About

I joined the University as FE Business Partner in August 2012 when the University bought Leek College into its FE Division. My role developed over time moving to Senior HR Business Partner with portfolios including College of Life and Science, Registry and DS&S, then on to Head of Business Partnering and eventually to my current role.

I am a member of University Executive Board and lead the department of People Experience and Culture, a professional services department focussed on engaging and enabling our workforce to succeed.  Our goal is to attract people whose values align with ours with a diversity of personal and professional experiences and perspectives to bring challenge and innovation into our organisation.  We aim to support colleagues to provide the best service and experience to our students and other internal and external stakeholders whilst also enabling people to achieve their own career and personal goals in an environment that respects and values everyone’s contributions.

We are part of an academic community and play a key role in growing and developing the quality and success of our academic performance through attracting talent and potential, ensuring opportunity to progress careers are available and clear and that we support the organisation in developing a talent pipeline in support of our academic goals.

People Experience and Culture is made up of the following core departments:

Human Resources including:

• Resourcing
• HR Operations
• HR Systems
• Business Partnering and Advisory
• Strategy, Reward and Employee Relations

Talent, Culture and Inclusion including:

• People and Culture Change
• Inclusion and Wellbeing
• Talent, Management and Performance
• People Growth and Potential
• Organisational Design and Effectiveness

I am Chair of the Midlands UHR Deputies Group.

Prior to joining the University, I had a diverse career pathway, spending the first 10 years of my working life as a gym instructor. I then made a complete shift in role starting my HR career in a swiftly growing Facilities Management company. This gave me an incredibly diverse opportunity to develop my People skills in a commercial setting. In 2005 I joined Leek College with a varied role covering not only HR but Estates, Health & Safety, and IT. When transferring into the University my role re-focussed back to my HR roots.

Qualifications

• Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resources Management, Staffordshire University