Profile
Emma Harvie spent two years building the case for a role that did not yet exist. As global head of recognition and rewards insights at Achievers, she campaigned internally to have the position created, securing buy-in and budget for work she believed the organisation needed. It stands as the achievement she is proudest of in a career built on spotting gaps and closing them.
In her own assessment, connecting the dots and closing gaps is her strongest professional quality. “It means understanding an organisation’s strategy and its people risk, identifying what data actually informs their decision making, and finding the additional insight needed to close the gap between current state and desired state,” she explains. She traces that instinct to care rather than control, noting she notices details because she wants the people and work around her to succeed.
Harvie’s current challenge is convincing organisations that recognition is not a program competing for space on a crowded agenda, but the infrastructure other initiatives depend on. She explains that not one initiative, whether an AI rollout or a culture change program, can stick without a reinforcement system behind them. Her approach is to stay curious about what keeps a leader up at night, then connect recognition to the objective they already care about, backed by research and precedent rather than opinion alone.
As an Elite Woman, Harvie is candid about the credibility burden she still encounters. Women in HR, she says, often have to justify not just their argument but their right to make it, in rooms that skew male at the executive level. What sets her apart, she believes, is refusing to let that discomfort keep her quiet.
“Whether that’s the gap between AI investment and human readiness, or the fact that recognition is still treated as a nice to have when it’s actually core business infrastructure, I’d rather say it plainly than let it sit unspoken in the room,” she says.
Naming the difficult thing only works if she can back it up, and she pairs that instinct with the commercial acumen to translate behavioural science into language a CHRO or CFO will act on, describing it as soft skills and hard numbers in the same sentence rather than on opposing sides.
Public visibility still makes Harvie uncomfortable, but she has come to see it as worthwhile. “You can’t be what you can’t see,” she adds, and if being part of this program helps someone else recognise what is possible for them, she considers it time well spent.
Asked what legacy she hopes to leave behind, Harvie wants the industry to start recognising recognition and rewards not just as a nice to haves but more importantly as core mechanisms for behaviour change.
“If I can help move the industry to treat it as core infrastructure for change, on the same footing as strategy, technology, and leadership, rather than as a soft layer sitting on top of them, that’s the legacy I want.”
1-11 Gordon Street, Cremorne, Vic 3121
emma.harvie@achievers.com
linkedin.com/in/emmaharvie/
achievers.com
Emma Harvie
Global Head of Recognition and Rewards Insights Achievers
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Bio
Milestones
2019-2025
2025-2026
2026
Head of Customer Success, APAC at Achievers
2019-2025
Global Head of Recognition and Rewards Insights at Achievers
2025-2026
Co-host of A-Listed podcast
2026
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