Jo Kansagra is Head of People at Virgin Incentives and Virgin Experience Days.
Having planned for a career in financial services she realised quickly that whilst she loved speaking to people, she wasn’t enjoying the products she was selling. “I took a chance,” she says, “and left my finance role, moved back in with my parents, and took a role in a department store so I had some money coming in whilst I worked out what I wanted to do with my life.”
The move was to be fortuitous and one which would lead to her realisation of what she found truly satisfying. Having been taken on as a personal shopper she was then asked to handle the temporary staff at Christmas, recruiting – for the first time in her career – which while proving to be a steep learning curve, gave her an insight into the HR profession.
Building reputation
Shortly after this a permanent role as HR Assistant came free. Kansagra built a strong reputation in this role and was approached by the HR Business Partner of their flagship store in Oxford Street, London store to do the same job. As Kansagra notes this was a case of delivering the same role but for a bigger group of stakeholders.
“Since then, I’ve worked with some amazing brands,” she says living her career with career luxury and premium retail and hospitality organisations as well as a couple of fixed term contracts with a private family members club and a PR & Communication Agency.
Along the way, Kansagra is proud to have been awarded a scholarship for the Retail Summer School at the Said Business School in Oxford: “There was a lot of competition for the places, and it was a real insight into how HR partners with other functions in different businesses as well as how to make sure HR has a place at the table when businesses make strategic plans,” she says.
Importance of team recognition
At Virgin, Kansagra is particularly proud that she led her People Team to win Team of the Year at the company’s annual awards ceremony. “Team Members vote over several categories, Team of the Year being one of them,” she explains. “As it’s peer to peer voting it was a great feeling seeing my team win for all their hard work over the year. In my experience, People Teams can be overlooked for internal awards because there is an expectation from the business that things just happen. For the team to be recognised in this way reassured the team that they are doing a great job and whilst it can be tough sometimes, people do see the effort that goes into the work we deliver.”
Kansagra says she was attracted to HR because of the balance between organisational needs and employee experience.
