September 21, 2025 • 21 mins
In this episode of the HRchat Podcast, Bill Banham is joined by Craig Saxby, HR Solutions Director at Morson Talent.
Craig is a recruitment leader passionate about building high-performing teams and helping HR leaders navigate complex people and talent challenges. At Morson, he partners with Chief People Officers, HR Directors, and Talent Leaders to design and deliver strategic solutions—spanning RPO, outsourced HR, screening and vetting, and Morson Training.
The conversation covers:
- Craig’s career journey and what drives his passion for developing high-performing HR and talent functions
- The biggest challenges HR Directors and Chief People Officers are facing right now
- How Morson supports organisations through services like RPO, outsourced HR, and workforce training
- The significance of Morson Group’s appointment to the Procurement Services HR Support Services Framework (Y25006), which makes it easier for public sector organisations to access expert HR solutions
- Why Morson is hosting the next edition of Disrupt Manchester on September 24th and what excites Craig about the event series
- The future of HR and recruitment, including opportunities for innovation around AI, automation, and addressing skills shortages
You’ll also hear about Morson’s role in supporting local business community events and Craig’s practical advice for HR leaders tasked with doing more with less in today’s climate.
Listen in to get insights on evolving HR and talent solutions—and discover how Morson Talent is helping organisations improve people and performance.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's
most downloaded and sharedpodcasts designed for HR pros,
talent execs, tech enthusiastsand business leaders.
For hundreds more episodes andwhat's new in the world of work,
subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
HRGazettecom and visithrgazettecom.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show.
Hello listeners, this is yourhost today, bill Bannam, and in
this episode I'm joined by CraigSaxby, hr Solutions Director
over at Mawson Talent.
Craig is a recruitment leaderpassionate about building
high-performing teams andhelping HR leaders navigate
complex people and talentchallenges.
(00:47):
At Mawson, craig partners withchief people officers, hr
directors and talent leaders todesign and deliver strategic
solutions spanning RPO,outsourced HR, screening and
vetting and, of course, mawsontraining.
Mawson Group has just beenappointed to the Procurement
Services HR Support ServicesFramework, which we're going to
(01:08):
go into later on giving publicsector organisations easier
access to expert HR solutions.
And on September 24th 2025,mawson, thank you very much
Mawson will be hosting the nextedition of Disrupt Manchester,
bringing together HR and talentprofessionals to share bold
ideas about the future of work.
(01:29):
Hey, craig, how are you doing?
Welcome to the show today.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Hi, bill, great thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
This episode today is to get to know Craig, get to
know a bit about Mawson and also, frankly, as a bit of a thank
you to Mawson, for being ourvery, very kind and gracious
hosts of the next DisruptManchester coming up as we
record this in about a month'stime.
So, craig, let's begin by youtelling us a bit about your
career journey and what broughtyou into your current role as HR
(01:57):
Solutions Director over atMawson Talent.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Thanks, bill.
Yeah, as Bill's kindly said, I,I'm Craig Saxby work for Mawson
, who are one of the kind ofleading technical recruitment
businesses in the UK with aglobal presence.
My career actually didn't startin recruitment.
It started leaving university.
I joined Marks and Spencer's ontheir graduate scheme, excited
(02:21):
to get into work and kind of putmyself into the world of work.
About three years in that roleworked in a variety of different
kind of positions in retailmanagement across different
stores and M&S and one day Ithought I really want to push
myself to do something differentand get out of retail.
So I spent the next three yearsworking as a HR recruiter.
(02:42):
It played quite well to myknowledge of having retail
management dealing with peopleissues.
Getting into the world ofrecruitment, and HR specifically
, always interested me.
So I worked for a couple ofbusinesses a large, more
corporate recruiter, and asmaller, more boutique agency to
really hone my skills aroundthat HR and talent space.
To really kind of hone myskills around that HR and talent
(03:03):
space.
Just over seven years ago Ijoined Mawson and that was to
really spear the growth of theirHR and professional services
division, which I've done.
I've had numerous differentroles here over the last seven
years.
It's been great to see thatkind of growth and the
investment in that from Mawsonand around.
(03:28):
About 12 months ago I steppedinto my current role, which is
HR Solutions Director, which hasgot more of a focus now on
understanding the challengesacross the HR and talent
landscape and really translatingthat into easy-to-embed
solutions that our clients caninvest into.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Obviously.
For many, many, many yearssince way before I went grey,
I've been in the publishingworld publishing and events.
Okay, I cut my teeth at a bigpublishing house in West London
and then after that I went tosmaller companies you mentioned
for your career experience.
You were a big company and thenyou went to a more boutique
agency style organization.
(04:05):
How has that helped you in yourcurrent role now?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, I feel personally Mawson's somewhere in
the middle of that.
Even though we're a big company, given we've been family owned
for the whole of our time hereat Mawson it still feels like
we're an SME.
We're quite, very agile, we'revery adaptive to the market.
As I say, working for a bigcorporate is great.
