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Editorials about the HR Summit 2008

NHS human resources outsourcing and shared services plans fall down after 'wobble' in market
04 February 2008 - PersonnelToday.com 

Cornerstone OnDemand’s Vincent Belliveau outlines how to win today’s talent war
28 January 2008 - PersonnelToday.com 

 

Friday podcast with interviews from David Fairhurst and other HR directors on skills qualifications, recorded at the summit: 2008-02-01T07_12_48-08_00

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HR Directors Business Summit in the News

Get networking in the New Year at the HR Directors Business Summit

The AA, Jaguar, Vodafone, Canon, Arup, Currys, Norwich Union, Woolworths and The Children's Trust are just some of the blue-chip organisations whose HR directors will be speaking at the HR Directors Business Summit later this month.
02 January 2007 07:58
By Rob Willock, Personnel Today

Google: Recruiting and developing top talent

Google's HR Director Liane Hornsey spoke at the HR Directors' Summit this week on attracting and developing talent and why a strong recruitment strategy is crucial. Sarah Fletcher reports.
01 February 2007
By Sarah Fletcher, TrainingZone

HR Directors Business Summit Online

PeopleXS sponsors HR Directors Business Summit

Cardiff (Wales), 29/30 January 2007
The HR Directors Business Summit is established as the event for top-level HR professionals to hear the latest thinking in HR. Bringing together Europe’s leading HR experts, the conference showcases the newest ideas and innovations in HR. View full article.

HR Directors Business Summit 2006, 30 – 31 January 2006

Keith Jones and Thérèse Turner, BCL Account Directors, will be attending this Business Summit Conference and holding one-to-one half hour business consultation meetings, both to a pre-arranged schedule and more informally. View full article.

29 & 30 January: HR Directors Business Summit 2007 - South Wales, United Kingdom

This business summit is the essential networking event for Europe’s leading HR Experts. It is established as the event for top-level HR professionals to hear the latest thinking in HR. Bringing together Europe’s leading HR experts, the conference showcases the newest ideas and innovations in HR. The 2 day programme combines practical case studies and interactive discussions so that you can learn from your peers and share your experiences. View full article.

2008 Speakers in the News

David Fairhurst honoured by Manchester Metropolitan University

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Get networking in the New Year at the HR Directors Business Summit

02 January 2007 07:58
By Rob Willock

The AA, Jaguar, Vodafone, Canon, Arup, Currys, Norwich Union, Woolworths and The Children's Trust are just some of the blue-chip organisations whose HR directors will be speaking at the HR Directors Business Summit later this month.
Other speakers include Jim Murphy, minister of state for employment and welfare reform, and Falklands veteran Simon Weston.
Presentations and discussion topics will cover:

• How to engage staff and create value.
• Working well with unions.
• Aligning HR and business policy.
• The business case for diversity in the workforce.
• Bridging the skills gap.
• Using shared services to make HR more efficient.

As well as a three-stream speaker/discussion programme, there will be plenty of networking opportunities, workshops, case studies and a supplier exhibition.
More than 150 senior HR professionals are already booked to attend.
Personnel Today is supporting the HR Directors Business Summit, which takes place on 29 and 30 January at the Celtic Manor resort in south Wales, and has negotiated a special discounted rate of £595 for its readers.
To book online, go to www.hrevent.com, quoting RB106.
GlaxoSmithKline rethinks reward
Only three in 10 companies believe their rewards programme is effective in attracting and retaining people, according to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). And only two in 10 believe it is effective in influencing employees' behaviour.
Richard Higginson, director, international benefits at GSK, is presenting to the HR Directors Business Summit on why organisations get their reward packages so wrong. "And I am going to share the results of a major international study GSK has just carried out into what people really want," he said.
Google's pyjama party
Google doubled its number of employees last year across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, and has similar growth to manage in 2007.
Liane Hornsey, HR director at Google UK, is speaking at the conference on attracting and developing talent. She told Personnel Today: "Even with those tough targets, we are very rigorous in our recruitment.
"We're only looking for real high-potential talent that can thrive within the Google culture."
To explain that culture, Hornsey revealed that one recent Friday was 'Pyjama Day' for Google employees across the world.
"There was hot chocolate and marshmallows all round and some people brought their teddy bears to work. It's very conducive to creativity," she said.
Rob Willock, Personnel Today
Source of article.

