HR AT ASPEN WAITE

OK let’s admit it, Human Resources (HR) has developed a bit of a negative image! It’s often seen as a hindrance rather than a help, at odds with the commercial needs of the business. “Red tape, compliance, ticking boxes, timeconsuming...I can hear you all say.

HR is all about people but it is NOT pink and fluffy! HR management must add value and needs to be totally in tune with the commercial needs of our business.

Aspen Waite people are often referred to as the Aspen Waite family – we are Aspen Waite and we all succeed or fail together.

HR is a means to equip our business with the people we need to achieve our aims and ensuring we manage and develop our people with a longterm approach to achieving our business goals. We strive to make the running of our business easier by giving it a more competitive edge, by saving time and money and helping Paul to sleep at night!

Ultimately, Aspen Waite is only as good as its people – hence we rebranded ourselves internally as the People Department, to reflect that we understand that all employees are human and not machines!

The better our people perform, the better Aspen Waite performs. Our ideal is to have the right people in the right places working and performing to the standard Paul wants them to. (Paul’s “sausage making” and “ant” analogies come to mind at this point).

Paul puts his heart and soul into our business and he expects us to do the same, (but doesn’t always see that happening). At times we can all be infuriating!

We are all different, with our own agendas, our own priorities, all with different skills, strengths and weaknesses. We are all at different stages in our lives and we all have different likes and dislikes. So, actively managing people is an essential part of running the business. All of our HR systems and processes involved in employing people from recruitment to contracts of employment, performance management to disciplinary procedures, must take into account ever-increasing and ever-changing employment regulation. And the only certainty is that employment law is always changing.

Aspen Waite is an SME, so our HR management must be appropriate for the size of our organisation. It cannot be the same as large, corporate HR, it must be practical and have a commercial focus that is in tune with our “vision, values and behaviours” and absolutely in tune with the needs of the business.

I strongly believe that we all come to work to do a good job. We want to feel that we belong, to get a sense of satisfaction, to feel appreciated and valued, as well as receiving some recognition for the contribution we make.

Unfortunately, there will always be individuals who do not want to do a good job: the minority whose agendas are around being disruptive, negative and complaining. We do not want these people in our business. There are also the people who want to do a good job, but are either out of their depth, have not had the right training or support, or are just not capable of doing the job that we need them to do.

It is our job to protect the business from the minority, to train those who want to perform and to support, encourage and develop everyone we work with.

The key to doing this is by putting the HR foundations in place. This means having practical HR policies, processes and systems in place, which will help us to test, measure and realise whether our people are doing what they need to be doing or not.

As Paul knows, running a business and employing people is not easy and there are and have been many challenges along the way.

The HR role is to get the right foundations in place to allow the business to continue to flourish for another thirty years!

Rhona Head of People

Hello everyone, for those of you who do not know me I am Morag and I have worked at Head Office in Bridgwater as an Administrator for 5 years now. I am lucky enough to have some involvement with various parts of the business including payroll, accounts and R&D, making it a varied and busy role.

Running is not something I had ever really considered as a form of exercise that could be enjoyed. It was more something you did if you had to if your life was in danger or you needed to catch the bus that was about to leave without you.

It was something I had done under duress at school, but not since, so it came as a shock to me as well as everyone else when after a chance encounter with a group of runners on my way home one evening that I signed up to a running group.

I should explain that I was walking home from a swim session at the leisure centre when I saw this large group of people running towards me laughing, talking and enjoying themselves.

I was intrigued and when one of the ladies stopped to catch her breath and exclaimed ‘seemed like a good idea at the start!’ I could see the logo on her top. I was straight on the internet when I got home before I forgot what the logo had said and found the group on Facebook.

As luck would have it there was a beginners group starting in just a few weeks and so I signed up. The beginners group aimed to do the couch to 5k training in a 6 week period with a Parkrun at the end as a sort of graduation. After the first session I could barely walk up the stairs to my flat and wondered what on earth had possessed me to do such a thing. After a couple more sessions my goal was to be able to run and talk at the same time. To cut a long story short.

I can now run and talk without too much difficulty, except up steep hills and run 5k on a regular basis for fun!

Race for Life is also celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, so it seems quite fitting to have a little bit about this wonderful charity in this edition of the magazine.

Race for Life has held a special significance for me since cancer took my mum long before we were ready to say goodbye (if you ever are?) and also my eldest sibling suffered with mouth cancer.

I’m sure many of you have also had to deal with the effects of this horrible disease. The charity raises money for cancer research in such a fun and inclusive way, that it seems like a good day out rather than raising some serious money for a very serious cause.

Three of us from the club decided to run the Race for Life in Taunton this year on Sunday 9th July. We all put on our pink tops (pink is the favoured colour), pinned our numbers on and our messages on our backs. Everyone who signs up for one of the events is given not only their number but a lovely sign to put on your back where you can write the reason you are running.

The atmosphere is always amazing at these events, everyone is there for the same reasons, to remember loved ones, raise awareness and funds for the fight against cancer.

There is always a fun warm up led by the organisers with some energising music. It a great way to have a laugh before the run, jog or walk.

The weather was a bit unpredictable on the day with occasional showers but very warm and muggy. The course went through fields over gravel paths and on tarmac, so you had to watch your feet in places.

After a couple of kilometres the sun came out in earnest making it even warmer for running, I think we were all wishing for a shower at that point to cool down.

After what seemed like a very long time, which of course it wasn’t, the finish line could be seen and we could hear the cheers as those in front of us finished and rang the bell.

It gave us that boost we needed to power on to the finish line and ring the bell ourselves and of course the longing for a cold drink and an ice cream also spurred us on.

We gratefully received our medals and watched as the constant stream of people came over the finish line. It honestly seemed as though twice as many people were coming back as went out!

All in all a good day was had by all and a lot of money was raised!

Morag

1036 MILES - 8 DAYS