Talk to staff to get new HR ideas, says Tesco's HRD

Speaking at the European HR Directors' Business Summit in Birmingham yesterday, Therese Procter, HR director at Tesco (pictured), told delegates: "Rather than look to our competition we look inside our own organisation. In the same way we talk to our customers about what they want to see from Tesco, we never stop talking to our staff."

Debating what is needed from HR directors to succeed in 2010, Proctor was joined on stage by Harvey Francis, executive vice-president of HR at Skanska, and Paul Kennedy, HR director at shoe manufacturer New Balance.

Procter added: "As an HR director, you have to innovate for anything that might happen. You can never afford to stop innovating. We have new ideas the business can't afford, but as an HRD you can't afford not to keep pushing boundaries - even when it doesn't always make sense."

Moving to the idea of reward in the recession, she added: "Reward is only one element of work. Employees feel good about doing things for each other and the community, they want a manager who can help them, trust, respect and a job that is interesting."

Francis agreed. "Reward is both motivational and a hygiene factor. We had a pay freeze in 2009 but gave our staff Christmas Eve off - and I received so many letters of gratitude about the extra holiday."

And as HR budgets are cut across the board, the panel agreed training should not take the brunt of these cuts in 2010.

Kennedy explained at New Balance financial resources had been moved into training and the company had saved money from using more online training initiatives.

Procter said: "We are committed to not cut training budgets and our chief executive, Terry Leahy, is supportive of training, but if you have an MD who does not understand training, it will be under attack. You have to prove the value and return on investment - then you have a credible case."

Francis explained: "We have made a small cut in our training budget - but only to make the scheme more efficient."