HR Unfiltered - brought to you by SOPEOPLE

In this episode, Deano flies solo and is joined by Sean Miller, who brings nearly 30 years in HR (incl. L&D and OD), and is a specialist-in-training in organisational transactional analysis, for a conversation about why organisations get stuck and what HR can actually do about it. They cover: The "Yes, But" game and why it's not incompetence, it's pattern; Berne's ego states and how language shifts them; the gap between public and private organisational structure; etiquette, techniques and character as a diagnostic tool; and why contracting is the work, not the preamble to it. Clear, practical, and hopefully thought-provoking about human systems. (The best kind of episode, no?!)  Sean can be reached on LinkedIn and www.brightn.co.uk! And please feel free to follow HR, Unfiltered on LinkedIn as well.

Chris Manning joins Dean and Sue, and makes a compelling case that employee experience isn't a platform you buy or a project you launch; it's the sum total of every process, system, approval chain and human interaction your people touch every single day. Armed with real examples from Unilever and Nuffield Health, he unpacks the frameworks that actually move the needle, and explains exactly why 70% of engagement variance sitting with the manager should keep every CPO up at night. Chris is the MD of Experience HR, and can be found on LinkedIn.

What happens when AI stops being a shiny tool and starts quietly reshaping how work, judgement and even identity function? In this episode of HR, Unfiltered, Dean and Sue sit down with futurist Matt O’Neill to explore the less comfortable bits of the AI conversation that many organisations are skirting around. Not whether AI can save time, draft emails or automate admin. But what happens when people start handing over too much of their thinking to it. Matt shares why he believes leaders often overestimate AI in the short term and underestimate it in the long term, why most organisations are still only seeing “pockets of excellence”, and why the real risk is not just process failure but a loss of human agency. The conversation moves from workflow redesign and shadow AI to leadership, learning, hiring, meaning at work and the growing need for what Matt calls digital flourishing. There is plenty here for HR and business leaders: How to redesign work rather than simply speed up old processes, Why fear has to be addressed before adoption can succeed, and Which deeply human qualities we must not outsource. This is a thoughtful, provocative and surprisingly human conversation about AI, work and what we must hold on to as everything else changes. Matt can be reached on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattone/overlay/about-this-profile/?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base%3BZLFQGXBjRQ6%2FXdeQ4G9eFQ%3D%3D  SOPEOPLE and HR, Unfiltered can be found at www.sopeople.co.uk  

What happens when you invite a VP of Client / Customer Success to hold talk about HR? Turns out, quite a lot, and most of it grabs us in all the right ways. Rachel Rewerts has spent 15 years in Customer Success, a function that proves its value every quarter, in public, with numbers. In this episode, she draws an uncomfortable and energising parallel between CS and HR business partnering, two functions doing essentially the same job, with very different levels of accountability. We get into the bartender vs. personal trainer problem, why HR might avoid pushing into the bruise, what leading indicators CS uses that HR really should steal, and who gets away with the most narrative spin. (She said it, not us (but with affection)!) Blunt, warm, and genuinely useful. We think there's something for everyone who wants to learn more about business partnering.

Luke McKeever, CEO and psychologist who has led software, data and AI organisations, discusses bold leadership moves. He talks about banning Friday meetings, the real challenge of authenticity, and using psychometrics beyond hiring. He warns about AI making humans a compliance layer, urges CPOs to build commercial credibility, and champions pragmatic, people-centred change.

Sam Park, a CFO with 20 years across fintech, edtech and martech and experience scaling tech firms, joins to discuss commercial HR through a finance lens. He covers hiring metrics, organisational design, how people issues show up in financials, the finance–HR data partnership, and what makes a people plan commercially credible. Expect straight talk and practical frameworks.

Kirsty Baggs-Morgan, HR leader, coach and author of The HR Confidence Playbook, rebuilt her professional confidence after an abrupt redundancy. She discusses identity loss, her six R framework for rebuilding confidence, why HR struggles with visibility and credibility, and practical steps for setting boundaries, communicating value and practicing resilience.

They dig into why restructures have become the reflexive fix and why that creates anxiety and disengagement. They explore leaders’ urge to redraw org charts before defining outcomes and the danger of over-engineered roles. They highlight treating change as a process, testing small experiments, and equipping managers to repair trust and signal what truly matters.

In this episode of HR Unfiltered, Dean and Sue sit down with Ian Redmond from Explore Training to talk about something HR rarely names clearly enough: What it takes to manage clients well, especially when the work is complex, emotional, and commercially exposed. This isn’t about “stakeholder management” as a training slide title. It’s about psychology, boundaries, trust, contracting, and courage, and what happens when HR, L&D, and consultants get those wrong (or right). Ian brings decades of experience working with demanding clients, senior leaders, and messy organisational realities and we unpack the human skills behind effective client relationships that sustain long-term impact. What we discuss: Client management is relational work; Contracting: the bit everyone rushes (and pays for later); Boundaries does not equate to being difficult; Trust, challenge, and authentic, adult relationships; Commercial realism (without losing your authenticity). If you’d like to contact us, please do so at www.sopeople.co.uk or hiya@sopeople.co.uk. The disruptive energiser, Ian, is available at www.exploretraining.co.uk or on his LinkedIn profile - Ian Redmond, Explore Training!

Tom Emery, author and coach behind the CHRO coaching framework, discusses his book People People and a composite CHRO named Joanna. They explore why a seat at the table is not enough. Topics include commercial curiosity, enterprise leadership, human-centred change, mindset shifts, setting boundaries, and a simple Monday 9am reset to regain agency and influence.