Having started her career on an HR graduate scheme in financial services, which gave her a thorough grounding in all aspects of the HR profession, Helen Ives decided she wanted experience across a range of sectors. With this intention, early in her career, she worked in logistics/shipping, tech and digital, and professional services.
“I loved the learning that came from applying HR in such different settings,” she says, “from dockside in the shipping business to data centre in web hosting.”
Ives joined the NHS after working for a short spell as a freelance consultant. “I got to know the NHS as a client and I was blown away by the people that I worked with and when they asked me to join them, I didn’t hesitate,” she says. “I love learning and have continued studying through my career, which has been a juggle at times. I studied part time for my MSc in Occupational Psychology and then pursued my FCIPD and I am still studying.”
Creating a Great Place to Work
As Chief People Officer at Solent NHS Trust, Ives designed and delivered the organisation’s ‘Great Place to Work’ strategy. The project earned her the Innovation in Practice Award from the British Psychological Society for work on leadership development. This approach to values-based leadership put people first and stems from a belief that organisations are stronger when they inspire a strong sense of belonging, inclusion and connection to a common purpose. The Trust also won the HSJ Award for Engagement as a result of this work.
Ives was seconded to the NHS England team as workforce and training lead for the Covid-19 vaccination programme at the end of the Summer in 2000 becoming part of the inception of the vaccination programme which she regards as having been a great privilege. She then went on to be the Chief People Officer for the Hampshire & Isle of Wight healthcare system and took on the role of accountable Executive for the vaccination programme, delivering over 4 million vaccinations in the time she was there.
“Our success was delivered through workforce innovation,” she says, “accessing a completely new talent pool of people not currently working for the NHS, training to task as a vaccinator, and delivering across a range of workforce models, for example, volunteers and reservists.”
Interestingly, Helen Ives’s first degree was in psychology. During this time a careers talk from an Occupational Psychologist at Ford inspired her to think about applying psychology to the world of work, leading to a dual career pathway, starting with work experience in HR and then moving on to a second degree in Occupational Psychology.
Feeling of Purpose
“It’s the feeling of purpose that got me hooked,” she says, “the sense of contributing to something that makes a difference to so many people. That’s also what brought me to NHS Professionals; to quote one of our values, ‘we care, it’s personal’.”
One of the aspects of the job that continues to inspire Ives is the chance to shape the future of work. She finds the changes that occurred around the pandemic – and consequently the aspects of work that remained changed fascinating to consider and looks forward to playing her part in the continuing evolution of the workplace.
