Joe Hurley

Consultancy work can be isolating if you choose as you don’t have that ready-made network of colleagues to rely upon, something I’d not given any thought to when I left my last permanent employer in 2017. I’m self-sufficient but gain from collaborating with others beyond shared delivery goals, so I took action and created my own network – and I’m still going. Most of my assignments come directly from my network so it is in my interests to nurture it but that’s not the only reason - networking also involves giving back as follows: - ⟲ Supported those considering consulting with pros and cons ⟲ Spoken to people with practical tips on managing a consultancy business ⟲ Provided delivery support in the sharing of ideas ⟲ Shared job adverts that might suit someone in my network ⟲ Provided written recommendations for people I’ve worked with ⟲ Provided references ⟲ Carved out time for coffee chats and catch ups But I have personally gotten so much from my network: - ⟲ Talked shop with like-minded individuals, just because ⟲ Attended networking events – let me have your recommendations? ⟲ Found a professional to manage my insurance policies – thanks Nathan Ansell ! ⟲ Set up a new business ⟲ Employed a business coach ⟲ Read interesting insights daily ⟲ Know the trusted individuals I would call upon, if needed, for substitution If you’re in my network and we’ve not yet spoken or I can provide support, I’m here, let's keep engaging. Photo from my last day as a perm member of staff in 2017, no regrets! #consultancy #projectprogrammeprofessional

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Personal opinion 👀 Removal of compressed working Today marks the day that my employer mandates that I relinquish my compressed working pattern and move back to a standard 5 day week. I’ve loved having a non-working day to spend with my little boy, adventuring and (let’s be honest) spending less money on childcare. I’ll miss spending time with him but it has been TOUGH fitting a full time job into 4 days and on my “day off” being solely responsible for an energetic and opinionated toddler. So I’ll spend extra money on childcare, but I’ll also reduce my weekly workload by 20%. Will my employer see the benefit of me working over 5 days? I doubt it, because I’m taking every minute of that extra time to spend on myself. I’ll take lunch breaks to get fresh air, I’ll finish work on time and get some exercise before nursery pick up. I expect I’ll be more energised and productive during my working hours as a result, sure, but mostly I’m planning to be selfish with my newly freed up time! I’m lucky to be working for a manager who supports me too. Please keep supporting working mums! And for anybody who continues to be both an employee and a parent in their working weeks, absolute kudos because it is exhausting!

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Spent the weekend watching various racist riots play out over the UK. What a terrifying time we're living in. For line managers - your actions here will demonstrate how much you live up to inclusion values. Check in with any direct reports you have that are brown or black. Ask them how they're feeling and listen. For organisations - a portion of your employees will be feeling terrified and deeply concerned but despite this will be doing their best to function at work as best they can. Whether you put out a company statement or not will speak directly to these individuals and how seriously the organisation takes its own D&I ambitions. Doing nothing is the absolute worst thing managers and organisations could do right now.

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You want to get a mentor to aid your professional development, what should you do? 🤔 In my humble opinion, get somebody on a totally different end of the spectrum to you. Different gender, different ethnicity, different age bracket, etc. 💯 That really helped towards my progession within Barclays UK / Barclays. 🏦 Why? Simply put because it helps you to eliminate unconscious bias and it also helps that individual to understand your perspective, blockers and motivation.💡 That process is commonly known as 'reverse mentoring'. 💫 You'll specifically learn different skills like: ▪️How to constructively build relationships with people from varied demographics ✔️ ▪️How to vary your communication style depending on who you are engaging with ✔️ ▪️How to view and use your diversity as a superpower and not a blocker to your opportunities ✔️ Full interview with the Changing The Narrative UK team here: https://lnkd.in/eX8FMqga #ChangingTheNarrative #Diversity #Equity #Inclusion #Barclays

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The third annual UK Women Professionals in the Workplace survey is out! It explores the financial landscape for women and highlights the importance of tackling economic inequalities.  https://lnkd.in/eT4EaQAA

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📢 Addressing the Future Skills Gap New research by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) suggests that by 2035, up to 7 million workers in England might lack essential job skills. This highlights an urgent need for proactive measures in skills development. Julie Keeble, HR Director at LHH, emphasises the importance of identifying future skills gaps and aligning employee career development accordingly. We can better prepare our workforce for future challenges by fostering open conversations and encouraging career ownership. Full article 👉 https://lnkd.in/eGM3SkqH hashtag#LHH hashtag#SkillsGap hashtag#FutureofWork

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Imagine a world where you can search for a surname like O'Connor or a company name like AT&T, and not have to worry about SQL injection! <sarcasm/> FTA: "This restricts the use of punctuation marks and special characters (e.g. apostrophes, hyphens and ampersands) to avoid potential problems when searching the databases as these characters have specific meanings in computer systems."

