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Sharon Benson, Transformation and People Director of Edison Young People, emphasises the significance of data in creating a business-winning people strategy. 

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“It’s all about knowing your data and your business model… then working out what levers from a people perspective you will need to influence those numbers.”  Sharon Benson, Transformation and People Director of Edison Young People, emphasises the significance of data in creating a business-winning people strategy.  As part of our commitment to support candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited HR Leaders from a wide variety of organisations to share their insights on building a career, the challenges they face and what advice they would share with those hoping to follow their footsteps. This week, we had a great conversation with Sharon Benson, the Transformation and People Director of Edison Young People, an organisation which provides a safe environment for children through their homes and schools.   Sharon has a proven record of collaborating with multiple stakeholders to streamline, modernise and transform businesses through culture transformation.  She has led businesses in maximising their potential and achieving commercial success while fostering passion, energy and focus in the whole organisation.  Can you share with us the journey that made you decide to pursue an HR career?  I initially worked for a recruitment agency, managing the admin and payroll team. I was in the process of looking for another job and looking to apply for a contact centre manager role when I encountered an opportunity for an Assistant Personnel Officer working for a top law firm in Manchester.  To be honest, it was the salary that caught my eye at first.  But looking at all the tasks, I thought to myself, I’ve done those across  different jobs but never together in one role under personnel, as it was known then.   I went to my interview and it was all about all the different things I’ve done previously so I was delighted to have got the job.  My main career defining moment, it was when I first started out, was that the law firm I joined initially didn’t want to give me an office as they were for ‘fee-earners’.  My manager pushed back as we can’t sit on an open floor since a lot of the conversations or documents we work on are confidential so we needed one of the offices.  I I thought at that moment that I might not be a fee earner,  but my role  will create value and I’ll  find a way to evidence that. What I did was a trial on the recruitment of legal secretaries and audio typists, where we focused on audio typists and formed a pool that worked until midnight.  We saved a fortune on overtime fees and night transportation fees for the secretaries.  I also did a wage-shift analysis on retaining five-year PQE solicitors versus recruiting those at the three-year level.   People sometimes come into their HR careers and don’t have that commercial insight or are probably not as aware of it.  I really came into my own, not just for what we were putting into the HR system, but the data and insights that we got out of it.   So that was my first ever HR job and I got promoted to national reward and benefits manager and we put in flex benefits and I had the opportunity to work on a lot of great stuff.  While I was doing my job by day, I went to University at Salford at night for my CIPD qualification.  I formed a study group where I met someone who was looking for an HR Manager of a contact centre.  Very different to a law firm, but my data and insights came into play again when I joined this company.  I worked closely with Finance to conduct and understand the cost of recruiting a new customer sales advisor into the contact centre. From the recruitment costs, training and time to reach full competency. This piece of analysis analysis identified the significant cost of recruitment and retention and as a result we introduced a ‘work now – play later’ scheme where colleagues can focus on doing more hours during summer, which was when we really needed them, and then take it easy and have their leave or join training sessions during the winter season.  We took our turnover from about 80% back down to about the industry average of 30% because we started to get a reputation for having this innovative working environment.  And our policy conversion rates went up to about 10%, which was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds every year.  From the  examples I’ve shared , I hope you see it’s all about knowing your data, understanding your business model and what your business is doing, then working out what levers from a people perspective you will need to pull to influence those numbers. I’ve joined different organisations like legal services, insurance, financial services, and even social care.  Many of these are happy accidents, but I have tried not to stay in the same sector twice I like to learn new things about the business and I always try to go out at the grassroots level before I speak to the executives.  This is so I can understand how the business operates and generates income and value.  With that, I’ll have a better idea of how to put together the appropriate people strategy to maximise that value.   What challenges are you currently facing? There are not enough people to do the work!. There’s a real recruitment shortage and we know that statistics show that a big percentage of the workforce went back to Europe due to Brexit and the pandemic. And what turned out to be key roles over the pandemic are some of the lowest paid ones that don’t qualify for visas.  In addition, I think a lot of people pondered and decided over the course of the pandemic; do they really need to work? Do they really need to put themselves through everything or just leave the job market? So I would say the challenge at the moment is retention through a lot

Sharon Benson, Transformation and People Director of Edison Young People, emphasises the significance of data in creating a business-winning people strategy.  Read More »

Ingrid Eras-Magdalena, retired EVP Chief HR Officer of Belmond talks about the significance of HR in an organisation. 

