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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,

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

“The aim is to be as good at people as we are at cars”. – Mandeep Dhatt, Executive Director of HR  at McLaren talks to us about 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 share the secrets of their success. This week we had a great conversation with Mandeep Dhatt, Executive Director of HR at McLaren Automotive Ltd. We asked Mandeep a few questions about her career in HR. A career that spans Engineering, Pharmaceutical, Publishing most recently Advanced Manufacturing and Automotive Design. Mandeep’s journey began at University where she studied business studies and excelled in the HR modules. Mandeep then went on to work for an IT storage solutions company as part of her placement year and was inspired by one of their Senior HR leaders. From there Mandeep made a commitment to develop a career in HR leadership. Mandeep joined McLaren in 2013 as an HR Business Partner and has since added value throughout the business as Head of HR Ops and more recently Executive Director of HR . We were keen to speak with Mandeep about McLaren, her perception of the HR sector 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? Being human. Being human is important. It’s easy for an organisation to forget that it’s not all about chasing the target or building the car or closing that contract. It’s about being human and looking at the people perspective. It’s also about having empathy. For example, the CFO; not everyone in the company is going to understand exactly the pressure they’re under and what they must go through to deliver. The HR leaders’ role is to demonstrate and showcase all the ways that we can support each other; collaboration is important. I’m also completely fortunate in that the leader we have, completely understands the value of HR. “He’s a great support. He will often say, ‘you can do more in that area Mandeep’ and provides the space to do that. And I completely appreciate that not all HR leaders will have that at the top of their organisation. We’re very fortunate in that respect”. What are the common themes and or challenges you are facing currently? The generational mix of the workforce that’s currently in play and is coming into play. The mindset of a ‘millennial’ versus a ‘baby boomer’ can be very different. This then feeds into broader conversations around attrition and turnover. Where we’ve got senior leaders in business, who have worked in the same industry, in the same organisation for 15, 20 years, we also have millennials that are coming to us after two years and are restless and bored, and off they go. It’s a very new way of working so the workforce isn’t necessarily stable. As a leader you have to dissect which bits of the business need to be stable from a resource, people, expertise and knowledge perspective. An organisation never stands still. So, we have to think, ‘how are we going to cater for that’ and get comfortable with it. Mandeep recently launched a Coaching Initiative in part in recognition of the value of a multi-generational team.  The initiative was created to encourage knowledge sharing, skills transfer and also to foster resilience within the business. Mandeep said ‘we’re a fast-growing organisation, there is constant change. The coaching element is a way of providing support and a mechanism to communicate that we are aware that we ask a lot of our teams every day, but we also offer this level of support and development in return. Finally, Mandeep offered one more issue that is high on the agenda at McLaren, “Skills, skills, skills. The global shortage of engineers is being felt quite significantly. So, for us it is all about retention and attraction. Where do we find that skill? It’s also key that we are influencing society and government to ensure that future generations will want to work in automotive and manufacturing and engineering. STEM is also really important to us as an organisation, as is our early careers programme. We have placed a focus on work experience, apprenticeships, internships, and the graduate space. But it’s also key that we look at how we are utilising the apprenticeship levy to upskill and reskill existing employees, to stop some of that churn. Career development is a USP for us. If you join McLaren you will not only learn what it is to set up and lay foundations and build legacy, but you will also develop beyond recognition – if that’s what you want to do. We’ll give you all the opportunities and avenues available to do so. What advice would you give HR professionals who are looking to move into an HR leadership role. Building credibility is important whether from technical stance or a commercial perspective.  A strong HR leader will always be asking, ‘what makes the business better?’, ‘What will make it survive tomorrow?’ Talking authentically about your impact is also really powerful. I think sometimes HR leaders can be narrow in their thinking. When demonstrating your impact follow your examples with impact. What did that do for attrition? What did that do for the employer brand?  It’s important to demonstrate the bigger picture. Finally, I asked Mandeep what goals her team are working towards in 2019. Mandeep was clear that as an HR leader her goal is always to ensure that McLaren are ‘as good at people, as we are at cars.’ If you are interested in a confidential conversation about your HR career or would like to speak with us about supporting the growth of your HR team, please get in touch today.

