Aug 24, 2026 · 30 min · 12 segments
Performance, productivity, trust and wellbeing are often discussed as separate priorities, but the most successful organisations understand they are deeply connected. Ahead of the CIPD in Ireland…
Annamarie O'ConnorGuest
Meg DunphyHost
So at the CIPD, we talk a lot about moving from activity to impact, and HR teams, as we know, can be incredibly busy, but not everything that we do adds value, and I think it's, you know, it's a lens.
You have to take a step back constantly and say, "Am I doing this for the right reasons? Is this a strategic priority?" You know, "Is it going to lead to a, a desired outcome as opposed to, like, firefighting?"
When you're looking back at your journey, like, which decisions have made the biggest impact and, you know, that you've really learnt, like, "Okay, this is, this is a good kind of approach to take"?
Uh, I mean, for us it was about, there was a number of different decisions, and each of those I felt was a building block.
Um, so for us, that included executive sponsorship and cross-functional ownership, and that was key.
Um, we had a phased roadmap, so we knew we weren't going to [laughs] achieve this overnight.
This was a long, we were in this for the long haul, so we had short, medium, long-term objectives as well.
And obviously we wanted to ensure that our managers remained, uh, co-creating the programs with us and the initiatives.
So that was really at the heart of our model, as well as capability building, and then making sure we were investing smartly in HR and engagement technology.
Some I, I probably would touched on already, but strategic alignment was one.
We needed to make sure that our people strategy was aligned with the business strategy, because otherwise there's a disconnect.
We're not going to get the respect, um, and buy-in from the leaders and managers within the business that we need to.
We needed to make sure that we had an holistic colleague-centered approach, so we had a hire-to-retire model.
So at the CIPD, we talk a lot about moving from activity to impact, and HR teams, as we know, can be incredibly busy, but not everything that we do adds value, and I think it's, you know, it's a lens.
You have to take a step back constantly and say, "Am I doing this for the right reasons? Is this a strategic priority?" You know, "Is it going to lead to a, a desired outcome as opposed to, like, firefighting?"
When you're looking back at your journey, like, which decisions have made the biggest impact and, you know, that you've really learnt, like, "Okay, this is, this is a good kind of approach to take"?
Uh, I mean, for us it was about, there was a number of different decisions, and each of those I felt was a building block.
Um, so for us, that included executive sponsorship and cross-functional ownership, and that was key.
Um, we had a phased roadmap, so we knew we weren't going to [laughs] achieve this overnight.
This was a long, we were in this for the long haul, so we had short, medium, long-term objectives as well.
And obviously we wanted to ensure that our managers remained, uh, co-creating the programs with us and the initiatives.
So that was really at the heart of our model, as well as capability building, and then making sure we were investing smartly in HR and engagement technology.
Some I, I probably would touched on already, but strategic alignment was one.
We needed to make sure that our people strategy was aligned with the business strategy, because otherwise there's a disconnect.
We're not going to get the respect, um, and buy-in from the leaders and managers within the business that we need to.
We needed to make sure that we had an holistic colleague-centered approach, so we had a hire-to-retire model.
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