Highlighting HR’s impact on International HR Day

To celebrate this year’s International HR Day, HRM spoke to C-suite executives to explore HR’s impact and how practitioners’ influence is transforming decision-making and driving sustainable progress in their organisations.

The HR function has cemented its place as a core strategic partner in the executive suite, working alongside senior leaders to shape strategy, influence culture and steer change.

Today’s HR leaders work alongside their executive peers to tackle problems, drive performance and shape how organisations respond to rapid change. They’re not just managing processes – they’re helping guide direction.

“There are very few businesses where the single greatest asset is not their people,” says William Payne, Vice President of Technology at AirTrunk and former Chief Digital Officer at Mirvac (at the time of this interview). 

“I always look to partner with HR on everything we do, whether it’s things we’re thinking about or decisions we’re making, all the way through to helping design operating models and working through individual or team challenges.”

To mark International HR Day, HRM asked C-suite executives from different organisational units how they collaborate with HR – and why these partnerships are crucial to business success.

Strategic backbone

At the Royal Flying Doctor Service Victoria (RFDS), HR isn’t just aligning to the organisation’s strategic business plan; it’s spearheading it.

Its CEO, Michael Ben-Meir, has never worked in an organisation where HR wasn’t a key player in executive decision-making. So when he joined RFDS as CEO in September 2024, he made a decision to partner with HR to shape the organisation’s future success.

Ben-Meir has been working closely with Debra Glowaski CPHR, General Manager of People and Culture at RFDS, to devise a new strategic plan that aligns objectives with existing capabilities. 

“This has been about tempering visionary thinking based on the knowledge of where we’re at in terms of our current capacities,” says Ben-Meir. 

The people and culture team has played a critical role in shaping RFDS’s strategy around organisational structure, reporting lines and employee development. 

Bringing Glowaski and her team into the conversations around organisational structure was a critical facet of his strategy to upskill the workforce and move the business forward.

“Nothing can get done without [employees’] engagement, passion and pride, which can compensate for capability to a degree. But if you combine that with the right capabilities and right structure to deliver it, then there’s no chance of failure.”

Beyond organisational structure, HR’s expertise has been instrumental in helping RFDS navigate the increasingly complex enterprise bargaining landscape. By balancing legal compliance with employee engagement, HR has helped the organisation maintain stability in a challenging industrial relations environment.

Reflecting on his career, Ben-Meir acknowledges the profound impact that strong HR leadership has had on his own professional growth.

“The first thing I learned from a good HR leader is the importance of knowing my own motivations, desires and aspirations,” he says. 

“That self-awareness and understanding of the complexity of human behaviours and aspirations was a really valuable lesson for me. HR leaders are intrinsic in providing individuals and teams with that knowledge to enable them to succeed.”

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Culture architects

Reflecting on his path to becoming a technology leader, Payne notes that the evolution of HR mirrors that of digital teams – once sidelined, now indispensable.

“It wasn’t so long ago that my role either didn’t exist, or it sat underneath a finance resource,” he says. 

Now, both fields have cemented their place as critical strategic partners.

Payne has worked with HR on everything from designing new operating models to navigating complex team dynamics as emerging technologies reshape Mirvac’s workflows.

“They are part of all the decisions we make as a leadership team, whether they’re relevant to that person’s [expertise] or not, because they always bring a different lens to the table.”

One of the most meaningful examples of this partnership has been through Mirvac’s PRIDE committee, which Payne sponsors as its inaugural executive champion. With HR as a key partner, the committee has helped embed inclusion into the company’s DNA – not just in corporate settings, but across site-based teams as well.

“It’s about creating awareness and visibility… because the chances are that no matter who you are, you’ll have a friend or a family member who is aligned to the community. Helping everybody feel normal about this conversation is something I’m very, very passionate about.”

At a time when some high-profile organisations are scaling back their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts, Payne stresses that collaboration between leadership and HR will be crucial to maintain momentum and keep these conversations going.

“The role of the executive is to make sure that people understand why DEI makes great business sense. People leadership and people management plays such a key role in supporting that and helping to reinforce this messaging.”

