Hey, I’m Katie: People Lead at Perlego
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Read my interview 👇 to learn more about me & my role.
Where are you from and what did you do before joining Perlego?
I grew up in a small town on the Essex coast. Prior to joining Perlego, I worked at retailers like River Island and Agent Provocateur, media and advertising at Dentsu Aegis to most recently consulting at BCG.
What were you looking for in a role before joining Perlego?
I wanted to work somewhere smaller than my last company, somewhere where I could have big impact and feel connected to the organisation’s purpose. I also wanted to make a lateral move into a generalist people role, I’d spent the last 6 years focused on the Learning and Development part of HR. Perlego has met all of these expectations and allowed me to take a different direction in my career.
How would you describe your role at Perlego to a friend vs How you would describe it to your 5-year-old self?
To a friend: I get to connect with people like you, listen to the business needs and help create something that allows the business to meet its objectives whilst building an environment where people can flourish.
To a 5-year-old: I’m a little bit like a teacher in your school. I focus on school and pupil objectives to do the right thing for both and make the school the best place to be.
What does your average week look like?
An average week all depends on the time of year. Most recently we’ve had our first full engagement survey and this has been a big focus for me. This time of the year my focus is on analysing data, gaining insight and painting a picture of how Perlego’ers are feeling to our leadership team to inform our annual roadmap.
What part of your job gets you the most excited?
The current growth of Perlego and seeing people grow at the same place! We are shifting ways of working and there is so much opportunity to grow and develop. I find this stage of business really exciting, I get to understand the business’ strategic needs, listen to the needs of people (from channels like our engagement survey) and be part of crafting something that accelerates the business in a way where people can learn, feel fulfilled, do their best work and be their best self. It’s an honour to be part of people’s growth journies!
What’s the most challenging part of your role?
Deciding on what to do next. There are so many things we could focus on and build to make Perlego an even better place to work. Prioritising what is the most important and high impact activities can be a challenge for me, using frameworks like DACI (we have our own Perlego variation DOCI-A) that my manager, Ashleigh Otter, introduced recently is helping me to be more ruthless in my prioritisation.
How has your work changed since starting at Perlego?
My role was newly created. When I joined we were still understanding how I’d work with teams, I had some big projects to focus on initially like our new Talent Cycle that gives career direction and formalises salary increases and promotions so companywide decisions are unbiased and equitable. Now, I will continue to work on project-based work (which I love!) but I’m much more involved in the strategy and building of our team.
What’s been the biggest learning about yourself since being at Perlego?
I’ve always known I love learning and I discovered a lot about my strengths through the Clifton StrengthsFinder. The last 7 months have helped me to see that learning is my superpower. I’m motivated by the acquisition of knowledge and always trying to be better. The Perlego environment has been the right place to unlock this superpower: a scaleup with heaps to learn and access to knowledge at my fingers team… YAY for company access to Perlego!
Want to improve your soft skills and become a People Lead like me? Here are some books that might help you:
🧠 Wellbeing at Work — Jim Clifton, Jim Harter
⭐️ Excellence in People Analytics How to Use Workforce Data to Create Business Value Jonathan Ferrar, David Green
If you are interested in joining our team, checkout out our job openings 👀
