We Are PoWEr Podcast
The We Are PoWEr podcast spotlights voices and perspectives that need to be heard. Our weekly podcast, with listeners in over 60 countries, delivers PoWErful conversations that inspire, challenge, and empower... from personal life stories to business insights and leadership lessons.
We share diverse experiences, bold discussions, and real solutions. Whether you're looking for career advice, topical themes, or stories of resilience and success - this is where voices spark change.
We Are PoWEr Podcast
Representation Matters: Ethnic Diversity and Visibility at Work
What does it mean to truly belong at work? For Victoria Tobin, Senior People Partner at Manchester Airports Group, the answer is shaped by nearly 20 years of HR leadership across the UK and internationally.
From steering complex transformations to shaping cultures where people feel seen and valued, Victoria brings a wealth of insight into how representation and authenticity drive lasting change. Her journey offers a powerful perspective on building workplaces where every voice matters and talent can thrive.
In this conversation, you’ll hear:
➡️ The barriers that still hold back minority ethnic professionals
➡️ Why visible role models can inspire whole organisations
➡️ The different factors that shape people’s career experiences
➡️ Why “bringing your whole self” is more than a slogan
➡️ Why diversity isn’t a tick-box exercise, it’s daily action
This episode is both personal and practical. A must-listen for leaders and employees alike, offering inspiration and tools to help create workplaces where everyone can truly thrive.
Listen/Watch the full We Are PoWEr x Manchester Airports Group series via the links below ⬇️
Listen on audio platforms:
Representation Matters: Ethnic Diversity and Visibility at Work
LGBTQ+ at Work: What Inclusion Really Means
Tech Careers Aren’t Just for Tech People
Leading for Everyone: Inclusion in Action
Watch on YouTube:
Representation Matters: Ethnic Diversity and Visibility at Work
LGBTQ+ at Work: What Inclusion Really Means
Tech Careers Aren’t Just for Tech People
Leading for Everyone: Inclusion in Action
Find out more about We Are PoWEr here. 💫
Hello, hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast. If this is your first time here, the we Are Power podcast is the podcast for you, your career and your life. We release an episode every single Monday with listeners in over 60 countries worldwide, where you'll hear personal life stories, top-notch industry advice and key leadership insight from amazing role models. As we Are Power is the umbrella brand to Northern Power Women Awards, which celebrates hundreds of female role models and advocates every year. This is where you can hear stories from all of our awards alumni and stay up to date with everything MPW Awards and we Are Power. Hello and welcome to today's episode. I'm delighted to be joined by Victoria Tobin, who is the Senior People Partner at Manchester Airport Group. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you for joining us on the teal couch.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:What does your day job look like? Because I imagine you're talking Manchester Airport Group. We're not just talking one airport here, we're talking a collective, aren't they? East Midlands, stansted and Manchester, and Manchester, of course, but that's a lot of people.
Speaker 2:A lot of people, indeed, absolutely.
Speaker 1:What does day to day look like for you? How many steps do you get in?
Speaker 2:Well, ironically, I don't actually do that many steps and you have to be very active to actually get out into the airport. So I currently look after overall 7,000 employees. However, I'm based at Group and if you don't actually take the time to get out and be in the airport, you can actually be very much away from it. So when I used to be based in Stansted, I used to take time out to go to do what we call Gemba walks, and that would be a really great opportunity to just get to meet the general public, engage with them and see how we can improve their passenger experience.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, see that an airport has always been my dream job. I just think me a radio and a clipboard. I would be in my element, but I'd have to have those shoes with little wheels on that I could, like you, leave my way down still time, though I still don't. Now, victoria, your career spans nearly two decades in HR across the UK and internationally. What is your understanding around representation and inclusion evolved during this time? Because it has changed, hasn't it? We change acronyms, change on a probably annual basis, don't they?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. No, absolutely. That's a great question. I mean, when I started as a HR practitioner back in 2008,.
