HR Engage Podcast with Tanya Hibbard

In this episode of HR Engage, host Jonathan Mamaril sits down with Tanya Hibbard, a “pracademic” who has steered people strategy everywhere from high-stakes automotive showrooms to remote mine sites and, most recently, oil-and-gas operations. Tanya unpacks how turning HR into a profit centre helped her rise from coordinator to multi-site leader, why mapping every stakeholder (even the finance team you forgot last time!) is non-negotiable, and how she’s building a first-of-its-kind Aboriginal workforce program six-and-a-half hours south of Darwin. 

In this conversation you’ll learn:

• Commercial HR 101: How lean automotive margins taught Tanya to speak the language of dollars and KPIs—and why executives finally listened when the numbers hit the screen. 
  
  
• Career agility: Moving from car dealerships across Sydney, the Gold Coast and Brisbane to heavy-industry teams in the Bowen Basin, Hunter Valley and PNG, then pivoting to oil & gas without missing a beat. 
  
  
• Building inclusive pipelines: The inside story on launching an Aboriginal workforce initiative in Elliott, NT, and the community partnerships making it stick. 
  
  
• Practical wisdom for every HR level: From public-speaking hacks that stop the shakes to the stakeholder checklist that saves projects—and reputations. 
  
  
• Future-proofing the profession: Why HR needs more gender balance, and how technology’s march risks eroding the human connections that make workplaces thrive. 
  
  

If you’re an early-career HR pro hunting for confidence, a seasoned leader chasing sharper commercial impact, or anyone curious about people strategy at the coalface (sometimes literally), this episode is your roadmap.