Welcome to the first issue of Human Resourcefulness in 2009.

Just a couple of days ago, I was fortunate enough to have heard personally from one of the industry’s acknowledged experts on the subject of what HR should be doing right now.

It was at a meeting of HR Magazine’s HR Leaders Club where Dave Ulrich, who was voted the industry’s number one ‘thinker’ by the readers of the magazine, told us that: "In the current climate, HR is faced with a series of paradoxes and may, as a result, become confused as to whether to do nothing or everything - or to take a short-term view or a long-term view.”

The one thing that did come out of our debate – even though we couldn’t agree if or when we’d ‘bottomed’ or how long the recovery would take – was a general consensus that right now is absolutely the right time for innovation and creativity in HR best practice. Effective talent and leadership will be essential for corporate success in the future and will be how the best companies are judged - and those companies will be laying the foundations for that right now.

In challenging times, the more value HR can bring to your business, the more the business will value HR

HR has a fundamental role to play in this development but must also look at the wider picture. At our meeting, Ulrich went on to say that: "HR could be making the mistake of focusing on the talent of individuals in organisations instead of looking at the talent of organisations as a whole. And HR departments often see employees as their customers rather than actual customers of their business." Ulrich advised the assembled HR directors to consider the investors in their organisation as they are investing their money in people as much as profit.

‘Hot 100’

Staying positive, we were delighted recently to have entered Recruiter Magazine’s ‘Hot 100’ league table at number six! This was only the first time we’d entered the league table and we were also the only ‘pure play’ HR specialist consultancy in the ‘Hot 100’. We’re absolutely thrilled to have had our position validated in this manner by the recruitment industry’s leading trade magazine and are determined to maintain our standards and growth into 2009 and beyond.

Finally, I’d like to thank everyone for consistently choosing Digby Morgan to source HR talent and to make career moves - we appreciate the belief and support that you have shown in our brand over the past twenty plus years. As you will read here, clients are still recruiting and planning for the future – even in the City – and, as I constantly maintain, there will always be great opportunities for good candidates!

I hope you enjoy our newsletter and please do come back to me with your feedback for future editions.

John Maxted
CEO