Exterion Media's People & Culture Director shares the most fulfilling aspect of HR

Karen Rumble, People and Culture Director at Exterion Media, spoke to us about what, in her opinion, is the most fulfilling aspect of working in HR.

Speaking exclusively to HR Grapevine, she takes us through the most rewarding day in her career.

My most rewarding day in HR came when I was nominated for, and won, the employee of the year award in a previous role. It felt great to be recognised for my hard work but, more importantly, to be respected by my peers so much so that they would nominate me for the award.

I joined the business at a time when the reputation and opinion of its HR department was extremely poor due to a high level of change. It was always going to be an uphill battle as expectations were so low but I knew I had to focus on getting the basics right before anything else. Giving facts is what helped build confidence in the advice I was providing. In areas such as recruitment it really was as simple as analysing data such as our time to hire, the onboarding process or our new hire exits. These were real issues I could discuss with the teams and build alongside them the solution or a plan of action. Finding out what the business needed was the key to the success.