HR Coffee Time

What exactly is employee experience? How is it different from workplace culture, employer brand or your employee value proposition? And what can you actually do to improve it?
In this episode of HR Coffee Time, I’m joined by employee experience expert Chris Manning, People and Culture Portfolio Transformation Lead at Primark.
Chris explains what employee experience really means and why it matters for organisations of every size. He shares practical ways to understand and measure the experience your employees are having, whether you work in a small organisation or a huge global business.
We also explore how design thinking can help you move beyond simply listening to employees and start making meaningful improvements. Chris talks us through a practical onboarding example, showing how journey mapping can uncover friction, identify opportunities and help you design a better employee experience.
And if you need to secure investment for your ideas, Chris shares practical advice on building the business case and getting the buy-in and budget you need.
Whether employee experience is already part of your role, or it’s an area you’d like to learn more about, this episode is packed with practical ideas to help you get started.
What You'll Learn
What employee experience actually means
How employee experience differs from workplace culture, employer brand and EVP
Why employee experience matters in smaller organisations as well as large global businesses
Practical ways to measure employee experience
How to gather useful feedback across the employee lifecycle
Why post-onboarding and offboarding can provide valuable insights
How employee data can help create more personalised employee experiences
How design thinking can help you improve employee experience
The five stages of design thinking: empathise, define, ideate, prototype and test
How to use journey mapping to improve an experience such as onboarding
How to build a compelling business case for employee experience improvements
How to combine qualitative and quantitative evidence to secure buy-in and budget

Chapters
[00:00] What is employee experience and why does it matter?
[02:45] Meet Chris Manning
[04:35] What employee experience really means
[06:25] Employee experience vs workplace culture
[07:10] Employee experience, employer brand and EVP
[08:30] Why employee experience matters in smaller organisations too
[10:40] How to measure employee experience
[14:20] Using employee data to understand and personalise experiences
[18:20] Moving from employee listening to employee experience design
[19:40] Using journey mapping to improve onboarding
[23:30] A free onboarding journey-mapping resource
[25:25] What is design thinking?
[26:50] The five stages of design thinking
[29:45] How to get buy-in and budget for employee experience
[33:30] Chris’s recommended resource
[35:35] How to connect with Chris
USEFUL LINKS
Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn
Connect with Chris Manning on LinkedIn
Read Chris’s article about employee experience in The ELEVATE Hub magazine
Download Chris’s free employee experience journey-mapping resource: brightskyhr.co.uk/resources
Find out more about The Essential HR Planner
Learn more about Fay’s leadership programme – Inspiring HR Leadership

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🎁 Download your free Personal User Manual template:
https://brightskyhr.co.uk/resources
Taking over the leadership of an HR team can come with a long list of things you want to improve, but one of the most valuable things you can do first is help your team build trust, understand each other and work well together.
In this episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay shares one of her favourite team-building activities: creating and sharing Personal User Manuals.
Personal User Manuals give everyone an opportunity to explain how they work best, the strengths they bring, what helps them thrive and what their colleagues should know about them.
They can make some of the information that is usually invisible within a team much more visible, helping people understand each other’s preferences, avoid misunderstandings and make better use of the strengths and experience already within the team.
Fay talks you through how to run the activity, from deciding what to include in your Personal User Manuals to facilitating the sharing session and turning what you learn into practical changes in how you work together.

In this episode, you’ll discover:
Why investing in relationships can create a stronger foundation when you take over an HR team
How Personal User Manuals can help your team understand each other’s strengths, preferences and ways of working
How the activity can help you start building greater psychological safety
Ideas for useful categories to include in your Personal User Manuals
Why it’s helpful to ask your team what they think everyone should include
How to create the right environment for people to share what they’ve written
Why you, as the leader, should share your Personal User Manual first
Questions you can use to encourage positive reflections after each person has shared
How to turn what you learn into practical improvements to the way your team works
How to keep the learning alive after the activity

Chapters
[00:00] Why relationships matter when you take over an HR team
[01:20] What is a Personal User Manual?
[02:50] Why Personal User Manuals can be so useful
[04:55] What to include in your Personal User Manuals
[06:50] Involving your team in choosing the categories
[07:50] How to run the sharing session
[08:50] Why the leader should go first
[09:30] Encouraging positive comments and reflections
[10:40] What have you learned about yourselves as a team?
[11:35] Keeping the learning alive
[12:35] Download the free Personal User Manual template

