Emily’s story

Emily Griffiths joined the Tesco graduate scheme five years ago and gained Associate Membership in 2017 after completing an MA in Human Resource Management at the University of Hertfordshire. A year after she had finished her master’s, Emily’s line manager and Director supported her application to take part in a CIPD Upgrading Clinic with a view to attaining Chartered Membership.

As a CIPD People Development Partner, Tesco takes learning and development for its People team very seriously. Ahead of the Clinic, it organised a video conference involving its HR capability lead and a CIPD expert. Together, they offered advice on the kind of questions that would be asked and on how best to structure answers, which Emily describes as really helpful.

Going through the process has honed Emily’s approach to her own professional development and the way she goes about strategic thinking.

‘For the Upgrade, the reflection piece was really interesting,’ she says. ‘It helped me get into the habit of not just looking forward at my development but looking back and seeing what I have achieved, what I’ve learnt from it; what maybe I could have done differently and what I can then take forward. It’s difficult to get into a habit of doing that but because I had to for the Upgrade I have managed to keep it up.’

Emily found Upgrading to be straightforward although there were time management pressures in balancing preparation time with the workload of the day job. She also compares the Upgrade to a job interview: ‘You have to sell yourself, which is a really useful skill to have but is quite difficult. As a nation, I guess we’re not that great at it; traditional British reserve. But it was really beneficial to practise that for the future as well.’

When she found out that she had been successful in Upgrading to Chartered Member, Emily says she felt a ‘fantastic’ sense of achievement. This was enhanced by the way colleagues in the People team celebrated the positive outcome.

‘My team gave me a card and the certificate from the CIPD was presented to me at a departmental team meeting by my Director,’ says Emily. ‘Our Chief People Officer, gave me and the rest of the colleagues who had been recognised by the CIPD for Upgrading or through Experience Assessment a values award. It was really nice to be recognised by the leadership team and by the people around me.’

To find out more about becoming a CIPD People Development Partner, get in touch with the team by emailing ClientDevelopmentEnquiry@cipd.co.uk