Baljinder Kang has more than 23 years’ experience in HR across a range of sectors; including private, public, charity and not-for-profit.
She joined Midland Heart, a housing association based in the Midlands, in 2014. During the past three years she has transformed the HR and L&D functions into value-adding, outcomes-focused teams that understand the business and are able to provide pragmatic solutions.
She is responsible for the full remit of people services, having established and embedded shared services and business partnering alongside a culture of continuous improvement. The learning and development team are driving leadership and management capability through their leadership academy and the payroll, reward and benefits offer has been overhauled to ensure individual choice, flexibility and affordability. The team has recently been shortlisted for Best reward initiative at the 2017 CIPD People Management awards.
During the past 12 months Midland Heart has fundamentally changed its business model in response to changes in government policy. The HR function were central enablers to the changes, maintained colleague engagement levels, and are viewed by the executives and board as critical to the running of the business. Kang firmly believes that HR teams have to invest the time and resources into developing a total understanding of the business, its direction of travel, and aspirations before they can start adding real value.
Prior to joining Midland Heart, Kang was head of HR operations for Sense, a charity providing advocacy, fundraising and care for people with multi-sensory impairments. She positioned the HR function as a trusted advisor to the business and was the lead HR person as the charity moved from a regional, federated structure to a national organisation. Before that she worked in the NHS and the private sector.
Having started as a frontline worker, Kang understands and appreciates the importance of focusing on getting the basics right first in order to build credibility and have strategic influence.
