Building Resilient Organizations and Disrupt Cork Preview with Susan Manning

If HR is still being treated like the department of contracts and compliance, something is broken and it’s not just the org chart.  Bill Banham is joined by Susan Manning, Human Resources Director at PFH Technology Group, to talk about what actually builds resilient, high-performing organizations when work keeps changing faster than our habits. Susan brings 25+ years of global HR leadership, and she’s refreshingly clear about the one skill that never goes out of date: business acumen. If we don’t understand the commercial strategy, the customer, the market, and the ambition, we can’t credibly translate any of it into a people plan. They also get practical about how modern HR leaders create impact: by asking better questions, earning trust, and challenging leaders respectfully. Susan explains her systems thinking approach as “unwrapping the onion” because the issue in front of you is rarely the full story. Susan uses turnover as a real example and looks at how engagement, workload, management behavior, team dynamics, and psychological safety often sit underneath the headline problem. From there, Bill and Susan move into leadership development and wellbeing, including why self-awareness is a real performance tool, not a soft add-on. Susan shares how understanding her own triggers and energy patterns helps her lead sustainably, especially in a busy hybrid workplace. We also talk about what meaningful inclusion looks like day to day and why DEI becomes real in meetings, hiring decisions, development opportunities, and the willingness to call out bad behavior at any level. Finally, Susan previews a question she’s wrestling with ahead of Disrupt Cork: as AI in HR gets better at drafting, summarizing, and suggesting, how do we make sure we don’t outsource our critical thinking and empathy? If this conversation challenges you, share it with a fellow HR leader, then subscribe and leave a review so more people can find the show. Support the show Feature Your Brand on the HRchat Podcast The HRchat show has had 100,000s of downloads and is frequently listed as one of the most popular global podcasts for HR pros, Talent execs and leaders. It is ranked in the top ten in the world based on traffic, social media followers, domain authority & freshness. The podcast is also ranked as the Best Canadian HR Podcast by FeedSpot and one of the top 10% most popular shows by Listen Score. Want to share the story of how your business is helping to shape the world of work? We offer sponsored episodes, audio adverts, email campaigns, and a host of other options. Check out packages here. Follow us on LinkedIn Subscribe to our newsletter Check out our in-person events