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“Be willing to take on responsibilities and do certain things before you take the next step” – Interview with Lucy Robinson

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ā€œA lot is being done to make sure that people do feel that they can talk about mental health and have the support in place that’s needed. Even if it’s on a smaller scale, as opposed to a bigger issue, itā€™s important that it’s being dealt with early and people have the support early as opposed to too late.ā€ – Lucy Robinson, Director of Resources of the East Midlands Chamber emphasises about managing the employeesā€™ mental health.Ā  As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weā€™ve invited HR Leaders from a wide variety of organisations to share their insight 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 Lucy Robinson, the Director of Resources of the East Midlands Chamber. Lucy has spent the last 14 years expanding her HR knowledge in several areas, from legislative compliance and guidance to employee relations activities, performance management, and supporting the senior management team. .Ā  Lucy started out as an HR Manager at a medical communications and consultancy business and became an Employment Law Consultant. Now, she is the Director of Resources of the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce.Ā  Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?Ā  Before I started my HR careerĀ  I’d had a bit of interest in law. But when I came out of school, I wasn’t exactly sure which route to take and where I would feel happy. I ended up moving into my first job where I took on an apprenticeship. The training provider I worked with ended up taking me on and that’s where I got my first exposure toĀ  training and development. That was my first foray into HR and obviously quite a specific area of HR.Ā  I got a glimpse of how supporting people could have an impact on their work-life. That’s obviously a really nice side of HR. But there are other areas that are more difficult to deal with, which link back to the business side of things – what really matters to the business and how you can influence the return of investment by doing HR the right way. That includes the individuals that are obviously employed by the business. Then as an Employment Law Consultant, I worked with different companies when they were experiencing issues. It could have been anything from sick leave to tribunal claims or a grievance. Sometimes they just needed some information about what was happening within the business and I helped them work through that and put policies in place.Ā  It was quite interesting to see the differences between a lot of organisations. It wasn’t just the differences between small, medium and large organisations, it was right across the board in terms of how their leadership felt about HR and how that impacted the people and their performance.Ā  So since Iā€™ve been at the East Midlands Chamber, my role covers quite a few other things. I’ve got all of that internal focus, but I do have an external focus as well, so I run some of the HR forums. I always get to hear sort of what’s going on, but I also get to speak to our members as well. And of course, whilst I’m not a consultant and I won’t give them advice that they have to follow, we can have conversations.Ā  And it’s quite interesting still to find out what’s happening across the region.Ā  From an HR perspective, what are the biggest challenges that youā€™ve seen to have made a huge impact on organisations? Recruitment’s a massive thing. We’ve been quite lucky we weren’t impacted by it throughout most of last year but I think it came a bit later for us. Whereas a lot of businesses I was speaking to were really struggling to fill certain roles. You would definitely see an extension to the amount of time it takes to fill a role now. Another big thing we’re definitely seeing with member organisations, especially manufacturers, is that the cost of doing business is massively increasing.Ā  Everything seems to have just kept leaping across the field now. We’re seeing this press on lots of businesses that we work with. And another interesting thing connected to that is the living wage increased as well and it is having an impact.Ā  People think, ā€˜Well, I’m experienced, I’m trained, I’m now getting paid very similar to this person. They’ve had a bigger price salary increaseā€™. You’re definitely getting those types of conversations happening. We’re definitely hearing that externally that the pressures about pay are increasing.Ā  Thereā€™s also the competition for talents, even the topic of counter-offers. Youā€™ve got processes in place to make sure they are fair and that they’re done properly. But theyā€™ve almost become a deterrent because people will have already been offered a job by the time you are able to go back to them or by the time an interview process is completed properly.Ā  You feel like everything’s having to change the gap quite quickly.Ā  One other big challenge is mental health.Ā  People have been dealing with COVID, dealing with conflict in other countries.Ā  That actually has links back through whether it is family or people that we work with that are close to the conflicts.Ā  Or maybe being upset even just from the knowledge of all thatā€™s happening.Ā  I think it’s adding to the pile of things that people were already concerned about. We’re definitely seeing more people suffering.Ā  From an HR perspective, a lot more is being done making sure that people do feel that they can talk about it and have the support in place that’s needed. And even if it’s on a smaller scale, as opposed toĀ  bigger issues, itā€™s important that it’s being dealt with early and people have the support early as opposed to too late. Can you share some advice with those starting or advancing in their HR career?Ā 

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ā€œGet involved in as much as you can.” – Interview with Clare Garcia

