Talent Centric
“F
Hema Bakhshi
Head of Future of
Work, Santander UK
Hema leads a small,
autonomous team with a
remit to proactively disrupt
traditional processes and an
aim to future proof the
employee proposition at
Santander UK.
santander.com
ortune favours the
prepared mind”, so it
comes as little surprise
that businesses are
attempting to predict the
future of work, and to plan for it by developing
robust resourcing strategies.
But charting a direct route is challenging,
when the waters are muddied by ongoing
globalisation, an unstable economic climate and
unprecedented technological change.
Effective navigation requires strategic
focus, which is why financial services provider
Santander UK has gone so far as to appoint a
Head of Future of Work to plot the path into
the unknown from a people perspective. As
job titles go, few are as wide-ranging or
potentially intimidating, but Hema Bakhshi
is undaunted.
In her former role as the bank’s Head of
Resourcing, Strategy and Innovation, Bakhshi
pitched a paper, urging the need to “future-
proof the employee proposition for the future
workforce, through the lens of the employee
experience”. Since January, she has led a small,
autonomous team doing exactly that.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen a finance
organisation invest time, resources and
energy into looking at the future, proactively
disrupting how a bank traditionally manages its
proposition,” she says. “I can’t find anyone else
with a similar role to me.
“It involves looking at our people proposition
through the eyes of the employee, within the
context of many changing factors, whether it’s
technology, people behaviour, or the nature of
work itself: so much is being disrupted. Many
of our processes are built on traditional, baby
boomer-type processes; my role is looking at how
we can positively disrupt some of those.”
Bakhshi brought the board with her by making
a clear link between the organisation’s people
proposition and its overall business strategy:
“I looked very closely at how the bank operates,
how it’s thinking about its changing position,”
she says. “Digital is increasing, branches are
being affected. People are aware of customer
behaviour changing; our millennial customer
base behaves differently. The challenges are the
same; just as we are looking proactively at how
the bank operates, we need to look proactively
from a people perspective at how we disrupt what
we’re doing.”
Ultimately, she believes businesses have little
choice but to embrace disruption and turn it
to their advantage. “I absolutely think that if
Issue 1 - 2017
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