RELX Launches a New Learning Experience For People Managers

I have worked with RX for six years and for the last four as a manager of a team of ten people. My role is all around the customer experience, looking into how we can make our customers’ journeys with us as successful as possible, long-lasting and as easy and hassle free as possible. I am a strong believer that to create a fantastic customer experience, we need first a fantastic employee experience. When a customer contacts us I want them to be met with someone who is genuinely happy and satisfied in their roles, someone who may have just been thanked or recognised for some work they’ve done, someone who is excited about the next step in their role or career, someone that is motivated and driven by new challenges each day and someone who feels supported and safe in their work environment. These are the team members who will create a fantastic experience for our customers. My job is to make sure these important people feel this way each day.

I was put forward to be part of the pilot to try out the new CORE session before it rolled out widely, to give feedback and importantly, learn. I will jump on any opportunity to learn.

I have two key standouts from the event. First, the conversations delving into the neuroscience and second, the focus on our business specifically. This course is set apart by directly linking learning to what this means for us as people managers within RELX. I would recommend this course to others for both these reasons.    

We have all heard stories about how an awful boss can stunt someone’s career growth, knock their confidence, sometimes even negatively impact mental health. I’ve heard these stories all my life from friends and family (luckily never from inside RELX) and they have stuck with me. Being a manager of people, in any business, to any degree, holds significant weight and I am extremely mindful about the impact that I am having at all times, consciously and unconsciously, on people’s lives. My role is to lift each person up, to help them to be the best they can be, to understand them, understand where they thrive, where they struggle and create opportunities and areas for them to develop. When my team wins, I win.

I joined LexisNexis Legal & Professional in early 2009 as operations manager within technology and, since then, have held a variety of tech management and leadership roles. In 2021, I earned my MBA, during which I conducted an internal consultancy exploring the new hire experience and performed a mid-life career transition from technology into my current role in our global HR team.

Employee experience is a relatively new field, taking the principles of user experience and applying them to us, the employees, to drive and improve the interactions we have with our organisation, which in turn drives customer net promoter scores. My priority in this role was to reignite the onboarding programme. My job is special because I have the privilege of personally welcoming our new hires, hosting our leaders as they connect our new hires to our culture and ways of working, and helping them understand the purposeful work they will be doing while they’re with us.  I currently manage one person.

There were two key stand-out things that would lead me to recommend the CORE programme.  The first is the use of the employee journey, which is used to attract and hire, onboard, connect and engage, perform, develop, transition and exit. Having this journey made explicit to our people managers and understanding their individual competencies in each area is foundational to good people management. The second is the ability to meet and network with colleagues from across the RELX business areas.

There’s an old adage, people don’t leave bad companies, they leave bad bosses.  We probably leave bad companies AND bad bosses, but we also likely stay in bad companies because of good bosses. The relationships we have with our direct line managers are fundamental, not only to having a good experience at work, but also to avoid having bad experiences spill over and negatively impacting our personal lives and mental health.  A good manager is a conduit between their teams and the organisational strategy and leadership - providing support, visibility, feedback and access.

I’m the head of digital and content marketing within the ICIS business. I manage eight people and have been with RELX just over two years. For me, the privilege of leading a group of talented individuals makes it all the more special.

I was a part of the pilot cohort who got to experience the CORE sessions before they were rolled out across the business. What made this enjoyable was the opportunity to provide feedback and ideas to help shape the sessions for all RELX.

During the session I was reminded just how important ‘alignment’ is and how easily it can be lost right at the start of any project. This was a big reminder for me and important for my role where I need to always ensure my team is aligned with a common purpose and has clarity on what success looks like.

Aside from being critical to the wellbeing of those you manage, good people-management also offers an opportunity to motivate a group of individuals to come together as a team and create something of which they can be proud. For me personally, playing a leading role in that is a challenge that if executed upon successfully, brings with it a huge sense of personal achievement.

My primary learning from the session is the need to over communicate at the very start of a project to ensure as much agreement and understanding as is possible.

I’m a marketing owner, helping to prioritise and guide the work that my team delivers - making sure that every sprint is aligned with our overall business goals. I love this idea of being a servant-leader, a coach and a sounding board to the people in the team.

I am a relatively new manager and I’m known for giving honest, constructive feedback. Plus, I always jump at opportunities to develop myself, particularly in areas where I’ve got more to learn. I am a firm believer in lifelong learning.

