Is This Room Free?
Welcome to Is This Room Free? In this podcast I will be talking to HR professionals and listening to the stories of their careers. I will be finding out about the journeys they have taken and what they learnt along the way. The purpose is to help others in the profession identify and understand the various paths available and take inspiration from my guest speakers. Whether you are someone who is looking to get that first step on the HR career ladder or an aspiring HR Director, I hope you get value from these conversations.
Is This Room Free?
Natalie Ellis - How to position HR credibly and not as the fluffy department, and tailoring your approach to adapt to your customers
My guest this episode is Natalie Ellis who is the founder of Rebox HR, a multi-award winning HR Consultancy business based in Daventry, Northhamptonshire.
Natalie has spent over 17 years in the world of HR, working her way through the corporate world before deciding to start her own business in 2020.
Originally starting her career in the travel industry, Natalie believes it was those lessons she learnt about tailoring the service to the needs of each customer that gave her the foundations for how her business operates so successfully.
Although Natalie is essentially an outsourced service provider, there are lessons in how she partners with each customer. She wants to learn and understand the intricacies of their culture, identity, and ways of working. The same approach can be applied for internal HR teams as your 'customers' are the internal stakeholders you support so it's about understanding their needs and adapting your delivery accoridngly to achieve the best results.
Natalie's first HR role was with Woolworths during the period they went into administration, and she explains what a baptism of fire it was to the world of HR going through such a process. She then joined a little start-up called ASOS to set up their HR function.
A couple of years ago, right before launching the business, Natalie suffered with a breakdown due to burning herself out. She is very open and honest about this period of her life and is a huge advocate for HR for HR to try and ensure others don't succumb to what she endoured.
On top of all this we also address the question "Is it the responsibility of HR to change the way they are perceived in businesses?"
Natalie has been there, done it, and got the t-shirt through her career and this is a great conversation covering so many of the burning topics in HR right now.
I hope you enjoy listening.