Often, team members will provide feedback to managers that the latter doesn't agree with, or vice versa. For the HR function, such disconnection provides an opportunity to turn conflict into connection.

In this episode of The HR Leader Podcast, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with EMA Consulting principal consultant Ming-Lyn Hii about her work in implementing lawful and reasonable management action plans, the importance of ensuring more constructive interactions between managers and their teams, the drivers of such negative interactions, and what constitutes reasonable conduct.

Hii also delves into the need to go beyond legal compliance and implement cultural transformation, and how HR teams and professionals can put their best foot forward in supporting individual staff members as well as business objectives.

In workplaces where staff are exposed to higher levels of emotional distress from clients, the pressures upon HR are amplified. Here, we unpack how to manage those pressures and better support the workforce.

In this episode of The HR Leader Podcast, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Resolve Divorce human resources manager Rebecca Kennedy about what it's like to manage the HR function of a family law firm, her perception of the challenges facing HR in 2026, how the role will shift in these 12 months, what constitutes a high-emotion workplace, and how such environments can amplify the pressure on HR.

Kennedy also delves into the issues that HR must grapple with in high-emotion workplaces, managing those issues alongside upskilling in new technologies and AI, taking a deliberate approach to such emotional workplaces, the need for proactivity, why proper management is so essential right now, practical steps that HR can and should take, and the need for a "bottom-up" approach, and what she's learnt about herself – personally and professionally – from managing a high-emotion workplace.

While employers absolutely have the right to manage the performance of staff members, more tailored approaches to the development of individuals that take into account idiosyncratic needs and skill sets are perhaps more fit for purpose in 2026 and beyond.

In this episode of The HR Leader Podcast, host Jerome Doraisamy speaks with Electro Consulting chief executive and principal Shevonne Joyce about how paralysis and a neurological disorder have shaped her passion for inclusion and championing leaders with disabilities, how her personal experiences have informed her views on the workplace and worker experience, and why the concept of performance management is flawed.

Joyce also delves into some of the broader issues with performance management, how employers are realising that performance management is no longer fit for purpose, the importance of leaning into workers' personal growth, how to practically pivot, and how HR can strike the right balance in accommodating staff needs while living up to the business's expectations.