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Big Interview | Liz Stokes, HR Director, The APC network - 'We do safe, safe, not fast, fast'
HR Director for overnight delivery network, APC, Liz Stokes talks her career...
Sam Knight
Group HR Director, MJ Gleeson
Sam Knight, Group HR Director, MJ Gleeson ditched science for HR and is now on a mission to get women into construction...
Sam Knight
Group HR Director, MJ Gleeson
Sam Knight, Group HR Director, MJ Gleeson ditched science for HR and is now on a mission to get women into construction...
Knight is an academic. She read medical microbiology at Newcastle University but despite achieving a 2.1 she knew it wasn’t the profession for her - she was once told off for getting mascara on a microscope. A moment she refers to as a ‘pivotal point’. It of course, wasn’t just that but it was the trigger. “It’s quite a lonely existence looking at bacteria all day – I realised that I couldn’t do it long-term. I had to face my parents and tell them and, of course that went down like a lead balloon,” she laughs.
A new beginning in HR started
Panic set in as her first career door closed but she stumbled across a prospectus for a Master’s course and realised that one more year in academia may give her the flavour of something new and some vital breathing space to work on the ‘what next’ quandary. On a whim she picked up some information on ‘human resources management’ and felt it sounded interesting enough to dedicate the next 12 months to it.
“I read one tiny paragraph about it and immediately felt that it sounded more like ‘me’ – I knew I could interact with people and influence strategy, so I applied, and the rest is history.” She achieved what she set out to with her Master’s from Leeds University in 2002.
Once again, Knight found herself on the doorstep of her parents’ home wondering about her future. She signed up to a part-time role at a local surveyor’s practice working on reception. “One of the directors began telling me about his wife that worked in HR and said she was looking for someone to help.” It just so happened that the job was in the construction industry, a point that is not lost on Knight - it appeared to be her fate because she hasn’t left the sector since.
It wasn’t long before she landed an even bigger role – at Securitas. “It was a massive salary increase for me – I’d gone from earning around £10,000 to £16,000 overnight!” she says. After three years she was promoted to Support Centre Manager – a big part of the role was to provide screening for the security managers – checking their right to work. “We had to confirm all of their employment dating back ten years and ensure there was no hidden criminal convictions or anything like that.” The role developed into learning and development which wasn’t quite such a good fit for her - she stayed for six years undertaking her CIPD qualification at night school whilst she was at it. “I went to Huddersfield University at night – I’d do a full day’s work and then race across town to do that!”
In 2007 she was lured to Alfred McAlpine as their HR Business Partner. She started on a Monday but by the end of her first week she was under risk of redundancy as the business was being taken over by Carillion. “People were disappearing overnight - I was new and wasn’t sure who to report into it as it kept changing,” she remembers.
She immediately stepped into the crossfire with trade unions negotiations. “I realised that a ballot had been missed with Unilever, and I found out who the senior person in charge at Carillion was and sought them out. I told them that I was willing to take action, and she was really impressed.” From that moment on Knight was taken under the wings of the Head of Employee Relations and that mentor became a close ally and advocate.
After a stint in employee relations she moved onto become HR Director and stayed there until the business went into liquidation. It was by now 2018, and the pandemic was rearing its ugly head. Not deterred by external matters, Knight moved to Morgan Sindall Property Services, then latterly to Robertson, a Scottish construction business as their HR Director. Then the call came from Gleeson.
