Charles Tyrwhitt’s HR Director talks AI, wellbeing, inclusive cultures and more

Creating a harmonious, supportive company culture is not the easiest task for any organization – especially for those with employees across the globe.

Philip Vickers, Charles Tyrwhitt’s HR Director for the UK and USA

But Charles Tyrwhitt, a mid-size retailer specializing in work menswear with 44 stores across the UK, US, and Paris, has prioritized seeking out ways to ensure all employees are recognized and celebrated for their hard work.

To find out how the business has achieved this, UNLEASH spoke to Philip Vickers, Charles Tyrwhitt’s HR Director for the UK and USA, in an exclusive interview. 

Vickers – who has been with the business for almost seven years – has seen and pioneered a number of business transformations. 

In fact, when taking the role back in 2018, it was his top priority to transform the HR function moving from being set up by business area to a Centre of Excellence (CoE) model.

After 18 months, Vickers and his team were confident they had the right people in the right positions to make their operations as seamless as possible.

This was of paramount importance to Charles Tyrwhitt – Vickers explains that it allows the business to “react quickly” while making better decisions, particularly in terms of “recruitment, engagement and building up the communications platform.” 

Now, after three record years on the bounce, Charles Tyrwhitt has exceeded its company targets, which Vickers credits to retaining great colleagues, bringing in new talent, and creating an atmosphere where people can have autonomy to flourish.  

Creating a culture promoting wellbeing

Employee wellbeing is an imperative for business success, with 31% of employees sharing they have too much work to complete in a normal week.

Likewise, more than half of respondents stated they have done their job in the last three months, despite not feeling up to it, according to data from CIDP. This marks a 9% increase from 2022. 

With this in mind, more businesses are prioritizing employee wellbeing, with Charles Tyrwhitt being no exception. 

So much so, Vickers’ states that it’s a “business imperative” to continue to champion wellbeing. 

I personally don’t believe that wellbeing is separate from work,” he says. “I think it is a core part of work. For us at Charles Tyrwhitt, we talk about wellbeing in three core areas; positive work, positive health, and positive environment.”

Positive work focuses on job design and whether a role is rewarding, engaging, and worthwhile with opportunities for growth and development. 

Positive health ensures the business offers benefits that support colleagues to be well at work – spanning mental health, financial health, and physical health. 

Finally, a positive environment centers around the workspace that someone operates in and the culture the business has. For example, Vickers and his team reflect on whether the business has an environment where people can be themselves and where they want to give their best.

This allows leadership to view the different facets, to understand where they can make improvements to each element. 

Additionally, Vickers’ stated that the real challenge for HR is striking the balance on key topics – such as hybrid working and DEIB. 

“Now more than ever we’re seeing a real push-pull between businesses and employees, as well as within different groups of employees who can have very different views,” he explains. “The pendulum swung one way with COVID-19, but now we’re watching it swinging back the other way, and businesses are trying to wrestle back control. 

“HR is also facing the challenge of how to best help senior leaders navigate these topics. Both have been in the news a lot, with high profile examples of the return-to-work tug of war and the push back in some areas against perceived ‘wokeness’. 

“I think the key for HR is supporting leaders to navigate these topics with a focus on clarity and consistency.”

At Charles Tyrwhitt, 70% of roles can’t be done remotely – such as shop floor workers. For the 30% that can, employees are asked to come in the office three days each week to promote collaboration and teamwork. 

“We’ve been consistent with this approach and we’re clear on why we believe it’s right for us, which is especially important when it comes to making new hires and being honest about the business, as the last thing we want is to promise something that doesn’t exist,” Vickers explains. 

The company encourages also all employees to bring their authentic selves to work as a wellbeing priority, which is supported through its “proud and free to be me” policy. 

Looking through the DEIB lens, we’ve placed real focus on the inclusivity aspect, doing all we can to make it a place where everyone can be themselves and be at their best,” he adds. 

“This has involved partnering with organizations like Inclusive Employers to really challenge ourselves and our way of thinking. We’ve been open and transparent that this is where we’re placing our efforts and we have a great group of colleagues who are working with us to make things happen. 

“It’s a really tough line to walk for HR teams, so I think all we can do is be clear on our focus areas and what we can/can’t do so we can help leaders bring colleagues on the journey.”

