HR Strategy in the Hot Seat

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is coming. And most HR teams are looking at it and seeing a to-do list: Natalie Saunders thinks that's exactly the wrong place to start.

Natalie, a self-described recovering employment lawyer and founder of Morpho Advisory, joins Anwen Bottois, founder of Purple Sky Consulting, to make the case for why the wave of incoming legislative change is less a legal headache and more a leadership opportunity hiding in plain sight.

With 25 years spanning employment law, HR director roles and consulting, Natalie brings a rare perspective on what happens when organisations focus on risk mitigation instead of asking the far more interesting question: what kind of employer do we actually want to be?

If your HR team is bracing itself for the future changes, this episode will reframe how you think about them entirely.

You'll discover:

• Why the reduction of the unfair dismissal qualifying period from two years to six months is a seismic shift and the potential impications it has for talent acquisition, onboarding and capability.
• How the rise of AI-generated employment tribunal claims is creating a perfect storm for already overstretched tribunal systems
• Why probationary periods may be doing more harm than good — and what organisations should be thinking about instead
• How to reframe legislative change from a compliance exercise into a genuine opportunity to build a more intentional, human organisation
• The language trap HR functions fall into — and why removing the word "must" from everything is a more powerful culture signal than you might think
• What the new sexual harassment legislation means in practice, including employer liability for third party conduct
• Why psychological safety is the single most important cultural foundation for navigating all of these changes
• Natalie's three-part challenge for HR leaders: be brave, be bold, and be kind

Stop talking about legislative change as a compliance project. Start asking what kind of organisation you want to build.

Resources & Links:

Morpho Advisory: https://morphoadvisory.co.uk/

Find Natalie on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nataliesaunders/

Find out more about more about Anwen Bottois here:

https://expertservicesdirectory.com/directory/anwen-bottois/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anwen-bottois-leadership-coach

Purple Sky Consulting Website: https://www.purpleskyconsulting.co.uk/

Gary Cookson, director of EPIC HR and author of The Squeezed Middle, joins host Anwen Bottois, founder of Purple Sky Consulting, in this compelling episode. Gary brings a quarter of a century’s experience in HR and L&D to a critical discussion about the "hidden heart" of our organisations: middle management. This conversation reveals how leaders can move beyond functional task lists to support the high-value, unseen work, the emotional and relational leadership, that actually makes organisations function.

The discussion explores why middle management is often an "amorphous blob", a destination role that is often misunderstood, ill-defined and squeezed by bureaucracy. Whether you are looking to reboot your leadership development or navigating the complexities of a hybrid, AI-driven workplace, Gary offers practical insights to transform the squeezed middle into a strategic asset.

You’ll discover:

• The "Squeezed Middle" Concept: Why middle managers are vital between strategy and reality.
• Reclaiming Leadership Time: Why 50% of management time is lost to admin and how to create space for coaching and problem-solving.
• Smart Skills over Soft Skills: The importance of encouraging human judgment and nuance.
• The Future of Work: How to prepare managers for the rising emotional and cognitive demands of an AI-driven environment.
• Strategic Implementation: Why successful HR strategy depends on stakeholder relationships and influence rather than technical knowledge alone.
• Practical Development: Steps to create a middle management preparation program and normalise invisible work.

Gary Cookson is a seasoned HR director, consultant and author dedicated to making work better for organisations worldwide. His innovative research highlights the extraordinary adaptive work done by the middle layer of organisations, positioning them as the key arbiters of culture and team dynamics.

Resources & Links:

Find Gary on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garycookson/

EPIC HR Website: epichr.co.uk

The Squeezed Middle: How to succeed in the critical role of a middle manager (Middle Management Matters) Book available at Amazon and Waterstones

Find out more about more about Anwen Bottois here:

https://expertservicesdirectory.com/directory/anwen-bottois/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anwen-bottois-leadership-coach

Purple Sky Consulting Website: https://www.purpleskyconsulting.co.uk/

When performance dips, the instinct is almost always the same: get some training in. Joining Anwen on the podcast for this episode is Anne-Marie Burbidge, who has spent over 20 years watching that instinct lead organisations in exactly the wrong direction.

