Explore every episode of the podcast HR Coffee Time

Have you ever dismissed something you do brilliantly because it feels easy? Perhaps a colleague has praised you for something and you've thought, "That's nothing special. Doesn't everyone do that?" The challenge is that some of our greatest strengths can be hidden in plain sight because they come so naturally to us.

In this episode, we explore why recognising and using your strengths can have a powerful impact on your wellbeing, performance and enjoyment at work. We also look at why many people spend too much time relying on learned behaviours rather than the things that genuinely energise them.

To help us unpack this topic, I'm joined by chartered psychologists Michele Deeks and Martin Galpin, co-founders of Work Positive and creators of the At My Best strengths tools. Together, we discuss the research behind strengths-based approaches, how to identify your own strengths, and simple ways managers, leaders and teams can help people recognise what they do best.

• The difference between a genuine strength and a learned behaviour, and why recognising the distinction matters
• Why the strengths that come most naturally to you can be the hardest ones to spot
• How focusing only on weaknesses can limit development and prevent people from excelling
• Practical ways managers can help team members identify and use their strengths more often
• Why detailed positive feedback is more powerful than generic praise
• How reflecting on times when you've been at your best can help you identify your strengths
• A simple team activity that encourages colleagues to recognise and appreciate each other's strengths

[00:00] Introduction: Hidden Strengths

[00:31] Welcome, Guests & HR Planning Day

[03:35] What Are Strengths?

[04:21] Strengths vs Learned Behaviours

[05:47] Fay's Personal Example: Time Management

[06:43] The Impact of Overusing Learned Behaviours

[08:26] Why Focus on Strengths at Work?

[10:28] Fixing Weakness vs Building Strength

[12:16] The Cost of No Positive Feedback

[12:37] How Managers Can Weave In Strengths

[13:06] The Leaving Party Effect

[14:29] The Power of Detailed Positive Feedback

[16:37] The Ripple Effect & Strengths Blind Spots

[21:22] Using Strengths Cards with People Facing Redundancy

[23:08] The Research Behind Strengths

[27:10] Wellbeing & Financial Performance: Oxford Research

[28:37] How to Identify Your Own Strengths

[32:03] The Story Behind the Strengths Cards

[35:24] Team Activities with the Strengths Cards

[39:02] Book Recommendation & Job Crafting

[43:46] Wrap Up

• Connect with Michele Deeks on LinkedIn
• Connect with Martin Galpin on LinkedIn
• Visit the Work Positive website
• Explore At My Best resources and strengths tools
• Try the free Strengths Self-Reflection Tool
• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Treat yourself to a copy of The Essential HR Planner
• Book your ticket for one of the HR Planning Days

• Personalization at Work: How HR Can Use Job Crafting to Drive Performance, Engagement & Wellbeing, by Rob Baker
• Journal article:Flourishing in New Zealand Workers: Associations With Lifestyle Behaviors, Physical Health, Psychosocial, and Work-Related Indicators (2015),by Lucy C. Hone, Aaron Jarden, Scott Duncan and Grant M. Schofield
• Michelle McQuaid’s research on strengths-based organisational change
• University of Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre:Workplace Wellbeing and Firm Performance, by Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, Micah Kaats and George Ward

• Episode 47:Discovering Your Values to Help Your HR Career, with Zoe Hawkins
• Episode 173:How to Build a Better Workplace Culture, So People Thrive at Work, with Aoife O'Brien

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email

Career progression does not always have to mean securing a promotion or climbing further up the career ladder. You may want to deepen your expertise, move into a different area of HR or explore a completely new path.

In this solo episode, Fay talks you through four possible career directions: growing in your current role, stepping up, moving sideways or stepping out. She also shares practical questions to help you decide which direction feels right for the next stage of your career.

• Why meaningful career growth does not always require a promotion or a new job title
• How growing in your current role could help you develop your expertise, confidence or strategic impact
• Questions to consider if you would like to step up into a more senior position
• How a sideways move could broaden your experience and support your longer-term career goals
• Practical ways to explore stepping out of your current career path before making a major change
• How to identify the work, strengths and experiences you would like more of in your career
• Why choosing a general direction can help you make more deliberate decisions, even if you do not have every detail worked out yet

[0:00] Introduction: The Four Career Directions

[01:15] Option 1: Grow in Your Current Role

[03:28] Option 2: Step Up into a More Senior Role

[05:21] Option 3: Move Sideways

[07:03] Option 4: Step Out - Leaving Your Current Path & Exploring New Options

[08:48] How to Choose Which Career Direction Is Right for You

[10:19] Using The Essential HR Planner to Turn Your Decision Into a Plan

[11:37] Closing: What Do You Want Next from Your Career?

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Treat yourself to a copy of The Essential HR Planner

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email for useful HR resources, ideas and new episode updates to support you in your HR career.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Managers are expected to handle everything from one-to-ones and development conversations to absence, performance issues and disciplinaries. Yet many step into management without having been properly taught how to deal with these responsibilities. For HR and People professionals, finding a way to build managers’ knowledge and confidence without overwhelming them can be a real challenge.

In this special bonus episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay Wallis is joined by Amy Critchley, Head of People at Indigo Networks. Amy explains how she created a management development programme from scratch after joining an organisation that had not previously had a dedicated HR or People team.

Amy shares practical ideas for combining essential HR knowledge with wider management development, making potentially dry subjects more engaging and helping learning stick. She also explains how the programme strengthened relationships between managers and changed the way they worked with the People team.

• How to decide which topics to prioritise when creating a management development programme
• Why combining practical HR knowledge with wider management skills can make training more effective
• Ideas for making subjects such as absence, investigations, disciplinaries and employment law more engaging
• How to accommodate different learning preferences without relying on lengthy presentations or uncomfortable role play
• Ways to support learning beyond the workshop through e-learning, workbooks, drop-in clinics and People Partnering sessions
• How real-life scenarios, discussion and peer learning can build managers’ confidence
• Signs that manager training is working, including stronger peer relationships and a more positive relationship with the People team

[00:00] Introduction: Why managers matter

[01:14] The challenge of developing managers

[02:02] The Workforce Success Stories Summit

[02:49] Meet Amy Critchley: building a management development programme

[04:11] How Amy identified the need for manager training

[05:47] Deciding on the training content

[08:28] Combining HR knowledge with management development

[09:50] Designing engaging, brain-friendly training

[13:27] Wraparound support: e-learning and drop-in clinics

[15:28] From drop-in clinics to people partnering

[17:46] Measuring success: executive buy-in and manager engagement

[20:18] Changing the perception of HR

[24:16] Making learning stick: worst-case scenarios and one-to-ones

[29:06] How the programme changed HR's perception in the business

[32:43] Book recommendation and wrap-up

• Learn more about the Workforce Success Stories Summit
• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Treat yourself to a copy of The Essential HR Planner

The Trainer’s Toolkit: Bringing Brain-Friendly Learning to Life, by Kimberly Herr and Larry Reynolds

Amy recommends this practical resource for ideas on keeping training real, recognising the different needs of people in the room, creating multisensory learning and managing the state of the group.

• Episode 129: Five Essential Techniques to Become a Great Manager, with James Rose
• Episode 118: 9 Tips to Unlock Training Success When You're a Busy HR Professional

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email for useful HR resources, ideas and new episode updates to support you in your HR career.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Cancer affects far more people in the workplace than many of us realise. As HR professionals, there may be times when you're supporting an employee with a cancer diagnosis, someone undergoing treatment, a colleague living with the long-term effects of cancer, or an employee who is caring for a loved one affected by it.

Knowing that support matters is one thing. Feeling confident about what to say, what practical help to offer, and how to create the right support across your organisation is another.

In this episode, Fay is joined by Tara Ferguson, Founder of Onward With You. Drawing on more than 20 years in senior HR roles and her own experience of being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2023, Tara shares practical advice to help HR teams and managers better support people affected by cancer at work. Together, they explore the role good line management can play, the reality of living with cancer beyond active treatment, and the steps organisations can take to build greater cancer confidence.

• Why cancer should increasingly be considered a long-term condition rather than a short-term illness
• The scale of cancer's impact on today's workforce, including employees with caring responsibilities
• What Tara's line manager did that made such a positive difference during her diagnosis and treatment
• Why work can sometimes play an important role in someone's recovery and wellbeing during treatment
• What HR professionals need to understand about legal protections and reasonable adjustments
• How to approach the first conversation when someone shares a cancer diagnosis with you
• Practical steps organisations can take to improve awareness, support and manager capability

[0:00] Introduction: Cancer at Work

[01:15] Meet Tara Ferguson

[02:50] Tara's Story: From HR to Cancer Diagnosis

[03:48] The Changing Face of Cancer in the Workplace

[05:12] How Tara Is Now: The Ongoing Impact

[08:07] Cancer in the Workplace: The Statistics

[11:36] What Good Line Manager Support Looks Like

[15:32] The Positive Role of Work During Treatment

[17:13] Legal Protections & Reasonable Adjustments

[19:05] Supporting Employees with Hidden Cancer Diagnoses

[21:40] Having the First Conversation About Cancer

[24:20] Organisation-Wide HR Strategies

[27:26] Book Recommendation & Resources

[29:27] How to Reach Tara

[29:55] Key Takeaways & Closing

• Visit Tara's website:Onward With You
• Connect with Tara Ferguson on LinkedIn
• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay's Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Treat yourself to a copy of The Essential HR Planner

The Leopard in My House, by Mark Steel

Tara also mentions a number of resources available through Onward With You, including:

• A guide covering 12 common questions HR professionals and line managers ask about supporting employees affected by cancer
• The Cancer Confidence Framework
• The Cancer Confidence HR Masterclass

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email for useful HR resources, ideas and new episode updates to support you in your HR career.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Have you ever found yourself going round and round in circles trying to choose between two options?

Perhaps you’re deciding whether to recruit externally or promote someone internally, introduce a new policy or stick with what you already have, invest in a new HR system or make the current one work, or even stay in your current role or apply for something new.

Sometimes the problem isn’t that you haven’t thought hard enough about the two options. It’s that you’ve become so focused on them that you haven’t spotted another possibility.

In this solo episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay shares a real decision she recently struggled with while planning the 2027 edition of The Essential HR Planner, and how an unexpected suggestion helped her realise she had fallen into a common decision-making trap called narrow framing.

Drawing on ideas from Chip and Dan Heath’s brilliant book Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions, Fay explores two practical ways to widen your thinking and get unstuck when a decision feels like an either/or choice.

• What narrow framing is and how it can limit your decision-making
• Why the options in front of you may not be the only options available
• How to use theVanishing Options Testto uncover different possibilities
• Why asking someone else for their perspective can help you see what you’re missing
• The questions to ask other people so you don’t accidentally keep them trapped inside the same narrow frame
• How Fay used these ideas to solve her dilemma about whether to bring back the wire-bound version of The Essential HR Planner

[00:00] Introduction: Stuck Between Two Options

[00:28] Common Either/Or Decisions at Work

[01:22] The Book: Decisive by Chip and Dan Heath

[02:43] Fay's Dilemma: The Essential HR Planner

[04:27] Should the Wire-Bound Planner Return?

[05:14] Asking for Feedback to Get Unstuck

[06:20] Claire's Game-Changing Suggestion

[07:53] Understanding Narrow Framing

[09:53] The Vanishing Options Test

[12:39] Getting Another Perspective

[13:50] How to Ask Better Questions When Asking for Advice

[14:44] Book Recommendations: Decisive, Made to Stick, and Switch

[15:28] Pre-Order the Wire-Bound Planner

[16:11] Closing Thanks and Sign-Off

The book links below are Amazon affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you.

• Decisive: How to Make Better Decisions, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• Made to Stick: Why some ideas take hold and others come unstuck, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
• Switch: How to change things when change is hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

If you’re watching or listening to this episode close to its release date, you should now be able to pre-order the wire-bound 2027 edition of The Essential HR Planner.

Visit essentialhrplanner.co.uk to find out more and pre-order your copy.

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

What exactly is employee experience? How is it different from workplace culture, employer brand or your employee value proposition? And what can you actually do to improve it?

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, I’m joined by employee experience expert Chris Manning, People and Culture Portfolio Transformation Lead at Primark.

Chris explains what employee experience really means and why it matters for organisations of every size. He shares practical ways to understand and measure the experience your employees are having, whether you work in a small organisation or a huge global business.

We also explore how design thinking can help you move beyond simply listening to employees and start making meaningful improvements. Chris talks us through a practical onboarding example, showing how journey mapping can uncover friction, identify opportunities and help you design a better employee experience.

