Joint Venture Integration for a Global Accountancy Body
Context
A UK-based professional accountancy body with a deep cultural heritage was forming a joint venture with its US counterpart to create a new global credential. My remit as HR Director spanned the UK, Europe, parts of Africa and Asia. The challenge was to bring together two organisations with different histories, working practices and cultural identities into a genuinely integrated partnership.
Challenge
The challenge lay in building trust and effective working relationships between teams who had never worked together, operated in different time zones and had distinct organisational cultures. It was important to understand the health of relationships between leaders and teams across both organisations, create genuine cultural awareness rather than superficial integration and establish ways of working that would function across continents and time zones. Underneath this was organisational design work: rationalising structures, reviewing role titles that had proliferated over time and reshaping the organisation from a 'diamond' shaped structure with too many middle managers to one with fewer yet effective line managers.
Approach
I co-led the Culture, Talent & Trust workstream with my US counterpart. We started by conducting interviews with leaders across both organisations to understand the state of relationships and local success factors.
My UK HR team and I travelled regularly to the US to progress the workstream's activities and to build strong relationships and understanding. I worked with communications teams from both organisations to design events and experiences that would be genuinely interactive for all employees, regardless of time zone differences.
The workstream delivered cultural awareness workshops and content that went beyond surface-level stereotypes and brought to life the ‘why’ in how colleagues around the world worked.
On the organisational design side, I conducted structural improvements, including a deeper analysis of specific roles and jobs and designed new management structures with appropriate spans of control. The grading structure was reviewed to ensure that job bands provided appropriate coverage and facilitated talent attraction, retention and reward strategy.
Outcome
The joint venture successfully integrated two distinct organisational cultures into an effective working partnership. Staff gained a solid understanding of their counterparts' working practices and built relationships that enabled cross-border collaboration. The organisational structure progressed to one with clearer role definitions and more effective spans of control. The new joint venture member credential was successfully launched and established as a global standard. 80% of staff reported in the launch-year survey that working on the joint venture had been a positive experience.
Transforming Culture & Performance
Context
A professional body with 150,000 members and 350 employees was preparing for significant change. As Director of People, OD & Workplace reporting to the CEO, I was accountable to the Board and its People and Remuneration Committee for developing and implementing a new people strategy focused on culture, capability and organisational performance. The challenge was positioning the organisation for ambitious growth and digital transformation whilst strengthening leadership capability, operational rigour and employee wellbeing.
Challenge
The organisation faced multiple interconnected challenges. The senior leadership team structure required refocusing for the digital transformation ahead. People management processes and governance needed to be strong to support robust decision-making. A fresh people strategy was required to enable the ambitious organisational growth strategy. And like all organisations, COVID-19 prompted a fundamental rethink of how and where people worked.
Approach
I led a comprehensive review of the senior leadership team structure and ways of working, resulting in a unified SLT with the skills required for what lay ahead. This included implementing a Systems Integrated Thinking leadership development programme across all leadership roles. This went beyond traditional leadership training to address how leaders actually thought about problems, collaborated across boundaries and showed up authentically. It also equipped leaders with the capability to tackle unhelpful behaviours directly rather than work around them.
I strengthened the organisation's approach to people management and operational rigour processes, particularly headcount and remuneration management. This created stronger working relationships and improved governance.
I developed the workforce planning and capability strategy to ensure the organisation had the talent required for its growth and digital transformation ambitions, then led the restructuring and development activities needed to deliver it.
When COVID-19 hit, I led the redesign and transition to a hybrid work environment, anchoring the approach in clear hybrid working principles and wellbeing rather than defaulting to arbitrary policies.
On diversity, inclusion, and belonging, I formed and chaired the organisation's D&I steering group, which brought together employee interest groups and developed the D&I and Belonging Plan with the Board and the SLT.
