How HR Leaders Change the World

Self-care & Listening at the Heart of HR Leadership: Karl Edge, Chief People Officer at KPMG UK Karl emphasises the importance of empathy, communication, and energy management as key leadership traits in navigating today's complexities, offering insights from his decades of experience coaching leaders. Karl advocates for the transformative power of listening, introducing the 'SEED' framework as a...

In this inspiring episode Dannii shares her approach to embedding sustainability and purpose into PepsiCo's culture and discusses how PepsiCo is aligning people and planet goals with business operations. With examples such as social mobility programmes, Dannii demonstrates how PepsiCo empowers employees while driving positive societal change. Sharing thoughts on resilience and the pressures facing...

Annemie shares her insights into HR's power to drive social change, elevate innovation, and build cultures of belonging. By challenging assumptions in the workplace, Annemie explains how HR can enable data-informed leadership that fosters employee engagement and inclusivity. Exploring AI's potential, Annemie envisions a future where AI frees HR to focus on more impactful, strategic work. With a pa...

Sharing her journey from Yorkshire to California, Helen discusses the importance of customer empathy in driving meaningful business change and emphasises the value of opportunities for employees to interact with customers, fostering a culture of understanding and relatability. Helen also explores the evolving landscape of HR, discussing the interaction between AI in enhancing workforce productivit...

Martyn discusses his insights on how HR leaders can drive both business success and positive social change. Through his experience leading at the insurance company Lockton, Martyn shares actionable ways to foster an employee-centric culture, such as mental health support and enhanced parental leave. Martyn shares his belief in the importance of purpose-driven HR leadership, highlighting how HR can...

Tom shares two inspiring frameworks he's developed to guide HR professionals in their leadership journey. The Intentional Leader Model encourages HR leaders to adopt deliberate and thoughtful leadership practices, and the CHRO Impact Framework helps HR professionals enhance their effectiveness. These models highlight the importance of intentionality, purposeful leadership and self-reflection to dr...

Data for the Emerging Trend – HR & Sustainability: Kerri O'Neill, Chief People Officer, Ipsos UK&I Kerri shares a personal expert viewpoint on where sustainability and HR come together, based on her 20 years of practitioner experience in shaping organisations, plus insight from her new role with Ipsos UK & Ireland.   Sharing data that underpins this approach, from our intuitive views to what emplo...

Describing a human-centred approach to adopting Generative AI, Mary Alice shares the principles of empowerment, adaptability and continuous learning, the energising steps Thomson Reuters has and is taking for their 27,000 workforce to learn, and how this is enabling higher-value work. Reflecting on the factors leading to this exciting phase of leadership for the HR profession, Mary Alice describes...

Neil discusses the powerful role of communication and how companies that successfully implement long lasting change have an overarching strategic narrative, one that allows people to become part of and have agency in the change. Sharing examples of harnessing communication to best effect, Neil discusses tools such as Sentiment Tracking, an exercise in 'playing the movie forward', and provides thou...

Emma reflects on change in the HR profession, the positive role it holds in business and discusses HR's leadership in driving Baringa's culture of being kind and being curious. Discussing opportunities for AI to help us to think more creatively and intelligently, Emma provides thoughts on applying insights, and any newly created time, to work on respect and belonging in the workplace, and why this...

Discussing multiple generations and intersectionality, Karen shares her thoughts on levers that enable everyone to thrive at work, providing the example of Knight Frank's new multi-generation ERG, her advice on creating an ERG with this focus, and thoughts on why it's important. Karen describes the importance of understanding the world we're in to determine how to take a business forward. Noting c...

Describing his passion for social justice, Alim shares his work on business culture. Reflecting on connecting with people at work and beyond, Alim discusses tools such as the of the role of 'culture carriers' and his approach to creativity and risk when driving change. Discussing the relationship between work and societal issues happening around the world, Alim shares thoughts on providing guidanc...

