“My advice would be to focus on a particular area or theme such as Recruitment, L&D or maybe Comp and Bens if you’re considering a career in HR, then branch out into a more generalist role once you have gained the experience required, that approach worked well for me.” — Dylan Wickenden, HR Director at EMCOR UK, speaks to us about developing a career in HR Leadership.
As part of our commitment to supporting candidates to develop fulfilling careers, we’ve invited some HR Leaders to share the secrets of their success.
This week, we had a great conversation with Dylan Wickenden from EMCOR UK, who began his career as a trainee recruitment consultant, before moving up the career ladder into the role he has now which is HR Director for a leading Facilities Management company employing over 4200 employees across the UK.
Can you tell us how you got into HR and why?
Totally by accident really! When I finished university, my first job was actually as a landscape gardener, but unfortunately that didn’t pay the bills, as I was looking to rent a property with my girlfriend at the time (who is now my wife) and I didn’t earn enough to be able to afford to do that.
So we moved to London and stayed with my girlfriends parents whilst we both looked for employment and the first job that I went for was a trainee recruitment consultant at Hays, referred to as a resourcer at the time, and that was within the telecoms market.
So I suppose that was my first people related role in recruitment, where I grasped the finding of candidates fairly easily. I was young and ambitious, and I was badgering their recruitment consultants at the time to make me a recruitment consultant. I was promoted to Recruitment Consultant and then went into the Inhouse Recruitment Industry as a Recruitment Manager in an RPO style arrangement and that was my real first exposure to HR as I was involved in very low level casework.
Further career moves saw me focus more on resourcing, L&D and then strategic HR. Essentially I moved more into HR and less recruitment as I became a HR Generalist and as my career developed I went from HRBP to Senior HRBP, Head of HR and now HR Director. That route gave me a great grounding in all areas of people related activity from casework to commercial, strategic HR decision making
Bizarrely, the first HR Director that I had real contact with when my career was taking off, Im now meeting for a coffee in a few weeks time as he tries to sell me some consultancy work, so maybe that’s where my career will end up!
Right now in my current company, I am responsible for all of the strategic people related decisions, although obviously that’s in conjunction with the rest of the executive leadership team, but ultimately the EMCOR UK people strategy sits with me.
Can you tell me about the challenges that you’re seeing across the HR sector?
Some of the challenges are probably ones that many organizations face around resourcing; getting the right people and keeping holding of them. In the last few years this has been a real focus of mine and team as we have looked to reduce our turnover, diversify careers and find new channels to recruitment from. Three years ago, our turnover was roughly around the 20 to 23% mark. We’re now at a fraction over 15% having made significant changes through a whole host of activities to make that happen. For example, all of our managers that have the ability to hire, now go through an EMCOR UK accredited interview skills training program. If they don’t go through that, they can’t interview. Well, certainly not on their own anyway. This has been a Programme of activity that concludes this May and has already seen significant improvement to first year leaver rates and the decisions made at interview stage.
Another key theme is wellbeing, and that has been a journey in itself which began with the presentation to the board around a flexible benefits platform that evolved into a Wellbeing Platform that includes flexible benefits. We used that to build a wellbeing program of activity that now forms a key part of the HR Strategy. The Wellbeing platform allows us to focus on such areas as mental health and physical health, financial wellbeing as well as provide great discounts for shopping, gym, cinema etc. Inside two years of launching this we have now 75% of our workforce signed up. We also produce a significant amount of MI now around our staff and their wellbeing, and we use that to make some really calculated or targeted decisions on activity we undertake to support their wellbeing at both work and home. Recently my Head of HR created a Sleep campaign designed at helping our employees relax, rest, repair and it was a work of art and was well received by our employee base. Its this type of activity that really makes a difference and supports our aim of a more engaged, supported and committed employee base
Another area of concern is how to reach out to those employees either less engaged or perhaps may work remotely. How do you provide meaningful communication and updates to those employees who may not have the company technology to remain in touch. We’ve got around 2000 employees, who work on sites or in locations where they don’t have access to email or a phone. So how do we communicate with those individuals? What do we do? That’s been and continues to be a real challenge for us.
Another theme around engagement that we have been working on for some time now is our approach to D&I. We have a really great diversity and inclusion program internally called Creating Balance which has helped us launch a number of positive initiatives such as a focus on returning mums. We had 80% of mums who went off on maternity leave the business and not return. So we lost that knowledge and some great individuals and there were a whole host of reasons for that. We also had reported by some that did come back that their experience of returning wasn’t the best.
Now, when a mum to be provides their Mat B1, we send them the maternity policy, we send them a keeping in touch policy and send a guide to their line manager about staying in touch when they go on maternity. We’ve also introduced a return to work incentive for our mums who come back. So they get £2000 if they come back to work. After three months they get a thousand, and after six months another thousand. But if they decide after that point, actually it’s not for me; Im finding it too difficult or I want to stay at home with my children, that’s fine, we don’t ask for that money back.
This on top of a reinduction program that we’ve introduced for our returning mums has seen 100% of them returning now. Its not high numbers in reality but what it does show is our efforts to effect change in one particular area of gender and D&I
Other than that, an aging workforce and the whole digitalization of work is something we really have an eye on. But that’s another conversation!
What career advice would you offer to someone hoping to follow in your footsteps?
My advice would be to start to fashion a career in HR in a particular area of interest, such as L&D, or resourcing and then move into a more generalist route, that’s what worked well for me.
If someone is interested in moving more into career as a strategic HR professional such as an HRBP, then start to learn the commercial aspects of HR, and if you understand why businesses are wanting to work in a certain way or make the decisions they do, then you’ll understand the methods behind their people related actions.
Dylan Wickenden has been working as the HR Director of EMCOR UK since 2016, and is responsible for the people strategy across HR, L&D, Resourcing and Reward.
If you are interested in having a confidential conversation about your career or would like support growing your team, please get in touch today.