Outcome
The senior leadership team was restructured and equipped for digital transformation, which commenced in 2019 from a much stronger foundation. Leadership across senior roles demonstrated increased collaboration, authentic leadership and removal of previously embedded unhelpful behaviours. Operational and governance rigour improved significantly, further strengthening relationships between the SLT and the Board. The organisation successfully transitioned to effective hybrid working post-pandemic. Diversity, inclusion and belonging increased across the workforce. The workforce planning and capability approach aligned to growth and transformation ambitions, with successful restructuring and development activities delivering the required talent.
Enabling Effective Agile Working Across an NHS Trust
Context
A large NHS Trust needed to free up office floor space in their hospital to convert into wards for projected future demand. This meant both clinical and non-clinical staff would need to adopt agile working in re-sized office space, working remotely more often whilst maintaining the team cohesion and collaboration critical in a hospital environment.
Challenge
The real challenge went deeper than simply fitting people into smaller space. Many staff wanted to work remotely for more than two days per week, whilst some managers worried about the impact on productivity, culture and wellbeing. Underlying this were more fundamental issues: outdated VDI technology that risked undermining the entire initiative, HR policies requiring lengthy consultation to update, low desk utilisation driven by small departmental rooms that discouraged cross-team working, and a gap between some leaders' stated aspirations for modern working and the challenges of breaking free of counter-productive work cultural attitudes to remote working.
Approach
I started by connecting with the staff to understand how people actually preferred to use the workplace. This meant analysing a two-week space utilisation study, a survey on work preferences and attitudes, six focus groups to explore team-specific challenges and nine leader interviews to understand business needs and current versus desired working patterns.
I reviewed the Trust's HR, technology and workplace infrastructure to identify where constraints would impede implementation. We reviewed test-fit examples that demonstrated how an agile workforce could work effectively in smaller, more collaborative spaces designed for shared-desk work.
The change programme included developing agile working principles and creating a Working Together Charter, approved by the executive team, that brought clarity and consistency to their agile working model. I recruited and worked with an internal team of Change Champions who met fortnightly to share feedback and enable rapid responses. Communication ran throughout via leadership progress reports and 'FAQ Fridays' to keep people informed about changes and how we were addressing potential challenges. All line managers were invited to attend 90-minute online training workshops on leading agile teams, enabling them to work confidently with their teams to develop their own Team Working Together Charters.
Outcome
Managers were equipped to lead agile teams effectively, and the staff relocated to their new workplace and adopted an agile work model. Performance and productivity was sustained throughout the period of transition.
Pay benchmarking and Employee Value Proposition
Context
A historic city cathedral employed staff and volunteers who genuinely loved working there. However, rising cost-of-living pressures meant the cathedral was beginning to lose talented staff to organisations offering higher pay. The leadership wanted to benchmark their remuneration and benefits to address this talent retention challenge.
Challenge
While pay benchmarking was potentially part of the solution, the challenge was to understand the underlying drivers of people's employment decisions and whether pay was the root cause or merely the most visible symptom. The cathedral needed to strengthen its position in the local labour market, but without a full understanding of the employment experience, any salary adjustments risked being fixes that didn't address the underlying conditions.
Approach
I started with discovery work to understand the complete employment picture. I conducted interviews with senior leaders to understand their perspective on what the cathedral needed from its people and what challenges they faced as an employer. I ran an employee survey followed by two focus groups (general staff and heads of department separately) to explore people’s experience of working at the cathedral.
The data revealed some interesting patterns. Most people were extremely satisfied working there, with an excellent Net Promoter Score. However, some frustrations were identified. People valued development opportunities and wanted to see career progression paths. There were underlying factors that, once identified, could be readily rectified.
I conducted the remuneration analysis and job evaluation for all roles using a consistent methodology. Using reputable benchmarking data, I compared cathedral salaries with those in the general market and the charity sector. The benchmarking revealed an opportunity for a more structured approach to job levelling, associated salary levels and benefits. I developed a job grading framework and provided options based on affordability. I also created a more equitable performance-based pay progression system that linked salary increases to both performance and position within the pay range, ensuring fair pay progression opportunities whilst maintaining fair pay principles.
