HR leaders must move beyond being a support function and take their seat at the strategic table. That was the core message from Helen Webb, Chief People Officer at WHSmith, and Heidi Physick, Chief People Officer at Oodle Finance, during a thought-provoking session at the Employee Engagement Summit.
Both leaders agreed that HR can only act as a true strategic driver when it develops deep knowledge of the business it serves. This means going further than understanding policies or processes—HR leaders must grasp how revenue is generated, how operations run across departments, and what matters most to customers.
Heidi Physick drew on her experience in financial services to emphasise the complexity of strategic alignment in industries such as banking or insurance, urging HR professionals to probe business drivers with sharp, informed questions. Helen Webb highlighted the retail perspective, stressing the need to experience daily operations first-hand, from shop floors to supply chains, and to listen closely to employee voices as a source of insight.
A recurring theme was the critical role culture plays in long-term business performance. Webb argued for embedding organisational values consistently across the employee lifecycle—from recruitment and onboarding, through performance management and development practices. She underlined the importance of making values measurable and holding leaders accountable for reinforcing them.
Physick backed this view and explained how cultural impact is strengthened when organisations link it directly to business outcomes. She pointed to dashboards that bring together people and commercial metrics as a powerful way of telling the story of HR’s impact to boards and executives.
Both leaders discussed the practical need to align communication strategies with real working conditions. Overcommunication, Physick argued, is better than the risk of miscommunication—particularly when workforces are spread across diverse shifts and have varying levels of digital access.
Webb illustrated this with examples from WHSmith stores worldwide, where many employees begin early shifts with little opportunity to log in to digital platforms. Meaningful engagement depends on tailoring communication to how, when, and where employees actually work.
The conversation closed with a strong reminder that HR cannot—and should not—own people strategy alone. Its role is to shape, facilitate, and model cultural expectations, but embedding culture demands distributed ownership across the leadership team. Both Webb and Physick emphasised that leaders must fully embrace their responsibility to execute, reinforce, and role-model the cultural framework.
When HR earns credibility through business understanding and connects people strategy directly to performance, it transforms from a support function to a vital strategic driver. The clear message from Webb and Physick: sustainable success comes from aligning culture, values, and people priorities with the core objectives that power business performance.
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