We love highlighting our people and hearing their stories, so this year we have introduced an employee spotlight series as a way to get to know people from across the business and to find out how they are building their careers at Trayport.
In February we got to know two members of the People team. Check out the below to read more about Anna, our HR Manager based in the Trayport Vienna office and Siobhan, our Payroll and Benefits Assistant in London.
What attracted you to HR and how did you get into it?
HR was never really a career path I had heard about until I left university and took an in-house recruitment role at an SME. I gravitated towards the HR generalist tasks / projects and eventually pushed myself into a HR advisory role in a company with no HR function! I completed my CIPD Qualification alongside my role, and started sessions with an external mentor.
I joined the Trayport team because I wanted to grow my knowledge within an already established HR team that shared a people-first mentality. After 7 months in the London office, I had the opportunity to relocate to our Vienna office for a year, but I have enjoyed the role, team and the city here so much that I asked to stay longer term – thank you Trayport!
What are the key qualities of a HR Manager?
Relationship building – the role requires me to constantly interact with a wide range of people; building strong, trusting relationships definitely makes this easier, especially when it comes to partnering and mediating on certain topics. It also makes the job rewarding, when you have supported something from start to finish and have built a strong working relationship over that time.
Listening – when it comes to advising people, most situations are unique in some way and therefore being able to listen before acting is so important to be able to act appropriately and tailor the support.
The ability to content switch without dropping quality of service is also key. Most days I am switching back and forth between working on documentation, advising on challenging or sensitive topics, delivering a training or briefing, communications planning, analysing data, delivering a challenging message or onboarding a new hire… requiring the ability to switch between different skills.
What do you wish you would have known about your job before starting?
How many times I would hear at socials ‘Oooh don’t say that HR is at the table’! I think most HR professionals would agree that it can be quite isolating – when we have a bad day we can’t go to the pub and rant about why.. Having a close knit HR team makes this aspect much easier and I really value that about my team, and even though I am the only member in a different location, it never feels like it.
What’s your ideal weekend?
My weekends certainly look very different in Vienna to what I was used to – starting with everything being shut on a Sunday?! My favorite weekends here have been spending time outdoors; summer spent swimming in the Danube was amazing. I’ve also had some great hiking days with the group we have in the Vienna office. I’m very grateful to the team here for showing me a lot of what Austria has to offer when I first moved – we are also off on a ski trip next weekend! But I definitely miss the brunches and pub days of South London.
What attracted you to Payroll Benefits and how did you get into it?
A while ago when I was a teaching assistant with the hopes of studying to become a teacher, I realised that I would probably lose my marbles working with kids for 7 hours a day. So I looked into career options and liked the idea of HR, having then enrolled into a base level CIPD course I started working as an accounts processor to gain experience, I found that I enjoy working with numbers so when this current job opportunity presented itself, I pursued.
What are the key qualities of a Payroll & Benefits Assistant?
Definitely timekeeping and communication!
What might people not know about what you do?
That it’s not just pressing a button! People often joke I have a say in the figures, but in reality of course decisions are set in stone before any payroll type info comes my way. In short, payroll is more about ensuring that procedure is followed correctly and that information is true from all sources.
How does your role contribute to the success of Trayport?
Most importantly, obviously, is that people get paid on time and correctly. We want happy employees who trust that things run smoothly. However, payroll often acts as a bridge between various teams and this allows the opportunity for success or failure of collaboration between two different teams.
What would you be doing if you weren’t a Payroll & Benefits Assistant?
I am passionate about sports and love being active outdoors, so I’d be a sports/fitness coach!
;