Trina Sunday

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Trina Sunday Trina Sunday is a human-first leadership strategist empowering HR leaders to become courageous change-makers.

With over 25 years of global experience across HR, OD, and leadership, Trina brings clarity, compassion, and bold insight to the future of work.

HR isn't the empathy department. And that's the point.I've been thinking a lot about what we're actually asking HR to be...
22/10/2026

HR isn't the empathy department. And that's the point.

I've been thinking a lot about what we're actually asking HR to be.

And whether, somewhere along the way, we've confused caring about people with being responsible for everything human in an organisation.

I recently joined my friend Redfern and Mel Butcher on the Lead to Soar podcast for a wonderfully candid conversation about leadership, power, influence and the future of HR.

We covered a lot of ground, challenged a few assumptions, and there may have been some colourful language along the way!

But one question has stayed with me:

What are we using our intelligence, credibility and influence in service of?

This is something I explore more deeply in my latest blog: "HR Isn't the Empathy Department. Why HR Needs More Than a Seat at the Table "

And it sits at the heart of HEART Work™️: the philosophy redefining the future of HR.

Read the full blog. Hit the link in my bio or head to the Get Inspired page on trinasunday.com, where you can read and watch more content for HR leaders ready to think differently about the future of work.

Curious how this lands for you.

This is HEART Work™️. And I’m here for it, and for you.

A big thank you to Michelle and Mel for having me. Always love a conversation that makes us think a little differently.

21/10/2026

How inclusive is your workplace when the person in front of you doesn’t fit comfortably inside the systems you’ve designed?

It’s relatively easy to talk about inclusion when people fit the mould, but the real test comes when they don’t.

When their career isn’t linear or their brain works differently.

When they need flexibility that isn’t particularly convenient or when disability requires us to change something.

When their history makes us uncomfortable.

That’s when our commitment to equity gets tested.

In this episode of Heart at Work, I talk about the gap between the workplaces we say we want to create and what people actually experience when they try to enter them and succeed within them.

The conversation centres on the work of Success Works Partners and women who have experienced the criminal legal system. But the question is one every HR leader should be asking.

Are we assessing the person and their potential or are we allowing one characteristic, one circumstance or one chapter of their life to define everything that comes next?

For me, this is what equity in action looks like. Getting curious about the systems we’ve designed and being prepared to question who they work for, who has to work harder to get through them and who never gets through the door at all.

🎧 Find us on all major podcast platforms and the 🔗 for this specific episode is in the comments below.

What if some of the recruitment processes we call fair and responsible are continuing someone’s punishment long after th...
19/10/2026

What if some of the recruitment processes we call fair and responsible are continuing someone’s punishment long after they’ve served their sentence?

In this episode, I’m sharing a powerful conversation originally recorded for the launch of Redefining Recruitment, a guide from Success Works Partners. Alongside Yvette Evans-Streeter, Gemma Wisdom, Natasha and Tove, We talk about what happens when criminal records, police checks, psychometric testing and seemingly reasonable recruitment processes become barriers to capable women rebuilding their lives.

You’ll hear lived experiences that challenge assumptions about risk, merit and second chances, and why treating everyone the same isn’t necessarily fair. I also explore why equity isn’t charity. It’s about understanding context, recognising capability and questioning whether the systems we’ve stopped noticing are keeping good people out.

My question for you: What is one requirement, process or policy in your workplace that everybody assumes is reasonable because it’s always been there? What might you discover if you asked who it works for and who it keeps out?

I’d love to hear what comes up for you.

🎧 Find us on all major podcast platforms and the 🔗 for this specific episode is in the bio and comments below.

16/10/2026

What does a second chance mean if our recruitment systems keep the punishment going?

We talk a lot about rehabilitation, second chances, fairness and inclusion.

But what happens when a woman has served her sentence, rebuilt her life and is ready to work, only to find another set of barriers waiting for her?

A police check, a tick-box question and a risk process that leaves no room for context.

