Skills is not just a challenge for organisations it is a challenge for entire countries and Singapore is setting a template that others could and perhaps should follow. My guest today is Wenshan Xu, Deputy Director of The Skills Development Group at SSG. The mission of SkillsFuture SG, or SSG for short, is to build a skills competitive Singapore and a nation of resilient and confident lifelong learners. Wenshan describes the unit as an intelligence unit for skills and as you are about to hear, the work they are doing is as fascinating as it is important. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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This week, we bring an esteemed panel of three experts together to debate the future of HR. Firstly, Brigette McInnis-Day Head of HR at Google Cloud, secondly, we have Dave Ulrich, Professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and co-founder of the RBL Group and last but not least Rupert Morrison, who is leading the way in data-driven organisational planning as CEO at orgvue. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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In 2020, we learnt that the field of Human Resources is even more important than we thought it was, that People Analytics can save lives and that humans and the organisations they work for can adapt quickly in times of crises. What do the events of 2020 mean for HR though, as we set sail into 2021? I have been publishing an annual set of predictions since 2014 and the podcast’s producer, Ian Bailie, persuaded me that it would be fun to record a special episode of the podcast framed around my predictions for 2021. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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My guest on this week's episode of the podcast is Renil Kumar, Vice President and Global HR Head at Wipro. He is the personification of a modern HR Leader, Business focused, data-driven, technologically savvy, inclusive and collaborative. In our conversation Renil and I discuss how People Data and Analytics enables hyper-personalisation across Wipro’s 200,000 plus global employee workforce and how a powerful People Analytics project at Wipro delivered quantifiable value to the business, as well as revealing some interesting insights on the impact of team size and promotions. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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There should be little doubt that human capital is a firm's greatest asset, however, this isn't enough. Organisations must also ensure that individuals are relationally positioned for success. In other words, bringing in the best people is only part of the solution. Firms must also bring out the best in people and that requires us to more intentionally leverage social capital. Those are not my words, although I wholeheartedly agree with their sentiment, but of Michael Arena, my guest for this week's episode of The Digital HR Leaders podcast. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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My guest on this episode of the podcast is Daniel West. His 20 years of experience in HR Leadership roles at data-driven companies like Uber and Apple have taught him how analytics can drive business performance, improve customer outcomes and enrich employee experience and culture. Daniel is now the founder and CEO of Panalyt and the technology his firm provides is helping organisations bring together and democratise their people and business data and enrich it further with external and social capital data to drive decision-making. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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We are in the midst of the biggest global pandemic for a century, combine that with social unrest, an economic crisis, and at the same time, rapid business transformation, then the role of the HR function has never been so important. One company where HR has really come to the fore during the crisis is Bayer. My guest on this week’s episode of the podcast is Melissa Harper, Senior Vice President for HR Innovations at Bayer. With more than 30 years of HR experience, Melissa has been at the forefront of Bayer's response to the crises of 2020 and efforts to redefine the workplace around purpose, innovation, and culture. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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The guest on this week’s episode is Head of People Operations at Grab, Chin Yin Ong. With a background in sales and marketing, a psychology degree and a passion for using technology and analytics to drive better outcomes for the business and its workforce, Chin Yin is the epitome of the Chief People Officer as a catalyst for growth. Chin Yin combines her role as Head of People with running the technology solutions team, which as you will hear, capitalises on the technology Grab has developed for its customers to enhance the work experience for Grabbers, which is Grab's name for its employees. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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In the last episode of this series, my guest is Vidya Krishnan, Chief Learning Officer and Global Head of Learning and Development at Ericsson, who is at the cutting edge of driving a culture where learning is a habit that matters. When we were planning this episode Vidya and I quickly realised we had a mutual passion for people data and analytics. Vidya also shared with me a view that I found quite profound, she told me that learning is oxygen, invisible but necessary to survive and analytics will make it visible. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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In this episode of the podcast my guest is Simon Brown, Chief Learning Officer at Novartis, a company that is really setting the pace around the whole learning and skills agenda. Simon believes that curiosity is the greatest driver of value in the digital age and as well as being co-author of a fascinating new book, The Curious Advantage, Simon and his team have instigated curiosity month at Novartis, an integrated learning experience of 170 events throughout September featuring internal and external speakers. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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In this episode of the podcast, my guest is Kat Kennedy, the Chief Experience Officer of Degreed, where she has overall responsibility for product and technology. Kat was employee number three at Degreed and since she joined in 2012, the company has enjoyed phenomenal growth and created an entire new category in the HR technology market with its learning experience platform or LXP. As Kat outlines in our conversation, Covid-19 has accentuated the importance of re-skilling, up-skilling and learning. This episode is a must listen for anyone interested or involved in learning skills and the technology that supports it. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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In this episode of the podcast, my guest is Gianpiero Petriglieri, who is the Associate Professor of Organisational Behaviour at INSEAD, and an expert on leadership and learning in the workplace. Gianpiero’s studies highlight the psychological, social and cultural functions of leadership development and his teaching methods provide an example of how to perform those functions purposely for the benefit of individuals, organisations and society at large. His research has appeared in academic journals, media and business journals, like the Harvard Business Review, where five of his essays have been included among the ideas that shaped management in the last decade. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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The guest on this week’s podcast is Lynda Gratton. Lynda is a Professor of Management Practice at The London Business School where she directs Human Resource Strategy in transforming companies, which is considered one of the world's leading programs on Human Resources. Lynda is also the founder of HSM, the research consultancy and has written extensively on the future of work, the role of corporations and the interface between people and organisations. In our conversation, Lynda and I discuss what we have learned about people, organisations and the impact of remote working on collaboration during the pandemic as well as the new skills, behaviours and mindsets individuals need to thrive in the future of work. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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We’re kicking off an exciting autumn season of the Digital HR Leaders podcast today with a special bonus episode featuring Diane Gherson, discussing how IBM has infused AI and analytics into HR. During her time as CHRO, Diane led the redesign of all aspects of IBM’s people agenda and management systems to shape a culture of continuous learning, innovation and agility. She has also digitally transformed the HR function, incorporating AI and automation across all offerings resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars of net benefits. Every field needs its standard bearers and ever since taking the reins as CHRO in 2013, Diane has been a pioneer, taking the HR profession to a new level and was deservedly recognised as the HR Executive of the year in 2018. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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My guest on this week's episode of The Digital HR Leaders Podcast is Sophie Rwegera Khadhraoui. When she took on the challenge of setting up the People Analytics function at the International Committee of the Red Cross in 2017, Sophie had a background in Finance, and Operations, but not HR. Sophie quickly established that in a humanitarian organisation, the key people related requirement is to ensure the right people are on the ground at the right time to support the ICRC’s critical humanitarian work in conflict zones. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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Our guest for this week's episode is Dan Cable, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School. Dan explains that because we spend most of our waking hours at work, his mission is to spend his working hours trying to understand how people can feel like work is part of their real life, rather than the long commute to the weekend.

