HR Ninjas celebrates four years!

It's a special day for us on Ninjas today...

From humble beginnings..

On 10 January 2018 Lizzie started a Facebook group. She called it HR Ninjas and invited 30 of her HR mates to join. She didn't know whether it would take off. Everyone said that it wouldn't. Facebook is a bad choice, they said. Use Linkedin instead, they said. But Lizzie didn't listen. She had a hunch it might just work. And by the end of 2018 the group had grown to 1000 people. And Lizzie thought "I might be onto something here".

?Rapid growth, long weeks and late nights....

For the next three years Lizzie cultivated and nurtured the community off the side of her desk, whilst working full time in a senior HR role and juggling her four kids. By early 2020 the group had grown to over 3000 Ninjas and the reality of moderating such a large community was sobering. With social media you are never 'out of office' and Lizzie was spending more and more of her evenings and weekends pouring her heart and soul into the community. But on she went. She loved watching it thrive. Fuelled by a burning desire to leave a little footprint of goodness on the HR world and a steadfast belief that as HR professionals and human beings we are always #strongertogether.

The pandemic hit HR like a tonne of bricks in March 2020. And the Facebook group was non-stop. HR didn’t know which way was up. They had nowhere to turn. So many Ninjas needing help, even more Ninjas giving help. It was inspiring and heart breaking in equal measure. And HR Ninjas membership grew fast. Real fast. We had become the bastion of safety and support for HR Professionals battered and bruised by the pandemic. And people were starting to talk about us.

?Harnessing the power of togetherness...

By August 2020 it was clear that HR was starting to run on empty. As a function we were becoming exhausted. We often forgot to put on our own oxygen masks. Because we were too busy helping everyone else with theirs. Many of the tribe found themselves switching the lights off on the way out of organisations they had devoted years of their lives to. Redundancy was everywhere. Lizzie's friend and work colleague Metra Rowe couldn't just stand by and do nothing. She wanted to make a difference. And so in October 2020 the Back To Work Club was born.

A volunteer led programme co-ordinated by Metra that helped over 150 HR professionals back into work via FREE 1-to-1 and group coaching sessions. It's thanks to the amazing team of volunteers that we can hand on heart say that the Back to Work Club really did change lives in 2020. And this year we are coming back stronger than ever with our next generation of the Back To Work Club - this time it's going to be called the 'Back To Brilliant Club'. And this time our FREE 1-to-1 coaching support will be tailored to support HR professionals who are burned out/stressed out/want out. Lizzie and Metra hope that the BTBC will help to lift the tribe by bringing back a few mojos that may have gotten lost somewhere during the course of the last 22 months. Keep an eye out in the Facebook group as we will be opening the doors to the BTBC very soon!

?Evolve or dissolve….

At the end of 2020 the community welcomed it's 10,000th Ninja! An unbelievable milestone and a fantastic achievement. We were all thrilled to bits. But Lizzie realised that she couldn't continue to run Ninjas as a side of desk hustle any more. Something needed to change. She was at risk of burning herself out.

So in Jan 2021 Paul Fielder ?joined her on her mission. Suddenly a life partnership had become a business one too. Paul knew that in order for the group to thrive it needed to be commercialised. Everyone said "make it a membership group; get Ninjas to pay a monthly subscription. You'll make a fortune" they said. But Lizzie and Paul didn't like this approach.

Instead, with Paul's help and expertise from 25+ years in partnerships and client management, the Ninjas partnership model was born. Many of the Ninjas' favourite suppliers were already getting recommended in the group and were signing up new clients as a result. So it was a no-brainer for Lizzie and Paul to talk to them about formalising this arrangement. These were companies that shared the Ninja values and were only too happy to repurpose a little of their marketing budget in order to join our little family. Fast forward 12 months and The HR Ninjas now partners with 17 exceptional and varied businesses - some large, some small. All bringing their own unique sprinkling of Ninja magic to the community! It is a privilege having the opportunity to work together.

HR Ninjas has never been about making money. But with the financial backing of our wonderful partners Lizzie and Paul have been able to secure the long-term future of this wonderful corner of HR loveliness and the community continues to flourish without the need to compromise the integrity of Lizzie's original purpose and principles.

The birth of the FREE HR jobs board..

In the early days of the Facebook group we used to have 'Work Wednesdays' - a day each week when Ninjas could share their HR roles with the tribe completely free of charge. It was good, and it gathered momentum real quick, within a year we were seeing 80+ jobs being shared every 7 days. Lizzie quickly realised that she needed to create a platform for job sharing that did not rely on the Facebook algorithms. So she started to research job sharing platforms. She got in touch with a Developer over in Silicon Valley. And in July 2021 the HR Ninjas job platform was born.

Advertising HR roles continues to be FREE of charge for members of our Facebook group who wish to share in-house roles on behalf of their organisation. And our stats speak for themselves... In the space of just 6 months, Ninjas have shared more than 700 jobs and we have had more than 25,000 unique visitors to the website. We will continue to evolve and grow the Ninjas job board proposition over the coming months so watch this space!.. Thank you to everyone who has supported this initiative by sharing or applying for roles with us over the past 6 months! We absolutely couldn't do any of this without you.

To the Ninjadom... and beyond!...

At the end of 2021 we were over the moon to welcome our 16,500th Ninja! And our engagement stats are really starting to look pretty special now. Most days there are 50+ posts on the Facebook group and one day we even hit 200 posts in the space of 16 hours! That was a busy one! It is inspiring to read the messages of support flowing through the group from our members each and every day. Watching the way the tribe lifts itself through its generosity and willingness to collaborate is nothing short of amazing. Here at Ninjas HQ, we celebrate and appreciate each and every Ninja who has joined us on this journey into the Ninjadom. And we look forward to seeing what adventures we will go on together in 2022 and beyond! Here's to another epic 12 months of Ninjaring!

The HR Ninjas | Facebook