- Diane Herbert
The lovely Lauren cajoled me into writing a blog, telling me that it really wasn’t as scary as it seems (umm, not sure of that!)
I am the Human Resources Director for Channel 4, which basically means that I am the boss of the lovely and talented bunch of individuals collectively known as the HR team!
In my job I think about how to get the best out of people to achieve the goals of the organisation. Most organisations nowadays go through a lot of change and sometimes that change can be worrying to people, sometimes they see it as exciting, sometimes they are not sure what that change will mean for them. I try to interpret what the business is doing and translate that into what it means for the people working here or in ‘business speak’ I drive the people dimension of the business strategy. Yes recruitment, payroll and unfortunately, sometimes firing people is part of the job (although not that often thankfully!), but people who do well in HR aren’t just administrators. They have a passion for a business, they are commercially minded but they are also able to think about what implications the commercial decisions will have on the workforce. Companies don’t make big decisions without thinking about finances, so why would they make big decisions without thinking about their people?!
The thing I love about my job is that I get to combine two things I am really interested in – how a business works, and the people who work within it (oh, and we always have a lot of food in the department!).