Anne-Marie is the founder of The Spark, a learning and development consultancy working with businesses on the people performance challenges that growth demands. With a background spanning the Royal Household, FTSE 250 companies and tech scale-ups, she brings a sharp and systems-focused lens to why organisations keep trying to train their way out of problems that training simply cannot solve.

If you've ever commissioned a training programme that didn't shift anything, or found yourself on the receiving end of one that made you quietly furious, this episode will give you the language and the framework to do something different.

You'll discover:

• Why training is one tool in the kit. not the whole kit bag
• How to diagnose whether you're dealing with a capability gap or a system problem before you commission anything
• The concept of growth friction and why rapid growth exposes people performance gaps faster than most organisations can respond
• Why adaptability is the meta skill that sits behind everything, for individuals, teams and organisations
• How to build the trust and relationships with business leaders that make it possible to push back on a training request without losing the room
• The importance of brand HR: what you're known for in the organisation shapes every conversation you'll ever have about performance

Start with curiosity, not prescription. The problem showing up in front of you is rarely the problem you actually need to solve.

Resources & Links:

• The Spark Consultancy: https://www.thesparkconsultancy.uk/
• Connect with Anne-Marie Burbage on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anne-marieburbidge/

Find out more about more about Anwen Bottois here: https://expertservicesdirectory.com/directory/anwen-bottois/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anwen-bottois-leadership-coach

Purple Sky Consulting Website: https://www.purpleskyconsulting.co.uk/

This episode is a conversation between Anwen Bottoi, host and founder of Purple Sky Consulting, and Maureen Brown, focusing on HR strategies and the importance of intentional listening within organisations. Mo, as she is known, is the CEO of Mi-Say and Managing Director of Sullivan Brown (HR Recruitment). Mo shares her journey from HR recruitment to developing a business centred on amplifying employee voices. The discussion highlights the evolution of engagement surveys and the need for a holistic listening strategy. The discussion includes the importance of aligning HR strategies with business objectives and the role of storytelling in HR reporting. The podcast delves into several key points:

1. Intentional Listening Strategy - Mo emphasises the need for a comprehensive listening strategy that goes beyond traditional engagement surveys.
2. Evolution of HR Practices - The conversation explores how HR practices have evolved, particularly in response to changing employee expectations and the modern work environment.
3. Building Trust and Independence - Anwen and Mo discuss the importance of using independent partners for feedback collection to ensure confidentiality and build trust among employees.
4. Aligning HR with Business Goals - By understanding what the leadership aims to achieve, HR can develop strategies that support these goals and drive organisational success.
5. Challenges and Solutions - Common challenges in HR are discussed, such as the feedback action gap and the limitations of current engagement measures like Employee Net Promoter Scores (ENPS).

To find out more about Mi-Say you can visit the website here: https://mi-say.com/

Find out more about Maureen Brown on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maureen-brown-6844a94/

Find out more about more about Anwen Bottois here: https://expertservicesdirectory.com/directory/anwen-bottois/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/anwen-bottois-leadership-coach/

https://www.purpleskyconsulting.co.uk/

In this episode, Anwen Bottois (your host and founder of Purple Sky Consulting) is joined by Emma Djemil, founder of Be Unstoppable, Speaker, Facilitator and Coach. Emma works with women in HR to build the clarity, courage and confidence to have real impact in their careers and beyond.

Emma explains how too many HR professionals are going home from work worse than when they arrived and that it's time the function that champions everyone else's experience finally turns that lens on itself. With a background working across HR at every level, Emma brings a refreshingly honest perspective on why the function is stuck and what it's going to take to shift it.

If you've ever felt the gap between the HR professional you want to be and the one the business seems to want, this episode gives you somewhere to start.

