Last week I invited 5 HR Leaders to share their thoughts on D&I and how to start the hard conversations which become the catalyst for change. You can find the webinar here. We have also pulled together a document filled with resources and articles about anti-racism, allyship and what steps organisations and their HR leaders can do to make positive changes. If you want to download the pdf, click here.
If Not Me, Then Who? Read More »
We’ve always believed collaboration is key to success. Now more than ever we need to deliver as much value to our clients and candidates as we can – that’s why we’ve joined NPAWorldwide. NPA connects you to premier recruiting firms located throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and the Americas. Human now has a global network of trusted business partners who can help meet all of our clients’ and candidates needs, whether local, national or international. Watch this video to learn more about NPA!
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âBelieve in yourself and be brave.â â Jen Surtees, People Experience Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Xero, speaks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership. As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weâve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Jen Surtees at Xero, who began her career following an undergraduate BSc in Psychology at the University of Birmingham by undertaking a Research Internship within the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Aston University. Upon embarking on an MSc in Human Resource Management and Business at Aston University in 2010, Jen took on a role as a Lecturing/Teaching Assistant, alongside which she pursued a secondment at the NHS Technology Adoption Centre and positions as an Administrative Assistant at Aston Business School and an Assessor for Aston Business Assessments. Jen also undertook PhD research in Interorganisational Innovation in the Medical Device Sector from 2010-2015, taking on a role as a Client Development Consultant at Thomas International towards the latter part of this research. In June 2015, Jen ascended within the ranks at Thomas international as a Solutions Consultant for the Enterprise Team, later becoming People, Teams and Culture Talent Manager there in September 2016. In March 2018, Jen joined the team at Xero as a People Experience Manager, moving on to become Head of People Experience for the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa in March 2019âa role that continues into her current position as People Experience Director today. Can you tell us how you got into HR and why? I initially studied Psychology at university in the hope of going down the Educational Psychology route. As I studied, it became clear that the journey to get there was a long one that a lot of people in my class were looking to pursue, so I started to look at slightly different opportunities and secured a secondment working on a graduate recruitment scheme. I really enjoyed itâthat was the point I realised that I was a people person, hence why I had always been interested in behaviour. When the recession hit, I knew that graduate programmes would be quite difficult to get into, so I decided to go and study for an extra year. I did a Masterâs in Human Resource Management and Business at Aston University, and that gave me a great foundation for what HR was and how it fitted into the realms of brand and marketing as well as finance. It taught me that so many different areas of the business hinge on HR, and I found that fascinating; it confirmed that HR was the way to go and where I wanted to be. My preferred way to get into HR wasnât necessarily to go down the traditional administration to coordination to advisor route, though, so from there, I continued my passion for psychology and refocused on psychometric testing. Moving into my HR career, I found I was interested in the organisational development side of things, so I started doing some consultation with a psychometric testing provider. That gave me the chance to apply what Iâd learned in a practical way, as well as some really great opportunities to learn how to deliver feedback, have difficult conversations, give stakeholders incentives, and do all everything we need to in HR as part of our partnering with a business. The whole experience was a really good injection of knowledge. At the same time, I was doing a PhD funded by the Department of Health looking at team psychology, so my two skillsets came together well. The consultation job ended up with me moving into an enterprise team focusing on some of our bigger customers, and before I knew it, I was working with some of the most inspirational female People leaders out there. I worked really closely with them, and was enjoying observing what they were doing and helping them get there, but I didnât like that I wasnât part of the results. That was when I realised Iâd outstayed my welcome in the consultation industryâI really wanted to be able to put some of these ideas into practice within a business and actually see them come to fruition. Luckily, the company I was working for wanted me to