At what point does accountability end and systemic exclusion begin?

That’s one of the questions I talk about in the next episode of Heart at Work.

Because some of the biggest barriers to equity don’t look discriminatory. They look perfectly reasonable. They’re called policy, process, risk and precedent.

And sometimes they’ve been sitting inside our recruitment systems for so long that we’ve stopped questioning what they do.

This conversation asks HR and business leaders to look again.

Not to ignore genuine risk or to lower standards, but to understand the difference between assessing someone’s capability today and continuing to judge them by one chapter of their past.

Once you hear what happens on the other side of some of these systems, it becomes very hard to look at them in quite the same way.

🎧 The episode is released on Monday. Stay tuned.

What do you see when you look at the world through the eyes of a street artist? 🎨A blank wall? Or a canvas full of possi...
14/10/2026

What do you see when you look at the world through the eyes of a street artist? 🎨

A blank wall? Or a canvas full of possibility?

An ordinary object? Or something extraordinary waiting to happen?

One of our Reimagine HR consultants Nicole, spotted this giant spray can sculpture in Melbourne recently, and it got me thinking...

Street artists see the world differently.

They challenge conventions. Find beauty in unexpected places. Turn the overlooked into something impossible to ignore.

And they don't always ask permission to colour outside the lines.

Sounds a lot like the kind of leadership we need more of, doesn't it?

Because reimagining the future of work takes more than tweaking what's already there.

It takes curiosity. Courage. A willingness to see what others don't. And sometimes, the audacity to pick up the spray can and create something entirely new.

So here's my question: Are you looking at the world as it is, or imagining what it could become?

And more importantly... what are you prepared to create?

I’ve been thinking a lot about how rarely our lives fit neatly into one box.Work. Family. Health. Relationships. Leaders...
13/10/2026

I’ve been thinking a lot about how rarely our lives fit neatly into one box.

Work. Family. Health. Relationships. Leadership. Identity. Expectations. Pressure. Care. Change.

We often talk about these things as though they sit separately, but they don’t. They are deeply interconnected, and that is exactly why conversations about people, work and wellbeing need to go deeper than surface-level advice or quick fixes.

That is why I’m so looking forward to emceeing the launch of Michelle Daw 's book, Interconnected AF, and leading a conversation that explores the human issues underneath it all.

Michelle’s work speaks to the messy middle of life and the invisible load so many women carry. And for me, it connects strongly with the way I think about employee experience, leadership and organisational culture.

Because in workplaces, people do not arrive as one-dimensional employees.

They arrive with lives, systems, responsibilities, pressure points, histories and hopes. And if we want to build better workplaces, we have to understand the ecosystems people are moving through.

That is the kind of conversation I love holding space for.

Human. Honest. Complex. Connected.

Come for the book. Stay for the conversation, connection and celebration.

07/10/2026

How often do organisations celebrate the finish line when there’s still time left on the clock?

Fremantle was 17 points ahead with four minutes left.

Then came Wharfie Time.

For Fremantle, the message seemed to be: we’re nearly there.

Brisbane heard something very different: there’s still time.

Same sound, same moment, but two completely different messages.

Four goals in 258 seconds, and win Brisbane by seven.

It was painful.

But there’s a workplace lesson in those four minutes that I can’t stop thinking about.

Organisations have their own Wharfie Time moments everywhere.

The strategy gets approved. Celebrate.
The restructure gets announced. Celebrate.
The system goes live. Celebrate.
The contract gets signed. Celebrate.

Recognition and celebration matter but psychologically crossing the finish line before the work is even finished can be dangerous.

Because the same signal telling one team to relax might be telling someone else to accelerate. Momentum isn’t completion.

For HR and leaders, that’s worth thinking about. Are you clear about what “done” actually means? Are you celebrating progress while keeping people focused on what still needs to happen?

Because sometimes four minutes is enough time for everything to change.

🎧 Find Heart at Work with Trina Sunday on all major podcast platforms and the 🔗 for this specific episode is in the comments below.

