Q Please, tell us a bit more about your background and what led you to become an HR professional?
I am currently the UK HR Director at Intertek, which is an amazing role in an innovative company enabling me to work with the global leadership teams to shape the people’s agenda across the UK. I have had a varied and exciting career over the last 20 years, working for global companies such as BNP Paribas and ConocoPhillips in specialist reward and mobility roles, Lead HRBP roles supporting Technology in Barclays, Employee Engagement specialist roles for KPMG as well as HR Director roles overseas in Australia for an International Engineering Company.
Q Could you unleash what you are passionate about in your work and what is your current academic focus?
I’m a huge advocate of cultural change to deliver performance and passionate about engagement and the ability that coaching as a skill and approach can instigate such amazing and positive change.
My current academic focus continues in creating accessible coaching for all to create winning cultures, and truly creating agility of thought and practice to thrive in the day-to-day work.
Q What are the challenges that HR is facing today and what strategies do you consider most efficient to solve them?
No challenges, just opportunities! As a function, HR has a gateway to supporting and empowering the business it works with to have the ability to adapt and evolve. As such, it always needs to stay aware – of the market trends, and deeply understand the business it works with to create and lead strategically aligned change as a result.
Q How do you evaluate your Corporate Wellness approach today and what is your vision of Quality of Life at Work?
We recently launched our internal focus on Wellbeing – “Ever Better Me” – a comprehensive package of health and wellbeing services designed for Intertek UK colleagues to focus on supporting all areas of Wellbeing at work and life. We are an organization focused on Quality – and with a supporting cultural roadmap designed to promote benefits and create learning opportunities for all, we truly believe we can together create fulfilling and engaging opportunities at work for all, creating true Quality of Life at Work as a result.
Q How do you envision the future of the HR function?
As ongoing coaches, commercial thinkers able to create an engaging culture for all – the HR function will work and align with all the market trends, so technology continues to evolve, but we will always have a role to reboot the power of the human effect.
Q What actions do you have in place to engage your employees and shape organizational culture at Intertek?
Engaging and developing our employees is the number #1 strategic driver for Intertek and here in the UK, we have a cultural and technology roadmap designed and to deliver our strategic goal every day.
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