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ā€œGet involved in as much as you can. Put your hand up for a project that’s happening, to learn new skills and to gain as much experience as you can.Ā  That positive attitude, enthusiasm, and desire to succeed will take somebody further than they thinkā€ – Clare Garcia FCIPD, People Director at Places Leisure talks about the best attitude to have in pursuing a career in HR. As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weā€™ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Clare Garcia, who has 20 years of successful generalist HR experience. Having started as a Personnel Assistant for Panasonic during her uni years to being an HR Coordinator and Manager at Avis Budget Group International, now, she is the People Director for the leading leisure and wellness partner, Places Leisure; a social enterprise delivering fitness, sport, health and wellbeing to communities across the UK.Ā  Clare has always been interested in HR, pushing her to pursue a Personnel Management with CIPD degree at the University of Plymouth and supplemented it years after with an Employment Law Advanced Diploma.Ā  Can you tell us what made you decide to pursue a career in HR?Ā  I can link it back to the work I did with my Dad. I was 15 or 16 when I spent a couple of weeks with his regional HR manager. She was kind, knowledgeable and passionate about HR.Ā  During that work experience, I just supported the team by preparing some interview packs for a recruitment day that they were running; I loved that structure, and the organisation required for that task. I loved the buzz of that role in the team. During university I did my placement year at Panasonic as their HR assistant. They had a large placement scheme and had around 20 students each year in different departments within Panasonic. The HR role was responsible for recruiting all of those students for the next year’s intake. So that’s what my role was. It was a big focus on recruitment and I was also involved in some other projects whilst I was there. After I finished my degree, I went to Avis Budget Group, a car rental company. There, I met another really good role model. I think she saw something within me, took a bit of a chance and promoted me to HR manager very quickly. I was very flattered, but I was also petrified. I think I’d only graduated maybe a year or two years and thought this role is too much for me. But she mentored me, supported my development and pushed me outside of my comfort zone continuously. I think I learned then that it was important for me not to let fear hold me back from achieving my potential.Ā  I later joined my current company, Places Leisure, one of the largest leisure management partners, managing over 100 leisure facilities on behalf of local authorities across the UK. Over my time here the company has seen substantial growth and is now home to over 6,000 colleagues. Iā€™ve also grown both personally and professionally over these years, especially when I was promoted to People Director in October 2020.Ā  What are the biggest challenges you are facing in your current role?Ā  For a good part of 2020 and 2021, we were closed due to the pandemic so our employees were furloughed. Actually, not just our employeesā€”the whole industry was affected. So the workforce had a long time to think about what they wanted from life. We had some great examples during the pandemic of our furloughed people retraining to work for the NHS, supporting their local communities and working in retail as well. We’ve had a number of our employees either deciding not to return to work after furlough or coming back and then leaving us. But also because of Brexit, we have been struggling to recruit into some of our lower-skilled roles as well.Ā  As a result we’re focusing on recruitment and how we can get the best talent into the business, but then we’re also looking at how we can retain the talent that we’ve got at the moment.Ā  Some of the things we’re doing include reviewing the benefits that we offer our employees. We’ve extended our staff-use of leisure facilities benefit and are offering many more discounts to encourage our employees and their families to use our facilities and get active. We’ve also introduced an emerging talent programme, our graduate recruitment scheme. We’ve got a lot of students who work for us and if they’re just finishing their degree in Sports Science or whatever it might be, they can also apply for those graduate roles that we are advertising both internally and externally.Ā  We have a Lead with Spirit, management development programme, and will shortly be launching a succession planning and talent management process and mentoring programme. We want to be able to talk to employees about where they want to progress in their career. Because I think a lot of people don’t see working within a leisure centre as a career, but there are many career options for people. Weā€™ve got so many examples of lifeguards that have progressed to senior management positions. Like you could be a lifeguard, but then you could also train to become a swim teacher or a fitness instructor or personal trainer or group work instructor. There are lots of opportunities for people, but I donā€™t think we have shouted about that enough in the past, which is what we’re trying to do now. What advice would you give to anyone planning to pursue a career in HR?Ā  Take the time to understand what motivates you and what gets you energised. If I think about my early career, there was a turning point when I was leaving Avis Budget Group. Unfortunately, I was made redundant from that role because two teams were merging. At that point, I

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“That would be my best advice, to be open-minded and to find a support system.” – Interview with Olya Yakzhina

