Is This Room Free?
Welcome to Is This Room Free? In this podcast I will be talking to HR professionals and listening to the stories of their careers. I will be finding out about the journeys they have taken and what they learnt along the way. The purpose is to help others in the profession identify and understand the various paths available and take inspiration from my guest speakers. Whether you are someone who is looking to get that first step on the HR career ladder or an aspiring HR Director, I hope you get value from these conversations.
Is This Room Free?
Daniel Balshaw - HR Transformation Director (incorporating technology to enhance HR teams)
My guest this episode is Daniel Balshaw who has built a HR career combining his two interests - technology and people.
Dan was working in his local Sainsbury's store when he was approached by the HR team (personnel back then) to help with letter formatting, as simple as that now sounds, due to his IT skills. This was the early days of computers in the workplace so having the ability to work his way around a PC became advantageous.
Sainsburys were one of the first large organisations in the UK to open a Shared Service Centre and Dan was one of the first employees to start there. This was the catalyst to his career taking the direction it has.
Dan has run large scale technical and systems implementation but he believes it's vitally important in getting the part right of taking people through that journey, to ensure the tech lands successfully. It's effectively change management and we delve into the factors that ensure change and transformation projects go as smoothly as possible.
We also tackle the concept of AI and how it might impact the world of HR in the future.
Dan clearly loves what he does and has found a niche within the HR universe that enables him to get a buzz out of what he does each day but also what the future might have in store for all of us through the use of technology in the workplace.
I loved chatting with Dan and hope you enjoy listening as much.