An Interview with HR Director Orlagh Hunt

Summary

Ora Hunt, an experienced HR professional, discusses her journey from retail to becoming a Chief People Officer, emphasizing the importance of HR in fostering employee growth and organizational transformation. She highlights the need for diverse and passionate teams, the challenges of adapting to new business models, and the importance of aligning business and people strategies. Hunt also shares her thoughts on the future of work, including flexible employment and the push for diversity and inclusion.

Takeaways

• 😀 Ora Hunt has over 20 years of experience in HR, with expertise across retail, FMCG, and financial services.
• 🌟 Ora is passionate about helping organizations transform their commercial performance by tapping into the capabilities of their people.
• 📚 She started her career in general management in retail and later moved into personnel and training, where she joined the Tesco graduate management training scheme.
• 🔄 Ora has been involved in major business turnarounds, including at RSA and AIB, where she successfully helped the companies recover from significant losses.
• 🌍 Ora's leadership style is focused on building diverse, passionate teams and empowering them to perform their best without micromanagement.
• 💡 She believes in the power of leadership to create climates where individuals can flourish, with a focus on inspiring and coaching people within organizations.
• 📈 Ora emphasizes the importance of aligning business and people strategy, ensuring that both are working towards the same goals for sustainable success.
• 🌱 She highlights the need for organizations to adapt to challenges such as political instability, demographic shifts in the workforce, and the rise of data-driven companies.
• 🎯 Ora advocates for a talent scout mindset, where leaders actively seek the best talent both within and outside the organization to build high-performing teams.
• 🌍 She believes that HR functions should foster agile organizational cultures and support leadership in responding to changing economic and workforce dynamics.
• 👩‍💼 Ora is exploring going out on her own to help a broader range of organizations with transformation and leadership challenges while seeking more flexibility for her family.

Q & A

What is the primary focus of Ora Hunt's work in HR?

Ora Hunt primarily works with organizations undergoing significant transformation, helping them improve their commercial performance by accessing the capabilities of their people.

What sectors has Ora Hunt worked in during her career?

Ora Hunt has worked in retail, FMCG (Fast-Moving Consumer Goods), and financial services sectors during her career.

What was the role of the Tesco graduate Management training scheme in Ora Hunt's career?

The Tesco graduate Management training scheme provided Ora Hunt with an amazing foundation and was a pivotal point in her career, leading her to focus on personnel and training.

What does Ora Hunt believe is the key to individuals flourishing within organizations?

Ora Hunt believes that having the right leaders leading in the right way within an organization is key to creating the climate and conditions that allow individuals to flourish.

What was the situation at RSA when Ora Hunt joined?

When Ora Hunt joined RSA, the business was making significant losses and it was unclear whether the business would continue, requiring radical amounts of capital.

How did Ora Hunt contribute to the turnaround at RSA?

Ora Hunt contributed to the turnaround at RSA by helping to stabilize the business and then focusing on organic growth, achieving an average annual growth of 8% during her tenure.

What is the leadership style of Ora Hunt?

Ora Hunt is described as someone who likes building diverse and passionate teams, is clear about vision, instills passion and belief into her team, and gives them the freedom to work their magic without micromanaging.

What are the main challenges Ora Hunt sees in traditional industries?

The main challenges Ora Hunt sees in traditional industries are the threats from data-driven organizations, political instability, and the need to create an agile organization and culture to respond to these challenges.

What does Ora Hunt think about the role of HR in creating a sustainable organization?

Ora Hunt believes that HR can play a critical role in creating a sustainable organization by helping to create the climate and conditions that allow individuals to flourish and by aligning the business and people strategy.

What is Ora Hunt's stance on diversity and inclusion in the workplace?

Ora Hunt is a big fan of diversity and inclusion, believing that a diverse group of people will be better representatives of the customers and the workforce, leading to better business decisions.

What advice does Ora Hunt have for people starting out in HR?

