Meet Kathryn - Recruitment Partner
What did you do before your current role?
After graduating from UMIST with an MSc in Management Science, I joined the London office of Andersen. I worked in a variety of roles within HR but specialised in Graduate Recruitment. I was Graduate Recruitment Manager for four years until I was seconded to The Netherlands to set up the recruitment function there.
I had a career break for two years and had two children before joining AZ as a part-time Recruitment Partner in the Business Services and Operations Team.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
The Business Services and Operations team covers a really broad spectrum of business areas. Therefore I've had the opportunity to recruit into a wide variety of roles, which I've really enjoyed. I've recruited chefs, occupational hygienists, IT specialists, HR and finance professionals and production staff. It has enabled me to get a broad insight into different areas of the business as well as enhancing my own commercial awareness.
What's the most challenging aspect of your role?
As I work three days a week, the most challenging aspect of the role is managing my workload within the three days, keeping on top of the e-mails which flood in on the two days I'm not around and ensuring things move forward in my absence.
I've also had to influence some pretty senior managers to ensure they follow our recruitment procedures and make the right selection decisions based on objective evidence.
In what ways do you feel the AZ recruitment team is leading edge?
I'm very proud of our UK Careers Website (even though I've had nothing to do with its development!) I found it really informative and easy to use when I was applying to AZ and I receive lots of positive feedback from candidates. I've also recruited candidates as a direct result of our job alert system, which saves us lots of time and money in filling our vacancies.
I also think our selection and assessment processes are robust and fair. We try to tailor our selection exercises for each vacancy and use real life situations/case studies where possible. This can be time consuming and labour intensive but I think it demonstrates that we take our selection decisions seriously. It also gives candidates a good insight into the role for which they're applying.
What makes a great recruitment partner?
It's a quite a difficult question to answer when you're in the role yourself! I would say that some level of interviewing and selection experience is essential. It's also important to be organised and be able to multi-task, as we handle quite a high volume of campaigns for different hiring managers at any one time.
As I mentioned earlier, the ability to build relationships, challenge and influence people at all levels is pretty important. We are continuously striving to develop and improve what we do so the ability to highlight improvement opportunities and take the initiative to drive the changes through is also desirable.
What formal training and experience do you need to be successful?
A minimum of 5-7 years selection and assessment experience, including assessment centre design and evaluation. British Psychological Testing Level 1 and 2 in Occupational Testing is also useful.
What do you enjoy most about working for AstraZeneca?
I could say something cheesy like the people I work with and that's definitely an important contributor to my enjoyment of the role. However, I think what gives me a buzz about working here is the fact that our products make a difference to peoples' lives.
If you were not a Recruitment Partner what would you be?
A children's TV presenter
What can you not live without?
Lip balm and hand cream!
Who would be invited to your fantasy dinner party?
Dinner for two with Robbie Williams.
What's the trait you most appreciate in other people?
Honesty.
