I never planned a career in HR. Indeed, I didn’t even know HR (or the Personnel Department as it was known) was a thing when I was studying for my A-Levels. I applied with my CV to many places as you do as a student and landed a Personnel Administrator role at my local Sainsburys in London dealing with basic HR administration and manually editing the records from the clocking in machines for payroll processing.

I went to university in Bristol and was lucky enough to work under a dual store contract in HR, returning to London in the holidays. Post degree, my family moved from London to Kent where I started working in a mental health focused NHS trust as a HR Officer. This gave me exposure to the ways in which the public sector operates and real hands on experience with HR matters from note taking at disciplinary, managing absence, arranging assessment centres, job banding/evaluations etc. During this time I self-funded my CIPD Level 5 qualification.

From there I moved into the world of HR Consultancy in London firstly as a HR Assistant, then HR Consultant moving onto managing part of the team as a Senior HR Consultant. This was a baptism of fire moving from the very risk adverse NHS to managing a portfolio of clients with differing needs and learning very quickly that risks sometimes need to be taken to act commercially. I studied for the first part of my Level 7 CIPD qualification at this time.

After having my first daughter, I left to find a more local job in the private care sector. Whilst it may have been closer to home in miles, the journey time was not much shorter than my commute to London so I started to look for a job closer to home.

Shortly after I saw the advert for the HR Consultant role at Advo and nearly 7 years later (including a brief hiatus on maternity leave having my second daughter) I am still here as the longing serving member of the HR Team! During this time Advo have supported and funded my second year of my CIPD Level 7 qualification.

Working within such differing sectors and having supported both in-house and a multitude of clients over the years, has given me the skills to adjust my advice style to ensure my clients receive both legally compliant and pragmatic advice in a way that they best receive this information to enable them to act upon the advice given. Building trusted relationships is also very important in consultancy and something in which I take pride in.

Jess (Right) with HR Manager Jenni Welch receiving her award at the 2025 Advo ‘Oscars’

I am also part of the Advo Charity Committee helping to support our local charity partner by engaging Advo employees in a variety of fundraisers. Outside of work I enjoy walking, escape rooms, trashy reality TV, watching F1 and love to read when time allows.