Reflecting on the pause provided by the pandemic, Gena discusses that people are considering how they want to work and who they want to work for, how this is driving employee relationships, a shift in the business environment to co-creating work, and the resulting opportunity for higher employee engagement.  Gena shares her pride in LVMH's DE&I work and describes her vision for DE&I becoming embed...

Noting the impact of connections between personal experience and being fearless in business leadership, Thomas advocates for the importance of commercially understanding a business model in order to drive change, and discusses ways you can start a bold change initiative using commercial data.  Commenting that to sell to the world you must understand the world, Thomas shares thoughts on customers,...

Describing ENGIE's purpose and connection to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, Jay shares how these business foundations translate to attracting and retaining inclusive talent.  In a highly competitive environment given growth in the renewable sector, Jay shares work on addressing historical gender stereotypes and going beyond the basics of DE&I, in order to engage the talent the business need...

In this special episode hear from some of the CHROs speaking at How HR Leaders Change the World – Live! 2024: Syreeta Brown at Virgin Money, Natalia Wallenberg at Ahold Delhaize, Neil Morrison at Staffbase and Claire Ainscough at Ocado Group. Cecilia provides an overview of this year's conference topics, including:         What Sustainability in HR strategy looks like;         The pressures and pa...

Recognising the pace of change in harnessing technology and describing today as the slowest day - in comparison to the future - Julia shares how SoftwareOne is currently using tech in its people processes, from recruitment to anticipating future development needs.  From working in Tupperware to Tech, Julia shares her passion for empowering women in business and describes steps to enhance gender eq...

Noting that HR has never been as exciting as it is now, Angela shares the energy she gets from impacting one person and her view on a key role of HR being a place to find support. Discussing generative AI as a tool that can enable HR to better support colleagues, Angela considers invasion of privacy and stigma, and shares the example of a 'rainy day fund'.  A champion of the Asian American and Pac...

Hempel owns many paint brands around the world, including for example Crown Paints and Farrow & Ball. Introducing its structure, with majority ownership by the Hempel Foundation, Pernille shares the story of origin and the social and environmental change that takes place when you buy a pot of their paint, from childrens' education to regenerating biodiversity.   Pernille shares her personal journe...

Introducing Ferring's work in reproductive medicine, Christelle shares their employee programme, Building Families at Ferring, the impact it's having for employees and the business, as well colleagues' families, for social inclusion, and notes the positive change instigated by leading the market. Going behind the scenes, Christelle shares how Ferring designed a global approach across different cul...

Describing the responsibility and opportunity that HR has to open conversations that may be sensitive, Vicky shares thoughts on blurring work life and our whole lives, and business attitudes towards speaking up without fear. Considering future skills, Vicky advocates for a continuous learning environment, a culture that fosters adaption and is comfortable with ambiguity. Sharing her belief in soci...

Dom describes significant culture change at Cable & Wireless in the Caribbean, created by actions including micro-behaviour change, changes to performance management and types of leave, that have had impact beyond the organisation.  Advocating that HR must start with business strategy before leading people strategy, Dom discusses how HR is moving up the value chain, and the opportunities this brin...

Nikki shares the sense of personal fulfilment that being a People Director provides her and discusses how, alongside ground-breaking initiatives such as a gender-neutral uniform, enabling change for individuals creates powerful positive impact.  Discussing trust in the workplace, Nikki summarises the impact for policies and business performance in shifting to culture based on the assumption that p...

Jasmine provides an overview of the positive shift in perception of HR in APAC, sharing her work to understand cultural nuance as part of mentoring others, and her hopes for the voice of HR in the future.  Discussing how HR develops skills in resilience, agility and innovation, Jasmine considers what future learning in corporate environments will look like, and the mindsets that colleagues need to...

Providing the example of paid paternity leave in a male dominated environment, Helen discusses the results of incremental changes that balance commercial and societal impacts and referencing significant shifts such as AI and Net Zero, Helen discusses preparing a workforce to be able to navigate transitions.  Helen shares thoughts on her responsibilities for people and sustainability and explains w...