Kate Griffiths-Lambeth, the Director of Human Resources for Wealth Management Firm Charles Stanley, describes a day in her busy life…
6.30am
Being an urban bee keeper, I check on the bees.
7.30am
Endure close proximity with a stranger’s armpit when crushed on the Northern Line on my way to work.
8.15am
Arrive at the office. Fresh fruit and bacon butties waiting for me and the team: a gift from Finance as a thank you for the headcount summary HR sent to help with the Annual Report.
Check emails – a selection of thank you notes for the political un-picking, coaching, advice and support that’s helped colleagues to be more productive.
10.30am
A 1-2-1 with the Operations Director (as he is always mindful to ensure that HR is kept in the loop and able to be well prepared).
11.45am
A brief meeting with an employee who was concerned about being discriminated against. After an open and easy discussion she agreed that her manager was entitled to ask her to arrive at work on time. Met with aforementioned employee’s manager, who confirmed that he was delighted with the outcome and confessed that he was partially to blame for any misunderstanding.
12.30pm
A two hour lunch break with the former Head of Organisational Effectiveness, who is off on maternity leave – great to meet her cherub and City-types are always charmed to have a baby at the next-door table in their favourite restaurant, even when it cries.
After lunch
I take advantage of the usual lull to hone my slides that explain the new organisational design (it’s always good not to have to rush these things).
Mid-afternoon
A catch up with my boss. Like me, he is able to enjoy a relaxed but always enriching role, with no demands or unreasonable deadlines. He thanks me for the contribution I am making and asks if HR would like a bigger budget.
Later in the afternoon, I attend a strategic planning session with the experts from a top global business school – we are co-designing our next leadership development event, which I know will be ground breaking, have a genuine impact on all those fortunate enough to attend and will enhance the bottom line, whilst embedding the culture and values.
Time and money are no issue, as I’ll easily be able to provide the KPIs to prove the return on the investment.
Late afternoon: a call from Finance to ensure that the bacon butties went down well, and to ask if HR would like to team up with them and Risk to review the business continuity plan – something we do on a regular basis.
A brief call from the Head of Marketing to thank me for my advice, as all his team now have SMART objectives that they love…
5:00pm
Gosh – it’s 5.00 o’clock already – time to go home, as I have old school friends coming round and my husband and eldest son will have cooked us all dinner. I seldom have to work late or do stuff from home. Added bonus: a stranger offers me a seat on the surprisingly uncrowded tube, so I arrive home fresh and relaxed.
Hmm – perhaps that’s not quite how it goes, but I can always dream…
sounds like one of my days although our Finance team usually bring me nice warm porridge – must we a Wealth Management thing