HR Leaders

How does Primark develop frontline leaders and help colleagues build careers within the business?
John D. Hadeed, Senior Vice President, People & Culture, US at Primark, joins Chris Rainey to share the career conversations, training and leadership habits behind its approach.
At the time of recording, John says more than 60% of Primark’s US store leaders had grown within its US business, with an ambition to reach 80%.
We explore 5 practical takeaways for HR, from preparing people for their next role to equipping managers to support colleagues when HR isn’t there.

5 TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

→ Turn career ambitions into a plan
How conversations about potential, goals and mobility inform succession planning.
→ Make teaching part of the leadership job
What John learnt during 18 months alongside his predecessor.
→ Protect the time to learn
How Primark approaches onboarding, peer training and development away from the shop floor.
→ Explain what your values actually look like
Why “dynamic” needed a shared meaning across different cultures and languages.
→ Equip managers to support people when HR isn’t there
Why being people-first depends on how leaders show up every day.

🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Leapsome
AI is already reshaping HR. Learn how to build an agentic HR team in six months and unlock Leapsome’s €24K Accelerator plus its HRIS Foundation at no extra cost before 31 December → https://hubs.li/Q04yT6Rh0
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The meeting ends. Everyone nods. Then the real conversation starts without the CEO.
For HR leaders, that puts you in a difficult spot.
You hear the concerns. You see the friction. But how do you tell someone at the top that their own behaviour might be part of the problem?
In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I had an inspiring conversation with Andrea Petrone, The CEO Whisperer and author of Reinvention at the Top: The Playbook for CEOs to Lead Under Pressure.
I also share what happened when I gave a former CEO difficult feedback.
Spoiler: it wasn’t a thank-you.
7 lessons you’ll learn from this episode:
When a leader’s biggest strength becomes the problem
What the CEO isn’t hearing in the room
What happened when Chris told his CEO the truth
The hidden cost of acting like a leader
Why the message isn’t getting through
The question every aspiring CHRO-to-CEO needs to answer
What leaders under pressure are really asking for

🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Leapsome
AI is already reshaping HR. Learn how to build an agentic HR team in six months and unlock Leapsome’s €24K Accelerator plus its HRIS Foundation at no extra cost before 31 December → https://hubs.li/Q04yT6Rh0
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the biggest barrier to better work is not a lack of technology, but unclear priorities, inconsistent ways of working and disconnected teams?
In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I sit down with Sandra Ma, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and Richard H., Jr., Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer at Jovial, to explore why better workplaces start with clarity, consistency and connection.
From meetings after the meeting to information scattered across Slack channels, Sandra and Richard explain why leaders need to understand what is making work difficult before introducing another solution. I also share what went wrong when we adopted an AI-native CRM before getting our data in order.
5 things you’ll learn from this episode:
Why introducing another tool or process can leave the real workplace problem untouched
How clarity, consistency and connection help leaders identify where work is breaking down
Why unreliable data and unclear sources of truth can undermine AI adoption
What meetings after the meeting can reveal about understanding, trust and participation
Why more communication channels do not necessarily create better collaboration

🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Leapsome
AI is already reshaping HR. Learn how to build an agentic HR team in six months and unlock Leapsome’s €24K Accelerator plus its HRIS Foundation at no extra cost before 31 December → https://hubs.li/Q04yT6Rh0
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the strongest workplace culture is not built through expensive perks, but through the everyday systems that make people feel seen, supported and able to grow?

In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I sit down with Laura Lawson, Chief People Officer at United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM), to explore how UWM has built an unusually intentional workplace culture for its 9,000 employees in Pontiac, Michigan.
From onsite healthcare and career coaching to monthly employee-led conversations and a long-standing commitment to avoiding layoffs, Laura explains why culture at UWM is treated as something leaders actively design rather than something they leave to chance.

5 things you’ll learn from this episode:
Why a workplace can have great benefits and still fail to create a great employee experience
The unconventional hiring approach UWM uses to identify attitude, curiosity and work ethic
Why Laura believes monthly employee-led conversations can be more valuable than the traditional annual review
How UWM approaches internal mobility and career coaching to retain people even when their first role is not the right fit
Why some of the strongest culture initiatives may require more creativity than budget

🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Leapsome
AI is already reshaping HR. Learn how to build an agentic HR team in six months and unlock Leapsome’s €24K Accelerator plus its HRIS Foundation at no extra cost before 31 December → https://hubs.li/Q04yT6Rh0
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the biggest mistake companies are making with AI is trying to improve individual tasks instead of redesigning the entire process?
In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I sit down with Bruno Da Sola, Group Chief People Officer at Inetum, to explore what changed when the company moved beyond scattered AI experiments and started redesigning critical end-to-end workflows.
For HR leaders, the bigger lesson is not simply to add more AI tools. It is to identify the workflows that matter most to the business, redesign them around outcomes, and be transparent with employees about what the change means for their work.

5 things you’ll learn from this episode:
Why asking employees for individual AI use cases did not create the business impact Bruno expected
The change in approach that helped Inetum move from scattered experimentation to end-to-end AI transformation
How one workforce process went from taking weeks to producing results in minutes
Why Bruno believes the most powerful AI workflows still need carefully chosen human intervention
The mistake HR leaders may be making by choosing small, low-impact processes to prove the value of AI

🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Leapsome
AI is already reshaping HR. Learn how to build an agentic HR team in six months and unlock Leapsome’s €24K Accelerator plus its HRIS Foundation at no extra cost before 31 December → https://hubs.li/Q04yT6Rh0
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.