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Author name: amy@recruithuman.co.uk

“It’s important to find whatever it is that you’re passionate about – find your hook and go after it”. Michelle Hartley, HR Director at Multivac UK.

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As part of our commitment to supporting candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we talked to Michelle Hartley, HR Director at Multivac UK. We asked Michelle to give us some insights into her diverse HR career, which includes roles in a range of industries such as Fast Food, Financial Services, Healthcare and Manufacturing. Michelle began her journey working at Pizza Hut while studying, and rose through the ranks eventually getting involved in Training. She received her Master’s in Human Resource Management while working at Synergy Health. Michelle has been HR Director at Multivac since 2013. Can you tell us how you got into HR? ‘Many moons ago, I started working at Pizza Hut alongside my studies. It was waitressing, and then I decided the best thing to do would be to have a career at Pizza Hut and worked my way through management. It was brilliant.’ ‘I always say to people who worry about how to build a career, businesses like Pizza Hut and retail businesses will always throw a load of development at you. So if you’re ever not sure about what to do, I always recommend to pursue things like that because you’ll actually get all of the opportunities you could ever possibly imagine.’ ‘As I went through all the management development there, I attended a session with the  area trainer and basically I fell in love with HR from there. At the time I remember thinking ‘Oh my God, people do this for a career. How does that even happen?!’” ‘So that started me off thinking about HR and people and business and how it could work. I decided to leave Pizza Hut and took a massive pay drop to go from management in retail to an admin role in an office.’ ‘I’ve worked across a number of different industries now, and every single one is very different and unique in its own way. But good HR practices are similar across industries, and I quite like being able to see how my skills can fit into other business industries and different opportunities.’ Did you ever come across any objection about your lack of industry experience when interviewing for a new role? ‘I think the biggest jump was probably when I went from admin in Bristol Community Sport through to financial services. But actually what they were interested in at the time was the training skills that I could bring. It was almost like HR was the bit on the side that wasn’t as important or interesting to them.’ ‘I’ve also had a bit of a theme. When I worked at Isotron, which was acquired by Synergy Health, it was a healthcare services provider, and I think I was of interest to Spire Healthcare because of the healthcare link. And I believe I was interesting to TE Connectivity because they had a healthcare arm, so there were a few small connections.’ ‘You’ve got to make your own connections.  I had a very definite goal when I moved to TE. I wanted to move into the manufacturing business because I wanted to see what it’s like to work for a business that actually made something instead of selling something. I think as an individual going into an interview, it’s important that you find your hook with why you want it, because if you get the challenge from your interviewer, you’ve then got your answer straight away and in my experience, people value that, and like to see you make a connection with their business.’ ‘TE had the biggest reservation because I didn’t have manufacturing experience. I think what they were concerned about was that I could have been too corporate. But having come through it now, it actually was a really good fit and I had a great time when I was there.’ What was it about HR that made it your career of choice? ‘I think I’ve always loved HR. Even from my Pizza Hut days when I was doing store management, I even loved the disciplinary and grievance side of things, and the recruitment piece. As my career has progressed, it’s been more about the strategic impact and the transformational aspect of HR. Initially, it was about the transactional side of things, problem solving, efficiency and admin. But as I’ve moved on and up, it’s been more about, “Why are we doing that?” and “How does that fit with our values?” and “How are we delivering revenue from this?”’ What challenges and key themes in HR are you or your peers facing at the moment? ‘The uncertainty around Brexit is just horrendous, and I think that will be a big challenge for us in our business and for our customers. In terms of HR trends, we would have challenges around engineering no longer being seen as a sexy career. What we find is that it’s always a challenge to find good quality engineers. We tend to look more outside of the food industry and go around looking at the right behavioural fit with our culture. We’ll go with complementary industries, rather than the immediate industry that we’re in. ‘ ‘It would be great to see more engineers coming through, but particularly in Swindon where we are, there’s not a great investment in engineering careers and studies’. ‘The standard challenge that I see from a lot of my peers, and internally here, is working with management development, and increasing competence and confidence within our managers to deliver more every day. Years ago, managers wouldn’t have to manage in the way that they do now, so it’s a big change for everybody. Trying to wrestle managers out of their day job to come and have good solid training and development is really difficult. We try and do great things around e-learning, conference calling and video conferencing. I do fully believe that the value added management training is great, but it’s really hard to wrestle people

“It’s important to find whatever it is that you’re passionate about – find your hook and go after it”. Michelle Hartley, HR Director at Multivac UK. Read More Âť

“…be clear on what you want to get out of the profession, because it is everything to everyone”. Alan Taylor, Director of HR Transformation speaks to us about his career in HR Leadership.

