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Career path:
Just how do the industry's top execs get to where they are and what advice would they give to aspiring professionals hoping to follow in their footsteps?
- Name:
- Karen Hood
- Employer:
- Gala Coral Group
- Position:
- Human Resources Director
Q: Please provide a brief career snapshot.
I spent the first 10 years working in operational management, in store HR management and then regional HR management in food and fashion retail (Safeway, Tesco, Somerfield, Iceland and Arcadia). I progressed to a head office role as head of OD at the Co-operative Group (working in the bank for some time as well) before jumping on the independent consultancy bandwagon for about three years. My first HRD role was at Monsoon Accessorize in 2005 which was a great company to work for. I spent a year at Virgin Atlantic as HRD before coming here last year and now work with the best bunch of people in the (retail and leisure) industry!
Q: First ever job?
Paper round at about nine!
Q: Worst ever job?
Ooh that would be incriminating! Need to protect the 'not so innocent'!
Q: How did you first get into the retail/hospitality business?
I moved to London when I was 19 having just finished college to embark on an entirely different career, and took a part-time job at Travellers Fare (Casey Jones at Euston station) because I got free travel! Within a few weeks the unit manager saw how bossy I was and asked me if I'd like to be a manager, so I did a six-week intensive operational management course and I never looked back!
Q: What do you see as the primary role and value of HR in a modern business?
I call it the 3Ps - People drive Performance drive(s) Profit. HR professionals should be business people first and foremost with a specialism for managing HR disciplines, e.g. business or organisational psychology, employment legislation, organisational development and reward and talent acquisition.
Q: To what degree has your career trajectory been planned (as opposed to maximising opportunities as they arose)?
I think mainly it has been about being opportunistic. I have tried consultancy (hated it!), private organisations, public organisations and now private equity. I have worked mainly in retail (fashion and food) but also for a bank, an airline and now a leisure and gaming company, I have worked operationally and in HR. Every opportunity is a learning experience whether it is good or bad!
Q: What do you believe to be the most important skills, abilities or approaches to succeed in a high-level people management / development role?
An absolute understanding of the business, an ability to see things from a different perspective to your executive colleagues, being exceptionally pragmatic and a huge sense of humour! Also the ability to seriously work hard and play hard!
Q: What do you most like about your current job?
The people I work with and the challenges that the business currently faces. There are some incredibly interesting pieces of work to do and we have huge ambition. I have to say this is the best job I have ever had - largely down to my colleagues at all levels of the business. This has got to be the most down-to-earth and decent business I have ever worked for.
Q: What do you think is the most important quality a person needs to possess in order to reach the upper echelons of business, and why?
The ability to create and maintain relationships - organisations are all about people from the customers you serve to the teams that help you serve them.
Q: How much has HR/people development changed over the time you’ve been in the industry?
I have done more than two decades now and the last decade and a half definitely saw the profession move to a much more commercial, business first, HR second perspective which is an approach I have always favoured. When I first started working in HR it was all about processes, policing and 'tea and tissues' and if it hadn't changed I probably would have changed my career and gone back into retail operations!
Q: What advice would you give an operations or HR professional aspiring to advance to a similar position as yours?
As I said before - be prepared to work hard and play hard! Learn about the business, understand it drains-up and at the same time learn your profession - be a whizz at employment law and organisational development if you only pick two HR disciplines. Develop a strong track record of success through a relentless focus on your customer, having a 'can-do' approach and always taking accountability.
Q: If you weren’t doing this, what would you do for a living?
I would be a criminologist hopefully working for the FBI as a profiler in very disturbing serial killer cases!
