The HR Community Podcast
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Civitas Talent is excited to bring you a series of podcasts dedicated to the HR community. This is a space where you can learn best-practice solutions from HR community leaders, with host Shane O'Neill.
Whether you’re a CEO, HR executive or operating across the wider HR sector - this podcast is for you!
The HR Community Podcast
The HR Community Podcast: Krista Hunt, Carlisle Homes, GM of HR, How to let your people drive the culture and performance
Curious about how employee experience can revolutionise HR management? Join us for an enlightening conversation with Krista Hunt, the General Manager for People and Culture at Carlisle Homes, as she takes us through her inspiring career in HR.
Krista reveals how data-driven decision-making and a deep understanding of financial mechanics are essential in shaping effective HR strategies. She underscores the delicate balance between entrepreneurial agility and leveraging data to drive decisions, emphasizing the importance of engagement metrics and timely reviews for proactive HR management.
We'll also dive into the intricacies of recruitment and onboarding in the construction industry post-COVID. Krista offers invaluable insights into the evolving motivations of job candidates and the critical need for investing in the right talent to enhance productivity and reduce costs.
We explore Carlisle Homes' commitment to stability and genuine employee care has helped them navigate economic pressures and rising material costs. Lastly, Krista discusses the importance of maintaining consistency, emotional stability, and positivity in HR leadership, sharing her personal journey and the inspiration she draws from her 10-year-old daughter. Don't miss this episode packed with practical advice and heartfelt stories!
Welcome to the HR Community Podcast. My name is Shane O'Neill, founder of Sila Tiles Talent, the HR and HSC recruitment community. Each episode we will host HR leaders and discuss their journey and discover best practice HR solutions across the HR industry. Whether you're a CEO, hr executive or operating across the wider HR space, this podcast is for you. Please like and subscribe, and don't forget to comment and share your views. Enjoy the episode. Good morning everyone. Welcome back to the HR Community Podcast. This morning I'm joined with Krista Hunt. Krista is the General Manager for People and Culture at Carlisle Homes. Good morning, krista.
Speaker 2:Good morning, shane. So great to be here, and I love the way that you pronounce Carlisle with your English accent. It makes it sound even more sophisticated. So great to be here.
Speaker 1:Thanks for joining. We were just having a little bit of a yearn on the weather situation. It is pretty cold where we both are at the moment. But before we get into all of that, tell us a little bit about yourself, Krista. Tell us a little bit about who you are, your role, the business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. My name's Krista. I have been at Carlyle Homes for the last four years.
Speaker 2:So I started right at the start of COVID. Really interesting career choice to join construction at the start of COVID but that certainly kept me on my toes for the last four years and loving making an impact through such challenging times in the HR space. Prior to that, you know I've had a 15-odd-year career in HR, starting off in the accounting space and working with a big four. So starting off at KPMG in an accounting support role Very, very quickly worked out that I was much better with people than I am with numbers.
Speaker 2:So, luckily enough, got the opportunity, whilst in that environment at KPMG, to move into the grad side of things and then progressed into the HR space. So I've had a really fortunate career in making some really great choices of companies to align with some really great brands, some really great leaders and, yeah, just absolutely loving my time in HR, seeing the journey and the changes this profession has been on and currently in. I think there's, you know, there's no more exciting time to work in the HR space than now.
Speaker 1:It's so true. Yeah, it's so true, and there's so much happening as well. Obviously, we could delve into that a little bit and just in terms of your background, I find that quite interesting, especially with the accounting side of it. But I don't know. You mentioned you're probably more inclined to move into the human side. But tell us a little bit about that, I guess. Do you feel like there was um and still is, maybe that um, uh, strong, maybe, understanding of, of, of the numbers, and that you can relate to the people and culture side?
