'I really did need to take a step back and methodically work out a roadmap'

When Raj Tapper was appointed as Clemenger Group’s first ever group head of people and culture, it was during a difficult time. The COVID pandemic had struck across the globe and Melbourne experienced more time in lockdown than any other city in the world.

“I joined the group in the dark days of 2021 when Melbourne was in its biggest lockdown,” Tapper told HRDTV. “I had been hired through Zoom, I hadn’t met anyone, I was working from home.”

Clemenger Group is the largest marketing and communications network in Australasia and when Tapper came onboard, she had to navigate a new landscape of working. The key issues from a people and culture perspective weren’t necessarily created within the group, but rather from the outside world.

“In the advent of COVID, [it meant] working out what hybrid working means and what it looks like,” she said. “And how does that work in the creative industries where it’s so important for people to spend time together and bounce off each other.

“But you also want to create a workplace that really embraces inclusiveness, diversity, and enables everyone to do their best work.”

A new people and culture function

Tapper described Clemenger Group as a 75-year-old startup from a people and culture point of view.

“The temptation when you come in and you don’t have a people and culture function is to try and do everything and to make up for lost time,” she said in an in-depth video interview with HRD. “But I knew that that would be a big mistake because you can’t do everything well.

“So I really did need to take a step back and methodically work out a roadmap and really starting with what’s the most pressing [issue?] What really needs to happen immediately?”

In her new role, Tapper said she wanted to respect the history of Clemenger Group, so it was important to work out what had been working well and what was important to retain and enhance, versus where the opportunities are.

“It’s interesting when people haven’t had people and culture in the past, I think they think you do some kind of magic and that you’ve got this wand that’s… just going to solve everything overnight,” she said. “And then part of my job is actually educating them around the fact that we all play a role together.”

The end of 2021 and beginning of 2022 was the time of the Great Resignation and the war for talent, Tapper said. It was also the time to work out what she needed to build a team.

“I wasn’t going to be able to do all of this on my own,” she said. “So [it was about] creating the team structure and then hiring people.”

Phase two of HR strategy at Clemenger

Phase two of Tapper’s new HR strategy is something she described as a “middle phase” which is going to take time.

It involves building deep relationships with business leaders as well as developing tangible elements for employees that can be measured. Tapper separated them into three key areas.

“One would be diversity, equity and inclusion; the next one would be leadership development; and then the third one, which is a broader one, is really understanding employee engagement from a people leader point of view,” she said.

Then it’s about identifying and understanding the key levers then to build cultures that are thriving, Tapper said, “and where employees are highly engaged.”

While there are elements that the organisation isn’t going to achieve overnight, she said, “they do provide the north star for us.”

Key learnings for HR leader

One of the key learnings for Tapper has been about being patient and not taking things for granted.

“There are people practices that I’ve just taken for granted through my career because of the organisations I’ve worked in,” she said. “But they don’t necessarily come naturally in an organisation that hasn’t had any kind of people and culture frameworks in the past.” 

Ultimately, what Tapper believes creates a successful and high-functioning HR function is building advocacy from the business.

“Really, really strong HR partnering,” she said. “If you don’t have that, it doesn’t matter how hard or smart you work, your initiatives just aren’t going to land properly. Because what you really want is to know that you’re on the same road as a business, that you’re all travelling down the road together.”