Oven-Ready HR

Oliver Shah is one of the UK's leading business journalists.  As Business Editor of The Sunday Times, Shah column is required reading for the country's business elite.

His pursuit and investigation into the Philip Green and his Arcadia empire earned him the prestigious business journalist of the year award at the 2017 Press Awards.  His subsequent book 'Damaged Goods' that told the full story of the demise of Arcadia (the parent of TopShop) and the death of the high street was published in 2018 and was a Sunday Times bestseller.

In this episode we cover:

• What went wrong with Arcadia and the leadership style of Philip Green who Shah compares to Donald Trump;
• How leadership styles have evolved and the importance of a respectful organisational culture;
• His views on the increasing number of Private Equity deals for some of the countries leading companies;
• The perennial issue of executive pay - are business leaders paid too much, too little or about right?

This is a fascinating interview covering a range of contemporary business themes from one of the countries leading business commentators.

Links:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliver-shah-0027b013/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/podcasthost/

Find out more?

To listen to the full episode, download a transcript and view all the other episodes or find out more about Oven-Ready HR and Chris Taylor your show host visit: https://ovenreadyhr.com

Pride month is the annual celebration, commemoration and affirmation of LGBT+ activism and culture that started with the Stonewall uprising in June 1969 in New York.  Over 50 years on, great strides have been made in many countries in terms of equality and opportunity with many changes enshrined in law.  So do we still need Pride?

If we do, what role should organisations play in helping break down these barriers and is it frankly any of their business?  The cynic in me believes too many organisations are quick to wrap their logo in the rainbow colours but still trade very comfortably and shamelessly with oppressive regimes and systems.

Joining Oven-Ready HR this week is Benjamin Cohen.  Benjamin is the founder and Chief Executive of PinkNews – a digital media business with a mission to inform, inspire change and empower people to be themselves.  Today PinkNews has a weekly reach in the millions across all of its platforms. 

Benjamin gives a robust defence of Pride in this lively, personal and wide-ranging discussion.

 Links:

https://www.pinknews.co.uk
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benjamincohenuk/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/podcasthost/

Find out more?

To listen to the full episode, download a transcript and view all the other episodes or find out more about Oven-Ready HR and Chris Taylor your show host visit: https://ovenreadyhr.com

Where do you stand when it comes to getting workers back to the office?  This debate continues to exercise business leaders up and down the land with seemingly little agreement on the best way forward.  What is clear however, is how we work will never be the same again.  Exciting times!

Giving us his tough and uncompromising message on how organisations can encourage workers back to the Office is Olly Olsen, co-founder of the aptly named The Office Group - a leading provider of flexible workspace in the UK and Germany. 

With rare candour not often shared by CEOs,  Olsen chronicles the damage he perceives that has been done to the culture of The Office Group and the spirit of his colleagues by Covid-19.

Links:

https://www.theofficegroup.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/podcasthost/

Find out more?

To listen to the full episode, download a transcript and view all the other episodes or find out more about Oven-Ready HR and Chris Taylor your show host visit: https://ovenreadyhr.com

Another slice of Oven-Ready HR interviews from Season 2.

In this second compilation episode we listen again to:

• Francesca Peters, the global Head of Talent at IWG on the differences between what is considered 'talent' in Europe versus that in the US;
• Daniel Dore - the co-founder of Lightwork Global considers what new skills HR practitioners will need in the age of data analytics;
• Mike Seidle the co-founder and COO of Work Here highlights the issues organisations face when slow to hire;
• Sarah Barker provides a moving account of her time spent in prison and colleague Darren Burns explains how HR and Hiring professionals can improve the hiring process for ex-offenders;
• Merlie Calvert the CEO and founder of Farillio gives her opinion on the perceived 'Bro-Culture' often found in tech startups;
• Dr Paola Carr-Walker HeadsForward's co-founder details the steps organisations should take to monitor employee mental health and why an evidence-based approach to mental health in terms of interventions works best.

To hear the full interviews, simply visit ovenreadyhr.com!