You get to understand thepractices and you get to
understand what it's like towork in those large, complex
(04:33):
businesses.
It had some great things aboutit and some things that weren't
so great, but at the same time,flipping that into the boutique
world, that was very differentand I think think that middle
ground, the structure and thesupport around you, is great.
I think Mawson have given me areally good platform to be able
to stretch my legs now and kickon in my career, which I didn't
really see in those othercompanies, to be honest very
(04:55):
good.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I would support those sentiments.
So you've said that you'repassionate about building
high-performing teams, craig.
In your, in your view, what arethe key ingredients that
consistently separatehigh-performing HR and talent
functions from the rest?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, good question, bill.
I wouldn't say there's a singleingredient to building
high-performing teams, but I dothink there's a couple of kind
of common factors, common themesthat would certainly help.
I've broken them down a littlebit.
I was having a bit of a thinkof this before.
And number one I'd say HR teamsneed to have a deep alignment
with the business strategy.
Hr teams can't work inisolation.
They need to have a seat at theleadership table and ensure
(05:33):
that people's strategy actuallymirrors the business objectives
that talent plans are also builtaround where the organization
is heading, linked to growth ortransformation or digitalization
as well.
It's really important that thetwo are aligned and that HR
strategy meets with businessstrategy.
That's the first point.
(05:53):
I also think that highperforming HR teams always
utilize data really well.
It's data-driven decisionmaking.
The use of analytics andreporting in HR has been around
for some time, but the highperforming teams really do get a
good grasp of that and reallyuse it to their advantage.
They use their data to identifyskills gap and measure return
(06:13):
investment and drive talentinitiatives forward.
So I think businesses and HRteams using data really well
certainly put them top of thepile, I think.
The third point on that one Bill, is they also work really,
really hard to create anexceptional employee experience
and they really kind of put thatat the heart of what they do.
They focus on the entireemployee lifecycle, from cradle
(06:35):
to grave, and they have aflexible approach to things like
career pathways and hybridworking and all things like that
.
Those businesses that aren'tfixed and allow that flexibility
tend to have the highperforming teams around them.
So those three points reallywhat I'd say from what I see, um
, high performing teams havethose kind of common, common
threads running through them ohwell, now then you've, you've.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
you've piqued my interest there, my journalistic
interest, when you're talkingabout the importance of hybrid
teams and whatnot.
Again, just a quick follow-upquestion what's your take on all
of these companies that areinsisting that people come back
to the office for five days aweek?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, look, I get it.
We're actually seeing, probablyin some sectors, an increase in
businesses returning back tofive days in the office.
Personally, am I a fan of it?
I don't think so, unlessthere's a business critical need
to have people in the officefive days a week.
I don't see why businesses needto kind of force.
That I totally get if you'refood manufacturing and you need
(07:33):
people in the factories to makefood, totally get it.
But in an environment wherethere is no reason why staff
shouldn't be allowed to workmore flexibly, that one seems a
little bit strange in my opinion.
I know it's a big divide, thekind of if you do, if you don't,
but I think to get the best outof people and certainly,
certainly when we're speaking tocandidates and what's important
to them, hybrid working and thetrust, the flexibility that
(07:54):
goes with that is really, reallyimportant for a lot of
candidates right now.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I totally agree.
I just add to that as well Ithink there's a place still for
fully remote workers if it meansthat your talent pool is bigger
, you know, if it means that acompany can find talent that
they just couldn't sourcelocally.
But this isn't an interviewwith me, it's an interview with
you.
So let's let's continue throughboston works, closely, of
(08:24):
course, with hr directors andchief people officers.
Well, what are some of thebiggest talent and people
challenges that you're hearingfrom senior leaders at the
moment?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
perhaps some of those are to be bringing people back
to the office full-time yeah,absolutely one of the points
maybe around that bill, to befair, but I think there's again
some common themes.
Speaking to these c-suiteexecutives across hr, this seems
seems to be at the moment a big, big focus on on skills gaps,
um linking that into recruitmentand retention um lots of
(08:51):
industries that more support andwork really closely um are
really finding it tough toattract and retain um people
with stem skills.
That seems to be a big, bigfocus right now across the UK,
linking that into their EVP,which has been under scrutiny
for many businesses.
Candidates want more than justpay.
They want the whole package,the career development, the
(09:13):
flexibility, the purpose, thevalues.
All that's really importantright now.
And if you're to attract andretain the best talent, your EVP
needs to be world-class to kindof put you in the spotlight
there.
So I'd say that certainly as astarting point.
That's number one.
I think number two leadershipand culture is a big, big topic
in the world of HR right now.
(09:33):
I think leaders are underpressure to manage hybrid and
remote teams more effectively.
It's still relatively new forsome businesses and I think
there's a need to adaptleadership styles to be more
inclusive of that um, empatheticleadership styles, all those
kind of things really needed todrive that and reduce retention
people kind of wanting to leavethe business.
(09:56):
And then a third one really um,it's been around for a long time
but still super important onthe agenda for HR people is ED&I
.
