My Career: Head of people at Pinergy Anne McEvoy

Did you always want to work in HR?
Like most school leavers, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to travel a bit so ended up spending two years living and working in Spain, immersing myself in the Spanish culture and language. I returned to a recession in Ireland and began a temping job in the bank. I was offered a permanent contract after nine months and decided to embark on a degree in financial services part-time. I worked my way through various departments and job roles. People and their behaviour always fascinated me so in 2012 when I decided to pivot in my career, I embraced the opportunity to go into the HR field.

In college, I studied… a bachelor of financial services degree while working and then took on a postgraduate diploma in human resource management when I decided to focus on the HR field.

My most formative work experience was… I headed up a corporate customer services team in a previous role. This provided me with a lot of insight into people both from a customer and employee perspective. I gained substantial skills in managing peoples’ expectations, I learnt not to take anything personally and realised if you stick to the facts then there is no room for argument. You can also be an empath and have a thick skin, they are not mutually exclusive.

The most invaluable thing I learned early on in my career was… a female leader once gave me some advice early on in my career. She told me that it’s a myth that women can’t have it all, in fact, we can but not necessarily all at the same time! This has resonated with me all through my career as I have attempted to balance home and work life. I was lucky enough to be able to work part-time while my children were in school. Now they are at college stage, I am back to working full time for the last two years and Pinergy has given me the opportunity to grow.

A common misconception about what I do is… there is a perception that HR works in isolation on mostly policy and process when in fact in Pinergy, the HR function is more aligned to the business goals and strategy of the company. This is facilitated by ensuring the right people are in the right jobs with the right tools to succeed and drive the business forward. In most businesses, the head of HR/people sits on the company executive and is involved in the strategic planning and decision-making at a senior level.

My main responsibility in work is to… to ensure the business has appropriate succession plans for key employees to ensure continuity for the company.

Do you have a career mentor or someone you look up to/seek advice from?
I have been lucky throughout my career to have worked with some inspirational female leaders, I firmly believe that what you see, is what you do, and for the younger generation coming up through the ranks, it’s important that they see there are opportunities for successful women in leadership positions if they choose that path.

The biggest risk I have taken in my career so far is… after months of soul-searching and working through the pros and cons, I took a big leap of faith and accepted voluntary redundancy from the bank in 2012. Using post-redundancy sponsorship, I decided to go back to college to pursue a new path in HR. I definitely suffered from imposter syndrome when I started working in my first role dedicated totally to HR. In saying that, there are a lot of transferable skills from my previous job roles which I continue to use daily. As head of people, there is a benefit to knowing how a business functions its metrics and models etc.

I wake at… depending on which office I am working in, I can be up early and on the road from 7am (I spend one day a week in the Enniscorthy office).

The first thing I do every morning is… check a couple of weather apps to plan my day ahead and decide whether to walk or drive to work.

My morning routine is… depending on which office I am working in, a couple of mornings a week I drop my daughter to work. She is a student nurse (currently waiting on a driving test) and she has to be at St Vincent’s or St Michael’s Hospital for 7am. After I drop her, I go straight to the Forty Foot in Dun Laoghaire for a cold dip. It’s a great way to wake up. Then I grab a coffee and head into work.

I can’t go to work without… the above- mentioned coffee – I have at least two before I start at my desk. Shout out to the two best baristas in Dublin, Aaron and Carla!

I travel to work by… car if I need to give a lift or am commuting to the Enniscorthy office, or I try to walk a couple of days a week to the Dublin office (weather dependent!)

On an average workday I… could be involved in various stages of the employee lifecycle either strategising or actioning. Daily activities include attracting, recruiting, onboarding, training and development initiatives, coaching and mentoring, compensation and benefits, progression and performance and retention.

I start my working day at… the minute I look at my emails on my phone – which could be anytime from 6:30am onwards.

The first thing I do at work is… plan for the day, check my schedule and ensure I have all prep work done in advance for meetings, interviews etc.

I break for lunch at… between 12:30pm-1:30pm and usually dash out for a salad/wrap/soup and another coffee.

The most useful business tool I use every day is… LinkedIn. As a HR practitioner, it’s important to keep up with what is happening and what’s new in the HR arena. It’s also a great platform for networking with other HR and business professionals.

I save time by… I do a lot of prep the night before so that I can hit the ground running the next morning. Breakfast/lunch/oufit prepared in advance.

I rarely get through my working day without… coffee and lots of it.

The best part of my day is… switching off my email and WhatsApp notifications and spending time catching up with my family at the end of a working day.

The most challenging part of my day is… I find that there are never enough hours in the day. Whatever I have planned to complete from my to-do list constantly gets pushed out. HR is involved in so many different parts of the business so it is a challenge to strike a balance between duty of care, and aligning the HR strategy to business strategy. Through acquisition and scaling, we have doubled the headcount which has been a challenge over the last 18 months.

I know it’s been a good day if… I can tick off some items on my to-do list! I like to feel, both in my professional and personal life, that my interactions are adding positive value to at least some of the people I encounter during the day. On a professional level, I like to think I’m contributing to people meeting their personal potential which, in turn, results in a more productive workforce and, therefore, a successful business.

I usually end my day at… wind down begins between 9:30pm-10pm, lights out by latest 11pm. Wind down is checking my Pinergy app for daily usage and then either watching something upbeat for half an hour (re- runs of Friends), scrolling social media or reading a couple of chapters of a book.

I switch off from work by… listening to music, reading, catching up with family and friends and exercising.

Before I go to bed, I’ll… plug the car in the EV charger, prepare for the next day – breakfast, outfit, plan my timetable for any family/dog commitments.

After a long work week, I destress by… cold water swimming, walking the dog, spending time with family and friends and a little bit of shopping.

The accomplishment I’m most proud of is… professionally, pivoting my career into HR and successfully reaching head of people. On a personal level, raising what appear to be healthy, happy and balanced young adults!

If you want to get into my line of work, my advice is to… research, meet with others in the same line of work. Not everything goes right the first time and there is no such thing as failure there is only success or learning.

I’ve just finished working on… Pinergy has just completed an HR strategy review look back/look forward for planning our people strategy over the next three years. As the business grows, we are currently hiring for a number of new roles to support that growth. We are also currently working towards the bronze diversity and inclusion accreditation through the Irish Centre of Diversity in partnership with our employee healthcare provider, Laya Healthcare. This cements our commitment to being an equal opportunities employer.

Photography by Shane O’Neill, Coalesce.