Owning It: Chiara Rizzotto on Going Global at Foxtel Group

Five years ago, Chiara Rizzotto joined Foxtel Group on a fixed term contract at a career crossroads. Today, she's project managing a global ecosystem of HR systems spanning two companies and multiple continents. We sat down with the HR Technology Programme and Delivery Manager to talk about the winding road that brought her here, what excites her about working at a global scale, and why pressure really does make diamonds.

Q: Can you tell us about yourself and your role at Foxtel Group?

I've been at Foxtel Group for just over five years, and I've naturally worked my way up through the HR team. My current role is project managing the migration to DAZN's systems for our payroll and HRIS, as well as implementing a new workforce management tool for Foxtel. It's a big ecosystem of projects, but one I'm really proud to be leading. 

Q: Can you walk us through your career journey? 

I studied HR at University and jumped straight into an entry level contractor role. I was sitting on a floor filing employment contracts, and doing a bit of EA work on the side. I think that probably says a lot about how I am - I've always been someone who just gets stuck in and does what's needed. 

From there I moved into a HR role in retail, which was my first real experience working with an HRIS system. I was navigating Workday for the first time, doing learning and compliance and rostering for our retail teams. But I'd always had a passion for music, media and radio, so when a HR coordinator role came up at Nova Entertainment, I jumped at it. I got the job, and even though I'd already been a HR coordinator, I just really wanted to be in that industry and learn from the ground up. 

I was at Nova for three years and absolutely loved it. It was a great foundation - doing something I enjoyed in an industry I loved, while learning so much. But I couldn't get the career progression I wanted, and I knew I needed to move. 

When I left Nova, I was at a bit of a crossroads and I wasn't sure what my next move should be or if I should give up HR altogether, but then a HR advisor role came up at Foxtel on a fixed term contract. I applied and got the role, and the rest is history! 

I started as a HR advisor,  in the HR support team, and eventually led that team as HR Support Team Leader. In that role, I naturally fell into loving the HR technology and operations space - system improvements, process improvements, really understanding our processes end to end. That led to a promotion into an HR Technology Lead role, where I had the remit to drive system improvements and prioritise how we could make our systems work better for everyone. I got to work on a whole new job rec and governance process, and was involved in work for our remediation project . 

After that, I felt ready for something different. An Employee Experience Partner role came up, and something about it just spoke to me - I loved making experiences better for people, whether that was the HR team, our employees or our leaders. And I loved event planning and organising. So I jumped into the role on a secondment, right in the thick of our all-in-one-place move to Artarmon. 

We had food trucks, an acai truck, sausage sizzles every day, and the Christmas markets. I got to work with the Comms team, take charge of the Life@Foxtel Group newsletter, work with facilities, studios, production - it really let me connect with people and create those moments that matter for our employees. 

Then an opportunity came up to do a hybrid role across Employee Experience and HR Technology, right after the DAZN merger. It was the two worlds I really enjoyed, coming together. No two days were the same - I was double and triple heading constantly - but I got to have my hands in a couple of pies that really built my experience. 

And now I've been given the opportunity to step into this global role as HR Technology Programme and Delivery Manager. I think the thing that really shone through was the recruitment system migration I led - the first system we migrated post-DAZN in HR. It was a very tight timeline, I had never migrated or implemented a system before, and I pulled it off. I think that's what DAZN saw in me. So they asked me to take on this role, and it’s really an honour. It's been really good for my confidence. It's a big project and it's very diverse, but I know what I'm doing and I'm just owning it. 

Q: What drew you to your newest global role, and what does this opportunity mean to you? 

I'm a big believer that if an opportunity presents itself to you, you take it - because there's a reason it's come to you. For me, this role is going to give me so much experience in doing something that I probably wouldn't have been able to do elsewhere. But I get to stay at a company I really enjoy working at, build my knowledge, and use the relationships and the foundation I've already built here. 

What drew me to it was the opportunity and the doors it would open. Who knows what happens after this - whether it's here or somewhere else. But I think it's exactly what I need for the next step in my career. 

And I wouldn't be here without the leaders I've had at Foxtel who believed in me - sometimes before I believed in myself. They pushed me into spaces I wasn't sure I was ready for, backed me when things got hard, and gave me the room to grow. That kind of sponsorship isn't something you take for granted. It's a huge part of why I feel so confident stepping into something this big. 