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“Don’t see yourself as a department that just hires and fires. You are a key part of the strategy of your business.” – Ingrid Eras-Magdalena, retired EVP Chief HR Officer of Belmond talks about the significance of HR in an organisation.  As part of our commitment to support candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited HR Leaders from a wide variety of organisations to share their insights on building a career, the challenges they face and what advice they would share with those hoping to follow their footsteps. Recently, we had a great conversation with Ingrid who found her passion in the hospitality industry, where she built her fruitful 35-year-long career.  She held regional and global corporate roles in the U.K., Belgium and multiple countries, gaining insights and experience in HR, operations, organisation learning and design as well as mergers and acquisitions.   Can you share with us what made you decide to pursue a career in HR? In my younger years, I always thought I wanted to either become a nurse or a social worker when I realised that I connected very easily with people. I frequently played team sports and usually was made the captain of the team.  There was something in there that made it clear to me that this is the kind of thing I’m good at and I do enjoy. It’s always been about people. When I was about 14, I worked part-time in a restaurant and that is where I realised that I actually loved working in the hospitality business. I spent many years in operations in about every department in the hotel. Working in the hospitality industry became my passion.  I love to make the guests feel cared for. I honestly believe that every business is about its people.  You can have the best product possible, but it’s the people that sell it to you.  If those that provide the service are not caring or efficient, then you would probably look somewhere else. People don’t buy you because of a logo.  They buy you because they had an amazing experience, and they met some people there that were absolutely outstanding. That’s usually why people come back.  In addition, I really enjoy helping people grow and develop.  In this industry, we very often get young professionals of all walks of life, who are very passionate and willing to learn. It is amazing to help them develop and grow, resulting into them being more mature & caring human beings. What key challenges are you currently facing and how are you dealing with them? The biggest challenge is finding the people because if you don’t have your staff, you can’t give the service that you want to provide.  During the COVID pandemic, like many others,  we had many challenges but as a company, I’m very proud of how we dealt with that. We looked after our people as best as we could, engaged with them on a very regular basis and tried to keep everybody employed for as long as we could.  We felt it important because people are with you in good times, and we should be with them in bad times. During the pandemic, all of our HR directors at every property stayed in touch with everybody. They organised all kinds of things from yoga classes to cooking glasses to keep everybody engaged and connected to each other.  Did that go perfectly? No, of course not. But we all made a huge effort to ensure everybody felt that they were cared for.  It helped us all cope, and look with a positive feeling towards the future.  The global staffing shortages which we are now all feeling, creates an additional challenge as we want to ensure that our levels of excellence match those of whom we are now part of.  Belmond which is part of LVMH ( Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, a very high-end luxury company)  now continues their focus on excellence including evolving its culture from the bottom up. Employees at every level are involved in defining how they want the culture to be.  Behaviours were defined and they guide everything that is being done: not only in the properties but also at the divisional and corporate levels. Absolutely necessary as the key to having a great culture is that everybody lives by the values or by the behaviours that you set as a company. Tools and processes were adapted, to make sure that everyone works towards the same objectives and behaviours within their specific roles. And of course an incredible amount of training was carried out to make sure all employees do understand the direction and expectations.  What advice would you give to someone striving to establish their HR career?   There are two main things. First, as part of the human resources team, you need to see yourself in a department that is an integral part of the business.  You need to proactively reach out to the other departments, speak with them and understand what they do.  Only if you know what is happening within the business then you are able to do the right thing as HR.  Don’t see yourself as a department that just hires and fires. You are part of the strategy and an integral part of your business.  For example, you need to understand what legal does and why they do it. You need to understand what are the financial objectives and how that will affect HR.  You need to be clear which kind of KPI should you work towards and how should you control your payroll? You need to understand how marketing works.  And importantly, you should have that seat at the table. It is not about you just sitting there and talking about HR.  It means that you need to be able to contribute in every area of the business because that is your role when you are at the table. The other thing I always tell people, nobody gets anything offered to them on a silver

Ingrid Eras-Magdalena, retired EVP Chief HR Officer of Belmond talks about the significance of HR in an organisation.  Read More »

Samantha Theobald, Group People Director at Next 15 emphasises the importance of transparency and open communication with employees.

