Is This Room Free?

I'm joined in this episode by Julie Spicher who is Head of People & Culture for energy company Leep Utilities in Manchester.

I've know Julie about 8 years when she was a HR Administrator and have watched her career flourish at quite a rapid rate over that time. Even back then she was someone who stood out so it's not surprising that her career has rocketed.

I wanted to get Julie on to share her story so we could try and discover what it is about her that has enabled such fast-tracked career progression.

Julie is originally from Holland but, at only 17 years old, decided that she wanted to push herself and go off and see the world. She moved to the UK and worked as an au pair before deciding on a career in HR and going to university to study Human Resource Management.

She did a placement year working at Honda and then worked in the Shared Service Centre for Marks & Spencers, so left university with two years HR experience already under her belt. This already indicates some of the characteristics that have made her so successful.

Julie then worked for a tech business before joining Leep Utilities. This provided Julie with the chance to set up a HR function and all the systems and procedures, which again is quite a task for someone with only a few years experience.

Julie was taught early in her career about the importance of asking the 'why' whenever embarking upon an activity or project. This is something that underpins how she operates but she is also someone who has a plan but pushes herself outside her comfort zone. 

There are so many discussion points within this episode and it's absolute gold for anyone starting out in their career who wants to understand how to excel and propel their career forward.

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My guest for this episode is Steven Ingram who worked for the bulk of his HR career doing consultancy before launching his own business, Neurodiversity Together, in the summer of 2023.

Steven has ADHD, autism, and a stammer. What I absolutely love about him and what you'll realise from this conversation is that he approaches discussions on neurodiverity in a different way. It's a more holistic and inclusive way for all concerned rather than focussing simply on any singular individual.

Having gone straight into the world of HR Consultancy from university he lifts the lid on that world as I think, for many, it's not a pathway that is considered at the entry level. However, Steven explains how, like in any role, you learn from those around you until you have the tools and knowledge to take on further responsibility so there's absolutely no barriers of entry for those starting off in their careers.

Steven explains why he ultimately set up his own business and we learn how his approach to supporting individuals and organisations regarding neurodiversity puts just as much onus on the person as it does any adjustments that need to be made to assist them.

I find Steven such a refreshing and insightful individual and talking to him raises many lightbulb and 'a-ha' moments. I'm sure you'll enjoy this and gets lots of 'a-ha' moments for yourself too.

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I've often referenced the HR Bingo sheet through various podcast episodes. That's the list of everything you can do in the HR spectrum and ticking off as many as you can.

Well I think this episodes guest is the first person I've ever met who can probably stand up and shout "HR BINGO!"

I was incredibly thrilled to be joined by Simon Shumann-Davies for this 101st episode.

I would class Simon as being in the top percentile of HR professionals, simply based on what his market rate would be if he were looking for permanent work. However, this isn't someone who has had it easy... quite the opposite in fact.

Simon began his HR career in the RAF, which in itself is quite unique. Upon leaving the Forces he then struggled to get a HR job in the private sector as his experience in such a different type of organisation wasn't deemed relevant.

However, despite overcoming that initial difficulty he has gone on to accumulate one of the most comprehensive profiles I've ever come across.

Whilst he says his is an employment law and change specialist, I struggle to think of anything he hasn't done in the HR space. This is combined with him working across an incredible amount of sectors and industries as well as companies from start-up to global giants.

Taking another unique turn, Simon now works as a fractional HR Director and he explains what exactly this type of work entails.

This is THE episode that you cannot miss!

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This is a landmark episode as it's our 100th!!

Therefore a landmark episode requires a guest of equal stature and I'm delighted to be joined by Annette Andrews.

Annette has an incredibly fascinating career story to share. From growing up and moving countries ( and schools) reguarly due to her Dad's job, she strongly considered joining the Army but a significant sporting injury meant that was no longer an option.

Unsure of what she then wanted to do with her life, some summer work at a local hospital put her under the tutelage of the HR Director. He encouraged Annette to apply for HR graduate schemes which led to her joining Ford  where she stayed for the next 18 years, gaining an MBA along the way.