Q: The role sits across both local and global teams. What does that look like day-to-day, and what excites you about working at that scale? 

No two days are the same - that I can tell you! I come in and one minute I'm meeting with the CFO about the payroll migration and preparing comms to send out, then in the next one I'm sitting in a demo of a new workforce management system. Then I'm getting requirements on Oracle leave management and then I’m on calls with the global team regularly. It is very systems-heavy, but also very diverse. 

What I'm really enjoying is being able to work with people across Hyderabad, Poland, Spain and London. Yes, there's business talk, but I've genuinely been able to have real conversations with these people. It builds trust and camaraderie, and that makes the project a whole lot easier. 

In terms of what excites me about the scale - I'm implementing three systems at once. That isn't something that comes around often, and it's not something you'd be able to do just anywhere. But I'm doing it at a place I know, with people I know, with leaders who are so supportive.

It's uncomfortable sometimes because of the unknown, but I'm comfortable, because I know I've got the backing of my team and leaders - everyone's just trying to lift me higher. 

When we reach that go-live date, I'll be able to say I didn't just implement an HRIS - I built an entire ecosystem. That breadth of experience, for someone still relatively early in their career in terms of large-scale implementations, is something I'm incredibly grateful for. 

Q: Can you tell us a little more about the project itself - and why it matters to our people? 

So we were acquired by DAZN, and even though we're two companies, it doesn't make sense to have two systems doing the same thing. Foxtel has HR Online; DAZN has Oracle. As part of the merger, it makes sense to align and bring everything together into one. 

In layman's terms - this is about how you take leave, how you get paid, and making sure people are paid correctly. The HRIS is your source of truth for employment details: where you apply for leave, where your leader approves it, where you update your personal details, where salary increases and promotions get processed. We need one single source of truth. Then there's our payroll system - we need to get that right, because if people don't get paid, we have some very, very unhappy people. And then the overlay is our new workforce management system, Humanforce, which ensures people are being paid correctly based on their role, their hours and the days they work. 

It's also about making the employee experience better from day one. When someone starts, we want them to be able to hit the ground running - their email is set up, they're onboarded through a great portal, they can access everything they need. It's a massive piece of work with a lot of dependencies and a lot of risks, but that's exactly why the project management piece is so critical. 

Q: What are you most looking forward to in the months ahead? 

Going live with all three systems. We've worked so hard to get to this point - so many changes, so many project milestones achieved - and we're really getting there. The go-live date is currently slated for August. Getting to roll everything out, starting training, getting people involved and on board with the new systems. It's going to be a new world for everyone. 

And having worked on this project from the very beginning, knowing that I actually played a part in making it happen - that's going to be a really special moment. 

Q: Looking back, what are your career highlights so far? 

Personally, I think my biggest highlight was having that moment of clarity - realising that HR technology and HR operations was the path I wanted to go down. When I was at that crossroads and wasn't sure where I was headed, that realisation was almost my come-to-Jesus moment. And it's just a bonus that I get to pursue it at Foxtel. 

In terms of work highlights, there are so many great things I've been part of here – Clontarf Oz Tag Challenge, the all-in-one-place move to Artarmon, Foxtel's 30th birthday. Getting to use my creative flair to pull off something fun for people is always a highlight. 

But on the tech side, the migration to Pinpoint - our recruiting system - was a massive milestone for me. That was the first big tech project I'd completed, it was on a very tight timeline, and I did it on my own. It's being used today and I look at that and I'm genuinely proud. 

Q: What career advice would you offer someone just starting out - and for anyone who might be nervous about putting their hand up for something new? 

Someone once said to me, "pressure makes diamonds" - and that has stuck with me ever since. When you feel the discomfort, that's when you know you're growing. So say yes to opportunities even before you feel ready, because that's when you're really going to shine. 

Put your hand up. Say yes to new things. Be curious and get involved in things you never thought you would - there's a 50-50 chance you're going to love it, and those are pretty good odds. And if an opportunity presents itself, take it, because you never know where it's going to take you. 

And be yourself. Your true, authentic self. Because being yourself builds the trust you need to work with people - and asking questions, that's just curiosity. There's nothing bad about that.