Useful Links
Download your free Personal User Manual template:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/resources
Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/faywallis/
The Essential HR Planner:https://essentialhrplanner.co.uk/
Learn about the Inspiring HR Leadership Programme:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/hr-leadership-course/

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Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released - and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

HR professionals have a huge opportunity to shape how, why and when AI is used across their organisations.
Because AI is not only changing technology. It is changing jobs, skills, teams, management and the way work gets done. And HR is uniquely placed to make sure those changes work for both the organisation and its people.
In this episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay is joined by People Consultant Charlotte Goulding to explore how HR professionals can help shape successful AI adoption across their organisations.
Charlotte explains why HR should not wait to be invited into conversations about AI and shares how her Five People Foundations Framework can help organisations put the right people foundations in place as work changes.
Together, Fay and Charlotte explore what each of these foundations means in practice, including why traditional job descriptions may no longer be enough, why managers will become even more important and how performance, recognition and HR operations may need to evolve.
Charlotte also explains how HR can help organisations make thoughtful decisions about AI while keeping people, trust and culture at the heart of them.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
Why HR shouldn't wait to be invited into conversations about AI
The difference between “AI for HR” and “HR for AI”
How the Five People Foundations work together
Why skills and capabilities could become more useful than job descriptions
How managers can support people through AI-related change
How performance, recognition and HR operations may need to adapt

Chapters
[0:00] Introduction: Why HR must lead AI adoption
[2:01] Welcome, Charlotte Goulding
[2:24] HR for AI, not just AI for HR
[4:41] From pandemic hero to recent criticism
[6:31] How the Five Foundations framework came about
[10:42] Overview: The Five People Foundations
[11:35] Foundation 1: Identity
[15:34] Example: Values in your AI hiring process
[19:13] Foundation 2: Clarity
[23:28] Applying skills-based roles in HR
[26:31] OKRs and quarterly goal-setting
[28:05] Foundation 3: Enablement
[29:12] Managers: the most overlooked foundation
[36:51] Foundation 4: Recognition
[39:01] Rethinking career progression and rewards
[40:42] Foundation 5: Operations
[42:22] Mapping your most critical processes
[43:38] Working with Charlotte
[45:37] Book recommendations
[47:05] Wrap-up and outro
Useful Links
Connect with Fay on LinkedIn
Learn about Fay’s Essential HR Planner
Learn about Fay’s Inspiring HR Leadership Programme
Complete Charlotte’s free Five People Foundations diagnostic.
Visit Charlotte's website:The People Thread
Connect with Charlotte Goulding on LinkedIn

Books Recommended in This Episode
HR Disrupted by Lucy Adams
Built for People by Jessica Zwaan

Helpful Episodes to Listen to Next
Ep 164:Becoming More Strategic as an HR Team: Three Ways OKRs Can Help
Ep 166:The Biggest HR Strategy Mistake and How to Fix It, with Dean Corbett
Ep 172:How One Company Helped Employees Embrace AI, with Laura Maffucci
Ep 173:How to Build a Better Workplace Culture (So People Thrive at Work), with Aoife O’Brien

Enjoyed This Episode? Don't Miss the Next One!
Sign up for the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released - and get free career tips, tools, and resources.

Does it feel hard to make time for strategic work when you’re already so busy?
Welcome to Day 5 of The Strategic HR Sprint, a free five-day learning experience designed to help you strengthen your strategic thinking and build your confidence about being strategic.
🧭 Sign up for free at https://brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint to receive all five episodes, worksheets, AI prompts and resources.
In this final episode, Fay explores how to create and protect time for strategic work, even when your diary is full and urgent tasks keep competing for your attention.
You’ll use the Day 5 worksheet to design your ideal strategic week by considering when you think most clearly, where you can focus and what you could delegate, automate, shorten or stop to create more space.
You’ll also think about the boundaries and accountability that could help you protect your strategic time and follow through on the work you’ve started during the sprint.
By the end of the episode, you’ll have a realistic plan for making strategic work a regular priority.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
How to choose and protect time for strategic work
Why your energy levels and working environment matter
Practical ways to create more space in your working week
How boundaries and accountability can help you follow through
How to use AI as a thinking partner and accountability coach

