HR administration manager at Forterra UK
I’ve learned to toughen up over the years. I worked at Entertainment UK, which was owned by Woolworths, just before it went into administration [in 2009], when all the worms came out of the can. HR is often seen as fluffy, but that experience taught me that it really isn’t. It prepared me for the trickier parts of the job, such as mergers, acquisitions and redundancies.
HR has to do what’s right for employees and what’s right for the business, which can be a tricky balance to achieve. You always have to listen to people, and demonstrate your duty of care. When I was helping people through a period of redundancy, I would look at their CV with them and link them up with agencies to look for a new role. Some people’s work is their life, so you need to remember how important situations like that are.
I joined Forterra at a challenging time– the company had been sold in 2014 and was undergoing a rebrand, and that transitional period was an eye-opener. The entire HR team was new, so it’s amazing to look back and see what we’ve achieved. We are just about to launch a graduate scheme, and earlier in the year we introduced a career transition partnership with the Ministry of Defence. You get to innovate individually and bring it all together as a team.
Wellbeing is more important now than ever, particularly because the workforce is living longer, which pushes work-life balance up the agenda. I don’t touch anything work-related at home, which has boosted my productivity at work and outside of work too. I go to job centres to speak to young people about the world of work, I read business books, I am a CIPD Steps Ahead Mentor, I write a blog and I spend time with my family – they make everything I do at work worthwhile.
I believe that if you want something enough and put yourself out there, you will achieve it. You just have to keep trying and make it happen. For instance, I feel strongly about face-to-face interactions in the workplace, or even by telephone, as opposed to trails of emails. By not hiding behind a screen, employees are able to build better relationships and avoid their inboxes brimming over. Getting our staff to follow suit has taken a lot of perseverance, but we’re getting there, and I believe it is paying off.
CV
Natalie Ellis began her career as a travel consultant for Thomson Holidays and was also a customer service adviser at Dreams. She first worked in HR with Entertainment UK, and undertook HR roles at ASOS, Allied Bakeries, Circle Express and Avon, before joining building materials supplier Forterra UK in June 2015.