Speaker 2:100% and, particularly as I've got more senior in my career and working with executives, um, really understanding the, the financial mechanics of how the business operates I've found really helpful. I am a data nerd my team, you know everything should have a reason. I think HR today. You know we've really moved away from the tick box of, hey, we just do this because it feels good or we're doing this because other companies are doing it and you know it's going to make us look good. Businesses need to be smarter than that now, and the way to get smart is actually looking at the data, understanding what the trends are.
Speaker 2:I'm in a small-ish business at the moment with 500 employees. Sometimes the data, particularly through the last few years of COVID, hasn't been that reliable because it has been so sporadic. People have made decisions for so many different reasons, so the data in a business of our size over the last couple of years hasn't been overly reliable. Having said that, you know we're best off making decisions based on data than gut feel, sometimes 100%. I'm in a really entrepreneurial type environment. The two need to go together. I think sometimes, if you're only listening to the data, decisions are too slow. The game's moved on before you get to catch up.
Speaker 2:So I think, depending on the environment. There's a really lovely balance between kind of that organic nature of being a really entrepreneur, fast to move, you know, a little bit less risk averse, but whilst being backed by what the data is telling us.
Speaker 1:I love that as well and I was actually going to probe you a little bit on that. You answered the question before I asked it. But with regards to the data side in particular because I know it's just a huge topic now, not just in HR but in most professions is that need to really be across data. But when we look at people and culture and different data and metrics, what would you say could be some of your best practice learned? Because it's like you say, there's data there and that's kind of real, real-life data. But what I find is some organisations they go through this whole process of getting the data but then they don't do anything with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, true, absolutely true, and I guess I mean really good point.
Speaker 2:It is about collecting the data that matters, otherwise it's data paralysis, you kind of get sucked out of rabbit holes and say at the end of the day, you know, you've moved on to your next month and saying, okay, well, we've closed out that month and done nothing with it. There's probably a few data points that we really concentrate on here for this organisation. One is our engagement. You know we do an annual engagement review through Great Place to Work. Actually, it's coming up in October, august, so, fingers crossed, we make it on the list again for the third year, which would be amazing for a smallish organisation in construction.
Speaker 2:So, the engagement we think that that gives us insight before it's too late. So, yes, you've got your exit interviews and those type of things. Arguably it's too late. So, yes, you've got your exit interviews and those type of things. Arguably it's too late. Yes, there's trends you can pick up to weave back into improving process, but the engagement study is getting people's thoughts at a point in time. So, yes, that's one data point that we really focus on and have a great engagement program that's built around that, genuinely tapping into what our people feel Awesome. Then we've got our standard, what we call our dashboard. So our core metrics, be it absentees and be it long service leave, being age brackets within the workforce, looking at turnover points, so where people are dropping out of the business, luckily we've got really good retention.
Speaker 2:Yeah great, but still we can't just rest on our laurels of saying, hey, you know, we're okay with this attrition rate. We still do need to look at that life cycle. We know, and many businesses are going through this I don't speak to many HR execs that aren't feeling the same thing between the kind of one-year service and that two-year service we're getting a lot of turnover there.
Speaker 2:Once we've got past that three years, it's kind of like, okay, we're in this, you know we can start to see our career progress and different career paths. Internal mobility is freed up, but it's that one, two years that um is our biggest dropout point yeah, that study has been really good to say gosh, we've gone through the effort of attracting the right people, hiring them, inducting them, training them. They're really great people.
Speaker 2:We still want them here, but, um, we need to offer flex to their career all that sense of achievement and advancement at that 12 months to two years, for the sake of them, feeling like they're progressing and that they've actually got a lifelong career not a lifelong career, but a longer-term career here with Carlyle. If you look at the average tenure, you're kind of looking at around that 18 months, depending on what industry.
