Meet Our Team – Kelly Blank

Kelly Blank

Talent and Training Manager

About Me:

I absolutely love to travel, seeing parts of the world I’ve never been to before! I’m also, rather randomly, an aspiring beekeeper. If I win the lottery, I’m totally out of here to start a honey production business!

Favourite Game: Mario Kart 8

Favourite Game Series: Mario Kart

Favourite TV Series: Lucifer, Power or Grey’s Anatomy

Favourite Film: Jurassic Park or Megamind…it’s a tough call

Favourite Book: House of Sleep by Jonathan Coe

Favourite Song/Band: Human by the Killers

What’s your career background?

I had 12 years of working in recruitment before I decided I wanted to teach overseas! I worked on Aardvark Swift’s Toys & Licensing desk ten years ago and re-joined the business when I relocated back to the UK from Southeast Asia. I’m now the Internal Recruiter and Training Manager. My role has evolved to cover both talent acquisition as well as learning and development across the business.

What’s an average day look like for you at Aardvark Swift?

I’m lucky to have a very varied role which changes every day, dependent on the needs of the business and our team. I do everything from internal recruitment, on-boarding, new starter training to funding applications. My role definitely keeps me on my toes!

What do you love most about your job?

Training! I’m passionate about learning and development and love being on hand to support the team with any development requests they might have. I regularly carry out training needs analysis across the business to identify skills gaps. I source training from external providers or write new materials to deliver to the team as refresher sessions. With extensive experience in recruitment, I’m often a go to resource for the recruitment team to help them solve any issues and I love mentoring the more junior members of the team.

Favourite memory so far?

That’s a tricky one – but it’s probably the day I met Ben and Holly at Toy Fair 2018! If you don’t accept that, maybe the Christmas 2017 outing at Magna, where a tipsy team took part in the bumper cars.