Celebrating employees across the globe

With over 1,000 employees across the UK, US and its Paris location, it’s of paramount importance for Charles Tyrwhitt to highlight recognition among employees.

As the business spans many different locations, many of its employees will never connect with each other, so it’s therefore important for leaders to create an inclusive culture with continuous recognition, where success is shared.

“Colleagues in Marlow will never meet colleagues in Houston but, somehow, we still have to create a collective sense of sharing success and celebrating what’s gone well, which is why we started working with Reward Gateway | Edenred, to essentially, bring everything together,” Vickers explains.

By using the Reward Gateway | Edenred platform, Charles Tyrwhitt has built an intranet called The LINK.

This hosts a variety of perks for employees, regular blogs and updates from business leaders, as well as discounts, benefits, policies, procedures, and access to recruitment. 

“The idea is that everything employees could possibly need is in this one place; we’ve really tried to make it a one-stop-shop,” he adds.

From a recognition perspective, the business also has the “Celebration Station”, offering employees the chance to send ecards to colleagues to say thank you. A number of these are linked to company values and behaviors, and can be seen by all employees, to really help share that appreciation.  

By utilizing the Reward Gateway | Edenred platform, Charles Tyrwhitt has built content for colleagues, such as returning to work hubs, which are particularly useful for new parents returning to work, as well as information on discounts, flexible working requests and much more. 

“Our aim is to create a seamless journey for colleagues at key moments of their life, by providing all the information they could possibly need, which the platform really helps us deliver,” Vickers highlights.

Another way Charles Tyrwhitt is expanding on these benefits is by utilizing AI, which Vickers’ believes can particularly improve the wellbeing space, explaining there’s a “real opportunity” to use the technology to help colleagues access the support they need at various points in their lives. 

He says: “As a business we have a huge number of benefits open to our colleagues, but it’s difficult to showcase them in a way that is simple and easy for colleagues to navigate, so I’m sure colleagues are missing out on some things that would really help them. 

“For example, we’ve got our remote GP service that comes through one company, private healthcare through another, and then cash plans as well – all of which are very different and offer different services. 

AI could really help streamline how colleagues access these benefits, learning what people access at different moments and tailoring their intranet homepage to be more specific to the user.

“For example, if someone looks up ‘mortgage advice’, the user could then be fed information about moving home or discounts. This would not only make the experience more personalized for the employee, but more interactive, too.”

Looking towards the future with HR leaders

After seven years at Charles Tyrwhitt, Vickers’ has made a clear impact, while also outlining his immediate top focuses.

But UNLEASH wanted to know what he believes are to be the most pressing topics for the future, that the other HR leaders need to be aware of.

Addressing the question, Vickers remarks: “We’ve spoken briefly on how AI and technology will impact HR – and the importance of embracing this – as well as the increasing importance on how we still apply human judgment to it. 

“As HR teams we’ll need to check that where AI is helping us sift applications for roles it isn’t playing to inherent biases or ruling out great candidates because they’re different to what we have.”

He expands that Charles Tyrwhitt has already seen an increasing number of applications where candidates are using AI to assist them with questions on the application form. Therefore, he advises that HR teams need to consider how they screen and hire candidates in order to mitigate these factors. 

Vickers then moves on to culture, explaining that it is, and will continue to be, a key area for HR teams. 

Whilst HR can’t own or be 100% responsible for the culture within a business, we do play a key role in creating the conditions for a positive culture to exist,” he highlights.

“Going forward I think there will be a greater focus on how microcultures, within teams or sites, will exist within the macro environment of the business.”

To achieve this, he shares the opinion that businesses need to have a behavioral framework in place, with the understanding that this will feel and look different depending on where in the world employees are.

Finally, Vickers spotlights that the make-up of the workforce changes; HR will need to help upskill line managers to become effective career coaches. 

He concludes: “Different generations are going to want and need different things from work, with varying expectations of their career and the future.

“HR will need to work with line managers to understand what options there are, how we can help people retrain and grow, work more flexibly at various life stages and have benefits that help them when they need them. 

“I think the great news is that the positive role HR can play in the work environment is only going to grow, so it’s an exciting time to be in the profession!”