UK 
United States
Brett Davies, Talent & Brand Director at Retail Marketing Group (RMG), talks about his new role.
Tell me a little about your company and your role.
At RMG we help to make people feel passionate about technology brands.
We work with some of the most exciting consumer technology companies around the world to help them better understand the market and sell their products out in retail. We have a clear focus on people and their potential at RMG, and we now have offices in the UK, Nordics and Australia.
For the last eight months I’ve been focussed on the global resourcing strategy and employer brand at RMG, and I’ve just taken on a new role as Talent and Brand Director. The ambition is to link together elements of our people and marketing worlds, which is really exciting and hopefully quite forward-thinking.
Today so much in HR can be viewed through a marketing lens (employer branding, recruitment, engagement, employee insights etc.) and our marketing team sits side by side with our people team so it feels natural to bring the two closer together. We are also a privately owned business, so we have the flexibility and autonomy to try something new!
What do you think HR will look like in ten years?
That’s always a question in the back of my mind, and a great example of why we’re trying something new at RMG. I believe a lot of the specialist roles in HR will start to join up more over the next few years – talent is a good example of this already. My hope is that there is a talent function at the heart of every HR team in ten years!
I definitely think HR technology will continue to grow and improve over the next decade; connecting and empowering people, and ultimately making HR more insightful. We recently launched our own RMG engagement app which is getting great feedback – it’s a one-stop shop for internal communications, recognition, development and benefits.
Personally, I’d also love to see more HRDs moving into CEO positions in the future. In my experience it’s quite rare to see that career path. However, I absolutely believe if people are at the heart of your business, and you’re commercially-minded, you could have the makings of a great CEO.
