Angela Coleshill, HR director

Citation

(2009), "Angela Coleshill, HR director", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 8 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2009.37208fab.004

Angela Coleshill, HR director

Article Type: Practitioner profile From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 8, Issue 6

HR executives share their experience in human resources

Angela Coleshill Director of HR at the Food and Drink Federation.

Angela Coleshill joined the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) in 2002 with over 20 years’ experience in fast moving operational leadership roles. Within these roles she was leading teams to deliver through servicing customer needs. This background in contracted services, executive search, food production and retailing provided her with a strong insight into the challenges of running businesses that are highly dependent on the quality of a large workforce.

Tackling change head on

Her experience provided her with an in-depth knowledge of the changes to the employment landscape during this time – the most significant change being the volume of regulatory controls for businesses, and the most memorable being the introduction of Transfer of Undertakings Protection of Employment (TUPE) regulations. Coleshill was working in contracted services at the time this piece of legislation was introduced.

At the same time, companies and public bodies were making – and still are making – radical changes to the way they deliver services, by moving away from in-house employees to contracted provision. Coleshill was heavily involved in the transfer of some high profile public services to the private sector, primarily in the security field through detention centres.

Coleshill says her time with a company called Group Four also gave her a great opportunity to be involved in businesses outside of the UK. Her expertise in managing change and introducing new working practices were deployed in the Czech Republic in the mid 1990s at a time when the country was going through enormous social and political change. Some of the managers she supported were fresh from the KGB and were looking for their “orders” at the start of the day. To be able to deploy all this energy for use in a commercial setting was very satisfying.

Taking a new direction

As HR director with the UK’s FDF, Coleshill’s job couldn’t be more different to her previous roles. It does, of course, have its management accountabilities, with a federation of 60 people. However, the main emphasis of the role is to support FDF’s members by making a difference for them through advocacy, protecting their interests and promoting their values and strengths.

The FDF is the voice of the UK food and drink industry and represents companies of all sizes. Its membership reflects the diversity of the country’s biggest manufacturing sector, accounting for 14 percent of UK manufacturing and directly employing around 440,000 people. In challenging economic times, FDF’s focus on helping its members be more competitive has never been more important.

Coleshill says: “My priority is to keep on top of the changing landscape in terms of employment and skills. This includes getting to grips with changes in legislation domestically and throughout the EU, as well as making representations on behalf of members to influence and shape the outcome of proposed new and revised legislation. We also provide support to some of our smaller members who do not have the resource to invest in HR services.”

Helping an industry meet its skills targets

Coleshill continues: “One of FDF’s main priorities is the skills agenda. The food and drink sector’s future sustainability is highly dependent on its ability to innovate. Changing consumer demand, rapid changes in technology and new product development mean that to remain competitive the sector must improve its productivity and performance. This is heavily reliant on the capability of its workforce and the ability to attract talent for the future. Despite the global economic downturn there is an ever-increasing demand for food products. We are a growth sector in a truly global sense and yet we do have problems attracting talent, with one in four of our food scientist vacancies remaining hard to fill.

“FDF believes that the important challenge is one of profile – encouraging people to think about the food industry as providing a real opportunity to progress within an innovative sector. My role in the coming years will be about raising our profile as an employer of choice and ensuring that skills provision is demand led with delivery in the right place at the right time.”

About the author

Angela Coleshill is Director of HR at the Food and Drink Federation. She has over 25 years’ experience in the field of employee relations, selection and development. Her experience comes from the food sector, contracted services, executive search and retail. She was previously Regional Personnel and Development Manager at Greggs plc. Angela Coleshill can be contacted at: angela.coleshill@fdf.org.uk