Chief people officer Jacky Simmonds shares how Experian has fostered a thriving culture of innovation throughout the business, offering tips that other businesses can learn from.

Since Simmonds joined the global data and technology company Experian, in 2020, Experian has celebrated a fourth consecutive year on the UK’s Best Workplaces™ list and was recognised as a World’s Best Workplace™ for the first time in 2024. Experian's continuous improvement programme, which boosts innovation, has delivered annual savings of $140m. 

In a thought-provoking discussion, Simmonds addresses: 

·         How to maintain cultural alignment;

·         Why hackathons aren’t just for tech experts;

·         The value of HR professionals tailoring their approach when engaging different stakeholders, and more.

Many thanks to our sponsor Great Place To Work UK for this episode.

Episode six of the HR Focus podcast features insights from Anna Oliver, HR director (UK) for biopharmaceutical company AbbVie, who shares what she’s learned from the organisation’s cultural transformation journey.

AbbVie has spent 11 of its 12-year existence on Great Place to Work UK's Best Workplaces™ List, so Oliver is well-placed to deliver top tips and best practice: from how to cultivate a robust workplace culture, to ensuring that your HR team keeps its fingers on the pulse.

It all starts with culture, Oliver highlights, outlining how AbbVie supports and empowers its managers and staff. 

In this exclusive episode of HR Focus, Oliver explains:

• The importance of having key cultural pillars,
• How employee-led resource groups can bolster a positive culture,
• Why talent strategy is key, and more.

Listen to the full podcast episode, wherever you source your podcasts.

Many thanks to our sponsor Great Place To Work UK for this episode.

As HR professionals face ever-increasing scrutiny for delivering high performance in the age of AI, it’s never been more important to talk about shaking up performance management.

And who better to discuss this topic than David Liddle, CEO of the global consultancy TCM Group and founder of the People and Culture Association?! 

This episode was recorded before David nabbed the number one spot in HR magazine’s Most Influential Thinker list 2025. He also received the Consultant of the Year 2025 award on the same day.

In this episode, David shares his award-winning insights with HR magazine editor Charissa King, delving into why transformative justice matters, how to manage dispute resolution, and why the way in which we manage conflict needs to change. 

As the health of our natural environment declines, employers are under increasing pressure to look after the health and wellbeing of employees, and to take meaningful actions, rather than greenwashing – paying lip service to environmental commitments.

To help HR professionals align these priorities, we gathered insights from two leaders of the healthcare and insurance provider Bupa: Rebecca Pearson, chief sustainability and people officer for Bupa Global, India and UK; and Anna Russell, corporate responsibility and sustainability director for Bupa Global and UK.

The discussion addresses:

·         What successful health and sustainability strategy looks like,

·         The interconnectedness of personal health and the health of the planet,

·         How Bupa's Healthy Cities challenge – which encourages employees to improve their health and community impact – can help employers achieve wellbeing and ESG alignment, and more.

 Many thanks to Bupa, for sponsoring this episode. 

In the latest episode of our HR Focus podcast, our editor speaks to Lorna Connelly, Admiral’s UK director of people, to find out the secrets to success of this 25-year incumbent on the UK’s Best Workplace list.

The financial services company Admiral is a recognised champion of great leadership and exceptional workplace culture. For each of the last 25 years, the firm has achieved the UK’s Best Workplace employer recognition, from global authority on workplace culture, Great Place To Work.

Underlying that success is Admiral’s strategy for supporting and developing its leaders. In a focussed conversation on leadership success secrets, Lorna Connelly, Admiral’s UK director of people, explains:

• How to ensure that managers aren’t overwhelmed
• Key steps to developing a clear and effective strategy for supporting managers
• How to build managerial confidence, and how flexible working patterns can help achieve this
• The value of the Trust Index employee survey, and more.

Many thanks to Great Place to Work UK for sponsoring this episode of HR Focus.

Of all the components in the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) umbrella, inclusion is rapidly gaining a prominence of its own.

But why favour one above the rest? And why are people so excited about inclusion's potential for business?

To answer these questions, we invited Aggie Mutuma, CEO and lead consulting director of Mahogany Inclusion Partners onto the podcast. Ranking fifth on our HR Most Influential practitioners list 2024, Mutuma is a trusted advisor for the CIPD and passionate advocate for inclusion.

UK national newspapers have called HR a "parasite," "bloated" and a "shadow empire" – and the vitriol keeps coming.

The criticism has been enough to drive the CIPD’s chief executive, Peter Cheese, to defend the profession's work in an open letter. But do the ‘HR haters’ have a point?

Or is the profession simply getting caught in the culture war crossfire?

We invited David Blackburn, who achieved the #2 HR Most Influential Practitioner ranking in 2024, on to the podcast to puzzle it out. 

