Career Spotlight - Emma Taylor

We sat down with Emma Taylor, who has been an HR Advisor at SPT Labtech since April 2017. Emma came to SPT Labtech initially as an HR Coordinator. Below Emma shares why she joined SPT Labtech, projects she’s been working on, being half Swedish and more.

What is your role at SPT Labtech and when did you join the company?

I joined SPT Labtech in April 2017 as an HR Coordinator having previously worked as an HR Assistant locally for Blacktrace. In January 2022 I was promoted to HR Advisor to further help support SPT Labtech’s people function.??

What do you like to do outside of work?

When I get time between running around after my daughter Gracie, who’s 2 in March and we’re celebrating by taking her to Jimmy’s Farm next month.?

I enjoy baking, gardening (we have a fairly big garden, so it helps to have a partner who is a landscape gardener ??), reading and just generally being outdoors with family and friends.??

Gracie is now getting to the age where I can bake with her and also get her involved in growing veg in the garden, so I am looking forward to being able to do this with her.?

I also really enjoy travelling. Being half Swedish (with my Mum being from Gothenburg) we try to go to Sweden at least once a year. My parents have a summer house about 30 miles from Gothenburg near the sea.? We are going in the summer and hoping to get to Stockholm for a few days. The majority of my family are in Sweden so its’s nice to see everyone, we usually have a party to get everyone together whether it’s a crayfish party or celebrating midsummer.??

“Best tip for travelling to Sweden?” – Fika is a coffee and cake break. It's much more than that though, it’s an important part of Swedish culture every day and can’t be experienced by yourself. It’s about making time with family, friends and colleagues.?

Also visit the archipelago, there are lots of small islands accessible from a small harbour in Gothenburg. They have ferries (some are free!) that will take you out to them – they're beautiful to explore.??

In Gothenburg they have one of the best Christmas Markets (in my opinion), at Liseberg, which is a theme park really, but it offers a lot more, from concerts and markets – it’s a great day out.??

“Best holiday?” – Tromso we managed to get there just before Covid and lockdowns and we actually got to see the Northern Lights which were truly stunning. Or Costa Rica – very different holidays, but the rainforest was incredible as well as seeing toucans, howler monkeys and sloths in their natural habitat.?

How has SPT Labtech helped you in your career development??

SPT Labtech has exposed me to so many elements of the HR/People function that I haven’t previously experienced in my career. Exposing me to the full employee onboarding experience, offboarding, updating the performance review process, employee lifecycles, career development and more.?

What projects are you currently working on at SPT Labtech??

Michael and I are currently looking to automate more processes within our Cezanne HR System to focus more of the HR team's time on strategic elements of HR and supporting SPT Labtech’s continued growth plans. As well as improving our data capture/data integrity to constantly innovate and improve how we work.?

Last year we launched vast improvements to our Intranet page for our teams to have easier access to all the information they need for our company frameworks, annual leave, logging expenses, our company Hive Fives and more.?

We’re also currently working on more in-depth line manager training to help further support them and our teams so they can focus more time on their day jobs to continue to make a difference to human health.??

What are you most excited to accomplish at SPT Labtech?

Being a proactive HR/People function, communicating a strong understanding of where we add value to the business. Supporting our global HR colleagues Chirs in the US, Joanna and Stella in China and our wider global HR operations.??

Partnering with line managers and the wider business to constantly improve and support our people function. Ensuring these processes are scalable and achievable for the growth of the business.?

What did you do before working at SPT Labtech??

Before SPT Labtech I worked for Blacktrace Holdings in Cambridgeshire, a technology manufacturing company and prior to that I worked at Russell & Bromley, as well as working in retail.?

Having worked at Russell & Bromley I decided to self-fund a CIPD HR Level 5 qualification, I enjoyed the HR elements to my role as deputy manager and wanted to explore this further.?

What is the most valuable thing you have learnt since joining SPT Labtech??

Say what you do and do what you say. Follow through on your promises and follow up. This is key to delivering at SPT Labtech.?

What one piece of advice would you give to a new starter??

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask anyone, any question and everyone is collaborative and passionate about what they do. As well as have a continuous improvement mindset, suggesting ways of how to improve processes to benefit yourself and the business.?