Book One
Trusted Advisor
Partnering directly with senior leaders to drive organisational change that sticks.
People Advisory | Workforce Capability | Strategic Upskilling | Employee Experience
My career in People and Culture started the way a lot of good careers do, by being thrown into a little bit of everything. Early on I was a generalist: payroll, training coordination, recruitment, policy, IEAs. Whatever needed doing. That grounding turned out to matter more than I realised at the time. It taught me how the different pieces of the people function actually fit together, long before I specialised in any one of them. Over the last eight years that generalist instinct has stayed with me even as my role has narrowed and deepened. I've built and rebuilt programmes from the ground up, taken ambiguous, half-formed briefs, and turned them into initiatives that work, and learned to develop a mindset of continuous improvement. What I care about, underneath it all, is the same thing I cared about at the start: to be part of a team that builds an environment in which everyone can do their best work.
Core capabilities
A generalist foundation that never went away, layered with eight years of deep learning and organisational development specialisation.
The generalist backbone
The bigger picture
Making an impact
Portfolio Library
Seven themes from my work, captured as a collection of short books. Open one to explore the challenge, the approach, and a reflection on the outcome.
Book One
Partnering directly with senior leaders to drive organisational change that sticks.
Book Two
Designing and delivering blended learning programmes across a diverse range of audiences, contexts, and capability needs.
Book Three
Building a career progression pathway from a minimal brief through to leadership adoption, aligned to succession needs.
Book Four
Redesigning the training operating model for a legal firm, and leading an end-to-end LMS implementation and governance.
Book Five
Collecting and analysing people experience data alongside stakeholders to surface capability gaps and drive real action.
Book Six
Streamlining CPD compliance tracking by replacing a manual, friction-heavy process with new technology and workflows.
Book Seven
Applying AI beyond everyday use to build repeatable, practical solutions, including an AI assistant for LMS troubleshooting.
Career path
2015 – 2018
The Career Academy
Led a team of 13 online tutors. My first experience building learning at scale and partnering with curriculum developers to continuously improve the learner experience.
2018 – 2021
Meredith Connell
Coordinated firm-wide learning programmes and supported HR operations including recruitment, payroll and policy work, gaining broad exposure to the full HR function.
2021 – 2022
Meredith Connell
Moved from coordinating to designing: technical training programmes, onboarding workshops, and learning insights for senior managers. Also managed the firm's Intern Programme and continued payroll and policy support.
2022 – Present
Meredith Connell
Strategic leadership of firm-wide capability, career development, and employee experience. Partnering with senior leaders to connect people programmes to organisational strategy, while staying closely connected to broader generalist HR work.
Education
Bachelor of Science
National Certificate in Adult Education and Training, Level 4 & 5
Graduate Diploma in Business Studies (Human Resource Management)
Let's connect
I bridge high-level strategy and everyday workplace performance, translating where the business wants to go into how people actually deliver. If you need a trusted advisor who pairs big-picture vision with measurable impact, I'd love to chat.
smjacobsen23@gmail.com · 0211 841 052 · Auckland, New Zealand