A chartered companion of both the CIPD and the Chartered Management Institute, Blackburn won awards for his work as a chief people officer before moving into consulting.

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Useful links:

“Bloated HR is more about woke than wealth” The Times, 4 Dec 24 https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/bloated-hr-is-more-about-woke-than-wealth-f3x6r2th3

 “How HR captured the nation” New Statesman, 27 Nov 24 https://www.newstatesman.com/business/2024/11/hr-britain-how-human-resources-captured-the-nation 

“A shadow HR empire runs Britain – and it's getting bigger” The Telegraph, 2 Dec 24

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/12/02/shadow-hr-empire-runs-britain-its-getting-bigger/

Peter Cheese responds to criticism of the profession, CIPD LinkedIn, 6 Dec 24

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cipd_cipd-hr-peopleprofessionals-activity-7270732444188688384-Omml/

As an internal-facing function, HR professionals are often shy to shout about their own successes in public.

Georgina Kelly, our 2024 2nd HR Most Influential Thinker, has seen first hand how this can limit senior HR professionals' careers.

As founder of GK HR Networks and the Women In HR Network, Georgina knows this applies particularly to women, who are less prone to self-publicise.

In the podcast, she sits down with HR magazine editor Charissa King to discuss 

• What personal branding actually is
• How to get noticed by recruiters
• Why impostor syndrome is so dangerous
• Why networks and mentoring are so important

Podcast notes:

The interactive HR Most Influential Supplement, including the article on mentoring that features Georgina, is available here: https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/insights/hr-most-influential-supplement-2024/

Did HR miss its chance to win real recognition after the pandemic?
Possibly.

Can HR win that acclaim anyway?
Absolutely.

As automated HR technology becomes ever-more sophisticated, HR practitioners are being given a golden chance to do away with time-consuming transactional work and get stuck into real strategic people issues.

But what's stopping them? All too often, it's HR themselves. In the premiere of the HR Most Influential Podcast series 4, our 2024 HR Most Influential #1 practitioner, James Devine, director and head of healthcare workforce practice at KPMG UK, joins HR magazine editor Charissa King to discuss what the profession needs to do over the next two years to fulfil its potential as a high-impact strategic function.

Once, HR professionals could walk around the office or factory floor and see employees' mood for themselves.

Now, the workforce is more separated than ever. So how can HR rebuild connections within its organisation, whether for hybrid office workers, or far-off franchisees?

The task that now faces HR is to rebuild its ability to 'take the pulse' of its organisation. It is a task that Samaritans executive director of people and culture, and two-time HR Most Influential practitioner, Tiger de Souza, is busy tackling.

In episode 6 of series 3, Tiger sat down with HR magazine editor Charissa King at Samaritans' HQ, to discuss how HR leaders can intentionally rebuild their connections with employees and C-suite staff alike.

No matter where you are in your career, it's important to get on with your boss.

But for an HR leader, it's vital – and not just for selfish reasons.

In episode 5 of series 3, we dive into why CPOs and HRDs are uniquely positioned to support their chief executive, and how a healthy partnership between the two delivers long-term success for both parties' objectives.

To explore how these two strategic leaders can work together to transform their organisations' fortunes, Kerry Smith, chief people officer of the British Heart Foundation – and five time HR Most Influential practitioner – joined HR magazine editor Charissa King in the studio. 

You've seen the headines: "DEI must die," "Progressive diktat," "A lightning rod for controversy."

It is no secret that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are taking flak in the court of public opinion.

But beyond the media spats, like Elon Musk's "DEI must die" quip, HR leaders across the western world are seeing real cuts to their DEI budgets.

In Episode 4 of series 3, Woosh Raza, director of people, culture and inclusion for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) joins former HR magazine editor Jo Gallacher to explore why DEI is encountering scepticism, and what HR leaders can do to safeguard their own efforts. 

The UK is in the grip of a mental health crisis.

Some 20-30% of UK working adults showing signs of emotional exhaustion, and burnout has been stuck firmly on HR's agenda for the past four years.

And while HR is well adapted to support employees' mental wellbeing – does the responsibility really lie fully on HR?

In the latest episode of the HR Most Influential Podcast, Rachel Lewis, multi-award winning occupational psychologist and programme director at Birckbeck, University of London, sits down with former HR magazine editor Jo Gallacher to explore the suffocating world of stress.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform HR.

But just like any tool, it needs direction.

After all the hype of 2023, it's fair to say that we're all quite excited – or worried – about AI. But how many of us actually know how to start introducing it to our jobs in a useful way, beyond asking ChatGPT a few questions and getting bored?

In the third episode of HR Focus, we look at how HR leaders can introduce AI to their talent management processes – in a controlled and purposeful manner.