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“It’s always been a balance between what’s right for the business and what’s gonna get our company from point A to point B. Itā€™s also true that you are not gonna get your company from point A to point B if your people are not on board with youā€ – Olya Yakzhina, Head of People, Switchee speaks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership. As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weā€™ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success.Ā  This week, we had a great conversation with Olya Yakzhina, who passionately juggles a multi-faceted career in people operations and HR. Olya is currently the Head of People at the IT Services and IT consulting firm Switchee, a member of the Leadership of the Slack community, People Stories, and is also the co-founder and podcaster of The Modern Employer Spotify Channel.Ā  Olyaā€™s range as an HR practitioner covers several fields, including recruitment, onboarding, learning and development, employee engagement and experience, employer branding and people strategy. She is a firm advocate that employees must be happy, fulfilled and well taken care of to be the best assets for the organization.Ā  Can you tell us about your journey in pursuing a career in HR?Ā  My psychology degree and my transformational coaching degree helped me understand how to get people comfortable in their own shoes and then how to get them from point A to point B. At that time, I was working in the operations department where I was writing processes, training manuals and coaching team members. Through this, my role evolved into Learning & Development, where I got to set up onboarding, close skill gaps and inspire a high-performance culture.Ā  Learning & Development turned out to be a great stepping stone into the People function for me as I learned how to implement processes and policies, be the ā€œchange agentā€ and promote the culture of feedback. My next roles took me deeper into a more generalist People role, where I got to learn more aspects of the function.Ā  What do you think is the biggest challenge youā€™ve encountered in your HR career?Ā  – Within the talent acquisition space, I found it paramount to pay lots of attention to the people you bring on board. It’s people who make your culture and lead to it declining, surviving or thriving. Solid talent acquisition techniques such as educating interview hosts, producing great interview templates and carrying out culture fit interviews help with that.Ā  – I’m very passionate about making sure that people feel happy and fulfilled at work. anything to do with employee experience and their satisfaction, but also happiness at work. My role is to ensure that any and all touchpoints and milestones they have with our organisation throughout their employee lifecycle are built to cater to all of the above. – Inclusion & Diversity is one of my current focuses as well. This year we are dedicating a couple of quarters to realising some of our core beliefs and values when it comes to building a truly inclusive culture where people experience equity and belonging.Ā  You are very passionate about fostering employee experience and happiness. How do you think that translates to the needs of the organization as a business?Ā  You see lots of other companies doing certain things and you get inspired by that, and want to replicate that in your company. And I really feel that it’s the wrong approach. I feel that you can only do what’s best for your company by looking within your company and asking your people what’s best for them. You canā€™t do that by going online to look for 50 great ways to build aĀ culture and then trying to replicate those ways in your company. That’s a lot of energy that could be wasted in vain, in my opinion.Ā  I really am for asking people what they want and giving them plenty of opportunities to say their piece. I tend to try and involve them in shaping the company they work for. One example is our hybrid working setup. We asked people how they want to work in a hybrid environment. We gave them a few different ways to express their opinion. And then we did what they asked us. We tried it for six to nine months and then we asked them for feedback. They told us what works well, and what didnā€™t so we just changed it and its been working so well ever since! I truly believe in creating bespoke solutions for your people.Ā  It’s always been a balance between what’s right for the business, whatā€™s commercially important and what’s gonna get your company from point A to point B. But another side of it is that you are not gonna get your company from point A to point B if your people are not on board with you.Ā  You can still do it. You can still have a very toxic culture and very unhappy people and still get results. But it might take you longer and everybody’s gonna be just stressed out and miserable in the process. It’s just emotionally draining to run a company like that for everyone involved. So why not start it right?Ā  What do you think is the best advice you can give to other HR practitioners or those who want to start a career in this field?Ā  Find a support network or a system of like-minded people who will be there to inspire you and who will be there to bounce ideas together with you. I think that there is true power in a support network and a support system of like-minded people around you. And I have grown personallyĀ so much from being able to run my podcast and meet people from the industry to learn about their approaches and the challenges they face.Ā  It of course is still possible to grow from mentorship provided by your manager. However, when I found myself in

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Human: HR & Leadership Hackathon #10

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On May 25th we hosted our 10th Human HR & Leadership Hackathon, this time joined by a special guest speaker. We were joined by Lucy Brazier, Founder and CEO of Marcham Publishing and a great panel of experts. The discussion took place around The Global Skills Matrix and how it can support HR and Business Leaders to assessĀ and develop administrative staff. You can watch the entire sessionĀ here. PS: You can also find the schedule of our next HackathonsĀ here. Make sure to register!

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“…always remember you’re working with people. Remember the people factor.” – Interview with Abi Hadley-Clift