come and implement the solutions Iâd been putting in place for our customers in-house. Since then, Iâve moved into Xero and have absolutely loved taking my passion for people and culture and using it to help people really enjoy what theyâre doing for a brand they believe in. Iâm keen to make sure that the kind of environment I provide at Xero is one where people feel that they can thrive, and Xero has given me the opportunity to do that. I feel very fortunate to work for them. Throughout my career, Iâve transitioned from wanting to learn lots and picking up on cultures to seeing how some fantastic female leaders operate, and thatâs really inspired me to provide the best experience possible for both our employees and our customers. Weâre a values-based business, so thatâs at the heart of everything we do. Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that youâre seeing across the HR sector? Thereâs definitely been a change in the way we view our people as a sector. Personnel moved to Human Resources because we recognised that humans were a valuable asset to businesses, and now weâre recognising that those people deserve to have a fantastic place to work and moving much more towards the kind of People function we have at Xero. In terms of the challenges that Xero are facing more specifically, weâre in the software industry, which has a lot of prospective talent looking for jobs, but also a lot of opportunities for people to move around. Weâre still growing in the UK, which means that itâs fast-paced and things change regularly. I love that
An Inspirational Interview with Jen Surtees, People Experience Director at Xero Read More »
As I write, we are facing one of the most challenging economic periods in recent memory. Many organisations have fires to fight, there are structural changes to be made, and uncertainty abounds, but we all need to keep trying to move forward. As an HR recruiter, Iâm certain that HR will be on the front line of these changes, andHR professionals will be needed now more than ever. Though not forever,I think the sector-wide resurgence we are about to experience will lead to an increase in interim HR positions becoming available. In fact, weâve already seen an uptick. So whatâs involved in hiring on an interim basis, and how can Human help? We believe that placing someone in an interim position is as important as placing them in a permanent positionâoften, itâs even more important to get the match right. Interim professionals have less time to build a rapport with others and less time to get to grips with the business objectives than a permanent staff member, so a strong match often facilitates success from the outset. When time and progress are of the essence, itâs crucial to hit the ground running. For Clients: Interim professionals are ideal candidates to meet a wide range of transient business needs. They can fill often-restrictive staffing gaps caused by employee absences due to illness, maternity or paternity leave, or even holidays; be engaged on a project basis to support an existing team that’s already at capacity; or simply come in as a fresh pair of eyes that are not embedded in the day-to-day minutiae of the organisation, leaving them able to get to work making an impact from the off. Hiring someone without making a long-term commitment with the option to end the engagement if itâs no longer necessary or effective for either party can also be hugely cost-effective for the hiring company. For Interim Professionals: Interim positions can also come with big benefits for employees filling them, including flexibility, the ability to experience a new sector with no long-term commitment attached, and the chance to develop your existing skills or just expand your network. Often, the experience you can accumulate during time spent with a wide variety of different companies will make you more attractive to future employers. Working with different technologies, developing new skills, and experiencing new structures has great potential to add real value to your career. If you would like to start a conversation about interim recruitment, please get in touch on 01709 717212 or email amy@recruithuman.co.uk
The Benefits of Interim Hiring Read More »
âFocus on outcomes rather than rules and find a good role model.â – Lindsay Shankland, Director of HR and Organisational Development at St Helena Government, speaks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership. As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weâve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Lindsay Shankland, Director of HR and Organisational Development at St Helena Government, who began her career as HR Administrator at Essex Police. Lindsayâs career has included roles such as Senior HR Advisor at London Borough of Havering, Deputy Director Of Human Resources at Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and Director of Human Resources at Norfolk and Suffolk Police.  