Q-who? My journey back to HR and why our people matter

A blog on her career journey by Lucy Hayes, director, Q3 Services

I’ve always said that great HR is about so much more than just policies and paperwork. It’s about creating a strong foundation for people and culture to thrive in the workplace. Career development, fair treatment, everyday support – all of this stems from having a solid HR backing. My role into HR, much like my role into FM, wasn’t the most traditional, but this has given me a great holistic view of the workplace and allows me to add more value.

Something that a lot of people don’t know about me is that my career initially actually began in HR. When I was fresh out of school, I took a business administration apprenticeship and spent two years working in HR for a factory in Bristol. It taught me a lot about not only the profession, but myself too. After that role came to an end, I ventured down a new path looking for the next challenge.
I became a PA to the IT director of a major construction materials supplier, which didn’t quite live up to my expectations, it was clear I needed something more. All wasn’t lost though, it was suggested that I tried series of project management courses and that was really what set my future into motion.

A left turn into projects and bids

I moved into project coordination and eventually into bid management, first at a defence services company. At that time, if anyone told me FM was boring, I’d point them to the huge jets I used to casually see at work. Following that, I transitioned to a large-scale national FM provider. It was fast-paced, process-driven work, tracking documents, managing submissions, and coordinating big complex contracts.

I didn’t need to know every technical detail of FM at that point. What did matter was understanding the structure and the process, how to keep everything on track. Through those experiences, I gradually found myself growing into my own within the world of FM.

Coming to Q3 – and back to where I started in HR

When I joined Q3, it was initially to manage bids. We were still in the very early days as a business, and the pipeline didn’t justify a full-time bid role. I’m not someone who enjoys twiddling my thumbs, so I looked around and said: “We don’t have an HR function, I can do that.” I knew HR was an essential business function as we grew the company.

That’s when it came full circle for me. I put my hand up to build HR from the ground up, and the leadership team gave me the support to do it. From there, I went on to complete my CIPD People Management level 3 and 5 qualifications.

What people first means in practice

My focus at Q3 now is much more strategic, focusing on projects, compliance, and improving how we support our people. At the heart of all of that is our commitment to being people first. To me, it’s about respect and fairness at every level. I’ve worked for big businesses where I wasn’t treated well, and those experiences have really shaped how I carry out the HR function here. We make sure people are treated fairly, always. And because of Q3’s agile structure, I’m able to be very hands-on and available to all our team members. People know they can pick up the phone and get a response, and I think that really matters to our people.

Building social value with purpose

Our social value work is something I’m especially proud of. A great example is how we’ve partnered with Maximus to help disadvantaged people return to work through our specialist employability programmes. We’ve already seen success stories from people such as care-leavers, and it’s something we’re actively growing, especially in areas like Brighton and Redbridge where we hold major contracts.

We’d also love to do more with young people too. My son recently joined us at Q3 for a week of work experience, and we all really enjoyed it. But with so many of our teams working remotely or across different sites, it’s something we’re still working on how to scale.

Advice to other businesses? Just be kind.

If I could offer one piece of advice to any business leader, it’s really quite simple: just be kind. Most people come to work wanting to do a good job. They don’t want politics or drama, they just want to be respected and treated like humans.

At Q3, we talk a lot about the psychological contract, the unspoken trust between the employer and employee. That trust is everything. If you break it, people stop believing in what you’re doing.

I’ve seen different sides of the FM industry, and I know what good looks like. At Q3, we’re building something better and I’m proud to be part of that.

Lucy Hayes is HR director at Q3 Services. She joined having worked for some of the largest FM providers in the UK. Having started her career in the defence sector, Lucy moved into the corporate world and worked successfully on some of the largest soft FM tenders within the industry.

Originally experienced in bid management, Lucy seized the opportunity through her involvement in the creation of Q3, to transition into HR. From the outset, she has led Q3’s people strategy and having gained the CIPD Level 3 and Level 5 in People Management, has driven through numerous initiatives to support the ‘Quality People’ value which lies at the core of Q3’s corporate values. These initiatives include, DAISY (an online reward and recognition programme), an e-learning platform, Q3’s apprenticeship programme and the implementation of a complete range of quality-people policies, designed to retain and attract quality talent.