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HR Leadership with Fiona Guthrie, HR Director “
if you can harness the power of your people, you will get a lot in your business right”

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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 Fiona Guthrie an experienced Group HR Director.  Fiona has worked within an HR Leadership role across several sectors including Rail, Retail and Construction. We asked Fiona about her career and what is required to build a successful career in HR. What lead you to a career in HR? Why HR? “I was attracted to HR because it offered the ability to work across the business and not just in a particular specialism. The variety and the impact HR can make was also attractive. I believe that if you can harness the power of your people, you will get a lot in your business right: That reach across all functions through its people is fairly unique to HR. In other functions you can deliver the right results but in HR you can influence across the piece. Fiona moved away from HR for four years and moved into General Management before she returned because of the impact good HR can have on a business.  “You have the ability to work at senior levels not only in a functional capacity but also as part of a team”. What makes a successful HR leader? The ability to deal with ambiguity, be flexible and have a can do attitude Understanding the business is vital. Data analysis has become increasingly crucial – you have to be able to understand and interpret data. You don’t have to be a maths whizz, but it helps to know when the numbers are right and to be able to interpret and communicate what the data is telling you.   All business is about relationships with your stakeholders – colleagues, customers, suppliers – and the ability to establish and develop good relationships is a critical success factor. Being able to coach and develop your team is also key. In my opinion investing in coaching is the best development money you’ll ever spend. If you train your people to coach, the return on investment will come threefold”. Within HR you are often needed to coach and influence others to achieve the right results – I think both are intrinsic to success in HR. You also need courage as a leader – in HR and across the wider leadership – to challenge when you might be the only one doing so, to question the status quo and to pursue the right solution to business challenges. What key themes and challenges will be prevalent in 2019? ‘AI’ is one to watch. I use inverted commas because a lot of what people are calling AI is really automation or data management. There are huge opportunities for change with the development of that type of technology. Finding a holistic way of using technology without falling into “the computer says no” scenarios will be important.”. “How to keep people engaged with the business purpose is not new but should remain a hot topic. We need to stay focussed on diversity and inclusion, and as part of that I would like to see more companies doing proper work on wellbeing:  If you can get all that right, I believe you will see an impact on the bottom line”. What do you wish someone had told you when you first started your career in HR? “Keep the bigger picture in mind – sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war; don’t take things personally; take every opportunity to learn and grow that you are offered and if you’re not offered them, go and look for them”. “You have to be brave, flexible and resilient. If you’re not those things in HR it won’t be a happy place”. Fiona has worked as an HR Director for organisations within Utilities, Construction, Retail and Logistics. If you would like a confidential conversation about your career or need help finding the next great addition for your team, please get in touch today.

HR Leadership with Fiona Guthrie, HR Director “
if you can harness the power of your people, you will get a lot in your business right” Read More »

HR Leadership in 2019 with Lisa Haggar, Group HR Director at Ascend Learning UK. Lisa spoke to us about her career in HR. “Show an interest in learning about the whole business and how it operates”.

