But it took her a lot of travelling and a few career false starts before she found it.

Like so many graduates before her, Webb went travelling when she finished her studies. But unlike most graduates, she ended up creating a successful business while on her travels.

 

When in Thailand, Webb and a friend set up a business teaching English to local firms. The venture was hugely successful and they began to take on staff in order to service customers adequately.

 

It got to the point where Webb needed to take on a local Thai partner and establish the firm on a more legitimate business footing – but it wasn’t her dream. Instead, she chose to come home and pursue a “proper” career in the UK.

The fact that she’d set up her own business and successfully negotiated with some big name clients such as the Holiday Inn gave her immense confidence, however. “It taught me how to sell to companies and that I liked working with people, so I thought that PR would be a good career,” Webb says.

 

 

She found a position in a well-known PR firm but, although she enjoyed certain elements of the job, in particular the events management side of things, she realised that it was not for her.

 

So she moved sector to become an account manager at a big branding agency, migrating from there into project management and then changing course once again to start a career in recruitment. “I didn’t think I’d found my calling in account management and people had always really been the key for me,” recalls Webb.

 

So when recruitment firm, Workstation, approached her about joining, she grabbed the opportunity with both hands. The risk paid off and she thoroughly enjoyed her new post.

 

“I tried to be a very different recruitment consultant and not salesy sales, and because I’d done the job, I understood the importance of getting the right cultural fit with an employer,” Webb explains.

But she began to get itchy feet again. “I got to the stage where I felt I’d done enough in agencies. In agencies, you only get so close to the client and I wanted to get under the skin of a company and so I wanted to go in-house. So I left Workstation without a job,” she says.

It wasn’t the first time in her career that Webb had left a company without having had a new position lined up, but she’d always felt confident that something else would come along. Luckily, her instincts proved correct.

 

 

“I did quickly get a contract role with Disney. The company at that time was just starting to think about getting someone in-house to look at recruitment and not use agencies,” she recalls.

 

So she became the firm’s first dedicated UK in-house recruitment person and, significantly, ended up working closely with HR. From there, Webb went to L’Oreal as a recruitment manager, which was a fantastic experience in terms of learning about best practice HR, but not the right cultural fit for her personally.

It was her next role at AKQA, a 250-strong digital “ideas” agency, however, where everything began to click into place. Webb started in a recruitment role, but within three months was made head of HR.

“I said ‘no’ to the job three times because I didn’t have the experience,” she remembers. But she eventually relented, recognising that in the creative industries having an understanding of the business counted for more than knowing the HR handbook.

“I took it on as a challenge and it was challenging beyond belief! There were three or four people in HR, but I ended up leading them by default almost, because I had more experience in number of years,” Webb notes.

During her time there, employee numbers swelled from 250 to 450 and offices were opened in Berlin and Amsterdam, which gave her an opportunity to learn and grow with the company.

 

 

After four years, Webb felt that she’d felt that she’d done everything she needed to do there, however, and so left. She wanted to undertake a part-time coaching qualification as well as a course in Neuro-linguistic programming.

 

In order to subsidise the training, she worked for The Marketing Store for three days a week running its recruitment and talent search activities. “But I just loved it and ended up becoming permanent five days a week and coaching has fallen by the wayside,” Webb says.

Since joining a year ago, she has concentrated on setting up a dedicated recruitment department focused on enhancing The Marketing Store’s brand in a bid to attract top-class candidates. And this emphasis on direct recruitment has enabled her to reduce overall recruitment costs in the process, Webb believes.

Her key challenge over the year ahead, however, is to encourage the development of a performance management culture in order to both help people improve their performance if it falls below expectations and also recognise those that are exceeding them.

 

To this end, Webb is developing a company-wide competency framework that outlines what is required for individuals to excel in their role and move to the next level.

While it may have taken her a while to find her niche, Webb had always known that she wanted to work with people. So her risks paid off and the experience gained along the way has proved invaluable.

 

And finally…

Who do you admire most and why?
Cheesy as it might sound, my parents, I guess! But also lots of sports stars and those that triumph in face of adversity (for example, Prince Harry walking with the wounded).

What’s your most hated buzzword?
I generally don’t really like buzzwords, although we all fall in to trap of using them. I particularly detest ‘low hanging fruit’, which is more of a buzz phrase really. But in HR terms, I’ve never really liked ‘personnel’ because it gives the idea of administrative HR and so little more than keeping records.