From Recruitment to Talent Acquisition Partner at tombola – Meet Natalie

Natalie has worked in multiple jobs throughout her life. From recruitment to estate agents and more, she understands how overwhelming it can be to switch roles.

Speaking from her own experience, Natalie encourages others to keep pushing themselves out of their comfort zone and always look for the next challenge.

As a Talent Acquisition Partner for one of the largest games and software companies in the UK, tombola, Natalie shares her story with us.

After leaving school to complete an apprenticeship in travel, Natalie always had a passion for travelling. However, when she turned down a position to work at a travel agency for a recruitment agency, this decision was the pivotal moment that impacted the trajectory of the rest of her career.

Whether sifting through CV’s or helping candidates gain roles, Natalie got to know each applicant personally as a recruiter, allowing her to understand the worries, concerns and hopes of people looking for jobs.

Moving shortly after into an estate agent looking after property to join her two sisters, she was given the responsibility of filling houses with tenants.

Although it was a different sector, the principles remained the same. Understanding the audience was key.

Over the course of the next few years, Natalie returned to her former recruitment agency as a compliance officer and was promoted several times to business development consultant and, eventually, account manager for a large customer.

This desire to keep progressing continued, as she then moved to another company focusing on internal recruitment, which is where she gained a huge amount of experience that still serves her today.

Like many others, when COVID hit, Natalie was forced to think about her long-term goals.

Using her initiative, she decided to move on to a larger, modernised company that was quickly growing, which led her to tombola.

Looking back on her career, Natalie explains working for tombola has been the best job she’s ever had.

As a Talent Acquisition Partner at Tombola, Natalie focuses on one of the largest areas of the business, Chat. This involves working within the People team to ensure the onboarding process is as smooth as possible.

From the minute they apply to gaining the job, the beauty of this role is the extra insight into the candidate journey, including making the call to offer them the job.

This support is carried throughout the business, whether hiring for managers or providing support and guidance, trust is a huge aspect of the role. Ultimately, there is a lot of pressure on Natalie to get it right.

I think it’s very much a candidate driven market driven massively since COVID. They could have five offers on the table, whereas before they might have only had one or two.

So, you have a lot of competition to deal with. That makes our job harder. We’ve got to get it right.

Responsible for the talent acquisition, its Natalie’s job to assist and support hiring managers. This involves sitting down with the hiring manager, discussing the role, the type of skills they’re looking for and the potential candidate.

Working with the onboarding teams, Natalie ensures that everyone who walks through the door has a positive experience with tombola.

I think it's vital that you get that first month of onboarding, right, to get someone settled and showcase what it is the potential that they've got working here.

So, working on the onboarding, and then we even look at an offboarding as well. So, if someone does decide to leave us, you know, what value can we add there, where everyone leaves happy.

From regular socials to seasonal events and more, employees at tombola have a busy social calendar throughout the year. As a result, many employees have formed strong friendships.

When asked what her first impressions were of the culture at tombola, Natalie explains how modern the approach to work is.

Although there are core hours to complete work, there is a level of trust regarding how you structure your working day. For example, you may have childcare arrangements meaning you need to take a break at 3pm.

This flexibility has allowed tombola to routinely score high for internal surveys, with many employees stating that the people within the organisation are the reason they continue to stay.

When it comes to giving praise and feedback, tombola score high for recognition. Whether it’s a shout out in a team meeting or an e-card to say well done, they understand how important it is to take care of people.

As someone who is constantly looking for the next challenge, Natalie has learned a lot in her career. The best advice she can give to someone else is to always seek discomfort, wherever you can.

I think you can be very comfortable in a job and safe and stay like that forever. But you must keep pushing yourself outside of that comfort zone.

Instead of relying on other people to challenge it, challenge yourself. See what else is out there. You only get one life, and you never know how long or short that’s going to be, so make sure you experience different things.

Whether that’s moving jobs or trying something new, Natalie believes the best way to grow is to always look for development. She also believes that you can do anything if you put your mind to it.

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