Charles Mangino
Director of Pay & Benefits
Vita Coco
Episode 350
Is Your HR Future-Proof? Balancing Automation with Empathy for Strategic Impact
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJanuary 14, 2025 · 13:12
Thesis
“HR's strategic impact stems from balancing automation with human connection, proactively integrating tailored wellness and benefits, and aligning these initiatives with business goals and organizational culture.”
Show notes
In this episode of the Built by People podcast, sponsored by Previ, host Dave interviews Charles Mangino with Vita Coco, a seasoned HR executive with over 21 years of experience. Charles shares his career journey, transitioning from retail HR to various senior roles in tech, design, and global HR. They discuss balancing automation and personal touch in HR, integrating wellness initiatives with benefits, managing global benefits compliance, and evolving HR from an administrative to strategic role. Charles emphasizes the importance of proactive planning, creativity, and continuous learning in HR. He concludes with advice on learning from mistakes and striving for growth. Tune in to gain valuable insights from Charles’ extensive HR experience. 00:44 Meet Charles Mangino: A Journey in HR 02:58 Balancing Automation and Human Touch in HR 05:45 Effective Wellness Strategies in Benefits and Compensation 07:55 Managing Global and Regional Benefits 09:18 HR as a Strategic Partner 10:43 The Role of Creativity in HR Policies 12:10 Parting Advice from Charles 13:07 Conclusion and Thanks
What you'll take away
- 1HR must strategically balance automation for mundane tasks with the essential human touch for emotional connection and trust-building.
- 2Effective wellness initiatives require long-term planning, continuous education for both employees and companies, and leveraging feedback for strategic adjustments.
- 3When expanding globally, HR must partner with local experts to ensure benefits comply with regional regulations and cultural nuances, rather than simply mirroring existing packages.
- 4HR evolves into a strategic partner by shifting from a reactive to a proactive approach, utilizing data to anticipate talent needs and align initiatives with overall business outcomes.
- 5Designing impactful benefits involves tying them directly to the company's mission, culture, and ESG initiatives to foster belonging and emotional connection, often enhanced through creative communication campaigns.
What most organizations get wrong
- •The initial widespread fear that AI and automation would completely take over HR roles is unfounded; instead, these technologies are crucial for removing mundane tasks, enabling HR to focus on strategic partnership and vital human connection.
In Charles's words
“We're in people roles and people in certain roles in different organizations, different fields of business, because you need to have that human touch. You need to have that emotional connection. You need to have that trust building within every level of an organization.”
This quote highlights the guest's core belief that despite technological advancements, the human element remains an irreplaceable aspect of HR.
“Where the automation really takes into effect, it helps you take out and remove those mundane pieces of doing business.”
This explains the practical value of automation in HR, illustrating how it frees up HR professionals for more strategic and impactful work.
“The biggest thing is, again, knowing what you know and leveraging support where you need to so that, again, you can align globally. You can have this fundamental idea of global alignment to be able to offer perks and benefits that make it enticing for individuals that may be applying globally to an organization, and then being able to comply locally with what you need to do for those nuanced items.”
This offers practical, actionable advice on navigating the complexities of global benefits while maintaining compliance and attractiveness for talent.
“The biggest thing is that idea of changing from reactive to proactive. That's ultimately where any HR leader, any leader, any person in an organization is going to have the biggest effect.”
This emphasizes the crucial mindset shift HR leaders must adopt to become strategic partners and drive significant organizational impact.
“The biggest thing I think is tying the benefits as much as possible to the company's mission, the culture, their ESG and impact initiatives, because that's where you're going to create the most value. You're going to create that sense of alignment. And focus on belonging within an organization.”
This outlines how to make benefit programs more meaningful and impactful by directly connecting them to broader organizational values and fostering employee belonging.
The problems this episode addresses
- •HR teams struggling with an overwhelming amount of transactional tasks, preventing them from engaging strategically with employees and the business.
- •Organizations facing ever-increasing benefits costs and needing effective, long-term wellness strategies that go beyond basic offerings.
- •Companies expanding internationally encountering significant challenges in providing compliant and locally relevant benefits packages across diverse regions.
- •HR departments struggling to demonstrate their strategic impact on overall business outcomes, often perceived as merely an administrative function.
- •Difficulty in making benefits enrollment processes and overall policies engaging, understandable, and culturally aligned with the organization's unique identity.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
You've been in HR for 21 years; tell us about your career journey
Top Executives: My Career Journey
How can HR balance automation and innovation while maintaining a personal touch
How to Balance Automation and Personal Touch in HR
Charles Miller specializes in offering global and regionally nuanced benefits and compensation
Benefits and Compensation: Wellbeing Programs
Charles, how does HR evolve from an administrative function to a strategic partner
How HR has evolved from an administrative function to a strategic partner
Tying benefits to company culture and ESG initiatives can boost engagement
Benefits Strategy: Creativity, Personalization
Charles, what parting advice would you like to share with our audience
Charles Quirk on His Final Thoughts
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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