Reflections on How HR Leaders Change the World: Sustainability, Strategy, and Inspiration

How HR Leaders Change the World – Live, it was my first time at this event, and it was a real honour for HEX to be one of the headline partners. HEX is a small business, and this was the first time we’ve acted as a sponsor. I’m pleased to say we invested well! Cecilia Crossley and the From Babies With Love team are just amazing; they use their incredible network of HR leaders to lift up the need for businesses to promote sustainability through their people.

Tom Emery From HEX, Nick Harding from Canada Life, Natalia Wallenberg from Ahold Delhaize, and Usha Kakaria-Cayaux from ofi.

We had a great intro from Cecilia and the first segment, an enlightening presentation by Kerri O’Neill from Ipsos, showed the real value of focusing on sustainability for organisations. It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s what our stakeholders – particularly our people – are demanding. Particularly resonant was the data that Kerrie shared that highlighted the value of taking the conversation about sustainability down to a team level. In my work, I observe the value of taking several conversations to the team rather than relying on the ‘centre’. I think about inclusion; organisations can talk about inclusion as much as they want, if leaders don’t buy in, take action, and talk about it in their teams, it won’t happen.

I was privileged to host a panel discussion with some fantastic people – Nick Harding from Canada Life, Natalia Wallenberg from Ahold Delhaize, and Usha Kakaria-Cayaux from ofi. We talked about the challenges of bringing sustainability into the people strategy. I thought about this when writing my book, People People: reach your full potential as a CHRO, and recognised that this is often not a priority for HR leaders. Listening to the examples from their organisations, the panel members showed that sustainability can overlay every part of a people strategy. This is whether the organisation is a food-related businesses like Ahold Delhaize and ofi (which have an obvious link to sustainability) or financial services like Canada Life, where it is not so obvious. It was an honour to host the panel, and I thank the panellists for their brilliance!

The next session had the title of ‘Pressures & Paradoxes in Change: Hybrid, AI, and the Exponential Rate of Change’. Broad topics, but wow, host Ben Harris from Visier and panellists Claire Ainscough from Ocado, Orlagh Hunt from One Savings Bank, and Philippa O’Connor from PwC managed to cover a huge amount of ground. So many highlights, but I particularly enjoyed the discussion about a topic so many businesses are grappling with – hybrid working. All the panellists had great stories and made the links with the challenges of broader change. They certainly confirmed my thinking that there are so many options with hybrid working that all have trade-offs, and whatever organisations do, they should do it with purpose and intention.

After lunch, we were treated to a great session on how HR leaders can use the UN sustainable development goals to direct their work on sustainability. In my group, we discussed goal 11 – sustainable cities and communities. My biggest takeaway was the need for organisations to talk to their local communities wherever they base themselves and use their knowledge and insight instead of pushing an approach which may well not suit the location or local people.

Although sadly I couldn’t stay for the final two sessions, I heard so many great things about Richard E. Grant’s segment. He advised us all to find ‘a pocketful of sunshine every day’. I’m taking that on board!

If you didn’t make the event this year watch out for next year’s. It was a terrific day.