Skip to main content

HR Strategy & Best Practices

This is the space for your topics around current HR strategies. What might an HR organization of the future look like?

  • 113 Topics
  • 323 Replies
113 Topics
Naturally Mindful
Busy Bee
Naturally MindfulBusy Bee
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Managing with kindness: what does it mean?

It’s summer and many of us will be dipping our toes in the joys of holiday adventures with friends and family. With the regeneration of rest and the loving attention of those who matter to us, we can rediscover parts of ourselves that communicate our values and beliefs, more easily accessing loving kindness and the joy of being alive, even the tricky bits.I’m choosing to give inequality, human suffering  and stress a wide birth this month, in favour of a topic that attracts little attention in management development training. Kindness and its relevance to management skill. Many would lump it in with all the other so-called SOFT SKILLS. A term that triggers fury in me when used to refer to interpersonal skills and communication. It seems to hold negative valence, along with nurturing, empathy and care. Is it coincidental that such characteristics are often unconsciously perceived as feminine? Let’s not go there right now, because I’d like to talk about your innate capacity for kindness

6711
Naturally Mindful
Busy Bee
Chris.Fii
Getting Started
Chris.FiiGetting Started
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
We Accidentally Built an AI That Can’t Be Biased — Now What?

Our lab was testing constrained LLM architectures when we realized something surprising: by redefining how the AI “thinks,” we could structurally prevent bias — not just detect it.So we googled and realized it could be useful to HR, and we had Claude AI make some fake JD’s and resumes that it said was loaded with biases and….it worked.Instead of filtering or training the AI, we have managed to erase demographic and proxy bias (names, schools, ZIP codes) at the cognitive level. It’s pretty cool. Testing shows near-100% blocking of known bias vectors, with full audit trails.We tried to make a demo video comparing the base model with one with this...firewall...we are calling it. It’s here, if you’re interested.But...now what? We’re not an HR company. We weren’t even really focusing on this. But it strips away all prestige/race/class/gender biases and evaluates strictly on merit, and that seems pretty importantIs this valuable to practitioners? Should we be talking to compliance teams, pro

5210
Moe
Community Admin
Moe
Community Admin
MoeCommunity Admin
published in HR Strategy & Best Practices
People Puzzlers - August 2025

Good morning, everyone!Another month, another edition of the People Puzzlers series! 🤩For August, I thought we could go with something I’ve actually heard from more than a few workplaces. As always, thank you all for contributing to this community and making it the safe space for knowledge-sharing that it is. It has been a pleasure to spend my working days getting to meet so many of you all and I cannot wait to meet more of you! 😄Now, on to this month’s People Puzzler!Benefits Confusion You’ve done some digging and found out that a very low number of employees are signing up for benefits such as subsidised gym membership, transportation subsidy, etc. Leadership is now wondering if spending the money on providing these benefits is even worth it. To add to this context:The company in this situation is facing financial pressures that mean they are actively looking for ways to save on operational costs. Your initial, informal chats with colleagues led to some people saying that everythin

304
SabbuSchreiber
Helping Hand
Naturally Mindful
Busy Bee
Naturally MindfulBusy Bee
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Maintaining a balanced perspective in a world of war and conflict

Why wouldn’t we feel scared, anxious and distracted when we open up our screen each day, given the world we’re living in? By expecting your people to side-line core common truths in favour of weekly targets will have its consequences. Namely, deteriorating mental health, translating in diminishing ability to work collaboratively and with an availability to creative joint endeavour. Not to mention the fuelling of inevitable misunderstandings and conflict in the team. We like to believe we are separate from others, and that work operates independently from the bigger truths.For once, I’d like to reflect on how our external truths (Gaza, Ukraine, Trump, welfare reform, NHS crises) impact on how we work, how we relate to each other and our mental health. We try our best to draw a line between the messy mush we can feel inside as we start a new working day, because we are paid to perform, to meet targets and to excel in our roles. Or to appear to excel at least. At the same time, there’s be

9814
SabbuSchreiber
Helping Hand
Moe
Community Admin
MoeCommunity Admin
published in HR Strategy & Best Practices
People Puzzlers - July 2025

