“I started at Hill Labs in early 2001 after completing my postgraduate studies at Waikato University … Trace Elements were on the lookout for a new team member to join the Waters team. I was looking for a job, they needed a Laboratory Technician, the rest is history!
Although I joined Hill Labs as a Laboratory Technician, I quickly realised I enjoyed working with people so it wasn’t long before I got the opportunity to become a Team Leader in Operations. I was fortunate to return to this position after returning from my OE and have remained in leadership roles throughout the business before becoming the Learning and Development Manager.
As the Learning and Development Manager, I’m involved in a number of strategic projects focused on company culture and engagement, learning and development programs, career pathway frameworks and recruitment just to name a few. I have a great team that I work with (there are just three of us in the HR team) and we keep each other focused and on track with our projects by meeting every week. I also facilitate a number of in-house workshops across the business so most weeks I’m involved with organising these across all of our laboratories. By creating our own workshops, we’ve been able to customise the content to the needs of our people and the business - this can range from leadership and business to health, safety and wellbeing. It is another part of my job that ‘fills my bucket’ as I enjoy being a part of everyones’ learning each day.
I also enjoy the social aspect that Hill Labs provides whether it be being a part of a sports team, supporting a charity or attending one of the many events we host onsite such as our end of month get togethers with staff. We have a great group of people at Hill Labs and I am lucky to call many of them my friends! Being a part of a successful New Zealand owned business that has been around for almost 40 years, and really looks after their people through growth and development is another reason why I enjoy working at Hill Labs.
Outside of work, my partner and I love to travel and we’ve been fortunate to have visited many countries over the years. Now that travel is back on the cards again, I am starting to think about what is next on the long travel bucket list…Japan, Switzerland, Iceland and South America are definitely strong contenders but so is Africa…again! Having toured through East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania and trekked through Rwanda with a family of Gorillas) as well as Southern Africa (Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe), I am hooked and can’t wait to get back there one day!”