“The aim is to be as good at people as we are at cars”. – Mandeep Dhatt, Executive Director of HR  at McLaren talks to us about HR leadership in 2019. Read More »

My career – A Candidate blog: Recruitment Data Analytics

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“Where few people have real experience in the area, having an informed interest puts you in good stead” As part of our commitment to adding value beyond connecting our clients and candidates to develop their teams of find fulfilling careers, we’ve developed a series of articles to transfer knowledge between our clients and the candidates we support. This week we spoke with Ian. Ian is an experienced Data Scientist who has developed a broad understanding of Recruitment Analytics and is passionate about the future of AI in Recruitment and HR. We asked Ian a couple of questions about his career and his current interest in AI and Recruitment Technology. Can you tell us how you got into Data Science and Recruitment Analytics? “As far as I am aware, people have only been calling themselves data scientists for the last ten years. Before that, there were people doing similar work in the consultancy and market research industries. I was working in the latter and am grateful for the broad experience it provided”. “It’s impossible to open a Sunday paper nowadays without seeing an article about how we are all destined to be recruited by algorithms rather than people. I am a data scientist with broad experience and saw this as an opportunity to make a difference in an exciting, growth area”. Do you have any advice for those looking to develop a career in this niche? “Come on in, the water’s lovely! Suppliers are understandably protective of their algorithms but are very generous with shared case studies available on their websites. After that, find out whether your existing employer is already looking at this data driven recruitment. If so, offer your input”. “You could also join one of the fast-growing suppliers who are typically start-ups of small or medium size. Some recruiters run evening events on the topic which could be a pleasant way to learn while making contacts. Where few people have real experience in the area, having an informed interest puts you in good stead”. What do you think are the major benefits of AI and Machine Learning in Recruitment? “Firstly, some very practical ones: cost and time savings for candidates and employers. Nobody likes the feeling of sneaking out for an interview. A combination of the new technologies should mean that the interviews which we do attend are restricted to ones with a high chance of success. If an employer likes you but does not have an immediate opportunity, a future opportunity is more likely to happen”. “Secondly, some societal ones: diversity and social mobility. We are all probably guilty of ‘recruiting in our own image’, here is our chance to end that. If an integrated system links recruitment criterion directly to historic employee performance, what could be more meritocratic than that?”. Do you foresee any disadvantages to AI or Machine Learning in reference to Recruitment or HR? “Not in the tools themselves. In theory, they could be badly used or implemented, but the suppliers will be keen to ensure that doesn’t happen”. What are the ethical issues faced by users of these interfaces? “Candidates have legal rights as regards to use of their data. If these are observed, I see new systems as being fairer than current tools and therefore more ethical”. How do you see the technology developing in the future? / What is the future of Recruitment Technology? “The Sky is the limit! There is no question the Recruitment landscape is changing. The current starting point for a candidate search for a new career opportunity is typing search criteria into a job board or search engine. I believe the future will be more along the lines of a dialogue with a good career coach”. Ian is currently open to interim Data Scientist roles with a focus on Recruitment Analytics. If you are interested in a confidential conversation about your next career opportunity or would like to speak with us about supporting the growth of your team, please get in touch today.