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Worries about last week’s tax-raising UK Budget within financial markets have appeared to ease, with the interest rates charged on British debt steadying and the pound rising against most other currencies. How has the Budget impacted your organisation? https://bit.ly/4fbomRF #ReedAccountancy #Budget #Finance #Business #Economy

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Working from home? 🏠 Here are a couple signs that you could be nearing #burnout🚒 : 1.     Exhaustion 2.     Lack of Motivation 3.     Decreased Performance 4.     Cynicism and Detachment 5.     Increased Irritability 6.     Physical Symptoms 7.     Insomnia or Sleep Issues 8.     Neglecting Personal Needs 9.     Isolation 10.  Decreased Satisfaction In this post, Provenance provides some great tips on how to avoid burnout when working from home. 👩‍💼 #workfromhome #burnout #selfcare

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Looking forward to this years CIPD conference (6th and 7th November) and joining Claire McCartney for a fireside chat as part of the Insights Stage and Evidence Lab. We will be discussing the latest Resourcing Talent Planing report, link below if you haven't read this as yet, along with what more employers can do to attract and retain the talent they need... my favourite subject! Join us, if you're there, on day 2 at 10.15am. https://lnkd.in/e9nm2cRb Omni RMS #TalentManagement #HRInsights #RecruitmentStrategy #HR2024 #TalentStrategy

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Every year we receive an update to the already poor UK maternity morbidity (and maternal mental health statistics), especially in relation to women from the following ethnicities: - Black (x4), - Mixed ethnicity (x3); and - Asian women (x2.5) more likely to die during pregnancy, during labour and in the 6 months following birth than their white counterparts. It’s an area that I’ve been passionate about reducing inequalities in going back to being a member of Birthrights’ National inquiry into racial inequalities in maternity care (published 2021) and through involvement as a founding member of Jersey’s Maternity Voices Partnership. With my children all of school age and as I (likely) exit my direct involvement in maternity matters, I’m grateful to have had involvement in initiatives that have; and will (hopefully) continue to influence maternity care, in the UK and Jersey. Reducing racial inequalities in maternal and other healthcare services will always be important for too many reasons to mention. For these reasons, as we head into #BlackHistoryMonth2024 on Tuesday 1st October 2024, this is a great opportunity for all to listen, learn and participate in amplifying and supporting lesser heard in #ReclaimingNarratives! #BlackMaternalMentalHealthWeek #BlackMaternalMatters

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Whilst we have known this was coming in the UK for a while, it’s a timely reminder for FS employers to review their remuneration policies and to: - Consider should there be different ratios for different roles and are there any equality and diversity risks - Look at benchmarking, ie, keep an eye on market practice over time - Think about how best to change remuneration structures to adapt to higher ratios (e.g. ensure bonuses remain linked to overall company performance as well as individual and team) and how to vary employment contracts if needed Credit PM Magazine https://lnkd.in/eS-_HvJu.

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We analyse unique and intricate contractor questions and highlight the key considerations — it's part of what we do, with a focus on individual circumstances. #IR35 #contracting #limitedcompany #internationalbusiness

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Addressing the growing threat of financial crime is a major concern for all of us. Leading the fight against payment fraud is Pay.uk, playing a central role in the UK payments system. With access to technology, regulations, data, and strong stakeholder relationships, they empower us all to effectively tackle fraud. You can learn more about their dedicated fraud program here ⤵️

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Here I am two months into the search for my next role following experiencing redundancy. It has been a journey with plenty of ups and downs, and I want to share some of my observations and reflections. 💡 The support of ex-colleagues, new and old contacts within my network and some recruiters has been fantastic. Unexpectedly being back in the job-hunting market can be difficult and it has been wonderful to have people providing me with feedback, recommendations and generally trying to help me to land my next role. A big thank you to all of you! 🚨 There are a lot of other great candidates out there too! It feels like a really competitive job market whereby organisations are receiving hundreds of applications, with many candidates displaying all of the essential and the ideal skills and experience. With online-first application processes the norm for many roles, this means as a candidate if you don't hit all of the check marks on the person specification then you will likely be screened out before you get a chance to talk to anyone about the role or yourself. 🗣️ I've loved the connections built during the interview process. From initial calls to scope out if a role is of interest for both me and the organisation, to more formal interviews where unfortunately I was not the selected candidate, these have generally been positive experiences. It's inspiring to speak to people with a passion for their organisation - what a fantastic impression for a potential new hire! 🚦 Keeping a routine has been important for my mental health. I still exercise in the morning, am scheduling running into my "work" week, making time for skills development, and having weekends off. I focus efforts on job applications and networking for set time in a day and it helps me to feel productive whilst I am not actively "working". I've also read more books and watched more TV than I'd probably care to admit! 🧠 Despite this, there are still tough mental health moments. A lot of my self worth has been tied to who I am in a workplace. I take pride in my work, in my successes, my learnings from failures, in what I help others to achieve for themselves. Having a lull of professional work in my life has led to a lot of self-reflection and low moments where I have questioned my purpose and my value and it has detrimentally impacted my mental wellbeing. These troughs come and go, and I believe I will get through them, but there are there. 🪨 Resilience. Job-hunting requires resilience. The rejections will come aplenty. You have to pick yourself up and do it all again. But it's about not giving up; it may take a while but success will come and it will be rewarding when it does.

