Emma Glass is the group head of employee experience at Arnold Clark, where she oversees employee engagement, recruitment, early careers, and payroll. She graduated from Paisley University in 2002 with a BA in Business Management, specialising in HR. With over two decades of experience in HR, including a 14-year tenure at Strathclyde Police, Emma has been with Arnold Clark since 2017 and was promoted to her current role in July 2024.
“Employee experience shapes how we feel about where we work, and that impacts everything from job satisfaction to customer service.”
My HR journey
I graduated in 2002 from Paisley University with a BA in Business Management, majoring in HR. After graduation, I secured an admin role in the legacy Strathclyde Police Personnel department in early 2003. I stayed within the Police HR department for over 14 years and then moved to Arnold Clark in early 2017 as Senior People Advisor. Since then, I’ve worked in various roles within the People Team management structure, recently being promoted to my current role of group head of employee experience in July 2024.
It’s early days, but I’m fortunate enough to have great working relationships with the areas I now have responsibility for – including Recruitment, Early Careers, Payroll, and our Employee Engagement team.
In my new role, I am heavily involved in the employee engagement strategy; this involves looking at recruitment and retention, employee benefits, and ensuring the employee journey is as smooth as possible. I also liaise with many other departments outside of the Employee Experience team – such as our in-house Digital teams, Sales and Aftersales teams, and Procurement, while still working closely with the People Team too.
Fuelled by people and purpose
Founded in 1954, Arnold Clark is Europe’s largest independent, family-run car retailer. The company started with a single-car showroom on Glasgow’s Park Road, given flight by its founder’s simple philosophy: to offer genuine value for money and customer service of the highest level.
Since then, the Arnold Clark Group has continued to grow with over 200 branches in the UK – selling over 200,000 cars a year in locations stretching from Elgin to Southampton. But while Arnold Clark is a name that’s synonymous with vehicle sales, there’s much more to the business than you see on the showroom floor. The Group offers everything that a customer might need for the onward journey, with parts and servicing departments, an accident repairs division, EV charging solutions, and insurance services. There’s also a vehicle rental and fleet management operation, training group, and vehicle auction division.
At Arnold Clark, we don’t just measure success in terms of number of cars sold. We believe in thinking beyond the company, giving back to the communities we serve and support, and embracing opportunities to help – that’s why we provide sponsorship, support for charities and local businesses through our Community Fund, and much more.
Crafting the employee experience
Employee experience is what shapes employees’ feelings and perceptions of an employer — its culture, brand, values, and purpose. All of those feelings and perceptions impact employee engagement, retention, development, performance, and even customer satisfaction. For example, if employees have a positive experience at work, they are more likely to feel satisfied in their job and less inclined to consider leaving – this will have a ripple effect on our customer experience and our wider success as a business.
In terms of enhancing our employee experience, I want to help the teams I’m responsible for to reach their full potential and support Arnold Clark in its ongoing aim of being an employer of choice. For me, this equates to future candidates choosing to join us and our current employees choosing to stay with the business as it continues to grow and evolve.
Our differences make us stronger
At Arnold Clark, we understand that it is our differences that make us stronger, and we recognise the importance of creating an inclusive and nurturing work environment that welcomes all.
I believe that employee experience goes hand in hand with creating a more inclusive workplace because it reflects how employees perceive their work environment, opportunities, interactions with colleagues and managers. You can create a positive employee experience by addressing the diverse needs of your workforce – for example, by updating policies to be more inclusive, encouraging applications from underrepresented groups, educating management, and by raising awareness of issues affecting employees. This will, in turn, foster a sense of belonging among employees and create a more inclusive workplace.
The power of communication
One of our company values is Communication – and this is key for a large organisation like ours. We currently use many different communication tools because we have such a varied workforce who work in a variety of settings, some with access to a computer and others who are out on the road who can be much harder to reach. This means we need to make sure we use targeted methods for each area to get important messages across. But before we focus on the method of communication, we need to make sure the tone and content of the message itself are suitable for the audience and delivered in a format they can engage with.
We have plans to refresh our in-house employee app, ACE (Arnold Clark Employee), which is a hub for all important employee information – allowing them to check any incentive schemes specific to their job role, discounts, and benefits, as well as submit holiday requests. Employees also have access to a suite of support resources for physical, mental, and financial health too. These app developments will hopefully help us engage with those employees who are harder to reach across the business to ensure that everyone, no matter their job role, can receive the communication that matters to them.
Our app also hosts one of our main communication methods, a monthly video update (with written option available) from our chief executive, Eddie Hawthorne – this covers business updates and any important news we have to share with employees. This always receives great feedback, as people appreciate hearing honest news from the boss!
The future of employee experience
Employee experience will undoubtedly evolve as the industry changes … and so many industries are the same. With a greater focus on tech, the rise of AI, the progression of EVs, and our work towards becoming a more sustainable business, we will need to ensure our employees and future employees are fully equipped and able to embrace these changes.
Gender equity: A workplace where everyone thrives
Employee experience will play a vital role in promoting gender equity within the company, and within the wider industry. Continuing our work with Womanthology and the Automotive 30% Club, alongside our highly successful Girls with Skills initiatives and our Women in Sales network relaunch, we’ll continue to use the data we gather to spot any trends in attrition and recruitment to establish where we are succeeding and where we need to focus our attention. This will in turn drive any future strategies and longer-term planning within the Employee Experience teams.
Shaping the future
We recently launched our Employee Census to all employees and we’re now at the stage of gathering data, so I’m excited for the journey ahead. The aim of this is to form a better understanding of our workforce and ensure we are tailoring the employee experience to suit the diverse needs of our employees.
Through a data-informed strategy, we can improve our employee satisfaction by focusing on employee wellbeing, creating robust policies, improving retention and, as always, working towards being an employer of choice. This also includes providing a benefits package that works for our diverse employee base.
I’m also looking forward to working more with Womanthology, building on our current partnership, and working on positive and innovative ways to enhance gender equality.
This article is brought to you in paid partnership with Arnold Clark.
Reference links
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/emma-glass-432089167
- https://www.arnoldclark.com/careers
- https://www.arnoldclark.com/girls-with-skills
- https://www.instagram.com/arnoldclarklife
- https://www.facebook.com/ArnoldClarkCareers/
- https://www.linkedin.com/company/arnold-clark/
- https://twitter.com/arnoldclark/
- https://www.instagram.com/arnoldclark_ltd/
- https://www.facebook.com/ArnoldClark/
