The Changing World of Work group regularly contributes to the School of Management’s busy calendar of online and in-person events.
HR Speaker Series
Let's face it, nothing is more important than people in your business! This is the perfect opportunity to hear HR/People Management from thought global HR leaders across a range of sectors.
This HR Speaker Series will give you a variety of knowledge, insights, and professional experiences in understanding HR/People Management in the current changing world of work. You will also be given the opportunity to interact with these speakers and ask questions, allowing you to explore further the HR/People Management issues you are interested in or facing.
This HR Speaker Series is primarily designed for our Management and Human Resource Management MSc students but we also welcome everyone in the wider Cranfield Community to join. The events are entirely free of charge.
Upcoming events
Please check back for future events.
Previous events
Co-constructing Self-inclusion into Leadership
Wednesday 10 May 2023
Amina will share insights on the importance of and how to leverage highly qualified and highly skilled migrant leadership in today's complex organisational cultures. Attendees will learn about journeys, co-positioning, trajectories, and the model for shared success.
Speaker: Amina Chitembo
As an activist academic researcher and practitioner, Amina’s career revolves around leadership, transformation, and retention of underrepresented people (highly skilled migrants) across sectors. She is a public sector leader, and a lecturer, leading modules within human resources management, leadership, and organisational studies. Amina is passionate about strategically bridging gaps between marginalised communities and mainstream organisations.
HR and the Business in a Changing World
Wednesday 3 May 2023
Romina will provide insights into the post-Covid impact on the people function, current trends and encourage an interactive session that will attempt to address your specific questions whilst providing you with some practical tools that you can apply in your current or future role.
Speaker: Romina Dawson-Hall
Romina is a Group HR Director with over twenty years’ experience within the financial services sector, working for international organisations in the UK, US and Switzerland. She has spent many years steering organisations through complex people-driven change and transformation, and transforming HR functions into high-capability centres of expertise. She currently works for an international portfolio company in London.
Neurodiversity at work
Monday 13 March 2023
Many organisations are starting to realise that with 15-20% of the population potentially having neurodivergent capabilities, that it is essential they learn more about how to better recruit and then retain this uniquely talented group of candidates and employees.
Speaker: Dr Ian Iceton
Ian was a HR Director for over twenty years at four world class organisations in the UK and Europe. He spent many years promoting all aspects of Diversity. More recently he has completed his DBA (Doctorate) at Cranfield University looking specifically at the challenges for organisations in recruiting and retaining autistic talent. He now speaks and consults for many organisations on the topic of Neurodiversity.
Organisational justice and its relevance for HRM
Wednesday 1 February 2023
The term ‘organisational justice’ refers to people’s perceptions of fairness in their employment relationship. These perceptions may influence employees’ attitudes and behaviour which, in turn, may impact their performance and organisational success.
In this session, Kim will explore the four dimensions of organisational justice, their relevance for HRM, especially talent management, and address the question, “What makes HR policies fair as perceived by employees?”.
Speaker: Dr Kim Lafferty
Kim’s key capabilities are in learning, leadership and organisation development. Her most recent role was Vice President People Effectiveness for GlaxoSmithKline where she was responsible for the learning and development curriculum for 100,000 employees in over 100 countries.
Kim has experience of working with leaders and employees at all levels, including the Board and Executive Committee, and she has won numerous prestigious awards for her work.
Using employee recognition as a strategic business tool
Monday 5 December 2022
Employee recognition is one of the most powerful tools an organisation has to motivate, engage and drive the performance of their workforce. However, with 7 out of 10 employees saying they don’t feel recognized, and 8 out of 10 citing lack of appreciation as their reason for quitting, clearly something isn’t working! In this session, Debra will share research, tips, and stories from her latest book to help you understand the obstacles and traditional practices preventing organisations from delivering effective recognition programmes that deliver that ‘appreciation feeling.’
Speaker: Debra Corey
Debra is a highly experienced and award-winning HR leader, consultant, world-class speaker, and five-time best-selling author who has been named one of the top 101 Global Employee Engagement Influencers and HR Most Influential Thinkers.
After 20+ years working for global companies such as Gap Inc, Merlin Entertainments and Reward Gateway, she now inspires and ‘pays it forward’ by helping others develop and deliver HR strategies in a rebellious way, pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo to truly drive employee engagement.
Utilising digital platforms and talent insights to tackle the ‘Great Resignation’
Thursday 27 October 2022
Globally, there is a ‘Great Resignation’ – why is this? We are not sufficiently utilising digital platforms and talent insights to identify how to develop employee capabilities and transform careers as a key retention strategy. Naomi will present how she and Infogrid are working with data scientists to address this ‘digital divide'.
Speaker: Naomi Lannon
For over a decade, Naomi has been championing the future of HR in global companies, from Worldpay/FIS to Infogrid. She started as an HR Assistant, quickly developing into Senior Business Partner and HR Director, navigating through the transformation of HR from traditional operational practices to digitalisation, and coaching founders on the importance of data-driven decisions.
Strategic Workforce Planning
Wednesday 28 September 2022
An under-used HR-led deliverable in business is making sure organisations have the right capabilities to deliver on their mission, vision and strategic goals. In this presentation, Perry Timms will overview how HR and leaders can work in more harmony to ensure the right people, are in the right place, with the right support and enablement to positively impact business change and successful operations.
You'll learn and be invited to consider what we mean by strategic capabilities, how we assess and measure the impact of those and how to align our people, structures and systems to put those capabilities into effect.
Speaker: Perry Timms
Perry has 30 years of experience in business change and performance with the last 20 being in HR/Organisation Development. He ranked Number 1 in HR's Most Influential Thinkers 2022, is a 2x author, 2x TEDx speaker, and his organisation, PTHR, is a Certified BCorporation, a Gold Standard 4-day Working Week and Climate Positive enterprise.
Webinar: Reframing belonging for our time
Friday 21 January 2022
The Future of Everything: The Changing World of Work
Wednesday 19 January 2022
Webinar: Flexible Working: Day 1 ‘Right to Request’ - how did we get here and what would it mean from employers?
Tuesday 7 December 2021
Webinar: A Business-Driven HR Operating Model for the Digital Era: BD:HR
Thursday 21 October 2021
Webinar: How are the values of the future shaping the world of work?
Thursday 23 September 2021
Webinar: Generations: why it is time to stop talking about Millennials and Generation Z
Monday 24 May 2021
Webinar: Agile by Default
Monday 19 April
Webinar: The simple equation for effective leadership in the future
Monday 8 March 2021
Webinar: Managing team performance remotely during Covid-19
Friday 12 February 2021
Webinar: Beyond COVID-19 – Prospects for Global Work
Wednesday 13 January 2021
Webinar: Women on boards – are targets the answer for making real progress?
Wednesday 9 December 2020
Webinar: Working from home in the pandemic – what can we learn for the future?
Thursday 19 November 2020
Webinar: Autism in work – how do we achieve neurodiversity in our world of work? A journey from diversity to inclusion (and the hidden benefits for every employee)
Thursday 29 October 2020
Webinar: Next Stage Organisation Design – pandemic-responsive; future-focused; resilient and adaptive businesses for a better world
Thursday 1 October 2020
Recording available shortly.