Peer-to-Peer… with Richard Vanner

In this episode of the Future of Work Hub’s Peer-to-Peer podcast, Julia Paulding is joined by Richard Vanner, Human Resources Director at WTW. They discuss the importance of sustaining a strong, consistent culture through rapid growth and transformation and how technology and AI are reshaping workforce design and skills, emphasising that how change is delivered matters just as much as what is implemented. 

Transcript

Julia Paulding: 

Hello, you're listening to Peer-to-Peer. I'm Julia Paulding, Chief People Officer at Lewis Silkin. In this podcast, I sit down with senior leaders responsible for people and culture to explore how workplaces are evolving and where the future of work is heading. Today, I'm delighted to be joined by Richard Vanner, Human Resources Director at WTW. His role covers around 13,500 people in Europe (including the UK), with WTW's global workforce being around 49,000 people.

Richard, welcome to the podcast. It's great to have you here. How are you today?

Richard Vanner: 

Hi, Julia. Thanks, I'm delighted to be here. Really well, thank you.

Julia Paulding: 

I'd like to start at the beginning of your career at WTW and then fast forward to where you are today. I think I'm right in saying you've been at WTW for just over 20 years now.

Richard Vanner: 

Yes, that's right, hard to believe, I think 21 and it's gone very quickly. I started in what was Watson Wyatt Worldwide, actuarial firm of 1,500 – 1,600 people and now to the large organisation that WTW has become, as you say, 49,000. So it's changed quite a lot in that time, but it's always kept me interested throughout that entire period. And of course, things were much more locally focused then and more globally focused now, just as has happened in many companies.

Julia Paulding: 

Absolutely. So, when you think about your journey at WTW and the different chapters you've had there, what are the key moments that have shaped your path that really stand out? And what is it about the culture and the work that's kept you energised and committed over the years?

Richard Vanner: 

Yes, I think certainly the big milestones have been the organisational changes. When I had been there for about a year, we moved from being part of the limited liability partnership to part of Watson Wyatt Company, so the global company. Then we had a merger with Towers Perrin in 2010 and that took us from 1,500 to 15,000. And then the WTW merger in 2016 where we moved to what was 40,000 then and now nearly 50,000. So those have been the really big moments that have shaped my career and things have changed and evolved around that time. Throughout all of that, I think the culture has been very consistent from the beginning. We have a great culture at WTW founded on our five core values: client focus, teamwork, respect, integrity, excellence. Those values are really lived by colleagues day to day and make a really great colleague experience, I think. So that's the thing going through everything, that really fabulous culture that I found engaging and has kept me interested and motivated and keen to remain with the company throughout that time.

Julia Paulding: 

That's amazing to hear. Despite these huge shifts in population sizes and merging with different companies, the culture and the values have endured. That's incredible to hear because these are really massive shifts that you've lived through over the years.

Richard Vanner: 

Absolutely, that's really the triumph of it. I think it has clearly been difficult and with any large organisation you always get micro subcultures, but the overall philosophy and culture of the company is the same. Interestingly, when people join us and you ask new joiners who've been with us for three, six months, what is it you like about it? And the first thing people always say is culture, so we're obviously doing something right.

Julia Paulding: 

And you're attracting people who want to join you for that culture.

Richard Vanner: 

I think so, yes.

Julia Paulding: 

Could you paint a picture of your role now? How has this remit evolved over the years at WTW itself and the wider market?

Richard Vanner: 

Yes, absolutely. The company's changed quite a lot. We have a matrix structure to our organisation with two segments: one focusing on risk and insurance broker type activities and the second on employee benefits consulting, actuarial type services. And then we have the functions that support that. The segments are responsible for the delivery of the strategy and then we have three geographies that support the delivery, so going out to market with clients and also engaging with colleagues and delivering a good colleague experience. My role sits in the geography side of the business, I'm the head of HR for Europe which is about 13,500 people and we're the team responsible for the end-to-end delivery of all the HR services in conjunction with the other teams within HR. We couldn't do it without our centres of expertise, our HR services team etc. That model has, as it has in a lot of organisations, really evolved and refined and continues to do so as things move in it. It evolved particularly with things like technology, uncertainty in global markets and all of these things that have an impact. That's certainly been a factor here as well.

