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+

HR practicePeople News

How I see HR: Neil Wilson, managing director, Badenoch & Clark

by Neil Wilson 23 Jan 2009
by Neil Wilson 23 Jan 2009

Our HR strategy is aligned with our business goals. We are such a people-focused business that it needs to be at the heart of everything we do. We’ve deliberately set it up so that it’s not positioned as an HR strategy, but as part of our business strategy. It’s just part of what we do.

Keep it simple

Our HR director sits on the executive board and reports to me. On a one-to-one basis, we meet formally once a month and informally, several times a month. He advises me not to overcomplicate things. And I think he’s right. It’s easy to keep tweaking things. And then when you go to the business and say: “This is what we are going to do,” they don’t get it, and they might implement only part of it. So we try to keep everything as straightforward as possible.

It frustrates me when the HR department and the business aren’t working seamlessly together. For example, we have a learning and development department. For training to be effective, managers need to prepare the person going on the course. They should inform the employee why they’re going on the course, that it is part of their development plan, what is expected of them, and what will happen afterwards.

Follow-up

After the course, there should be a follow-up session so that the learning is embedded and the objectives are met. It is frustrating when part of the process doesn’t work effectively. Staff then point to learning and development or to HR and complain that the training wasn’t effective – when it was the business that didn’t make it effective.

It’s exciting when the business and HR work in unison. The business environment is changing and we are being proactive about how we adapt to that. This is because HR is being flexible about learning and development. It is able to be proactive and to roll out additional training programmes for people who’ve never worked in this environment before.

Customer first

The single biggest difference our HR department could make to the company’s performance would be through the provision of training and development around our customer-first strategy. This would involve constantly reviewing it to ensure we are training people in the right way, giving the right messages, and ensuring they are embedded in the business.

Avatar
Neil Wilson

previous post
Need to know: employee numbers
next post
Top job: Paul Pagliari, UK group HR director, ISS UK

You may also like

What does it mean to be an HR...

22 Sep 2023

Lloyds of London boss urges greater return to...

7 Sep 2023

Bank holidays: six things employers need to know

25 Aug 2023

Amazon joins Google in demanding more office attendance

11 Aug 2023

Kemi Badenoch: ‘confused HR colleagues’ misunderstand Equality Act

31 Jul 2023

The state of employee engagement 2023 (survey)

5 Jul 2023

Standards body publishes new D&I guidance

21 Jun 2023

Puppy love: different strokes for different folks at...

16 Jun 2023

Former whips call for ‘HR department’ to deal...

12 Jun 2023

Employment bodies IES and IPA to merge

27 Apr 2023

  • Almost a fifth of UK workers feel undervalued – we need to solve this PROMOTED | A new report has found...Read more
  • Discover the value of CIPD accreditation PROMOTED | See how the CIPD can increase your earning potential...Read more
  • What does it mean to be an HR professional in 2024? (survey) PROMOTED | The world of HR is changing rapidly...Read more
  • The Contractor Management Mastery Pack: Everything you need to manage and pay global contractors PROMOTED | Answers to cross-border...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+