CEO: Brain eBox | Workplace Learning Solutions | Host of the HR on the Brain Podcast | CEO: Lead with Sheree | Speaker | Passionate about developing leaders | Get in touch: sheree@thebrainebox.com

You’ve built a reputation for delivering great L&amp;D work - facilitating training, designing programs, and running onboarding. People trust you to get things done.But to grow into your next role, it’s not just about great work anymore.Now, it’s about influence, alignment, and leadership.You’ve got great ideas, but they’re not always landing.You want to be seen as a strategic partner, but you’re still treated like a service provider.You’re ready to grow, but what you need isn’t tucked inside another course.You need real-world support from someone who understands what L&amp;D excellence looks like - and how to lead it.That’s where I come in.I’m Sheree Comninellis, L&amp;D Executive and mentor for emerging L&amp;D leaders.I help L&amp;D professionals like you step into leadership.If you’re ready to lead, start here:📬 Executive Moves — my 5-minute weekly leadership edge for ambitious L&amp;D professionals.Each edition gives you:📌 1 bold insight to reframe how you lead📌 1 practical move you can apply immediately📌 1 growth resource to help you go deeper➡️ Get Executive Moves here: https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/589169/98676779613423573/share.💡 Want to go further?Join the waitlist for The L&amp;D Professionals Collective - a monthly membership that helps you grow your confidence, visibility, and strategic influence, so you can be recognised as ready for L&amp;D leadership.Inside, you’ll get monthly live sessions, coaching, and practical tools designed to help you bridge the gap between delivering learning and leading it.➡️ Learn more and join the waitlist here: https://leadwithsheree.com/ldprofessionalcollectivewaitinglistMore about me:I live in Cape Town with my wife and beautiful children. I love historical fiction, good coffee, and my all-time favourite series is Gilmore Girls.

Sheree Comninellis (she/her)

Access HR Ltd

Founder & Employee Experience Consultant

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People Consultant

Roundtable - The Private Community of Founders

Member

That Works Agency

Head of People

Buttermilk

In my role as an Associate HR Consultant, I was responsible for creating a comprehensive people infrastructure that aligned with the Agency's wider business strategy, vision, and mission. As a part of this, I oversaw the scaling of the business from 20 employees to 55, including managing the expansion into both the UK and global markets.

As the Agency continued to grow, my role involved leading and managing people projects that were reflective of the Agency's culture and team demographics, with a focus on the Community First Creator Agency ethos. Some of the tasks that I undertook included:

- Improving employee experiences
- Developing employment documentation
- Creating people policies
- Developing hiring strategies
- Implementing a digital onboarding and offboarding process
- Managing the performance management cycle
- Establishing a paid internship program.

Kids Planet Day Nurseries

In-house HR/People expert and direct point of contact for operational + strategic HR for a fast growing organisation alongside shaping the culture and enabling the achievement of functional objectives for overall business success.

Working in collaboration with senior stakeholders, whilst being the project manager for the design, research, and implementation of multiple people projects for 5,000 employees including:
 - Enhancement of employee experience and channels of communication through an Employee Forum
- An effective line manager training program with 7 modules for over 300+ employees in Leadership positions 
 - TUPE transfer of over 700+ acquisitions and various change management processes
- New reward and recognition program that recognised and reflected the workforce
- Policy and Processes re-vamp that infused the company culture and values
& so much more.

People Advisor

Kinder Haven Day Nurseries

•	Providing holistic HR support, mentoring and coaching throughout all levels of the organisation. Such as proactively managing and resolving ER issues with an up to date understanding the legal risk; examples include ensuring managers and employees are compliant with company policies and procedures and government regulations. 
•	Maintaining meaningful and trusted relationships with key stakeholders and employees 
•	Built and sustained strategic partnerships to encourage best practice to teams and managers, in order to promote development, make recommendations and monitor implementations.
•	In-house expert for HR policy and practice as well as advice on best practice for performance management cases. 
•	Ensure GDPR and data protection policies and complied with, communicated and understood.
•	Responsible for pre-employment checks such as references and DBS applications with Capita. 
•	Responsible for ensuring the full employment life cycle including: attraction, recruitment, on boarding, retention, development and leaders. 
•	Working collaboratively with the director for salary bands, taking the lead on annual NMW increases and bonus reviews. 
•	Driving, influencing and supporting the cultural and people aspects of organisation change people processes and continuous improvements initiatives 
•	Promote employee welfare across the organisation through monthly memos, wellbeing strategies, mental health first aid training and creating multiple ‘guidance’ factsheet for stakeholders

Human Resource Manager

Independently managed the payroll for 180 employees, during this time I learn how to manage, input and operate sage submissions including pensions. Sufficient time management was required to ensure each employees pay was accurate and on time whilst efficiently processed whilst carrying out my usual tasks during the pandemic. Throughout this period I was also responsible for processing, paying and calculating the furlough scheme as well as claiming furlough and COVID SSP.

