We don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a wedding in the UK on Friday. Kate Middleton, a young woman with no royal blood, is marrying Prince William Mountbatten-Windsor, second in the line to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and Saint Kitts and Nevis.
In the recent film The King’s Speech, the actor Colin Firth, playing Prince William’s great grandfather George VI – before becoming king – says ‘We’re not a family. We’re a firm.’ So Miss Middleton, in marrying into the Mountbatten-Windsors, is not just joining a family: she is being inducted into a powerful, well-resourced and long-lasting organisation, a brand.
So perhaps this can be a reminder to look at your organisation’s policies describing the recruitment of family members of existing employees, and describing the onboarding and induction of new recruits?
We can see Miss Middleton joining the Mountbatten-Windsors as an example of long-term strategic succession planning. If current plans come to fruition, she will be the Queen Consort – wife of the King – in some years’ time. This is a position of considerable power and influence. So the extended courting period between Miss Middleton and Prince William has been an extensive assessment centre and onboarding process, to ensure that she is right not just in her relationship with her future husband but also in her future job.
Oakwood wish the happy couple, and indeed their entire organisation, a fruitful and productive future. And we wish all our students an equally effective set of policies and practices.
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