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Lisa Wade is a career lifer. She grew up at Radisson Hotel Group and today heads up the People Operations for the UK, Ireland, western and southern Europe. Why hasn’t she had the itch? She replies, ‘I simply love it.’
'I grew up grafting'
Wade grew up grafting – her parents ran multiple businesses including engineering and a skip hire operation so, from a very early age she rolled her sleeves up and got to work.
Education continued throughout and in 1994 she enrolled at the University of Manchester to study a BSc in Management Sciences. “I needed to earn money while studying and temped in various industries while getting my degree. It gave me an insight into how businesses run,” she says.
Even as a young child, Wade knew that she wanted to work with people, but she wasn’t sure in what capacity, “I did some work experience in hospitals, but I also discovered that I enjoyed working in marketing and PR,” she recalls. A job opening at Millennium & Copthorne Hotels arose. It was 1999, the Backstreet Boys were at their height and the Y2K fear was in full swing. Wade was appointed to her first big role – Personnel & Training Manager – her teachers’ ears must have been burning too, a career questionnaire at school resulted in the suggestion that she should work in HR, in hotels – she did just that.
'The Radisson calling came early on'
“In those days, Radisson was very up and coming and I bumped into the HR Manager of the hotel group, he said that he’d love me to work for them. The suggestion was that she join the General Manager fast-track programme and one day, true to his word that phone call came,” she says.
The timing wasn’t ideal – Wade was at night school studying for her CIPD qualification, holding down a day job and building a house with her husband. The HR Manager was leaving to join the GM fast-track and aged just 23 she assumed she was being interviewed for the number two position. She was amazed when not only was it for the top job, but that she was duly offered it. That was 25 years ago, and she has stayed loyal ever since.
If we surveyed staff in France as to how happy they were – they’d score a 6 out of 10 but that didn’t always mean the same contentment as in the UK
Wade continued at night school and spent eight years in that first role with the hotel chain, “It’s unheard of to stay for so long in a position but there was so much to learn, and do in a flagship hotel.”
At the time there was just two other hotels in the UK, now there are almost 80 in operation and under development in the UK and Ireland – she joined at its arc of growth in the region and at one point there was a new hotel opening every 11 days. The role expanded and she found herself extending her remit into Ireland - in 2018 she was asked to take on part of Europe. “I knew it would involve dealing with the unions, so the prospect was a mixture of excitement, anticipation and some dread,” she explains.
Wade learnt cultural nuances, “If we surveyed staff in France as to how happy they were – they’d score a 6 out of 10 but that didn’t always mean the same contentment as in the UK.”
It was by her own admission a steep learning curve. Significant changes were also afoot to the operating model – what happened next was nothing planned... Covid hit.