How did you get into HR? I actually studied Geology at University after being inspired by a brilliant teacher at A-Level, but while I enjoyed it I realised I wasnât science minded enough to make it a career. Throughout my studies Iâd always worked part-time at NEXT, and not knowing what I did want to do when I graduated I just started working there full-time. I was quickly promoted and as part of taking on a management role I attended my first leadership development course. I really enjoyed the course, in particular exploring leadership theories and the psychology of work, and that lit a spark in me that has remained. I am endlessly fascinated by people, relationship dynamics and the psychology of work. Moving into HR was a natural step and even after 16 years of working in HR and Organisational Development I havenât lost my passion and enjoy seeing the difference good HR can make to individuals and organisations. My HR career started in a recruitment consultant role, from there I saw a role advertised for an HR Administrator with Essex Police and that started me on my journey. Working my way up the âHR ladderâ gave me some solid foundations in HR practice, and Iâve had the good fortune to work with and learn from some amazing people along the way. I donât prescribe to the mantra that if you like people you should go into HR, because you will see the best but also the worst in people, but I do believe that if you are interested in human behaviour, have social and emotional intelligence, are creative in thinking but recognise the need to have a good understanding of employment law, youâll succeed. It is important to understand HR policy in the context of the employment law that drives it and I do worry when I meet HR professionals who donât understand the law, and the intention of the law, that sits beyond our policies. That said, I have found that people who really like rules can find HR quite difficult as whilst there are some absolutes there are also so many shades of grey when it comes to what is reasonable. I think as a profession we should be focussed on outcomes and solutions within the frameworks we work within and at times that requires a great deal of creativity.  What key themes do you think HR is facing at the moment? I think recent events have challenged the thinking about what is possible, and changed attitudes and mind-sets about some of our traditional working practices. Looking out at the world Iâll be coming back to at the end of my contract on St Helena there will be some big differences in terms of the way we work. Having a more flexible and dispersed workforce presents opportunity for HR and Business Leaders but requires a focus on building trust, engagement, loyalty, team cohesiveness and motivation in a more virtual world. Some people will thrive working more remotely but others will miss the energy of being with peers and colleagues. We are also operating with much more uncertainty than ever before and attempting to manage the economic impacts of a global pandemic, so there is a fundamental role for HR to play in supporting our organisations to find their way in responding, recovering and succeeding during such uncertain times. For St Helena our remoteness is actually what’s protecting us at the moment and at the time of talking we remain Covid free. Currently the internet on island can be slow and very expensive, but the Equiano Subsea Cable Project is bringing us closer to fibre optic connectivity, meaning the connection will become much more reliable and less expensive over time. The potential opportunities this brings for how our employees across Government can work and learn is huge; from remote working to tele-medicine it will have the ability to make available a wider pool of knowledge, skill and resource we can more easily tap into, and we will definitely benefit from the work taking place now in relation to the move to more virtual teams and the rapid shift in training providers moving from traditional classroom or face-to-face learning to online content and virtual classrooms.  What career advice would you offer someone looking to follow in your footsteps? There is no substitute for hard work, you have to be prepared to put yourself forward and take on work that will challenge you while helping you learn your craft. The more you learn about the business you work within and read widely about the sector it operates in the more you can contribute and the more successful you will be. Get out and about in your organisation, you can never underestimate how much staff and managers appreciate seeing the HR team take an interest in what they do, it helps you understand the issues and you can get to do some really fun things! Iâve spent the day on shift at fire stations, undertaken basic fire training, spent a Friday night on a public order shift in Norwich town centre and I recently got to spend the day out on the boats here on St Helena with our Sea Rescue Team. You will
Developing a career in HR Leadership: Interview with Lindsay Shankland Read More »