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“
The only limitations on your success are the ones you place on yourself” – Laura Ibbotson, HR Manager at SWFC talks to us about 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 share the secrets of their success. This week we had a great conversation with Laura Ibbotson, HR Manager at Sheffield Wednesday Football Club. We asked Laura a few questions about her career in HR. A career that spans Technology, Professional Services, manufacturing, animal health, property and regeneration and most recently Championship Football.  Laura’s journey began as the first member of her family to go to University where she studied Human Resource Management after enjoying an HR module of her Business Studies A-Level. Unlike many HR professionals, Laura left college with a clear vision of developing a career in HR. Laura has since developed a successful and diverse career in a variety of sectors.  Laura has progressed from HR Advisor to HRBP and onto the Group HR Manager to Head of function at SWFC. We were keen to speak with Laura about her perception of the HR sector 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? “The ability to juggle a lot of balls as well as working in the background. A big part of the HR leadership role is to gel other people’s relationships together”. She added “It can be hard to measure the effectiveness of an HR leader as it’s out role to mitigate risk. Where you would normally measure contribution to the bottom line or cost savings, there are often unseen contributions from HR leaders. From the tribunal that was avoided, the member of staff who chose to stay or the NLP training you suggested for the Commercial Manager which added ÂŁx to the bottom line, all have a positive impact on the business but are not easily quantified”. Laura also recognises that a high degree of commercial awareness is key to success in an HR role in 2019. “You have to integrate with the team and understand the strategy from a people perspective. It’s HR’s role to deliver on that strategy from a people perspective”. What are the common themes and or challenges you are facing currently? There is a big focus in HR on how we can use technology to add value. At SWFC we’ve made simple changes like the move to electronic pay slips to mitigate GDPR risk and save resources to developing video job adverts. This also brings its own challenges in a multi-generational workforce. “Gender equality is also a key theme, particularly inspiring female leaders. We’re proud to have female leaders within our Senior team. Our CEO, Club Secretary and HR Manager are all female, we’re proud of that and want to showcase the leadership career paths available to women”. What advice would you give HR professionals getting started in their career or looking for their next step on the career ladder? Work experience is key. Don’t go straight from a degree to a masters and then into industry. Take some time between courses to gain the context around the theory”. Laura offered one final piece of advice to those with their sights on the top. “Remember the only limitations on your success are the ones you place on yourself” If you are interested in a confidential conversation about your HR career or would like to speak with us about supporting the growth of your HR team, please get in touch today.

“
The only limitations on your success are the ones you place on yourself” – Laura Ibbotson, HR Manager at SWFC talks to us about HR leadership in 2019. Read More »

“The way we work is changing” – Laura Haynes talks to us about HR Leadership

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As part of our commitment to supporting individuals to develop fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to share their secrets to success. This week we spoke with Laura Haynes, currently Interim HR Director at WeWork. We asked Laura some questions about her career in HR to offer some insight into the sector. Laura’s career spans a breadth of industries and sectors. A journey from a degree in Psychology to building a portfolio career as an Interim HR Director. Laura’s initial career goal was to become a Clinical Psychologist but the more she learned about this path through studying Psychology at university, the more she felt this wasn’t for her. She instead focused her attention on Occupational Psychology, combining interests in business in a passion for people. After her degree, Laura went on to take her first step into the HR arena as a Graduate Recruiter with Tesco. From Tesco, Laura worked for investment banks including Citi and RBS in the Early Careers space before joining BT as Head of Talent Programmes. From BT and after working for a long list of large corporates, Laura started developing relationships with startups for a complete change of scene and started working with several. Most recently, working through her own HR consultancy, Laura has now supported a variety of innovative start-up and fast growing businesses as an HR Director or Head of HR. We wanted to get Laura’s take on HR Leadership and the secrets to success.  What do you think is the key to being successful in an HR Leadership role? “Something HR leaders have to wrestle with is constantly striving to get the balance between fair and consistent policies and treating people like Human beings. The strength of an HR Leader is in having real meaningful conversations and not losing sight of the need to work around unique individuals”. The way we work is changing and Laura believes that as a leader you have to prepare and support the changes, while also maintaining the right level of employee experience”. Do you feel that the HR skill set is transferable? Laura made it her mission to develop a portfolio career and avoided working in a silo. As a result, she’s been able to transition from Retail to Investment Banking to Tech to FinTech and Beauty before most recently moving into Real Estate. Laura shared, “if you start out by working across a variety of sectors and people can see how well you’ve made the transition each time you work – you can give more confidence in your adaptability and ability to work with ambiguity.” What are the common themes and or challenges you are facing currently? “Some of the changes we’re seeing in how people work such as contracting and remote working are leading to interesting conversations. On the face of it, it’s not difficult to set people to work in these new ways – for example using some of the great virtual meeting applications for remote workers. When you scratch the surface though, managers have concerns and worries when it comes to how you set expectations, track progress and ensure there is high trust in the relationships you have – without which your partnership can’t succeed. We end up going back to basics and looking at familiar topics like goal setting, reviewing performance, but through a new lens”. What advice would you give HR professionals either just getting started in their career or looking for their next step on the career ladder? “Starting in a big organisation is a good place to start. A lot of people want to begin their career in startups I know it’s fashionable now, and I can see why. But, if you’re not working in a community of peers and experts, it’s hard to evaluate the strength of your work in the same way and it could be more tempting to deliver “good enough for stakeholders”. You can get some great training and complete rotations in different disciplines too. I’d suggest learning yourself as early as you can and talking to a range of organisations with different cultures. The people you’re around are crucial too, as is the way HR is perceived in an organisation – there’s a big difference in places where stakeholders will work with you as opposed to against you or “around” HR. It’s so important to be happy at work and enjoy it”. Laura is currently supporting WeWork as an Interim HR Director. If you are interested in learning more about a career in HR or would like to speak with us about supporting the growth of your HR team, please get in touch today.

