Building a Modern People and Culture Function with Siobhan Reid

0:00Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's most downloaded and shared podcasts designed for HR pros, talent execs, tech enthusiasts and business leaders. For hundreds more episodes and what's new in the world of work, subscribe to the show, follow us on social media and visit harkazet.com. Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat, hello listeners, this is your host today, Bill Bannum. And in this episode, we're going to explore the role of the people leader and how that's evolved over the past 25 years. And what it takes to build a modern people and culture function that combines human collection with data driven decision making. My awesome guest today is Shavon Reed, head of people and culture at Circle voluntary housing association. One of Ireland's leading social housing providers, Circle manages and owns more than 2,000 homes nationally and works with local authorities, state agencies, developers and funders to

1:04deliver social and affordable housing solutions. Shavon brings more than 25 years of experience in HR and people and culture, her career in senior HR leadership stretches back to 1999 when she became head of HR and training covering Ireland, the UK and international operations at O'Breen's Irish sandwich bar. Since then, she has worked across commercial, public and non-profit environments, built HR functions from the ground up and led organisations through significant change because she's a superstar. Culture sits at the heart of Shavon's approach, she believes genuine well-being and a strong sense of belonging can drive performance far more effectively than policy alone. More recently, she has been exploring how data, automation and AI can modernise the HR profession, including building tools and dashboards that turn complex workforce metrics into actionable insights for boards and leadership teams. So today listeners, we're going to talk about how HR leadership has changed, building

2:05great cultures, employee well-being, the people challenges facing the housing sector, pay transparency, people analytics and how AI could reshape the role of HR. At least that is the hope. That's a lot of topics to get through in 20 minutes Shavon, how are you doing? Welcome to the show. Hey Bill, it's great to be here and thank you for the invite. Yes, as you say, not a lot to get through, Bush, I'm here to do my best and to cover all the topics and hopefully we'll have fun doing it at the same time. Certainly Will and yeah, I think, I think my question today is far too ambitious. We'll see how many you guys get through. So let's get straight into it there because it appears we don't have any time to waste. So Shavon, your HR career goes all the way back to 1999 when you became head of HR and training for Ireland, the UK and international operations at a sandwich bars company. More than 25 years later, you're leading people in culture at circle.

3:06When you look back across your journey, how much of this has the role of HR as a leader changed and what fundamentals have perhaps stayed the same? When I look back in 1999, it seems like it had not been a long time ago. HR was very much heavily focused on the personnel administration side of it. It was all around contracts, it was all around processes. I've even come across people who would still refer to, I did in a couple of jobs, referred to as the personnel department. So that's a long time since it was known as the personnel department. I do believe we've come enough long way since then. I think today, people are recognising the value that HR and the value that people in culture can bring to a business. It is a strategic business driver. And I like to, with the CEOs and the leadership team that I'm working with, try to educate

4:08them on that, that we're not just there to do personnel, we're not just there to take the boxes. Where we are about culture, we're about the people agility and people analytics. What doesn't change for me is there's always a person behind every policy, there's a person behind every contract, there's a person behind every interaction that we do. It's for me, it's about psychological safety that has never changed. Our treatment, empathy and compassion, and this for me is what really drives performance. And that, I don't think will ever change. Thanks for listening to this episode of the HR Chat Podcast. If you enjoy the audio content we produce, you'll love our articles on the HR Gazette. Learn more at hr Gazette.com. And now, back to the show. Love that, thank you. Okay, that's quick follow up to that one then. I did warn you before we hit record today that I might go off on the tangent and all the more. Yeah, no, do, yeah, absolutely.

5:08Yeah, you spoke about culture just a second ago. For you, what makes for you use the word compassion as well? What for you makes a compassionate, inspiring company culture? For me, it's about listening, it's about, you know, we talk about putting yourself into the person's shoes. Everybody that we know, everybody that we come across, every person is going through something that they may not show in work. And we all, we have to as leaders, we have to understand that. Whereas before it was you come to work, you leave your personal problems at home. I don't want to know that for me has to change. And I think it is changing and it has changed in some organisations. So you have to bring your whole self to work. You don't just leave that version of you at home because that's not what the world of work is. That's not what life is. We all have our own situations that we're dealing with personally and sometimes professionally. So you have to be able to show up as the whole person and we as leaders have to be able

6:11to understand and accept that. And I think that's where the compassion piece comes in and the empathy. For me, that's really, really important. And if you do show that, you will, for me, if you look after your staff, your employees, they will lock after everything else and they will look after your customers and your business. Would you have to be able to show that compassion and the empathy? Okay, so that actually might be a key answer to my next question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. You built HR functions from scratch and led organisations through significant change upon. When you're building or transforming a people function, what do you believe needs to come first? Again, I'll talk about the person. So it's listening to the employees, listening to the leadership team down to your CEO, the frontline staff and it's understanding everybody has a different take, everybody has a different