I think there's a pressure inthe UK right now to go much
further, beyond the box-tickingexercise that ED&I sometimes has
been accustomed to be, andreally embedding true ED&I
(10:17):
values into the business.
That stems from the top down.
It's got to be driven by yourleadership and it's got to be
lived and breathed across theorganization.
We're doing a lot of worklooking at things like
neurodiversity and how to accesstalent in different pools, and
I think businesses have reallygot to put a focus on what else
can they be doing in thererather than just the basics.
(10:37):
When it comes to ED&I, I thinkit's really important for the
future and the future of work,but that's still high on the
agenda for most businesses.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I am agreeing with far too much of what you're
saying, um, but good answers,okay.
Uh, let's talk about solutions.
Let's give morrison a bit oflove here.
But I'm going to challenge youbecause I feel like you've
touched upon it in previousanswers.
So in two minutes or less, mrsaxby, can you give us an
overview of the different hr andtalent services that watson
provides, from rpo andoutsourced hr to vetting,
(11:08):
screening and training go?
Speaker 3 (11:11):
this is where the countdown conundrum starts.
There's time ticking away inthe background, but here goes
two minutes.
So number one rpo, um.
Rpo has had a bad rep over theyears for being outsourcing
everything, and the modern rOisn't that.
So we do a lot of project-basedRPO work where we support
clients with hiring demand andspikes in activity.
(11:32):
We do a lot of stuff aroundtalent implant services where
we're supporting customers whoare going through a period of
change.
So our RPO services cover awhole range of areas really and
a whole range of sectors,ranging from startup businesses
through to very large globalcorporates.
So that's our RPO businessOutsourced HR.
We deliver project-based HRsolutions essentially to our
(11:54):
customers.
Examples of that really rangefrom supporting businesses with
employee relations caseworkthrough to OD and change
projects and even projects likecheaper transfer.
We've been doing some of thoserecently too.
For our customers we act as anextension of the HR team and
take away a lot of the risk fromhiring contracts in interims.
Third point screen and betting.
(12:14):
We work with clients to carryout their right to work and
background checks.
We deliver a full suite ofchecks across their business,
ranging from kind of entry-levelright to work through to full
SE clearance, both in the UK andinternationally.
And the last one, last but notleast, is Mawson Training.
Our training business supportsclients across the whole L&D
spectrum.
Clients come to us withspecific training requirements,
(12:37):
but we also run full outsourcedmanaged service provider
platforms as well, where we takeon all the the risk and the
compliance that's linked totraining okay, I reckon, at
least 15 seconds to spare there.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Good work, sir, good work.
Um so, ahead of thisconversation today, I was doing
my homework by cleverly typingin craig, saxby, morson and
other such terms and a blog fromthe Mawson site came up and
apparently the Mawson group wasrecently approved on the
(13:10):
procurement services, hr supportservices framework and I think
there's a lovely quote from youas part of that, that blog post.
But what does this mean for thepublic sector organizations and
why is it significant?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, it means that public sector organisations can
now work with businesses likeMawson to get a whole range of
support from a HR perspective.
I mean it's broken down intolots Is this procurement
framework, which covers HRadministration and payroll
services, hr advisory services,which is employee relations and
business partnering.
It covers employee screeningand it also covers our early
(13:46):
careers, consultancy and reward.
So out of those five lots,mawson scored the highest in the
tender four out of the fivewhich means businesses can now
directly work with us withoutgoing through procurement to
tender for those services.
So it's a quick and easy way toaccess those services.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
It also means that we are a fully approved and better
than screen and compliantservice provider in those areas.
Okay, okay, you are bossingthese succinct answers.
So regular listeners of thisshow will know that for quite
some time I've been involvedwith a whole bunch of the
Disrupt HR chapters, includingToronto, buffalo, london and
others.
As of last year, I am a proudco-organizer of Disrupt
(14:29):
Manchester and it's happening aswe record this, in about a
month it's on September 24thBecause of you, craig, I want to
offer a personal thank you toyou.
Mawson will be hosting thisedition.
Thank you very much.
Uh the the event itself, we'vegot a pretty stellar lineup.
I'm pretty proud of this one.
It's looking pretty good.
So, for example, we've got uhmark lawrence he was recently on
(14:51):
the show.
He's from uh deloitte.
We've got jennifer cunningham,who's the vice president, global
talent acquisition over atpearson.
Uh rob woolen, chief operatingofficer at dsg finance.
Uh melissa Melissa Hewitt, whoworks with you.
She's Head of HR Outsource andSecurity Screening over at
Mawson Group.
Ian Nelson, a mutual friend ofours I'm actually catching up
(15:14):
with him later on today Ira Watt, senior Manager at Fidelity
International.
And Gemma Hood, who's CEO andfounder of Culture Hood.
And that's just a few of ourspeakers at this next event.
There's a question behind allof this.
Why did you and why did Mawsonchoose to get involved with
Disrupt and thank you again, andwhat excites you about this
(15:37):
particular event series?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, thanks, bill, and we are really looking
forward to this.
