Sam Horn is an HR Business Partner based in Aberdeen and part of activpayroll’s internal HR team. Her remit predominantly covers our EMEA entities, providing HR support to leaders and teams across the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Netherlands, South Africa, UAE and USA. No two days are alike in her role, with her work spanning multi-country processes and procedures, organisational change and development, workforce planning, recruitment, talent management, employee engagement and more.
Q: What’s the most rewarding part of your role?
A: The most rewarding part of my role is knowing that I’ve made a positive difference to someone. Whether it’s helping ensure someone gets the recognition they truly deserve, being there to listen when they need support, or seeing a team succeed after working through a challenging period, those moments make the job worthwhile.
HR often works behind the scenes, and sometimes our greatest impact comes from the things that no one ever sees but that have made a real difference to the people involved.
Q: What development in global payroll, HR or mobility are you most excited about?
A: I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I’m excited to see the impact of AI in payroll, but also HR. AI will never be able to replace the human aspect of HR, but the potential to elevate our work is very exciting.
The skill Sam relies on every day is being authentic and staying true to herself. She also believes in looking at the bigger picture and considering the wider impact of decisions.
“I pride myself on being authentic in my approach to HR. I’m always going to look at the bigger picture and think about the wider impact whatever decision is going to have.”
Sam believes there are some common misconceptions about working in HR, including the idea that the role is about enforcing policies.
“Working in HR is not all about being the policy police! A lot of HR is about building great teams, supporting managers, and making work better for everyone.”
Another misconception is that HR only gets involved when things go wrong. “Most of my time I’m working with our business to use people-centric routes to ensure things go well!”
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