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As part of our commitment to supporting candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Alan Taylor, Director of HR Transformation and former interim Group HR Director at DS Smith. Alan also worked at DENSO for over 10 years as HR Manager and Head of HR and Information Systems for their UK site in Telford and held the role of Senior Manager for Internal Communications and Employee Engagement for their European operations. Can you tell us how you got into HR and why? “After I left university, I got a job as a temp in an HR Admin role within an engineering company in my local town. My first assignment was to process 350 appraisals. The company didn’t know how to attack the processing and visualisation of training needs within its workforce. Ultimately, the team there liked what I had done for them and offered me the role of Human Resources Development Officer. From there, they supported me in acquiring my CIPD and my career progressed from here”. Prior to getting in to HR, Alan completed a degree in Marine Biology – which could be argued to be as far removed from HR as it can be. Alan explained how he’d applied the skills he learnt at university to his new career in HR. “The science-based skills I developed at university gave me a strong background in data and pattern analysis, which are key elements of some HR dimensions. At the time, I was working for a company that was focused on powder metallurgy, which is the production of metal components from powders instead of machining it from bars and chunks of metal. Having studied science, it was immediately interesting to me. In fact, it was that scientific orientation that led me into a lifetime career in manufacturing”. Can you tell me about the challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector? “We see the same challenges as any other global company. We’re rapidly growing. We’ve just completed a number of acquisitions over the past few years, and our organic growth is significant. Therefore, it is important to satisfy our customer in terms of demand. As a result, we see consequences for resourcing, organisation design, and judging when to add the fixed costs you need to support your growth. You don’t want to put it in ahead of the curve, but you also don’t want to be behind. So, growth is a significant challenge”. “The increasing confidence in digital technology is also a generational issue for everybody across the industry. We’re always looking to leverage technology, enhance people’s digital skills, and drive efficiencies in the administrative back office environment. These are key priorities given our history as a decentralised organisation, which has now grown to a point where we can no longer work like that.” “Another challenge for many in the industry is mobility and working and developing successful international teams. Currently my boss is in Chicago and my management colleagues are located across the globe. I’ve got plants from San Francisco to New Zealand, and everywhere in between.” How do you drive performance across borders? “It’s all about getting the best out of your business, and the only way you can do that is getting the best out of your people. None of it is rocket science, but none of it is easy because people are independently minded and need to be taken on a journey. Creating culture and change doesn’t happen overnight. Ultimately, creating an environment with a team in Thailand or in Kent requires consistent and sustainable engagement.” “So, the key to creating a self-sustaining culture is time. Over the course of my career, I’ve learnt you don’t always get there. The ultimate challenge of working with people is you’re never finished, it’s never good enough, but you can have a lot of fun along the way. You can also have a lot of success. But there are no quick fixes when you’re working with teams, whether they’re sat with you or located across the globe”. 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’m fortunate enough to mentor a number of people within the HR community, both inside and outside of work.  People go into HR for very different reasons, but I think centrally it is important to be clear on why you are in HR”. “HR done well can have a huge influence on the business. You can have a highly diverse role where every day is different and you’re working in a strategic, as well as operational capacity. If you want to have a people-centred role, then HR is a great career path”. “It can also be quite a difficult career path because you’re servicing so many different stakeholders. You’re supporting employees and you are potentially responsible for responding to the entire workforce. From the CEO to colleagues working on the shop floor, you are responding to them as the ‘company’. You’ve got management colleagues who look to you for support. You’ve got the communities in which you operate who look to you as the company. They want to understand what you and the company are doing to improve green spaces and employment levels in their communities. And you’ve got the Board and shareholders who look to you as a function to add shareholder value by driving business performance”. “For me, HR is multi-dimensional. Therefore, as you go into the function you need to start thinking about which parts of it you’re interested in. Do you want to be a specialist? Do you want to be a generalist? And what bits of it do you like doing? Where do you find job satisfaction? It is about playing to your strengths. There’s a role for those people that are focused on people and their development. There are roles for those who

“…be clear on what you want to get out of the profession, because it is everything to everyone”. Alan Taylor, Director of HR Transformation speaks to us about his career in HR Leadership. Read More »

Don’t let your team be the Cobbler’s Children. Colin Haswell speaks to us about effective HR Leadership in 2019.

