Career Journeys in Talent Acquisition: Laura Peakall

Thanks for reading! This series is designed to shine a spotlight on Talent Acquisition professionals and highlight their career journeys and learnings so far. Today, we're joined by Laura Peakall. If you'd like to be next, please reach out to a TTC Community Manager.

Introduce yourself:

👋 Hey, I’m Laura Peakall. Most recently I was Head of People Operations at Kaluza - a high-growth B2B energy tech platform. Essentially I looked after all things; HR Tech, employee lifecycle optimisation, offices, benefits, compensation, data, international expansion, and lots of other weird & wonderful projects across my 6 years there!

Prior to Kaluza, though, I’d spent 7 years in Talent Acquisition (initially in agency, then in-house).

What were some pivotal moments or decisions that shaped your journey?

When I reflect on this question, my mind goes to 3 things: people, luck, and self-awareness.

People. Be kind to people - whether that’s internally, at events, in slack communities, when you interview them (or vice versa), mentors - people will remember you and they’ll remember how you made them feel, how smart you came across, and your proactivity to build networks and help people. But seriously - in the last 4 years - I think all of the times I’ve been approached about jobs, or about speaking at events - is strongly linked with people I’ve made connections with in the past. A few months ago I recommended a COO I’d previously met, to be a podcast guest on a show I listen to. A few months later, she recommended me as a potential hire to a CEO she’d met at a dinner. And even this interview now - Sean and I worked together 8+ years ago at Sky - but we still catch up every now and again and support each other's careers from afar. Help people & share knowledge, even if there’s no obvious incentive. (I could give SO many examples of how this has helped me!)

Luck. Sometimes you get lucky. When I joined OVO (Kaluza’s sister company) in Jan 2019 as a Tech Recruiter - suddenly we needed to rapidly expand in tech. And the CTO asked me to grow a team of 8 underneath me. Now this was a “right place, right time” moment - I’d never envisaged I’d lead a big team so quickly. Notwithstanding the lucky timing though, I’d also built a relationship with that CTO so quickly, that he trusted I had the potential to grow that team. If I hadn’t come across as smart and high-potential, I’m sure they would’ve hired someone else for this role. Conversely, sometimes despite being ready for a promotion, your company can’t offer that anytime soon. Being ready to take risks, and quit, to pursue what you want - that’s important too (I did that at my role before OVO, it was a great company, I just knew my learning had maxed-out there).

Self-awareness. You HAVE to be honest with yourself about what you’re good at, and what you enjoy, and curate your career around those things. For me, I had a great role leading the tech recruitment team at OVO, however I knew what I was most passionate about and best at, was driving change, so I took a sideways-and-downwards move into People Transformation to pursue that passion in 2020. I did the same when I moved to Kaluza, I was initially a People Partner but saw a gap for someone to focus on operational excellence - and so I raised a business case for it to my manager, and soon moved into that newly created function and ultimately built out the team since. If you’re not sure where to start, you can use a simple grid like this - notice what gives vs drains your energy, ask others what you’re great at - and then work towards that over time. Ask for what you want - your manager can only help you if they know. Sometimes they can expose you to people or projects you’d never have expected!

In this rapidly evolving industry, what strategies or practices have you adopted to continuously enhance your skills and stay ahead of the curve? Do you have any resources or learning methods you'd recommend to others?

Whilst we all have busy jobs (and hopefully lots of ‘on the job’ learning whilst we’re there!), I think you have to be intentional in carving out time for learning.

There’s so many incredible communities, influencers, and events in the HR space now that we can take advantage of, learn from, and give back to too. The TTC is an incredible example of this - so much brilliant open-sourced work, an engaged group of people ready to help with your questions - I’ve learnt so much over the years through the slack threads and people in that network.

Some of my favourite People Ops influencers include; JooBee Yeow, Adam Horne, Luke O’Mahoney, Jessica Zwaan - follow them all on LinkedIn if not already!

I also believe we can learn a lot from those outside HR - be it Marketing helping us think differently about content writing, and employer brand. Whether it be finance helping us better understand the commercial impact of decisions, advanced headcount modelling, and so much more.

The recruiting world can be fast-paced and demanding. How do you strike a balance between your professional commitments and personal life? Are there specific routines or rituals you follow?

I am hugely passionate about my work-life balance.

Firstly - I think you have to understand what’s important to you. For me - exercising in the morning sets me up to be a happier, healthier, and more productive employee - so I’ll always block out until 9am (sometimes later) for a walk or workout. For others, maybe being logged off by 6 for your child’s bath-time is your non-negotiable.

I’m also big on time-blocking - I’ll put everything in my calendar and try to stick to it. I’m generally more high-energy and creative in the morning, so as far as possible I’ll use mornings for focus work, and afternoons for meetings and emails.

And if I can take any meetings on the phone and walk outdoors at the same time - that’s a good day indeed. I don’t always get it perfect, but I do try proactively to find some balance. If I go a few days without exercising, my stress bucket is more likely to overflow..

For those entering the people and talent space or those looking to pivot within it, what's the one piece of practical advice you'd give to help them thrive, especially if they are actively job-seeking?

I am actively job-seeking myself at the moment. And this past year - the job market has really been quite tough.

Unfortunately applying to jobs alone can sometimes not be enough (applicant numbers are through the roof, and people are using generativeAI to rapidly curate their CVs to match the job advert) - so we need to be thinking additionally about personal brand (for example your LinkedIn profile and the content you write), networking (communities, events, etc), and connecting with great recruitment agents to stand out.

On a positive note, though, I believe it is a hugely exciting time for People & Talent. It really feels like we have a seat at the table now - and we need to grab it. Companies are investing earlier in People & Talent, we’re finally being seen as commercial partners to the business (not a back office function), and we’re working through extremely exciting and complex, challenges, as AI, globalisation, and the world of work continues to rapidly evolve. If you enjoy problem-solving, if you think commercially, if you enjoy leveraging technology - now is a great time to be in the People space!