Speaker 1:You know that more than anyone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're kind of looking at around that 18 months, depending on what industry you know that more than anyone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that for us is a really good take out of the data. So, yeah, we've got our standard dashboards, but the other data that I think is more and more critical now, particularly if HR wants that senior seat at the table. We need to understand revenue, we need to understand P&L, we need to understand the overall drivers and commercial drivers that a business faces, be it sales, conversion, supply chain, all of those type of things, for it to make sense. Otherwise, we just have the information passed on to us and we become, I guess, giving instructions to the business based on what we know. If we are in the room, can read the room, can understand the room, the interpretation of that information into people's strategies becomes a lot more organic as opposed to scripted and overly directional from an ELT to HR, to the business, which is, in some organisations, how it happens.
Speaker 2:So we're all for getting yourself absorbed in that high-level data so you can transition it through to the business the way that you feel comfortable, as opposed to through direction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, and I find I mean I love my data as well I find it so fascinating and I love that you touched on it with regards to that overall sort of tenure gap. And you know, when I look at it from a recruitment perspective, it's quite interesting because many moons ago, you know, if your profile, if your CV, was leaving a job every year or two years, you know it was almost viewed quite negatively by employers. But that's changed massively. And I know in certain industries, and I'm sure in yours, there are certain roles where there are talent gaps. But you go through this whole strategy around attracting the right people and you do some amazing things with your brand and your recruitment process and kind of experience, and then you get someone over the line and there's a great onboarding experience and then in 12 to 18 months that person's checking out and they're moving on and it's just fascinating moving on and it's just.
Speaker 1:It's just fascinating um the. The reason why I bring that up is because, um and you touched on a little bit there as well with the revenue um, I think sometimes as well, people don't think about the cost element as well, because you're spending a lot of time and resources, yes, but you're also spending a lot on that recruitment and if you're using agencies and everything included, you know times that by tens of roles and that's turning over every couple of years. With regards to that, do you see that as, I guess, an ongoing pressure HR are going to have to deal with, especially in the world of work we're in now? It seems to be quite common.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. I mean it's the hard cost of recruitment and you know our recruitment partners do a fabulous job in sourcing the right talent. It comes hand in hand with making sure that we've got the right value proposition.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So together we provide a really solid value proposition, particularly in amongst our industry, but also kind of really trying to keep standards of any successful and aspirational business across Australia, if not internationally. So we do put a lot of work into that. Yes, there's a recruitment hard cost, but I'm like if you've got the right person, that cost is perfect. I'd rather pay that cost on the right person than do it, you know, kind of mediocre and not get the right person.
Speaker 2:So the recruitment cost is one thing. For us it's really that speed to competency is to where the cost savings can be. So if we have a really mediocre onboarding induction process, particularly with the technicality of some of our roles in construction industry, we want people and we need people kind of when they start to be really knowledgeable about what they do, to have the confidence that they can deliver. We're putting them in front of customers that are building their dream home, liver. We're putting them in front of customers that are building their dream home. You know they're spending up to a mil, maybe more, on just the house alone and are trusting us with so much.
Speaker 2:So, we need to put people in front of them that have the right technical capability, competency, but also have the right confidence. So that's where we make up, I guess, our investment. So we could, if our induction and onboarding process carried out for six months, 12 months, we're having people run at really lower productivity, yeah. So we put a lot of effort into that onboarding process so we are really tightening up that speed of, you know, of commencement to competency to get people up and running and cycling straight away, um, obviously with the right sport channels and whatnot around them.
Speaker 2:But that's where we see the? Um potential wastage in cost of new hires unless we really get that um that first kind of few months really good and it's so interesting as well because, I mean, I've seen it as well from myself.
Speaker 1:I'm sure you have too, like the volatility of the world um, particularly you know, since, since COVID sort of sort of era, where there was this huge push to hire, to hire, to hire um, and I even remember you know, call it 12, maybe more, two years ago, some of the questions candidates would ask was what's the flexibility like? What's their vision as a business? What are their values? Little bit now. It's it's it's it's really centered around dollars. You know there's not much amount now. How much more can I make to to move um?
