Video: 10 Questions with WilsonHCG's Craig Sweeney - Part 1

[TITLE CARD] 10 questions with WilsonHCG's Craig Sweeney - Part 1

1: What's a professional lesson you learned early on that has stayed with you?
My career one of the things I've learned is that there's a difference between giving organizations and individuals what they want versus being a great partner, and I think being a great partner is giving them something they need and making a solution work for them rather than just responding and giving them what they're asking for.

2: How important is it for organizations to start talent pipelining ASAP?
I think where some organizations could benefit versus others is actually trying to focus in on what those critical talent pipelines need to be, first and foremost, rather than trying to pipeline for their entire business — which is like trying to follow the ocean. And that would be my starting point is start small, but do something, because doing something is better than not starting to pipeline for talent at all. But start with the ones that are going to have the biggest impact on your business.

3: How did WilsonHCG react to dealing with COVID-19?
Like many organizations, we had to change things we were doing throughout the business because we've got to be responsive to the needs of our clients. I think we were in a probably much better position than many to be able to do that, because we have a large remote workforce outside of the the key office centers that we have in various different parts of the world, which meant we were already really well set up to work remotely, we had a real kind of culture around video interviewing before it was popular, and the use of video for meetings and interviews and various other things has always been just part of who we are. So I think from that perspective, we were able to shape around the needs of our clients really, really quickly, including scaling up and scaling down and again that remote workforce has always been a key part of how we've done that with our clients. So during COVID, it wasn't necessarily shifted, it was just a more acute shift than we're used to to be able to meet the demands and needs of their business. But equally, it positions us really well as we start to come back, and we can start to support their businesses as they come back to more of a business-as-usual setting where they need to scale back up again.

4: From your discussions, what are two topics that HR leaders are currently focused on?
One of the things that when I talk to HR leaders they're thinking about is really how can there be a true supporter, partner to working with their CEO, working with their their finance directors, their CFOs, to really build a way out of the current circumstances they find themselves in, and that's number one. I think the second thing that we hear leaders talk about on a regular basis is the role of technology within their HR world. And it's how technology is going to be a supporter to be able to rebuild their infrastructure or improve on the infrastructure they have to make them less susceptible to some changes that might come further down the line as their businesses continue to probably need to to be scalable to build through what are likely to be fluctuating times in the months and years ahead.

5: What do you like to do when you're in London?
My kind of go-to London thing would be for anybody who spends time in London, I would always suggest stay off the tube for a while actually, try and walk around the city because you realize things are much much closer than you ever imagined. And you get to see way more than you ever would just as you walk in and out of different tube stations.