Linda and I have worked together on and off for about 18 months.  It was great to have the opportunity to look back at Linda’s career and find out her hints and tips to share with you.

How did you get into HR in the first place?

I kind of fell into HR.  When leaving college I got a job in an HR Department.  The company I was working for sponsored me to attend college on a part-time basis to get my CIPD qualification.

 Can you give me a summary of the different roles you’ve held?

I’ve worked up through the HR ranks from HRAdministrator through the roles of Officer, Adviser, Assistant HR Manager, HR Manager and Senior HR Manager.

 Looking back what’s the biggest mistake you made?

The biggest mistake I made was not starting my CIPD sooner.  I believed that my education was complete and delayed starting my CIPD despite coming under some pressure from my then Head of HR.

 What are you most proud of?

I am most proud of a project I managed which involved merging the HR administration and Payroll activities into my team.  We also outsourced our payroll provision and I managed the relationship and contract.

Sounds interesting tell me more about the challenges of that?

The main challenge was streamlining and automating as much as possible of the HR administration work to free up capacity to absorb the Payroll work.  Although there was some resistance we made this transition successfully.  The next challenge was the confidence of my HR admin team who were unsure about taking on Payroll work.  However, with some handover from the outgoing payroll team they soon picked up the mantle and ran with it.  The other significant challenge was the outsourcing of payroll processing which involved a lot of detailed discussion about who would do what, when and what information needed to be provided by whom in what format.  Oh, and we still needed to make sure that people got paid!

What tip would you like to share with others who are on their own HR journey?

I think it’s important never to lose sight of the business objectives.  However, it is also always necessary to consider the human impact of actions taken and decisions made by the business and to do what you can to minimise any negative impact.

Can you tell us a little bit about your current role and what prompted the move into this role?

I currently run my own HR consultancy and was prompted to move into this back in 2010.   There were some structural and significant business changes planned for the business I was working in and there was an opportunity for me to take redundancy.  I took the opportunity and, although it’s not all been plain sailing, I’m loving every minute supporting my clients and helping them to get the HR things right.

Thank you to Linda for giving her time to us for the HR Journey. I love Linda’s focus on the business objectives. This is top of my list in my free e-book “The 7 Mistakes HR Professionals Make” and you can find out more by requesting your free copy below.   Linda’s passion for helping her clients really came through in the interview and also is evident through her work.  She’s a great inspiration for keeping going through the tough times as well as the good ones!

Linda can be contacted by email at linda@stellarhr.co.uk or by phone on 07920137739.07920137739 07920137739

I’m always looking to hear new experiences so if you’d like to feature in one of the posts I’d love to hear from you.  Whether you are at the start of your career or have just made a change – your story will provide inspiration to others.  Post a comment on the blog, visit me on facebook www.facebook/theHRcoach, contact me through linked in or visit my website www.cmcoaching.co.uk    PS   If you enjoy reading tips – sign up for my regular email tips and receive a free copy of my report ‘The 7 Mistakes HR Professionals make’.  You can do this at www.cmcoaching.co.uk or www.facebook.com/theHRcoach