Every week, we ask a senior HR professional about the greatest workplace challenge they have faced and how they dealt with it. This week, we hear from Nick Hawley, Groupe Eurotunnel’s new HR Director for UK Operations.

“One of the most demanding challenges I’ve faced was the development of an employee relations strategy when I was HR Manager for Denso Marston Ltd. It was a Japanese-owned business that had de-recognised a union in its main plant in quite acrimonious circumstances. The election of Tony Blair's government paved the way for statutory trade union recognition. I led the argument recommending that we should engage in open dialogue with a view to establishing a voluntary recognition agreement, so as not to find ourselves shoehorned into a statutory agreement that wouldn’t serve our needs. My Japanese management colleagues finally agreed to a voluntary agreement brokered around partnership principles. Establishing a new way of managing employee relations within Denso Marston Ltd was an immense personal development opportunity, and involved balancing the demands of a nervous Japanese management team and a union wanting to establish its own credibility.”