We are delighted to announce that the first webinar in our professional services series is dedicated to exploring the opportunities available for HR professionals in higher education.
We held the webinar on Wednesday, 19 February and heard from a selection of HR professionals who are currently employed by universities across the UK. Listen to their stories, find answers to your questions and discover why they love working in the sector.
Participants
Pooja Mistry
Resourcing and Recruitment Manager, De Montfort University
Pooja has over 11 years’ experience within Recruitment and HR, initially gained in the financial services and outsourcing industries, before moving to higher education in 2019. Since moving to higher education, Pooja has been involved in enhancing the recruitment strategy for De Montfort University. Key to the work Pooja carries out is the candidate experience and improvement of processes, to enhance the service being delivered to the service users.
Pooja’s current role as the Resourcing and Recruitment Manager at DMU, is to implement the recruitment strategy and ensure they are seen as an employer of choice. Whilst managing a team, her role also involves enhancing the candidate and manager journey, using innovative recruitment strategies, management of brand perception, ensuring effective recruitment practices are carried out and the management of recruitment budgets to focus on cost efficiencies as well as quality of hires. Pooja has a clear focus on Employee Value Proposition and ensuring current practices are efficient and effective.
The customer is always at the heart of any key decisions Pooja makes to ensure the delivery of a high quality, robust and efficient service to managers, employees and external customers, whilst ensuring the function has the ability to source, attract and employ the highest calibre of candidates in the jobs market.
Jess Pringle
HR Business Partner, Manchester Metropolitan University
Jess has worked in HR for six and half years starting out as a HR Administrator working for a voluntary adoption agency, before moving into the public sector working for Manchester Metropolitan University. Whilst at MMU, Jess has had various roles from HR Officer, HR Adviser and is now working as a HR Business Partner. Jess’ role sees her working in partnership with areas of the University to deliver a proactive, high quality and customer focused strategic HR service. Jess works closely with senior colleagues enabling them to identify, understand and communicate their current and future business challenges and objectives and associated people requirements. She provides advice and guidance to managers on organisational development matters, including: organisational change and design, employee relations, workforce planning and performance and the development of HR plans and strategies. Jess coordinates the implementation of required changes by bringing together all relevant parts of HR at the appropriate time.
Rachael Millhouse
Assistant HR Director – Operations, University of York
Rachael started her career working for a number of years in the private sector and a short period in the charity sector. She joined higher education in 2010 and was successful in a number of secondment and promotion opportunities and now holds the role of Assistant HR Director (Operations).
The main purpose of Rachael’s role is to work with the Director of Human Resources and the other members of the HR Leadership team to develop and deliver the HR strategy in support of the University’s strategic plans. Rachael leads and manages the following teams to deliver a high quality and professional service: HR Services, HR Operations, HR Support and HR Compliance. Rachael’s role also involves: promoting a truly inclusive approach in all of the University’s ‘people practice’, developing strong working relationships with senior members of the University, HR colleagues and Union representatives, and leading on a number of employee relations issues including industrial action.
Kelvin Adetunji
HR UKVI Project Officer, University of Greenwich
Kelvin Adetunji is a Human Resource United Kingdom Visa and Immigration (UKVI) Project Officer at the University of Greenwich. His role includes auditing and monitoring staff files for compliance in the employment of migrant workers and to make sure they are accurate and in line with statutory guidance. Kelvin also devises strategic directions to reduce the risk of UKVI compliance breach, and advises managers, department administrators and stakeholders on right to work obedience, and leads on all compliance matters. Kelvin has previously worked as a HR Administrative Officer, and obtained an International Business degree at the University of Greenwich, where he is now undertaking a MBA Business Executive degree.
Richard Hughes
HROD Manager, Cultural Development & Wellbeing, Sheffield Hallam University
Richard has worked within the HROD directorate at Sheffield Hallam University for the last six years, having previously worked in Learning and Development roles in a wide range of different sectors since 2000 (including the financial sector and a local council). Richard joined Sheffield Hallam University as the People Development Services Manager, and managed a team of People Development Advisors within the HROD Directorate. As a team, they were responsible for coordinating and delivering a wide ranging development offer for staff, which covered a large range of subject areas. More recently, Richard has moved into his current role of HROD Manager Cultural Development and Wellbeing, and this role focuses on leading on staff engagement within the University and ensuring there is a comprehensive staff wellbeing programme in place.
This interview was conducted before the Coronavirus Pandemic. Working arrangements on university campuses may have changed due to social distancing measures.