“The way we work is changing” – Laura Haynes talks to us about HR Leadership Read More »

“You can’t be a wall flower” – Senior HR Director, Craig McCoy talks to us about HR Leadership.

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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 spoke with Craig McCoy, Senior HR Director at Sunrise Senior Living. We asked Craig a few questions about his career in HR which spans Public, Private and Third Sector organisations. Craig’s journey takes him from Cambridge University, where he studied French and Italian to Interim Senior HR Director for a US owned care service provider.   Craig begun his HR career after spending some time teaching English in Paris where he developed an interest in Training.  From Training Craig moved into Change Management with a focus on Training & Development; and then into his first HR Director position. Since then Craig has added value in FTSE100 companies and across Telecoms, Healthcare, Care, Publishing and Housing. We asked Craig a couple of questions about the world of HR and what his thoughts were on what lies ahead for 2019. What do you think is the key to being successful in an HR Leadership role? “There is a strong emphasis on consulting, influencing and having relevance at the top table is important 
 you can’t be a wallflower. You can’t just rely on process effectiveness. Process effectiveness is a bit of a given. It’s about a having a degree of influence, coaching capability, internal consulting, seeing transformation and change. The ability to grapple with difficult concepts like culture, and affect business change through development is key. The forward looking, growth orientated part of the business agenda is where HR can really add value. A focus on steady state and running efficient processes is not going to get you the degree of credibility and influence you could otherwise get. You’ll just be seen as a second-tier process expert, which is not, where you want to be. What are the common themes and or challenges you are currently facing? “Brexit is a big one. There’s going to be a massive systemic issue which is already impacting some industries.  I think the changing nature of work and contracts and things like the Gig economy is a big one; the changing nature of how people are contracted to do work. Craig believes “The nature of work is changing, how you deploy resources more flexibly and globally is key in HR. Thinking tends to be more traditional and linear. Whereas you’ve got to open your mind toward more of a shift away from 9-5”. Craig agreed that Recruitment and AI will follow similar veins. “Artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics and predictive analytics and big data these are all kinds of things which are fundamentally changing business propositions. Predictive analytics is more prevalent in recruitment, but I think we’re going to see process automation added more to the core of what HR does. AI should increase the human element of HR leadership; the subtlety and the complexity of relationships is not something that can be automated”. This is something we’ve championed for some time. The ‘black and white’ parts of Recruitment and HR are going to be completed by an algorithm in the future, the value of a strong HR leader is in the grey areas. It’s the interpersonal skills. It’s that human approach. What advice would you give HR professionals getting started in their career or looking for their next step on the career ladder? “Learning and Development is a great place to start your HR career because it gives you a platform; it gives you profile. You develop the skills of working with people. You start getting involved in areas like coaching and understanding what key business issues are. You develop consulting skills, you learn skills about being quick on your feet. You get used to being plunged into unfamiliar situations with demanding clients, so all of this was quite formative for me. I felt as though it was a really good place to start my HR career”. Craig has been with Sunrise Senior Living for 15 months and will be continuing as Interim Senior HR into 2019. To explore your career options confidentially or speak with us about supporting the growth of your HR team, please get in get in touch today.