Introduction

I love and loathe LinkedIn in equal measure and I thought it high time to talk to a LinkedIn expert about why this social media platform is now critical for anyone in business.  Jon Simmonds is the Founder / Owner of Rocket Science Digital Marketing an agency specialising in social media marketing and training.  Listen to the episode to see if I fall in love again with LinkedIn!

Links

www.rocketsciencedigital.net
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rocket-science-social-media-marketing/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/podcasthost/

Find out more?

To listen to the full episode, download the transcript and find out more about Oven-Ready HR and Chris Taylor your show host visit: https://ovenreadyhr.com

Welcome to Oven-Ready HR Reheated!

We're giving listeners the opportunity for an extra slice of interviews from the first six episodes of Season 2 of the Oven-Ready HR Podcast.

This compilation episode features:

• Matthew Taylor the newly appointed CEO of the NHS Confederation and the author of the eponymous Taylor Report on how some entrepreneurs exploit gig economy workers;
• Dr Sam Farley, a lecturer at Leeds University Business School whose research into the dark side of workplace behaviours reveals discusses the rise of cyberbullying;
• Award-winning journalist Reeves Wiedeman reveals the extraordinary ability of former WeWork CEO Adam Neumann to motivate his employees;
• Hype-Handbook Michael F Schein pours gentle scorn on some of HR and Management's favourite thinkers;
• Jeremy Hunt MP the UK's former Health and Foreign Secretary gives his opinion on flexible working from Day 1 of employment and the high prevalence of incidents of bullying and toxic work cultures within the NHS;
• Michael Whitfield the former CEO and co-founder of Thomson Benefits Online and now serial HR tech investor for his take on what makes a successful organisational culture.

To hear the full interviews, simply visit ovendreadyhr.com!

To conclude Season 2, we turn to employee wellbeing and mental health which is high on the agenda of many organisations.  Events at this summer's Olympic games has again highlighted the importance of an individuals mental health in terms of performance following the brave decision of superstar American gymnast Simon Biles to retire from competition to concentrate on her own mental wellbeing. 

The events of the past 18 months have also brought wellbeing and mental health into stark relief with home working becoming the default for millions.  So what can employers and in particular HR professionals do to ensure a happy, mentally healthy and engaged workforce?

This week's expert is Dr Paola Carr-Walker.  Paola Carr-Walker is a chartered Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, and has spent two decades working across in-patient and community mental health services, including 10 years at Broadmoor Hospital and in the prison service.   She also holds a postgraduate qualification in clinical neuropsychology and is the co-founder of HeadForwards a specialist consultancy business that combines leadership, culture, and people transformation expertise with scientific rigour.

In this interview we cover:

• Would employee mental health and wellbeing be as high up the organisational agenda if it wasn't for Covid-19?
• How mental health is forecast to become the world's number one health crisis;
• 'Hospital grade' mental health issues are as likely to be found in the workplace as they are in a specialist environment;
• Are we too reliant nowadays on feeling 'happy'?  Is it healthier to accept that occasionally things go wrong?  
• Should we think about our mental health in the same way we do our physical health?
• Aside from Covid-19 - what's been the catalyst for organisations to concentrate on employee wellbeing and mental fitness
• How effective leaders build mental fitness into their organisational culture and how important they are in breaking down the stigma of mental health issues and giving opportunities for mental health to be discussed;
• How  organisations should be managing hybrid working for their employees to remove worker uncertainty and anxiety;
• How mental fitness boosts happiness and productivity and preventions is far better than cure.

Contact details:

https://www.head-forwards.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-paola-carr-walker-8a84b39a/?originalSubdomain=uk

This week we return to the SME and Start-up market.  Professional services such as legal advice are notoriously expensive and impenetrable for most businesses.  How are small or start-up firms expected to navigate the increasingly complex and ever more regulated business of employing and managing people without it costing the earth?  Is it therefore that surprising that SME and start-up firms often find themselves in hot water as they've cobbled together contracts and policies from the internet in an attempt to keep the costs down?

Well change is afoot! Merlie Calvert is the founder and CEO of Farillio and a former top London competition lawyer.  Merlie has created  an ecosystem of on-demand services such as legal advice  for the SME community and has made it her mission to democratise professional services by using tech to change the way professional services such as legal advice are offered and consumed.