Chapters
[00:00] Welcome to Day 5 of The Strategic HR Sprint
[00:48] Why strategic work gets pushed aside
[01:39] Making deliberate space for strategic work
[02:18] Designing your ideal strategic week
[02:40] Working with your energy levels
[03:11] Choosing the right environment
[03:31] Creating more space in your diary
[04:03] Protecting your focus and staying accountable
[04:46] The Essential HR Planner
[05:42] Using AI as a thinking partner and accountability coach
[06:29] One final thought about strategy
[07:31] Sharing your experience of the sprint
[07:54] What happens next on HR Coffee Time

Useful Links
Join the free Strategic HR Sprint:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint/
Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faywallis/
The Essential HR Planner:https://essentialhrplanner.co.uk/
Learn about the Inspiring HR Leadership Programme:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/hr-leadership-course/

Helpful Episodes to Listen to Next
Ep 174 | Free 5-Day Strategic HR Sprint (Struggling to Be Strategic? This Will Help)
Ep 176 | (Day 1) The Strategic HR Sprint - Building Your Strategic Confidence
Ep 177 | (Day 2) The Strategic HR Sprint - Seeing the Bigger Picture
Ep 178 | (Day 3) The Strategic HR Sprint - Finding Your Strategic Focus
Ep 179 | (Day 4) The Strategic HR Sprint - Look Beneath the Surface

When you spot a problem at work, how quickly does your mind start coming up with solutions?
Welcome to Day 4 of The Strategic HR Sprint, a free five-day experience to help you build your confidence and skills in being strategic in your HR role.
👉 Join the sprint for free and access all five episodes, worksheets and resources here: https://brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint
One of the most important parts of being strategic is taking the time to understand what is really driving a challenge before deciding how to respond.
It is easy to assume that the answer is training, a new policy, more people or better pay. But if you have not explored what is really causing the challenge, you could invest time and energy in an idea that only treats the symptoms.
Getting to the root cause helps you make better decisions about where HR can have the greatest impact and identify actions that are more likely to create lasting improvements.
In this episode, you’ll learn how to stay curious for longer and use a simple technique called the Five Whys to explore the challenge you identified during Day 3.
In This Episode, You’ll Learn:
Why understanding the root cause is an important part of being strategic
How to use the Five Whys technique
How to avoid treating a symptom instead of the underlying cause
Why involving people who are close to the challenge can lead to better insights
How to ask “why” without sounding critical or pushy

Your Day 4 Activity
Today’s worksheet will help you explore the challenge you chose during Day 3 and identify what may be causing it.
You’ll work through the Five Whys, think about where HR could have the biggest influence and note down your first ideas for how the challenge could be addressed.
You might also find it helpful to talk the challenge through with someone who sees or experiences it day to day, as they may notice things that are easy to miss from your perspective.
Once you have completed the worksheet, you can also use the optional AI prompt to suggest practical HR and People initiatives, including quick wins and longer-term ideas.
Before using the prompt, remember to remove or change anything that could identify your organisation or the people involved.
Access all the sprint resources here:
https://brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint
Chapters
[00:00] – Welcome to Day 4 of The Strategic HR Sprint
[01:09] – A recap of the sprint so far
[01:42] – Why we jump straight to solutions
[02:41] – Staying curious for longer
[03:03] – How the Five Whys works
[03:37] – Finding the right starting point
[04:45] – The employee turnover example
[06:10] – Your Day 4 worksheet
[07:18] – Involving other people
[07:43] – How to ask “why” without sounding critical
[08:51] – Using the optional AI prompt
[09:34] – Protecting confidential information
[10:42] – What to expect from Day 5

Useful Links
Join the free Strategic HR Sprint:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/sprint/
Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faywallis/
The Essential HR Planner:https://essentialhrplanner.co.uk/
Learn about the Inspiring HR Leadership Programme:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/hr-leadership-course/

Helpful Episodes to Listen to Next
Ep 174 | Free 5-Day Strategic HR Sprint (Struggling to Be Strategic? This Will Help)
Ep 176 | (Day 1) The Strategic HR Sprint - Building Your Strategic Confidence
Ep 177 | (Day 2) The Strategic HR Sprint - Seeing the Bigger Picture
Ep 178 | (Day 3) The Strategic HR Sprint - Finding Your Strategic Focus
Ep 179 | (Day 4) The Strategic HR Sprint - Look Beneath the Surface
Ep 180 (Day 5) The Strategic HR Sprint - Making Strategic Work a Priority

Enjoyed This Episode? Don’t Miss the Next One!
Sign up to the free weekly HR Coffee Time email to be notified each time a new episode is released – and get free career tips, tools, and resources.