager there in September 2016. In March 2018, Jen joined the team at Xero as a People Experience Manager, moving on to become Head of People Experience for the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa in March 2019—a role that continues into her current position as People Experience Director today. Can you tell us how you got into HR and why? I initially studied Psychology at university in the hope of going down the Educational Psychology route. As I studied, it became clear that the journey to get there was a long one that a lot of people in my class were looking to pursue, so I started to look at slightly different opportunities and secured a secondment working on a graduate recruitment scheme. I really enjoyed it—that was the point I realised that I was a people person, hence why I had always been interested in behaviour. When the recession hit, I knew that graduate programmes would be quite difficult to get into, so I decided to go and study for an extra year.  I did a Master’s in Human Resource Management and Business at Aston University, and that gave me a great foundation for what HR was and how it fitted into the realms of brand and marketing as well as finance. It taught me that so many different areas of the business hinge on HR, and I found that fascinating; it confirmed that HR was the way to go and where I wanted to be. My preferred way to get into HR wasn’t necessarily to go down the traditional administration to coordination to advisor route, though, so from there, I continued my passion for psychology and refocused on psychometric testing.  Moving into my HR career, I found I was interested in the organisational development side of things, so I started doing some consultation with a psychometric testing provider. That gave me the chance to apply what I’d learned in a practical way, as well as some really great opportunities to learn how to deliver feedback, have difficult conversations, give stakeholders incentives, and do all everything we need to in HR as part of our partnering with a business. The whole experience was a really good injection of knowledge. At the same time, I was doing a PhD funded by the Department of Health looking at team psychology, so my two skillsets came together well. The consultation job ended up with me moving into an enterprise team focusing on some of our bigger customers, and before I knew it, I was working with some of the most inspirational female People leaders out there. I worked really closely with them, and was enjoying observing what they were doing and helping them get there, but I didn’t like that I wasn’t part of the results. That was when I realised I’d outstayed my welcome in the consultation industry—I really wanted to be able to put some of these ideas into practice within a business and actually see them come to fruition. Luckily, the company I was working for wanted me to come and implement the solutions I’d been putting in place for our customers in-house. Since then, I’ve moved into Xero and have absolutely loved taking my passion for people and culture and using it to help people really enjoy what they’re doing for a brand they believe in. I’m keen to make sure that the kind of environment I provide at Xero is one where people feel that they can thrive, and Xero has given me the opportunity to do that. I feel very fortunate to work for them. Throughout my career, I’ve transitioned from wanting to learn lots and picking up on cultures to seeing how some fantastic female leaders operate, and that’s really inspired me to provide the best experience possible for both our employees and our customers. We’re a values-based business, so that’s at the heart of everything we do. Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector? There’s definitely been a change in the way we view our people as a sector. Personnel moved to Human Resources because we recognised that humans were a valuable asset to businesses, and now we’re recognising that those people deserve to have a fantastic place to work and moving much more towards the kind of People function we have at Xero. In terms of the challenges that Xero are facing more specifically, we’re in the software industry, which has a lot of prospective talent looking for jobs, but also a lot of opportunities for people to move around. We’re still growing in the UK, which means that it’s fast-paced and things change regularly. I love that

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The Benefits of Interim Hiring

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As I write, we are facing one of the most challenging economic periods in recent memory. Many organisations have fires to fight, there are structural changes to be made, and uncertainty abounds, but we all  need to keep trying to move forward.    As an HR recruiter, I’m certain that HR will be on the front line of these changes, andHR professionals will be needed now more than ever. Though not forever,I think the sector-wide resurgence we are about to experience will lead to an increase in interim HR positions becoming available. In fact, we’ve already seen an uptick.    So what’s involved in hiring on an interim basis, and how can Human help?    We believe that placing someone in an interim position is as important as placing them in a permanent position—often, it’s even more important to get the match right. Interim professionals have less time to build a rapport with others and less time to get to grips with the business objectives than a permanent staff member, so a strong match often facilitates success from the outset. When time and progress are of the essence, it’s crucial to hit the ground running.   For Clients: Interim professionals are ideal candidates to meet a wide range of transient business needs. They can fill often-restrictive staffing gaps caused by employee absences due  to illness, maternity or paternity leave, or even holidays; be engaged on a project basis to support an existing team that’s already at capacity; or simply come in as a fresh pair of eyes that are not embedded in the day-to-day minutiae of the organisation, leaving them able to get to work making an impact from the off.   Hiring someone without making a long-term commitment  with the option to end the engagement if it’s no longer necessary or effective for either party can also be hugely cost-effective for the hiring company.   For Interim Professionals: Interim positions can also come with big benefits for employees filling them, including flexibility, the ability to experience a new sector with no long-term commitment attached, and the chance to develop your existing skills or just expand your network.    Often, the experience you can accumulate during  time spent with a wide variety of different companies will make you more attractive to future employers. Working with different technologies, developing new skills, and experiencing new structures has great potential to add real value to your career. If you would like to start a conversation about interim recruitment, please get in touch on 01709 717212 or email amy@recruithuman.co.uk