Join us in celebrating HR’s impact and the difference the profession makes by signing AHRI’s International HR Day e-card, powered by Kudoboard. 

Powering transformation

As digital transformation continues to accelerate across almost every sector, a common obstacle faced by digital and IT functions is ensuring technology adoption doesn’t outpace the people who use it. 

Caroline Rockett, Chief Information Officer at QBE, has worked closely with HR to cultivate capability and resilience in the workforce as the organisation has adjusted to digital-first ways of working. 

“The HR-IT partnership will be essential in creating a future-ready workforce, capable of thriving in an increasingly digital and automated world,” she says.

“Through strategic collaboration, HR provides data-driven insights on workforce trends and performance, enabling us to make informed decisions that build a more agile, skilled, resilient and motivated technology workforce.”

The fast-paced integration of new tools and systems isn’t just about reskilling, she says. 

It’s about behavioural change, and HR’s expertise in change management is crucial to prevent new systems becoming expensive, underutilised assets.

Rather than relying on one-size-fits-all training, QBE’s HR team worked with IT to create personalised learning pathways, ensuring employees can develop digital confidence at their own pace. This prevents resistance to change, minimises workflow disruptions and helps to safeguard cybersecurity.

Read HRM’s article on how HR can strategically partner with technology leaders.

“By fostering a culture of awareness and compliance, HR helps drive a workforce on the journey of vigilance and proactivity in protecting the organisation’s data and systems.”

Rockett is particularly grateful for HR’s role in shaping QBE’s revamped leadership development programs, which ensure managers have the skills to lead teams through technological shifts.

“Our HR team designed and implemented a multi-year and multilayered leadership program focused on agile, core leadership capabilities and culture. 

“Today, we have an engaged and resilient leadership team, from senior leaders right through to line managers, which is testament to the HR team creating the strategy and prioritising this level of investment and development in our leadership.”

Beyond compliance

For Anna Campbell, General Counsel and Company Secretary at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), the partnership between HR and legal isn’t just about compliance. It’s about protecting people.

The people and culture team not only provides direct support to employees tasked with emotionally taxing work, but also provides expert insight to function leaders in taking a trauma-informed approach to every employee touchpoint.

“Our people and culture team isn’t working in the back office. They’re at the forefront of implementation and thinking at a really strategic level,” she says. “Across the organisation, people will go to them for support and see them as a true partner.”

Recent shifts in the legislative landscape have made this partnership more critical than ever. 

Employee wellbeing has historically been seen as an ‘HR issue’, she says, but management of workplace psychosocial risks in the last couple of years has pushed wellbeing further into the legal realm.

“We worked closely with our people and culture team on our psychosocial hazards framework,” says Campbell. “We got under the hood and said, ‘Where are we at the moment? What is best practice in the field we’re in? What’s going on in other industries?’ And we pulled together a team to move that forward.”

This collaborative effort has resulted in a proactive, structured process for managing wellbeing, with clear and legally compliant risk mitigation strategies in place. 

Now that HR is increasingly expected to support functions such as legal, digital and finance, Campbell stresses that these departments are willing and able to provide reciprocal support to HR.

“Don’t feel that you need to deal with things on your own. You don’t want to be in silos. You want to be moving forward together as an organisation. 

“In people and culture, you have access to information that leaders might need. Similarly, through the lens we’ve got, there could be things going on that have a P&C impact – so it’s important to have that two-way conversation.” 

To HR practitioners everywhere: thank you for all that you do

Ben-Meir’s message to HR teams is one of gratitude.

“Thank you for all the good work you do,” he says. “I’ve been the beneficiary of great HR leaders in my career who really helped me frame my trajectory and understand myself.”

Rockett echoes this sentiment, thanking HR for their role in aligning the workforce behind QBE’s business strategy. 

“Their partnership helps foster a positive work environment and strengthen employee engagement, which underpins our ability to be productive, innovate and supports our mission of enabling a more resilient future.” 

A longer version of this article first appeared in the April-May edition of HRM Magazine, exclusive to AHRI members.

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