Inspirational Woman: Olivia Hill | Chief HR Officer at AAT

inspirational-woman-olivia-hill-chief-hr-officer-at-aat

Tell us a bit about yourself?

I was appointed to the role of Chief HR Officer in November 2014. I’ve worked for the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) since 2008 and I am responsible for our Reward and Benefits strategy, Training and Development, Employee Engagement and Recruitment and Retention. Working in HR means that you can work for any type of organisations and my career has seen me go from working for a Fibre Optic start-up to a publishing company prior to joining AAT.

Did you ever sit down and plan your career?

No, though I always went for jobs that I thought would challenge me, and earlier on in my career after around two years in a role I would be looking for a new more challenging opportunity, whether that was within the same organisation or elsewhere. So I have been quite driven to progress.

What advice would you give someone who wishes to move in to a leadership position for the first time?

The biggest change for me has been to stop being so involved in the operational and day to day issues and become a more strategic thinker. When you first take a leadership role you often feel that you need to be demonstrating you can still do the day job, but in reality your day job is quite different and you shouldn’t feel guilty about focusing on the bigger and wider issues, rather than the detail that your team will be concentrating on.

When faced with two equally-qualified candidates, how would you decide who should have the role?

For me this comes down to enthusiasm for the role. If there were two equally-qualified candidates I would take into account enthusiasm which can be demonstrated in how much someone has found out about the business prior to the recruitment process.

How do you manage your own boss?

I am lucky to have a boss who trusts me to get on with my job, but who is there when I do need to run things by him. I always make sure that I get enough time with him so he is up to date with what is happening in the business from an HR perspective, and will involve him in key decisions, but he enables me to take responsibility and accountability for the work that my team and I are doing.

On a typical workday, how do you start your day and how does it end?

As most people probably do, I start my work day ploughing through emails, if I’m lucky enough to get a seat I do this on the train. Most days end with the team and I debating issues that have come up throughout the day.

What advice can you give to our members about raising their profiles within their own organisations?

I have always worked to the philosophy that actions speak louder than words. If you want to raise your profile make sure that when you carry out a high quality piece of work, you make people aware of it. Don’t be afraid to champion your own successes. I would also advise people to get involved in initiatives that aren’t necessarily within their remit; for example if there is a CSR team or a social committee, these are good opportunities to meet people that you might not work with on a day to day basis and carry out different types of work.

Do you think networking is important and if so, what 3 tips would you give to a newbee networker?

It’s undoubtedly important and there are many ways in which it can be done – both internally and externally.

Take the opportunity to ask your peers about how to improve yourself. When networking, ask what training courses have your industry peers found work best? What new trends are coming into the industry that it will be important for you to learn about and get to grips with?
Consider hot desking. Networking is not just about drinks receptions and lunches after work, but includes finding out what you can about your own business and the various departments. Communication is everything when it comes to doing the best campaigns and projects, and for this you will need to know your business inside out
Prepare your own story. People are going to be far more interested in passing on their knowledge and introducing you to their connections if they find you interesting and engaging. Everyone has a story to tell, make sure you share yours with passion, enthusiasm and energy.

What does the future hold for you?

There are still a number of things I want to achieve in my career, but right now I am finding my current role has its own exciting challenges and I haven’t achieved everything I want to within that just yet.

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