On a recent family holiday in Spain we visited a traditional lace workshop. Two women were happily chatting away whilst their hands were a flurry of activity, expertly weaving the strands into the intricate patterns.
This put me in mind of the work we have been busy with over the last year in preparing to launch 3XO. I want to share some of the threads of our story. They are simple themes. Some, common trends in the world of work, and some personal. We hope to bring them together to make something special.
There are gaps to be filled between external HR advisors and practitioners. I’ve been in some great HR teams, as an external advisor and ‘in-house’. Having had both types of experience, it is clear to me there are some gaps in how many consultants and HR practitioners work together. Consultants can bring specialist expertise and an external perspective. Practitioners have the practical challenge of making ideas work in reality. Sometimes these two approaches struggle to meet effectively. And this is at the heart of how we want 3XO to be different: advisory with the practical mind-set of the ‘in-house’ professional. An approach grounded in real experience of both what needs to be achieved and how best to get it done.
Sometimes the gaps are technical knowledge. Sometimes, it’s simply being able to tap into some experienced help. We want 3XO to be the easiest possible HR firm to work with. We will work hard to complement and augment existing teams. As practitioners, we know it is very frustrating when interesting projects get passed to external folk who do all the planning and push the difficult implementation back to the in-house teams with minimal or no help. That’s the opposite of how we want to work. We want to work together with existing client teams in developing approaches that make use of their valuable knowledge as well as our external perspective. And we can give practical support, because we have been there before.
It took me quite some time to decide that my next challenge should be different from my previous HR roles. But I got there and just as clearly, I decided I my professional journey still had another few ‘miles’. For a year or so before the pandemic I started to work more flexibly. I loved it. For me this means both time and location flexibility. It works differently for different people. The pandemic has been a significant catalyst for others in trying and succeeding in working differently (I’ll be writing more on this topic in the next week or so). Speaking to others confirmed that many others also feel this way. I believe there is a rich and growing group of experienced HR professionals that want to work differently. They have so much expertise, experience and hard work to contribute. And they want to work in trusted teams and closely with clients, but for a range of diverse reasons, they don’t want traditional in-house, consulting or interim type roles. So, what’s stopping us?
After reflection, my conclusion was that the barriers are primarily practical rather than technical. But someone needs to build the ‘platform’ to enable this new way of working. I love building things but this was a challenge too big for me alone. Thank goodness for great teams, colleagues and friends. And that’s how 3XO came to be.
Simple threads of ideas, being brought together with a little hard work, to make something special. If you are interested in working with 3XO, as a client or as part of our team, then please get in touch (mike.aldred@3xo.co.uk).