And if you need to secure investment for your ideas, Chris shares practical advice on building the business case and getting the buy-in and budget you need.

Whether employee experience is already part of your role, or it’s an area you’d like to learn more about, this episode is packed with practical ideas to help you get started.

• What employee experience actually means
• How employee experience differs from workplace culture, employer brand and EVP
• Why employee experience matters in smaller organisations as well as large global businesses
• Practical ways to measure employee experience
• How to gather useful feedback across the employee lifecycle
• Why post-onboarding and offboarding can provide valuable insights
• How employee data can help create more personalised employee experiences
• How design thinking can help you improve employee experience
• The five stages of design thinking: empathise, define, ideate, prototype and test
• How to use journey mapping to improve an experience such as onboarding
• How to build a compelling business case for employee experience improvements
• How to combine qualitative and quantitative evidence to secure buy-in and budget

[00:00] What is employee experience and why does it matter?

[02:45] Meet Chris Manning

[04:35] What employee experience really means

[06:25] Employee experience vs workplace culture

[07:10] Employee experience, employer brand and EVP

[08:30] Why employee experience matters in smaller organisations too

[10:40] How to measure employee experience

[14:20] Using employee data to understand and personalise experiences

[18:20] Moving from employee listening to employee experience design

[19:40] Using journey mapping to improve onboarding

[23:30] A free onboarding journey-mapping resource

[25:25] What is design thinking?

[26:50] The five stages of design thinking

[29:45] How to get buy-in and budget for employee experience

[33:30] Chris’s recommended resource

[35:35] How to connect with Chris

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Connect with Chris Manning on LinkedIn
• Read Chris’s article about employee experience inThe ELEVATE Hub magazine
• Download Chris’s free employee experience journey-mapping resource:brightskyhr.co.uk/resources
• Find out more aboutThe Essential HR Planner
• Learn more about Fay’s leadership programme –Inspiring HR Leadership

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

🎁 Download your free Personal User Manual template:

https://brightskyhr.co.uk/resources

Taking over the leadership of an HR team can come with a long list of things you want to improve, but one of the most valuable things you can do first is help your team build trust, understand each other and work well together.

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay shares one of her favourite team-building activities: creating and sharing Personal User Manuals.

Personal User Manuals give everyone an opportunity to explain how they work best, the strengths they bring, what helps them thrive and what their colleagues should know about them.

They can make some of the information that is usually invisible within a team much more visible, helping people understand each other’s preferences, avoid misunderstandings and make better use of the strengths and experience already within the team.

Fay talks you through how to run the activity, from deciding what to include in your Personal User Manuals to facilitating the sharing session and turning what you learn into practical changes in how you work together.

• Why investing in relationships can create a stronger foundation when you take over an HR team
• How Personal User Manuals can help your team understand each other’s strengths, preferences and ways of working
• How the activity can help you start building greater psychological safety
• Ideas for useful categories to include in your Personal User Manuals
• Why it’s helpful to ask your team what they think everyone should include
• How to create the right environment for people to share what they’ve written
• Why you, as the leader, should share your Personal User Manual first
• Questions you can use to encourage positive reflections after each person has shared
• How to turn what you learn into practical improvements to the way your team works
• How to keep the learning alive after the activity

[00:00] Why relationships matter when you take over an HR team

[01:20] What is a Personal User Manual?

[02:50] Why Personal User Manuals can be so useful

[04:55] What to include in your Personal User Manuals

[06:50] Involving your team in choosing the categories

[07:50] How to run the sharing session

[08:50] Why the leader should go first

[09:30] Encouraging positive comments and reflections

[10:40] What have you learned about yourselves as a team?

[11:35] Keeping the learning alive

[12:35] Download the free Personal User Manual template

• Download your free Personal User Manual template:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/resources
• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/faywallis/
• The Essential HR Planner:https://essentialhrplanner.co.uk/
• Learn about the Inspiring HR Leadership Programme:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/hr-leadership-course/

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released - and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

HR professionals have a huge opportunity to shape how, why and when AI is used across their organisations.

Because AI is not only changing technology. It is changing jobs, skills, teams, management and the way work gets done. And HR is uniquely placed to make sure those changes work for both the organisation and its people.

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay is joined by People Consultant Charlotte Goulding to explore how HR professionals can help shape successful AI adoption across their organisations.

Charlotte explains why HR should not wait to be invited into conversations about AI and shares how her Five People Foundations Framework can help organisations put the right people foundations in place as work changes.

Together, Fay and Charlotte explore what each of these foundations means in practice, including why traditional job descriptions may no longer be enough, why managers will become even more important and how performance, recognition and HR operations may need to evolve.

Charlotte also explains how HR can help organisations make thoughtful decisions about AI while keeping people, trust and culture at the heart of them.

• Why HR shouldn't wait to be invited into conversations about AI
• The difference between “AI for HR” and “HR for AI”
• How the Five People Foundations work together
• Why skills and capabilities could become more useful than job descriptions
• How managers can support people through AI-related change
• How performance, recognition and HR operations may need to adapt

[0:00] Introduction: Why HR must lead AI adoption

[2:01] Welcome, Charlotte Goulding

[2:24] HR for AI, not just AI for HR

[4:41] From pandemic hero to recent criticism

[6:31] How the Five Foundations framework came about

[10:42] Overview: The Five People Foundations

[11:35] Foundation 1: Identity

[15:34] Example: Values in your AI hiring process

[19:13] Foundation 2: Clarity

[23:28] Applying skills-based roles in HR

[26:31] OKRs and quarterly goal-setting

[28:05] Foundation 3: Enablement

[29:12] Managers: the most overlooked foundation

[36:51] Foundation 4: Recognition

[39:01] Rethinking career progression and rewards

[40:42] Foundation 5: Operations

[42:22] Mapping your most critical processes

[43:38] Working with Charlotte

[45:37] Book recommendations

[47:05] Wrap-up and outro

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay’s Essential HR Planner
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Complete Charlotte’s free Five People Foundations diagnostic.
• Visit Charlotte's website:The People Thread
• Connect with Charlotte Goulding on LinkedIn

• HR Disrupted by Lucy Adams
• Built for People by Jessica Zwaan

• Ep 164:Becoming More Strategic as an HR Team: Three Ways OKRs Can Help
• Ep 166:The Biggest HR Strategy Mistake and How to Fix It, with Dean Corbett
• Ep 172:How One Company Helped Employees Embrace AI, with Laura Maffucci
• Ep 173:How to Build a Better Workplace Culture (So People Thrive at Work), with Aoife O’Brien

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released - and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Does it feel hard to make time for strategic work when you’re already so busy?

Welcome to Day 5 of The Strategic HR Sprint, a free five-day learning experience designed to help you strengthen your strategic thinking and build your confidence about being strategic.

🧭 Sign up for free at https://brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint to receive all five episodes, worksheets, AI prompts and resources.

In this final episode, Fay explores how to create and protect time for strategic work, even when your diary is full and urgent tasks keep competing for your attention.

You’ll use the Day 5 worksheet to design your ideal strategic week by considering when you think most clearly, where you can focus and what you could delegate, automate, shorten or stop to create more space.

You’ll also think about the boundaries and accountability that could help you protect your strategic time and follow through on the work you’ve started during the sprint.

By the end of the episode, you’ll have a realistic plan for making strategic work a regular priority.

• How to choose and protect time for strategic work
• Why your energy levels and working environment matter
• Practical ways to create more space in your working week
• How boundaries and accountability can help you follow through
• How to use AI as a thinking partner and accountability coach

[00:00] Welcome to Day 5 of The Strategic HR Sprint

[00:48] Why strategic work gets pushed aside

[01:39] Making deliberate space for strategic work

[02:18] Designing your ideal strategic week

[02:40] Working with your energy levels

[03:11] Choosing the right environment

[03:31] Creating more space in your diary

[04:03] Protecting your focus and staying accountable

[04:46] The Essential HR Planner

[05:42] Using AI as a thinking partner and accountability coach

[06:29] One final thought about strategy

[07:31] Sharing your experience of the sprint

[07:54] What happens next on HR Coffee Time

• Join the free Strategic HR Sprint:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint/
• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faywallis/
• The Essential HR Planner:https://essentialhrplanner.co.uk/
• Learn about the Inspiring HR Leadership Programme:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/hr-leadership-course/

• Ep 174 | Free 5-Day Strategic HR Sprint (Struggling to Be Strategic? This Will Help)
• Ep 176 | (Day 1) The Strategic HR Sprint - Building Your Strategic Confidence
• Ep 177 | (Day 2) The Strategic HR Sprint - Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Ep 178 | (Day 3) The Strategic HR Sprint - Finding Your Strategic Focus
• Ep 179 | (Day 4) The Strategic HR Sprint - Look Beneath the Surface

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

When you spot a problem at work, how quickly does your mind start coming up with solutions?

Welcome to Day 4 of The Strategic HR Sprint, a free five-day experience to help you build your confidence and skills in being strategic in your HR role.

👉 Join the sprint for free and access all five episodes, worksheets and resources here: https://brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint

One of the most important parts of being strategic is taking the time to understand what is really driving a challenge before deciding how to respond.

It is easy to assume that the answer is training, a new policy, more people or better pay. But if you have not explored what is really causing the challenge, you could invest time and energy in an idea that only treats the symptoms.

Getting to the root cause helps you make better decisions about where HR can have the greatest impact and identify actions that are more likely to create lasting improvements.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to stay curious for longer and use a simple technique called the Five Whys to explore the challenge you identified during Day 3.

• Why understanding the root cause is an important part of being strategic
• How to use the Five Whys technique
• How to avoid treating a symptom instead of the underlying cause
• Why involving people who are close to the challenge can lead to better insights
• How to ask “why” without sounding critical or pushy

Today’s worksheet will help you explore the challenge you chose during Day 3 and identify what may be causing it.

You’ll work through the Five Whys, think about where HR could have the biggest influence and note down your first ideas for how the challenge could be addressed.

You might also find it helpful to talk the challenge through with someone who sees or experiences it day to day, as they may notice things that are easy to miss from your perspective.

Once you have completed the worksheet, you can also use the optional AI prompt to suggest practical HR and People initiatives, including quick wins and longer-term ideas.

Before using the prompt, remember to remove or change anything that could identify your organisation or the people involved.

Access all the sprint resources here:

https://brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint

[00:00] – Welcome to Day 4 of The Strategic HR Sprint

[01:09] – A recap of the sprint so far

[01:42] – Why we jump straight to solutions

[02:41] – Staying curious for longer

[03:03] – How the Five Whys works

[03:37] – Finding the right starting point

[04:45] – The employee turnover example

[06:10] – Your Day 4 worksheet

[07:18] – Involving other people

[07:43] – How to ask “why” without sounding critical

[08:51] – Using the optional AI prompt

[09:34] – Protecting confidential information

[10:42] – What to expect from Day 5

• Join the free Strategic HR Sprint:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint/
• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faywallis/
• The Essential HR Planner:https://essentialhrplanner.co.uk/
• Learn about the Inspiring HR Leadership Programme:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/hr-leadership-course/

• Ep 174 | Free 5-Day Strategic HR Sprint (Struggling to Be Strategic? This Will Help)
• Ep 176 | (Day 1) The Strategic HR Sprint - Building Your Strategic Confidence
• Ep 177 | (Day 2) The Strategic HR Sprint - Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Ep 178 | (Day 3) The Strategic HR Sprint - Finding Your Strategic Focus
• Ep 179 | (Day 4) The Strategic HR Sprint - Look Beneath the Surface
• Ep 180 (Day 5) The Strategic HR Sprint - Making Strategic Work a Priority

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

When there are dozens of things you could be working on, how do you decide what deserves your attention most?

Welcome to Day 3 of The Strategic HR Sprint, a free five-day learning experience designed to help you strengthen your strategic thinking in just 10–15 minutes each day.

👉 Join The Strategic HR Sprint for free: brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint

In today’s episode, you’ll identify one important challenge to focus on for the rest of the sprint.

Drawing on an insight from Richard Rumelt’s book Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, Fay explains why good strategy isn’t a long list of everything an organisation could do. It requires focus: understanding the challenges being faced and directing time and energy towards the ones that matter most.

You’ll explore different ways to identify a worthwhile challenge, whether that means looking at your organisation’s strategy, reflecting on what you discovered about the external environment during Day 2, reviewing HR data or noticing the frustrations that repeatedly arise in conversations with managers and employees.

