The HR Grapevine Podcast

This week, podcast host Kieran Howells sits down with Dominic Holmes, Principal, Strategy & Value at Cornerstone to talk about the state of the talent market, the key trends we're seeing in the space, and what talent now expects from its prospective employers.

This week, podcast host Kieran Howells sits down with Neville Henderson, Senior Consultant at Crown Workforce Management, to discuss the complexities of the four-day working week, how to create a sustainable working structure that balances your needs along with your people's, and why the latest developments in working structures may not actually work for the majority of businesses.

Let's face it. Employees are struggling with their finances. The onus is on HR to help, but most companies do not have unlimited cash to throw at the problem. That's why, this week, podcast host Kieran Howells is sitting down with Stacey Lowman, Head of Employee Wellbeing & Financial Coach at Claro Wellbeing, to discuss exactly how employers can help, without breaking the bank.

In this week's podcast, host Kieran Howells sits down with Bitly's VP of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Jackie Cureton, to talk about what DE&I looks like in 2023, how HR can improve its processes, and what Bitly is doing to solidify its name as one of the top ethical workplaces in the world.

On this week's podcast, your host Kieran Howells is joined once again by John Ryan, the CEO of Healthy Place to Work. Throughout his career, Ryan has developed an encyclopaedic knowledge of what makes an organisation ethically and physically healthy. In this episode, the pair discuss the concept of employer brand, and delve into the numerous cases of disastrous decision making, leading to the sabo...

On this week's episode, HR Grapevine's Head of Content, Kieran Howells, sits down with Gillian Ward, Chief People Officer Thomas International, to discuss what it truly means to have a progressive talent culture.

In this edition of the HR Grapevine podcast, host Erik Niewiarowski welcomes Kate Menzies, VP of People & Organisation at Mars Wrigley for Europe, CIS & Turkey to talk about all things people. Using Kate’s years of experience at the food giant, the pair discuss executive leadership’s role in supporting employees, why being ‘happy’ at work is so important and the ongoing changes to the future of wo...

Given the recent strikes from the RMT Union, postal workers and barristers, along with potential teacher and NHS walk-outs and the UK government legislation to prevent these, the topic should be at the top of mind for business leaders and HR. In this week’s episode of the podcast, host Erik Niewiarowski has a chat with Julia Kermode, founder of IWORK, which is dedicated to supporting freelance, gi...

How have you been sleeping? It seems like common sense, but there is a direct correlation between sleep and wellbeing. To explore this topic a bit more, podcast host Erik Niewiarowski brings in Dr. Nerina Ramlakhan. She is a physiologist, sleep expert and published author, and is the perfect person to explore how sleep can impact day-to-day life. The pair discuss why sleep is so important, some ti...

With October 10th marking World Mental Health Day, podcast host Erik Niewiarowski picks up an important conversation around mental health and how business and HR leaders can offer continued support to employees that may be struggling, or don’t know how to ask for help. To help him with this, Erik brings in Simon Blake, OBE, the CEO of Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA) to talk about all things...

With October 10th marking World Mental Health Day, podcast host Erik Niewiarowski picks up an important conversation around mental health and how business and HR leaders can offer continued support to employees that may be struggling, or don’t know how to ask for help. To help him with this, Erik brings in Simon Blake, OBE, the CEO of Mental Health First Aid England (MHFA) to talk about all things...

Thanks to the pandemic and subsequent world crisis’, the concept of employee wellbeing has gone from an idea to a tangible strategy complete with data points and representation in the C-suite. To dive deeper into this evolution of wellbeing, podcast host Erik Niewiarowski welcomes Nuz Chagan, Head of Wellbeing Strategy at digital platform Govox to get her insights on the topic. The pair discuss th...

The Coronavirus pandemic impacted everyone, but one group hit particularly hard have been the younger generation, specifically school leavers and recent university graduates, many of whom have had their internships or graduate scheme roles deferred or cancelled altogether. In this week's episode, podcast host Erik Niewiarowski has a chat with Michelle Ransomme, Talent Acquisition Manager at Zurich...

