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United States
In this Big Interview, we sit down with Cindy Gunn, People Director at Gi Group UK and Ireland, to chart her remarkable journey from a chance encounter in a café to leading people strategy through global M&A.
Gunn reflects on falling into HR by accident, the discipline of earning her CIPD qualification while working full-time, and the realities of recalibrating company culture during an economic squeeze. She shares insights on building resilience, the power of genuine connection, and why sometimes the best leadership tool is simply bringing people together.
A chance encounter and a dream job in heavy metal
Cindy Gunn’s plans to go to university were thwarted by one of life’s curveballs, meaning it wasn’t to be. Instead, she ended up waitressing in a local café - until one of her regular customers approached her with a life-changing offer. "She said I was wasting my life working there and told me that her husband was looking for some help in his office," Gunn recalls. That chance conversation led her to join an industry that would steal her heart - heavy metal.
Sadly, there isn't the luxury of time and money to give people a year to prove they can perform
"For three years, I had the dreamiest job. I worked with someone who became a best friend - our role was to talk to the fans at festivals and concerts and sell merchandise," reminisces Gunn. It was the perfect, fun-filled job for her youth, but as with all dreams, it came to an end when the reality of not being able to do it forever began to loom. The pair reluctantly agreed to grow up. "My friend went off to qualify as a teacher, and I thought, 'What am I going to do?' The answer was to go to Office Angels and get a job as an administrator," she says.
The late 90s took her from administration to business builder
She landed a temporary role in the office at Staff Line Recruitment. It was 1998 - the year Google was launched and the Euro was introduced. It was her first flurry into HR, even if she didn’t recognise it at the time. "I ran payroll and managed candidates. Some of our staff left and set up their own recruitment business called Encore, and I was asked to join," she says.
It was an "interesting time" in which she rolled up her sleeves and got to grips with anything that needed to be done. "A lot of my role was transactional - employment contracts, giving leavers their termination letters, and setting up payroll. HR was never on my radar at school; I didn't even really know what it was," she laughs.