Your chosen challenge doesn’t have to affect the entire organisation. If you’re earlier in your HR career, it could be something closer to your own role that you can influence. What matters is choosing an area where you have the opportunity to make a positive difference.

• Why being strategic includes deciding what not to focus on
• How to identify the challenges behind your organisation’s strategic priorities
• Where to look for ideas if your organisation doesn’t have a clear or up-to-date strategy
• How external trends, HR data and recurring workplace frustrations can highlight important challenges
• The question that can help you decide which challenge to prioritise
• Why there isn’t an optional AI prompt for today’s activity

[00:00] Welcome to Day 3 of The Strategic HR Sprint

[01:09] Recapping Days 1 and 2

[01:30] What good strategy looks like in practice

[02:52] Identifying one challenge worth focusing on

[03:42] Using your organisation’s strategy

[04:43] What to do if the strategy isn’t helpful

[05:14] Learning from data and recurring frustrations

[05:34] Choosing the challenge with the greatest potential impact

[06:15] Why today’s activity doesn’t include an AI prompt

[06:38] Share how you’re getting on

Join The Strategic HR Sprint for free: brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters by Richard Rumelt

• Join the free Strategic HR Sprint
• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• The Essential HR Planner
• Learn about the Inspiring HR Leadership Programme

• Ep 174 | Free 5-Day Strategic HR Sprint (Struggling to Be Strategic? This Will Help)
• Ep 176 | (Day 1) The Strategic HR Sprint - Building Your Strategic Confidence
• Ep 177 | (Day 2) The Strategic HR Sprint - Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Ep 179 | (Day 4) The Strategic HR Sprint - Look Beneath the Surface
• Ep 180 (Day 5) The Strategic HR Sprint - Making Strategic Work a Priority

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

If you’re taking part in The Strategic HR Sprint, Fay would love to hear how you’re getting on. Leave a comment underneath the YouTube video, share your progress on LinkedIn and tag Fay, or reply to one of your daily sprint emails.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

What does it really mean to be strategic in HR?

One of the biggest shifts you can make is to stop looking only at HR and start paying much more attention to the world your organisation operates in.

In Day 2 of the free five-day Strategic HR Sprint, Fay Wallis explores why strategic HR professionals develop an "outside-in" perspective. Drawing on insights from HR From the Outside In by Dave Ulrich and colleagues, she explains why understanding your industry's challenges, opportunities and emerging trends can help you anticipate what's coming next and make a greater strategic contribution.

You'll also discover a simple habit you can build into your routine to strengthen your commercial awareness, along with an optional AI prompt that can quickly generate an executive briefing about your sector.

Whether you're early in your HR career or already leading a people function, this episode will help you become more curious, more commercially aware and more confident about contributing strategically.

👉 Join The Strategic HR Sprint for free: brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint

[00:00] Welcome to Day 2 of The Strategic HR Sprint

[01:09] Why understanding your organisation's world matters

[02:39] The "outside-in" approach from Dave Ulrich & colleagues

[03:47] How external trends shape strategic HR priorities

[04:38] Today's worksheet: building your outside-in awareness

[05:55] Using AI to understand your industry more quickly

[07:10] Building a lasting strategic habit

[08:14] Looking ahead to Day 3

• Ep 174 | Free 5-Day Strategic HR Sprint (Struggling to Be Strategic? This Will Help)
• Ep 176 | (Day 1) The Strategic HR Sprint - Building Your Strategic Confidence
• Ep 177 | (Day 2) The Strategic HR Sprint - Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Ep 178 | (Day 3) The Strategic HR Sprint - Finding Your Strategic Focus
• Ep 179 | (Day 4) The Strategic HR Sprint - Look Beneath the Surface
• Ep 180 (Day 5) The Strategic HR Sprint - Making Strategic Work a Priority

• Join the free Strategic HR Sprint
• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• The Essential HR Planner
• Learn about theInspiring HR Leadership Programme

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Want to become more strategic in HR, but not sure where to start? This episode is Day 1 of my free five-day Strategic HR Sprint.

Over five short episodes, I'll help you build your strategic confidence one practical step at a time through bite-sized lessons, downloadable worksheets and optional AI prompts.

👉Join the free Strategic HR Sprint here: https://brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint

When you sign up, you'll receive 5 daily emails, containing each day's:

• Podcast episode
• Practical worksheet for each day
• Optional AI prompt to deepen your learning

Even if you're discovering this episode months or years after it was first released, you can still sign up and work through the sprint at your own pace.

One of the biggest challenges I hear from HR professionals isn't a lack of strategic ability. It's a lack of confidence.

Many people assume strategy is something reserved for CEOs, senior leaders or people with MBAs. But what if you've actually been thinking strategically for years without realising it?

In Day 1, you'll discover a simple way of thinking about strategy that completely changed the way I see it. You'll also complete a practical reflection exercise to help you recognise the strategic strengths you already have, giving you evidence to build your confidence throughout the rest of the sprint.

• Why so many HR professionals underestimate how strategic they already are
• A simple definition of strategy that makes it much easier to understand
• How everyday experiences can demonstrate strategic thinking
• How to recognise the strategic strengths you've already demonstrated
• How today's worksheet and optional AI prompt can help build your confidence
• Why building evidence of your strengths is the first step towards becoming a more confident strategic HR professional

[00:00] Welcome to Day 1 of The Strategic HR Sprint

[02:35] A simple definition of strategy

[03:18] You're already strategic

[04:38] Today's worksheet

[05:44] Examples of strategic thinking in everyday life

[07:24] Using the AI prompt

[09:54] Share your strategic strengths

[10:32] Coming up in Day 2

The Strategy Book by Dr Max McKeown

• Ep 174 | Free 5-Day Strategic HR Sprint (Struggling to Be Strategic? This Will Help)
• Ep 176 | (Day 1) The Strategic HR Sprint - Building Your Strategic Confidence
• Ep 177 | (Day 2) The Strategic HR Sprint - Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Ep 178 | (Day 3) The Strategic HR Sprint - Finding Your Strategic Focus
• Ep 179 | (Day 4) The Strategic HR Sprint - Look Beneath the Surface
• Ep 180 (Day 5) The Strategic HR Sprint - Making Strategic Work a Priority

• Join the free Strategic HR Sprint:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint
• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/faywallis
• Learn more about The Essential HR Planner:https://www.essentialhrplanner.co.uk
• Find out about the Inspiring HR Leadership Programme:https://www.brightskyhr.co.uk/inspiring-hr-leadership-programme

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

🎁 Download your free Mid-Year Reset activity here: https://brightskyhr.kit.com/a2ea9eb841

Have you reached the halfway point of the year wondering where the time has gone?

If you'd like to feel more focused, intentional and excited about the months ahead, this episode is for you.

In this solo episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay shares a simple but powerful Mid-Year Reset exercise that will help you pause, reflect and decide where you'd like to focus next, instead of simply drifting through the rest of the year.

Using the simple Stop, Start, Continue framework, you'll reflect on what's helping you, what's holding you back and the changes that could make the biggest difference during the second half of the year.

• Why halfway through the year is the perfect time to pause and reflect
• How the Stop, Start, Continue framework can help you gain clarity
• Reflection questions to identify what you should stop doing
• Ideas for what to start doing to have more impact and enjoyment at work
• Why recognising what's already working is just as important as making changes
• How to turn your reflections into practical actions you'll actually follow through on
• Simple ways to finish the year feeling more focused, fulfilled and proud of what you've achieved

[00:00] Why a mid-year reset matters

[02:10] Introducing the Stop, Start, Continue framework

[04:00] Stop: What needs to change?

[06:26] Start: What will make the biggest difference?

[07:41] Continue: What's already working well?

[09:28] Turning reflection into action

[10:15] Final thoughts

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay’s Essential HR Planner
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Download your free Mid-Year Reset activity

• Ep 125:Create Your Perfect Professional Development Plan in 8 Simple Steps
• Episode 85:6 Questions to Prioritise What Matters for Your HR Career
• Episode 80:How Quarterly Reviews Can Help You Thrive in Your HR Career
• Episode 170:Constant Interruptions at Work? 4 Ways to Take Back Control

If you're enjoying HR Coffee Time, I'd be so grateful if you could follow the show, leave a rating or review, or share this episode with another HR or People professional who might enjoy it too.

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

If you've ever wished you felt more confident about being strategic in HR, this free sprint is for you.

Starting on Monday 13th July 2026, you'll receive a short daily video (or audio if you prefer to listen), a practical worksheet and an optional AI prompt to help you build your strategic HR skills. Each day's activity takes just 10 to 15 minutes, making it easy to fit into a busy working week.

In this special bonus episode, I'll explain why I created the sprint, what you'll learn over the five days and how you can sign up.

• Why so many HR professionals find it difficult to be strategic.
• What's included in the Free 5-Day Strategic HR Sprint.
• How the sprint will help you build your confidence with strategic thinking.
• Why each day's activities take just 10 to 15 minutes.
• How you can complete the sprint with a colleague or your HR team.

Sign up here: Strategic HR Sprint

The sprint includes:

• A short daily video or audio lesson.
• A practical worksheet every day.
• An optional AI prompt to deepen your learning.
• Activities that take just 10 to 15 minutes a day.

The sprint begins on Monday 13th July 2026, and I'd love you to join me!

00:00 Welcome

00:19 Why so many HR professionals struggle to be strategic

02:29 Introducing the Strategic HR Sprint

03:22 What's included in the sprint

04:17 How to join the sprint

04:49 Take part with a colleague or your HR team

06:01 Thank you for listening

Join the sprint

Connect with Fay on LinkedIn

Questions? Email Fay at: hello@brightskyhr.co.uk

• Ep 176 | (Day 1) The Strategic HR Sprint - Building Your Strategic Confidence
• Ep 177 | (Day 2) The Strategic HR Sprint - Seeing the Bigger Picture
• Ep 178 | (Day 3) The Strategic HR Sprint - Finding Your Strategic Focus
• Ep 179 | (Day 4) The Strategic HR Sprint - Look Beneath the Surface

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Many organisations want a positive workplace culture, but creating one is easier said than done.

How do you know what your culture is really like? What role do leaders play? And why do some organisations create environments where people thrive, while others struggle with engagement, retention, and performance?

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay is joined by workplace culture and leadership expert Aoife O'Brien, founder of Happier at Work and author of the bestselling book Thriving Talent: How Great Leaders Drive Performance, Engagement and Retention.

Aoife shares her Thriving Talent framework and practical advice to help organisations create cultures where people can thrive. Together, Fay and Aoife explore psychological safety, leadership, values, strengths, employee needs, and practical ways to improve the experience of work for everyone.

• The framework Aoife uses to help organisations create cultures where people thrive
• Why psychological safety is the foundation of a thriving workplace
• Why culture is not HR's responsibility alone
• The role leaders play in shaping workplace culture
• How to identify what your workplace culture is really like today
• Practical ways to involve employees in shaping culture
• Why many organisations have "accidental leaders" - and the impact this can have on engagement and retention
• How HR can build the business case for investing in leadership development
• Why values, strengths, and employee needs play such an important role in helping people thrive at work
• Practical ways to identify your strengths and understand what helps you do your best work

[00:00] - Why workplace culture matters

[01:34] - Introducing Aoife O'Brien

[04:14] - Why Aoife wrote Thriving Talent

[07:09] - The Thriving Talent framework explained

[10:00] - The research behind the framework

[13:55] - Why psychological safety matters

[14:27] - Is workplace culture really HR's responsibility?

[17:28] - How to define the culture you want

[19:15] - The challenge of accidental leaders

[25:27] - Making the business case for leadership development

[30:03] - What helps people thrive at work?

[35:22] - Values, needs and strengths

[39:27 ]- Book recommendations

[40:44] - How to connect with Aoife

[41:49] - Closing and book giveaway reminder

Aoife has kindly arranged a 10% discount on her book, Thriving Talent: How Great Leaders Drive Performance, Engagement and Retention. Use this link to access the discount.

• Connect with Aoife O'Brien on LinkedIn
• Visit Aoife's Happier at Work website
• Learn more about the Thriving Talent book
• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay’s Essential HR Planner
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme

• Thriving Talent: How Great Leaders Drive Performance, Engagement and Retention - Aoife O'Brien
• Insight: How to succeed by seeing yourself clearly - Dr Tasha Eurich
• Dare to Lead - Brené Brown
• Your Best Meeting Ever - Rebecca Hinds

• Ep 47:Discovering your values to help your HR Career, with Zoe Hawkins
• Ep 107: The Impact of Imposter Syndrome at Work and How to Tackle It Head-On, with Aoife O'Brien
• Ep 136: How to shape a winning workplace culture when you work in HR, with Annabelle Lawson and Paula Brockwell
• Ep 114: What Workplace Culture Is, How to Measure It, and a Surprising Way to Improve It, with Arend Boersema
• Ep 76: HR Insider tips on how to create an amazing remote working culture, with Claire Cathcart

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released - and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Laura Maffucci has played a key role in helping her organisation embrace AI. The surprising part? She doesn't actually like AI.