Speaker 1:And I'm not saying that's everyone's motivation, but there's definitely that sort of junior, maybe to mid-level um sort of roles in in hr, but in other industries as well, or the profession as well, where I'm seeing there's a big motivation to move to make more money now. But then it creates a bit of an issue because every time you move role and we touched on the 10-year average now being, you know, 18 months to two years if you move role every two years like do, does that justify an extra 20, 30k, and when? When does the uh, when does the bubble pop, which, which unfortunately happens with you know, lots of restructures, redundancies and stuff happening as well, but, but I don't know that's the exact reason why. But do you feel or see or have any sort of comments on that side of it as well? Like, have you had much experience with that as well?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. I think every chapter of COVID put a different desire, different needs for our team Within construction. It's been a really interesting. Like it's been stated all over the media, it's a perfect storm and it really is. There's no other way to describe it. We've got rising cost of product, so to actually build our product is somewhat 20% more expensive than what it was in the past, we haven't been able to pass all of those costs on to our customer, because they simply can't afford it, because of the economy, interest rates, all of those type of things.
Speaker 2:It's harder for our team to live on the wages that they were, but as a business or as an industry we're not as profitable as what we have been in the past. Carlisle is really has been incredibly well led, I should say, and incredibly fortunate with a lot of our supply partners and our team that we've had support us through COVID. We haven't necessarily experienced those issues or that hardship, the way that many of our competitors have to cause fairly significant impacts in the industry closures, whatnot the business. So Carwell's got about 1,500 homes per year purely in Melbourne. So our market's not contained, which means that we haven't diversified too widely so we can keep our focuses on one pocket which has worked really well through the COVID times as far as what people at Carlyle have desired more than anything is security.
Speaker 2:So that's what we've offered and we have kept investing in the employee experience, like beyond, like sometimes it surprises me as to the generosity and genuine care that this leadership team and the owner of Carlisle has for its people. So, yes, we've had weight pressures and we, we will continue to, and we, we treat those with all sincerity. It's not, you know, we, we have never had wage freezes. We've never had recruitment freezes. We haven't done big cycles of redundancies or right structures or anything like that.
Speaker 2:We've just treated every single moment with sincerity and with a lot of flex, because we know that at the stage today, with a market deteriorating in the sales front through land availability and those type of things, is going to be a really different picture come next year when hopefully there's an interest rate release. There's a different sentiment, different seasons. You know people are out and about in summer. Who knows what that will bring. Hopefully that means people want to buy a few more homes. That's right.
Speaker 2:But we don't necessarily have really drastic changes to our HR strategy because our business and our industry is constantly fluctuating. So the most we can do, and the most important thing that we can do, is just create stability and confidence that our people still love coming to work every day. We've done different things, like you know. We're doing free lunches and we do free breakfast.
Speaker 2:So, try and ease the cost of living internet cashbacks, all of those type of things where we possibly can. Yes, it may not be as significant as cash in hand for some people, which everyone is wanting at the moment, but at least it provides them a really safe place to come to a really great work environment, a lot of additional perks that aren't necessarily seen elsewhere, plus wage growth. It might just not be as much wage growth as what the cost of living is growing. So, you know, it's all of those little incremental things as well as making sure that we've got a new flexing.
Speaker 1:And I love that as well because again, it kind of goes back to what we first spoke about today was around that sort of human element and you're, you know it's really interesting and I see it a lot, particularly with that motivation to make more money, and I get it completely.
Speaker 1:But when you strip away the, the big, meaty salary, you know what are you actually getting from your employer, what are you actually getting from the role, and you know it's all those kind of things that actually make more of a difference, which is the security, the engagement, the satisfaction. And on the flip side, I know I've sort of focused on those that are more money driven, but on the flip side I speak to people about great roles and they're like, look, I'm really happy where I am because my organization has backed me and they're supporting my career, but also they've supported me through the storm and you know they were loyal to me in tough times and I want to return the favor and I think that's really cool as well. But yeah, really, really interesting that you've invested so heavily in that experience, in the good times and the bad, but still seen great positive outcomes from it. I think that's really cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was, look again, a credit to not just the leaders but the actual people in there driving the culture of this business. So through COVID we had the lowest turnover that we had ever seen and the highest engagement.
