Jane joined the railway in 1993 as a management graduate trainee. Working in a number of different roles and companies, she joined Merseyrail in 2011 as people director and became deputy MD in 2019. She is also a trustee of the railway benefit fund, the only charity dedicated to current and former rail employees and the Big Trust, a charity based in Liverpool focusing on supporting and helping some of those at the most disadvantage residents in the Liverpool City region.
What motivates you to get up and start work on a bad day?
Luckily, I am definitely a morning person. Regardless of what time I have to leave the house I take my dog out, whether it be for 50 minutes or 10 minutes. It clears my head and helps me focus on the day ahead. Everyday in my role brings new challenges and successes and I always focus on the positive, but I’m pragmatic enough to know that somethings will be more difficult to achieve. Having a great team around me definitely helps and success more often than not will come through collaboration and teamwork over anything else. This is a great motivator for me.
If you could ask one person one question, who would it be and why?
Baroness Karren Brady is a real role model of mine and I was thrilled when she presented me (on behalf of Merseyrail!) with an award for employee engagement. I would ask her about her experience of managing football clubs and how you drive real change in such a male dominated environment, where stereotyped culture and ‘the way we do things around here’ can be embedded in the fabric of the business. I admire her no nonsense, but empathetic style, where she uses her experience and influence to make real change and to become a female managing director of a football club at the age of 23 takes courage and determination. If I was allowed one more question, I would ask her how she keeps her cool with some of the candidates that appear on the apprentice also!
What was the hardest decision you ever had to make?
This question really challenged me as you make decisions every day, some harder than others. My hardest was probably when my daughter was one year old, and we decided to move from Scotland to Yorkshire due to work locations for both me and my husband. We knew that to progress our careers we would need to move, in our case to Yorkshire, as my new role was in York and Sean worked in Lancashire. We left behind friends and a strong family network to live somewhere where we knew no one and our closest family member was 250 miles away. Whilst we knew it was going to be the right decision in the long run, it was tough moving somewhere, with a young child, where you didn’t know anyone and there was no support mechanism around you. But you change and adapt, do things differently and adjust to suit your new environment. We have moved three times since then and we’re still in the same village, we love it, so it definitely was the right move.
What are your success habits?
Build a strong team around you which compliment your strengths and support in your development areas. I have people on my team who are much better at their roles than I would ever be. You should never be afraid to recruit someone who is better than you.
When you work in HR you are often seen as wanting to say yes and please everyone all of the time. Experience has taught me this is not possible, or quite often the right thing to do. What is important is how you act and do things. Having integrity, empathy and openness is important, more important than being seen to be nice.
Make sure you have a healthy work life balance and you challenge your team to do the same. Luckily work is not a chore for me, but I do ensure I switch off and make family and friends the focus of my time.
Recognise that there are lots of different ways to get to the same outcome. Experience is a gift and being in HR for nearly 30 years it would be easy to think you’ve seen and done it all. But experience can also cloud your view about how to do things differently, what might work and stop you trying something never thought of before.