Good morning and happy Monday everyone! 😄Since our first edition of the new People Puzzlers series sparked quite the conversation, I thought I’d go ahead and hit you with another one. 👀This time, let’s take our focus to managing employee communications. In my conversations with our lovely community members, this stands out as a key challenge. This is particularly the case when a company is going through a period of change. In light of that, here’s this month’s People Puzzler! Contracts and CommunicationsA new labour law has been added to the statute books. This law requires that overtime pay be limited to 3 hours per week. The employees at your company average 10 hours of overtime per week. Because of this new law, employee contracts have to be changed so that this limit on overtime hours is made clear and strictly adhered to. So, how do you go about communicating this to employees? How would you combat resistance to this change in contracts? Specifically, the resistance you have to

12313
Moe
Community Admin
H
Explorer
HannahPorteous-ButlerExplorer
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
September Struggles - And Why People Managers Need to Act Now! 

Every working parent is already thinking about September - even before the summer holidays have even begun.That back-to-school prep starts way before term begins….They’re thinking about: Uniforms to buy (again) Shoes that don’t fit (again) School forms Wraparound care Drop offs & Pick Ups Emotional transitions The mental load is relentless. And for parents, it’s not just a few admin tasks -  it’s a full-on project management operation, layered on top of work.And yes, it will seep into work - how can it not? As a self-employed working parent I can flex, adjust, and plan around what’s coming. Most employees don’t have that luxury.  They’re working within systems that weren’t built for this kind of invisible load, let alone designed to support it. What does this mean for employers? Working parents are already carrying a heavy cognitive load that’s invisible, relentless, and largely unspoken. And while most don’t expect their employer to fix the juggle, the support you offer in moments

195
andra.enache
Busy Bee
brittbosma
Follower
brittbosmaFollower
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Question about flexible public (bank) holidays

Dear Community,We’re currently exploring the possibility of offering employees the flexibility to swap a few public (bank) holidays throughout the year. Some public holidays are religious in nature, and some employees may prefer to take a day off for occasions such as Eid al-Fitr or Keti Koti instead of, for example, Pentecost.  We already foresee a bit of an administrative hassle for this, so we are wondering if there are companies that have this benefit and can tell me how you approach this? Thanks in advance for your advice! 

1267
M
Getting Started
Moe
Community Admin
MoeCommunity Admin
published in HR Strategy & Best Practices
London Lunch & Connect Recap + a chance for you to host our next one!

Happy Monday, everyone! ☀️I wanted to stop by and quickly recap a fantastic Lunch & Connect meetup in the Personio London office. Hosted by the wonderful ​@andra.enache, we were all treated to a conversation that was equal parts cathartic and refreshing. As a reminder, the theme of the discussion last week was on building resilience and how People professionals can build up their own reserves. In your professional lives, you’re all frequently tasked with helping other employees in this regard. However, it’s not often that HR pros get to thin about themselves and how they’re dealing with, well, everything!We had an absolute blast listening to each other’s stories and connecting. Thank you to ​@Blue, ​​​@Kim Stringer, and all of our other guests for making it a great day. We can’t wait to host another one of these gatherings in the Personio office! Speaking of which, are you interested in hosting your own Lunch & Connect meetup in our lovely Covent Garden office? Food and refresh

343
andra.enache
Busy Bee
Moe
Community Admin
MoeCommunity Admin
published in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Discussions about AI + an HR summit = a day to remember in Cambridge! ☀️🤩

Hello everyone!I’m here to give you a rundown of an incredible Thursday in sunny, warm Cambridge. After a morning commute from London that was suspiciously stress-free, I settled into a Lunch & Connect gathering that felt like we needed more than our scheduled 2 hours!Our host, James (​@JHBEM) put together another fantastic gathering yesterday, setting us up for a fascinating dialogue. Speaking of which, a huge thank you to Jo Stansfield who facilitated and sparked a wonderful, introspective conversation Jo talks us through prompts that sparked a lively conversation!AI, as you all know by now, is among the hottest topics in so many industries. HR is no different. I have to confess, I’m something of an optimist when it comes to the potential of this technology. I showed as much when I referenced its potential to eliminate repetitive, mundane tasks and help HR pros focus more on creative and/ or strategy work.Oxana and David (​@Naturally Mindful) challenged this notion, asking about