Speaker 1:Amazing.
Speaker 2:And this is a time where there were so many people exiting the construction industry because the construction industry in Victoria it was so tough for a time there, with all of the shutdowns and you know we could work and we couldn't work and customers. You know the emotion that we were feeling from customers. It was a really um, it was a really hard time but to you know, like any sporting club, you can still have a great culture even when things are tough, and that's how it should be. That's when strong cultures actually really shine. Um, when the heat is on and when it's tough, and we absolutely saw that here. So that is still paying dividends. You know those investments that we were making to ensure people were feeling safe and supported, not making rash decisions, approaching things with great consistency as opposed to emotion and there has been a lot of emotion, particularly in privately owned businesses, over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2:We have just tried to really take our time, day by day, and you know, so far we're doing really well. The industry is, you know we're up for some challenging times, there's no doubt about it, and that's the industry across all of Australia not just Victoria. So hopefully our formula to date and the sentiment that we have built in the business can continue us through some potentially more challenging times over the six months.
Speaker 1:Awesome, and I know we kind of focused a lot of the conversation over the last couple of years, but I think that was just the way it flowed. But if we were to look holistically, whole career-wise, Krista, for you like what was some of your biggest lessons learned?
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I've had so many of them.
Speaker 1:It was really interesting.
Speaker 2:I was listening to one of the other HR community podcasts that you had Natalie Brett from Zip on and I started smiling at different points that she was saying and I've had some of the similar experiences to Natalie. So you know I came from a fairly remote country. School there was no such thing as HR, it was accounting nursing. So to now find myself working in HR and now in construction, whilst I've, you know, moved around industry similar to Nat for really intentful reasons to get a really good grasp of people across all different industries and business models and governance models, those type of things, but I sometimes laugh at myself. I'm just like how on earth did I end up here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:But I think the key to working in HR, or people and culture we have got such a privilege in the role that we do to shape other people's experiences. We can make it really good or we can make it really bad, and I think it is such a privilege and I say this to my team all of the time it's such a privilege doing what we do and having these opportunities to help build people's careers. And through building people's careers, it's setting them up financially, it's an ingredient to their happiness that we get to influence, and that's not just their happiness, it's their families and that's the kids. So it has this ripple effect as to the environment we set up for them.
Speaker 2:My number one rule with my team is you know, come to work and be yourself and enjoy what you do. And if you don't enjoy it I mean, of course there's going to be some days that you know you enjoy a little bit less than others. But if you don't enjoy what you do in this space, it you know you enjoy a little bit less than others. But if you don't enjoy what you do in this space, it projects onto others and others don't deserve that. So I've always encouraged my team as to. If you don't love it, don't do it, and it's as simple as that. So we have to, as adults working in the people space and I know sometimes with the pressure that comes from other people and being at the kind of core of a business, and sometimes you know, we have to navigate some pretty challenging things um, it's to to maintain positivity, um, in a sustainable way. Yeah, we have to show great resilience. Sometimes, if that resilience decreases to the point where people don't enjoy doing it anymore, it's the wrong job for them.
Speaker 2:It's only going to have a negative ripple effect on all of our stakeholders, so as to you know. Back to your question is there any standout moments? There's not. I think every day I have a standout moment. I'm just like, wow, that was fun or that was great or that was hard. I've had some jobs where it has been super hard, but in the moment you've just got to check yourself and say, well, this is hard because I'm learning something or I haven't done this before, or this is a new stakeholder that I, you know, maybe don't see eye to eye with, but it doesn't make that bad.
Speaker 2:So I think it's just at the end of the day, saying, yeah, that was hard, but it was really cool because I learned something new. I love that.
