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HR Advisory Services – Organisational Transformation2023-01-11T12:29:19+00:00

Change management following, or in anticipation of, a major business event invariably involves change for people. Whatever the organisational event or business model, getting the right commercially driven HR solutions can often make the difference between success and failure.

John Renz has around thirty years’ experience in HR and has worked across most sectors and ownership models. Most recently he has provided interim HR support within a major tech company and a large asset management company. He was previously Group HR Director of specialist Lloyd’s underwriting business Novae Group Plc, and before that spent five years as HR Director at Mourant, helped manage the merger that created CMS Cameron McKenna, and held senior positions with Standard Life, global accounting and business advisory firm Grant Thornton, and City law firm Linklaters.   In short, he has a track record in both the thinking behind, and the ‘sharp end’ of, successful delivery.

Relevant experience includes:

  • M&A: provided high level support in both acquisition and disposal mode and been part of transaction teams
  • Advised an international business advisory firm on development and implementation of a new remuneration strategy across seven different international locations
  • Worked with Remuneration consultants to design and implement a new annual bonus scheme for investment professionals
  • Advised on remuneration compliance across several financial service regulatory changes including Solvency II and SMCR
  • Worked with the Remuneration Committee Chair of an AIM-listed company on how to manage the committee and advisors and delivery of significant changes to executive compensation
  • Reviewed and re-engineered the HR operating model (including creation of a shared service centre approach) for a US-listed Tech company moving to private ownership
  • Assisted with the roll out of Oracle HCM
  • Analysis of executive development needs and Board-level performance, including 360-degree feedback.

John has published three reports on Remuneration and Motivation, contributed to a book published by the FT on Operational Risk Management and is a regular speaker on a number of HR topics both in the UK and internationally.  He is also Clerk to the Court of the Guild of Human Resource Professionals.

Contact John Renz for more information via reception@executive-action.com

 

Zoë Blake – Plain English: Keeping language simple for maximum effect2023-01-11T12:33:35+00:00

‘Have you got what it takes to help deliver our challenging agenda? This exciting role combines equality and diversity responsibilities with social inclusion and promoting quality standards into all commissioning work streams.’

Job advertisement, Wolverhampton City Council

Did your eyes glaze over when you read the quote above? If they didn’t, perhaps you could work out what job is being advertised, because I couldn’t get to the end of the sentence without drifting off…

It may be a vacancy for a Rodent Operative (rat catcher) or a Street Orderly (Road Sweeper) – tough jobs, and unlikely to be made less so by a euphemistic job title. Or it may be a Community Leadership and Engagement Manager that they seek, which must also be tough in its own way, since the role is about getting people to ‘engage’ with the council – a task made harder by the fact that many people who don’t understand management speak think ‘engagement’ is what you do before you get married.

This kind of language is entirely typical of job and product adverts (if my trawl through today’s Guardian is anything to go by), though needless to say, it’s nothing like the way that we actually speak to each other. But why do we do it?

Of course the Admissions Officer at the university can’t say to the rejected candidate they don’t want you – they don’t think you’re good enough. He has to talk of the unprecedented high levels of competition. Sensitivity to other people’s feelings can make our language extremely evasive.

Understandable also is the drive to take gender out of titles, such as amending Fireman to Firefighter, which, in addition to taking women who do the job into account, is much more descriptive (though by the same measure, I’ve always thought that the word Chair, used in place of Chairman, needs itself to be replaced).

Before raising a cry of ‘political correctness gone mad’, it’s interesting to note that the move towards euphemism isn’t new. Ernest Gowers’ critique of official writing ‘Plain English’ from the 1940s takes civil servants to task for using redundant and obscure words:

“The basic fault of present-day writing is a tendency to say what one has to say in as complicated a way as possible. Instead of being simple, terse and direct, it is stilted, long-winded and circumlocutory; instead of choosing the simple word it prefers the unusual.”

And in 1946, in the fight not just against ugly language but for the clear thinking that accurate writing allows, George Orwell wrote the essay ‘Politics and the English Language’. In it he summarises his basic rules:

  • Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
  • Never use a long word where a short one will do.
  • If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
  • Never use the passive where you can use the active.
  • Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
  • Break any of these rules sooner than say anything barbarous.

Or as academic Lincoln Allison says “Better, perhaps, to go with Ron Atkinson’s notorious saying when Gary Lineker scored a hat-trick against Poland in 1986 – The boy done great – in which there is arguably more than one mistake per word, than with what Sir Alf Ramsey might have said: One’s own evaluation with regard to the performance of the young man would be extremely favourable.”

