The Future of HR & Thought Leadership

As 2016 drew to a close so did the OP Academy 2016 programme and what a fantastic final module we had! The programme this year has gone from strength to strength and Module 4 was an exceptionally popular event as we reached full capacity.

We established the OP Academy to support rising HR talent as they develop their career journey; and this year the programme has consisted of four key modules, each with a specific developmental theme. The concept is to bring together top nascent HR talent with successful senior HR leaders in an informal social setting, enabling attendees to take ownership of their own career development inspired by hearing about the speaker’s career and experience. This is a truly unique and invaluable opportunity for attendees to network with talented peers and senior HR professionals – expanding their personal networks of likeminded, ambitious HR professionals and sharing knowledge, learning and best practice across all industries.

The topic for Module 4 was to explore the future of the HR profession. As the pace of change has never been more rapid we looked at how key trends and development changes will impact careers and roles in the future. We discussed how to keep up with the evolution of HR and how this can impact your success, and who better to share her thoughts and insights than Lucy Adams.

Following a distinguished and successful career at companies including BBC, Eversheds and Secro, she went on the create The Disruptive HR Agency to be the leading light for thought leadership across HR. She grew frustrated with the lack of innovation and fresh thinking in the profession and wanted to find new ways of tackling old problems. She now runs the agency to help HR professionals and business leaders to do things differently. Lucy lead the final module where she shared a phenomenal talk which left those in the room incredibly inspired.

Lucy talked about her frustrations with the lack of innovation and fresh thinking in HR and shared her new approach to tackling old problems. Lucy shared with us the EACH model – ‘Everyone is Adults, Consumers & Humans’ and talked about how HR should have a personalised approach. Each of the components of the EACH model reflect a way to drive collaboration and find innovation within your organisation. Adults – HR should reflect an adult to adult relationship and move away from hand holding where employees are given responsibility for their own actions. Should we really have a dress code or trust people to make sensible decisions on what is appropriate? Consumers – We should treat employees in the same light we would our consumers. For example, when looking at engagement surveys look at how we get feedback from our consumers, we should adopt a personalised, real time and simple approach not a long yearly survey! Humans – we should treat people as people and not numbers, don’t be afraid to show emotion and be interested. The language we use and way we deliver messages is also hugely important.

We have continued to receive some fantastic feedback on the modules that we have run so far this year and we really appreciate hearing how the programme has developed attendees thinking. Here are a few thoughts following Lucy’s Session –

“I have absolutely loved each of the modules, and found them fascinating. I think it’s brilliant of Oakleaf to champion HR professionals in this way, and I’ve really taken away some great knowledge. I hope to see you and the group again, if I were to be so lucky!”

“Two of my Team attended the Oakleaf Academy sessions – they have found great value in attending with interactive presentations, positive networking and engaging external speakers.

They feel they have benefitted from each session and covered topics such as how to manage their time in their role and work life balance, how to deliver their own personal brand – what can they do to make themselves the best they can be, how to prioritise combined with some useful self-awareness as individuals.

They felt the sessions are of benefit now but also in their future HR careers – the speakers were inspirational and gave them confidence that its ok to try something and change it if it doesn’t work in the future and that’s a great way to learn.”

 

Thank you to everyone who attended the OP Academy this year, it was great to have such a fantastic group of talented HR professionals join us. We hoped you found the evenings engaging, memorable and valuable, we certainly really enjoyed putting the programme together and are looking forward to seeing you again in 2017!

We are already reserving places to next year’s programme and if you would like any more information about how you or your team can get involved please get in touch – opacademy@oakleafpartnership.com

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