Meet our Senior People Partner, Amber Omar

At Volt, people are at the core of everything we do. We wouldn’t be where we are today without each and every one of our dedicated Voltologists, so it’s important new joiners are made to feel welcome.

Someone who helps make our onboarding experience as smooth, seamless and enjoyable as it is is our Senior People Partner, Amber Omar. We sat down to pick her brain on what it’s like being the welcoming face of the London team, and what she thinks makes the ideal office environment.

Congrats on recently celebrating a year at Volt! If you could sum up your time in three words, what would they be? 

The first word would be energising. Nine times out of 10 I walk into the office and I feel a burst of energy. Second would definitely be challenging. Every day is different and I’m always learning in this job. I haven’t been in HR for very long so it’s quite new to me, but ultimately it’s really exciting – very exciting. I don’t have the Sunday fear. I don’t have any dread about work at all, which is the first time in my life. So I’d say: energising, challenging, but exciting.

What does a day in the life of a Senior People Partner look like?

I’ve recently moved from a generalist HR role, where I was doing all aspects of HR plus some office management and being the point of contact for most things. I’m now a Senior People Partner working really closely with managers, function heads and leaders to make sure their team is working efficiently and getting the support they need, and that everyone is happy.

Day to day involves everything from onboarding new starters and making sure everything’s prepared, to internal comms – creating and updating policies and procedures. And then there’s fun stuff like events, being part of the DEI committee which I helped set up at the beginning of this year – that’s a big part of my working week as well.

How do you help create a great company culture?

I’m a firm believer that culture and the responsibility of creating good culture sits with every single employee that walks through the door. I try to keep it good firstly by making sure everyone feels at home at work. We definitely want managers to understand how their team wants to work; what energises them? What are their best hours of working? What really sparks joy in them?

I try to keep it fun but professional. Every day I come in with an upbeat, positive attitude because I’m a big believer that positivity spreads. I also try to get to know everyone on a slightly deeper level than just an employee if they’re open to it, understand what they’re like, how they’ve got to where they are today, where they want to go to their next step in their career. When I have my own team the first thing I will say to them is: keep the energy up, even if that means simply coming in with a big smile and making everyone feel welcome.

What makes Volt stand out as a place to work?

I’m biased, but I genuinely think the team is what makes Volt so special. We’ve got incredibly talented individuals; when I listen to conversations that are happening across the different departments, everyone is so willing to help each other. There’s such close friendships and bonds between teams, which makes it so easy to collaborate.

There’s a lot of respect which I believe has enabled us to get to where we are today. Without that, the openness of people to help each other, I don’t think we’d be where we are today. I think our founders and our leaders created that, but people in the organisation have welcomed that kind of openness.

What are your goals for the next 12 months?

We’ve got a lot in the pipeline for the people team in 2024. Coaching managers is going to be a big thing that we’re focusing on next year, really just getting into the routine with leaders and empowering them to be the best kind of manager. We launched our first culture survey at the end of last quarter so we’re going to be continuing to do that too, analysing the data on a more granular level. Really exciting stuff for 2024.

In terms of a personal goal, I would love to practise and really enjoy public speaking. I’d like to confidently speak to a big group of people and pitch something.

Think Volt sounds like the place for you? Check out our open opportunities.