Introducing Lakeside's new Talent Business Partner
Kerryann Smith is enjoying the challenge of her newly created role as 'Talent Business Partner' at Lakeside Healthcare Group, promoting our people, career opportunities and the benefits we offer our staff.
She will be looking at our recruitment, attraction and retention of employees as well as developing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion plus promoting Lakeside as an 'employer of choice'.
She has worked in both private and public sectors in strategic and customer-facing roles, as well as in Facilities/Office management, Finance and HR and knows that the strengths of a proactive employer are communication, relationship building and innovation.
Kerryann said: 'I have had lots of different roles in diverse businesses, which is why I am passionate about ensuring all employees are treated equally and individual skills and experiences are celebrated and nurtured. I will be working on a range of HR and business projects starting with how we recruit, engage and retain our people so the remit is huge!
'The initial priority is to understand our value proposition and how we ensure we are communicating the right message to potential candidates about who we are. I am also looking at our priorities in the mid to long term but also the quick wins alongside our HR strategy and ensuring they align with the business needs, and the changing face of healthcare with all its recent challenges.
'My real passion is about developing people and making the employee experience as good as it can be. The key is about listening and understanding the needs and then delivering what we promise. It doesn't matter how long people have been in a role, everybody needs nurturing and developing in one form or another and then passing that on to build a talent pipeline. I also want people to see I am honest and transparent and will deliver to the best of my ability. We are all a team working together for the same vision and purpose, which is putting people at the heart of what we do.'
Kerryann works closely with Julie Fitzpatrick, Head of Human Resources, in Lakeside's Central Team They are currently developing an engagement survey to obtain detailed feedback from employees.
'Julie and I know each other very well from working together in a previous NHS capacity and our styles complement each other. She has got fantastic knowledge from working in the public sector and I like to think I am quite creative and I'm not afraid to challenge on why we do something a certain way and look at alternatives. We have to innovate to move forward. Just because we have always done something a certain way doesn't mean we should keep doing it!
'It's also about making sure that our systems and processes are as streamlined as possible and we deliver what we need, so we can make the recruitment experience better for candidates and our HR team and not forgetting our customers; and then be transparent about the benefits of working for us.
'It is also about upskilling our existing staff, for example, giving newly promoted managers the necessary skills and support they need to effectively lead their teams as, often, we assume that somehow these are inherited, but that is a longer-term goal.'
Although Kerryann has only recently joined us, she is very encouraged by our positive and friendly culture: 'People at Lakeside work incredibly hard, both in the Central Team and across our practices and I can't wait to meet everyone! Everyone seems to get on well and respect each other which, for me, is the top of my values. Everybody has skills, specialisms, expertise and uniqueness and that makes Lakeside a vibrant, exciting and evolving organisation to work for.'