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“We need to be transparent.  It’s the little things that I think end up causing the biggest issues and often they could have been avoided if we would’ve just explained why in the early days.” – Samantha Theobald, Group People Director at Next 15 emphasises the importance of transparency and open communication with employees.  As part of our commitment to support candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited HR Leaders from a wide variety of organisations to share their insights on building a career, the challenges they face and what advice they would share with those hoping to follow their footsteps. This week, we had a great conversation with Samantha Theobald, Next 15’s Group People Director.  Samantha came from a journalism, travel and communications background but unexpectedly found her niche in HR.   With 26 years of HR experience, she honed her skills in people development, engagement, culture, leadership and management, giving her invaluable experience and insights. Can you share with us the journey that made you decide to pursue an HR career?  I grew up in Brisbane and went to the Queensland University of Technology, where I studied business communications and majored in journalism.  While finishing my degree, I worked for Channel 9 as an overnight editor.  I would be called out with a cameraman to report on anything that happens overnight and pull together news stories to feed to the news crews for the 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM news bulletins.  There was one time I was sent out to do a death knock in traditional journalism terms. I had to call on a family whose young son had died in a terrible car accident and I couldn’t do it. I went home that night and I said to my dad, this isn’t me. I can’t do this job.  About seven months after graduating, I decided to travel through Asia and Europe while writing a travel journal for the Youth Hostel association.  Then I landed in the UK. I had an ancestry visa, so I decided to stay to live and work here which I did for almost five years before my family called me home. My Dad got really sick and I had to go back to Australia and that’s when I started in the Flight Centre. The year I joined was the year they listed on the stock exchange and it just sort of took off.   Flight Centre is an organisation that sees the potential in people and promotes  from within. I started in a traditional retail role, learning the job from the ground up.  I was then transferred to the head office to work in training and development, where I was writing and delivering training programs among other things. That is where I started my career in HR. I got moved into what was back then traditional HR but we called PeopleWorks and never looked back.   I think it was because I found a place where I just loved the environment. It was a flat structure, very progressive, and they had an entrepreneurial mindset in a business that was quickly growing. I had 11 years there across multiple countries while moving through multiple jobs. That experience definitely taught me a lot about myself, about business and how to get the best out of people. We had this model where we were putting something out there, testing it, learning from it and evolving it very quickly to make sure that it was still fit for purpose in a year when we might be three times the size of what we were that day.  While I was on maternity leave, my husband took a transfer back to the UK.  I always wanted to come back here as I felt my time was cut short.  Fortunately, the Flight Centre in the UK had  a job for me.  I took on employment-related issues and drove a different stream of HR within the business.  I was only working part-time but I was loving it.  A friend then asked me to do some consultancy work, and that’s when I became involved in the restructuring of IncrediBull.  Their CEO at the time asked me to drop working part-time and work with him instead.  I was back to having that feeling you get when you work with a smaller business; I felt I could make a difference. I could see that IncrediBull was really going places and I could achieve a lot there.  I think I’ve always taken opportunities and never been one to be defined by a job title. IncrediBull was a much smaller business and I did a hybrid role.  I was their HR director, but I also did client-side work. I created employee engagement campaigns for clients and built all sorts of  advocacy programs.  It was really great to understand the business from both what we did for our clients and how I could help to use that to grow the people.   As we were building the business, we knew we were hitting the tipping point and we either needed to be bought by a bigger organisation or to buy an organisation to get us to that next level. That’s when we were acquired by Text100 and moved into the Next15 Group. I was part of their integration team and was the Deputy MD of the UK operation.  But then came an opportunity for me to take on being the HR director. And I thought, I can make a bigger difference in that role and that quickly evolved into the Global director Role.  When Text100 rebranded into Archetype and that’s when I took the opportunity to move into a group role. What are the key challenges you are currently facing and how are you dealing with them?  I use a phrase quite a lot, which is to control the controllable. At the moment, there are so many things outside of our control. We saw it a lot through COVID when people just kept waiting for the lockdown to be over

Samantha Theobald, Group People Director at Next 15 emphasises the importance of transparency and open communication with employees. Read More »

Human HR Hackathon #11 – Guest Speaker: Libby Moore

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On July 27th we hosted our 11th Human HR Hackathon and we were joined by a special guest speaker, Libby Moore and a great panel of experts. Libby is an International Speaker, Executive Coach and Life Coach at Libby Moore Global and former Chief of Staff to Oprah Winfrey. The discussion took place around Psychological Safety at work and bringing the energy of LOVE back into the business. You can watch the entire session here. PS: You can also find the schedule of our next Hackathons here. Make sure to register!

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Richard Nolan, Chief People Officer at Epos Now highligths the role of HR in the success of the organisation. 