Payroll Officer

•	Maintaining a strong relationship with line managers
•	Ensuring HR systems were up to date with personnel data and carry out regular onsite audits in order to comply with GDPR
•	Manage and update admin tasks such as recruitment adverts, organise disciplinary meetings, social media postings, filing, apprenticeship admin and absence management.
•	Prepare all relevant employee documentation (eg, offer letters, contracts, probation, invitation letters)
•	Launched new wellbeing strategy; an EAP system within the company in order to support employee wellbeing

HR Administrator

Univeristy of York Netball Club

Organised and created self-administered sessions through adequate research and guidance. Responsible for a group of 26 girls where team work and effective communication is highly important and consistent

Club Captain

England Netball

Assigned by England Netball to deliver weekly sessions for members of the community and university of any skill level. Each session is adapting to cater the skill level and needs of the clients.

University Netball Officer

Clarion Solicitors

Gained practical experience inside a law firm and developing skills such as commercial awareness. Researched the law and gained an insight into how firms provide legal services to clients with the guidance of legislative frameworks

Work Experience

If your people aren’t connected, your customers feel it.

I help high-growth businesses design workplace experiences that spark connection, inspire high performance, and create a culture employees are proud to represent because when your people care, your customers care too.

After working with over 6,000 employees across industries, I’ve seen what happens when you get the employee experience right:

- Retention goes up
- Performance stays high
- Customer experience improves... and profit follows

I focus on experiential HR,  going beyond policies and perks to design moments that matter in the employee journey. Every interaction, from onboarding to performance reviews, is an opportunity to build emotional connection, trust, and alignment with your business vision.

How I Help:
1️⃣ Employee Experience Diagnosis – Find the gaps before they cost you talent & profit
A full audit of your employee lifecycle, from hire to exit, to uncover where connection, performance, and retention are breaking down. You’ll get a clear, prioritised roadmap to turn your people experience into a driver of customer loyalty and revenue.

2️⃣ Fractional Head of People (Retainer) – Your strategic HR partner, without the full-time headcount
Ongoing, embedded support as your Head of People, we manage the strategy and day-to-day delivery that keeps your culture strong, your performance high, and your best people staying. Ideal for high-growth businesses that need strategic HR leadership without the cost of a full-time hire.

3️⃣ Strategy Sprints & Workshops – One people challenge, solved with a proven plan
Focused, outcome-driven sessions to design and deliver a single high-impact people strategy, from onboarding overhauls, to manager enablement, to performance frameworks so you see change and results fast.

Who I Work With:

💡 People-first business owners running 6-figure companies with teams of 15+ who know that employee experience is a growth engine,  not just a HR function.

🚀 Agencies, creative studios, and tech firms in high-growth mode, ready to scale without losing their best people or their culture.

🛠 Founders & leaders who want a connected, driven, and high-performing team that delivers an exceptional customer experience and drives profit.

If your people strategy isn’t translating into customer loyalty and revenue yet,  let’s change that.

📧 Georgia@accesshrltd.com
🌐 www.accesshrltd.com

Georgia Dixon 🍬 MCIPD

Chloe took a call at work.
Her partner had taken his own life.

It wasn’t the words.
It was the sound that came after.
A broken scream that still sits in my chest years later.

We talk about performance.
Attendance.
Engagement.
Deadlines.
Workload.

But behind every polite “Yeah, I’m fine” is a whole world we don’t see.

And during Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, this is the part we need to say out loud:

Men struggle silently.
They mask well.
They carry pressure alone.
They pretend they're okay because that’s what they’ve been taught to do.

I’ve seen men:
– joke their way through burnout
– show up to work the day after breaking inside
– keep going because stopping feels unacceptable
– hide pain behind being “the reliable one”

And the hardest truth?

The signs aren’t always obvious.

People still functioning.
Still replying.
Still showing up.

Workplace behaviour doesn’t always reflect internal reality.