Losing a loved one is something that everyone goes through in their lives. Yet, despite grief and bereavement being issues that all workers will face in time, it is still very much a taboo subject in the workplace. Today’s podcast guest is Marilyn Devonish, is a management consultant, executive coach and therapist, who recently contributed to an exclusive HR Grapevine report on How HR can support...

In the final episode of our special series “Workplace of Now”, presented with our partners at Zellis, Erik Niewiarowski speaks to Melanie Hill, Chief Marketing Officer at Zellis, to talk about diversity and how the journey to a truly inclusive work environment has to start at leadership-level. The pair have a spirited chat about how business and HR leadership need to ensure that their own departme...

In this week’s episode of the HR Grapevine podcast, host Erik Niewiarowski explores how personality traits impact leadership change amidst the changing working environments. As part of this exploration, Erik welcomes Dr. Ryne Sherman, a personality psychologist and the Chief Science Officer at Hogan Assessments. Ryne breaks down the concepts around personality data and how leaders can use that dat...

According to the National Aids Trust, the most recent estimate suggests there were 106,890 people living with HIV in the UK in 2019. Thanks to incredible medical advances, 89% of people living with HIV in the UK are virally suppressed, meaning they cannot pass it on to others and live a healthy life. In this week’s episode of the HR Grapevine podcast, Erik Niewiarowski welcomes Felix Williams to s...

In this week’s episode of the HR Grapevine podcast, host Erik Niewiarowski wants to get into what is happening within the world of the people function. To do this, Erik taps into the expertise and insights of HR recruiter Simon Geere, Director at Alexander Lloyd. The pair discuss the challenges when it comes to recruiting for HR roles, how the function can come up with new ways of assessing skills...

When many think of IR35, panic and confusion are common outcomes, but there is no reason to panic! To help unpack the complicated intricacies around the new IR35 regulations that came into effect in April of 2021, podcast host Erik Niewiarowski brings in Seb Maley, CEO of Qdos to unpack the new rules for both businesses and contractors alike. The pair discuss the new reforms to IR35, the reality o...

In this episode of the HR Grapevine podcast, host Erik Niewiarowski revisits one of his favourite topics, resilience. As work evolves in a post-pandemic world, could it be that resilience has just become another clichéd term? To help explore this, Erik welcomes Bruce Daisley, an author and former VP at Twitter to talk about his new book ‘Fortitude’ which examines how businesses are looking at resi...

In this week’s episode of the HR Grapevine podcast, host Erik Niewiarowski explores the evolving concepts of leadership with author, speaker, leadership coach and consultant Zana Goic Petricevic. The pair discuss how the concept of impactful leadership has evolved over the course of the pandemic, what makes a leader ‘bold,’ Zana’s SOUL framework for leadership and how leaders can become more self-...

In this week’s HR Grapevine podcast, Erik Niewiarowski speaks with Lizzie Downes, Chief People Officer at automotive retailer Pendragon. Lizzie shares her insights when it comes to flexible working patterns for large organisations. They discuss the evolution of employer/employee trust during the pandemic, the roadblocks and challenges when it comes to a one-on-one approach to identify an employee’...

In this week’s episode of the HR Grapevine Podcast, host Erik Niewiarowski has a conversation with Inclusion & Belonging Specialist Joanne Lockwood (she/her) to talk about what more HR and business leaders can do to support their trans colleagues. The pair discuss the regression in trans rights both here in the UK and the USA, how transphobia impacts recruitment and how small SMEs can take the fir...

In this edition of our special ‘Workplace of Now’ series, produced with our partners at Zellis, podcast host Erik Niewiarowski welcomes back Jacqui Summons, Chief People Officer at EMIS Health and a Non-Executive Director at Zellis, to talk about the younger generation of workers and if they are being failed by HR teams. The pair have an insightful discussion about hybrid working and how it may fa...

This week, podcast host Erik Niewiarowski has a frank and open discussion with Rebekah Wallis, Director of People & ESG at Ricoh UK about inclusion for the LGBTQ+ community in the workplace. The pair discuss the progression of LGBTQ+ inclusion at work, how it has to be a Boardroom discussion and some of the ways Ricoh is supporting their LGBTQ+ employees.