The main topics include:

• Why HR professionals are operating from a place of proving worth rather than demonstrating value
• The difference between being a strategic influencer and a safety net
• Why contracting with the business about what HR is really there for is the missing conversation most functions never have
• How dropping the HR badge and showing up as a human first unlocks the relationships that drive real impact
• Why role modelling is HR's most underused and most urgently needed tool
• The victim and martyr mentality that creeps into HR teams and what to do about it
• Why trying to do it all alone is the single biggest barrier to effective HR strategy delivery

Resources & Links:

• Be Unstoppable: https://site.beunstoppable.uk/e
• The HR Big Meet: https://thehrbigmeet.com/
• Connect with Emma Djemil on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/be-unstoppable/

HR is the function that exists to help people have better experiences of work and now is the time we start with ourselves.

Find out more about more about Anwen Bottois here: https://expertservicesdirectory.com/directory/anwen-bottois/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anwen-bottois-leadership-coach

Purple Sky Consulting Website: https://www.purpleskyconsulting.co.uk/

In this episode, Anwen Bottois (your host and founder of Purple Sky Consulting) is joined by Donna Ward-Higgs, founder of Learning Partner Solutions, where the belief is simple: people drive performance. Donna brings a refreshingly human perspective to coaching skills in the workplace and makes a compelling case for why coaching shouldn't be a bolt-on certification programme, but a built-in way of leading every single day.

With a background forged on the operational front line rather than in traditional L&D roles, Donna has a rare ability to connect the theory of coaching with the realities of what managers and leaders actually face. This is a conversation packed with practical honesty about what's working, what isn't and what HR leaders need to think about before investing in a coaching culture.

The main topics include:

• Why human skills, not processes, are the real driver of workplace performance
• The difference between coaching and mentoring, and why the confusion matters
• The hidden costs of internal coaching programmes done as a bolt-on
• How the major coaching accreditation bodies differ
• Why a coaching culture won't stick if the system isn't ready for it
• The role of self-awareness in developing genuinely human leaders
• Why clear expectations set upfront are the most underused leadership tool

This episode is a timely reminder that coaching culture isn't something you can buy off the shelf. It starts with being honest about your system, clear about your outcomes and willing to role model the behaviours all the way from the top.

Resources & Links:

• Learning Partner Solutions: https://learningpartnersolutions.com/
• Connect with Donna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donna-ward-higgs-8194a969/
• EMCC (European Mentoring and Coaching Council): emccglobal.org
• ICF (International Coaching Federation): coachingfederation.org

Find out more about more about Anwen Bottois here: https://expertservicesdirectory.com/directory/anwen-bottois/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anwen-bottois-leadership-coach

Purple Sky Consulting Website: https://www.purpleskyconsulting.co.uk/

In this episode, Anwen Bottois (your host and founder of Purple Sky Consulting) is joined by Liz Atkin, consultant, facilitator and founder of Refreshing Comms. Liz brings a wealth of experience in workplace communication and intergenerational strategy, and in this conversation she makes the case for why HR leaders need to treat generational differences not as a problem to fix, but as a strategic opportunity to leverage.

From her time as a CEO navigating a toxic culture, to years on the road working with manufacturing and engineering businesses, Liz has seen first-hand how the people side of organisations is almost always the real issue and how communication sits at the heart of it.

If you're navigating friction between experienced and early-career employees, struggling to retain younger talent, or simply not sure where to start, this episode gives you a practical and honest framework for moving forward.

The main topics include:

• Why the intergenerational workforce is now a strategic priority for HR
• The risks of leading with stereotypes rather than strategy
• How to build a shared leadership narrative around generational difference
• The latent potential of the midlife workforce and why it gets overlooked
• What Gen Z actually need from their managers — and why mentorship matters
• Why lateral career growth is replacing the traditional corporate ladder
• Designing intergenerational workshops that link to real business goals
• The role of co-creation in building policies and practices that stick
• How communication underpins every generational challenge in the workplace
• Where HR leaders should start if this feels like unfamiliar territory

Resources & Links:

• Refreshing Comms: https://refreshingcomms.co.uk/
• Refreshing Comms — the book: available on Amazon and Waterstones
• Find Liz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-atkin-4400a9250/

This episode is a timely reminder that the organisations attracting and retaining the best talent are the ones doing certain things intentionally. Start with strategy, not stereotypes and get people talking.

