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Levelling Up and DEI in the Public Sector with Philippa Bonay

HR in Review
HR in Review
Episode • May 25, 2022 • 27m

Guest: Philippa Bonay, Director of People and Business Services at the Office for National Statistics

Philippa has extensive international corporate experience across the whole HR remit in both the private and public sectors. As People & Business Services Director for the ONS (5,500 people), she is responsible for human resources, estates, facilities management, H&S, business services and the customer contact centre.

In addition, Philippa is the HR Director for the Government Analysis Function (17,000 people) and the Government Statistical Service, and a member of the Civil Service HR FunctionBoard. She extends her work and research voluntarily to charities and global organisations notably focused on teamworking, leadership, values and behaviours. She is co-founder of a global thought leadership club that includes virtual conferences and a podcast series where she interviews a range of fascinating global senior execs who stand out in their fields.


Philippa is also a Fellow of the CIPD, one of  UK 50 Leading Lights in Kindness & Leadership, HR Magazine’s most influential practitioners and 40 People leaders in the UK building workplaces of tomorrow in 2022.


Key Topics
The podcast disussed the following questions:

  • As an HR pro, what are you most passionate about?
  • To help build an inclusive culture, the ONS offers sponsorships, mentoring and championing, and everybody within the organisation has an inclusion and diversity objective. How has mentoring / coaching made a difference in your life and career?
  • You are a big proponent of being kind and respectful to one another. How have the collective lessons in empathy over the past couple of years changed the ways leaders communicate with employees?
  • Like most organisations, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) still has work to do when it comes to diversity in leadership. In a recent post on govx.digital, you shared your take on using data to identify barriers. You said that although the department has good levels of disability and LGBTQ+ representation among the most senior positions, improvement is still needed for women and ethnic minorities. To improve this situation, your team has recently launched an inclusion, culture and wellbeing app that gives all ONS directorates the ability to look at all of their information by a protected characteristic across the employee lifecycle. Tell me about the app and how this helps leaders to identify where the problems are and set objectives against them.
  • Levelling up: What can be achieved through local talent recruitment and how does hiring locally mesh with the shift we've seen over the past couple of years in the private sector towards hybrid work and embracing wider, more disparate talent pools?
  • You are also HR Director for the Government Analysis Function. Talk about that role and how it has contributed to your knowledge and skills as an HR leader.
  • What is the single biggest change you think will happen in HR over the next 5-10 years?
  • If you could pass on one crucial lesson you have learned in your HR carrier - in one minute or less - what would be your top tip for other HR professionals?

About HR in Review
HR in Review is a podcast produced by the leading UK HR website www.hrreview.co.uk.  

HRreview provides news and advice on HR strategy and practice plus a host or related topics like recruitment, training, diversity, employment law, reward and wellbeing.

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