Speaker 2:The Equality Act hadn't come out by that time, right, and the world of work was so different, you know. So, just something as simple as how to pronounce names, where we have got such a culture now of making sure the pronunciation is correct and, you know, accepting people, be your true, authentic self, that wasn't something. That wasn't the world of work that I started in. Ultimately, people could be rude and there wasn't anything that you could do about it, because you know they'll say certain comments about being a woman, just even just things as simple as walking down the street, for example, the wolf whistle. So the world of work has completely changed, right, and then evolving with that and growing with that. It's just about actually, why does this not feel quite right? Or okay, I may be the only person in that, but correcting people as they go along and saying, actually that doesn't feel right for me, that's offended me, and helping people to get along on that journey it's kind of constant education, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and are you?
Speaker 1:comfortable like you know, sort of saying you know what. Actually that's not right. In fact it's critical we do it right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And if you're not part of that point of correcting people or educating people, then nothing is going to change. And it's understandable as well that that's going to feel uncomfortable sometimes. But some what I have come to learn, especially now, is that you've got to be that person to go forward and be that change that you want to be yeah, if not you, who right?
Speaker 1:because otherwise you can be that bystander at the side. But you can be an active bystander and do things, and you you talk about. You know, none of us want to tick boxes, and representation is not just about numbers, is it? But how can we look at that? How can we? Because we always want to on the podcast, trying to give people ideas or a way forward, because sometimes people think, oh gosh, we're not there or well, nobody's there, nobody's, there's no finish line, is there for inclusion? Or there's no finish line. But how can we unpack what that that means for organization, because you talk about? It's about making impact, not about numbers right again.
Speaker 2:Great questions, um, about making impact really is when you are that person who may be the only one in the room. I think it's important to bring people along on the journey. So don't be so elusive. Be comfortable talking about things such as the music that you might listen to or things like what you may have done over the weekend. I think it's really important to just take out a little bit about yourself to just bring to the table, because it can be very challenging when someone says, well, what did you do for the weekend for? And everyone's like, oh, I got drunk, I was in the club, or they did other things, or they might have a completely different experience from yourself. I think it's really important for myself to bring out, maybe, what I might have done differently, what kind of foods that I might cook, and then I might literally be the only black person that they've actually come to talk to at the workplace, but actually in their wider circles as well. So it's important, as an individual, to bring a bit of that impact to the table as well.
Speaker 1:And it is that's all about bringing your whole self into the workplace.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You've got 7,000 people. You're responsible. That's a big task to let everyone you know allow that and enable that and empower that. What do you think are some of the consistent barriers we see and I'm not always a big fan of looking at what we can't do, looking at what we can do but if you've got those barriers, what are they and what do you think are the solutions? How can we, you know, enable um and that advancement, particular of our global majority, individuals and colleagues?
Speaker 2:I think, part of working in such a diverse organization, what we can do is own it. So we own the problem by making sure that we have in mag for, for example, resource groups, that diversity is not just about race, it's also about abilities. It's also about making sure that the passengers that come through the doors, for example, can see people that look like them. And I, for example, I remember once coming off the train at Stansted I saw a man with a cane coming to work by himself.
Speaker 2:He was absolutely walking faster than I could ever walk up. I couldn't even keep up with him and I saw like an obstruction on the road and I thought let me just quickly move out of the way. He moved past me and actually went and still managed to go into the same building as myself and I thought how awesome is it to be able to work in a workplace where there's people with wheelchair access that need wheelchair users, for example, or there's someone like himself that you know had a visual impairment. But literally, that diversity is there for everybody to see a bit of themselves, and I want to be a part of that.
Speaker 1:And what part of language got to play in ensuring whether it be job adverts, whether it be informal networks panel, you know compositions in reinforcing and getting rid of some of these barriers.
Speaker 2:I think, for example, by the time that the business owns that and sees and sets KPI targets for itself, genuinely, the business has to want to improve those things and I think, regardless of what sector or part or part of the business you're in, you have that part to play.
