- Leaders should treat employees as well as they do members of their family, according to Jersey Telecom Global group HR director Richard Summerfield, who spoke on the subject of Loving Leadership. “If leaders get comfortable with bringing love and care into the workplace, not just reserving it for things outside of work, it would be the single biggest thing to improve engagement, performance and productivity,” he said. “Leading with love and care is the most commercial leadership behaviour you can find.”
- Stephanie Shirley, author and technology pioneer, warned that we will not have equality in the workplace until leadership is shared equally. "Blatant sexism may be illegal, but there remains huge potential for prejudice against women," she said. "You can tell an ambitious woman by the shape of her head; it will be flat on the top from the number of times it has been patted patronisingly.”
- Head of engagement for IT services company Tieto, Sophia Boleckis suggested that HR should be capable of discussing feelings in the workplace. "I met with all the heads of support functions to talk about feelings, and I was worried I'd get laughed out of the room," she said. "On the contrary; when I started asking about their feelings within the function and if they felt happiness, pride, inspiration, they said: 'Finally! Someone is interested in my feelings!'"
- Sue Swanborough, HR director, north Europe for General Mills, said that 'one-size-fits-all' HR is over. "The pace of change will never be as slow as it is today again," she said. "If you can't make predictions about the future then you won't be having conversations about thriving; it will be about surviving.”
- “The time has come for a bolder, braver HR,” said eBay’s former senior director of learning and OD Keith Robson, who also warned that there is a “land grab” in many businesses where other functions are taking charge of areas traditionally held by HR, such as finance with people data, and marketing with employer brand. To become fitter for the future Robson advised HR professionals to immerse themselves in digital, train their “mental agility”, and take more risks. “Taking risks is not in HR’s DNA, but the time is right for HR to take more risks,” he said.
- Talking on changing perceptions of HR, Richard Gregory, global head of U+ (learning and talent development) & HRIS at Rentokil, reported that “three years ago when I arrived we were called ‘the flower arrangers’. In my first meeting at the business I was told I was the new fluffy person coming in.” Gregory explained how he’s helped change perceptions by transforming L&D at Rentokil to be much more employee-led. “We handed the keys over to employees,” he said: “‘We said to the business: ‘you guys know the challenges you have locally, why don’t we provide you with the tools and expertise to be able to fish for yourselves?’” He added: “We have been scared as L&D professionals to give the power back.”
- Global head of compensation at Nokia, Nicole Robertson spoke on how benefits and recognition can be turned from a cost to a profit centre, and the way this supported a radical organisational transformation at Nokia. She said: “Ultimately recognition is about appreciation not compensation. Compensation is something that’s expected, so the act of appreciation is what best drives engagement.” Robertson pointed out that while companies may be tempted to turn attention to more ‘serious’ benefits such as monetary incentives, these won’t always best drive engagement. “Cash awards often pay the gas bills, whereas a gift sits on a desk for a long time and reminds the person what they were recognised for,” she said.
- In his keynote address, author and journalist Jon Ronson spoke on his experiences researching The Psychopath Test. He said CEOs are four times more likely to be psychopaths, and recounted firsthand experience of how poisonous this can be for an organisation. “All of us below [ a perhaps-psychopathic editor] started using slightly more ruthless characteristics,” he said. Of powerful psychopaths’ potentially dangerous influence, he commented: “They’ve modelled society and maybe we are all victims of psychopathy. Someone once said to me: ‘If you take empathy out of the equation what is left? Just the will to win'.”
HR Directors Business Summit: Day two round up
The HR magazine team is at the HR Directors Business Summit. Here are some of the best bits from day two