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ā€œIf you’ve got a workforce that’s engaged, passionate and driven to succeed, you don’t need to worry so much about the business performance because your team will own the businessā€™s results themselves.ā€ – Abi Hadley-Clift, HR Manager at Cycling Sports Group speaks up on how taking care of the employees brings about a positive effect on the business.Ā  As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weā€™ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Abi Hadley-Clift, who has almost two decades of HR experience.Ā  She has been a part of different industries, including a hospital, a lifestyle brand, a chain of hotels, and currently, for a trusted cycling brand.Ā  From training to coaching, personnel support and administration, Abi fervently led the organisations sheā€™s been a part of to churn out the best practices, policies and procedures that will benefit the companies and their employees.Ā  Can you tell us what made you pursue a career in HR?Ā  My aunt was an HR director and whenever we saw her, she would talk to me about it because I found it really interesting. So, when I went to university, although I knew that’s what I wanted to do, I kept my options open and chose business studies and psychology.Ā Ā Ā  After university, I didn’t go straight into HR. It was more important for me just to get any experience. My first job out of university was as an administrator at a housing association.Ā  I was there for eight months while I kept looking for an HR job.Ā  I then found a job as a personnel administrator for a property management company. And that was my first step into HR.Ā  From there, I worked for the NHS as a medical personnel officer.Ā  The workload was incredible at the NHS and it completely overwhelmed me. One of my friends worked in a restaurant and they suggested I get some shifts there. So, I left my job with the NHS and at the restaurant, they ended up creating a role for me as a manager. I stayed there for 10 months, but really missed working in HR. Thatā€™s when I realised HR is what I wanted to do. Since then, I have stayed in generalist roles and progressed my HR career to where I am today.Ā  Was it a conscious decision to keep a generalist HR role rather than focusing on a certain aspect?Ā  I like to have variety and love the variety in a generalist HR role. I have got a real passion for training and development, coaching, maximising everybody’s potential by finding out what an employeeā€™s aspirations are and taking this and the business vision and trying to make it all come together.Ā  I love making people the best that they can be in their jobs and making them feel valued. So although I really do enjoy the development side of it, I also just love all of it. What do you think is the biggest HR hurdle youā€™ve experienced so far?Ā  I think most people have struggled in one way or another, from a mental well-being point of view that’s been caused by the pandemic. Lots of people experienced loneliness and isolation, especially people who lived on their own. So we had to keep in regular contact with those people to make sure that they were okay.Ā  We also coached managers into truly prioritising their staff alongside the business needs to make sure that all their teams were okay as this was a massive change for everyone. And now on the reverse of that, we are trying to get people back into the office and some people are really enjoying working at home. We are currently working with a hybrid model of two days in the office and three days at home. I don’t know what it’s going to look like in the future, but that seems to be working. People seem to be enjoying this kind of balance. If they want to come in more days, they can, but we’re just trying to rebuild that team environment.Ā  In February, there was a time to talk initiative. We encouraged people to take 10 minutes just to go and sit with a group of people and have a cup of tea and a biscuit and have a chat about mental well-being. We’re trying to do some more events. We recognised mental health awareness week in May and weā€™re getting some people trained in mental health first aid later this year to encourage the support there as well. We are encouraging the team to take part in coffee mornings, similar to the time to talk, exercise clubs, or even just walk in their lunch break to enhance their mental wellbeing. These are the kind of initiatives we’re working towards now. For people who want to start a career in HR or those who are taking on bigger HR-related responsibilities, what advice would you give them?Ā  For both working in HR and being a manager, always remember you’re working with people. Remember the people factor. It’s so easy to get absorbed in the day-to-day job and get your to-do list ticked off, but make sure that you remember this is a person you’re dealing with.Ā  I did a 10-week counselling course about seven or eight years ago, which taught me to sit back and actively listen and ask questions, especially when someone’s coming to you with a problem.Ā  Rather than telling them what they need to do, just ask a couple of questions and they’ll come to the conclusion on their own. If you’re wanting to progress within HR and become an HR manager, you need to also know about the business. So it’s great having your speciality in HR and being the expert in it, however, you need to know how the business runs, be commercially aware and understand the impact people and what you do have on the

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Jayde Tipper, Chief People Officer of Temenos, speaks up on how having quantifiable data is essential in HR Functions.Ā 

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ā€œWhat the evidence tells us is that if you, as a manager, check in with your people, talk to them about their careers, and give them feedback regularly, consistently, and in an actionable way, your people will stay.ā€ – Jayde Tipper, Chief People Officer of Temenos, speaks up on how having quantifiable data is essential in HR Functions.Ā  As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weā€™ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Jayde Tipper, a passionate and knowledge-hungry all-rounder in the HR and recruitment field.Ā  She did not stop at having a Sociology undergrad degree and a Masterā€™s degree in Global Human Resource Management.Ā  She gained her MBA, the learnings from that taught her to look at issues from the business angle first and foremostĀ  Jayde has been honing her skills in the IT industry for more than a decade.Ā  She led Talent Acquisition for the Middle East and Africa for Hewlett-Packard and was Acerā€™s HR Manager for MEA as well.Ā  Currently, Jayde is with the fintech firm, Temenos as its Chief People Officer.Ā  Can you tell us how you got started with your HR career?Ā  My first proper job was IT sales recruitment, which was quite a theme for my career and I even do a lot of recruiting until now, actually. So I was doing IT sales recruitment, and then I moved to Dubai. I rejoined an old boss of mineĀ  who ran a tech search firm and set up an international business from a hotel room in Abu Dhabi during the financial crash of 2009. One of the first clients that I was working with was Hewlett-Packard.Ā  They called me one day and said, ā€˜Hey, do you wanna come across?ā€™Ā  I took a big leap of faith and went across from working in a 10-person company to HP, which was massive. I was a really small fish in a massive pond, but I loved every moment of it. I learnt so much there. Then out of the blue, one day I got a LinkedIn ping actually from a former leader from HP. He moved to another tech company and said he wanted an HR person, did I want to come across. And I said, ā€˜I’m not an HR person. I’m a recruiter.ā€™ He said, ā€˜I know how you operate. I’ve spoken to people. You can do it.ā€™Ā  I’ve never done performance management. I’ve never done workforce reduction programs, all this tactical HR stuff. I’d never done it. But I thought, let me have a go with it. So that changed the trajectory of my career. Someone took a chance on me to do HR business partnering.Ā  Can you tell us what challenges are you facing as a CPO (Chief People Officer) of a global organisation?Ā  I think COVID has really changed the expectation with HR. We are expected to have data like our colleagues in finance and marketing have not only data but insights are able to tell the story. By being more connected and closer to commercial outcomes.Ā  We should be able to quantify why we are doing stuff and not just because HR says it’s good for you.Ā  It’s just not going to cut it anymore in the new world.Ā  Iā€™ll give you an example.Ā  Like a lot of companies, we’re going through a performance review process and managers must provide people with feedback, which HR has been preaching about forever. Ā  Let’s reframe that.Ā  What the evidence tells us is that if you, as a manager, check in with your people, talk to them about their careers, and give them feedback regularly,Ā  consistently, and in an actionable way, your people are more likely to stay.Ā  People start talking about the Great Resignation, I see it as a great recruiting problem.great recruiting problem. Let’s look at our top talent. We’ve got a fairly low attrition rate amongst our top talent grouping.Ā  There has been a huge market shift, we’ve also been able to acquire talent in the last 12 months that we would never have been able to acquire before. So I think that it depends on the lens that we use.Ā  Let’s double down on our brand and candidate experience and upskilling managers and let’s keep the people growing when they’re here.Ā  When you just double click once or twice on the attrition data, it’s a completely different story from the headline What advice would you offer to someone that was looking to follow in your footsteps in the HR field?Ā  I’ve got two main pieces of advice. One is to be super curious and learn about the business, whatever business you are in, you’ve got to be interested in it.Ā  But my main piece of advice would be to have a coach, whether that’s formal or informal. No athlete that goes to the Olympics or any at any level or any sport does not have a coach. I think it’s the best investment of your time and energy wherever you are in your career to help you, in terms of self-realisation, feedback, presence, whatever it might be.Ā  I spent a lot of time having coaching conversations at all levels, now, I don’t sit down and go, ā€˜Hey, we’re having a coaching session nowā€™. Coaching is really asking a series of questions and listening very intently and challenging your thinking.Ā  I’m their coach but they coach me as well.Ā  We do a lot of peer coaching as well within the HR leadership team. It’s a great opportunity to get out of the weeds and look out at what’s going on. Jayde has worked up the ranks in Temenos these past six years.Ā  She started as its Senior HR Business Partner for MEA, and then became the Global Head of Talent Acquisition and Executive Search.Ā  In August 2021, she took on the reins as the fintechā€™s Chief People Officer. If you are interested in having a