After recording this episode with Dan, I had an extra zest and spring in my step for the rest of the day. I am confident that many of you will experience the same positive reaction after listening to Dan's energy, passion, ideas and the evidence he provides that backs this up. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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The brutal killing of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police on May the 25th has unleashed a sustained and unparalleled wave of protests around the world. This terrible incident highlighted once again, the scourge of racial injustice and the responsibility we all have to speak up against discrimination in any of its ugly and reprehensible forms. We all need to commit to help to drive change in our companies, in our HR and People Analytics communities and in our societies.

The guest on this episode of the podcast is Diversity Strategist, Torin Ellis, who has worked with companies ranging from small 20 person startups to some of the biggest multinational companies, to help them identify inhibitors that stall the consistent achievement of the diversity, equity and inclusion objectives achieved through recruitment. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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The COVID-19 crisis is testing our political leaders like they have never been tested before. Leaders who appear to score high on narcissism and low on empathy are failing dismally. It is interesting that those political leaders, especially female leaders, who combine competence, transparency and empathy and are using data and science to inform their decision making appear to be performing much better. The brilliant Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic is my guest on this week’s episode of the podcast. Tomas is an international authority in psychological profiling, talent management, leadership development and people analytics. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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Psychological safety is present when colleagues trust and respect each other and feel able, even obligated, to be candid. Those are the words of Amy Edmondson, my guest on this edition of The Digital HR Leaders Podcast. Amy is the Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard Business School, Author of "The Fearless Organisation - creating psychological safety in the workplace in learning, innovation and growth." Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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To celebrate the one year anniversary of this podcast and over 100,000 listens, we thought we would do something different. The team managed to persuade me to record a special role reversal episode of the podcast with me in the hot seat and the show’s co-creator Ian, firing the questions that some of you, including one of our previous guests Dave Ulrich, have kindly taken the time to send in. In this episode we look at the role of People Analytics in driving business value and how it is a key ingredient in HR’s success in the future. Click below to listen to this week’s episode or to read the full transcript.

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