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As part of our commitment to supporting candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Colin Haswell, former Regional HR Director for EMEA at Rolls Royce. Colin assumed many different HR directorship roles at Rolls Royce over the span of 18 years. He also worked at Rover Group for over 15 years and in his final role was HR Director at BMW’s Oxford Mini Plant. How did you get into HR? “I went straight into it from University. I was in my second year in the middle of a degree in history and politics. I certainly didn’t want to be a teacher, which was the classic thing, and I didn’t want to continue studying into an advanced Master’s etc. So, I went into the university’s career service and I read up on everything they had to offer in the non-technical sphere and concluded that HR most closely matched what I was most interested in”. “I suspect it was because I was studying politics at the time and I was very interested in the way that power and organisations worked to produce results. I thought that’s what HR was – sitting in the middle of the organisation trying to work its way through various stakeholders to produce the best solutions for the business.  I felt like I had a good analytical mind. I felt I could relate to different levels of people within organisations.  I had strong analytical skills and breadth of thought, which would enable me to look at things and come up with ideas and approaches that perhaps others couldn’t. I saw HR as a way of doing that”. What kept you engaged with HR throughout your career? “It was the variety of what I was doing. I did a whole range of things working with very clever and able people mainly in supply chain and engineering. Rover was always in the news at the time. You felt you were really at the heart, the forefront of what was going on in the business”. “The car industry is a bit like a bug. It bites you. You really get wound up in it and it becomes part of you. The factories are buzzing. The engineering stuff is amazing. I used to look after the styling studio and to see those concepts becoming reality was so fascinating. I know it sounds a bit corny. You sort of fall in love with it really”. “I get very attached to what I’m doing and what the business is looking to achieve. What Rolls Royce does is phenomenal from a purely technical perspective. And I don’t just mean in terms of aerospace, but also the marine, energy, and nuclear stuff they are doing. They are operating at the leading edge of what’s possible in terms of engineering, manufacturing, etc. So, I was pulled into what we were doing like a magnet, and you do get into all of that”. “With Rolls Royce I started doing something akin to what I did in Rover/BMW. I then worked in organisational development and talent. I led an HR transformation programme. I’ve did a lot of UK centric work before I joined Rolls Royce and have grown my international experience since then. Through the various businesses and activities that I was involved with, I gained a good global overview of what works for HR in different situations, in different businesses and in different cultures. And that’s what kept me there for that length of time”. What kind of key skills do you think are important in a successful HR leadership role? “I think you have to split it into two. One bit of it is doing the actual doing the HR stuff with the business. And I think the number one the thing for me is you’ve got to have credibility, and business savvy, and accessibility to senior leaders within an organization. If you haven’t got that, you’re lost, you can’t progress any further. And that’s why people tend not to succeed not because they haven’t got the technical ability, it’s because they haven’t got the credibility and they haven’t built the relationships that they need with senior leaders in the business. For me that’s the number one thing”. “The business knowledge and so on, it’s linked to the first bit and it helps the credibility. But you’ve got to be interested in what’s going on in your part of the business and have knowledge at a level that you can understand what it all means, so you can contribute more broadly on top of just the HR remit”. “I think what has evolved is the focus on analytics and it will continue to evolve even more in my career. I think that’s become a real big thing within HR. So, the ability to look at situations and be clever about the key pieces of information, data, and other things that are going on, and being able to stand back and put the whole thing together into a cohesive story or approach is vital”. “Part of that is the pure analytical metrics. But that’s not the whole story. You’ve got to be able to use that within what’s going on the softer side of business. You need to have the ability to think systemically and put the two things together to start to come up with solutions or ways of supporting what the business needs to do”. “I think being able to act as an advisor or coach around change is also quite critical now. It took me a while to realize, but the work I used to do in my early career in employee relations was a form of classically applied change management.  And therefore, supporting the business and having the skills to nudge things forwards from a business point of view is vital.  Linked to that is having the right people on the talent side, because they’re

Don’t let your team be the Cobbler’s Children. Colin Haswell speaks to us about effective HR Leadership in 2019. Read More »

