News for UKHR.COM Ltd

The prevalence of hidden disabilities and conditions cannot be underestimated.  In the UK, one in five have a disability, and eighty per cent are not obvious to others. 

Ted interviewed over seventy volunteers about their experiences and then brought them together in this book, which is designed to help people create a more inclusive environment for their colleagues in the future.

More volunteers are coming forward, so a second edition is already in preparation.

All profits to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Ted is currently researching a new book, which will be a practical guide to conditions and disabilities and the impact they have in the workplace, and the accomodations that can be made to make it a more inclusive environment. Subjects already covered include:

Published on 7th September 2020 through all good bookstores (and Amazon), as a paperback and an ebook, with 25% of Ted's royalties going to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Aimed at ambitious, mid-level Human Resources people, this book is full of practical tips and tricks to move from being a good HR person, to being great. Ted gives insights into the various ways that you can influence others, get change accepted, and make things happen in your organisation. Everything is tried and tested, and better still, Ted offers extra support, beyond the book, to anyone who contacts him through LinkedIn, where he runs a regular Dear Ted blog, based on questions posed by the many people he mentors. This book is written in an A to Z style, so that you can dip in and out, or go straight to an issue that you’re thinking through, as well as the more traditional complete read through, which you won’t regret. Everyone who has read it so far reported back that they have learned many practical things from Human Resources A to Z, and some even enjoyed Ted’s writing style!

Amazon HR A to Z Book link

With all profits going to the health charities, Ted has published a book about his experiences over the past five years as a commuter.  It's available via Amazon and Kindle.

The Ideas Foundation is an amazing charity that works with disadvantaged young people and helps them realise their inate creativity and develop their confidence.  Ted has taken on a pro-bono trustee role and is currently the Interim Chair for the charity.

www.ideasfoundation.org.uk

Whilst the main work of UKHR.com is providing appropriate support to organisations in the form of Human Resources Consulting and Interim provision, one of the things that I have enjoyed most, over many years, is helping people with their career choices. 

When chatting to people the biggest issues that I face again and again are lack of self-confidence or self-worth, people seeing barriers that don’t exist, people feeling trapped due to the need to earn money, not being aware of what they’re capable of, just not seeing other suitable avenues of work.

Here are some recent examples (names changed!)….

Issue:  Andrew has worked for ten years in the same finance department, has had some small promotions, wants to do something more fulfilling and/or challenging, but is concerned about paying the rent.

Response:  Most of my initial time was spent trying to help Andrew understand what really motivated him, what he enjoyed the most, what was frustrating him. In the end we found something that wasn’t at all scary, and may well open up into a new career.  Andrew was able to negotiate a secondment to Procurement, loves the extra cut and thrust of his new role and starts a professional course in September!

Issue:  Julie has gone from one temp job to another after graduating two years ago.  She is having to live at home, which she hates, because of the low pay.  She has been rejected from jobs multiple times. 

Response:  It was clear at the outset that Julie didn’t have a clue what she really wanted to do, and instead of seeing the benefits of living at home and the secure base that gave her, all she could see was the problems it threw up being too close to her mum! So we looked at the bigger picture, interests and goals in life, and realised that having a focus which didn’t involve ensuring guests were happy being waited on at table was going to be key.  Julie got involved with her local conservation trust, volunteering for early morning projects, she had a long chat with one of the conservation rangers and has just started as an apprentice, she’s still living at home but is happy again :-)

Issue:  Two years ago Anne wanted to return to work after a break of 8 years, bringing up two lovely kids.  Her old role in data entry didn’t exist anymore and she wasn’t sure if she had the skills to compete new roles.    

Response:  The key here was to think through all Anne’s life skills and experiences and start from scratch, working out what she most enjoyed and where she had received the most compliments. We identified some people in interesting roles that she knew and started to build her a presence on LinkedIn.  She started off with some unpaid work experience in a school office, but didn’t enjoy it.  But she got noticed and the Headmistress’s husband asked her to help with his company at something she enjoys, bookkeeping, and she is now studying for the exams later in the year

If you would like a review, or to buy one for someone you know, then UKHR charges a flat rate of £250 (includes VAT) for a couple of one to one meetings and then ongoing whatsapp (or similar) support.  This includes CV advice.

I've just spent a lovely hour chatting on Skype to the HR Director of a mid-sized Biotech in Cambridge

We are now six months in to a years support and it was great to hear about the successes she has just made with getting significant changes agreed by her management team to pay policy, staff development and staff engagement

My role has been to challenge and provoke and, because I'm not that great at non-directive counselling (!), make suggestions, but principally to provide oversight and moral support through the tricky stages of each project as it has progressed

The nature of the change programme was significant and needed some periods of concentrated work by me, but the best thing has being watching this excellent Head of HR grow and develop and now shine as an HR Director.  It's the kind of work I love doing, it's very rewarding for everyone

And I think we can step down for two days a month to half a day a month from now on :-)

A couple of months ago I received a call from a very concerned Chairman.  He was really worried that a falling out between his CEO and CFO was going to bring the company down, and asked if I could help out

After being briefed further by the leading investor NED about the issues the friction was causing, I talked to each of them seperately over several hours, trying to understand the bigger picture: their respective backgrounds, experiences, what they wanted to get out of life and the job in hand, what success would look like

Having won their confidence, and made clear that the Chairman wanted results, not to know what they said or felt about each other (!), I took them both off-site for a day

And yep - it was as simple as that.  They now appreciate and respect each other and will, I'm sure, now go on to be a great team together.

And to prove the point I've taken a small number of shares in the Company, rather than a payment, because I'm happy to stand by my results!

My last major assignment was in Abingdon with a mid sized biotech considering a launch on NASDAQ whilst running clinical trials for a promising cancer medicine.  I had the priviledge of managing the HR and HSE teams whilst there, covering the gap between one HR Director leaving and another joining.

This was a 4 day a week role to start with and later 3 days a week, which allowed me to take on some other smaller projects in the Cambridge area as well as increase the time I could give to my mentees