Ever wondered why those tough conversations at work seem to hit a nerve every single time? In our latest episode of the Disruptive HR podcast, Karen Moran and I unravel the complexities of difficult conversations using David Rock's SCARF model. From the pitfalls of saving up negative feedback for annual reviews to the power of continuous, in-the-moment feedback, we expose the flaws in traditional performance management. Drawing from our personal experiences, we highlight why frequent, informal check-ins can transform these challenging interactions into opportunities for growth and improvement.

Additionally, we share compelling real-life stories, such as a scenario at the BBC where mixed messages created chaos, to underscore the importance of clear communication. We'll equip you with strategies to create a non-confrontational atmosphere during these tough talks by avoiding HR presence and formal note-taking. Discover how peer-to-peer learning environments like ZoomInfo's Leadership Lounge and Nova Nordisk's Manager Club can provide invaluable support. We also tackle the stress and limitations of performance improvement plans, shedding light on why they often miss the mark. Tune in for actionable insights and practical tips that will help you handle difficult conversations with confidence and empathy.

Find out more about innovative HR practices at www.disruptivehr.com

Join us for an illuminating conversation with Sarah Findlater, the People Director at Marks and Spencer, as she takes us through her incredible 23-year journey within the organization. From her beginnings as a personnel graduate to leading people plans for over a thousand stores and 47,000 colleagues, Sarah offers invaluable insights into building a high-performance culture. Hear how her diverse experiences in both business-facing and center of expertise roles have shaped her leadership approach and learn how she stays engaged and curious in a rapidly changing business landscape.

Discover the groundbreaking initiatives Marks and Spencer have implemented to transform employee benefits and work-life balance. Sarah shares the successes of policies like the neonatal leave, offering up to 12 weeks of paid leave for parents with babies in neonatal care, and innovative trials for flexible work weeks that have led to lower attrition rates and higher employee engagement. We also explore the impact of a job share app that enables better conversations and flexible working arrangements, emphasizing the importance of treating employees as adults and giving them control over their schedules. This episode is a treasure trove of ideas for anyone looking to create a more supportive and productive work environment.

Find out more about innovative HR practices at www.disruptivehr.com

Disruptive HR founders Lucy Adams and Karen Moran answer your questions on how to make hybrid working work

Lucy talks to Tanuj Kapilashrami about the progressive work HR is doing at Standard Chartered, including HR product design and the employee experience.

The founders of Disruptive HR, Lucy Adams and Karen Moran, discuss new approaches to Performance Management

Lucy talks to founder of ZigZag, Ben Wiseman about improving the candidate experience and the opportunities technology offers to change recruitment.

Lucy talks to Ailsing Tellard, founder of performance management tool Our Tandem about helping employees to own their performance and careers.

Lucy talks to Imola Richards from GE about HR leadership development and sustaining the ability to challenge the status quo.

Lucy talks to Founder of Wow Accountants, Paul Bulpitt, about how to ensure your people live up to your brand.

Lucy talks to Thomas Moeller-Lybaek about his role redesigning HR processes for Lego

Lucy talks to Selina Millstam from Ericsson about their unique approach to transformational change

Lucy Adams talks to Executive Coach Elle Harrison about how coaching can be used to bring in talented mavericks without disrupting the culture.

Join us as we explore the concept of Agile HR and how it can revolutionise the way HR functions are delivered. Lucy Adams and  Karen Moran, founders of Disruptive HR, address the traditional pitfalls of HR being overly bureaucratic and slow, often perfecting processes at the expense of addressing real employee needs. They share personal anecdotes, such as a pay and grading exercise at the BBC, to illustrate how a human-centred, agile approach can make HR more responsive and value-driven. By shifting focus from managing processes to solving human challenges, they discuss how to create a more dynamic and effective HR practice that truly supports both the organisation and its people.

Hear about the importance of designing HR products based on the end user's needs and pain points, rather than rigid, efficiency-focused models. The conversation covers working with early adopters to pilot and refine initiatives before a wider rollout and the benefits of short-term, manageable projects. Drawing examples from companies like Shop Direct and Netflix, they advocate for an agile, iterative process that favours frequent, small-scale updates over long-term, perfection-driven initiatives. Don't miss this insightful episode on making HR more agile and responsive to better serve your organisation and its employees.

Find out more about innovative HR practices at www.disruptivehr.com

Lucy talks to Catherine Garrod (ex-Sky and founder of Compelling Culture) about how to take fresh approaches to diversity and inclusion.

Lucy talks to Jason Larry, the Global Head of Real Estate at Mondelez about their approach to post-pandemic hybrid workplace

Lucy talks to Chief People Officer at DAZN, Shaun Conning about non-traditional routes into and approaches to HR

Lucy talks with learning expert and HR Director Learning at Deloitte, Nick Shackleton-Jones about how people learn and how that understanding can dramatically re-shape our approach to L&D

Lucy to talks with MD of search firm Fortune Hill, Joel Barnett about the HR search market and what his clients are looking for from their HR hires.

