Al Crook
Chief Human Resources Officer
Zurich North America
Episode 46
HR's Evolution: Balancing Human Impact with Data-Driven Business Outcomes
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleSeptember 24, 2025 · 18:29
Thesis
“HR's strategic imperative is to align people practices with business outcomes, leveraging data and effective communication to manage talent and navigate rapid change while preserving employee well-being and a sustainable business model.”
Show notes
Few HR challenges are generating more executive-level anxiety than the rising cost of healthcare benefits — and few HR leaders are talking about it as candidly as Al Crook. As CHRO at Zurich North America, Al has spent years navigating the tension between what employees need and what organizations can sustain. His argument: you can't make good decisions on either side of that equation without data, and most HR functions still aren't treating benefits analytics as a strategic priority.
Al came to HR through business — a background that shaped his instinct to ground every people decision in evidence and organizational context. He distinguishes sharply between strategic HR work (talent management, succession planning, capability building) and the operational load that consumes most HR teams' bandwidth, and he offers a practical framework for shifting the balance. His view on talent management is unambiguous: ensuring the business has the right people, now and in the future, is the highest-order function HR performs. Everything else should ladder up to it.
He's also direct about the communication failures that undermine even well-designed HR initiatives — particularly around benefits changes. When employees feel blindsided, the problem is rarely the decision itself. It's the absence of context that makes a policy change feel like a breach of trust. Al's advice for navigating that is both practical and grounded in genuine respect for how much those decisions affect people's lives.
- The strategic vs. non-strategic divide in HR — how to identify what's worth your time and what should be automated, delegated, or eliminated
- Healthcare costs as an HR strategy problem — why data is the only durable solution
- Communication as a change management tool — the specific approach Al uses when implementing benefits changes that affect employees' families
- Talent management as HR's highest-leverage role — succession planning, pipeline building, and the long view
- Embracing rapid change — why HR leaders with business foundations are better positioned for today's environment
Previ is an employer network that provides private pricing for employees — saving the average employee $2,200/year on essentials like cell phone service and insurance, at no cost to the company.
What you'll take away
- 1HR decisions, especially regarding benefits, must acknowledge their profound impact on employees' lives and families, requiring careful consideration beyond just financial metrics.
- 2Grounding HR practices in deep understanding of business goals and data is crucial for demonstrating value, assessing performance, and driving sustainable outcomes.
- 3Effective and purposeful communication, underpinned by thorough stakeholder reviews, is paramount when implementing changes to compensation or benefits to avoid misinterpretations and employee dissatisfaction.
- 4Talent management, encompassing succession planning, development, and ensuring a strong talent pipeline, is the most critical strategic role of HR for business continuity and market competitiveness.
- 5HR leaders should view the current era of rapid change in customer needs, technology, and regulation as an exciting opportunity to solve complex business challenges in unique ways that only HR can.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Starting a career in business/finance and then transitioning to HR, as a deliberate choice based on an 'HR analysis' of job attractiveness.
- •Viewing the constant and accelerating pace of change not as a burden, but as an exciting opportunity for HR to thrive and lead business solutions.
In Al's words
“The cause and effect of aligning business outcomes with, you know, a staff of employees to deliver them and the mystery of how to make that work really well when you insert the fact that every one of your employees, whether you have a small department of 10 or a huge function with 1,000, that people impact is so important. And yet, because everyone's an individual, mastering that to just the simplest forms is very complex.”
Highlights the intricate balance HR must strike between business objectives and individual employee dynamics.
“acknowledge that any change to those benefits is not minor, is not just math, is not just a change in a policy, but it changes the employees' lives and their family lives. So I think the advice I would give is, is give it the care and concern that it really is due.”
Emphasizes the profound human impact of benefits changes, beyond mere policy adjustments.
“Our most important role that an HR function that I believe we play is ensuring that the business has the right talent both currently and in the future to deliver for our customers.”
Clearly defines the core strategic purpose of HR as securing and developing talent for future business success.
“I think the one item I would offer up is just how employees get answers to the massive amount of policies, both in the company and maybe labor laws that apply. So if I could apply some AI agent across all of the policies that Zurich has... and have them have one source to, through an AI agent, intelligently get them quick answers so they can have their issue resolved quickly, get back to work serving their employees...”
Identifies a critical need for an AI-driven solution to streamline employee access to HR policies and information.
“It never— I learned too late was the value of data in the HR practice. The advice I would give is make sure you understand your business goals very deeply as it relates to the customer's expectations, and then translate that as best you can into the measurements you use to drive the business in your people practices.”
Highlights the crucial, often overlooked, role of data and measurement in aligning HR with business objectives.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Rising cost of medical benefits is a significant challenge for companies, impacting employee value proposition and budget management.
- •Ineffective communication of changes to employee benefits (e.g., 401k matching) can lead to misinterpretation, employee guesswork, and dissatisfaction.
- •HR leaders are often distracted by non-strategic daily email traffic and process breakdowns, diverting time from strategic talent initiatives.
- •The rapid and dynamic pace of change in customer needs, technology, and regulatory environments (state-level employment laws) creates constant pressure for HR to adapt.
- •Employees struggle to efficiently find answers to complex company policies, labor laws, and benefits provider information, leading to unproductive time and increased reliance on HR support.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Dave Schultz shares a little bit more about his career journey
Career Journey
Al Albright transitioned from studying business to working in human resources
Alumni Turned From Business to HR
HR teams struggle with balancing employee benefits with rising healthcare costs
The Challenge of Managing Healthcare Benefits
Al, what are the things you spend the most time on that aren't strategic
What are the things you spend the most time on?
What keeps you up at night these days in your line of work
What's Keeps You Up at Night?
Communication breakdowns can affect benefits, engagement, turnover, compliance
WSJD: Communication Breakdown
What tools or partners are most critical to Zurich today
Employee Engagement: The Tools of the Future
As we close up, what parting advice you'd like to share with our community
A Few Words of Advice for the HR Community
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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