The HR Director

1. HR’s pivotal role in AI upskilling

   As custodians of the people and skills agenda, HR has a key role to play – and must step up to the plate on one of the defining issues of our time; AI upskilling. Quite simply, it is vital that HR is in lockstep with its partners across the business, collaborating closely with the IT function and other key departments.

2. We must prepare for the AI workforce before it Arrives

   Artificial intelligence is changing how organizations hire, develop, and retain talent. But successful AI adoption isn't just about deploying new tools—it requires preparing people, processes, and leadership. This article explores why HR leaders must take ownership of workforce transformation today and how skills-first strategies, responsible AI, and continuous learning will define future-ready organizations.

3. Marketing hiring shows why skills-based evaluation can’t wait

   AI-generated applications have made résumés unreliable signals of real capability, and hiring teams are absorbing the cost. This article examines how skills-based evaluation—live diagnostics, platform walkthroughs, scenario-based assessments—can surface true competence before an offer goes out. Marketing serves as the case study, but the framework applies across departments.

4. The art of negotiation: Practical strategies for career and business success

   Negotiation is a critical professional skill, yet many people approach it with uncertainty or avoid it altogether. This article explores practical negotiation strategies, including BATNA, reservation value, negotiation styles, and value-based communication. Drawing from personal experience, recruitment insights, and negotiation principles, it provides actionable guidance for negotiating job offers, business agreements, and workplace conversations while recognizing when to negotiate, where leeway exists, and how to create mutually beneficial outcomes.

5. The practice gap – why leadership training keeps not working

   Everyone in L&D knows the same awkward secret: practice is how people get better at difficult conversations, and nobody practises, because role-play in a training room is excruciating. Lisa Collinson on forty years of transfer research, why the audience was the problem all along, and what AI genuinely changes about the economics of practice.