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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 Lisa Haggar, Group HR Director at Ascend Learning UK. Lisa started her HR career in 2000 after acquiring her Business Management degree.  After becoming a HR and Training Services Manager, she started her own HR consultancy, where she was exposed to a range of different industries.  Lisa also received her Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management while working as an HR Manager at Marval Group UK. How did you get into HR and why? I think a lot of people you speak to in HR end up in it by accident. Getting involved in HR and admin, and then kind of falling in love with it. I left school at 16 and went straight to employment, in an admin role. I started my career working for a small company, whose admin department did a bit of everything, including finance, marketing and HR. After moving back to Northamptonshire, I got an HR Admin job, which was solely HR. I spent a lot of time with the HR Manager, and was the first person to ask “What do you need doing? How else can I get involved? How else can I learn?” It was apparent to me that you could either sit back and just do the admin, or put your hand up and ask for more work. , “I want to be involved with that project. How else can I help? I feel like I can do more.” So being quite vocal and flexible. I would say to anybody starting out. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be shy in asking for more work— more interesting work, if you think you’re capable. What key themes and changes do you see taking place across the sector? What is quite interesting in the HR arena is that you have a lot of people who are advertising for roles now who will say they want five years’ experience in manufacturing or in working with unions for example. However all of the skills that you’re trained at through CIPD are unilateral. It’s not sector specific. If you can motivate people, if you can see people’s potential, if you can recruit the best talent and you understand employment law, then that’s completely relevant to every company you work for.  I have never understood that mentality. I think a lot of companies, miss out on good talent, especially in HR because they’re so blinkered on having somebody who’s worked in their industry. For example, if you go from retail to a commercial industry, retail is one of the most cutthroat industries you’ll ever work in, but people are not considered because they aren’t from that sector. There are several benefits, you could bring forward by bringing somebody from outside of the industry, but I think people are just afraid of it. What would you say are your top 3 challenges? Finding the best talent is always a challenge. Especially in London, because a lot of people jump jobs very quickly and they will go to somewhere down the road for ÂŁ500 more. That’s a very sweeping statement, but I’m just saying that’s been my experience so far and the data has backed it up. When I look at CVs in the London area, it’s not uncommon to see somebody who’s had 10 or 15 jobs. In the beginning I was a bit like, “Wow,  why is it like that?” It’s terribly expensive to live in London, so it makes sense, but for me that was quite an eye opener. Some of the other challenges have been around promoting diversity within the organisation. The Fitness and Wellness industry as a whole, has a good balance between male and female, but in Sales it was prominently   male. We  now have successfully hired some of the best female talent out there. Last month alone our top three sales performers, were all female! But for me, I think the top three challenges right now are: Finding the right talent in a competitive market space Retention of that Talent is key and always a challenge. People are so transient now and they can jump between jobs quite easily. Keeping up to date with the employment law because it changes so much. I know some people are worrying terribly about Brexit.  I don’t feel that the Fitness and Wellness Industry will be that badly affected, therefore we’re quite optimistic on the outlook of that, but I know for some businesses that’s going to be huge impact, that will send waves and ripples across many industries.  But to be honest, it’s still a big unknown. We still don’t really know what it means and the true impact with lots of subjectivity and lots of chat about it.  From a pure HR standpoint,  the biggest change will be the change in employment law. You went into a self-employed consultancy role early in your career. What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them? I worked with Chartered Management Institute and from there went straight into consultancy. I undertook some educational courses to become a consultant. I reached out to a lot of people who were in the consulting business and said, ‘What’s going to stand in my way?’ Some early feedback I received was I was too young to go into Consulting. I believe, whole heartedly that talent doesn’t have an age. So I did encounter credibility issues to begin with. “Who is this fresh faced girl? She’s not had a lot of exposure. What companies have you worked for before?” My clients would saying they were talking quite a risk taking me on. In the beginning I said, “If you don’t believe in what I can deliver for you, I’m happy to reduce my fee now. As a leap of faith for you, I’ll reduce my fee so that you’ve got

HR Leadership in 2019 with Lisa Haggar, Group HR Director at Ascend Learning UK. Lisa spoke to us about her career in HR. “Show an interest in learning about the whole business and how it operates”. Read More »

HR Leadership with Michelle Glendinning, UK HR Lead Catalyst at Johnson Matthey. “A lack of relevant degree doesn’t have to mean you can’t transition in”.

