Is This Room Free? – Détails, épisodes et analyse

My guest on this episode is Jess Gray who has recently joined a solicitors as part of their outsourced HR team. However, we cover off so many interesting aspects and situations within this episode. 

Jess found her way into HR and Training after university and gained her Level 5 CIPD. It was always the plan to do some travelling though so she took a break in her fledgling HR career to go overseas and taught English in Thailand.

When she returned home she found it incredibly challenging to secure a new entry level HR job, despite having adequate experience and the qualification under her belt.

She then joined an organisation and experienced a reduction in the HR team, a change in leadership, investment and growth of the team once again. Jess explains what it was like working through this turbulence and how the priorities changed for the HR function at various stages.

Her next company was an Academy Trust which presented a whole new set of challenges. She was now operating in environments where there had barely been a HR presence before and Jess explains how her much of her work had an emphasis of building and nurturing relationships to get those building blocks in place for her to make an impact.

Very recently her career has taken another twist by moving into outsourced HR. Jess shares what it has been like adapting to this version of HR delivery but what she has found inredibly enjoyable about it too.

This is a highly fascinating conversation shedding light on some aspects of HR that many wouldn't be aware of. I hope you enjoy listening.

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We have a first for the podcast - it's the very first time that I've had two guests feature on one episode.

I'm joined by Gemma Ellison and Lisa LLoyd who are both returning guests from this series. 

Since my recording with Gemma in October 2023, the pair have teamed up to create Leadership Labs which provide a truly unique approach to helping leaders tackle issues and drive change.

Both highly passionate about workplace culture they also recognised that the general formats for Leadership development simply didn't go far enough or were too generic. They knew that something better could be achieved.

What they have created are mechanisms for honesty, collaboration, and peer support and learning. At the same time, they are pushing the boundaries by encouraging leaders to tackle 'experiments' that are measured and assessed to help drive positive change in their businesses.

I absolutely love the concept and format they have come up with. Whilst not the traditional format for this podcast, it's still a compelling listen, especially for any HR folk tasked with supporting leadership development in their organisations or even HR leaders themselves.

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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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On this episode my guest is Emily Edge. She is someone who I first made contact with about four years ago when I started doing HR recruitment. At that time, Emily had just had come out of running a food business with her partner where she had also undertaken all HR responsibilities.

Since then Emily has used that experience of setting up a HR function in each of her positions thereafter so I felt she was a great guest to have on. She is someone who has always worked in standalone HR roles, which can be quite challenging but you also have complete control over decision making.

This is a great insight into what life is like operating in a standalone role. I absolutely talking to Emily about her HR journey so hope you enjoy it to.

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On this episode of the podcast my guest is Charlotte Humphries. 

The reason for asking Charlotte to join me is that earlier this year she made the transition from HR Assistant to HR Advisor. However, we can then throw into the mix the fact that she started her new role, which was with a new company, only a week before lockdown occurred.

Charlotte shares with us not only her story of how she made that step up to Advisor but what the past six months have been like for someone adapting to a new role whilst doing so from their kitchen table. It certainly makes for a really interesting situation so I hope you enjoy listening.

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On this episode we have Amisha Parmar. 

Amisha and I met last year when she was looking to change her career and move from teaching to HR. I was able to give her some advice and guidance and we worked on her CV to ensure it helped her make that transition. It’s been great to watch how she has developed and progressed over the past year and successfully become a HR Advisor. 

The story of how she made that transition, was pragmatic in her expectations, but how she worked proactively to make this happen is a really valuable insight for anyone else who is looking to make that career change. Hearing how she built up her LinkedIn network, engaged with recruitment agencies and worked on the front foot to make things happen is inspiring.

I hope you enjoy the listen!

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On this episode we have Rachel Ward. Rachel graduated last summer and is now 11 months into her first HR Admin job.

I'm conscious there are a lot of graduates entering the job market right now and a lot of them are uncertain about how to secure that first HR role. Therefore, I really wanted to get Rachel on as I was keen to speak to someone who is at the start of their HR career and could give some great insight into what her experience was like applying for jobs, how she secured that first HR position and what she's learnt over the past year.

Rachel is extremely honest about how difficult it was for her, how she felt like a failure when she couldn’t get on a Graduate Programme, but how she eventually found success through an alternative route, using her network. 

This is a great listen for any graduate to hear the story of someone who is a year further down the line than them and I hope you enjoy it!

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Here we are again…. we’ve gone from a sequel to a trilogy with our third instalment of the podcast. 

In this episode I talk with Heather Mitchell. I’ve known Heather since we were on the same CIPD course six years ago. I wanted to get her onto the podcast as her current situation is quite unique and I thought you guys might find it interesting. So what’s she doing? Well Heather is currently a UK expat working in Bangkok for a Thai-based technology business.

Heather tells us how she went from a Graduate Management Trainee to HR Business Partner at Dyson before her now-hubby applied for a job in Bangkok that took them both unexpectedly overseas. Heather had an initial wobble but now she is absolutely loving life over there and the move has enabled her to gain experience in a global role.

This one is an absolute cracker so I hope you enjoy the listen!

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On the second episode we have Angela Chidley. I was really keen to get Angela on as I thought listeners would benefit from hearing this journey of someone who was originally in Operations and made an unconscious transition to HR after working for a global pharmaceutical company. Whilst part of a project implementation team, Angela realised that the absence of L&D was hindering the success of the project, as there were no tools in place to support stakeholders through the change phase. She created the necessary training courses and documentation and hasn’t looked back since. 

Angela tells us how she tactically went into the interim market to broaden her HR skill-set, and how this ended up with her being offered a permanent role in her last company. She joined them at a time of real turbulence, with the company going through a change in ownership, the creation of a Trade Union, and no real HR function. 

Listening to Angela talk about this period of her career was fascinating as it sounded like the perfect storm for a disaster. However, she lived to tell the tale and I hope you enjoy listening. 

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Welcome to this first episode of 'Is This Room Free?'

In this first episode, my guest is Donna Whittaker. Donna is the UK Head of HR for a large chemical manufacturing company. 

We hear how in her early career, Donna got some great exposure that really helped catapult her development. Along the way she has benefited from great mentors and leadership, and has had to operate in some challenging circumstances. 

We also learn how Donna believes the route to best HR delivery is through embedding herself in an organisation to learn about the problems that need solving, forging strong working partnerships along the way, rather than going in with a prescriptive approach. 

I hope you enjoy listening!

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