7:11perception. So for me, it's about listening and it's understanding their needs, it's understanding what exactly is wrong and how it can be fixed. I always think if you can be in what always fascinates me if you have the, you have two managers, two staff members working in the same organisation under different managers, but both could have different experiences. And for me, that's really important is to go one could say, well, look, I love it here, the others like, well, I don't, there's an issue here. And it's understanding that dynamic and it's trying to basically kind of lost my train to other, it's understanding that dynamic. So if I'm looking at building and transforming, it's listening, it's being aware, it's looking at the operational basics, it's diagnosing what needs, stop, start, continue, what do we need to stop, what do we need to start, what do we continue, what is done well, what is

8:14the unwritten culture? I always say to people is your culture is how you feel on a Sunday evening, for you go to work in the Monday morning, how is that feeling in your tummy? Are you dreading going into work? It's fixing the baseline, making sure contracts are in place, that the process is your policies, procedures. And once you have your foundation, it's building then your strategic element, then on top of that. If on a Sunday evening, you've got that horrible feeling, and I've had this, when I was in a junior role and I had quite a toxic manager, if you've got a feeling in your gut that you're just dreading that Monday morning, should you go or should you go speak to the HR department, what are your options in that situation? I think what is really important is that you have, well, firstly is to recognize that you have that recognition, you go, then you have somebody that you can go and talk to in work, it doesn't

9:16necessarily have to be HR, but it can be a confident colleague, and it's around that whole that you have that psychological safety that you know you can go and you can say something without the repercussion. I would say to somebody if they're feeling that way, that they actually go and talk to somebody, if they have either an NEP, where they can reach out or absolutely go and speak to HR, if they have a HR function or HR department there, but maybe you have a chat for us with a colleague, and I think that's really important. If it's somebody, if it's your manager that's making you feel that way, if it's not your manager, I'd always say go and have a chat with your manager too. Okay, so in the introduction, I've been on of almost every HR related topic, I think, that we have viciously. That's not a question. You're pulling your job to me now. But one thing I didn't mention, but then you you you shot it over to me just before we hit

10:17record is Bill. I'd like to have a little bit of time on this chat today to talk about menopause in the workplace. You share quite a bit about this. Yes, yeah. I'm just going to hand it over to you to tell me what's important and why we should be talking more about this right now. Okay, for me, menopause is extremely important. Obviously, we're all it's as I'd say, it's coming to a it's coming to a business near you. It's it's it's not something that we can shy away from anymore as our workforce are are getting older. People are staying longer in the workforce. I do believe it's still a taboo subject. I think there's a lot of misinformation. Around and that goes for our medical professions as well. It is getting better, but it's something that is not talked about. And that goes for both male and female because I'm sure there's some

11:20male out there in our audience who their partners will be suffering going into suffering going from menopause. I think we as employers and as people in culture, we need to be able to understand what people are going through and we need to be able to recognize and support our employees and have it as a it's a normal conversation to have that it's not something we should shy away from. But I think we need to be thinking how are we supporting? How do we support our employees who are currently suffering? One thing I love is and it makes me smile because on the radio you might hear an ad for menopause, vitamins or they're certain supplements. But all they talk about is there's one symptom which is half flushes. But we have a hell of a lot more symptoms on a half flush and that's again it's about the education and we have to be a top we need to be on top of that we need to be ahead of the game so that we can support our employees

12:24coming down the line. I saw there recently, was it Jess one of the airlines in England, UK airlines? They're now doing campaigns to hire over 50s and they're bringing people back into the workforce. So I thought that was fabulous. But for me it's a subject that we need to be getting more familiar with and more comfortable in talking about it. And I don't think we're doing that in some places are fabulous but we need to be better. And that goes for our policies. How are we supporting our employees? I'm afraid to come and speak up. And I think that's important that we get that message out there. Yeah I think we're doing a better job now all the me were a few years ago. My experience as somebody puts on content for HR communities is pre pandemic. Nobody was talking about menopause in the workplace. Yeah. And it was that it was that to be subject. And I think I think that's changed a lot but I still feel like we've got a long way to go.

13:32We do, yeah. Champions like yourself. And we're not you know for somebody who is post-menopausal you know we're not done yet. We still have enough a lot to give. And I think that's it's recognising that you know. And so I just think it's something at my heart that I need to do a little bit of work in circle and need to do a lot of work. And I was spoken to my CEO about this as well. And you know he's absolutely 100% behind me. I'm unable to to recognise it and to promote, and to support. And I think that's really important. So yeah so watch this space because it's not going anywhere. It'll be coming to us all at some point. So we may as well embrace it. Okay shout out to she forms leadership team for being awesome. Okay geez there are so many more things I want to get through with you but I've got five minutes here. So let's pick a few.

