PROFILE OF A CHANGE MAKER Madalyn Brooks, HR Director ...

PROFILE OF A CHANGE MAKER
Madalyn Brooks, HR Director, Procter & Gamble UK
Like all senior managers at Procter and Gamble, Madalyn Brooks progressed through the company from
entry level (in her case as a research scientist) as part of the collaborative and supportive ‘build from
within’ culture that her company embraces.
Seventeen of her twenty two years of service have been devoted to working in human resources running
the whole gamut of disciplines from recruitment and training to employee labour relations.
Currently the HR Director of Procter and Gamble UK and Ireland, after working five years in Geneva at
the company’s regional branch, Madalyn is no stranger to operating out of her comfort zone and
certainly seems to thrive on this.
‘Roles that have influenced me the most have been those that have stretched me, but have offered
me huge learning and growth. These have typically been ‘hot house assignments such as the
acquisition of Gillette, the merger of our two headquarters and the outsourcing of our business
processes to IBM’.
The UK and Ireland business is one of the largest in the Procter & Gamble (P & G) family. As well as being
directly responsible for its people and organisational strategy, Madalyn has the HR oversight for the
company’s total business in the UK. This means making sure that around 6200 employees are living the
company's values, principles and policies consistently.
Remaining at the same company for over two decades may seem like no meagre feat in today’s’ modern
times. Madalyn however, can give many reasons why she has chosen to stay. One of the most important
being P&G’s adherences to, Purpose value principles.
‘Doing the right thing, respecting individuals, and an internal culture which drives trust ownership and
passion for winning are the red thread’ which drives us to succeed.’
Human Resources have always been an important business partner, but in a world in the full throes of a
recession it has become a vital one.
Madalyn firmly believes that hard skills of planning and tracking must be balanced with ‘softer’ skills
such as listening and counselling in order to help motivate workers through the current economic crisis.
Focussing on areas such as, the equipping of managers, a healthy work- life balance and active
communication of the business’s health, Madalyn is working to ensure that Procter and Gamble
continue to build on their 170 year history and emerge stronger after the storm has passed.
‘For our managers we are investing in coaching and inspirational leadership development, We are

ensuring a strict discipline of one to one interaction between people and their managers through clear
work plans to make sure people understand what the business needs them to do.
‘For Health and Wellbeing we are looking at how we can help our people build their personal energy
and mental health through sport and healthy eating along with encouraging fun events often tied to
charity’.
On communication we are continuing to review our business health every month through town hall
meetings with our senior leaders, coupled with leadership follow up. We have many channels through
which our employees can gain important information and we need to use these to the full’.
Madalyn is fully aware that in order to adapt to the ever changing workplace, P&G’s people organisation
strategies must constantly be honed.
Accurate feedback is essential to this process and the Great Place To Work ® survey has certainly helped
provide this.
‘Great Place To Work are also helping us through the Best Practice Forums, meeting organisations
with similar challenges can give us good ideas of new things to try’
In a company underpinned by strong purpose, values and principles, Madalyn Brooks certainly welcomes
having her work cut out for her. She also knows that the stencil for that cut out will be different
tomorrow, from the one that was used today.