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Agile is more than a word or the ability to touch your toes easily 😁 Its a mindset that can help decisions to be made quicker and give people ownership of the role they play in a project. Our Agile coaches at Santander UK are helping to imbed this into the way we work. Hear from them and some of our tribe's here. It was great making this video as it helped me learn more about Agile. #TheSantanderEffect #BeTechWithSantander #Agile

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🔎 Candidate Spotlight. 🔎 In the current climate in banking compliance, there are lots of candidates available in the market. Redundancies and "Right Sizing" being an oft used phrase. Internal recruitment teams are inundated with 100's of candidates applying to roles. The benefit of working with an experienced recruiter is they are easily able to identify and shortlist skilled candidates. I spoke to an excellent candidate this morning who has... ◾BA Law & CISI qualifications ◾Worked at the regulator for 4 years ◾Worked in Retail banking Conduct Risk consulting for 8 years In my experience, these types of candidates are perfect profiles my clients look to hire. They have the right education, regulatory knowledge and communication skills that make excellent compliance officers. Coming from consulting they are usually overworked and underpaid, meaning, if you take a chance on someone without industry experience, you could have a real bargain on your hands. If you aren't getting the right type of profiles for your roles and want to chat about what is available in the FS compliance candidate market, please drop me an email [email protected] or checkout our market report https://lnkd.in/ebSV84rG

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I'm a positive person which is a good trait to have when delivering change. There are plenty of challenges to overcome and a team to keep motivated and engaged but it can be confusing to people when it comes to running Risk Workshops and then I'm as gloomy as Eeyore! I want to know everything that poses a threat to delivery but to someone not used to working in a change environment it can be confusing to be confronted with someone who seemed so enthused and energetic one minute and now wants to talk about all the pitfalls and focus on everything that could go wrong. I set the scene now and explain that I'm still very much focused on a positive outcome but I want to get down into the pit of despair and shine a light on everything we don't have a good track record of, every gnarly thing that could derail us! Once we've defined the risks, assessed them and determined the treatment strategy it's back to upbeat and driving forward. I'm not over it though, I'll take us back there weekly at least, but on the whole we will have done such a thorough job of identifying risk that we can focus on positive management and avoid nasty surprises for the most part. Are there any things in your jobs where you have to appear to be the opposite of your natural self to get the job done? To end on a positive - here's a lovely picture of a rainbow that greeted me when I got off the train from work the other week. It turned into a double rainbow at that! #leadership #projectprogrammeprofessional #consultancy

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4 years ago today I wrote this post on social media and it has been kind enough to remind me of it and my belief is that is as true today as it was then In 2019 a friend of mine and former colleague Nimesh Purohit recommend a book to me - Punished By Reward by Alfie Kohen In my last role with my previous employer I saw first hand how reward hindered employees from doing a good job to help customers as they either weren’t rewarded for it or if they did help them they could fail there targets and then not get rewarded... Lose lose for them and customers I am just coming to the end of the book and everything I believed to be true about how intrinsic motivation is impacted by reward clearly stands out and this can be in many forms... ✅ If you’re a teacher, consider how reward impacts a child’s learning.. Have they “learned” something because they are interested or because they will get a well done sticker, extra play time or a good grade. Once that reward has gone, does that person still have the knowledge or has it gone? I can say for sure how proud Ava and Ted are when they come home for getting an outstanding sticker for a subject but can’t always tell me what it’s for.. Ava now in high school gets achievement points for effort, engagement etc but behavioural points for poor behaviour which is then used to determine if children can attend events, school trips etc.. Reward is focused is on how to control the child. ✅ If you’re a parent, consider how you use reward with your children. Do you tell them how good they are when they do something you want them to do or remove things they enjoy when they don’t. How is reward being used to control the child and impacts them long term ✅ If you are a manager of people in work, consider how reward is impacting your people to do a good job for customers. Do incentive programmes improve productivity for a short period and then performance “drop off”. Has reward caused this problem as your people are still the same. How else is reward causing problems that you can now see ✅ and finally, if you’re a business or working for one when you can impact this, consider how reward is going to be used very soon. I imagine end of year reviews taking place and people starting to worry and focus a lot of effort for this discussion to get as much as they can therefore potentially turning there focus away from helping their customers.. The dreaded bell curve is coming.. An exceptional listen (audio book as not a big reader at all) I would encourage anyone who has time on their hands to pick up the book and read or listen to it as it may just change the way you think about reward and if it does nothing else but help you consider your own thoughts on why you do things a certain way then excellent.. Thanks again Nims for this sharing of knowledge… Interested to hear other peoples views and even from people who work in companies who don’t “do” reward in the traditional sense

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