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HR Zone: Google: Recruiting and developing top talent

By Sarah Fletcher

Google's HR Director Liane Hornsey spoke at the HR Directors' Summit this week on attracting and developing talent and why a strong recruitment strategy is crucial. Sarah Fletcher reports.
Unless you've been living like a hermit on a remote island with no access to the world beyond, you'll be aware of Google's meteoric rise since its launch in 1998. Speaking on Monday at the HR Directors' Summit, the company's HR director Liane Hornsey explained the key role of recruitment to this success.
"The main goal is to hire the right people," she says. "Never make do with someone because you're desperate – only hire the best." Google's recruitment process is certainly thorough – given that applicants face a minimum of four interviews and agreement must be unanimous amongst everyone who has interviewed the candidate, "you have to be pretty astounding to get into Google," she notes. Senior staff spend 30 percent of their time on recruitment and the company employs 300 people specifically to focus on hiring the best candidates.
If surviving four interviews and gaining the approval of every employee you meet sounds daunting, spare a thought for Hornsey – she had a staggering 14 interviews to become HR director. She's well qualified, then, to say "it's extraordinarily difficult to get into Google," and even after the candidate has successfully negotiated the series of interviews, there's a final hurdle. After Hornsey has approved the new recruit, the form is sent to the company's co-founder, Larry Page, who has the final say. This is no mean feat: "He does say no to a lot of people that we say yes to," she notes.
Google aims to make new recruits feel valued and this begins from the moment the candidate is hired. As soon as the contract is sent, the company sends the employee a present to welcome them. "We do everything we can to make them feel special," says Hornsey. If the employee is still at university, they receive a gift every two weeks until they start work. On their first day, their desk is filled with Google paraphernalia, including balloons which identify the recruit as new and encourages other staff to talk to them.
Even better if as a Google employee, you recommended the successful recruit. "If you believe [your current employees] are great, the best way to find more [great staff] is through referral programmes," says Hornsey. The company gives the employee £3000 pounds if the person that has been recommended is recruited.
Performance management
This rigorous recruitment policy sets Google apart from other organisations, Hornsey argues, as talented staff are not a small percentage with special development needs to those of most employees. "Everybody is deemed high potential," she says. "We hire 100 percent high potential people." This means that if an employee is failing to meet the expected standards, it must be due to the organisation rather than the individual. "We do not sack people - If an individual fails, we see it as our fault," Hornsey adds. For this reason, Google uses the GE model, but doesn't have a 'C' rating - "If they're failing, it's our fault," she stresses.
Employees' work structure follows a '70/20/10' model, an arrangement which, Hornsey says, is "hugely important to anyone who works here". This refers to a breakdown of the working week: 70 percent of the employee's time should be spent on the business, fulfilling the job role (which, incidentally, is very clearly defined - providing absolute clarity about the job description is essential as "good people only fail if they do not know their role"). Ten percent of the schedule is time to do 'whatever [the employee] wants' – time for innovation and creativity, freedom to think.
Twenty percent of the time – or one day out of every week - she calls 'personal work', a period spent on personal development which will ultimately benefit the company. "[Staff] can work on whatever they want to work on, as long as it's in line with the mission [of Google]. This gives you time to develop".
Development
"I have a real development problem," says Hornsey. "Everyone [at Google] loves to learn and they love to be developed – no one who joins wants to just sit at their desks and then go home." Given the priority that staff place upon development, this is a crucial part of the employment package.
"Do not get scared into thinking training is development," says Hornsey, who argues that training courses are of little use. Although employees join Google expecting to go on training courses because it's the norm, this is a poor way to learn. "People do not learn through going on training courses," she says. "The vast majority of people learn through on the job learning – training courses are [only] a tiny piece of what we do."
It is far more productive to allow employees to develop through individual project work. Staff are given time to work on personal projects with a group they have pulled together. "We let people have ideas – everyone of these is done very informally so that if a project fails, [then] fine. Project closed. No problem."
These projects may then take on further shape when employees are encouraged to develop them into a solid business model. "We let them put their ideas into practice – Let your people have time to think of something that will improve your business, giving them the time and space to work that idea," advises Hornsey.
Evidently these strategies are hugely successful - voluntary attrition at Google is sub three percent and the company was voted the number one employer by Fortune for 2007. "We will win the best company to work for across the globe this year," claims Hornsey; and given the organisation’s track record, this wouldn’t be surprising.
By Sarah Fletcher, TrainingZONE, 1st-February 2007
Source of article.