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, Laura, Head of HR at G-P, shares her honest perspective on AI, how her organisation has approached adoption, and the practical lessons she's learned along the way.

We discuss everything from creating AI champions and governance processes to helping employees feel comfortable experimenting with AI. Laura also shares her thoughts on job loss fears, the importance of human oversight, and why the reality of AI at work can be very different from what many leaders expect.

Whether your organisation is already embracing AI or you're just starting to think about what it might mean for your workforce, this conversation is packed with practical insights and thought-provoking ideas.

• Why Laura has mixed feelings about AI despite using it extensively at work
• How GP approached AI adoption across the organisation
• The role of AI champions and internal advocates
• Creating psychological safety around AI
• How to encourage experimentation without creating fear
• The importance of governance, security and guardrails
• Why prompting skills matter
• The risks of relying too heavily on AI outputs
• The growing importance of discernment and critical thinking
• The disconnect between executive expectations and employees' experiences of AI
• Practical examples of how AI is being used within HR and across the business

[00:00] Why I Finally Decided to Cover AI

[01:57] Meet Laura Maffucci

[02:51] Laura's Surprising View of AI

[04:45] How AI Is Being Used at G-P

[05:37] The AI Council and Governance

[06:40] AI Champions, Training and Adoption

[09:09] What's Had the Biggest Impact?

[10:05] Finding Your AI Champions

[11:33] Addressing Fear of Job Loss

[11:47] Creating Psychological Safety Around AI

[13:41] The Disconnect Between Leaders and Employees

[16:06] The Number One Skill – Discernment

[16:27] Cautionary Tale

[17:19] The Right Way to Introduce AI

[17:54] The Benefits of AI Adoption

[18:57] Using Gemini Gems and AI Workflows

[23:13] Creating AI Personas for Senior Leaders

[24:17] AI Security and Confidential Information

[26:15] Book Recommendation: Dare to Lead

[28:13] Key Takeaways from the Conversation

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay’s Essential HR Planner
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Connect with Laura on LinkedIn
• G-P article:Why your best 2026 AI strategy is still human

• Ep 181: HR in the AI Era - The 5 Foundations Every HR Leader Needs (with Charlotte Goulding)
• Ep 171: How to Build Trust & Get Buy-In Through Brilliant Employee Communication

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

You can design the best HR strategy, introduce brilliant benefits, or roll out an important change - but if people do not understand it, engage with it, or take action, none of it matters.

That is why employee communication sits right at the heart of your impact in HR.

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay is joined by Nik Nawaaz, Head of Employee Communications at Barnett Waddingham (now part of Howden) to unpack exactly how HR professionals can communicate in a way that builds trust, gets buy-in, and encourages people to take action - whether that is using their benefits, completing an engagement survey, preparing for a performance review, or navigating organisational change.

With over 20 years of experience in employee communications, Nik shares practical, immediately actionable advice — no jargon, no fluff.

• Why employee communication is the “connective tissue” of an organisation
• Why HR can sometimes feel like a faceless department - and how to change that
• The common mistake HR professionals make when writing employee communications
• Why your message needs to answer “So what?” within the first few seconds
• How to shift from explaining features to showing benefits
• Why phrases like “HR is pleased to announce” or “Please be advised” can stop people engaging
• How to make your communication feel more human, conversational and direct
• Why reading your message aloud can help you spot corporate language
• How to use Microsoft Word’s read-aloud feature to improve scripts and written communication
• Why a one-size-fits-all approach rarely works for benefits communication
• How to tailor messages for different groups and generations in your workforce
• Why line managers are so important when you want messages to land
• How a simple manager toolkit can make communication more effective
• Why listening for the first five minutes of a meeting can help build trust
• How to communicate during times of fear, uncertainty and change
• Why silence can lead people to create their own “horror story”
• How to be honest when you do not yet have all the answers
• Why storytelling and real-world proof can be more persuasive than project updates
• Why employee communication needs support from across the organisation - not just HR

00:00 - When great HR work goes unnoticed

03:24 - What employee comms really means

04:20 - Why HR can feel "faceless" — and how to fix it

06:19 - The #1 mistake: writing for yourself, not your audience

08:49 - Quick win: delete your opening line

09:49 - Drop the corporate speak — write like a human

11:35 - The Word trick that makes your writing sound natural

13:04 - How to get people to actually use their benefits

17:30 - Tailoring messages for different generations

20:58 - Line managers as your communication allies

22:59 - The "First Five" technique

24:01 - Communicating through change and uncertainty

25:58 - Use storytelling, not project updates

28:06 - Resource recommendation: Simon Sinek's Golden Circle

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay’s Essential HR Planner
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Take Fay’s freeHR Leadership Impact Assessment.
• Connect with Nik (Nikolas) Nawaaz on LinkedIn
• Find out more about Barnett Waddingham’s employee communications work
• Watch Simon Sinek’s TED Talk:How Great Leaders Inspire Action

If you enjoyed this episode and would like more support with writing clear, effective communication at work, listen to:

Ep 32: How to write work emails that get results, with Kim Arnold

Kim shares brilliant advice that complements Nik’s tips in this episode, especially if you want to make your emails clearer, more persuasive and easier for people to act on.

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Are constant interruptions at work stopping you from getting through your most important tasks?

If you work in HR or a People role, you’ll know how quickly your day can be taken over by “have you got a minute?” moments - making it difficult to focus on the work that really matters.

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay Wallis shares practical ways to protect your time, reduce distractions and create more space for focused work, helping you step up with more confidence and control in your role.

You’ll learn how to:

• Set clear boundaries without feeling unhelpful
• Reduce interruptions across your organisation
• Create uninterrupted time for deep work
• Stay focused on your most important priorities

This episode is designed to support HR and People professionals who want to feel more confident, effective and in control of their time at work.

[00:00] Do you get interrupted at work?

[00:16] Interruptions – a big time management problem

[00:55] Why HR gets pulled in

[01:35] Episode goal and boundaries

[01:56] Welcome and host intro

[02:33] Four tips overview

[03:00] Tip one: open door hours

[03:35] Scripts and signage

[04:06] Red sign boundary lesson

[05:07] Tip two: company focus time

[06:15] Deep work explained

[07:11] No meeting Wednesday example

[07:28] Tip three: working meetings

[10:21] Tip four: block a deep work day

[12:26] Recap and next steps

Connect with Fay on LinkedIn

Learn about Fay’s Essential HR Planner

Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme

Take Fay’s free HR Leadership Impact Assessment.

• Ep 7:What to Do When You Don’t Have Enough Hours in the Day
• Ep 45:6 Ways to Stop Procrastinating & Find Time for Important Projects at Work
• Ep 52:Two Ideas to Help You Bounce Back From a Tough Day at Work
• Ep 67:How to Get on Top of Email Overwhelm When You’re in a Busy HR Role
• Ep 138:Can’t Find Time for Strategic Work in HR? 5 Tips to Help

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Have you wondered what ‘being strategic’ actually looks like? In this episode, you’ll hear a real, step-by-step example of what being strategic can look like in your day-to-day work.

Host, Fay Wallis, is joined by Harriet Mewis, Head of People and Development, who shares how she spotted a small pattern in employee behaviour – and used it to uncover a much bigger issue affecting the business.

What makes this conversation so powerful is how practical it is. You’ll hear how being strategic doesn’t require a big budget, a senior job title, or complicated frameworks. It starts with curiosity, observation, and asking thoughtful questions.

By the end of the episode, you’ll have a much clearer sense of how you can apply this way of thinking in your own role – in a way that feels realistic and achievable.

[00:00] Introduction with guest host Sarah Archer

[01:00] Why “being strategic” can feel vague and frustrating

[01:24] Introducing Harriet and her approach to strategy

[02:14] What being strategic actually means in practice

[03:02] Beginning of the interview with Harriet & Fay

[04:18] Defining what ‘being strategic’ means

[05:48] Why you can be strategic in any role

[07:22] Harriet’s example of being strategic in her role

[21:30] Learning about other departments & building trust

[23:39] Becoming an ‘apprentice’ for the day

[27:35] Introducing Lean Six Sigma thinking

[34:46] Harriet’s book recommendation

[37:12] Final reflections & close

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Connect with Harriet Mewis on LinkedIn
• Connect with Sarah Archer on LinkedIn
• Listen to Sarah’s Podcast – Unstuck & Unstoppable
• Learn about Fay’s Essential HR Planner
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Take Fay’s freeHR Leadership Impact Assessment.

• Ep 166:The Biggest HR Strategy Mistake – And How to Fix It, with Dean Corbett
• Ep 164:Becoming More Strategic as an HR Team – 3 Ways OKRs Can Help
• Ep 163:3 Ways to Prove You’re Strategic in Your HR Leadership Job Interview
• Ep 108:HR Leadership – How to Create a Powerful One-Page Strategy, with Dr Max McKeown
• Ep 98:HR Insider Insights – How to Create a Powerful People Strategy for an SME, with Kelly Vincent

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

If you’ve been working hard in your HR career but still feel unsure what will truly help you step up into an HR Director role (or have more impact in the one you’re already in), this episode is for you.

You might have your CIPD qualification. You might have years of experience. You’re probably working incredibly hard. But those things alone don’t always lead to the impact, influence, or progression you’re aiming for.

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, I share the five key areas I’ve identified from working with more than one hundred aspiring and existing HR leaders that really make the difference.

And make sure you listen all the way to the end - because the fifth area is often the most overlooked, yet can have the biggest impact on your success.

[00:00] HR Director Roadmap

[00:31] Five Key Areas Preview

[01:00] Free HR Leadership Impact Assessment

[02:27] Key Area 1 Confidence

[02:51] Confidence in Practice

[03:51] More Confidence Resources

[04:15] Key Area 2 - Strategic Thinking

[04:44] What Strategic Really Means

[05:13] Strategy Benefits and Tools

[06:25] Key Area 3 - Influencing

[08:35 Key Area 4 - Empowering Others

[09:51] Key Area 5 - Be Distinctive

[11:09] How to Assess Where You Are Now & Next Steps

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay’s Essential HR Planner
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Take Fay’s freeHR Leadership Impact Assessment.

If you’d like to go deeper on some of the ideas from this episode, here are a few great next listens:

• Ep 167: A surprising way to feel calm and more confident in stressful moments
• Operate Strategically Playlist(multiple episodes)
• Ep 34: Influencing: How to get buy-in for your ideas at work
• Ep 44: Succeeding as an HR professional: How to influence at a senior level

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Is there something at work you know you’re capable of… but in the moment, your nerves take over?

Whether it’s speaking up in a meeting, handling a difficult conversation, or stepping into a high-pressure situation - that disconnect between what you can do and how you feel can be incredibly frustrating.

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, I share a simple but slightly unusual technique that can help you feel calmer, more in control, and more confident when it matters most.

It's called 'distanced self-talk', and it might feel a bit strange at first – but it’s backed by research and can make a real difference in those moments where your confidence wobbles.

• Why confidence can disappear in high-pressure moments
• A simple technique that helps you step back from anxious thoughts
• How this approach can reduce nerves and help you think more clearly
• Practical ways to use it before and during challenging situations at work
• Real examples of when to try it – including meetings, presentations, and interviews

• Chatter: The Voice in Our Head (And How to Harness It) – by Ethan Kross

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay’s Essential HR Planner
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme

• Ep 1: How to feel more confident at work
• Ep 16: How to become more confident about networking
• Ep 36: Four simple but powerful techniques to banish imposter syndrome
• Ep 43: The one thing that will boost your resilience throughout your HR career
• Ep 49: 7 tips to help you feel more confident for your job interview
• Ep 73: 5 ways to feel more confident in your next interview, meeting, or presentation
• Ep 74: How to get better at presenting & feel more confident about it
• Ep 82: 5 tips to tackle a challenge at work when you aren’t feeling confident
• Ep 101: How to build confidence with networking for HR career success
• Ep 122: Unlocking confidence for your HR career – 5 tips from expert guests
• Ep 137: How to recognise & break free from the lies we tell ourselves at work
• Ep 162: How to Feel More Confident Speaking Up in Leadership Meetings

Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Could you be making the biggest HR strategy mistake without realising it?