“Be willing to take a risk” Maria Manion, Chief Executive at Watford BID talks to us about Leadership in 2019

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As part of our commitment to adding value beyond the connection, we have been speaking with CEO’s, COO’s and HR leaders across the UK. We wanted to understand more about how they developed careers, the challenges they face and how they have achieved their success. This week, we spoke with Maria Manion, Chief Executive at Watford BID. We asked Maria a few questions about her current leadership role and to offer some insight into the sector. Maria was a Regeneration Manager for different district and city councils, and was most recently Town Centre Manager of the Watford Borough Council before setting up and heading Watford BID. What would you say were the three most important leadership capabilities to be a successful leader in 2019? “Creativity and being open. Sometimes you can get bogged down in process, but you can always do something if you really want to just by being a bit more creative about your approach.” “I think sometimes it’s about an intuitive understanding of the environment that you’re working in. And I do think that’s an undefined thing that leaders tend to have. It’s intuitive adaptability. It’s almost like being a chameleon.” “The third one is to be quite flexible, innovative and not to be scared. I think fear actually cripples a lot of people. Be willing to take a risk” What challenges are you facing from a leadership capacity? Are you seeing any changes taking place from a leadership or recruitment point of view? “This is a very hands-on organization. It’s only a small team. We’re quite limited on the salaries that we offer, which means that we have to really look at people who love the job more than the money.” “I think recruitment is difficult, but that might be our proximity to London. We’re very close to London, but we’re not London. When I recruited for the Marketing Manager, I interviewed people who wanted to get out of London, and that was the wrong motivation for the post.” “We need to balance salaries and the demands of the business with the post and the individuals, ensuring the job is attractive to the right calibre of person – with the right motivations.” Watford BID started trading in 2016 with Maria at the helm. Maria will continue with her role until the end of BID’s five-year term. If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.

“Be willing to take a risk” Maria Manion, Chief Executive at Watford BID talks to us about Leadership in 2019 Read More »

“Always put your hand up and keep your eyes and ears open”. Helen Tindle, HR Director at Iceland talks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership in 2019

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As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to let us in on the secrets of their success. This week we had a great conversation with Helen Tindle, HR Director at Iceland. We asked Helen a few questions about her  career in HR.  Helen’s working life career began at Iceland having just returned from a year living and working in France. Like many HR professionals, Helen’s journey did not start in the HR field. Instead she entered Iceland as a Graduate Trainee  Helen was always interested in business. Having completed her degree in Business Studies with French Helen quickly moved into a role as a Buyer taking on more and more categories before moving across to Marketing. Helen spent a short stint away from Iceland but soon returned when Malcolm Walker took back control of the business in 2005 and brought his top team back with him, making it a place she wanted to work again Helen always made it clear she was ambitious and had more to give and when the opportunity arose, she achieved promotion after promotion. Like many HR professionals she didn’t carve a career out in HR but instead found a business she was passionate about and went about making a difference. We were keen to speak with Helen about her career and what she feels it takes to be a strong HR leader in 2019. What do you think is the key to being successful in an HR Leadership role? “You have to have high energy and high resilience. A strong leader is always looking to improve the service for the people you are supporting”. Helen references their commitment to continuous improvement and how her Senior Management team see their role as making themselves less and less needed over time:  . “It’s not HR’s job to broker a pay rise or resolve a basic grievance. It’s our responsibility to support managers to have effective conversations”. “You need to have determination to truly transform yourself. Processes and procedures are part of the day to day, but your own development is key”. We asked Helen what advice she would offer someone looking to develop a career in HR Leadership. “Always put your hand up and keep your eyes and ears open. Sometimes that’s what gets you noticed. Always offer to help, really commit and you will succeed”. Helen has been HR Director at Iceland for 6 years.  If you would like to have a confidential conversation about your career or would like to understand how Human can support you in growing your team, please get in touch today.

