The Challenge

When I joined the organisation as Head of HR, there was no dedicated Human Resources department. Most people-related activities were handled through Finance and Administration.

While the organisation had established departments, many important aspects of people management lacked clear structure. Reporting lines, job responsibilities, career levels, promotion criteria, and recruitment decisions were not consistently defined.

Hiring was often based on individual judgement rather than a structured process. Training opportunities were not systematically connected to employees' development needs, and there was no comprehensive performance management framework.

The challenge was to move HR beyond administration and establish a function that could support both the organisation's strategy and its people.

My Approach

Building organisational structure and workforce planning: I reviewed and updated the organisational structure, clarified reporting relationships and responsibilities, and introduced planning for the skills and talent needed over the following year.

Bringing structure to recruitment: I developed a process covering how hiring needs were identified, justified, approved and managed. I established a recruitment committee to bring relevant stakeholders into decisions.

Connecting learning with performance: I introduced Individual Development Plans linked to responsibilities, skill gaps and development objectives. We evaluated learning after training and again approximately four months later to see whether employees applied it at work.

Establishing performance management: I introduced a framework for clearer expectations, performance assessment and more informed development and progression decisions.

Measuring employee experience: We conducted annual employee surveys covering management, communication, organisational objectives, departmental effectiveness and satisfaction.

The Outcome

The organisation moved from largely administrative practices to a dedicated, structured HR function. Responsibilities, recruitment decisions, development opportunities and performance expectations became clearer.

Annual surveys showed a noticeable improvement in satisfaction with Learning and Development. Recruitment follow-ups also indicated positive outcomes in the performance and retention of new hires.

What I Learned

The real value of HR systems comes when they bring clarity, support better decisions and make people's working lives easier.

Good HR structure should support people, not complicate their work.

The Challenge

The organisation planned a new specialist technical department in a field where it had little existing market visibility. We needed to build credibility, connect with professionals and prepare a talent pipeline before the department was operational.

My Approach

I recognised that a conventional recruitment campaign would not be enough. We first needed to become relevant to the professionals we hoped to attract.

I organised a week-long specialist training programme led by a highly regarded international expert. The programme attracted professionals working in the field and included some of our own employees.

Throughout the week, we observed how participants approached technical challenges, communicated, interacted and demonstrated potential. More than a brief networking event, it gave us time to build meaningful relationships and scout talent.

The programme also strengthened the organisation's reputation in the field and helped us prepare a more targeted recruitment strategy.

The Outcome

External registrations generated revenue while the programme helped us map specialist talent and develop candidate relationships.

Before the originally planned launch, we had selected the department head and recruited the engineers needed for the new team.

What I Learned

Sometimes the best talent strategy starts long before recruitment begins.

When a company enters a new field, Talent Acquisition can help create the conditions that make successful hiring possible through credibility, visibility and early relationships.

The Challenge

There was no structured onboarding process. New colleagues could arrive without enough preparation or consistent support, and without a communication process there was a possibility that team members might not be informed in advance about a new arrival.

The opportunity was to prepare both the newcomer and the team, making the transition welcoming and organised for everyone.

My Approach

I introduced preboarding emails with practical information, directions, an introduction to the team and details of what to expect on day one.

Before each arrival, we shared a short professional introduction on an internal noticeboard and sent a welcome announcement to the wider team, so people knew who would be joining them.

I coordinated a prepared workspace, a team lunch, informal introductions and a small welcome plant.

I introduced a mentoring arrangement giving each new employee a designated colleague to turn to with questions.

The activities were brought together into a repeatable process for future hires.

The Outcome

New colleagues received clearer information, teams were better prepared and arrivals became more coordinated. What began with one employee became an established onboarding approach.

What I Learned

A successful welcome is not only about preparing someone for their new workplace. It is also about preparing the workplace for them.

A thoughtful employee experience begins before the first day.

The Challenge

A financial services organisation was building a digital banking venture and needed senior technology leaders. The CEO had identified a highly regarded DevOps professional at a leading technology company.

The organisation had approached him a couple of times without success. This required more than another conventional offer.

My Approach

I approached the candidate personally and built a professional relationship over time.

We met, had lunch and discussed his career priorities, professional ambitions, concerns and what might make a new opportunity worth considering.

I used those insights to focus the conversation on whether the venture could offer a meaningful next step, rather than assuming what should attract him.

Through continued communication and negotiation, the candidate ultimately agreed to join the organisation.

The Outcome

We recruited the sought-after senior technology professional into a key leadership role. Afterwards, the CEO said the organisation had approached him a couple of times before without success.

What I Learned

For experienced professionals, the decision to change jobs is influenced by compensation, career growth, new challenges, responsibilities, company culture and personal priorities. What matters most is different for everyone.

The most valuable part of headhunting is often the research, curiosity and conversation that help us recognise potential where others may not be looking.

Today, AI and talent intelligence tools can help discover candidates, understand skills and analyse markets. But the human side of recruitment remains just as important.

Technology can help us find more people. Good judgement helps us understand which opportunities and candidates genuinely belong together.

Better hiring begins with better questions.

The Challenge

In an engineering organisation, senior technical advisers held valuable expertise and had time that could potentially support younger engineers. Younger colleagues were eager to learn, but there was no structured way to make that exchange happen.

Knowledge sharing relied on personal requests and individual willingness. Some advisers were reluctant to teach, including those who felt they had worked hard to acquire their knowledge.

My Approach

I wanted to understand why experienced professionals were hesitant to share their knowledge rather than introduce mandatory sessions.

I knew many advisers valued international scientific and technical publications. We established a dedicated reward budget and let them select resources they valued, including subscriptions to current specialist journals.

We started with a small number of willing advisers, asked younger engineers what they needed to learn and designed sessions around those needs. Positive feedback helped build momentum.

The programme expanded into Learning & Development activities, and younger colleagues began sharing knowledge with one another too.

We also introduced a process to record the knowledge-sharing sessions and document their contents so that valuable expertise could be revisited after each session.

The Outcome

The initiative developed from a small exchange between senior advisers and younger engineers into a structured internal knowledge-sharing practice.

It encouraged participation through meaningful rewards, supported peer-to-peer learning and established a way to preserve technical knowledge beyond individual conversations.

What I Learned

Encouraging people to share expertise begins with understanding what motivates them. Recognition and meaningful incentives can help open the door; lasting progress grows when people experience the value of learning from one another.

Knowledge sharing and preservation serve different purposes. Sharing creates connection and learning. Capturing knowledge makes it available beyond the original conversation.

Technology and AI offer new possibilities for discovering and reusing organisational knowledge, but people still need to feel that their expertise is valued.

Knowledge creates greater value when it moves beyond individuals and becomes something others can learn from and build upon.