Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • 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
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • 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
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Equality, diversity and inclusionLatest NewsRecruitment & retentionSex discrimination

So what does the election of a new pope tell us about HR?

by Adam McCulloch 9 May 2025
by Adam McCulloch 9 May 2025 Papal conclave
Shutterstock
Papal conclave
Shutterstock

The smoke has billowed white and a new pope, Leo XIV, has been elected. An imaginative HR specialist here asks what the conclave process tells us about recruitment. Meanwhile, the Daily Mail tries to convince us of the ‘vital role of women’ in the selection. Personnel Today attempts to make sense of it all

Thanks to the film of Robert Harris’s book, Conclave, we are all now experts in the system for selecting a new il papa, and are perfectly familiar with how ne’er-do-wells are expunged from the process – basically a very stern-looking nun (Isabella Rossellini) appears clutching damning documents.

We are led to speculate that one of the reasons she is constantly looking stern is that women are excluded from the process because they are barred from the upper echelons of the church hierarchy. Or perhaps she’s seen that Donald Trump photo in which he cosplays as the Pope.

A lighthearted take on HR

Are the Brits too polite to discuss salary?

Hey HR, don’t blame it on the sunshine

’Task masking’ – the trend you didn’t need to know existed

What does Severance tell us about work-life balance

However, according to the Daily Mail in an article called – without apparent irony – The Vital Role Women Play in the Conclave Process, women in fact are central to the recruitment process.

The cardinals, it states, are supported throughout by Vatican City insiders, “including a dedicated team of nuns who help with everything from accommodation to food”.

The Mail continues: “The sisters at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, a 100-suite guesthouse in Vatican City that is currently housing the cardinals, will run the tightest of ships when it comes to cooking and cleaning”. Yes, cooking and cleaning.

Meanwhile, David Rice, HR expert at People Managing People, has shared his insights on the recruitment lessons HR can take from the process. He points out that by offering a daily smoky update on whether a decision has been made is a far higher level of transparency than most organisations would give for an executive recruitment process. “So in some ways it’s not that secretive.”

Rice says taking away phones to prevent bias or outside interference is “a great idea and the gravity and nature of this decision should demand their complete focus. What’s being said on the internet, by people outside the process and critics of the church will only add noise that clouds the conversation.”

We wondered at this point: Has anyone tried to take a mobile phone from an HR professional, ever?

There are also lessons around succession planning, Rice maintains. Selecting the right person, he says, need not involve technology or expensive exec search firms. “You should always have a lineup of leaders developing who can collectively steer the organisation in the right direction if there’s an unexpected leadership departure or emergency.”

This is all very well, but who’s going to do the cooking and cleaning? After all, in the real world, women are actually quite busy doing other things.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

 

Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today


Browse more human resources jobs

Adam McCulloch

Adam McCulloch first worked for Personnel Today magazine in the early 1990s as a sub editor. He rejoined Personnel Today as a writer in 2017, covering all aspects of HR but with a special interest in diversity, social mobility and industrial relations. He has ventured beyond the HR realm to work as a freelance writer and production editor in sectors including travel (The Guardian), aviation (Flight International), agriculture (Farmers' Weekly), music (Jazzwise), theatre (The Stage) and social work (Community Care). He is also the author of KentWalksNearLondon. Adam first became interested in industrial relations after witnessing an exchange between Arthur Scargill and National Coal Board chairman Ian McGregor in 1984, while working as a temp in facilities at the NCB, carrying extra chairs into a conference room!

previous post
Construction workers win compensation claim against defunct employer
next post
Why fighting the DEI backlash is about PR as well as HR

You may also like

Rumours during recruitment: how should HR respond?

9 May 2025

Teacher apprenticeship route to be tied to school...

9 May 2025

British Steel to resume recruitment

8 May 2025

M&S pauses hiring as it deals with cyber...

2 May 2025

Top 10 HR questions April 2025: increases to...

2 May 2025

Leading with honest feedback: A responsibility in recruitment

24 Apr 2025

Succession planning now ‘more of a priority than...

24 Apr 2025

Number of SMEs hiring staff in decline

10 Apr 2025

Half of companies cut back on hiring due...

7 Apr 2025

Jobcentres battle with shortage of work coaches

31 Mar 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...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 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • 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
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+