She then joined Lloyds Bank right before the global financial crash in 2008 and was on the actual trading floor the day the markets crashed. This led to supporting the huge transition project of bringing together Lloyds and Bank of Scotland as one new banking group.

Annette moved to the US in a Head of HR role for Lloyds but she explains how various things going on in her personal life meant she needed something different from her career during this period and a role that demanded less from her. This is common to so many during their careers and it's encouraging to hear someone with such a stellar career recognise that there may be a time when we need to take our foot of the gas for a while and seek out something more condusive with our personal lives.

Then when she was ready to tackle a larger role and a big challenge once again she moved to Lloyds of London as Chief People Officer.

Annette now has a portfolio career doing HR Consultancy, Coaching, working as a Non-Exec Director, and doing Speaking events.

This is an incredible episode that covers so much, especially about how Annette has pulled on the experiences throughout her life to aid her career but how life also impacts the decisions we make at times too.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

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Joining me on this episode is Beth Orford who is the Head of People for a FinTech business called Everything Financial.

Beth is an incredible guest as she changes the perspective on how we should look at not only our careers but HR as a function. She is someone who has learnt to understand what type of work she is suited to and therefore, just as importantly, what types of roles and environments she wouldn't be a good fit for. This has been something she has discovered over time but now she has clarity it is the lynchpin to how she determines if a role will be suitable or not, and she explains how this impacts her reading of an advert, and the questions she asks through an interview process.

Beth also challenges the evolution of HR beyond the current notion of becoming 'People' functions to something even broader and presents the concept of 'Capability' being what her purpose and remit is all about.

Beth began her career in L&D but realised to have a greater impact she needed to broaden her own toolkit and, working for Virgin Money, had the opportunity to move across a few different areas within HR to develop her knowledge.

Whilst she has remained within the Financial Services sector in various guises this is just an incredibly fascinating conversation to hear how someone has found what works best for them and then the ripple effect of understanding what type of roles and environments she suits and can deliver the most value in.

It's a great listen so I hope you enjoy it.

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Joining me on this epsiode is Caroline Oxley who works as Head of People & Culture for a property investment company and is based in Greater Manchester.

In her early HR career, Caroline worked in Facilities Management. What I found interesting was that people in HR always talk about delivering bad news, such as redundancies in the right way and being empathetic, however, Caroline shared a further nuance where in industries where there are high levels of TUPE transfers, such as outsourced service delivery, and contracts changing hands every few years then it's even more important to 'do it right' as it can impact business development and there's a liklihood of your encountering people you've had tough conversations with further down the line.

Caroline is someone who has experience of doing large scale TUPE (one company went from 6 people to circa 1400 in the space of a few months!) and she talks us through what is involved, how to successfully navigate it, but also what type of person might be better suited to it. Therefore, it's incredibly helpful to listen to Caroline explain it all if you're someone who has never done it but is curious about it. 

As with many of my guests, Caroline is also a Mum, and she talks about having to leave a job she loved due to the amount of travel required and her feeling like she wasn't being the best Mother she should be but then torn about not being the best working professional she should be too.

However, this change was significant for Caroline as it re-positioned her as a HR professional who moved from having worked for large companies to getting experience of working in much smaller operations which required a different type of HR.

This is a wonderful journey, understanding what HR can be like in organisations of different sizes and ownership. There's a lot to take away so I hope you enjoy it!

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I'm delighted to be joined by Hayley Duckworth on this latest episode of the podcast. 

Hayley is someone I've known in a loose sense for a long time and have watched her career flourish. Like many, she began in recruitment but didn't enjoy the sales aspect to it so made the logic move into HR. 

Hayley has had some amazing opportunities to get exposure to some of the less-common HR activties such as mergers, TUPE transfers, and change/transformations. This leads us to discussing the HR Bingo Card (as I've defined it) and the benefits of either coincidentally joining organisations who are going through changes where you get exposure to some of these less common HR activities or seeking out roles that can give you exposure to them for your development.