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2008 Speakers in the News

 

David Fairhurst honoured by Manchester Metropolitan University

Press Release
Wednesday, July 18, 2007

One of the UK's brightest human resource managers has been honoured by Manchester Metropolitan University.

David Fairhurst, who was last year voted HR director of the year 2006 by readers of HR Magazine, and  last month secured number 1 position in the Personnel Today Top-40 HR Power Players list, received an honorary doctorate in business administration from MMU Business School.

This is the first time a human resources professional has been honoured in this way by MMU, which is a clear signal that the contribution of people in organisations and the wider economy is being fully recognised.

Making reference to recent speeches by Gordon Brown and David Cameron encouraging employers to invest more in the development of their staff, Fairhurst told the audience at MMU's graduation ceremony at Bridgewater Hall, Manchester: "Human resources is a discipline which I and many others believe could change the lives of people in the 21st Century as much as mechanisation, automation and information technology did in the 19th and 20th Centuries.

"For far too long human potential has been underestimated by the managers of too many organisations. Unlock that potential, however, and results could be amazing."

Fairhurst, 39, has enjoyed a rich and varied career in HR including being the youngest group manager at H J Heinz Ltd. As director of recruitment and leadership planning for SmithKline Beecham, he took the company to 'European Employer of Choice' status in its sector.

After five years as corporate HR director at Tesco, Fairhurst joined McDonald's Restaurants Ltd in 2005 where he is now senior vice president, chief people officer for Northern Europe. Here he has vowed to improve the confidence of staff and help them develop "skills for life". In addition he aims to dispel the negative myths surrounding jobs in McDonald's and the hospitality and service sector as a whole.

He recently told a conference that the Olympics in 2012 would showcase the strength of the UK service sector to the world.

Professor Huw Morris, Dean of MMU Business School said: "HR management is about getting the best out of employees for the benefit not only of the business but for the employees themselves.

"David's track record in management is tremendous and to take on a tough job like McDonald's is a testament to his drive and resourcefulness."

Fairhurst is chair of the new Centre for Professional Personnel and Development within MMUBS and a keen supporter of the University and the human resource management profession.

"In all that he has done to date and in his plans for the future, David is an excellent role model for staff, students within the University and to the growing number of alumni from the institution," added Professor Morris.

Fairhurst is married with two children and when time permits enjoys supporting his home town rugby and football team, Wigan.

Accepting the award, he said: "To be recognised for one's work is humbling. And it is doubly so to be recognised by a university where I have studied, based in a region which has played such a pivotal role in my life and career."

David Fairhurst received his honorary degree at the Manchester Metropolitan University Business School graduation ceremony at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester on July 17.

ends

Notes to Editors:

Manchester Metropolitan University Business School is one of the largest and most well-respected business schools in the UK, offering 5,000 full-time students and part-time professionals a vast range of courses in accounting and finance, management, human resources, retail and marketing, PR, and information technology in addition to AMBA-accredited MBAs programmes. It is one of seven modern universities to be AMBA accredited. And one of only 12 institutions out of 300 which run Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)programmes to be a Centre of Excellence for the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

MMUBS' Human Resource Management Division enjoys an excellent national and international reputation for professional and academic expertise in the related areas of human resource management, human resource development, employee relations, business ethics, organisation behaviour, management development and organisation change and development. The Division is distinctive for its links to business and professional bodies, most notably the CIPD and the Chartered Management Institute as well as its expertise in Action Learning and Facilitation.

David Fairhurst has a masters degree in human resource management from Manchester Metropolitan University and is a chartered fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an honorary fellow of Lancaster University and is vice-chairman of the Sector Skills Council, People.

For more information and photographs, please contact Gareth Hollyman in the MMU Press Office on 0161 247 3406 mob 07748 111322 g.hollyman@mmu.ac.uk