My guest on this episode is Jess Gray who has recently joined a solicitors as part of their outsourced HR team. However, we cover off so many interesting aspects and situations within this episode.

Jess found her way into HR and Training after university and gained her Level 5 CIPD. It was always the plan to do some travelling though so she took a break in her fledgling HR career to go overseas and taught English in Thailand.

When she returned home she found it incredibly challenging to secure a new entry level HR job, despite having adequate experience and the qualification under her belt.

She then joined an organisation and experienced a reduction in the HR team, a change in leadership, investment and growth of the team once again. Jess explains what it was like working through this turbulence and how the priorities changed for the HR function at various stages.

Her next company was an Academy Trust which presented a whole new set of challenges. She was now operating in environments where there had barely been a HR presence before and Jess explains how her much of her work had an emphasis of building and nurturing relationships to get those building blocks in place for her to make an impact.

Very recently her career has taken another twist by moving into outsourced HR. Jess shares what it has been like adapting to this version of HR delivery but what she has found inredibly enjoyable about it too.

This is a highly fascinating conversation shedding light on some aspects of HR that many wouldn't be aware of. I hope you enjoy listening.

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We have a first for the podcast - it's the very first time that I've had two guests feature on one episode.

I'm joined by Gemma Ellison and Lisa LLoyd who are both returning guests from this series.

Since my recording with Gemma in October 2023, the pair have teamed up to create Leadership Labs which provide a truly unique approach to helping leaders tackle issues and drive change.

Both highly passionate about workplace culture they also recognised that the general formats for Leadership development simply didn't go far enough or were too generic. They knew that something better could be achieved.

What they have created are mechanisms for honesty, collaboration, and peer support and learning. At the same time, they are pushing the boundaries by encouraging leaders to tackle 'experiments' that are measured and assessed to help drive positive change in their businesses.

I absolutely love the concept and format they have come up with. Whilst not the traditional format for this podcast, it's still a compelling listen, especially for any HR folk tasked with supporting leadership development in their organisations or even HR leaders themselves.

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My guest this episode is Jane Ferre who is an expert in all things Talent Management.

Jane is such a fun and engaging individual who is prolific on LinkedIn so connect with her on there if you aren't already.

Like many she didn't know what she wanted to do after university but secured a job at Euro Disney in Paris soon after it opened resulting in her dancing in the parade as Lumiere from Beauty and the Beast and having the time of her life!

Eventually she moved to British Airways where she spent almost 20 years working in a range of roles within the HR department but it was Talent Management that she always enjoyed the most. After two redundancies in a short space of time she made the decision to go self-employed and help lots of different companies align their Talent Management strategies with the overall business goals to ensure they had the right people with the right capabilities to achieve those goals.

During the conversation we discuss the importance of building and maintaining your network. Jane effectively sums this up by saying you need to invest the time by developing your network so that it's there and in place for when you need it.

This was an incredibly enjoyable conversation and I'm sure you'll get as much pleasure from listening as I did recording it.

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