Avencia Asks: Louisa Newell


This week’s Avencia Asks blog post features Louisa Newell, Avencia’s Talent Solutions Specialist.

 

Louisa, how long have you been working at Avencia?

I am a new addition to the Avencia team and officially started in August 2020. My background is in helping businesses achieve their talent acquisition strategies and I am very much looking forward to getting stuck into all things Avencia and creating a difference for our customers.

 

What is your background?

I have been specialising in Talent Acquisition & Consulting for 20 years, during which I have had the pleasure of partnering with a variety of leadership teams across UK & global businesses.

My focus has always been to deliver innovative outsourced solutions, consulting and thought leadership to businesses; primarily within Financial Services, Fintech, Insurtech and Insurance.

One of my key skills is making sure that I am always working collaboratively, with the business objectives in mind. Experience has taught me that the ability to adapt quickly, is a core requirement for any project and/or solution.

 

What attracted you about Avencia?

Avencia clearly stood out to me as a business that is agile, with innovative ideas and vision. They have a fresh approach to outsourcing, focusing on a more holistic style and designing solutions to suit today's challenges.

I was introduced to such passionate, motivated and skilled individuals, that I knew right away that I wanted to be part of the team.

 

Can you describe your role in a little more detail?

My role within Avencia is Talent Solutions.

I primarily work with HR, TA and Procurement leadership teams to understand their talent strategies, challenges and the impact on their business if these goals are not achieved.

My role is then to design and build a solution which focuses on solving issues through utilising outsourcing, consulting and technology.

I am also a sponsor of our ‘Avencia Consults’ blog post series. Which is designed to bring first-hand insight, knowledge and advice from leaders within the Insurance industry – an amazing way for me (and our readers!) to engage, learn and gather different viewpoints and perspectives.

 

How do you support your clients?

By listening! It is essential that our solutions are agile and adaptable however, it means nothing if we are not hearing the objectives and challenges.

At Avencia we listen first, and then design flexible outsourcing models that deliver; it goes without saying that this comes hand in hand with providing expert consultancy advice along the way.

 

Who benefits from your expertise?

Contrary to popular belief, this is not just a benefit to HR or Procurement, everyone in the business benefits from investing in future talent.

It is about looking to the future so that businesses have the right employee to fit their culture and meet their goals, whilst ensuring continued performance and success.

 

What are you most looking forward to achieving at Avencia?

We are experiencing a period of change like no other; businesses have had to rapidly adapt to accommodate the new circumstances, with little or no time to plan. Inevitably, we are seeing a shift in priorities, however, the focus on addressing talent shortages remains a key objective; both long and short term.

In the interim, contingent talent remains one of the most important routes for addressing these critical skills shortages, so it’s more important than ever to retain a contingent workforce that provides flexibility, responsiveness and agility.

Longer term, businesses will need to adopt a different approach to permanent hiring. The focus is now on strategic planning and having a suitable model that can support the objectives.

Key areas of consideration should be; Internal mobility and talent development, talent attraction, MI and analytics that measure ROI, diversity of talent pipelines, process automation, and remote onboarding and talent engagement.

Guiding customers through this and creating solutions that meet their needs for today and tomorrow is what I’m most excited about.

 

To find out more about how Louisa and the team at Avencia can assist you, get in touch at hello@avenciaconsulting.com.

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