Angela Deputy

▶0:00IntroWelcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce.

▶0:42HostI'm excited to welcome Angela to the Built By People Podcast. Angela, thank you so much for joining us today. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

▶0:52GuestSure. Yeah, I started my career, like I said, a really long time ago in training and sales with a company called Anixter International, and it I think there, I really learned the training and learning development profession, real appreciation for development and growth. I eventually moved to organizations like Roche Diagnostics, Volkswagen of America, where I did some stints in organizational development and talent management. And then when I went to Walgreens, I spent about 10 years at Walgreens and really moved from discipline to discipline within human resources at Walgreens, from from talent management to learning and development, and then ultimately to an HR business partner role, which eventually led me to my current role as a CHRO.

▶1:39HostCan you share a specific example of when you had to shift HR's perception from a compliance function to a strategic partner? What challenges did you face in that process?

▶1:49GuestI think, you know, I've encountered this in every organization where I've been part of a build to a real scaled HR function, right? And most recently, I had to do this in my current role. When I joined my current organization, HR was a pretty lean team of just 3 people, really focused almost entirely on compliance, right? Because when you're building out HR, that's the first place to start. Since then, I've grown the function to about 37 people, and I've led transformation from a purely compliance-oriented team to a more strategic growth-focused partner. I think, to the business. I wouldn't say we're totally there yet. We still got a ways to go, still a work in progress. I think the first step, really, when I came here was sort of laying the groundwork. So we had to implement sort of essential compliance infrastructure, things like a compliance hotline or job descriptions, handbooks, you know, some of the foundational policies that you have to have to kind of keep you out of trouble. And then, you know, I think all of those are critical to, to a startup company, and it just really gets you in the door to establish some credibility with the organization. But from the beginning, I think I definitely had a long-term vision to evolve the HR function to a more strategic enabler, you know, one that really included broad learning and development, full cycle recruiting, wellness programs, organizational development support. You know, in larger, sort of more established organizations that I've worked for, HR was always expected to contributing to the overall talent strategy, developing leaders in the organization, right? And some of the culture building. And in a startup, I think we have the right, you know, we have to earn the right to provide those solutions over time by showing clear value. And I always say it sort of makes the veins pop out of my neck when I get on a call and somebody says, we can't say that 'cause HR is here. So I'm like, I'm not your mother. That's not the function of HR. And Why would you do that even if I wasn't here? Then it's probably not right, you know what I mean? So, it's really, I'm really working hard to kind of elevate that view of when HR is present, what we're really doing when we're present. And I think one of the biggest challenges has been shifting that internal perception. Teams are used to seeing HR as sort of the policy police, right? So, you have to be really intentional about changing that narrative, and we've done it in a few ways. I think first, we've placed credible operators in key roles. There's no faster way to get to progress for us than to put an operator in role who understands some of the real important elements of human resources, and that really helps you gain the trust of your partners pretty quickly. We're constantly conducting listening tours to understand needs. I always say, and it helps when we're conducting these listening tours that they see us in HR as people that they can trust. I always say we're not like Diary of the Wimpy Kid with the cheese touch, right? We're not people to be avoided and feared. We're actually people that we want others to run to because genuinely most of us want to help. We want to be stewards to the organization. We've also embedded HR team members in all of our development programs, so they start to see us as a part of development and growth, not just employee relations, right? And then, you know, at the end of the day, you know, just using data and metrics to demonstrate the ROI of all of our efforts. We're constantly speaking to data because that's what our business partners understand, and that, that's sort of what runs the business, right? I think, like I said, we're still on this journey. I think we've made real progress. I think we're continuing to be seen as a partner in building culture, some of the capabilities across the organization and leadership, not just enforcing compliance.

▶5:36HostAngela, looking back at your experience transitioning between Fortune 100 companies and startups, what specific approach did you take that worked well, and what would you have done differently if you could start over?

▶5:48GuestYeah, I tend to think I'd do a lot differently. It's just my how I operate, but I think there's a lot we did well. So, looking back, I think one thing that served me well was having a clear vision. Just, I knew what a fully functional strategic HR organization should look like, and I mapped those steps out and the things that we needed to do to get there. That longer-term roadmap gave me and my team some direction and purpose during the transition from a Fortune 100 environment to a startup. But that said, there's a lot I would do differently. I think I moved too quickly. I tried to shift from compliance to strategic workforce planning overnight. And at times, I think I wasn't tactical enough to build some early wins. And other times, I got too deep in the weeds. And I think that lack of balance really slowed me down and prevented some early buy-in. And I think I had a more challenging uphill, sort of, to a higher hill to go up than I probably would've if I didn't get in my own way. I think the timing was tough though, so I will give myself a little bit of a break. We were just coming out of COVID and wasn't able to get out into the field as much as I would've liked. So in hindsight, I would've spent probably my first 6 months really deeply embedded in the business, visiting our practices, meeting teams, observing processes. I think that grassroots understanding really would've helped me propose solutions rooted in the real sort of day-to-day needs of the team, not just aligned with sort of my growth vision, right? And that's, you know, that could have gotten in the way a little bit. So if I could start over, I'd still hold on to sort of that long-term strategic goal that I had, but I'd ground them more intentionally, I think, in our business reality. So building that trust first and then, you know, operating off of the momentum from there.

