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Claudia Watson
Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Adecco Group | World wide Recruitment.
claudiawatson321@gmail.com
Summary
I am passionate about helping individuals, teams & businesses be the best they can be, I’m also excited by
the transformation & possibilities technology brings to our lives and our work – and where better to exercise
this passion than at Microsoft, a company whose vision is to help people & businesses throughout the world
realise their potential! Given my passion for technology, my career so far has exclusively been in the Hi-Tech
Industry holding a variety of HR roles at UK and International levels, both in Country and HQ roles, and across
a variety of HR functions (HRBP, Staffing, Talent, OD). I find the diversity of my career experiences, provides
me with a unique insight to the complex people challenges presented at enterprise, regional & local layers of
dynamic, global, leading edge organisations. During my career, I’ve been recognised for my commitment to
excellence, and have earned a reputation for generating positivity & driving progress. I have a collaborative,
creative and pragmatic approach and am known for my straight talking and ability to exude enthusiasm in all I
do! Specialties: Management Development, Organisational Development & Design, Employee Engagement,
Global HR Leadership. Project & Program Management.
Experience
President of Talent Acquisition at Adecco Group
March 2016 - Present (1 month)
Functions as an engaged, trusted partner with HR and business leaders. Serves as a thought leader on
sourcing, assessment and selection techniques to ensure a highly effective, results-oriented recruiting and
selection process. • Leverages social networking and other cutting edge recruiting technologies and tools
to connect with a broad and diverse talent network. • Researches and analyzes workforce trends, focusing
on opportunity for diverse candidate pipelines; partners with appropriate staff/leaders to develop workforce
plan to meet both current and future diverse talent demands. Measures and reports on effectiveness of
programs. • Ensures the talent acquisition team is viewed as a trusted and collaborative partner. Drives team
performance with a sense of urgency without compromising on excellence with a commitment to achieving
results. Provides leadership with respect to continuous process improvement and process quality standards.
• Manages strategic development of search firm partners, especially for clinical , IT and leadership roles •
Ensures compliance with related audit requirements (i.e., record retention, EEO capture, etc.). • Build upon
our foundation of talent acquisition analytics and reporting, ensuring the talent acquisition team has access to
and is versed in utilizing data to influence others and make decisions at the overall function level, as well as
at the individual search level.

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HR Director, Leadership, Talent & Culture: Sales, Marketing & Support Group (SMSG) UK at
Adecco UK
November 2011 - March 2016 (4 years 5 months)
Holding accountability for the design & delivery of the people strategy for Microsoft's largest business in
the UK (SMSG), with specific responsibility for developing a pipeline of diverse global leadership talent,
improving the effectiveness of our leadership teams, and ensuring we create & maintain a culture that
empowers employees to innovate, do their best work, and have outstanding career experiences.
Editioral Panel Member at The HR Director Magazine
May 2005 - October 2012 (7 years 6 months)
Supporting the HR Director Publication as a member of the Editorial Board, on the only independent strategic
HR publication.
People & Organisation Capability Consultant at Microsoft International
November 2008 - November 2011 (3 years 1 month)
Organisational Capability specialist within the International HR Headquarters supporting our International
Sales, Marketing & Services organisation across EMEA & ASIA with our emerging and developed markets.
Holding world-wide reponsibility for Management Development & Capability for the function in addition to
project based assignments across regions and business segments for Engagement, Strategic People Planning
& Scorecard/Measurement, Organisational Design & Change Management.
International HR Business & Strategic Projects Manager at Microsoft International
November 2005 - November 2008 (3 years 1 month)
Leading strategic HR projects across our global business, incorporating 100+ subsiduaries with 20,000+
employees within EMEA, LATAM, APAC, Greater China. Working within the International Headquarters
HR Leadership Team, this blend of experience provides unique insight to the complex people challenges
presented across the different layers of a leading edge organisation. With Chief of Staff accountability for
large scale projects to drive increased capability & productivity within the HR function and providing project
based HR Business Partner support to our Corporate Vice President of Microsoft International.
Senior HR Business Partner & UK Talent Acquisition Lead at Microsoft UK
August 1998 - October 2005 (7 years 3 months)
Over 7 years within the UK Subsidiary as a member of the UK HR Leadership Team in increasingly senior
roles across the UK business gaining in-depth knowledge and experience of Microsoft’s Sales, Marketing
& Services business. Over a period of 2 ½ years held responsibility for our the Talent Acquisition Function
for all Microsoft’s businesses in the UK with UK Executive board level accountability. Between 2002-2006
also held responsibility for initiating and evolving the UK Employee Well-being strategy which became a
cornerstone of the employer brand.
Senior Human Resources Manager, Enterprise, Partner Group & Public Sector & Enterprise Services at
Microsoft UK

