About Inspiring People & About Me
“Be the change you wish to see in the world”
Rob Hall, Chartered MCIPD
People Management Expert
Over 25 Years of HR experience covering a wide range of specialist HR disciplines
Senior leadership adviser for global Blue Chip companies, small businesses and not-for-profits
Chartered Member of the CIPD, the UK’s professional body for HR, since 2006
Strongly believe that if you take good care of your people then they will take good care of your clients and customers
Passionate about helping small business and not-for-profits who want their people to both feel their best and give their best at work
What do I do?
I'm an HR management consultant, based in Brighton, working with clients across Sussex and South London.
The majority of my work these days is focused on supporting small organisations, typically up to 100 people in size, in the business, charitable and not-for-profit sectors.
I love working with smaller enterprises because it's where I see the greatest opportunity for building strong, positive, happy working cultures that are able to deliver sustained customer excellence through their people.
My day-to-day work involves providing advice and support on people management matters and organisational opportunities to help employers get the best out of their people.
My mission
Simply put, I want people to feel inspired to do their best at work.
According to Gallup in their 2017 State of the Global Workplace report, the world’s largest employee engagement survey provider found that the number of people who are highly involved and enthusiastic about their work only stands at 15%. Just think of the terrible waste of this in terms of both lost productivity and, even more importantly, 85% of people not valuing what they do in most of their waking hours.
On a personal basis, I have experienced periods of time in my own working life when the thought of going into work on a Monday morning was ruining more and more of my weekends. This experience, recognised by many as either the Sunday Night Blues or the Sunday Scaries, is depressingly common.
But it doesn’t need to be like this. There are so many things that we can do to improve our people’s experience of work and, when we do get it right, we can also significantly improve productivity. What’s not to like about that!?
It’s my mission to help make work a more meaningful and valuable experience and make the organisations they work for more successful at the same time.
Delivering against my mission makes my work so much more meaningful to me - and we now know that finding meaning or purpose in our work is one of the critical components that we all need to feel motivated. I also happen to think that this is a great expression of Mahatma Gandhi’s idea that we should be the change we wish to see in the world.
My background
I've been working as an adviser to management on HR matters for over 25 years now. About half of this time has been spent deep in the corporate world advising senior leaders in global blue-chips while the other half, the half since I set up Inspiring People, has been dedicated to helping small businesses and charities get the best out of their people.
Throughout my career, I've developed expertise in many specialist HR fields including employment law, employee relations, employee engagement, recruitment, learning and development, organisation design, and compensation and benefits. I gained my formal qualification in Human Resources back in 2006 when I qualified as a Chartered Member of the CIPD, the UK's body for HR professionals.
Among HR folk I would also say that I’m slightly unusual for another reason in that I consider myself to be highly technical. As well as loving working with people, I also love working with tech. This has proved especially valuable when supporting clients in tech industries and those that have been looking to implement or wanting to get the best out of HR systems. This also possibly helps explain the slight anomaly of having a degree in Pure Mathematics while ending up in the highly empathetic field of human resources.
Whether you’re looking to get the best out of your workplace or you have a pressing HR issue, I can help
My Consultancy Style
As with all of us, I'm not going to be a perfect fit for everyone.
I care deeply about doing our best by the people that work for you and I strongly believe in the idea that if you care for your people then they will return that care in the work that they do for your enterprise. If we don't share that outlook then I think there is likely to be a divergence between the advice I'm offering and the advice that you feel that you need.
That being said, I have to say that I haven't come across many individuals in my HR career that clearly didn't want to do their best by their people.
Yes, there can be frustration and even exasperation sometimes but these aren't unforgivable feelings. Not everyone is a good fit for the role that they occupy and sometimes we have to support the learning of that discovery. As long as we agree to do it with care.
As for how I engage my clients, I'm never going to be doing anyone any favours by putting a thick sugar-coating on my advice. If we are going to make things better then we're best off starting with an honest perspective of what needs fixing. And sometimes that might include the way you operate.
If you would like more views on what I'm like to work with then you do no worse than heading over to my testimonials page to hear what my clients have said about the support I've given them.
What is it like to work with me?
Whilst you'll likely get the best answer from my clients on this question, you can reasonably expect much of the following from our interactions:
I ask a lot of questions: Because I have to carefully understand your situation and the actions you've taken so far, I'm going to have to ask you a lot of questions and some of them may be uncomfortable.
I won’t judge you: Be clear that I'm not judging you from your answers. I fully recognise that most of us are trying to do our best, in often very unique circumstances and with limited time and resources. If you haven't had to deal with a similar challenge in the past or you haven't been on the right training course, then how would you have known what to do this time?
I believe in looking after people: It's valuable for my clients to recognise that my approach to helping my clients to get the best out of their people is simply framed by the idea that, generally, if you look after your people then they will want to look after your organisation.
My respect for people will always be evident: I do know that, in rare circumstances, we come across individuals who won't or can’t reciprocate the care that we are offering. We then need to be able to find ways to minimise the negative impact they may be causing but if we start from the simple premise that we’ll always be respectful then the goodwill it can generate will likely carry us much further.
I care deeply about your success: In a similar way, I care about your organisation. In one way or another, my clients’ organisations are adding value to our society through the products or services that they provide, whether through private enterprises or through charities that support the less fortunate members of our society. If you are going to sustain and grow that value then I need to look after your organisation.
I think that small enterprises are the best places to work: They make up over 90% of the UK workforce. Every one of them is a small community that can bring a sense of daily purpose and a great deal of social meaning to the people that work within them. To me, when they are well managed, they are far more human-friendly than the big corporates could ever be. Helping small enterprises build themselves into more successful versions of themselves, underpinned by the best people-caring values is what I strive to achieve with every engagement.
I've shared these things about me because I believe that it can only help you understand me better before we've even had a chance to talk. That way, when we do finally connect, you'll already have a good idea of what to expect from working with me.