Gavin J Walford-Wright
Gavin Walford-Wright MA, FCIPD, FCMI, FIRP is the Chief Human Resources Officer at the Taaleem Group of schools.
Gavin is an HR strategist with a proven track record of working in a wide range of markets and industries, including Education, Healthcare, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Real Estate and Retail in the UK, Middle East, India, Africa and Turkey. Gavin has successfully operated in Government, Semi-Government, Public and Private Organisations, often taking these through times of considerable change whilst championing positive and cross-functional collaboration to deliver against wider strategic goals.
Having completed his Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management, he is currently a Doctoral candidate at Middlesex University, London. Gavin is also an author and regular keynote speaker at the region’s leading conferences and forums. He is also a visiting lecturer at Cass Business School and holds Chartered Fellowship status with the CIPD, CMI and IRP.
Prior to joining Taaleem, Gavin built ‘Human Capital Leadership Teams’ and acted as a strategic advisor to Boards, Chairmen, and Chief Executives globally. Under his leadership he made substantial reductions in recruitment agency fees, through the use of talent technology and analytics programmes that transformed talent management and consequently tripled anticipated cost savings. Gavin has significantly increased Emiratisation rates, implemented ‘Total Rewards’ frameworks and ‘Workforce Planning’ initiatives that have resulted in savings of over AED 100m. He has been responsible for the effective introduction and implementation of Balanced Scorecards, Learning and Development programmes, Human Capital Policies, Job Evaluation, Talent Management and Realignment Strategies.
His Human Capital teams have won numerous awards and helped build companies to become considered as ‘Employers of Choice’.
Since joining Taaleem in February 2019, Gavin has set out to put in place a ‘People Development Strategy’, aligned to achieve the Group’s strategic goals.
Supervisors: Professor Andrew Mayo, Professor William Scott-Jackson, and Professor Ifan Shepherd
Gavin is an HR strategist with a proven track record of working in a wide range of markets and industries, including Education, Healthcare, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Real Estate and Retail in the UK, Middle East, India, Africa and Turkey. Gavin has successfully operated in Government, Semi-Government, Public and Private Organisations, often taking these through times of considerable change whilst championing positive and cross-functional collaboration to deliver against wider strategic goals.
Having completed his Master’s Degree in Human Resource Management, he is currently a Doctoral candidate at Middlesex University, London. Gavin is also an author and regular keynote speaker at the region’s leading conferences and forums. He is also a visiting lecturer at Cass Business School and holds Chartered Fellowship status with the CIPD, CMI and IRP.
Prior to joining Taaleem, Gavin built ‘Human Capital Leadership Teams’ and acted as a strategic advisor to Boards, Chairmen, and Chief Executives globally. Under his leadership he made substantial reductions in recruitment agency fees, through the use of talent technology and analytics programmes that transformed talent management and consequently tripled anticipated cost savings. Gavin has significantly increased Emiratisation rates, implemented ‘Total Rewards’ frameworks and ‘Workforce Planning’ initiatives that have resulted in savings of over AED 100m. He has been responsible for the effective introduction and implementation of Balanced Scorecards, Learning and Development programmes, Human Capital Policies, Job Evaluation, Talent Management and Realignment Strategies.
His Human Capital teams have won numerous awards and helped build companies to become considered as ‘Employers of Choice’.
Since joining Taaleem in February 2019, Gavin has set out to put in place a ‘People Development Strategy’, aligned to achieve the Group’s strategic goals.
Supervisors: Professor Andrew Mayo, Professor William Scott-Jackson, and Professor Ifan Shepherd
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Papers by Gavin J Walford-Wright
This paper aims to study the opportunities that have been created through technological advancement in the talent acquisition industry and how this links to strategic HR management (SHRM) and business strategy. It focuses on how an organisation can embrace the world’s leading technology and compose a unique technology stack to overcome its challenges in talent acquisition.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper opted for a blend of qualitative and quantitative data gathered through interviews, online questionnaires and the literature review of relevant secondary data. The justification of the primary research methodology was to gather valid and reliable data to inform decisions and address the research question.
Findings
The analysis of the data shows a significant improvement in all the key metrics related to the talent acquisition process after the implementation of “Talent Rising” model. The role of a recruiter and the talent acquisition team has radically changed and has now become an internal strategic partner with aligned interest, an advisor to the organisation. There is an increase in the use of new media/technology to attract candidates and with the increase in millennial candidates entering the workforce, social media will be increasingly important in talent branding and attraction; the digital by default generation is already here.
Research limitations/implications
The “Talent Rising” model has been specifically created and designed to be used by others: organisations, academics and policy makers. It is a “plug and play” tech stack model which can be used like an a la carte menu dependent on the actual requirements (and investment appetite) for each organisation.
Practical implications
This paper includes implications for the creation of a people analytics and talent technology framework to reduce cost per hire, reduce time to hire and increase quality of hire.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need to study how people analytics and technology can drive talent acquisition strategy.
Keywords:
Human Resource Management, Technology, Recruitment, Analytics, Human Capital, Talent
Type:
Research Paper
Publisher:
Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright:
© Emerald Publishing Limited 2018
Published by Emerald Publishing Limited
Licensed re-use rights only
Citation:
Gavin Walford-Wright, William Scott-Jackson, (2018) "Talent Rising; people analytics and technology driving talent acquisition strategy", Strategic HR Review, https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-08-2018-0071
This paper aims to study the opportunities that have been created through technological advancement in the talent acquisition industry and how this links to strategic HR management (SHRM) and business strategy. It focuses on how an organisation can embrace the world’s leading technology and compose a unique technology stack to overcome its challenges in talent acquisition.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper opted for a blend of qualitative and quantitative data gathered through interviews, online questionnaires and the literature review of relevant secondary data. The justification of the primary research methodology was to gather valid and reliable data to inform decisions and address the research question.
Findings
The analysis of the data shows a significant improvement in all the key metrics related to the talent acquisition process after the implementation of “Talent Rising” model. The role of a recruiter and the talent acquisition team has radically changed and has now become an internal strategic partner with aligned interest, an advisor to the organisation. There is an increase in the use of new media/technology to attract candidates and with the increase in millennial candidates entering the workforce, social media will be increasingly important in talent branding and attraction; the digital by default generation is already here.
Research limitations/implications
The “Talent Rising” model has been specifically created and designed to be used by others: organisations, academics and policy makers. It is a “plug and play” tech stack model which can be used like an a la carte menu dependent on the actual requirements (and investment appetite) for each organisation.
Practical implications
This paper includes implications for the creation of a people analytics and talent technology framework to reduce cost per hire, reduce time to hire and increase quality of hire.
Originality/value
This paper fulfils an identified need to study how people analytics and technology can drive talent acquisition strategy.
Keywords:
Human Resource Management, Technology, Recruitment, Analytics, Human Capital, Talent
Type:
Research Paper
Publisher:
Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright:
© Emerald Publishing Limited 2018
Published by Emerald Publishing Limited
Licensed re-use rights only
Citation:
Gavin Walford-Wright, William Scott-Jackson, (2018) "Talent Rising; people analytics and technology driving talent acquisition strategy", Strategic HR Review, https://doi.org/10.1108/SHR-08-2018-0071