The evolution of the last 12 months means Sean’s role as HR Generalist has been a bit of a rollercoaster! He has risen to the challenge and adapted while ensuring prioritising our people remains as important as ever. We had a chat with him about the challenges he has faced throughout the pandemic… HR has always been about people and communication. The HR landscape for 2021 and beyond is about evolution both as a service and a function to businesses but more importantly, it is about helping staff learn, adapt and develop personally. We must continue to support our staff, existing and new, and engage with new platforms, new technologies that help us best deliver the HR function to ensure staff and managers can be the best version of themselves possible and in turn, helps us as a business flourish.
I feel the speed of reaction element to HR has been key. The world of work changed in a very short space of time last March and it was essential that the HR service delivered to managers and staff was strong and offered the necessary support required in such a challenging time. Technology will continue to play a huge part in the new working world and digitising manual and key processes is a big focus moving forward. I believe the biggest challenge has been making sure employees feel connected, engaged and most importantly supported. The last 12 months have seen the nature of how we work change – virtual meetings, working from home etc. This change was in motion before the COVID-19 pandemic but has been accelerated and we have had to learn and adapt to that. To implement these changes effectively we had to ensure that they were fit for purpose and that staff were informed of how this would work. We have utilised technology to the full and will continue to evolve this to ensure staff feel as connect and supported as they were before the pandemic.
Culture is key to any business and is something we have committed to improving over the last number of years. The biggest mistake in trying to improve culture is thinking that there is an end destination and once you reach it you stop. Culture is constantly evolving – it’s a journey that you commit to with staff to improve the working environment. At DELI LITES we have our Culture Champions team, made up of representatives from every department, who strive to improve our working environment – they take the suggestions of their colleagues and we work as a team, with Senior Management, to implement these into day to day life at DELI LITES. We are committed to continuing this journey together with our staff and it’s exciting to be a part of.
