The Director at Ceridian HR Consulting, Laurence Collins, spills the beans on his career to date.
All the previous career profiles can also be seen in the special How Did I Get Here? page.
Current job title
HR Consulting Director at Ceridian HR Consulting
Describe your initial training within the profession
Originally trained as a professional services marketer and realized that the frameworks adopted in that particular field would resonate in HR, which as a profession was lacking in strategic models or insights at that point in time. All subsequent development related to ‘HR’ stemmed from vocational experience gained from global HR, employee benefits and change management consultancies.
What positions have you held?
Strategic Marketing Manager, Senior HR Consultant, General Manager of an EAP and currently a Director responsible for development of consultancy services in a global HR services provider.
Is there a significant event you can tell us about which had an impact on your career?
Finding one particular senior leader who was prepared to invest a lot of their own personal time and energy in passing on their considerable experience to a rather fresh-faced, and in all honesty, an overly assertive young consultant. He became my first real coach and was able to communicate HR and consulting principles that I have never forgotten and now pass on to people that I mentor.
What has been your greatest achievement?
Turning around a loss making business into a profitable one by adopting the people principles that I had been preaching to clients for years.
Which of your colleagues played the biggest role in you getting where you are today?
Current boss – Ceridian Main Board Director. Sometimes you’ll get to a point in your career where you feel that there is nothing new to learn and then you work for someone who rocks that belief to its core.
What advice would you give to someone thinking of entering the profession?
Develop a rounded set of commercial skills and at least get a basic insight into the real-life impact of HR. If you are on a crusade just to ‘ look after people’ then modern HR might not be for you. Also don’t believe that the CIPD is the only or indeed best route in as it isn’t.
Previous How Did I Get Here? features:
Susan Stevens, Toshiba Information Systems
Irene Burwin, HMG Paint
Trevor Lakin, IPPM
Alison Clarke, Quantica
Laurence Collins, Ceridian HR Consulting
Paul Kearns, PWL
Fiona Knight, KPMG
Adrian Glynn, Wilkins Kennedy
Joanne Darling, Cooper Parry
Sue Matthews, Coventry City Council
Nichola Nair, European HR Strategic Programmes Manager for Xerox
Alison Lewis, Corporate Learning & Development Manager, Oxfam
Jessica Diggins, HR Manager, Chartered Management Institute
Linda Klassen-Brown, Group HR Manager, The Logic Group
Keith Hanlon, HR Manager, Quantum Business Media
Andrew Mayo, frequent speaker and writer on HR issues
Jim Brooks, HR Manager for ServiRail Ltd
Jean-Bertrand de Lartigue, Chairman of HR2all
Karen Caddick, Head of HR, Channel Five
Madeleine Tate
Keith Luxon, HR Policy and Reward Director, The Laurel Pub Company
Jeremy Thorn, Chairman and Director of QED Consulting
Roger Pattison, HR – Training & Management Development Consultant
Verity McVarish, HR Manager for Sift Media
Rus Slater
David Kelly, Head of Development and Training for Aventis
Jenny Kevan, UK HR Manager for Abbott Laboratories
William Martin, HR Manager, Telewest Broadband
Craig Truter, HR Manager, The Body Shop
Martin Stockton, HR Transformation Leader, Towers Perrin
Nick Heap, Consultant, New Directions
Crispin Garden-Webster, HR Specialist, Asian Development Bank
Sandra Walsh, HR Delivers
Carole Leslie, Director, IT Learning Ltd
Shaun Dunphy, Project and Process Manager, EMEA HR Service Centre for MCI
Debra Artlett, HR Officer, NGJ
Dianne Miles, HR Manager, Rollalong Ltd
Jacqui Mann, HR Manager, Integra NeuroSciences
Isabella Montgomery, Human Resources Officer at The new Housing Association
Iain Young, Head of HR for Cofathec Heatsave
Have you got any useful insights or cautionary tales regarding your career? If you would like to contribute to the ‘How Did I Get Here’ feature please email our employment correspondent: Dawn-Marie Dart
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