HR Leaders

Chris Rainey
  • 4.7 (63)
  • Management
  • Updated Daily

Join host Chris Rainey on the HR Leaders Podcast, where he sits down with top Chief People Officers, CHROs, and leading HR experts to uncover the strategies, trends, and insights shaping the future of human resources. Each episode dives into best practices in people management, leadership challenges, and transformative HR innovations that impact both business success and society at large. Whether you're an HR professional or simply passionate about modern workplace strategies, this podcast delivers expert advice, real-world experiences, and the latest trends in HR, making it your go-to resource for all things human resources.

  1. 3d ago

    5 Ways to Build a Workplace People Don’t Want to Leave

    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 experienceThe unconventional hiring approach UWM uses to identify attitude, curiosity and work ethicWhy Laura believes monthly employee-led conversations can be more valuable than the traditional annual reviewHow UWM approaches internal mobility and career coaching to retain people even when their first role is not the right fitWhy 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.

  2. 5d ago

    How to Move From AI Pilots to Real Business Impact

    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 expectedThe change in approach that helped Inetum move from scattered experimentation to end-to-end AI transformationHow one workforce process went from taking weeks to producing results in minutesWhy Bruno believes the most powerful AI workflows still need carefully chosen human interventionThe 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.

  3. Sep 28

    How to Shape Workplace Culture in 2027

    How Endeavor Health Is Building One Culture Across Four Health Systems In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I sit down with Dianna Sparacino, MBA, SPHR, Chief People Officer at Endeavor Health , to explore how the organisation is bringing multiple healthcare institutions together as one system while continuing to protect what matters most to its people, patients and communities. For HR leaders, the conversation raises a bigger question about the connection between employee experience and patient experience. From supporting frontline caregivers to experimenting with AI, knowledge transfer and new approaches to leadership development, Dianna shares what Endeavor is learning as it continues building one organisation from several distinct histories. 5 things you’ll learn from this episode: The difficult balance Endeavor had to navigate when bringing four healthcare organisations into one systemWhy frontline leaders may be the difference between employees understanding a transformation and simply experiencing more changeWhat prompted Endeavor to move from allowing culture to evolve naturally to shaping it much more intentionallyHow the organisation is thinking about the relationship between employee experience and the quality of patient careWhere AI, simulation and new technology could help solve some of healthcare's toughest time, knowledge and capability challenges 🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Leapsome The companies pulling furthest ahead are already rewriting how HR works. Explore 5,000+ data points from 100 leading tech companies and learn what their 2027 playbook looks like → https://hubs.li/Q04wvZ7g0 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

  4. Sep 23

    How to Build an Employee Listening Strategy

    Employee listening only matters if people can see what changed because they spoke up. In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I sit down with Amy Schultz of DTE Energy to explore how employee listening can become a real operating system for culture and business performance. For HR leaders, the bigger challenge is not collecting more employee data. It is building the leadership accountability, feedback loops and operating rhythms that turn sentiment into visible change. As organisations navigate AI, transformation and increasing uncertainty, Amy shares why culture has to become part of how the business operates, not something HR manages alongside it. 5 things you’ll learn from this episode: What DTE discovered when employees started signalling that their opinions were not being heard as strongly as beforeThe mechanism that helped move engagement from an HR-owned process to an executive leadership priorityHow DTE goes beyond survey scores to uncover what is really sitting underneath employee sentimentWhy closing the feedback loop can matter just as much as taking action on the feedback itselfHow changing technology and AI are influencing the capabilities DTE may prioritise differently in future talent decisions 🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Leapsome The companies pulling furthest ahead are already rewriting how HR works. Explore 5,000+ data points from 100 leading tech companies and learn what their 2027 playbook looks like → https://hubs.li/Q04wvZ7g0 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

  5. Sep 21

    5 Hidden Burnout Risks for High Achievers

    What if burnout is not only about how much you work, but what you believe success requires from you? In this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I sit down with Nabeela Elsayed, MS, ACC, author of Breaking Burnout, to explore why high achievers can become exhausted even when they love their work, have supportive leaders and are succeeding on paper. Her research challenges the idea that burnout can always be explained by a toxic workplace or an individual who simply needs better boundaries. For HR leaders, the conversation raises a bigger question about how we think about wellbeing at work. Burnout sits inside a wider system of work, relationships, caregiving, identity, expectations and personal beliefs, which means sustainable performance may require organisations and individuals to rethink far more than workload alone. 5 things you’ll learn from this episode: Why some of the highest-performing people can also be the most vulnerable to burnoutThe success belief Nabeela believes can keep people working harder long after hard work stops helpingWhy having a strong sense of purpose can sometimes create an unexpected burnout riskWhat Nabeela learned from sports scientists about performing at a high level without constantly operating at maximum intensityThe identity shift that can help ambitious people build a healthier relationship with work without giving up ambition 🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Leapsome The companies pulling furthest ahead are already rewriting how HR works. Explore 5,000+ data points from 100 leading tech companies and learn what their 2027 playbook looks like → https://hubs.li/Q04wvZ7g0 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