565
Moe
Community Admin
andra.enache
Busy Bee
andra.enacheBusy Bee
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
💌Get ready for our Lunch & Connect! 🗓️ June 26th, 2025 

Hello HR leaders!How are you? No, really - how are you? 🤗Next Thursday, we’ll spend two hours together with the hope of truly connecting and creating a space where you can share your experiences, feel inspired, and simply… just be.As HR leaders, we’re so often focused on supporting others that we sometimes forget: we’re human too. Carrying the stress and responsibility of our organisations comes at a cost - emotionally, mentally, even physically. So, how do we take care of ourselves as well?The reality is that today, change is the only constant. We live in an unpredictable world - economically, politically, socially - which can shift the direction of our organisations and priorities overnight. How do we build resilience in ourselves and our teams to navigate this collective uncertainty? Whether it’s missing goals, managing layoffs, or handling the thousand small things that come our way daily, the pressure is real.I believe it starts by creating a sense of psychological safety. People

301
Moe
Community Admin
damayantichowdhury09
Explorer
damayantichowdhury09Explorer
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
AI - Friend not Foe?

As a writer, I’ve always held a certain bias against generative AI tools and often refused to use them for my work whether it be within academic writing, content writing or creative writing. Then a few friends, colleagues and even family members of mine pointed out that AI can be used for more than just paraphrasing, copy-pasting and most importantly, as a substitute for our jobs! This got me thinking more on the subject and after doing some research I was pleasantly surprised by the impact that AI has had with its myriad of functions. Turns out instead of using it as a shortcut, “commanding” it to provide us with information and finish work, it can be used as a useful tool to engage in smart work. In fact, I’ve heard many people call AI their omnipresent colleague. Don’t get me wrong, I am not here to promote AI. Quite the opposite actually. As I have recently discovered, to the best of my knowledge AI is in fact not out to get our jobs but can be used as a “friend” rather than a comp

13210
Moe
Community Admin
Moe
Community Admin
MoeCommunity Admin
published in HR Strategy & Best Practices
People Puzzlers: What would you do in this workplace situation?

Hello and happy Monday, everyone! 😄I want to introduce you to a new content format that I will be posting in the community once per month.Introducing...People Puzzlers!For all you dazzling, talented, problem-solving People professionals out there, this series is all about tackling complex situations at work. Each month, I’ll share a hypothetical scenario with you. Some of them may even be inspired by real life scenarios (with permission, of course)! All you need to do is leave a comment and respond with how you’d approach this situation. After that, sit back, relax, and see how your fellow community members solve it. 👀Shout out to ​@nina.johansson for coming up with this awesome idea while we were chatting recently! 🤩This community is loaded with experience and know-how. I’m looking forward to seeing some of that applied to these sticky situations! Right, now that we got that out of the way, here’s this month’s People Puzzler and it’s all about Performance!Sack or Support? 🤔 An emp

16415
Moe
Community Admin
Naturally Mindful
Busy Bee
Naturally MindfulBusy Bee
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
LGBT Allyship: fostering harmony and empathy

Who we are and how we work are one and the same. At least, this is true when equity and authenticity are explicit in the values  and practices of the workplace. And when I say values, I’m alluding to something more than mission statements, written policies and statutory staff training modules. The truth I’m more familiar with has been the need to mask who I am in order to comply with the social norms of the workplace thereby putting a lot of energy into avoiding encountering ignorance and discrimination at best, bullying and abuse at worst. At the same time, I have benefitted from several privileges within the same social constructs. Opportunities have come to me as a white able-bodied man educated for free during a brief political climate of social justice, new equality legislation and social policy. I continue to feel very grateful to my forebears who put their heads above the parapet to speak up for what is good and right, risking loss of personal safety, job security and the suppor

1029
Angela S
Personio Employee
Moe
Community Admin
MoeCommunity Admin
published in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Share your 'HR instinct' story and inspire your peers! You'll be featured in a Personio audio series!

