Shaping HR Cultures That Inspire and Drive Growth
Antigoni Pavlou
Head- Human Resources
Adapting HR strategies across industries as diverse as consulting, retail, real estate, and shipping demands more than expertise. It requires vision, agility, and a profound understanding of organisational transformation. Antigoni Pavlou is a leader who delivers exactly that. With over 20 years of experience, she has had the privilege of serving in multiple industries, both as an in-house HR leader and as a consultant, setting up and heading HR departments from the ground up. Her career has spanned the full spectrum of HR, including onboarding, performance management, employee relations, engagement, and large-scale transformation. She believes that while HR principles remain the foundation, their execution must be tailored to an organisation’s culture, strategy, and people. In her previous employments, Antigoni ensured that HR is not just a function but a driving force behind business resilience and growth. She worked closely with top leadership to align HR with corporate strategy, fostering a high-performance culture, innovation, and a strong customercentric approach. The biggest shift in her mindset had come from the realisation that organisational transformation is no longer optional but is necessary for survival and long-term success.A champion of HR modernisation, she integrated BambooHR to drive data-backed decision-making and enhance workforce analytics. Under her leadership, the company achieved the prestigious Gold-level Investors in People accreditation. One can easily say that for Antigoni, HR is about empowering people, shaping visionary leadership, and ensuring organisations thrive in an ever-evolving world. How? Let’s read here.
What does "employee experience" mean to you, and how do you measure its success beyond engagement scores?
For me, ‘employee experience’ starts from the minute you talk to a potential candidate and either you finally recruit the employee or not, or he has left the organisation after a certain period; he goes out into the market and labels his experience with you with words such as trusting, confident, human-centric, guidance, coaching, empathy, and being listened to. This has been the best reward as an HR leader. For me, the best measurement would be a successful culture that speaks for itself day in and day out. A culture of educated professionals, striving for a people-centred approach and professional growth for employees.
How do you modernise HR in a traditionally rigid industry?
This is a huge challenge in any rigid and traditional framework, and the trick lies in the mindset. And it is not so much about deciding and implementing the modern HR practices, but how you make your way around in introducing, presenting and enhancing these practices to be accepted. And you start with your top leaders who by now have trusted your initiatives and have seen results and have managed to convince them by portraying the benefits to the organisation and aligning these with the company strategy. This is the biggest win-win of all. And with their support, you move to the next level of leaders/department heads, and you start a process of involvement: what do you think? What more can we do? I suggest…and you slowly embed these practices through brainstorming, communication and indicating what you wish to achieve and the end result. Resilience will then start hitting lower levels.
What cultural blind spots do HR leaders overlook in a global workforce, and how do you address them?
Managing a diverse, global workforce is a giant responsibility. It is critical for an HR leader to know the diversity of its employees in all locations, whether this is ethnicity, religion, or backgrounds. A simple example is when the workplace closes for the Christmas holidays and the majority of Christians can celebrate their religious holidays. What happens though when Ramadan comes around and Muslim employees may not have accommodations made for them? Policies have to be written up very carefully in order to recognise the diversity of culture among its employees. These should include clothing expectations, even food ethnocentrism if the organisation offers meals to its employees. Cultivating this cultural agility by maintaining an open-minded outlook towards culture and striving to be sensitive to different perspectives, choosing our words and reactions carefully. Most importantly, it is to explore these cultural norms and practices. Knowledge is king!
What passion defines you beyond work?
After my love for HR, I would say my next passion is spending time with children. Precious time with these little people is so rewarding and reminds you that there is still innocence, purity and easy communication in this challenging, to say the least, world we live in today. You can have lovely conversations with them, and just by playing or reading to them, it is wonderful how much information they absorb and how their little minds can develop. I guess it is applying my human skills even to these little ones and watching the way they react that is intriguing.