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“The whole premise of HR revolves around managing human resources. It’s about maximising the impact people have on driving businesses forward.” Richard Nolan, Epos Now’s Chief People Officer highlights the role of HR in the success of the organisation.  As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, we’ve invited HR Leaders from a wide variety of organisations to share their insights on building a career, the challenges they face and advice they would share with those hoping to follow in their footsteps. This week, we had a great conversation with Richard Nolan, the Chief People Officer of Epos Now, a leading provider of SAAS technology specialising in POS & global payments. Previously, he was the CPO of THG, a leading global eCommerce business for four years with  extensive exposure to the private investment world. He achieved this rise from the ranks from his early days as an HR Advisor, People Partner then progressing into the role of Group Head of People. Quite a surprising career path despite having started his career in IT & programming, but he found his true passion and calling in HR.   Richard is a firm believer in putting business culture under the spotlight with a focus on supporting businesses to strive to achieve an inclusive value led culture. He brilliantly draws on his experience and vision to lead the team to achieve its goals.  How did you get into HR and what made it stick? After 17 years specialising within HR, the reason hasn’t really changed. As an individual that takes pride in seeing other people grow, it can be incredibly rewarding to see the outcome of people led strategies that positively influence someone’s life journey; be that supporting an employee to progress their career or assisting someone back into the world of world after a prolonged absence or recognising employees progressing key life milestones with your business, every day is filled with success measures which all HR leaders can celebrate.  Personally seeing employees flourish and have success after success because you’re creating the right culture and environment for them is what makes me tick. I’m somebody that’s driven.  I always wanted to pick businesses that would challenge me and give me the ability to challenge them. I was a junior when I started in the NHS back in 2003, It was my first formal job. But it’s fair to say that I didn’t have a clue what I was doing if I’m brutally honest. However, through self-motivation, interest, and passion, I self-educated myself, and used this opportunity as a test bed to learn  some of the foundations around core HR. That said, it is a different world today. One of the more recent businesses I joined was THG.  When I started, the people function was fragmented, as you would expect with a business experiencing hyper growth. The team was made up globally of c 60 people professionals across core HR, Payroll, Talent Attraction and development. This team was supporting a circa 2,500 employees globally with a big appetite for growth. During my tenure, the business grew exponentially, with revenue growth from c£700m to c£2.4b, and a global workforce reaching 15,000 with a greater focus on new global locations such as the US, Germany, Singapore, Australia. At the same time the people team grew to c160 by the time I left. THG is a very fast-paced business that takes pride in achieving the unachievable, alongside organic growth we executed significant M&A projects valued up to £4-5b and achieved one of the largest technology IPO valuations on the London stock exchange.  Reflecting on day one at THG, it was funny how challenging the people infrastructure was, and I recall the people team didn’t even know how many people we employed. I can remember getting the whole people team in a room and asked them to scribble down our current headcount with numbers ranging from 1000 – 6000, at that point it was stark that change was needed, and the starting point was to address the complex web of HR infrastructure with circa twenty-eight different HR systems across the business, all legacy HR and payroll systems, as hangovers from various acquisitions. Within 6 months, we had migrated all systems into our new global HR infrastructure which was supported by our own in-house data analytics platform, which then helped to drive our people strategy from strength to strength.  As Chief People Officer, what critical challenge faced by HR practitioners needs to be addressed?  Commercial awareness is the fundamental missing pillar within the HR arena. Ironically many organisations pivot commercials to finance despite knowing that results are achieved by people opposed to spreadsheets! That said, this will only change when HR professionals invest the time to understand the commercial side of the business.  A great example would be the introduction of commissions schemes. Typically schemes I see take one dimension, opposed to considering the behaviours the scheme will generate and the impact these behaviours will have on all functions in the business.   I see most business challenges as mathematical equations that can be solved with diligence and time invested to understand and solve them.  What piece of advice would you give to someone planning to pursue an HR career or stepping into an HR leadership role?  For someone stepping into HR, the primary focus should be to understand the business. Take time to learn each step of the journey, and visually map this out if it helps – having a visual record that allows you to understand the customer life cycle and the measures of success at each stage will be pivotal in maximising impact and your success.  Once you have this, you can then start to think more about culture, purpose & values.  And to somebody going into an HR leadership role, stay true to yourself, and to achieve this you will need to be resilient. The role of a leader should never be easy, you are in that role to challenge thinking and

Richard Nolan, Chief People Officer at Epos Now highligths the role of HR in the success of the organisation.  Read More »

“Having a strong HR network can also help with developing your career. ” – Interview with Fiona Williams