Ora Hunt advises those starting out in HR to have a good grounding in all disciplines, build strong relationships across the organization, be willing to give honest feedback to leaders, and believe in the possibilities for the organization and its people.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Career Journey and HR Transformation

Ora Hunt, an experienced HR professional with over 20 years in various sectors, discusses her career trajectory and passion for HR. She started in general management post-university and joined Tesco's graduate scheme, which solidified her love for working with people. Ora believes HR plays a critical role in creating environments where individuals can flourish. She has held senior roles across different countries and has been part of major business turnarounds at RSA and AIB. She emphasizes the importance of having the right leaders and a diverse workforce to drive organizational success.

05:00

🌟 Leadership Challenges and Talent Management

Ora talks about the challenges of leadership in a changing business landscape, particularly the need for agility and diversity. She stresses the importance of creating employment offerings that appeal to different generations and the competition for talent in data-driven roles. Ora believes that traditional leadership mindsets must evolve to foster a more agile organization. She also discusses the role of HR in inspiring leaders and aligning business and people strategies for sustainable success.

10:01

🌈 Embracing Diversity and Future Outlook

In this paragraph, Ora Hunt advocates for diversity and inclusion, arguing that they are essential for better business decisions and organizational flourishing. She supports the use of quotas or targets to drive change and discusses her involvement with the 30% Club to advance diversity. Ora shares her personal career transition from corporate HR roles to exploring independent consulting. She offers advice for aspiring HR professionals, emphasizing the importance of a strong foundation in all HR disciplines, building relationships, and believing in the potential for positive change within organizations.

Keywords

💡HR

HR stands for Human Resources, which is a term used to describe the function within an organization that focuses on the management of its employees. In the context of the video, HR plays a critical role in creating an environment where individuals can flourish within an organization. The speaker has over 20 years of experience in HR across various sectors and emphasizes the importance of HR in transformation and enhancing commercial performance by leveraging human capital.

💡Transformation

Transformation refers to the process of making significant changes to the structure, operations, or culture of an organization. The speaker mainly works with organizations undergoing transformation, helping them to improve their commercial performance by accessing the capabilities of their people. The script mentions two major business turnarounds at RSA and AIB, where the speaker was part of the management team that successfully turned around the business performance.

💡Leadership

Leadership is the act of leading a group of people or an organization. It is highlighted in the script as a key factor in creating the right conditions for individuals to flourish within an organization. The speaker believes that having the right leaders leading in the right way is fundamental to achieving this. An example from the script is the speaker's belief in the importance of working for great bosses who believe in the possibilities for the people in the organization.

💡Diversity

Diversity refers to the variety of different people in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, age, social and cultural backgrounds, etc., within an organization. The speaker is a proponent of diversity and inclusion, arguing that it leads to better business decisions and is part of creating an environment where everyone can be at their best. The script mentions the speaker's involvement with the 30% Club, which aims to increase female representation at leadership levels.

💡Agile Organization

An agile organization is one that is able to quickly and effectively respond to changes in its environment. The script discusses the need for traditional businesses to become more agile in response to challenges from data-driven, new organizations. The speaker suggests that creating an agile culture and leadership is a significant opportunity for traditional businesses.

💡Talent Scout

A talent scout is someone who seeks out and identifies people with special skills or talents. In the script, the speaker uses this term to describe the mindset leaders should have in identifying and securing the best talent for their teams and organizations. The speaker emphasizes the importance of always knowing where the best people with particular skills are and securing them for the organization.

💡Workforce

The workforce refers to the total number of people employed in a company or industry. The script discusses the challenges of managing a diverse workforce, including multiple generations with different needs and expectations. The speaker talks about the need to create employment offerings that appeal to everyone, from millennials entering the workforce to baby boomers looking to work part-time.

💡Optimism

Optimism is a positive attitude or outlook. The speaker describes herself as 'hugely driven' and 'optimistic', always seeing a path through no matter how challenging the situation. This optimism is portrayed as a key trait that helps her inspire people and navigate through difficult times.

💡Capability

Capability refers to the ability to do something successfully or efficiently. In the script, the speaker talks about the importance of accessing the capability of people within an organization. She mentions that when she joins a team, she looks deeply at the individuals to understand their capabilities and how they can contribute to the team's success.