“You can’t be a wall flower” – Senior HR Director, Craig McCoy talks to us about HR Leadership. Read More »

HR Director, Yorkshire & the North

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When I contact HR professionals, there are 3 reasons I want to connect: I want to understand them as an individual. Would we work well together? What kind of relationships are they looking to build? What are their objectives and challenges? Are they a client or a candidate? I want to understand their career path. How they got where they did? Why they took the route they did and where are they heading. I want to understand their current role. What challenges they have. What’s worked, what hasn’t and how can we add value. I have been speaking with one candidate for over a year now. We first connected on LinkedIn. We had a short 15-minute call, and both established we could work together. At the time this, very ambitious individual, wasn’t looking for an opportunity. Instead she was keen to make her mark with her current employer, bridge a couple of skills gaps and then move forward in her career plan. I love working with ambitious, motivated HR professionals! In the time we’ve been speaking, this person has: Reduced the average cost per hire by £3000 saving the company £39000 this year alone. Increased employee engagement by 81% across the business, by implementing employee forums, management meetings, increased communication. Decreased employee turnover by 60% Spearheaded talent development and succession planning across several geographies to meet the demands of the businesses 20% growth year on year. This candidate has a proven ability to adapt to business environments of developed markets (UK, Switzerland, USA), as well as emerging markets (China, Romania).  This candidate is now ready for her next career move and is seeking an HR Director level opportunity in the North of England. If you would like to learn more about this individual or view their interactive HumanDNAℱ profile, please get in touch today. If you’re an HR professional who would like to connect, please either connect with me on LinkedIn or book directly into my diary, at a time to suit you here.

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Head of HR, West Yorkshire

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I have just got off the phone with a great Head of HR seeking her next career opportunity in HR. We’ll be meeting for a coffee over the coming weeks. The next step in the process will be for her to create a HumanDNAℱ profile. I noticed something she said a few times. She used the word ‘love’ throughout the conversation. Not flippantly but in the sense that she is passionate about the work she does, the value she adds to her employers and how she benefits the business and the people she serves day to day. It reinforced why I chose HR as my specialism within our multidisciplinary agency. What gets me out of bed every morning, is knowing that I am helping HR professionals to find opportunities to work in roles that get them jumping out of bed every morning; adding value to businesses and supporting them to operate effectively and efficiently. This passion for her work means our client has had some great successes for her previous employers. Including; Saving over £500k by managing a successful cost down project; including efficiency increases, supplier negotiations and resource planning. Developing an internal employee engagement process saving the company over £50k Successfully introducing a talent and succession programme that reduced resource gaps across the business and increased promotions by 40%; Annualised payroll saving of £6.2m through workforce efficiencies and introduction of flexible working; Having completed her final project with her long-term employer this individual is now seeking her next challenge. She is interested in hearing about roles in the North of England and would welcome the opportunity to learn about Head of HR or HR Director opportunities in a progressive, fast paced organisation of around 2500+ employees. If you would like to hear more about this individual or you’d like support seeking your next HR role, please get in touch today on 01709 717212 or click here to book a call with me.

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Regional HR Business Partner, South Yorkshire

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Human is currently representing a fantastic HRBP, looking for their next opportunity in HR Business Partnering. Ideally within FMCG or SMCG, and ideally a Regional role with Leadership responsibilities. This individual is a commercially astute HR Business Partner with demonstrable success in Retail. They have an exceptional track record working across both FMCG and SMCG including; food, supermarket and high street brands. Key achievements include: Decreased regional absence by 50% Responsible for a team of 2000 across 7 depots across the North of England. Increased employee engagement across 9 stores Escalated career development for team members from Graduate roles to Senior Management Coached and developed HR Professionals, Regional Sales Managers and Store Managers in HR. Recruited and retained talented candidates for 3 new store openings I am working on behalf of this exceptional HR professionals and would be keen to speak with any businesses in need of her skill set.  This individual has also created a comprehensive HumanDNAℱ profile for you to view. Human DNAℱ is our innovative, multi-level assessment and recruitment platform. A Human DNAℱ profile includes: A video introduction from the candidate CV, Exec Summary and Key Facts Behavioural profile Competency based Q&A If you’d like to learn more about the HR professionals, we represent or HumanDNAℱ please get in touch today.

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