Speaker 2:So, no, in real, you know, we've done some amazing projects which I'm so super proud of. One of the benefits of Carlyle, one of the many benefits of working in Carlyle, is the trust that the owner has for the people team and giving us such flexibility to have impact not just on our people but on the industry. We're leading some incredible industry first initiatives across women in female family friendly practices, encouraging or changing societal norms of a male construction worker taking time out for parental leave. We're pushing the boundaries with some of these conversations to you know the emotional harm that our people feel sometimes from threatening customers and those type of things. So, yeah, so probably my standout is being able to have a really good impact in the people space, but having enough you know my blinkers off wide enough that we can actually look beyond that and say, hey, what does the industry need and where are we able to start a conversation that perhaps needs starting where others aren't starting it?
Speaker 1:so love that. Yeah, no, really, that's really really cool. Um, rolling off from that a little bit um who do you inspire, who do I inspire or who am I inspired bit, who do you inspire?
Speaker 2:Who do I inspire or who am I inspired by?
Speaker 1:Well, who do you inspire? Firstly, and we could use the other one as part two.
Speaker 2:Who do I inspire? Do you know what I'm going to have to say? My gorgeous little 10-year-old girl.
Speaker 1:Awesome.
Speaker 2:Her most exciting thing on school holidays is to come into the office and spend the day with my team. Wow, she absolutely adores what I do and she's turned into, I think, just through COVID. She's heard so many different conversations and she's made up and it's actually outside of my office. She's made up this little note box for my team where we all put notes of gratification in for all of the team members, so I know that I do inspire her and, yeah, really proud of that.
Speaker 1:That's really cool.
Speaker 2:Hopefully she doesn't turn too much into my mini-me and does that thing, but I can see that inspiration. I can see her eyes light up when she talks about she's got really high EQ and thinking about other people.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's who I do inspire. Hopefully I inspire my team just a little bit as well, but I've maintained a really solid team through some challenging times and, gosh, they inspire me every day. So I think back to your question. The next question certainly my team, you know. They just genuinely care and I think that's a pretty good trait to have when you work in our space.
Speaker 2:There's not one of them that ever just checks out and say, yeah, that's enough. They close the job, job off. They make sure that they've had impact, they make sure that they learn and that they grow. Um. So definitely my team I'm inspired by. I love that, um, but yeah, gosh, I um.
Speaker 2:You're always learning right yeah I mean the, the chats that we've had. You know I'm learning about your world or whoever. I think it's just softening yourself and letting other people's experiences in, rather than going around to your busy world and not pausing for a minute. That's when you get your inspiration from other people, 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with you and I think as well.
Speaker 1:um, just off the back of that, um like one of the reasons why we started the HR community podcast a few years ago is where everyone was in lockdown and yeah, you know we're people, people and you know, um, similarly, um, a lot of the HR leaders that are in our community like they love to learn, they love to explore and, uh, I guess curiosity at times. But, um, there were people, people and kind of understanding different people and how we can support them and different businesses and how we can support them and drive best practice, people, culture and performance. But, yeah, it's pretty cool to see and it's really cool, obviously, with some of the challenges along the way. I'll bet you know, there's some great light at the end of the tunnel. Albet, you know there's some great light at the end of the tunnel.
Speaker 1:It sounds like you've done some great things in your own career, krista and Akar Lyle. So, yeah, really cool to hear I invite full of your time and I know you've got a hectic day, as you said, because you're at the office and stuff today. But thank you so much for joining us this morning and and I'm sure everyone will be keen to tune in and connect. Post the episode.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Thanks, shane, and, on behalf of all of the HR community, thanks for putting this together. I think you know the podcast that I've listened to, that you've done. There's just little snippets that you take out of each one. So yeah, on behalf of everyone, really appreciate what you're doing.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you so much and have a great weekend.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Thanks, Shane.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to the HR Community Podcast. Remember to like and subscribe and share your views and comments below. This podcast was brought to you by Civitas Talent, the HR and HSC recruitment community. No-transcript.
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