We Need to Talk About...

Hosted by Felix Mitchell and Louise Fraser

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Episodes

148

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Everything is changing! Hosted by Felix Mitchell and Louise Fraser, We Need to Talk About… brings together HR and AI. In one feed, we explore how growing businesses are evolving people practices and adopting AI to meet new expectations, new ways of working, and rapid change. Expect honest conversations with HR leaders, tech experts, and scaling SMEs using AI to enhance human capability. No hype, just real solutions for real businesses. New episodes every Thursday.

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60 recent

September 10, 202633 min

Parent, Adult or Child - Which One Are You at Work? with Emy Rumble-Mettle

Emmy Rumble-Mettle, VP of People and Culture at Aristocrat, joins Louise to explore a model that could change the way you think about every interaction at work. The transactional analysis framework - parent, adult or child - is a simple idea with profound implications for power dynamics, conflict, and how leaders show up. Emmy also gets into why burnout has become so normalised, why boundaries have all but disappeared since the pandemic, and what happens when you democratise power at the top of an organisation. An honest, energising conversation from someone who's spent 20-plus years being enchanted by people.

August 27, 202625 min

The HR Career Playbook Has Changed - Here's What Comes Next with Sophie Tolley

Sophie Tolley, VP of People and Culture for EMEA at RES, joins Felix to explore what a career in HR actually looks like in 2026, and where it's heading. From how grad roles are being reshaped by AI to the reality of working four days a week while staying ambitious, Sophie shares an honest take on trade-offs, career breaks, and why the organisations cutting entry-level HR roles now are storing up succession gaps for later. They also get into the Gartner HR operating model and what changes when you separate strategic partnering from operations.

August 13, 202625 min

The Jobs Market Isn't Dying, It's Being Reimagined with Janine Chamberlin

Janine Chamberlin, VP Talent Solutions & UK Country Manager at LinkedIn, joins Felix to cut through the doom and gloom around the jobs market. Yes, UK hiring is down 24% on pre-pandemic levels - but the full picture is far more nuanced than the headlines suggest. Janine shares what LinkedIn's data actually shows about where the new jobs are, why small businesses are completely bucking the trend, and why AI fluency paired with human skills is the power couple every employer is looking for. A must-listen for anyone in talent, or anyone advising a young person on what to do next.

August 6, 202642 min

What Most People Get Wrong About How AI Actually Works with Simon Russell

Simon Russell, Instant Impact's Head of AI and Data, joins Felix to lift the lid on what large language models actually are, why they're brilliant at conversation but terrible at maths, and what that means for how organisations should be thinking about AI adoption. With 16 years of experience across the Ministry of Defence, EY, and a Google spin-off, Simon breaks down the rise of agentic AI, why the businesses with the best process documentation are pulling ahead, and why "context governance" is about to become the most important organisational competency nobody's heard of yet.

July 30, 202628 min

Pace or People? Why PE-Backed Businesses Shouldn't Have to Choose with Jonny Friedman

Jonny Friedman, Chief People Officer at Acumetis Global, joins Felix to talk about what happens when you merge five businesses into one across nine countries - all under private equity pressure to deliver double-digit growth. Jonny makes the case for why culture and commercial performance aren't competing priorities, how his team co-created a set of values and behaviours with every level of the organisation, and why radical honesty with your people always beats spin. He also shares his "never leave anybody behind" mantra and why being a father to four boys has shaped everything about how he leads.

July 23, 202631 min

Building HR Teams That Make Leaders Better with Ramneek Sohal

Ramneek Sohal, HR Director at Domestic & General, joins Louise to share what she's learned from 20-plus years of walking into businesses with no HR function and building high-performing teams from scratch. From Coca-Cola to Karen Millen to a multi-market regulated business, Ramneek talks through how she diagnoses what each organisation actually needs before hiring a single person, why HR teams burn out from emotional over-ownership rather than workload, and why a charity trustee role might be the best development move any HR leader can make.

July 9, 202639 min

Rethinking Wellbeing at Work with Sam Gibson-Massey

Sam Gibson-Massey, founder of Hope, joins Louise to unpack what proactive wellbeing really looks like once you strip away the gym passes and free pilates. Drawing on his own burnout and years in big tech talent, Sam makes the case for measurable ROI on wellbeing, why managers are the sandwich generation of work, and why the best company culture is the one that shows up on a bad day. A candid, practical listen for any people leader tired of reactive fixes.

July 2, 202632 min

Why You Can't Automate a Pay Decision with Giac Soliman

Giac Soliman, former Director of Compensation at Monzo and founder of Range, joins Louise to explore what AI can and can't do in the world of compensation and reward. From why pay decisions are too high-stakes to fully automate, to employees turning up with their own ChatGPT salary benchmarks, Giac shares a practical and refreshingly honest take on where the function is heading. He also talks about going solo after 13 years in the field and why he built an AI community specifically for reward leaders who want to stop feeling behind and start experimenting.

June 25, 202626 min

Surviving a Toxic Workplace - and Knowing When to Walk Away with Claire Clarke

Claire Clarke, Director of Hospitality People Services at Moore Kingston Smith, joins Louise for an incredibly open conversation about what it's like to walk into a toxic workplace as an HR leader - and what it takes to walk back out again. Claire shares the red flags she spotted on day one but chose to overlook, why HR professionals are uniquely bad at recognising when the system is broken around them, and how she rebuilt her confidence after leaving with no job to go to. An honest and important listen for any people leader.

June 18, 202626 min

Beyond the Policy Document - Women's Health at Work with Céline Crawford

Céline Crawford, Director of Operations at Fertifa, joins Louise to talk about why pay gaps stubbornly refuse to close, what transparent salaries actually do in practice, and what proper support around women's health looks like beyond just updating a handbook. Drawing on her own experience of pregnancy loss and her work with organisations of all sizes, Céline shares why psychological safety matters more than policy, how one employee voluntarily took a pay cut after salaries were made public, and why most businesses aren't even at the bare minimum yet.