FRONT AND CENTRE ISSUES ON THE HR AGENDA

Julia Paulding: 

Thanks, Richard, that subject of change and things that we're seeing in the market really accelerate at the moment, we'll come back to that in a second. I also spent a long stretch earlier in my career at one organisation, so I'm always really fascinated by leaders who've seen a business evolve from the inside over a longer period of time. I think it's a really useful lens to have, so it's really great to speak to somebody else who's also been a long server today. So, before we dive into the themes we've planned, I'm really curious about what's front and centre for you right now, this week. If I were to look over your shoulder at your to-do list, what are the two or three hot topics you're actively dealing with?

Richard Vanner: 

Sure, I'm sure that like your to-do list, it’s probably a very long one. I'm quite excited because next week we have a new joiner - the new head of our CEEMEA region (Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa) - and so we're planning her introduction. We have ambitious plans for growth within that region, and having the right HR leadership there on the ground is really key. Having somebody in the Middle East this time will be really exciting, so we're making plans for that. Then it's that time of year when we're gearing up for our annual cycle, things that I'm sure you'll be familiar with too, Julia. So, we're getting our data and processes in place and, as we do these things year on year, trying to embrace a little bit more technology to make these processes more efficient and effective. So focusing some attention and time on that as well.

Julia Paulding: 

Also, what we're finding here is personalisation, so making them more efficient but also a bit more personalised each time which is always exciting as the year begins. 

Richard Vanner: 

Yes, agreed.

HOW TECHNOLOGICAL SHIFTS TRANSLATE TO PEOPLE STRATEGY 

Julia Paulding: 

Let's pick up on that pace of change that we've started to talk about, especially on the technology side. Many organisations are finding that hiring skills and capability building are all being reshaped at once, all at the same time. How do you see the technology shifts you're experiencing at the moment translating into your people strategy on the ground?

Richard Vanner: 

Sure, it's a very interesting time, that's for sure - so fast moving and the pace of change, if you think about what's happened just in this calendar year compared to where we were at the beginning, it's an incredible change and the pace of it just seems to quicken. 

Our focus is very much on “right work, right place” type strategies. We've embraced some nearshoring and offshoring for certain roles, trying to build core technical expertise in specific centres and making sure we've got the right scale to that as well. Over the last little while, we’ve built out global centres, so we use India, the Philippines, Mexico, Portugal, and those operations have really expanded and the level of expertise and competence we have in those is really very impressive.

So how does that translate in practice? Now, if we have a vacancy, there’s always a careful consideration of where we should be filling this role - should it be an in-country role? Should it be nearshore? Should it be offshore? So thinking carefully about what's the optimal way to do that, and of course, as with anything, it's always a blend. If you have an offshoring or nearshoring strategy, it's always really important to make sure that the teams in different locations are connected. It's not a distant centre doing these things in a very transactional way and they're passing them over - you've got to try and work collaboratively around teams. We found that out the hard way through some of the earlier changes that we had that it was actually quite difficult to do that. The best lessons are always learned the hard way around making sure you've got the right level of coordination and engagement within teams, particularly if they're doing separate parts of the same process for example. That's really shaped our strategy, I would say quite a lot and it will continue to do so with those locations.

Julia Paulding: 

So, technology is really allowing that flexibility to take place - the different communications and ways of working through technology are allowing that shift towards deciding where is the right place for somebody to work from.

Richard Vanner: 

Yes, absolutely. It's led to a huge change in that and alongside people working more flexibly just in terms of work styles or locations, that whole office versus remote, that's also contributed to it as well. But yes, it really seems to have accelerated, I would say in the last 18 months to two years.