âBuilding a network and community around you so that people know who you are, trust you, and can come to you to ask for help or information is invaluable.â â Adam Rabinovitch, EMEA Senior Technical Recruiter in AI, Engineering, Machine Learning, Big Data & Data Science at Databricks, speaks to us about developing a career in Recruitment. As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weâve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Adam Rabinovitch at Databricks, who began his career as a B2B and B2C Telesales Consultant at Axis for Business before moving to work as a B2B and B2C Membership Sales Consultant at Fitness First. With his recruitment career beginning in August 2009, Adam transitioned to the roles of Resourcer, Junior Recruiter, and later Senior Technical and Commercial Recruiter at eSynergy Solutions, while serving as Director and Co-Founder of Abso-Fashion-Lutely alongside this post from January 2013. Adam also founded AI Community Jobs in May 2013, where he continues to serve as CEO alongside his current roles. Adamâs recruitment career continued with an international role as Principal Technical and Commercial Recruiter for Opus Recruitment Solutions in January 2014, and an 18-month term as Head of Recruitment at CognitionX from August 2016. In December 2017, Adam founded and became an Advisory Board Member for AI-Adam; a role he continues alongside his current responsibilities at Databricks and AI Community Jobs. Adam joined the team at Beamery in February 2018, initially serving as Senior Technical Recruiter and Evangelist before ascending the ranks to become Global Technical Recruiting Lead and Evangelist in January 2019, and later moving to Databricks to assume his current role there in April 2020. Can you tell us how you got into Recruitment and why? Recruitment chose me, I didnât choose it! When I first started in the field back in 2009, I joined a firm as a Resourcer, and later jumped into becoming a Principal Recruiter and Managing Consultant. Around that time was when I first started to get the knack of the technology side of things. Iâm more of a techie recruiter, so I like to understand the technology Iâm talking about and how it actually works. I do a bit of coding and development in my spare time, because technology has always intrigued me and I like to play around with it, and doing that gave me my first taste of cloud and the power of Big Data and AI. Recruiting in the technology sector and hearing about the technologies that candidates had used to support companies made me want to go back and learn more about them to understand them and boost my credibility. In doing so, I could present clients with profiles and explain in depth what candidates had achieved and how they had achieved it rather than just looking for keywords. I love recruitment, itâs really enjoyable. Although Iâve moved through a variety of different companies throughout my careerâhaving started off externally working for a recruitment agency and moving into internal recruitment after a recommendation to the company from one of my clientsâIâve always been in the AI and data space, and to see where itâs changed and how things have moved forward now is pretty crazy. Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that youâre seeing across the Recruitment sector in terms of AI and technology? I think our biggest challenge is that thereâs still a lot of debate around AI and how itâs utilised. Itâs not going to replace recruiters, and if you use AI in the right way, itâll help you get more things done properly. Thereâs a lot you can do with it. The market is moving fast, so itâs just a matter of understanding the different types of things that people are doing with AIâwhether thatâs creating an enterprise, software, or platformâand whether itâs being utilized in start-ups or scale-ups. Iâm fortunate to never have really had the same challenges in terms of my recruitment pool that other recruiters face. I set up a number of user groups and forums on LinkedIn when I initially got into Recruitment to bolster myself and gain some credibility, and I ended up building a community around my specialism in AI and Big Data that Iâm still drawing on even now. A lot of the people I work with have stayed in touch and become friendsâin fact, I still know the first person I placed in my first ever Recruitment jobâwhich has really helped to further my career as well as theirs. My last three jobs, including my current role, have all come about as a result of recommendations made by former clients, and theyâve all said that my technical knowledge and network has been hugely beneficial in understanding an organisationâs needs, finding the right people to fill those needs, and helping organisations understand the calibre they need to hire. Iâve created initiatives to advertise jobs in the field that aim to unite people with those positions, and my communities on LinkedIn bring together candidates and managers with no need for recruiters. Sometimes those discussions are about jobs, but itâs also just about giving people a platform to discuss a common interest together and giving back to the candidates and clients that I either was working with or wanted to work with. One challenge I think weâre all facing in the sector is finding a way to keep your pipeline of candidates moving and developing. For me, Recruitment is about finding out what it is that candidates want to get into or learn and matching them with not just jobs, but opportunities to learn and expand their knowledge. There is an element of sales in terms of selling yourself as a recruiter with an opportunity to a candidate initially, but once that connection is made, if you focus on building the relationship between you even if they donât take up an opportunity
