I sat down with Lianne Baker, Head of People and Culture at Enfuse Group, and this conversation stayed with me long after we stopped recording.

In this episode we talk about:

-Growing Enfuse from 15 people to 75, and building the people function from scratch
-Flexible working that actually works, not just a policy on a page
-Taking delicate, human subjects and turning them into workplaces where people feel safe, seen and heard
-Leading Enfuse to B Corp certification
-Disrupting the negative connotations around HR and what it really means to be human at work

-The leadership offsite story that genuinely made me smile
-And yes... Be More Susy. If you know, you know 🧡

Perry Timms has spent over thirty years at the forefront of HR thinking, not as a commentator, but as a practitioner, builder, and relentless advocate for what the people profession could become if it was brave enough to evolve.

In this episode Elly sits down with the founder of PTHR, TEDx speaker, and the UK's most consistently influential HR thinker to talk about the HR operating model he has built, the polymorphic organisation, his toughest year on record, how HR earns its seat at the table, and why the future of work is deeply, stubbornly human.

I'm joined by Tyler Rose, Chief Gupshup Officer at Dishoom, and yes, we absolutely make him explain what that means 😉.

Dishoom has 2,099 people across some of the busiest restaurants in the UK, three new sites opening this year, and the lowest employee turnover in their 15-year history. In hospitality. Where the industry average sits north of 70%.

We get into the romance and meaning behind everything Dishoom does, internal comms pulled off completely differently - newspapers, apps, competitions, celebrations - hiring for personality as much as skill, the employee journey from the Welcome Walla onwards, the Family Mela, surviving Covid, and why Tyler has stayed for 10 years.

Whatever industry you work in, if you lead people, this one's for you.

I'm joined by Sam Valentine, Head of Employee Performance & Experience at Miro, whose career has been shaped by some of the most fascinating challenges in modern people leadership:🚀 Miro - scaling culture, performance and experience across 1,700+ employees🤖 Deep in AI transformation - building real in-house AI capability for the people team🏆 Navigating huge growth, restructuring, and organisational change all at once🌱 A genuine believer that we can de-pain work...and making it happenSam is one of those people leaders who finds the pace of change energising rather than exhausting, because he sees it as a constant opportunity to make work better for people.We got into AI fluency and what it actually looks like to embed it into a people function, his coaching philosophy for developing managers (sports team, not corporate hierarchy), the Miro manager framework: coach, communicate and drive, and how to build employee listening that people genuinely trust and engage with.

How do you assess, monitor and build a culture that actually lasts?

And more importantly, how do you prove investment in people to a CFO?

I’m joined by Nebel Crowhurst, whose career spans Virgin Atlantic Holidays, River Island, Roche (100k employees, during Covid), and leading the People function at Reward Gateway through its $1.3bn acquisition.

She’s seen culture at scale. Under pressure. Through hyper-growth. And through to the UK’s first HR Tech unicorn.

We get into the real relationship between CFO and CPO, and why HR leaders must speak commercial language to earn (and keep) their seat at the table.

What does a five-star culture actually feel like? And how do you build one when work is hard, budgets are tight, and everyone’s navigating a very real economic squeeze?

In the first ever episode of Meeting with HR, Elly sits down with Kirsten Lord to unpack what global organisations can learn from luxury hospitality, high-performance teams, and people-first leadership.

Kirsten shares practical insights on:

• Creating cultures where people genuinely feel seen and valued
• Why the employee experience should be treated like customer experience
• Gen Z expectations at work, and balancing change whilst respecting the company heritage

This is a conversation for anyone responsible for people, culture or teams, especially if you want ideas you can actually take back to work on Monday.

It’s thoughtful, honest, funny, and reassuring if you’re figuring things out as you go (spoiler: most of us are).