What Gordon Milligan learned in the “lonely” corner office at Translink, Northern Ireland’s biggest bus and train operator
The call Gordon Milligan answered in April 2014 is still notable for its rarity. But if he had his way, it would be a lot more commonplace. As director of HR and OD, Milligan had enjoyed an enviable five years steering the development of Translink, the transport business that operates train and bus services across Northern Ireland. And when the group chief executive position became vacant, the board knew where to turn.
For Milligan, taking on the interim chief executive role made perfect sense. “People were intrigued when they chose the HR guy rather than an accountant or a senior operations person,” he says. “But we’re a people organisation of almost 4,000 employees, so HR skills are really important.”
His period in the job has, he believes, helped the business stabilise during a turbulent period. They have also taught the experienced HR director – who previously held roles at Nortel and Bombardier, among others – just what it takes to occupy the corner office.
“It’s quite a lonely place,” Milligan says. “Often the decision lies with you and you alone. And something challenging happens every day. It’s not a case of waking up and saying ‘I wonder if something will happen today?’ Something will happen.
“You get some difficult calls, whether they’re from other business leaders or from government officials. Sometimes you need the courage to say no to them, which can be difficult. It was very different to what I’d been used to, but I believe the skills I had as an HR person really helped me. HR people do talent management, succession planning and employee engagement – bringing those skills to the chief executive’s role worked out really well.”
Making the time to be seen, Milligan says, was crucial. Each week, he would visit a depot or train station, talking to staff or the public, testing out ideas or gathering feedback. It is a people-centric approach he witnessed first hand during his formative years in the profession.
“I had the opportunity 15 years ago to go to Harvard for almost three months. I worked with a leader who had built a high-tech operation from two or three people to 300 people. He knew everyone there. He knew when it was their birthday. He made it his business to be approachable. He had a very strong network in the business community and across government. I learned more in three weeks working with him than I learned in two years doing an MBA.”
Even so, hard-headed business skills have also been required at Translink. The company is responsible for transporting 1.6 million people – equivalent to the entire population of Northern Ireland – each week, from commuter services powering the resurgent Belfast economy to vital bus routes in remote rural locations. But the service has come under relentless financial pressure – its central government grant cut by £13 million during 2015 alone. As Milligan asks: “It’s easy to take cost out of an organisation, but how do you grow the business at the same time?”
The answer has been to protect frontline roles at all costs, while removing and streamlining management processes. It is a principle Milligan modelled through his HR interventions, where he focused on 230 senior and middle managers and encouraged them to take ownership of development programmes, defining key skills and designing learning that would embed a new, more commercial ethos.
The HR team itself also needed to reflect such ideals. Milligan wanted people “with a real passion for the guts of the business” as he sought to move HR from its personnel roots to a more modern, strategic function. “HR business partners, for me, need to have strong commercial skills,” he says. “They need a hunger for knowledge, and the ability to build strong relationships with executives. Those intrinsic skills are key – they’re every bit as important as HR skills.”
The message, says Milligan, is that HR should not accept any limitations. He sees the potential for huge growth in HR capability through the efforts of CIPD Northern Ireland, which now hosts annual awards to celebrate local success stories. But, he adds: “HR people need to push the talent agenda. They need to want to learn about the business, and they need to push – to have strong views about how to engage staff, get them focused on the vision and on delivering. Then you start to build credibility because you’re seen to be making a difference to the customer and, ultimately, the bottom line. I’d like to see more of that.”
In the meantime, the customer is all-important. “I’ve heard people say we’re a monopoly, but we’re absolutely not. There is growing competition from private transport providers, taxis, people going back to using their cars. We have to drive a really good value proposition for the customer. I keep telling employees: ‘Don’t be fooled into thinking that because we’re a public company everything’s rosy.’”