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As part of our commitment to helping shape the careers of the people we serve, we’ve been speaking with HR Leaders across the UK to understand their career path and the key skills they believe are important to success in an HR leadership role. This week we spoke with Michelle Glendinning, UK HR Lead Catalyst Technologies Division at Johnson Matthey. Like most, Michele didn’t start her career in HR. Michelle studied Business Studies at Sunderland University before progressing to her Post Grad in Human Resource Management and Development at Northumbria University. Having begun her HR career in HR Management within the Hospitality sector Michelle quickly moved to SAGE where she stayed for 10 years, eventually leading the HR function for Technology. We asked Michelle a few questions about her career and what she felt was important to success in the role of HR Leader. In your opinion what does it take to be a successful HR Leader? “The most effective HR Leaders are aligned to the business and they become a true partner. Lots of business partners say they want to be strategic, however they are not operating as true enablers, and many still have the ‘computer says no’ mentality. The right HR leader will ask the right questions, challenge leadership team, and to seek out the solution that works for the business”. “In HR we need to seek to add value, and keep things simple, it is very easy to continue to give business leaders lots of tasks to do, but we must ask ourselves why, and what value does it bring’. Essentially being an effective HR leader is about being supportive, recognising the importance of looking after people, and making things as slick as possible to take the pain away from managers to allow them to focus on the right things”. What are the key issues you see the sector facing at the moment? “The amount of Stress and anxiety cases is on the rise, when I talk to people a lot of this is driven by social media and economic pressures that people have today. “The rapid changes in technology, is impacting markets as we need to act more quickly to remain competitive, the landscape is constantly changing so we do adjust our structures, accordingly, attract different skills and talents in to our businesses, as we are in a constant state of change’ “Brexit seems to be on everyone’s agenda too because no one really knows how it’s going to develop or impact us in reality’ also what the GDPR and Employment law changes driven by Brexit are also key themes”. What career advice would you offer to someone looking to get in to HR? Michelle says her degree was a great starting point, she wrote 2 dissertations on managing change, but doesn’t think it’s an essential criterion for getting in to the industry. “A lack of relevant degree doesn’t have to mean you can’t transition in. It really comes down to the attitude of the candidate, their willingness to learn, being passionate about people and doing the right thing, problem solving and whether they are solution focussed”. Although Michelle is accredited and achieved chartered status, she doesn’t feel gaining the CIPD is paramount to success. The CIPD is a great resource and a community to be part of as they deliver great research which she has used over her career, but it is not the only factor that would make you successful HR Leader. Michelle has been with Johnson Matthey since December 2018 and leads the UK HR team for Catalyst Technologies. If you would like a confidential conversation about your career or developing your HR team, please get in touch today.

HR Leadership with Michelle Glendinning, UK HR Lead Catalyst at Johnson Matthey. “A lack of relevant degree doesn’t have to mean you can’t transition in”. Read More »

“You need to embrace the whole business, not just HR”. Kate Douglas, HR Director talks to us about her career in HR.

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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 Kate Douglas, who until recently was the HR Director at Clear Channel UK, before which she held senior business partnering roles with a number of organisations such as Vodafone, Heathrow, BskyB, Capital Radio, as well as being the HR Manager at Panasonic’s European HQ. How did you get into HR? ‘I didn’t get straight into HR. I started work as a graduate management trainee for a logistics company and intended to work in Operations. Early on, I had an opportunity to take up an HR role and I thought I’d give it a go for a year or so, but once I started in HR, I loved it and that was it!.’ ‘My career to date has been primarily in generalist roles. Many of my roles have also had significant transformational elements to them, for example at Capital Radio where there were a lot of organisational changes at the time, as well as transforming the HR team to a full business partnering function. It was very empowering and satisfying in terms of seeing the value HR can add.’ What would you say were the three core skills that are important for HR Leaders in 2019? ‘I think being an HR director in a SME requires a balance of two elements. There’s leading the HR function,  being a team manager and representing the people agenda, but also being also part of the wider leadership team.’ “There’s a balance to strike in terms of being a member of that team leading the overall business as well as coaching, supporting, and advising them as leaders. The ability to manage those sensitivities can be critical to success”. “Flexibility, resilience and emotional intelligence are key skills necessary to be able to understand the what, the how, and the why of a business and its people.’ What key themes or challenges are you seeing the sector face? “One of the important initiatives that I was recently working on was on Diversity and Inclusion. It’s not necessarily a new subject but the current climate has created a certain amount of momentum  – think of the ‘#me too’ campaign and the gender pay gap reporting requirements.”. “We were doing a lot of work on diversity with respect to attracting different demographics into the media industry, working with other media businesses to say, “How can we attract more diversity into the whole industry, rather than just as individual companies?” We were also talking a lot about diversity of thought, – having different perspectives and opinions and enabling the different demographics from across the business to feel comfortable to contribute more.’ What career advice would give to someone is at the start of their HR career or looking for a step up? “I think at the start of their career, it’s important to be willing to muck in and get stuck into the basics, to get a breadth of knowledge. There’s been a trend where people go straight into business partnering, whereas I think getting that broad generalist background is really valuable. Knowing basic employee relations, dealing with disciplinary and grievance helps shape your future thinking on motivation and engagement. To be a strong HR leader, it’s really useful to have understanding of the whole HR life cycle”. “For a business partner stepping up, maturity of approach is always a key element. You want to make sure that you understand the business parameters and the business drivers. You need to embrace the whole business, not just HR”.  If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.

