As part of our commitment to support candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited HR Leaders from a wide variety of organisations to share their insights on building a career, the challenges they face and what advice they would share with those hoping to follow in their footsteps.
This week, we had a great conversation with George Stone, Director of HR at telecoms solutions provider, Shields. George, despite only being in his teens then, found his passion for HR while working in hospitality.
Can you tell us how you got into HR?
I always had an ambition to be a teacher when I was younger. In hindsight, it was probably because of three things: I wanted the opportunity to stand up and talk and to have an impact; you manage people to get the best out of them in the classroom; and lastly, just having the genuine passion to help people develop and improve themselves.
So while in secondary school when I was about 16 years old, I got a part-time job at Topgolf, a sports entertainment venue. That opportunity catapulted me into employment. It was a transitional stage for me, and I realised that education wasn’t really where I wanted to be at that time in my life. And although I wanted to be a teacher, it was never really the style of learning that worked for me.
I transitioned to working full-time at Topgolf. In my first year I became a leader of a team of around 17 people, and I started initiatives that made a difference to people. I realised that people management is similar to teaching; I was a coach and a teacher just to different people. I had a very operational career for the next six years at Topgolf. I was dealing with everything from finance to sales, marketing and day-to-day operations. Ultimately, I believe that you have to get the people right for the business to go well.
Topgolf had massive success whilst I was there and grew quite quickly. When I joined we had around 35 people that worked in the venue, and when I left six years later, we had 250. And those numbers were replicated across the three venues at the same time. Suddenly, the volume of things I was doing people-wise increased. This was probably a massive advantage for me. Someone could work in HR for five years and maybe do a hundred interviews. And there I was doing a hundred interviews per week, not to mention the challenging chats, and all those development conversations.
After working for Topgolf, I wanted something different. I found this opportunity with the pub and hotel company Youngs & Co Brewery in London. I was brought in to help because some of their larger acquisitions had larger workforces. However, the role wasn’t for me. It was a bit too operational than what I wanted. After about a year, I started to figure out that I’m better at dealing with people strategically.
I managed to land an opportunity with Shields. They’e been around for 40 years, have a hundred and twenty staff, and operate internationally. They had just opened entities in France and Spain at the time. But they were small teams of three or four people and did not have an HR team. Senior leaders at Shields have an average of 10 to 20 years tenure, and I was coming in probably 20 years junior to everybody else. I had to transition the business and start the people process almost from scratch. It included managing employment contracts to our recruitment strategy, learning and development, curriculums for e-learning, engagement policies, data and analytics and diversity. Fortunately, I was able to apply the high-volume knowledge that I had learned and am enjoying the journey.
What challenges are you currently facing?
I think that a big topic for employers at the minute is how they are identifying talent – where they are looking and what they are looking for.
It goes back to our point about work experience. Working the same year 10 times is not the same as having 10 years experience. Reading between the lines is a lost art when it comes to identifying key talent and that has to change. At the present, we are in a market where candidates can interview with five companies they are interested in and they get to pick the best ones that suit them. Now their decision is impacted by what the company stands for and how it treats its people. You don’t want to miss great talent just because their CV isn’t great or because they don’t come from the right industry. You need to find people who are passionate about what they are doing and show great growth and transferable skills, which reflects more that they’re going to succeed.
When you think about all of the greatest achievers, the great CEOs and business leaders that have done amazing things over the last 50 years, would you have snapped them up when you were 20 years old and they didn’t have anything yet? What were they like back then? Or what did their principles look like?
Instead of looking for someone to fit into a certain role, look for passionate people to join the organisation. You, as the business, should let them do the jobs you tasked them with. And if that keeps failing for you, it’s clearly an identification issue. You’re picking the wrong people.
What advice would you give to those planning to pursue an HR career?
I was very lucky when I was younger, at about 17 or 18 years old, I had a great mentor. Hopefully, everybody can find their mentor at least once in their career because these people are not always easy to come by. Also, making mistakes is not a problem. The problem is when you continue to make the same mistake over and over and do nothing to adjust or change. But if it’s the initial mistake, I would never blame anybody for the first mistake. The passion and the leap of faith that it takes are far more impressive than the results in most cases.
I’ve had responsibilities that I had never had previously but I had the courage to just go in and do it. Honestly, I didn’t get it right the first time. But that allowed me to shape how I could do that in the future. It’s not easy. If it was easy, everybody would do it. And it is twofold because it fits into the fact that failure is okay. Be confident to try something. Moving forward is better than standing still.
George has gained his skills and expertise throughout his 11-year career, from
entertainment to hospitality and now, to telecommunications. George joined Shields in 2020 as its Global Head of HR, and became the firm’s Director of HR after a year, in April 2021.
If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or
would like support in growing your team, please get in touch today.