“Always put your hand up and keep your eyes and ears open”. Helen Tindle, HR Director at Iceland talks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership in 2019 Read More »

“People are complex but often the solution is simple” Michelle Wren, HR Director at Freedom Finance Ltd speaks to us about HR Leadership in 2019

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We’ve asked some Senior HR Leaders about their career and their current roles to inspire and inform future HR leaders. This week, we spoke to Michelle Wren, HR Director of Freedom Finance. Michelle started her HR career in 2006 as a Personnel & Development Officer for a leading property management company in Manchester.  Michelle received her graduate certificate in Human Resource Management from Salford Business School in 2011. We asked Michelle a few questions about HR leadership in 2019. What makes a successful HR Leader in 2019? I think it’s key to always remain very approachable and hands on. It’s important to be pragmatic and take a balanced view of the situation. I know what’s going on in the business, I understand what’s going on with our people and that’s not always directly related to the business. I am a big believer in not over complicating things and keeping them simple. Some issues can be tricky to overcome because you’re dealing with people and people are complex but often the solution is simple. You have to consider people’s emotions, their strengths, their weaknesses and their ambitions. Keeping it simple and understanding things from everyone’s perspective has really helped me support teams throughout my HR career. What led to you entering the HR field? I didn’t know what I wanted to do for a long while until I met a fabulous woman who sat me down around 15 years ago. It was then I was told everything on my CV pointed to HR. I had never thought of HR before this. I’ve preferred customer focused roles in the past. I really enjoy talking to customers and people, while remaining a proper level of distance. After that I went onto my CIPD level five within a smaller organisation of around 57 people. It was there that I built my HR career and I’m proud that a lot of things I put in place there are still in place. From there I was hooked! I loved seeing how HR protected the business and helped get the best out of people. It was a big learning curve for me, but it was exciting! What are the prevalent themes of challenges the organisation is facing with regards to HR? The biggest concern for us at the moment is recruitment. People are adapting and have changed their expectations of roles. Candidate attraction is a key theme for us at the moment. Employer branding is a big piece of this puzzle. We’re in competition with a lot of organisations. We recruit a lot of IT professionals, we’re finding that IT professionals want a lot of home working. So, we need to adapt to attract the top talent. We’re adopting flexi time and implementing some home working policies. How has Recruitment changed within Freedom? We changed how we approached recruitment back in 2014. We were heavily reliant on agency and agency costs were high. We now have an in-house recruiter and 90% of her role is Recruitment. We use various sources; Job Boards, LinkedIn, Social Media. But a key focus is internal recruitment. We do a lot of internal promotion. That’s something we’re very proud of. We have a good succession plan in place. The last time we looked at our internal development it was over 45%. So we promote our talent and develop them through the business which also supports our employer branding. We have a contact centre which is where much of our team enter the business. It’s a really good incubator for the business. I’m not sure that the contact centre like it; they keep losing people. But that should be something that they’re really proud of. It’s a lovely feeling, growing people. Michelle has been with Freedom Finance for over 4 years and leads the HR function. If you would like to have a confidential conversation about your career in HR or would like support in growing your team, please get in touch today.  

“People are complex but often the solution is simple” Michelle Wren, HR Director at Freedom Finance Ltd speaks to us about HR Leadership in 2019 Read More »

“Keep it simple and clear, keep close to the important things and be true to your values” Martin Farrow, CEO at Optalis talks to us about Leadership in 2019.

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In order to successfully inform and inspire business leaders of the future, we have been interviewing CEOs across a variety of industry sectors. Martin Farrow of Optalis is our most recent guest. As an individual who has spent time in a variety of Leadership roles in the corporate world, Martin’s views on leadership are influenced by his experiences and make for insightful advice for those looking to lead people in the future. How do you view your role as a leader? “The role of a leader can be split in three ways; the first is establishing the direction of travel.  It’s important to do that inclusively, you can’t just email the strategy out – people need to be engaged and involved from the get-go. The second is to ensure you have great people on board who are inspired to do amazing things. And the third is to make sure you’ve got the right culture. If you get the right culture, you’re going to get great people doing great things which combined will deliver your strategy. In an organisation the size of Optalis, how do you ensure that the culture is disseminated effectively? Making sure that my board has the same view and approach is absolutely key because what they can do is then make sure that our message, our values, our ethos emanates throughout the organisation. The Optalis leadership team is transparent and accessible; our desks are spread around the office – we don’t lock ourselves away in our own offices all day with the doors closed. What do you feel are important leadership capabilities for 2019? “You have to accept the fact that you don’t know everything so your first priority should be to develop your knowledge base by working with, and supporting talented people. As leader your task is to inspire people to do great things so it is incumbent on you to make sure they have everything they need – in terms of tools and information – to achieve their goals.” “One of the key challenges of leadership is relinquishing control and the hardest single part of this process is judging the right time to give them that responsibility. You have to give them the ability to excel, and support that, but it means you’ve got to be brave and not micro-manage them. You’ve got to make sure that you get that distance right”. What advice would you offer to someone looking to develop a career in Leadership? “Choose your boss and have a constant appetite to listen and learn. Work with great people and recognise that your job as a leader is about fulfilling the potential of those around you to be the best they can be. Build the strategy together so everyone is involved and don’t give up or be a friend of phrase ‘the problem is’. Finally, try every day to be inspired and be inspiring”. “Keep it simple and clear, keep close to the important things and be true to your values. I was told once that if you don’t start something or don’t finish something then you are in trouble. That’s good advice”. Martin has been with Optalis for almost 18 months and leads a team of over 700 to make a difference to nearly 5,000 customers across Windsor, Maidenhead, Wokingham and beyond. If you would like to have a confidential conversation about your career, please get in touch today.  