So with this in mind, next time I sit down to write a CV for an Executive Action client, I’ll remind myself to ask whether Our situation with regard to coal is in a dangerous position sounds more impressive than We’ve run out of coal, screw up my courage and use the latter.

by Zoë Blake

Executive HR Advisory Services by John F. Renz2023-01-11T12:31:16+00:00

Always considering our clients’ needs – especially where executive and strategic-level HR support is required – EA provides people-focused interim or project-based support, HR Advisory Services, on business issues including mergers, acquisitions and the impact of regulatory or organisational change.

John Renz has around thirty years’ experience in HR and has worked in the public, professional and financial services sectors. Most recently he was Group HR Director of specialist Lloyd’s underwriting business Novae Group Plc, and previously spent five years as HR Director at Mourant. Prior to that, he helped manage the merger that created CMS Cameron McKenna, and held senior positions with Standard Life, global accounting and business advisory firm Grant Thornton, and City law firm Linklaters.

Having worked across sectors and ownership models, John has a breadth of experience in helping organisations achieve their goals, either working directly with the CEO/head of the organisation or within the HR function. Recent assignments undertaken include:

  • Advising an international business advisory firm on development and implementation of a new remuneration strategy across seven different international  locations.
  • Providing HR Director support to the Chairman, CEO and leadership team of a major occupational pension scheme service and investment company e.g. devising an HR structure for the company, a performance management approach and board-level remuneration policy, as well as a major organisational change programme.
  • Working with the Chair of the remuneration committee of an AIM-listed company to deliver significant changes to executive compensation and how best to approach managing remuneration committees and advisors.
  • Advising a large City-based charitable organisation on senior level performance issues.
  • Designing and delivering focused performance management training.
  • Analysis of executive development needs and Board-level performance, including 360 degree feedback.

John has also published three reports on Remuneration and Motivation, contributed to a book published by the FT on Operational Risk Management and is a regular speaker on a number of HR topics both in the UK and internationally. He is also Clerk to the Court of the Guild of Human Resource Professionals.

Contact John Renz for more information via reception@executive-action.com

Zoë Blake – Does more empathy mean more profit for businesses?2023-01-11T12:35:09+00:00

Zoë Blake looks at the business case for making company culture more empathic.

A number of recent broadsheet and business press articles, perhaps triggered by the publication of a book on the subject by Satya Nadella (CEO of Microsoft), have discussed the evidence for whether bottom-line benefits can be derived from increased empathy in the workplace. For a variety of reasons, the answer is emphatically ‘yes’.

As the incidence of stress-related conditions continues to grow, alongside a new willingness for individuals to seek redress for bullying (and worse) in the workplace, smart businesses are seeking to deal proactively with the potential risks of these situations.

While the sincerely-held ethical values of businesses like Facebook and Google may raise an eyebrow in an old cynic like me, what is clear is that they perceive real advantage to be gained from a culture of empathy, beyond simply averting the risk of future lawsuits. Supporters point to The Harvard Business Review’s annual ‘Empathy Index’, based on an analysis of leadership, internal culture, ethics and brand perception of 170 of the world’s largest companies, which found that the top 10 typically increased their market value in 2016 by more than twice that of the bottom ten.

At the very least, people really want to work for, and stay longer at, emotionally intelligent companies – and it’s not just about the remuneration. After all, a sense of shared goals, of being listened to and supported are deep motivating forces in human psychology, and it’s clear that they are strong factors in driving the degree of effort and loyalty of a company’s employees.

 

Empathy

According to the Chartered Management Institute, four out of five UK managers have received no training at all in leadership. With this in mind, failures aren’t surprising: the skills and successes that lead to promotion to team management don’t necessarily equip individuals for the complex task of getting the best from a range of personalities. And as workplaces become increasingly diverse, this skill gap can only become a bigger issue. After all, unless you can understand, empathise and identify with people, it’s very hard to know how to motivate them. Many well-planned and innovative HR strategies come a cropper due to inadequate team implementation at ground-level.

Enter the HR and consultancy sectors with a range of solutions and frameworks. One of the best, in EA’s experience, is to provide workshops and coaching around emotional intelligence (EI). Based on a solid (and growing) body of research stemming from the pioneering work of Daniel Goleman, the opportunity to test your emotional quotient (EQ), being introduced to why it matters and techniques to improve it combine to make a real difference to the abilities and confidence of team leaders.

