Lucy Adams

Lucy Adams was the BBC’s Director of Human Resources between 2009 and 2014, one of its most turbulent and publicly scrutinised periods. She was responsible for the design and implementation of the BBC's HR strategy to ensure that the BBC had the right people in the right roles, performing at their best.

In her five-year tenure, Lucy reduced the corporation’s management by over 30% and witnessed four Director Generals come and go, oversaw the move to the Manchester Salford site, and coped with numerous and very public crises, including executive payoffs and the Jimmy Savile scandal.

Alongside this Lucy also led a team responsible for the delivery of a full range of HR functions, including training and development, internal communications and engagement, recruitment, employee relations, remuneration and benefits, organisation design and change management, diversity, HR administration and policy. She was also responsible for the BBC's outsourced HR services.

Lucy joined the BBC in 2009, having previously been Director of HR at the international law firm Eversheds LLP. Prior to this she spent nine years at Serco Group plc, the government services organisation, starting as Change Director in the Rail Division before becoming the Group HR Director in 2004.

Since leaving the BBC, Lucy has been in constant demand on the conference speaking circuit giving keynote presentations on topics including disruptive HR, leadership, communication and employee engagement. Together with her business partner, Lucy also runs workshops and consults on many topics within the HR arena. She specialises in helping HR and other business professionals to step back from their old assumptions about motivating people and to see more creative and effective ways of engaging employees. Recent clients have included Oracle, HSBC, RBS, Swiss Re, Jaguar Landrover as well as some large sector-led conferences.

Lucy Adams is also the author of the best-seller “HR Disrupted”, a book packed with practical ways to innovate your approach to leading people in a disrupted world.

If you believe it’s time for something different, if you recognise there’s a better way of working with your employees, if you know your systems and processes are not delivering, if you feel you’ve lost sight of the obvious — of the common sense approach — and if you want to create a positive impact, then you need to hear what Lucy Adams has to say.

Today’s world presents endless opportunities for HR to drive innovation, creativity, collaboration and productivity. Lucy Adams presents keynote speeches on a range of topics, addressing the biggest challenges facing business leaders and HR today:

• How to manage, engage and develop people in the 21st century
• How to lead in a disrupted world
• How to create more innovation through your people
• How to build a digital capability
• How to build resilience

Lucy is on a mission to help organisations bring their human resources departments into the 21st century. She aims to provoke the HR community into creating new ways to support businesses in today’s complex and ambiguous world. In doing so she challenges leaders and HR professionals to learn from sources as varied as management theory, consumer organisations, marketing, neuroscience, and the latest thinking on motivation and reward.

As a follow-up to her keynote presentations, Lucy presents workshops which share approaches to attracting, developing and managing people that are fresh and innovative – and of course disruptive!

She also addresses how businesses can deal with public scrutiny, and advises them on leadership and change.

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Clients often ask about purchasing books for giveaways and delegate packs. Below you’ll find a selection of products by Lucy Adams. Click the images to view on Amazon's website. For bulk orders, please speak with your Booking Agent.