Helen Pitcher OBE has been quoted in HR Magazine’s latest issue.
The latest HRMI rankings were compiled in a significant year for the profession, with those making the lists demonstrating the skills needed to deal with the big HR issues hitting the news.
This time last year the name Harvey Weinstein was only just crashing onto the news agenda. Gender pay reporting had yet to reach its frantic, last-minute (for some) filing crescendo. The collapse of Carillion and the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) new corporate governance code were both still in the offing.
So a lot has happened over the past year in terms of big, squarely HR-related news – presenting HR professionals with plenty to keep up with.
For Helen Pitcher, chairman of Advanced Boardroom Excellence and one of HR magazine’s expert panel helping to compile our HR Most Influential (HRMI) practitioners ranking each year, this represents not just a huge challenge for HR, but also a huge opportunity in terms of influence.
“It’s been a really pivotal year for HR professionals in the sense that all of the issues boards are facing now fall very firmly into the HR space; so culture, succession planning, gender pay gaps… they’re all the bailiwick of HR,” she says.
“So there has never been a better time for really good HR people to say ‘Look, this is our area of expertise, we can be a good partner to the CEO, the chairman and the board’, because it’s very difficult for a board to get the feel for culture and tone in an organisation, for example [without the help of HR].”
