Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

The HR profession

How I see HR: David Leigh, chief executive, SHL

by Personnel Today 17 May 2010
by Personnel Today 17 May 2010

We have 630 staff and an HR team of seven, answering to my HR director, who sits on the company’s operating board. It’s crucial to have an HR perspective on key operational decisions. This perspective should be independent, unaffected by any vested interest, and should offer a people-centric view of the business. I would always want to have an HR director reporting directly to the chief executive, and part of all key operational decisions.

The main thing that frustrates me about my own HR department is that it isn’t big enough to do everything that I think it could. I see it as driving key agenda items across the business, especially around change. Given the size of the business, and the size of the HR team, they cannot push those agendas as quickly as I would like.

My key question about HR is ‘what does it own in the business?’. At times, HR plays key facilitation roles, but when will it actually decide to own something? If you look at HR over the past decade, and the amount of outsourcing that has taken place, what has it freed HR up to do? It’s down to the HR director, but it’s also down to the permission given to people to actually own things rather than just facilitating them. HR directors need to stand up and say what they intend to drive within the business.

HR can make a real difference to the organisation. And that’s what is happening at SHL. I took over as chief executive in the middle of 2009 – one of my priorities was to drive cultural change within the organisation. HR has helped me do that. It’s been exciting to see how much we’ve been able to achieve and how quickly we’ve been able to achieve it. And like many businesses, we have had to respond to the challenges of the wider economic environment.

HR has done that extremely well, which has allowed people in the business just to get on, and to stay close to the customer. That’s really made a difference to the customer and their experience of SHL. HR in this business has worked very quietly, in a very understated way, to deal with people-related issues, but I don’t underestimate how critical it is to the success of the business.

Many HR teams have spent a lot of time over the past 18 months facilitating restructuring. But the most exciting thing I’ve seen is HR thinking ‘what next?’. This often means looking at the challenges around engagement, particularly when, as the labour market begins to pick up, the best people will be attractive to other employers.

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Met Police HR chief defends use of civilian police staff
next post
HR career issues: executive pay rises during redundancies

You may also like

CIPD’s Peter Cheese: ‘HR shouldn’t be afraid to...

8 Jun 2023

Why embracing big data is HR’s key to...

6 Jun 2023

Kellogg, Finnair, Pladis make key HR appointments: Movers...

2 Jun 2023

One in five HR professionals considering changing jobs

31 May 2023

CBI appoints chief people officer after misconduct allegations

16 May 2023

Artificial intelligence for HR: What is it and...

4 May 2023

HR vacancies fell by a third in early...

3 May 2023

Employment bodies IES and IPA to merge

27 Apr 2023

People analytics is HR’s biggest skills gap, finds...

4 Apr 2023

News UK appoints head of diversity: Movers and...

30 Mar 2023

  • The HR Bundle: Your one-stop guide to building a successful global HR Department PROMOTED | Get your hands on Deel’s free HR bundle...Read more
  • The Benefits of an Employee Assistance Programme PROMOTED | EAPs support employees in a range of ways...Read more
  • Intergenerational working and how to manage up and down the generations PROMOTED | The benefits and challenges of intergenerational workplaces...Read more
  • Bereavement in the workplace: How training can help HR get it right PROMOTED | HR professionals play an essential role...Read more
  • UK workforce mental wellbeing needs PROMOTED | The mental wellbeing support employers are providing misses the mark...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2023

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2023 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+