“Believe in yourself and be brave.” – Jen Surtees, People Experience Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Xero, speaks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership.
As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success.
This week, we had a great conversation with Jen Surtees at Xero, who began her career following an undergraduate BSc in Psychology at the University of Birmingham by undertaking a Research Internship within the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Aston University. Upon embarking on an MSc in Human Resource Management and Business at Aston University in 2010, Jen took on a role as a Lecturing/Teaching Assistant, alongside which she pursued a secondment at the NHS Technology Adoption Centre and positions as an Administrative Assistant at Aston Business School and an Assessor for Aston Business Assessments.
Jen also undertook PhD research in Interorganisational Innovation in the Medical Device Sector from 2010-2015, taking on a role as a Client Development Consultant at Thomas International towards the latter part of this research. In June 2015, Jen ascended within the ranks at Thomas international as a Solutions Consultant for the Enterprise Team, later becoming People, Teams and Culture Talent Manager there in September 2016.
In March 2018, Jen joined the team at Xero as a People Experience Manager, moving on to become Head of People Experience for the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa in March 2019—a role that continues into her current position as People Experience Director today.
Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?
I initially studied Psychology at university in the hope of going down the Educational Psychology route. As I studied, it became clear that the journey to get there was a long one that a lot of people in my class were looking to pursue, so I started to look at slightly different opportunities and secured a secondment working on a graduate recruitment scheme. I really enjoyed it—that was the point I realised that I was a people person, hence why I had always been interested in behaviour. When the recession hit, I knew that graduate programmes would be quite difficult to get into, so I decided to go and study for an extra year.
I did a Master’s in Human Resource Management and Business at Aston University, and that gave me a great foundation for what HR was and how it fitted into the realms of brand and marketing as well as finance. It taught me that so many different areas of the business hinge on HR, and I found that fascinating; it confirmed that HR was the way to go and where I wanted to be. My preferred way to get into HR wasn’t necessarily to go down the traditional administration to coordination to advisor route, though, so from there, I continued my passion for psychology and refocused on psychometric testing.
Moving into my HR career, I found I was interested in the organisational development side of things, so I started doing some consultation with a psychometric testing provider. That gave me the chance to apply what I’d learned in a practical way, as well as some really great opportunities to learn how to deliver feedback, have difficult conversations, give stakeholders incentives, and do all everything we need to in HR as part of our partnering with a business. The whole experience was a really good injection of knowledge. At the same time, I was doing a PhD funded by the Department of Health looking at team psychology, so my two skillsets came together well.
The consultation job ended up with me moving into an enterprise team focusing on some of our bigger customers, and before I knew it, I was working with some of the most inspirational female People leaders out there. I worked really closely with them, and was enjoying observing what they were doing and helping them get there, but I didn’t like that I wasn’t part of the results. That was when I realised I’d outstayed my welcome in the consultation industry—I really wanted to be able to put some of these ideas into practice within a business and actually see them come to fruition.
Luckily, the company I was working for wanted me to come and implement the solutions I’d been putting in place for our customers in-house. Since then, I’ve moved into Xero and have absolutely loved taking my passion for people and culture and using it to help people really enjoy what they’re doing for a brand they believe in. I’m keen to make sure that the kind of environment I provide at Xero is one where people feel that they can thrive, and Xero has given me the opportunity to do that. I feel very fortunate to work for them.
Throughout my career, I’ve transitioned from wanting to learn lots and picking up on cultures to seeing how some fantastic female leaders operate, and that’s really inspired me to provide the best experience possible for both our employees and our customers. We’re a values-based business, so that’s at the heart of everything we do.
Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector?
There’s definitely been a change in the way we view our people as a sector. Personnel moved to Human Resources because we recognised that humans were a valuable asset to businesses, and now we’re recognising that those people deserve to have a fantastic place to work and moving much more towards the kind of People function we have at Xero.
In terms of the challenges that Xero are facing more specifically, we’re in the software industry, which has a lot of prospective talent looking for jobs, but also a lot of opportunities for people to move around. We’re still growing in the UK, which means that it’s fast-paced and things change regularly. I love that kind of environment and thrive on it, but it means we have to think ahead and consider how to retain our talent. That’s definitely something I’m really keen to focus on.
I’m passionate about keeping our vibrant, values-based culture as we grow and start to come out of our fast-paced start-up energy. It can be done, but to do it, we need to make sure that with every change and growth everyone we bring into the business is really adding to our culture, and we’re not in danger of diluting it.
I think the key to keeping our company culture intact when we’re dealing with the geographical spread we are at Xero all comes back to our values. They’ve been with us since very early on in the inception of the business, and are really well thought through with behaviour and conduct in mind rather than aspiration. Instead of saying, ‘We’ll be the best’, they’re much more about being human and challenging things and being beautiful.
They’ve grown with us—the essence is always the same, but we refresh them and make sure their meaning is really clear both operationally and behaviourally. They’re woven throughout our recruitment process, and all our employees are able to constructively challenge what they see around them and weigh up decisions to ensure they’re human ones. We have leaders that both lead by and live our values, and that’s really important. To keep a strong culture across the globe, your values have to be woven through the fabric of everything you do as a business—there’s no quick fix.
What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career?
I think the best piece of advice I can give is to be brave. Moving from People Experience Manager to the Director role felt like a huge step, but I think it just takes telling yourself you can do it and making sure you know yourself to overcome that.
Build relationships, have an influence, and uphold your personal values in the way you do your job, but also know your leadership style. If you keep those things with you, you’ll stay authentic no matter how you transition into a new opportunity. It takes some boldness to be authentic in new, unusual, or uncomfortable situations, but staying true to those things really helps you navigate them and act as a touchstone, and that has been really important for me.
You also need to be brave enough to look for new opportunities and put forward ideas of where you think you might be able to add value, but equally, don’t be afraid to speak up when you don’t think you’re being put in situations that allow you to achieve your full potential. Don’t wait for the nod that you’re ready from someone else.
In our industry, it’s really easy for people who have followed the traditional route into HR to think that that’s the way that everybody else has to do it. Acknowledge the fact that you can fall back on the traditional pathway to get to the next stage if you want to, but recognise that you don’t have to take that step the conventional way. It sometimes just takes a bit of brazenness to be able to say you’re ready for your next role in that situation.
Your career might not move in a perfectly linear direction, but as long as you know that everything you’re doing is adding to your skillset, stretching you, challenging you, and helping you grow, you can weave it in later. You might feel that something you’re doing right now won’t necessarily help you achieve your career goals, but as long as it’s helping you acquire skills and competencies or you feel it might give you an edge in the future, it’s valuable. Believe in yourself and be brave.
Jen has been working as People Experience Director since 2019, and provides support for all aspects of Xero’s People function across the Europe, Middle East, and Africa territories, with a particular focus on evolving and implementing a strong culture and a dynamic, human working environment at all levels of the business.
If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.