E8 - Is 'best practice' killing HR?

In this episode of HR Unfiltered, we take a long-overdue swing at one of HR’s most sacred cows: best practice. It sounds sensible. It feels safe. And in today’s complex, exhausted, fast-changing world, it’s quietly doing more harm than good.

We walk through where best practice came from, why HR clings to it, and why copying what worked elsewhere is increasingly failing organisations now, especially under the pressures of AI, burnout, public-sector strain, and fragile trust.

We draw a clear line between what’s safe to copy and what absolutely isn’t, challenge the confusion between compliance and best practice, and argue that risk and governance are strategic choices, and not excuses to stop thinking.

Most importantly, we remind practitioners that there is a perfectly viable alternative - best fit - and we bring contemporary guidance on how to do this in a way that's fit for today. In our view, it's a design-led, commercially grounded way of doing HR that starts with the real problem, the real context, and the real constraints, not someone else’s framework.

You’ll hear:

• Why best practice protects HR personally but limits organisational impact

• When copying is fine, and when it’s actively dangerous

• The questions HR should ask before importing any “proven” solution

• The five components of best-fit people design in the contemporary world

• Why HR doesn’t get another decade of failed rollouts

If you’re tired of rolling out elegant frameworks that don’t survive contact with reality, this one’s for you.

TL;DR: Best practice is fine for the boring stuff. Best fit is essential for the work that actually matters.