More power to your human resources elbow, John Bercow!

JOHN BERCOW, the new boy in parliament’s hottest seat got it right on his first day in the Speaker’s job by imposing his own human resources agenda. In any other well-run business the in-built HR function would have done it for him by ensuring that every new recruit’s first day in office is as good an experience as it can be.

Because forward planning by the Human Resource function – be it the internal set-up or one brought in on a consultancy basis - is all important in creating the best first impression that signals to the new recruit that they’ve made the right decision in joining. It also underlines the on-going message to existing staff that they are working for the right employer.

Bercow did it by himself and in his own way. He turned up to work in a business suit with a simple gown over it, having decided that the wig, cloak and stockings of his predecessors are better suited to the costume department of the Victoria & Albert museum. Most new employees aren’t in any position to dictate the agenda and rightly aren’t expected to do so but good HR practice suggests an agenda needs to be put in place from day one, so that everyone knows where they stand. Or sit, as the case may be.

That agenda can be a simple affair – as basic as making sure that someone is there to greet the new starter and that their desk or workspace is clean and tidy, with IT and telephone set up and ready to go. A planned and structured induction needs to be ready (but information overload should be avoided) and ideally the programme should extend beyond the first day.

With more than 25 per cent of new recruits quitting before the end of their first year because they felt that ‘they didn’t belong’, co-ordination of all the practical elements – like involvement with line managers and colleagues - is all down to the HR function in delivering that optimum first day.

As the most powerful commoner in the country, John Bercow is in the unique position of being able to work to bring his own human resources agenda to bear on an established, not to say archaic order. But as he well knows, good HR, like good PR, is at its most effective when it works from the very centre outwards. More power to you elbow, Mr. Speaker!