Let's go further
Tuesday, 6th October 2026
The employee experience landscape is shifting, and the organisations pulling ahead aren't just listening more, they're listening smarter. WorkBuzz Live! is your space to cut through the noise, challenge your thinking and leave with ideas you can actually use.
Are your listening efforts actually driving progress? Are managers enabling change or holding it back? Are your leaders visible and bought in - and do your employees feel it?
These are the questions at the heart of WorkBuzz Live! 2026. Across keynotes, roundtables and peer discussions, we'll explore what it really takes to build a high-performing listening culture - from maturing your strategy and empowering managers, to unlocking leadership support and reigniting employee engagement.
Full agenda & details will be revealed soon, but here's a snapshot!
The day will run from 9.30am to 4.30pm.
Get your name badges and grab a cuppa before the day commences.
Be among the very first to hear the findings from WorkBuzz's Future of Work research. Ryan Tahmassebi, WorkBuzz's VP People Science and a real expert on listening and engagement, takes a deeper dive into the data - unpacking what this year's research reveals about listening maturity, manager effectiveness, and the drivers of employee engagement. This isn't just a presentation, you'll then take the findings to your table, identifying the insights that matter most for your organisation and the one key takeaway you're going to act on.
Most HR leaders know listening matters. The problem is keeping it alive - getting leaders to truly own it, not just tolerate it, and moving beyond the annual survey to build a genuine capability that drives performance.
In this interactive peer session, you'll use the WorkBuzz maturity model as a shared diagnostic tool - drawing on the experience of senior HR and People leaders from across the room to pinpoint barriers, and leaving with specific actions to take in the next 30 days.
David Fairhurst, founder and CEO of OrgShakers - a global organisation of leading HR consultants, takes the stage for this keynote focusing on the theme of Leaders. David is an HR strategy advisor who spent over two decades leading people functions inside some of the world's largest organisations, including McDonald's and Tesco, where he saw first-hand the difference that proximity to the front line makes to organisational performance.
Expect bold ideas, practical takeaways, and plenty of food for thought.
More information will be revealed soon!
Managers are the biggest single lever in any engagement programme, and the most common point of failure. This session tackles the action planning trap head-on: why template answers, lack of authority, and misaligned incentives turn well-designed systems into tick-box exercises - and what to actually do about it.
You'll leave with an honest picture of where manager capability sits in your organisation, the root cause of action planning failure, and a blueprint for changes you can make.
Catrinel Stanila, Chief People Officer at one of the UK’s foremost housing groups, Orbit, takes the stage for this keynote focusing on the theme of Employees & Effective Listening Strategies. Cat currently leads Orbit’s People Strategy, focusing on three key areas: HR Operations, Business Partnering, and the overall Colleague Experience. Cat brings over 20 years of senior HR experience across international and UK-based roles in the automotive, utilities and housing sectors.
Hear about Orbit’s listening journey and the impact they’ve made.
More information will be revealed soon!
If you don’t need to get away immediately, join Steve, Ryan, Mel and the WorkBuzz team in the bar to reflect on the day or just take a breath before your journey home.