{"id":211063,"date":"2019-02-28T10:28:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T10:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/letstalktalent.co.uk\/?p=211063"},"modified":"2023-11-29T21:15:02","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T21:15:02","slug":"in-conversation-with-mel-francis-said-business-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/letstalktalent.co.uk\/blog\/in-conversation-with-mel-francis-said-business-school\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Our People: In conversation with Mel Francis, Sa\u0457d Business School, University of Oxford"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Let\u2019s Talk Talent recently partnered with Sa\u0457d Business School<\/a>, University of Oxford to bring a fresh perspective to their HR strategy. Here, Mel Francis<\/a>, HR Director of Sa\u0457d Business School talks to Let\u2019s Talk Talent about her team\u2019s journey so far and building a high-performance organisation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I joined Sa\u00cfd\nBusiness School seven years ago having worked for Vodafone and then Oxford University\nPress. Moving from a commercial environment to an 800-year-old academic\ninstitution was an enormous change! But my professional experience gave me a\nfresh perspective that enabled me to prioritise what I needed to change to\ncreate a high performing team and organisation. We recently reached a point at\nwhich I felt we\u2019d benefit from an external perspective to help us shape our\nfuture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What it\u2019s really like to work at the University of Oxford? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sa\u0457d Business School is only 21\nyears old so we\u2019re like an adolescent in an incredibly mature, complex\ninstitution. I knew I wanted to create a professional HR team, which is now the\nonly one of its type at the University, but there are historical complexities\nand barriers that I\u2019d not faced before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are expectations\nabout the way we work, the way we behave, even the way documents should look.\nMany of the HR processes seemed antiquated to someone arriving from the\ncommercial world. So, when choosing someone to work with on our HR strategy I\nwanted them to have that HRD perspective but also be realistic about the\npractical and tactical changes we need to make. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building a professional HR team<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m proud that we now\nhave such a professional HR function. It hasn\u2019t been easy given the complex\ngovernance structures at the university. However, we\u2019ve built a fantastic team\nof nine HR professionals including three in-house recruiters, four in\noperations and wellbeing and a head of L&D. Together we are responsible for\n460 staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What had to change?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before I had the\nopportunity to grow a high-performing team there was some fire-fighting to be\ndone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n