UK 
United StatesCaren Thomas
People Director, RNLI
Caren Thomas, People Director, RNLI explains the people management intricacies of managing 25,000 volunteers and how the culture is changing for the better.
Caren Thomas
People Director, RNLI
Caren Thomas, People Director, RNLI explains the people management intricacies of managing 25,000 volunteers and how the culture is changing for the better.
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is celebrating its bicentennial anniversary this year. Two hundred years is a long time by anyone’s store, it’s a national treasure – part of the fabric of the UK and Ireland’s existence as island nations, saving more than 144,000 lives at sea since its inception in 1824 – equating to two lives saved every day for 200 years.
HR Grapevine spoke with People Director, Caren Thomas RNLI to find out more about her role and what shape the charity is in today as well as how it is tackling some of that negative press around sexist behaviour and bullying.
‘I’ve tried to retire a few times’
Thomas has held a number of impressive HR roles spanning many different sectors in both a permanent and interim capacity that include, The Football Association, the Royal British Legion, Square Enix, a producer of video games and Anthony Nolan. She has been the Transformation Lead for Comic Relief, HR Director at the Chartered Insurance Institute and HR and Communications Director for Allegis – one of the largest privately held recruitment organisations globally. As you get further into conversation with her it’s apparent that this diversity of employers and sectors is part and parcel of who Thomas is – she is a great believer in the ‘variety’ of experience which has led her to where she is today.
True to form she began her career in a non-HR environment. “I began at News International. It was heavily commercial, demanding and pacey. I had responsibility for growing advertising revenue across UK sales teams in a dynamic period for newspaper journalism.” A sideways glance to the team responsible for HR ignited a desire to move towards that.
She was just 26 at the time and her husband had been sent to the Gulf War, Thomas felt the time was ripe, ‘to do something completely different.’
“There was an opportunity in the southwest to deliver what was then the IPM (HR) programme,” she tells me. For most people without any formal HR qualification or development specialism this would be daunting, but she relished the challenge.
Just visiting a lifeboat station is an inspiring experience, the passion, dedication and frequent demonstration of courage is everywhere, with our crews and all that support them
“I was literally reading the book the night before I stood in front of 40 people, many of them ex-service personnel on re-settlement courses, yet I knew I could do it,” she says admitting that she was educating herself as she was educating them. Thomas took time out to bring up a young family, what she so beautifully refers to as ‘seven years of maternity leave’ and explains that her return to work was the beginning of her ‘proper’ HR career. She moved to a manufacturing organisation and soon qualified as an executive coach and HR employment law specialist whilst bringing up three young children often single handedly due to her husband’s operational time away from home.
Being able to read the room, the appetite for change within the organisation and of course fully understanding the strategic imperatives are what she sees as a differentiator for HR professionals. Never wishing to shy away from a challenge, she decided to go it alone as her next step and set up her own business. “There’s nothing quite like removing the security blanket of employment. It meant I was facing some quite difficult situations, but I felt ready to do that.”
Thomas adds, “The successive interim positions also suited me because I’m quite solutions orientated.” Her overarching brief, she tells me has always been to leave an organisation in a better shape than she finds it. Behind this too was a desire to strike a better work/life balance. “I hoped that I would pick up a contract for around nine months and have three off but it never quite worked out like that and at one point I was juggling two at once!” she laughs.
Prior to joining the RNLI Thomas worked in the city and after completing an agreed three years decided to try retirement. She lasted for three weeks and acknowledges that working is something that she achieves tremendous satisfaction from and that’s OK.
A call from the RNLI was one that she had not expected
In October of last year, Thomas was appointed as People Director, for the RNLI and is responsible for the recruitment, engagement and retention of 25,000 volunteers and all people matters across 1,800 staff. “Just visiting a lifeboat station is an inspiring experience, the passion, dedication and frequent demonstration of courage is everywhere, with our crews and all that support them.”
Thomas admits that it is a ‘complicated organisation’. Indeed, it’s no ordinary workforce because the nature of it is run by volunteers, the numbers far outweighing the permanent staff. There are 238 lifeboat stations around the coast of the UK and Ireland with a fleet of more than 430 lifeboats. RNLI lifeguards also operate on more than 230 beaches during the summer.
There’s a lot more to it than meets the eyes because as well as the fundamental remit to save lives at sea, they work on drowning prevention schemes and educating communities on safety in the water.