Jayde Tipper, Chief People Officer of Temenos, speaks up on how having quantifiable data is essential in HR Functions.Ā  Read More Ā»

‘Instead, seek out what you love to do and roles that will use your strengths and talents.’ – Interview with Rob Peacock

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ā€œNever seek hierarchical growth because youā€™ll be seeking it for the wrong reasons. Once you get to a senior level, if youā€™re not passionate about it youā€™ll quickly get found out. Instead, seek out what you love to do and roles that will use your strengths and talents.ā€ ā€“ Rob Peacock, Head of Learning, Leadership and Performance at The Very Group, speaks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership. As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weā€™ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Rob Peacock at The Very Group, who began his HR career after working in retail banking. Rob joined Tesco Stores Ltd in 2010 as a Recruitment Manager responsible for Central Europe, later becoming HR Business Partner for Global Food Sourcing. Rob continued his career progression at Tesco, taking on the roleĀ  of Learning Partner for Global Food Sourcing in 2013.Ā  In April 2015 Rob joined Virgin Media as Senior Learning and Development Partner, transitioning after a year to Personal and Professional Development Academy Lead. In 2018, Rob moved to Samsung Electronics as Head of Learning and Development, UK and Europe. He remained in that role for two and a half years before joining his current company, The Very Group, as Head of Learning, Leadership and Performance in January 2021.Ā  Can you tell us how you got into HR and why? Throughout university and the years before Iā€™d always gravitated towards roles with people. My part-time jobs were at shops and restaurants and after university I worked at Little Chef. I remember the night I met my wife and she asked me what I did.Ā  I wasnā€™t very proud of my answer and I thought to myself I want to start building a career for myself.Ā  So I applied for what was pretty much the first thing I came across; a retail programme for graduates at Lloyds TSB. I worked in their retail scheme, initially selling personal loans and insurance products. I then took on a role coaching and supporting other team members in customer and sales roles, which I loved. Then I became a Branch Manager with my own branch and a team of 20+ people. I thought things were going really well and I had visions of vertical growth but things began to stall for me. I was doing okay, but not brilliantly and I remember thinking to myself, I donā€™t enjoy going into work. I didnā€™t know what I wanted, but I knew it wasnā€™t that.Ā  Driving to work one day there was a career development interview on the radio advising people to find something that they’re passionate about and go after it. After hearing that I started to get really interested in personal development. One of my favourite books is The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma and in it he says the secret to a life of happiness is simple: find out what you really love to do and then direct all of your energy towards it. Thatā€™s always stuck with me.Ā  At the time I didnā€™t know what I truly wanted to do but I knew I loved certain elements of my role such as the coaching and I felt I had the capacity to spot people with talent and grow and develop them. Itā€™s difficult to go from being a bank manager to a role in L&D so I worked in resourcing and recruitment for a while. I then got an opportunity to work at Tescoā€™s head office, recruiting in their commercial buying function. Thatā€™s really where my HR career began. It began with a desire to find happiness.Ā  Working at Tesco was great because it gave me an opportunity to grow and thereā€™s a real history there of promoting people through the ranks. They had strong processes, structures and capability plans in place. It felt like my HR school was done at Tesco. I ended up being with the company for just under 6 years with many roles in that time.Ā  I didnā€™t go to Tesco thinking my end goal was talent development because back then I didnā€™t know what it was. Up to that point all Iā€™d seen in the bank was operational training which is very different. I started to look for clues and identify when I was really happy, or in a flow state and I realised that I was in flow when I was with people, coaching, talking about culture, making a difference to peopleā€™s lives.Ā  I gravitated to things that came easily to me, where I could see they required significant skills and I could also see I had the skills to meet those challenges. I found my home gradually, by doing different things: I worked in the business, in commercial roles and different areas of HR.Ā  The opportunity at The Very Group was exciting because they were making a huge investment in their talent and it was an opportunity to build something from scratch. The team is incredible, very visionary and Iā€™m having the best time in my career now.Ā  A big element of the role is firing up and tapping into peopleā€™s potential and the performance piece is really exciting. Iā€™m looking at how we can approach talent in a different way, so instead of managing numbers weā€™re supporting growth and social opportunity across the business. Itā€™s a very exciting agenda.Ā  Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that youā€™re seeing across the HR sector?Ā  The top three themes are hybrid working, skills gaps, and talent development.Ā  We moved to a hybrid model, having been a fairly office-based full-time model before. Thereā€™s a recognition that obviously COVID blew that working model away but it was also the skills shortage, the need to recruit tech people and the need to open our candidate market beyond Liverpool. I think regardless of COVID the business was ready for that change.