It's our first time partneringwith yourself and Disrupt and so
far I've really been impressedwith everything we've kind of
discussed and gone through.
It's not long September 24.
So yeah, it's just over a monthaway, and most of them
typically run a few HR eventsourselves across the calendar
year, and partnering withDisrupt allows us to reach a
(16:03):
different and new audience,allows us to build new
relationships and, like I say,there's a list of excellent
speakers there who are going tobe on the night talking through
some of the challenges they'refacing as a business and how to
overcome those challenges.
So for us this is about kind ofgoing out there letting people
know who we are and what we do,but also building new
relationships and really drivingthat community in Manchester
(16:24):
forward further.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Excellent.
Well, I've managed to wangle itthat the HR Tech Conference in
Vegas does not get in the way.
I'm going to be there.
I'll be up on stage co-hostingwith Craig and with the awesome
Steve Folger, so I'm very muchlooking forward to that.
Mawson will also be supportinga meetup a Disrupt meetup in
Manchester later this year.
Why is it important to supportlocal business community events
in addition to these largersummits?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah look, mawson Head Office has been in
Manchester since we were firstkind of concepted as a business
and it's been really importantfor us to provide services and
support to local areas.
So Manchester is reallyimportant to us and we want to
make sure we're constantlydriving events and providing
support to local businesses andcandidates in that area.
So for us it's a no-brainerbill.
We want to be recognized asleading the way across
(17:14):
Manchester in the HR space andbuilding those relationships up.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
We are flying through these questions today, craig.
Just a few more for you the.
The HR recruitment world is, ofcourse, evolving pretty rapidly
at the moment, particularlybecause of this little thing
called artificial intelligenceand automation, and the skill
shortages too.
Where do you see the biggestopportunities for innovation in
talent solutions at the moment?
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yeah, good question again, bill, and something we've
thought about a lot as abusiness.
We're in a partnership withPalantir right now, who are a
global leader in AI, and they'rehelping us understand how we
can improve as a business andhow we can drive efficiencies
and change utilizing AI.
So it's very, very topical forlots of companies, I think.
Bringing that back into the HRlandscape, I think there's a few
(18:01):
areas where we're going tocontinue to see lots of
automation, lots of usage of AI.
Number one it's definitely anad-san acquisition.
I think ATS systems and HRsystems are advancing, use of
chatbots are becoming a lot morecommon and popular and also, I
think talent sourcing andmatching services within kind of
(18:22):
internal teams is going to beutilizing AI a lot more, working
in partnership with us.
I think the ability to worktogether with businesses and
partner using AI is going to bereally powerful.
I think the second one is moreskills-based workforce planning,
shifting from job titles toskills taxonomies.
I think that's really, reallygoing to be an interesting one.
(18:44):
We've seen lots of clients nowstarting to look at mapping out
what skill sets are going toexist in the future, not just at
the moment, and they're workingtowards a workforce plan that's
going to allow them to hit thatin the next three years, five
years, 10 years, because a lotof those skills and a lot of the
job titles that they need inthe future probably aren't there
right now.
So that's an interesting oneand I'm sure we can talk a lot
(19:06):
longer around that.
But businesses are having tokind of shift what that looks
like for them to close theskills gaps and utilize some of
these new skills that are comingthrough.
I think another one is theautomation of admin and
compliance.
Hr teams are going to see ahuge drive on that.
Things like right-to-workchecks, things around onboarding
(19:26):
paperwork those things willcertainly be impacted around use
of AI and automation, and thatfrees up the HR team then to
focus on the more strategicchallenges around engagement,
around org design and changemanagement as well.
So I think that's going to be agood thing for the HR
communities that we speak with.
They're going to have more timeto really put into the real
(19:46):
value adds as well as the thebasics around administration and
compliance, which, of course,is super important.
But at the same time, one ofthe big things we get is
businesses get too bogged downwith the admin and compliance
and can't focus on the futurestrategic initiatives they want
to drive okay, so it sounds likethe future is bright and
exciting, although I'm a littlebit concerned at the moment.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I recently uh read parts of the ai 2027 report by
is it the ai futures project?
Uh, that that freaked me out alittle bit.
Um, so, regular listeners ofthis show, if you haven't
checked that out yet, uh, youmay or may not want to,
depending on uh, uh, how, howstrong your heart is.
Um, just finally for today,craig, how can our listeners
(20:29):
connect with you?
So is that linkedin I betyou're super cool and all over
the instagrams and tiktoks andplaces.
And, of course, how can theylearn more about morse and
talent?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
yeah, absolutely look .
I'm visible on linkedin, spenda good amount of time on their
networking, but also posting andsharing content.
I think it's really interestingfor the hr communities that we
serve to, so you can definitelyfind me on LinkedIn.
I love to connect with kind ofnew people across the HR and
talent space.
I'm super happy to tell peoplemore about Mawson and the
different services we offer.
They can get my email addressfrom my LinkedIn as well and
(21:01):
happy to speak to people.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Rock and roll.
Well, that just leaves me tosay for today.
