February 2008 Spotlight on...

John Renz joined Mourant from CMS Cameron McKenna, the international law firm, where as HR Director he was the project manager for the merger of Cameron Markby Hewitt and McKennas. With over 20 years’ experience in HR management, John has held senior positions with Standard Life, global accounting and business advisory firm Grant Thornton and City law firm Linklaters. He is an experienced speaker on subjects including HR strategy, change management and organisational development, and is a member of the HR Directors Club, a forum of HR directors from major industries.

What are the responsibilities of your role?

Asides from running HR operationally, I sit at board level which means that I shape HR’s input into Group business strategy and directly support the Chairman and CEO.

What do you like best about working in the private sector?

I started my working life in the public sector, and although I’m sure it’s progressed since then, I’m thankful for the speed with which you can change things in the private sector. Politicians aren’t your masters in the private sector, your clients are. It uses a different skill set.

What is the next big thing in HR?

We’ll see a wholesale debate about what HR is here to do. Our role has been redefined from personnel to HR, and now to business partners. The latter model may be intellectually sound, but I don’t believe it’s delivering. The profession, including the CIPD, hasn’t set enough business parameters or truly skilled up its professionals. Now the talent level is missing to be able to deliver the business partner model.

What frustrates you the most in HR?

The quality of professionals in HR is depressing. All too often I come across ‘business partners’ who can’t read a P&L and ‘HR strategists’ who are actually operational. There’s a real disconnect between the language HR professionals use and the reality, and a lack of delivery.

What is the most over-rated tool in your job?

Online appraisals. People miss the point entirely. They’re an online mechanism, not performance management itself. They end up focusing on tasks rather than behaviour.

What is top of your media hot list?

Harvard Business Review’s electronic bulletin.

What is the strangest situation you have been in at work?

Having armed security accompany me when I had to close an office in a former Soviet Union republic. The car breaking down mid-journey was the final joke.

What is the most annoying piece of management jargon?

The word ‘proposition’, as in ‘employer proposition’ or ‘international proposition’. It’s overused and I’m sick of hearing it.

What is your favourite recruitment marketing campaign?

Guinness has used an imaginative campus-based campaign to engage graduates. They physically went on campus to promote themselves and encourage students to sign up to be Guinness representatives. It effectively tied in their people marketing with their product marketing.

What would you be if you weren’t an HR guru?

I’d return to politics. I was a parliamentary candidate for the Conservatives in Scotland.

Who do you look up to and why?

Victor Tompkins, then National Director of HR at Grant Thornton, took a risk on me early in my career when he gave me a generalist HR role. It was a fantastic learning experience and Victor stayed hugely influential by continuing to mentor me.

What is the greatest risk you have ever taken?

Debating with the Scottish Labour party young socialists during the miners strikes.

What three words describe you most accurately?

Impatient, candid, loyal.

How do you relax when you’re not working?

I enjoy the visual arts and opera. I saw Anna Bolena at the Tower Music Festival last year, which was all the more atmospheric sung among the tower’s ramparts.

What song gets you on the dance floor?

Streetlife by Randy Crawford always lifts me up.

What is your worst habit?

Smoking.

What makes you angry?

Hazel Blears’s perpetual smile.

What can’t you do without?

My PA.

What are you reading at the moment… and is it any good?

I’ve just finished Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre, the true story of a double agent in WW2. It’s fascinating; I recommend it.

If you were a superhero, who would you be/what powers would you have?

I’d have the power to see through buildings. It would cut out so much wasted time, don’t you think?