“I believe that HR plays a critical role in enabling a culture of trust within organisations through learning and developing the self-esteem of its people, so playing our part in delivering commercial benefit rather than seeing ourselves as a support function. It’s a brilliant way to help people grow and if we’re not thinking about the commercials in the business then we’re not doing our job.” – Sue Swanborough, Human Resources Director at Europe Snacks Kolak, 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 Swanborough at Europe Snacks Kolak, who began her career in R&D and Operations roles at Boots Company Plc. In 1989, Sue joined Mars as a Production Manager and held various roles across Supply Chain before moving into her first HR roles, OD and L&D. Subsequently she became Head of HR for UK Snackfood.
In 2006, Sue moved to General Mills as HR Director UK & Ireland, where, after four years, she also took on responsibility for the Nordic Region. In 2015, she was promoted to HR Director for Northern Europe, a role she held for just under two years before joining Whitworths LTD as HR Director in 2017. Sue joined her current company, Europe Snacks Kolak as Human Resources Director in July 2020.
Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?
My move into HR was by chance. After studying Physics and Chemistry at Uni, I wanted to work for an organisation that would enable me to put my science into practice, so I joined Boots. My role involved applying science to the product lines and the people. One of my projects was to relocate part of our manufacturing from one facility to another. This involved starting up a new production line from scratch and I experienced first hand the importance of having the right leader and a team organised in the right way with the right skills to deliver the business requirements This prompted me to apply for a manufacturing manager role where I could apply this learning for myself.
Having held several roles in manufacturing at both Boots and Mars, I had the opportunity to manage a project looking at ways of working on our production lines. In effect, it was a strategic organisational development project and my first HR role, although it was still sitting under the supply chain at the time. Through the project, we looked at all aspects of the line operation – the people, roles, skills, development paths, remuneration, training etc. It gave me a great insight into many aspects of the role of HR. I enjoyed it immensely and was fortunate to be successful in becoming the manager for the manufacturing training team where I had the opportunity to put into practice some of the insights.
Why do I stay in HR? On my journey, having experienced a range of roles, I realised the importance of having an HR team who is both commercial and people focused. I could see the potential to make a difference to organisations.
What career defining moments cemented you as an HR professional?
When I became responsible for manufacturing training, I drew on the insights from the OD project I mentioned. I chose to refocus the team approach from training to learning. Everyone has an important role to play in learning and sharing together to deliver business results. My vision was to create an environment of trust where everyone shared their knowledge and expertise freely and we each released some of the untapped potential we all had within us to thrive and grow together.
I believe that HR plays a critical role in enabling a culture of trust within organisations through learning and developing the self-esteem of its people, so playing our part in delivering commercial benefit rather than seeing ourselves as a support function. It’s a brilliant way to help people grow and if we’re not thinking about the commercials in the business then we’re not doing our job.
This insight highlighted that HR was where I wanted my career to be. Following the L&D role, I moved into a business partnering role and completed my CIPD professional accreditation. Leaving Mars was the right decision for me, I had had a fantastic experience both as a manager and as an HR professional and I was ready to apply my learnings in a new context.
In 2006 I became HR Director for UK & Ireland at General Mills, which gave me almost a blank sheet of paper. The acquisition of Pillsbury in 2002 hadn’t been fully integrated into the organisation and a lot of basic things weren’t in place. For example, when I joined there was no HR system for the UK and Ireland, there was no clear grading or role structures. It felt like a real opportunity to step back and consider those things to focus on locally at the same time as working with the head office and to develop best practice. It was entrepreneurial and transformational which was very exciting.
That was another career defining moment for me, an opportunity to define our approach to culture and the transformation of our leaders, our people and most of all our HR function.
We talk a lot in HR about transformation. To me it doesn’t mean just implementing an organisational restructure, it means taking the time to really transform the business. That is my passion. I joined Whitworths to be part of the transformation journey there and later Europe Snacks Kolak to again work with the leaders on an exciting transformational programme.
Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector?
We can’t talk about HR without talking about the business. In common with organisations the world over, the big things that are impacting us currently include costs of materials, transport, energy, wages and continually looking for ways to drive the top and bottom lines. Internally, it’s about our productivity, how we manage our inventory in terms of supply chain, innovation, sustainability, and the efficiency in our business and ways of working.
From a HR point of view, we all face a significant challenge is recruitment and retention. The war for talent has probably never been this fierce. The employed population has reduced over the period of the pandemic and unemployment continues to fall meaning that retention is a key area for us all.
How do we do this? Finding different ways to understand and listen to our people through various employee voice initiatives. To support development, we’ve put in place a new L&D team that’s about understanding people, what they know about their role and the business. It’s early days but we’re getting some good results and feedback. We’ve put in place some of the basic pillars- an employee survey, a performance development cycle, career development pathways and getting even more serious about training.
Recognition is also important. How do we make people feel really great about what they’re achieving at work? How do we equip our managers to find new and different ways to recognise their people? Sometimes the small things can get lost as we are busy doing other things. HR isn’t rocket science, it’s about empathising with people, thinking about what they need and building on that. Together we can get to the right things.
Meeting the recruitment challenge starts with having the right organisation and then looking at alternative career entry points. Reputation is important for us because we’re a private label manufacturer, so most of our output is products for other retailers. We’re not a well-known brand name and so building our reputation externally presents more of a challenge. Both internally and externally we continue to work to create an organisation which people feel proud to belong to.
What career advice would you offer to someone either working towards a career like yours, or someone just getting started in their HR career?
Don’t think you have to have all the answers. The secret in HR can be about asking the right question, which is often more challenging. When you ask the right question, you’re building the capability of the people around you, managers and employees
Be open to learning and let values drive you. If I think back to pre-HR when I was in R&D or manufacturing, to make a decision you have to find the root cause of the issue. Not always easy but once you identify it the solution is often reasonably straightforward. When dealing with people and so any decision should be guided by values.
HR is an overhead so understand the commercial piece and how your business makes money. How can HR deliver value to stakeholders? What are the macroeconomic drivers? That doesn’t mean understanding the P&L to the nth level of detail, rather understanding the key economic drivers and the insight to enable growth. It’s important to look outside the business and learn from others. What aspects are there that could make sense if applied in your organisational culture. Curiosity and learning from others are important.
Finally, for anyone working in HR, think what am I here to do? My focus is to help everyone in our business, but primarily the leaders and senior managers, to be the best they can possibly be. I hold a mirror up to people and say, can I give you some feedback? I know that my intention is positive in terms of helping them be the best that they can be, there’s no other agenda. HR leaders are a critical support role for managers and leaders.
Sue has been working as Human Resources Director at Europe Snacks Kolak since July 2020 and has over thirty years’ HR experience within the FMCG sector.