I'm sure we'll get you back onagain in the future, but for
today, thank you very much forbeing my guest on this episode
of the hr chat show craig thanks, it's been a pleasure.
Thanks, bill and listeners asalways.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Until next time, happy working thanks for
listening to the hr chat show.
If you enjoyed this episode,why not subscribe and listen to
some of the hundreds of episodespublished by HR Gazette and
remember for what's new in theworld of work?
Subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
(21:39):
HRGazettecom.
Welcome to the HR Chat Show, one of the world's
most downloaded and sharedpodcasts designed for HR pros,
talent execs, tech enthusiastsand business leaders.
For hundreds more episodes andwhat's new in the world of work,
subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
HRGazettecom and visithrgazettecom.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to another episode of the HR Chat Show.
Hello listeners, this is yourhost today, bill Bannam, and in
this episode I'm joined by CraigSaxby, hr Solutions Director
over at Mawson Talent.
Craig is a recruitment leaderpassionate about building
high-performing teams andhelping HR leaders navigate
complex people and talentchallenges.
(00:47):
At Mawson, craig partners withchief people officers, hr
directors and talent leaders todesign and deliver strategic
solutions spanning RPO,outsourced HR, screening and
vetting and, of course, mawsontraining.
Mawson Group has just beenappointed to the Procurement
Services HR Support ServicesFramework, which we're going to
(01:08):
go into later on giving publicsector organisations easier
access to expert HR solutions.
And on September 24th 2025,mawson, thank you very much
Mawson will be hosting the nextedition of Disrupt Manchester,
bringing together HR and talentprofessionals to share bold
ideas about the future of work.
(01:29):
Hey, craig, how are you doing?
Welcome to the show today.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Hi, bill, great thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
This episode today is to get to know Craig, get to
know a bit about Mawson and also, frankly, as a bit of a thank
you to Mawson, for being ourvery, very kind and gracious
hosts of the next DisruptManchester coming up as we
record this in about a month'stime.
So, craig, let's begin by youtelling us a bit about your
career journey and what broughtyou into your current role as HR
(01:57):
Solutions Director over atMawson Talent.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Thanks, bill.
Yeah, as Bill's kindly said, I,I'm Craig Saxby work for Mawson
, who are one of the kind ofleading technical recruitment
businesses in the UK with aglobal presence.
My career actually didn't startin recruitment.
It started leaving university.
I joined Marks and Spencer's ontheir graduate scheme, excited
(02:21):
to get into work and kind of putmyself into the world of work.
About three years in that roleworked in a variety of different
kind of positions in retailmanagement across different
stores and M&S and one day Ithought I really want to push
myself to do something differentand get out of retail.
So I spent the next three yearsworking as a HR recruiter.
(02:42):
It played quite well to myknowledge of having retail
management dealing with peopleissues.
Getting into the world ofrecruitment, and HR specifically
, always interested me.
So I worked for a couple ofbusinesses a large, more
corporate recruiter, and asmaller, more boutique agency to
really hone my skills aroundthat HR and talent space.
To really kind of hone myskills around that HR and talent
(03:03):
space.
Just over seven years ago Ijoined Mawson and that was to
really spear the growth of theirHR and professional services
division, which I've done.
I've had numerous differentroles here over the last seven
years.
It's been great to see thatkind of growth and the
investment in that from Mawsonand around.
(03:28):
About 12 months ago I steppedinto my current role, which is
HR Solutions Director, which hasgot more of a focus now on
understanding the challengesacross the HR and talent
landscape and really translatingthat into easy-to-embed
solutions that our clients caninvest into.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Obviously.
For many, many, many yearssince way before I went grey,
I've been in the publishingworld publishing and events.
Okay, I cut my teeth at a bigpublishing house in West London
and then after that I went tosmaller companies you mentioned
for your career experience.
You were a big company and thenyou went to a more boutique
agency style organization.
(04:05):
How has that helped you in yourcurrent role now?
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, I feel personally Mawson's somewhere in
the middle of that.
Even though we're a big company, given we've been family owned
for the whole of our time hereat Mawson it still feels like
we're an SME.
We're quite, very agile, we'revery adaptive to the market.
As I say, working for a bigcorporate is great.
You get to understand thepractices and you get to
understand what it's like towork in those large, complex
(04:33):
businesses.
It had some great things aboutit and some things that weren't
so great, but at the same time,flipping that into the boutique
world, that was very differentand I think think that middle
ground, the structure and thesupport around you, is great.
I think Mawson have given me areally good platform to be able
to stretch my legs now and kickon in my career, which I didn't
really see in those othercompanies, to be honest very
(04:55):
good.
Speaker 2 (04:55):
I would support those sentiments.
So you've said that you'repassionate about building
high-performing teams, craig.
In your, in your view, what arethe key ingredients that
consistently separatehigh-performing HR and talent
functions from the rest?
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, good question, bill.
I wouldn't say there's a singleingredient to building
high-performing teams, but I dothink there's a couple of kind
of common factors, common themesthat would certainly help.
