Richard Bignell, BA, MCIPD, has hit the ground running in his new role as Area Director for West Sussex at ourHRpeople. Based in Haywards Heath, he joins ourHRpeople after working in human resources for 23 years.
Richard started his career working in logistics for GEFCO UK (a wholly owned subsidiary of PSA Peugeot Citroen) as an HR generalist and then moving to specialise in employee relations. He then worked at EDF Energy, American Airlines and Adecco UK, where he was promoted to Head of HR Business Partnering, a fully strategic role, focussing on delivery of the company’s retention and engagement strategy. For the last six years, Richard has worked at ICG Medical, a global healthcare recruitment company across 12 locations worldwide as the Global People Director in charge of HR, L&D and talent acquisition. Richard is proud to have been instrumental in the company’s growth from 160 employees to 850.
Across his career, Richard has built his HR and employee relations skills, working on cases at all levels up to and including serious discrimination cases at employment tribunal. He counts his greatest achievements as ensuring that the bespoke HR service that he provides is based on understanding what success looks like for the specific business he is working with, and building and maintaining lasting relationships with all key stakeholders in order for any HR offering that he provides to be right for the organisation. Richard is hugely proud to have been responsible for defining what success looks like at Office Angels. Through the use of various methods, including the utilisation of psychometric tools, he was able to define what good looked like and identify predictors of success.This enabled Richard to create a hiring model for the business to use when recruiting talent into the business.
Richard lives in Burgess Hill with his wife, dog and cat. In his spare time he plays in a band called Shrapnel, covering music from Bon Jovi, Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers and other soft rock bands.
Richard says, “I have wanted to do this for years and years and finally decided now is the time. With over 23 years of working within commercial HR departments, I truly believe that HR can drive businesses forward but it needs to be commercial and pragmatic in its approach. HR needs to understand the business and its stakeholders and work with them to successfully provide HR solutions to business challenges.”
Stephen Wright, managing director of ourHRpeople says: “I am thrilled that Richard has chosen to work with ourHRpeople. It is testament to the progress the ourHRpeople have made over the early years and the successes our current franchise partners have achieved.”
What we look for in our franchise partners first and foremost is a passionate desire to build their own HR business. They must also be resilient and ambitious, and enjoy the variety of work that will come their way.
Richard also brings with him a diverse business experience and I am confident this will directly benefit our business and that of his client base. I look forward to mentoring Richard and seeing the results of his efforts”
We caught up with Richard to chat about his life in HR and hopes for his future career as an ourHRpeople Area Director.
What area will you cover?
I’ll provide a local HR service to businesses in Haywards Heath, Burgess Hill, Crawley, Gatwick, Horsham in East Sussex, and more widely to businesses across the UK.
What will you specialise in?
My particular focus areas include offering workplace mediation as well as assisting businesses with handling any employee relations matters. I’m also looking forward to advising local businesses with de-risking reorganisations and mergers, their HR fundamentals such as setting up HR departments, policies, procedures, and assisting business growth through coaching and mentoring of both newly qualified and experienced HR professionals. In addition I will be providing business with leadership development enabling them to grow their talent from within.
What do you bring to your clients?
I pride myself on getting to know the businesses and individuals. Aside from experience, I bring a unique approach to HR. I partner with businesses in detail to find out and understand exactly what they want to achieve in the short and longer term. I don’t believe that one size fits all, and always aim to create a bespoke solution. Businesses are unique, so must the solution be too.
What are the hottest current HR issues?
Firstly, the introduction of legislation is constant. Compliance is necessary for businesses of all sizes and staying on the right side of the law and up to date, especially with this year’s extensive changes will be a challenge. Secondly, finding the right people is so important, especially for small businesses. They need to recruit teams that have the right mindset and attitude to move the business forward, but also offer the type of reward packages and incentives to attract those in demand..
What made you consider an HR franchise?
I’ve always wanted to set up my own HR business. Having the 24/7 support of Steve and the team alongside, together with the freedom to build my own business, is a perfect hybrid solution.
What appeals to you about ourHRpeople?
I looked at a number of franchises and some were effectively an outsourced HR solution. They were far more prescriptive, which would work for some people, but didn’t give me the freedom to give the advice I knew would be right. ourHRpeople gives a greater degree of flexibility and enables me to give greater service.
What do you hope to achieve?
I want to grow the business, but always provide a personal service. I am aiming to earn at least what I was as an HR director and beyond by building a strong client base and eventually a wider team.
What are the most important lessons you’ve learned in your career?
To be flexible in my approach. I’ve learned that going in with a textbook of CIPD answers doesn’t work without understanding the business and applying a commercial and bespoke solution. A great HR consultant needs to know what business leaders want, understand the risks, and help them do what they want in the best and safest way possible. Most important is building lasting relationships that allow both parties to be successful.
Why is good HR essential to all businesses?
An effective HR strategy is the foundation for business; it focuses the activities relating to the skills required to grow, attract and retain key employees, employee development ROI and employment policy design. It also ensures the day to day decisions managers make minimise the risks of a dispute or legal claim.
What are your top tips for employee engagement and retention?
It’s well proven that money isn’t the best motivator on its own. People want to be treated with respect, know their place and how they can grow. People want clear, open and honest communication and opportunities to succeed.
If you didn’t work in HR, what career would you have?
I’d be a rockstar!
Steve says: “Richard is part way through our comprehensive 1-2-1 onboarding process, and he is already putting into practice our proven methodologies – and reaping the benefits. With access to our HR document library, training course library, consulting tools, proven HR packages and marketing collateral, he is off to a flying start.”
ourHRpeople is here to assist Richard to find his clients (those who will be with him for the long-term), learn how to manage them and how to maximise chargeable time. We have been able to provide each of our franchise partners with their first client and Richard is no exception. There is 1-2-1 director level support and personal development from a team who has successfully built several HR consultancies.
If Richard’s story has inspired you and you would like to find out more, email Steve Wright, Managing Director at steve@ourhrpeople.co.uk for a no obligation chat.
You can also contact Richard at richard@ourhrpeople.co.uk.
If you require any further support with this topic, please email or call one of our team. We partner with many businesses of all sizes and global locations to support their business growth, be it through pragmatic legal advice, reorganisations, reducing ET risk when faced with common employment issues, executive coaching, team and leadership development, robust contracts, HR policies and procedures, payroll or health & safety. We also partner with a wide range of complimentary business Solution Providers.