That scream I heard wasn’t just one woman’s grief.
It was a reminder that we have no idea what people go home to.
Or what they’ve already survived.
Or what they’re trying so hard to hold together.

So today, and every day, slow down with your people.

Check in properly.
Look past the default responses.
Make space for honesty.

Treat everyone like a human first.

Georgia  Dixon

Building Founder Confidence in HR ✨ Helping Agencies Scale Through People, Not Paperwork | Award-Winning Consultant | Clients Featured in Sunday Times Best Places to Work

2017: Failed. Told I wouldn’t get a good job.
2018: People pleaser. First-time manager trying to prove myself.
2019: Overworked. Learnt the hard way that confidence comes after action, not before..

2020: “Your job is just to manage risk.”
2021: Started Access HR anyway.
2022: Highest HR qualification achieved.

2023: Left corporate to bet on myself.
2024: Won Most Inspiring HR Leader 2025.
2025: Finalist at the Grammys of Entrepreneurship. #GBEA

I wasn’t supposed to succeed.

Not according to the predictions.
Not according to the comments.
Not according to the people who only saw limitations.

But I learned something powerful:
If no one opens a door for you… You build your own.

Brick by brick. Day after day. Even when no one is watching.

I’m not here because it was easy.
I’m here because I refused to stop.

What does your timeline look like?

#careerjourney #womeninbusiness #entrepreneurship #hr #people #leadership #founderlife

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People join for a job, but they stay for an identity.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:
When you skip onboarding because “we just need them to get on with it”…

You don’t get speed.
You get guesswork.

Because even the most experienced hire can’t answer:
→ Who am I here?
→ How do we win?
→ What does “good” look like in this business, not the last one?
→ How do we make decisions?
→ What actually matters?
→ Where do I add the most value?

You don’t have a contributor, you have chaos. 

When that clarity is missing, here’s what happens every time:
❌ They work hard… in the wrong direction
❌ They rely on old habits that don’t fit your business
❌ They deliver at 60% because they’re scared to make the wrong call
❌ They repeat mistakes because no one showed them the standard
❌ They detach, because they don’t feel part of anything

People don’t fail because they’re not independent.
They fail because they’re not aligned.

Identity creates alignment.
Alignment creates speed.
Speed creates performance.

Onboarding isn’t about holding someone’s hand.
It’s about giving them a foundation strong enough that they can run fast, and in the right direction.

What’s one thing you wish someone had told you on day one?

Taking HR Off Founders Plates ✨ | Award-Winning HR Consultant | Strategy • People • Performance

0–5: You hire “nice people.”
But what you really need is energy.

5–15: You hire recommendations.
But what you really need is commitment.

15–25: You hire outside your comfort zone.
Because now you need skill.

30+: You hire people from brands you admire.
Because you need expertise, not potential.

And yes, you will lose people along the way.
Not because they’re bad… but because they’re not right for where you’re going next.

Most agencies keep hiring what feels familiar… while missing the real issue:
You don’t realise you’ve outgrown your team.

You just feel the symptoms:

• Decisions take longer
• You’re pulled back into things you shouldn’t be doing
• Managers are busy, but progress stalls
• You keep re-explaining expectations
• Culture feels heavier
• You’re the one driving all momentum
• More people hasn’t created more capacity

These aren’t the problems.
They’re signals the team shape no longer fits the stage you’re entering.

If growth feels chaotic or slower than it should be…
It’s rarely about the individuals.
It’s the architecture of the team.

If you’re scaling and unsure what the next shape should be, let’s talk. 

Which of these symptoms are showing up for you right now?

#founderlife #agencylife #scaling #leadership #culture

Having information scattered across 17 spreadsheets isn’t “how scaling works.”
It’s chaos.

And most businesses don’t realise how much this slows them down.

I see it all the time:

• Onboarding checklists hiding in someone’s inbox
• Policies buried across 3 folders
• Welfare notes lost in Slack
• Performance docs saved on personal laptops

That’s not a people issue.
It’s a systems issue.

The cost?
→ New starters feel lost.
→ Managers make avoidable mistakes.
→ HR spends the week firefighting.
→ Leaders make decisions based on vibes, not data.

Not because anyone’s doing a bad job, but because the infrastructure is working against them.

The fix: one source of truth.
One login.
One home for the things that actually make work… work.

A HR System, like Plumm, an all-in-one HR platform that finally brings your people ops, payroll, wellbeing, and data into one place.

When information stops living everywhere and sits in one place.

