I joined Regus as a Customer Service Representative in June 1999, I was working at Slough Bath Road, which at the time was the UK Flagship centre and was where the Regus School of Excellence Training was undertaken. Having new Centre and Sales Managers from all over the world in the centre each week meant that the centre had to maintain exemplary standards at all times. Within a very short period of time, I became the Customer Service Representative responsible for the Telecoms and IT within the centre and worked closely with a client of over 300 workstations to ensure their telecoms requirements were met at all times. During this time, I was also a member of the Telecoms Support Group that meant being the Mitel telephone system champion for my area, supporting and training other centres.

In March 2001 I went on maternity leave returning in July 2001. I then covered the Assistant Centre Manager role for a colleague while she was on maternity leave.

In March 2002, I applied for and was promoted to the role of the Human Resources Assistant the Human Resources Director in the UK. Although I had not worked in a Human Resources department before, I demonstrated strong administration skills and was able to undertake the new role whilst learning on the job. As I grew in confidence, my role developed and I became Human Resources Advisor in September 2003. I was recognised in my role by winning the Business Services Award for 2003 at the 2004 Conference and I was lucky enough to be a 2004 Business Services Award finalist the following year too.

I am still learning and being developed in my role on a daily basis and have recently commenced an open learning course to gain my CIPD HR qualification which will assist me in my continuing Human Resources career within Regus.

Nicola Byrne, HR Advisor, HR Team, Chertsey