💡Sustainability

Sustainability in a business context refers to the ability to maintain commercial success in the long term without depleting resources or causing negative impacts on society and the environment. The script mentions that the business turnarounds the speaker was part of were done in a way that was sustainable, involving the organization rather than just a financial turnaround.

💡360 Feedback

360 Feedback is a method of collecting performance evaluations from an employee's peers, subordinates, superiors, and sometimes even customers. The speaker mentions having received lots of 360 feedback over the years, which has helped shape her leadership style. She is described as someone who likes building diverse and passionate teams and gives her team the freedom to work their magic.

Highlights

Ora Hunt has over 20 years of HR experience across retail, FMCG, and financial services.

She specializes in helping businesses undergoing significant transformation.

Ora's first year post-university was spent in general management in retail, where she discovered her passion for working with people.

She joined the Tesco graduate management training scheme, which provided a strong foundation for her career.

Ora believes HR plays a critical role in creating conditions for individuals to flourish within organizations.

She emphasizes the importance of having the right leaders leading in the right way.

Ora has been the group HR Director at RSA and the chief people officer at AIB.

She was part of two major business turnarounds at RSA and AIB, both of which were making significant losses when she joined.

At RSA, the business went from stabilizing to organic growth, achieving an average of 8% growth year on year.

Ora is described as someone who likes building diverse and passionate teams.

She is clear about her vision and instills passion and belief into her team, giving them freedom to work their magic.

Ora is driven, optimistic, and believes there's always a way to get things done.

She discusses the challenges traditional industries face from data-driven organizations.

Political instability is a significant challenge for businesses, according to Ora.

A diverse workforce with multiple generations presents an interesting leadership challenge.

Ora believes there will be a competition for talent, especially for data-driven roles.

She thinks leadership climate is crucial for creating an agile organization.

Ora advises HR functions to help create the right climate and inspire leaders to work in that way.

She believes Chief Execs get the HR Director they deserve, emphasizing alignment between business and people strategy.

Ora discusses the importance of accessing all the capability that exists within organizations.

She encourages different work patterns and paces, recognizing the need for flexibility in today's work environment.

Ora is a proponent of diversity and inclusion, believing it leads to better business decisions.

She is considering going out on her own to help a broader range of organizations with change and transformation.

Ora's advice for those starting out in HR includes having a good grounding in all disciplines and building strong relationships.

She emphasizes the importance of believing in possibilities and loving what you do.

Transcripts

[Music]

