Digital HR Leaders with David Green

AI is changing tasks. Skills strategies are evolving. And yet visibility into capability, cost, and risk across the workforce often remains fragmented.

So how do organisations move from reacting to workforce change, to planning for it in a way that actually shapes business outcomes?

In this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, host David Green is joined by David Edwards, strategic workforce planning practitioner, advisor, and author of The Strategic Workforce Planning Handbook, to explore what it really takes to make strategic workforce planning work in practice.

Join this conversation as they discuss:

Why workforce planning can feel “deceptively threatening” inside an organisation
What changes when leaders shift from thinking about headcount to thinking about capability, capacity, cost, and risk over time
What goes wrong when people analytics and workforce planning operate in parallel
Why looking beyond permanent employees reveals hidden workforce risk
How AI is forcing organisations to rethink work design, not just skills strategies
The stakeholders' strategic workforce planning really needs

This episode is sponsored by Worklytics.
How productive is your organisation, really? Worklytics makes it clear - with privacy-first insights from everyday work data. See how meeting volume, manager effectiveness, collaboration health, and AI adoption are impacting your team’s focus, efficiency, and outcomes - so you can make smarter decisions, faster.
No surveys. No assumptions. Just clear insight into work. Right now, Worklytics is offering podcast listeners a free 30-day trial of their productivity analytics dashboard.
Learn more at worklytics.co/productivity .

Link to resources:
The Strategic Workforce Planning Handbook
David Edwards’ Dark Artistry Newsletter

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

AI was supposed to make work more efficient. So why are people busier than ever?

As organisations move into 2026, many leaders are realising that while technology has changed quickly, the fundamentals of how work gets done haven’t kept up. Activity is increasing, output is accelerating in places - yet coordination, focus, and decision-making often feel harder than before.

So what’s actually going on?

In this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, David Green is joined by Philip Arkcoll, Founder and CEO of Worklytics, to unpack this very question.

Join this dynamic duo, as they discuss:

What the data reveals around where organisations were getting stuck in 2025, and how the way we work is changing in 2026
What collaboration and activity data reveals that traditional HR metrics often miss
Why decision-making, not output, is becoming the primary bottleneck in AI-enabled organisations
How increasing spans of control are reshaping the role, and load, of managers
The emerging divide between teams and individuals who are benefiting from AI and those who aren’t
What HR and people analytics leaders can do to measure, diagnose, and redesign how work actually happens

This episode is sponsored by Worklytics.

Worklytics helps leaders understand how work actually happens with data-driven insights into collaboration, productivity and AI adoption.

By analysing real work patterns - from meetings to tool usage - they empower teams to work =

Learn more at worklytics.co/ai

Link to resources:
5 Ways Work Will Change in 2026

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why are so many HR leaders experiencing “what just happened?” moments at work - and what does it really take to respond to authoritarian leadership with courage instead of fear?

That’s the question Kristen Kavanaugh, Leadership Strategist, former Head of DEI and Talent Management at Tesla, explores in this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast.

In this episode, host David Green sits down with Kristen to unpack what happens when fear quietly becomes the operating system inside organisations, why authoritarian leadership styles are becoming increasingly normalised, and how HR leaders can reclaim their agency in environments shaped by power, pressure, and public leadership behaviour.

Tune in and learn:
Why fear-based leadership creates short-term gains but long-term damage
Why HR leaders often underestimate the agency they actually have
How Kristen’s Agency Loop framework helps leaders navigate tension, misalignment, and difficult decisions
What courageous leadership looks like as AI reshapes roles, skills, and power at work
Why HR has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to shape a more humane future of work This episode is sponsored by Worklytics.

Worklytics helps leaders understand how work actually happens with data-driven insights into collaboration, productivity and AI adoption.

By analysing real work patterns - from meetings to tool usage - they empower teams to work =
Learn more at worklytics.co/ai

Link to resources:
Courage over Fear: Harness the Power of Agency to Lead in Uncertain Times
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why do organisations keep repeating the same mistakes when it comes to hybrid work - and are they now doing the same with AI?

That’s the question Brian Elliott, one of the most respected voices on the future of work, explores in this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast.

In this episode, host David Green sits down with Brian to unpack why the hybrid and return-to-office debate continues to create tension between leaders and employees, despite years of data and experience, and the striking parallels between how organisations handled hybrid work and how many are now approaching AI adoption.

Tune in and learn:

Why the hybrid and return-to-office debate continues to divide leaders and employees
What the evidence says about making hybrid work effective for both people and the business
The similarities between hybrid work decisions and today’s AI adoption challenges
How AI is changing entry-level roles and long-term talent pipelines
The biggest barriers organisations face when trying to change long-established ways of working
Why leadership behaviour ultimately determines whether change sticks

This episode is sponsored by Worklytics.

Worklytics helps leaders understand how work actually happens with data-driven insights into collaboration, productivity and AI adoption.
By analysing real work patterns - from meetings to tool usage - they empower teams to work =

Learn more at worklytics.co/ai

Link to resources:

Five leadership lessons for "tough" CEOs
The burnout age
The job market and AI
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As we begin a new year, it’s natural to reflect on what’s changed - and what’s quietly no longer fit for purpose.

AI investment is accelerating at pace, and autonomous and semi-autonomous agents are moving from experimentation to everyday work. And yet, many organisations are still operating with leadership models, workforce structures, and planning assumptions designed for a world where humans were the only actors in the system.

In this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, David Green is joined by Sandra Durth, Partner at McKinsey & Company, to explore what happens when work is no longer just human-to-human, but human-to-agent - and what that means for the future of organisations.

Drawing on McKinsey’s latest research, Sandra shares her perspective on:

How AI-human symbiosis is reshaping the very definition of work
Why traditional hierarchies and leadership models are starting to break down
What “agentic leadership” really looks like in practice
The implications for performance, management capability, and strategic workforce planning
The biggest opportunities - and the biggest risks - HR leaders need to be paying attention to right now

Links to research:
The agentic organization: Contours of the next paradigm for the AI era
Six shifts to build the agentic organization of the future

Rethink management and talent for agentic AI
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