“Keep it simple and clear, keep close to the important things and be true to your values” Martin Farrow, CEO at Optalis talks to us about Leadership in 2019. Read More »

Using smart recruitment to secure the perfect candidate – who wasn’t even looking

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If you know anything about Human, you’ll know that we don’t sit around waiting for the perfect candidates to drop into our lap. You can’t in this climate, where unemployment is at its lowest rate and the choices for talented people are better than ever. We are proactive networkers and build relationships as part of our daily routines to ensure that when we are asked to fill a role we can look beyond the candidates who are already actively looking for a new job if that’s what we need to do. Take a recent example of a role we filled for The Sheffield College. They were looking for a data protection officer and had drawn blanks in their own search. At the time, the final implementation date for new data protection legislation GDPR had just passed, so we knew that many people who were contractors with that specialism would likely have just finished temporary roles. Using the networks we’d nurtured, we asked whether anyone had let go of a superstar who had recently completed a project for them and were surprised to be given the details of a direct report of one of our contacts who had revealed to his manager he was ready for a move, but hadn’t yet started looking. (There’s a whole other blog about being able to be honest with your boss about looking for another role!) Seb Smith turned out to be the star that The Sheffield College were looking for and we were able to connect them using our innovative recruitment platform, Human DNA™. Seb may not have been offered an interview if he’d applied with his CV in the traditional way. One example is that his job title and the stage he was at in his career didn’t reflect the level of skills and responsibilities he had in his current role. Human DNA™ negates these issues by making the recruitment process much more personal and demonstrating more than just an individual’s skills and experience. It shows more of the whole person behind the CV. This level of detail ensures not only the quality of the shortlist but also offer assurances that both parties are engaged and committed to the recruitment process. Human DNA™ allows us to: Profile both the role and the organisation to establish exactly what skills and behaviours being sought – This is a detailed approach, and includes ensuring that team dynamics will be balanced with any new recruit Profile candidates we judge may be suitable to see how well-matched to the role they are Create profiles of the top three candidates with pictures and a short introductory video so they can explain why they are interested in the role and a bit more about themselves Include a behavioural profile of the candidates alongside an executive summary written by us and their CV Showcase the candidates with the opportunity to add six facts about themselves – giving them a chance to show off their personality Assure the recruiter the candidates can meet their standards by posing six competency-based questions that the candidates answer in writing. This also allows them to assess spelling and grammar as well as potential skills and knowledge Ask up to five questions by video which the candidates have a limited amount of time to answer. This shows how they perform under pressure, as well as being another opportunity to show off their skills and knowledge The whole system works online so those shortlisting can work independently, sharing comments and feedback with one another remotely and removing the need to synchronise diaries for extensive shortlisting sessions. Our smart recruitment process gave The Sheffield College the confidence to look beyond Sebastian’s experience and job title to see the real skills, knowledge and aptitude he could bring to the role. It also gave Seb the confidence to go for an interview knowing he had been screened in depth and that the organisation was seriously interested in him. Our rigorous process means that face-to-face interviews have much more value, being more like a second interview as all of the basics have been covered remotely, with a much-reduced time investment for both candidate and recruiter. Sebastian says: “The personal touch of HumanDNA was pivotal to me securing my role with The Sheffield College. It’s nearly impossible to get an understanding of someone’s personality through a conventional CV and it’s amazing to see Human utilising the times we are living in through video interviews and the Human DNA™ platform in general. It’s something I’ve never seen or heard of before. I would not have been aware of the role at The Sheffield College if Amy hadn’t reached out to me. She seemed to have a perfect understanding of exactly what the College were looking for. It’s always beneficial if the company and the recruiter are on the same page and in this instance it worked perfectly.” Paul Simpson Executive Director of HR and OD at The Sheffield College said: “Finding the right match for our Data Protection Officer had been challenging, in part because we ideally wanted not just a technical specialist but someone who could successfully communicate and engage with others on Data Protection matters. “Amy understood our requirements and through talking to her and through Human DNA ™ we had a good shortlist of candidates to interview and were delighted to appoint Seb to the role.” If you think Human DNA™ could help you recruit or find a new job, give one of the friendly team a call.

