Our Team
Lorraine Makepeace
Head of Amazing
“@ongibongi glad you enjoyed it. All good here, hope you are too :-)”
Lorraine joined Chemistry in 2004 as employee no. 6 and was the first female in the company (things have certainly changed since then!) She has 8 years experience in search & selection recruitment and feels passionately about the way in which Chemistry is trying to redefine the recruitment industry.
Prior to her recruitment experience she worked for Oracle Corporation, managing the Education Call Centre team. During her time there she won a number of awards for her innovation and contribution to the team. She worked closely with the finance team to reduce bad debt and was leading the team responsible for taking this from £5m to zero - the first time this had ever been achieved in the company's history!
Her early career includes a mix of customer service and sales roles within the IT, leisure and media industries. She feels this mix of experience helps her to really communicate with people at all levels across industry. Having joined the company as Office Manager, she then headed up Recruitment for a couple of years and has now just taken on the role of Head of Amazing. This means she will be looking to enable Chemistry to attract and develop amazing people to create a World Class team and ensure the operational management of Chemistry's processes are aligned to meet the business performance & vision. Enthusiastic, driven and passionate about people, Lorraine is determined help deliver the Chemistry story!
Strength Behaviours
Creating Empathy
Lorraine constantly tests and validates own understanding of another's ideas, feelings or beliefs by using paraphrasing and summary clarification to ensure that their perspective or viewpoint is fully understood. Encourages others to disclose own true ideas, feelings and beliefs through the use of self-disclosure. Is emotionally intelligent and uses this to respond to different individual requirements to encourage openness, commits time and energy to listening and encouraging others to discuss their true thoughts, concerns and feelings.
Influencing Others
Lorraine forms win-win alliances with others by showing how realisation of own interests or goals will support their interests and goals. Uses this approach to build political support for needed change or resources for own team, unit or organisation. Commits time to personal network building with strong focus on identifying networks that are mutually beneficial. Uses positional power effectively to get to the right people and build relationships.
Making It Happen
Lorraine reduces the internal or external constraints on self and others to enhance the freedom for action and the scope for initiative. E.g., redesigns jobs to allocate more responsibility to the people closest to the customer; strips away unnecessary bureaucracy. Lorraine is always a step ahead of the game, presenting and signposting information, structure and next steps before others have even got the issue of the agenda. Leaves others with a strong sense of personal control, power and organisation.