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“You have to have the right balance of sympathy, empathy and compassion coupled with resilience and business acumen to help leaders make and enact tough decisions when it matters. It can feel like a lonely place at times.” – Fiona Williams, Human Resources Director at Buro Happold talks about a common misconception by HR practitioners. As part of our commitment to support candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited HR Leaders from a wide variety of organisations to share their insights on building a career, the challenges they face and what advice they would share with those hoping to follow their footsteps. This week, we had a great conversation with Fiona Williams, a Chartered MCIPD HR professional.  Fiona chose HR as a subject while at university, jumpstarting her almost two-decades-long HR career.  She has an honours degree in HR & Marketing and a Master’s Degree in Information Management.   Fiona joined various organisations as an HR Manager, HR Advisor and Account Manager.  Now, she is the Human Resources Director of the engineering and consultancy firm Buro Happold.   Can you tell us how you got started in your HR career?  I went to the business school at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Human Resources was one of the subjects I took in first year, not knowing anything about it.   It just so happened that I did quite well and got good marks in my first year.  We then had to narrow it into two subjects, so I took Marketing and HR and left University with a 2:1 joint Honours degree. As part of the course I was able to attain my graduate CIPD membership and then upgrade to a chartered membership several years later. The path that I took to Chartership was less common I would say.   In some ways, it was easier because I got it as part of my degree and didn’t have to go through all the exams whilst having to work. However, my university degree was very theoretical and there was no practical application. I had never set foot in an office or seen what it was like to work in an organisation. When you are doing your qualifications when you are working I think it is easier to apply your learning.   I would say most people who go into HR as a career have to start at the bottom. Those that are most successful in HR have learnt by doing, writing contracts, taking minutes in disciplinary hearings, updating HR systems etc. It’s how you learn and then as you progress you have that base knowledge and application to provide the confidence in a more senior role. It helps give you credibility because you have experienced it all. You wouldn’t want a surgeon operating on you that hadn’t gone to medical school and learned how to do it. HR is a bit like that. You’ve got to get the practical experience in the basics to gain the respect and reputation that you know what you are doing and be able to confidently advise the business. It can feel like a long way to climb, but if you are good then you can quickly move up. Being in HR is a lot of fun but there are serious issues that have to be dealt with and having practical experience of dealing with disciplinaries and sensitive people issues, helps you develop into a great senior HR professional.  My first couple of roles helped me get a good practical grounding in the application of HR. After that I began to progress and realised, I enjoyed generalist HR and business partnering. It was a space where you felt connected to the business and really able to add value. In my early career it was more about the HR job than the company, I was still learning my craft and just wanted experience. It was only on joining Buro Happold that I started to think about the type of company that I wanted to work in.  It’s better to share their values and ethos otherwise it’s hard to help them achieve their strategy.   I’ve been fortunate in that in my 10 years in Buro Happold, I’ve moved into various roles, seeing my career progress from HR BP to UK HR Director.  Can you tell us some of the challenges you faced whilst working in HR? The pandemic was something that was done to us all.  It was hugely stressful, but at the same time a great learning experience. HR was really in the thick of it. It was actually an insane but rewarding time.    HR was put in the spotlight and was able to demonstrate its value. It allowed us to be at the table and shape the direction of the business as well as supporting our people through extremely challenging times. It also allowed us to get items on the agenda such as wellbeing and diversity and inclusion, showing senior leaders why these topics matter and how they impact the bottom line. We are working on many projects now supporting wellbeing, diversity and inclusion, attraction and retention. Businesses are realising that these are not just fluffy things that the HR department is talking about. HR is helping the business to realise that these are key business imperatives that they need our help to deliver. People won’t accept anything less anymore. The great reshuffle has made people focus on what’s important and HR have a huge part to play in helping organisations navigate the new normal and the future of work as well as driving the strategic direction of the company and keeping people motivated and engaged.   Can you share some advice with those planning to pursue an HR career? Network as much as you can. I’ve spent a lot of time in my career going to HR events and keeping in touch with people to build my HR network. Its so valuable to have people outside your organisation to speak to and to bring that knowledge back in. 

“Having a strong HR network can also help with developing your career. ” – Interview with Fiona Williams Read More »

Hannah Gooch, Head of Talent Acquisition at OVO Energy talks about essential traits needed to succeed in HR. 