Creating an HR or People strategy can feel overwhelming - especially when many HR professionals are expected to do it without ever being shown how.

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay Wallis is joined by Dean Corbett, Chief People Officer, psychologist, and coach, to explore one of the most common mistakes HR teams make when creating an HR strategy - and what to do instead.

Dean shares why traditional HR strategy documents can dilute impact, and explains how to connect HR priorities directly to the organisation’s business strategy.

You’ll also hear practical ideas for thinking more strategically about HR, identifying the people capabilities organisations really need, and using tools like OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to bring strategy to life.

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay’s Essential HR Planner
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Connect with Dean on LinkedIn
• Visit Dean’s website: SOPEOPLE

• The Leadership Code: Five Rules to Lead By– Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood, & Kate Sweetman
• Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works– A G Lafley & Roger L Martin
• Aligning Human Resources and Business Strategy– Linda Holbeche
• The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organisation– Peter M Senge
• Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know– Adam Grant
• Perry Timms’ Substack

• Ep 164:Becoming More Strategic as an HR Team - 3 Ways OKRs Can Help
• Ep 148:Skills That Shape a Great CPO: Communication, Coaching & Curiosity (with Jane Beeston)
• Ep 147:How to Become a Successful Chief People Officer: Insider Insights (with Kanika Mehra)

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Struggling to feel confident when Finance conversations come up at work? Been told you need to be "more commercial" but not sure what that actually means? In this practical episode, Commercial HR Coach Jo Bailey demystifies what it means to be commercial in HR and shares actionable advice to help you speak the language of business with confidence.

You’ll Learn

• What "being commercial" actually means (and what it doesn't)
• Key financial terms explained: P&L, EBITDA, balance sheet, and cash flow
• How to approach setting an HR budget with confidence
• Questions to ask when building a strong business case
• How to position budget requests so you're more likely to get what you need
• Real examples of how to demonstrate commercial thinking in your HR role
• The cost of attrition and how to build the business case for retention initiatives

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Learn about Fay’s Essential HR Planner
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Connect with Jo Bailey on LinkedIn
• Visit Jo Bailey’s Website: Financial Empowerment

Excellence in People Analytics: How to Use Workforce Data to Create Business Value, by Jonathan Ferrar & David Green

• Ep 147: How to Become a Successful Chief People Officer: Insider Insights (with Kanika Mehra) - has a great explanation of storytelling with data
• Ep 115: Why Negotiation Skills Can Help Your Career & How to Develop Them (with Simon Duncan)
• Ep 158: 3 Simple Ways to Build Business Acumen in Your HR Role

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

What does it really mean for an HR team to be “strategic” – and how can you make that shift without adding more to your workload?

In this solo episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay explores a practical and accessible way to strengthen your team’s strategic focus: using OKRs – Objectives and Key Results.

If you’ve ever felt pulled between operational demands and the bigger picture, this episode will help you think differently about how HR goals connect to organisational priorities – and how to make that link clearer for your whole team.

Drawing on real examples (including a memorable orange analogy 🍊), Fay breaks down how OKRs can:

• Create clarity and accountability
• Connect HR activity to business impact
• Help team members see how their work contributes to the wider strategy

You’ll come away with three practical ways to use OKRs to strengthen your strategic focus as a team – without overcomplicating things.

[00:00] Why HR struggles to be strategic

[01:10] What being strategic really means

[02:45] Shaping the future in HR

[03:50] Solving the biggest organisational problem

[04:55] What OKRs are and where they started

[06:10] Understanding objectives using a simple example

[07:40] How HR objectives link to strategy

[08:55] What good key results look like

[10:10] Moving from activity to impact

[11:25] How OKRs support prioritisation

[12:35] Books and next steps for HR leaders

• "Measure What Matters. OKRS - The Simple Idea That Drives 10x Growth" by John Doerr
• "Radical Focus: Achieving Your Most Important Goals With Objectives and Key Results" by Christina Wodtke
• “Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters” by Richard Rumelt
• “The Strategy Book: How to Think and Act Strategically to Deliver Outstanding Results” by Max Mckeown

If this episode has made you reflect on your own strategic impact, you might enjoy learning more about Fay’s:

• Inspiring HR Leadership Programme– designed to help existing and aspiring HR leaders build confidence, credibility and influence
• HR Leadership Impact Assessment– a free self-assessment to help you reflect on your strengths and development areas
• The Essential HR Planner– created to help HR professionals stay focused on what really matters

'Operate Strategically' HR Coffee Time Podcast Playlist

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Have you ever been told you’re “not strategic enough” after an HR interview – even though you know you are?

In this solo episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay Wallis tackles one of the most frustrating pieces of feedback HR professionals receive when applying for Head of HR, HR Director, Head of People or People Director roles.

In this episode, Fay breaks down what 'being strategic' means in a practical, accessible way and shares three simple but powerful ways to prove you’re strategic in your next HR interview – without sounding corporate or forced.

• What “being strategic” actually means in practice – and why it often feels so vague
• How using one specific word can make interview panels see your thinking more clearly
• A common mistake HR candidates make when answering interview questions – and how to fix it
• How to turn everyday HR examples into clear, strategic stories with business impact
• The types of interview questions that signal strategic thinking straight away

Fay also shares practical examples you can adapt for your own interviews, helping you move beyond listing what you’ve done to explaining why it mattered.

Whether you’re actively interviewing or simply want to feel more confident talking about your strategic contribution, this episode will help you articulate your value far more effectively.

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Visit Fay’s Bright Sky HR website
• Learn aboutThe Essential HR Planner
• Learn about Fay’sInspiring HR leadership development programme

'Operate Strategically' HR Coffee Time Podcast Playlist

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Do you ever leave a leadership meeting wishing you’d said something – only to replay it later and think, “Why didn’t I speak up?”

In this solo episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay explores why speaking up in leadership meetings can feel so daunting (even when you know you have something valuable to contribute). She shares practical, realistic ways to build confidence in those moments.

This episode is especially for HR and People professionals who find themselves second-guessing their ideas, worrying about being challenged, or holding back because the meeting feels high-stakes or fast-paced. Drawing on her coaching experience, Fay unpacks strategies to help.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why imposter feelings often show up more strongly in leadership meetings – and why that doesnotmean you do not belong there
• How your nervous system plays a big role in confidence, and simple ways to feel calmer and more grounded in the moment
• Breathing, grounding, and physical techniques you can use before and during meetings
• The different kinds of value you bring to leadership conversations – beyond having the “perfect” answer
• Why you do not need to be the loudest voice in the room to make an impact
• Practical strategies to make speaking up feel more manageable, including:
• Setting a small, realistic goal for your contribution
• Shaping meetings in advance so you are not waiting for the “right moment”
• Using professional phrases that buy you thinking time
• How to zoom out and remember that one meeting does not define your credibility
• Why confidence grows through familiarity and practice – not by forcing yourself to be someone you are not

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Visit Fay’s website
• The Essential HR Planner website
• Learn about Fay’sInspiring HR Leadership Programme

• Ep 86: How to stop other people taking credit for your ideas in meetings
• Build Your Professional Skills - HR Coffee Time Podcast Playlist

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

The start of a new year is the perfect moment to pause and think differently about goal setting, especially when you work in HR or a people role where expectations, pressure and emotional load can be high.

In this episode, Fay Wallis shares her Triple Win Framework, a practical way to set goals that help HR and people professionals deliver real organisational impact, build career momentum and protect their wellbeing at the same time.

If you want goals that feel motivating, aligned and supportive of your long-term success, this framework offers a clear place to start.

You’ll Hear about:

• The Triple Win Framework explained
• Choosing impactful HR goals
• Aligning goals to organisational strategy
• Career-enhancing skills that matter
• Why wellbeing must be a goal

• The Build Your Professional Skills Playlist
• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Learn About Fay'sInspiring HR Leadership Programme
• Learn More AboutThe Essential HR Planner

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Before we all sprint into 2026, I wanted to create this bonus episode to encourage you to pause and reflect on the year that's just passed. In it, I work my way through the 10 'Look Back to Look Forward' questions from the Essential HR Planner and share my own honest answers - including the achievements I'm proud of, the challenges I faced, what I learned, and the moments that shaped my year both personally and professionally.

This episode includes reflections on expanding the Inspiring HR Leadership Programme, navigating the realities of running a business, experimenting with video, taking a long break from the podcast, and working through some unexpected moments of vulnerability along the way. My hope is that by sharing my experience, you'll feel encouraged to complete the exercise yourself and head into 2026 with more clarity and intention.

• The Essential HR Planner
• The free HR Leadership Impact Assessment
• Read the full blog version of my reflections
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Learn more about theInspiring HR Leadership Programme

Be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released and get access to other free career tips, tools and resources by signing up to receive the free weekly HR Coffee Time email.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

5 Brilliant HR Books That Deserve a Spot Under Your Christmas Tree!

If you work in HR and you’re not sure what to ask for this Christmas – or you’d love to buy a thoughtful, genuinely useful gift for an HR colleague – this episode is for you.

Fay Wallis shares five brilliant HR book recommendations she’s read this year. Each one supports HR professionals in a slightly different way – from building resilience and confidence, to shaping culture, developing better people practices, and setting yourself up for a successful year at work.

All of the books recommended are practical, thoughtful, and grounded in real HR challenges.

• The Little Book of HR Resilience: Practical Strategies for Busy People Professionals – Dr Felicity Baker & Dr Jo Burrell
• The HR Confidence Playbook: The essential guide to being seen, heard, and respected in HR - by Kirsty Baggs-Morgan
• Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead - by Laszlo Bock
• Let’s Talk Culture: The conversations you need to create the team you want - by Shane Michael Hatton
• The Essential HR Planner – by Fay Wallis

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Visit Fay’s website
• Learn about Fay’sInspiring HR leadership development programme

• Ep 35: Helping Teams Thrive with Personal User Manuals
• Ep 123: Avoid Burnout - How to Spot Signs Of Stress & Take Action (with Dr Jo Burrell)
• Ep 146: Lessons in HR Leadership: How to Succeed as a Chief People Officer: (with John Scrooby)

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

What’s the best way to land your first Chief People Officer or CHRO role?

In this episode, Fay Wallis breaks down the four most common routes that real CPOs have taken to step into the top people leadership job for the very first time. You’ll also hear short clips from several CPO guests who generously shared their stories and insights.

You’ll hear about:

• Four routes into first CPO roles
• Internal discussions leading to job title changes
• Being headhunted by executive recruiters
• Strengthening your LinkedIn profile
• Applying directly for senior HR roles
• Preparing for high-level interviews
• Pitching for promotion with a business case

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Visit Fay’s website
• Learn about Fay’sInspiring HR leadership development programme
• Buy a copy of The Essential HR Planner

• Ep 31:3 little-known LinkedIn features which will help you get your next job
• Ep 106:7 types of posts to share on LinkedIn that will help your HR career
• Ep 149: The CPO Job Application That Worked, Strategic vs Operational HR, and Why Compassion Matters (with Funmi Onamusi):
• Audio link:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/hr-coffee-time-podcast/149/
• YouTube link:https://youtu.be/n-zYslILExc?si=dIJFbWDgo2SWlcUz
• Ep 154: Step-by-Step Career Advice to become a successful CHRO/CPO (with Nicola Lyons):
• Audio link:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/hr-coffee-time-podcast/154/
• YouTube link:https://youtu.be/tdqjSSbKMmM?si=WpaKhorECI5-ieFk
• Ep 147: How to Become a Successful Chief People Officer: Insider insights (with Kanika Mehra):
• Audio link:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/hr-coffee-time-podcast/147/
• YouTube link:https://youtu.be/R31JrBpT490?si=fikKsO8dJBahIRpx

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

If the idea of improving your business acumen feels intimidating, this episode will help make it feel achievable and clear. Host, Fay Wallis, breaks down what business acumen really means for HR and why it has nothing to do with being “naturally commercial” and everything to do with curiosity, awareness and understanding how your organisation works.

To make building business acumen feel even more practical, Fay brings in insights from three recent Chief People Officer guests: Kanika Mehra, Jane Beeston and Dotty Day. Although each appeared on the show to share their experiences of becoming a CPO, their advice applies to every stage of an HR career.

By the end, you’ll walk away with clear, actionable steps you can start using straight away. And one of the three tips might surprise you.

Ready to make business acumen feel less daunting? It’s simpler than you think.

