“The credibility of the HR profession is in being the moral compass of an organisation, but we do that by finding solutions, not by being a blocker to what the business wants and needs to achieve.” – Heather Waterhouse, HR Director for GEOAmey, 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 Heather Waterhouse, HRD at GEOAmey, who has developed a HR Leadership career within the manufacturing sector. 

Heather worked as HR Operations Manager at Airbus, where she led a team of 12 HR Business Partners before becoming Head of HR at a mental health organisation building the function from no HR to a functioning HR team. In 2003, she joined JCB in a HR Operations Manager role before transitioning into Group HRM Development and Performance Manager with strategic global responsibility for Organisational Development for 13,000 employees worldwide.

After almost 12 years at JCB, Heather moved on to a HRD role at Unipart Manufacturing Group followed by a Global HRD Operations role at RICS. She also worked as HRD at NHS Supply Chain before taking up her current role with GEOAmey in August 2020. 

 

Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?

I didn’t intend my career to be in HR. In fact, I worked in several different jobs, including a role I hated at a life insurance company before I requested to transfer into the HR department. I was quite late to the party – I got my HR qualifications around the age of 30. 

At that time the HR landscape wasn’t specialised, you had to be able to do everything – law, resourcing, development, relations, the whole kit and kaboodle . I’ve always been outgoing and enjoyed interacting with people and I was attracted by the idea of HR as a role where your time is spent developing and helping people. In hindsight, that was a little naive, I didn’t realise the level of administration and challenge that also comes with the job. 

After getting my qualifications, I moved into the manufacturing sector. At the time, I’d never been into a factory, never dealt with unions and didn’t know what a shift pattern was. Happily, I discovered that my heart lies in that kind of gritty industry, and the manufacturing sector is where I’ve spent the majority of my time since.

As I progressed my career, I moved into more generalist roles. In my current role as HRD for GEOAmey I’m part of the executive board so it’s a very generalist position. 

 

Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector?

Recruitment is a nightmare at the moment. I see all these news reports about drivers going back to Europe and the number of vacancies there are , but it’s a bit of a mystery to me where all the labour is. Trying to access the talent pool and get the right people at the right level is really hard, I think that’s the case for every sector. 

Another challenge is trying to ensure that diversity and inclusion are embedded in practice, and they are not just listed as company values. I think there is a generational element to this, in that some people want to continue doing what they’re always been doing, even if it’s not acceptable, so part of this involves winning over people’s hearts and minds. 

The pandemic is obviously a challenge, and in my current and recent roles our  people are key workers so that’s been really hard going for people. As we begin to come out of it, it’s almost no different because our work never stopped. 

A related challenge is the responsibility of organizations to proactively support people with their mental health. People aren’t only dealing with their mental health; in many industries, like mine, they’re dealing with other people’s mental health challenges as well. The pandemic and the various stresses that came with it have massively impacted most industries, either by slowing them down or stopping them or by significantly increasing demand its been a feast or a famine. . Linking that back to recruitment, people are valuing their time more, which means that the additional benefits a role offers – especially flexible working – are increasingly important, and if your industry isn’t able to offer that, it’s an added snag to hiring. 

Lastly, I’ll add digitization. Historically, the HR profession wasn’t overly digital and now we are trying to guide other people and other departments to do things digitally. At GEOAmey we are doing our first digital engagement survey this year. They’ve always been on paper before, so that will be an interesting test to see how people respond. I think it will be a challenge for some people, but digital is the way the world is quickly going. 

What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career?

Be honest, because that’s what people want to hear. If something is wrong, then you need to say it is wrong – respectfully. Build really good relationships with people so you can be honest with them, and develop the skills to help others to see different perspectives. I think the credibility of our profession is in being the moral compass of an organisation, but we do that by finding solutions, not by being a blocker to what the business needs or wants to achieve. It’s about finding a pragmatic, and commercially viable way to do the right thing. 

Secondly, be brave. I often use the phrase ‘put on your brave pants’ and tell my team to take a breath, then do it. As a leader, being brave also means acknowledging that you don’t know everything, I think HR bosses – and especially women – put too much pressure on ourselves to know everything. One of my pivotal career moments was when a past boss admitted to me ‘I don’t know’. It made it okay for me not to know certain things, and in turn that made it ok for my team also to ask for support and help. 

I’ve worked in different industries; some, like mental health, have been highly regulated, others like privately owned companies only have customers as external influences. My advice to other HR professionals who are going to change industry is to a) to learn about the new industry as quickly as you can and b) learn about the people, because ultimately HR is all about relationships and influencing the right decision and c) try to do something different so I sat on the board of a local charity a community bus service. A whole different set of challenges to the corporate world and different mindsets to work with but still about people and doing the right thing.

Its important to your own sense of self and personal wellbeing to join a company with whom your values line up and it doesn’t always happen and at that point make your choices – I have done this at times in the past  and it has brought me to a company whose first question is  “is it the right thing?” and if it is, we do it. That is such a rare thing to find. 

Finally, for me as a HR leader, the key is to find a way to let go and let your team do what they need to do. Sometimes that’s harder than other times! I think the phrase situational leadership is key and actually sometimes you need to have more governance then others. When I look back on my career, I wouldn’t change anything I’ve done, including the bits I got wrong, it’s all taught me something. I’m really grateful to all my companies for giving me the experiences I’ve had. 

Heather has been working as HRD at GEOAmey since August 2020. She is also a qualified executive coach. 

If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.