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“Make sure you have enough people in your team who will disagree with you”. Eric Hollanders, CEO of Bank Mendes Gans.

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As part of our commitment to adding value beyond the connection, we have been speaking with CEO’s, COO’s and HR leaders. We wanted to understand more about how they developed careers, the challenges they face and how they have achieved their success. This week, we spoke with Eric Hollanders, CEO of Bank Mendes Gans, part of the ING Group. How did you develop a career in Leadership? “When you start working you can be relatively ambitious, and I certainly was. Earlier in my career I was asked, ‘what would you like to end up doing?’ and my answer was, ‘well I’d love to be CEO at some point’. At the time that was half a joke, but also half serious. Ultimately, if you work in a large company and you’re doing well, they will present you with interesting opportunities”. For Eric it was always more about the content of the role and where the role was located rather than heading for a Leadership role. “I really wanted to have an international career. I decided I wanted to study abroad and do a bit of travelling. I wrote a memo to the head of the international division of the Belgian bank to say I’d really love to go and work abroad in New York. It seemed like a good spot. As things turned out they had just decided to start a program for exchanges of short-term assignments and they said, ‘Well you have a good profile. You’re the first one to stick up your hand, off you go’.” Imagine there was an HR Director or HR Business Partner that was looking to get into a C suite role in the next five, seven or ten years. What competencies do you think are most important for them to develop these days? “It’s important you mentioned ‘these days’ because over the years it has changed a lot. From being really hierarchical to the matrix environment and now a more agile organisation. For me being able to adapt to a matrix and agile environment is key. It’s a lot about influencing other people. You can have a lot of competing interests and they’re all not necessarily clearly articulated. So, unless you know the organisation very well and you can understand what motivates people, it can be very difficult”. This is where Eric believes a high level of empathy is important. “HR professionals can occasionally fall in to the trap of being driven by efficiency and effectiveness. It becomes all about cost and eventually you have efficient organisations which are not necessarily effective”. “Being quite quick to understand people and the business is also key to being an effective leader. It’s very important to understand the dynamics and the teams; being able to mould the teams in such a way that they are actually effective and have a shared ambition is important. It’s very important to make sure that you have enough people who are willing to put up their hands and disagree with you. If they disagree for the good reasons that adds real value to your role. If not for the good reasons, then of course you should be in a position to understand their motives and communicate with them to resolve that issue”. Someone I was speaking with recently said, ‘A successful CEO should have the right balance of control and trust and know when to apply both’. Would you agree? “The French say, ‘trust is good, but control is better’. I think if you apply that today, you will have trouble”. “You need to trust people. The way I build trust is to agree on what needs to be done. Then you leave them the room to move ahead. It’s also important to show sufficient interest because if you don’t show interest, that’s also a signal to your team. The interest should be shown in such a way that is not construed as if you’re trying to control what they’re doing. You need to move from the model of unilateral control where the boss controls and instructs their team to one where you genuinely have an interaction, where you agree on what you do. Then let them get on with doing it and occasionally check that they’re fine and see if you can help remove the obstacles. If you can get that balance right, then people become truly empowered”. “It’s also about knowing when to step in. Of course, if someone made a personal mistake that happens as well. As our American friends say, ‘three strikes and you’re out’. People are entitled to make a mistake, if you make two then probably, you’re not that smart and if you make the same mistake three times, well maybe you’re not in the right environment”. Eric has been CEO of Bank Mendes Gans since 2010 and has worked in Leadership roles across the globe for over 25 years. If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.