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“Do not be afraid to question and challenge things… there is so much opportunity to influence the company.” – Hannah Gooch, Head of Talent Acquisition at OVO Energy talks about essential traits needed to succeed in HR.  As part of our commitment to support candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited HR Leaders from a wide variety of organisations to share their insights on building a career, the challenges they face and what advice they would share with those hoping to follow their footsteps. This week, we had a great conversation with Hannah Gooch, the current Head of Talent Acquisition at OVO Energy. Hannah has been thriving in the HR industry for about 13 years, having started during her placement year. She joined and made an impact on several organisations including a talent strategy group, a recruitment agency, and now, an energy supplier. Throughout her career, Hannah openly embraced roles that came her way, leading her to find her real passion: recruitment and talent acquisition.    How did you know that you wanted to pursue a career in HR? From a young age, I’ve always loved working with people. I worked in my early teens and did everything from supermarket work to waitressing and washing up. But I enjoyed the people aspect rather than the actual job itself. This is something that I wanted to explore further going into the university. I started at Hays in their construction and property arm during my placement year. I was doing a recruitment consultant role with business development. It wasn’t my preferred sector and I felt that while this will be a good experience, this is not what I want to do long term.  My manager at the time went on maternity leave and I was given the opportunity to move into the internal recruitment team. I absolutely loved it. I was fairly quickly put in charge of their graduate and placement year scheme. I liked that internal role and realised it is what I enjoyed and thrived on.  I then went back to school for my fourth year and did my dissertation on graduate schemes then rejoined the internal recruitment team of Hays during my final year of uni and after I graduated.   I also had a brilliant time at Adlib, where I focused on client-side marketing recruitment. I started in the resourcing world and moved up to being a consultant. I had a really good relationship with the Managing Director, but he knew that I did not come to do 15 business development courses. I was with the agency for two and a half years and had a great time. But I always knew that the in-house role was what I wanted to do and to be hands-on in recruitment.   When I first joined OVO Energy, we were about five hundred employees. Now, we have grown to about four to five thousand people. In those eight years, I feel like I’ve been on a huge journey both personally and career-wise. It was after my first maternity leave that I felt my career was going in the direction that I wanted. It gave me a sense of ambition that I hadn’t felt before. And that’s when things started to progress for me.  I always wanted to be a manager. I knew that that’s where my passions lie. I loved people and I loved developing people. I loved to see people do a really good job while they were having fun.   What are the key challenges you are facing right now as Head of Talent Acquisition? The challenge last year was the volume of hiring. We hired around 1,200 roles into OVO Energy. With that much volume needed, you have got to stand out as an organisation.  COVID caused a huge shift for everyone and hugely changed working life for the better.  Remote working and flexibility have become significant factors that people look for before joining a company. Luckily, we were ahead of the game as we were already promoting flexible and choice-based working before COVID. But it accelerated things for us.  We needed to focus on early careers and getting people into roles predominantly on the tech and product side early. There’s a shortage of good people in that area. We need to look earlier on rather than trying to get people when they’re halfway through their careers. I think that is where we can shift the diversity because we have an incredibly inclusive culture. With that goal, we needed to make sure that we are an appealing company to potential joiners.   What advice would you give to someone preparing for a long-term HR career?  Being personable and approachable is key to any leadership role, especially in HR. It needs you to be a true people’s person. It is essential to be warm, open, honest, transparent, and truly genuine to people. You should also know when to admit that you do not know the answer and when to ask for help. Do not be afraid to question and challenge things if you are not comfortable with the way that a project is going. There is so much opportunity to influence the company.  Being a part of HR, we need to push the culture of an organisation. It is quite a powerful role. Particularly when you’re in a leadership position, you’ve got to stand up for your team, sing their praises in any way possible and champion what they are doing at all times. Hannah joined OVO Energy in 2014 as a Talent Acquisition Advisor. She moved up the ranks and she took on the bigger challenge of being the Head of Talent Acquisition in January 2022.   If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.  

Hannah Gooch, Head of Talent Acquisition at OVO Energy talks about essential traits needed to succeed in HR.  Read More »

Matt Yates, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at abrdn talks about the process shift towards recruitment.  

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“This is the most volatile and dynamic candidate market that I’ve ever come across in over 20 years. It’s way more candidate-driven than it ever has been before.” Matt Yates, Global Head of Talent Acquisition at abrdn talks about the process shift towards recruitment.   As part of our commitment to support candidates in developing fulfilling careers, we’ve invited HR Leaders from a wide variety of organisations to share their insights on building a career, the challenges they face and what advice they would share with those hoping to follow their footsteps. This week, we had a great conversation with Matt Yates, the Global Head of Talent Acquisition for the global investment company abrdn.  Matt has spent about 23 years in the HR industry, enriching his knowledge about the different HR processes and theories.  But he has found his true calling in recruitment and talent acquisition.  Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?  I would say that 90% of people I’ve ever come across in talent acquisition, in particular, did not get into it by design.  In my case, after I finished university, I wasn’t that sure about what to do. I saw an advertisement in a local paper for a recruitment firm.  I knew nothing of the recruitment industry and how it was a commercial business.  So I got to the interview and I thought I was interviewing for the position within that firm.  It turns out they were trying to see if they could sell my profile to other businesses. I think it was probably halfway through the interview that I finally grasped what was happening. They put my CV into an IT recruitment firm.  When I got in, it just spoke to me and I thought that’s something I could do well. I really enjoyed the recruitment sales part of it but after a few years It got me thinking if this was something I can do until my forties and fifties.   I knew how to work with people. I knew how to manage a team. I knew how to track candidates and understand what’s marketable and what businesses need and how recruitment could solve problems. But I didn’t think I had enough breadth. I needed an operational challenge, but also an intellectual challenge as well.   I went back to the university and took my  International HR Management masters degree.  I thought I’ll be more marketable in that way and would be able to look at a wider sphere of things.  After that, I got a role doing a combined HR and recruitment job. I realised that I really love the recruitment part of it more so than the other bits. And I’ve been in the pure recruitment roles and in-house talent acquisition ever since.  What key challenges have you encountered as the Global Head of Talent Acquisition?  I’d say that this is the most volatile and dynamic candidate market that I’ve ever come across in over 20 years. It’s way more candidate-driven than it ever has been before.   Now, the way to think about recruitment is no different to how organisations should think about customer experience. That means that an increasing level of personalization comes into the mix.  We are here to serve the candidates as the primary set of customers. And that’s something that recruitment often misses because they feel like their customers are the business they work for.  The business outcome is what you’re looking for. You can do that by servicing your customer, which is the candidate. They are the people that you need to worry about, impress and engage. The nature of engagement has changed.  Historically, it was focused on the Employee Value Proposition and how it can be translated to the market.  That covers attributes such as the work that they do, the benefits they get and the pay scale.  But now, the challenge is how you will translate this globally.  How will you translate this message into 40 different countries? It is not about the attributes that you possess as an organisation and what you can offer. It shifts to the emotions that you can elicit from people.  How would they feel working there?  There is also the generational thing because that has an even bigger dynamic to it. As the composition of the workforce changes, the need for individual personalization intensifies because there’s more variety at the younger end of the scale of the demographic.   What we have been working on in the organisation for the past two years is transforming what we do so that we have a candidate-centric, transparent process around recruitment. The delivery of the function is still the central transaction of moving people around and hiring new people into the organisation. You just have to build the other stuff around it. So the transaction continually evolves and gets better. The top priority I have at the moment is energising the internal market in the same way that our external market works. Because people want and deserve opportunity and if you don’t provide it they will look for it elsewhere.. The number one reason that people leave is because of career and skills development.  If you can’t offer people a more dynamic internal market and they’ve got access to a really dynamic external market, then that’s the one they engage with more readily. That’s another way of saying you don’t have to leave a job to get new exposure or learn interesting things to utilise the skills that you have. You don’t have to leave a job to do that. You can do that now as part of the job that you do today by accessing short term gigs, projects and other opportunities. Then of course more permanent job moves come in due course but on a more infrequent basis Can you share some pieces of advice with those who are keen to start an HR career?  What drives progression is a level of curiosity and eagerness, and the ability to get