Lucy interviews Tanith Dodge, one of the most foremost HR Directors in the UK about what it takes to get to the top of the HR profession.

In this podcast, Lucy interviews Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia to learn more about how they have continued to lead with the heart throughout the pandemic.

Karen chats to Maggie, the Head of People Operations at SME Xoserve about how they have transformed their approach to performance management and moved away from command and control people policies

Lucy to talks to Elena Aylott from Oriflame Cosmetics about how she has introduced Employee Experience and what they've changed as a result of the crisis.

Hear how Essex County Council transformed their approach to performance management. From research to ensure their approach was user-centred, to getting rid of ratings, becoming employee-led and focusing on ‘in-the-moment’ feedback!

Unlock the secrets to modern leadership with award-winning expert Dr Kirstin Ferguson as she shares game-changing insights from her latest book, "Head and Heart: The Art of Modern Leadership." Learn how to balance analytical skills with empathy and emotional intelligence through the Head Heart Leader Scale, and discover the critical attributes that define exceptional leaders today. From maintaining curiosity to recognizing who is missing from key conversations, Kirstin offers a comprehensive guide for emerging leaders aiming to maximize their impact.

We also dive into the importance of humility in leadership, exploring how simple human interactions can elevate team morale and performance. Find out why both men and women excel similarly in leadership qualities and how recent data debunks gender biases in self-assessment. Don't miss this opportunity to hear practical advice and robust data that could transform your leadership approach and help you cultivate a balanced, effective leadership style.

https://www.kirstinferguson.com/

Find out more about innovative HR practices at www.disruptivehr.com

Lucy interviews Aidan Geary, Director of Operations at Conde Nast. He talks about the challenges of running a global media brand during the crisis and some of the positives that have come from it.

Lucy chats with Inge Oosterhuis who heads up Global Innovation/Human Potential at Accenture about the trends she's seeing as a result of the crisis.

One of the upsides of the current crisis has been a shift in the way that leaders are communicating with their teams. In this podcast Lucy discusses these new leadership communication trends.

Lucy interviews Anne-Katrine Ahlefeldt-Laurvig Head of Global Leadership and Talent Development at Novo Nordisk. She describes her excitement about how the crisis has given her team renewed confidence that they can make change happen.

Lucy chats with Esther Wallington, the Chief People Officer at HMRC. She describes the changes in managers' and employees' behaviour during the crisis and how this can be built upon once it's over.

Lucy talks about what #BetterNormal leadership looks like and how we need to redefine our expectations of leaders after the crisis.

Lucy talks to Andrea Gordon, HR Director at Peabody Housing Trust. She shares how lockdown has led them to make dramatic changes to the way they recruit and onboard their people and how they won't be going back!

Lucy interviews Amy Girdwood, EVP People and Culture at media giant Discovery. She talks about how the crisis has transformed the way they communicate and led to new possibilities.

Claire Camara and Clare Fogden from The Coop share how they have begun to implement employee experience, or as they call it, ‘colleague experience’. Hear how they have embedded and used colleague insight in the design of HR products and the impact their new approach is having on processes such as performance management.

Lucy interviews Amy Brand, Global HR Partner for Swiss Re talks to us about how her company has changed during lockdown and what she wants to take into the new and #betternormal.

Is your organisation stuck in the quagmire of outdated succession planning? Lucy Adams and Karen Moran, founders of Disruptive HR share their personal horror stories from their time as HR Directors and shed light on the inefficiencies of traditional methods that often miss the mark. They discuss the pitfalls of over-engineering processes, making a case for the urgent need for agile succession planning. By highlighting how rigid structures can fail to adapt to market dynamics, they stress the importance of a more fluid and realistic approach to succession planning.

Moving beyond horror stories, they showcase successful strategies from companies like Nestle, Spotify, Arium, and Western Union that have redefined succession planning. From embracing the concept that ‘everyone is ready for something different’ to implementing regular ‘talent talks’, these organisations demonstrate the power of inclusive and dynamic approaches. Tune in to discover how these innovative practices can foster internal talent development, transforming your succession planning into a forward-thinking and effective process.

Find out more about innovative HR practices at www.disruptivehr.com

Lucy interviews one of the UK's most prominent HR Directors, Simon Linares. Simon has worked at many of the UK's biggest brands and we were delighted that he took some time to share what his idea of Better Normal looks like.

In this podcast Karen talks to Karl Burnett, VP of HR at A+E Networks about some of the great HR initiatives that helped A+E win the award for ‘Best place to work in TV’ in 2018.