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Developing a career in HR Leadership: Interview with Lindsay Shankland

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“Focus on outcomes rather than rules and find a good role model.” – Lindsay Shankland, Director of HR and Organisational Development at St Helena Government, 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 Lindsay Shankland, Director of HR and Organisational Development at St Helena Government, who began her career as HR Administrator at Essex Police. Lindsay’s career has included roles such as Senior HR Advisor at London Borough of Havering, Deputy Director Of Human Resources at Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and Director of Human Resources at Norfolk and Suffolk Police.   How did you get into HR? I actually studied Geology at University after being inspired by a brilliant teacher at A-Level, but while I enjoyed it I realised I wasn’t science minded enough to make it a career.  Throughout my studies I’d always worked part-time at NEXT, and not knowing what I did want to do when I graduated I just started working there full-time.  I was quickly promoted and as part of taking on a management role I attended my first leadership development course.  I really enjoyed the course, in particular exploring leadership theories and the psychology of work, and that lit a spark in me that has remained.  I am endlessly fascinated by people, relationship dynamics and the psychology of work.  Moving into HR was a natural step and even after 16 years of working in HR and Organisational Development I haven’t lost my passion and enjoy seeing the difference good HR can make to individuals and organisations.  My HR career started in a recruitment consultant role, from there I saw a role advertised for an HR Administrator with Essex Police and that started me on my journey.  Working my way up the ‘HR ladder’ gave me some solid foundations in HR practice, and I’ve had the good fortune to work with and learn from some amazing people along the way.  I don’t prescribe to the mantra that if you like people you should go into HR, because you will see the best but also the worst in people, but I do believe that if you are interested in human behaviour, have social and emotional intelligence, are creative in thinking but recognise the need to have a good understanding of employment law, you’ll succeed.  It is important to understand HR policy in the context of the employment law that drives it and I do worry when I meet HR professionals who don’t understand the law, and the intention of the law, that sits beyond our policies.  That said, I have found that people who really like rules can find HR quite difficult as whilst there are some absolutes there are also so many shades of grey when it comes to what is reasonable.  I think as a profession we should be focussed on outcomes and solutions within the frameworks we work within and at times that requires a great deal of creativity.    What key themes do you think HR is facing at the moment? I think recent events have challenged the thinking about what is possible, and changed attitudes and mind-sets about some of our traditional working practices.  Looking out at the world I’ll be coming back to at the end of my contract on St Helena there will be some big differences in terms of the way we work.  Having a more flexible and dispersed workforce presents opportunity for HR and Business Leaders but requires a focus on building trust, engagement, loyalty, team cohesiveness and motivation in a more virtual world.  Some people will thrive working more remotely but others will miss the energy of being with peers and colleagues.  We are also operating with much more uncertainty than ever before and attempting to manage the economic impacts of a global pandemic, so there is a fundamental role for HR to play in supporting our organisations to find their way in responding, recovering and succeeding during such uncertain times.  For St Helena our remoteness is actually what’s protecting us at the moment and at the time of talking we remain Covid free.  Currently the internet on island can be slow and very expensive, but the Equiano Subsea Cable Project is bringing us closer to fibre optic connectivity, meaning the connection will become much more reliable and less expensive over time.  The potential opportunities this brings for how our employees across Government can work and learn is huge; from remote working to tele-medicine it will have the ability to make available a wider pool of knowledge, skill and resource we can more easily tap into, and we will definitely benefit from the work taking place now in relation to the move to more virtual teams and the rapid shift in training providers moving from traditional classroom or face-to-face learning to online content and virtual classrooms.   What career advice would you offer someone looking to follow in your footsteps?  There is no substitute for hard work, you have to be prepared to put yourself forward and take on work that will challenge you while helping you learn your craft.  The more you learn about the business you work within and read widely about the sector it operates in the more you can contribute and the more successful you will be.  Get out and about in your organisation, you can never underestimate how much staff and managers appreciate seeing the HR team take an interest in what they do, it helps you understand the issues and you can get to do some really fun things!  I’ve spent the day on shift at fire stations, undertaken basic fire training, spent a Friday night on a public order shift in Norwich town centre and I recently got to spend the day out on the boats here on St Helena with our Sea Rescue Team.  You will

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