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‘If youā€™re early in your career, take the opportunities that come to you.’ – Interview with James Smith

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ā€œA large part of the job is having difficult conversations and managing difficult situations. We speak to people at their lowest ebb and if you can help them, support them and make a difference itā€™s such a win, both for them and for the business.ā€ ā€“ James Smith, Head of Human Resources at Merseyrail, speaks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership. As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weā€™ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with James Smith, who began his HR career straight out of university on a graduate scheme with Veolia, later taking up the role of HR Advisor at the company. In 2015, James joined Network Rail as a HR Business Partner where he spent two and a half years before moving to High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd. In 2018, James returned to Network Rail as a Senior HR Business Partner based in Manchester. He took on his current role as Head of Human Resources for Merseyrail in January 2020. Can you tell us how you got into HR and why? At university I studied a generalist business management degree. In our final year you could specialise in a particular area and I picked HR as it had such a broad range of potential opportunities. My dadā€™s friend was a HR Director who told me you can make a great career out of it ā€“ it was that simple really. After graduating I was lucky enough to join a graduate scheme at Veolia which involved various rotations over a two year period. I was able to apply my learning from university but also learn on the job as well which was great because until you apply the theory in real-life situations you can’t really grasp it.Ā  The Sheffield division of the company was going through a big restructure at the time and I was doing major elements of that. It was a complex restructure that involved negotiations with trade unions, management and potential redundancies – you canā€™t learn that through theory alone. That exposure at such an early point in my career was key in building some of the knowledge and expertise that Iā€™ve got now.Ā  After I completed the graduate scheme at Veolia I was offered a permanent role as a HR Advisor. I enjoyed the wide range of responsibility, the travel, the variety of contracts I was looking after and the small but growing influence my role had and I knew that HR really was for me. I visited the sites for my oil and gas clients and was able to see some of the front line operations, it was so interesting.Ā  Since leaving Veolia Iā€™ve worked for some great organisations and been involved with national level projects at Network Rail. That was a really interesting experience as itā€™s a huge and complex organisation. I personally feel very lucky in my career. Iā€™ve been guided by some great people, had some great opportunities and have progressed to a Head of HR position in a fairly short space of time. HR can be a challenge, there are days when you pull your hair out and think, ā€œis this fun anymore?ā€ But actually the rewards and what we get out of it far outweigh the negative side. A large part of the job is having difficult conversations and managing difficult situations. Sometimes we speak to people at their lowest ebb and if you can help them, support them and make a difference itā€™s such a win, both for them and for the business.Ā  Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that youā€™re seeing across the HR sector?Ā  COVID has been a huge challenge. After I joined Merseyrail in January 2020 there was probably only one month where COVID wasnā€™t the main topic of conversation and that month was spent getting to know the business and looking at what we needed to do as an organisation, before the world completely changed..Ā  Despite the pandemic, weā€™ve still been able to give great train performance and continue to receive positive customer feedback despite the obvious challenges.Ā  During the pandemic, the challenge was trying to continue to run services for key workers but also to protect our workers as well.Ā  We introduced a new business strategy during the pandemic to help the business recover that had three simple yet powerful strands: reduce costs, increase customer confidence and maximise revenue. We also have the challenge of launching our new fleet of trains shortly. Our current units are 40+ years old so once we have these it will transform travel for the Liverpool city region. Theyā€™re quicker, modern,more spacious and will give us the opportunity to expand the network.Ā  My current challenge is the delivery of a post COVID-19business strategy and designing the people element of it. One of its elements very much focuses on health and wellbeing and how we support our people in a post COVID world because there are so many different factors now. Like a lot of the rail industry, we have an ageing workforce and with all of the NHS resources diverted to fighting the virus, other health elements have started to compound. Illnesses people would normally be able to get treatment for have been postponed or were inaccessible. The industry has had large amounts of absence either through COVID-19 isolations or issues that have manifested following shielding orĀ  quarantining.Itā€™s really affected peopleā€™s physical and mental wellbeing and thereā€™s a lot of long-term work that we need to do to support people going forward. Thatā€™s one of the main challenges, how do we support our people when weā€™re not healthcare professionals? At Merseyrail weā€™ve got lots of fantastic support mechanisms in place. We have a fantastic physio service, occupational health providers, a counsellor, psychologist, mental health first-aiders, virtual GPs and good healthcare benefits.. The amount of support in our business for our staff I