U my name is Ora hunt and I have over 20

years experience in HR um across retail

fmcg and financial services

organizations um I mainly work with

organizations undergoing significant

transformation where I love to help the

businesses transform their commercial

performance to accessing the capability

of their people

so I spent my first year Post University

in general Management in retail um and

discovered that I loved working with

people and that made me think about

going into personnel and training as was

I joined the Tesco graduate Management

training scheme which was an amazing

Foundation um and I have been lucky

enough to love what I do and progress

through increasingly senior roles and

lots of different sectors helping

organizations to help their people

flourish I have a deeply held belief

that it is possible for individuals to

flourish within organizations and I

think that HR can play a really critical

role in helping to create the climate

and conditions that make that happen um

I think that's fundamentally about

having the right leaders leading in the

right way in the organization and so

that's the kind of work I've sought to

do through um different sectors

I think it's really important to work

for great bosses who believe in the

possibilities for the people in that

organization and I've been lucky enough

to do that in in increasingly senior

roles across a number of countries um I

never had a formal career path I loved

doing what I did so I've maybe looked at

my boss's job and thought that looks

interesting and over time that's evolved

to me being the group HR Director at RSA

and more recently the chief people

officer at aib

so I've been part of two major business

turnarounds both at RSA and at aib uh

when I joined both businesses they were

making significant losses um in RSA it

wasn't clear whether or not the business

would continue it needed you know

radical amounts of capital added uh when

I joined aib it was 99.8% state-owned

and it doesn't get much more state-owned

than that um and I came me as part of

management team with a very clear plan

to turn around that business performance

and we did successfully in both uh cases

in RSA we went from stabilizing the

business to then looking at organic

growth and we managed to grow on average

8% over the the time uh year on year

that I was there so very significant

turnarounds and all done by accessing

the quality of the people that worked

within that organization so it was done

in a way that was sustainable and

involved the organization rather than

merely a financial

turnaround um well I've had the benefit

of lots of 360 over the years the gifts

of feedback so I am generally described

as somebody who likes building diverse

and passionate teams um I am very clear

about a vision and where I want to go

and I see it as my role to instill that

passion and belief into the team that

work for me um and then give them

freedom to work their magic so I'm not

somebody who likes to micromanage the

details I believe that's the gift that

those folks have come in to bring um I'm

hugely driven I'm optimistic I can

always see a path through no matter how

dark the day there's always a way to get

things done um and I hopefully inspire

people um and I'm quite irreverent so we

normally have a laugh along the

way so I think there are lots of uh

business challenges I think think in

traditional Industries there's the

threat coming in from um the datadriven

new organizations that are looking to

kind of eat the lunches of insurance

companies and Banks using data so

something like Airbnb coming from

nowhere to suddenly bigger than the

classic hotel chains um and so there

these group of organizations that are

described as exponential which I think

are big challenges to traditional

sectors and working out how that you can

respond to that and create that more

agile organization and that more agile

culture and Leadership is going to be a

big opportunity for traditional

businesses um I think the level of

political instability is very

significant and how businesses respond

to that and see that as challenges um

and I think having a very diverse

Workforce you're going to have multiple

Generations in the workforce that we

need to appeal to with us all needing to

work longer Unfortunately my dream of

retiring at 50 to the Caribbean is just

a dream

um and so how do we set ourselves up to

have um employment offerings that are

interesting whether you're a millennium

uh kind of millennial entering the

workforce or a baby boomer looking to

maybe work part-time and continue to to

earn for longer so I think that's going

to be a really interesting leadership

challenge for us

all well I think that at the heart there

there going to be a challeng and

capability question that comes up so

we're all going to be competing for the

the folks who are um able to work in

this data driven uh way so analytics is

a talent pool that's very uh shallow and

you know are you going to work for a

traditional bank or for Google so there

are some very significant uh challenges

but I think on a more macro level the

leadership climate that you need to be

able to create where you're trying to

have a more agile organization is a big

challenge if you've grown up up uh maybe

with a different leadership mindset and

that's going to be required whether

you're looking at dealing with um

economic conditions that are changing

very quickly if you're looking at

dealing with multiple um age groups in

the workforce or you're operating in an

exponential world where resources uh are

outside the organization as well as in

whether you're dealing with kind of

crowdsourcing Solutions so that way of

accessing the capability of those that

exist within and outside the

organization is a very different

leadership mindset so I think you know

some really Kick-Ass HR functions that

can help create that climate who can

Inspire leaders to work in that way will

be massively important um to the

organizations that they work in and I

firmly of the belief that you know Chief

execs get the HR Director they

deserve so I think it's about creating a

platform where the business and people

strategy is absolutely aligned um where

the chief exac and leadership team are

active sponsors of the people agenda and

see that creating sustainable cultures

and organizations are a you know are

part of creating sustainable businesses

um they're not something that you want

to do as as two separate pieces so I've

worked for very different characters

over my career but the most enjoyable

times have been when that they we've

been in a partnership with a chief exec

