Leadership: A HR Leader’s Journey

The HR Leader Spotlight with Eoin Mannion

Our HR Leaders Series highlights senior HR professionals shaping the future of work across Ireland. As a specialist recruitment partner in the HR space, we work closely with HR leaders and organisations to support strategic hiring, workforce planning and talent development. As part of our HR Leaders Series, we sit down with senior HR professionals to explore their career journeys, leadership insights, and perspectives on the evolving world of work. In this interview, we had the pleasure of speaking with Eoin Mannion, Human Resource Business Partner at Valeo Foods, whose path from commerce graduate to internationally experienced HR leader highlights one consistent theme: agility.

Q1. Was this the career path you had always planned? What avenues did you take to bring you to where you are today?

I’d be of the opinion that a career plan should be agile. My original degree was in Commerce with HR as a specialism, and I've had quite a diverse career with a lot of it spent internationally. I spent eight years between the United Arab Emirates and China, in the education sector. I think international experience has really broadened my career, but the fundamentals of my career in Commerce have remained the same throughout. Anybody who's graduating or thinking of doing a course out of school, it doesn't always have to stay on that path. You can diversify as your career grows and find areas of specialism that you have a passion for.

HR leadership are very happy to impart their advice to anybody looking to forge a career in HR, so lean in on that and talk to people within the profession.

Q2. What was the best piece of career advice you ever received?

The saying, ‘If it’s for you, it won’t pass you by." It's a general piece of advice, not just career-based. It's an old adage, I suppose. Behind that saying though, there's a caveat that if you work hard at something, you will get your just reward for it. That is always a good mantra to have. That goes across professional spheres, personal relationships and in sport. There's a lot to be learned as well from growing and learning, from making mistakes and failures. You hear a lot of very successful leaders and entrepreneurs talk about how they tried one thing, failed, learned from it, and grew. So, another old adage of ‘Fail and Learn’ is an important one as well.

Q3. For those considering a career in Human Resources, what is one piece of advice you would give them?

I'm a huge advocate of networking, use and grow your network at whatever stage you're at. HR leadership are very happy to impart their advice to anybody looking to forge a career in HR, so lean in on that and talk to people within the profession. Graduates, in particular, business grads, should all be leaving college with an established LinkedIn profile. A digital network is important in any profession, but in the commercial sphere, it's very important. LinkedIn profiles are very good for staying in touch with best practises, news and exciting things that are happening in different sectors.

HR Leadership communicating with their colleagues

Q4. In your view, what are the top 3 strengths that define a successful HR professional today?

I probably mentioned already that communication is a very important strength. The world over, in any organisation, you'll see communication often being called out as an area to focus on or to be worked on. It's never perfect. There are always areas to improve communication, as long as you're constantly working on methods to improve communication at all levels, you're somewhat winning that battle. Secondly, I feel relationship building is another important strength to have. I mentioned networking before; HR professionals need to work with senior leadership, middle managers and their teams, so building trust at all levels is really important. Finally, I'd say empathy is important, in the right measures. Understanding how business goals align with employee expectations is really important. Being able to rely on strong policies to be able to communicate in a fair and equitable manner. So communication, relationship-building and empathy would be the 3 strengths I’d call out.

Q5. Over your career, what would you consider to be your best memory or achievement?

I've already mentioned that I've worked internationally for a decent period of my career, so I'd say that successfully relocating internationally on three different occasions has been one. I almost get jet-lagged thinking about it. Especially one move in particular was when I was in Abu Dhabi and moved to China, I was going further away from home to a completely new culture with a further degree of cultural and language barriers. I embraced it, embraced the challenge, enjoyed it and learned a whole lot more. I think that the idea of having moved internationally three times successfully has been an achievement.

Q6. If you were entering the workforce again, would you do anything differently?

I have advised people at this stage, setting out on their career, and I've gone back to the idea of using your network. I have a GAA background, and that's a fantastic network to have in Ireland. You can't underestimate the power of it, it's been a great tool for me. So, I would have utilised that network more and earlier. Thankfully, I feel I have utilised it well though. It’s important to broaden your network beyond these traditional circles. Go out of your comfort zone and go to conferences, forums and constantly be on the learning trail at the same time.

AI as a tool is fantastic and can aid with a huge amount of efficiencies. As long as there's good policy and guidance from the human side, it can and should be embraced.

Q7. If you weren’t in your current profession, what possible path would you have chosen?

If I was to go back and look at other paths, I've always had a keen interest in the legal profession. I thought it would have been an interesting, challenging path that I could have gone down. That's not to say that I'm not happy with the choices that I did make. There are always other professions that you look at and you'd like to have had an experience of; the legal profession would be one that I'd like if I were having another go.

Q8. What are your thoughts on AI?

AI is with us to stay and is already aiding how we learn, work and live. It's very important that we're well versed in what AI can do to help and assist organisations. AI as a tool is fantastic and can aid with a huge amount of efficiencies. As long as there's good policy and guidance from the human side, it can and should be embraced.

Thank you to Eoin for sharing your reflections on building agility throughout your career, the emphasis you place on communication, leadership and networking and how your international experience has shaped your approach to HR. This advice for those starting out in HR, especially about the power of connection and empathy, is hugely important. We appreciate you taking the time to share your journey with us.