It's been a year of monumental change and growth
It’s been one year since Timely appointed Mary Haddock-Staniland as its chief people and inclusion officer (now Senior Vice President of Culture & Inclusion), and she said that the company has achieved a huge amount over 2021 - however, she says other companies also need to start thinking seriously about appointing an executive to focus on inclusivity. The global business software company has had a busy year, and was acquired by US firm EverCommerce back in May. Haddock-Staniland said that the transition into new ownership has been a key focus for her throughout the year, and said that Timely has shown an “enduring and authentic” commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
“In one word, the last twelve months have been busy,” Haddock-Staniland told HRD. “I joined Timely because I’m passionate about the same values that they subscribe to, and I can happily say that after a year, Timely’s commitment to those values has been enduring and incredibly authentic. We’ve been through a lot of transition and change,and have taken some exciting steps into the right direction.
“But I think the learning curve has been steep, and I’ve learned that the technology sector is an incredibly dynamic environment with a fast-paced decision making process. I’ve had to re-calibrate some of my own ways of doing things, and that’s been a great learning experience for me and my team.”
“Then throw in the changes in leadership and ownership - those have meant that my role has been very centred around giving reassurance to people, integrating the new leadership, and ensuring that our managing director was able to hit the ground running with the minimum amount of obstacles,” she added. “It’s definitely been a full-on year!”
The chief people and inclusion officer role was thought to be the first of its kind in New Zealand, but Haddock-Staniland said that other companies have been slower on the uptake, with relatively few appointing senior executives to focus on inclusiveness, and the ‘people experience’.
She said that Timely is very much striving to be a ‘people first’ organisation - something more companies would benefit from incorporating into their core strategy, and which has yielded high levels of employee engagement post-acquisition for Timely.
“I haven’t seen other companies doing this, which is significant for me,” Haddock-Staniland said.
“It means that businesses and organisations have still not considered having an executive at the table with this remit to be a priority. What I would say to organisations that haven’t quite gotten there yet is that the time is now. Timely is very innovative and progressive and started thinking about this some time ago, hence why I am now in the role.”
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“We don’t refer to ‘human resources’ at Timely, we’re very much a people first organisation, so it’s all about People Experience (PX),” she explained.
“I’ve been a part of a team that’s delivered high engagement rates, with 97% participation across our annual survey post-acquisition. I’ve championed a number of activities around equity, diversity and inclusion, including a strategy which will see us working towards that over the coming years.”
“All of this has been in addition to navigating the challenges of COVID across three different countries,” she concluded.
“It’s hard to believe that we’re now coming to the end of the year, given everything we’ve achieved as a team!”