Jane Pateman, group HR director at waste management company Biffa, has been crowned HR Director of the Year, sponsored by LHH, at the Personnel Today Awards 2023.

Having played a pivotal role in its transformation into a business that embraces family-friendly working, the Living Wage and sustainability, Biffa’s CEO described Jane as “a tireless advocate of our 10,500 employees” who is “dedicated to continually improving their experience at the company”. Our judges agreed. We look at Jane’s winning entry and those of our other finalists.

WINNER

Jane Pateman, Biffa

In 2010, when Jane Pateman took on the newly created role of HR Director at Biffa, the company had been in private equity ownership for two years. There had been a number of redundancies and the workforce was male-dominated and traditional, with little focus on learning and development.

In the past 13 years, Jane has played a pivotal role in the company’s transformation into a business that embraces family-friendly working, is a Living Wage Foundation employer and fosters sustainable business.

One of the first things Jane undertook at Biffa was to carry out a company-wide employee engagement survey. Only 30% of staff said they were engaged, and more than half did not even fill it in. Jane and the HR team have since shown that feedback is acted upon, and there have been incremental improvements each year.

Biffa now has a 120-strong HR team comprising HR operations, L&D, recruitment, employee experience, diversity and inclusion, wellbeing and pensions, payroll and employee services. Biffa embraces a business partnering model and the HR team works closely with divisional managers and other stakeholders.

Jane has been a driver behind a number of new policies, including enhanced maternity leave and pay, flexible return options for women and paid leave for a child’s first birthday or first day at school. She introduced ‘Balanced Business Plans’, which align to five pillars around the environment and sustainability.

During the pandemic, Jane championed the ‘Hi-Vis Heroes’ campaign to recognise the efforts of key workers, and in 2022 she introduced a network of 40 Mental Health First Aiders. Michael Topham, chief executive officer at Biffa, describes Jane as “a tireless advocate of our 10,500 employees” who is “dedicated to continually improving their experience at the company”.

RUNNERS-UP

Ellie Jobes, Bagnalls

Bagnalls is a family painting and decorating business, established in 1875. Ellie joined the company in 2011 as a management development coordinator, and has since embedded a commitment to people development, greater engagement with local communities and better diversity and inclusion. In a 2022 survey, 89% of employees agreed that Bagnalls is a good company to work for. The business employs around 620 staff across 14 locations.

One of her achievements is how she has developed the Bagnalls HR team. This now comprises six professionals, one of which is undertaking a Level 5 HR consultant partner apprenticeship, and another who has achieved a level 7 diploma in human resource management. Ellie led a complete revamp of the company’s management trainee programme to include better recruitment and a more structured practical assessment. She also proposed that all new management trainees complete an apprenticeship to support their development.

Her approach has led to recognition for the company’s early career programmes; it was named a national top apprenticeship employer in 2022; won a regional apprenticeship employer of the year award and achieved membership of The 5% Club, where members aspire to achieve 5% of the workforce as apprentices.

Her outreach and diversity work has led to the proportion of female apprentices increasing to more than 15%, and her approach to integrated leadership helped Bagnalls attract funding of £58,000 from the Construction Industry Training Board for new learning programmes. Ellie has also been a valuable ambassador for apprenticeships and women in construction in schools.

Janine Leightley, Bright Horizons

Bright Horizons is a leading provider of high-quality childcare, early education, and family solutions. At the start of 2021, the company faced a growing challenge impacting all early years providers – a shortage of qualified practitioners. Prior to Jane joining the company in January that year, the company had an interim HR director and reduced team. Jane immediately returned more than 7,000 colleagues from furlough, but staff turnover continued to be high and recruitment was an issue.

Within HR and beyond, she removed silos and facilitated greater collaboration between HR and other support teams. To address skills shortages, she introduced flexible contracts to reduce the reliance on agency workers, established a new process for international hires and moved the majority of practitioners onto the voluntary Living Wage. A pilot programme to bring in colleagues from Europe and Africa resulted in 26 hires on three-year contracts.

Her commitment to improving talent development has also borne fruit. There has been a 10% increase in the number of colleagues identified as high performers since 2021, and 17% of those who were ready for the next challenge have been promoted internally. A third of HR colleagues have moved roles, either side-stepping to boost career growth or taking on more responsibility. HR business partners now work more strategically and proactively, which has reduced the number of grievances by 22%. Participation in the employee engagement survey has increased by 18% since 2021, with 86% of colleagues responding. Engagement scores have almost recovered to pre-Covid levels of circa 80%. Ofsted ratings of ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ at Bright Horizons nurseries have increased by 14% since 2021, and a revised recruitment and attraction strategy has helped boost recruitment by 24%.

Elly Tzouvanni, Silver Cloud HR

Silver Cloud HR is an HR and payroll technology specialist, and Elly Tzouvanni joined in November 2021. Since her arrival at the company, its employee net promoter (eNPS) has risen to 73, there has been a 60% increase in profits, and 100% of employees agree that the company has a culture that is “always adding value to each other and clients”. She sits on the senior leadership team and colleagues describe her as “a core of the company and employee experience”.

Some of her achievements include: introducing a wellness programme and ‘culture cloud’, launching the company’s first intranet; bolstering and rebranding its benefits offering; and growing the team by 136% in 12 months. She introduced a new onboarding programme that features new pre-boarding communications for new starters to ensure they feel welcomed into the company from the moment they accept an offer. She instigated a review of Silver Cloud’s values in 2022. This was achieved through a series of collaborative workshops and brainstorming sessions.

Elly has introduced a number of new benefits to the company, including its first health insurance offering, a ‘flex from first’ option for employees to ask for flexible working from day one, and enhanced family-friendly policies. She set up a formal, bi-monthly engagement survey of just eight statements employees must agree or disagree with, garnering average feedback levels of 88%. She designed and rolled out an internal leadership programme called Be the Difference. Elly often works across multiple time zones, dealing with remote employees, but continues to ensure that teams grow and thrive.

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