Meet Chloe: An insight about her career in Human Resources, motivation and what she enjoys most

My day to day responsibilities

I joined Careys in August 2017 and my day-to-day tasks depend on what’s going on in the business, so there’s no typical day in HR. It’s easy to assume that HR only helps with transactional processes like managing new starter paperwork or processing a leaver on the system, but the function supports the business in many ways.

My role within the team as an HR Advisor is to guide the business on our people polices and to advise and upskill managers on best practice HR, including topics like performance improvement, employee relations and employment law.

Discovering my passion for Human Resources

I’ve always been interested in businesses and what makes them successful, so I studied Business and Management at university. I’m also very people orientated and have been interested in how strategic people management influences the success of a business. I went on to study Human Resource Management to learn more about it and loved it.

What I enjoy most

Businesses don’t exceed client expectations, people do. I genuinely care about making a difference to people’s working lives and my role allows me to influence that every day through my interactions.

Projects I’ve been involved in

In the last year, our focus as HR Advisors has been to upskill our managers on our people polices and processes. We have been delivering interactive bitesize workshops in our regions across the Group, that focus on key HR topics. So far, over 120 managers have been on these workshops and we’ll continue to develop and expand the training and topics covered.

We’ve been gathering feedback from those involved in our workshops, to ensure employees are getting the most from them and to find out what employees want to learn more about. Of those surveyed, all participants felt they learned something of value and enjoyed the interactive format, as it encouraged discussion and learning.

Challenges within my role and how I overcome these

There’s a variety of understanding and expectation obstacles as to HR’s role and what we’re able to help with. Carrying out workshops and my interactions with employees and managers, allows me to develop the understanding of the function and promote the strategic benefits of best practice HR.

Support I’ve received to develop my career further

I like to get involved in new things and I’m always encouraged to do so. One example is having the opportunity to carry out a Women in Work workshop in St Maurice’s high school with colleagues. The workshop was to encourage teenage girls to think about their careers and to promote the various opportunities for women in the construction industry. Although slightly nerve wrecking, I learned a lot, the girls took away a lot from the day and this is an ongoing partnership with the school, so I’ll continue to gain experience.