I spent most of last week meeting HR directors to find out more about them and their organisation. Some I followed around for a day, others I just met for coffee. Either way I have some funny anecdotes which I thought I should share with you. Here are the top three.
1. My first visit was to Hampshire, to meet Angela O'Connor, chief people officer at the National Policing Improvement Agency. She told me that on the Bramshill campus there were white deer and ducks by the lake. Yes a lake. "We call it Narnia here," she said. Nice...
2. Next stop was Dorset, this time to meet the HR director Moira Brown at Care South, a care services provider. Moira held a staff meeting at one of the elderly care homes during the day, to gather ideas and feedback on a new employee recognition scheme. No sooner had she rested the mounted boards packed with ideas on the coffee table that most of the care workers had placed their cups of tea on top.
By the time Moira came to presenting, her boards were covered in mug rings. A nice reminder that what really matters to staff is not glitzy presentation boards, but hearing feedback direct from the HR director instead.
3. Next, HR director Guy Pink at charity Addaction (provides support to families and friends of drug addicts and alcoholics) told me his workers were often arrested: just for doing their job. His charity operates controversial buses that hand out clean and fresh needles to heroin users - but the police often think the co-workers are drug dealing instead.
Got any stories about working life that you'd like to share?
