interview | HELEN MATTHEWS
business had grown at speed organically and, most of the talent was straight out of uni, with their much sought-after coding and development degrees - their stock was sky high and they knew it. That brought a whole load of untested cultural challenges - flexible working to the extreme - with both long hours and self-selected working practices. This was really unchartered waters for employers and HR was charged with finding a new operational framework. We needed to maintain the entrepreneurism and embrace the spirit, whilst putting in place some structure and framework. It was breath-takingly full-on at times and, also immensely fun. It was, in the truest sense of the phrase, a work hard/play hard culture. There was a huge opportunity for growth and experientially, it was a testbed for the future and I look back on that time and the general direction of travel - in terms of the online customer experience - as days of pure dynamism and innovation, much of which of course, have long been adopted as the norm. What was being achieved, with relatively rudimentary technology by today’s comparison, was truly ground breaking.
supporting and adding value wherever it is possible to do so. In a dynamic and loose environment, credibility is fundamental, and the best way to gain credibility is to listen, act and partner with the business to solve problems.
Your next move to the BBC must have been a stark comparison. Yes, after Planet 24, anything would be. I joined the BBC, which of course had an incredible heritage and time-honed structure. At the time, Greg Dyke was Director General and the organisation was in the throes of a seismic change programme as it headed towards Charter renewal. In the middle of all that however, came the Hutton Enquiry, the outcome of which was critical of the BBC - and Greg fell on his sword. Such was the measure of the man, I haven’t seen such outpouring of disbelief from staff as there was when he resigned. Again, my time there was dominated by change management - and eventually, I decided my time was up and I wanted to try new things again. It was a complicated, frustrating and matrixed organisation at the time, in the
IN A DYNAMIC AND LOOSE ENVIRONMENT, CREDIBILITY IS FUNDAMENTAL, AND THE BEST WAY TO GAIN CREDIBILITY IS TO LISTEN, ACT AND PARTNER WITH THE BUSINESS TO SOLVE PROBLEMS
Tell us about the next stage of your journey. My next stop was Planet 24, most famous for The Big Breakfast, which was its flagship programme at that time. The culture was, at times, hair-raising and it was a highly- pressured environment - dynamic, frenetic and often incredibly challenging to manage. Very quickly, it was as if anyone that was in the independent TV production at one time or another, had worked for Planet 24 and on The Big Breakfast, in their fledgling careers. It was the proverbial revolving door. The development opportunities and fast trajectory was the ultimate empowerment to grow your career at speed. Unconventional, even eccentric at times, you learnt your craft hard and fast.
Surely it would be impossible to "police" a workplace such as that, with any level of discipline and rigour? If you go into any senior HR role hoping to police it, you will come unstuck pretty quickly. I've never considered that as the role of HR. You need to be in tune with the business and It's about developing culture that works and
throes of seismic change, but always a fantastic one - and I’ll always be rooting for it. My next stop was to Tiger Aspect Productions, back into the indie sector.
So why do you think you felt compelled to go back to a smaller, independent TV production company? I definitely missed the buzz and immediacy that a smaller business brings, but Tiger was a different proposition to Planet 24. It had been around for a relatively long time, in TV terms. It had a unique culture and I can remember my boss, Andy Zein saying; "you can do what you want, just don't break the culture". For me, at the point of joining, the primary role was to focus on professionalising the people function, so that we could be seen as commercial partners to the business. In terms of HR, we needed to build a team with the capacity to support a business that was a key player in a fast-moving sector, and we did just that. We were then acquired by Endemol, which coincided with me having my second child. So, I decided it was probably time to work differently - with
10 | thehrdirector | DECEMBER 2019
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