Gillian Brookes CFHRINZ

How did your career in HR begin, and what was the journey like to get to where you are now?

I started in HR a couple of years after I graduated from university with my economics degree. Not many people follow a route from economics to HR, but for me I wanted a career that combined people and business, and HR does exactly that.

What do you love about having a career in HR? 

I love the challenge of looking for the win-win; of finding what is good for people and what is good for the business - two major participant groups in our economy. We can find those sweet spots and I enjoy the creative process of getting there. 

What are some defining moments from your career journey so far? 

One defining moment was when I first became Head of HR when I was only 27 working in London. It was a massive professional challenge and I was fortunate to be studying for my post-graduate diploma in HRM at the same time. I was on such a steep learning curve at work, so I was lucky to have a peer group of other experienced HR professionals and academics at university who I was able to learn from and lean on! 

A second defining moment was deciding to start my own business in 2019. I had been considering it seriously for two years before I went ahead because I wanted to be sure about stepping out of in-house HR leadership and into a consultancy role. During those two years I thought a lot about solving problems I could never fully address in those big in-house roles. That's why I decided to specialise my consultancy on workforce strategy, creating more flexible (accessible and high-quality) work and how our profession could reduce income inequality through better remuneration practice. I wanted to help solve these problems and share the answers with the in-house HR leaders who never have enough time to do it themselves. I've been there and know the challenge.

What advice would you give to someone early on in their HR career?

Early on in HR I think it's important to have a range of experiences in both large and small organisations. Large organisations give you the opportunity to specialise in a specific HR area, such as learning and development, recruitment, organisational development, HR analytics, etc. Small organisations then give you the opportunity to apply the full set of HR tools to any given business situation, which is hard to achieve early on in your career if you're only in large organisations. I think it's valuable to have both throughout your career, especially if you want to accelerate your career progression.

Why is HRNZ important for the HR community? 

HRNZ sets the professional standard for HR. It helps us discuss, learn and agree how we work and what we can aspire to, which isn't fixed. That's why it matters to be an active member of the HRNZ community, because our profession is always evolving and this is the place, within the New Zealand context, that we get to challenges ourselves, lift our aspiration and learn together. 

What was your path to Chartered Fellowship like? What did you enjoy about the process? 

My path to Chartered Fellowship was an opportunity to test my HR skills, experience and contribution and have that assessed by the HRNZ board. The process enabled me to reflect on the progress I've made in my career so far and make my own assessment about where I think I've got to and how I'd like to keep growing. Having met that standard through the assessment I now have the Chartered Fellow status. This gives me additional credibility when I'm working with leaders, helping them feel they're in experienced and safe hands to do something bolder, beyond what everyone else is doing, to benefit their business and workforce.

What is next for you in this chapter of your career? 

What is next for me is to keep my work focused on growing businesses' maturity and practice with the way work contributing to a healthy economy. That's what my work has all been about throughout my career and I think I've got better at bringing it to life over the years. I want to keep challenging myself to learn more and do more to contribute to that.