Key to its success as an approach is the clear win:win for all concerned; better understanding and recognition of the needs of others by managers is good for galvanising teams and ultimately bottom-line business performance. It makes the working environment and company culture more attractive to all concerned, and even equips people to better cope with challenging relationships in any area of their lives. After all, improved self-awareness and empathy are as useful for coping with toddlers, teenagers and partners as they are for under-performing team members.

Written by Zoë Blake

Emotional Intelligence Workshop over Breakfast2019-03-05T17:16:06+00:00

On 27th February, Alina Addison and Heather Greatrex presented a successful session over breakfast on Emotional Intelligence in the scope of our workshop taster event. Alina and Heather shared insights about the importance of Emotional Intelligence and how it is relevant to a leader.

We enjoyed the company of our guests and we hope we will see you all again soon.

If you have any queries or would like to know a bit more information about the full workshop, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Our follow up event, Half Day Workshop, is on 23rd May – see details here.

‘Eye-opener’ Half Day Workshop on Emotional Intelligence with Heather and Alina2018-06-29T09:55:32+01:00

‘Well-articulated, efficient eye-opener session which provides strong personal feedback and paths for improvement’ – said a participant about our Half Day Emotional Intelligence Workshop that Heather Greatrex and Alina Addison have facilitated on Wednesday.

We are delighted for the positive feedback we are getting for our sessions!

View our upcoming workshop dates here and, if you are interested, please get in touch to book your place. Looking forward to hearing from you.

EQ workshop with Heather and Alina at the Lloyd’s and LMA Rethink Learning Week2018-06-20T13:21:47+01:00

Heather and Alina delivered a successful workshop on “Leading with Emotional Intelligence”, on the first day of Lloyd’s and LMA Rethink Learning Week on 18 June 2018.

Highlights

This EQ awareness session covered the theory and science behind EQ, as well as some practical tools to strengthen your EQ, by addressing:

  • What is Emotional Intelligence?
  • EQ competencies that drive effective leadership
  • Strategies and tools to improve key EQ competencies
  • Why does it matter?

 

Knowledge and Competence

Heather and Alina share a passion for improving EQ and tackling the pressures faced by leaders in the modern workplace.  They have delivered successful EQ workshops to participants in the financial services industry, developing key EQ competencies and leadership skills through practice, self-reflection and discussion in a fun, practical and safe environment.

 

If you would like to learn more, come and join us at our upcoming Workshop Taster in September or at the Half Day Workshop in October.

 

Zoë Blake and Alina Addison – ‘Very practical’ workshop on Managing Your Personal Brand2018-06-08T13:08:38+01:00

We had another successful workshop yesterday evening at our offices. The event was facilitated by Zoë Blake and Alina Addison.

Our active participants described the event as: ‘all relevant’; ‘very practical’; ‘engaging style’ and ‘thought provoking’.

 

Following from the popularity of the event, we are organising another workshop on the topic on 8 November. If you are interested in attending, please see further details here.

A networking event and a workshop taster on Emotional Intelligence with Heather Greatrex and Alina Addison2018-05-31T10:07:40+01:00

Our fourth workshop taster on Emotional Intelligence was facilitated by Heather Greatrex and Alina Addison.

The thought provoking discussion around what it takes to be a leader was followed by a relaxed networking.

Thank you for the superb feedback for our participants.

 

You can view our upcoming workshops here, if you are interested in joining us, please contact Alexandra Pack on admin@executive-action.com.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Alina Addison and Zoë Blake – Workshop taster on Managing Your Personal Brand2018-03-23T12:31:14+00:00

Straight line careers with a single or small number of employers are increasingly unusual – working lives are getting longer, rigid expectations of age and stage are being shaken up and multi-stage careers with multiple transitions are becoming ever more common.

Thriving in this new landscape brings new challenges: being flexible in your thinking, being clear in the messages that you are projecting, regularly refreshing your profile and being ready to actively present both yourself and your proposition in the best and most focused way via your CV, online and in person.

Participants talking

This concept gave us a very good topic, Managing your Personal Brand, for a lively and interactive discussion at our workshop taster and networking event yesterday evening. Our participants enjoyed the ‘refreshingly honest’ style of presentation by Alina Addison and Zoë Blake and welcomed the thought provoking session to focus their thinking of their own personal brand.

We are planning further workshops on the topic – if you are interested, please contact Alexandra Pack on admin@executive-action.com

Participants talking

 

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