Healthy systems → Healthy teams → High-performing businesses.

One place.
One process.
One experience.

That’s where everything changes.

Brand partnership • Building Founder Confidence in HR ✨ Helping Agencies Scale Through People, Not Paperwork | Award-Winning Consultant | Clients Featured in Sunday Times Best Places to Work

We’ve never been more connected, yet felt more alone. 

We scroll while we eat.
We check emails while we walk.
We join meetings while replying to messages about other meetings.

We’re living in an always-on world.

But most people I speak to? They don’t want more connection.

-> They want more presence.
-> They want team days without phones.
-> Walks that don’t turn into work updates.
-> Conversations that go deeper than Slack threads.
-> Moments that mean something.

The new era of work isn’t about tech upgrades or more tools to stay “in sync.”
It’s about building experiences that let people unplug, and actually connect again.

Because high performance doesn’t come from being available 24/7.
It comes from clarity, trust, and space to think.

The next generation already knows this.
They’re choosing to de-plug from noise, from hustle, from performative busyness.

And the rest of us?
We’re craving it too.

Because connection isn’t about being online.
It’s about being here.

Are you feeling the desire to deplug?

HR Consultant & Keynote Speaker | HR for a Modern World: Employee Experience as Your Business Advantage

Every year around this time, my inbox fills up with messages like:
“Our employees are asking for HR… It’s been on our radar”

And every year, the objections are the same:
❌ “It’s not the right time.”
❌ “We need CFO sign-off.”
❌ “We’re too busy to think about HR right now.”
❌ “We just need a bit of admin help.”
❌ “Can you fix everything… immediately?”

So here’s what I always ask in return:

Why do you want HR?
What do you honestly believe HR is supposed to do for your business?
And what does a true partnership look like, not a fire extinguisher?

Because if you’re looking for:
✖️ admin support
✖️ a compliance checkbox
✖️ someone to clean up problems you already made
✖️ or a buffer between leadership and employees

…I’m not your person.

I work with businesses that want HR because they want clarity, capability and consistency and they understand that scaling people isn’t a task list. 
It’s a strategy.

And here’s the uncomfortable truth, I say every year:
If your employees are already asking for HR now, you needed to address it six months ago.

CFO delays don’t pause culture.
“Not the right time” doesn’t pause people risk.
And waiting doesn’t slow the damage; it compounds it.

Avoiding it doesn’t delay the problem.
It accelerates it.

So here’s the real question to sit with:
If your team is signalling the need today… what happens to your culture, your managers, and your performance if you wait another 6 months?

#womeninbusiness #entrepreneurship #hr #people #leadership

Ideas are easy.
Remembering what to do with them is where teams fall apart.

Most businesses don’t have a meeting problem.
They have a memory + follow-up problem.

And the objections I hear always sound the same:

❌ “We already take notes.”
(But everyone’s notes look different… and half the details disappear.)

❌ “We can track actions manually.”
(Except manual follow-up is where 90% of actions go to die.)

❌ “It’s just another tool.”
(It only feels that way when information is scattered across twenty places.)

That’s exactly why Noota launched Noota 360, a connected workspace where every meeting, call, email, and action is automatically captured and linked together.

No more forgotten decisions.
No more “Who wrote that down?”
No more chasing information across tools.

Just one place where conversations turn into clarity and clarity turns into action.

They've also rolled out a redesigned interface that’s faster, cleaner, and easier to use, with everything organised down the left sidebar.

Noota has transformed a note-taking tool to:

• centralise knowledge
• automate follow-up
• create continuity between interactions
• protect your data with sovereign-level security
• give teams back 3 hours a week

Good ideas aren’t the bottleneck.
Losing track of them is.

If your team is feeling the friction, this is the fix.

📌 If you want to try it out, Noota’s giving 50% off using code: BLACKFRIDAY https://lnkd.in/e9KSJG3C

Brand partnership • Taking HR Off Founders Plates ✨ | Award-Winning HR Consultant | Strategy • People • Performance

“What happens after ‘Develop’… before ‘Depart’?” 

A question during my keynote at the The CPD Certification Service Expo at Excel London 2025, where I delivered "HR Is Dead" to a packed room.

I’d just walked everyone through the traditional employee lifecycle:
Attract → Onboard → Perform → Engage → Develop…

Then an attendee raised their hand and asked:
“So what comes next?”

And that question has stayed with me ever since.
Because the truth is: most organisations don’t even look for an answer.

