September and October have been crazily busy. I had days when I could not stop for a minute to think what had just happened or how I was feeling. I finally found a moment today to look back at my 7 years in the UK. I was only 19 when I moved here for university and so much has happened since. These 7 years have been intense and I have set myself so many goals. I feel like the more I achieve the more objectives I want to have. In 2007 when I landed I only had one goal in mind: graduate in 2010. Believe it or not, I was an introvert back then, therefore I was also determined to survive the whole ‘living-in-a-shoe-box-sharing-communal-spaces-with-strangers’ experience.
And that is where it all began. I surprisingly loved living in university halls of residence. I loved meeting new people and sharing my journey with them. I was not thinking of a career, but when I suddenly got involved with associations promoting the learning of languages in schools and subsequently found a job as an Italian language assistant, I took up the challenge and once again, surprisingly, enjoyed it. I was making sure that my students were achieving the results they wanted while learning and developing in a stimulating environment. I was also being approachable and supportive and trying to have a positive impact in their life. I never thought of teaching as a career, but I was enjoying myself and finding it very rewarding.
I did indeed graduate in 2010 and thanks to all the connections made, I knew I wanted to stay in Manchester and look for a job here. I did find one and it taught me that somewhere along the journey I had developed a very strong work ethics and I took pride in everything I did. I discovered the world of work and I wanted to play a big part in it. I discovered HR and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). With the support of my employer I embarked on a whole new adventure and all of a sudden my goal was to obtain a CIPD qualification, a decent MSc result and be part of a HR Department in 2012.
I attended my first CIPD Annual Conference in November 2011, I sat in a ‘Social Media and HR’ talk where most people in the crowd had their phones out and were sharing what was being said. They were doing this through Twitter. I had to join and understand what all the fuss was about. I was excited to have found a large and supportive community. I shared their values and wanted to be part of it, it was simply perfect for me. I was humbled by the number of HRD’s that were willing to help out a student like me. I interviewed some of them for my qualitative study. Of course this ended up being on ‘Social Recruitment’.
Social Media did not just help me and some of my university colleagues with our dissertation; it also helped us find our first HR job. I saw a vacancy for rentalcars.com through my manager’s Twitter account and that is how I applied for it. I have now been at rentalcars for nearly 3 years as an HR Advisor. Social media did serve a purpose for me at the time as I got all the help I needed from it. Crikey, I even got a job interview and subsequently a job…! It was a tool that I used to connect me with the right people. People that I am still connected to. Thanks to those people I feel that I have developed as a HR professional in ways I could have not otherwise. The same people that helped me throughout my dissertation I now call friends and mentors. Some of them have helped me tackle challenges that I faced in day job. One of them is Ian Pettigrew.
I met Ian just after the annual conference in 2012 and we decided to start organising events called ‘Tweetups’ where HR professionals from Manchester and the North West could finally meet. When some of those professionals walked into the room, it felt like I had known them for a long time. Our first event was a success and since then we have organised another 5 #connectingHRmcr events.
Thanks to people met on Twitter and at #connectingHRmcr I was picked to live tweet for the biggest HR event of the year: the annual conference in 2013. The event’s hashtag was tweeted more than 7,000 times and more than 800 people tweeted in 2 days. This is simply incredible for those who are not able to attend and creates such a buzz and a sense of inclusion for those there. It is fantastic to have been chosen to be part of #CIPD14’s blog squad and I cannot wait to see the numbers and stats after next week. I see social having a more prevalent role in HR as the weeks go by, so it will be interesting to see if we will have more contributors and delegates tweeting this year! Eek, I am so excited to see what #CIPD14 has in store for us.
This is my 4th annual conference and I am sure that many will agree that it is inspiring to see quite how many professionals, departments and companies are working hard to make a difference. This is clearly a profession that wants to keep up with technology and trends. We are out there sharing our experiences of the world of work. We like sharing knowledge so much that some of us wrote an Amazon Kindle book together! ‘Humane, Resourced’ is the first crowd sourced book of blogs that provides a fascinating insight into the world of work both now and as it will be. It has a foreword by Peter Cheese, CEO of the CIPD and it draws on the experience and expertise of over 50 international HR and business professionals. The book was launched just before #CIPD13 and its sequel was announced today. This is an example of why our profession is great and what can happen when people that have never met each other collaborate and share their thoughts by putting them into writing.
I am sure I have missed out many examples of why social HR has had a positive impact in my life, however I felt so strongly about ‘social’ that that I wanted to make sure that our local CIPD branch was also positively using it. Just before the annual conference in 2013 I contacted the CIPD Manchester Branch in order to try and help them out with their social media. Thanks to this I was eventually appointed as a CIPD Manchester branch committee member. As it is important for every committee member to organise events, I just knew what mine had to be on.
This is how #socialHRmcr was born. And of course Ian Pettigrew was the man for the job. Of course we knew the perfect speakers for the job: I had interviewed some of them for my dissertation back in 2012. And of course it could not be a ‘normal’ conference: it was on social and on HR, therefore it had to be an ‘Unconference’. The event was on the 16th October and it came around very quickly. The CIPD Manchester branch is well known for organising many successful events every year. It is the biggest branch outside of London and thanks to our enthusiastic chair Olive Strachan it has finally embraced social media like no other branch has. A CIPD Manchester blog was born and Ian ran a series of Google Hangouts with the speakers and facilitators of #socialHRmcr.
At the beginning of the day and for weeks prior to the event I felt a bit petrified and full of doubts.
I was wondering if the North West was really ready to discuss social media in HR, recruitment and L&D. I was beginning to think that an ‘unconference’ was a bit too much for employers to be endorsing. I felt the pressure, but perhaps I knew deep down that I had nothing to worry about. Lots of people turned up! Perry Timms began his presentation, the crowd was smiling and getting involved and I started breathing. By lunchtime I think I was actually enjoying myself. I helped a few people get on social media, a few eggs were hatched on Twitter, a few selfies were taken and before I knew it the conference had ended and a few tears were being shed at ‘Pets at Home’ crowd sourced video.
#SocialHRmcr was the event that made me stop and think about these past few years in the country and in HR. This event is what made me look back at my social journey with a big fat smile on my face. Was this path always going to lead me down the HR road? Where would I be now without these social tools? I am not sure, but I somehow got a bit of clarity after 16th October. I enjoy my days. I enjoy what I do. It gives me a buzz, it makes me feel alive. I am proud of everything I have achieved. I am not sure if ‘it was always going to be HR’, however I would not have it any other way. All the people that I met on Twitter, at #connectingHRmcr, through CIPD, the Manchester branch and at #socialHRmcr have taught me a lot. You are the reason why I feel I am doing something meaningful, you have taught me a lot through your writing and through sharing your experiences with me. I believe that most people I met in this journey would feel exactly the same. We have all grown thanks to one another. Communication with our connections either virtually or in person is what makes us realise that we love what we are doing. If we are having a moan about our job, talking about a meeting, our objectives, our day, our failures and successes, we are doing it passionately. We might even get emotional about it. And this is because we care. This is because we enjoy our job. How many people can say that?
Thank you to everyone that has been on this journey with me. You are the people that remind me everyday that I am on the right path.
A Britalian People Person 