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The Human CEO Article with Ahmet Zeytinoglu, CEO at Sodexo Onsite Services Turkey

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ā€œWithout empathy, a leader is missing a key ingredient to success.ā€ ā€“ Ahmet Zeytinoglu, CEO at Sodexo Onsite Services Turkey, speaks to us about developing a career in Leadership. As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weā€™ve invited some CEOs and business leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Ahemt Zeytinoglu at Sodexo Onsite Services Turkey, who began his career working as an engineer and Production Manager. In 1998, Ahmet became the Assistant Technical Office Manager at GAMA Holding A.S. where he stayed for three years before joining Ingersoll Rand as Production Manager in 2001. In 2003, he joined 3M as their Production and Outsourcing Manager where he worked before becoming Industrial Operations Manager at Perfetti Van Melle in 2006. In 2006, Ahmet became Factory Manager at Ɯlker. In 2010 he switched to the services sector and became General Manager of Catering Services at ISS A/S. After three and a half years at ISS, Ahmet left to join his current company, Sodexo, becoming their CEO for Turkey in September 2014. Can you tell us what your organisation is working towards / stands for? Iā€™ve been the CEO of Sodexo Turkey onsite services since 2014. We are an integrated facility management company with around 5,000 people working for us in Turkey, and over 400,000 globally. Sodexo started operations in Turkey in 1992 and we are one of the largest integrated services companies. Primarily we provide catering, cleaning and facility management services including maintenance, technical and electrical aspects. What are the biggest challenges in your industry right now? In my opinion, the most important thing for any company is people. Since I started as CEO I have really focused on the motivation and engagement of our people. As a service company, our employees are at the centre of everything. We have lots of innovation however, the clients understand our company through our people because thatā€™s who they interact with, hence face to face communication is so important. In order to understand our people we conduct engagement surveys. In 2014 engagement was around 44%, today it is around 76%. Tell me about your journey into Leadership – how did it start, when did you know or when did someone tell you youā€™d be a great leader? I have a mechanical engineering background and when I started working my aim was to be a factory owner. I began working in a small manufacturing company with around 15 people that was a sub-contractor of New Holland Tractors. After the economic crisis of the 2000s, I switched my career to working with corporates rather than trying to be an entrepreneur. I began working at a British company that had a factory in Turkey producing car parts.Ā  I worked as a production manager before becoming a factory manager and then managing multiple factories. In 2006, after 13 years working in production, I decided I wanted to move away from the factory environment. I was ready for a change and discovered I would be well suited to the service sector, which was booming in Turkey. I convinced ISS, a competitor to my current company, to hire me as General Manager. Although it was a big change, I was able to show them that at my factories I was managing 600 people, I was familiar with food production and other aspects of general management, like cleaning. I was the first general manager with an engineering background in our sector in Turkey. I worked hard and had a lot to learn. I was very successful at ISS, I grew the business by 300% in three years. Sodexo heard about my achievements and invited me to work with them in 2014. How do you define a great leader? In Turkish culture, and the Mediterranean region, leadership is very important, but we also treat each other like brothers. I do not behave like a CEO, I behave like a regional manager or operations director – everyone can reach me. Anyone working for us can contact me by phone or messenger and I solve all problems that I can solve. I believe a leader should be available and open. At Sodexo we have a very effective ethics committee that Iā€™m a part of and we communicate with our people directly. I drive 5,000 km per month to visit our sites and speak to our people. Every site will receive a visit from me once in six months and my managers can communicate transparently with me so we can see what the problems are. In our organisation, I do the final interviews for white-collar jobs. I donā€™t ask them about their experience, rather I ask about their character and their ego. I tell them three things are very important in our sector: health and safety, food quality, and diversity and inclusion. We are very strict about sexual harassment and any issues that might arise on our sites. In Sodexo Turkey, 40% of our people are female. I am a professional womenā€™s network equity ambassador and I will do everything I can to make everyone feel safe and included in our workplace. It is going well and weā€™re seeing positive results in our people engagement and happiness levels. Whatā€™s the best piece of advice anyones ever given you? My father worked at construction companies and it was because of him that I became an engineer. He told me that you have to behave as you are. Donā€™t change yourself to suit a role. For me, communication and good relations with people are really important. What’s the best piece of advice you could offer someone in a leadership role? Firstly, work hard. Secondly, experience different things and when you see something new that you can learn, jump in. A combination of experiences is important and valuable. Thirdly, communication is priceless. You can have the highest IQ but in business life if you donā€™t have communication skills and a network it is

