Tomorrow’s People: Bertie Tonks on reimagining HR

Recently recognised as the #1 Most Influential HR Practitioner in 2023, Bertie Tonks and our host Perry Timms dive into the future of HR, the importance of reimagining the profession and the significance of creating purpose-driven, high performing cultures.

They also discussed some of the challenges currently faced by leaders in a rapidly-changing business landscape, as well as the concept of hyper-personalisation of the employee experience and just how powerful feedback and courageous conversation can be at work.

During the episode, Perry and Bertie discussed how they both have been focusing on aspects of building cultures driven by purpose, especially in terms of getting executive leadership teams on board with the concept.

“Everyone has a view. The good thing about HR is everybody has a view about people and culture.”

The discussion evolved into how HR can be the first mover in creating significant changes in the workplace and how it can influence and drive value within organisations.

“I think we have to be the first movers on this if we're going to make significant step changes. And don't get me wrong, there's some incredible leaders out there, but I think certainly in relation to people and culture specifically, there's some fundamental shifts that underpin that we've got to take people on a journey,” Bertie explained. 

Additionally highlighted was the growing shift towards a more customer-centric HR approach, treating employees more like customers. Bertie emphasised the need to consider employee experiences and preferences and to adopt a more human-centric attitude.

In Bertie’s own words: "One of the things we're looking at at the moment is building personas like you would do with a customer. As you're building products, for example, around what are our people's personas and starting to think about things more, trying to again, boil things down to the smallest essence and create greater simplification as we aim to drive value."

"A rebirth of the HR profession. Let's go drastic, let's go mean. Let's look at what we do and let's reimagine the world of work." - Bertie Tonks

If you’re interested in learning more about the future of employee experience, tune in today to this episode of Tomorrow’s People. And stay tuned for the next episode in two week’s time!