Spotlight on Nicola Zidel: Shaping the Future of HR and Operations at Business Science Corporation

As the HR Director at?Business Science Corporation (BSC)?for over eight years, Nicola’s unique combination of technical and psychological expertise has significantly impacted the company's HR and Operations functions. With a Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering and Industrial Psychology, alongside an Honours degree in Industrial Psychology, her leadership is characterized by a deep commitment to empowering employees and fostering a culture of continuous learning, innovation, and excellence. Below, Nicola shares her insights on leadership philosophy, employee engagement, navigating challenges, driving operational excellence, and her vision for the future.

Leadership Philosophy and Impact

Nicola, can you share your leadership philosophy and how it has shaped the HR and Operations functions at BSC?

My leadership philosophy is rooted in the belief that our greatest strength lies in our people. At BSC, we focus on empowering our employees by addressing their need to contribute meaningfully, aligned with their individual aspirations, and growth. We recruit for cultural fit, ensuring that new hires align with our values and ethos. This approach has shaped our HR and Operations functions by fostering a culture of mutual respect, professional fulfilment, and continuous learning. At BSC we believe if you're not learning, you're stagnating. So, continuous progress is non-negotiable for everyone. By prioritising personal development and aligning individual talents with roles, we've built a cohesive and high-performing team that drives BSC's achievements.?

Employee Engagement and Culture

How do you foster a culture of engagement and inclusion within BSC, and what initiatives have you found most effective in building a strong workplace culture?

At BSC, we believe in building a culture of mutual respect and accountability. We recruit individuals who share our core values, ensuring a strong cultural fit from the beginning. People are happiest where they fit in, so in our environment, where IP is significantly important no one is the smartest in the room. In teams, people are asked to actively listen and participate, creating an environment where everyone’s contribution feels valued. Our key initiatives include continuous honest and direct feedback loops, employee Q and A groups, and tailored professional development platforms and programs, ?fostering continuous learning and mutual respect. These efforts create a positive and inclusive workplace culture where everyone is engaged and motivated to contribute their best.

Our most effective initiatives include continuous feedback loops, employee resource groups, and tailored professional development programs. The impact of these efforts is evident in our low attrition rates and the fact that our employees typically stay with us for over five years—significantly longer than the industry average, which is a testament to the environment we've created at BSC.

Navigating Challenges in HR and Operations

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in managing HR and Operations, and how have you successfully addressed them?

One of the biggest challenges we've faced is managing the rapid growth of BSC while at the same time ensuring our HR, Leadership and Operations functions scale effectively, with employees being quickly upskilled to deliver. To address this, we've invested in structured skill capability building within teams and using technology to automate routine tasks, allowing our employees to focus their energy on initiatives where they will have the most impact. We prioritise continuous learning through structured learning paths and have invested in a skills training platform, ensuring our employees can adapt to new client challenges and technologies easily. Additionally, we've fostered a culture of problem-solving, resilience and innovation, encouraging our employees to share their ideas and collaborate on solutions. This approach has enabled us to maintain operational excellence and support the company's growth.

Driving Operational Excellence

Can you discuss some of the key strategies and innovations you’ve implemented to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness at BSC?

To drive operational excellence at BSC, we've focused on what we do best, leveraging data and technology. ?By implementing core operating systems, we have been able to gain deeper insights into our operations, identify bottlenecks, and optimise processes. We've centralised operations to standardise procedures across business units and adopted project management frameworks that still allow flexibility. This agility allows us to swiftly adapt to changing business needs and intervene where necessary, ensuring we consistently exceed client expectations.

A key strategy has been our focus on tracking skill demand, monitoring project milestones, and ensuring consistent, high-quality delivery. Our commitment to continuous improvement and innovation fosters a culture of experimentation and enhancement. We embrace the latest tools, which has increased employee productivity and ensured operational continuity during disruptions.

A significant innovation is our development of a BSC-specific ChatGPT system, called AI Buddy, powered by Amplify. This AI expert provides tailored support and insights, helping employees troubleshoot issues and access information more efficiently.

We’ve also embarked on an extensive automation program, integrating HR, operations, and finance functions. Automated workflows now handle tasks ranging from employee onboarding, to project administration and security management, significantly reducing manual workloads and increasing efficiency.

Our relentless pursuit of improvement and innovation has significantly enhanced our operational efficiency and effectiveness, enabling us to deliver superior results for our clients.

Our culture and behaviour of the need for never being satisfied and always wanting to improvement and innovate, allows us to employ and adopt new ways of working easily, significantly enhancing our operational efficiency and enabling us to deliver.

Future Vision and Goals

Looking forward, what goals and initiatives do you have for the HR and Operations divisions at BSC to continue driving growth and excellence?

In the HR Division, we aim to cultivate a future-ready workforce by harnessing and amplifying the inherent potential of our employees. This involves continuously implementing better learning and development programs tailored to evolving industry needs, ensuring our employees remain at the cutting edge of technology and innovation. We also foster a culture of innovation and excellence by developing an environment where feedback is actively encouraged and acted upon, promoting radical honesty and transparency to make innovation thrive and excellence habitual. Enhancing employee engagement and satisfaction is another key focus, which we address by regularly measuring engagement through integrated technology and direct feedback mechanisms and creating initiatives to align individual aspirations with organisational goals. Additionally, we are committed to leadership development and succession planning by implementing programs that identify and nurture future leaders from within the organisation, ensuring a seamless transition and continuity in leadership roles.

In the Operations Division, we are striving to optimise operational efficiency by ensuring every activity aligns with our core values, this means streamlining processes through technology and innovation to reduce redundancies and improve overall efficiency. We want to leverage data for informed decision-making by enhancing our data analytics capabilities, making data-driven decisions that improve operational performance and strategic planning. Promoting cross-functional collaboration is crucial, as we foster a culture of collaboration between HR, finance , Operations, and the Business units we serve to achieve common goals seamlessly.?

Our future vision for the HR and Operations divisions at BSC is grounded in the principles of continuous improvement, innovation, and excellence. By fostering this culture, we aim to not only drive growth but also ensure that BSC remains a leader in our industry, creating a thriving, future-ready organization.

Learn more: https://bscglobal.com

About Business Science Corporation (BSC):

Business Science Corporation (BSC) is a leader in innovative business solutions, committed to transforming industries through cutting-edge technologies and expert consulting. Founded with a vision to drive sustainable growth and operational excellence, BSC specializes in providing comprehensive services in productivity science, data analytics, and digital transformation. Our dedicated team of professionals collaborates with clients across diverse sectors, including mining, manufacturing, and finance, to deliver tailored solutions that address complex challenges and foster long-term success.

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