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
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW 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
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW 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

Motivated to answer the call

by Personnel Today 1 May 2004
by Personnel Today 1 May 2004

John
Emmerson, 41, director of talent at Garlands Call Centres, describes how he
encourages his staff to be responsive and flexible

What does your role involve?

All aspects of people development, as well as management of HR
processes/practices and recruitment.

What is best/worst about this job?

The best are the variety, breadth and depth of the role as well as the fact
it’s both operational and strategic. One moment I maybe working on the design, development
and implementation of a rewards management piece across the business, and an
hour later assisting someone in getting a job who hasn’t been in employment for
a long time.

It’s great to see people develop in their roles and to see the business succeed
as a result. The worst has to be dealing with disciplinary or grievance issues
when situations could have been easily avoided.

What is your current major training project or strategic push?

We’re enhancing our approach to behaviourally driven performance management.
It’s exciting as it involves direct input from clients and end-users.

What’s your best career decision?

I moved out of a specialist training position and into a broader HR role. It
means I can offer the business more and it helps me better understand the
implication of our HR policies on the performance of the business.

Which of your qualifications do you most value and why?

My MBA. It’s helped considerably in my career development by teaching a broad
range of skills that’s enabled me to obtain operational credibility outside my
main area of specialisation.

How do you think your job will have changed in five years?

In general, I think there will be a move towards greater cross-functional
accountability at a director level – right across industry. This will help
businesses more efficiently deploy resources across all levels of their
operations.

What do you think will be the core skills for your job in the future?

Bringing business acumen and commercial awareness to the job will become
increasingly important, but we mustn’t lose sight of the fact that, as an HR
function, we should help establish and champion the core principles of our
company. In the case of Garlands, those principles are that, to deliver superb
service, we must be enabling, motivating, responsive and flexible. A
combination of solid business principles and sound commercial sense is a great
combination.

What advice would you give to someone new to training and development?

There is more to this job than course delivery. Make the time to get a full
understanding of the role and be prepared to learn.

What self-development have you undertaken in the past 12 months?

I’ve mainly focused on honing my general commercial business skills. I’ve
attended a number of management courses, including a problem-solving and
decision-making course organised by Kepler Tregoe – highly recommended.

Describe your management style

Informal, honest, succinct.

How do you network?

As a major employer within the Tees Valley region, it’s important that we
maintain strong links to the community. This involves linking with local
community groups, universities and councils to ensure that we have open and
direct lines of communication – as well as linking with local action and
support groups that we directly support thorough a community-focused people
development programme we call ‘Touch’. Networking is usually driven by the
medium-term requirements of the business.

Do you take work home with you?

No. I just don’t go home (only joking).

Q What is your motto?

There’s always a way to succeed.

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
MI5 publishes advice on terrorist insiders
next post
Let them speak

You may also like

Grants scheme set up to support women’s health...

16 May 2022

How music can help to ease anxiety at...

9 May 2022

OH will be key to navigating ‘second pandemic’...

14 Apr 2022

OH urged to be aware of abortion consultations...

8 Apr 2022

How coached eCBT is returning the workplace to...

8 Apr 2022

Why now is the time to plug the...

7 Apr 2022

Two-thirds of shift workers feel health affected by...

18 Mar 2022

TUC warns of April Covid risk assessment ‘confusion’

14 Mar 2022

Consultation on new NHS cancer standards, as waits...

11 Mar 2022

Pandemic pivot to home working fuelled mental ill...

11 Mar 2022
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more
  • Why now is the time to plug the unhealthy gap PROMOTED | We’ve all heard the term ‘health is wealth’...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 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 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
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW 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+