Farillio's mission is simple; 'no small business owner should struggle because they can’t get access to the information, materials or expert help they need, on a basis they can afford.  This is welcome news indeed to SME's worried about whether their HR policies are legally up-to-date.

In this interview, Merlie and I cover a lot of ground including:

• The moment when Merlie realised that streaming wasn't just for music and actually, you could stream services such as legal help in much the same way;
• How the legal profession has certainly innovated during the last few years but much of that innovation is internal and hardly focused on the client experience;
• How Merlie considered 'Deliveroo' as her inspiration and touchstone for delivering her legal platform;
• How she overcame scepticism from colleagues in the legal profession;
• The likely impact of AI on professional services and is this keeping lawyers awake at night?
• What employment law areas provide the greatest demand from SME clients:
• Is there too much regulation and red-tape to succeed as an SME and is this stifling innovation and the role of entrepreneurs?
• Do investors with their demands for bigger returns fuel the 'bro culture' that is often found in SME and startups?
• The importance of a good culture  for many investors and resources such as glass door in terms of employees and clients - good culture is here to stay!
• The importance of the hybrid woking model.

A fascinating interview looking at the journey of SME and Startups as they navigate hiring and managing employees whilst building a business fit for investment.

It is estimated that more than 11 million people in the UK have a criminal conviction.  This staggering figure equates to 1 in 3 men with the vast majority of offences occurring before the age of 30. 

Of course many of these convictions are for relatively minor offences and didn't require a stay at Her Majety's pleasure and have had no bearing on an individuals subsequent employment prospects.  But what if the offence was more serious and did involve a custodial sentence?  What then are your employment prospects?

The New Futures Network  - a specialist part of the prison system in the UK that develops relationships between prisons and employers has revealed some key data surrounding the employment of prisoners:

•  Only 17% of ex-offenders manage to get a job within a year of release;
• Ex-offenders who are employed are 9 times less likely to reoffend;
• 81% of people think that businesses employing ex-offenders are making a positive contribution to society
•  92% of employers say diverse recruitment has enhanced their reputation, helping them win new contracts

Joining me to discuss this issue are three individuals with a unique perspective on how one particular organisation has made the employment of those most marginalised in society into a major success story.

 Janet Leighton is the Director of Happiness at British multinational retailer The Timpson Group a family business renowned for its culture of upside down management and giving autonomy to its 2000+ stores in the UK and Ireland.  Timpson is one of the largest employers of ex-offenders in the UK with approximately 10% of their workforce having a criminal conviction.

 Darren Burns is Timpson’s National Recruitment Ambassador. He specialises in both the recruitment and retention of ex-offenders and others who face barriers to employment.  Darren is a former police officer and his experience of working in some of the most challenging parts of the UK enables him to help break the offending cycle and ensure marginalised groups can find employment. 

 Sarah Barker has worked for the Timpson Group since 2010. She was recruited when she was a resident of HMP Askham Grange, an open prison in York. When released she continued to work for the Timpson and is now a part of the Timpson Locksmith admin team.

This is a fascinating, heart-warming and positive interview that really shines a light on how engaging with some of society's most marginalised individuals has really paid dividends!

In this episode we turn to a former graduate of the US Naval Nuclear Power School who's used his technology and engineering background to create a solution that promises to reduce the hiring time from weeks to days.  After all, nuclear power is used to make submarines and aircraft carriers go faster, why not the hiring process?

Media reports of staff shortages in key sectors such as hospitality are hampering the efforts  and viability of businesses keen to reopen after the lockdowns.  The competition for staff is currently fierce and as the saying goes 'you snooze, you lose'.

Mike Seidle, the co-founder and COO of Work Here explains how organisations can use technology to:

• beat their competitors in the race for talent;
• improve the overall candidate experience for both successful and unsuccessful candidates;
• increase diversity and inclusivity;
• build a positive employer brand.

Mike considers the hiring process for most candidates to be "Dystopian".  Organisations have made investments in order to hire hopefully faster and cheaper but the candidate experience is still light-years behind.

A fascinating exploration of the hiring process particularly in terms of how technology can genuinely improve the candidate experience.