“COVID has held a mirror up to us and made us realise that we don’t have to continue in the same way. It’s such a different world and there’s an opportunity to do things differently now.” – Ant Perfect, Senior Talent Development Partner at The Very 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 Ant Perfect at The Very Group who began his HR career as a Skills Coordinator at E.ON UK, later transitioning to the roles of Learner Progress Manager and Pathways & Professional Development Manager. In March 2014, Ant became L&D Coordinator – Apprenticeships at Severn Trent Water where he stayed for two years before becoming L&D Specialist at Blue Sky Assessing & Consultancy Ltd. In July 2016, Ant took on the role of L&D business partner at Costain Group Plc.
Ant joined the Fraikin Group in March 2017 where he worked for over five years, in the roles of L&D Manager and Group Talent and Learning Director. In October 2021 he took up his current position as Senior Talent Development Partner at The Very Group.
Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?
I stumbled into HR in many respects, or rather L&OD found me. I began my career on a youth training scheme in retail, working through various roles until I held a management position. At that stage, I took some time out to do an MBA which has a strong HR bias.
What does HR actually mean in real terms? Ultimately, what resonated for me was HR as the opportunity to help people get better at what they do. I always had an interest in both what people learn and how they learn it, but I returned to retail and effectively parked that interest. For years I was keen on looking into HR but never motivated enough to make the leap.
That changed when I was working as a business development advisor for a training provider in the Midlands. I was finding placements for 16-18 year olds, and seeing the development of young people lit a fire in me. After that role, I moved to another independent training provider based at Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, which became part of E.ON UK.
My role was to conduct progress reviews with learners on the mechanical and engineering apprenticeship run by this particular provider. What really interested me was seeing their growth in knowledge and in behaviour. For example, from being okay with maths, to understanding the complex calculations they needed to use for work with specific pieces of equipment. I saw the impact that we had on people’s learning and how that helped them to traverse through their career choices.
When that particular provider was purchased by E.ON and we became the engineering academy, I became the progress manager, managing a team of assessors looking after the apprentices. The responsibility for graduates was merged into my role and after a while I had responsibility for professional development generally within engineering at E.ON.
It was a whole new role and I was really inspired. That was when I realised that this is me, and this is what I want to do. My boss was a strong mentor and I am indebted to his tutelage. Along with my innate curiosity I like to influence, so the areas of learning and development were a natural fit for me.
Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector?
The pandemic has forced us to look at things in a different way, to work from home and to find creative ways to continue developing our people and our business. At the end of the day we’re talking about commercialism – helping our businesses to achieve increased profits for the business. Having impactful learning for the individual is crucial, but it goes beyond that to the betterment of the business. I think when we were all forced into our homes it made it difficult to look at learning from a bottom line perspective.
How we learn in a post-pandemic world is very challenging. In Nick Shakleton Jones’ 2019 book, How We Learn, he called for taking a step back and really examining the value in education and that resonated powerfully with me.
The phrase ‘blended learning’ has never been more appropriate than it is now. I think the pandemic has made us less patient and less tolerant of going into a training room or an online session with a group of other people. The pace has quickened exponentially and now it’s about playing to individual strengths by asking, how do those individuals learn and what do they need in order to be able to develop and contribute to the bottom line of the organisation? I see figuring out how we do that as being the single biggest challenge of the moment.
COVID has held a mirror up to us and made us realise that we don’t have to continue in the same way. It’s such a different world and there’s an opportunity to do things differently now.
What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career?
I think it’s powerful to have some grounding, so for someone just starting out in their HR career I recommend the generalist route to get experience and understand key principles. That does not in any way replace the need to be incessantly curious about yourself and your own growth in that role.
For someone looking to move into a leadership capacity, be cognisant of the needs of the people on your team in terms of both their development and the benefit to the business they’re in. If you do that, then you’re already on that leadership journey.
Also, focus on the ability to manage and engage with stakeholders across the business in a clear and concise way. If you want to be in a senior role, you’ve got to be able to engage with the right people at the right time, and be able to influence them. Be curious but also push back, and do it in a humble way.
Ant has thirteen years of experience within Learning and Organisational Development and has been responsible for the creation of multiple organisation-wide strategies and interventions.