111: The role of HR in curating organisational purpose and culture: Marcia La-Rose, Group People & Diversity Director, Four Communications

R7HlirRiUQqzThp7cBa8Shownotes: A couple of months back I spoke with Marcia La Rose, Group People and Diversity Director, Four Agency Worldwide. Her story is uplifting - she has been at the agency for over 2 decades with over a decade in leadership roles and has been heavily involved in the agency’s acquisition of B-Corp status. In our freewheeling conversation we spoke about her journey as a woman leader from the global majority, her learnings from the journey. We also spoke about👇🏾👇🏾👉🏾 How the role of HR has transformed in the past couple of years, and the biggest challenges and opportunities👉🏾 Post COVID workplace, the future of work for our industry - if remote/hybrid working is done for or here to stay👉🏾 Her views on whether HR should drive purpose and culture in an organisation👉🏾 Inclusive/equitable culture and steps to creating it👉🏾 The importance of goal setting and measurement for culture change programme👉🏾 What the industry can do to increase representation of the global majority in the C-Suite/Leadership teamsWe also spoke about what the Elephant in the room is for her and much, more. I cannot thank Marcia enough for her generosity in making time from her busy schedule for this conversation. To listen more, head to the podcast in the link below: Episode Transcript: Sudha: Good morning, Marcia. Wonderful to have you on The Elephant in the Room podcast today. I am tuning in from Gurgaon, India. So it's afternoon here.Marcia: Great stuff. Brilliant. I'm in London, so it's morning here. Sudha: So to get started, give us a quick introduction to who you are and what you do. Marcia: Okay, so I'm Marcia LaRose. I am the head of HR at Four Agency Worldwide. I've been at Four for 20 years now. I am actually an accountant, so when I joined Four I was their accountant. Oh, well I was the whole finance team. And the company was very small then maybe 15 employees. So at that point, it was quite manageable to look after suppliers and clients and paying staff and the like, so that was all absolutely fine, but as the business grew, it was found that I had particularly good people skills by others, I must add.Marcia: And so I moved into HR, and I've been in HR probably now for about... 12 or 15 years, and I still look after a lot of things to do with money. So I work really closely with the group finance director, and I still look after the salaries and tax issues, student loan issues, those sorts of things. Aside from that I was heavily involved in Four acquiring its B Corp status and I actively work to ensure we are continually improving on that. And separately again, I am a fellow at the PRCA and I am an immigration advisor at the Home Office. So that's what I do. Sudha: Oh my God. Wow. You definitely have your plate full.Marcia: Yeah. I like to be busy. Keeps me out of trouble, I think. Yeah. Sudha: So as a woman leader from the global majority, how easy or difficult has career progression been for you? From the sound of it, it looks like you, managed to find some good people along the way, or?