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Guest blog: Fertility vs Fear

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“Women shouldn’t feel the need to sacrifice a career to have a child, or vice versa.” As part of our commitment to sharing insight and creating opportunities for our network to share their insight, we recently received this blog from Samantha Lewis, HR Director at NMITE.  As an HR Director that has worked most of her life in a male dominated environment, I am very aware of the barriers that are often found when looking to progress your career. I also know that many women feel they have to choose between a family or a career. My question is always, Why? I have produced a short blog that includes my own journey of going through fertility treatment, and tips for other women that may be facing the same challenges. As an HR Director that has worked most of my life in a male dominant environment, I am very aware of the barriers that are often found when looking to progress your career. I also know that many women feel they have to choose between a family or a career.  My question is always, Why?  I have produced a short blog that includes my own journey of going through fertility treatment, and tips for other women that may be facing the same challenges. Should planning for a child be something to be feared? As a 21-year-old, I had my life mapped out. I planned to complete my HR qualifications, marry my partner, start a family, and return to work whilst still young enough to be able to develop a career. There are so many things wrong with that plan. Why did I feel the need to have to return to the workplace whilst I was still ‘young enough’ to develop a career? As things worked out, the plan was a shambles. I did complete my HR qualifications, and I did marry my partner……. but the having a child part wasn’t as easy. At the age of 27 I was told I would never conceive a child naturally. As a female working in a male dominant manufacturing environment, the idea of discussing the difficulties I was facing to conceive was incomprehensible. If they (the company) knew I was planning to have a child, I felt I would be overlooked for promotion, additional opportunities and further training. After 4 years of trying, and the continuous emotional rollercoaster, I was finally approved to start ICSI (Intracytoplasmic sperm injection) treatment. A chance to start at family, but at what cost to my career? Telling my employer that I was actively trying to have a baby was the most difficult conversation I have had within my working life, to then have to request additional time off to allow me to attend the appointments, and the emotions that run with this treatment was not easy. I knew at this point, the work and effort I had invested in my career to date was going to be halted. Who would believe in me now, knowing I was going to be taking Maternity Leave? When I returned to work, would I be able to commit 100% to the job as I had previously done? Surely having a child, I couldn’t juggle a senior role too. Women shouldn’t have to have this internal argument with themselves, or fear having this conversation with their employers. Women shouldn’t feel the need to sacrifice a career to have a child, or vice versa. Infertility affects around 1 in 7 heterosexual couples in the UK. Often cited is the fact that women have more freedom to choose between career and family, plus the social pressures that lead many of them to delay parenthood until they have established a career, financial stability, and have found the right partner. As a result, many women delay motherhood until their mid to late 30s, and it is well known that fertility starts to decline around the early ’30s, decreasing gradually until the early ’40s, after which most women have a poor fertility prognosis. Does this mean women are sacrificing the desire for children over the need for an established career? Going through ICSI treatment and having a child (who is now almost 9) was the best thing that ever happened to me. Not just because I have a small human than calls me mum, but because it taught me resilience, determination, grit and never to give up. As a HR professional, I am more driven and creative now, than ever before. Since having my son, I have moved into a fantastic role within an innovative and supportive organisation, completed an MBA, become a Chair of a Charity, but more than all of this I developed empathy and emotional intelligence. It doesn’t matter whether you are male, female, or gender neutral, if you want something in life, barriers are there to be hurdled, and the rewards are there to be enjoyed. The choice between child or career should not have to be made. Success should not be determined by whether you want or have a family. Organisations need to start making this an accepted decision and support their employees to be parents, and be successful in the workplace, and adopting new ways of working, to make goals achievable. Fertility and pregnancy should not be a ‘taboo’ subject. As an employer, you should be embracing the strength and determination that some women face and harness it within the workplace. Make these conversations the new ‘normal’ and promote the support you can offer. 5 top tips for women facing a similar challenge: Believe in yourself! Just because you have decided to start a family, doesn’t mean you lose all of your fantastic traits and experience. Be honest – talk to your employer, let them know the challenges you may be facing, ask for support. Remember employment is a reciprocal relationship. Your employer hired you because you were right for the job, and you joined the business because you believed they were the right employer. This shouldn’t change, just because you