I've broken them down a littlebit.
I was having a bit of a thinkof this before.
And number one I'd say HR teamsneed to have a deep alignment
with the business strategy.
Hr teams can't work inisolation.
They need to have a seat at theleadership table and ensure
(05:33):
that people's strategy actuallymirrors the business objectives
that talent plans are also builtaround where the organization
is heading, linked to growth ortransformation or digitalization
as well.
It's really important that thetwo are aligned and that HR
strategy meets with businessstrategy.
That's the first point.
(05:53):
I also think that highperforming HR teams always
utilize data really well.
It's data-driven decisionmaking.
The use of analytics andreporting in HR has been around
for some time, but the highperforming teams really do get a
good grasp of that and reallyuse it to their advantage.
They use their data to identifyskills gap and measure return
(06:13):
investment and drive talentinitiatives forward.
So I think businesses and HRteams using data really well
certainly put them top of thepile, I think.
The third point on that one Bill, is they also work really,
really hard to create anexceptional employee experience
and they really kind of put thatat the heart of what they do.
They focus on the entireemployee lifecycle, from cradle
(06:35):
to grave, and they have aflexible approach to things like
career pathways and hybridworking and all things like that
.
Those businesses that aren'tfixed and allow that flexibility
tend to have the highperforming teams around them.
So those three points reallywhat I'd say from what I see, um
, high performing teams havethose kind of common, common
threads running through them ohwell, now then you've, you've.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
you've piqued my interest there, my journalistic
interest, when you're talkingabout the importance of hybrid
teams and whatnot.
Again, just a quick follow-upquestion what's your take on all
of these companies that areinsisting that people come back
to the office for five days aweek?
Speaker 3 (07:12):
Yeah, look, I get it.
We're actually seeing, probablyin some sectors, an increase in
businesses returning back tofive days in the office.
Personally, am I a fan of it?
I don't think so, unlessthere's a business critical need
to have people in the officefive days a week.
I don't see why businesses needto kind of force.
That I totally get if you'refood manufacturing and you need
(07:33):
people in the factories to makefood, totally get it.
But in an environment wherethere is no reason why staff
shouldn't be allowed to workmore flexibly, that one seems a
little bit strange in my opinion.
I know it's a big divide, thekind of if you do, if you don't,
but I think to get the best outof people and certainly,
certainly when we're speaking tocandidates and what's important
to them, hybrid working and thetrust, the flexibility that
(07:54):
goes with that is really, reallyimportant for a lot of
candidates right now.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
I totally agree.
I just add to that as well Ithink there's a place still for
fully remote workers if it meansthat your talent pool is bigger
, you know, if it means that acompany can find talent that
they just couldn't sourcelocally.
But this isn't an interviewwith me, it's an interview with
you.
So let's let's continue throughboston works, closely, of
(08:24):
course, with hr directors andchief people officers.
Well, what are some of thebiggest talent and people
challenges that you're hearingfrom senior leaders at the
moment?
Speaker 3 (08:28):
perhaps some of those are to be bringing people back
to the office full-time yeah,absolutely one of the points
maybe around that bill, to befair, but I think there's again
some common themes.
Speaking to these c-suiteexecutives across hr, this seems
seems to be at the moment a big, big focus on on skills gaps,
um linking that into recruitmentand retention um lots of
(08:51):
industries that more support andwork really closely um are
really finding it tough toattract and retain um people
with stem skills.
That seems to be a big, bigfocus right now across the UK,
linking that into their EVP,which has been under scrutiny
for many businesses.
Candidates want more than justpay.
They want the whole package,the career development, the
(09:13):
flexibility, the purpose, thevalues.
All that's really importantright now.
And if you're to attract andretain the best talent, your EVP
needs to be world-class to kindof put you in the spotlight
there.
So I'd say that certainly as astarting point.
That's number one.
I think number two leadershipand culture is a big, big topic
in the world of HR right now.
(09:33):
I think leaders are underpressure to manage hybrid and
remote teams more effectively.
It's still relatively new forsome businesses and I think
there's a need to adaptleadership styles to be more
inclusive of that um, empatheticleadership styles, all those
kind of things really needed todrive that and reduce retention
people kind of wanting to leavethe business.
(09:56):
And then a third one really um,it's been around for a long time
but still super important onthe agenda for HR people is ED&I
.
I think there's a pressure inthe UK right now to go much
further, beyond the box-tickingexercise that ED&I sometimes has
been accustomed to be, andreally embedding true ED&I
(10:17):
values into the business.
That stems from the top down.
It's got to be driven by yourleadership and it's got to be
lived and breathed across theorganization.
We're doing a lot of worklooking at things like
neurodiversity and how to accesstalent in different pools, and
I think businesses have reallygot to put a focus on what else
can they be doing in thererather than just the basics.
(10:37):
When it comes to ED&I, I thinkit's really important for the
future and the future of work,but that's still high on the
agenda for most businesses.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
I am agreeing with far too much of what you're
saying, um, but good answers,okay.