14:32Let's challenge you. Oh I didn't mention I might do that. Did I before we hit? Oh no don't do that. Sometimes sometimes on the show when we're running out I like to challenge my guests to answering like 60 seconds or less. Let's do it really next one. I think you can. Okay okay so let's go fresh. Let's give it a go. So as I often do when I'm preparing for an interview I go all over a guest linked in and identify some posts that I think are particularly interesting. Here's one. On LinkedIn Shabon you recently highlighted research suggesting that employees may need around 10 days away from work to fully recharge. By the way you and I have just come back from holiday. Do organisations need to rethink their approach to annual leave recovery and employee well-being and can you give me an answer in 60 seconds or less? 20 seconds. Woo okay. I think they do. I think for me along weekend only delays fatigue. Real recovery requires uninterrupted blocks of time away. And there's actually scientific proof behind that. So for me the days are gone where

15:37you know you don't take an annual leave aren't you great. You're a superhuman that has to change and we need to change and it's a proof that you need to have a good block in order for you to be able to rest and recover and restore. So yes I do think absolutely huge that 10 day leave is vital. Some organisations can see that but other organisations need to get on the back to encourage their team to be taken a 10 day to week break. Did I make a 10 to 60 seconds? You absolutely do. I think you had about 10 seconds to spare. Okay let's keep this momentum going. Let's talk a little bit about issues specifically facing the housing and non-profit sectors. I think while I've got you here let's do it. So circle operates in islands social housing sector of course where organisations are trying to attract and retain great people while delivering an important social mission. In 60 seconds or less

16:40what are some of the distinctive people and cultural challenges facing the housing and non-profit sectors today? Today it's retention and staff retention retention retention and that's due to the nature of the sector that we work in. It's high levels of burnout and salary is really important. So yeah and I think we need to be looking at more and reward and recognition of what we can do to keep the staff and the role fabulous what they do. It's a very rewarding sector to be in but we need to be ensuring that we are looking after our staff really really well. And supporting them on a day-to-day basis. Okay I had a follow-up question about that but I want to give a couple of minutes to the day-to-day AI stuff because I did mention that in the intro. So actually if you're ever interested I'd love to invite you to submit a follow-up guest post that perhaps we could publish on HL because they're around what employers and the wider sector can do

17:44to make housing more attractive. Yeah absolutely. I'd love that. Yeah. Okay boom okay let's continue on then. Based on what you've seen on your LinkedIn you're interested in using data and AI has to translate workforce metrics into insights that boards and leadership teams can actually act on. What does good people analytics look like to use you on? Where do you think HR teams are still falling short? As I'd say to people AI is not gone anywhere so we're not to be afraid of it. And I think we need to embrace it. I do think some companies are still slow in adapting it. But if used in the right way the information it can give you is really really vital to being able for the leadership team to be able to make decisions where this was missing before. So for me it's not about analytics shouldn't be just about a vanity chart. You're about giving leadership action but insights to solve the operational problems. So what I have done

18:49using a AI platform I designed and developed a insights people insights dashboard. And within that I also have it's a culture temperature so it's a temperature check. Now obviously it's garbage in garbage out so the information you feedish has to be the right and correct information and that's you're getting your source of truth. So whereas before you were producing excess spreadsheets that were taken hours and days to produce your analytical report for the board or for your executive team which they probably weren't looking at because it probably wasn't very exciting. So now what I've done is I've developed this fabulous dashboard where I upload all the data which is all anonymous and it takes approximately a half a day if not less to be able to produce a really fabulous dashboard that the board

19:50can actually read they enjoy reading it it tells me what I need to be focusing on for the next month what my critical areas are and it also gives me performance development I'm sorry I'm not sure if you hear my phone ringing so performance indicators what's happening it can almost not tell me the future but it can highlight the critical areas that I know there's a problem it's able to identify the sick leave in a particular area allows you then to go in and say okay why do we have such high sick leave here is it is there an issue with the managers or it can predict the sick leave is going to get higher in a particular department so it's able to pinpoint the exact areas where I really need to focus on and that saves time it saves the CEO the leadership team have a tangible report that they can actually work on and go back to their managers with so I do believe this is

20:52the future and it's allowing us then to be able to move on and work with the really important part is the people side of it and we're not bogged down in figures but yet we still have that fabulous data that we're able to work on so I do believe it is the future it's not going anywhere and I'm actually now going to be doing a course in AI for business so I'm going to enrolling in that now in October and that'll help in terms of ethical and AI ethics and all that and so that's something that I'm really looking forward to doing very good very impressive as well okay and I can share that with you if you want because my template but yeah it's I did a lot of work on Ashbeerland it's really it's really really good if and I can say that myself maybe if it's not too bold of me maybe there's a second article yes you might want to submit

21:54I'd love that yeah absolutely okay all right well it sounds like you and I are going to be doing plenty more together including it on but in the very near future we are going to get Shavon up on the double in stage yes Shavon after lots of pestering she finally committed to do this so watch this space on that one as well that just leaves me to say for today listeners please do connect with Shavon on LinkedIn if you are in the Dublin area in November November 18th come and join me and Shavon at our next event there but for today Shavon thank you very much for being my guest Bill thank you so much really enjoy Dash and thank you to all our listeners and I hope you enjoyed it too so see you all soon and listen as always until next time happy working thanks for listening to the HR chat show if you enjoyed this episode why not subscribe and listen to some of the hundreds of episodes published by HR Gazette and remember for what's new in the world

22:59of work subscribe to the show follow us on social media and visit harkazette.com