In a bonus episode during season 3, Kevin Green sits down with Andrew Perkins, Global Director Kaplan Performance Academy. They discuss the importance of technical competence and behavioural confidence in the context of Kaplan's newly launched product line up that brings together learning, coaching and assessment. 

This week, Kevin talks to Melanie Steel, former People Director to the Cabinet Office and RSA, now the owner of her own people change and transformation consultancy - People Change Expertise.  Melanie talks about loving being a serial Interim so that she has the freedom to challenge and question. "You're one step removed and looking in". 

In part two, Kevin and Melanie discuss how to prioritise what to include in an HR strategy and what to omit.  "Start with the business context" says Melanie, "I would love for HR to be more integrated into the business - there is still a lot of them and us". Listen in for tips from someone who has influenced many top companies devise theirs. 

As with other episodes in this series, we recorded during the Coronavirus disruption. Melanie talks about how her current client, Arup have dealt with the crisis - "within a week we were making big decisions effecting the company's future remotely" and the importance of scenario planning in strategic HR at the moment.

This episode was recorded during the Coronavirus lockdown and Valerie and Kevin spend time addressing the challenges that it has brought to organisations, like the difficulties of remote working for teams - "it's a huge behavioural and educational piece for line managers". However, when done correctly, Kevin points out that 80% of remote workers feel more engaged. Listen in for their tips. 

Like all of the HRDs Kevin interviews, Valerie has many stories and much experience to share, like the real story behind the media headlines of working on the G4S Olympics project for 2012. 

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This week Kevin sits down with Sarah Mason, Chief People Officer at Foxtons. Sarah's career has taken so many twists and turns, starting in sales and moving into the people space via recruitment and further study.

Aside from her career journey, Kevin and Sarah discuss the importance of good line manager coaching and measurable outcomes. The latter being a topic very close to Kevin's heart and a practice that Sarah has put to successful use in many roles. "Commercial, measurable outcomes, linked to practices that you have done is always a proud moment for me." 

Unusually for an HR leader, Quintin has studied twice in his career, deciding to spend 7 years studying Change Management for a doctorate in Business Administration in the middle of his career. "It was the only way to step change - reading another book or doing another short course wouldn't have been enough". The end product was a deep understanding of the importance of practice to change habits within the culture change process, not just change communication. Listen in to hear his academic learnings and practical understanding from his own experience of applying  those to his organisations. 

Simon Linares, ex HRD at Direct Line Group has international experience across several sectors including FMCG, telecommunications, and insurance. In this episode, his and Kevin's conversation covers his passion for mentoring people, the difference between change and transformation, and HR's position on the board. 

Simon's career started in sales and talks to Kevin about the transition to HR generalist - in short "it wasn't easy". In discussing his career Simon talks about reinventing himself, "you get the best out of me in the first 5 years of the job", and his latest reinvention as a non-exec, which is a journey that he is just starting. 

Debbie Moore, HRD GLH Hotels and host, Kevin Green

Angela O’Connor, Founder and CEO of HR Lounge and host, Kevin Green

Jason Fowler VP & HRD of UK & Northern Europe, Fujitsu

Jacky Simmonds, Chief People Officer at Veon PLC