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?
Annette Andrews - One of the UK's top 50 most influential HR practitioners
This is a landmark episode as it's our 100th!!
Therefore a landmark episode requires a guest of equal stature and I'm delighted to be joined by Annette Andrews.
Annette has an incredibly fascinating career story to share. From growing up and moving countries ( and schools) reguarly due to her Dad's job, she strongly considered joining the Army but a significant sporting injury meant that was no longer an option.
Unsure of what she then wanted to do with her life, some summer work at a local hospital put her under the tutelage of the HR Director. He encouraged Annette to apply for HR graduate schemes which led to her joining Ford where she stayed for the next 18 years, gaining an MBA along the way.
She then joined Lloyds Bank right before the global financial crash in 2008 and was on the actual trading floor the day the markets crashed. This led to supporting the huge transition project of bringing together Lloyds and Bank of Scotland as one new banking group.
Annette moved to the US in a Head of HR role for Lloyds but she explains how various things going on in her personal life meant she needed something different from her career during this period and a role that demanded less from her. This is common to so many during their careers and it's encouraging to hear someone with such a stellar career recognise that there may be a time when we need to take our foot of the gas for a while and seek out something more condusive with our personal lives.
Then when she was ready to tackle a larger role and a big challenge once again she moved to Lloyds of London as Chief People Officer.
Annette now has a portfolio career doing HR Consultancy, Coaching, working as a Non-Exec Director, and doing Speaking events.
This is an incredible episode that covers so much, especially about how Annette has pulled on the experiences throughout her life to aid her career but how life also impacts the decisions we make at times too.
I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.