Hello, everyone!We know HR professionals have this incredible emotional intelligence and a sharp gut instinct — it’s what helps you read rooms, spot issues, and make those tough calls when the data isn’t there. But instinct alone has its limits. Knowing something’s wrong isn’t the same as knowing why, and guessing isn’t the same as seeing what’s next.That’s why we want to hear your stories about balancing gut instinct with data-driven insights. As part of our marketing campaign "Turn Think Into Know," we’re creating a short audio series made up of 1-minute voice clips (kind of like listening to a podcast or voice note, so no video) that explore those pivotal moments when HR leaders had to navigate the tension between intuition and hard evidence. We’d love for you to take part! Respond to this thread with your story or reach out directly to join us for a relaxed 20-minute chat to share a time in your career when:Your instinct flagged something important, but you lacked the data to back

1186
andra.enache
Busy Bee
H
Explorer
HannahPorteous-ButlerExplorer
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Turning Good Intentions Into Impact: The Case for Data-Led Parental Support

So, in a recent workshop I ran on parental support in the workplace, I asked three questions:Do you have a parental leave policy?    ……..Every hand went up. Do you have a strategy to support returners?……..A couple of hands stayed raised. Do you track what happens after leave — retention, progression, employee experience?…..Not a single hand left.It’s a pattern I see again and again because people assume a policy equals support. BUT, unless you’re measuring well it’s working, it’s just good intentions …isn’t it?Data is what turns those good intentions into real, meaningful change. I believe that without it, we can’t see what’s working, what’s performative, or where the challenges are….Last week I went to a Personio event on “From Numbers to Narratives” (not an ad -  it was genuinely excellent), and one line stuck with me:“Instinct is just another data point. Don’t let it lead the whole story.”Too many organisations rely on ‘vibes’. If no one’s loudly complaining, they assume the support

924
SabbuSchreiber
Helping Hand
brittbosma
Follower
brittbosmaFollower
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Addendum/or new contract for new role

Hi Community, Currently we have an employee that might change to a Team Lead role. This person has a permanent contract and we are wondering if we can offer this employee something like an addendum or new contract to make sure we have a bit of a probation/trial period.How do you usually do this in your company?

667
brittbosma
Follower
H
Explorer
HannahPorteous-ButlerExplorer
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Why a thoughtful re-induction plan matters for Parental Returners - or does it?

At a recent workplace wellbeing event, I had some brilliant conversations with HR leaders about parental support. I was encouraged to see just how many people wanted to better support their working parents and returners. But....I wasn’t surprised to hear how many felt unsure about the how.From all the companies i spoke to I saw that the intention was there but the action plan wasn’t. So I thought I’d help with a few learnings and insights from my work, but I’d be keen to hear if you agree/disagree:A common misconception I see is that treating returners “just like everyone else” will help them feel included. It sounds supportive but in fact it misses the mark: We don’t want them to 'slot back in like nothings' changed ' - because it has. Parenthood shifts your priorities, perspectives, and your sense of self - but it also sharpens key skills: resilience, emotional intelligence, time management, strategic thinking (I could go on… and I often do!).In fact, it makes you even more skilled a

857
K
Explorer
Naturally Mindful
Busy Bee
Naturally MindfulBusy Bee
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
What's mental wellbeing got to do with it?

Why should employers take responsibility for the health and wellbeing of their employees? The law aside, which isn’t clear enough or enforced often enough, in my opinion, to what degree should an employer invest in promoting health and mental wellbeing in the workplace?I ask this, not as an academic, but because I can tire of the tick-boxing I witness when asked to deliver a mindfulness taster for a workforce, who need a lot more than 2 hours of meditation. I ask this, because it is too easy to skim over the centrality of a person’s mental health in their reason for being, which by the way, is not to be productive...rather to be sentient, engaged, creative. When we exercise these human needs and skills, the fruits of our creativity can lead to innovation, excellence and profitability. Oh, and I forgot, to happiness. Many businesses cover their base by ensuring a minimum number of mental first aiders, who, as a result of the training, possess a rudimentary knowledge of mental health dia

10411
damayantichowdhury09
Explorer
Moe
Community Admin
MoeCommunity Admin
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Community Question: What did you do before HR? 🤔

One of the things I am very interested in learning about is how people got into HR. We’ve had some lovely stories from some of our community members, like Zoe and Nina. I’m curious about everyone else here as well! Have you always wanted to work in HR? Or, perhaps, was there some other field, some other line of work you were in?What were you doing before making the leap to HR? And how did you get here? Can’t wait to read your stories! 

