International Women’s day - An interview with Anne Moore

Anna Moore – Group HR Director – Pollinate

1. Can you tell me about what you do?

I am the Group HR Director for Pollinate which is a fintech firm specialising in merchant acquiring. I look after their operations in the UK and we are about to do some international expansion. I also look over all HR activities in all of that area which includes everything in the People life cycle from recruiting and attracting talent to keeping the pipeline of talent going.

2. What are your main responsibilities and achievements at Pollinate

I have an unusual role. To begin with I was doing HR for a lot of Contractors. My biggest achievement was growing the business from 15 employees to 168 to deliver our first proposition which was Tyl by NatWest. That was a huge job. I also had to maintain a really motivated workforce – so if you asked anyone what they like about Pollinate, the key thing would be the people and the quality of people we have. So that would be my greatest achievement.

3. Did you always want to work for a Technology/Fintech Firm?

I did not always want to work for a Technology/ Fintech firm. It never crossed my mind. I always thought when I was looking for a new role, that I needed to engage with and relate to the product and I can’t say that a Merchant Acquiring product massively lights my fire but what I began to realise is in your career you have to be flexible and adaptable and it’s about the people I work with that is really important to me. I got to understand the proposition and believe that it’s a viable proposition but the fact it’s not “Knickers and Crisps” at Marks and Spencer really does not matter.

4. Do you think there is a lack of women in senior HR positions?

In HR positions typically, you do see a lot of female and across the Fintech sector most of the Heads of HR and HR Directors I network with are female. If I look more broadly across the organisation, in our organisation we are very lucky because within an executive team of about six, there are two of us that are female. But women in tech is a continual challenge for us. And I think it goes back to that age old issue of if you interview a man they are only worried about whether they can do some of the job description. Whereas for a woman, they need to be able to fill every single element of it. So we are putting a lot more thought into how we attract more women into roles.

5.    What barriers have you faced, as a woman, in becoming successful in your field? How did you overcome them?

I don’t know if I would say it is a barrier as there are choices along the way, but I have been blessed in my career as I have been able to get to a senior position on a part-time basis, and I still work in theory 3 days a week. I would say there was definitely a view that once you had children how interested or how ambitious you were still about the work place, and I have had to work quite hard to prove that you get more from me on a part time basis than on a full time basis.

I am a mother and I work 3 days a week and have had to be quite brave and ballsy at times. You have to constantly tell people you want to do more and you are ambitious but you have to let your actions speak for you. It’s about not becoming too internally focused and when you are part time you have to be ruthless about your time and decide which things you need to focus on are and which you don’t.

6. Is there anyone (male or female) that inspires you in your career?

This is an interesting question. There are two people and neither are famous people. When I worked at Marks & Spencer at their Oxford street store, there was a formidable lady who was the Head of HR. She was very firm and fixed in her views with a very strong character but always incredibly fair and at the heart of it.  With every headcount reduction or restructuring we had to do, she genuinely had the interest of people at the heart of it. And that is something I really learnt from and I try and hold with me. Currently I would say our COO who I work with here is quite a difficult character but has taught me a lot in terms of confidence, looking for a vision and building strategy and often he manages to lift me out of the day to day which has been helpful.

7.How important is it for women to lift each other up and what does that mean to you?

I found this an interesting question. I am not sure that I think it’s important for women to lift each other up. I think women and men need to lift each other up and for me I think now we need to look more holistically at how we support each other in the workplace. I am getting the feeling in my organisation that people are less interested in having a female agenda but more interested in how we get the right people for the roles and how do we keep them fit, well and happy within those roles regardless of whether they are men or women. I would say – yes it’s probably my female friends I turn to but that’s because they are my friends and we do lift each other up. I have a man in my team who is superb at asking how you are.

8. On International Women’s Day what is the most important message you want to send out to young women starting their career today?

My message would be expect and embrace the unexpected. I think often an opportunity in our career comes along by accident more than by change and you have to be prepared to embrace something that might not seem the ideal opportunity at the time, but you grow from it a lot. I never thought I would work for Marks & Spencer - I had an amazing time there and as I said, I did not look for a role in a technology firm but I am learning so much from it. I just think you never know what’s around the corner and it’s a bit like childbirth - don’t have too fixed a plan of what you want because if you go with it a bit you will get a really good outcome.