Claire Burton
Age: 28
Lives: Gosberton Risegate
How long in Local Government? 11 years
What subjects did you take at school/college/university?
10 GCSEs (A*-C) (Spalding High School)
The rest were all supported by SHDC since I've been here:
Modern Apprenticeship in Business Admin, HNC Business and Finance, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)
Tell us a little bit about your job and what it involves
I carry out project based work relating to my skills and experience in Human Resources. We are very much like a team of consultants working with other departments of the Council to identify key improvement projects that will drive the authority forward.
Sometimes I work in a team to carry out projects and other times I act as Project Manager for things like implementing a new integrated HR and Payroll computer system, setting up a child care voucher scheme and designing new processes and procedures.
The way we work is new and very modern; there is no formal line management structure; instead we each have a pastoral manager who we can go to if we have any problems. We each have our own laptop allowing us to work remotely when we need to.
What do you like about working in Local Government/what are the benefits?
I like working in Local Government because there are some really good training and development opportunities, up to 28 day annual leave, good pension scheme (not many companies offer final salary pension schemes anymore) and flexible working.
What attracted you to working at a local authority?
I started working in the post room when I was 17, then an opportunity arose to work as a Clerical Assistant in the Human Resources Team. The council then supported me to study for a HNC in Business and Finance and a few years later I studied for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
All in all I've been really lucky and been given some good development opportunities being promoted from Clerical Assistant to Personnel Assistant to Job Analyst and then Personnel Officer before my role became OD Business Consultant earlier this year.
What are your career aspirations?
I worked in the HR team for almost 10 years and gained some really good experience of operational issues such as recruitment, induction, employment advice (including employment law), job evaluation, discipline, dismissals and grievances. Now I am enjoying looking at it all from a different slant and focussing time on making improvements that will hopefully make a real difference to managers and employees. | 