They assume people jump from developing straight to leaving and that’s simply not how people work.

There is a missing stage.

→ Re-Engage.
And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

Since that moment on stage, I’ve had:

🔥 a queue of leaders wanting to talk specifically about Re-Engage
🔥 attendees posting about it on LinkedIn
🔥 People Directors telling me they’re now building it into their 2026 People Strategy

That one question, asked in real time, in front of 200+ people has now shaped one of my most requested talks for 2026 and I’ve already had people asking how to book me.

So, here it is: my 2026 speaking diary is officially open. I’m taking bookings for:

✨ Keynotes
✨ Team Days
✨ Company Festivals
✨ Leadership Offsites & Events

If you want HR Is Dead, Stop Managing Generations Start Leading People, or Modern Retention: People Strategy for Our New World on your stage in 2026… now’s the time to get dates in the diary.

Reach out to bring value to your audience. There’s no time like right now. 

#speaker #entrepreneurship #hr #people #leadership #founderlife

"Outsourcing HR would be too generic for our culture, but you made it feel totally tailored”

Generic HR exists.
Copy-paste handbooks.
Corporate beige.

But, that isn’t my world + my client testimonial agrees.

My work doesn’t flatten culture; it translates it into something people can follow. I take what already makes you magnetic and build it into something scalable.

Because culture shouldn’t disappear when the founder isn’t in the room.

It shouldn’t weaken with every new hire.
It shouldn’t rely on memory, mood, or legacy knowledge.

Identity → Framework → Repeatability → Scale.

Founders don’t lose culture by growing.
They lose it by growing without infrastructure.

If you want HR that protects who you are, not replaces it. I’m opening 3x 60-minute consultation calls for Founders in the next 24 hours.

No forms.
No beige.
Just clarity, identity and scalability.

DM CULTURE to get one.
First come, first taken.

#business #hr #people  #leadership #founderlife

Doing “HR” isn’t the problem.
Doing everyone else’s admin is.

HR isn’t drowning in strategy; it’s drowning in tasks no human should be doing in 2025.

Every week, I see People teams manually fixing data, chasing onboarding tasks, updating policies, pulling headcount, checking overdue reviews…

 It’s not HR.
 It’s operational debt.

 That’s why Plumm’s AI Agent stands out.
 Not as a shiny tool but as something that actually gives HR time back.

 It can:
 → Understand natural language (type it or say it)
 → Automate workflows end-to-end (Time Off, Contracts, Onboarding, Insights)
 → Catch compliance issues early
 → Produce instant summaries + analytics
 → Give proactive next steps
 → Let admins update company-wide policies directly in chat

 Real examples?

 ✨ “Create an onboarding schedule with HR + IT tasks one day before start date.” → Done.
✨ “Create a workplace satisfaction poll.” → Live in seconds.

 Plus real-time insights across People, Time Off, Learning, Wellbeing, and Joiners/Leavers, all without spreadsheets or digging.

 What’s the first People Ops task you’d hand to AI?

I wasn’t educated about Menopause until I met Margaret Wood.
And honestly? Most of us aren’t.

This episode is for all genders and all ages, because menopause isn’t a “women’s issue,” it’s a workplace issue, a humanity issue, and a learning issue.

Margaret is an incredible advocate for menopausal transitional learning, and she shared SO much… But her analogy of menopause? No spoilers, but it’s the best thing I’ve heard in ages.

She made something so misunderstood feel simple, human, and impossible to ignore.

An experience so many face, yet still treated as taboo in life, and especially at work.

“Because a woman isn’t reproductive doesn’t mean she isn’t productive.” 🧯
One of my favourite lines from the entire conversation.

The full episode is now live on the Plumm Pod on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Music.

Comment “Pod” and I’ll send you the link directly.

#EmployeeExperience #Menopause #Leadership

I've been nominated for Service Business of the Year at the Grammys of Entrepreneurship 🫶

Honestly, it's still a bit surreal to see my name on that list.

When I started Access HR 3 years ago, all I knew was that HR desperately needed an evolution, an injection of humanity with commercial impact. I didn't have a grand plan - just a belief that things could be done differently.

Now we're here. After winning Most Inspiring HR Leader of the Year already, I'm feeling incredibly proud to be recognised again for my work. 

The awards are on Monday, so wish me luck!! 

Thank you to everyone who's been part of this journey. This is so exciting 💖

Any recommendations for networking at such a big event?

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