10219
damayantichowdhury09
Explorer
Moe
Community Admin
MoeCommunity Admin
published in HR Strategy & Best Practices
📣 Announcing the Community Book Club! 📖

Happy Wednesday, everyone! So, I’ve had a few discussions with folks in the community about potentially starting a small book club. This would focus on books that are either directly related to HR or the world of work more generally (mindset, deep work, leadership topics, team-building, etc).Now, I’d like to try this out with you all. Consider this the announcement for the first Voyager Community Book Club! 🤩We’ll meet online via video call and discuss one book each quarter.Now, let’s start with an important question via the poll below. Big shoutout to ​@HRJoy , ​@andra.enache , ​@Kim Stringer , ​@SabbuSchreiber , and ​@SalC for the inspiration!  🚨 UPDATE: 🚨 Polling is now closed and the winner is Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Dan Pink! Stay tuned for details about when our book club call will be scheduled! 

1295
Moe
Community Admin
brittbosma
Follower
brittbosmaFollower
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Managing partial sick Leave payments during reintegration

Hi Community,At the company I work for, we have a policy stating that employees in their second year of sick leave who are reintegrating receive 100% pay for the hours they actually work. For the non-worked hours, they receive 70% pay.There’s currently no way to track this in Personio, which makes the administrative correction quite a hassle for us in HR—especially since the number of worked hours fluctuates during reintegration, for example when employees gradually build up their hours.Do you have any best practices for how to manage or administer this effectively? Thanks! 

432
LegoMD
Communicator
K
Follower
Kim StringerFollower
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Lunch and Connect - Proactive Performance management

I’m excited to finding out what others are doing about Proactive Performance management and sharing and learning.  Calibrations, Habits, Rewards, Career development in flat structures, 9 box grids, Skills based frameworks for development, Effective feedback- 2 ways, talent management. Motivations and Expectations. Have you seen Conscious unbossing?  ,  Founders mode rather v Managers mode? Looking forward to connecting and exchanging ideas over lunch.

593
K
Follower
Naturally Mindful
Busy Bee
Naturally MindfulBusy Bee
posted in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Mindfulness training: survival skills

Why consider mindfulness training to build resilience in teams?I read recently that the Indian military had introduced mindfulness training to train minds to manage extreme emotional distress, strengthen mental acuity and prepare their workforce for the journey ahead. This reminded me that my training programmes go way beyond the alleviation of workplace stress, and that mind training, when delivered by an expert, with experience in organisational learning and development and meditation pedagogy, has the potential to turn individuals, teams and businesses around in they deal with pressure, conflict, trauma and loss.Mindfulness training is as much about how we interact with each other as it is about how we deal with stress. It elicidates how our core values and beliefs drive the decisions we make and how we behave with our colleagues. Interwoven in the meditation skills development is an introduction to the neuroscience of how mind works and how we have the potential to overcome life-lo

9512
Naturally Mindful
Busy Bee
S
Getting Started
sibilareev2024Getting Started
asked in HR Strategy & Best Practices
Automatic screening legal basis

Hi, Does anybody know if we can legally use automatic screening & rejections (e.g. based on location, phone number) in EU (specifically  Germany) or can that be considered discrimination?Thank you in advance,Best regards,

1092
Moe
Community Admin
Moe
Community Admin
MoeCommunity Admin
published in HR Strategy & Best Practices
HR's Brain Drain Problem in the UK: What can be done?

Hello, everyone!So, I’m a fan of kicking every year off with some optimism. However, the HR industry, as always, is facing some headwinds that need to be addressed. One example is the amount of burnout-driven resignations that are about to happen in 2025. Here at Personio, my colleagues have been doing some research on the HR profession in the UK. What they’ve found is sobering, including 41% of those surveyed saying they spend the majority of their time on unnecessary admin. This has led to over half of surveyed professionals reporting burnout and over a third planning on leaving the industry altogether this year.With this in mind, I’m curious what our community thinks might be the way forward. Here are some questions to consider:How would you address this problematic trend?  Is the focus on unnecessary admin a tech issue or an organisational culture issue? Or something else entirely? Have you faced these issues of overwhelm in the past? How have you dealt with them?

704
Moe
Community Admin
Terms & Conditions of the Personio Voyager Community