My job: Staying ahead of the latest trend

As a thought leadership consultant, Michelle Marsden monitors trends to help businesses improve people practices. Photo / Ted Baghurst

Name: Michelle Marsden
Title: Thought leadership consultant
Age: 38.
Role: Clarian Human Resources.
Hours: 24 hours a week.
Salary: $120k - $150k pro rata.
Qualifications: "All of my qualifications have been gained on the job."

Describe what you do.

I hold a new role of thought leadership consultant at Clarian Human Resources, which is an outsource provider, based in Albany, for a wide variety of human resources services.

My primary responsibility is research and analysis, where I investigate, monitor and report on trends, topical people management and development issues and strategic components of the employment environment in New Zealand and overseas.

Providing data and information that brings together the academic and commercial environments, my aim is to help HR practitioners and business leaders make informed decisions about improving people practices in their organisations.

Your work history?

My background is in operations management within the financial sector in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. My specialist area is in understanding business and system requirements for process improvement and operational change.

I also have a background in project management.

Your job title is quite a mouthful. Is this a common job role?

Thought leadership is a well known term within the HR industry. To the non-HR tuned mind though, it is best described as a function that innovates, dissects ideas, trends and data to produce information that can be used to develop a plan of action based on the ideas and research findings.

Gone are the days of HR being the "personnel" area of a company. It is no longer only about hiring and firing, policy and training.

What skills are important for this job?

Given the newness of this role, it's difficult to put a finite list together. However, traits include analysis and knowledge of standard research methodologies, translating client needs into solutions, excellent communication skills, an eye for detail and a strong orientation for results; strong business acumen and report writing skills as well as problem solving skills.

What happens to the information you gather?

It depends on who the audience for the piece of work was for; ie, a specific client, existing clients, course attendees, key company decision makers or the general employment population.

Some outcomes include a full survey report, white papers, recommendations as part of a project, articles in our newsletter and briefing events with HR practitioners and business leaders.

How do you define success for this role?

The feedback that we receive and whether the information or research that I have done is relevant to requirements.

What would a typical week involve?

A lot of reading! Also reviewing overseas research, liaising with our clients and industry peers to see where the gaps are in research and knowledge; and engaging with HR practitioners, business leaders and employees to understand perspectives, practices and overall trends. Writing up the findings and working with our business development manager, Andy McCormack, on identifying opportunities to share the information with existing or potential future clients.

Challenges of the job?

Not coming from an HR background has been a challenge and also understanding the pragmatic versus theoretical approach to people issues.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

The great team I work with, the upbeat buzz we have about life and what we do; and of course the topic - it's so vast and complex that as a researcher, you could be looking into issues of attrition one minute and what makes a great leader in New Zealand the next!

What is on the agenda for your first year with Clarian?

I'm working on building some benchmark capabilities from The Great New Zealand Employment Survey. Organisations will have the opportunity to benchmark against the general population data, to see where their efforts are best placed in areas such as leadership and performance, development, people strategy, attraction and selection etc.

What do you aim to be doing in five years?

Hopefully to be managing a team of researchers that will be able to provide organisations with an online library of information that can support the leadership and management of people within their organisation more effectively.

Advice to someone wanting a similar career role?

Wow. I guess I never had this move on my radar so it's difficult to say - ask me again in six months!