A Successful Recruitment Path: Interview with Adam Rabinovitch Read More »
Donât let lack of loyalty in your furloughed employees represent lack of loyalty in the company I read a statistic when Corona virus first emerged as a threat across the World that more people will face bankruptcy as a result of this pandemic than will actually die from it. On the surface, thatâs a good thing – people recover from bankruptcy a lot better than they recover from death – but the possibility of either puts people into an element of fear. The reality for business owners and directors is that this threat to them personally only emerges if the companies they oversee no longer become viable and cease to exist. This will happen in some cases, but in others leaders will remain in post, possibly having to make cuts to the workforce or furlough non-business critical colleagues in order to give the best chance of survival to the trading entity they control. Whilst furlough is a highly beneficial tool, it creates significant uncertainty for those placed into it. Going from a position of working hard every day to help maintain business to suddenly being asked not to contribute places that employee into the âat riskâ category regardless of recent performance. Clearly the flip-side of furlough is that it stops people being made redundant immediately and preserves their employment status, but the reality is that, had the scheme not existed, that person would now be out of work with the prospect of loss of income and the need to look elsewhere in an uncertain and overcrowded job market. That prospect, coupled with the uncertainty as to when it might end, will put people into the fight or flight mode that is a natural reaction when under threat. Those furloughed colleagues have little or no control over what happens in the company and when and how their employment status will return. Losing the ability to work removes that control, so they will look at what they can have influence over. This will mean that they look at their finances, tighten their belts, and if there has been a loss of income may look at how they can remedy this. The reality is that the lockdown process for the majority means less spending and so reduced income during furlough doesnât affect the day-to-day budget, but it does affect the long term thinking. That money sat in savings for future holidays and house improvements now may be needed to cover a period of being out of work or it may be required to fund the start up of a new venture – nobody knows what the employment market will look like when some kind of ânormalityâ returns. Applying theory to the madness, a furloughed employee is only left with the physiological part of Maslowâs hierarchy of needs whereas a month ago they may have had all elements in place from the role they performed. Without getting too carried away with the theory, losing self-actualisation, esteem, belonging and some aspects of Maslowâs safety could be seen as a massive disruption in peopleâs lives. The key is honest communication during this time but the reality is that situations are changing on a daily basis so you cannot give guarantees to employees, but in return they cannot give them back to you. This period will see people looking at what jobs they might be able to do, connecting with recruitment advisors and considering other options – these are all natural responses when income is threatened. People may be considering new careers, new opportunities just in case they are no longer available to return to their current roles. Business owners and directors have to accept this. If they were suddenly placed in the same situation then they would do the same. It doesnât represent a lack of loyalty in the company – the majority of people on furlough want to work, they want to support the company and they want some control of their professional destiny, but in this difficult time they canât have it. When they return, the elements of trust and motivation will play a big part in getting them fully back in the fold. A recently furloughed friend told me he realised he didnât love the company he worked for like he thought he did, but his realisation through this was that he loved working with his colleagues and thatâs a significant difference. Things wonât return to normality overnight when people are asked back to their roles. They will need reassurance, greater levels of clarity on the financial position and a clear way of making themselves âbusiness criticalâ so the cloud of uncertainty will not darken their lives again. This will be a challenge. Some talented people will seek new careers, some may come back slightly less motivated, others may look to become even more engaged. Itâs important, though, to not judge people on how they react during furlough or question their loyalty before it happened, because uncertainty reigns in this difficult period.