Speaker 2:So we have things that, for example, the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, which is around really engaging with the younger, early careers that come through the door, making sure that things such as engineering or people can see a career for themselves and the airport, but really starting from really young.
Speaker 2:But at the same time, in the recruitment piece, I would make sure that I will go on the panel for certain things so that people can see a female, someone that we probably wouldn't have expected to be in certain places. It's about being a part of the airport experience as well. So, like I mentioned earlier, around the Gemba walks sometimes I see people that look like an auntie or something and they're looking and saying hello, hello, how are you? And they just want to come up to me and say I'm so glad you're working here and I'm like thank you, you know, and I feel so proud for myself as well. So I think it's about getting involved in different things, getting involved in activities that maybe you don't feel comfortable doing, but you do it anyway sometimes you just got to come out with that where do you sit?
Speaker 1:because sometimes it's easy to be comfortable, isn't it? It's comfortable being comfortable, so how do you have to convince yourself to come out of that comfort zone? Or are you comfortable leaning in or leaning out? I?
Speaker 2:think it's really important to get used to not being comfortable. I think the world of work is going into a position where we all have to start thinking about how we do things differently. So for me, it's very important for me that I try new things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, so that I go for the podcast so when I was approached for this, I thought do you know what I'm uncomfortable, but I'm going to do it anyway. Yeah, um, and I think that if you don't do that, how are you going to get comfortable doing it? How are you going to make that your new norm? And that's exciting.
Speaker 1:As someone else listening to this now will go well. Victoria's done that. I want in on that right.
Speaker 2:Absolutely and that was part of my own personal development as well was to go out there and be brave enough to talk about things that make me uncomfortable. You know, walking into a room where I'm the only probably female in very male dominated environments makes me uncomfortable, but I've done it for a number of years now, across engineering, across different countries, and one of the things that I've come to learn is that actually those have been my best support networks, not something to be afraid of, but something that's empowered me more.
Speaker 1:And that's interesting. That sounds like a really sound piece of advice to pass on to leaders out there who want to support more. They want to be an ally or an advocate, particularly supporting ethnic diversity, and sometimes people think it's too difficult, difficult oh. I don't want to do that might or want to? Yeah, I might say the wrong thing. What would you say to them be you and do it.
Speaker 2:I will just say do you know what? I don't think about it. Just do it anyway and actually be a part of groups that you don't know much about. So I remember with with my husband. I said to him in the you know, in the black African Caribbean communities, it can be very taboo to talk about LGBTQ. So I said to him well, join the group in your workplace, join the group so you can learn a bit more about it and feel more comfortable talking about it and being an ally to somebody, so that you're able to understand different terms of reference and things like that. And then he then started coming. But no, you can't say that you need to stop talking like this. That's wrong. That I was like, for god's sake, you know. But it is exactly that.
Speaker 1:It's about being in environments that maybe are not quite close to what you're used to and it's interesting, isn't't, it Is that ongoing education, because you think about medical practitioners every year have to keep that personal development, that CPD, that continued personal development. But we don't do that. When we're talking about inclusivity, diversity, belonging, we just keep reinventing new acronyms, quite frankly. But you know we don't do that, whereas it is constant. It's about starts with just being curious or ask a question as well absolutely and also not being afraid.
Speaker 2:I think sometimes it's good to just be open and honest with people. So I have good friends and they will say to me I'm really nervous about talking about hair or someone's food. I might cause an offence, and things like that, and I always think that no one is intentionally trying to offend somebody. So sometimes it's important just to say look, I don't really know much about this. Can you help me or can you guide me around these kind of matters? And I think people appreciate that I know I do anyway.
Speaker 1:But that's just simple kind language, isn't it? And I think that goes back to our point earlier about talking about language. Sometimes you can think about how that is in job interviews, but actually this just comes down to an everyday conversation, whether you're on one of your walks whether you're walking through the terminal when you're on your way to work. It can all fit in that and you talk about nobody experiences just one experience in in their environment.
