Installation Speech of New Master, Paul Hucknall

Past Masters, Freemen, members of the Guild, distinguished guests and friends, it is my pleasure to welcome you to our fifth installation dinner. I am very happy to be here tonight as your new master and thank you for joining us.

I would like to begin the evening with a thank you to the Master and Wardens of the Barbers’ Company and their team for hosting us in this beautiful hall along with the catering staff from PI, for making this evening so special..you haven’t tasted it yet, but trust me it will be good!

We are in the Barber-Surgeons Hall, but you didn’t need me to tell you that… A quick bit of history.. The Barber’s Company, whose hall we are now sitting in, has existed for a mere 711 years (700 years in 2008) and was originally a Barber’s Company only, until surgery moved from being a bit of sideline for barbers, to being separate ‘thing’ (a profession you might say) and eventually just after 1500, the Barbers and the Surgeons came together. Barbers were of course the older and more highly paid profession and so took top billing. It took another 250 years, until 1800 before the surgeons got ideas of independence and started their own “thing”, that they called Royal College of Surgeons. Catchy, I’m sure you will agree.

So, as you can see, things in the world of livery move at what in corporate jargon we would call a “measured pace”. By comparison, the profession of Human Resources has moved pretty fast. Accounts differ, but it appears that our profession first appeared at the end of the 19th Century, just around the time the Barber’s Company was marking 550 years. Human Resources appears to have started as a ‘welfare’ function; often primarily involved with the protection of women and girls in the workplace, in reaction to the harshness of industrial conditions.

I was fascinated when I read that fact. Just stop to think for a moment about that focus for a moment – and how many of us are spending our time today. Many of you, like me are, I’m sure focused on employee wellbeing; on supporting people to be their best; on culture and inclusion. A survey published in Personnel Today in May 2019 cited ‘employee wellbeing’ as the top priority for HR departments in 2019.

So maybe we are not moving as fast as we thought.

If our profession is only just over 100 years old and our Guild closing in on five years, then we are truly only at the beginning of something. So if you are here and you are not a member, you are by no means too late! All of us here are at the start of a movement (!) and we all have the chance to shape what it will be… I must at this stage thank the Masters who have preceded me; Robert Potter, our founding master, Jacqueline Davies, Mark McLane and of course, my immediate predecessor, the irrepressible Danny Harmer (I say irrepressible but to be honest, not many of us would have the courage to try to repress her, so it is untested!). Danny’s energy and chutzpah I can only hope to match.

Let me say just a few words about the Guild. One of our most important goals is to help others into the profession and through the profession and I wanted to just highlight two areas of focus which I hope in my year as master we will advance – and where you can get involved!

Firstly, we have just completed the first cohort of our National Leadership Foundation development programme, which has been a wonderful success, aimed at supporting the development of future HR leaders, with support and faculty being provided by members of the Guild. We are delighted to have celebrated the completion of the programme earlier this evening and to welcome a number of the cohort here this evening. We very much hope they will become members. This leadership programme, has been designed and led by Past Master, Jacqueline Davies, and it has been a fantastic success due to her hard work and commitment. In fact, it quite simply could not have happened without her personal dedication and, frankly sacrifice, to make it happen – and we owe her a huge debt.. of gratitude. We will shortly be launching the second programme, and we would love members to be involved, either by nominating people from their organisations or offering to mentor if they are in a senior HR position. This activity goes to the heart of our Goals, so please look out for more information on that – or have a chat with any of the Court members here tonight.

Secondly, and this is one of the reasons I am so proud to be part of this Guild, part of our main focus of energy this year will be on energising the pro-bono work of the Guild. We have a great working group led by Geoff Morgan focused on it, and it is a great way for HR Professionals to give something back to the wider community. Using their expertise to support organisations who wouldn’t have access to that expertise.

People sometimes ask me why they should join the Guild and it’s important to remember the Guild is about promoting our profession and giving back to it – so there you have two great reasons! To paraphrase John F Kennedy – joining is in larger part about the value you can give to the guild to support its purpose.

So I have a call to action for us all:

If you aren’t a member please join.  Whoever invited you as their guest probably did so because they think you are a great potential member. If you are a member please become an advocate and find new members. And if you are already an advocate why not get involved with the Court and some of our committees and charitable activities. We are currently looking for two new court assistants (our court is our Board) so if you are interested, please tell one of us!

Finally I owe many thanks to many of the people in this room…

Firstly to my immediate predecessor, Danny Harmer and to the past masters who have led the Guild to where it is today. Secondly, our distinguished guest, Gwen Rhys, who is CEO and Founder of Women in the City; who has been of huge support to our Guild over the last few years. Thank you to the members of the Court (our Board) for their commitment and leadership – and in particular, to my successors, Annette Andrews, Andrea Eccles and Aaron Albury.

Finally and most importantly, I must give huge thanks to the man who more than anyone else makes the Guild happen – we simply would be nowhere without him – our Clerk (which in livery language means CEO), John Renz.

So – we enter our fifth year full of confidence and will celebrate our 5th birthday in June next year. Please be a part of it, please do enjoy your evening, and make some new friends!

Paul Hucknall