We are deeply proud of our culture, which is based on expertise, training, collaboration, inclusivity and doing the right thing.
Every day, our colleagues nurture long-term partnerships that empower people and organisations to succeed. Attracting and retaining the best talent is fundamental to our ability to deliver for our customers and to grow our business. Our aim is for Hays to be recognised as the most welcoming and inclusive destination for the best talent in our industry.
We want people to build fulfilling careers with us, to be developed and rewarded and make a positive impact on our clients, our candidates and our communities.
Our culture is a reason why so many of our people choose to stay and grow their careers with Hays. When we ask colleagues to describe our culture, they have used terms such as ‘high energy’, ‘inclusive’, ‘growth mindset’ and ‘great people’.
Having highly engaged colleagues who understand and share our values of the business and the part they play in that is a core priority. Our ‘YourVoice’ feedback process is essential to our two-way communication and regular listening.
A strong employer brand helps to differentiate Hays. We are able to recruit and retain the best talent in the industry by offering a high energy culture, an inclusive environment, exciting careers, world-class training and development, and opportunities to contribute to the communities in which we operate.
We enable colleagues to reach their full potential through industry-leading training and development. Most new recruits join us from university on our graduate scheme, or from a vocational career. But we also carefully consider the different priorities of multi-generational workforces, to provide a compelling blend of pay, benefits and career opportunities.
We train our people in the ‘art’ of recruitment, building expertise and the insights required to find the best person for a role, both in terms of skills and cultural fit. We then equip them with the best tools to do the job, embracing new technologies; the ‘science’ of recruitment.
Talented people want to work with the best: people, brand, tools, technology and infrastructure. They also want career development. Our culture is shaped and created by these features. We believe this is special, and of great value to our stakeholders. We also know our people want to do interesting and meaningful work, increasingly in an organisation that is purposeled. This is demonstrated in the work we have done through our commitment to DE&I, Net Zero and our global volunteering and fundraising programme, ‘Helping for your tomorrow’.
LEADING OUR TRANSFORMATION
Deborah Dorman joined Hays in June 2024, bringing a wealth of experience in leading large-scale, people-centred transformations, including cultural change and organisational effectiveness.
She will drive Hays’ strategic people agenda, driving key areas such as culture, diversity and inclusion, talent management, compensation & benefits, and succession planning.
“Our brilliant colleagues are the heart of Hays. Our key priority is to continue to equip them with the skills needed to deliver outstanding service to our customers, both today and in the future. We will also ensure colleagues have access to great career development opportunities, all within an engaging and inclusive culture.
I look forward to further developing our people strategy in FY25 and beyond."
Deborah Dorman
Chief People Officer
We want to deliver a high-performance environment. We will build on our strong track record in training and development, ensuring we foster the business capabilities we need and focus our talent on the key sectors where our clients need help and expertise. Having strong leadership across the organisation is central to our strategy.
Given the challenging conditions we operated in during FY24, and the transition the business is going through, clear communication has been more important than ever. We are committed to regular and transparent two-way dialogue with our people. Through a series of communications, town halls, videos and open Q&A sessions, we have sought to ensure that all colleagues understand our strategy and vision, and the clear benefits of greater focus.
Growth and development through training
Investing in training and developing all our colleagues is central to our strategy and culture. This has been adapted for flexible and hybrid ways of working, including using blended, online learning solutions, while also connecting people in person.
Typically, a first-year joiner will spend on average 46 days in training, helping them to climb the ‘productivity curve’ while embedding the Hays culture. Demonstrating the ability to progress a career at Hays, 3,842 colleagues were promoted in FY24, and 61 people transferred internationally within Hays.
The quality of our leadership has always been a key strength. As the world of work changes, we recognise our leaders are running more complex businesses. We have therefore made a significant investment in our leadership programmes, designed to build the skills, mindset and behaviours to create the best leaders in the industry and drive the business.
Our leadership development strategy is based on:
building better strategic and operational thinking skills
deeper psychological safety and stronger relationships
expanding our ability to lead inclusively
developing stronger operational execution capability
Our world-class and award-winning training programme is the International Leadership and Management Programme (ILMP), which has been running for seven years with over 200 leaders attending. The ILMP helps develop the skills our leaders need to best-position Hays in rapidly changing markets.
Female leadership percentages
Christoph Niewerth
MD, EMEA
ILMP – Christoph Niewerth
“I became MD of EMEA shortly after attending Hays' flagship ILMP course. The timing was ideal and provided me with a strong platform for my first few months.”
An early priority was getting to know each country leader, in order to better understand each market. The lessons I learned at the ILMP meant I used these visits to give colleagues far more time and space to talk.
I didn’t want to dominate these visits by asking too much, but instead to listen and be fully present. The benefits have been clear – my conscious investment in personal relationships has helped colleagues to feel able to be open with me and believe they want to be part of a team, driving our EMEA business.
We have been refreshing our EMEA strategy, aligning it with the global Hays strategy. My goal has been to give our leaders space to answer the question of how they think our strategy should be delivered. My adoption of mission-led principles has given them a prominent voice, meaning we capitalise on their expertise. Rather than being directive, which I have done in the past, I have been clear on the ‘what and why,’ and our country heads have had space and my trust to propose the ‘how’".
Driving employee engagement
Having engaged colleagues is critical to our future success. A key way we understand the engagement of colleagues globally is through our YourVoice survey.
We conduct two global employee surveys annually – a main survey in May and a pulse survey later in the year, which can be used to explore key issues raised in the previous main survey. YourVoice is translated into 12 languages, and is completely confidential, which allows colleagues to share their honest views with anonymity. Feedback is reviewed closely by the Executive Board and senior managers to identify and inform actions.
We also use other continual two-way communication channels to ensure colleagues are kept informed of key developments, including town halls, CEO Q&A sessions and Regional MD email campaigns. These enable us to engage with a broad cross-section of our people and provide important opportunities to listen directly to their challenges, opinions and ideas.
“In highly challenging markets we have had to make some difficult decisions and deliver significant change across Hays, and this has been reflected in recent YourVoice scores. However, these changes were needed to deliver our focused strategy, and position the Group to capitalise strongly on market recovery when it comes. We are actively focused on improving people engagement and restoring our former above-market levels.”
Deborah Dorman
Chief People Officer
Board involvement and responsibility
The Board has overall responsibility for the welfare and interests of the workforce, and during the year Non-Executive Director MT Rainey continued her work as designated workforce engagement director. MT’s role serves as an additional and independent channel for the Board to hear directly from Hays’ diverse workforce.