Humans of HR: The story behind the leading lights – their career, motivation and achievements.
In a little over a decade, Charlotte Sword, Senior Partner and Global Head of HR at Foster + Partners has brought positive change to the company and sector through the power of HR.
21 December 2023
Story by
Simon Kent, Head of Content – The HR World
Bringing diversity into architecture and landscape design is something of a challenge. The process by which someone trains to become an architect is long and expensive and that in itself can reduce the pool from which the profession can draw. Working in the sector requires dedication and backing. But despite this, Charlotte Sword, Senior Partner and Global Head of HR at Foster + Partners, has made diversity in her organisation a reality.
Having started out in her career in the 1980s as an independent financial adviser she spent time helping businesses create effective benefit and compensation packages. She joined Vodafone at a time when the business engaged with a large amount of merger and acquisition activity and with a supportive and mentoring boss she was involved in large global projects which saw the expansion of the phone network. As part of the M&A team she worked alongside HR, bringing people into the business and ensuring everyone was happy as the business grew.
The experience taught her how important human to human contact was in creating a great place to work. “Just by talking and presenting the facts you could really change the atmosphere in the workplace,” she explains. “With the right approach you can bring people on board very quickly and make them part of the team. To some extent it’s easy to do a spreadsheet that shows what will happen, but bringing people across is a different matter.”
When Sword arrived at Foster + Partners 11 years ago there wasn’t really an HR function to speak of. The department was principally administrative with paper contracts and any complications dealt with externally through consultation with lawyers.
“It was a green-field site,” admits Sword, “so you had to start with the major building blocks to give you an internal perspective on HR and what it could do.” To this end, Sword built the function around the goals of helping people to be successful in their role, while also addressing the cost of recruitment. In taking this approach Sword considered the KPIs, metrics and cultural aspects of what it would take to create a workplace where people would thrive.
Making an impact
Naturally change has happened over a period of time rather than overnight. Among Sword’s initiatives has been the introduction of an RPO arrangement for recruitment, a move which saved money and freed up budget. The labour turnover of 20% has been reduced to 12% along the way. Remuneration has always been an issue within the industry so Sword ensured Foster + Partners signed up to the London Living Wage and that other areas of the business delivered a good minimum level of pay helping to support people through their career.
She introduced a number of different initiatives around diversity. The business has worked with organisations including the Stephen Lawrence Foundation. The establishment of a professional academy within the business as well as an extensive apprenticeship programme answered the challenges related to the length of time it took to gain the right qualifications. “We can definitely prove it’s working,” says Sword, quoting a gender mix of 45/55, improved from 30/70, an ethnicity mix of between 30-40% and 20% of staff with different abilities. Opening up the organisation to diversity in this way hasn’t just enhanced the company’s own work but has also allowed it to meet certain standards and benchmarks for some projects and therefore increased the work for which the business can pitch.
As well as targeting initiatives that would improve the experience of employees, Sword’s approach was also designed to have a clear impact on the business. She wanted to demonstrate HR’s ability to solve problems for the organisation and that involved creating an inclusive environment where people would want to stay.
“This is a creative environment and you need to enable people to be able to concentrate on being creative. That shows when we are able to create the most innovative buildings in the world.”
As part of this, Sword believes employees should be able to bring their whole selves to work – noting that from a productivity point of view not being able to be relaxed and forthcoming about all areas of their life can take up to 30% of an employee’s energy. “You have to recognise there are differences in views,” she says, “but we need to create somewhere everyone feels safe.”
With 85% of the business’ costs going on people, Sword is clear that creating a safe and comfortable environment extends globally to wherever people are working in the world. As such, when someone travels to a new location Sword’s team will ensure they have everything in place to hit the ground running ready to facilitate the project they’re working on. They will also ensure that person’s safety is guaranteed – otherwise they simply won’t let them go.
The demand of Gen Z
Having instigated such a huge level of change within the business, Sword is not resting on her laurels or expecting the future to be easier. She is particularly aware of the next generation of talent coming through and the challenges associated with Generation Z: “While Gen Z are very demanding and they’re technologically savvy, but they also need to deal with the pressure of modern life, such as constantly being on call,” she says. “We need to help them to navigate some of those challenges.”
As part of their approach to looking after employees, Foster + Partners provide wellbeing activities including half price massages which help with backaches and muscular-skeletal issues which can occur as part of the time spent intensively drawing. Sword reports that initiative has cut the organisation’s sick leave bill. “It’s a nice to have but also good for the business,” she notes. “We’re making sure we’re not just treating the symptom but looking at the causes too. If we do that then we can be sure we’re creating the tools for our employees to manage their physical wellbeing which also impacts on their mental welfare.”
In this way, Charlotte Sword isn’t just investing in the future workforce, but she’s there for the current one as well.
Charlotte Sword
Senior Partner and Global Head of HR, Foster + Partners
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