“Understanding how different parts of the business work and actually being able to go in and experience them is far more helpful than hearing about them. You need to be able to see how things are done, the dynamics and power structures at work, and what clients are saying first-hand.” – Robert Hicks, Group HR Director at Reward Gateway, speaks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership.
As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success.
This week, we had a great conversation with Robert Hicks at Reward Gateway, who began his HR career as an HR Assistant at the British Council. He later transitioned to the role of HR Manager at Workspace Group, and in January 2008, moved to Exponential-e to work as an HR Manager before ascending to the role of HR Director.
In November 2014, Robert set up his own HR Consultancy, and took on an interim HR contract at Cognizant Technology Solutions, before joining the team at Reward Gateway as Head of HR on an interim contract. In April 2016, he transferred to a permanent contract upon undertaking his current role.
Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?
HR found me rather than me finding HR. My first job was an admin role in the Marketing department of the British Council. The role wasn’t a great fit, but I fitted well into the business, so I started to look for other roles. I found that the one that best suited my skills was as an HR Assistant. I had experience training and interviewing from earlier in my career at McDonald’s, so it felt like a natural progression. I decided to go and work in HR for a year. 24 years later, I’m still here!
I love working in HR for many reasons. I liked the fact that doing HR qualifications set me off on a whole new career path, but I also found that I was good at organising teams and training courses. I enjoyed pulling together paperwork, improving processes and doing those things really suited me.
I soon realised that I wanted to achieve more than the basics in HR. So, I gained my CIPD qualification. The route I took to get it wasn’t easy, as I did my exams directly with the CIPD, which was the hardest route you could take, but it was ultimately helpful in enhancing my understanding of HR.
After moving to the Workspace Group, I began to realise that I needed a really strong educational background in HR to progress. While my previous educational background got me comfortably into the position as an HR professional, I wanted to improve further, so I decided to convert my qualification into an HR Master’s degree and become a Fellow of the CIPD. In 2011, I decided to take it one step further and undertake my MBA, which I thought was more of a rarity for people in the HR industry.
My career has been a journey of continuous learning. I’ve loved it. Over time, I’ve created a path of progress. It’s really important when you’re trying to move from HR Manager or HRBP jobs, for example, or change sectors.
I was lucky to have three amazing influences in Adrian Clark-Morgan at the British Council, John Miller when I was at Workspace, and Colette Keegan at Exponential-e, who all supported me to further my education. Doing so was a great way for me to develop. My MBA taught me different areas of critical thinking, it automatically gave me more credibility during certain conversations, and boosted my appeal when I was applying for jobs. It also helped me understand the strategies we use and challenges we face in business, which enable me to be at the forefront of those conversations even today.
Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector?
Even though HR still has its challenges, it’s important to acknowledge that we’re probably in the best place we’ve ever been in. The CIPD needs to take a lot of credit for that. The move to Chartered Institute back in the 90s was great strategically, and it’s made us stronger as a sector.
In terms of the challenges we still face, I think the biggest one is the shift in our focus. The paperwork and administration side of our roles is no longer dominant, because automation is helping with a lot of it. Instead, we’re dealing more with positive and interesting things in the diversity arena and fighting the ‘War on Talent’. We constantly face issues in terms of finding not only enough people, but enough skilled people who are right for the jobs we need to fill. I think that’s a cyclical issue that won’t ever fully go away.
We also face challenges around educating people in a cost-effective, value-add way while remaining as dynamic, agile, and responsive to change as possible. Our sector is definitely more changeable than others, and a lot more subject to current concerns— COVID-19 is forcing change upon us. We have to be experts in everything, including infectious diseases and creating safe workspaces.
The digitisation of HR has resulted in the removal of a lot of entry routes for those who would previously have moved into HR Manager and HRBP positions having learned the ropes in admin roles. That said, I think the sector has done well to promote those in HR leadership roles as more than just second-level leaders (the seat at the table conversation seems to now be over). To be recognised as leading voices within companies as a whole means we are now in a position of strength and ability to do the right thing.