  6. Sep 16

    How EY Is Upskilling 400,000 People for the Age of AI

    The fastest way to learn AI may be to stop learning about it and start building with it. In the most recent HR Leaders Podcast episode, I had an inspiring conversation with Simon Brown Global Learning & Development Leader, Partner, Talent at EY. He explains why organisations need to move beyond simply teaching people what AI is and create learning experiences that help employees build confidence by using AI in the context of their actual work. By combining protected learning time, hands-on agent building, responsible AI principles and a stronger focus on human judgement, EY is exploring what it takes to build AI capability at scale while keeping learning relevant as the technology continues to evolve. 5 things you’ll learn from this episode: How EY is moving employees from learning about AI to actually building with itThe capability Simon believes people need before they can delegate meaningful work to AI agentsWhy making AI learning part of everyday work can change how quickly new skills are adoptedThe reason stronger AI tools may actually make human expertise and judgement more valuableHow learning leaders may need to redesign their approach when AI capabilities change faster than traditional training cycles 🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Leapsome The companies pulling furthest ahead are already rewriting how HR works. Explore 5,000+ data points from 100 leading tech companies and learn what their 2027 playbook looks like → https://hubs.li/Q04wvZ7g0 See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

  7. Sep 14

    Why the Best Executives Won’t Stay in One Function

    What if the future of executive leadership is less about specialisation and more about range? For years, senior leaders have been encouraged to go deeper into a single function. But in this episode of the HR Leaders Podcast, I sit down with Joshua Horenstein, Senior Vice President, Administrative Office & Corporate Secretary at Innophos, to explore a different model: the dual executive. Joshua started his career as a lawyer before moving into a broader cross-functional leadership role spanning legal, HR, facilities, regulatory and other operational responsibilities. He argues that this breadth has made him a stronger executive because it forces leaders to understand the business beyond their original area of expertise. And as AI makes specialist knowledge easier to access, that ability to operate across functions may become even more valuable. 5 things you’ll learn from this episode: Why Joshua believes the traditional single-function executive model may be starting to break down, and what could replace itThe career move that took Joshua from law into HR and broader business leadership, and what it taught him about stepping outside your expertiseWhy AI could make it easier for executives to lead functions they were never formally trained in, and what still cannot be outsourced to technologyThe three leadership qualities Joshua believes will become far more important as AI changes how executives workHow taking responsibility for multiple functions can actually strengthen succession planning rather than create a leadership risk 🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Leapsome Meet Leapsome: The AI-powered HR platform that raises your talent density. By unifying core HRIS, ATS, performance reviews, and learning into a single platform, Leapsome turns deep people data into measurable employee growth. 🚀 See Leapsome in action → https://hubs.li/Q04vQ-KT0 ⭐ Trusted by 2,000+ global innovators including Spotify, Notion, Mercedes-Benz, and Bolt. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

  8. Sep 9

    How to Become the HR Leader CEOs Actually Listen To

    The CHRO’s real test isn’t getting a seat at the table, it’s whether the CEO would make the decision without them. In this special episode, Lewis Brown, Jr. - MA and Josh Klein of From Here Collective join Rich Jennings, Executive Advisor to Comcast, to explore what it means for the CHRO to become the CEO’s trusted consigliere. Using The Godfather as an intentionally provocative analogy, they unpack the skills, behaviours and experiences that make an HR leader genuinely valuable at the highest level. From business fluency and fearlessness to asking better questions, building trust across the organisation and knowing how to influence decisions without needing to dominate the room, the conversation challenges the traditional boundaries of the CHRO role. For HR leaders, the biggest question is not whether you have a seat at the table. It is whether you are inside the decision-making circle before the decision is made. The episode offers a practical way to assess whether HR is operating as a functional expert, a business partner, or the strategic adviser the CEO cannot afford to make decisions without. 5 things you’ll learn from this episode: The surprising reason CHROs may have more strategic access than almost any other executive, but still struggle to turn it into influenceThe characteristics that can move an HR leader from trusted functional expert to indispensable strategic adviserWhy the strongest CHROs are increasingly expected to understand far more than HR, and what that changes about the roleThe tension HR leaders must learn to hold when the CEO, the workforce and the wider business do not all want the same thingThe question that can reveal whether you are truly inside the CEO’s decision-making circle, or simply being informed after the fact 🙏 Thank you to our series partner, Leapsome Meet Leapsome: The AI-powered HR platform that raises your talent density. By unifying core HRIS, ATS, performance reviews, and learning into a single platform, Leapsome turns deep people data into measurable employee growth. 🚀 See Leapsome in action → https://hubs.li/Q04vQ-KT0 ⭐ Trusted by 2,000+ global innovators including Spotify, Notion, Mercedes-Benz, and Bolt See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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4.7
out of 5
63 Ratings

About

Join host Chris Rainey on the HR Leaders Podcast, where he sits down with top Chief People Officers, CHROs, and leading HR experts to uncover the strategies, trends, and insights shaping the future of human resources. Each episode dives into best practices in people management, leadership challenges, and transformative HR innovations that impact both business success and society at large. Whether you're an HR professional or simply passionate about modern workplace strategies, this podcast delivers expert advice, real-world experiences, and the latest trends in HR, making it your go-to resource for all things human resources.

Information

  • Creator
    Chris Rainey
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    879
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    HR Leaders

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