“Stick to your core values and beliefs at all times. If you really love people and the value they can bring to the business, keep that with you because there will be times when others in leadership challenge it.” – Anthony Green, Head of Global HR Processes at LSG Group 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 Anthony Green, who began his career in Operations at DHL Aviation, before moving into the HR side of the business in 1999. Inspired by his desire to make the workplace better for people, Anthony developed broad HR experience including comp & ben, L&D, strategy, policy and processes.
In 2003 Anthony became HR Director Europe, DHL Aviation, based in Brussels. Then in 2005, after 20 years with DHL, he moved to LSG Group as VP Human Resources UK where he stayed for 7 years before moving back into the operations side of the business as the Managing Director, Brussels. In 2014 Anthony returned to HR as Vice President Global People Development, based in Germany, before transitioning into his current role as Head of Global HR Processes in 2018.
Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?
It wasn’t my plan to enter into HR, in fact, when I left school I wanted to go into sport and be a PE teacher. At the time, I was working part time at DHL and since my A Level results didn’t come out the way I hoped I decided to pursue my career within operations at DHL. After a while I had the opportunity to move to one of DHL’s European hubs, but I didn’t take it because of how poorly the transfer opportunity was handled by HR. It was incredibly rushed and I remember stepping back and thinking, wow, if I got the chance I’d change the way things are done.
In 1995 I started working as the Operations Manager, DHL Aviation UK, responsible for the hub at East Midlands Airport. My style as a manager was highly concerned with people aspects; I was involved with training, interviews and I chaired the employee consultation committee. When my then boss asked me how I wanted to develop professionally, I realised that I’d grown up within the company getting involved in so many people focussed aspects, so I should probably consider HR. To cut a long story short, I started working towards my CIPD Diploma part-time and absolutely loved it. I’d found my niche.
After a few months of studying our HR Director announced she was leaving. She recommended me to replace her and that’s where my full time HR career really began. I wanted to do everything within my power to make DHL better in terms of its people, introducing best practices, and I was lucky because I had a great boss who let me get on with it.
After four years, I was promoted to take on the European Director role for DHL Aviation and I relocated to Brussels. My main project in that role was to take what I’d achieved with the management restructuring program in the UK and implement it on a wider scale across Europe. I did that for two years and then in 2005, after 20 years with DHL, I left to join LSG Group as VP of HR, back in the UK.
I think of all my roles that was the one I’ve enjoyed the most. It was a greenfield site with nothing in place and my job was to build the HR team and processes from scratch. It was really rewarding, but there were also challenges like working with unions for the first time.
When I joined LSG Group I thought, I’m never going to work at a company for as long as I did at DHL again, but 16 years later I’m still with them. Around 2012, the UK business was put into a joint venture with one of our competitors. There weren’t any senior HR roles available internally at the time, so I took the opportunity to go back to the operations side of the business and became Managing Director for Belgium. The size of the business there meant it was a great opportunity for learning and I developed new skills in procurement and finance.
In my two and a half years in that role a lot happened. There were strikes that went on for six months, we moved into a new area of business for LSG, and we acquired a competitor and had to overcome cultural differences, including which language was going to be spoken on the shop floor.
As much as I enjoyed going back to the operations side, my love was still HR and in 2014 I became the VP Global People Development based in Germany. This was a classic L&D role in charge of all learning, development, engagement and performance management.
After four years, it was time for another change and I became Head of Global HR Processes. A frequent frustration for me had been the lack of processes and SOPs, so when this opportunity came up I saw a real opportunity to make a positive impact. For the last three years I’ve been mapping the processes, policies and working closely with the legal team to create a governance structure. I also drive the strategic direction of our HR corporate team and it’s been really enjoyable looking at sustainability and other new aspects.
Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector?
There’s been major challenges over the last 18 months. The aviation and hospitality industry has probably been hit by the pandemic more than any other, we’ve had to lay off a lot of people globally. We’ve also had recruitment challenges, particularly in North America where I’m now trying to standardise the use of agencies and considering a total outsourced option.
The other major challenge is having to rethink our business. Over the last few years we’ve branched out beyond airline catering into train, hospital and care home catering. During this pandemic period we assessed what we had and created new businesses from it, for example working with companies like Deliveroo – so we cook the food in our kitchens, and they deliver it. Creating additional revenue streams that are closely linked to our main business has been very beneficial. In Miami we trialled creating our own food types like buffalo wings and now we’re looking at rolling that out, not just in the U.S. but globally.
What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career?
Stick to your core values and beliefs. If you really love people and the value they can bring to the business, keep that with you at all times. There will be times when it will be challenged by other leaders who don’t have people at the forefront of their agenda, but if you want to be a good HR person, always retain it.
My other advice is to get as broad an experience as possible within HR. It will make you a better HR generalist overall and you can add more value to whatever business you work for.
Anthony has over 30 years of experience with FMCG companies in Operations and HR. In his current role as Head of Global HR Processes at LSG Group he’s driving strategy and implementing best practices on a global scale.