Saying yes to work

Rosemary McGinness grew up in a family with a strong work ethic. Pocket money was earned; from a paper round, cutting the grass or babysitting. “It wasn’t just given,” she said, “and I think that instilled a sense of ‘how do you get something done’. I didn’t know the word entrepreneurship then, but I knew this money allowed me to do the things I wanted.”

McGinness, group human resources director at William Grant & Sons, the family-owned spirits company, didn’t have fixed ideas about a career. For a now forgotten reason, catering had entered her mind – though her ambitions in that area were dented by a prospective employer she visited for work experience who told her it wasn’t really for women.

She studied accountancy but her first job, a stopgap, was with Forte Hotels. McGinness was fortunate this time that the general manager proved a valuable mentor, encouraging her to try a variety of roles. “It was a great training ground. Ultimately, I found my way into human resources and I knew that this people-based role was what I wanted to do.”

It led to senior HR roles in information management companies, first Williams Lea and then, based in New York, with Browne Business Solutions as a senior vice-president. Although her appetite for global business had been whetted, McGinness decided on a return to the UK. But, happily for her, a job with an outward-looking, ambitious company in her native Scotland arose.
McGinness has been with William Grant, owners of such brands as Glenfiddich, Hendrick’s and from last month Drambuie, since 2005. Earlier this year, she was named by a trade magazine as one of the most influential in her sector.

“She has delivered an HR strategy that places people at the heart of organisational transformation. She fulfils a key business role as a member of the company’s executive board, while providing functional leadership and building an HR team, which has been externally recognised at both a collective and individual level,” said HR Magazine.

“Working closely with CEO Stella David, she has contributed to the development of a high performance culture across the organisation. The alignment of reward and recognition systems, along with other key people practices, has been critical to the success of the company.

“McGinness has transformed the company’s approach to talent and development; ensuring employees are equipped with the necessary skills to support growth. She has driven exceptional levels of employee engagement, which owe a great deal to leading by example.”

A passionate advocate for young people, McGinness has been on the board of Young Enterprise Scotland (YES) for nine years and chair for the past three.

YES supports young people aged five to 30 across Scotland, providing training and practical learning experiences to young people of all backgrounds. Its most well-known initiative is its ‘Company Programme’ where final-year school pupils are offered the chance to work with a teacher and business volunteer to set up and run their own company.

Hundreds of teachers, business volunteers, pupils and schools from across Scotland take part every year. It also has a competitive side and those who come out on top at local and Scottish level have the chance to compete against other Young Enterprise companies from across the UK and Europe.

YES provides many other programmes through its staff and volunteers working in mainstream education, residential and secure units, and prisons and with partner organisations. It focuses on “entrepreneurship, enterprise and employability” as its three main outcomes.

Recently it launched ‘Bridge 2 Business’, linking colleges with young entrepreneurs and has extended its activities into primary schools.  The new YES Academies provide practical work experience and progression with qualifications for those young people removed from the labour market and further education opportunities.

“We celebrated 40 years of Young Enterprise Scotland last year,” said McGinness. “We are really proud of the way it has developed. The company programme is still very positively received and we have built up a growing alumni, many of whom come back to mentor their successors.”

Work experience, willingness to try and a supportive environment are crucial to employability, believes McGinness. “It’s having that mix of naivety and courage that when someone says ‘do you want to try this’, you can say ‘yes’. But it’s not just with young people; you can offer senior people promotions and they say ‘I’m not ready’.

“You will never be ready if you wait until you think you are! You have got to take a deep breath sometimes. You may not have all the skills, but if you have the right mindset and the right environment where you are allowed to make mistakes, that can be a hotbed for learning.”

Did she think that instilling enterprise and increasing employability required different approaches, that they represented two kinds of people?

“It’s interesting. I work for a family business and we would love everyone to think that in every decision they make it would be in the way the business approached it, for the long term. It’s about team work, understanding how a business works, deciding priorities within budgets.

“I think a lot of the skills that people learn through the YES Company Programme and the YES Academy are about surviving and thriving in business. There is a difference between employability and entrepreneurialism but I actually think the skills people learn with YES apply absolutely across both.”

From her experience of working in a global business, McGinness believes Scotland is well-placed to support young people into work and into their own businesses. It is more ‘joined up’ and has a range of complementary and connected organisations and initiatives. But those attributes can always be improved and enhanced, said McGinness.

Making sure that the baseline of support for young people does not vary across the country – the ‘postcode lottery’ of local funding – and encouraging more employers and schools to partner on work experience programmes was vital, she said.

“It’s about keeping an eye on the long term and supporting things for the long term because that’s when you can really demonstrate positive outcomes,” said McGinness.