HR 2.1 - A better way of creating sustainable futures
 Recognising employee needs and corporate social responsibility need not mean compromising productivity or competitiveness. Our experience with a wide range of employers since the mid 1990s has shown us that people work best when they are able to control the pressures they face, whether work related or arising from life circumstances. We also know that promoting flexible working encourages agile mindsets; while making the best use of new technologies can extend workplace access to a much wider pool of potential employees.
When providing support, we prefer to work in partnership with our clients. We've built a strong reputation for our ability to understand the organisational context and to identify pragmatic solutions. We do this by harnessing internal energies to accelerate and sustain change. While every consultancy assignment is different, we've provided a few examples of how we've worked with clients in the last few years.
Attraction and recruitment
Are you looking for your talent in the right places?
Recruitment is one area of HR activity that has changed markedly in the last ten years. Many traditional agencies continue to flourish and newspaper advertising hasn't died the death that had been predicted for some time. But workforce demographics and expectations have changed dramatically; as have the tools available to reach potential employees. Specialist agencies and websites are emerging to harness the growing desire for more flexible working. Web 2.0 is an increasingly popular medium, particularly for technical and graduate recruitment. And employer branding is becoming an ever more powerful weapon in the "War for Talent". Against these changes, in recent years we have:
- Worked with Scottish legal firm Shepherd and Wedderburn to revise and reposition their attraction strategy for graduate recruitment.
- Assisted the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in identifying a series of actions to improve the circumstances of care home staff designed to increase the attractiveness of JRF as an employer in the area.
- Harnessed both traditional and Web 2.0 technologies to recruit for mobile phone start-up company Truphone.
- Developed models to support recruiters in redesigning jobs and allowing more flexible working from the outset.
“This project has been extremely useful to our firm and we hope that the skills gained will help us to further develop the area of work/life balance in the future.”
Lucy Armstrong, HR Manager, Shepherd and Wedderburn
“An extremely useful project which has resulted in us thinking about changes in practice which, we hope, will make a difference to our staff.” DTI completion report for the JRF project.
Engagement and Retention
Policies work best when developed by the people using them
Enabling flexible working supports both diversity and employee wellbeing; but can often be resisted by managers concerned about the negative impact on them and the rest of their team. At both Discovery Networks Europe and Channel 4 we worked with multi-disciplinary task groups to facilitate the development of flexible and out of office working policies tailored to cultural norms and operational requirements.
“This time next year I’m sure we shall see a much more effective, contented and creative workforce – and that’s good for business.”
Kirstin Furber, HR Director, DNE
Nurturing talent
How do organisations nurture expensively trained resources?
The results of a survey of senior managers at Brent Council led to the formation of two task groups to develop ways of reducing the long hours and pressure culture; and to identify how flexible working arrangements might be extended to more senior staff. The groups participated in a facilitated process that resulted in a report for the Council Management Team.
We are keen to communicate to staff that we respect that many have caring commitments outside work, that some need to balance their working lives with their religious obligations or that others wish to pursue outside interests which help them to develop and grow as people. And we want to help staff manage their often heavy workloads and minimise their stress.”
Gareth Daniel, Chief Executive, Brent Council.
In our experience, allowing flexibility for senior employees requires only very small adjustments - but these have a major impact on quality of life and wellbeing. For example, Anna recently completed research (sponsored by Addleshaw Goddard) into how private practice legal firms can facilitate better balance among fee earners. The majority of the recommendations made by lawyers themselves require very little change to the way business is currently done. A summary of this research can be found on www.sustainableworking.co.uk.
As Baby Boomers retire and Generation X moves into senior roles, organisations will increasingly be faced with the challenge of meeting changing expectations. We believe action is long overdue, and have started the High Time campaign to encourage change.
Effective organisations
Are you ready to redesign work for the 21st Century?
We use the Work and Families Institute (NY) model of organisational development as our guide; and in our experience most organisations are currently making the journey from stage 2 ("policies and compliance") to stage 3 where hearts and minds have been won and the potential for new ways of working begins to emerge. The model underpinned our work to create an organisation that fully supported flexibility for all at the newly established Business Link Lincolnshire and Rutland.
“We undertook the flexible working programme at a time to great change within the organisation but have been pleased with our work with the consultants and the project results – the most beneficial of which were the most unexpected – flexible working has opened up a range of opportunities.”
Tina McEwen, Chief Executive
Working differently begins with an assessment of what is contibuting to the achievement of key organisational goals and what is merely tying up employee time. While working with Hope UK, a small charity based in London, we facilitated a day long workshop to kick start this change process.
For some examples of our recent work, click here consultancy_projects.pdf
A list of our current and previous clients can be found here.
Page updated 20 October 2008
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