▶7:41HostCould you walk us through a situation where data and approachability helped you change team members' view of HR? What measurable impact did that have on the organization?

▶7:52GuestYeah, it is interesting. I always think back, you know, we always think about our most inspiring and our most challenging leaders. And I worked with an incredibly challenging leader who was all about data. And it was so difficult to navigate that environment. But over time, I grew to understand and respect the need for it in HR. In order to gain sort of that seat at the table with our partners. So I can think of a bunch of examples where data sort of paired with that human-centered kind of mindset really helped shift how my partners view HR. I think one powerful area is around compensation transparency. So we started providing some of our leaders with some clear geographic and market comparisons showing how individual team member pay aligned with sort of internal peer and external benchmarks to local businesses and similar similar roles, helping them make some more strategic decisions versus just operating within a budget or within where the person was coming from in terms of experience, giving them sort of a fuller picture so they can present their compensation plans a little bit differently. I think it helped them make more informed and fair financial decisions, and I think started to build some credibility for HR as more of a strategic partner, not just a policy enforcer. Another example is how we use turnover and recruiting data together to really tell full stories. So by tackling some trends and showing our hiring strategies were helping us sign doctors faster, or sometimes was getting in the way of signing doctors, we were able to help our leaders see sort of the partnership support we needed in recruiting to get that acceptance rate up. And the partnership is stronger now than it ever was before because we gave them real data. That they could look at, not just how we felt about how things were going, right? We've also tied learning and development a lot to retention. So, for instance, we track retention rates among employees who have participated in our training programs versus those who don't. And we also introduced some confidence scoring that allows employees to rate their confidence before and after the program. And it's just used to show growth beyond just attendance and numbers, right? Shows that we're, we're really making a difference and an impact. We also track the profitability of the practices for the individuals who go through our training programs. And then of course, you know, every HR team has engagement scores that help us dive deeper into the sentiment of the organization and track improvement over time. I think what's made the difference is just not having the data, because there's data everywhere, but presenting it in a way that is really relevant and clear and actionable for our business partners. And it's doing it in a way that invites partnership. It's not just saying, look how great we are. There's always an opportunity that comes out of the data. And I think that approach has really helped us reposition HR as a trusted resource and a strategic contributor, not just sort of a support function.

▶11:00HostAngela, how have you personally navigated the differences in HR structure between startups and established companies, and what specific strategies proved most effective in each environment?

▶11:12GuestYeah, so I've done a lot of thinking about this actually, as we were prepping for this, this conversation. I think to me, it's less about choosing two different HR models and more about growing into the structure of an established HR organization over time. The foundational components like talent acquisition, learning and development, employee relations, they're all the same, right? The difference lies in how and when they're built. And who's doing the building, right? So in a Fortune 500 environment, we typically have well-established centers of excellence. They're developing the strategies, the frameworks, and the tools, and then the HR business partner, you know, the role of the HR business partner is really to start to localize and implement those strategies within a region or a function or an area of the world, right? There's a lot of structure in place. There's playbooks, there's systems, there's global processes, and the focus for the HR business partner is really on tailoring those solutions, not creating them from scratch, right? In a startup, it's a different world. So, you need that long-term vision of what that mature HR function looks like, but for the first several years, you're not just building the strategy, you are also executing on that. You have to be able to do both, and you have to be incredibly agile, shifting quickly from some high-level planning to actual hands-on execution. So, one minute you're shaping your compensation philosophy, right? The next minute you're running payroll or writing job descriptions, right? So, actually, I don't ever think payroll payroll should be part of HR. It's a financial tax function, but my point is, you know, you're really rolling up your sleeves and getting some things done. I think what was most effective for me in both environments was clarity and vision and adaptability, right? So, in startups, it's about prioritizing, you know, what we want to build first based on the business stages and needs, and being okay with imperfect but functional solutions., right? In large companies, it's really about navigating the complexity and influencing, you know, within a matrix structure while still driving value for those business partners. And I think all of those come into play in both environments. It's just the timing for it, right? And, you know, really being able always to balance strategy with tactics.

▶13:29HostAngela, what parting advice would you like to share with our community?

▶13:33GuestYeah, I think it doesn't matter whether you choose to work in a startup or an established company, right? There are core HR leadership principles I think that always apply. I think operating with care at the center of everything we do, you know, people feel that when they engage with us. If we treat them with care on their way in and on their way out, and, you know, really keep that at the core, I think that makes a big difference. I think keeping things simple, don't create process for the sake of process. I've worked in plenty of organizations where HR is built for the sake of HR process to check a box. Versus doing really what's right and needed for the organization. So keeping that top of mind. I think staying flexible and in lockstep with operators. I am an operations-led human resources professional. I get the human resources function, but I can't move without my operators. And so I think keeping that top of mind is always important, understanding their goals, speaking their language, you know, moving at their pace is super important. Data guides your decision. It just helps build credibility, and I gave some examples of that. And then having a clear vision for where you're taking the function and then executing against that with full accountability for everything that goes right and everything that goes astray. And then I think above all, lose the ego. The best HR leaders lead with humility. I think service and clarity. We're perfectly imperfect humans. We are not above any of it. We're just like everybody else.

▶15:03HostSo, Angela, thank you so much for joining us today on the Built by People podcast. It was a pleasure to have you involved.

▶15:08GuestThank you. Thanks for having me.