Candice Chafey
Chief People Officer
Zeta Global
Episode 141
Your HR team isn't support, it's a strategic accelerator for trust and growth.
Current chapter: This podcast is presented by Previ. Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern among employees
Built By PeopleJune 18, 2025 · 12:53
Thesis
“HR leaders must deeply understand the business's strategic direction and challenges, then design HR functions not just as support, but as business accelerators that foster trust in leadership and align culture from the top down.”
Show notes
Candice Chafey started college studying biology. She spent years bartending. She discovered organizational psychology almost by accident — and promptly found the thing she'd been looking for her whole career. That non-linear trajectory is more than a career story; it's a design principle for how she thinks about HR itself: the most interesting insights come from unexpected angles.
At Zeta Global, Candice leads an HR function she explicitly frames as a business accelerator — not a support organization, not a service desk, but a function that shapes how the company grows. Her most revealing piece of work involves voluntary attrition: when she dug into why people were leaving, she found the dominant driver wasn't compensation or opportunity. It was a lack of trust in leadership. That diagnosis required a different cure than most organizations reach for. The fix wasn't a benefits upgrade or a pay adjustment — it was a sustained, top-down investment in management capability, built over time and embedded into every HR process from hiring to development.
Her work on cultural change is equally candid: culture doesn't shift from the grassroots up, at least not sustainably. It requires executive buy-in, a consistent "drumbeat" of reinforcement across all touchpoints, and the patience to recognize that virtues take time to become habits. Candice's advice for HR leaders navigating cultural transformation is to think in years, not quarters.
- HR as a business accelerator — what the function looks like when it's designed around growth, not compliance
- Why people leave managers, not companies — the attrition data that reframes the retention conversation
- Building trust in leadership at scale — the systematic approach to management capability development
- Cultural change requires executive sponsorship — why grassroots initiatives fail without top-down alignment
- Performance management with technology — how streamlining data improved managerial decision-making at Zeta Global
Previ is a private pricing network that is free for companies to launch and maintain. It saves employees $2,200/year on essential services like their cell phone and auto insurance bill. Visit here to learn more.
What you'll take away
- 1HR leadership paths can be non-linear; diverse backgrounds and continuous learning strengthen strategic HR and problem-solving capabilities.
- 2High voluntary attrition often stems from a lack of trust in leadership and inadequate management capabilities, not solely better pay or new opportunities.
- 3Cultural change is a continuous journey requiring executive buy-in, consistent 'drumbeat' efforts, and embedding virtues across all HR processes.
- 4HR leaders must understand the business's core operations, challenges, and financial drivers to effectively position HR as a strategic business accelerator.
- 5Leverage data to craft compelling stories, create scalable HR solutions, and design initiatives with both people and organizational performance in mind.
What most organizations get wrong
- •No matter what you're paying people or how you're promoting them, it's leadership and trust that ultimately keep people in their seats, not just compensation.
- •Culture change is not a single event but a continuous 'drumbeat that over time becomes a symphony' requiring sustained effort and alignment.
- •Managers promoted based on tenure or individual contributions without leadership development can be a primary driver of attrition, even if they excel at their work.
In Candice's words
“So it's not just running HR as a function, but designing it as a business accelerator.”
This quote encapsulates her strategic and business-centric philosophy for the HR function.
“Most of the people, as the saying goes, people don't leave jobs, they leave managers.”
She uses this adage to highlight the critical impact of management on employee retention and engagement.
“But it did teach me a lot about how culture requires the shift, not only necessarily at the grassroots, but the executive buy-in.”
This emphasizes that top-level support is crucial for the success and scale of cultural initiatives.
“Managers finally had a full picture combining all the 360 feedback, the reviews, and manager input all in one place. It made the progress so much clearer, more actionable...”
This describes the positive outcome of a strategic HR tech solution in improving manager effectiveness.
“I often describe it as a drumbeat that over time becomes a symphony. Especially when all the people are aligned, which is a beautiful thing.”
This vivid metaphor illustrates the sustained, coordinated effort required for successful cultural transformation.
“I think at the end of the day, it's about listening, seeing what they don't see, and building what they don't know they need.”
This provides a concise summary of her proactive, insightful, and value-adding approach as an HR leader.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Organizations face high voluntary attrition when there's a disconnect between leadership's words and employees' experiences, eroding trust and engagement.
- •Poor communication, lack of transparency, and low motivation are indicators of deeper systemic issues like leadership trust, even when exit surveys point to pay.
- •New managers often struggle with complex, multi-faceted performance management systems, leading to overwhelm and difficulty applying data effectively.
- •Companies growing through acquisitions face challenges in scaling a unified company culture while respecting and integrating existing 'microcultures'.
- •HR leaders need to translate human insights into business language to gain credibility and executive buy-in for strategic HR initiatives.
In this episode
This podcast is presented by Previ. Covering monthly expenses is the number one concern among employees
Built by People
Your path into HR leadership was anything but linear
How Did Your Career Path Get Started?
One of the obstacles I faced in employee engagement was supporting a division with high attrition
Challenging the obstacles to employee engagement
Candice led a strategic development initiative that had significant impact on company performance
What Made a Strategic Development Initiative Impactful
Candice Johnson says she successfully implemented a cultural change at her company
How Cognizant successfully implemented a culture change
Candice says business influencing human insight is key to growing in HR
An HR Professional's Last Words
Candice, thank you so much for joining us on the Built by People podcast
Built by People Podcast
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
Expand transcript (0 words)
Transcript is not available yet.