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“Be open to learning and let values drive you.” – Interview with Sue Swanborough

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ā€œI believe that HR plays a critical role in enabling a culture of trust within organisations through learning and developing the self-esteem of its people, so playing our part in delivering commercial benefit rather than seeing ourselves as a support function. Itā€™s a brilliant way to help people grow and if weā€™re not thinking about the commercials in the business then weā€™re not doing our job.ā€ ā€“ Sue Swanborough, Human Resources Director at Europe Snacks Kolak, speaks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership. As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, weā€™ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success. This week, we had a great conversation with Sue Swanborough at Europe Snacks Kolak, who began her career in R&D and OperationsĀ  roles at Boots Company Plc. In 1989, Sue joined Mars as a Production Manager and held various roles across Supply Chain before moving into her first HR roles, OD and L&D. Subsequently she became Head of HR for UK Snackfood. In 2006, Sue moved to General Mills as HR Director UK & Ireland, where, after four years, she also took on responsibility for the Nordic Region. In 2015, she was promoted to HR Director for Northern Europe, a role she held for just under two years before joining Whitworths LTD as HR Director in 2017. Sue joined her current company, Europe Snacks Kolak as Human Resources Director in July 2020.Ā  Can you tell us how you got into HR and why? My move into HR was by chance. After studying Physics and Chemistry at Uni, I wanted to work for an organisation that would enable me to put my science into practice, so I joined Boots. My role involved applying science to the product lines and the people. One of my projects was to relocate part of our manufacturing from one facility to another. This involved starting up a new production line from scratch and I experienced first hand the importance of having the right leader and a team organised in the right way with the right skills to deliver the business requirements This prompted me to apply for a manufacturing manager role where I could apply this learning for myself.Ā  Having held several roles in manufacturing at both Boots and Mars, I had the opportunity to manage a project looking at ways of working on our production lines.Ā  In effect, it was a strategic organisational development project and my first HR role, although it was still sitting under the supply chain at the time. Through the project, we looked at all aspects of the line operation ā€“ the people, roles, skills, development paths, remuneration, training etc. It gave me a great insight into many aspects of the role of HR. I enjoyed it immensely and was fortunate to be successful in becoming the manager for the manufacturing training team where I had the opportunity to put into practice some of the insights.Ā  Why do I stay in HR? On my journey, having experienced a range of roles, I realised the importance of having an HR team who is both commercial and people focused. I could see the potential to make a difference to organisations.Ā  What career defining moments cemented you as an HR professional? When I became responsible for manufacturing training, I drew on the insights from the OD project I mentioned. I chose to refocus the team approach from training to learning. Everyone has an important role to play in learning and sharing together to deliver business results. My vision was to create an environment of trust where everyone shared their knowledge and expertise freely and we each released some of the untapped potential we all had within us to thrive and grow together.Ā  I believe that HR plays a critical role in enabling a culture of trust within organisations through learning and developing the self-esteem of its people, so playing our part in delivering commercial benefit rather than seeing ourselves as a support function. Itā€™s a brilliant way to help people grow and if weā€™re not thinking about the commercials in the business then weā€™re not doing our job. This insight highlighted that HR was where I wanted my career to be. Following the L&D role, I moved into a business partnering role and completed my CIPD professional accreditation. Leaving Mars was the right decision for me, I had had a fantastic experience both as a manager and as an HR professional and I was ready to apply my learnings in a new context.Ā Ā  In 2006 I became HR Director for UK & Ireland at General Mills, which gave me almost a blank sheet of paper. The acquisition of Pillsbury in 2002 hadnā€™t been fully integrated into the organisation and a lot of basic things werenā€™t in place. For example, when I joined there was no HR system for the UK and Ireland, there was no clear grading or role structures. It felt like a real opportunity to step back and consider those things to focus on locally at the same time as working with the head office and to develop best practice.Ā  It was entrepreneurial and transformational which was very exciting.Ā Ā  That was another career defining moment for me, an opportunity to define our approach to culture and the transformation of our leaders, our people and most of all our HR function.Ā  We talk a lot in HR about transformation. To me it doesnā€™t mean just implementing an organisational restructure, it means taking the time to really transform the business. That is my passion. I joined Whitworths to be part of the transformation journey there and later Europe Snacks Kolak to again work with the leaders on an exciting transformational programme.Ā  Can you tell me about the key themes and challenges that youā€™re seeing across the HR sector? We canā€™t talk about HR without talking about the business. In common with organisations the world over, the big things that are impacting us currently

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