Ellie Heath
Online auction site eBay is now 21 years old. That’s 21 years of people hovering over the “bid now” button, and walking away with beds, concert tickets and plastic pink flamingos. The global trading platform is constantly evolving to ensure it stays relevant. Millions of items are listed, bought and sold daily on the global website, which takes an army of staff to manage. With over 30,000 employees, supporting this global network of staff is a massive task.
Working within the human resources department as a total reward business partner for eBay it is Ellie Heath’s responsibility, amongst others, to look after the salaries and benefits affecting employees working in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America.
“It’s a big job and there’s lots to do, but that keeps the job exciting,” said Ellie. “It’s an exciting company to work for.”
While no two days are the same, Ellie’s responsibilities generally fall into two areas.
“I look after compensation, so ensuring that we’re paying people the way we need to in the right way. We make sure their salaries are correct and fair.
“I also look after benefits for our employees including health and wellness. This can include health insurance, benefits for employees and generally making sure they’re looked after across the year. I also look at the annual company pay reviews, bonus cycles, and I review the benefits plans for each year.”
With global responsibilities it is Ellie’s job to manage and challenge issues that occur around the world. This could for example be a change in local legislation that impacts benefits in another country.
“I need to act quickly to sort this out,” she explained. “I need to work with local providers in the country and HR advisors to identify the issue, coordinate the situation, seek to resolve and deliver the solution.
“For example, in Turkey there is auto enrolment pension legislation. So, all employees working with a local business have to be enrolled with a pension scheme. It is my job to find a pension provider and set up a suitable scheme.”
EBay is a 24 hour operation and with the expansive time zones, Ellie rarely has a quiet day. Anything can happen at any time and Ellie and her colleagues need to be ready to respond.
“I generally work 9-6, but can often work weekends and later into the evening. We’re generally very busy, but my job is incredibly rewarding. We’re a lean team, this means although we’re busy we have autonomy and scope. We are able to shape decisions.
“I like to be busy,” she adds. “Being busy motivates me. Personally I’m at my most constructive when I’m busy.
Ellie has been at eBay for three years now. Prior to that she was at the BBC working on a project to redesign the pay and grading structure.
“I was brought in to improve transparency around pay. We were looking at how to improve pay. This was at the time the sensitive issue of expenses and pay grades were in the public eye. It was a case of all hands on deck to firefight. There were Freedom of Information Act requests flooding in and I was the key contributor to some of the information being released.”
Prior to this Ellie held similar roles at Kohler, and the Learning and Skills Council. After she completed her A Levels and prior to starting her three year BA degree in Marketing and Human Resource management, Ellie worked at a logistics firm doing an office job.
“This was eye opening to the world of work. I saw the importance of HR, safety in the workplace and the need for employees to have a sense of security and wellbeing. To work in this business you have to be driven by a desire to help people and keep them happy and safe. Ultimately it’s about doing the right thing for employees.
“I love having the ability to shape our future policies, create benefits packages and look after our employees. This is a very exciting job for me.”
EBay is now 21 years old, but it still maintains a tech start up feel. People are very receptive to change and making things happen. EBay speaks for itself. It’s a huge brand and a great trading platform which is constantly evolving, and responds well to change.