The art of HR diplomacy: World Bank's Ann Rennie meets the challenge of managing a truly global workforce

HR Magazine, June, 2004 by Bill Leonard

If you believe diplomacy is one of the most important skills a human resource professional can possess, then Ann Rennie, director of human resource operations for the World Bank in Washington, D.C., was destined to excel in HR management. Her father had a long, distinguished career in the British Foreign Service, and talent for diplomacy seems to be in her blood.

"Ann is simply the best HR professional I have ever met," says Rita McGee, president of RMG Consulting, an HR consulting firm in London, and Rennie's longtime friend and colleague. "She has this amazing ability for providing feedback and getting right to the heart of the matter. As long as I have known her, she will make excellent observations about complex situations and then [she] can make suggestions to resolve the problem in terms that people instantly relate to."

Rennie admits that her father has been a major influence in both her professional and personal life. His skill for finding peaceful solutions to complex political situations was something she came to appreciate more as she grew older, she says.

"As a diplomat, my father was chief negotiator and a behind-the-scenes influence for many peace negotiations, and he really has been a role model for me," says Rennie in her soft-spoken British accent. "And the lessons I learned from him growing up serve me well in my job now. Conflict resolution and negotiation are a large part of my job, and I believe those are things that I do very well."

Her boss, Kathy Sierra, vice president of human resources for the World Bank, appreciates Rennie's ability to manage tough HR issues and resolve problems.

"Ann truly excels at what she does, which makes my job so much easier," Sierra says. "We both bring different skill sets to the job. My background is in operations. Ann's career has been largely in HR management, and she's so incredibly knowledgeable about HR issues that I've come to rely heavily on her advice and her ability to understand a situation and find solutions that work."

Rennie clearly enjoys working with Sierra, too, saying they have built a level of comfort and trust that she had never experienced in her 25-year professional career.

"I do consider Kathy a mentor, and I have learned quite a bit from her about how this bank works and how to deal with the politics of the organization," Rennie says. "Our skills, experience and personalities mesh really well together. Kathy is American and has a bit different business perspective than I have. But we understand each other and we make a very good team, and that makes it a joy to come to work each day."

An organization as diverse and complex as the World Bank requires a special type of HR professional, and there could be no better person to run the bank's HR operations than Rennie, Sierra says.

"She has a way with handling people that I truly admire and is a tremendous asset to the World Bank's HR function," Sierra says. "The HR function currently is in a transition to align itself better with the strategic direction of the entire organization, and Ann has been a very key figure in helping rethink and reshape the role of HR at the World Bank."

Over the past three years, the bank has used video conferences, "town hall"-style meetings and one-on-one interviews to get staff feedback on key HR issues identified by employees. These include strengthening strategic staffing, providing more support to the global staff, promoting and recognizing both managerial and staff excellence, and mobilizing diversity.

While the World Bank may be the most diverse organization on the planet, its employees want improved succession planning for ethnic minorities and more opportunities for women. The bank is also working to ensure that the executive level reflects the makeup of the organization.

Core Values

The World Bank's staff members number 10,500 and come from all 184 member nations. More than 7,500 work at the bank's headquarters in Washington, while nearly 3,000 work in field offices spread across the globe. While the diverse nature of the bank is one of its strongest assets, it also presents the organization with its biggest HR management challenges, Sierra and Rennie agree.

"When you deal with such a wide scope of cultural differences and backgrounds, there can be quite a few misunderstandings and conflicts," Sierra says. "It requires a lot of understanding, sensitivity, and respect for other cultures and personal backgrounds, which Ann definitely possesses."

In short, it takes a good diplomat. For example, Rennie's gifts were helpful recently when two employees who had worked together for several years suddenly had a falling-out. The trouble began when one received a promotion.

"They had been good friends to that point, but suddenly they weren't speaking to each other, and the problem affected not only their work but also the productivity of their co-workers," Rennie says. She was asked to investigate the problem.

Rennie discovered that the two women were from different social classes or castes in India, and that the woman from the lower caste had been promoted above the other. It definitely was a sticky situation, but one that Rennie eventually resolved by relying on the core values of the World Bank, she says.