"Before I joined POD, I envisioned it as a very dynamic, vibrant place, with a clear idea of how to move forward. I wasn't disappointed in the least but what I hadn't realised was that on top of this we had work to do in order to align POD activity with the objectives of the organisation and what the 'customers' needed from us.
POD is most definitely moving in the right direction but the directorate still has some way to go before it's seen across the whole organisation as an 'enabling' team, earning its keep.
It's important that we get the bread and butter things right and POD have made gains in this area. Our aim is to work still harder on improvement, 'walking through' processes from a 'user' perspective and providing a more holistic customer centred service. We're using tools such as customer audits to find out what people think and what they want. We're then making the changes. Just making forms simpler and easier to find gets us some very positive feedback.
My role is to ensure delivery of a quality HR service to the scientific areas of CR-UK. I deal with a lot of scientists, both 'at the bench' and office based. They can be a challenging group because their world and culture is slightly different to that of, say, the commercial world that many in POD are used to. Their focus, quite rightly, is their science and making breakthroughs in the fight against cancer. HR is not high on their agenda and you're often not a top priority for them, although they can be as grateful as any other client group if you successfully help them out with their people 'issues'. They're also very intelligent and methodical, so you have to be persuasive, flexible, resilient, personable and self-confident in successfully interacting with them. For me it all adds to the challenge and makes the job more interesting and rewarding, and shows how important it is to understand your client group.
I think people need to realise that working here isn't an easy ride. A large developing charity like CR-UK, with all its diversity and challenges, is no soft option - in fact in many ways it's tougher than other environments because you're not working to line shareholders pockets, but you do, as an organisation, have a very important goal - and for that reason, it's incredibly rewarding."