An anonymous blog regarding the impact of furloughing team members. Read More »
âIf you have confidence, you can jump into new challenges without needing to know absolutely everything. If we all knew the same and our teams were all the same, then weâd never get anywhere new.â â Sian Brown, Head of People at FitFlop, speaks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership. As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weâve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Sian Brown at FitFlop, who began her career as a Sales Consultant at Esporta before moving to Leisurejobs to work as a Recruitment Consultant, and later becoming Retail Resourcing Partner at Monsoon Accessorize. In September 2013, Sian joined the team at FitFlop as Resourcing Manager, later ascending the ranks to become Head of Resourcing & Talent before taking on her current role in July 2018. Can you tell us how you got into HR and why? Interestingly, my first experience in HR came far before my first role did, as I actually did work experience in an HR department of a big hotel chain when I was 15. What I experienced of HRâor Personnel, at that timeâwas all admin. I remember packing letters into envelopes and uploading notes onto computers, and I noticed that the team were boxed into a small room rather than being integrated into the business. Up until that point, I really would have liked to pursue a People role, but the experience put me off, so I stepped away from HR and went into Sales at Esporta when I left college instead. After a year there, I wanted to move to London, so I fell into recruiting for an agency. I worked there for two years and absolutely loved it, but I found that what I enjoyed most was the candidate experience element; being able to go on their journey with them and placing them into roles. I wanted to see their journeys all the way through, so I decided to go down the in-house recruitment route and moved to Monsoon Accessorize. While I was there, I did my CIPD Level 3 and learnt a lot of theory, but at the time I thought that the Personnel Development side of HR was a little bit stagnant and decided to stick with Recruitment. I didnât know too much about FitFlop when I was initially approached about a role there, but their vibrant culture attracted me from the first interview. Theyâre a very innovative, entrepreneurial company led by an experienced female founder, which was a real pull for me. When I joined, we had quite a small team and I was the only recruiter, so my whole role focused on that at first, but being part of a smaller company meant that Recruitment became integrated into the wider HR team. As a result, I found myself naturally gaining more and more hands-on experience across the HR realm while still focusing on the Resourcing side. My role later broadened to include Learning and Development, and then in 2018, I moved to the Head of People role and became responsible for HR across our international locations as well as the UK, reporting directly to our Global People Director. I think my route into HR has been quite interesting, because a lot of people generalise and then specialise, but I got into it because I loved Recruitment, and I still do. Itâs always been what Iâm passionate about, and Iâm really fortunate that I still do that in my role. Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that youâre seeing across the HR sector? The biggest one for us at the moment is definitely the COVID-19 crisis. We operate across Asia, the USA, the UK, and Germany, which have all been hit fairly hard. We first started hearing about what was happening in China with our China team having to work from home, but we didnât expect how quickly it would spread. Weâre a very close-knit company, so weâve been in it together from the start, but every country is at a different stage and has a different way of dealing with it, so it has been a challenge that will undoubtedly lead to changes in the way we work in the future. Weâve had a version of flexible working called âsmarter workingâ that concentrates on output rather than hours since before the crisis, and I think that combined with our strong culture has really helped us manage while working from home. If you donât have a strong culture, thereâs less unity and support within the team, so remote working can pose more of a challenge, but weâve been surprised by how much ours has helped. It hasnât been without its challenges when it comes to things like product design and development meetings, but I think weâve embraced new ways of working well, and weâve seen that our people leaders have been able to lead their teams effectively through something weâve never experienced before. HR isnât built on micromanagement and parent-child relationships, it has to be adult to adult, and I think the current restrictions have pushed us into seeing that when we allow our staff that freedom and autonomy, thereâs a lot of opportunity and achievement to be had. Itâs also definitely changed our communication. Where at times we as a sector werenât being transparent enough or communicating enough because weâd rather wait to do so until we had all the answers, the current situation has made us step up and send things out and speak to our teams more regularly. HR has always been naturally cautious, but we donât have time to do that now; we need to be bold and do what feels right. Thereâs no manual or policy on dealing with COVID-19, we just have to act and react. Weâve seen flexibility, commitment, and teamwork on such a scale that the challenge now is how to best take
Interview with Sian Brown about developing a career in HR Leadership Read More »
