What did this HR partner do when she walked into her first defence event in her early 20s, wearing a bright pink suit, and realised she was the only woman in the room? In this special episode of The HR Leader Podcast, produced by our sister brand, Defence Connect, we explore this question and much more.

In the premiere episode of The Progress Report, produced by HR Leader’s sister brand, Defence Connect, host Natasha Taylor sits down with Olivia Agate – president of Women’s Defence Connection and HR partner at Navantia – to unpack what it really takes to show up, speak up, and stand tall in a still male-dominated industry.

From rainbow dresses at 6am breakfasts to the quiet power of allyship, Agate and Taylor trade stories of impostor syndrome, backing yourself (and each other), and how simply saying yes can change the entire trajectory of your career.

Former CEO of an AFL side turned ethical leadership expert Matt Finnis unpacks the habits of inclusive workplaces, strategies for navigating polarising debates, and why transparency is non-negotiable in 2025.

Formerly CEO of St Kilda Football Club and corporate lawyer and now CEO at Cranlana Centre for Ethical Leadership, Matt Finnis spoke to HR Leader journalist Kace O’Neill to discuss key themes around ethical leadership, transparency, and disagreement. Finnis argues that modern inclusion isn’t about erasing discomfort but embracing pluralism. As workplaces become “melting pots of humanity”, leaders must move beyond correcting historical wrongs to actively welcoming conflicting values – transforming tension into growth.

From the Israel Folau controversy to modern-day conflict debates, Finnis reveals how organisations can rehearse for inclusion crises. His antidote? Proactive scenario training, purpose-driven dialogue, and empowering employees to shape culture – before headlines force reactive decisions.

With whistleblowing fears lingering, Finnis stresses that ethical followership hinges on leaders modelling vulnerability. He shares hard-won lessons from the AFL trenches: closing feedback loops, rewarding uncomfortable truths, and why owning mistakes builds more trust than flawless execution ever could.

The fierce debate over flexible work arrangements shows no signs of slowing down, thrust into the spotlight by the recent Australian federal election and high-profile corporate mandates.

In this episode of The HR Leader Podcast, Host Kace O’Neill sits down with Neal Woolrich, director in Gartner’s HR Advisory team, to navigate the complex terrain of post-pandemic work. Woolrich, drawing on his unique background spanning journalism, tax advisory, and nearly a decade at Gartner, issues a stark warning: the push for rigid five-day office returns is fraught with significant talent and business risks, potentially crippling engagement and productivity.

Woolrich cautions that enforcing strict return-to-office (RTO) mandates can backfire spectacularly. Employees, he argues, quickly see through hollow justifications linking office presence directly to productivity or culture. The real key, he emphasises, isn’t location but fostering a collaborative team environment.

Beyond the RTO tug of war, Woolrich identifies critical missed opportunities, particularly the persistent reluctance to embrace proven flexible models like the four-day work week – despite compelling productivity data and employee demand. He attributes this stagnation partly to an “old-school mindset” prevalent among senior leaders, even as C-suite turnover rises potentially due to inflexibility. Looking ahead, Woolrich predicts hybrid work patterns in Australia will stabilise around 50 per cent, urging HR to champion human-centric design, ensure consistent policy application (especially as one in three organisations lack RTO compliance mechanisms), and build coalitions of progressive leaders to drive meaningful change.

The NSW government’s proposed overhaul of the workers’ compensation scheme has ignited fierce debate.

In this recent episode of the HR Leader Podcast, host Kace O’Neill sits down with Chantille Khoury, partner and practice group leader for workers’ compensation at Law Partners, to dissect the draft reforms and their potentially seismic impact.

Khoury details how the reforms would devastate support for psychological injuries, revealing a statistic about the proposed 31 per cent whole-person impairment (WPI). Khoury addresses the narrow injury definitions excluding burnout/work pressure, claiming that these changes abandon vulnerable workers while ignoring root causes.

Beyond statistics, Khoury warns of reforms exacerbating mental health crises: drawn-out processes, surveillance paranoia, and inaccessible legal hurdles could deepen trauma. While acknowledging system sustainability concerns, she proposes alternatives.

The episode closes with a stark question: Will NSW fix the scheme or sacrifice worker welfare in the rush?

At the time of this episode’s recording, a key policy proposal put forward by the NSW government, which included workers having to obtain court verification from the IRC when seeking compensation for bullying, racial abuse, or sexual harassment, has since been removed.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, working life has changed significantly. Now, research is starting to identify certain professional and environmental trends that businesses need to be on top of.

In this episode of The HR Leader Podcast, host Jerome Doraisamy is joined by the founding board director of R U OK?, Graeme Cowan, to discuss why uncertainty is so prevalent in workplaces in the current climate, why the proliferation of remote and flexible working is a worrying development, the varying levels of trust in the workforce and why it is damaging, a decline in employee engagement and the consequences of not paying attention to that lack of engagement, and the ongoing wellbeing and mental health crisis.

Cowan also delves into the broader business considerations inherent with addressing wellbeing concerns, why the wellbeing focus isn’t working, how and why more managers want out of their workplaces, how business leaders can better support managers, why change leadership needs to improve, and the decline of respect in the workplace.

In this special episode of The HR Leader Podcast, we showcase one of the headline speakers for the upcoming Bold Ideas in HR event, Taylor Dee Hawkins, about the moral and commercial imperatives to best practice with management of a workforce that is more diverse than ever before and the benefits that come with it.

Host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Taylor Dee Hawkins, the Foundations for Tomorrow managing director, about the work that she does, the extent to which business leaders are ready and able to lead so many different generations in the workforce, leaders’ cognisance of the need to do so, the dangers in not properly managing workers of all ages, the questions that businesses need to ask of themselves, and the practical steps to be taken.

To learn more about Bold Ideas in HR, click here.

In this special episode of The HR Leader Podcast, we showcase one of the headline speakers for the upcoming Bold Ideas in HR event, Kylie Fuller, about whether diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) remains good business or rightly under the microscope.

Host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Kylie Fuller, the managing director of Fuller Potential, about her work, why it is important to take stock of where we’re at with DEI practices in the workplace, why it is necessary to ensure that DEI remains fit for purpose, whether Australia is an inflection point for DEI (like in the US), and whether she is optimistic that we can have productive conversations about the way forward.

To learn more about Bold Ideas in HR, click here.

In this special episode of The HR Leader Podcast, we showcase one of the headline speakers for the upcoming Bold Ideas in HR event, Steve Glaveski, about whether Elon Musk was right to fire four in five Twitter (now X) employees.

Host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Glaveski, the CEO and co-founder of Collective Campus, about his corporate innovation consultancy and start-up accelerator and why he does this work, why it’s important to explore whether or not Elon Musk should have fired so many Twitter employees, why HR managers and C-suite professionals need to be examining whether such an approach is necessary for their businesses, why inaction is not an option in the current climate, and whether he is optimistic that Australian business leaders can draw the right lessons from Musk’s Twitter experience.

To learn more about Bold Ideas in HR, click here.