Julia Paulding: 

Absolutely, and keeps evolving. 

Richard Vanner:

Yes

AI ROADMAP AND SKILLS

Julia Paulding:

Looking more to the future, how do you anticipate the shape of your future workforce changing in response to agentic AI and adjacent technologies?

Richard Vanner: 

Yes, I think that's a really interesting one. We're just at the start of our journey in some ways with AI - we've adopted Copilot, issued licenses and people are getting familiar with the core skills and training. But really, the next stage is to start looking at introducing chatbots in certain parts of the business, particularly where they're customer facing. Work is also underway on agentic AI and opportunities for implementing that within the business. I think we'll start to do some of that in 2026 - start small and then build from there.

The bigger question from a people perspective related to that is, what's the impact of that? What will it mean for jobs and roles and opportunities? It's still quite early to say that, we want people to become more AI literate so they can work with tools rather than the tools and AI replacing jobs in significant numbers, but I think for a lot of companies, ourselves included, we just have to see how some of this will evolve. The technology is certainly there to facilitate some of these things and part of it will also mean thinking more meaningfully about upskilling the existing workforce as well, I think is a key part of that.

Julia Paulding: 

So, exciting times in 2026 for the evolution of technology within your organisation. What you said around the closer connection between people and technology, that really resonates with me here. At Lewis Silkin, what we've recently done is brought our technology learning team into the broader L&D function within HR so that we can think about accelerating adoption and alignment of tech and thinking around how it affects people and how people learn within our organisation. There's a lot going on in that space at the moment, isn't there?

Richard Vanner: 

No, absolutely. I think you've hit the nail on the head, and we are certainly seeing a closer alliance between technology and HR on some of these things, particularly around AI adoption skills. It's also the balance around self-learning and giving people the tools to do things and learn at their own pace, which is really important. There's probably also some merit still in the more traditional type tuition and engagement around things - sharing experiences, learning together - and getting the right balance of that is key. But I think the general point about technology and HR teams working closer together is really key and we'll see more of that going forward.

BRINGING THE WHOLE WORKFORCE ON THE JOURNEY WITH YOU

Julia Paulding: 

Coming back to change, there’s lots of change we're speaking about at the moment but we both know that change only sticks if people come with you. How are you making sure that you bring the whole workforce along on the journey from the early adopters to those who may be more cautious or overwhelmed? What have you found actually shifts resistance towards change and engagement?

Richard Vanner: 

Yes, a really interesting point. I think you have to spend a lot of time and have a lot of patience in this particular area because you do have pockets of resistance or concern. A lot of that is sometimes built from people's fear or anxiety of the future, and I think that the key thing is planning for the change effectively, understanding the benefits, conveying to people what that actually means for them and their role and how it will enhance their role or make it better or easier. And then just constantly communicate - we've found over time, with any change, in order for it to land properly, you often have to communicate it four, five, six times. So, if you have a couple of Town Hall type meetings, you then have to mention it in the next one and then it starts to seep into the way that you're doing things. If you're making changes, it's good to have a robust change quite quickly, so kind of “out with the old in with the new” and then everybody has to align to it but at the same time making sure there's the right support there to deliver the change rather than running two things in parallel because people will only be forced into the new system or process when they can no longer use the old one. So that's been interesting as well, ensuring business continuity at the same time.

Julia Paulding: 

That's such an excellent point and it's always a balance, isn't it, between these parallel “running to get people used to it” versus “come on, we've all just got to do it”. And I 100% agree that sometimes it can feel like overcommunication, but even that isn't enough sometimes - people just want to know what's going on all the time, rightly so.

Richard Vanner: 

Yes, agreed. And some people, the ones that don't want to engage will avoid the Town Halls or they'll avoid the meetings but you’ve still got to reach those people because they're the ones that are going to be impacted too. So it requires quite a careful, planned approach overall, I would say.