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“…build your resilience, and make sure that your own personal behaviour is exemplary.” – Interview with Dee Booth

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“Every company says people are our greatest asset. Everybody says it in whatever way they dress it up, but they need to put their money where their mouth is.” – Dee Booth, Group Human Resources Director at mac-group speaks up on how companies should prioritise their employees’ needs. 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 Dee Booth, who has proven her dedication to her chosen career path with more than 30 years of generalist HR experience.  Dee fortuitously stumbled upon this career during her early years, hit the ground running and has continually developed her passion for HR. Dee worked as a HR Director in her previous company before accepting the challenge Group Human Resources Director with leading construction company mac-group.   Can you tell us how you got into HR and what it was that made you stay?  Many years ago, I joined a business as a secretary, and they had an opening in the HR department. I was only doing the job for about six months when they let go of the HR Manager. With that, I got completely thrown into the deep end while I covered that role for a period of about six or nine months. They got a new HR Director into the business, and he promoted me and encouraged me to gain my qualifications part-time. I worked alongside him for about 12 years.     I went into HR when I was 21. In the early days, it was more about learning the role.  But it’s only really when I took responsibility myself rather than just reporting to a HR Director or HR Manager, that I felt like I came into my own.  Every company says people are our greatest asset. Everybody says it in whatever way they dress it up, but they need to put their money where their mouth is. And I think being able to influence up to the board level got me thinking, ‘I’m going to stick with this.’  A lot of people have specialised in different areas, particularly rewards and benefits but I personally made the decision to stay in a generalist HR role. I love that I have the ability to get involved with different things. My day at the moment would be, interviewing somebody in the morning, then benchmarking salaries and benefits.  I’m also doing a lot around coaching development and mentoring, but things like health and safety training and other soft skills, I’ve passed  to the line managers.  What key challenges are you facing right now as a Group HR Director?    Our supply chain is causing challenges. Within Construction we have a lot of semi-skilled people or operative labourers.  We’ve seen a massive shortage of skilled tradespeople. Brexit obviously was starting to have a bit of influence on that, and COVID-19 has had a massive impact as well.  A lot of people that we employ were Eastern European. Because they didn’t have quite the support mechanisms in place and they had a big lockdown in construction, many of these Eastern European people went back to their homeland because they weren’t earning any money. And it’s been very difficult getting those people back.  Also, poaching is rife within our industry. Keeping on top of market rates is quite difficult.  We take the feedback we get from exit interviews very seriously. So, one thing that we are really striving for as a board is to absolutely improve our communications across the company and to be more outward facing in terms of asking the staff what they want. That is really our mission.. We are determined as a company to get better with our communications and to know what the employees want. No more assumptions.  We’re learning as we go along and there is a real family feel to the business.  Everybody’s very, very supportive and we’re very flexible in terms of people’s working hours. We recognize that people have got childcare issues, so we work with them. We’re very, very flexible on that. We recognize when people are ready for promotion.  It does not need to go through layers of bureaucracy. We can make really quick decisions because we’re an agile business. Do you have any advice for someone planning to pursue a career in HR?  I think you have to build resilience. There are times it can be quite a lonely position.  I’d say that having worked with big HR teams as well, you need to find the balance between supporting the business and making sure you support the employees. I’ve seen colleagues fall by the wayside because they’ve either been too pro-employee or too pro-company. It’s a really fine line to walk. Your own personal integrity has to be 100%.  I’ve had to build resilience over the years as well, because sometimes you do get knocked back and sometimes, you’re in situations that aren’t particularly very nice. Also, you have to be a people person. You have to care about individuals, but you’ve also got to have a fairly broad mind as well. And the other thing is you have to listen. So, to summarise,  build your resilience, and make sure that your own personal behaviour is exemplary. That includes your integrity, and above all, you really have to care about people. From recruitment to rewards and benefits, training and employee welfare, Dee readily fulfils any HR function but maintains a more generalist approach to her role. She joined mac-group in 2019 as its Group HR Business Partner and was recently promoted to Group Human Resources Director in January 2022.   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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