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2004 - 2005 (1 year)
Head of Talent Acquisition at Microsoft UK
2003 - 2005 (2 years)
Senior HR Business Partner – OEM, Small, Mid-Market Solutions & Partners at Microsoft UK
2003 - 2005 (2 years)
Head of Employee Wellbeing at Microsoft UK
2002 - 2005 (3 years)
Senior HR Consultant – Microsoft Services Organisation (Technical Consulting Division) at Microsoft
UK
2002 - 2003 (1 year)
HR Consultant – OEM & Microsoft Services (Tech. Account Mgt. & Solutions Dev. Divisions) at
Microsoft UK
2001 - 2002 (1 year)
HR Consultant – Microsoft Customer Support Services at Microsoft UK
2000 - 2001 (1 year)
Associate HR Consultant - Sales & Marketing at Microsoft UK
1998 - 1999 (1 year)
Human Resources Associate at Sun Microsystems
1996 - 1997 (1 year)
A central role within a dynamic & innovative HR Team, providing Generalist HR Support to a variety
of Sales, Technical & Marketing Customer Units & HR Managers. Primary contact for both the UK
Company Pension Scheme, International Health Care Scheme & Employee Assistance Program; including
management of outsourced vendors. Additional responsibilities for Sun’s Nation-wide self-learning libraries
and Lead for the UK Industrial Placement Scheme
Human Resources Assistant (Contract) at Syntegra
1995 - 1996 (1 year)
Working in an extensive HR Team with responsibility for Project Management Resourcing for 800 Technical
& Professional employees across the UK Organisation, largely aligned to the Wholesale Finance & Financial
Trading Systems businesses. Key to success was managing senior relationships, negotiation & conflict
management, excellent interpersonal & expectation management skills & Recruitment Agency Management.
Additional responsibilities included co-management of Contractor resourcing & general HR Administration.

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Education
University of Southern California
Certificate of Advanced Organisation Design, 2011 - 2012
University of Southern California
Certificate in Human Capital of Effective Organisations, Activities and Societies: Strategic Business
Partnership, Change Management, Leadership Development, 2010 - 2012
University of Gloucestershire
BA (Hons.), Business Studies & Financial Services, 1995 - 1998
Projects
Succession Planning - Process or Critical Business Strategy?
Members:Claudia Watson
Succession Planning - Process or Critical Business Strategy? Succession Planning - An HR Process or
Critical Business Strategy? A common concern across senior business leaders is the lack of "ready now"
candidates to replace planned and unplanned losses within their leadership teams. As a result future
continuity and business performance is at risk. To offset this, HR is often tasked with implementing a
succession planning process, but the effectiveness of these processes are reliant on many variables; the
level of integration with the overall talent agenda, identification of individuals and the roles which require
succession planning and the criticality placed on this by business leaders, to name but a few. Agenda
Hosted by Andrea Winfield, Director, Talent and Leadership Development at Microsoft, this workshop will
debate accepted theories and real-life examples, examining what needs to be done to turn these plans from
mere tick box exercise into tangible, impactful strategies which form part of the overall business success.
Through roundtable discussions we will explore the following topics: • To broadly identify trends and new
solutions to succession management • The macro economic environment and its effect on succession plans •
Identification of roles to be included in succession plans and how deep to go in the organisation • The role of
business leaders/managers in the identification and development of successors • Practical steps to take with
identified successors • Planning and integrating internal and external talent pipelines • What success looks
like – measuring the outcomes not the process
Languages
English (Native or bilingual proficiency)

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Claudia Watson
Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Adecco Group | World wide Recruitment.
claudiawatson321@gmail.com
Contact Claudia on LinkedIn