Where I am now in my career, and what I wanted to do after school, are worlds apart. I wanted to travel for my work, so I studied Travel & Tourism at college. But I soon realised it wasn't quite as glamorous as I thought it was going to be, and I didn’t want to be an air stewardess anymore as I didn’t like the thought of being stuck on a plane for so many hours each day without a holiday at the end of it!
Luckily, I was also studying Business Studies, so I decided to then also study that at university to keep my options open.
An inspiring adventure
I took on Business Studies with Human Resources Management at the University of Salford in 2002. One of the modules was Spanish, which I quite enjoyed, and there was also an option to study abroad before doing my final year. So in 2004, I spent a year in Spain as an Erasmus student.
Being way from home for the first time was a big challenge – I didn't know much Spanish, and I lived with Spanish students who couldn't speak much English! That said, it was a fantastic opportunity to travel, learn the language and meet people and embrace a different culture.
The experience also inspired me to explore different career avenues. I knew I wanted to spend time supporting people after my part-time experience working in retail – helping companies to become a better place to work, and that kind of led me down the field of going into a HR-type role.
Getting a foot in the door and diversifying
Whilst finishing my final year at Uni in 2006,I started to apply for positions but I struggled as I didn’t have any relevant work experience in the field I was studying, so I reached out to my contacts within the HR field.
One of my university lecturers introduced me to his daughter who was a HR Manager. That led me to doing some volunteer work with the RRG Group whilst still at uni. When I was about to graduate, they offered me a 6-month temporary role – which led to a permanent role as a Group HR Officer. I was there for about five years and gained lots of valuable experience in a generalist HR position whilst also completing a Masters in Human Resource Management. Whilst there I also had the opportunity to take a 3-month sabbatical to go travelling which further inspired my love of embracing different cultures and meeting new people!
In 2011, I was ready to move on to my next challenge into a new sector (construction industry), and I became a HR advisor at ISG Plc. I was there for about eight years and progressed to become a Senior HR Advisor and then a HR Business Partner. I also achieved a Chartered accreditation with the CIPD. It was here that I started to get more involved in areas that I support today such as colleague engagement, development, health and wellbeing, and equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI). That's when I realised that I wanted to specialise in these areas.
First impressions of GC
I left ISG in 2019 because I was ready for my next challenge, but I wasn't too sure what that looked like. In November that year, an Organisational Development Advisor role was advertised at GC. I was quite interested because it was a hybrid role, picking up areas of the organisational development and learning. I applied for it, and got the role.
My first impressions of GC were that the people were really welcoming and engaging – and just really passionate in supporting our organisation to make improvements. I could see that two way-communication and feedback was encouraged from day one, which was quite refreshing. It was good to see that everybody was approachable at all levels.
Opportunities to flourish
Over the next few years, my role evolved and I gained more accountabilities, In 2021, I was promoted to Organisational Development & Learning Consultant. It was lovely to see that my contributions and skills were recognised.
There are many things which I love about GC. I’m grateful that I get to collaborate with so many inspiring people (both across the business and externally) and that GC is a values driven company where people really are at the heart of everything we do. I think it's also the fact that I’m given autonomy in my role. I’m empowered to put myself out of my comfort zone and try out new ideas. Differences are celebrated and safe spaces created, I feel valued, and like I belong here. I’ve also been supported with my ongoing development and achieved additional qualifications, including an ILM Level 4 award and an Organisational Development certificate with the CIPD.
I also love how flexible GC are. My work-life balance and having young children, is something that I was very mindful of when I joined, because with my previous employer, there wasn’t the option for agile working, so working at GC has made a really big difference to my home life.
It’s also fantastic that colleagues are encouraged to be part of GC’s EDI Networks and campaign activities, where people are very generous with their time, skills and experience. I’m the chair of GC’s Health & Wellbeing EDI Network, and it’s so inspirational working closely with different colleagues and listening to their ideas on how we can increase awareness on wellbeing and EDI matters and help to change colleagues’ perceptions. Not all companies offer that, and I think it's something that really does make GC stand out as a great place to work.