Charlotte Anderson APHRNZ

What led you to a career in HR/ the position that you are in currently?   

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do once I left school, but I knew I had a passion for people and problem solving. My mum works in HR and I was always fascinated by the variety of situations she dealt with. While working in an admin role, I started working towards my Diploma in HRM and discovered that it was the right pathway for me. I then moved into both external and internal recruitment roles before being given the opportunity to step into an HR Advisor role shortly before COVID. Unfortunately, my role was impacted due to the industry I was in, but I was lucky enough to secure my current role shortly after. I am now an HR Advisor for a large, multi-cultural company and work within a great team. 

I have had great support and backing from my previous and current managers which has enabled me to be where I am today. 

What do you love about working in HR?   

Every day and situation is different. One day you can be working on a complex ER case and the next it’s focusing on how to embed values within the business. Working in HR provides you with insights into the entire business which can be crucial in understanding the needs and challenges of the business and how best to support people. I have mainly worked in blue collar environments which enables me to get out into the business and build relationships at all levels. Being able to have those relationships and have a chit chat to people is something that I really value and believe goes a long way if and when you are then needing to manage a difficult situation or introduce something new. 

What is an achievement so far in your career that you are proud of?   

There are two achievements that I am most proud of. 

There was a period of 5 months in my current role where I was the sole HR person. I was still relatively new to the business, so I was really thrown into the deep end. During that time, I managed two highly complex ER cases as well as another lockdown which provided its own challenges. I am very proud of how I managed that situation, and I learnt a lot from it. I had great support from Senior Leaders and the CEO during this time which made a huge difference. 

The other achievement is introducing and embedding new values within my current company. When we introduced the new values, it was important to communicate and gain understanding from the wider business. Having several locations and up to 500 employees on a variety of shifts added to the challenge as how best to achieve the desired outcome. As English is a second language for most of our employees, I translated our values into the 5 main languages to assist with the understanding and I ran competitions to help get people excited about them. I also created a Values Recognition program where employees nominated each other for displaying the values. Overall, this was a great success and I loved seeing people getting excited about it. 

What are your thoughts on the Accredited Professional Member process?   

I wasn’t sure where I was sitting in my level of knowledge before I started but I was surprised that I was further along than I thought. It was a simple process and I enjoyed expanding my knowledge in areas and building up my CPD points. 

Do you plan to now work towards becoming a Chartered Member?   

Yes, absolutely. 

What are your next steps in terms of your career? 

I have a young daughter so my main focus is her at the moment, however I have goals to move towards an HRBP role in the future.