Uh, let's talk about solutions.
Let's give morrison a bit oflove here.
But I'm going to challenge youbecause I feel like you've
touched upon it in previousanswers.
So in two minutes or less, mrsaxby, can you give us an
overview of the different hr andtalent services that watson
provides, from rpo andoutsourced hr to vetting,
(11:08):
screening and training go?
Speaker 3 (11:11):
this is where the countdown conundrum starts.
There's time ticking away inthe background, but here goes
two minutes.
So number one rpo, um.
Rpo has had a bad rep over theyears for being outsourcing
everything, and the modern rOisn't that.
So we do a lot of project-basedRPO work where we support
clients with hiring demand andspikes in activity.
(11:32):
We do a lot of stuff aroundtalent implant services where
we're supporting customers whoare going through a period of
change.
So our RPO services cover awhole range of areas really and
a whole range of sectors,ranging from startup businesses
through to very large globalcorporates.
So that's our RPO businessOutsourced HR.
We deliver project-based HRsolutions essentially to our
(11:54):
customers.
Examples of that really rangefrom supporting businesses with
employee relations caseworkthrough to OD and change
projects and even projects likecheaper transfer.
We've been doing some of thoserecently too.
For our customers we act as anextension of the HR team and
take away a lot of the risk fromhiring contracts in interims.
Third point screen and betting.
(12:14):
We work with clients to carryout their right to work and
background checks.
We deliver a full suite ofchecks across their business,
ranging from kind of entry-levelright to work through to full
SE clearance, both in the UK andinternationally.
And the last one, last but notleast, is Mawson Training.
Our training business supportsclients across the whole L&D
spectrum.
Clients come to us withspecific training requirements,
(12:37):
but we also run full outsourcedmanaged service provider
platforms as well, where we takeon all the the risk and the
compliance that's linked totraining okay, I reckon, at
least 15 seconds to spare there.
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Good work, sir, good work.
Um so, ahead of thisconversation today, I was doing
my homework by cleverly typingin craig, saxby, morson and
other such terms and a blog fromthe Mawson site came up and
apparently the Mawson group wasrecently approved on the
(13:10):
procurement services, hr supportservices framework and I think
there's a lovely quote from youas part of that, that blog post.
But what does this mean for thepublic sector organizations and
why is it significant?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
Yeah, it means that public sector organisations can
now work with businesses likeMawson to get a whole range of
support from a HR perspective.
I mean it's broken down intolots Is this procurement
framework, which covers HRadministration and payroll
services, hr advisory services,which is employee relations and
business partnering.
It covers employee screeningand it also covers our early
(13:46):
careers, consultancy and reward.
So out of those five lots,mawson scored the highest in the
tender four out of the fivewhich means businesses can now
directly work with us withoutgoing through procurement to
tender for those services.
So it's a quick and easy way toaccess those services.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
It also means that we are a fully approved and better
than screen and compliantservice provider in those areas.
Okay, okay, you are bossingthese succinct answers.
So regular listeners of thisshow will know that for quite
some time I've been involvedwith a whole bunch of the
Disrupt HR chapters, includingToronto, buffalo, london and
others.
As of last year, I am a proudco-organizer of Disrupt
(14:29):
Manchester and it's happening aswe record this, in about a
month it's on September 24thBecause of you, craig, I want to
offer a personal thank you toyou.
Mawson will be hosting thisedition.
Thank you very much.
Uh the the event itself, we'vegot a pretty stellar lineup.
I'm pretty proud of this one.
It's looking pretty good.
So, for example, we've got uhmark lawrence he was recently on
(14:51):
the show.
He's from uh deloitte.
We've got jennifer cunningham,who's the vice president, global
talent acquisition over atpearson.
Uh rob woolen, chief operatingofficer at dsg finance.
Uh melissa Melissa Hewitt, whoworks with you.
She's Head of HR Outsource andSecurity Screening over at
Mawson Group.
Ian Nelson, a mutual friend ofours I'm actually catching up
(15:14):
with him later on today Ira Watt, senior Manager at Fidelity
International.
And Gemma Hood, who's CEO andfounder of Culture Hood.
And that's just a few of ourspeakers at this next event.
There's a question behind allof this.
Why did you and why did Mawsonchoose to get involved with
Disrupt and thank you again, andwhat excites you about this
(15:37):
particular event series?
Speaker 3 (15:39):
Yeah, thanks, bill, and we are really looking
forward to this.
It's our first time partneringwith yourself and Disrupt and so
far I've really been impressedwith everything we've kind of
discussed and gone through.
It's not long September 24.
So yeah, it's just over a monthaway, and most of them
typically run a few HR eventsourselves across the calendar
year, and partnering withDisrupt allows us to reach a
(16:03):
different and new audience,allows us to build new
relationships and, like I say,there's a list of excellent
speakers there who are going tobe on the night talking through
some of the challenges they'refacing as a business and how to
overcome those challenges.
So for us this is about kind ofgoing out there letting people
know who we are and what we do,but also building new
relationships and really drivingthat community in Manchester
(16:24):
forward further.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Excellent.
