Join our Human Resources facilitator, Chizoma Okaro, alongside Hertfordshire Graduate MBA, other students, alumni, businesses and distinguished guests, in this quick-fire two-hour digital session as we explore cutting-edge trends and insights that are shaping the future in this important field.

Speaker: Chizoma Okaro

Chizoma Okaro has worked in Human Resources for over 20 years within the public sector, previously with the Open University and before that, spent 10 years at Milton Keynes Council. She joined the University of Hertfordshire as Assistant Director of HR in October 2017 before her appointment as Director of HR in January 2021. She leads the management of the full range of Human Resources services and associated staff and non-staff budgets, which include EDI, Strategic Business Partnering, Employee Relations, L&OD to name a few. She has taken opportunity following a service review to introduce new areas of focus – Benefits & Reward and Staff Experience - to help direct and inform the strategic people focus of the University’s next strategic plan for 2025. Chizoma is a member of the Senior Women of Colour, SWOC, (a subgroup of WHEN {Women in Higher Education Network}). She is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, chairs her local CIPD branch, is on the CIPD Council and is a CIPD CPD Assessor. She is a qualified relationship counsellor, having volunteered for the charity Marriage Care. She has served as a Foundation Governor on a Catholic School Foundation for 19 years until 2020 and recently taken up a Board Trusteeship of The Adolescent and Children’s Trust, the UK’s largest dedicated fostering charity.

Session Information: 

Chizoma's talk will be structured around an overview of her career journey, specifically talking about her career before she got into HR.  She will then cover her move into HR and some of the challenges experienced as a result. Chizoma will encourage a group discussion piece about what people think HR is about and what it does.  She will then talk through her department structure and the areas of team responsibility here at the University of Hertfordshire.

Chizoma will also cover the history of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), its membership grades and a profile on the industry, such as what percentage of HR professionals work in the public sector, equality stats etc. She will also talk about characteristics that might help a graduate in becoming successful as an HR practitioner, the importance of reflective practice, plus also giving examples of how her HR team has supported the University of Hertfordshire's strategic plan.