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I meet Melanie Dickinson, CPO, Hollywood Bowl Group and she immediately points to her lanyard that displays an attached ‘ways of working’ wheel – the customer is in the middle, with spokes highlighting the different ways to create positive energy. This CPO radiates the sunny side of life, while her own personal journey hasn’t dealt her an easy path, she finds joy in seeing others find happiness and fulfilment in their everyday journeys.
She graduated from The University of Manchester in 1996, a time when the phrase ‘Girl Power’ was becoming a mainstay of female empowerment. Like many her age, she had a moment of ‘what now’ – the path she chose was a graduate trainee programme for retail giant, Debenhams.
It offered a rotation of exposure from store to store, and she stayed with the clothing chain for the next three years. As her experience grew, she knew when it was time to move on and approached the recruitment agent, Michael Page but instead of landing a job with one of their clients, they were so impressed they offered her a job themselves. “I’d never thought about becoming a recruitment consultant, but I was in my early 20s, and they sold me the dream!” she laughs.
She describes that time as ‘great fun’ but also notes the working hours were crazy and remembers it as being a case of not leaving your desk all day long. “What I learned during that time is that I really started to enjoy the recruitment side but less so the sales and business development.” It followed that she stayed true to herself and decided that in-house recruitment might be more her style.
‘Pizza Express was my first step into HR’
She joined Pizza Express in 2001. It was the first steps into a career in HR and her mentor, Julie MacDonald saw something in the young Dickinson taking a chance on her, despite her lack of experience. “She gave me loads of exposure and the opportunity to develop not just in recruitment but in different areas of HR.”
The industry was a good fit and she knew early on that working in hospitality was where she wanted to be. She continued to progress via some job hopping, working at the gym chain Holmes Place before joining Pizza Hut in 2005. “Every time I moved it was about career progression, getting more generalist experience but always staying close to the reasons of doing what I was doing.”
Last year 58% of our management appointments occurred internally. That’s the highest it has ever been. We’re constantly looking at new ways that we can develop people and offer them careers
MacDonald remained a close contact and a call in 2008 from her resulted in a new role, this time at Zizzi Restaurants. “They were looking for a Head of People. It was my first senior role.” It was a great time to step into the fold – investment was being pumped into a brand that needed a re-boot, and Dickinson was given the remit to turn the restaurant management around. “I absolutely loved it, I could see how the commercial side linked to the strategy of the business – it really gave me a sense of how important culture is.” Under Dickinson’s leadership, the business for the first time backed HR.
