Group HR director of business standards company BSI
HR professionals should see themselves as business people first. We can’t afford to have HR people who are there for the sake of the process and the HR function in its own right. You should live within the business if you are going to have any influence at all.
I started out as an engineer but moved into the HR world in a company that I thought was very progressive in its HR thinking. But it was full of HR professionals through and through and one of the things I learned was that I want to find people who don’t necessarily come from the HR world. In some ways it is almost easier to get the HR capability developed than it is to take an HR person and get them to understand the business.
It’s been interesting for us recently because we have just have gone through a major global exercise in defining our core behaviours. We have boiled them down to five: customer focus, accountability, respect, communication and achievement.
Respect for one another is one of the biggest drivers we have. If you can work in that environment, there is every chance we will all flourish. But if someone is trying to behave in a way that is contrary to that, some of the trust starts to be eroded.
Humility is important to me. I don’t like “grandstanders”, who want to score points. People who want to do the job for the right reasons aren’t looking for personal credit. It doesn’t stop them being gregarious or fun to work with. It’s that recognition that we are here to satisfy the customer and deliver the business, as opposed to just personal satisfaction. When you have those two things competing, generally there is only one winner.
Every experience you go through should build who you are as a person. Working in the States taught me a huge amount. Although we share the same language, it is a very different employment environment out there.
I love to have people asking “could there be an opportunity for me in Australia?” or “could I move into another field?” because that’s when those little lights are coming on. If you run your organisation with people who have only done one thing, they may be good at that one thing but you can move more quickly when people have a broader perspective.
Potted CV: global HR and comms director, TI Automotive; VP, Land Rover University (North America); HR director, British Aerospace; HR director, Land Rover