Well, I've managed to wangle itthat the HR Tech Conference in
Vegas does not get in the way.
I'm going to be there.
I'll be up on stage co-hostingwith Craig and with the awesome
Steve Folger, so I'm very muchlooking forward to that.
Mawson will also be supportinga meetup a Disrupt meetup in
Manchester later this year.
Why is it important to supportlocal business community events
in addition to these largersummits?
Speaker 3 (16:53):
Yeah look, mawson Head Office has been in
Manchester since we were firstkind of concepted as a business
and it's been really importantfor us to provide services and
support to local areas.
So Manchester is reallyimportant to us and we want to
make sure we're constantlydriving events and providing
support to local businesses andcandidates in that area.
So for us it's a no-brainerbill.
We want to be recognized asleading the way across
(17:14):
Manchester in the HR space andbuilding those relationships up.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
We are flying through these questions today, craig.
Just a few more for you the.
The HR recruitment world is, ofcourse, evolving pretty rapidly
at the moment, particularlybecause of this little thing
called artificial intelligenceand automation, and the skill
shortages too.
Where do you see the biggestopportunities for innovation in
talent solutions at the moment?
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Yeah, good question again, bill, and something we've
thought about a lot as abusiness.
We're in a partnership withPalantir right now, who are a
global leader in AI, and they'rehelping us understand how we
can improve as a business andhow we can drive efficiencies
and change utilizing AI.
So it's very, very topical forlots of companies, I think.
Bringing that back into the HRlandscape, I think there's a few
(18:01):
areas where we're going tocontinue to see lots of
automation, lots of usage of AI.
Number one it's definitely anad-san acquisition.
I think ATS systems and HRsystems are advancing, use of
chatbots are becoming a lot morecommon and popular and also, I
think talent sourcing andmatching services within kind of
(18:22):
internal teams is going to beutilizing AI a lot more, working
in partnership with us.
I think the ability to worktogether with businesses and
partner using AI is going to bereally powerful.
I think the second one is moreskills-based workforce planning,
shifting from job titles toskills taxonomies.
I think that's really, reallygoing to be an interesting one.
(18:44):
We've seen lots of clients nowstarting to look at mapping out
what skill sets are going toexist in the future, not just at
the moment, and they're workingtowards a workforce plan that's
going to allow them to hit thatin the next three years, five
years, 10 years, because a lotof those skills and a lot of the
job titles that they need inthe future probably aren't there
right now.
So that's an interesting oneand I'm sure we can talk a lot
(19:06):
longer around that.
But businesses are having tokind of shift what that looks
like for them to close theskills gaps and utilize some of
these new skills that are comingthrough.
I think another one is theautomation of admin and
compliance.
Hr teams are going to see ahuge drive on that.
Things like right-to-workchecks, things around onboarding
(19:26):
paperwork those things willcertainly be impacted around use
of AI and automation, and thatfrees up the HR team then to
focus on the more strategicchallenges around engagement,
around org design and changemanagement as well.
So I think that's going to be agood thing for the HR
communities that we speak with.
They're going to have more timeto really put into the real
(19:46):
value adds as well as the thebasics around administration and
compliance, which, of course,is super important.
But at the same time, one ofthe big things we get is
businesses get too bogged downwith the admin and compliance
and can't focus on the futurestrategic initiatives they want
to drive okay, so it sounds likethe future is bright and
exciting, although I'm a littlebit concerned at the moment.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
I recently uh read parts of the ai 2027 report by
is it the ai futures project?
Uh, that that freaked me out alittle bit.
Um, so, regular listeners ofthis show, if you haven't
checked that out yet, uh, youmay or may not want to,
depending on uh, uh, how, howstrong your heart is.
Um, just finally for today,craig, how can our listeners
(20:29):
connect with you?
So is that linkedin I betyou're super cool and all over
the instagrams and tiktoks andplaces.
And, of course, how can theylearn more about morse and
talent?
Speaker 3 (20:38):
yeah, absolutely look .
I'm visible on linkedin, spenda good amount of time on their
networking, but also posting andsharing content.
I think it's really interestingfor the hr communities that we
serve to, so you can definitelyfind me on LinkedIn.
I love to connect with kind ofnew people across the HR and
talent space.
I'm super happy to tell peoplemore about Mawson and the
different services we offer.
They can get my email addressfrom my LinkedIn as well and
(21:01):
happy to speak to people.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
Rock and roll.
Well, that just leaves me tosay for today.
I'm sure we'll get you back onagain in the future, but for
today, thank you very much forbeing my guest on this episode
of the hr chat show craig thanks, it's been a pleasure.
Thanks, bill and listeners asalways.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
Until next time, happy working thanks for
listening to the hr chat show.
If you enjoyed this episode,why not subscribe and listen to
some of the hundreds of episodespublished by HR Gazette and
remember for what's new in theworld of work?
Subscribe to the show, followus on social media and visit
(21:39):
HRGazettecom.
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