Outcome
The cathedral gained a robust and fair job grading structure with associated salary levels that positioned them more competitively in the local market. More importantly, the leadership gained genuine insight into what was working and what needed attention beyond pay. The implementation playbook provided ongoing guidance for maintaining engagement, retention and fair pay practices. The cathedral could now make informed decisions about compensation whilst also addressing the underlying organisational factors that genuinely affected people's decision to stay or leave.
Implementing Global Hybrid Working
Context
A global human rights organisation with approximately 650 people across 18 countries adapted swiftly to remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, a year later, they faced the challenge many organisations encountered: implementing a permanent hybrid work model that would be consistent globally yet flexible enough to accommodate their diverse cultures, employment legislation, and job roles. Crucially, they wanted their people to feel valued, listened to and have a genuine voice in shaping this change to strengthen trust and collaboration.
Challenge
The organisation needed to address three interconnected themes: culture and behaviour that was consistent yet respectful of local differences, governance and policies with proper operational rigour and infrastructure development that made effective use of premises and technology. The complexity lay in achieving global consistency without compromising local flexibility, and in ensuring that the change would endure rather than risk becoming a policy that people worked around.
Approach
I worked as part of a core project team alongside the organisation's Director of People & OD, Head of Global Workforce and other key workplace stakeholders. We began with thorough discovery work to understand their needs and culture properly. Through a Visioning Workshop with the leadership team, we agreed upon the critical challenges the project must successfully address and scoped the project delivery and communication strategy.
A workforce survey was used to understand how people actually worked and their appetite for different future working patterns. This was deepened through ten focus groups and 15 leader interviews to get beneath surface-level responses.
To ensure the infrastructure could support the change rather than undermine it, I oversaw reviews of their HR, Technology, and Facilities Management, providing specific recommendations to resolve situations in which gaps would create problems. I also met with their union representatives to understand and address their hopes and concerns, and with local country leaders to understand local legal and cultural dynamics.
After reviewing the discovery-phase outcomes with the leadership team, I developed their new workplace proposition and prepared them for the deployment phase. This included cascading line manager training, equipping them with the skills and knowledge needed to support their teams' effective transition.
Outcome
The organisation gained a globally consistent hybrid working approach that respected local cultural contexts, robust governance to sustain the change and infrastructure aligned to support rather than hinder their new ways of working. Most importantly, their people were genuinely involved in shaping the solution rather than having it imposed upon them.
Office Relocation for a Multinational Company
Context
A global energy company owned a substantial campus in the UK and leased premises in London. With the London lease expiring and an out-of-town campus building mothballed since the pandemic, they saw an opportunity to consolidate their people onto the campus site. The people concerned felt a strong attachment to their London office, and many required careful support to understand the rationale for the move, to develop familiarity with the campus, and to build genuine enthusiasm for a new work environment that was a longer journey for them.
Challenge
Success hinged on helping people develop both a rational understanding of why this change was necessary and a positive emotional connection to their new workplace. This meant engaging multiple stakeholders across Facilities, HR, Real Estate and Internal Communications whilst maintaining momentum and keeping colleagues informed and enthusiastic throughout.
Approach
I began by working with the senior change project team to understand their vision, goals and sensitivities. I then visited both locations, spending time on campus to appreciate better the benefits colleagues would gain, such as great restaurants, parks, sports facilities, a learning centre and diverse work environments.
From this foundation, I developed a comprehensive change and communications plan. This included manager briefing sessions, Change Champion workshops, site visits, town halls, detailed FAQs and regular updates via the company's intranet and social platforms. The Change Champions were crucial to success, so my workshops focused on equipping them with knowledge of change psychology, gathering their feedback to help steer the programme, and ensuring they had everything needed to support their colleagues effectively from day 1 of the move.
Outcome
The London staff were ready for their move. They arrived at the campus already familiar with their new workplace and confident that support was available throughout. I was on-site at various times during the first few weeks to speak directly with colleagues who'd made the move, ensuring any teething issues were quickly addressed and concerns didn't become problems.