Speaker 1:And this is where you talk about intersectionality, because I think this is this can often be the challenge where you go, which group do I go to? Am I going to the the women in group, or am I going to the the the race and ethnicity group, or the faith or the working parent or the neurodivergent? You know, I'm always a big fan of saying you don't have to be monogamous to one group, you can go in, go around. How do you, how do your worlds intersect?
Speaker 2:I think the beauty of being a HR practitioner is that you get to dip your fingers in all of the pies, because ultimately, it's not about one group. One of the great things that we do at MAG is that we actually bring all these groups together. We have, for example, next week, inclusivity Week Indeed.
Speaker 2:And that's about all of the groups coming together so that everyone can have an opportunity to join into kind cafes and things that they can particularly take their interest and dip in to different things that might be of interest. So, for example, I love being part of women groups generally.
Speaker 1:You're in the right place.
Speaker 2:Both in work, outside of work, because that is what's helped my career, being like a woman that works mostly in engineering. There was a big drive in engineering to try and bring up leadership and inclusivity in women and in that sector. So of course I want to dabble in that pot. But at the same time, I'm a part of Embrace as well and it's important that I, you know, speed the face of yes, you can do this. Yes, actually, you don't need to be afraid. People are out there, we don't know what we're doing, but we do it anyway. You know, and we're going to learn from our experiences. And then, at the same time, we have importance to ensure that all passengers, all people, can travel. It's an experience that we all love, we all enjoy. We're the journey makers and it's really important that, whatever your accessibility, you can have that experience. So you double in respectability. So you've got to be a bit of everything and that's the pleasure of it.
Speaker 1:It's like you're journey makers, not just for your passengers, but for your customers as well.
Speaker 2:Sorry for your colleagues as well, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It's exactly the same. One of the things that I know you are really, really motivated is to give back um mentoring, so across engineering, particularly young women, and then equally charities dress for success, I think, is one of the charities that you support. Um, what is that driver that keeps you, you know, in a world where everyone's busy and time shy and trying to get your steps in because you can't?
Speaker 2:do them at work.
Speaker 1:What's that? What's that? That that thing that keeps you going on that.
Speaker 2:I think that will come back to the way I was brought up. Um, what good looked like for me wasn't just about how much money you made or what the job title looks like. I came from very humble beginnings whereby it was important to serve your community, because that's what made you great being a part of the community. I love gardening, by the way, so I have a community garden which everyone comes and gets involved in, and that's one of my big hobbies outside of work. But the really importance of that is that you're doing something to give back, to replace yourself. You don't just keep taking, you have to give back, and, whether that's if you're lucky enough to be getting jobs, put the elevator back down so that someone else can build up and get that, and that's how you have a strong community. That's how your neighborhood is one where everyone wants to be. I keep giving back.
Speaker 1:What's the main produce or what are you growing on your community garden?
Speaker 2:Wow Okay, tomatoes.
Speaker 1:Oh nice, see, there you go Tomatoes to then food to then community conversations. It's totally circular, isn't it? One of the things you talk about is not shrinking to fit in. Yes, your difference is that strength, correct, yeah.
Speaker 2:Was that something you always lived by, or was there a defining moment that made you go? No, no more One. I think again it from being having an African mum, because I will always go back home and say, oh my god, why don't they call my mum, wouldn't let me use my English name? While I was growing up, she made me stick to my African name, which is Ibitian.
Speaker 1:Ibitian yeah, ah, now that's on your LinkedIn profile that's correct.
Speaker 2:There we go, yeah, yeah, yeah. And she would not let me use it because she said you're African, be proud. No, keep Victoria away. It's too English and I used to hate that because I wanted to be called Victoria so that people could pronounce my name and not spell it wrong, and all of those kind of things. And it was very much about well, you're going to have to be proud of what you are. You have to put your head up high. You have to be the best. If you're the cleaner, you're going to be the best cleaner. If you're the sandwich maker, you'd be the best. Whatever you do, you have to be the best at what you do and own yourself. So I've always had that kind of a confidence. Regardless of even if I'm not the best at something, I've got the confidence to feel that actually I've got something to bring to the table.
