As the co-founder of Thomsons Online Benefits and its award-winning software named Darwin, Michael Whitfield was the CEO of a global business that at the time of its sale to Mercer in 2016, employed some 650 people in offices around the globe. That was Michael Whitfield 1.0.
Today, Michael Whitfield 2.0, far from spending time on the golf course, is a passionate and hands-on investor and adviser to a diverse portfolio of disruptive HR tech businesses. His passion for tech, HR and disruption remains undimmed and this wide-ranging and fascinating interview gives valuable insights from both his former and current business experience.
We discuss:
How good organisational culture needs far more than just lip-service and how responsibility for culture starts and ends with the firm’s leadership;
Diversity and Inclusion will occur naturally if your culture allows it;
His passion for social-mobility and his thoughts on the government’s levelling up agenda;
His concern and worries surrounding youth unemployment in the UK;
His scepticism surrounding the suitability of some University degrees;
His strong belief in UK tech entrepreneurs and in particular disruptive HR technology.
A captivating interview from a true HR disruptor and visionary.
Michael Whitfield is a true market disruptor. His pioneering approach to business revolutionised the stuffy and staid world of employee benefits, building a business that today counts 9 of the world’s top 10 technology firms and 8 of the world’s biggest financial services groups as customers.
As the co-founder of Thomsons Online Benefits and its award-winning software named Darwin, Michael Whitfield was the CEO of a global business that at the time of its sale to Mercer in 2016, employed some 650 people in offices around the globe.
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Whatever you want to say to me, you can say it here: chris.taylor@accelerator-hr.co.uk
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