What stood out from the CORE session for me was that for every piece of constructive criticism you give people, you should be giving five positive endorsements of a job well done. That really stuck with me, so I try to call out achievements, collaborative behaviour and going above and beyond whenever I can through a variety of channels and to give people visibility to other squads and senior leadership.

I truly believe that good management can make or break a person. Not just their careers, but their self-belief, their motivation and how they feel on a day-to-day basis. Like everyone else I have had my fair share of brilliant, mediocre and terrible managers. But I have learned many things from all them such as how I want to treat my team, how I individualise my support and coaching and how to be humble and admit when I don’t know something.

I have been with XpertHR for over five years and my role has progressed over that time. Currently my role is new business team leader and I have the pleasure of leading a team of four business development managers. What makes my role special is the ability to support my team and wider team members to refine and tweak their sales approach to get the results they desire and achieve their personal financial goals.

Having been promoted to team leader back in January 2022 I was still a relatively new manager. When it comes to the day job, I understood what was expected of me, however I was keen to understand from a wider group what the expectations are and how could I become the best leader to my team. It also allowed me a great opportunity to meet other managers and share experiences and ways of handling situations.

For me personally it was suggestions and ways of how to act as a facilitator to the conversation to help my team member get from A to B themselves. I would recommend this course to get a wider lens on what other managers are facing, how, as a group, you can handle scenarios in the future and understand from a RELX perspective what the expectations are.

Being a good manager of people is all about respect and treating people fairly. If you feel heard, empowered and respected you will be more motivated, which will inevitably lead to higher productivity and better job satisfaction which is then felt through the customer journey and experience of XpertHR. I have personally found it infuriating with previous managers in other organisations when I haven’t felt supported.

I started in Elsevier just over 12 years ago and have spent the last 3 years in operations, most recently in the people and organisational excellence group leading a team of five project managers based in Exeter and Chennai. What makes the role special is the opportunity to support team members to develop and collaborate with stakeholders throughout the organisation to deliver great business outcomes.

I had previously indicated interest in joining a manager learning event and was delighted when the opportunity presented itself to join an in-person course. I have had great coaching from my boss throughout my people-manager career and I thought this was an ideal opportunity to build on that foundation and further hone my skills.

What I loved about the event is that it provided me with clear expectations of what my role is as a people-manager at each stage of the employee lifecycle. There was a good balance between theory, research and practical application which made it very engaging. I would recommend the course as it has provided me with tools and best practice that I can use to develop my career. It was also a great opportunity to connect in person with managers across RELX and share experiences. I have stayed connected to many of the people in my cohort and grown my network.

Good people management is so important and can make or break an organisation as people managers play a vital role in employee engagement. When employees feel valued, supported and respected by their manager they are more committed to their role and deliver great business outcomes. It’s also critical in fostering a positive work environment and culture. Managing people well is personally important to me as I know the difference a great manager can make.

One thing I am doing a little differently already with my team is embedding even more continuous feedback and recognition. In the session we talked about the importance of feedback culture and I was surprised to learn that daily feedback results in better engagement. It can be as simple as saying thank-you for speaking up in meeting.

I have been at LexisNexis Legal & Professional for ten years. I am a lead paralegal and currently manage ten others. My job is special because I am in a unique position of being able to use my legal and management skills to drive results for the organisation.

I wanted to attend the manager CORE session because I am still fairly new to the role, so it was a great opportunity to proactively develop my management skills. My manager decided to put my name forward for the trial session in March. It was a privilege to provide feedback on my experience of the day to help ensure the experience is as useful as it can be for all RELX people managers who will attend future events.

The event was such a fantastic opportunity for my own development as a people manager and to connect and build networks across the RELX business which I found invaluable. The day allowed me to explore the employee journey from hiring to exit and understand the crucial role a manager plays. It was also useful to hear other viewpoints on how to tackle certain difficult situations you sometimes face as a manager. Furthermore, I enjoyed attending the session in person. I have really missed interacting with colleagues, it felt like a novelty to travel to a new office, have lunch and not be constantly distracted by the pinging on Teams and emails flooding my inbox.

Good people-management is crucial because it is the people who are so often the heart of an organisation. Effective people management can optimise productivity, engage employees and develop a culture of innovation.

For me, managing others well is important because I want to inspire them to do their best work and strive to meet their personal and professional development goals.