A+E Networks UK is a joint venture between Hearst and Sky and a leading media network reaching 60 million homes across 100 countries. Known for award-winning factual and entertainment content they have been entertaining and inspiring audiences for over 20 years and currently partner with over 360 operators broadcasting throughout the Nordics, Benelux, Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Karl joined A+E Networks UK as VP, Human Resources in July 2015. Based in London, Burnett manages Human Resources and Recruitment across all of A+E Networks UK’s territories, including offices in Poland, Denmark, Benelux and South Africa. The business currently employs over 200 people. Burnett joined A+E Networks UK from the BBC, where he held senior HR positions since 2010. Karl served as HR Director for BBC News and Radio, leading an international team of 50 HR professionals. He previously held roles at Nickelodeon UK and Channel 4 Television.

Our traditional approaches to onboarding had already been challenged even before the virus hit. Now, lockdown has made the old, classroom style of delivery impossible. In this podcast Karen and Lucy discuss how companies are re-thinking onboarding and achieving the same outcomes – or maybe even better outcomes – as a result of lockdown.

We hear from Katherine, who heads up HR at the NHS Blood and Transplant service, about HR on the front line during the crisis and how these challenging times have offered opportunities to do things differently.

Caoimhe and Alex talk about a range of innovative approaches at MoneySuperMarket including how they are doing onboarding in different ways such as experimenting with app based solutions.

In this interview Nebel shares how she uses ‘agile hr’ as well as some great innovations in performance management and employee engagement from her period at fashion retailer River Island.

On this podcast, Lucy is joined by Colleen Fuller, Chief People Officer at Salsify.

Previously Colleen was the Head of Talent and Employee Experience at Vistaprint and on this podcast she talks to Lucy about how they adopted Agile principles within HR while redefining their purpose within the organisation.

A great example of how ‘Employee Experience’ is based at the heart of the Vistaprint transformation.

Join Lucy and Karen of Disruptive HR as they discuss how employment policies can be designed in new ways. They explore what moving to a more ‘adult to adult’ approach means in practice and how HR can begin to get rid of their role of ‘compliance officer’

Conversations over HR process is almost always better. In this podcast, conversations expert Dik Veenman tells us how to do them well.

Unlock the secrets to revolutionising performance management with insights directly from Gill Hunt and Uli Kirschner from tech company SUSE. Discover how SUSE transformed their performance evaluations into the innovative "SUSE Sync," a dynamic system that fosters personal accountability and continuous feedback. You'll learn how this major shift was driven by employee engagement surveys revealing a demand for clearer role expectations and better feedback, ultimately aligning employees with organisational goals and boosting overall performance.

Explore the SYNC (Setting You in Control) framework, designed to cultivate a culture of personal and professional growth. Hear firsthand accounts from Gill and Uli about moving away from rigid performance ratings to an ongoing, adaptive feedback process that empowers leaders to coach their teams more effectively. You'll understand the complexities and advantages of this new approach, particularly how it influences reward differentiation and managerial decision-making without relying on traditional ratings. The duo also shares the extensive marketing and communication efforts behind the successful relaunch of this system, ensuring robust employee engagement.

Get inspired by SUSE's creative rollout strategies and learn about the importance of language in making these initiatives succeed, shifting from formal HR jargon to more inclusive terms. Gill and Uli reflect on the journey, emphasising the need for flexibility, over-communication, and sustained enthusiasm beyond the initial launch phase. These insights will arm you with the knowledge to drive meaningful change in HR practices within your own organisation.

Find out more about innovative HR practices at www.disruptivehr.com

Claire Camara and Clare Fogden from The Coop share how they are building leadership capability in new ways including focusing on the behaviours they need in the future, taking out tired processes and changing the ways leaders are chosen.

Suzanne Roddie, Head of Performance and Talent at Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays talks to Karen about how they have revamped their entire approach to Performance Management.

Learn how they co-created their new approach and how they will be rolling out this new feedback-led culture.

Suzanne also shares with us their new values and how this has led to an interesting piece of work on changing behaviours within the organisation.

Suzie Welch, Former Group People Director at Pizza Express talks to Lucy about how they’ve developed a new Leadership framework which is unique to them and that will help them make a real shift in the performance of the business. They are also in the process of introducing flexibility to all levels of their workforce and shifting their approach to Performance Management, moving away from a formal, annual review to one where the employees own it.

Tracey Waters, Head of People Engagement and Development at Sky talks to Lucy about how they have moved away from a classroom based learning approach to one that is learner owned.

They identified 9 pain points in the employee life cycle and worked on creating continuous learning experiences around these pain points while applying marketing techniques to effectively engage with the learner.

Tracey also shares how they’ve successfully used Looop as a platform for their training content.