âHaving a personal relationship with somebody within your networkâor somebody within your networkâs networkâwho has been through the challenges you face and will gladly give you advice and pointers is invaluable. Reach out and get involved!â- Bill Carr, CEO of Carpe Diem, a specialist Digital Transformation Agency, speaks to us about developing a career as a business leader. As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weâve invited some industry leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Bill Carr at Cape Diem, who began his career in Marketing with the ASICS Corporation before moving to Brand New Media to work as an Account Manager. In 1999, Bill founded the Carpe Diem web design and digital marketing agency, where he continues to serve as CEO. Alongside this role, Bill has co-founded the online portal âMy Kids Day Outâ, and has served as both a Committee Member and Chair of the Cheshire division of the Institute of Directors. Can you tell us how you got into a leadership role and why? Initially, I went to university to study Mechanical Engineering. I didnât particularly think that I was going to use that as my career and wasnât enjoying it, so I left and went to work for ASICS. That was my first experience of the commercial world, and a real learning curve. I was thrown in at the deep end, so I had to grow up quickly, but I fell in love with the commercial side of work and decided not to go back to university. Instead, I worked my way up within the company, eventually taking on the role of Marketing Manager. During my term, the company experienced some challenges that gave me my first experience of managing people and our relationships with clients and suppliers in times of adversity. That taught me a lot about how to negotiate and deal with people, and I decided to move on to pastures new with those skills. After that, I went to work for a digital agency based in Leeds as an Account Manager, tasked with managing projects and people, and I found that the agency side of things was a completely different world, especially in terms of the pace. I used to work with agencies a lot when I was on the client side, and Iâd always had this perception that theyâd just have meetings for the sake of it without doing much, but when I went to work for one, I realised very quickly that that wasnât the case. There are a lot of different pressures with agency work, and where my grounding in the sports industry was very analytical and finance-focused, the agency didnât operate that way at all. I left that agency and started Carpe Diem when I was 21, and have run the company ever since then. We started taking on a few members of staff within the first 12 months and grew within the first three years to about the size we wanted to get to. Our numbers are growing, but weâre a solid company with a solid workforce nowâalthough it hasnât been easy. When I first started out, my experience of management and leading a team was all taken from being a football captain, so I was quite good at driving a team on, but not at putting an arm around people when they needed it. Thatâs been the hardest thing for me to learn. You have to be a lot like a chameleon, and I tend to find that I change my personality and the way that I communicate with people an awful lot depending on who Iâm talking to. I try to set an example of what I expect, lead according to it, and hope that the team will follow that. Are there any strategies you would say have been particularly helpful when leading your teams? We run a lot of internal design sprints and strategy sprints, which bring the whole organisation together. They give us a lot of clarityânot only in terms of why it is the staff are being asked to do something, but in terms of where weâre heading as a business. They also provide an opportunity for changes to filter up rather than being a top-down organisation, as well as get the team involved to make decisions easier for everyone. Itâs about enabling rapid development, so we always try and find things that we can improve very quickly. One of the mottos we work by is to disagree and commit, which means that even if we disagree about the way something is delivered, we will commit to doing it that way, but review it in four weeks and see if it needs to change. The other thing we always have is that itâs better to start than to finish. We used to take months to make decisions on some things, whereas now we make decisions very rapidly with these sprints. Getting it 80% right is far better than delaying a decision to try to get the 100% solution. Itâs a very valuable strategy, and weâre happy to share it with others either through direct contact in workshops or our webinars. Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that are most prevalent for you as a leader at the moment? Weâre currently growing, so weâve set up a management team and brought in a Managing Director, and the biggest challenge there is instilling the same management philosophy the company has always had down a level, as well as trying to maintain our company culture within that and take into account peopleâs personalities. Weâve also been going through the process of changing the company to remove me from more of the day-to-day operations but ensure that the leadership structure is still there, and that has been a challenge as well. I suppose what Iâve learned is that itâs important to utilize support networks, which are much
Developing a career as a business leader: Interview with Bill Carr Read More »
As a result of the HR Leaders roundtable earlier this month, Yinka Opaneye and I had a great conversation about diversity and the impact of COVID-19. You can find the link to the recording here. We hope you find our conversation valuable. Please feel free to share it with your audience.
Yinka Opaneye – Diversity and COVID-19 Read More »