Speaker 1:What did just help me, ibitima?
Speaker 2:Yeah, ibitien, ibitien.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what advice?
Speaker 2:would you give young Ibitien? Wow, it's funny because I did exactly what I shouldn't do, which was change my name back to my British name, right? And I would say to the young Ibitean that are you crazy? You are enough, yeah, that nobody cares that. What is important is around your output. Make sure you do the best you can do and keep on delivering on that output.
Speaker 1:Stop worrying about what people think and just do it anyway you know, and beg for forgiveness if you have to if you had a magic wand um unlimited resource and money um to change how organizations approach representation diversity, what would that be?
Speaker 2:Do you know what? I would say that businesses need to stop just thinking about it. They need to stop making it something about a tick box exercise. It is important, and sometimes it's not about the end result. It's about actually just doing the doing, not being glamorous about it. Just keep doing it. Um, it's okay to feel that you're beating a dead drum sometimes, but it is important and it does make a difference.
Speaker 1:Just keep moving these, not words I need. Yeah, now, victoria. Yeah, we are going into the power jar. So the power jar if you, if you don't know us yet, we are questions from our previous guests, unknown. Okay, are you ready to dive Always?
Speaker 2:Deep dive. Thank you, shall I read it out? Yes, please. What's the biggest misconception people have about you or your industry and what's the reality?
Speaker 1:There's a two part question there.
Speaker 2:OK, the biggest misconception people have about me is that I'm a bit snobby, and I don't know why they think that I think I'm a bit snobby. I think that's definitely something they say oh, you're much nicer, much friendlier than I thought you would be.
Speaker 1:It's because you're power walking around the airport. That's what it is. You're like that. Look, I'm off.
Speaker 2:I think that's definitely the misconception people have. And then the second part of the question was your industry. What do people have about the conception of your industry? I think the aviation industry is that it's very glamorous and that everyone's just glamorous, doesn't have anything to worry about and they're just up in the air. That's the impression that I got, like Britney Spears on the trolley.
Speaker 1:It's me with my radio and my clipboard right.
Speaker 2:Exactly that. So I think that's the misconception you don't realise how much the bigger community of the whole industry is and how many people that it serves.
Speaker 1:Well, it's everything.
Speaker 2:It's a town right, it's a immigration office, fire brigade, everything right.
Speaker 1:Feed you water.
Speaker 2:You arrest you fire brigade, everything right. Feed you water, you arrest you, organize you. It's all of that right, absolutely that. And you learn so much, right? So you've got that part of it. But then, at the same time, is that, um, and everyone thinks that you're going to go on holiday, like, have you got any?
Speaker 2:every day yeah, yeah, 100. No, I just work for an airport. No holidays for me. But I think with HR is that they feel like you just do administration and recruit and hire and that's it. They don't realise the bigger, wider contribution that you make keeping the organisation in check.
Speaker 1:And how would you describe that in three words? Your role.
Speaker 2:Your role. I love my role. Yeah, I absolutely love my role. To be honest with you In three words fun, crazy and engaging. Maybe.
Speaker 1:And I would imagine never two days the same.
Speaker 2:Definitely not two days the same.
Speaker 1:Oh, victoria, thank you, and Manchester Aerobot Group, thank you so much for joining me. So many questions we could delve into, but I think you're right. Everyone will assume oh, every day is a holiday. Every day you'll be able to go to duty free everywhere I'll study on.
Speaker 2:I do go to duty free quite a bit yeah, excellent, I'm loving that.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for joining. We're loving working with Manchester Aircraft Group and thank you. I look forward to working with you longer and in the future. Thank you, subscribe on YouTube, apple, amazon Music, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review or follow us on socials. We are power underscore net on Insta, tiktok and Twitter. We are power on LinkedIn, facebook.