We also learn how Hayley did a degree whilst working full-time and then topped that by not only working full-time and studying for a Masters but then having her first child midway through the course too. 

Hayley currently works a four day week and one of the things that drew her to applying for her current role as Head of People at Marsden Building Society was how family friendly their advert read and the fact they were open to part-time as well as full-time applicants.

As a recruiter I'm highly aware of the lack of part-time opportunities in the professional and qualified space yet the high number of people who would prefer part-time hours that would accommodate the demands of family life. It's a topic we discuss in some depth and how employers could benefit in their hiring strategies by simply being more open minded.

This is a wonderful conversation and there's plenty to get from all the topics we cover so I hope you enjoy listening.

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This is the final episode of 2023 and I'm joined by Jo Mountney, who has spent the entirety of her career so far within hospitality and tourism, working for the largest theme park in the UK for 20 years.

Jo initially began in operations before moving into L&D and then ultimately HR. She believes that her background in operations has been one of the most useful aspects for her career, as it has enabled her to understand the position of her stakeholders better.

It becomes apparent that Jo has put herself into situations that have been way outside her comfort zone. From studying in France for four months, where all lectures were delivered in French, to making the move firstly into L&D and then into HR. However, she recognises that one of the ways we grow best and develop is by stretching ourselves in such a way.... and it's a concept she's taken into managing teams but as an enabler for her own teams to grow and develop too.

Behind all of this, Jo is naturally someone who lacks confidence in herself. It was others who pushed her to apply for roles (that she never thought she'd have a chance of securing) but it was her ability to solve problems, have the vision, and lead that helped her. Overarching it all is that Jo places people at the centre of everything she does and driving every decision she makes.

We manage to squeeze quite a lot of different topics into this episode (a Christmas cracker, you could say!) and I hope you enjoy listening.

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The guest this episode is Jane Ayrton who has been working in the L&D space for over 30 years.

Her career has incorporated being in both self-employed and employed roles. In her most recent role, Jane was Head of L&D in a financial services business and worked with what she describes as 'the best team she had ever had the pleasure of leading'. 

Within that same organisation, they introduced Insights Discovery Profiling and Jane shares the principles of what that is but then explains the amazing results they achieved by using it. The key, as with any learning initiatives, was their focus on embedding what was learned, how the information was being used day-to-day, and then measuring the results. The business were able to see marked improvements in all aspects following the roll-out of this across the organisation from how people communicated with each other to projects delivered quicker and more efficiently.

Jane takes great pleasure from watching others grow and succeed and we talk through some principles of how to get the best from your teams.

We also discuss the topic of confidence as this is something that Jane coached when self-employed having struggled with confidence herself in her early career. She shares some really useful tips to help boost your confidence when you really need it.

I've known Jane a number of years so always knew trhis was going to be a great conversation. However, I also learned a lot through the various topics we explored too. 

I hope you enjoy it!

career outplacement, career consulting, 

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My guest this episode is Daniel Balshaw who has built a HR career combining his two interests - technology and people.

Dan was working in his local Sainsbury's store when he was approached by the HR team (personnel back then) to help with letter formatting, as simple as that now sounds, due to his IT skills. This was the early days of computers in the workplace so having the ability to work his way around a PC became advantageous.

Sainsburys were one of the first large organisations in the UK to open a Shared Service Centre and Dan was one of the first employees to start there. This was the catalyst to his career taking the direction it has.

Dan has run large scale technical and systems implementation but he believes it's vitally important in getting the part right of taking people through that journey, to ensure the tech lands successfully. It's effectively change management and we delve into the factors that ensure change and transformation projects go as smoothly as possible.

We also tackle the concept of AI and how it might impact the world of HR in the future.

Dan clearly loves what he does and has found a niche within the HR universe that enables him to get a buzz out of what he does each day but also what the future might have in store for all of us through the use of technology in the workplace. 

I loved chatting with Dan and hope you enjoy listening as much.

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