Find out more about more about Anwen Bottois here: https://expertservicesdirectory.com/directory/anwen-bottois/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anwen-bottois-leadership-coach

Purple Sky Consulting Website: https://www.purpleskyconsulting.co.uk/

In this episode, Anwen Bottois (your host and founder of Purple Sky Consulting) is joined by Roxy Allen, a workforce transformation specialist working in the gas industry, with a background spanning Agile HR, design thinking, systems thinking and socio-technical systems. Roxy shares how she has applied systems thinking to reshape how managers approach performance conversations and why starting with conditions, not targets, is the key to unlocking real organisational performance.

Whether you're an HR leader trying to make sense of performance frameworks or someone looking to bring more strategic thinking into your people function, this conversation is packed with practical insights and some genuinely fresh thinking.

The main topics include:

• Why HR functions struggle to see performance as a system
• The difference between managing the system and leading the people
• How Roxy developed and adapted the Performance Chain framework for her organisation
• Practical approaches to embedding systems thinking in performance conversations
• Where HR leaders should start if they're new to this way of working

High performance isn't necessarily built through more activity but through better conditions.

Resources & Links:

Six Boxes Performance Thinking: https://www.sixboxes.com/

Agile Culture Development Matrix: https://toolkit.agilebusiness.org/agile-culture-development-matrix

Find Roxy on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/missroxanneallen/

Find out more about more about Anwen Bottois here: https://expertservicesdirectory.com/directory/anwen-bottois/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anwen-bottois-leadership-coach

Purple Sky Consulting Website: https://www.purpleskyconsulting.co.uk/

In this episode, Anwen Bottois (your host) is joined by Jessica Lorimer. Jess is an expert sales training consultant with her business Selling to Corporates and is the founder of the Expert Services Directory and during this episode Jess shares advice for HR leaders on sourcing and managing external suppliers, making strategic decisions, and fostering productive partnerships that drive organisational success.

Whether navigating the complexities of hiring external experts or building internal capabilities, this conversation offers practical insights to elevate HR practices and business outcomes.

The main topics include:

• How HR can effectively source external consultants and suppliers
• Differentiating between interim support and specialist expertise
• The importance of clear briefs and honest internal discussions
• Building sustainable relationships with external vendors
• Upskilling internal teams alongside external support
• The role of credible directories in supplier selection
• Cost-effectiveness of external expertise versus internal hiring
• Managing junior HR staff in sourcing decisions
• Strategic decision-making processes in outsourcing
• Developing business cases to justify external investments

Resources & Links:

Expert Services Directory: https://expertservicesdirectory.com/

Selling to Corporates: selltocorporates.com

Connect with Jessica Lorimer on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jesslorimer

This episode underscores the value of honest communication, strategic decision-making, and leveraging credible resources to optimise external supplier engagements.

Find out more about more about Anwen Bottois here: https://expertservicesdirectory.com/directory/anwen-bottois/

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/anwen-bottois-leadership-coach

Purple Sky Consulting Website: https://www.purpleskyconsulting.co.uk/

In this brilliant interview, Sean Spurgin, Learning Director at Elev-8 Performance joins Anwen Bottois, to share his journey into leadership development, the importance of team climate, and practical strategies for HR leaders to enhance organisational culture and performance.

The conversation highlights the distinction between culture (the personality of an organisation) and team climate (the day-to-day mood), emphasising that while culture is challenging to change, team climate can be more easily influenced by leaders.

The discussion also covers the significance of mindset, capability, and reducing friction in leadership roles, as well as the need for continuous performance conversations and psychological safety. The episode underscores the value of investing in leadership development to drive engagement and performance improvements.

Key Topics

• The role of team climate in organisational culture
• Practical leadership behaviours for immediate impact
• The importance of diagnosing capability gaps before training

Find Sean on LinkedIn here: linkedin.com/in/seanspurgin

The Book: Dropping the C-Bomb: Why Team Climate Crushes Culture: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dropping-C-Bomb-Climate-Crushes-Culture-ebook/dp/B0FN4JV2MZ

Find Elev-8 Performance here: https://elev-8.co.uk/

Find out more about more about Anwen Bottois here: https://expertservicesdirectory.com/directory/anwen-bottois/