“You need to embrace the whole business, not just HR”. Kate Douglas, HR Director talks to us about her career in HR. Read More »

“Use your knowledge as a blueprint”. Oliver Gant, HR Director at Arriva Rail London 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 let us in on the secrets of their success. This week we had a great conversation with Oliver Gant, HR Director at Arriva Rail London. We asked Oliver a few questions about his career in HR.  Oliver’s career spans personal safety and physical training, agriculture, food manufacturing, mental health, and most recently transport. Like many HR professionals, Oliver’s journey did not start in the HR field. His journey began as a physical trainer but eventually felt his career was not progressing. So, he stepped out of his comfort zone and applied for an HR role at East Suffolk Mind, a mental health charity organisation. 70% of what the role entailed had to be self-taught. He had to take experiences from other places and apply them in his then current role. After moving into agriculture, Oliver was approached with a HR Manager’s position at Two Sisters Food Group. It was a huge step for him as he had never managed anyone before. Oliver has since developed a diverse background and understanding in a variety of sectors and life-cycles. His transition from a fast-moving consumer goods environment to an industry that took time to change exposed him to many trade unions. We were keen to speak with Oliver about his perception of the HR sector and what he 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? “I think it’s about really stretching yourself. Get as much experience as you can because as you develop your career, your opportunity to gain experience in the fundamentals of HR practice go away. You’re never going to be the finished article. You’ve got to take responsibility for your own development. Read a lot. Reading keeps your beliefs fluid. What you know to be true today might be very, very different tomorrow. Be open to be persuaded about how you approach things because how it works in one place, may not work in another. Use your knowledge as a blueprint, as a starting point. The other bit is to work hard on you, because the hardest thing is creating that level of resilience in yourself and accept that things will go wrong, it’s how you react to them that makes the difference. When things go wrong, people turn to the HR director to be the rock; you’re the barometer for the team. What are the common themes and or challenges you are facing currently? “I think Brexit will be challenging. Certainly, around the migrant workforce.  We need to get better at understanding how the workforce is changing and how we need to respond to people.  People are also working beyond the traditional retirement age so, the workforce composition in terms of x, y, and millennials is also changing. The days of organisational loyalty are going. It’s important that the most senior people in organisations begin to realise that now you’ve got to invest more in talent and understand that it’s okay when that talent leaves. The other point to note is the millennial generation’s approach to work is highly different. They are dependent on tech and the notion of traditional approaches to work are changing. It’s about what we can learn from this generation and how technology can encourage more agility in our working practices. I know when I work from home it saves me four hours of travel and means I can spend some more time with the family. Work around culture is key, it’s a focus for our board and led by our MD. We need to recognise how we are going to achieve world class, so it’s important that we know what we need to do to get there. We are investing time, energy and resource into shaping a culture for the future. What advice would you give HR professionals who are just getting started in their career? “Get as much experience as you can and as broad as you can. And if you don’t get it, keep trying, ask questions, find ways, be resourceful”. “Being a solutions provider makes you a great asset in any company”. Oliver says he’d rather take up a task then figure out how to carry it out later. By consulting Google, colleagues and his boss, he always found a way. “In the early days I would start saying, ‘yes’, and work my way back from there”. Oliver has been HR Director at Arriva Rail London for almost 18 months and leads the HR, Talent and Communication teams.

“Use your knowledge as a blueprint”. Oliver Gant, HR Director at Arriva Rail London talks to us about HR Leadership in 2019 Read More »

“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 »

“
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

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“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.

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“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 »

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