You’ll hear about:

• What business acumen really means
• Why curiosity beats expertise
• Understanding customers and service users
• Getting involved outside HR
• Learning from Finance colleagues
• Questions to ask your finance team
• Ways to grow confidence with numbers

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Visit Fay’s website
• Learn about Fay’sInspiring HR leadership development programme
• Learn more aboutThe Essential HR Planner

• Ep 147 with Kanika Mehra:How to Become a Successful Chief People Officer: Insider Insights(Audio version)
• Ep 147 with Kanika Mehra:How to Become a Successful Chief People Officer: Insider Insights(Video version)
• Ep 148 with Jane Beeston:Skills That Shape a Great CPO: Communication, Coaching & Curiosity(Audio version)
• Ep 148 with Jane Beeston:Skills That Shape a Great CPO: Communication, Coaching & Curiosity(Video version)
• Ep 151 with Dotty Day:Could an Interim CPO/CHRO Role Be Your Perfect Career Option?(Audio version)
• Ep 151 with Dotty Day:Could an Interim CPO/CHRO Role Be Your Perfect Career Option?(Video version)

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

If you’ve ever wondered what truly separates an HR Director from a Chief People Officer (CPO) or CHRO, you’re not alone. It’s a common question, and after months of speaking with incredible CPOs for this series, a powerful theme kept coming up again and again.

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, host Fay Wallis shares the one big difference that defines the step up, a shift that’s far more about mindset and perspective than job title. You’ll hear clips from Chief People Officers including John Scrooby, Dotty Day, Lorna Bains, Dr Andy Stephenson, and Nebel Crowhurst as they describe what changed for them when they made the move.

Fay also shares a monster truck analogy that brings this transformation to life, from leading your HR function to steering the entire business. Whether you’re already operating at that level or preparing for the next step, this episode will help you see what it really means to become a business leader, not just a people leader.

Join us for reassurance and advice on making that leap.

You’ll Hear about:

• The defining difference between HR Director and CPO roles
• Why the CPO role is about leading the business
• A monster truck analogy that brings the concept to life
• Insights from five experienced Chief People Officers
• How to start developing business acumen for your next step

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Visit Fay’s website
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR leadership development programme

• Episode 146 with John Scrooby - Lessons in HR Leadership: How to Succeed as a Chief People Officer
• Episode 151 with Dotty Day – Could an Interim CPO/CHRO Role Be Your Perfect Career Option?
• Episode 153 with Lorna Bains – Inside the Fractional CPO/CHRO Role – What It Involves & How to Succeed
• Episode 155 with Dr Andrew Stephenson – The Mindset, Skills & Plan to Become a Successful Chief People Officer
• Episode 156 with Nebel Crowhurst – Why Chief People Officers Need Strong Networks (And How to Build Yours)

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Why do Chief People Officers need strong networks — and how can you build one that truly supports you?

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, host Fay Wallis is joined by Nebel Crowhurst, who’s featured on the HR Most Influential list several years running and has held senior roles with Virgin, River Island, Roche, and Reward Gateway.

Nebel talks about the realities of being a CPO — the highs, the pressures, and how she protects her wellbeing — along with brilliant advice on building your own community of support (even if you find networking uncomfortable).

• The key differences between being an HR Director and a Chief People Officer.
• How to protect your boundaries and wellbeing in a demanding role.
• What it means to be a business leader, not just a functional one.
• How to reframe networking into “building your community.”
• Practical tips for creating and nurturing a supportive network.

Nebel also explains her move into fractional CPO work, what it involves, and why this model is becoming increasingly popular in growing organisations.

• Ep 11: Networking – the three most important networks for your career
• Ep 16: How to become more confident about networking
• Ep 90: How a Personal Board can help solve your challenges at work
• Ep 153: Inside the Fractional CPO/CHRO Role – what it involves and how to succeed

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Connect with Nebel on LinkedIn
• Fay's website
• Nebel’s website
• Nebel’s LinkedIn article:The Rise of The Fractional CPO
• Emotional Intelligence qualification mentioned: EQ-i 2.0 (via MHS Assessments)
• HR Leaders Unconference

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

There’s so much more to becoming a successful Chief People Officer (CPO) or CHRO than experience alone - it’s about building the mindset, skills and plan that help you succeed and make an impact.

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, host Fay Wallis is joined by Dr Andrew Stephenson, Chief People Officer at Equiniti, who has held CPO roles in three major international businesses. Under his leadership, Equiniti has become a Top Employer in the UK, US and India, winning multiple CIPD and HR Excellence Awards, and Andy himself has been named one of the CIPD’s HR 30 under 30 leaders.

• How he created his first Chief People Officer role and convinced the board he was the right person for it
• Turning strategy into a simple, one-page plan (and why clarity matters more than volume)
• The difference between HR Director and CPO roles – and what it means to work on the business, not in it
• Habits and diary practices that help him (and his team) perform at their best
• Practical ways to protect mental health and prevent burnout in a senior role
• The importance of lifelong learning – and how his curiosity led to “accidentally” earning a doctorate
• His advice for aspiring CPOs on building commercial awareness, gaining breadth, and backing yourself

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Visit Fay’s website
• Learn about Fay’sInspiring HR leadership development programme
• Connect with Dr Andrew Stephenson on LinkedIn

• Episode 1:How to Feel More Confident at Work
• Episode 43:The One Thing That Will Boost Your Resilience Throughout Your HR Career (With Tom Cleary)
• Episode 123:Avoid Burnout – How to Spot Signs of Stress and Take Action (With Dr Jo Burrell)
• Episode 108:HR Leadership – How to Create a Simple but Powerful One-Page Strategy (With Dr Max McKeown)

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

What does it take to land your first Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) or Chief People Officer (CPO) role – and succeed once you’re in it?

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, host Fay Wallis is joined by Nicola Lyons, Group CHRO at Getlink Group. With more than 15 years of international experience leading transformation and culture change, Nicola shares a wide range of valuable insights from her career. One of the highlights of this conversation is her clear, step-by-step advice on how to secure a CHRO/CPO role and succeed once you’re in it.

From career planning and building visibility, to working with headhunters and handling the step up, Nicola’s guidance is packed with practical tips you can put into action straight away.

You’ll hear Nicola’s thoughts on:

• What makes her role as Group CHRO unique
• How her network opened the door to her first CHRO opportunity
• Smart ways to build visibility with headhunters and recruiters
• The value of career planning and feedback in preparing for the step up
• The biggest shift when moving into a CHRO role
• Practical habits that support success and wellbeing

Whether you’re aiming for a CPO/CHRO position or want to strengthen your career in HR, you’ll come away with a wealth of actionable insights from Nicola’s experience.

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Visit Fay’s website
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR leadership development programme
• Buy a copy of The Essential HR Planner
• Connect with Nicola Lyons on LinkedIn

Please note - book links are Amazon affiliate links. This means Fay may earn a small commission from Amazon if you make a purchase through them.

• Your First 100 Days– Niamh O’Keeffe
• The Strategy Book– Dr Max McKeown
• Head and Heart: The Art of Modern Leadership– Kirstin Ferguson

• Episode 31: Three Little-Known LinkedIn Features to Help You Get Your Next Job
• Episode 106: Seven Types of Posts to Share on LinkedIn That Will Help Your HR Career
• Episode 78: 5 Tips to Get Useful Feedback at Work to Help Your HR/People Career
• Episode 37: The First 100 Days Plan to Succeed in Your New HR Leadership Role (With Niamh O’Keeffe)
• Episode 108: HR Leadership: How to Create a Simple but Powerful One-Page Strategy (With Dr Max McKeown)

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified when new episodes are released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

What does it really mean to be a fractional Chief People Officer (CPO) or Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) – and could it be the right next step in your career?

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, host Fay Wallis is joined by Lorna Bains, a hugely experienced HR and business transformation leader who has thrived as a fractional CPO for the past seven years. Lorna lifts the lid on what the role involves, why more organisations are choosing fractional HR leadership, and the habits and practices that help her succeed.

As part of the special CPO/CHRO series – where each guest answers the same nine listener-chosen questions – Lorna becomes the 8th CPO to share her story. She also offers down-to-earth advice on handling imposter feelings, building your network, and remembering that you don’t need all the answers to succeed.

You’ll hear Lorna’s thoughts on:

• What makes the fractional CPO role different
• The team structures and “scaffolding” that allow fractional leadership to work
• Why building strong networks and communities is crucial
• The skills, habits, and practices that have most helped her succeed
• How to stay future-focused and “look around the corner” as a strategic HR leader
• Handling the biggest challenges of the role

Whether you’re curious about the growing trend of fractional HR leadership, considering the CPO/CHRO path, or simply looking to strengthen your own impact as an HR professional, you’ll find plenty of insights and encouragement in this conversation.

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Visit Fay’s website
• Learn about Fay’sInspiring HR leadership development programme
• Lorna’s website:Vilo Consulting
• The Personal Boardroom framework (by Zella King)

Networking:

• Episode 11:Networking – The Three Most Important Networks for Your Career
• Episode 15:How Networking Can Help Your Career
• Episode 16:How to Become More Confident About Networking
• Episode 101:How to Build Confidence With Networking for HR Career Success (With Yvonne Walsh)

Personal Board:

• Episode 21:The 8 People Who Will Set You Up for Career Success (With Sharon Peake)
• Episode 90:How a Personal Board Can Help Solve Your Challenges at Work

Imposter Syndrome:

• Episode 36:Four Simple but Powerful Techniques to Banish Imposter Syndrome (With Joanna Lott)
• Episode 107:The Impact of Imposter Syndrome at Work & How to Tackle It Head-On (With Aoife O’Brien)

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

How do you prove the true value of HR so the business takes you seriously – and appoints you as Chief People Officer?

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, host Fay Wallis is joined by Leah Carnegie, Chief People Officer at Lottoland. Leah shares her journey from VP of People to CPO, explaining how she made sure HR wasn’t just seen as a support function but as a vital business partner.

As part of our special CPO/CHRO series – where each guest answers the same nine listener-chosen questions – Leah becomes the 7th CPO to share her story. Along the way, she offers candid insights into job titles, the mindset shift from “doing” to “thinking,” and the emotional weight of senior HR roles.

You’ll hear Leah’s thoughts on:

• The moment she realised HR had to be at the top table – and how she secured her seat
• The difference between VP/Director roles and the remit of a CPO
• Why business acumen is non-negotiable for HR leaders
• How coaching skills, feedback, and psychological safety underpin her leadership style
• The emotional challenges of the role – and the wellbeing practices that help
• Practical advice for aspiring and first-time CPOs

Whether you’re aiming for a CPO/CHRO role, or want to build confidence and influence in your current one, there’s plenty of inspiration to take from Leah’s experience.

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Visit Fay’s website
• Learn about Fay’sInspiring HR leadership development programme
• Connect with Leah Carnegie on LinkedIn
• Disruptive HR resources and HRBP workshops
• IDEO podcast
• Hyper Island

• Episode 78:5 Tips to Get Useful Feedback at Work to Help Your HR/People Career
• Episode 99:How Mediation Skills Can Help You Resolve Conflict at Work (With Pete Colby)
• Episode 53:Why Coaching Skills Can Help Your HR Career (& How to Develop Them), with Charlie Warshawski
• Episode 130:Build Managers’ Confidence and Skills With ‘The Coaching Two-Step’, with Jude Slater

(Please note the links shared are affiliate links, so, Fay will receive a small commission from Amazon if you choose to purchase them)

• HR Disrupted: It’s time for something different – Lucy Adams
• The HR Change Toolkit: Your complete guide to making it happen – Lucy Adams

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Could an interim Chief People Officer or interim Chief Human Resources Officer role be your perfect career move? In this episode, we explore what the job is really like, the skills that help you succeed, and how to decide if it’s the right path for you.

HR Coffee Time Host, Fay Wallis, is joined by Dotty Day, an experienced interim CPO, strategy consultant, and founder of Nu Leaf (supporting ambitious businesses with fractional HR leadership and practical, people-first strategies). She’s also the founder of gighrly, a thriving business club for HR freelancers and consultants.

As part of our special CPO/CHRO series – where each guest answers the same nine listener-chosen questions – Dotty becomes the 6th CPO to share her insights. She talks about her unconventional path to the role, the realities of interim work, and valuable advice for all ambitious HR professionals.

