The relationship between chief executive and HR director is much analysed in the HR profession – has the HRD got a seat on the board, and if so, has she got the ear of the CEO or is she in the background in the corner of the room when it comes to making the important decisions?
There are no such worries at food company General Mills, it seems, if this afternoon’s session at the CIPD conference in Manchester is anything to go by. HR director Sue Swanborough and Managing Director Jim Moseley gave a perfect double act – standing next to each other on stage and addressing the audience in tandem, they gave a seamless performance in which they just fell short of finishing each other’s sentences.
Faced with a slide reading, among other questions, “which words would your people use to describe HR?” Swanborough turned to her MD and “I think we had better ask Jim.”
Moseley responded with a long, if possibly scripted, list of the virtues of HR – “They are agents of change, they are provoking, they are cutting edge, and they are fun,” before turning to Swanborough. “Cutting edge – did you add that one to the list?” he joked.
The session presented a picture of HR as the guardian of an organisation’s values, maintaining trust between employees, management and customers, but also asking difficult questions – or as the title of the session put it “being provocative.” The anecdotes revealed that Swanborough clearly enjoys a high status in the board room.
“Some of the best moments in board meetings are when we find Sue arguing a point from a business perspective and others arguing back from a people perspective – it shows how integral HR is to all of us in the business,” said Moseley.
He even found time to joke about Swanborough’s dress sense. “Talking about being provocative – who else could get away with combining spots and stripes in the same jacket?” he asked the audience.
With the backdrop showing a montage of General Mills’ homely cereal products such as Cheerios, Shreddies and Nature Valley crunchy bars, the overall impression was of two members of the same family engaging in good-natured teasing over the breakfast table.
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