HR, benefits and payroll software provider Ciphr has appointed Karen Lough to the new role of director of people to oversee the delivery of its people and culture strategy.
Lough has been with the Reading-based tech group for nearly two years, having joined as head of learning and development in 2023. Earlier this year, she was promoted to head of people experience and has been instrumental in helping to drive Ciphr’s people strategy forward through the support and development of its people.
She will continue to report directly to Ciphr’s chief people and operations officer Claire Williams, whose role was recently expanded to include more chief operating officer (COO) duties. In addition to leading Ciphr’s people function and company-wide strategic initiatives, Williams has taken on responsibility for customer operations and experience, compliance, and information governance.
Claire Williams, chief people and operations officer at Ciphr, says: “I would like to recognise Karen’s dedication, contribution, and success in being promoted to director of people. Over the past 20 months, she’s made a big impact at Ciphr. She’s a highly motivated HR leader, with great integrity and a passion for developing Ciphr’s people and culture and helping to cultivate a great place to work. I have no doubt she will do a fantastic job in her new role.”
Karen Lough, director of people at Ciphr, says: “Since joining Ciphr I've had the opportunity to lead on several significant projects that have really helped to amplify the performance of our people and our wider employee value proposition.
"We’ve transformed our learning culture by fully capitalising on the internal use of our own LMS platform. We also spent a lot of time reframing our company goals and introducing a performance management framework. Our top-down approach to objective setting ensures each of our employees has meaningful performance goals linked to our company strategy. So, they have complete transparency of what they need to do and how that impacts the success of our business.
“I'm looking forward to building on this in my new role as director of people, as we grow and thrive as a company.”
Other people team changes include the permanent appointment of Katie Chowns as Ciphr’s compliance manager, following a successful secondment period in the role.
Gwenan West will continue as head of people operations, reporting to Lough.
“Gwenan’s exceptional performance and high standards have consistently set a benchmark, and her contributions are invaluable to our team’s success,” adds Williams.
Ciphr is the go-to HR software and solutions partner for medium and large organisations in the UK. Its integrated HR, payroll, benefits, learning and recruitment software, services and content provide invaluable insights to HR teams to inform their people strategy and grow and develop their organisations. Based in Reading, Ciphr is on a mission to amplify the voice and value of HR through intelligent people data solutions that help HR be heard – in the boardroom and across the business.
Over 1,000 organisations use people management solutions from Ciphr, including Volkswagen Group UK, Lifetime Training, Crisis UK, Bensons for Beds, Natural History Museum, the Met Office, Financial Conduct Authority, Barnardo's, Police Scotland, Greater London Authority, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and the Irish Universities Association.
For more information, please visit www.ciphr.com.
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Media enquiries:
Emma-Louise Jones, digital PR manager at Ciphr
e: ejones@ciphr.com
Chris Boddice, chief marketing officer at Ciphr
e: cboddice@ciphr.com
Website: www.ciphr.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/ciphr
Notes:
Photos to accompany this announcement are available at: https://www.ciphr.com/hubfs/corporate-pr-images/Karen-Lough-director-of-people-Ciphr.jpg and https://www.ciphr.com/hubfs/corporate-pr-images/Karen-Lough-Ciphr.jpg
Ciphr is the go-to HR software and solutions partner for medium and large organisations in the UK. Its integrated HR, payroll, benefits, learning and recruitment software, services and content provide invaluable insights to HR teams to inform their people strategy and grow and develop their organisations. Ciphr is on a mission to amplify the voice and value of HR through intelligent people data solutions that help HR be heard – in the boardroom and across the business.
The Ciphr Group is a privately held company backed by ECI Partners and headquartered in Reading. Over 230 employees work across the group, which includes Ciphr, Shape Payroll and Avantus.
Ciphr spokespeople are available to provide expert media comment on a broad range of topics, including HR strategy, people management, employee experience and wellbeing, payroll, benefits and rewards, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I), learning and development, the future of work, tech trends, business and leadership, marketing, and more.
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