Name: Mike Kelly
Job title: HR Director
Tell us a bit about yourself
I live near to Stratford upon Avon but was born in Stoke on Trent and grew up in South Cheshire. I’m married with five kids, three of which are grown up but two still at home studying due to lock down, which has been stressful at times. I try to keep fit and have done a few 60-mile bike rides for Cyclists Fighting Cancer and a local hospice. I like motor bikes but no longer have one. I used to do track days at Oulton Park and Donington and once rode to Hockenheim in Germany. I found out just how fast my bike would go on the Autobahn – I stopped looking at the speedo at 185 mph! I’ve got a two-year-old black Labrador who helps in my efforts to keep fit.
Describe your job to a five-year-old
Looking after people at work but sometimes it can be hard to keep people smiling!
What do you like most about your job?
Every day brings different challenges and a wide variety of issues, and whilst there are often similar situations, every one needs to be considered carefully.
How did you get here?
I left school at 16 and did a four-year engineering apprenticeship with British Gas. I was a fully qualified senior technician on 24-hour callout for a few years including working Christmases. It was quite interesting trying to sort things out when people had no central heating or, even worse, no way to cook their Christmas dinner. I eventually moved into HR in British Gas North Western, followed by a move to the Exploration and Production business unit based in central London but with bases in Heysham and Easington near to Hull. It felt odd driving to the Hull office for the first time when I joined Ideal Standard!
I managed a trip out to a North Sea gas platform, recruited for the off-shore operations and the exploration team, interviewing geologists, physicists, micro-palaeontologists and sub-sea engineers. Staying in British Gas I moved to Solihull, covering the whole of the UK IT team.
I then went to work for Wembley Plc which had the old stadium, a number of greyhound racing tracks and a wide range of leisure businesses such as snooker halls, concert venues, event management, ticketing and a large US operation.
After Wembley I moved to food manufacturing, firstly the dairy industry then into bakeries, neither of which were good for my waistline. My last job allowed me to travel to Mexico several times, Canada, plus the Rotherham site where bagels were made and Maidstone site which made croissants, pain au chocolats… the best time to go there was when the development chefs were doing NPD…
What motivates you?
I always regretted not going to university so I just kept pushing harder.
If you could swap jobs with anyone, who would it be?
A friend of mine is a Captain for EasyJet. I always wanted to be a pilot but ended up at British Gas.
Your favourite song lyric or line from a film
“Are we there yet? Yes! Really? NO!” My wife and I were watching Shrek 2 in the cinema with my then six-year-old daughter, who wondered what was so funny.
Your favourite app?
Spotify, I use it when training on my bike, when travelling and to chill out.
Biggest facepalm moment at work?
There are a few. My office was in Heathrow and I drove round the M25/M20 to Maidstone early one afternoon just beating the rush hour traffic and get set up for a three-day training course I was running. Great journey; a clear run that took just under an hour. Feeling very happy with myself, I opened my laptop bag to realise it was still in the docking station at Heathrow and all the training materials were on the hard drive. The round trip to collect the laptop took five hours.