Sally Chacatté
Group Head of HR, Knight Frank
Sally Chacatté is the Group Head of HR at Knight Frank, a world leader in the provision of integrated property services. Knight Frank has over 5,500 staff and 200 offices worldwide. Sally’s role is one of group HR strategy working with the local Heads of HR to ensure HR best practice across the group and currently focusing on implementation of a global recruitment database, talent management and leadership development. In the UK her focus is on UK HR strategy and managing a dynamic team of HR professionals. Additionally she is a qualified coach and NLP practitioner.
She has previous experience in other real estate companies and the public sector.
Sally is married, with 2 children living in Chiswick, West London and is currently leading the set up of a Chiswick Youth Project on the back of rising crime against young people in the area.
We asked Sally about her leadership role at Business in the Community and why Responsible Business is important to her and Knight Frank:
You can also watch this interview here
Why is Responsible Business important to Knight Frank?
Responsible Business is important to our company because our people are our most valuable asset. As an organisation we need to be committed not only to the workplace but also to the environment and the community. Also, responsible business is intrinsically linked to our organisation. Two of our values are going the extra mile to exceed our clients expectations and professionalism in everything that we do - both of which are intrinsically linked to responsible business.
Why did you decide to take a leadership role at BITC? What difference do you think the London Team can make?
I wanted to further enhance Knight Frank's close relationship with BITC who we believe are an excellent organisation. In terms of the London Leadership Team there was already a very diverse group of large corporates, but there was an opportunity for the leadership team to diversify and bring in more small to medium sized companies so that they can make a difference too.
What is your vision for London?
My vision is for BITC to expand considerably and diversify membership so that we have more small to medium sized companies as members of BITC. This will allow us to roll out the programmes more widely so that the impact on London as a whole is that much greater. I believe that programmes such as Business Action on Homelessness and Business Connectors along with others are having a massive impact in London and to expand the membership can only greater this impact.
How are you supporting future leaders at Knight Frank to be responsible business leaders?
I have two roles in this: firstly my role as the Group Head of HR at Knight Frank gives me a position whereby I can make an impact in the workplace side of things. In terms of my role as part of the Responsible Business Group, I have the ability to impact on our business leaders in terms of the community and environment agenda.
What are the future challenges facing Knight Frank and how can responsible business practices help to address them?
Future challenges facing our industry are mostly around talent management and talent retention. In terms of preventing people from working for our competitors and clients, one of the things that makes a big impact on employees is when as an organisation you have a very clear responsible business agenda. In addition to the normal things you offer employees (development opportunities etc), having a responsible business agenda is the icing on the cake and really does make a difference in terms of retaining our people.
As BITC is now in its 30th year how can it scale up its activities?
The most important thing it can do to scale up its activities is for BITC to scale up its membership, and it should leverage the power of its current businesses by engaging their clients and supply chains. By having more members, BITC will have more impact.
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