or a head of function and you're

absolutely side by side creating change

and making sure the people um are are

with you so I think that that's the

that's at the root of it

all um I think the there's a challenge

which is making sure that we're

accessing all the capability that exists

within organizations so I think that's

the first role of a leader when you

inherit a team is to truly look deeply

at the individuals within that team and

work at what it is that they can bring

because people may be being boxed into a

a smaller box based on a job title so um

as you arrive into a team understanding

what capability truly exists what magic

you could set free in that team um then

starting to look and think where are the

gaps and where are the people that maybe

aren't doing as good a job as I might

want helping them you know be coached to

be better or move on um and then looking

at where else could I get uh that

capability and having a mindset of a

kind of a talent scout whether that's

within the broader organization or

outside always knowing where where the

best people with particular skills are

and um you know as I said there are

going to be lots of rare skills that

lots of people are competing for so

having that kind of talent mindset

throughout the organization both within

the HR function but much more generally

across the board where leaders see that

as something that they're trying to do

they're trying to get the best talent

for both their team and the broader

organization as a core part of their job

um you know football managers are out

scouting all the time trying to find

great people they're not lying on the

people you know who whose job it is to

look at that solely and I think that's

the kind of mindset you want to have in

your

organization I think it's a no-brainer I

think you know if we're all going to be

working till we're we're 70 we need to

have different patterns and I think

there are different times in our lives

whether that's about you know having

lots of maybe interests in your 20s you

know being knackered and having young

kids in your 30s um and your 40s

potentially looking after aging parents

there you know lots of different points

in our careers when we need to be able

to work in a way that um measures the

output and you know um the bosses I've

worked for have generally been great

about that so I have a young family and

so long as I get everything done they're

less concerned about the areas in which

I'm I'm doing it and the flexibility to

go and do look at sports days and things

is really important and actually that

matters enormously to me so they will

get huge amounts back from me um because

of that flexibility and that's how I

seek to to lead um in in the department

I encourage people to do further

education to pursue their interests

because I know that that means that the

hours are working for me they're going

to be truly energized but as I said

again in a context of a career that's

going to span a much longer period of

time we need to be able to dip in and

out and work um at at different paces

and and different rates so I think

you're dead in the water if that's not

how you

operate this is one of these very thorny

subject um and I know that lots of women

are really anti- quter um but I think in

order to force change we either wait a

100 years um and hope that uh you know

natural selection will sort it out or

you actually have to force it so whether

it's by quotas or targets you know I

think the kind of comply or explain has

actually worked pretty well in in the UK

um my experience in Ireland is the

diversity agenda is much less Advanced

and therefore it's something that um I'm

actively looking at at at moving forward

with the 30% Club here um so yeah I mean

I personally think if you're going to

force change then there needs to be some

level um of uh support for that I think

there's a recent study through the 30%

club that talks about corporate

governance as the most effective way of

doing that rather than full-on uh quota

so again this kind of having to explain

from a governance standpoint but it

stands to reason that in diverse group

of people will be better representatives

of the customers that you're ultimately

serving and the people that work within

your organization so yes I'm a big fan

of diversity inclusion because I think

it comes from the same place about

flourishing it says we actually want

have an organization where everybody can

be at their best and bring all of

themselves to work and if you can create

that kind of climate and make sure that

comes up through the organization then I

think you will end up ultimately making

Better Business decisions and there's

lots of data that supports that

so in terms of my next phase I've been

in big corporate HR roles for the last

20 years um and I'm now experimenting

with um going out on my own um and

looking at how I might help um a broader

range of organizations with the kind of

change and transformation and Leadership

challenges than just working within the

boundaries of one um and the hope is

that that will also help with me having

increasing amount of time with my young

family um but check back in 12 months as

to whether or not that's actually come

to

pass my advice for people starting out

is that um I think it's really important

to have a good grounding in in in all of

the disciplines as you get increasingly

more senior things like reward are

incredibly important which maybe weren't

at the early stages of of my career um

build great relationships ultimately

we're a people business so making sure

that you have strong relationships

across all levels within the

organization and you know what's

actually Landing well and what is just

rhetoric is important um I think part of

that is your role as coach for the

leaders that you support um being

willing to be the one that tells them

when it isn't working being willing to

give them uh the feedback that says

their behaviors weren't brilliant and

being prepared to be the person who

stands um you know as the smelly kid in

the corner um for a period when they're

not that thrilled with that feedback is

pretty important um and I think believe

in the possibilities so I think we have

such an great opportunity in HR to

believe um what is possible for that

organization and the people that work

there so holding on to that optimism and

hope regardless of some of the stuff

that's going on dayto day and plowing um

that sort of future Furrow and making

sure that that's we're aiming for um is

incredibly important and just loving

what you do because it's a lot easier to

come in and work hard when you love what

you

do