Trained as an engineer, Jon Young is perhaps an unlikely candidate for the HR profession; a personal tragedy triggered a move from production management to HR – a change of course that was to be the making of Young who has headed up the HR division of accountancy practice Saffery Champness for ten and a half years.
Career history
Young studied at Nottingham University and graduated with an engineering degree. An MSc that followed, specialising in Industrial Sociology, stirred an interest in employee relations and stood as a useful platform for the move that later ensued to personnel management.
Young’s career started in 1968 when he joined English Electric in Liverpool taking on a role as Production Manager. After two years, he joined the railways as an Industrial Sociologist in their Organisation Development department. Young was then recruited to work for Chrysler, today’s Peugeot, as Organisation Planning and Systems Manager in Coventry, but his time was overshadowed by the tragic death of his young son to cancer and Young felt that his family needed the support of relatives in London.
International Harvester, a tractor manufacturer took him on as the Assistant to the HR Director. After a specialist spell in compensation and benefits, Young took over the full HR function in the UK and by 1981 he was given the opportunity to head up the HR outfit for Europe and a move to Paris followed.
His role involved helping the business to slim down its operations across Europe from 21,000 to 11,000 as the business refocused its efforts. Once completed, Young took another leap back to London, and this time into the merchant banking industry. After five years in the city and one year in the health service (described by Young as a ‘disastrous episode’ which was ‘dogged by bureaucracy’), Young found himself on the move again, this time taking on a senior HR role with top law firm Denton Hall.
Current role
Having dealt with lawyers, health practitioners, manufacturers and bankers it was time to turn his hand to the accountancy industry. As Head of HR at Saffery Champness, Young’s primary role is providing HR services to 370 staff and partners.
“It’s a split role. I head up HR for the HR consultancy team and in this capacity I am like our accountants advising clients and earning fees. The rest of my time is spent with the internal HR team. When I arrived I overhauled the systems including pay reviews, appraisals, career development structures and recruitment policies,” comments Young.
“More recently, we successfully brought in an online flexible benefits programme and a less successful online appraisal and development review package.”
A key success of Young’s was the introduction of e-recruitment. Moving graduate recruitment online has brought cost savings of 70%. The sifting process which matches required criteria against candidate profiles means that Saffery Champness can cut out half of applicants before they are even seen.
“There is also a psychometric test and a numeracy test which are conducted online, looking for desirable competencies. If they don’t meet our minimum standards then they won’t get any further. The traditional two day assessment centre has been reduced to a day thanks to the online filtering services,” enthuses Young.
Delivering strategy
Young works hard to ensure that retention levels are kept high – a success he puts down to promoting a culture where every employee is valued.
“We don’t tend to have large Plc clients. We serve a niche market of smaller organisations and we therefore look for staff with a breadth of personality to cope with that. Saffery Champness has a fun and friendly atmosphere. It’s meritocratic and flat in terms of its structure. We are all on first name terms.
“The problem we face is that most accountants are loyal to developing their career first. Products are very often the same across practices and professional staff are often on the books of several recruitment agencies whose success lies in moving them on from firm to firm. Typical attrition rates for accountancy outfits are around the 25% a year mark. We maintain a level that is 5% below that and that is mainly a result of the culture we have fostered,” explains Young.
Under the leadership of Young, Saffery Champness runs a regular employee attitude survey. Its structure enables the organisation to decipher where teams are experiencing significant motivational problems.
“It’s a powerful change agent that enables us to identify issue by team or firm-wide,” says Young. Problems can be worked out before grievances escalate.
Keeping abreast of latest employment legislation also presents a key challenge. Young is particularly fearful of incoming laws on information and consultation.
“There is no concept of representative bodies with whom you consult in a partnership. Instead we rely on open partner/staff relationships and various firm-wide initiatives. The law in this instance is just not suited to this type of organisation.
“Employees increasingly expect empowerment and individual development. Meeting their expectations is tricky.”
Coaching is one of the methods Young supports for managing these types of issues but he warns that the success of such measures lies in getting people to coach well.
Key skills
Reflecting on the kinds of skills needed to make it to the top in HR Young points to resilience and having a basic interest in people.
“If you’re going to be bad-tempered or de-motivated by people issues you shouldn’t be in HR. You have to be interested in finding solutions,” he comments.
Acquiring the right knowledge and having a good level of intelligence are also crucial says Young.
“You’re going to be dealing with bright people, other board members, for example. You must have the intellect, personality and the required knowledge to be trusted by senior colleagues – a grounding in employment law is also essential.”
Why HR?
Variety is the main attraction for Young who says:
“Even after so many years in HR, I’m never bored. I do something different every day. There is also an enormous sense of satisfaction with making sure things are done properly.”
Why not HR?
“Doing nasty things comes with the territory,” admits Young, but “saying goodbye to people when you’re not convinced it’s the right thing to do is far worse. Fortunately, I have rarely been in that position.”
Putting up with poor performance, however, is not sensible and Young advises that the quicker the ‘nasties’ are dealt with the better.
Routes in
Young admits it’s not easy getting started.
He advises: “These days, given the number of academic courses available you’ve got to get a qualification behind you. Having done that, you should look for entry level positions.”
Young admits that springboard tactics for women can work: “HR is still dominated by women. Taking an administrative or secretarial role within the function is a common route in. Once you’ve learned the basics you can move on to a personnel officer’s role.”