You’ll hear Dotty’s thoughts on:

1. Why developing your commercial acumen should include learning from marketing as well as finance
2. How to say “no” without damaging relationships – and why it matters for avoiding burnout
3. A practical influencing strategy to get buy-in for your ideas before the meeting even starts
4. Avoiding HR jargon and using the language of the business
5. The mindset and adaptability needed to thrive in interim work

Whether you’re aiming for a CPO/CHRO role, considering interim work, or just want to strengthen your leadership skills, there’s plenty to take away from this conversation.

1. Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
2. Visit Fay’s website
3. Learn about Fay’sInspiring HR leadership development programme
4. Connect with Dotty Day on LinkedIn
5. Visit Nu Leaf– Dotty’s consultancy
6. Visit gighrly– Dotty’s business community for HR freelancers and consultants

1. Episode 7:What To Do When There Aren’t Enough Hours in the Day
2. Episode 86:How to Stop Other People Taking Credit for Your Ideas in Meetings
3. Episode 103:Career Options in HR – Is Contracting the Perfect Fit for You? (With Eleanor Minshall)
4. Episode 123:Avoid Burnout – How to Spot Signs of Stress & Take Action (With Dr Jo Burrell)

Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

What if there’s no Chief People Officer role in your organisation - but you know it needs one, and you think you’re the right person for it?

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, host Fay Wallis is joined by Victoria Pounder, Chief People Officer at Moore Kingston Smith - a multi-disciplinary firm providing audit, accountancy, advisory and tax services to a diverse range of clients. Victoria shares her inspiring journey of growing with the firm over 14 years - from being the first Head of HR to HR Director, and eventually making the case for a brand-new Chief People Officer role that she then stepped into.

She talks openly about what the step up has been like so far, how she’s built influence and trust over time, and how she’s stayed focused on culture during rapid growth and change. There’s plenty to take away - especially if you’re aiming for a CPO role yourself, or want to lead with more impact and confidence in your current one.

[00:00] Welcome and introduction to Victoria Pounder

[01:00] Creating a CPO role from scratch

[03:20] Building the business case and going through the panel interview process

[04:03] The differences between being an HRD and a CPO

[06:40] The importance of influence in the CPO role

[08:51] How trust helped her lead behind the scenes

[12:32] Key skills and habits that have helped her succeed

[14:45] How a non-HR project changed her perspective

[18:17] Culture, growth and protecting values under pressure

[23:06] Balancing career, family and mental wellbeing

[25:19] The role of HR communities

[27:08] Advice for aspiring CPOs

[28:22] Final advice for new CPOs

[37:16] Book recommendation and conclusion

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Visit Fay’s website
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR leadership development programme
• Connect with Victoria Pounder on LinkedIn
• Evolving HR – ‘Getting the Board on Board’ webinar
• The HR Ninjas on LinkedIn
• The HR Ninjas Facebook Group

HR Disrupted by Lucy Adams (Amazon affiliate link – Fay will earn a small commission from Amazon if you choose to purchase the book via this link)

• Episode 18: Future-Proofing Your Career, with Karen Moran
• Episode 136: How to Shape a Winning Workplace Culture When You Work in HR, with Annabelle Lawson & Paula Brockwell
• Build Your Confidence Playlist: A collection of HR Coffee Time podcast episodes to help you overcome self-doubt and build your confidence

Be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released and get access to other free career tips, tools and resources by signing up to receive the free weekly HR Coffee Time email.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

What makes a job application for the Chief People Officer role stand out, how do you balance being strategic and operational in HR, and why is compassion such an important leadership strength?

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, host Fay Wallis is joined by Funmi Onamusi, Chief People Officer at Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. Funmi shares her inspiring and non-traditional journey to becoming a CPO - including the bold, values-led approach she took when applying for the role, and the importance of carving out strategic thinking time once she got there.

She also opens up about the pressure that can come with being a Black woman in senior leadership, and how she has channelled that pressure into role modelling compassionate leadership for others.

Whether you're aiming for a CPO role, want to be more strategic, or become a more impactful leader, you’ll come away with practical ideas, honest reflections, and real-life insight into what it takes to lead well in HR at the highest level.

[00:00] Welcome and introduction to Funmi Onamusi

[04:06] Funmi’s route to becoming a CPO

[06:50] Funmi’s job application approach

[09:03] How she prepared for the interview

[13:33] The difference between the HR Director & CPO roles

[18:45] Advice on how to move from operational to strategic

[23:33] How the role was different to what she had expected

[27:55] Maintaining mental wellbeing in such a demanding role

[34:12] The skills, habits and practices that have helped her succeed

[41:14] The biggest challenges Funmi has experienced as a CPO

[49:56] Funmi’s advice for aspiring CPOs

[56:52] Courses and qualifications that have been useful for Funmi

[01:00:00] Final thoughts

• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
• Visit Fay’s website
• Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR leadership development programme
• Connect with Funmi Onamusi on LinkedIn
• Visit Funmi’s website
• Funmi’s ’10 Power Moves’
• Learn about Funmi’s CIC: The Breaking Hundred Circle

Be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released and get access to other free career tips, tools, and resources by signing up to receive the free weekly HR Coffee Time email.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Which skills really make the difference at the top of the HR profession?

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, you'll meet the brilliant Jane Beeston, Chief People Officer at Colart. With nearly 40 years of experience in HR – spanning generalist roles, transformation, and international work – Jane has a huge amount of insight to share.

We learn from her about the shift from HR Director to CPO, what the role really involves, and how she’s built strong relationships with her CEO and board. Jane talks openly about the communication skills she’s had to develop, how coaching training changed the way she works, and why staying curious (and occasionally sticking her nose into things!) has helped her make a bigger impact.

Whether you’re working towards a CPO role or simply want to grow in confidence and influence, there’s plenty to take away from Jane’s story.

[00:00] Welcome & introduction to Jane

[02:00] Jane’s path to becoming a CPO

[04:00] Why the CEO relationship really matters

[07:00] What changes when you move into a CPO role

[08:00] What a board does (and how to work with them)

[10:30] How Jane improved her communication skills

[12:00] Staying connected across a global team

[14:00] Getting your message to stick across the business

[15:00] Why coaching skills have made such a difference

[16:00] How curiosity helps you grow and influence

[18:00] Common challenges in the CPO role

[19:00] How Jane approaches communication in practice

[22:00] Looking after your wellbeing in a demanding role

[24:00] You don’t have to do it all alone

[25:00] Advice for anyone who wants to be a CPO one day

[27:30] Jane’s experience of cross-functional projects

[30:00] Prioritising what matters most

[32:00] If you’re stepping into a CPO role: own it!

[34:00] Courses and continuous learning that helped

[36:00] Learning to work across different countries

[37:30] Final thoughts and thank you

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Fay’s website
• Fay’s HR leadership programme – Inspiring HR Leadership
• Connect with Jane Beeston on LinkedIn

• Episode 53: Why Coaching Skills Can Help Your HR Career (and How to Develop Them) with Charlie Warshawski
• Episode 130: Build Managers' Confidence and Skills with the Coaching Two-Step with Jude Slater
• Episode 43: The One Thing That Will Boost Your Resilience Throughout Your HR Career with Tom Cleary
• Episode 32: How to Write Work Emails That Get Results with Kim Arnold
• Episode 95: How to Build Trust in a Hybrid World Through Email with Kim Arnold

Be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released and get access to other free career tips, tools and resources by signing up to receive the free weekly HR Coffee Time email.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

What does it really take to become a successful Chief People Officer – and how can you prepare for the step up?

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay Wallis is joined by Kanika Mehra, an inspiring CPO with over 20 years of global HR experience. Having worked in fast-paced environments ranging from global giants like Amazon to scaling organisations going through rapid transformation, Kanika shares what helped her make the move into a CPO role – and what it’s really like once you get there.

From building commercial acumen and using data to tell compelling stories, to managing pressure, leading through change and staying true to your values – this conversation is packed with practical insights to support you on your own HR leadership journey.

[00:00] Introduction

[02:12] Meet Kanika Mehra

[02:25] How she got her first CPO role

[03:23] The role LinkedIn played – and how to improve your profile

[07:00] The differences between being a Head of People or HR Director vs a CPO

[09:27] Making big decisions

[14:02] Learning to lead without having all the answers

[17:50] Developing confidence and decisiveness

[22:51] Why business acumen is essential – and how to build it

[27:45] Becoming confident with data and storytelling

[33:12] Her biggest challenge as a CPO

[34:03] Balancing employee experience with business priorities

[37:59] Maintaining mental wellbeing in a high-pressure role

[40:08] The importance of values alignment

[42:38] Advice for anyone who’d like to be a CPO

[45:41] Advice for first-time CPOs

[49:57] Courses and books that have helped Kanika succeed

[52:36] Wrap-up and other HR Coffee Time podcast episode recommendations

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Fay’s website
• Connect with Kanika Mehra on LinkedIn

(Book links are Amazon affiliate links, which means Fay will receive a small commission from Amazon if you make a purchase through them.)

• My Life in Full: Work, Family and Our Future – Indra Nooyi
• Data-Driven HR: How to Use Analytics and Metrics to Drive Performance – Bernard Marr
• Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon – Colin Bryar and Bill Carr
• Excellence in People Analytics – Jonathan Ferrar and David Green

• Episode 22: How to handle conflict at work
• Episode 31: 3 little-known LinkedIn features which will help you get your next job
• Episode 35: Helping teams thrive with personal user manuals
• Episode 47: Discovering your values to help your HR career
• Episode 106: 7 types of posts to share on LinkedIn that will help your HR career

Be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released and get access to other free career tips, tools and resources by signing up to receive the free weekly HR Coffee Time email.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to succeed as a Chief People Officer - or whether stepping into the role might be right for you - this episode of HR Coffee Time is here to help.

Host Fay Wallis is joined by John Scrooby, Chief People Officer at tech company Masabi. John shares honest and thought-provoking insights about what the role really involves, the challenges it brings, and how to navigate them. From taking ownership beyond your remit, to managing your wellbeing in a high-pressure role, and showing up as a values-driven, emotionally honest leader - this is a must-listen for anyone aiming to grow their HR leadership career.

John also reflects on his journey from his tech career to HR, explains what helped him make the transition, and gives advice for anyone looking to lead with impact.

[00:00] Introduction

[00:54] Why this series of episodes exists

[03:25] Meet John Scrooby

[03:55] How John got his first CPO role

[08:41] What he thought HR was - vs what he discovered

[10:39] The difference between being a Head of HR or HR Director and a CPO

[14:37] Advice for HR professionals nervous about stepping up

[17:20] Why peer support matters

[18:10] Vulnerability, leadership and mental health

[25:07] How John maintains his mental wellbeing

[29:43] Skills and habits that have helped him succeed

[32:15] John’s advice for anyone who would like to be a CPO one day

[36:21] His biggest challenge as a CPO

[41:24] How to get invited in as an HR leader

[44:51] His top piece of advice for new CPOs

[46:38] Courses or qualifications—are they essential?

[49:08] Conclusion

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Fay’s website: Bright Sky Career Coaching
• Connect with John Scrooby on LinkedIn
• People Before Strategy: A New Role for the CHRO (HBR article)
• University of Cambridge Judge Business School – CHRO Programme

(Book links are Amazon affiliate links, which means Fay will receive a small commission from Amazon if you make a purchase through them).

• HR Coffee Time’s top book recommendations to thrive in your HR/People career
• Work Rules! by Laszlo Bock
• Dare to Lead by Brené Brown

Be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released and get access to other free career tips, tools and resources by signing up to receive the free weekly HR Coffee Time email.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Are you aiming for the top HR role - but not sure what being a Chief People Officer (CPO) actually involves, or how to get there?

In this special launch episode of the new series of HR Coffee Time, host Fay Wallis is joined by David D’Souza, Director of Profession at the CIPD. Together, they demystify the CPO / CHRO role - exploring what it is, how it differs from other senior-level HR roles (like ‘Head of People’ and ‘HR Director’), and why it’s becoming more common across UK organisations.

David shares insight into:

Whether you’re already in a senior HR role or are simply curious about what it takes to reach the top, this episode is packed with practical insights and career guidance.

[00:00] Introduction to the new series

[01:47] Meet David D’Souza, Director of Profession at the CIPD

[04:03] What is the Chief People Officer (CPO) role?