05/10/2026

There are some events where the content matters enormously — but so do the people you get to be in the room with.

I was in Docklands this week for the launch of Thriving Communities Australia’s One Generation lived experience research, focused on what it will take to end domestic, family and sexual violence within one generation.

One of the findings that really stayed with me was this:

Domestic and family violence creates needs and risks that standard hardship and debt collection processes do not consistently recognise.

Because hardship isn’t always just hardship.
Debt isn’t always just debt.
And a process that looks “fair” on paper can cause very real harm when it ignores power, control and safety.

It was also especially lovely to spend time in person with Sally Renfrey from the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety, who leads CWES’ Money Clinics.

As a CWES Board Director, I’m incredibly proud of this work. Sally and the Money Clinics team sit alongside women dealing with the very practical financial consequences of economic abuse — the debt, accounts, credit issues and financial entanglements that can continue long after other parts of the abuse are visible. The work is specialist, practical and deeply human.

And then there was Micaela Cronin.

Micaela is Australia’s Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commissioner, doing extraordinary work at a national level to help drive progress towards ending gender-based violence.

But to me, she is also an old friend.

We first crossed paths through our time working in Cambodia, long before either of us could have imagined where our respective work would take us. There was something quite special about standing together in Melbourne all these years later and seeing the scale of the impact she is now having in this space.

Those personal connections made the day mean even more.

The challenge coming through this research is a significant one for organisations: don’t wait until harm has occurred and then rely on compassion to fix it. Design systems that recognise risk earlier, respond safely and don’t keep asking victim-survivors to carry the burden of explaining the complexity of their lives.

That is systems change.

And it matters.

Read more about Finding 3 in the One Generation report (link in the comments)

What can an AFL Grand Final teach us about workplace culture, performance, belonging and leadership? Quite a lot, as it ...
05/10/2026

What can an AFL Grand Final teach us about workplace culture, performance, belonging and leadership? Quite a lot, as it turns out.

I came within four minutes of watching the Fremantle Dockers win their first AFL premiership. After more than two decades of supporting Freo, a failed ticket ballot and some serious help from my network, I made it into the MCG. Then came Wharfie Time, and everything changed.

In this episode, I talk about what Grand Final week reminded me about social capital and access to opportunity, the unseen work behind high performance, why we need to define what “great” actually looks like, and why belonging can’t be manufactured through another engagement initiative.

I also talk about the much darker reality surrounding major sporting events and family and domestic violence, and what that means for workplaces supporting employees when life gets messy.

What does genuine belonging look like in your workplace, and would your people still feel it when things aren’t going well? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

🎧 Find us on all major podcast platforms and the 🔗 for this specific episode is in the bio and comments below.

02/10/2026

What can an AFL Grand Final teach us about workplace culture, performance, leadership and human behaviour?

Quite a lot, as it goes.

Four minutes. That’s how close I came to watching the Fremantle Dockers win their first ever AFL Premiership after more than two decades of supporting them.

I’d missed out on the Grand Final ticket ballot. My LinkedIn network came through with a ticket. My husband found standing room through a guy at the gym who knew a guy. Our daughter stayed with friends.

Somehow, we were there.

And then came Wharfie Time and everything changed.

Somewhere between the heartbreak, Shai Bolton’s Norm Smith Medal, G Flip seemingly playing every instrument under the sun, Team Kylie and the darker side of Grand Final fever, I realised something.

The AFL Grand Final might just be one of the best case studies in workplace culture, performance, networks, leadership and human behaviour you’ll ever see.

Because beneath the spectacle are some very human questions.

Who gets access to opportunities and why?
What does genuine high performance look like?
How do you create a sense of belonging people actually feel?
What happens when the same moment sends two groups completely different messages?
And what does human-first leadership look like when life gets messy?

I’m still recovering from those final four minutes, but there’s a lot to talk about.

🎧 The episode of Heart at Work with Trina Sunday is released on Monday. Stay tuned.

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