REGULATORY CHANGE

Julia Paulding: 

On the subject of change, I think it's an understatement to say there's a lot of regulatory change to stay on top of right now, and this is something I've discussed with previous guests. In particular, we're having to navigate the sweeping changes coming out of the new Employment Rights Act which is set to reshape the landscape of employment law and the relationship between employers and their people. I think it's really tricky to strike the balance between “fire-fighting” these immediate issues and driving long-term people strategy. This is particularly challenging where resources are under pressure and it's something we've seen in our future of work research for two years running now. I'd love to hear how you're managing this balance.

Richard Vanner: 

Yes, completely. It is a very interesting challenge for us and we, consistent with your research, probably take more of a short-term approach to these things, deal with what's in front of us “here and now”, which sometimes reflects the nature of the business to deliver results, get things done and that really is the priority. Certainly, that is the case with some of the regulatory changes that we've seen. 

However, as you mentioned with the Employment Rights Act, we’re on the cusp of some of the most significant change we've seen in employment law for many, many years, so planning more carefully for that is really key. That’s not just for HR teams and in-house legal teams but also helping to equip managers around some of those things as well, I think is really key. One of the things we're thinking is, what support and interventions can we give? What are the key areas of HR work that will be impacted? For example, things like we need to be really robust in our hiring, make sure we make really good hiring decisions, excellent onboarding to get new joiners up to speed, make sure that they're fully supported etc. So, work going on in the background to consider all of that and be ready for when the changes come, which thankfully will be introduced over a two-year period but nonetheless, it's a lot to cope with. 

Of course, other strands of the Act as well, so things like union recognition, for example, we don't recognise unions within our organisation currently, although we have pockets of membership and that’s consistent within our sector so that may change as well. So thinking about how we manage and adapt to that is another really important consideration.

RAPID-FIRE QUESTIONS

Julia Paulding: 

Sadly, we're running out of time today, but I wanted to close with some quick rapid-fire questions that may be helpful for our listeners to get your perspective on. Ready? 

Richard Vanner: 

Sure!

Julia Paulding:

Okay. First question, what do you think is the most underrated risk organisations are sleepwalking into right now?

Richard Vanner: 

Ooh, nice easy one to start. I would say the reskilling of employees to respond to future work requirements.

Julia Paulding: 

Okay, second question: if you had an extra 10% budget, where would you invest it first?

Richard Vanner: 

In the development of my team, first of all, that would be the main thing. And then I would introduce a couple of extra roles in certain areas to give us more capacity.

Julia Paulding: 

Third question: in three words, describe WTW's future workforce.

Richard Vanner: 

Okay, so at WTW we like to say that we're authentic, curious and bold.

Julia Paulding: 

They’re great words. And final question, what's the one skill you'd retrain every manager on tomorrow?

Richard Vanner: 

Effective listening.

BUILDING RESILIENCE AMID CONSTANT CHANGE 

Julia Paulding: 

Now that was a really tough question at the end because there's so many with the way things are going at the moment. 

Richard, it's been fantastic having you share your insights and experiences. Before I let you go, I want to ask you the question that I'm going to be asking of all of my podcast guests this year and that is: what's the one piece of advice you'd give to leaders who want to strengthen their organisation's future resilience in the face of so much constant change?

Richard Vanner: 

I would say be a strong, clear, regular communicator to your teams and others in the business about the change taking place. Be bold, take the odd calculated risk. Importantly, be an advocate for change. Understand other perspectives, try to remove barriers when they appear and remember how you do the changes is often more important than the “what”. And if you can do those things well, then you'll take people with you on the journey.

Julia Paulding: 

That’s great advice, thank you, Richard. This has been a brilliant conversation, thank you for sharing your insights with us today. And thanks to everyone for listening to Peer-to-Peer. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe on your favourite platform. If you're a senior people leader with thoughts on the future of work, we'd love to hear from you. Until next time, goodbye.