Outgoing B&Q HR director, Mike Cutt, said he was leaving a business “more true to its values and more focused on its customers” after five years in the job.
Cutt is leaving the DIY retailer at the end of this month (September) to become the HR director at health and beauty retailer Boots.
He said his legacy would include building a business that had a healthier structure with fewer layers of management, clearer accountability and more fulfilling roles.
“I’m leaving B&Q with some sorrow as I have really enjoyed being HR director there,” he said. “But five years is quite a long time in one job and I feel it is time to move on, time to let someone else bring new ideas to the role.”
He also did not want to be a career obstacle for the people on his HR team, Cutt added.
B&Q has promoted Martyn Phillips to the HR director role. Cutt recruited him from Woolworths three years ago.
Cutt said the HR challenges at Boots would be similar to those he faced at B&Q. “Boots has a powerful brand and a terrific cultural legacy. It needs to continue to reposition these in a difficult marketplace,” he said.
“I will need to adjust to a business that is larger, has many more, but smaller stores and one that is older and has more tradition,” he said.
Cutt was reluctant to talk about the firm’s recent announcement of job cuts. Earlier this week B&Q said it was cutting about 400 office-based jobs in a cost-saving drive.
More than 200 jobs are to go at its head office in Hampshire and a further 80 regional posts will be scrapped. A hundred vacant posts will not be filled.
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