HR magazine Jo Gallacher sits down with experts Duncan Miller, global head of marketing at HR software company Cornerstone, and Natalie Sheils, chief people officer at AI-forward marketing company Mosaic Group, to find out the practical steps behind introducing AI to your talent management processes.

Many thanks to our sponsor Cornerstone, the cloud-based people development software provider.

Read Cornerstone's UK Talent Health Index ebook now here.

The Talent Health Index self-assessment is available here.

Change – the only constant of the past few years – is notoriously difficult to navigate.

And for every successful change initiative dreamed up by HR strategists, there are several more that never survived contact with reality.

In episode two of series three, Pam Parkes, executive director at Essex County Council for people, service transformation and technology services, shares from her long experience of leading change to show how even the best change strategies can fall apart.

Exploring the idea of organisational resistance, she sat down with HR magazine editor Jo Gallacher to discuss how HR can best see change through.

The skills needed by employees have evolved rapidly over the past few decades, with employees racing to keep up with time.

But with just 30% of CEOs confident that their business has the skills it needs, why do talent teams so often find themselves fighting a losing battle?

Jo sits down with experts Dominic Holmes (Cornerstone) and Suki Kaur (Avask Group) to find out exactly how to supercharge a skills strategy.

Read Cornerstone's UK Talent Health Index ebook now here.
The Talent Health Index self-assessment is available here.

 Does your phone ever show you adverts for things you hadn't even realised you wanted?

Hyper-personalisation may not be new to customer experience teams, but has only recently broken onto the people profession scene.

To explore the phenomenon, we kick off season three with Bertie Tonks, chief people officer of Collinson Group, and 2023's #1 HR Most Influential practitioner.

Tonks delves into his own efforts at introducing a hyper-personalised approach to the people profession, covering its application to wellbeing, benefits, engagement and much more...

In the war for talent, how can David beat Goliath?

In the first episode of our brand-new podcast, HR Focus, we zoom in on the difficulties facing SMEs in finding, retaining, and developing talent.

HR magazine editor Jo Gallacher first speaks to Luke Hicks, of HR software company Cornerstone, before turning to Grace Mansah-Owusu, organisational psychologist and talent specialist, for answers to the audience's questions.

Stay tuned on our LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/13051957/) for the opportunity to ask questions on the next episode of HR Focus.

Employee experience has become a defining feature of modern HR practice.

Weaving together the threads of wellbeing, reward, development, organisational design... and, well, just about all of HR, it has become a crucial lens through which HR leaders take strategic decisions.

In our latest episode, HR director of BBC Studios, Jabbar Sardar, invites HR magazine editor Jo Gallacher in to learn just how it earned its 91% Glassdoor rating.

When so many companies accept ESG as a fact of life – why do so few commit to the 'S', societal good?

HR director of FTSE-100 water company Severn Trent, and two-time HR Most Influential listee Neil Morrison is a passionate proponent of organisations' need to serve the communities they draw on.

HR magazine Jo Gallacher sat down with Neil to discuss how companies can build a 'circular economy' for people by working with their communities.

HR Most Influential Thinker Gemma Dale has literally written the book on hybrid and flexible working –  twice over.

A lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University, author, consultant, and previous HR Director, Dale uses her practical experience and vast knowledge of work to investigate why flexible working is getting results for some, and not for others.

HR magazine editor Jo Gallacher speaks to Dale to find out the lessons learned after three years after the pandemic put hybrid work in the spotlight.

HR Most Influential Thinker Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic has dedicated much of his life to studying human intelligence.

Now, he turns his attention to Artificial Intelligence (AI) — and the effect it is having on the humans that use it.

In episode four of season two, Tomas reveals:

• Why we need to humanise work
• How algorithms are making us narcissistic
• Which jobs are safe from automation

Listen now and learn from the best.

HR Most Influential Hall of Fame inductee John Amaechi is no stranger to breaking moulds.

NBA star turned business leader, Amaechi is a highly successful organisational psychologist, consultant and New York Times best-selling author.

In episode three of season two, John reveals:

• Why 'playing it safe' is dangerous 
• Why leadership must evolve 
• What you should do in the cost of living crisis 
• How to shatter your assumptions about talent

Listen now and learn from the best.

How should HR engage with activist employees?

Why are many leaders in an 'optimism bubble'?

Megan Reitz talks to Jo about leadership, dialogue, and change. Tune in for a masterclass on how to work sensitively and productively with your organisation's activists.

Encouraging staff to 'do more with less' may well be an appealing concept, but is it ethical?

Jo meets Hayley Lewis to discuss whether HR is facilitating this and enabling organisations to cut costs but not cut the work – and what ‘quiet quitting’ really means.