“Make sure you have enough people in your team who will disagree with you”. Eric Hollanders, CEO of Bank Mendes Gans. Read More »

‘Be brave and go for it!’ Dr Tracey Leghorn talks to us about building a successful HR Career.

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As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to let us in on the secrets of their success. This week we had a great conversation with Dr Tracey Leghorn, HR Director at SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK. We asked Tracey a few questions about her career in HR which spans both the public and private sector; a journey that started in Retail Management and has taken her to Board-level HR Director for one of the world’s largest waste, water and resource management companies. Like many HR professionals, Tracey didn’t start her career in HR. After becoming a Mum, Tracey went to university to study for an HNC in Business with Personnel, it was there she was given an assignment on horizontal and vertical HR integration and came across the work of David Guest. Tracey says she was excited about what strategic HR could contribute to business performance and from that assignment was hooked! We asked Tracey to give us a brief overview of her career to date. Tracey began her HR career in the NHS and has worked in a range of NHS organisations, developing her career there to include Executive Director of HR with the commissioners of NHS services and 9 years with the ambulance service. Despite being told that a return to the private sector would be very hard to achieve after more than a decade in the public sector, the opportunity to join the world’s largest food-service provider, Compass Group, came to her through her networks and she ‘bravely’ leapt into a totally new industry whilst at the same time, working to complete her Doctorate. In 2015, Tracey was approached to have a conversation with PwC. PwC had secured an iconic multi-million-pound HR consulting contract and were looking to source someone with large-scale transformational change and implementation expertise. In talking about her time at PwC, Tracey said that it had been a huge but enjoyable learning curve; she had loved working with a wide range of organisations on their most difficult business and people problems and having access to the very latest in HR thought leadership. However, she always intended returning to client-side and when the opportunity to join SUEZ Recycling & Recovery UK came across her path, Tracey says she was hooked on ‘helping to save the planet’ from the very first conversation. Naturally we were keen to learn more about Tracey’s perception of the HR industry and what she feels it takes to be a strong HR leader in 2019. What do you think is the key to being successful in an HR Leadership role? “Today, HR leadership roles require you to not only be an expert around the People Agenda but to contribute to commercially complex strategic business decisions; whether these be through the people lens or not. Being a HR technical expert is a given in HR leadership roles. It is your understanding of the business and its commercials and being able to fully contribute to strategic business decisions which differentiates you”. As a member of the board at SUEZ R&R UK, Tracey says that “this is what secures HR a place at the top table and where we can truly add value. People solutions and organisational performance are optimised in successful organisations through collaborative working at all levels between Finance, HR and Operations, never more so than at board level”. What are the common themes and or challenges you are facing currently? “I am excited by the digital agenda. The world is undergoing another industrial revolution and the world of work is changing. Both at home and at work, I’m keen to embrace new technology. It’s vital that organisations look to assess the impact of the digital revolution on their customers and their business. As an HR professional it’s important to keep yourself and your skills relevant so ensuring you are engaging with the latest thought leadership in this area and translating this into how this might impact your business and people agenda is vital. At the same time, the waste and resources industry is heading towards another major period of transformation. With public and political awareness heightened about the impact of the way we live our lives on our planet through programmes such as Blue Planet II, Defra have recently published their Waste and Resource Strategy which will see a period of major transformation in our industry and a wealth of opportunities for our business and people. Being at the forefront of this transformation will secure our continued business success and our position as thought leaders within the industry. What advice would you give HR professionals either just getting started in their career or looking for their next step on the career ladder?  Networking is number one for Tracey. She says that networking “brings with it a wealth of connections, learning and opportunities”. Be on LinkedIn, work on ensuring you have a comprehensive profile and ‘bravely’ use it to build business relationships and learn from people from across a range of organisations and specialties. Think about your personal brand and use LinkedIn, Twitter and other platforms to build your brand through social media. Tracey always makes the space and time to network, both on and off-line, claiming it’s vital for anybody looking to learn and progress their career. She says that “learning from others is a very powerful form of learning”. Technical knowledge and academic learning in your field are also important. Tracey puts significant weight on academic learning. Her advice is to get your HR qualifications early where you can. Whilst she was 25 and a Mum before she went to university, Tracey says that over two decades later she is still using knowledge she gained from her early studies and beyond. When asked for one piece of advice she would give to someone looking to progress their HR career, she said: “Don’t listen to those who try to deter you from pursuing your dreams; be big and brave, and,

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