[05:54] Why CPO roles are becoming more common

[07:21] How the role of the CPO is evolving

[10:04] Challenges and responsibilities of CPOs

[13:13] Work-life balance and C-suite expectations

[18:15] Skills for success as a CPO

[20:56] Understanding governance

[24:00] How to build knowledge and confidence for the role

[23:56] CIPD resources and support

[33:38] Wrap-up and useful episode links

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Fay’s website: Bright Sky Career Coaching
• Connect with David D’Souza on LinkedIn
• CIPD Membership
• CIPD Experience Assessment
• CIPD Learning Hub
• CIPD Local Branches
• CIPD Online Community
• CIPD Aspiring HRD Programme
• CIPD Mentoring Scheme

If you found this episode of HR Coffee Time helpful, please rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This video shows you how to rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts (because it isn’t very intuitive). If you're kind enough to leave a review, let Fay know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: fay@brightskycareercoaching.co.uk.

Be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released and get access to other free career tips, tools and resources by signing up to receive the free weekly HR Coffee Time email.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

This episode is a little different from usual, as I’ll be sharing some exciting updates about the future of the podcast. After three and a half years of releasing episodes every week, I’m taking a short sabbatical to prepare for the next stage of

HR Coffee Time - and I’d love your input to help shape it!

[00:00] Why I'm taking a short break – Why now feels like the right time to pause and refresh.

[02:10] The two key challenges I keep seeing in HR careers – How a lack of confidence, clarity, and role models is holding HR professionals back.

[04:49] How conversations helped shape my next steps – The advice and insights that led to the idea of evolving the podcast.

[09:05] From book idea to podcast interviews – How an unexpected conversation with a fellow career coach changed my thinking.

[10:57] Why HR Coffee Time is evolving instead of stopping – A reassuring conversation that helped me realise I don’t need to start a whole new podcast.

[12:39] Batch recording & smarter time management – How I plan to make the podcast more time-efficient while improving the quality of content.

[15:02] I’d love your help! – How you can share your thoughts on the interview questions and suggest great Chief People Officers (CPOs) and Chief HR Officers (CHROs) to be guests on the show.

• HR Coffee Time episode 123: Avoid Burnout: How to Spot Signs of Stress and Take Action, with Dr Jo Burrell
• HR Coffee Time episode 32: Diversity & Inclusion at Work – 7 Mistakes to Avoid (& What to Do Instead), with Dr. Jonathan Ashong-Lamptey
• Nicola Semple's podcast: The Career Confidence Podcast
• Dr Jonathan Ashong-Lamptey's podcast: The Element of Inclusion
• Verena Hefti's podcast: Big Careers, Small Children

• Take the HR Coffee Time Next Chapter Survey – Help shape the podcast by sharing your thoughts on the questions I should ask my future guests. You can find the survey here: bit.ly/HRCTNEXTCHAPTER
• Recommend a Guest – Do you know an inspiring Chief People Officer or Chief HR Officer? Or are you one yourself? I’d love to hear from you!
• Get in Touch –
• Connect with me on LinkedIn
• Email me at fay@brightskycareercoaching.co.uk

If you’d like to be the first to hear when the new format of HR Coffee Time is live, sign up for the HR Coffee Time newsletter! You’ll also get career and leadership tips straight to your inbox, along with updates on new podcast episodes and helpful resources.

The podcast will be back at the end of April 2025 with a fresh new format. In the meantime, I hope my journey of refining this idea encourages you to explore your own. Sometimes, the best way to gain clarity is to start talking about it.

I can’t wait to bring you new conversations, and I look forward to hearing what you think. See you soon!

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

After completing your CIPD qualification, it can be hard to decide what training to invest in next. In this episode of HR Coffee Time, host Fay Wallis shares four valuable and perhaps surprising training options to help you develop skills that will elevate your HR career: mediation, coaching, negotiation, and facilitation.

You’ll hear extracts from earlier episodes featuring expert guests who explain each skill and its benefits. Fay has personally attended training with all the featured experts, so she can confidently recommend their insights and advice.

Whether you’re considering what to focus on for your professional development this year or just want to understand how these skills can help you, this episode is packed with ideas and inspiration to guide your next steps.

[00:00] Introduction and overview

[03:38] Mediation skills with Pete Colby (Episode 99)

[08:07] Coaching skills with Charlie Warshawski (Episode 53)

[13:59] Negotiation skills with Simon Duncan (Episode 115)

[21:23] Facilitation skills with Kirsty Lewis (Episode 110)

[26:43] Closing thoughts

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Fay’s website: Bright Sky Career Coaching
• The Essential HR Planner
• Inspiring HR Leadership Programme

• Connect with Pete Colby on LinkedIn
• Connect with Charlie Warshawski on LinkedIn
• Connect with Simon Duncan on LinkedIn
• Connect with Kirsty Lewis on LinkedIn
• Mediation skills - Pete Colby’s website: Pragmatism
• Coaching skills - Charlie Warshawski’s website: Love Your Coaching
• Facilitation skills – Kirsty Lewis’ website: School of Facilitation
• Gartner’s Model of a World-Class CHRO
• The CIPD’s Profession Map

• HR Coffee Time’s ‘Build Your Professional Skills’ Podcast Playlist
• Episode 99: How mediation skills can help you resolve conflict at work, with Pete Colby
• Episode 53: Why coaching skills can help your HR career (& how to develop them), with Charlie Warshawski
• Episode 110: Why facilitation skills can help your HR career & how to develop them, with Kirsty Lewis
• Episode 115: Why negotiation skills can help your HR career & how to develop them, with Simon Duncan
• Episode 130: Build managers’ confidence with ‘The Coaching Two-Step’, with Jude Sclater

(Book links are Amazon affiliate links, which means Fay will receive a small commission from Amazon if you make a purchase through them).

• HR Coffee Time’s top book recommendations to thrive in your HR/People career
• ‘Think Like a Coach: Empower your team through everyday conversations’ by Jude Sclater

If you found this episode of HR Coffee Time helpful, please rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This video shows you how to rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts (because it isn’t very intuitive). If you're kind enough to leave a review, let Fay know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: fay@brightskycareercoaching.co.uk.

Be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released and get access to other free career tips, tools and resources by signing up to receive the free weekly HR Coffee Time email.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Do you want to set yourself up for success for the year ahead? In this episode of HR Coffee Time, host Fay Wallis is joined by Dr Ben Levy, creator of the ABCME® framework, to explore the five key factors that can make all the difference when it comes to achieving your goals.

Dr Ben shares practical insights into how clarity, belief, motivation, and other essential elements influence success, helping you avoid common goal-setting pitfalls. Together, Fay and Ben discuss strategies for creating a clear vision, building motivation, and staying on track - even when the going gets tough.

Whether you're aiming to advance your career, tackle a challenging project, or introduce new initiatives in your organisation, this episode is packed with advice to help you achieve your goals with confidence and clarity.

[00:00] Introduction

[03:22] What is the ABCME® framework?

[07:03] The importance of clarity in goal-setting

[09:41] Practical tips for getting more clarity

[12:08] How to stay motivated with your goals

[20:13] Celebrating successes and why it matters

[28:43] Confidence-building tip: What would a role model do?

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Fay’s website: Bright Sky Career Coaching
• Connect with Ben on LinkedIn
• Ben’s website: Make It Happen
• Ben’s free quiz to help you achieve your career goals
• Stickk.com website (mentioned in the episode to make a commitment to a goal)
• The Essential HR Planner

• Episode 141: Look back to look forward – how to reflect on 2024 to set goals for 2025
• Episode 39: Lost your direction & motivation at work? This one thing might help
• Episode 89: How to reach your HR career goals by understanding your ‘tendency’

(Disclosure: book links are affiliate links which means Fay will earn a small commission from Amazon if you make a purchase through them)

• Tiny Habits: Why Starting Small Makes Lasting Change Easy, by BJ Fogg
• Think Big: Take Small Steps and Build the Career You Want, by Dr Grace Lordan

If you found this episode of HR Coffee Time helpful, please rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This video shows you how to rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts (because it isn’t very intuitive). If you're kind enough to leave a review, let Fay know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: fay@brightskycareercoaching.co.uk.

Be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released and get access to other free career tips, tools and resources by signing up to receive the free weekly HR Coffee Time email.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

As the year comes to a close, taking time to reflect on 2024 can be a wonderful way to celebrate your successes and uncover inspiration for your goals in 2025.

It’s so easy to fall into the trap of focusing on what didn’t go to plan or overlooking achievements, thanks to the negativity bias we all experience. Add to that the recency bias—where only the most recent events stick in our minds—and it’s no wonder we often lose sight of the bigger picture.

In this episode, I’ll guide you through 10 powerful reflection questions from The Essential HR Planner to help you push past these biases, recognise all you’ve accomplished this year, and approach 2025 with confidence and clarity. And to show that I’m right there with you, I’ll share my own answers to the questions too.

Whether you’re using The Essential HR Planner or simply jotting down notes as you listen, this episode of HR Coffee Time is your chance to pause, reflect, and start shaping the year ahead with purpose and positivity.

[00:00] Introduction

[03:10] Question 1: What did you achieve? - Small wins are just as noteworthy as big ones

[09:06] Question 2: What did you do to help others?

[11:35] Question 3: What are you proudest of from 2024?

[13:02] Question 4: What did you do for your wellbeing during the past year?

[15:50] Question 5: What did you learn during 2024?

[21:35] Question 6: Which relationships did you develop and build?

[23:22] Question 7: What are you grateful for?

[24:22] Question 8: What did you find challenging this year?

[27:10] Question 9: What insights do you have from reading through your answers to questions 1-8?

[29:32] Question 10: How can these insights influence your goals for 2025?

[32:51] Conclusion

• The Essential HR Planner website
• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Fay’s website: Bright Sky Career Coaching
• Fay's blog post: Reflecting on 2024 - looking back to look forward
• Fay's YouTube channel

(Disclosure: book links are affiliate links which means Fay will earn a small commission from Amazon if you make a purchase through them)

• Neuroscience for Learning and Development: How to Apply Neuroscience and Psychology for Improved Learning and Training, by Stella Collins
• Think Like a Coach: Empower Your Team Through Everyday Conversations, by Jude Sclater
• Chatter: The Voice in Our Head and How to Harness It, by Ethan Kross

If you found this episode of HR Coffee Time helpful, please rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This video shows you how to rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts (because it isn’t very intuitive). If you're kind enough to leave a review, let Fay know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: fay@brightskycareercoaching.co.uk.

Be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released and get access to other free career tips, tools and resources by signing up to receive the free weekly HR Coffee Time email.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee

Have you ever been asked to design or deliver a workshop and found yourself worrying whether it will be as good as it could be? Whether you’re preparing your first training session or looking to enhance your facilitation skills, this episode of HR Coffee Time is packed with ideas and resources to help you create training and workshops that are impactful, engaging, and memorable.

In this episode, host Fay Wallis reflects on her experience running the first in-person HR Planning Day and shares five brilliant resources that most inspired her when designing the event. You’ll discover practical insights and creative techniques to transform your workshops and training sessions, whether in-person or online.

[00:00] Introduction and Overview

[03:27] Resource 1: Kirsty Lewis’ online masterclass on workshop design

[11:45] Resource 2: The Two-Hour Workshop Blueprint book

[22:07] Resource 3: The Flipchart Facebook group

[23:37] Resource 4: Neuroscience for Learning and Development book

[28:01] Resource 5: The Ten-Minute Trainer book

[31:28] Conclusion

• Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
• Fay’s website: Bright Sky Career Coaching
• Kirsty Lewis’ website: School of Facilitation
• The Flipchart Facebook group
• The Essential HR Planner (hardback & digital versions available)

Episode 110: Why facilitation skills can help your HR career & how to develop them, with Kirsty Lewis

(Disclosure: book links are affiliate links, which means Fay will earn a small commission from Amazon if you make a purchase through them)

• The 2-Hour Workshop Blueprint: Design Fast. Deliver Strong. Without Stress, by Leanne Hughes
• Neuroscience for Learning and Development: How to Apply Neuroscience and Psychology for Improved Learning and Training, by Stella Collins
• The Ten-Minute Trainer: 150 Ways to Teach it Quick and Make it Stick, by Sharon L. Bowman

If you found this episode of HR Coffee Time helpful, please rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. This video shows you how to rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts (because it isn’t very intuitive). If you're kind enough to leave a review, let Fay know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: fay@brightskycareercoaching.co.uk.

Be notified each time a new episode of HR Coffee Time is released and get access to other free career tips, tools and resources by signing up to receive the free weekly HR Coffee Time email.

HR Coffee Time listeners can book C-me’s 90-minute High Performing Team Workshop, with five High Performance profiles and a Team Wheel, for £499 (saving more than £2,500). Ideal for a Christmas team day or end-of-year get-together. Places are limited, so find out more and apply at https://colour-profiling.com/hrcoffee