As a business, Reward Gateway’s key themes at the moment are stability and growth. We’ve been able to continue to grow our business throughout the COVID crisis by investing in technology, but now we’re looking at moving forwards and hiring again, as well as helping managers structure things to transition to a hybrid of traditional office work and remote working.
We’re preparing all our sites to open with the proper measures in place, although between now and January, we are leaving it to staff to decide how they want to work rather than bringing everybody back by default. We’ve got three pillars of focus around COVID—to keep our employees and their family and friends safe, to reduce the risk of transfer to the communities we operate in, and to maintain business continuity.
We’re very focused on what the whole HR sector needs to be doing for their people in response to COVID. We know that budgets will be difficult and there will be less people working in HR with more required of them. To survive that shift, HR professionals will need to be more strategic and digitally able, but also to connect to people, keep them motivated, and give them recognition. As we grow more disparate, we need to find alternative ways to build on the team spirit, culture, and camaraderie of our people that don’t involve being in the same office.
That’s where Reward Gateway comes in. We provide tools for recognition, reward, communications, carrying out surveys, providing discounts, and general benefit administration, and we’re the only HR tech organisation that pulls all that together within a single system. Our platform is easy to use, efficient, and looks and feels like your own, attracting high user uptake as a result.
What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career?
Education is really important. It’s another string to your bow—one you can keep working on throughout your career. For those looking toward their CIPD qualification, I would always advise getting additional experience at the same time by achieving it through a Master’s degree. In my experience, you benefit from higher pass rates, a more streamlined assessment process, and of course having the extra knowledge for a very similar fee and time commitment.
I would also recommend undertaking further qualifications like MBAs if you can, as it can help you get to the top of the ladder if you don’t necessarily have a big brand name start in HR. It can expand your network, and demonstrates that you can undertake big commitments and want to understand business.
For those with established HR careers, I would say that it’s good to have goals, but try not to be too concerned about job titles. Earlier in my career, I was very focused on making the jump to Head of HR and HR Director because I wanted to have influence, but now, it’s much more about challenges in terms of what responsibilities, projects and impacts are, and how I undertake them.
I tend to stay within companies for a longer period throughout my career, whereas some others have moved around until they find places they like. Both approaches have their merits, so if you’re considering career moves, ask yourself, ‘What is this role going to do for me? What am I going to get out of it?’, and don’t be afraid to take action if where you are isn’t helping your goals.
I don’t really have regrets, but maybe my only one from a job perspective is never working overseas, which I think would have been really interesting earlier in my career. I’m lucky enough to currently have a global role in which I travelled a lot pre-COVID, but I think I would have learned a lot about how HR works outside the UK after two or three years in America or in Europe, for example.
That could be a huge learning curve for someone more junior. Going and seeing how other countries operate from a business perspective in this role has been so enlightening for my whole career. Understanding how different parts of the business work and actually being able to go in and experience them is far more helpful than hearing about them. You need to be able to see how things are done, the dynamics and power structures at work, and what clients are saying first-hand.
Those who might be considering a job at Reward Gateway need to be mindful of the fact that we have a very strong culture. While it’s an amazing place to work, we are very goal-driven and ambitious, so we’re looking for people who want to work in a fast-paced environment, are willing to be challenged, and are willing to adapt to the demands of the role. We always look for people driven to help our business achieve its goals.
More generally, though, HR is a great career choice, and I would definitely encourage more people to do it. To succeed, you’ve really got to want to help people. HR isn’t necessarily about the process and the rules; it’s really about communication. We need to be aware of the fact that difficult conversations are always going to need to be had. All we control is whether that conversation is had as nicely and effectively as possible or not, as well as whether or not we deliver difficult news as appropriately and fairly as we can. What we do as HR professionals is take the stigma away from leaving and make it as positive an experience as possible for both our people and our businesses moving forward.
Robert has been working as Group HR Director since April 2016, and oversees the global People function within Reward Gateway.
For more information on Reward Gateway and how they can help your business, visit rewardgateway.com
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