Maree Henwood, People & Culture Specialist at Mantel Group: “Putting the experience of the team first helps reinforce where AI can add value in a meaningful way”

Despite having over 800 employees, Mantel Group doesn’t have a typical corporate structure. Using a “team of teams” approach, teams are organised around strategic objectives rather than by position or department. So with such a different approach, how does Maree Henwood – People & Culture Specialist at Mantel Group – keep employees motivated and happy?

Although Mantel is a people-first company, as a tech and design consultancy it should be no surprise that technology is at the heart of its operations. And it’s not afraid to try something different, even giving the metaverse a play. (Which takes us back to this great article by James O’Malley on why metaverses shouldn’t be ignored!)

Before we dive in, some facts you’d find hovering around Maree’s avatar in the metaverse. She started at Deloitte as a graduate in 2014, after completing her Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources at Latrobe University, and spent five successful years there – becoming a consultant and eventually People & Culture Manager for Consulting.

Having joined Mantel in 2019, she gets what she describes as “the best of both worlds – I get to leverage my enterprise experience from Deloitte within a rapidly growing technology consulting company”. Our thanks to Maree for her time and for sharing her insights!

Related reading: HR thought leaders highlight risks of AI in the workplace

Tell us about your role at Mantel Group

I’m a People & Culture Specialist at Mantel Group.

Mantel Group is the fastest-growing technology and design consultancy in Australia and New Zealand with a focus on cloud, digital, data and security. My role is to support the design and execution of the people strategy to create a unique way of working through a principle-based and led culture.

Growing to over 800 people in a short period, I have a strong focus on maintaining our way of working at scale. The thing I love about my role is that, as a business, people are at the forefront of our strategy with the belief if we get the people stuff right, the work will come. That means our leaders aren’t afraid to try new and unique initiatives that can contribute to making Mantel Group a great place to work.

I’ve also had the opportunity to support the acquisition of new businesses, incubating new businesses and support in hiring top talent. There aren’t many companies our size that has replaced policies with principles or hierarchies and bureaucracy with a flat structure and that makes what I get to do exciting to be a part of.

What made you pursue a career in HR? And what advice do you have for anyone considering a career in HR?

I always had a business mindset so initially started a degree in accounting. I quickly had an allergic reaction to numbers and wanted to explore opportunities where I could have an influence on businesses in a different way – people!

There are so many areas of HR you can get into and they vary a lot by industry so my advice as you get into HR would be to focus on getting the foundations right in a generalist capacity, and then you can look to specialise if you choose. The world of HR has changed a lot even over the last few years and so being able to evolve and adapt with the times is important.

Post-pandemic, what are your thoughts on hybrid work trends and how do you think they’ll shape the upcoming years?

Our team wants the best of both worlds – the flexibility to work remotely while building connections and camaraderie with their team in person. I think trusting your team with the choice of where to work depending on what makes sense for them, their team and their clients empowers the right decision for everyone, which is good for people and good for business.

Sometimes saving on the commute, having quiet time and working from home makes sense and sometimes you need to collaborate with your team or clients. I love it, it means we can tap into top talent without being restricted by the location they’re in. It gives the team an individualised experience on where and how they like to work, which we know is important for engagement. Now we’ve experienced hybrid working, if you want to attract and retain talent, I think it’s something workplaces will want to protect.

Related reading: Chaotic working? Malicious compliance? What to do about passive-aggressive staff

Can you give us an example of how Mantel Group leverages technology and how that has helped the company?

We rely on Slack for communication, for anything from important announcements to regular weekly posts welcoming new starters at the start of the week, sharing our weekly pulse check-in survey or inviting team members to share “shout outs” acknowledging anyone who is living out our principles. The greatest benefits we see from it are high transparency and engagement with information, visibility of immediate reactions/questions/comments from our teams and our team members finding answers faster through crowdsourcing. We can also facilitate a lot more support for general well-being with self-organised special interest groups for working parents, sports enthusiasts, musicians, gamers and coffee lovers.

What do you think has been the most significant way in which technology has impacted HR

Since the Covid pandemic forced a shift in how we work, we have seen how important technology has been to ensuring we can maintain engaged and connected teams whilst also delivering on outcomes. With the massive increase in tools, such as Slack, Google Meets and Microsoft Teams, Miro Boards are now BAU [business as usual]. We’ve even seen the use of metaverse and avatars to bridge the gap between virtual and physical offices while creating an elevating experience.

Perhaps the most significant technological impact is the rise of technologies like AI, ML & automation. In the next ten years, a report estimates that up to 55% of firms will have AI and ML embedded in HR functions for daily workforce insights.

AI has a significant impact as the data will allow HR to pick up on employees’ trends which will enable them to make data-driven people decisions. Chatbots and virtual assistants will automate most of the routine manual HR such as interview scheduling freeing time to spend on developing strategic HR functions such as culture, engagement and leadership for teams.

We’ve also seen the importance of cybersecurity in recent months with companies having important personal data stolen. Here we will see the importance that technology like blockchain and security technology play to prevent cyberattacks on sensitive employee records.

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What do you perceive are some of the risks of deploying AI in the workplace?

While there’s a lot of buzz around potential ethical, privacy and cyber security risks posed by deploying AI in the workplace, the risk that is front of mind for me is maintaining a human touch.

What makes us uniquely Mantel Group is our people-first approach to strategy and culture, and the emphasis we put on ensuring genuine care, personal touch and individualisation of experiences for our team. I’m cognisant of ensuring we are particularly thoughtful and measured in how we deploy AI to mitigate this risk and ensure our team members continue to feel that sense of connection and identity with our business and leaders that is central to our culture and EVP. For us, putting the experience of the team first helps reinforce where AI can add value in a meaningful way.

What is an HR initiative you’ve spearheaded that you are particularly proud of?

At Mantel Group I had the chance to roll out our Principle Based Leadership program. This is a suite of learning to support our team to lead in a way that makes sense for us and the way we work. Without traditional hierarchies and managers, we couldn’t get a cookie-cutter leadership program, we needed to create something that supported our current and future leaders in a principle-led culture.

From soft skill development through to business fundamentals, we now have over 20 topics the team can tap into. In keeping with how we do things, these sessions are available to anyone who has a passion or interest in leadership, regardless of level or tenure. A highlight and valued part of the program for our team is that every session has been designed and led by colleagues who are experts in this space.

For me, learning and development isn’t an area I had previously had exposure to so this was a challenging initiative to lead and has been rewarding to see the impact on the team.