“I believe the world has now woken up to the value that expertise in organisational development can bring… The world of work is changing, but we haven’t haven’t had enough time yet to reflect on what’s happened, and what’s still happening.” – Sue Round, Head of Social Mobility, Inclusion and Belonging at Co-op, 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 Sue Round at Co-op, who began her career as a flight attendant at BA before moving into a cabin crew training role. In 2000 she became Learning and Development Manager at Logicom, later joining Three as a Sales Training Manager and O2 as Head of Retail Training.
In 2004, Sue became Head of L&D at Marks and Spencer where she spent two years before joining Sainsbury’s as Head of Learning, Development and Talent Management. In 2008 she joined British Gas as Director of Learning & Development, Engagement and Talent. She spent eight years working for BP, beginning in the role of Head of Talent and later transitioning to HRVP Talent, Diversity and Inclusion, Leadership and Learning.
Alongside her training work, Sue obtained qualifications in Advanced Organisational Design, Myers Briggs, Firo and other psychometric testings. She holds a Masters in Strategic Organisational Development and a Doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring.
Sue has her own coaching and consulting business called Round Coaching and Consulting and is a partner in Lodestar Talent. Since April 2021 she has been working on an interim basis as Head of Social Mobility, Inclusion and Belonging at Co-op.
Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?
I began my working life as a cabin crew with BA and after a time I became involved in training for them. It was a well-trodden career path at BA and a brilliantly functioning training organisation and so I was lucky to gain excellent grounding. Part of the role was training different teams to work together, which is so important from a safety point of view. A lot of it was around communications and teamwork. I learned about delivery and design and about helping people to reach their potential
I really loved that work, although at the time I didn’t know what the other related possibilities were. In 1998 I took voluntary redundancy, took the plunge and began working freelance in training. I began my CIPD and, when I finished, the instructor suggested a Masters in Strategic Training Development at Surrey University. To my amazement and delight I got on to the programme, which I completed while juggling my freelance portfolio and three young children.
Eventually I moved back in the house. My next roles were in telecommunications at Three and O2 where I started gaining qualifications in psychometrics. My career continued to grow from there and in 2004 I began heading up L&D at Marks and Spencer.
At that time, talent wasn’t a very well defined discipline and I picked it up as part of my role. In later positions, I also took on other areas including succession planning, talent development and later, diversity and inclusion. Now, I manage my own consultancy alongside an interim post as Head of Social Mobility, Inclusion and Belonging.
Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector?
I believe the world has now woken up to the value that expertise in organisational development can bring, and I include in that all the pillars I mentioned above. I believe that things need to be connected, it’s difficult to do any of them well in isolation. Now, perhaps because of a labour shortage, businesses also really understand the value of their people. The world of work is changing, but we haven’t haven’t had enough time yet to reflect on what’s happened, and what’s still happening.
The challenges now are knowing where to focus. Where should you spend your time to have the most impact? Organisations are having to shift and think more about their impact on society as a whole. As a result of this I think they’re becoming more open minded. Not all businesses are in the same place, but some are moving towards the spiral dynamics concept, where organisations evolve to become less about winning and more about community.
What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career?
Speak out, be brave enough to call out things that are biased or incorrect. Take opportunities when they’re there and never think you always know the answer – keep curious and be open-minded. Take your work seriously but don’t take yourself too seriously
For someone stepping up to a senior level, my advice is keep your hand in. It’s great to be leading a large team of people, discussing budgets, delegating work and having impact, but don’t let yourself become too removed from the real work.
Finally, don’t forget to develop yourself. In HR, we shoulder a lot for other people but taking care of ourselves is important. If anyone is thinking about taking on their own academic studies while working, my advice is to keep going with it. Learning how to learn and how to structure your thinking was immensely helpful to me. My masters helped me to think more strategically about the work I’m doing and my doctorate was a labour of love – I had to dig deep and learn to get through the pain barrier, but it definitely stretched my brain.
Sue runs Round Coaching and Consulting as a partner in Lodestar Talent and is currently undertaking an interim role as Head of Social Mobility, Inclusion and Belonging at Co-op. She holds a doctorate in Coaching and Mentoring from Oxford Brookes University Business School. In April 2021 she joined the board of the CIPD